This is a punk rock band that has been around since 2006, and has formed in the city that I currently call home, Hamilton!

Specifically, they were formed around the Dundas region of Hamilton. Lovely bit of area around there, reminds me a bit of roadtrips around the Appalachians of West Virginia, but far less vertically terrifying. Both Dundas and Ancaster have wonderful old stone architecture that simply is not built anymore. Kind of like a hallmark movie?

Anyways – The Dirty Nil have been playing continuously since 2006 with largely the same band members. They are a band of three, currently featuring Luke Bentham, Kyle Fisher, and Anthony Vitanza. In 2006, it was originally a two-piece band formed in highschool by Luke and Kyle, under the same name they still use. Since then, the third member has changed a total of 4 times.

The band won the 2017 breakthrough group of the year, and have been steadily gaining more and more popularity. Their most popular album is the 2018 Master Volume album, but they have been seeing good success with subsequent albums, notably the 2021 Fuck Art album and their 2025 The Lash album. Many rock bands, I’ve observed, tend to have one album or single that breaks into popularity before the band sinks back into obscurity, but that does not seem to be the case for The Dirty Nil, who are consistently releasing punk rock music that has respectable popularity in a music landscape that has largely taken punk rock off the stage since it’s peaks in the 1990s and 2000s.

Personally, of their songs, I really like Pain of Infinity the most. If you ever want nice music to listen to while exercising, joy riding around town, or doing work in the garage, you cannot go wrong with just pulling up a “best of” playlist for this band. The music is very tonally consistent and wont give whiplash on your ears, while also remaining pleasant enough for actively listening to it as well.