Songs of the Week: February 09 - 15, 2026

“I Don’t” by Brandi Caroline

You may know Brandi Caroline from the acclaimed country band Nice Horse (or, maybe even the indie-pop band Sidney York?) but now she’s released her debut single, “I Don’t”.

The catchy anthem features a litany of things Brandi doesn’t need when it comes to dating & relationships, though one can only hope she didn’t have first hand experience with all that toxic behaviour!

Have a listen for yourself below!

• Kirk

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“Pure Sticker Shock” by The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers have given us another tease of their upcoming album with the lates single off The Former Site Of, called “Pure Sticker Shock”

The new track is a synth-pop jam that looks at self-worth, with singer A.C. Newman sharing, “This song is not about a specific event, but it has felt very 'applicable' to me and this year of my life. It basically asks the question 'What has worth? Who is deciding?' Your market value is not always your value.”

The Former Site Of is the band’s tenth(!) studio album, and promises “ten short stories of people at personal and societal extremes are collected as meticulously crafted pop songs”. Pick it up when it’s out on March 27th!

• Kirk

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“Generation” (Fucked Up Cover) by Gord Downie, The Sadies, And The Conquering Sun

When Gord Downie & The Sadies teamed up fin 2014 for an album and a tour, I was lucky enough to see theme three times in three days including at The Media Club. Obviously since then we’ve lost both Gord, and Dallas Good, but I was overjoyed to hear the release of a live album from the tour.

Live At 6 O’Clock was recorded at four different music festival sets (based on the album art, I think there are some from the Pemberton set!) and features covers of Roky Erickson, The Who, Neil Young, The Gun Club,The Stooges and in this week’s release, Toronto’s Fucked Up.
I’m so glad there is also video for the track (see below) as I loved those shows, and any reminder about how good a front man Gord Downie was, is a good one.
Looking forward to the release on February 27 via Arts & Crafts.

• Christine

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“Too Old (For This Shit)” by Ellie Heath

Last week, Edmonton singer-songwriter Ellie Heath dropped the charmingly infectious new single, “Too Old (For This Shit)”

Co-written & produced with Hawksley Workman and Tristan Konkle (Tapes In Motion), the song is about exactly as the title says, with Heath explaining, “At its core, the song is about aging with humour. Feeling like a kid wearing adult clothes, navigating expectations, responsibilities, and the slow realization that nobody ever really tells you when you’ve ‘arrived.’” Though she adds it’s not about morning youth, adding “Aging isn’t a death sentence. It deepens the fun moments and makes them richer. It’s more of a choice as you get older to keep your childlike wonder and enthusiasm for things.”

Take a look at the video below, but beware: you will be whistling it for the rest of the day.

• Kirk

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“Cinders” by Larkk

We’ve been slowly releasing tracks from Danielle Taggart of Dear Rouge’s new side project Larkk and now the album is officially out.

The title track for Cinders is out now as well, and while many of the other songs on the album are instrumental, this one is sweeping and cinematic with gorgeous (Feist-esque) vocals.
Now that I know it’s the lead track on the album I’m excited to do a front-to-back listen, as it’s a hell of a way to start!

Danielle has some tour dates released including a show this Sunday opening for Boy & Bear at the Commodore Ballroom.

• Christine

Songs of the Week: January 19 - 25, 2026

“Votive” by The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers are back! The Vancouver icons dropped a brand new single and announced their next album, The Former Site Of.

The new tune “Votive” builds around singers A.C. Newman and Kathryn Calder’s haunting vocals, as the atmospheric track builds to a big finish.

Check out the video, animated by Michael Arthur, below and mark March 27 for the release of The Former Site Of.

• Kirk

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“Dream Catcher” by Aysanabee

Two-time JUNO award winner Aysanabee has announced that their new album Timelines will be released into the world on March 20th, and new single is out now titled “Dream Catcher”.

The idea of the Timelines EP is that it will feature “stripped-back, reimagined songs drawn from across Aysanabee’s three releases - Watin (2022), Here and Now EP (2023), Edge of the Earth (2025)”.

“Dream Catcher” is from the latest work Edge Of The Earth and is “a sonic journal entry that captures the tension between doubt and determination. On top of guitar, piano, and synth lies Aysanabee’s unmistakably raw vocals, threading together reflections on growth, endurance, and the act of dreaming despite uncertainty”.

I’m excited to hear the project as a whole and which tracks are chosen to be reworked and how they will all flow together!

• Christine

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“Neon Schoolgirl” by Teagan Johnston

Last week, Teagan Johnston released her latest single with the synth rock power ballad, “Neon Schoolgirl”.

The song features guest vocals from Skye Wallace, and is about the feeling (and eventually overcoming) impostor syndrome, with Teagan sharing, “I first came up with the lyric ‘Neon Schoolgirl’ back in 2016 while watching Lucy Dacus open up for Car Seat Headrest at the Mod Club. Lucy and her band had invited me to the show as we had recently played together, and I was signing to her label at that time…then while watching the Car Seat Headrest set with her band, drenched in the neon stage lights, I felt an overwhelming sense of naivety and the feeling of ‘do I really belong here?’, a sort of imposter syndrome that has plagued me for much of my career. It wasn't just that I was watching the show but they were peers at that moment…and then in that moment I came up with a character for that feeling - a ‘neon schoolgirl,’ shiny and lit by the neon in stage lights but also feeling absolutely clueless and out of place.”

