Song of the Day: December 19, 2015 - "Factory Flaws" by Young Galaxy

This was a late entry for 'favourite songs of the year' for me. Young Galaxy's album Falsework came out a month and a half ago, but I didn't get around to listening to it until recently, and "Factory Flaws" jumped out immediately. 

It's an infectious orchestral-disco-pop song about people coming together and, well, celebrating the flaws in each other. It's clearly influenced by the 80s, but doesn't sound dated in the least. And of course, McCandless' vocals are spot on. 

I'm also really sad that they evidently had to cancel their west coast tour dates early next year, and hope they'll be back before long. But in the meantime, enjoy the "Factory Flaws" 

2015 Paper Bag Records Young Galaxy - Factory Flaws From the album Falsework Out Now on Paper Bag Records (worldwide excluding Japan) / PLANCHA (Japan) Coding by munching square.com Produced by FANATIC Creative Inc.

Song of the Day: December 18, 2015 - "Ant Song" by The Sumner Brothers

Not only have The Sumner Brothers recently released a brand new album, The Hell In Your Mind, but this weekend they are hosting their tenth annual Christmas show, A Sumner Brothers XMas. 

"Ant Song" sees the Brothers Bob & Brian ramping up their intensity for a sprawling seven minutes of raw & gritty rock and driving guitars, about cordyceps, the "zombie ant" creating, insect-colonising fungus. 

As for the show, just look at this lineup: 
The Sumner Brothers (with Kenton Loewen & Joseph Lubinsky-Mast), Johnny 99, Twin Bandit, Kathleen Nisbet of Viper Central, Colebrook Shepherds, Gabriel Mintz, Sarah Jane Scouten, A.P. Dugas (The Ganges River Band), Mike Giacolino (Ole Tinderr), Emile & Kesia (The Good Ship Edaleen), Real Ponchos, Etienne Tremblay, Elliot C. Way (of The WILD NORTH), and Jayne Trimble. 

It's all going down this Saturday, the 19th, at the Rickshaw. 

Song of the Day: December 17, 2015 - "I Can't Figure Out What's Going On" by Half Moon Run

One of my favourite albums of 2015 just keeps giving! Half Moon Run just released a very odd video for their song "I Can't Figure Out What's Going On" from their album Sun Leads Me On.

It's another video that I don't quite know what is going on (like the Yukon Blonde video for "I Wanna Be Your Man") but I like it! Except for all the owls, they creep me out.

Have a watch below, and if you're reading this from Ontario or Europe - be sure to check out the tour dates coming up in the next weeks/months.

From our new album Sun Leads Me On http://smarturl.it/sunleadsmeon On tour now: www.halfmoonrun.com/tour Directed by Heston L'Abbé | Produced by Aléas Films facebook.com/halfmoonrun instagram.com/halfmoonrun twitter.com/halfmoonrun Produced with the financial assistance of MuchFACT, a division of Bell Media Inc. www.muchfact.ca

Song of the Day: December 16, 2015 - "Bad Connection" by The Provincial Archive

Sometimes when a band loses a member, they'll spin their wheels for a little bit before getting back at it. Not The Provincial Archive, though. When keyboardist Nathan Burge unexpectedly left the band, the remaining three members wasted little time getting back in the studio to release a new, self-titled EP with producer Nik Kozub, recording the songs live-off-the-floor. 

The EP is a little more rock-oriented than their previous stuff -- but catchy as ever -- as you can tell from "Bad Connection" with its fuzzy, 90s alt-rock feel. Listen below, or check out the behind the scenes studio video above, set to the song. 

Song of the Day: December 15, 2015 - "Tonight's The Night" by Radio Radio

Earlier this month, Radio Radio released the first song off their brand new album Light in the Sky, which will be the duo's first album entirely in English (the previous four were all in Chiac, a variety of Acadian French heavily mixed and structured with English).

It'll be out February 16th on Bonsound, and they're touring in the new year, including a show right here at the Biltmore on March 26th, but if you can't wait until then you can put the new song "Tonight's The Night" in your earholes right now. And I'm telling you, you better get your dance pants on before you listen. 

Light the Sky available 02/19/2016 Photo et Flixel par Xavier Girard Lachaîne

Song of the Day: December 14, 2015 - "Baby Moses" by Jordan Klassen

It's been a little while since we last heard from Jordan Klassen, but he's back with a brand new songs off his upcoming album Javelin. The album is out February 19th, and was recorded in an isolated studio outside El Paso, Texas, with Jordan producing and recording nearly all the instruments himself. 

Check out the lead single below, a soaring tune called "Baby Moses" that would fit perfectly on a mixtape between The Shins and Sufjan Stevens. 

Song of the Day: December 13, 2015 - "Heartless" by Brandon Wolfe Scott

Last year we heard High Ends, the project that Jeff Innes was working on while Yukon Blonde had some extended downtime in 2013. And now, we find out what Brandon Wolfe Scott was up to. 

The new song "Heartless" falls more on the alt-country side, and was actually written as kind of a joke. At first, anyway. Brandon would write hokey country tunes for fun while on tour, under the name "Dusty Summers" but recently he said:

“I ended up really loving some of the songs. So I decided to salvage them in a way that was more me, you know drop the low country voice that I was putting on and play them more like how I normally would. They were just nice songs, so I reworked the lyrics to make them sound less hokey and more meaningful."

So now those songs make up The Postcard Writer EP, which will be out January 15th on Nevado Records.

Song of the Day: December 12, 2015 - "Badu" by Bear Mountain

I seriously cannot wait until the new Bear Mountain album is out, I've been looking forward to hearing it for what feels like forever!

So when I saw this new track "Badu" was coming I got even more excited, esp. since it came with a video of some local bboys dancing along.

Read what the band has to say about the track and then take a listen!:
"When thinking back about the process of making this song, it was a real turning point in the creation of our album. We were in the studio late one night, and started playing this song live off the floor, with the percussion and backing tracks playing behind us. The drums, guitar, bass, and Rhodes were all played live as one take in a room together. The half time breakdown at the end of the song was improvised, and at the end of that take we were all high fiving in the room together. It felt natural, organic, and straight from the heart. We hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did making it."

Bear Mountain - Badu. Out now via Last Gang Records. When thinking back about the process of making this song, it was a real turning point in the creation of our album. We were in the studio late one night, and started playing this song live off the floor, with the percussion and backing tracks playing behind us.