Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Nation of Language, Kaia Kater, D.W. Waterson, Cherry Blaster, The Davenports, The Gertrudes, Francois Klark, and Jeremy Dion,

By Will McGuirk

“As I was working on the lyrics I had a kind of fixation on terrible tax policies, our cultural addiction to meaningless consumption, and it all got swept together into this punchy, kind of fun track.” - Ian Devaney, Nation of Language

“It’s about ripping out harmful beliefs that have grown and taken root inside many of us like weeds. I wanted to create a sense of sonic chaos—as if anything could happen—because mine and my friends’ experiences in the last few years have been to show up and care for each other amidst the chaos of job loss, financial instability, mental health crises, environmental disasters and more.” - Kaia Kater

“Within hetero society, it’s typical to hate your exes, but in the queer community, exes are viewed differently. When collaborating on the track, Casey and I had the inherent understanding of having queer exes; who frequently run into each other, can end up as close friends and will always be within the same circles as one another. That’s where All The Girls With The Boys Names came to be; a dedication to our former lovers, but still appreciating where we landed." - D.W. Waterson

“Despite the luxury of time to 'breathe in the terpenes', the song also describes our ongoing and underlying levels of anxiety about not having enough time to help make the changes needed in our community and world.” - Greg Tilson, The Gertrudes

“Music is a chance to tell stories of pain and beauty. I want my songs to make people feel something unexpected.” - Jeremy Dion

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Ghostkeeper, Real Estate, Frazey Ford, All We Are, Milan André Boronell, Jacob Weil, Ehsan Matoori, and Clinic,

By Will McGuirk

"’U Kin Be the Sun’ explores the vast and eternal within us, the reoccurring ancient mythology of the individual as the universal, as light, as the sun..” - Frazey Ford

“What is to live, if not to eat and drink and breathe and to love.” - All We Are

"Love is Love! When you saw someone and fell in love with them, it did not matter what their sex is. Love comes from the heart. The soul only demands love and takes peace from it.” - Ehsan Matoori

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Jacob Weil · The Next Show

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Julian Taylor, Haviah Mighty, Charlie Houston, Geoffroy, Felly, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Dave Monks,

By Will McGuirk

“These days, I don't have time to waste, so I’m getting better at determining early on who/what is worth investing my time into. This song focuses on the fact that I know I'm a prize, so act right, or you'll miss out." - Haviah Mighty

“It’s definitely one of the most introspective songs on the album. I guess it’s a very mature version of myself who wrote this, hah. It’s about accepting and coming to terms with the fact that a relationship has come to its end. It’s about moving on, letting go, and feeling okay about it." - Geoffroy

“It's the feeling of like, once you've gotten over your heart hurting for someone else that it's not even about them anymore - it's about you. Your longing to not feel crushed anymore. It's almost this pathetic request to feel ok, to feel loved.” - Felly

“For me this album and the sum of its parts are a discovery of that bigger and truer sense of “me”. The title which came from a dream and stuck, could be my charmed reaction upon realizing that. Like I’ve just heard the final masters and blurt out, “Well, good! I’ve always wanted to be me!” - Dave Monks

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Hunter Sheridan plays the Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa, Friday Oct. 22 2021

By Will McGuirk

Well if you want to see the next gen of musicians making things happen then check out this very fine line-up at the Biltmore Oct 22 2021. Hunter Sheridan, Hollowsage and the Three Mile Islanders, and Wooly are all scheduled to perform

Hunter Sheridan has been plugging away all over the D-Rock (he is currently based in Guelph) and its been a treat to see him emerge over the past years. This is his party and well deserved it is indeed.

I’m new to Hollowsage (Sagen Pearse of Uxbridge) but I did get to meet him at the OMA awards where he won a couple, and I am looking forward to more shows by this kat and his band.

Wooly have been a fave of mine since the outset, I have worked with them twice; once on the Bell Fibe TV show ‘Live at the Upstairs Basement’, and on a video shoot session previously at Blue Heron Books. Great folks, doing some inneresting things.

This is the one folks. These musicians have been making it all during lockdown, amid all the zoom and gloom, now they get to be back out, live and in-person, to perform whats been in their heads and bedrooms for almost two years.

Buy those tickets here ->

Slowcity Open Mic with Sam Jr., Simon and the Island, Hayden Thorpe, Bazooka Joe 204, Caroline Marie Brooks, Sam Weber, and Astral Swans

By Will McGuirk

“Jump the fence, break the window, be a weirdo. Fuck the masses. Question what you’re taught.” - Sam Jr.

