Steve Adamyk Band

The Steve Adamyk Band play fast, forceful, old-school punk rock tunes influenced by '70s U.K. punk and '80s power pop, with a gritty texture in the manner of 21st century acts like Jay Reatard, the Exploding Hearts, and the Marked Men. After playing in the Sedatives and the Million Dollar Marxists, guitarist and vocalist Steve Adamyk grew frustrated working with groups that broke up before they could fulfill their potential, and formed the Steve Adamyk Band, both as a vehicle for his own songwriting and as a band that could maintain his vision and personality despite occasional lineup changes.

Teaming up with fellow former members of the Sedatives, the Steve Adamyk Band cut a pair of 7" singles for European labels before they played their first live show in 2010, and two more singles and a self-titled album for Waterslide Records appeared before the end of the year. In 2011, Adamyk and his band toured extensively in North America and Europe, played the South by Southwest Music Conference, and signed with indie punk label Dirtnap Records, who issued the group's second full-length, Forever Won't Wait, near the end of the year.

Working with producer Paul Granger and musician and studio hand David Williams, Adamyk and his band completed album number three, simply called Third, in time for a February 2013 release, followed by lots more touring. Adamyk upped the garage rock side of his musical formula for the band's fourth full-length effort, Dial Tone, which was recorded in California with producer Matthew Melton and released in mid-2014; after numerous personnel changes, the group had settled into a consistent lineup of Adamyk on guitar and vocals, Davey Quesnelle on guitar, Sebastien Godin on bass, and Dave Forcier on drums.

By the time of their next album, Quesnelle had been replaced on guitar by Max Desharnais who, like Godin, had been in fellow Dirtnap band Sonic Avenues. The new lineup hit the studio in Montreal with engineer Adrian Popivici, welcomed a couple guests on backing vocals (Colleen Green and Mike Krol), and made their most produced-sounding album to date. Graceland was released by Dirtnap in August of 2016. [Mark Deming/AllMusic]