By Will McGuirk
Oshawa-based post-wave outfit Mary + Adelaide have dropped ‘The Shovel’ and no less an authority as Ian Cohen calls it a “confirmed jam.” The L.A. based journo writes for Pitchfork and Rolling Stone and made his comment on Twitter. Dig the bouncy pre-emo track below.
By Will McGuirk
What day is it? Does it matter? Have we moved past measuring our time in 24 hour chunks, have we moved past measuring time at all. DO dates matter, maybe, do days matter? Does this seven day cycle matter - well I will say the cycle of the seven does, at least in years, at least in my life plan it does. Are we moving from days to moments, from moments to the now?
Here and now stepping up for their moments are A Tribe Called Red, Tyler Childers, The Bobby Tenderloin Universe, New Pornographers, Half•Alive, The Wild and Reay. Take that time which seems to no longer matter and fill it with moments that do.
By Will McGuirk
Toronto singer/songwriter Dakota Mill has been digging in and making it work, solo gigs and tailgating on bigger shows. He has been working on his second, ‘Common Ground’ and letting the songs loose so here’s “These Walls.” The album drops soon, stay tuned.
By Will McGuirk
We at slowcity.ca have been taking our time building capacity and connectivity. We began a decade ago but we are slow for a reason. We wanted to explain our mission clearly and carefully and gather an audience with the same values as us. We were never after quantity, only quality engagement and I looked at the stats today for the first seven months of this year and well, here they are.
We have engaged with thousands via this website and via our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and via our in-paper magazine Wunderlit. Each one is a person who cares about our work, and supports our work and is interested in our work. We have a community of activists engaged and now its time to move to the next stage.
There are a lot of challenges, a lot of needs, but also a lot of options and a lot of opportunities here in Oshawa. We need action on all the problems facing this city and we at slowcity.ca know we need to engage with our creative community for innovative, sustainable ideas, the likes of which only artists can imagine. We collectively need to imagine a new future, the old one gave us this broken world which is now in crisis.
So we will be.
If you wish to subscribe email me at mcguirkwill@gmail.com, I won’t bother you too much but will give you updates on our activities and if you wish to help us pay for this by advertising contact me as well.
Iskwe, photo by Matt Barnes
By Will McGuirk
Heat, yes, hot, hot, hot, coast on the heat waves, the world is turning, hope it don’t turn away, turn, turn, turn, find someone who’s turning and you will come around, lean into it, take it, love it, embrace it . . . because you don’t have to shovel sunshine, baby, you don’t have to shovel sunshine. Here are some of the tracks which made their ways across the slowcity.ca desk, enjoy them and the sun.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Memorial Park, 110 Simcoe St. S., downtown Oshawa
Gates: 2:30pm
First performance: 3:30pm
Wooly, Cale Crowe, Native Other, Rory Taillon
Supporting: Skye Wallace
Headline, 9pm: The Wooden Sky
By Will McGuirk
Well, Oshawa, after three weekends of festivals around Ontario its your turn now. This weekend the second Crossing Point Festival begins at 6:00 p.m. on Friday July 26 at Memorial Park. This is an all ages/ licensed and ticketed affair. Tickets are available online and at Kops Records. The Friday line-up includes Julian Taylor, Tanika Charles, Andrea Ramolo and EDITH backed by members of the Professors of Funk. I’ll be hosting the evening too, so come hang with me and enjoy some tunes from the Bandshell.
By Will McGuirk
About three years ago I posted a piece on NoPop, a movement by the Toronto kat known as Lonely Vagabond. His purpose was to have people move away from the fast churn-a-round of the music industry and put the slow back into music listening. Music is not fast food. Pop is fast food. We at slowcity.ca like sloooooooooow food.
We like to spend time on our craft, its why sometimes we don’t post news or reviews until quite sometime after an event. We are slow for a reason, to be true to ourselves, our stories. LV asked me to fix some missing links on the original post but I said I would just update the piece instead. Some things are still relevant for the most part, what has changed as expected is the role of the music news industry. It has gone full tilt into Pop coverage and all is Drake while on the other side there is pretty much everyone else.
There is the one and the many. They don’t cross paths often. And for writers on music the question now is what is new, what is news. Does one pursue the many and see what is happening or does one stake out the one for the news cycle. Mostly it is the latter.
From here I will return you back to the original article and LV’s campaign of NoPop.
Music writers have to ask themselves what value does their voice add? Why write?
Writing about (and by writing we mean communicating, whether podcast, broadcast, online or inpaper) something newly discovered is not the same as reporting the news. The pursuit of news is open to manipulation by publicists who feed their clients to the media. Media feed off those clients’ fans who hopefully become readers and consumers of the products advertised in the margins. In return publicists give access to stars. Its a payola, its an addiction and an aphrodisiac. It feeds the ego of the music writer, it feeds the music writers’ brand, its feeds the industry but it does nothing to feed the music.
