Power-Pop Vets SLIP~ons (Doughboys / Sarah McLachlan) Return With Overtime, A Slacker Rock Manifesto
What do you get when you combine two Canadian music lifers into one guitar-heavy power-pop unit that still believes in volume, melody, and sweat? You get SLIP~ons. Fronted by Brock Pytel of Montreal pop-punk staples Doughboys and anchored by Brian Minato, longtime bassist for Sarah McLachlan, the Vancouver four-piece make rock music the honest way. Plug in. Turn it up. Let it rip. Their sophomore EP Overtime arrives February 20, 2026 via Scamindy. SLIP~ons aim straight for the sweet spot where 90s alternative heft meets power-pop immediacy. Think Sugar-era Bob Mould muscle, Hüsker Dü urgency, and the loose confidence of The Replacements, with flashes of Ash and Dinosaur Jr. in the guitar tones. Rounded out by Rob “Shockk” Matharu of The Spitfires on guitar and Shane Wilson on drums, the band plays with instinct and economy. Nothing is overthought. Everything hits when it’s supposed to.
Overtime takes its title from the sudden-death hockey period, used here as an extended metaphor for pressure, consequence, and the moment when everything sharpens. The EP leans heavier and more focused than the band’s debut, pairing Pytel’s gravel-edged vocals with punchy, direct arrangements that waste zero time. The lyrics widen their scope too. Politics surface naturally, filtered through experience rather than slogans. As Pytel puts it,
“I made it all the way through side A without a single song about a breakup.”
The shift is subtle but intentional, and it gives the record real weight.
The EP was recorded by John Raham at Afterlife, formerly Mushroom Studios, a room steeped in Canadian music history. Raham’s resume includes work with Frazey Ford, Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq, Destroyer, and Pharis, and his approach here keeps the performances immediate while giving the songs room to move. Mixing duties were handled by Dave Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy, whose touch adds grit and tension without sanding off the edges. Overtime was mastered by Ronan Chris Murphy, whose work spans artists such as King Crimson, Ulver, and Gwar, bringing clarity and punch while preserving the EP’s raw, guitar-forward bite.
The roots of SLIP~ons stretch back decades. Pytel first emerged in the late 1980s as the singing drummer of Montreal pop-punks Doughboys, releasing two acclaimed LPs and touring North America alongside bands like Descendents and ALL. At the height of that momentum, he stepped away entirely, traveling to Igarpuri, India to practice Vipassana meditation and study Pāli.
“I had a habit of going to extremes,” Pytel recalls. “At the time it never occurred to me that I could deepen my practice of meditation and play in a touring punk rock band. It was just, ‘I’m going to shave my head and become a monk.’”
SLIP~ons later took shape when Pytel and Minato began collaborating in 2012, eventually solidifying into a four-piece with the addition of Matharu and Wilson.
That long road shows. SLIP~ons formed as a straightforward rock and roll project built around chemistry and feel, and Overtime captures a band that knows exactly what it wants to say and how long it needs to say it. No excess. No filler. Just songs that move with purpose. That confidence is backed by momentum. The band’s previous EP Heavy Machinery landed with impact, generating more than sixty international press hits, premieres with Scene Point Blank and New Noise Magazine, and widespread support across college, indie, and mainstream radio. The release saw airplay across CBC, SiriusXM, and major Canadian commercial stations, alongside coverage from Exclaim!, Spill Magazine, Global News, The Big Takeover, and dozens of international tastemakers. Overtime builds directly on that foundation, pushing harder, sounding sharper, and proving the band isn’t slowing down any time soon.