Sparkle Blood is a no-nonsense power-trio offering airtight songcraft delivered in the time-honoured guitar/bass/drums combo. Topped off with some of the most winsome harmony singing you’ll hear this year, Sparkle Blood offers a succinct, melodic meditation on the world today: half outrage, half celebration, and all hooks.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Saturday, January 24 — Calgary, AB — Establishment Brewing w/ Salt Horse + Really Much
Saturday, February 7 — Drumheller, AB — Cold Bones Festival
SAturday, April 11 — Lethbridge, AB — Owl Acoustic Lounge w/ Nightshades

RECENT SHOWS:

Saturday, December 13 — Edmonton, AB — Blakbar w/ Peasant Vision + Pike
Friday, December 12 — Drumheller, AB — Heller Good w/ Cope
Thursday, December 11 — Lethbridge, AB — Owl Acoustic Lounge w/ Cope + Sentries
Saturday, December 6 — Saskatoon, SK — Black Cat Tavern w/ The Moon Runners + Sadie Hawkinz
Friday, December 5 — Regina, SK — O’Hanlons w/ The Moon Runners
Friday, November 7 — Lethbridge, AB — Owl Acoustic Lounge w/ By Divine Right, Deep Archive
Friday, October 24 — Calgary, AB — Loophole Coffee Bar w/ Dream Creeps, Fulfilment, Innerouter
Tuesday, June 3 — Lethbridge, AB — Owl Acoustic Lounge w/ B.A. Johnston, Peace for Bombs
Friday, May 9 — Lethbridge, AB — Theoretically Brewing w/ MomBod, The Summer Ends

THE BAND:
Bre Day – drums
Bailey Kate – bass/vocals
Tyler Stewart – guitar/vocals

THE BACKSTORY:
Sparkle Blood is a sinewy, no-nonsense power trio based in Lethbridge, Alberta. Their beginnings as a unit – more on that in a minute – are as charming as their music, which comes as a straight shot of supremely tight songcraft delivered in the time honoured guitar/bass/drums combo. Topped off with some of the most winsome harmony singing you’ll hear this year, their forthcoming album ZIP ZAP offers a succinct, melodic meditation on the world today: half outrage, half celebration, and all hooks.

Guitarist/songwriter Tyler Stewart (Starpainter, Atomicos) and drummer Bre Day (Peace For Bombs) are a couple, and their White Stripes-esque beginnings were originally just a fun extension of their relationship and desire to try new things. In 2013, they played their first official gig, which led to a flurry of activity and the eventual release of Denim Tape in 2016. After a little break that ended up flowing right into the pandemic, the duo started picking things up again in 2024. Feeling the the need to fill in both the low and high end of the group sound, they invited local singer-songwriter & musician Bailey Kate into the fold. While initially signing on to “maybe sing some harmonies,” Stewart recalls, “one day she just showed up at practice and had learned all the bass lines, so that was that!”

Bailey’s effortless, locked-in singing acts as a perfect foil for Stewart’s clear & direct singing style, and this should come as no surprise to those who know her work with Lethbridge’s finest twangy songsmiths Starpainter, or from her solo project under her own name, trading in her own brand of luminously elegant songwriting. The pair easily conjure some of the great “boy/girl” singing bands like Juliana Hatfield-era Lemonheads, the Deal-Black axis contained within the Pixies, and inspired pairing of Rick White and Julie Doiron in Eric’s Trip.

Economy is the order of the day on ZIP ZAP; not one song overstays its welcome, and you’ll be flipping this album over and over again without even realizing it. “Totally Ignorant”, a ridiculously catchy takedown of those caught with their heads in the sand, clocks in at less than 90 seconds, but never feels slight. With only one song cracking the 3-minute marker, it’s clear that Sparkle Blood is a band that knows how to expertly take their shot and keep moving. Stewart’s writing exists in the grand tradition of truncated, blink-and-it’s-over songcraft, following the breadcrumbs left by bands like the Ramones, Guided By Voices, The Minutemen, and even beloved Edmonton pop-punkers The Allovers.

ZIP ZAP‘s opener “Mad About It” disguises seething discontent in sing-along melodies and infectious gang vocals, provided by a flock of friends the band invited into studio one night. This crew of like minded folks helped bring what the band calls “big pal energy”, and provides something of a mission statement for the album. “We wanted to express our gratitude for the positive relationships that help us navigate the hard times,” Stewart says. “Where would we be without our pals?”

Similarly, “Burning Barrel” and “I Don’t Know” both showcase classic songwriting moves that propose a holy union of Buddy Holly and the Buzzcocks, with a dash of Hüsker Dü thrown in for good measure. Like the latter Minneapolitan hardcore trailblazers, Sparkle Blood delivers its pop hooks with a good amount of grunge baked in, and this duality – which Bailey refers to as “happy punk” – courses through ZIP ZAP. “This album speaks to the importance of recognizing we all have to take an active role in shaping the society we want to live in,” Stewart reflects, “but at the same time, we can’t take every moment of every day too seriously.”

So if sweetly fuzzy guitars, thumping, authoritative drumming, and sing-along-ready melodies cut through with a serious sense of fun and real-world rumination sounds like your thing, you may very well be waiting for this album without even knowing it.
— bio courtesy Chris Dadge

ZIP ZAP out spring 2026!