Royal City

Royal City emerged from Toronto under the guidance of singer/songwriter Aaron Riches, who joined forces with Jim Guthrie, Nathan Lawr, Simon Osborne, and Evan Gordon to shape an intimate yet forceful strain of rural indie rock. Observers frequently placed the band’s keening, guitar-driven approach within the same circle as Palace and Songs: Ohia. The group first presented its spare, acoustic material on the 2000 album At Rush Hour the Cars, released by the Toronto label Three Gut. Evan Gordon departed later that year, but the remaining members pressed on and delivered a more cohesive statement with 2001’s Alone at the Microphone, a record that positioned them as peers rather than echoes of Palace.

Drummer Nathan Lawr stepped away in early 2002 and Lonnie James took his place. The revised lineup soon toured the United States and Europe for the first time, generating enough interest for Sanctuary in the U.K. and BMG in America to handle wider distribution of Alone at the Microphone. In 2003 the band issued its third album, Little Heart’s Ease, through a partnership between Three Gut and Rough Trade. A July 2004 performance in London proved to be their last; the group dissolved shortly afterward. Five years later a self-titled collection assembled previously unreleased material, bringing Royal City’s story to a close.