Songs of the Week: August 18 - 24, 2025

August 25, 2025 by Christine McAvoy in Song Of The Day, Songs Of The Week

“You Know That I Tried” by Billy the Kid

Some artists are just unstoppable, and Billy the Kid is definitely one of them.
From ambitious pandemic projects, to life upheavals, Billy Pettinger finds a way to create unique and beautiful music of all genres.

Her latest project, Prelude to a New Dream, was born out of heartbreak and starting life over. She says of the first track released: “You Know That I Tried” isn’t just a song
it’s every page I read, every sentence I wrote, every session I paid for, every word I survived.”

The lyrics cracked my heart open - they’re vulnerable and sorrowful, and yet are hidden under lovely piano chords and graceful vocals.

The album is out on September 19th, and I can’t wait to share more as she releases it.

Christine

  
    <a href="https://billypettinger.bandcamp.com/album/prelude-to-a-new-dream">Prelude to A New Dream by Billy the Kid</a>
  

“English Harbour” feat. Jim James & Arc Iris

by The Barr Brothers

You had me at Jim James.

“English Harbour” is the latest single from The Barr Brothers, which features the My Morning Jacket frontman, as well as Arc Iris.

The song is a gorgeous hymn with incredible harmonies from James, with Andrew Barr explaining, “We’d been imagining Jim’s soaring voice on the song’s opening melody for a while. One afternoon around 4 p.m., we sent it to him before heading out to pick up our kids. By the time we got home that night, he’d sent back not only the opening melody but a fully harmonized performance from start to finish. It was one of those hair-standing-on-the-back-of-your-neck moments in the life of this record. I loved the song from the moment Brad first played it for me, but Jim’s voice brings a whole new energy to it.”

Brad Barr adds on, “One funny thing about this song—we imagined both Jim James and Jocie Adams singing on this one. I think I was actually doing my impression of Jim when I wrote the opening vocal melody. (Backstory: we befriended Jim when our band The Slip opened for My Morning Jacket in 2007, and opened for them again with The Barr Brothers around 2015. And we’ve loved Jocie’s singing and arranging since we toured with her old band The Low Anthem). One night we wrote to them both, separately, to ask if they’d be interested and available to sing on this song and they randomly happened to be eating dinner together at Jocie’s house in LA. Crazy serendipity! The two of them make this song so magical.”

You can find the song off their upcoming album (their first in eight years!) called Let It Hiss, which is out on October 17th, and also features collaborations with Elizabeth Powell (or Land Of Talk), Patrick Watson, and more!

Kirk

“Outcast” by Art d’Ecco (Eddie & Ernie Cover)

I’m still extremely obsessed with Art d’Ecco’s latest album Serene Demon - I got the vinyl at the album release show and I listen to it front to back all the time.
Needless to say, I sat straight up in my chair when the name popped up in my inbox this week.

While Art has been busy being Long Listed for the Polaris Prize and Songwriting Award, and prepping for the bands European dates, he found the time to cover the 1965 soul classic “Outcast” from Eddie & Ernie (click here to hear the original).

I was curious as to what made Art pick this track to cover and luckily it was right in the press release: “I read somewhere that it was a favourite of Lou Reed. My version is closer to the Animals 1966 cover of the song found on ‘Animalism'. I had just acquired a new resonator guitar and was looking for a way to incorporate it into a song. I’ve always loved how twangy and odd resonators sound when played like a traditional acoustic guitar. We recorded the song to tape with as much period appropriate gear as possible to keep things as raw and alive.”

I love a good cover that makes it sound like it’s an original, it’s that well done - and Art knocked this one out of the park!

Christine

“Circle Remains Unbroken” by The Deep Dark Woods

The Deep Dark Woods recently announced their new album, The Circle Remains, and last week they shared a new track, “Circle Remains Unbroken”

In true DDW fashion, it’s a haunting tune that frontman Ryan Boldt explains is “a spiritual song rooted in ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken?’ It’s a refusal to be influenced by the ridiculous fads that are being blasted into our fragile brains and the feeling that our nihilistic way of living is destroying us.”

