Songs of the Week: September 01 - 07, 2025
“Ballad Of The Hockey Enforcer” by The Donzerly Lights
Casey Laforet of Elliott BROOD has a new side project that involves both new music and a magazine!
Purgatouring Volume 1 is a 105-page collection of stories from touring with BROOD over the last 20 years, as well as old photos, “musical opinions”, comics and more. You can pre-order it online now and accompanying it (for free) is an album of the same name (Purgatouring).
The project is called The Donzerly Lights (love this!) and the album has 12 songs that for the majority of the album sees Casey performing and singing almost everything!
I asked Casey if the music or the magazine came first and he told me he had made the record already and they were all basically “road songs”- and that all the lyrics are mixed into the magazine. I’ve already ordered my copy of the mag and cannot wait for it’s arrival!
Now as for the album, I had a hard time choosing which one to feature here (so go listen to the whole thing) but as a huge hockey fan, I knew it had to be “Ballad Of The Hockey Enforcer”.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the tough guys of the past (I had a Tie Domi Leafs jersey) and Casey captures them perfectly in this song, which is also woven with clips of hockey commentary about fights and scrums. Check it out below!
Christine
“3am” by Ashleigh Ball
The Hey Ocean! singer (and acclaimed voice actor!) Ashleigh Ball is back with a brand new solo album! Our Slowest Season was released last week, and sees Ball team with producers Jonathan Anderson and long-time friend/collaborator David Vertesi.
My early favourite off the album is “3am” (for no… particular reason), a dreamy tune which I heard a tease of earlier this year, when Ashleigh opened for Mae Martin at the Vogue!
Have a listen below, and make sure you’re at the album release show on September 29th at the Fox Cabaret!
Kirk
“For” by Luca Fogale
Burnaby’s Luca Fogale has released his fourth single from his upcoming album (hopefully more details on that soon) and it’s aptly titled “For”.
Like much of Luca’s music, it’s beautiful and haunting, and I’ll let him tell you about the track:
“I wrote “For” throughout the course of a few seasons of my life, so while this is at once a song simply about trying to serve what is most important in this life, the narrator (a version of myself) is grappling with understanding the finiteness of time, while desperately wanting to preserve an imagined perfect future, compelled by all of the tenets in the refrain; those which he believes to be most valuable. ‘For honour. For family.’
This version of myself tries to be tireless, resolute, unbreakable, unknowing that he will fail, as he is only human. I recognize inside myself the desire to strive, to achieve, to provide, and in turn I notice how hard I fall when I lose touch with humility and self-acceptance. The narrator is in a race against time and against vulnerability.”
I can’t wait to hear more new music, and if you’re free tomorrow night, Luca is opening for Hollow Coves at Malkin Bowl!
Christine
“Some Days” by Neil Haverty
Last week, Neil Haverty (who you may know as the frontman of Bruce Peninsula) dropped his third new solo single of the year with “Some Days”.
The new track is a synthy, soulful jam about the quiet pressures of daily life, as Haverty elaborates: “I wanted to acknowledge the patterns and discrepancies in how a person can approach each day. Some days are just off. Other days are full of promise and brimming with energy. I’m always interested in the spectrum of variables underneath a topic, and mood is an especially broad playing field for that.”
Have a listen below, and keep an ear out for more new music from Haverty in the near future!
Kirk
“Never Stay Down” by Johnny 99
More new music from Johnny 99 this week!
“Never Stay Down” is the fourth single from an upcoming new album (no word on a album title or release date yet) and while it’s upbeat and I can totally picture people line dancing in my head, it has some deeper meaning.
Johnny says the song: “is about finding yourself at the tail end of a rough patch and realizing the fun part of being self destructive has taken a dark turn. Sometimes when you find yourself at such a crossroads, the light you may have lost sight of now seems to be shining ever brighter. Upon this illumination, picking yourself up and making a course correction no longer seems like such a momentous task. After all, one can always lean on friends and a little bit of fun on the long road back up from the bottom."
Hopefully we get some album release info soon but it the meantime, check out the new song below!
Christine
“16/25” by Softcult
The Ontario-based sibling duo Softcult has just announced their debut full length album, When A Flower Doesn’t Grow, and along with that comes the latest single, “16/25”
The new track has a driving intensity that matches the themes, as its about the predatory behaviour of older men who groom younger women. Mercedes Arn-Horn says “It points out the double-standards and impossible expectations the patriarchy places on young women in our society, and the cognitive dissonance that older men who prey on young female targets perpetuate while trying to possess and control them,”
Check out the video below, and you can pick up the new album, When A Flower Doesn’t Grow, early next year when it releases on January 30th, 2026. You can also catch Softcult on your now, with their current leg wrapping up with a show at The Pearl here in Vancouver on October 16.
Kirk
