Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Peter Katz, Ben Kunder, summersets, Venus Furs, Shred Kelly, Nation of Language, The Lagoons, Fleece, and Birdmask

By Will McGuirk

When we can’t quite put our finger on it the artist can, the artist can articulate what we are feeling, the artist seems to be able to express just what it is we are hovering around. We are hovering now, unsure, cautious, courageous but nervous about this future we were not expecting.

“Of one thing we can be certain, as to visions of the future, it will be, as it has always been, the emancipatory, freedom-giving, loving and best fulfilling version of the future having been anticipated already and suggested by artists.” - President Michael D. Higgins via Hot Press

“ “Paper Thin” is about restarting and that strength that we find in ourselves during our hardest moments. Through catharsis and release, we are able to heal and a new sense of self emerges.” - Peter Katz

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“It’s about exploration, nostalgia, searching for something greater and deeper than anything you’ve known.” - Ben Kunder

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“I wrote "Paranoia" as an examination of mental health, looking at a bout of anxiety and depression.” - Paul Kasner, Venus Furs

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Shred Kelly · Underground

“Our vocalist, Tim, began the process of creating “Underground” during a period of anxiety and insomnia while dealing with personal loss.” - Shred Kelly

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“It’s about the transition of growing up and finding someone to create your own family with – leaving home, finding love, and the evolution of that happening all over again.” - The Lagoons

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“It’s about saying goodbye to the world we lived in before Twitter, smartphones and Reddit. The times when we used to show up to each-others houses unannounced and it wasn’t weird. Now, however, in the context of COVID-19, the song sounds like it’s about saying goodbye to the world we lived in before the virus.” - Matt Rogers, Fleece

100% of the proceeds from this single from Jun 10 thru July 10 will go towards the Black Youth Helpline, Native Women’s Association of Canada and Black Coalition For AIDS Prevention.

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

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.

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“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

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“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

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Evening Hymns new track "Pyrenees" gets to the heart of the machine

By Will McGuirk

How can you take the bulbous 80s synth sounds of Kate Bush and Phil Collins and David Bowie and come out with something organic and moody and warm and human. You will have to ask Evening Hymns (aka Jonas Bonnetta) as he has done just that on his newly released track “Pyrenees” from his forthcoming album, “Heavy Nights.” Album drops July 26 2020.

Crown Lands release acoustic EP 'Wayward Flyers Vol. 1', video for 'The Witching Hour'

By Will McGuirk

Randomly today I was listening to the cock rock of the Zep’s box set and digging the full-on slap fest of “Ramblin’ On” and the delicacy that is “Going to California” and some other tracks similar in vein. And on this eve I get to enjoy the newly released five track EP from Oshawa’s Cock of the Walk rockers, Crown Lands. And you know there’s a similarity.

But its too easy to stuff this duo in with the likes of Zeppelin just because “Wayward Flyers Vol. 1” is a collection of acoustic folk-rockers. Too easy and also wrong because although this two piece may look the part they most certainly do not live the part. No, they take apart the misogyny, the cultural appropriation, the privileged excess of what is the much celebrated and much emulated classic rock iconography.

Crown Lands can bust out the ripped shirt riffs like anyone but on this one, the quietness of it, allows the stories to shine brighter and they are the stories of people who have been pushed aside for far too long. Crown Lands give them room, give them their stage. Crown Lands’s limelight is not for strutting, its for sharing.

Head over to your fave platform to hear the EP, including their cover of Neil Young’s “Birds.”

Collective Concerts presents 'Angel Olsen's Cosmic Streams'. Part 1 airs Jun 18 2020

By Will McGuirk

The good folks at indie promoter outfit Collective Concerts in Toronto are been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Venues were the first to be shut down and they will be the last to open. A recent report projected a loss of up to 90% of independent live music venues in the next year. We have already lost the Oshawa Music Hall here in Durham Region. There is an enormous economic ecosystem at stake here but because much of it is affter dark the industry doesn’t get the attention it deserves. However there is a movement afoot to draw the Federal government’s attention to this and if you like live music consider following and supporting these folks here and digging into info found here.

In the meantime Collective Concerts are getting into online streaming with the fab Angel Olsen.

To wit - Angel Olsen Presents COSMIC STREAMS- a series of visual streaming experiences shot by Ashley Connor. For the first in this series, Angel Olsen will be performing Half Way Home, her debut album, (almost) in full in addition to other rarities streaming from the Church at Echo Mountain Recording. 