You can listen to The Circle Remains when it drops on October 3rd, which will be followed shortly by a Canadian tour, with the band hitting the Fox Cabaret here in Vancouver on October 24th.

Kirk

“At The Same Time” by Absolute Losers

You’re going to want to crank this one loud. Charlottetown, P.E.I. trio Absolute Losers have released a late contender for the 2025 Summer Jam with their new single, “At The Same Time”

The high energy song is brimming with 90s-power-pop, and “draws from bassist/vocalist Sam Langille’s 'memories of summers spent at his grandparents’ cottage in Flat River, Prince Edward Island, where he and his brother, bandmate and guitarist Josh Langille, would dig for worms, fish for trout, and listen to their grandfather’s stories of growing up in a post-war boat-building town.” Sam elaborates: “A lot of people can relate to feeling some kind of magic when they’re with their grandparents. This place was definitely magical as a kid.”

Check out the song below, and pick up their new album, In The Crowd, on September 26!

Kirk

Songs of the Week: June 16 - 22, 2025

June 23, 2025 by Christine McAvoy in Song Of The Day, Songs Of The Week

“Babe, We'll Find a Way” by The Dears

It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from The Dears, but what better way to celebrate 30 years as a band than a new single!

“Babe, We'll Find a Way” is a classic, soaring Dears tune, with singer / guitarist Murray Lightburn explaining, “The music came down all at once, strings, guitar – melodies. It was so strong and vivid. It pines for the breakthrough, we know it’s there! It’s so tangible. When that happens, inner strength takes over. There’s a motivation, a reason to get out of bed. You can feel the sun on your face and maybe a little later a smile will take over.”

The band also announced they signed with Next Door Records as well as a spat of tour dates out east, so hopefully we’ll be hearing more from them real soon!

Kirk

“Magic Mountain” by Twin Rains

Toronto’s Twin Rains is back their third single of the year “Magic Mountain”. The name comes from a novel by Thomas Mann that the band’s Christine Stoesser read during the pandemic.
She says: “The Magic Mountain, in my understanding of it, is this intangible place where all the ideas and themes of your life culminate, like the proverbial hill you’d die on. The song’s lyrics were inspired by a charismatic figure in my life who led followers up one mountain—only to turn around and do a complete 180 and lead a following up an opposite path. The song became a meditation on the way our ideas shape not only our own lives but the lives of those around us and ultimately the earth itself.”

Accompanying the song is a black and white video that shot in Sedona of a cloaked figure walking through the rock formations (which I’ve learned from the press release are said to be “energy vortexes” -hmm!). Check it out below!

Christine

“Moose Jaw” by haftu

If you weren’t aware, I’m a chatty person and will talk to strangers and bartenders wherever I go - I always choose the seat at the bar….
Well, I’m in Ontario right now, and I stopped by Halo Brewing with my laptop to do some work, and ended up talking it up with the server and his friend. The server was wearing a band shirt, so naturally I made a mental note to look them up later.

Cut to the next day and I’m set up in the sun on my brother’s patio with my work and throw them on. The mellow sounds of Toronto’s haftu were the perfect soundtrack for my morning cup of tea in the sunshine. I listened through their debut EP CONFETTI (released in December 2024), and their two other singles and wanted more.

The track “Moose Jaw” jumped out to me with the funky opening that melted into a mellow slow jam with dreamy vocals - perfect for the hazy Toronto day around me.
If they ever head to Vancouver, I’ll be there in a hurry.

Christine

“Traded In Your Name” by The Deep Dark Woods

Last week The Deep Dark Woods not only dropped their latest single, but also announced their next full length album!

“Traded In Your Name” is a mesmerising track that frontman Ryan Boldt says was “originally written during the Changing Faces sessions, but it never quite came together the way I wanted. I remembered it during a day of recording for the new album—we ran through it once or twice, and that was it. Evan Cheadle added a beautiful harmony on the chorus—probably my favourite harmony ever recorded on one of my songs.”

