Halifax two-piece Dregs just released their first sludge-pop self-titled record online. If you like 2000s-era distortion rock, you’ll love this. Alex MacAskill and Ryan Dunn (no relation to Jackass) have been friends since grade primary “and homies since day one,” they say, making music as Dregs since last April.Dunn’s talents as a sound engineer tame MacAskill’s impulse to sound “crunchy and drunk.” Splashes of The Darkness, Death from Above and Queens of the Stone Age colour these ten heavy tracks. MacAskill says he was especially inspired by Nashville duo JEFF the Brotherhood after screen-printing for Hatch Show Print at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. “I was educated deeply on the history of country, bluegrass and gospel,” he says, “But man, the rock music that comes out of and travels through that city is incredible.” After touring the album in the east, Dregs is moving back to Tennessee this summer.You can stream the whole album here.