Tommy Commy doesn’t look like he’s from around here … or sound like it for that matter.
With his blunt bangs, shaggy hair, and jaunty bakers-boy cap; the tall, boyish musician looks like he stepped out of late ‘70s London onto Sudbury’s sunny streets, or low-lit bar stages.
As for his sound: his most recent project, Tommy and the Commies, is a throwback to the mod, power pop tunes of that era too.
In it, Tommy’s joined by Jeff and Mitch Houle — two local brothers who have been in countless local bands over the years and received a 2017 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts along with their sister Julie — and the trio have attracted notable international attention in their short existence.
Their debut album, “Here Come… ,” was picked up and released by the international punk, garage, and rock’n’roll label Slovenly Records, and on Monday it’s taking them on tour across eastern Europe and into Turkey. It will be Tommy’s first European tour, but both of the Houles have been before with Jeff’s band, Strange Attractor.
Fortunately for locals, Tommy and the Commies are having a send off at the Townehouse on Saturday first, joined by Slow Eaters (a new local band that tops Tommy’s list of favourites) and B.A. Johnston (whose performance is an experience in and of itself).
Although this band and its success are new, Tommy’s been into music as long as he can remember: he discovered a tape of his uncle’s outlaw country covers when he was four or five, and got his first electric guitar at 10.
“I forced my brother to ask my parents for a drum kit for Christmas so we could make some racket with our neighbour Gilles, who I’d convinced to get a bass,” recalled Tommy. “We sounded horrible, but the feeling was like nothing I’d felt before and I knew I wanted to chase that for as long as I could get away with it.”
That feeling didn’t fade as Tommy got older, and he discovered new influences: from locals Far From Heroes and Statues (featuring the Houles) to ‘70s icons.
“The Who have always been a top band for me. I’m still watching their performance of ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’ from the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus film with the same excitement as the first time I saw it when I was 16.”
The ‘70s influences come through in “Here Comes… ,” and on bandcamp — where you can preview or buy the album — one reviewer wrote: “takes me back to the days when all I was spinning was The Jam! and The Who on my turntable.”
You can also hear it when Tommy sings “Who’s that coming up the Junction?” in his song “Hurtin’ Boys,” where he’s referencing a song by The Squeeze’s song “Up the Junction,” as much as he is Junction Creek.
And while it would be hard to pigeonhole Tommy and the Commies into one genre, for his part, Tommy describes their music as “maximum hooliganistic mod punk.”
Saturday’s show promises to be a jam-packed show full of friends singing every lyric of the sweet-natured singer’s project, but it wasn’t always this easy for him.
“When I was starting out, it was pretty exclusive. I remember not wanting to play sometimes,” said Tommy. “It was predominantly a hardcore scene so a young kid playing pop punk or anyone outside that macho hardcore world were made to feel not so welcome from time to time.”
He did his time away from Sudbury, spending a few years in Toronto and continuing to play in various bands. Eventually though, like so many others, he found his way back to Sudbury and found things had changed.
“I limped back from Toronto again and didn’t have anything going on. I was super restless and also hanging out with the Houles, so it just made sense,” said Tommy of their origins. Now, despite his relative youth, he’s among the veteran musicians trying to make things better for younger musicians.
“These days there are a lot of great things happening musically, and I’d like to think the scene is far more inclusive and encouraging of music and art of all kinds than it once was,” he said.
And so while Europe beckons for this tour, Tommy is sure to come home after. Take his word for it:
“The quality of life is significantly better living up here, so it makes it much easier. People move to the city for its opportunities but can’t take advantage of them because they need to be working constantly to keep a roof over their head. I wouldn’t dream of going back down.”
