Toronto, ON

“This is rock music that hits differently. It’s Kurt Cobain shit. It’s Jimi Hendrix shit. It’s the Steve Jobs of this rock shit.”

That’s vocalist/guitarist Densil McFarlane talking about his band the OBGMs, recently tapped as one of SPIN Magazine’s top-50 rock bands, and their Polaris short-listed album, The Ends. If he sounds like a man who doesn’t lack confidence, that’s because he doesn’t. “The whole album is about not being bashful and just going out and getting it,” he says. “A lot of people who do music sink into self-deprecation, but we’re comfortable telling people how we feel about ourselves—good and bad—and the good is: I don’t think there’s a band that does what we do on a record.”