“What I do in a professional capacity exempts me from the responsibilities that other people my age are beholden to, in some ways I feel very free, but in other ways I feel very lonely watching other peoples' lives unfold, like I’m stuck in the same place." - Sam Weber

“It’s essentially about a broke, young weirdo singing to their partner about wanting to move away together to someplace where they won’t feel so strange.” - Matthew Swann, Astral Swans

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Charlotte Cornfield, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Kyle McKearney, Cat Power, Robert Glasper, Hot Kid, The Brandy Alexanders, ModernFolkRevolution, Mary Jennings,

By Will McGuirk

“Sometimes desire betrays logic, and you end up at somebody’s door even after you’ve talked yourself out of it, in all of the ways. And that feeling can be intoxicating. And it can be painful.” - Charlotte Cornfield

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Tears for Fears, Ouri, Sunglaciers, daysormay, Megan Nash, Opengo, faride, Louie Short, and Houndmouth

By Will McGuirk

“Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong, it took years, but something happens when we put our heads together. We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing – and it works really well.” - Roland Orzabal, Tears for Fears

“‘Just Existing’ has been a long time coming. Some of these songs have been around for 2+ years, while the others are brand new. It's been a crazy process of stitching it all together, we've never approached an album like this before, it feels new.” - daysormay

“It’s probably the most vulnerable I’ve been with my lyrics so far. Not sure how it will feel to have it out in the world but I was honest with myself when I wrote it in the Fall of 2019 - heartbroken but hopeful, nervous but willing.” - Megan Nash

"My grandmother had an uncommon perception of people's needs. It wasn’t a surprise to my mother when I started having premonitions and intuitions as a child. This song felt feminine and powerful and I wanted to capture the matriarchal wisdom of many ways of knowing." - farideh

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Opeongo · maybe maybellene

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Arkells play Oshawa; Tribute Communties Centre, Feb 19 2022

By Will McGuirk

Thee mighty Arkells are the first to be announced to perform at the Tribute Communities Centre here in the mighty mighty Shwa. Haviah Mighty is opening. Its most welcome, most welcome indeed, been years in the making as the song goes. The Hammer lads have a North American + European tour planned out for their new album, ‘Blink Once’ which just dropped. The record continues in the band’s signature soulful reflections on the ABCs of everyday people, albeit with a pre-post pandemic enthusiasm and a sense of celebration. ‘Blink Once’ explodes in a shimmering hail like a mirror ball hit by a confetti gun, and its unbridled sense of hope is most welcome, most welcome indeed. Come Feb 2022 we may be at a point where this is exactly the show you will want to be at, cross those sanitized fingers.

Tickets here ->

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jean-Michel Blais, Joy Crookes, Ghost, Goodnight Texas, Sarah Osborne, Isaac Murdoch & Matt Epp, Pete Moss, French Cassettes, and People Years

By Will McGuirk

“There’s often been this dominant idea in classical music that one instrument is the chief, the king of all the instruments, and the others are in the background merely supporting.” - Jean-Michel Blais

“When You Were Mine is a song I wrote about an ex-partner that ended up being with a man after we broke up. It’s a song about accepting their love, but wishing the same for myself. I wrote it with the backdrop of Brixton because that is where their love unfolded and where I spent a lot of my childhood. We recorded a brass section (it was my first time recording brass and excited was an understatement); we wanted it to sound messy so Japanese whiskey was involved and listening to lots of Ebo Taylor.” - Joy Crookes

“From realizing cardinals sound like the lasers from Star Wars to learning the basics of bird language, birds never cease to fill me with wonder. While I of course hope this collection is a real hoot for the birders, I also hope it might inspire the teenage Pete's out there to look up once in a while.” - Pete Moss

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Matt Epp · 05 Everything We Need

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic #NDTR Edition with Tanya Tagaq, The Halluci Nation, Status/Non-Status, and Snotty Nose Rez Kids

By Will McGuirk

Recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission available here ->

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Oshawa folk trio The Doozies play Mariposa Satellite Concerts Oct 23, 2021

By Will McGuirk

Although Mariposa Festival in Oriliia has been cancelled two years in a row the crew are still building and working and now announce a series of satellite concerts at venues throughout the town. The Doozies who took the 2019 festival by storm as they say, is booked to perform, plus a host of other well-known and lesser known acts in what Event coordinator Fred Addis calls a treat for audiences.

