Cola

Montreal trio Cola approach their knotty post-punk songs from unpredictable angles, their stripped-down instrumentation creating hypnotic cycles from minimal elements. The band formed after the dissolution of the founding members’ former long-running act Ought, and shortly after coming into being, Cola released their debut album, Deep in View, in 2022 and returned two years later with their sophomore effort The Gloss. Cola is made up of guitarist/vocalist Tim Darcy, bassist Ben Stidworthy, and drummer Evan Cartwright. Darcy and Stidworthy were active with Montreal art rock band Ought for the majority of the 2010s, and Cartwright also played with U.S. Girls. Though Ought didn’t make their breakup public until November of 2021, Darcy and Stidworthy had been working on material for the project that eventually became Cola as early as 2018. They foresaw the end of Ought long before sharing their next moves, going so far as completing the recording process for the first Cola material before letting fans know that one band had dissolved, and another had arrived. They shared their first single, the sharp and droning “Blank Curtain,” in November of 2021 and released their first LP, Deep in View, in May of 2022. The band toured in support of the album and wasted little time preparing their next set of songs. Their sophomore set The Gloss was released in June of 2024, repeating the formula of minimalistic and artistically rendered post-punk the band had crafted for their first album. ~ Fred Thomas