Montreal dream-funk (my genre name, stamped it, no take backs) trio Men I Trust turned out to be one of my key pandemic bands, having first seen them months before the world shut down and living through lockdown in the warm tones of Oncle Jazz. Their attempts to tour 2021’s Untourable Album became a bellwether of the return of live music, their Toronto shows being cancelled and rescheduled two? Three times? before finally going down at the end of March 2022 when going to shows began to crawl back for good.

Further, as pandemic retail therapy was a very real thing, I spent a long time trying to hunt down a copy of their live-at-home-during-lockdown Forever Live Sessions record. I don’t recall if it was actually that hard to find, or if I was just being particular about how much I was willing to pay, but when small-scale travel again became a thing, I was excited that a family road trip to Montreal would let me pick up a copy in person at a local record store that said they had a copy in stock – in-person record buying was also not something I’d been able to partake in, either. Of course, when I was finally able to get out by myself and hop a bus to the store, they couldn’t find the copy anywhere. I went home empty handed and eventually, just bought the damn thing on Amazon or something.

Anyways, that’s my Forever Live story, which is only remotely relevant because on Monday night the band sneak-released Forever Live Sessions Vol 2 to streaming services and with a promise of physical releases to come, along with a full video album of said songs being performed and recorded. What a gift.

And that was just the appetizer – the next morning, they announced a North American tour, and the news that they would be releasing not one but two full albums that said tour would be in support of. Details on Equus Asinus and Equus Caballus are still forthcoming, but given that the live dates kick off in July, I expect the records will be out this Spring. So until we know more, lay back and groove to Men I Trust.