Canadian alt-country balladeers NQ Arbuckle teamed up with singer-songwriter Carolyn Mark this past year for a collaborative release.  The result was the full-length “Let’s Just Stay Here”, released through Vancouver’s Mint Records mid-October.  The album marks the first release from NQ Arbuckle since their 2008 Juno-nominated released XOK, and the first from Carolyn Mark since [...]

More quality Canadian content coming from the west coast today, this time via the indie/alt-rock duo Kristen Cudmore and Gregor Phillips; otherwise known as Language Arts.  Originally from the other Canadian coast, Nova Scotia (I suppose we have a northern coast as well), the duo’s biography describes their latest album as “celebrating obscurities and word [...]

Vancouver’s indie-rock/alt-country ensemble Ox are back this year, with their 3rd full-length release “Burnout”.  The album, released on November 10th of this year, follows up the band’s 2006 effort “American Lo-Fi”.  Today’s song is the title-track from Burnout, and is a fine example of the dusky Americana-flannel sort of vibe the band is capable of [...]

Here’s one more for everyone on this Monday-ish feeling Thursday, this time from the Berkley, California alternative hip-hop act Why? Originally a solo project of frontman/lyrical-mastermind Yoni Wolf, Why? evolved into a full band prior to the release of their most recent album Eskimo Snow (released on September 22nd of this year); Even the Good Wood Gone [...]

I’ve got a fantastic song tonight, coming from 10 years back in my music-listening career; a career that started when my surprisingly cool father gave me a Pet Sounds cassette tape.  I couldn’t have been older than five, but I still remember listening to Sloop John B about a hundred times in a row.  Anyways, [...]

Does everyone remember last week when I posted the Young Galaxy song?  It was the one that was set to the oddly intriguing anime video.  Well I’m back on YouTube this morning, looking to see if anyone has uploaded today’s Ryan Dahle track, and sure enough I find it… set to an oddly intriguing anime [...]

It’s 4 hours into my work day, and I’ve already listened to this song 15 times.  This means that at any given point this morning there was a 20% chance someone walking into my office would hear this track; I like to think I carry a lot of the cool around there.  I Wish I [...]

I’ve got one more post for everyone tonight, to finish up the weekend on a high note.  Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day) can be found on Broken Social Scene’s self-titled full-length album, released in October of 2005.  Though the album would ultimately divide music critics, it was short-listed for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize in [...]

Keeping with the theme of the last post, tonight’s tune is another number that was performed at this year’s Polaris Music Prize gala; The Toronto alt-country act Elliot Brood enlisted the audience’s help on percussion, resulting in a performance that was hard not to enjoy.  Write it All Down for You can be found on the band’s [...]

This afternoon’s song is a beauty from Amy Millan’s second solo effort Masters of the Burial, officially released on Tuesday of this week; Bruised Ghosts is the opening track from the album.  The album features guest contributions from Millan’s Stars band-mate Evan Cranley and Broken Social Scene band-mate Leslie Feist.  Like Milan’s previous solo release, Honey from [...]

Today felt like a good day to post another Why? track; Fatalist Palmistry is currently my favorite track from the Berkeley, California indie/hip-hop act, though this title seems to change bi-weekly.  The song can be found on Why?’s third full-length studio album Alopecia, released in March of 2008.  Again, Yoni Wolf’s lyrics steal the show on [...]

This song is dedicated to my big brother Chris, whom I left back in Calgary this week; I can definitely picture us rocking out to this tune on the Deerfoot in his GTI.  Lasso is another tune from the French alt-rock band Phoenix, hailing from Versailles.  The song can be found on the band’s latest album titled Wolfgang [...]

Today’s tune is coming out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the indie/alt-rock band Dr. Dog.  Alaska can be found as the 5th track on the band’s fourth studio album We All Belong, released in February of 2007; We All Belong would crack Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2007 at position #39.  On a side-note, I believe strongly that [...]

This morning was our annual Fantasy Football draft, and let’s just say I’m feeling really confident about the team; I managed to snag Stompin’ Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald, and Chad “this is my bounce-back year” Ochocinco.  In music-related news, I came across a really cool project last week called The Transit Tapes.  It is described [...]

Today’s lunch-time tune is coming in from the Seattle indie/southern-rock band Band of Horses.  The Funeral was the first single out in support of the band’s debut album Everything All the Time, released in March of 2006; The song’s lyrics are believed to reference the multiple abortions had by various girlfriends of lead vocalist Ben Bridwell.  [...]

I’m a firm believer that there is no feeling more confusing than waking up from a nap.  Every time I go through this ordeal the same three questions race through my painfully soggy mind: Why is there so much damn sun?  How come I’m fully dressed?  Should I be at work right now?  After working [...]

There are 57 days until this year’s Polaris Music Prize gala, and still no invitation for BowlingStone.com; I’m still feeling pretty optimistic however.  I thought I would close out the week with another tune from the American indie/alt-rock/hip-hop band Why?.  The band seems to have this uncanny ability to exclusively create songs I can listen to 15 18 [...]

I found out this morning that before Peaches became Peaches, she was an elementary school music and drama teacher; Thinking about 10 year old kids learning music from the now electronic/glam-rock star puts me in such a good mood.  Talk to Me was released as the first single to Peaches’ fifth full-length album I Feel Cream, released [...]

With Why?’s next album (Eskimo Snow) not slated for release until September of this year, I’m not entirely sure how this song made it’s way onto YouTube; Regardless, I am very very vibed to have stumbled across it.  Yoni Wolf, the man behind Why?, has described the upcoming release as “…the least hip-hop out of anything [...]

After Sunday’s Dinosaur Jr. post, I decided I needed to start listening to J Mascis and the Fog again.  As I mentioned in the post, J Mascis and the Fog served as my introduction to musician J Mascis, and then to Dinosaur Jr.  Fortunately, I was able to track down a really sick version of one [...]