How do you celebrate your 10th anniversary as a rock 'n' roll band in 2026? For Toronto psychedelic garage rockers Wine Lips, they decided to do what they do best: try to make sense of the last decade in a lean 13-track collection with plenty of fuzz, double time, sardonic lyricism and a well-placed "Woo!" as needed.
TV Dinner is perhaps the most straightforward rock record from Wine Lips to date. It wastes little time — all but one song clock in at three-and-a-half minutes or less — and strips back many of the trippy effects and dressings that characterized their past offerings.
The record's highlights contain all the high-octane thrills that have spilled over into countless mosh pits. Opener "Cut It" pairs the band's relentless rhythm section with singer Cam Hilborn's yelps into a song tailor-made for a sweaty live show. "Thirst Trap," meanwhile, documents both the mundanity and horror of endless scrolling on our phones in a track that could have come off Be Your Own Pet's 2006 underrated self-titled debut.
But it's "Semi Detached Furnished Home" that really puts this record in perspective. The band stare with frustration and anger at Toronto's property market, with the ever-growing cost of living and sky-high housing prices. It doesn't get much clearer than Hilborn telling us, "It's enough to make me want to die," and later repeatedly shouting the song title like an incantation, attempting to will domestic bliss into existence.
Ten years later, not much has changed in the world; housing prices and phone addiction weren't novel concepts when Wine Lips first formed. But with the band older and wiser, TV Dinner channels their experience to capture the feeling of trying to find your way forward in a world that's actively trying to grind you down.
"I'm living in a nightmare / I try acting that I don't care," Hilborn admits. There's nothing quite like a blast of garage rock energy to help you forget just how much things suck.
12:00 AM · Aug 28, 2026 · 7 Views