CREDIT: MICHAEL ELINS
Nate Mendel - known as Lieutenant these days - will be hitting up Mod Club in Toronto in April to showcase his new name and new sound.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. Cards on the table, I’m afraid of flying, perhaps because my experiences have mostly been on small trips in small planes. But it was at the front of my mind when I got the opportunity to travel to California and tour the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in 2011.

In addition to the remarkable career the band have built over the past 20 years, the building is a testament to the art of creating music and the journey that goes along with it. Studio 606 has seen countless bands pass through its doors since the Foo Fighters’ finished building it, and along with it, countless side projects and experiments from the artists who call it home.

One of the latest and most exciting side projects of late is Lieutenant, the new indie-leaning moniker of Nate Mendel, one of the foremost bass players in rock music today. He released the brand-new record If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going To Eat For A Week on March 10, a bold new direction that puts him front and center for the first time.

Mendel’s musical pedigree may be stronger than most people know. It includes stints in The Jealous Sound and Christ On A Crutch before co-founding the seminal Seattle emo band Sunny Day Real Estate in 1992, an outfit he would leave to join the Foo Fighters during the band’s inception in 1995.

If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going To Eat For A Week is more than just a dream-come-true album title for a columnist with a word limit. It’s a solid statement from an artist with palpable taste, a strong musical vocabulary and something to say. For the album, Mendel prepared meticulous demos that were realized in the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 with the help of drummer Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse and Cold War Kids.

However, Lieutenant sees Mendel branching out in new ways, fully adopting the roles of songwriter, guitarist and singer for the first time. The album is lush and expansive in ways that fans of Mendel’s earlier work may not immediately expect, opting for a decidedly indie sound that belies the complexity of the songs contained within. Like the crackling guitar tone “Believe The Squalor” that floats almost unnoticed before leading into “Rattled,” which opens with all the eerie energy of a funeral dirge then erupts into charismatic rock, flavoured with distorted major chords.

Fans of Mendel’s previous work will likely embrace this brand new project, however, a whole new audience awaits him from this new project. If you enjoy recordings by The Shins or The Head And The Heart, this album has a lot to offer you. Be sure to listen to “The Place You Wanna Go” for guest appearances from Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate and the Foos’ Chris Shiflett.

For more on Lieutenant and the new album, If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going To Eat For A Week, visit lieutenantmusic.com or follow on Twitter @lieutenantmusic.

Lieutenant performed just last week as a part of the Dine Alone Records 10th Anniversary showcase during SXSW in Austin, Texas, kicking off a tour that sees the band appearing live in Toronto on April 1 at the Virgin Mobile Mod Club, supported by Yukon Blonde. Tickets are $15, doors open at 7 p.m.

And for more of the latest in music news, album previews and concerts coming to London, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. Just a reminder that the list of Record Store Day titles has been posted online at recordstoreday.com – the big day arrives this year on April 18, get out and support your favourite local music store. I’m out of words.