“The seed of the idea for the Mariposa Satellite Concerts event grew out of the disappointment of the Mariposa Folk Festival’s cancellation and the ongoing COVID restrictions. How could we return to live music, in a safe environment, while hiring artists and production professionals who have been largely out of work for 18 months? The answer was to spread a mini-festival out over multiple satellite venues, each with limited capacities. We think audiences are in for a treat,” says Addis in a press release.

The Mariposa Satellite Concerts takes place on October 23, 2021. Tickets on Sale here->

The satellite venues include a tent at the ODAS Fairground; the Mariposa Grande ballroom at the Best Western Mariposa Inn; the barn at Braestone; St. Paul’s Centre; and the historic Orillia Opera House which will host a daytime satellite stage as well as the evening main stage performance.

The main stage at the Orillia Opera House will commence at 7:30pm and features Donovan Woods, winner of the 2019 Juno Award for contemporary roots album, plus Mariposa favourite Shakura S’Aida and Evangeline Gentle.

The afternoon concerts will run from 1:00pm to about 5:00pm and patrons can choose one of these breathtaking lineups:

ODAS Fairground – Jay Stiles, The Connors Brothers, The Honeyrunners, and Danny Michel
Best Western Mariposa Inn – James Gray, The Doozies, Kaia Kater, and Amanda Rheaume
Braestone Barn – Mimi O’Bonsawin, Ariko, Rick Fines, and Terra Lightfoot
St. Paul’s Centre – Zachary Lucky, Kyla Charter, Birds of Bellwoods, and Suzie Vinnick
Orillia Opera House – Lydia Persaud, Coco Love Alcorn, Angelique Francis

Mariposa Folk Festival Artistic Director Liz Scott enthused, “There really is something for everyone in the Satellite Concerts lineup - longtime Mariposa favourites, established folk stars, and remarkable emerging talents.”

COVID-19 requirements for admission are as follows. Participants will need to provide digital or printed proof that they are fully vaccinated along with proof of identification. Individuals who cannot receive the vaccine due to medical exemptions will need to provide a doctor’s note until recognized medical exemptions can be integrated as part of a digital vaccine certificate. In addition, those with medical exemptions will need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, within 48 hours of the scheduled show. Children born in 2010 or later, who are unable to be vaccinated, will be permitted to attend if accompanied by an adult who meets these COVID-19 requirements. Masks must be worn at all times. Removal of a mask is allowed as per provincial guidelines when you are eating, drinking, or for other medical needs.

Cadence Weapon's 'Parallel World' wins 2021 Polaris Music Prize

Third time lucky as everyone will write. Having been nominated twice already Edmonton hiphop artist Cadence Weapon has won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize. The award was announced by last year’s winner Backxwash, who also appears on the Weapon’s winning album.

Polaris Music Prize winner announced Monday Sep 27 2021 - livestream on CBC SM channels

By Will McGuirk

Makers still making, and art still been made, and being noticed, and awarded, and tonight the 2021 winner of the Polaris MusicPrize will be announced. The celebration of all things artistic in Canadian music will be live-streamed on CBC.ca Gem and social media channels at 8 p.m. ET, and hosted by the Mother Corp’s Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe. Last year’s winner Bacxwash will perform and will make the winner announcement.

The albums on the 2021 Polaris Music Prize Short List are:

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Theory of Ice
Cadence Weapon - Parallel World
DijahSB - Head Above The Waters
Dominique Fils-Aimé - Three Little Words
Mustafa - When Smoke Rises
The OBGMs - The Ends
Klô Pelgag - Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs
TOBi - Elements Vol. 1
The Weather Station - Ignorance
Zoon - Bleached Wavves

The Polaris Music Prize awards $50,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year, judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration for genre or record sales. Additionally, the nine other nominated acts whose albums make the 2021 Short List will receive $3,000 each courtesy of Slaight Music. New for 2021, Polaris Music Prize has partnered with Play MPE to award the winning artist with a global music promotion distribution package for one release (single or album) worth up to $3,025 CAD. Play MPE will also gift all nine remaining Short List artists with distribution packages worth up to $1,000 CAD each.

The past winners are Backxwash (2020), Haviah Mighty (2019), Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours and rewards artists who produce Canadian music albums of distinction. A select panel of music critics judge and award the Prize without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity. polarismusicprize.ca