Victoria, BC's emerging indie rock upstarts, The Bankes Brothers, have done it again. With the release of their new single "Waited All Night", they conjure a surge of emotion into an all-conquering anthem that would be ideally at home in both a dark, underground club and an overflowing festival tent.
"Waited All Night" is not wanting for body blows either. It sums up the all-too-relatable frustration of giving your heart to someone only to be pulled this way and that, and the exhilaration of breaking free for good. And the emotional push and pull is underscored by the band's trademark mix of anthemic hooks and no-punches-pulled honesty, which, at an early stage in their career, has already become a calling card.
What makes the track even more electric is that it has a good setup. This one was pieced together after a long day of traveling and next to no sleep, singer Nelson Bankes remembers. And producer, Gus Van Go, caffeinated them enough to kill a small animal. They had a verse and the chorus and the "lion sleeps tonight" rhythm, in a voice memo, then after enough coffees and enough martinis, we had the lyrics and even wrote an entirely new bridge all in one day." The result? A song that's as freewheeling as it is hard-driven and one of the clear highlights from the group's new EP.
The EP "Where Do We Go From Here?" Firmly establishes The Bankes Brothers as one of Canada's most promising young acts. In addition to "Waited All Night," the album features fan-favorite cuts like "Bedroom Wall," "Get To Know," and the title track, all of which spotlight another angle of their consistently evolving sound. To be sure, for The Bankes Brothers, "Waited All Night" is an assertion. It's loud, it's liberating, and it sounds as timeless as this band appears to be. The sweetest comfort of all is that we're still just getting started.