The Nils

The Nils was a Montreal punk rock band formed in 1978 by Alex Soria. They started to gain popularity in 1982 upon the release of a five song demo entitled Now.

In 1983, they played Montreal’s legendary venue The Spectrum; once with The Ramones and later with X. During this year, they were selected to showcase their song ″Scratches and Needles″ on an L.A. based BYO compilation entitled “Something to Believe In” before next being selected to feature ″Call of The Wild″ on the “Primitive Air Raid: Montreal ‘84” compilation.

The band acquired a significant following by extensively touring North America while still managing to release two influential EPs back to back: Sell Out Young (1985) and Paisley (1986). Their criticahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Nils&action=edit#l success and unmistakable sound caught the attention of executives of the now defunct NYC hip hop label Profile records.

The band signed a five year contract with Rock Hotel, a punk/rock sub-label of Profile and with the help of English songwriter Chris Spedding as producer and Phil Burnett as engineer, they released their first full length self-titled album. Upon its release, the album charted and was a critical success. Their ever increasing fanbase including legions of musicians in the genre began naming them as a direct influence: Goo Goo Dolls, Superchunk, Jawbox, Meat Puppets, Down By Law, Bob Mould (Sugar, Hüsker Dü) and many of the power-pop punk bands.