Get Thee to a Nunnery
The Garrys
September 2021
Get Thee To A Nunnery draws upon the classic surf riffs of The Ventures, the drama of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti westerns, the dreamy psychedelia of Kurt Vile, France Gall’s brand of mod-pop cheek, and the lo-fi garage noir of Los Saicos. Most notably, Get Thee To A Nunnery was inspired in part by stories of their mother’s high school years at an all-girls Catholic boarding school and convent in small-town 1960’s Saskatchewan. On several tracks, The Garrys explore the push-pull of rebellion and redemption that comes within a religious upbringing, and the seeding of persistent guilt that all former Catholic school kids know well. Even for artists as reverentially nostalgic as The Garrys, it’s impossible to avoid grappling with the tensions that arise from their sources of aesthetic inspiration. On one hand, they look upon this era and environment as timelessly cool, and coloured with a sepia-toned innocence; on the other, they know it was inescapably repressive to young women and various ‘others’. As these cold realizations surface, much of the album is united by a mourning of the various things that can erode, wither, and die while time marches on and as we get older — including the communities, traditions, and relationships we once held near and dear.
