Songs of the Week: April 15 - 21, 2024

“Find New Ways” by Dan Mangan

I am taking this song before Kirk does! (You can tell them about your Haunting playlist if you want though!)

Even more new music from Vancouver’s Dan Mangan this week, with the new single titled “Find New Way's” which is all about Dan “haunting his wife should he happen to die first”.

It might sound morbid, but it’s very sweet. Of it Dan says:
“The idea that even death can’t help our relationship from evolving and unfolding in new and unexpected ways. Lustful love is part of the journey, but most of a life together is actually about friendship. It’s about having a person. And not just staying with that person because you said you would, but finding new ways to appreciate their contribution to your life."

Mangan has announced some summer festival shows already, but hopefully there are some local shows announced soon!

• Christine

[Kirk note: the Haunting playlist Christine alluded to was from a tweet where I wanted to start a playlist with this song and “I Died So I Could Haunt You” by Stars, and build it from there]

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“Nic At the Museum” by Unessential Oils

The first time I heard an Unessential Oils song, I had CBC Radio 3 on in the background, and immediately sopped what I was doing when I recognised the distinctive voice of Plants and Animals singer Warren Spicer.

“Nic at the Museum” is the latest single from his new project, which is inspired by P&A bandmate Nic Basque, and his habit of visiting local museums while on tour.

Spicer says: “I can remember working on this song and realizing that I was writing a song about him, and accepting that it was simply about him going to museums and looking at art. Strange idea. However, with the performance of the band and singers the song took on a transcendental quality. All of a sudden, I was no longer sure what the song was about, all I understood was the feeling that it was giving me.”

Watch the video below (which features the titular Nic) and catch the self-titled debut album, when it’s out May 31 on Secret City Records.

• Kirk

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“I'm So F*cking Happy” by Blonde Diamond

The title of the brand new Blonde Diamond song could also describe how I felt when I saw new music from the Vancouver band!

“I'm So F*cking Happy” is the latest single from the group, a punchy synth-pop tune that is definitely a contender for this year’s ‘song of the summer’.

Hopefully this means a new album is on its way sooner rather than later!

• Kirk

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“Crisis Management” by Imposer

Sometimes timing in life is just weird.

A couple weeks ago, I randomly found myself wondering what happened to Calgary band Jane Vain & the Dark Matter. Then a few days later, their Facebook page drops an announcement of a new project from frontperson Jamie Fooks: Imposer.

The new band pairs Fooks with Ryan Sadler, and the first single is “Crisis Management” an indie-pop earworm that belies slightly darker lyrics.

Have a listen below, and hopefully we’ll be hearing more soon!

• Kirk

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“Sweet” by Grizzly Coast

Toronto’s Grizzly Coast released a brand new song last week, the sentimental “Sweet”.

The dreamy song is, appropriately enough, inspired by a dream Alannah Kavanagh had. It was about someone she knew as a teenager, which “got her thinking about how you don't have to be in touch with someone to remember them fondly.”

Close your eyes and have a listen!

• Kirk

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“nikâwîs” by ASKO

You may know Marek Tyler from nêhiyawak or WAYFINDING (among other bands), but last week he announced the upcoming, self-titled album for his latest project ASKO.

The latest song is called “nikâwîs” and Tyler says, “nikâwîs (aunt) câpân Harper told a story about family responsibilities. This summer, we lost our late aunt on Mom's side. As our uncle explains, to help our mom's sister take the next step, we refer to her not by name but by kâkî-kahwîsiyan (our late aunt on mom's side). Mom noted that after someone's passing, we don't refer to individuals by their name at all because kinship terms are used regularly. But nowadays, people will, after one year, preface the person's name with 'late-…' Two years ago, kâkî-kahwîsiyan shared her story of dancing Fancy with me. She said, ‘When I danced, I tried to carve through the air like an eagle.’ This song is for the aunties and nieces and their courage to dance, to be seen, be okimâw (the boss).”

You can find “nikâwîs” on the self-titled album, when it’s out on September 9 via Dine Alone Records!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: August 15 - 21, 2022

“Dark Times” by Jason Collett

Not counting last year’s Best Of collection, it’s been six long years since we last got an album from Jason Collett, but that’s about to change.

“Dark Times” — the first single off his upcoming album Head Full Of Wonder — is Collett at his best; jangly, folky guitars punctuated by his thought provoking lyrics, inspired by a famed Bertolt Brecht epigram:
”In the dark times
will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
about the dark times.”

The new album is out November 4, on Arts & Crafts, and you can check out the first single below!

• Kirk

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“Haystack Rock” by Limblifter

Limblifter is back! This is not a drill!
I was incredibly excited when I saw this land in my inbox the other day.

