NOBRO – Doomtown
Today, JUNO Award-winning Montreal punk outfit NOBRO return with single + video “DOOMTOWN,” a garage-rock adrenaline-blast single that marks a vulnerable new era for the band.
Centered around vocalist/bassist Kathryn McCaughey and guitarist Karolane Carbonneau, NOBRO have made their name with riotous, liberatory party-punk mayhem, middle fingers to the world. But there are some pains you can’t party your way out of. Right before they won the JUNO Award, half the band quit. Carbonneau lost her father; McCaughey began the difficult journey of watching hers struggle with dementia. At what should’ve been one of the highest moments of their lives, NOBRO were confronted with existential terror: What the hell is this all for? Where is this all going?
These devastations are interpreted on “DOOMTOWN,” which maintains NOBRO’s tornado of energy and sharp songwriting. This time out, though, they’re not rocketing away from the weight of loss, grief, and dread; they’re sitting with it, exploring it with curiosity and openness. Recorded, produced, and mixed by John Agnello, “DOOMTOWN” externalizes some of the reality-check questions McCaughey has been forced to ask herself: “Will I be singing about pussy and drugs in the nursing home?” The thought might seem comedic, but it’s the questions circling their mind. NOBRO can’t laugh their way out of this one. Like all of us wrestling with the stinging, senseless pain of existence, they have to feel their way out—and that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
Accompanying the track is a beautifully animated visualizer by Christopher Grant, a Mi’gmaw filmmaker from Pabineau First Nation, New Brunswick whose work interprets his lived experience with schizophrenia. His video for “DOOMTOWN” captures the brutal loneliness present in the song as we follow a single figure wandering the streets, desperately in search of companionship.
NOBRO will be heading on a US tour next month in support of The Front Bottoms, beginning on December 12.
Tour Dates (supporting The Front Bottoms):
Dec 12 Raleigh, NC @ Ritz Raleigh
Dec 13 Pentam, TN @ The Caverns
Dec 14 Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
Dec 16 Jacksonville, FL @ FIVE
Dec 17 Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Dec 19 Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore Philadelphia
Dec 20 Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore Philadelphia
“DOOMTOWN” is NOBRO’s first follow up to their 2023 full-length record Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone Records), a caustic, celebratory, glorious party-punk firework show. It was shortlisted for POLARIS Music Prize in 2024 and won Rock Album of the Year for the JUNO Awards in 2025. It’s a record about the ecstatic pursuit of personal escape and liberation even as the walls are closing in, a 21st century power-punk analog of Born To Run that rages against modern life’s restrictive pressures and dares them to a game of chicken. If a hurricane is bearing down on NOBRO, they’re spitting into it, arm-in-arm, with middle fingers raised.
NOBRO is the space where the members— Kathryn McCaughey and Karolane Carbonneau —get to take those risks and chances. It’s a place for cultivating power and happiness in a hard, mean world. That means the stakes are high. “Music is where we lift each other up.” says McCaughey. “I wish it was more like a fairy tale. We just want this fucking thing to work. But we’re all gonna succeed together, or we’re all gonna fail together.”
#nobromusic