Are you in need of some brain-melting psychedelic rock? Well, you've come to the right place. Toronto-based psych outfit Hot Garbage, who are newly signed to Mothland, meld their shiny metallic melodies with gritty krautrock and post-punk rhythms to bring us along on a gaseous neo-psychedelic trip. 

Their latest single, “Sometimes I Go Down,” takes inspiration from the sounds of Sonic Youth, and gives us a taste of their upcoming album Ride. The track is accompanied by a spooky music video featuring mysterious calls in parallel universes, tarot cards, and more

We caught up with the band in anticipation of their set at FME on September 3rd to chat about their music and what's to come in for Hot Garbage in 2021.

Malaika Astorga for Also Cool: Hi! It's nice to meet e-meet you. I'm interested to know how you all met and how that friendship turned into Hot Garbage.

J: You too. Alex is my brother, so I've known him since birth. He was putting a band together with Mark, who he had played with in bands throughout high school. I jumped in on bass, and Dylan, who I'd recently met through friends, joined shortly afterwards to fill things out on keys/synth.

A: Thanks for having us! That's pretty much it, yeah. We were hanging out and going to shows and listening to music together in Toronto. So we started experimenting with writing and playing together, and it was fun! We started doing little gigs and stuff around the city.

Also Cool: Your sound is unmistakably psychedelic. Can you give us some insight on where your inspirations are coming from and what those different genres' scenes are like?

J: Our musical inspirations are pretty varied. I think for this record we're putting out now, we delved into a lot of krauty / noisy territory - inspired by stuff like CAN, Gary Numan, Sonic Youth, Exploded View. We also draw a lot of inspiration from the local scene. There's a ton of quality music coming out of Toronto. Even without hanging with those people and seeing them at shows, I'm listening to amazing record after amazing record that people have been putting out during the pandemic.

A: Yeah, I think all of us really enjoy a lot of different types of music. From a writing standpoint, psychedelic is a great access point to play with musical ideas. The human experience can be so psychedelic, mysterious or strange at times, and those feelings are also so hard to put into words. So I often feel like psychedelic music is just music that is relatable in that way. We're extremely lucky to be a part of a great music community here in Toronto!

AC: Psych shows are often accompanied by crazy visuals that enhance the overall experience. Do you have any memorable/favourite psych shows that you've been to?

J: Definitely. Anything the Oscillitarium has done visuals for is memorable. They have this magical way of transforming any space. A Place To Bury Strangers at the last Crystal Lake was pretty amazing and intense. I've seen Black Angels a bunch, and they always have great visuals by the Mustachio Light Show. There are also a lot of sets that stick with me from Levitation and Desert Daze over the years, like Iggy Pop, 13th Floor Elevators, Jesus and Mary Chain, John Cale. The installation art and visuals are always really well done at those fests; it's clearly factored into the experience.

A: Yeah, it's interesting to see this live collaboration between visual artists and musicians! Oscillitarioum light shows in Toronto rule. With buds like Possum, Kali Horse, Vypers, Mother Tongues, and so many more. I also remember having a pretty profound experience seeing John Cale at Desert Daze a few years back. The visuals and music hit me so hard. It was such an expression.

AC: I'm curious about the mysterious phone calls in your most recent music video. Can you give us any hints of who the mystery caller might've been? I'd also love to know a bit more about the tarot symbolism in the video.

A: Good question... We were playing with the idea of these kinds of gross dudes (Dylan, Mark and myself) talking on the phone and maybe being warned about something and not taking it seriously. While we're being gross, we meet our demise. Juliana maybe heeds the warning and challenges fate by pulling the right card (mystical tarot magic). She's "in touch" with the caller.

Also for the record, we made this video like a year before the pandemic, so any parallels there were not planned… Last year, when the band could only talk on zoom, we were joking about how it looked just like our music video!

AC: We're very excited to see you play IRL at FME. What are you most looking forward to at the festival?

J: Thanks, we're really stoked to play. I'm looking forward to seeing Paul Jacobs and OBGM's for sure. There are a bunch of friends going who I haven't seen in a while, so I'm excited to just hang out and see some shows. I am going to try and catch Cadence Weapon on Thursday if we get in in time. 

A: Thanks! Yeah, I know Paul Jacobs and the OBGMs have such great energies, and I can't wait to soak that up! Also just to be able to play again and be at a show feels so good. This will be our first indoor gig since the pandemic started.

AC: Lastly, what are your plans for the next year, now that shows are happening again?

J: We will be playing shows around the release of our new record - fall/winter will be mostly local-ish but hoping to make it back down into the US to do some touring in the spring. There is also new material being passed around, so we're going to be working on putting that together for the next thing. 

A: Exactly, finally tour this record! We'll go to the USA again and play some shows as soon as we can. But we've been writing tons during the pandemic, so we'll also be working on new material.

Watch Ride below

Hot Garbage

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Malaika Astorga is the co-founder of Also Cool. She is a Mexican-Canadian visual artist, writer, and social media strategist currently based in Montreal.

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