Constantines have been critically acclaimed ever since their self-titled debut in 2001. That record garnered them a Juno nomination for Best Alternative Album. Its successor, Shine A Light, saw them join the prestigious Pitchfork ‘8.0 club’, a group of bands deemed worthy of an 8.0 or higher rating for a record by the internet’s ‘trendiest’ music site.

For a band that has received praise from critics pretty much from the get-go, Constantines are to be applauded for their insistence on plowing their own furrow and not resorting to formulaic albums in order to keep the plaudits coming. There’s also the Paul Westerberg syndrome; no matter what you do, it’s never as good as the one that everyone loves.

“We were very lucky right from the beginning to get some praise and attention from critics,” says guitarist Steve Lambke, “and that’s continued. After having made a few records now, people do expect certain things. They maybe expect you to do a certain thing next and if what you do isn’t exactly that then you’re being critiqued in reference to their expectations rather than the artistic product you’ve made. We have to do what we’re excited and passionate about. I think it’s harder to keep being in a band than it is to make your first record. It’s just so hard to keep going for a whole variety of reasons. People’s relationships with each other change and people’s lives move on.

“Any kind of artistic synergy that’s there at the beginning, for that to keep happening, for me, is amazing. I think Paul Westerberg still makes amazing records and writes great songs and for him to keep doing that after that initial burst of Replacements records is incredible and is something to be celebrated.”

2005’s Tournament Of Hearts saw Constantines proclaimed by many as the truest rock n’ roll band on the indie scene, a raw, honest, blood, sweat and booze band to rally against the hordes of new new wave poseurs. Their latest, Kensington Heights, is the band’s first after they left Seattle’s Sub Pop for Toronto’s Arts & Crafts. And it’s every bit the equal of its three older siblings.

“I’m totally proud of how it came out,” says Lambke, “All the songs are great. We worked with the producer Jeff McMurrich who also produced Tournament Of Hearts so that relationship was already in place. Over the last couple of years he has become part of team. He did a really amazing job from his end. It kinda saved us that whole getting to know each other process. We were fired up and we could just go in and do it. There was no feeling each other out because we’d already done that. When I hear the record now, I’m really proud of it. We did what we were trying to do.”

The name, Kensington Heights, comes from the area in Toronto where Constantines lived and rehearsed during the making of the album. Beyond this, the lyrics suggest an affinity with a time and place, through either travel between places (‘Trans-Canada’) or a sense of belonging (‘Our Age’) and recurring references to ‘the city’.

“Definitely,” agrees Lambke, “that’s one of the lyrical themes of it: finding and recognising your own place and travelling between places. That’s part of our lives as musicians. I’m sure Bryan has other things in mind about his own life. Naming it after the neighbourhood we were living in and where we rehearse was really to mark that place and time, where we were at that moment.”

‘Our Age’ is a defining moment in Constantines’ career. The relentless drumming, guitars that bluster and screech, the song builds and builds and the sound is enormous but remains infectious while Bryan Webb’s gruff voice strains above the din. This is no Spector ‘wall of sound’. This is the sound of a band playing their collective asses off. Listening to Constantines on a good pair of headphones could almost convince that it’s all happening right behind you.

“We do really like making records and we enjoy that process,” says Lambke, “But what it comes down to is that we are a live band. We write songs to play them live. And generally the songs we record, we’ve been playing them live for a while before we make the record. That’s the test for us. Does it work at a show? That’s not to say that bands who do it in another way are wrong. That’s just how we’ve always approached it. I’m glad that it has that live impact. That’s what we were going for on this record, but I don’t feel like we’re ever strayed too far from that original motivation: to play kick ass songs for people.”

That massive rock sound, coupled with a hard edginess and tendency to break down into discordance has led more than a few journalists to label Constantines ‘Fugazi meets Springsteen’.

“You hear any comparison often enough and it becomes irritating,” says Lambke. “I grew up listening to Fugazi. I heard them for the first time when I was 13 and I thought it was incredible. I can’t deny that it was a huge part of when I first started to play music, Bruce Springsteen too. Those things are in the band and we all grew up listening to that stuff but they’re not the things we’re most interested in now. You’d hope that after four records and nearly ten years of the band that we have our own sound now. I sort of like to think that we sound like the Constantines now.”

Aside from his dayjob in Constantines, Lambke has also released two excellent albums of laid back indie folk as Baby Eagle. “Those are all songs that wouldn’t work in Constantines, for a variety of reasons,” he says. “Both of the records I’ve done were done really quickly and with friends. I did the first one in collaboration with Christine Fellows and John Samson from The Weakerthans. I had a bunch of songs and I went to their house in Winnipeg and it was all done in a few days and very spontaneous. The second one was done with more friends, a band called Shotgun and Jaybird from New Brunswick in Canada and again it was done very quickly over a few days. It’s been a lot of fun for me to collaborate with other people and get an outlet for these songs. I love that the band was on tour until the middle of July and we were playing loud rock n’ roll shows to lots of people and now I’m hanging out with friends and trucking around in a little car and play quieter shows and not scream my head off every night. I feel really lucky to be able to do both.”

Constantines play Bush Hall on 17 September and The Wilmington Arms on 18 September 2008.