Songs of the Week: March 14 - 20, 2022

“What In The World” by The Bros. Landreth

How about a pretty little love song to start your week off?
The latest single, “What In The World” from The Bros. Landreth’s upcoming album Come Morning, imagines a world without love. It’s super soft, flowing, and has really pretty guitar throughout.

The new album (due out May 13th) documents their journey and growth from ‘non-stop touring musicians to husbands and fathers’.

• Christine

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“The Way You Love” by TITUS BANK

Last week, TITUS BANK announced his debut EP, and gave us a little teaser, too. Produced by BIG KILL, the new single "The Way You Love" showcases Titus's captivating vocals and catchy hooks.

Bank says: "I wrote this song almost on a whim, just to ease the urge in me to write big, loud, overemphatic love ballads. I love “love”, so this song is simply me standing on a mountaintop screaming to my wife that I love her love. This was produced by BIG KILL and it really turned into something incredible since my original demo was just a simple beat, piano and vocals. The sound is floaty but also extremely groovy and just feels great. The bass done by Parker Bossley pretty much unlocked this song to be a duel of sorts between a beautiful ballad and an absolute bop."

The new EP doesn’t have a concrete date yet, but look for it in April out on Everything Forever!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: March 07 - 13, 2022

“Worm ft. Dill The Giant” by Royal Canoe

Surprise! Out of nowhere, Royal Canoe dropped a brand new album this past Friday.

Vault (2011-2021) is exactly what you may expect from the title; as the band puts it, it is a “collection of 10 songs that were pulled from a long list of unreleased demos, b-sides and oddities that have been accumulating on our various hard-drives over the past decade. These songs are the underdogs, the overachievers and the almost-fits that we just couldn’t quit. During this past winter we dusted off old backups, scoured mp3-vaults and even went back to the studio to finish up a few tracks that were uncompleted but long-time favourites of the band. For us, each song on Vault feels like a brief journal entry that captures a simple, but meaningful moment from the past decade of us making sounds together.”

Along with the new album, the band dropped a video for “Worm ft. Dill The Giant” with trippy stop motion animation courtesy of MIMI and lyric animation from the band's own, Matt Schellenberg.

Take a peek below!

• Kirk

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“Palm Slave” by Art d‘Ecco

Piano AND Saxophone?! You sold me right there Art d’Ecco!

“Palm Slave” give me major 80’s-vibes, but with a mix of experimental and chaos. Of the song itself Art says it’s "a cautionary tale about obsession, and how a misguided search for meaning and purpose, may lead some to very dark places”.

The full album will be coming out later this year, and the band are making their way down to SXSW, as well as a few other winter festivals. Last time I saw them live was at the Constellation Festival in 2019!, so hopefully there is a Vancouver date soon too.

• Christine

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“Devastatingly Mediocre” by Deanna Petcoff

Okay, this one came out last month, but the first time the latest single from Deanna Petcoff hit my ears was the other day. And from the raw catchiness to the biting lyrics and even the hilarious title, “Devastatingly Mediocre” hooked me immediately.

Not only that, but the backstory is equally great. Petcoff says she “wrote this song when my friend was dating the most boring guy alive. He really was so normal, met the bare minimum of being a decent person, and yet she was so infatuated with him. At first I wrote this as a joke because I always called him devastatingly mediocre just to tease her, but when I showed it to my band they loved it and we decided to make it something real. I think it actually holds a lot of meaning for a lot of people– it’s so easy to fall in love with someone just because you want to be in love, regardless of whether or not it really works.”

The single is off her debut album To Hell With You, I Love You, which is out April 8th on Royal Mountain Records.

• Kirk

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“Fuckboi” by Common Deer

Speaking of catchy songs with biting lyrics and titles that tickly my fancy… Common Deer just released their latest single “Fuckboi”.

The band’s latest single is a blast of synth energy, and singer Sheila Hart says: “I was going through another near-relationship falling apart, and feeling justified in my anger and resentment. After reconsidering the situation, I reluctantly realized that I may have been the problem after all.”

