Today Fredericton’s Brookside Mall, (the band, not the mall) announced their much awaited debut EP ‘Young Champion’ coming via Front Porch Records on March 11th.

Last year the band, then consisting of Brendan Magee and Josh Steeves, released the stand-alone track ‘Philadelphia,’ an exceedingly catchy nugget about an anxious solo flight to Europe routed through the city of brotherly love. They spooned it out like a couple of dealers giving you just enough to get you hooked. Then silence. Nothing. Their social media presence may as well have been the whistling tundra.

Now, almost a year, and a whole bassist later (David Ward), they’ve broken their silence. ‘April Showers’, the album’s opening track, rigs the game right out of the gate with Brendan Magee’s spitfire delivery evoking the writer’s crux in the very first lines, “The tide is coming in / like tonic into gin / and the weight of all we did is just a lime upon the rim,” and with that, almost anything can be forgiven.

Magee’s percussive vocals accompanied by near-reggae beats may provide a brief distraction. What at first listen comes across as an artist’s self-deprecating ramblings ultimately boils down to what everyone is singing about–lost love and regret, and the poor decisions we make under the influence.

For more information please consult the whispering tundra.