The @LonelyVagabond, the flaneur of the Six, has wandered Toronto streets seeking the new for many years. He is often disappointed, more often than not. The new no longer inspires.
He is urging writers to reconsider their subjects. He has coined the phrase NoPop, a catchall that includes local, fringe and classic and his aim is to focus on NoPop.
We at SlowCity agree for many reasons but mostly because his idea re-introduces the idea of time back into the equation.
Is what we write worth the death of a tree? That is the question.
It used to be the story would have to matter because of the effort that went into its delivery. But now, as I am now doing I can type and publish at the same time. There is no filter between my fingers and your eyes, your ears. I have access to stars and I have access to ears. It costs me nothing to publish. Not money, not effort, not time. Music is emailed to me. I listen. I write and publish. But I serve no one except publicists with that approach, I certainly bring nothing new to the conversation around popular music, the Kanyes and Taylor Swifts and Rhiannas and reformed 90s eras one hit wonders.
Lonely is asking that we bring time to the publishing equation; that we dig deeper for context, that we do indeed add something new to the conversation around music, our voice by way of our own ears; that we need to avoid churnalism, the easy reposting of press releases; that we don’t publish on a schedule but when something matters.
“when I have nothing to say my lips are sealed”
There needs to more consideration for the music and less for the music industry. I too am worried that my worth is measured in retweets as once I worried that music’s worth was measured in bottles of beer. I too question my value and where I fit in my scene.
I began writing about the Durham Music Scene thirty years ago. I still write about it. There’s not much going on, its in a slump (ironically it is still is) , but Durham Region music and musicians are my subjects, beyond that I am free to write about anything I wish and you are free to read or leave.
More music writers need to write about what they care about and more importantly more music media need to get off the gravy train of pop and write about music that matters. We know it when we hear it even if we can’t predict where its coming from. All of us who write about music have to become better champions of music and wean ourselves of the publicist’s access offers.
Work your street beat even if you are Pitchfork or the Rolling Stone. Go to live shows in clubs near you even if you don’t live in Portland or Brooklyn or Toronto. Hit the streets, become a voice and a champion for new music yes but also for old music, old musicians, dead musicians, small town local heroes. . . everybody’s got one. Raise their profile and put music first.
Ada Lea
By Will McGuirk
Yah been away for a few weekends, been sitting in fields listening to live tunes under blistering heat, yah been offline and away but the inbox has still been open so tunes coming in - here’s a few that caught my ear when I came back burnt and energised. Always more to come so stay in touch, and yah Ada Lea has been featured a few times, happy to see her star on the rise.
DOOMSQUAD, Photo by Maya Fuhr
By Will McGuirk
Three days in - Thursday and Friday, and now onto Saturday. You’ve settled in, had a night or two, and you are feeling grounded, in place, present, home. The sauna has been used almost constantly - people leaping from the heat into the bracing river. There are workshops and there are food options. There are paddle boats and canoes to borrow and the beach is in use. But a Saturday night beckons and someone sang something about a Sudbury Saturday night and Sudbury is definitely a factor in the planning of River & Sky. So yes relax, enjoy the environment and then get ready to enjoy one blast of a line-up, possibly one of the best 1-2-3 line-ups as in like ever. And then drift off to the fire for a beach party.
Munya, photo by Joshua Aldecoa
By Will McGuirk
Yip, the activists are activating, from North Bay to Sudbury, getting ready to launch their annual fest River & Sky and once again I aim to activate with them. R&S takes place Thursday through to Sunday with Hollerado, Fucked Up, U.S. Girls headlining and yes there are a couple of slowcity.ca pals on stage too; Annie Sumi on Sunday and Thom Helliwell who is in Jaunt will be playing on the Friday.
The four day fest is celebrating eleven years and it just gets better and better. The music while always progressive, inclusive and adventurous runs parallel to the values of the organizers who are 100% focused on sustainability. Each year they re-invest into the festival; one year it was saunas, one year it was a wood fired pizza oven, this year its a boat shuttle, the idea being to reduce car usage.
So here’s to R&S, star filled nights and Northern Lights, towers of conifers and the power of community, and sitting fireside on a beach with music all around.
Haviah Mighty
Sunday - Hillside - you may have been there/here for a day or two, you may gotten the vibe by now - its not about the names coming in, they come in to lend support, the real Hillside is taking up the challenge to challenge yourself and risk being disappointed but you won’t be. HIllside has been doing this for a while and if an act is on the bill. no matter how obscure to you, no matter how far outside your musical wheelhouse, no matter the gap by the end no gap. Simple. Sunday - its about faith.
By Will McGuirk
Our pals in Dizzy, the rising indie stars of Canada, have released a new track; “Heavy” - its a bright shiny heartache. Listen here.