It wasn’t your typical CD release party for an indie band. Instead of a dingy, darkly lit pub and cheap beer on tap, there were chandeliers, glasses of wine and grilled zucchini sliders. We were in the basement of Harry Rosen in Yorkville, and everyone was dressed, well, better than me.

Meet the guys of Cuff The Duke (Wayne Petti – vocals, Paul Lowman – bass, Francois Turenne – guitar, and AJ Johnson – drums), a band unafraid to try new things and play a venue – and a crowd – perhaps a little out of their comfort zone. But play they did, and well at that. Celebrating the release of their fifth album, the band highlighted the country, folksy twang that made them so popular in the first place, playing a mix of new and old jams. Though Morning Comes was released digitally two weeks ago, the official coming out party of the hard copy, on Paper Bag Records, was at the third instalment of Harry Rosen’s Underground Lounge. It was a fun night surrounded by nice clothing, cool people and good music.

Before the show I sat down with lead singer Wayne Petti for a quick chat about, among other things, the benefits of Value Village.

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SH: Congrats on the new album officially being released! How are you guys planning on celebrating?

WP: Well, playing in the basement of Harry Rosen and then probably just go out and have some drinks.

SH: Where to?

WP: I don’t know where we’ll end up. Often we end up at Nirvana on College because it’s sort of in the middle of where everyone in the band lives so it’s kind of a nice mutual spot.

SH: Somewhere tame but fun.

WP: But fun, yeah. We’re getting too old for the wild, wild parties.

SH: How old are you guys?

WP: Not that old. [laughs]

SH: What made you guys decide to release the album digitally early?

WP: In this day and age a release date’s so arbitrary … And it’s kind of cool because there are those people who will only buy it digitally and it kind of gives them an upper hand. And the people who like physical media, they’re always going to wait until the release date anyway.

SH: And what’s the response been like so far?

WP: Good, actually, which is always good. I don’t actually read too much of what’s online, I don’t really like it because if you start getting into reading your own press it gets weird.

SH: We’re in a clothing store so I have to ask – where do you like to shop?

WP: I think we’re all suckers on the road; we’re all suckers for vintage stores. In every city we kind of have our favourite. For years I had a hard time finding anything that fit. *Note: Petti is on the shorter side and really skinny* So I don’t really have a favourite place. It’s not really my bag. But I guess if I had to pick one I’d say Value Village.

SH: Really?

WP: Yeah, probably. I get really lucky there. Like, I’ll find something like an expensive pair of jeans for like 10 bucks. I found a pair of Nudies there two weeks ago.

SH: For $10?

WP: For $10, yeah. So it’s awesome. Because most of the time I’ll go, and I don’t find anything and it doesn’t quite fit right. But it’s always kind of the thrill of the hunt in a way.

SH: Do you buy other things from Value Village? Like knick knacks?

WP: Yeah occasionally. Sometimes I look for old records and stuff, because they can get records there for a buck a piece. So sometimes I find cool records there. Sometimes I just look for weird musical instruments or weird old tapes and stuff like that, that we can kind of mess around with in the studio. But usually it’s just clothes. And yeah, I’ll always do a round in the knick knack section, see if there’s anything worthwhile.

Special thanks to Julie D’Uva for the invitation to the event and to Harry Rosen for having us.