Forget t.A.T.u. If you’re looking for the genuine article, here it is. The Cliks is real as it can get, with music so intense you can taste it. Here’s how NOW magazine describes their style:

… the Cliks’ music kinda sounds like what might happen if Chrissie Hynde and the Murmurs’ Leisha Hailey fell in love, got Bowie to help out with insemination and gave birth to an indie rock love child. It’s all kinda raw but sweetly melodic, with a ballsy cabaret swagger.

The band from Toronto, Canada released their first self-titled indie album in 2004, but has undergone a lot of changes since. The current incarnation is composed of Lucas Silveira (vocals/guitar, transman), Nina Martinez (guitar, lesbian), Jen Benton (bass, lesbian), and Morgan Doctor (drums, queer). The fab-four recently released their newest album, Snakehouse. This 10-track compilation explodes with edgy-yet-catchy rock music which can best be appreciated by locking yourself in your room and turning the volume on full blast.

“Oh Yeah” is their first single, and also their first music video. Songwriter Lucas Silveira describes this piece as “the album’s emotional and thematic centerpiece”. The beat is a prime example of the band’s intensity - controlled yet penetrating. Other songs to watch out for are “Complicated,” “Eyes in the Back of…” and their rendition of, get this, Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River”. With it, The Cliks have done the impossible - that of rising over the original and elevating the song to a veritable rock classic.

The industry is taking notice. Critics are applauding, and making fond comparisons to the Pretenders and White Stripes. “Complicated” has been included in the L-Word soundtrack. However, their rise have not been easy. Lucas Silveira, in particular, had to overcome two original band members quiting, a messy breakup of a 6-year relationship, his father having a stroke, the death of his grandmother, and having to deal with his inner self, then Lilia Silveira, as a transgendered. “I had a huge breakdown and decided I was either going to get through it or I wasn’t. And look at that: I came out of it with an amazing album and an amazing band. Sometimes you have to go down to get back up again.”

Are you ready for The Cliks? Here’s the rockin’ MTV of “Oh Yeah.”