Preoccupations' Reputation Preceded Them in Calgary

Preoccupations' Reputation Preceded Them in Calgary Exclaim! Media. Published June 5, 2025. Photos captured by Em Medland-Marchen / wistful.jpg at Commonwealth in Calgary, AB.

It was a gloomy mid-week night in Calgary on June 4 — the stuff of ghouls and vampires, or maybe a post-punk show put on by the city's finest. It certainly suited the mood.

Post-punk royalty Preoccupations appeared in Calgary for a one-night-only show at Commonwealth, a brief stop revealing what the band does in the shadows in the midst of a North American tour to promote their latest record Ill at ease. But the story of Preoccupations doesn't begin on this dark and stormy night — instead, we have to go back in time. Way back, in fact, to 2008. That was the summer Women released their Chad VanGaalen-produced debut studio album through local label, Flemish Eye Records.

The success of Women and their importance to Calgary music can't be understated. It was a group that contained many of the heavyweight names that continue to make the rounds in Canada's independent music scene: Patrick Flegel, now performing as the enigmatic noise-rock darling Cindy Lee, on vocals and guitar; sibling Matt Flegel on bass and vocals; the multi-faceted and lightning-fingered Chris Reimer on guitar and vocals; and the always solid Mike Wallace on drums.

Women informally broke up in 2010 after a dramatic onstage fistfight that was captured in exquisite detail in an email from Aidan Knight to Exclaim! in 2010. He reported on the infamous Victoria performance, "Pat started throwing punches at his brother during their set-up and soundcheck. Full on 'break it up' brawl between the brothers. Chris announced onstage that it would be their 'last show as a band' and they were planning to play without Pat… a guitar gets smashed to pieces."

The group formally dissolved a few years later after Reimer's sudden, unexpected passing. His talent and penchant for musical experimentation — everything from ambient pedal soundscapes to acoustic melodies — is captured on 2018 posthumous record, lovingly put together by friends and family. Although he left the community too soon, Reimer's influence lingers on in the discordant musical notes and sound manipulation that has remained a staple feature of Calgary post-punk.

Following the band's 2012 dissolution, siblings Matt and Pat parted ways musically, with the latter going on to perform as Cindy Lee — who produced last year's internationally acclaimed ambient rock hit Diamond Jubilee — and the former joining Wallace in their next indie project, Viet Cong, with the addition of Scott "Monty" Munro (guitar/synth) and Daniel Christiansen (guitar). It was a chemical compound that imploded the blogosphere and music critics alike, with their self-titled debut album still often featured near the top of lists of the best of modern post-punk.

Despite his many musical transformations, however, controversy seems to follow Flegel around. In 2015, the band announced they would be changing their name after attracting criticism from the darkest depths of music forums, student groups and even international festivals who took issue with the group's former moniker. They had initially pleaded ignorance, but the lack of thought in selecting a culturally insensitive band name is emblematic of the dissociation Preoccupations have with their own brand; they couldn't care less, which leaves more time and space for the music.

A brief history of the Women-Viet Cong-Preoccupations trifecta is necessary to understand the space the band's live performance occupies today. Nothing draws a crowd of Calgary's most pretentious hipsters quite like Preoccupations, exalted in the city for their longstanding indie cred. The darkest and roundest of horn-rimmed glasses, scuffed Doc Martens and twinkling tooth gems were on display in the audience, with members of fellow Calgary bands in attendance — showcasing a changing of the guard for this genre, as well as a direct thread of musical influence between Preoccupations and the best offerings in Calgary post-punk.

Vancouver trio Still Depths opened up the night without too much pomp in a stripped-down set that quickly got the crowd bobbing. Eager fans jumped up and down sporadically near the stage as the band plucked and pounded out janky guitar riffs and off-kilter drums.

Eclectic and obtuse, Still Depths brought it all together with repeatable earworms and relatable grievances: wanting more money to spend at the mall, dealing with mould and rats in the walls, and commiserating on how weird it is to date someone who treats love like a Pokémon trainer.

After a tasteful 20-minute intermission, members of Preoccupations took the stage to raucous applause from the audience. It was a friendly, familiar crowd for the hometown heroes, although they chose not to address them much. Launching into tracks from their latest record alongside well-known older singles, Preoccupations were tight, well-rehearsed and professional. They didn't seem fazed by long weeks of Canadian touring, with vocalist Flegel matching the gloomy tones with a meandering low register and climactic shout-screams.

Songs faded in and out of one another, with the band saying little to the crowd or to each other in between. Their technical proficiency paired with the lack of raw enthusiasm made it come across more like rehearsal rather than performance, but it was a show that seemed to serve the band just as the packed house served them. Preoccupations treated their audience with the same level of disinterest that's naggingly persistent in many Calgary acts; the city has always been a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things.

The exhilarating creative magic of Preoccupations has firmly left the building. What's left over is some solidly performed and credible post-punk, but it lacks any hint of risk-taking. Maybe Preoccupations are out of risks — or maybe they've been followed around by the ghost of criticism's past for so long that they've lost their appetite for it.

