The Effens

It was a full evening of worthy local music on November 14th at Clinton’s; arriving early, and staying late. The bill, curated by Anchor Shop, touted four solid acts: Faiyaz & the Wasted Chances, Deer, Blackwolf, and Meeko Cheech, rounded out by the evening’s headliner, The Effens.

Showcasing their woozy flavor of not-quite-shoegaze psychedelia, The Effens captured the crowd with their infectious hooks and insurmountable stage presence. As young as they are, the quintet have an incredible talent for connecting with their audience. Whether it be by guitarist Luke Trotta dropping to the floor and chugging on his Jaguar (or sipping on the beer offered from a kind member of the audience) or frontman Austin Fannin being lifted by the crowd into the air crucifix-style and narrowly avoiding the stage lights, these young gentlemen show nothing shy of unrestricted dedication to their craft.

The songs from their debut LP Apology Accepted, are genre-bending, masterfully put together, and unforgivingly real—not one sounds quite like the next. They inspire full participation in their set. The modest yet enthusiastic crowd sang (or, perhaps, chanted) along to almost every chorus and engineered a push-mosh dance party pit front and centre, unceasing for the duration.

The ordeal transcends the traditional presentation-style contract that performers enter with their audience wherein the artists perform and the audience listens and consumes. The Effens foster a relationship with the crowd so as to include them in the presentation—it becomes a two-sided conversation. A covenant: they will bring the party and the crowd will keep it going all night. And so it did. Despite the late start, the set ran well past 1 a.m. and the energy did not waver. - Anchor Shop

The Neighbourhood Mixtape is a collection of newly-released songs by Toronto musicians. It's meant to celebrate Toronto's music culture and provide a forum to listen to and discover new local artists.

Track #1: The Effens, "Saint Vitus's Dance"

After a little bit of research, I discovered that Saint Vitus is the patron saint of entertainment, which means you can now indulge in The Effens' "Saint Vitus's Dance" - off their free Ditch Ditch EP - sacrilege-free. - Blog TO

Post-punk band The Effens released their EP Beginners Luck for free this week, a five-song blast assemblage. Listen to the laconic opening track "Darling Man", with its near-soaring cacophony of wobbly guitars and jangly lyrics. - Blog TO

Beginners Luck is the new EP from Toronto based five piece The Effens. One listen to the EP will show that any resulting success is bound to be down to their talent rather than luck. - Best In New Music

The Effens are somewhere in between Nirvana and Marilyn Manson, but in no way like them at all. There's a little Arctic Monkeys in there aswell, just like a few more bands. Truthfully, everytime I listen to their songs I hear something new. And that's pretty cool. Just like their music. Visit their bandcamp-page for the other 4 songs of their Beginners Luck EP, released in May. It's worth it!
- Plug In, Baby

The Effens were a LOT younger than I was expecting, but they put on a great show. The frontman especially was definitely a showman, and he was writhing all around the stage, in the audience, and ended the show crowd-surfing across the audience (unfortunately when I had just gone to get some water). - WCDN - FM Ann Arbor

The Effens
Once upon a time I was really crazy about some chick. Said chick was into some dude in some band. She showed me said band and damn, they actually were a pretty kick ass band. That band was The Effens.

The Effens are a couple young guys from Toronto who play what they would describe as “good music”. Pretty accurate. I might say they sounded kind of like The Strokes except maybe a little looser, noisier. For a while they kind of went away but now they’re back with a vengeance! And with a five song EP you can (and should download) off their lastfm page for freeeeeeee.

They’ll be headlining a killer Tiger Bar Groove lineup tomorrow (March 18th) with Cedar, Belleau Woods and Two Zebras, so you should definitely come check that out. Cuz it’ll rock. Your socks off.

The Effens – St. Vitus’ Dance - Goldsoundz

The Effens by wavelengthtoronto

THE EFFENS
Brothers Forrest and Nops, the middle children of four, grew up playing music together and with their family. "At six years old I wrote my first song called Floating Rocket and we still play it today. If I listen to us as kids I can draw really clear connections to the music we make now. I think in keeping our six year old thought process, while expanding our playing skills, we get something new... because the six year old inside you will out-imagine you any day."

Nops learned rhythm before anything else in the form of mega chords made up of a binary (on/off ) baseball bat grip. "I would turn my amp up loud, wrap my hand around the guitar neck and play one driving rhythm for hours. That was one of the most satisfying things I did at 10 years old."

"The Effens existed since 2007 but just in this last year we have locked into something really clear. Forrest has taken on the roll of bass player after we went though some line up changes and experiments, most recently we got our friend Liam to play live with us. He has his own music but both of us put more into our songs then we could possibly play alone so we have a deal to help each other out playing live"

"We've played music together since we were born without even really realizing it. Wether it was drum stick sword fights or busking together bringing home wads of cash so we could rent a kayak for the weekend. Back then we were young enough that cops would only smile and make song requests. We do the same thing now but without the cute little kid factor, so cops just like our music."

Website: The Effens

Next show: Friday April 17th @ The Silver Dollar - Wavelength