Silver Pools (aka Todd Macdonald) is allowing us to stream his album Memoirs of an Oblong Sphere. Its a layered psyche-ambient affair available also on cassette and out now via URVisual. Toronto-based Macdonald alos plays drums in Loom and was amember of The Winks.
Singer/songwriter Charlotte Cornfield releases video for "No Spook"
Charlotte Cornfield, who may nor may not be the a distant cousin of Patti Smith's and Bruce Springsteen's lovely loverchild, has released a video for "No Spook". The track is from her prophetic album, Future Snowbird on Consonant Records. The video itself is an old school look at what may well be past Snowbirds.
DRALMS' walls come tumbling down in Domino House video
"Every good building must do two things. Firstly a building must shelter us. A building must also speak to us. A building must speak to us of all the things that we think are most important and that we need to be reminded of on a daily bases" ~ John Ruskin (18th century art critic)
You say party, Andy Shauf says The Party, releases "The Worst in You"
Singer/songwriter Andy Shauf of SASK, will release his new album "The Party", May 20 on Arts & Crafts. He has a string of dates across Europe coming up with The Lumineers and some of his own shows with Evening Hymns in support. Over the course of the summer he will be opening for Case/Lang/Veirs. Shauf has drawn comparisions to some of the greats including Burt Bacharach and Harry Nilsson. Listen for yourself.
Throw Down Your Guns in my head and it won't stop, new track from Wild Belle
Jordan Klassen releases "No Salesman" , plays Legendary Horseshoe Jun 10
British Columbia singer/songwriter, Jordan Klassen, will be touring with Northcote in June, stopping at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. He has just finished up some dates with Megan Bonnell (who is amazing by the way) and all in support of his Nevada Records release, "Javelin". Klassen produced and played almost everything on the album, the result is a visceral yet esoteric soundscape, drawing on the flows of new age darling Enya for inspiration.
You Say Party release "112", the first in a series of videos for their new album
Vancity's You Say Party are releasing a video for each of the songs on their new self-titled album released on Paper Bag Records. The first for "112" is available. It was directed by Curtis Grahauer. YSP combine a lush atmospheric shoegazer feel with some seriously angular noise rock. They have managed to move from their Cub-like party punk beginnings to God Speed territory. YSP are always worth a listen.
Photograph by Christopher Wahl
Little Scream does a Dark Dance, plays Lee's Palace May 12
Little Scream has released a northern gothic number, "Dark Dance" that draws from Leonard Cohen and Maggi Atwood. Its from her upcoming album, Cult Following available on Dine Alone May 6. The album is a collaborative affair with geust spots from TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, Aaron and Bryce Dessner from The National, and Owen Pallett. Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry is also involved. Little Scream has a date at Lee's Palace May 12 with Land Of Talk and will on the Wayhome Festival bill as well.
Sweet vanilla sounds from Toronto producer Harrison
TO producer Harrison has teamed up with Ryan Hemsworth for a collaborative track, "Vanilla". Its a cotton candy mix of crystal tips and wavy sugary strands. The two are touring with RYAN Playground and play the HOzton in TO on May 27
Person A gets an A+, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' album drops Apr 15
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros take a twisty approach to their new album Person A, it may be a more grown-up "Kid A", the The N'Awlins 10 piece weaving a wonderful mix of sounds in and out and beyond the tunes in the same way Radiohead did with their child. There may be no track with the commercial probability of "Home", the big hit from "Up From Below" but "Person A" is one of the best of 2016 to date.
Cred: Secret Service
Consider it a trek through world music but don't think geography, think history. The album steps and stomps, slides and slips on long skinny legsfrom Berlin cabarets to Civil War saloons, Delta juke joints to Romany campfires, with Nina Simone, Crosby Stills Nash and Patrick Watson along for the exuberance of it all. Sharpe and his magnificent Zeros skate over the past century of music, leaning back with one hand trailing in the stream, breaking the surface, sending up rooster tails of evocations, spraying skywards. Person A is big, one for the outside under the vastness of time and this is all before you get to the St. Germain meets Charlie Brown groove of "Wake Up The Sun".
Just telling you to listen to Nico Yaryan, dig that groove
Its not that words fail, far from it, but I rather just go with this one and let the words come later. . . . the album What A Tease drops on Last Gang June 3 2016.
Young Empires' So Cruel receives the house mix by Alixander III
Ex-Azari & III dj/producer Alixander III has remixed Young Empire's So Cruel from their Juno-nominated album The Gates. Young EMpires are on the road with a series of dates across North America including a stop at WayHome in Oro-Medonte July 22.
Everything is clear on The Hip's newest single, album drops June 17
Its been a long time coming but The Tragically Hip return with June 17 2016 with Man Machine Poem, their 14th album. The title harkens back to Now For Plan A. The full Kingston crew , Robby Baker, Gordon Downie, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair are back but with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene and Dave Hamekin at the board. The first single, "In A World Possessed By The Human Mind" is now available and it seems to focus on Downie's lyrical aptitude and that distinctive voice of his, over a rather steady, simple background, nothing too showy, just music at work.