Something I have loved about moving away from Calgary and into Vancouver is the robust bedrock of indie and alternative music on which the city and its music scene stands.
You can’t throw a rock around these parts without hitting an indie/alternative band of renown! They’re everywhere!
In this article, I’m throwing that rock at The Zolas.
Y’know, if this were a podcast, I would swell in some Zolas tune as a means of transitioning from one thought to the next, but this is not an explicitly audio medium, so I invite you to click the play button on ‘Energy Czar’ and listen to it while you read the rest of this article.
The Zolas, who released their newest album this past summer, seemed destined for a spot in the hearts and minds of Canadian music enthusiasts from the get-go. Their debut album in 2009 was produced by Howard Redekopp, who has produced the likes of The New Pornographers, and Tegan and Sara.
And following that debut, the hits just kept comin’.
The Zolas have been bringing those hits cross-country with Hotel Mira and Dwi this month, and they’re finishing off that tour right here at home with a show on the 26 of November at the Vogue Theatre.
1 week til we're out for a rip. BIG NEWS today is all ontario shows are full standing cap which is 🤯 yet 🤣 bc we just moved to larger rooms for more seating. If we fill these size rooms that would be unprecedented so if yr in Toronto or Ottawa or Kingston bring the fam. -Zg pic.twitter.com/kUpGkEFWEk
— The Zolas (@thezolas) October 28, 2021
Tickets to that show are available here.
I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting facts about The Zolas.
First, frontman and lyricist Zachary Gray is the son of notable Canadian writer and composer, John MacLachlan Gray.
Second, The Zolas took their name from 19th century French writer Émile Zola, who wrote, revolutionarily, about intergenerational trauma of the lower class as caused by the Industrial Revolution. The upper class ate those books up, while scoffing at their lower class subjects.
The Zolas are demonstrably just as clever as they are excellent musicians.
Tell you what, I become more and more of a swooner for these guys the more I learn about ’em!