Blessed

It’s tough to put Blessed into one, two, or even 100 genres. Born out of the same scene that brought us Greys, NEEDS, and White Lung, Blessed’s sound is weird, noisy and harsh, drawing from surf, rock and post-punk in equal measure. It's if Radiohead decided to go back to playing guitars and singing actual words with a Siouxsie and the Banshees twist. It’s creepy, but cool, in a way that will make you feel creepy and cool, too.

Their debut single "Waving Hand" has a sexy intricacy that will only make you want more. It’s ominous, it's heavy, stepping back and blazing back in with a powerful guitar and drumming that will enchant you. But above all, the song maintains a minimalistic vibe, almost as if it's hunting you.

Listen to “Waving Hand” now, you creepy cool human, and then patiently wait for their self-titled, self-released EP, out May 20. - Vice's Noisey

Blessed take the knot-tying antics of fellow Canadians Weaves and scuzz it up a little. Keeping their strong melodic core amongst all the twisting riffery, it’s a nonchalant take on the weirder side of post-punk - one that’s impossible to look away from as it takes every approaching corner at high-speed. - DIY Magazine

Vancouver quartet Blessed have a self-titled EP coming next month, and “Feel” portends good things for it. The song is a disjointed multi-part adventure, post-punk blown out to a prog-rock scope. Each hard-hitting, rhythmically heavy segment is topped off by jagged guitar lines and, as the band explains, some stabs at heartfelt communication:
We’ve always been a music first group of people, which is something I made the conscious decision to try and change when we formed this band. None of us are older than 25, and grew up with a lot of tongue in cheek, don’t directly speak what’s fully on your mind kinds of bands influencing us in the formative years. So I feel like I’m in this crossroads of accepting I don’t have to be snarky or witty about a subject, and can be forthright. I’ve always preferred cryptic lyrics and letting people take their own opinion from a song, But with “Feel” I was just wrestling with the idea of being honest in lyrics, and not trying to cover things in a shade of sarcasm.
Listen below along with the Purity Ring-endorsed “Waving Hand.” - Stereogum

Blessed is a band that wants you to feel something, and it’s more in the scatterbrain composition of their songs than anything else. The gamut of emotions covered in their debut self-titled EP range from calm and at-ease to sympathetic, to hopeful, to panic-stricken, and everything in between, and it can change at the drop of a pin. The four songs are founded in punk, incorporating thick, thumping rhythm sections into creative, and creatively placed guitar leads. The compositions are unpredictable, but all characteristically pleasing, as on opener, “Waving Hand”, intricately weaving the unsettling sharpness of clear guitar tones with the calming, warm bath of reverb in the instruments and vocals. It’s an antiseptic immediately placed on an open wound, stinging yet beneficial.

“Cop” brings something invitingly poppy to the table, in its hectic arpeggios and prettily constructed chords, but, same as the last, it’s fickle in its composition, changing mood at any given moment. Sounds cut in and out and leave you in suspense, expecting the surprise bang of a horror movie, and it delivers. The rollercoaster continues, and is probably most prominent on “Repossess”, the tensions building in its hushes. Melodies are longing and pretty, surrounded by elements of melancholy and eerie harshness. When things quiet down and the guitar work is most intricate, the curiosity is ever building. When a chord is struck, it’s very much a kick in the teeth. The Vancouver quartet exits your life just a abruptly and effectively as it enters, leaving you to analyze and question every feeling felt over the course of the record, which is probably a lot.

Blessed’s self-titled EP will be self-released on May 20. You can stream it in full below, and scroll on for a list of upcoming Blessed tour dates. - Impose

The bands have found like-minded counterparts in one another as they both trade in driving rhythm sections, busy guitar riffs and half-sung/half-spoken vocals. It's music that has as much in common with Fugazi as it does Joy Division. - Exclaim!

VANCOUVER — Unbeknownst to many, the Fraser Valley has become a creative hub, producing a large number of fantastic bands over the past two decades. This passion and creativity in the scene has laid the groundwork for a band like Blessed to exist. Based out of Abbotsford, Blessed are a four-piece post-punk band that have big things in mind for their future and the talent and songwriting to back it up. Consisting of Drew Riekman, Reuben Houweling, Mitchell Trainor and Jake Holmes, the band’s collective resume of projects include, but is not limited to, GSTS!, Open Letters, Oh No! Yoko, Relentless Ben, and Little Wild. For principle songwriter and guitarist/ vocalist Drew Riekman though, Blessed is a fresh start and a departure from his days as the frontman of a wild hardcore band.

“This band has been a culmination of a long time of wanting to walk away from music based around ‘how fast can I play, how energetic can we be, how crazy can we be live.’ Blessed [comes from] an angle where we stopped writing towards ‘how good is this going to be live,’ and more towards ‘how great of a record can we make?’ and worry about how it will translate live later, as opposed to ‘how crazy can we make this live,’ expresses Riekman. “I wrote so many songs early in my life with GSTS! and other hardcore bands that all we cared about was ‘is this going to be crazy? When we play this live, is it gonna be loud? Is it gonna be fast?’”

