New Video: Toronto’s Gloin Shares Tense Ripper “controlfreak69”

Toronto-based post-punk outfit Gloin — longtime friends John Watson (guitar, vocals), Vic Byers (bass, vocals), Simon Lou (drums, vocals) and Richard Garnheim (synths, guitar) — formed back in 2018 and at the onset was a means for the band’s members to convey their shared passion for engaging and visceral live performance. Since their formation, the Toronto-based quartet have gone on a handful of North American tours, making the rounds of the North American festival circuit with sets at SXSW, Freakout Fest, New Colossus, Sled Island, Treefort Music Fest, West Fest and FME while also sharing the stage with a number of renowned acts including Snapped Ankles, Osees, Amyl and The Sniffers, Brian Jonestown Massacre, A Place to Bury Strangers, Orville Peck, Moon Duo and Night Beats.

Throughout, the Canadian band has put precedence on delivering unforgettable live shows, driven by improvisation and experimentation, with the musicians trusting their instincts that louder is always better. And as a result, the band offers cathartic live sets.

Gloin’s self-released their debut EP, 2019’s Soft Monster. They signed with Mothland, who released their full-length debut, 2022’s Dylan Frankland produced We Found This, an effort, which was mixed by Graham Walsh. Inspired by Sonic Youth and Lightning Bolt, the album featured pop melodies and beautifully noisy arrangements, anchored by a distorted rhythm section that offers urgency but also soothing grooves.

Gloin’s highly-anticipated sophomore album All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry) is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Mothland. Described by the band as “dancey, but scary,” the album’s material sees them revamping their noise rock-driven sound, adding further elements from darkwave, industrial, and post-punk.

The album sees the band tackling themes of bewilderment, dread and anger, while being anchored around bombastic rhythmic constructs, savvy arrangements and fervid melodies. All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)‘s material are solemn tracks about perseverance and self-determination that are cleverly subverted through sarcastic commentary.

“We wrote the whole album as a collective, influenced by shared experiences. Half was written electronically with usually one person bringing in ideas that we all elaborated on together,” the band says in press notes. “We jammed a lot, finding things we liked that we later pieced together, while also saving pieces that we might be able to plug into a future song. One method for a few of the song was for all of us to write a complete piece, and then switch up instruments.”

All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)‘s first single, the sarcastically-titled “controlfreak69” is a tense, uneasy and yet dance floor friendly track that sounds a bit like a synthesis of Gang of Four, Ministry and Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, anchored around a whirring motorik groove driven by a phased-out, down-tuned bass and relentless four-on-the-floor stomp paired with Watson’s punchy shouts and howls.

The band describe the song as “trying to stay on top and trying to keep up, all the while thinking that you have control, when you actually don’t.”

Directed by Toronto-based Ryan Faist, a.k.a. Boy Wonder, the accompanying video for “controlfreak69” follows two tough dudes driving around in a beaten-up Honda four-door with Ontario license plates that read “BUNGLE.”

“I was sitting and listening to music one day in April and this loud roar came by. It was a white hatchback Civic with the license plate ‘BUNGLE.’ I thought ‘holy shit, I have to chase him.’ I tried and couldn’t catch him on my bike,” Faist recalls. “I kept waiting in this same spot for months and could never catch him, so I did a license plate lookup through the Ministry and sent in $18, and three weeks later, they mailed me the owner’s name. I found him on Facebook and messaged him, but he apparently never checks his messages. One day in September, I saw him parked outside of the bank, so I approached him and asked if he’d want to make a video sometime when I had the right song. Then this Gloin song came around and we shot a different concept, but I completely fucked it up and it fell flat. I then realized that we needed the ‘BUNGLE’ mobile for ‘controlfreak69.'”