The Fat Angel Sings

The perfect gold afternoon fix for anyone missing the sunset sound of the Go-Betweens or the Church. Together, this duo stitches together layers of intricate melody to craft moving, nostalgic, irresistible songs that radiate energy & provoke introspection – pure jangle pop bliss.

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom Mcgreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed ep, get bleak, and sharpened on “Modern Fiction“, their debut lp. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” echoes of ‘80s Indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. this is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called gnosticism and nihilism in modern fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on pedal steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “patience wearing thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “always there,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) while in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (the goon sax, architecture in helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the macedon ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit To Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Were Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “there’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “a quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” and yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

Ducks Ltd.
Tom Mcgreevy
Evan Lewis

Released October 1st, 2021

Toronto’s Ducks ltd will release their debut ep, “Get Bleak” originally released May 21st, 2021 via Carpark Records.

Comprised of friends Evan Lewis, on lead guitar, and Tom McGreevy, on vocals and rhythm guitar, the band built a reputation in their hometown for their bright, sinewy, guitar sound while sharing bills with artists like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Weyes Blood, the Goon Sax . They have earned accolades from pitchfork who praised the band’s “lilting, throwback jangle pop,” and acclaim from outlets like npr, paste, nme, apple music, and more. the opening track, “Get Bleak” sets a thematic tone for the ep, one of cultural self-awareness and satiric critiques of society’s pressures and the often ridiculous demands – and prices we pay – to exist. chiming with breezy indie guitar sounds akin to those of flying nun and sarah records acts, the track, that features a contribution from Laura Hermiston of Twist, pokes fun at the idea that moving from city to city will fix the problems in your life. following suit is “Gleaming Spires”, a track that zeroes in on the cities we live in and the push-pull relationships that we so often share with them. “Anhedonia”, via it’s tightly-wound rhythm and nostalgia-inked guitars, shifts focus to the times when one is unable to wring any joy out of the things that they find important in life. bringing the band’s characteristic restless bounce, thoughtful lyricism and penchant for orchestration, The tracks explore topics like troubled friendships (“It’s Easy”), self-destructive desires (“Oblivion”), and living with decline (“As Big As All Outside”) while maintaining the balance of earnest self-reflection and humour that endeared audiences to the original release. full of the unbridled radiance of jangle-pop, the debut ep from Ducks ltd.’s get bleak celebrates their strengths while expanding their thematic and compositional horizons, and providing an intriguing glimpse of what’s to come.

released May 21, 2021

Get Bleak:
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming, bass – Evan David Lewis
Additional drums – Mike Duffield
Backing vocals – Laura Hermiston
String arrangement – Paul Erlichman

Gleaming Spires:
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming – Evan David Lewis
Bass – Mike Searle
String arrangement – Paul Erlichman

Annie Forever:
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming – Evan David Lewis
Bass – Paul Erlichman
Drums – Mike Duffield
Backing vocals – Laura Hermiston

Anhedonia:
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming, bass – Evan David Lewis
Additional drums – Mike Duffield
Backing vocals – Laura Hermiston
String arrangement – Paul Erlichman

Oblivion
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming, acoustic guitars – Evan David Lewis

As Big As All Outside:
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming, acoustic guitars – Evan David Lewis
Drum tracking – Kurtis Marcoux
String arrangement – Paul Erlichman

It’s Easy
Lead vocal, rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass – Tom Mcgreevy
Lead guitar, drum programming, acoustic guitars – Evan David Lewis

All songs written by Tom Mcgreevy & Evan David Lewis

All songs produced by Evan David Lewis & Ducks Ltd.

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on “Modern Fiction”, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple” is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

We made an album! It’s called “Modern Fiction” and it’ll be out on Carpark Records and Royal Mountain Records on October 1st. The first single is called “18 Cigarettes”,

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss.

Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channelling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “‘Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with. 

Released October 1st, 2021

Ducks Ltd.
Tom Mcgreevy
Evan Lewis

All tracks written, performed & produced by Lewis & Mcgreevy

Toronto-based duo Ducks Ltd. are releasing their debut full-length album, “Modern Fiction”, on October 1st via Carpark Records. On Tuesday they shared its second single, “How Lonely Are You?,” which features labelmates The Beths. It was shared via a John Smith-directed video.

The band features Evan Lewis on lead guitar and Tom McGreevy on vocals and rhythm guitar.

“This song is about personal connection in an environment that is hostile to it, and about friendships with people who are physically distant,” McGreevy says in a press release. “Me and Evan have both moved around a lot, and have friends in far off places we don’t see as often as we’d like. In fact, we partly made this record while Evan was living in Australia and I was in Toronto. Some of those friendships are extremely important to me, and the song is kind of about grasping for those lifelines when it’s particularly difficult to believe that things are going to work out, or if there’s even any point in trying.”

The video features shots of McGreevy on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls border, with Lewis on the American side. “Me and Evan had not been in the same country for about five months when this video was shot,” explains McGreevy. “He’d been in Australia and I was stuck in Canada owing to the COVID border rules. Those rules made it complicated for him to return to Canada for a minute so he was in the U.S. and Niagara Falls was the closest we could get to each other. Making something that involved us being separated by a border (and a million billion gallons of water), and experiencing two parallel weird tourist towns felt like a good fit with what the song is about. It didn’t make the final cut, but we waved to each other over the falls through binoculars at one point. First time we’d seen each other since February!”

Previously the band shared its first single, “18 Cigarettes,” via a video for it.

“Modern Fiction” follows their “Get Bleak” EP, which was originally put out in 2019 and given an expanded reissue by Carpark this past May. It included the new song, “As Big As All Outside.”

Producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) put finishing touches on the album and Carpark labelmates The Beths did backing harmonies on three of the album’s songs. “18 Cigarettes” features Eliza Neimi on cello.

“How Lonely Are You?” is taken from Ducks Ltd.’s forthcoming album, “Modern Fiction”, out on Carpark Records / Royal Mountain Records on October 1st, 2021.

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (fka Ducks Unlimited) will release new album “Modern Fiction” on October 1st via Carpark Records. If you like the jangly pop of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, you will probably find ’18 Cigarettes” worth checking out. “The thing I came to love about the song after watching that performance over and over again is that it’s a song that kind of tells on itself,” says singer/guitarist Tom McGreevy. “It’s a really raw emotional expression from someone whose capacity to talk about their feelings is stunted and they’re cut up about it. ‘18 Cigarettes’ is kind of an attempt to do a different version of what that song does.”

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple” is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

“18 Cigarettes” is taken from Ducks Ltd.’s forthcoming album, Modern Fiction, out on Carpark Records / Royal Mountain Records on October 1st, 2021.