Singles Spotlight:
Rawls Royce –
“Woe, Toronto”

Hello reader,

How are you?

Welcome back, or welcome if this is your first visit to SWT. Please look around the site and stay awhile. Our search bar at the top of each page is both lovely and comprehensive. Type in a noun and see what you get. You may be surprised.

Today I’m happy to talk about a Toronto, Canada-based punk rock band. Let’s use their bio to learn more about them. Rawls Royce was “…formed in 2016 by a group of friends who met as graduate students studying political science. The four-piece fuses melodic hooks, anthemic choruses, and beer-soaked gang vocals with political subject matter, drawing influence from bands like PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, the Menzingers, and Against Me!” Who’s in the band? Mitch McGowan (guitar and vocals), Will Roelofs (guitar and vocals), Kyle Heibein (bass and vocals), and John Caldwell (drums and vocals).

Their current discography includes three EPs: Anarchy, State, and Fruitopia (2016); And So On (2018); and Llarold (2020). I recommend checking out each of those EPs on Rawls Royce’s Bandcamp page right here. Exciting news incoming! On January 29th, 2027, Rawls Royce will release their debut full-length album, Across The Pyrenees, via Steady Riot Records. Yes, those Pyrenees. The mountain range that forms a border between France and Spain, and the tiny nation of Andorra.

Let’s explore the album more via a press release for this single: “The album is a 15-song concept record about the almost 1,700 Canadians who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Unable to find work in a jobless economy and abandoned by their government in relief camps, these volunteers traversed the Atlantic to fight fascism, and to stop it from spreading back home. “Woe, Toronto” explores Toronto’s history of class conflict, political violence, and anti-fascist organizing in the 1930s. Though the song and the rest of the record deal with events from nearly a century ago, their themes remain relevant today. Amid widespread disillusionment and disaffection, particularly among young men, the song draws on Toronto’s lesser-known history of rejecting reactionary, right-wing politics in favour of collective action to build a better world. ‘This is a song about the many struggles of living in Toronto, told through the lens of the
malaise of the Great Depression era,’ says the band. ‘Not unlike today, the 1930s were a period of widespread disillusionment with the political, social and economic conditions of the city. The protagonist dreams of running away to Spain to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. However, the Mackenzie-King government passed the Foreign Enlistment Act in 1937, making it illegal to do so.”

The release continues, “Alongside the single, Rawls Royce has released a video filmed and edited by ToeKnee Radavoi. The video layers historical footage of Toronto from the 1920s and ’30s over clips of the band performing. It opens with a quote from Buenaventura Durruti, published in a Toronto Daily Star article on August 18, 1936: ‘We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute.’

‘The song also takes inspiration from our own experiences living in the city,’ the band continues. ‘Toronto is an expensive, commercially-driven city that often has a cold indifference to the humane, particularly artists and working-class people. Sometimes what we have to tell ourselves to get by in this city that chews you up and spits you out is: ‘If the city doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger.’ Obviously,
this lyric is a cheeky play on Nietzsche’s pop philosophy quote, but we think it’s a statement that serves as cope for our own living and being in Toronto – a city we all deeply love, despite its many flaws and difficulties. “

In addition to the band, credits for the song, “Woe, Toronto” include:

• Davis Maxwell, who engineered, mixed, and mastered the song at School House Studios in Dundas, Ontario.
• Artwork by Claire Kovacs

When I heard the idea of covering a song from a punk band about Toronto history, I was immediately on board. Rawls Royce carefully crafted a song and album with good-faith efforts to pair the past with the present, and did so well because the band is poli sci nerds. Kudos. When one continues to fight fascism and horrible right-wing politics, which we’re doing as close as in the US unfortunately (along with too many nations worldwide), the result is a horrible day-to-day life experience, but the light beyond the darkness, and one that offers glimmers of hope, is that these horrible times can often result in a triumph of good media and arts. Some of the world’s most inspired and impressive works. Those that bond us in the present and future.

Listening to “Woe, Toronto” for the first time, I was hooked after hearing the vocals and seeing the video tell the story in easy-to-understand language. It doesn’t change the narrative or shy away from the past; it tells it from a proper perspective. The song title was repeated, chanted in an anthemic pop-punk chorus. The guitars and drum work add to that nicely. The result is a vibe that makes you feel like you’re there, maybe at one of their sweaty shows, singing along with them. As punk should be, united for the collective good and protected from the forces against them. Over history, punk rock has accepted many from different walks of life or beliefs as long as you’re not facism/Nazi. There’s zero tolerance for that, and I love that about the culture. Bonus points for the Gang of Four shirt in the video. That’s always a good move in my mind. Thanks, Rawls Royce, for crafting a song that serves so well to introduce you to the SWT audience as part of our Singles Spotlight series and a larger audience in general. I’m looking forward to the entire album’s release in late January.

Take a look for yourself at the informative and awesome video for the song “Woe, Toronto” from Rawls Royce’s YouTube channel:

(All credits and rights to Rawls Royce)

 You can stay up to date on the new album and listen to more of Rawls Royce at the following links:

Alex M Theel

Co-Founder, Reviewer, Content Creator, Business side, Editor at Scummy Water Tower Productions | USA | Web

Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for our Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews series. And for checking out all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com