The Districts visited ‘Records In My Life’, the morning after their show with Twin Peaks at Treefort Fest. The guys talked about their current release ‘Popular Manipulations’, and some of their favourite albums by The Rolling Stones, My Bloody Valentine, and The Clash.

After touring behind A Flourish and a Spoil, Grote began “playing with different ideas” in his own songwriting by making demos at a prolific pace. “We knew that we wanted to change some things musically, so we were trying to come up with as many songs as possible to narrow the direction we wanted to take the material,” he states. In total, they ended up with 50 song ideas, and so they were off to LA in May of 2016 with new guitarist Pat Cassidy in tow to log more recording time with Congleton, with four of Popular Manipulations’ songs coming out of the sessions.

“We have a lot of overlapping tastes and preferences for how things are made,” Grote gushes about working with the notably reliable studio wizard—but acceding all credit to Congleton (who also handled the record’s mixdown) would be shortchanging the Districts themselves, who went on to self-produce the remainder of the record in Philadelphia with engineer Keith Abrams. “Something we took from working with Congleton was ideas on arranging songs,” Grote explains, and they certainly learned a lot: Popular Manipulations is a raucous and impressively thick-sounding album, overflowing with toothy melodies that pack a serious punch.

The Districts intense sound of Popular Manipulations—charging guitars, thunderous drumming, and Grote’s searing vocals—was brought on by a few cited influences, from shoegaze’s aggressive swirl to the Velvet Underground’s impeccable drone-rock sound. There’s a distinctly Canadian flavor to this brand of indie rock, too; Spencer Krug’s anthemic, lushly inscrutable work in Wolf Parade and his defunct Sunset Rubdown side project comes to mind, as does 2000s Toronto barnburners the Diableros’ overlooked 2006 gem You Can’t Break the Strings in Our Olympic Hearts.

The districts
Live

Sep 14, 2018 Riot Fest Chicago, IL
Sep 15, 2018 Riot Fest Chicago, IL
Sep 16, 2018 Riot Fest Chicago, IL
Sep 29, 2018 Philly Music Fest – World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA
Oct 4, 2018 Hi Fi Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN
Oct 5, 2018 Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI
Oct 8, 2018 Bottleneck Lawrence, KS
Oct 9, 2018 The Pageant St Louis, MO
Oct 10, 2018 Madison Theater Covington, KY
Oct 12, 2018 Marathon Music Works Nashville, TN
Oct 13, 2018 The Masquerade – Heaven Stage Atlanta, GA
Oct 15, 2018 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC
Oct 16, 2018 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
Oct 18, 2018 Chameleon Club Lancaster, PA
Oct 19, 2018 Terminal 5 New York, NY
Oct 21, 2018 The Town Bllroom Buffalo, NY
Oct 22, 2018 Stage AE Pittsburgh, PA
Oct 24, 2018 9:30 Club Washington, DC
Oct 27, 2018 House Of Blues Boston Boston, MA
Oct 28, 2018 College Street Music Hall New Haven, CT
Oct 30, 2018 Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, NC
Nov 2, 2018 Iron City Bham Birmingham, AL
Nov 3, 2018 House of Blues New Orleans New Orleans, LA
Nov 5, 2018 The Jones Assembly Oklahoma City, OK
Nov 6, 2018 Paper Tiger San Antonio, TX
Nov 7, 2018 Canton Hall Dallas, TX
Nov 9, 2018 Stubb’s Austin, TX
Nov 10, 2018 White Oak Music Hall Houston, TX