The City Streets, hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada formed in 2005. They relocated to Montreal in late 2009. They play diverse melodic power pop with the spirit of punk rock always shining a light. They have released three full length albums, ‘These Things Happen’, ‘Concentrated Living’, and ‘The Jazz Age’, and 3 EP’s called ‘If you don’t like the Clash you’re a bad person’, ‘The Hipster Cull’, and ‘Decline of the West’. Spring 2012 will see the release of 2 more full length records ‘Winter Lightning’ and ‘Sawdust & Rum’.
They have toured North America extensively, visiting almost every province and state at least once, and performing in Haiti/Mexico. The City Streets have played over 400 shows and counting.
The members of the City Streets are: Rick Reid, songwriter, vocals and guitar, Matt Leddy, bass, backup vocals, Mark Chmilar drums and art/graphic design. Some people have said there are traces of Springsteen, the Replacements, Jawbreaker, the Clash, Gram Parsons, Broken Social Scene, Elvis Costello, Pavement, Wilco and the bleak prairie where they grew up in their songs. Their songs are about fading beauty, strange madness, childhood, being drunk and broke, romantic idealism, inherited sadness, glory nights, failure and love.
The City Streets have released their albums and received almost uniformly excellent, sometimes insightful reviews. They also have been fortunate to have continual support from campus radio across Canada for all of their releases, and both full length albums charted in the top 150 overall in the year they were released. Concentrated Living was the #1 record on CJSR in 2008. They were added to XM Verge radio in May 2009 and played a live set on-air. They have also played showcases at SXSW, NXNE, Pop Montreal, and Canadian Music Week.
The City Streets are the hardest working band in Canada, and one of the best. Come see them play and if you’re feeling up to it, let them crash on your floor.
