Montreal’s The Fake Friends have been through enough lineup changes to field a hockey team, but the current six-piece feels like they’ve finally hit their stride. The band releases A Sucker Born Every Minute on December 11 via Stomp Records, offering the first taste of their debut LP Let’s Not Overthink This, due February 13, 2026.
The single splits the difference between Parquet Courts’ angular attack and the danceable punch of early Franz Ferdinand. Tightly wound guitars lock in with a rhythm section that won’t quit, while frontman Matthew Savage sings about burned bridges and questionable late-night choices with enough self-awareness to undercut the swagger. It’s the kind of track that works equally well through headphones or rattling the walls at a basement show.
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The Fake Friends grew out of Montreal’s tight-knit punk and indie scene, where everyone’s already in three other bands and half the city shares practice spaces. The current roster, Matthew Savage on vocals, guitarists Felix Crawford-Legault and Luca Santilli, bassist Michael Kamps, keyboardist Bradley Cooper-Graham, and drummer Michael Tomizzi, is the most solid version yet. They draw from hardcore, power-pop, and the rougher corners of early 2000s alt-rock, which gives the songs texture without losing direction.
Producer and engineer Jordan Barillaro recorded Let’s Not Overthink This across Montreal studios, including sessions at Mixart. The album expands on what the band started with their 2024 EP Always Worse/Never Better, with fuller arrangements and more interplay between guitars and keys. The scrappiness is still there, just with clearer ideas about where it’s headed.
The band has put in serious road time across Ontario and the Maritimes, opening for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Buzzcocks, and Wine Lips. A Hockey Night in Canada sync brought them beyond the usual circuit. Those shows tightened up what was already a energetic live band into something more focused.
A Sucker Born Every Minute delivers what The Fake Friends do best: post-punk bite, hooks that stick, and the honesty that comes from grinding it out long enough to figure out what actually works.
Photo – Nick Pegg
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