“Hai poin grand chouse à dire / Shu pissé off /Hai poin grand chouse à parde / So fucké off “
After years of unbearable anticipation, Acadian punk quartet Peanut Butter Sunday (PBS for short) finally releases their self-titled debut LP. Listen to it HERE or buy it directly from the Acadian Embassy website HERE
Some say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But on their new, self-titled album, Peanut Butter Sunday forgoes the sunny citrus and reaches straight for the bottle of wine.
Written and recorded in the wake of their explosion onto the francophone scene (semi-finalists at Les Francouvertes in 2023, an opening slot for Green Day at the Festival d’été de Québec, tour dates with P’tit Belliveau, numerous festival appearances), the anticipated full-length album finds the Acadian punk band from la Baie Sainte-Marie formed by musicians Michael Saulnier and Normand Pothier confronting new realities with middle fingers straight in the air.
The toll of the grind – paying to play, eating too much Dollarama pasta, putting an insane amount of kilometers on Norm’s mom’s van – is omnipresent on the record, and the bitterness it sometimes breeds seeps straight into the songwriting.
Compared to their pop-punk leaning EP, Quoi-ce y’a pour souper? (2022), Peanut Butter Sunday embraces more of a midwest emo approach. Complex & intricate guitar riffs on songs like lead-up single “Compliqué” and “Jazz” channel more influence from American Football than from Blink-182, while the darker, aggressive tones on songs like “Weekend” and album closer “12345” are more in line with bands like Thursday and Rites of Spring.
While the music tends more Midwest, the lyrics, which always encapsulate the dialect of the Southwest (Nova Scotia, of course) lean more internal, abdicating lighthearted party jams for caustic and introspective texts. Slow burn album opener “Contrare” sets the tone with a pronounced mix of denunciation and depreciation, while the shimmering “Marché la côte” seeks solace in handing over the reins – “Dit moi exactly quoisse tu veux / C’est toi qui halle les cordes / Shu rinque un enfant.” “Vin rouge” uses bouncy major chords to disguise clever Acajonne word-play lyrics about drinking to escape, a theme extended in the riff-laden “Mal de tête” – “Peux tu voir qu’erj care about erionne / Hai un mal de tête pi j’veux poin parler à anyone.”
In the midst of a new era, however, grappling with change and existential crises, the anthemic drive listeners have come to expect from Peanut Butter Sunday remains. Prompting surefire sing-a-longs, “Mermaid” daydreams about a simpler life underwater where there’s “no work, no job, just all play” while “Fort McMurray” delivers angular riffs that anchor a pervasive, chantable chorus.
Throughout, and as always, Peanut Butter Sunday stays true to themselves. Uncompromising, steadfast and stubborn, the band throws their weight into their own corner on this new record, remaining staunchly committed to doing things their way, on their own terms.
Peanut Butter Sunday is available today, Friday, May 23, via Acadian Embassy.