Think About Life

The mid-to-late 2000s in Montreal was a period of wild sonic divergence. As the international spotlight lingered on the grand, orchestral indie-rock of the Plateau and Mile End, a restless punk energy was taking hold in the city's peripheral DIY venues. Think About Life were at the centre of it — conjuring a chaotic, romantic, night-of-your-life atmosphere that shook up the city's pop landscape.

With a mash of punk-rock grit and thrift-store electronics, Think About Life self-recorded noisy, ecstatic, deconstructed pop singles from their Griffintown base: a converted milk bottling plant called Friendship Cove.

The sound was an exercise in productive tension. While many of their contemporaries were moving toward polished production or folk-inspired minimalism, the trio — composed of Martin Cesar, Graham Van Pelt, and Matt Shane — opted for a maximalist approach built on cheap gear, pretty melodies, dance tempos, and barely-contained energy. Inspiration came from local avant-garde artists, as well as touring acts from the noise and outsider punk scenes who passed through Friendship Cove via Providence, Brooklyn, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Their arrangements were driven by Graham Van Pelt's thrifted keyboards, choppy samples, and guitars moving between funk and squelch, all riding Matt Shane's propulsive, math-rock and rave-inspired drumming.

Martin Cesar had a knack for lyrics that shouldn't quite work — too strange, too blunt, too sincere — but became anthems anyway. His melodic instincts and feel for the well-placed sample flip filled their tracks with generous hooks.

To understand the band's impact, look at the geography of Montreal during this era. This was an age of loft parties, made possible by available industrial spaces in St. Henri, the Plateau, and Mile End that could be transformed into makeshift venues. Think About Life was a definitive fixture of this circuit, with sets usually erupting into full-room mosh pits by the first chorus.

Their live performances were legendary for their sheer physicality. A Think About Life set had a way of making a roomful of strangers into lifelong friends. They helped foster an egalitarian music scene where the "experimental" label wasn't a velvet rope, but an open door.

"They captured the exact temperature of a Montreal summer: humid, unrefined, and pulsing with a sense that anything could happen before the sun came up."