They’ve announced their fifth studio recording, Little Payne, will be released on October 31st and the first single is titled “Haystack Rock”.
In reading a little bit about the album, there was the promise of “mind-bending sax solos” - which if you know me, you know I’m stoked on this. Little Payne was built on a base of five years of jams made by songwriter, singer, guitarist Ryan Dahle, that he recorded while working on other artist’s albums.

Can’t wait to hear more!

• Christine

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“We Just Wanna Dance” by Blonde Diamond

We’ve already heard a couple previews off the upcoming debut full length album from Vancouver’s Blonde Diamond. Now we get yet another with a sultry, sweaty anthem, appropriately titled “We Just Wanna Dance”.

Magnetic Strangers is due out September 23, and the band promises a “menagerie of operatic, late-night indie rock, dive-bar R&B, charred disco, and wide-eyed electro-pop and plays host to a warring between choice, agency, reason, and compulsion.”

Have a listen for yourself below!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: July 04 - July 10, 2022

“Africvillean Fun” ft. Trobiz by Aquakultre

I’m heading camping in Ontario with my family (on a plane probably when this comes out) and I REALLY wish the new album by Aquakultre, Don’t Trip), was already out, because it seems like a perfect summertime jam album.

Will have to wait until the 22nd (of July) for the rest but in the meantime crank the speakers and open the windows or lie in the sunshine and listen to “Africvillean Funk (ft. Trobiz)”

• Christine

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“Right Love” by Hannah Georgas

Hannah Georgas is back with new music! Well, new to us, anyway. “Right Love” was recorded along during sessions for her 2020 release All That Emotion, but has only just seen the light of day.

Hannah says “I recorded ‘Right Love’ at Long Pond with Aaron Dessner and Jon Low while we were working on songs off my album, All That Emotion. We decided not to include it on the album because it had a bit of a different feel. I thought it would be nice to release it in the summertime (feels kinda summer-y), and while I've been working away on new music. It was inspired by feelings that come up when you meet someone new that you have a connection with. It all feels exciting and fresh. You want to be in the moment and not get too wrapped up in things, but there's a small part of you that wonders if it could be something more than a fling.”

Stream the sparking summer jam below!

• Kirk

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“In The Dark” by Blonde Diamond

Not only did we just get a brand new song from Vancouver’s Blonde Diamond, but we also got a release date for their full length debut!

The aptly titled “In The Dark” is a dark anthem (for seventeen year-old girls) about how high school was maybe not quite the best experience for some, with Alexis Young’s powerful vocals driving home that emotion.

The new album Magnetic Strangers will be out September 23, and you can check out the video for “In The Dark” — directed by longtime collaborator Brandon William Fletcher — below. (But note there is a content warning that the video contains depictions of suicide)

Or, if you’re heading up to the Constellation Festival in Squamish, make sure to catch them on the Friday!

• Kirk

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“Deepfakes” by Colyn Cameron

New song from Vancouver (and now LA based) songwriter Colyn Cameron, titled “Deepfakes” from his forthcoming album Freehand, which is due out August 5th.

Cameron was reading a book also titled “Deepfakes” by Nina Shick. “It got me thinking about this AI technology but also the veil of capitalism that we already exists under and how this particular corner of the near future relates to the mega-marathon of consumption and distorted nature of our current priorities,” says Cameron. “From my understanding, the fundamental anxiety of the tech is that we will have no way to decipher between the real and the unreal in the digital domain. And adjacent, how being an economic cog in the current era can feel like a burden, but also like you are burdening something. It can all make one easily feel replaceable, invisible, and yet responsible.”

Bonus? It’s also a super pretty song.

• Christine

Songs of the Week: February 21 - 27, 2022

“Strange Times” by Blonde Diamond

One of my most anticipated albums of this year is the as-yet-unnamed (and un-dated) debut full length from Blonde Diamond.

The latest tease of that album comes from the new single, the breezy “Strange Times”. The band says the song “was (somewhat obviously from the title) written mid-pandemic, when the world felt like it was at a standstill. The entire idea originated from this feeling of living in a surreal dream, but we took the story away from the reality of what was happening in real life and transported it to an extravagant, fictional tryst that is taking place while the world is ending. It’s a nihilist fantasy of living life as a luxurious lie, because it’s all going to end anyways I suppose, so why not enjoy it while we can!”

Have a listen below!

• Kirk

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“In The Name Of (The Garden Version)” by Basia Bulat

Last week, Basia Bulat released The Garden, a new album with reimagined versions of a collection of songs from across her past albums.