“Fuckboi” is off the album MAXIMALIST, which comes out April 1st, and also features songs with names like “Negative Thot” and “LonelyFans”, so it should be one to watch out for!

• Kirk

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“Sweet Dreams of Otherness” by Alexisonfire

Oh, I’m INTO THIS!

I was super excited to hear that Alexisonfire was putting out new music and hitting the road, and even more excited to find out that Matt Kelly (who has been playing with City and Colour as of late) performed on the record as well. Petal Steel on an AOF album?! I need to hear this.

“Sweet Dreams of Otherness” (which will be on the full album titled Otherness) is a BANGER, and I can 100% see the band starting their sets with this song.
Oh, and I almost forgot that Jay Baruchel directed the video for the track. Check it out below.

• Christine

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“Lonely Bong” by Cancer Bats

Okay, we might as well stay on the loud-band-from-the-Niagara-Region (my home turf) train.
Especially since the video for “Lonely Bong” by Cancer Bats includes a cameo from Alexisonfire’s Wade MacNeil!

In the video the Bats are trying to find new ways to connect with the kids (guys, if you’re old, I’m old), and fill in the lead guitar space left by founding member Scott Middleton (spoiler alert, it’s Stevis Harrison of Fever 333).

Cinnamon Challenge anyone?

• Christine

Songs of the Week: February 28 - March 06, 2022

“Reckoning” by Arkells

You thought just because Arkells put out an album six months ago they were going to slow down? Nope. Aside from an extensive tour planned, including playing this year’s Juno Awards, the boys from Hamilton are releasing yet another album, aptly titled Blink Twice.

“Reckoning” is the first taste of the new album that is somewhat of a companion album to Blink Once, with frontman Max Kerman saying “The title of Blink Once was born from the song “Reckoning,” and lyrics “blink twice, there’s gonna be a reckoning. If you listen to the outro track of Blink Once - “Last Night I Heard Em’ Sing” - we hint that there’s more coming. Kind of like a post-credits scene in a movie. “Reckoning” is the beginning of what’s next.”

Crank the volume on this Monday morning (or… whenever you happen to be reading this) and enjoy.

• Kirk

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“To Talk About” by The Weather Station

Speaking of “companion albums” and “quick turnarounds”, last week we got another tease of the newest album from The Weather Station, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars.

Out this coming Friday, the album is a companion to last year’s Ignorance (which was just nominated for a Juno!) with songs that were written at the same time and deal with a lot of the same emotions and themes: disconnection & conflict, love, birds, and climate feelings.

The latest song is the absolutely gorgeous “To Talk About”, featuring Tamara Lindeman’s incredible vocals tempered by a soft piano, and joined by Ryan Driver.

• Kirk

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“Out of Nowhere” by Anyway Gang

When your super group band has 4 lead singers, it’s always fun to see who is taking the lead next. In the case of Anyway Gang’s new single “Out Of Nowhere”, that’d be the one and only Sam Roberts.

The second most exciting part of the press release was the tease that the band would be announcing tour dates on March 11th - so be on the lookout for those!

By the way, I could only watch the video for about 3 seconds before I immediately got motion sick, so it’s a mystery to me - but hopefully you can enjoy it.

• Christine

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“Matilda” by PUP

I honestly don’t even want to write anything about this track because PUP’s lead singer Stefan did it best:

“Matilda is the name of my favourite guitar. She was a gift from my friend Ryan, after watching me accidentally break the only guitar I owned in the middle of a long tour,” says Backbock. “I had no money to buy a replacement, and Ryan’s act of kindness is up there on my list of ‘nicest things anyone’s ever done for me’. I played Matilda nonstop for 7 years at every PUP show, even when my bandmates started complaining that she sounded like shit. As the band got bigger, the pressure to sound better was building and so I bought a ‘good’ guitar and played Matilda less and less. Before I knew it I hadn’t played her in over a year. I wrote this song based on this intense feeling of guilt and sadness and shame and nostalgia and regret, watching her rot away in a corner. I love this guitar and I love Ryan and wanted to do right by them, and I felt like I’d failed them both. I convinced the band that Matilda deserved one last rip on a PUP record, and I played her during the bridge of this song. It sounds so shitty. But good shitty. Great shitty. For me, it was the most joyful and cathartic moment in the entire making of this record.”

