Kiwi Jr. Announce Blowin’ Up, Share Title Track

Kiwi Jr. are back in the pocket where they do the most damage: jangly, nervy, extremely online indie rock that sounds like it has a grin and a grievance. The Toronto band announced Blowin’ Up, due August 14, and shared the title track, a three-and-a-half-minute burst that treats upward mobility like both a threat and a punchline.

The official Bandcamp listing puts Blowin’ Up at 10 tracks and notes that preorders come with two songs immediately: “Blowin’ Up” and “Hard Drive, Ontario.” Stereogum reports the album is out on K Records, Perennial, and Kiwi Club, and the Bandcamp page carries the catalog shorthand KLP321/PRNL72, which lines up with that label context.

The credits are part of the story here. Bandcamp lists Brohan Moore, Jeremy Gaudet, Brian Murphy, and Mike Walker as featured, with the album recorded at High Bias in Detroit with Graham Walsh. It was mixed by Nicolas Vernhes and Fred Thomas, with additional contributions from Protomartyr’s Joe Casey and Greg Ahee, En Attendant Ana’s Margaux Bouchaudon, and Alvvays’ Kerri Maclellan. Amy Dragon mastered it.

That guest list makes sense for “Blowin’ Up,” which is loose but not lazy, bright but not frictionless. Kiwi Jr. have always written like they are sprinting through a pile of proper nouns, scene jokes, and half-remembered local disasters. Here, the title phrase becomes a gag about success, self-sabotage, and whether anyone in a guitar band can say “we’re about to blow up” without immediately laughing at themselves.

The album tracklist is: “Photos Of The Reenactment,” “Blowin’ Up,” “Hard Drive, Ontario,” “Pure Michigan,” “New Jade Rabbit,” “Stage Names,” “Caught In The Wild,” “Painting After Painting,” “World Like Polly,” and “Landscape With Limousine.”

Kiwi Jr. also have nine dates listed around the rollout, starting with two June Canadian festival appearances and moving to a November UK/European run.

There are bigger, slicker reunion machines running today, but this is the kind of mid-afternoon indie-rock announcement that actually feels alive. The title may be a joke, but “Blowin’ Up” has enough spark to make the bit feel earned.