Toronto Grunge Punk Supergroup MENSA DROPOUT Releases Long-Awaited Debut EP, Nuclear Slush Breaker
Mensa Dropout‘s long awaited debut EP, Nuclear Slush Breaker, is finally here. The band has been trying to get this record out since 2004, when it first came together and recorded a batch of songs on a forty-dollar boombox. That version never made it out either, once lead singer Ash Buchholz was swept up by his own rocketing career fronting Canadian alternative rock band USS. The project resurfaced in 2016 with Steph Seki on bass and Tokyo Speirs on drums, only for a second unreleased EP to stall out when Speirs was recruited into global act Walk Off The Earth. It took an unlikely message in 2024, from YouTube fingerboarding phenomenon SkatepunxFB in search of music for a video, to finally bring the band back together. With guitarist Brett Carruthers now behind the six string, Mensa Dropout released the track “Disconnection” in 2025 and is finally closing the loop with ‘Nuclear Slush Breaker,’ proof that it is never too late for dropouts to drop back in.
What makes Mensa Dropout worth watching is exactly who is in the room. Between them, the members have played in USS, Walk Off The Earth, Econoline Crush, The Birthday Massacre and A Primitive Evolution, giving this DIY grunge punk project a collective resume most bands could only dream of. That pedigree comes through in the music itself, an off-kilter mix of infectious hooks, razor sharp musicianship and beautifully unhinged energy built by a group of longtime friends with nothing left to prove and everything left to enjoy.
Sharing the bill is Gaijin Smash, a Toronto dance punk trio built around distorted bass, relentless rhythms and lyrics that move fluidly between Japanese and English. Since forming in 2019, the band has toured Japan and Canada, shared stages with TsuShiMaMiRe, DVTR and Cross Dog, and played festivals including Exclaim! Class of 2025, Canadian Music Week, Music Waste, BitchFest and the London Punk Rock Flea Market, picking up support along the way from Exclaim!, Unite Asia and NPR’s WBFO. Fast, lo-fi and unapologetically anti-pop, their live show has built a reputation that precedes them, right down to the rumour that their drummer once lived inside a Commodore 64.
Rounding out the night is Baby’s First Pistol, whose self described Fathercore collides dance punk, post punk, rap rock, industrial and post-hardcore disco into a sound entirely their own. Dark humour and biting satire run through songs that take aim at social decline, consumer culture and institutional control, delivered through a live show built on rigid rhythms, aggressive minimalism and arena sized precision on stages of every size. Fans of IDLES, 3TEETH, Ministry, KMFDM and Viagra Boys will find plenty to hold onto here.
Hi, Mensa Dropout. Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Ash: We are four melody addicted friends in a grunge punk band from Toronto, Canada made up from members of USS, Walk Off The Earth and Econoline Crush. Passion, fun, absurdity, zero sugar Dr.Pepper, contradiction. We do it all.
We’ve also been called the 1992 U.S Men’s Olympic Basketball Dream Team of Canadian Alt Rock by many Costa Rican stray dogs.
This EP has taken more than 20 years to reach listeners. What was it about these songs that made you keep coming back to them instead of accepting they would never be released?
Ash: Rock and Roll and I will be forever entangled. I was spoon-fed Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. My first concert was the Rolling Stones when I was ten. My stepdad was in a Tower of Power cover band and filled our basement with guitars and amps. I heard Supersonic by Oasis the day it came out. I watched Nirvana Unplugged high with my grandmother. In short: The gods of rock and roll weren’t going to let me into heaven if we didn’t put them out.
Between USS, Walk Off The Earth, Econoline Crush and your other projects, you’ve all experienced music at a high level. What does Mensa Dropout let you do creatively that your other bands never could?
Tokyo: What this band gives me is the chance to be clickless, trackless, and chaotically hedonistic. The purpose of MD for me is to enjoy playing anything I want, as loud as I can, and to bring back the type of energy I had with my past punk band the Cardboard Crowns. Making mistakes and purposely not stressing about who is coming, what my parts are etc
And finally I get to play drums again, my main instrument!!
Ash: Hanging out and practising with MD is like going to a PHD conference for imagination, friendship-based goals and four-part harmony
Brett: I came in late to this party, and I’m so glad I showed up. In this band I can wear summer goth attire and slide in with some tasty lead lines on guitar. It’s a wonderful low-pressure situation, and these songs are so much fun to play together. It’s also allowed me to play in some major keys, which is a rarity for me.
Steph: Harmonizing! I love singing and don’t get to do that a lot in my other bands. The guys in this band have soooo much creativity and energy all the time, so the entire process is so much fun. Rehearsals are filled with one-liners, vocal group singing and impromptu jams
The band has survived missed opportunities, lineup changes and long stretches of silence. Was there ever a moment when you genuinely thought Mensa Dropout was over for good, and what changed your mind?
Ash: Honestly, never. This band is like the music equivalent of Gandalfs’s promise to Aragon before the battle of Helm’s Deep in Lord Of The Rings. “Look to it’s coming, at first light, on the 5th day. In this case, the mountain ridge was our band text thread and the white light army was Brett’s administrative genius.
A YouTube fingerboarding creator helped spark this reunion, which is probably the last place anyone would expect. What has that taught you about how music finds new life today, and how unpredictable a band’s second chance can be?
Ash: In the immortal words of Oprah Winfrey, “When you live with an open heart, unexpected joyful things happen.” Right time. Right place. Right song. Right underwater fingerboarder.