Sports (band)

For the Australian pop/rock band of the 1970s and 80s, see The Sports.

Sports, the Canadian indie rock music group, formed in Toronto, 2007. Nathan Rekker, Robin Hatch, Michael Small, Shayne Cox, and later, Pete Carmichael - have also been members of bands The Carnations, The Meligrove Band, By Divine Right, The Diableros, Detective Kalita, Sheezer, and Polmo Polpo, among others.

History

Sports began as Rekker's bedroom recording project with roommate Small on Toronto's Brunswick Avenue in 2004. The band's lineup solidified in late 2006, playing their first show as Sports: The Band in January 2007. Their first tour was through Atlantic Canada in October 2008, headlining a showcase at the Halifax Pop Explosion festival. That December they released a five-song EP produced by Peter Chapman through online record shop Zunior. The CD edition was pressed in March 2009, with a release party at Toronto's Sneaky Dee's. The front and back cover art was created by Sharon Pazner in Jerusalem and shipped to Toronto to be photographed. Another east-coast tour followed in fall 2009, Hatch's last with the band, ending with two shows at the Halifax Pop Explosion festival.

Across 2010, photos appeared on the band's Facebook profile, showing progress on a full-length Sports album, working again with Peter Chapman as producer.

In early 2011, finished songs appeared on the Sports Bandcamp site, and guitarist/vocalist Pete Carmichael (previously of The Diableros) joined the band. Paris culture magazine Les Inrockuptibles posted the song "Slacking Scholar" on April 22.^[1]

Sports' first full-length album, titled SPORTS, was released Tuesday June 7, 2011 as a "pay what you want" download on the Sports Bandcamp site.

Style

The 8 January 2009 issue of Toronto's Eye Weekly compared the band to a more "amiable" and "laid-back" version of The New Pornographers and Fleetwood Mac. Halifax blog Hero Hill describes Sports as "jump(ing) effortlessly from surging, swirling synths to weightless AM pop ... even touching on more gloomy, Brit inspired sounds" while infusing some "Flaming Lips psychedelics."^[2]

Discography

EPs

• 2008: The Band

LPs

• 2011: self titled

References

External links

• Sports at Bandcamp
• Sports at MySpace
• Sports at CBC Radio 3
• Exclaim review of Sports: The Band EP (July 2009)
• Eye Weekly review of Sports: The Band EP (29 April 2009)
• NOW Magazine review of Sports: The Band EP (16 April 2009)
• Video of a performance at Toronto's Wavelength series (23 Nov. 2008)