Whatever the case, Ill at ease is palatable, but not experimental. It's replay-able, but not terribly memorable. Its themes are dark and stormy, but the message coming through is a bit murky, especially when the evident goth rock and new wave influences are being delivered through the vehicle of four dudes in jeans and T-shirts. 

It's clear Preoccupations don't care about their brand and haven't put too much thought into it — and when their credibility alone can sell its own tickets, they don't have to. But for a town that loves a shtick, these local heroes leave their ever-ravenous audience unsatisfied.

(Born Losers Records)
Originally published June 5, 2025 by Exclaim! Media

Album review: PUP’s Who Will Look After The Dogs?

PUP Bark Back at Millennial Malaise on 'Who Will Look After the Dogs?' Exclaim! media. Published April 30, 2025. Photos captured by Em Medland-Marchen / wistful.jpg at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, AB.

Cohabitation is a tricky business, and that has never been better emphasized than through the self-deprecating, absorbing lens of PUP.

The Toronto four-piece's fifth LP, Who Will Look After The Dogs?, kicks in the door with Stefan Babcock's hard-hitting lyrics revealing fuzzy truths on the nature of heartbreak and self-criticism, with the itch further scratched through heavy reverb and cascades of guitar flares courtesy of Steve Sladkowski's intensely unpredictable phrasing. Roughed up by a decade of relentless international tours, Who Will Look After The Dogs? is an ambitious, crunchy-as-hell entry in the band's musical passport.

The album goes from zero to 100 fast, opening with the explosive and deliciously brittle "No Hope," a song that sets the stage for the themes of the record. "I don't need her / It's killing me," Babcock shouts in an anthemic chorus designed for stadium singalongs. The track cuts out with a steadily increasing wall of sound, a production note that is repeated throughout the record and underscores John Congleton's infamous indie cred. At times, these production choices drift into the late-'00s recession pop brand popularized by the likes of Passion Pit and MGMT, with the distorted kaleidoscope of electronic instruments creating an accessible backdrop for PUP's signature self-effacing exasperation.

While Babcock takes the Italian dinner date formula out by shout-singing the familiar heteronormative scenario against noisy guitars in "Olive Garden," the track's singsong nature occasionally has a Girlpool feel, like '50s doo-wop put through a paper shredder. Running just under two minutes, it's as short, sweet and filling as the never-ending breadsticks offered up in its namesake. "Concrete" tackles similar themes of love gone sour, but the song is a little more memorable. In fact, its melodic guitar riff is so good that Babcock's vocals take a backseat in the mix, wafting through like more of a voice memo memory than a highly produced studio vocal take.

Featuring Long Island guitarist Jeff Rosenstock, "Get Dumber" is traditional fuck-you PUP with an alt-rock melody in the vein of Jimmy Eat World. Rosenstock's guitar tone is as classic as American traditional tattoos — but the presentation is once again distorted distorted, with the breakdown featuring a Bowie-recalling space-age guitar solo that goes intergalactic just before the song cuts out. Like many of the tracks on Who Will Look After the Dogs?, as quickly as it comes, it's gone again; they exist more like half-thoughts or trailing ellipses than any fully fleshed-out narrative. 

Comparatively, "Hunger for Death," feels more complete, but maybe that's because of the anthemic chorus. "Fuck everyone in this venue / Especially me, especially me," Babcock sings, and you can practically hear a live crowd hurling the "fuck you" repetitions right back to the band. Otherwise, the record's strongest points come in its second half, like "Hallways" — which stands out as not only a clear winner, but a contender for one of PUP's best songs ever. It also provides the album's title fodder, a crystalline, millennial malaise-informed emotion perfectly captured at the crux: "But I can't die yet, 'cause who will look after the dog?"

PUP generally avoid political themes in their music, but don't shy away from using their platform to make a statement where it really counts. Opening for Sum 41's final Tour of the Setting Sum, the band used their time playing arenas to proudly march across stage with a trans flag — a welcome gesture of allyship, and a brave one at that, given the recent surge in anti-trans and 2SLGBTQIA+ legislation across Canada and the US. Their live show adds fuel to the fire of those decades-old punk traditions, agitated by the morbid reality of moving through life as a burnout in an increasingly volatile social and economic climate. 

The lyrical content of Who Will Look After the Dogs? covers the slipperiness of romantic relationships, pet ownership, rental contracts, insomnia, job security, mental health highs and lows, and just about everything in between. PUP's analysis of these mundane realities through the perspective of the disenfranchised and distraught millennial is both a cry for assistance and recognition; an acknowledgement that the world really truly does suck, but that most of us are just doing our best at trying to wade through it.

