The Shilohs

The Shilohs are a Vancouver-based pop band with a smart, folky edge and a way with a melody that harkens back to the '60s without suggesting the band is struggling to sound retro. The Shilohs were formed in 2008 by Johnny Payne and Mike Komaszczuk, two friends from the Vancouver indie rock community who were looking for a vehicle for their songs. Both shared similar influences — including Big Star, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Beatles — and Payne and Komaszczuk, in need of a rhythm section, got in touch with percussionist Ben Frey and bassist Daniel Colussi, who knew Komaszczuk from informal blues jams. The new band began playing in and around their hometown and soon recorded a five-song EP, but a variety of issues prevented the record from being released until 2010. The Shilohs soon headed back into the studio, with David Carswell and Tanis Gibbons at the controls, to cut their first full-length album. Unfortunately, history repeated itself, and it wasn't until early 2013 that the album, So Wild, was finally released by Light Organ Records. (During the delay, the label issued a stop-gap single, "Private Lives" b/w "English Roads.") Fortunately for the Shilohs, So Wild was welcomed with enthusiastic reviews, with CBC Radio declaring "So Wild strips us of all our inhibitions and reminds us that great songs will win out all the time, every time."