PUP has added new tour dates, but the Vancouver one hasn’t been rescheduled yet - I’m eyeing April 7th as it is right before 2 Victoria shows. Cross your fingers!

• Christine

Songs of the Week: February 07 - 13, 2022

“CANDU” by The Rural Alberta Advantage

It’s been nearly five years since we heard new music from The Rural Alberta Advantage, but last week the trio released not one, but TWO new tracks!

“CANDU” and “AB Bride” are the first in what the band is calling a “distinctly divergent course” for releasing their music. They will be putting out an ongoing series of new songs and EPs, as they're written and recorded by the band, with live shows to support them.

The new songs also see the return of original member Amy Cole, rejoining Nils Edenloff and Paul Banwatt, and if these two songs are any indication, it’s going to be a heck of a year of new music!

• Kirk

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“When You Turn on the Light” by Frog Eyes

Vancouver’s Frog Eyes announce their surprise return last week, releasing their first new single in four years(!)

"When You Turn On The Light," is the debut track off their upcoming album, The Bees, and features Carey Mercer’s distinctive vocals driving the melocic indir rock tune.

Mercer says: "I never made music when I was 21. I wanted to be a painter. I lived in an apartment with friends in Vancouver, and my room was full of cans of toxic enamel-marine paint. I would wake up at 3:30pm and paint on my bedroom wall, this crazed fresco, a hellish umber landscape that glittered street light reflections from the enamel paint. I had to sleep by my open window because the fumes were atrocious, and I started to deteriorate, but the fresco was really coming along.
Some of the roommates were amazing musicians, some of them passed away. I think the song ‘When You Turn on the Light’ describes walking into my bedroom in that apartment.
One time, I came home from a late afternoon walk and the building manager was standing in my bedroom looking at the painting with a look of wonder but also fear, and the fear turned to anger when I walked in. She kept her food in our fridge because her roommate kept stealing her cream cheese, and we used to dread the sound of her key turning in our lock. But it meant we could eat her cream cheese. When she confronted me about the fresco, I told her I was enriching the apartment and lied about my standing in the world, describing upcoming shows in Milan and Turin. And Toronto, for believability. She left and we were evicted a bit later but I think it had more to do with other things and not just the fresco."

Frog Eyes also be playing the Vancouver edition of the Paper Bag Records 20th Anniversary weekend, along with Frankiie and Gold & Youth at the Rickshaw on March 4th!

• Kirk

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“Psychic Jailbreak” by Cancer Bats

Need something to wake you up this Monday morning?!
”Psychic Jailbreak”, the new single by Cancer Bats will definitely fit that bill.

It’s the first, and title, track from their new album that will be coming out on April 15th through (their own label) Bat Skull Records. Lead singer Liam Cormier said that they “needed to kick things off with a total banger of a track that makes you want to pump your fist in the air, smash your head to the beat, all while screaming the call to action REJECT THE FALLACY OF TIME!".

Yep. That tracks!

• Christine

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“90 Days” by Common Deer

Toronto’s Common Deer shared the first single off their debut full-length album, MAXIMALIST last week. “90 Days” sees the band shifting from their indie rock roots to more of a synth-pop sound, but is no less catchy from their previous tunes.

Singer Sheila Hart says the new record tackles a range of raw and honest themes, from mental health, abuse, and addiction, to sexism and obsession, all with an undeniably raw vulnerability, adding "MAXIMALIST is a celebration of excess and a refusal to compromise, however misguided that might be.”

