Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Austra, Liza Anne, Venus Furs, Le Ren, Patrick Krief, The Waterboys, Avi Kaplan, Callum Pitt, and Mav Karlo

Will McGuirk July 29, 2020

By Will McGuirk

It can be mobility, but it can also be stability. One can find pleasure in place, in staying in place, one doesn’t lose face by not visiting place after place, one can still be face to face with the same face in the same place and find pleasure. For once it may be where you are and not where you are going that has priority. Be Here Now maybe.

HOWEVER. . . when one has to move one can do so with this brilliant track from Austra in the earbuds. Or better blasting from the car stereo of the Uber driver as you step determinedly into the back seat. Breaking up is hard to do they sing but easier with this track at your back.

“how we hurt people when we’re not taking care of ourselves. I was spiraling, anyone with a bit of care for me saw that and tried to say something but I was walling myself off to any real advice. Making an echo chamber of ‘you’re not doing anything wrong’. Nobody grows in an echo chamber.” - Liza Anne

“It's about a woman who loses everything in a game of cards narrated by the dealer who cheats her while taking advantage of her inability to stop playing. At the end of the song, the dealer nearly shows his humanity, turning away to hide the guilt of his actions. The video attempts to tap into the emotions the dealer attempts to hide - guilt, regret and consequent turmoil. - Paul Kasner

“This is a song about truly selfless love, and letting that person know what the kingdom they have created looks like. Purple beaches and violet skies, heavy storms but none of it matters. The palace is safe, and I’m happy to be in it.” - Patrick Krief

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Denise Chaila, Rachel Beck, , Lynn Jackson, Liza Anne, Grace Potter, and Jehnny Beth

Will McGuirk June 14, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Waves of karma lap the edges of the gilded palaces. Gate keepers shovel heaps of broken promises trying to stem the tide, trying to buy some time but the palaces crumble still from within.

“We are now living in a different world than we were when I wrote these songs and captured these sonic vibrations, these soul vibrations. It has been a challenging year, yet all around me I see people stepping into their power, finding their voices, and discovering their strength.” - Rachel Beck

“This song is about feeling the weight of someone else’s sadness and feeling it, inevitably, bring you down too because when you love someone, sometimes you wear their emotions like your own.” - Liza Anne

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Owen Pallett, David Clayton-Thomas, Idles, Liza Anne, Jesse Maxwell, Royal Canoe, Margo Price, and Rich Aucoin

Will McGuirk May 22, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Opening even as its getting closer, its a balance. There’s anxiety, bravado, averted eye determination, and a strange nostalgia for that slower time, even though it came packaged in privilege. We may be all equally vulnerable but we are not all equally impacted.

“This is a song for the unsung heroes,” the Blood, Sweat & Tears frontman shares. “I wanted to say thank you to the paramedics, firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, essential workers…

“I wanted to say thank you to all of the folks that put their lives on the line every day in dangerous and uncertain times.”

“I was reading through old poems and journal entries and circling the drain of my own sorrow stories, which felt like a bit of a wake up call. I have all these ideas of what taking care of myself looks like, but I tend to get in my own way. Bummer Days is me calling myself out. I am the only person who will take responsibility for my emotional and mental health.” - Liza Anne

“Music in general makes people feel good but especially at this time it is so important to make sure the people and the staff who are working so hard are given a moment to breathe and ground themselves through this.” -Jesse Maxwell

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Liza Anne, Grace Gillespie, Missy Bauman, Brielle Ansems, Mike McKenna Jr., Noah Reid, Great Lake Swimmers with Picastro and Ayla Brook & the Sound Men

Will McGuirk March 9, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Woodshedding done, time in front of the fire in contemplation, time spent thinking, time listening to one’s own thoughts, taken, time now to begin. Begin, begin again, start, start again, seed the thoughts and see which ones take, which ones grow, which ones prosper. I have my idea now, I will drop it soon, and maybe it grows.

“This song is the feeling of having too much of a good thing. It is a reckoning with the responsibility that comes with interacting with people through a period of your own unhealth paired with the hope that you can handle yourself better in your future tomorrows.” - Liza Anne

Liza Anne will open for Bombay Bicycle Club June 16 at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto

““Goodbye” is a song about relinquishing music and giving up the dream, written at a time of much uncertainty and worry about what would become of my songs. Its lyrics mark the realization that it will never really be all over. The music wants to be alive and free.” - Grace Gillespie

Missy Bauman will celebrate the release of her new album "Sweet" Apr 16 at The Burdock in Toronto

“It seemed to be a similar story from different eras, and each character had unique ways of coping and remembering. Many of the 8 songs on the album pay tribute to stories that are true, dark and heavy in nature, and depicted through the voice of a sympathetic narrator,” - Mike McKenna Jr.