It seems like most “supergroups” these days are indie rock bands from Toronto, and the only thing “super” about them is their super-lame records. But Vancouver’s The Tranzmitors are the antithesis of those shoegazey name-droppers who dominate college radio charts.
Formed from the fragments of much-loved left-coast acts like The Smugglers, The New Town Animals, and The Parallels, The Tranzmitors continue the legacy of first-wave U.K. bands like The Buzzcocks, Slaughter, and The Dogs. Last year the band was contacted by legendary English syndicate Stiff Records (onetime home of Elvis Costello, The Adverts, and Nick Lowe), who subsequently released their self-titled full-length debut.
“The Stiff connection was quite funny,” Tranzmitor’s drummer Bryce Dunn explains. “We got an e-mail from their president saying how he had heard our stuff at the Rough Trade store in London. We thought it was someone pullin’ our leg, but at the end of the e-mail it said, ‘This is for real, it’s not a joke.’ They had just begun releasing material again after a 25-year hiatus, and we were the first band to put out a full-length since they started up again.”
Their partnership with the label culminated in a 10-day U.K. tour last summer, which Dunn says involved an appropriate amount of disorder. “It was pretty fun,” he laughs. “We weren’t sure what to expect. The first two days of the tour were hilarious—we ended up having to haul our gear around on the tube since the van we had arranged for hadn’t shown up. We were basically running around London like chickens with our heads cut off. We were like The Beatles, but instead of screaming girls, it was angry tube riders yelling at these totally clueless Canadians for having our guitars all over their stations.”
Travel mishaps aside, the land of tea ’n’ crumpets welcomed The Tranzmitors with open arms, and the band played to packed pubs, winning over fans half a world away. “The last night of the tour we played in Birmingham, which we had all been mispronouncing ‘Birming-HAM,’” Dunn says, “and we came to realize that as [guitarist] Nick’s perspiration levels were getting to a peak, his jackets were starting to basically dissolve onstage. So we threw one of his jackets into the crowd, and they tore it apart like a pack of wolves!”
When they aren’t busy sweatin’ it out on stage, the industrious group is hard at work releasing a slew of 7”s on labels like La-Ti-Da, Ugly Pop, Deranged, and Seeing Eye. “The 45 is the best way to hear a band,” Dunn says. “It’s short, it’s sweet, it doesn’t take a lot of time to produce. We all appreciate the aesthetic of records, ’cause we’re all record collectors.”
The band will release self-titled singles compilation on Germany’s Screaming Apple Records (The MonoMen, Dukes of Hamburg, Bomboras), just in time for their stint at this summer’s Wild Weekend power-pop festival in Austin, Texas. The band will be playing alongside veteran punk acts like the Pointed Sticks, 20/20, and The Boys, whose bratty opus “First Time” has been covered by The Tranzmitors nearly every time I’ve seen ’em live.