Cosmic Stream 1: Half Way Home (Almost In Full) and More will be streaming from The Church at Echo Mountain Recording  Asheville, NC. Tickets are $25 and include a digital download of the audio of the show or $15 standalone ticket. There is also the option of a ticket for $45 which includes a vinyl record of the show. What!!

The stream will be live on June 18th at 9pm ET and will be viewable for 48 hours.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Margo Price, Sarah Jarosz, Aslan, Lamblion, Rushton Kelly, Zaac Pick, and Scarlet Pleasure

By Will McGuirk

Really enjoying this latest album from Sarah Jarosz, ”World on the Ground”; there’s a touch of Harry Chapin, a touch of Gordon Lightfoot and a touch of Neko Case and at a time when touch is rare thats a whole lot of goodness right there. The good is the details as the kids say.

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“I’ve seen the streets set ablaze, the sky set on fire. I’ve been manic, heartbroken for the world, heartbroken for the country, heartbroken from being heartbroken again and again.” -Margo Price

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“Making this record definitely taught me that I don’t want to be selfish: I want to channel something larger than myself and give myself to the process as fully as possible, because these songs also become the story of whoever hears them. Whatever someone might get out of listening to this record and hearing me express myself in this way, it’s completely theirs.” - Rushton Kelly

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Mariposa moves from lake side to live stream; Julian Taylor and Kalyna Rakel on Thurs Jun 11

By Will McGuirk

For the past dozen or so years around this time I start looking forward to a weekend with Mariposa. Always such a beautiful chill time but the Grand Dame of folk festivals is taking a break this year. Sad, as it was the 60th anniversary. Sad by two as already announced was John Prine, who recently passed due to Covid-19.

So in response the folks at Mariposa are moving some stuff online. First up is a live stream featuring Julian Taylor (who was a highlight last year) and Kalyna Rakel, the jazzy blues singer/songwriter from TO.

This free live music presentation is a partnership with Mariposa Folk Festival and the National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts . The show takes place on Thursday, June 11th, at 8:30 p.m. (eastern time) and will be live streamed from the Tranzac Club in downtown Toronto, on the Mariposa’s Facebook page.

Julian Taylor will be on stage from 8:30-9:15 p.m. and Kalyna Rakel from 9:15-9:45

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Run The Jewels, Elvis Costello, Jon Stancer, Grizzly Coast, and Emilie Brandt

By Will McGuirk

Feeling small, feeling contained, feeling boxed in, ready to go out again, ready to go out again with a better sense of the out, of the outside, of the outsider. Are you getting it now? Are you seeing, hearing, feeling the value of the outside now? And if you do go out are you ready to binge?

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Jon Stancer · Comes A Time

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grizzlycoast · End of the Night

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Rory Taillon's new album 'Drifting' - a review and an interview

By Will McGuirk

Rory Taillon is a big lad with a big voice. Anyone who has seen the Port Perry raised Ottawa based singer songwriter perform will attest to his presence live.  He can fill up the outside all by himself but on his new album, “ Drifting’, he is introspective. He is going inside himself and the album asks many questions. The title is apt.

With the world on pause we are all kinda drifting now. There is no force propelling us, no one steering. We are carried along on the streams of social media. ‘Drifting’ is an exploration of Rory’s time at his time and it is also now of ours in this time.

Rory started this journey before the pandemic hit the world. This virus has been an enormous financial hit on musicians as venues close, tours are cancelled and the production of physical product delayed. The virality of the internet allowed music to spread quickly and freely. Freely been the apt word, musicians had been doubling-down on live performances and physical releases to generate some income. Now the virality of Covid-19 has removed those options for quite some time. So we drift. This maybe the worst time for a new release but perhaps the best time for ‘Drifting’ because it speaks to the time. 

As a new and independent Taillon has a difficult time on at least two fronts; fitting into the smallness of a rock song and worming his show into the back corners of tea houses and breweries, the only venues available to new acts. Rory is operatic and needs a stage as larger than life as his voice is, to properly carry his art.

On this new record RT has decided to strip away all the clutter in the small and take what little room was available and give it over to his voice. Instrumentation is sparse and the songs are recorded to sit right inside your ear. They are close enough to enter the infinite space of your own head and its in there they find room to stretch and unwind, to swell and loosen. His croon enters your cocoon and he asks questions maybe others are asking as the drifting lulls us; the Whys of this time; in the case of Rory, the whys of touring, of writing, recording, the value of song, of life as an artist. And yet the value lies in his voice quietening those other voices, squeezing them out. Contemplating his doubt overcomes our doubt. In his voice we hear possibility, in his doubt we hear hope. 