The “Garden Versions” feature new orchestral arrangements by the likes of Owen Pallett, Paul Frith, and Zou Zou Robidoux, and let me tell you… this whole album is absolutely gorgeous.

Check out the new rendition of “In The Name Of” below, but be warned: you will want to listen to the full album immediately after.

• Kirk

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“Sleepyhead” by Terra Lightfoot

First new music from Terra Lightfoot in 2022 is here with the track “Sleepyhead”.
The lullaby-esque tune is about love for children and parents balancing their lives with them.

The song, which was recorded in her living room, and had strings added on later, seems to be a standalone track at the moment, but hopefully news on more new music soon.

• Christine

Songs of the Week: November 15 - 21, 2021

“Red Flags” by Blonde Diamond

One of my most anticipated albums for next year is the debut full length from Vancouver’s Blonde Diamond, and their latest single is just reinforcing that excitement. “Red Flags” features the band’s rich sounds and singer Alexis Young’s killer vocals, and was written to help break the silence that so many people feel about speaking up about abusive relationships.

Young says: "Post the breakup of a very long relationship and at a particularly vulnerable moment in my life, through a chance encounter I found myself in a relationship that was—on its surface—everything that I was looking for. "he romance, the infatuation, the lust. It was the type of affair that you only read about in books and see in films. However, the red flags had presented themselves from the get-go and I initially ignored them. I wanted to see the good in this person, and believe that I could be a strong and positive force in their life. When it finally got to the point that I allowed myself to accept that it was abusive and emotionally manipulative, I felt stupid and ashamed that I could be so naïve and easily coerced into such a spiral of entrapment and darkness. I wanted to write this song not just as a form of healing for my own experience, but also as a message to others that you CAN walk away. That you're not alone. And that it's easy to get swept up and lose perspective when you're in the eye of the storm."

• Kirk

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“Hang in Pieces” by Riches

In the wake of Young Galaxy, singer Catherine McCandless has been hard at work with her new project, Riches, a collaboration between her and choreographer Wynn Holmes. After releasing their debut album just over a year ago, they’re already teasing their next with the first single “Hang in Pieces”.

The ethereal, shoegaze-y song “articulates the altered, psychedelic, and beautiful web of intersecting ideas, senses, and feelings within the creative process.”

Hit play below, then close your eyes and float away.

• Kirk

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“Eclipse” by Raine Hamilton

The latest song from Raine Hamilton (no relation… as far as I know) came out at the perfect time. “Eclipse” was released on Friday, mere hours before the longest partial lunar eclipse in six centuries.

Timing aside, Raine’s delicate voiced dances beautifully with the violin, for a song that was written after she witnessed a full lunar eclipse in the mid winter, saying ”it was profound. The loss of the reassuring light of the moon is a lot to handle, especially when we are already in our darkest moments of the winter. I learned a lot by sitting with the dark through that experience. There was something about enduring, moving through, and accepting that darkness that made me more able to trust my own ability to endure, move through, and accept. That winter eclipse taught me that I can make it through my own darkness, too."

“Eclipse” is from Raine's upcoming album, Brave Land, which drops on January 21st of next year, and check out the cool shadow puppet video below!

• Kirk

Song of the Day: May 22, 2020 - "In the Jungle" by Malcolm and the Moonlight

You may have seen Malcolm Holt. behind the drums in bands like Gay Nineties, Blonde Diamond/Youngblood, Art D’ecco, and Fake Shark-Real Zombie! But while he’s been at home these last few months, he’s brought back his solo project Malcolm and the Moonlight.

“In the Jungle” is the first single from his up coming EP, and he describes it as “an escapist reflection of wanting to leave everything behind and return to the jungles of Colombia where he and his fiancée Alexis Young (Blonde Diamond/Youngblood) vacationed just prior to the pandemic.”

Both the song and the video were recorded entirely in the couple’s home, with Holt writing, recording, and engineering the music, and Young providing backup vocals as well as directing the video “using only elements found at home — like an old Sony Hi8 camera, a video projector, and Phillips Hue lighting.”

Song of the Day: January 10, 2020 - "4am Eternal" by Blonde Diamond

We’re barely a minute into this new year/decade and we’re already being hit hard with new music from Vancouver’s own Blonde Diamond.

“4am Eternal” drips with dreamy electro-pop, the band’s ethereal sound propped up by Alexis Young’s seductive vocals. The band says the new single is “a swirling, arpeggiated soundtrack to multi-love and sexual autonomy.”

Stream it below, and if you’re in Vancouver, be sure to head down to The Astoria tonight for their single release show, as mentioned in the Gigs of the Week today!

(Also, between this and Louise Burns’ latest album, is it safe to say that sexy sax solos are making a comeback??)