The triumphant return of Kiwi Jr. comes in “Hard Drive, Ontario,” and we’re excited to deliver to you the Toronto band’s first new music since 2022! It’s perhaps their weirdest, catchiest, and best song yet!
“The idea for the lyric came when I saw a wifi password on the side of a barn off a dirt road somewhere. It’s about how you can’t quit and restart somewhere else anymore, and how locked in we all are by the internet, even way out in the country. It tells the story of some young people trying to live a fantasy old country life, sort of city slickers cosplaying as hillbillies, but then it turns into a horror movie at the end when they run out of gas and meet some bad people out on the road.” — Jeremy Gaudet (Kiwi Jr.’s singer/guitarist)
“Kiwi Jr. are doing this kind of music better than just about anybody right now…Gaudet and the rest of the band justify their standing amongst their influences” – PASTE
“While stopping short of a full-blown synth-pop makeover, ‘Chopper’ slathers on enough neon-tinted textures to reorient Kiwi Jr. away from the jangle-rock canon and toward the futurist power-pop of the Cars, New Pornographers, and the Strokes circa Room on Fire.” – Pitchfork
“Kiwi Jr bring a darker edge to their poppy, indie rock style on their terrific third album.” – Brooklyn Vegan (Album Of The Week)
“walks a tightrope between melancholy and whimsy, between sincerity and irony…strikes atonal balance that’s all the more compelling for being so precarious, as though a wrong note or misplaced lyric might send a song spiraling into facetiousness.” – Uncut
“Gaudet’s hyper-absurdist approach to songwriting is both sharper and more abstruse than ever.” – MOJO
Refracting the realities of late-capitalist city life and the impossibility of work-art balance in a high-rent metropolis through satire and sarcasm, Toronto’s Kiwi Jr. has shaped their own deadpan postmodern indie rock. Their third album, Chopper, overseen by producer Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) was released on Sub Pop Records in 2022.
Kiwi Jr have toured in 13 countries and opened up for Pavement, The Walkmen, Dinosaur Jr, Guided By Voices, The Lemonheads, Frank Black, Islands, Fucked Up, Sloan, New Pornographers, Cloud Nothings and Protomartyr. They are currently at work on their fourth album. It’s a doozy.