And with song titles like “Negative Thot”, “Fuckboi”, and “LonelyFans”, I am definitely intrigued to hear the full album when it drops April 1st!

• Kirk

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“Love Ballad” by Combine The Victorious

Happy Valentine’s Day to those that celebrate.
Here’s a little love ballad, conveniently called “Love Ballad”, by Vancouver’s Combine The Victorious.
<3

• Christine
  

Songs of the Week: January 31 - February 06, 2022

“Alternate View” by Anyway Gang

The Canadian Indie Rock Voltron known as Anyway Gang is back! A couple years ago Chris Murphy (Sloan), Menno Versteeg (Hollerado), Dave Monks (Tokyo Police Club), and Sam Roberts (uh… Sam Roberts Band) got together to jam, and ended up releasing a self titled album and playing exactly one (1) show.

Now they’ve returned with a brand new single, “Alternate View”, a psyche-tinged indie-pop banger that’s paired with an excellent animated video from Justin Hess.

Released on Royal Mountain Records, hopefully this single is just the tease of a brand new album and, more importantly, at least one more show.

• Kirk

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“With You” by Mo Kenney

The first new music of 2022 from Mo Kenney came out this week with the song “With You”.
Mo says the track about their “own messy, true-to-life experience with loss, reflecting on dashed dreams, miscommunications, and moments of quiet connection”.

It’s about heartbreak and accepting something can be painful, but you’re okay with that.
Hoping to hear more from Mo in the coming months!

• Christine

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“Human Like You” by Adnama

Since her debut EP in 2017, Vancouver’s Adnama has been releasing a slow drip of new songs exploring a variety of sounds.

Her latest, “Human Like You”, is a dark & pulsing synth-heavy tune, that’s accompanied by a video of what appears to be an extraterrestrial being staring directly into your soul for 4 minutes.

Check it out below!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: January 24 - 30, 2022

“Endless Time” by The Weather Station

Remember that brief window of time when everything seemed to be starting to settle down and we could do things again? In that window I was lucky to catch The Weather Station perform a live show, where she teased some brand new songs.

Now we have news of an upcoming album, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, which is a companion piece to last year’s Ignorance. Tamara Lindeman says “When I wrote Ignorance, it was a time of intense creativity, and I wrote more songs than I ever had in my life. The songs destined to be on the album were clear from the beginning, but as I continued down my writing path, songs kept appearing that had no place on the album I envisioned. Songs that were simple, pure; almost naive. Songs that spoke to many of the same questions and realities as Ignorance, but in a more internal, thoughtful way. So I began to envision How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, a quiet, strange album of ballads. I imagined it not as a followup to Ignorance, but rather as a companion piece; the moon to its sun.”

The album is out March 4, and you can check out the first single “Endless Time” below!

• Kirk

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“Hayloft II” by Mother Mother

Why aren’t there more song sequels?

After the surprise recent breakout of their song “Hayloft”, Mother Mother first released a brand new video for the song, and then decided it was time to revisit the characters of the narrative. Singer Ryan Guldemond says, “We have learned more about the story of ‘Hayloft’ through our fans that we ever could have unearthed ourselves. We began to ask, is there more to this story? And the resounding answer seemed to be ‘yes!’ It was an ambitious task to try to do justice to a story, and to characters, that have grown far beyond the initial intention of the song. We hope that the sequel in both song and video form honor and live up to what our incredible fans have helped ‘Hayloft’ to become.”

The first “Hayloft” remains one of my favourite Mother Mother songs, and the sequel definitely does it justice. Check it out below!

• Kirk

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“Small Talk” by Dear Rouge

After a few single releases, Dear Rouge finally has a release date for their new album!

Spirit will be coming out on April 8th, and of it the band says it is: “the most vulnerable and raw side of Danielle’s inner thoughts, and the line being thrown from these questions and deep reckonings within oneself, urging you to grab hold and hang on for dear life.”

“Small Talk”, the latest single released last week, is about looking for authentic connections in today’s world. I can get behind that!

