The music of beloved Montreal band Think About Life is finally online

Think About Life dropped two albums, 2006’s eponymous debut and 2009’s Family, that perfectly captured the creativity and rambunctiousness of the city’s music scene at the time, before eventually calling it a day in 2011. Their sweaty shows became the stuff of legend and they’ve reunited periodically at POP Montreal as a reminder of their might as a live band, but unless you still have a working CD player or a hard drive full of mp3s, those two albums have become just like those shows: fond memories.

But no more. Starting on Aug. 27 you’ll be able to hear both records on a streaming service near you, while their Bandcamp page will be decked out with tons of rare goodies for longtime fans: the two albums, bonus tracks from the Japanese version of LP1, single “HBO” and a long lost EP from 2008, entitled Black Champagne, will see the light of day. Next month, their debut will also be released on vinyl for the first time.

“Our music fell off the face of the earth when everyone stopped listening to CDs, so we’ve finally, in our time, managed to put things on the internet, which is nice,” says band member Graham Van Pelt.

Bringing the music back from the dead wasn’t a simple matter of hitting upload, either.

“Our album artwork was 64×64 pixels, so we had to dig deep in some hard drives. We were trying to scan the CD cover at some point, but luckily (drummer) Matt Shane figured out how to upscale artwork to an acceptable resolution,” says Van Pelt.

For Black Champagne, Van Pelt actually had to buy the record off Discogs for $50.

“It’s some of my favourite material we did,” he says. “I get chills when I listen to it — I’m excited to share it. We recorded for a label in New York called What’s Your Rupture? I can’t remember what happened, but we only pressed a few copies of it, which I never got. It fell through the cracks for some reason.

“It sounds closer to our live show than our other albums do. It’s more off the floor. It sounds like our set-up on stage, and Matt’s drumming really comes through.”

While Think About Life live shows continue to live on in Montreal indie lore, don’t expect a live album or any live recordings to drop.

“I’ve never listened to a live album and thought it was next level,” says frontman Martin Cesar. “It never would’ve worked with us; you really had to be there. I would hate for anyone to listen to a live album of ours and think they were having a good time.”

That being said, the band does hope to one day play another reunion gig. For now, at least listeners will be able to hear these prized local music artifacts once again and dream of a day when moshing in a sweaty pit with your peers will be appropriate again.

“Over the last months working on this, I’ve had a chance to listen to the albums again, and there’s some avant garde level shit we were doing back then. We found the soundscape of the day, a bit. If you want to know your roots, listen to this band. I know that sounds like an old man thing,” says Cesar.

“There’s a lot of mid-2000s Montreal music community on these records,” adds Van Pelt. “It was all our friends’ bands that were inspiring us. It’s a document of the energy at the time.” ■

The Think About Life back catalogue is now available on streaming services and Bandcamp care of Passovah Records.

For more Montreal music coverage, please visit our Music section.