Blessed are getting ready to release their debut self-titled EP on May 20th and it has been a long time in the making. With the band’s first single, “Waving Hand,” premiering on Noisey on April 8th and second single “Feel” premiering on Stereogum on April 25th, the momentum behind the band is growing. Recorded at the Barn with Curtis Buckoll from Rain City Studios, the EP is as tense and loud, as it is sparse and beautiful. All this is the result of a song they recorded a week after forming the band. A decision that has haunted the band to this day.

“[Swim] is kind of one of those songs that has really cursed us. In a way that it doesn’t represent who we are as a band at all anymore… The first day we ever jammed together, we wrote [“Swim”] and a week later we recorded it,” elaborates Riekman. “And, because it has taken us a year and a half to write and record this EP, the only song we were showing people was “Swim” and then we have people coming out to our shows being like “I listened to your song and it doesn’t sound anything like you live,” and we have to say ‘Oh, sorry,’” say Riekman with a laugh.

Blessed’s plans don’t end with their EP though. That is just the beginning. The band have ambitious touring plans, a goal to play 100 shows by the end of year, 60 of them being in the United States. While the band’s U.S tour itinerary is still in the works, in May they will be heading off on a 27-date tour that will see them cross Canada covering everywhere from Victoria, B.C. to St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Touring can take a lot out the band, and according the Riekman, the band don’t share much in common when it comes to taste in music and snacks, and the band’s favourite tour game is, apparently, “sleep.” This is when Riekman has a realization.

“The more we talk right now, the more I am realizing how boring we are as a band. Maybe if it is a really short drive and I don’t feel like driving, Jake and I will get drunk in the back [editors note: Houweling and Trainor are straight edge] and listen to something like Weird Al really loud. I think that counts as a tour game.”

While the name may seem to allude to being religious in a sort of sense, that is not the case. In fact, the band simply chose the name because they all liked the sound of it and it wasn’t already taken. I guess you could say the band are #blessed.

“Coming up with a band name is such a hard thing for a band to do, and when we found that [Blessed] wasn’t taken by anyone… we set out with it” says Riekman. On the plus side, the band hopes this may make crossing the boarder into the States easier for them, a spot where many Vancouver bands before have been held up or denied.

“We can just tell them we are a Christian band. It might help. It’s worth a shot.” - Beatroute

Vancouver post-punks Blessed are to release their self-titled EP on May 20th – and are streaming advance track ‘Waving Hand’ now. The self-released, 4 song affair is backed by an extensive home country tour – Canadian readers can find the details of the dates on the band’s Facebook page. - Punktastic

Formed of members from Open Letters, GSTS!, Oh No! Yoko, Little Wild, and Casinos—bands that have previously supported Juno Award-winning artists Said the Whale and KEN mode—Blessed is as close to as Vancouver gets to an underground supergroup.

Recently wrapping a three month, 65-date tour that crossed the entirety of North America, the four-piece not only has a first-class booking agent, but a sound to back it up. Releasing its self-titled debut album in May last year, Blessed’s tight, heavy, and unpredictable guitar riffs breathe new life into post-punk by juxtaposing the genre’s angular melodies with sharp shifts in dynamics. Blending elements of atonality and experimental noise with complex lyrics, Blessed has a mature command of songwriting—and, most importantly, an unrivalled work ethic. Because it takes real commitment to spend 90 days in a van with three other sweaty humans. - The Georgia Straight

The self-titled collection of experimental punk from Vancouver’s Blessed is wonderfully difficult to write about. Wonderful because it’s the type of release that discourages classification and simply commands your attention.

Nevertheless, here I am. Writing about it. I will inevitably try to classify it for want of something to say, but do so with the hope that it will peak your interest, so you too can take the plunge into this fabulous offering from a band with scary amounts of potential.

Blessed’s eponymous EP, clocking in at just over 21 minutes, has the scope and emotional range of a record twice its length. The quartet (Drew Reikman on guitar/vocals, Reuben Houweling on guitar/vocals, Mitchell Trainor on bass, and Jake Holmes on drums) finds stunning middle ground between showcasing their deft musicianship and a strict adherence to arrangement. Through all the sudden changes in dynamics, extended instrumental sections, and shifts in time signature, the band is always mindful of anchoring the onslaught with recurring motifs. It’s experimental, but also crafted with impressive precision.

While the instrumental talent is undeniable, so much of the emotional heft of the EP comes by way of Drew Reikman’s vocals. His ominous, Tom Verlaine-esque delivery gives these songs a distinct personality and a sense of undeniable purpose. You hear it on tracks like “Repossess” and during the enormous trudge of opener “Waving Hand”, both sounding something like Television playing Black Sabbath songs on top of a mountain. Reikman displays excellent instincts as a vocalist. He never allows his parts to crowd the meandering nature of the music; his voice settles into the deluge and effectively punctuates it.

If there is any justice left in the crapshoot that is the contemporary musical landscape, this EP should lead to bigger and better things for the band who created it. This is bold, interesting music that sounds about as singular as possible at a time when an increasing number of newer bands lean heavily on the familiar aesthetics of nostalgia to gain traction. There is so much talent here, but talent and obscurity too often go hand in hand and those bigger and better things can only happen if we start paying attention.

So let’s get started: download the EP and go see BLESSED in a town near you this fall as they embark on a truly ginormous North American tour. - Dominionated