Vancouver indie-rock/pop ensemble The Zolas are back with another deceptively infectous track from their 2009 debut album “Tic Toc Tic”. Produced by Howard Redekopp (notable for producing albums from Tegan and Sara, The New Pornographers, and Mother Mother), Tic Toc Tic does well in delivering a three-piece band wrapped in a full-stage sound; The Great [...]
The title-track from Noah and the Whale’s 2009 LP The First Days of Spring opens with the line “It’s the first day of spring and my life is starting over again”, and immediately sets the melancholic tone for the remainder of the album. The release, which is the band’s sophomore full-length effort, narrates lead singer [...]
Gavin Gardiner of The Wooden Sky has piles of perfectly-formed melodies scattered around his home, I’m convinced of it. Every song I hear from the Toronto indie/folk-rock ensemble finds a way to lodge itself into my brain and gently gnaw, relenting only after I perform it for friends from my couch. The Late King Henry [...]
With the exception of sex and drugs, there are few things more satisfying than a well executed key-change. Doin’, from Canadian Chris Adeney’s indie/folk/progressive-rock project Wax Mannequin, features one such key-change; unless completely dead inside, listeners should experience a moment of head-bobbing. The song can be found on Wax Mannequin’s fifth-full length effort “Saxon”, released [...]
The droning guitars, the The Beach Boys-channeling harmonies, Olga Goreas vocal delivery, and the build to a wall of sound that would make My Bloody Valentine proud, all come together in stunning fashion for The Besnard Lakes. Albatross can be found on the bands forthcoming 2010 album The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night, scheduled [...]
The west-coast trio of Ashleigh Ball, David Beckingham, and David Vertesi (otherwise known as Hey Ocean!) released their sophomore LP “It’s Easier To Be Somebody Else” in September of 2008. The album, described by the band as “funked up party-pop”, follows-up on the group’s 2006 debut effort “Stop Looking Like Music”‘; today’s song Fish can [...]
Defiant to the bitter end, Hayden delivers a fine piece of scorned indie/folk love-rock with Let’s Break Up. Found on Paul Hayden Desser’s 2009 full-length release The Place Where We Lived, the song offers a number of lines that should be immediately written down for use if ever on the shittier side of a break-up. Like [...]
2009 brought the debut album from Rich Terfry (the man behind the Buck 65 moniker) and his newest collaborator, Belgian producer Joëlle Phuong Minh Lê. The electronic/hip-hop project, known as Bike for Three!, released More Heart Than Brains this past summer to almost exclusive acclaim. Today’s song is not from that album, nor is it [...]
Really fantastic song up today from the Kelowna, British Columbia progressive indie-rock trio We Are The City. Originally formed in 2006 under the name “Seraph”, the band changed their name to “The City” in 2007, and then added the all important “We Are” in May of 2008. Consisting of Cayne McKenzie on vocals and keys, [...]
Up tonight is another haunting installment from Calgary’s favorite indie/experimental-rock artist Chad VanGaalen. VanGaalen demonstrates his talent as an animator/illustrator with the video that accompanies Molten Light, and allows us to be pleasantly horrified both visually and sonically. The song itself can be found on VanGaalen’s 3rd full-length effort Soft Airplane, released in September of 2008 [...]
Toronto-based indie-poppers Ohbijou delivered their long-awaited (I suppose it was only 3 years) sophomore album “Beacons” this past year, following-up on their 2006 debut release “Swift Feet for Troubling Times”. Make It Gold can be found in the oft-controversial #9 position on the album, and is gorgeous number that begins by feeling almost underscored (by [...]
Owen Pallett’s highly anticipated follow-up to He Poos Clouds found it’s way onto shelves last week (January 12th). Across Canada, fans finally began their journey through Pallett’s conjured-up world of Spectrum, with help from the album’s narrator Lewis; Heartland is a concept album narrated by a farmer named Lewis as he comes to terms with his [...]
Up today is another fantastic track from the Toronto-based indie-rock/pop ensemble The Ghost Is Dancing. Battles On can be found on the band’s defiant 2009 effort of the same name, released on April 28th of last year. The album follows-up on the group’s 2007 debut LP “The Darkest Spark”, a self-titled 2006 EP, and a [...]
Today’s song comes in from Toronto-based singer/songwriter/producer Royal Wood and his second full-length album A Good Enough Day, released via Canadian Dead Daisy Records in 2007. The album follows-up on Wood’s 2004 debut LP Tall Tales, and has since been followed-up by a 2009 EP titled The Lost and Found EP. This past November, Wood supported [...]
Here’s a fun little activity for everyone: The next time you have nothing to do, grab the blankets off your bed, throw them across your couch/coffee table creating a fort of sorts, shut off every light in your house/apartment, climb in with a flashlight, and listen to the new Timber Timbre album; friends of mine [...]
I haven’t listened to a lot of Dallas Green/City and Colour in about 6 months. This is due in part to a self-inflicted saturation of the project in 2008 and early 2009, and in part to my discovery of Dan Mangan last year, who has fared quite admirably in satisfying my moody acoustic/folk-rock needs. However, [...]
After a relatively quiet 2009 (It would be nice if my relatively quiet years included an album I produced being shortlisted for the Polaris Prize), Hawksley Workman is poised once again for a big year; the Polaris-shortlisted album Workman produced was Hey Rosetta!’s masterpiece Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through [...]
Up today is some sublime lo-fi indie-rock/pop, care of Vancouver-based The Awkward Stage. Consisting of frontman Shane Nelken, Tygh Runyan (Beans) on guitar, Tony Koelwyn (Bossanova) on drums, and Chris Mitchell who plays with the Vancouver Symphony on trumpet and keyboards, The Awkward Stage have two full-length releases to their name since forming in 2006. [...]
There are a lot of things to like about today’s tune. There’s that sort of Jim Cuddy mixed with Joel Plaskett vibe that can be heard, there’s the fantastic harmonies during the chorus that just ache to be turned up, and then there’s the charming lyrics like “I’m too old for the girl I love but [...]
The Toronto indie-rock/electronic duo of Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt, known as Woodhands, are slated to release their highly anticipated follow-up LP this month. ”Remorsecapade” will be released via Paper Bag Records in Canada on January 26th and in the US on February 23rd; CP24 will be one of the tracks featured on the new [...]
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