Quebec City is one of Canada's oldest municipalities, and it shows in its old European castle walls and chateaus. That noise-rockers VICTIME make thoroughly modern and un-conservative music in these surroundings is just one part of their appeal. The trio are proudly ragged and dissonant on their debut EP Mon VR de rêve (literally, My Dream VR), with bassist Laurence Gauthier-Brown's taunting vocals rising above and swimming in the Sonic Youth-inspired guitar mire of Simon Provencher. The EP's five songs get their jobs done efficiently, with opener "Tout est de ma faute" thoroughly disorienting any poor, fortunate sap who presses "play" and closer "Bureau gris" stands out for providing a gasp of melodic riffing before submerging itself once again.The band explain their origins thusly: "It all happened in one hazy, shirtless evening in a local Quebec City bar. Laurence got kicked in the face and was probably suffering from a concussion. She had toyed with the idea of naming a band VICTIME, but it was on that night, through the pain and blood, that it concretized into a real project. She shared her idea to Simon, who, true to himself, had a few too many Four Lokos and was (presumably) holding back a bit of vomit in his mouth from the excitement. Samuel (drums), easily drunk and very confused, couldn't help but nod patiently as the two others screamed "HEY LET'S START A PUNK BAND!" in his ears." Truly inspiring stuff. Listen to Mon VR de rêve below.
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Phil is a Noisey Canada staff writer. He's on Twitter.