Alexisonfire Unleashes Their Cover Of Doughboys’ ‘Neighbourhood Villain’

Alexisonfire has released Copies of Old Masters Volume 1, a four-track collection of covers, via Dine Alone Records. True to form, the band puts their unmistakable stamp on reimagined versions of songs from beloved 90s Canadian bands The Tragically Hip, Doughboys, Shallow North Dakota, and Rusty.

AOF has also premiered a video for their cover of Doughboys’ “Neighbourhood Villain”. The video features Montréal skate crew Pagaille, a collective founded by Matil Brouillard and filmmaker Mathieu Gosselin. Since forming in 2020, the crew has become known for their creative approach and raw street skating, capturing the energy of Montréal’s unique urban landscape.

Says vocalist George Pettit, “‘Neighbourhood Villain’ has a real coming-of-age, mischief vibe that transports me right back to a time when teenagers in small towns used to shoot out street lights with BB guns from their Haro Sport BMX bikes — back pegs only so you can double your buddy to the Beckers to shoplift some Bonkers.”

Doughboys’ John Kastner adds, “I thought the Alexisonfire version of ‘Neighbourhood Villain’ was kind of true to the original. Actually, I thought it was better than the original, quite honestly. To hear such an awesome Toronto band do our song, we’re just grateful and humbled…the fact that a band like that is doing a song I wrote is really flattering.”

Speaking on the genesis for the Covers project, Pettit shared, “This is like one of those things where you come up with the idea, you say it out loud and then you never do it. Well, we did it. You can imagine Alexisonfire sitting around backstage with a bluetooth speaker playing all of our favourite 90s CanCon songs and someone saying, ‘we should do a record of Canadian 90s covers’. For most people it would probably end there. Lucky for you, Alexisonfire isn’t ‘most people’. We love fun.”

Rusty frontman Ken MacNeil shared, “We’re blown away by their treatment of ‘Misogyny.’ It definitely sounds like Alexisonfire but it captures the same feeling Rusty put into it. We’ve always both been bands that do things our own way, marching to the beat of our own drum.”