NEWS : WED, AUG 28, 2019 at 6:57 AM
Corridor Will Release ‘Junior’ on October 18th, 2019. Now Watch Their Incredible, Animated New Video for Lead Track, “Topographe”
Updated international tour dates October 23rd -December 13th, 2019.
Montreal’s Corridor will release Junior, their Sub Pop debut, on CD/LP/DL/CS October 18th, 2019 worldwide through Sub Pop with the exception of Canada through Bonsound. With Junior, the group make the most dazzling, immediate and inventive album of their young career: 39 minutes of darting and dodging guitars, spiraling vocal harmonies, and the complicated, goldenrod nostalgia of a Sunday mid-afternoon. The album features the singles “Topographe,” “Grand Cheval,” “Pow,” “Domino” and the title track, and was produced by Emmanuel Éthier, engineered by Samuel Gemme, mixed by Éthier and Gemme in Montreal at ReelRoad Studios, and mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering in New York.
You can now watch the new Monty Python-esque animated video for “Topographe,” which stars the band themselves. Corridor’s Jonathan Robert directed the visual and had this to say, “While I’ve explored and mixed many different techniques in my past music videos, it’s the first time that I took the process this far, blending all of them together in one place. It’s a melting pot of stop motion, green screen, illustration, animation, collage, and live video. It’s the visual equivalent of the progression of the song, a simple idea that takes amplitude through repetition.”
Corridor Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Corridor has extended its international tour schedule in support ofJunior, which span October 23rd in Philadelphia at Boot & Saddle and currently end December 13th in Los Angeles at Morrocan Lounge. New highlights for this time frame include: Brooklyn’s Union Pool (October 24th); Nyon, Switzerland at La Parenthese (October 31st); Soy Music Festival in Nantes, France (November 2nd); and Vancouver, BC at Astoria (December 8th). For more information on tickets, visit Corridor’s Sub Pop tour dates page.
Oct. 23 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle
Oct. 24 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
Oct. 25 - Washington, DC - Comet Ping Pong
Oct. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso (Upstairs)
Oct. 31 - Nyon, CH - La Parenthese
Nov. 02 - Nantes, FR - Soy Music Festival
Nov. 04 - Paris, FR - Point Ephemere
Nov. 06 - London, UK - The Waiting Room
Nov. 08 - Hamburg, DE - Hafenklang
Nov. 09 - Berlin, DE - Westgermany
Nov. 10 - Kortrijk, BE - Sonic City Music Festival
Nov. 20 - Toronto, ON - The Garrison*
Nov. 22 - Montreal, QC - M for Montreal Festival (Le National) *
Nov. 28 - Quebec City, QC - l’Anti
Dec. 04 - San Francisco, CA - Milk Bar
Dec. 07 - Portland, OR - Bunk Bar #
Dec. 08 - Vancouver, BC - Astoria ^
Dec. 10 - Seattle, WA - Barboza
Dec. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - Moroccan Lounge
* w/ Absolutely Free
# w/ The Woolen Man
^ w/ N0V3L
Corridor’s Junior is now available to preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on Soft-Boiled colored vinyl (while supplies last). Meanwhile, LP preorders of Junior throughout the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on Egg Yolk colored vinyl (while supplies last).
Junior Tracklisting:
1. Topographe
2. Junior
3. Domino
4. Goldie
5. Agent double
6. Microscopie
7. Grand cheval
8. Milan
9. Pow
10. Bang
About Corridor’s Junior:
Corridor are a group from Montreal and their Sub Pop debut, Junior, was made just yesterday. The rock’n’roll band had barely inked their record deal when they surfed into studio, racing against time to make the most dazzling, immediate and inventive album of their young career: 39 minutes of darting and dodging guitars, spiraling vocal harmonies, and the complicated, goldenrod nostalgia of a Sunday mid-afternoon.
