Cootie Catcher

cootie catcher at Sneaky Pete's

Toronto-based quartet Cootie Catcher hypercharges the tenderness of twee pop with high-energy electronics and an unabashedly direct lyrical presence. On melodic, uptempo, and overpoweringly joyous songs, the band investigates raw feelings and vulnerable situations, pulling no emotional punches but basking in major key jangle and ecstatic synth tones the entire time. Their newest album and Carpark debut, Something We All Got, is the most high definition of their sound yet, graduating from the basement-born recordings that came before it without losing the saturated excitement of those lo-fi roots.

Cootie Catcher began as a duo of songwriters Anita Fowl and Nolan Jakupovski in 2021. This early version of the band made two rough-hewn releases, their 1234 EP and the album-length project stupid is as stupid does before expanding to include Sophia Chavez and drummer Brendan Cooke when they began playing live around 2022. In Feb 2024, Joseph Shemoun took over on drums and the band recorded their first studio album Shy At First. The band grew both as a studio entity with the release of several more singles and miscellaneous tracks, as well maturing as a performance vehicle with touring, local shows, and gigs with contemporaries like Kiwi Jr. and Alvvays.