You can check out the visualizer below, and mark October 3rd for when The Circle Remains releases on Victory Pool Records!

Kirk

“Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)” by Elisapie

In honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day (which was June 21), Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie released a brand new cover & performance of “Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)”, filmed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Much like the covers off her album Inuktitut, the Sheryl Crow classic was translated to Inuktitut for a gorgeous rendition, which you can watch her perform among works by Inuit artists featured in ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life, a display of selected pieces from the MMFA’s collection of Inuit art.

Watch the video below, and keep an eye out for Elisapie as she hits the festival circuit this summer, including a stop at the Vancouver Folk Fest.

Kirk

Songs of the Week: March 31 - April 06, 2025

April 07, 2025 by Christine McAvoy in Song Of The Day, Songs Of The Week

“Quick Sickness” by Twin Rains

Toronto’s Twin Rains is back with their first music since their album Laws of the Universe was released back in 2023.

The new single “Quick Sickness” was created while singer Christine Stoesser was sick and isolated with COVID, and felt she was “overdosing on the internet” (we’ve all be there!).

She says: “Spending the whole day online only made me feel sicker and more isolated, so I swore off the internet for the second day of my isolation. That night, I heard the chord progression of the song in my head while I was trying to sleep.”

The song is a dreamy pop song that, unless you listen closely to the lyrics, you might just get swept away with the guitars and beat.

Christine

“Ballad of the Last Payphone” by The New Pornographers

Last month, The New Pornographers surprised everyone by releasing a pair of new singles on a 7” vinyl, through A.C. Newman’s substack, Ballad of a New Pornographer.

Now the band has released the lyric video for one of those songs, “Ballad of the Last Payphone”. The single is a melancholic reflection of the titular payphone, with Newman explaining: “This song was inspired by a Raymond Carver story called “Fat” and tells the story of a person visiting the last payphone in NYC where it currently sits, in the Museum of the City of New York. The narrator doesn't know why they are so fascinated by it, but to us it should be obvious. Obvious to me, at least.”

Check out the video below, animated by Michael Arthur, and head to Newman’s substack where you can become a member & order the vinyl that includes the b-side “Ego Death For Beginners”

Kirk

“Elevator Love Letter” (Stars cover) by Noble Oak

I’ve been excited by the current series of cover songs to celebrate 20 years of Last Gang Records, and none more so than the newest: Noble Oak interpreting the Stars classic “Elevator Love Letter”.

The video includes Patrick Fiore of Noble Oak intercut with pictures and footage from Stars outstanding 25 year career as he delivers a gorgeous version of the song. He notes: “Like so much of the early Last Gang catalogue, the first two Stars records were mainstays in my late high school/early university listening world. I remember first hearing ‘Elevator Love Letter’ in my friend's apartment and instantly being hooked by everything about the song, from the swirling reversed guitar lines to the brutal honesty of Amy and Torquil's words. It brings both me and the teenager in me immense joy to be able to offer up a recreation of this wonderful piece - I'm pretty sure he wouldn't believe it if I told him he'd be doing that one day.”

Other covers of the project include a pair of Metric songs, Maia Friedman’s take on “Love Is A Place” and Dear Boy covering “Combat Baby”; Low Hum’s reinterpretation of “Romantic Rights” by Death From Above 1979; Alice Ivy’s take on MSTRKRFT’s “Easy Love”; Anand Wilder doing the New Pornographer’s “Challengers”, and Cadence Weapon & Dan Only doing “Ungirthed” by Purity Ring.

Kirk

“Ruby” by The Deep Dark Woods

Whoa, this new track (“Ruby”) from The Deep Dark Woods just gave me a flashback to 2011 and their song “The Place I Left Behind”.

Like most everything we get from DDW, it’s a very moody and melancholic, but always has more depth behind it. Lead singer Ryan Boldt says he “wrote it during a strange and difficult time, after the sudden loss of my dear friend and tour manager, Kiko, and just before my daughter was born. It was a mix of heartbreak and anticipation that I will never forget.”