• Christine

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“It’s Too Quiet” by Begonia

Another single from Winnipeg’s Begonia was released this week - which hopefully means she’s building up to a new album!

“It’s Too Quiet” is about the beginning of relationships when lots is still uncertain - it’s about when “you just want to be around someone all the time but aren't sure how they feel about you, so you second guess every text and every phone call before finally just being vulnerable (AH!) and letting the other person know how you feel.”

In March, Begonia is heading out on tour in the States, with a stop at SXSW - and let’s hope things get better here so we can see her in Vancouver once again.

• Christine

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“What’s Wrong With Changing?” by Wallis Bird

One of my favourite things about the Vancouver Folk Music Festival is the workshops, especially going to a workshop where I know one of the acts and then immediately being enamoured by one I hadn’t heard of.

That’s exactly what happened a couple years ago when I went to see Skye Wallace, and came out a new fan of Ireland’s Wallis Bird. So I was happy to see she had a new album on its way, Hands (Nine and a Half Songs for Nine and a Half Fingers).

Out on May 27th, the title references Wallis’ own hand, and was announced with a pair of songs, “What’s Wrong With Changing” and “Pretty Lies”.

The first (which you can check out below) is a raucous track about the inevitability of change, and the need to adapt.

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: January 10 - 16, 2022

“Truth Be Told” by Skye Wallace

As excited as I was for new music from Skye Wallace, I was equally excited to see it was her first release signed to Six Shooter Records, since that is an excellent artist/label pairing!

Her new single, “Truth Be Told”, is a slow-burner about change and trying to reconcile that within yourself. Or as Wallace puts it, it’s about “all the versions of yourself you try on, all the mistakes you make, all the imperfections of finding yourself, and how impatient and downright mean you can be towards yourself along the way. For me, the song has come to represent how I grew into myself after moving around a lot my whole life, not being “from” anywhere, not always feeling a sense of belonging, and the long, long journey it took to love who I am and to be softer with myself.”

Co-written by Charlie Kerr from Hotel Mira, hopefully the song is just a tease of more to come this year!

• Kirk

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“Get Out Of The Game” by Sam Weber

Sam Weber’s latest single “Get Out Of The Game” is about something that a lot of people probably faced during the pandemic: career doubt.

It deals with quitting your passion job, trying something new, but ultimately returning to your job with new eyes.
Sam’s next album Get Free comes out on February 5th and if all goes well, he’s heading state side to tour for February and March.

• Christine

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“Take Me Home” by Shred Kelly

Last week Shred Kelly released a very cute video for the unplugged version of their song “Take Me Home”.

It features lyrics on various pieces of luggage and signs on the front porch of Tim and Sage’s home and various band member drop-by’s.

Made me want to go hang out on their porch in Fernie. Give it a watch below!

Songs of the Week: January 03 - 09, 2022

“Curse Your Fail” by Broken Social Scene

Happy first Songs Of The Week of 2022!

Starting you off with a song from Broken Social Scene’s upcoming B-Sides album that is a “career-spanning collection of B-sides, rarities, and outtakes pulled from 20 years of 7-inches, compilations, soundtracks, and hard-to-find releases”.

“Curse Your Fail” came from creating the 2009 album Forgiveness Rock Record, and features guest vocals by DFA 1979’s Sebastien Grainger.

Old Dead Young: B-Sides & Rarities will be out this week on January 14th!

• Christine
  

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“God Complex” by Gentle Party

Chamber pop trio Gentle Party have a new tease of their upcoming album by way of the single “God Complex”.

The single is “an inquisitive and melodic embodiment of a misogynistic individual who is celebrated in the group’s artistic community” with the band adding: "so many times people's 'apologies' for their bad behavior are simply spineless virtue signaling, without integrity, values, or behavior change to back it up."

Check out the video below, which is a collaboration between artists Eva Dominelli and Ryan Qui, and mark down February 17th for the release of the album!

• Kirk