Have a peek at the video below, which was directed by Johnston herself!

• Kirk

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“Snowblinded” by Bif Naked

Well, the title of this is appropriate right now to every province and territory right now…except us - sorry, Canada!

Bif Naked is coming of a slew sold-out documentary screenings across the country and with it comes a new studio album titled Champion.
The single “Snowblinded”, according to Bif, is “different because it serves as an anthem from my feeling of emotional discontent, snowblinded ultimately is my observation of society numbing themselves. The chorus says you’re so snow blinded!! and I repeat that because I feel people need to wake up!”

I’m hoping that Bif’s documentary gets a wide streaming release (you can view it via Super Channel right now) so you can all check it out (I saw it her in Vancouver), and I cannot wait to hear what shows she has going on in the near future!

• Christine

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“Dyson” by Common Holly

Montreal 'sincere-core' musician Common Holly gave us the first preview of her upcoming EP this week with the new single “Dyson”.

A song about all the times we have to wait around for things, it starts cheery, but builds in intensity (and anxiety). Brigitte Naggar explains, “Listening back I have the sense that I must have been listening to Jonathan Richman the day I wrote this song. It’s a bit different for me, stylistically and also process-wise. I wrote it in about 5 minutes, sitting by the window, waiting for my Dyson. I was thinking about Beckett and God and the dust in my house, about places where we wait— Montrealers will know all about the SAAQ, our finest purgatory!”

The new EP is called They will draw halos around our heads and you can pick it up on February 27!

• Kirk

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

“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

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“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: January 09 - 15, 2023

“Really Really Light” by The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers are back! Last week the group released their brand new single, “Really Really Light”, the first taste of their upcoming album Continue as a Guest.

As catchy as you would expect from the Vancouver power-pop legends, the new song was co-written by Dan Bejar — who has been conspicuously absent from recent New Pornos albums — and adapted from a tune that didn’t make a previous album, 2014’s Brill Brusers.

A.C. Newman says “Part of my process throughout the years has been messing with things I never finished. I really liked Dan’s chorus, and for a while I was just trying to write something that I felt like belonged with it. I was thinking of the Aloe Blacc song ‘The Man’ which interpolated the chorus from Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ and thought it would be fun to interpolate a song that no one knows. Not trying to sound like Aloe Blacc, just doing some interpolating of my own. It became a game of writing a verse that felt like a part of the same song. In my mind, I was striving for a little Jeff Lynne–era Tom Petty, a classic go-to.”

Check out the video below, and keep an ear out for the new album out March 31 from Merge Records.

• Kirk

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“In Stride” by Brandon Wolfe Scott

Brandon Wolfe Scott is taking it all “In Stride” with his latest single. The Yukon Blonde frontman announced his upcoming solo release last week, Slow Transmission, with a new tune about anxiety and insomnia.

Scott explains: "When I hit my mid 30’s there were a few aspects of my life that were causing me a great deal of anxiety and as a result, I started to struggle with sleep. I am regularly up at 3 am on the dot, wide awake with my mind spinning for hours on end. I wanted this song to encompass that feeling of being stuck in your own thoughts with a fear of what tomorrow might bring, trying to navigate a life that is fast paced with inadequate energy."

The new album is due out March 23rd on Dine Alone Records/

• Kirk

Song of the Day: September 22, 2019 - "One Kind of Solomon" by The New Pornographers

Hot off their first single from the new album called In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights, The New Pornographers have released another taste of the album with "One Kind of Solomon".

In the press release, frontman and songwriter A.C. Newman explains that, “in terms of keyboards, this record has such a Kathryn Calder stamp. There was a point where she started playing this part on ‘Solomon’ and I feel like it just changed the record. When I heard what she did with it, I said, ‘Do this on every song.’” And if you’ve been following Calder, through her own solo music or even back with Immaculate Machine, I think that’s more than evident in this song.

The new album is due September 27, via the band’s own Collected Work Records!

Song of the Day: August 02, 2019 - "Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile" by The New Pornographers

The best possible way to wake up on a Friday morning is with new music from The New Pornographers.

“Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” is the first single from the upcoming album In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights. The single is peak power-pop New Pornos, with the catchiest hooks and amazing vocals.

If this is just the first tease, I can’t wait for the full album, due out September 27

Song of the Day: March 28, 2017 - "Whiteout Conditions" by The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers have released the title track from their upcoming album Whiteout Conditions, which is set to be released on April 7th.

Currently the band only has European and American tour dates (with Waxahatchee, and Spoon), but I'm sure they'll be making the Canadian rounds as well. We'll keep you posted!

Song of the Day: February 02, 2017 - "High Ticket Attractions" by The New Pornographers

The New Pornographers are back! "High Ticket Attractions" is the first single off their upcoming Whiteout Conditions, and it's exactly what you'd want from the group. 

The album is due out April 7 on Dine Alone Records, and you can check it the single below, or click here for a fancy interactive lyrics video!