The band’s yet-to-be-announced record should be out in late 2025, and they also released some tour dates, including a stop on October 24th in Vancouver at the Fox Cabaret.

Christine

“help myself” by Yawn

I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve heard from Julia McDougall, so I was excited to find a brand new song from her new project Yawn in my inbox.

“help myself” is actually the second single released in as many months, and is a wonderful dream-pop jam from the Vancouver singer, which challenges toxic positivity & the pressure to be the “best version” of ourselves.

Julia elaborates “It’s about the various kinds of doubt and darkness that we face, and how the constant noise of social media and mainstream culture dulls our ability to love ourselves. It was inspired by social media ads I was served during the early, frantic days of COVID isolation that were promising me that now was the time to finally ‘get ripped’. It seemed detached from our lived reality that in the middle of a global pandemic, we were being force-fed so-called wellness ads that completely overlooked the psychological and emotional impact we were all facing. The song is about our relationship to ourselves, and how our media consumption habits make it easy to go about our lives without truly connecting to who we are. It’s also about the struggle to find meaning in the mundanity of everyday life – standing in grocery store lines, going to work, going to a work out class, scrolling all the while – and how sometimes it’s impossible to make sense of how the sum of all of these things add up to a life.”

The new single comes with an announcement of Yawn’s debut album, wish i could’ve, which was produced by Jo Hirabayashi (of Jo Passed) and will be available on June 13th!

Kirk

“Aegean Blue” by Common Holly

Last week, Montreal’s Common Holly teased her latest album Anything glass with a brand new single, “Aegean blue”

The gorgeous piano paired with Brigitte Naggar’s ethereal vocals are exactly up my alley, with Naggar explaining, “Aegean blue is a reckoning in meaninglessness and unending pursuit. The words came in a moment of change and of re-evaluating. This song sits squarely in the album’s theme of orienting toward what matters most, doing things differently when they aren’t feeling right.”

Check out the contemplative video below, and mark June 13 for the release of Anything glass!

Kirk

Songs of the Week: April 08 - 14, 2024

April 15, 2024 by Christine McAvoy in Song Of The Day, Songs Of The Week

“The Banks of the Lough Erne” feat. Erin Rae by The Deep Dark Woods

We have another new track from Broadside Ballads Vol. III, the upcoming album from The Deep Dark Woods.

The song “The Banks of the Lough Erne” is their take on an Irish emigration song - which goes by many names: “Rambling Irishman”, “Lough Erne”, “New York Bay”, and “An Irishman From Monaghan”, just to cite a few.

Of the song, frontman Ryan Boldt say he “first heard it by the beautiful Irish singer Dolores Keane and her group De Danann. I thought Erin Rae, one of my favourite current singers going, would do a wonderful job singing the song, making it sound less Irish and more American. Our voices work very well together and I hope we can make more music together in the future.”

Christine

“Exhale” by iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ

This past Friday, iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ released her much-anticipated album nīna, and with it dropped a new video for the breathtaking album-closer, “Exhale”.

The whole album is deeply personal & autobiographical, with iskwē sharing about "the song: “I needed to remind myself that I am vibrant, that I hold life in me. I am an artist, a creative, confident and soft. I needed to remind myself that I hold love in my being. It was time I remembered these pieces in me which had been dormant for some time. So now I start again, to rebloom. To be reborn. To look at myself in the mirror and exhale. It’s time for me to breathe out…”

You can check out the video for “Exhale” below — directed by iskwē herself — and pick up the new album nīna in all the usual places!

Kirk

“Pull Yourself Together” by Basement Revolver

Also released this past Friday (it was a busy day for albums!) was the new, deluxe version of Basement Revolver’s sophomore LP, Embody.

Embody (Expanded) features a pair of new songs to go with the original 2022 release, including “Pull Yourself Together”, a dreamy song about songwriter Chrisy Hurn’s experience with really bad panic attacks at parties.

They say, “It makes me sad for baby Chrisy who was afraid that everyone was judging them or thinking negative thoughts towards them or their body. It has taken a lot of work to get to a place where I don’t panic in party-like settings anymore.”

Kirk