As the feral child of the Montreal indie music scene, Chocolat forgo pretension for passion. Their dirty, retro futuristic ass-shaking mix of psychedelic garage and bluesy, folk-rock is the soundtrack for the misadventures of modern day miscreants everywhere. Singer and former one man band Jimmy Hunt’s Dylanesque crooning glides over frenzied riffs, serpentine basslines, greasy organs and pounding drums spit out by a pedigree of rock stripes fought and earned for by members of Demon’s Claws (In The Red), CPC Gangbangs (Swami Records) and The Cockroaches (Solid Sex Lovie Doll).

 Chocolat’s genre-crunching, debut EP is partly indebted to early Kinks, Brian Jones-era Stones, The Yardbirds, The Seeds, The Pretty Things and Johnny Cash, as well as the Velvet Underground with a twist of Jacques Dutronc. Plowing through a French yéyé revisionist history of American garage and English freakbeat, their relentless energy nonetheless defies language with their catchy tunes and makes it futile to label them as “French pop”. The seven songs deal with familiar rock‘n’roll literary topics like sleeping with your best friend’s girl, closet transvestites, partying with your girlfriend’s pay cheque, Johnny Depp, groupies, being broke and of course, watching the one you love grow fat.

The band’s refined psycho-sexual boogie, modern psychedelia, classic soul-pop song writing and the raw power of their live sets hasn’t gone unrecognized as they’ve played across Canada and in the U.S. alongside the likes of Jay Reatard, The Black Lips, King Khan, Times New Viking, and The Besnard Lakes.

Everyone agrees, Chocolat is better than sex!