Babcock strikes the perfect blend of distress and condemnation in his vocal delivery, expressing righteous indignation at these lived realities: "The best revenge is living well / I've been living like shit, it's been fucking up my sleep," he sings on "Best Revenge." While many punk bands have covered what it's like to navigate life as an underclass hero, hating the world just as much as others hate them, PUP set themselves apart by mustering up the strength to be fearlessly vulnerable. In sharing their experiences, listeners discover how much of their own are actually universal, finding a mirror in Babcock despite the fact that they lurk in different apartment complexes.

Through everything we must contend with in this hellscape, PUP maintain a forward-facing sense of optimism — just one that's realistic in its limitations. The best revenge? Well, living.

(Little Dipper Records)
Originally published April 30, 2025 by Exclaim! Media.

Jessica Ackerley Trio + Cloud Circuit + Devetzis Plays Hennies — Co-Presented with Bug Incision

Jessica Ackerley Trio, Cloud Circuit and Devetzis Plays Hennies. High Line Brewing, Calgary Alberta. October 27, 2024. Photos by Em Medland-Marchen / wistful.jpg

Just a sparrow

“Just a sparrow”. Wanderings and writings from Champion, AB. Writing and photography by Em Medland-Marchen. April 25, 2024.

Champion Inn

The Champion Inn, formerly known as the Savoy Hotel, was built in 1911.

Champion Public Pool

Champion’s only public swimming pool is open annually from June to August. In the off season, it is filled with pools of sea green rainwater.

Flew that city coop

Local villagers in Champion, AB are avid birders. Surrounded by ecologically diverse prairie grassland and wetlands, villagers look to attract songbirds with this pillar of stacked birdhouses. One bears a sign, “flew that city coop”.

Play ends

Many of the streets in the village of Champion are unpaved, dirt roads.

The planter

A frugal local has filled an empty toilet with soil as a makeshift garden planter.

Over a hundred years ago, the village of Champion was founded by wanderers.

Today, it is a lonely place, a solemn place. The drone of the highway and the whisper of wind caught on a snag of rusted metal are the only sounds that accompany the town’s empty dirt roads and wide open sky.

The land here is so flat that you can see distant mountains poke up above yellow canola, cut to the wick. The Rockies tower a hundred kilometres away, yet their presence can be felt hitched to the wind that blows about two-story storefronts and prairie houses.

Near the centre of town, a mural depicts the songbirds that make their home in the surrounding grasslands. Their illustrated beaks and feathers have faded with time, just as the painted shingles of crumbling houses have bleached from endless days of unrelenting weather.

A stray tomcat crosses the dirt road, his orange paws kicking up dust that disappears into a cumulus sky. Despite the lack of people, their presence can be felt throughout the town. Nailed to a wooden pole are a collection of stacked birdhouses. One, boasting a sign that reads, “flew that city coop”.

The town of Champion looks to attract songbirds now that coal mining has dried up in the region. A farmer takes long strides past a boarded up hotel that once housed solitary miners, ranchers and cattlemen. Today, nothing but ghosts roam its halls. Outside, three scraggly trees endure. 

I walk through the town and take a look around with my friend and fellow photographer, Ron Sparrow. When we arrive at the mural, he studies it carefully. I watch as he brushes calloused fingertips over the many birds on the wall, then shakes his head slowly.

“Never any sparrows,” he mutters.

Sunglaciers - Artist Portraits

Sunglaciers. The Palomino, Calgary Alberta. May 5, 2023.

Alberta Music - Break the Mold Live at The Prairie Emporium

Break the Mold, an International Women's Day celebration hosted by Alberta Music. Including live performances by ZENON, Julia Vos and Kaiya Gamble. Directed, filmed and edited by Em Medland-Marchen / wistful.jpg. Filmed on location at the Prairie Emporium, March 25, 2023.

Maky Lavender - Artist Portraits

Portrait session with Montreal based rapper Maky Lavender. Photographed in downtown Calgary, AB. April 11, 2023.

International Women’s Day at Blues Can

International Women’s Day fundraiser with performances by Zenon, Sunstrokes, The Painted Devils, L’Omelette and Deicha & the Vududes. Blues Can, Calgary Alberta. March 8, 2023.

Liquor Mountain at The Palomino

Liquor Mountain. The Palomino, Calgary Alberta. February 3, 2023.

Cold Water Album Release Party

Cold Water. The Palomino, Calgary Alberta. February 3, 2023.

Skinny Dyck live at The Palomino

Skinny Dyck. The Palomino, Calgary Alberta. November 12, 2022.

AHI w/ Alexander Saint at Festival Hall

AHI w/ Alexander Saint. Festival Hall, Calgary Alberta. October 15, 2022.

Blake McLeod - The Palomino

Blake McLeod. The Palomino. Calgary Alberta. September 14, 2022.

Bennett Mitchell - Mouse Album Release

Bennett Mitchell. Knox United Church, Calgary Alberta. March 18, 2022.

Sunglaciers - Subterranea Album Release

Sunglaciers at The Palomino in Calgary, Alberta. March 26, 2022.