This ain’t Corridor’s first rodeo. Junior is the band’s third full-length and their third recorded with their friend, producer (and occasionally roommate) Emmanuel Ethier. However 2015’s Le Voyage Éterneland 2017’s Supermercado were made languorously, their songs taking shape across whole seasons. This time Dominic Berthiaume (vocals/bass), Julian Perreault (guitar), Jonathan Robert (vocals/guitar/synths), and Julien Bakvis (drums) permitted themselves no such indulgence. The band were committed to releasing an album every two years, and for Junior it required a blitz. “If you want to release something this fall, we need the masters by the 10th of May,” the label had warned them. Winter was already in its last throes: on March 1, Corridor went into studio; in mid-April, Corridor came out. They had somehow created Junior and it was, if we may be so bold, spectacular.
Singers, two guitars, bass, drums: the timelessness of the setup underpins the timelessness of the sound, a rock’n’roll borrowing from each of the past six decades—punk and pop, psych and jangle, daydream and swoon. This is music that’s muscular, exciting and full of love, its riffs a kind of medicine. Whereas Corridor’s past work could sometimes seem overstuffed, twenty ideas to the same song, the new work is hypnotic, distilled. “Part of the beauty of the thing is that we didn’t have time to think about it,” says Berthiaume. Six of Junior’s 10 tracks were conceived during a single weekend. The words to “Bang” were written on the eve of the sessions, as Robert began to panic: “Je payerai tôt ou tard,” he sings: I’ll pay, sooner or later. Fewer jams, fewer overdubs—no fortnight in the countryside, secluding themselves in a chalet. Even the artwork came in the nick of time: in spite of other, meticulous, masterpieces, Robert’s “shitty last-minute collage” (of an egg saying hello) was the one his bandmates went for.
That might be Corridor’s best trick—their mixture of seriousness and whimsy. Songs like “Miscroscopie” and the standout “Domino” are purposeful, full of songcraft, even as they let loose, slip their collar. “Topographe“‘s all call and answer, like rival Cupids shooting arrows at each other across a ravine. “Pow” and “Goldie” are like hurtling racecars, or teams of horses, accelerating towards a memory. And Junior’s title track—by turns twitchy and anthemic—is in fact a tribute to Perreault, their “joueur étoile,” star player: in spite of his disappointed parents (“parents déçus”), he’s Corridor’s VIP. Junior’s ten tracks are filled with tributes like this, impressionistic portraits of characters in the band-members’ lives. Their tone is affectionate, the meaning hazy—even if you speak French.
Sub Pop have never before, in their 33-year history, signed a Francophone act. Maybe the band’s magic springs from their ingenious hooks, their topaz-tinted vision. Maybe it’s the panache of Québec’s insurgent underground scene, or the camaraderie of Robert and Berthiaume, who have played together since they were 14. Maybe it’s their name—a hallway crossed with a toreador. Probably it’s all of these, and none of them: Junior is a joy, a hasty miracle, because it’s so much damn fun to listen to. This album is 39 minutes; each day has 24 hours; you can listen 36 times before tomorrow.
[Photo Credit: Dominic Berthiaume of Corridor]
What people are saying about Corridor:
“The Montreal band Corridor knows how to highlight its strengths while getting in and out of a song with maximum efficiency: Sung in French, “Coup d’épée” only needs a little more than two minutes to let its robust guitar sound — a kind of weaponized jangle — fully worm its way in your head.” [“Coup d’épée” / Supermercado] - NPR Music
“Supermercado is the best French record of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and even 2022 (for all we know, at least, since I doubt the Earth will explode exactly at midnight on January 1, 2022, even if it’s a possibility we shouldn’t ignore).” - Vice
“Their jangly, synth-pop-tinged sound will entrance fans of the genre and post-punk newbies alike. On their latest LP, Supermercado, post-punk fans will gravitate towards their tight, neat percussion and spasmodic guitars while others will get lost in their bright vocals and spellbinding soundscapes.” [Supermercado] - PASTE
“Corridor sing entirely en Français. Don’t let that put you off though: the creativity and abundance of killer tunes found on their acid-baked 2017 album Supermercado breaks through the language barrier. Corridor are even better live, with a real joie de rock that knows no borders — guitars slash, harmonies soar, bodies a constant blur.” [Supermercado] - Brooklyn Vegan