There seems to be something prog-rock-ish afoot in Durham Region musicians. It may be in part to the success of the operatics of heavy metal heroes Protest The Hero it maybe just the times, it maybe just me. But acts such as Deep Dark River, Mappe Of, Lindsay Schoolcraft, Punchu, and Chastity are pushing against the boundaries of the pop song, going higher, lower, wider, louder and in the case of Mappe Of filling an entire album with his own imaginary world. Perhaps its the boundlessness of the online, the restriction-less world of their spent youth. Whatever it is music in the Region is getting bigger, grander, going global. And JT on new album is wandering that same landscape and singing his not so little heart out.

Slowcity.ca sent Rory some questions, answers below.

Slowcity.ca: Drifting - its an interesting title, it can be good, bad, which way are you drifting?

Rory Taillon: ” I’m not really sure which way I’m drifting. I really liked Drifting as a title because it illustrated a lot of the themes of the album, as well as the flow of the feel throughout the album. It gave an image of a lot of the ideas and themes seeming like a sort of fog that one is drifting through as they listen to the record. I also like it as a sort of state of mind as a viewer of the issues I’ve written about, observing them through the music at a safe distance as they drift past them through the album.

SC: There seems to be a questioning element to much of it, what was the impetus behind the album?

RT: There were a few things. A lot of the album is putting down my ideas and struggles with mental health as a sort of cathartic practice. I find I can put things into better words through writing songs than I can sometimes in conversations. There’s a lot of remorse about how I handled my issues in the past and anger in this album as well. I also was trying to work through my grasp and fascination of the concept of death as someone who grew up with a religious definition being presented as the answer for the early part of my life.

SC: How do you think you have evolved musically on this album, and if you agree you have where were you hoping to go?

RT: I definitely think there has been an evolution on this album. Only Whispers and Drifting have stepped away from trying to write music that fit a certain genre or style and attempting to write music that wasn’t being shoved into a genre box. I wanted to write songs that came together as they were instead of trying to chase someone else’s success with a sound. I also wanted to rely less on the bigness of my voice with this album and challenge myself with vocal techniques that I’m not as comfortable with and spend more time on the songs.

Photo by Ryan Maybee

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Riz La Vie, Starpainter, Lindy Vopnfjörd, Sultans of String, Christee Palace and Long Beach Dub Allstars

By Will McGuirk

They say a change is gonna come, they say every man needs protection, and I see in my reflection. . . they say the emperor has no clothes and if Humpty Dumpty falls no army can put the fragments back together again. They say the centre will not hold. We are driven to the outside, thrust to the edges, pushed further and further apart as the world spins. Out there is where the artist lives, gathering the bits the bytes the points and pixels, gathering, rearranging, repurposing, reimagining what all of this can be.

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Starpainter · Slammin' on the Brakes

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jyoti, Mike Boguski, Nubya Garcia, Julian Taylor, Zella, LA Priest, T. Thomason, and Ria Mae

By Will McGuirk

That which got us to this place is not that which will get us out.

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Julian Taylor · Ballad Of A Young Troubadour

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“My Game is feverish time travel into every dimension where the hustle is on the floor. It’s a disco game board with a pair of cherry red dice rolling in my favor. I’m climbing up onto the table in my glitter platforms and I’m calling the shots.” - Zella

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"Being vulnerable is hard and it always brings me face to face with the parts of myself I wonder if anyone will ever be able to love, or love around," - T Thomason.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Japandroids, Romana, Christophe Menassier, Plumes, Flower Pistils, Marin Patenaude, and Noah Reid

By Will McGuirk

Context is king. What is around you. What is behind, above, below you? Are you an icon, an avatar - is there more to you? Are you just a photo op, a cardboard cutout, a cartoon. . . what is your context?

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Marin Patenaude · The Build

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Whoop-Szo/Zoon, Alex Cuba, Alexandra Lost, Zaac Pick, Fresh Breath, Lynn Jackson, and the Airborne Toxic Event

By Will McGuirk

Finding your own way alright? Are you ok here inside the looking glass? Are you managing to navigate the cats and rabbit holes in this place where time seems upside down and sideways, this place of mad leaders. Are you taking your chances on pills and potions? Are you missing Outside?

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“We had already been working and reworking a version of our song ‘Cut Your Hair’ and were craving some interaction from our space of self-quarantine after cancelling well over 50 shows. We decided to reach out to contemporaries who also do their ‘own thing’ in the electronic world “ - Adam Sturgeon/ Whoop-Szo

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Alexandra Lost · 04 Trying 2 Grow

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““Atmosphere” acknowledges the space in between, how it expands and contracts, blurring and coming into focus over time.” - Zaac Pick

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