Songs of the Week: February 12 - 18, 2024

“Lost And Found” by Chromeo

The iconic duo Chromeo have released their new record, Adult Contemporary, and it’s classically funky fun.
The album dropped almost 20 years to the day that their first album did, and it’s got a similar vibe to their early work.

The fun news on top of this is that they’re taking it on tour, including a show at the Malkin Bowl here in Vancouver on September 5th, and I cannot wait!

• Christine

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“Wind and Snow” by Elliott BROOD

Last year, Elliott BROOD released the first of a 2-part album project called Town. Now, just a few short months later, we’re getting a date for the second half, Country.

The latest single for that album is “Wind and Snow”, a frantic song that is sure to be a roadtrip classic.

Casey Laforet from the band explains: "This is a driving love song. It's a song about the Midwest and the Mississippi River and the Great Plains, the desert and the gorgeous west coast of North America. To be honest, maybe the greatest part of touring for a living is getting to see all these places that only exist in film and television for most people. This song is a true story of my migration to the West Coast of the United States from the comforts of Canada. I did the trip in a beat up Subaru in 4 days and aged 20 years. It was incredible. Travelling through America is in my mind the only way to gain a true fair and rounded perspective of the diversity and beauty of the people of that great country."

Country is out April 12, but in the meantime, you can check out the lyric video for “Wind and Snow”!

• Kirk

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“I Lied” by Housewife

Appropriately released on Valentine’s Day, Toronto’s Housewife dropped their latest single, “I Lied”.

The new tune is about a “messy ex-situationship”, and is incredibly catchy. Check out the video below, and good luck getting it out of your head for the rest of the day!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: February 05 - 11, 2024

“Sun Shadows” by Brandon Wolfe Scott

Hot off the heels of the latest Yukon Blonde album & tour, Brandon Wolfe Scott is back with another solo release, “Sun Shadow”

The new song has the chill, throwback vibes that Scott is known for, and he explains:“In this song, the lyric 'shadows from the sun...they follow me', is a metaphor referring to where there's light or hope, there is usually a darkness lingering. I see this as a generational issue, where we can see the light and the hope, but the shadows of the world's grief are often overpowering. I see people of my generation becoming consumed, burnt out, and hopeless. It feels like being in the shadow of the sun, and I wanted this song to stand out in this cynical world as a reminder to appreciate the small things in life that bring you joy. To take moments to breathe and find solace in everyday life as we must continue to bear witness to the evolving situations humanity is facing.”

Watch the video for “Sun Shadows” below, and catch Brandon opening for Sam Roberts Band in Vancouver on February 24th & 25th, and in Kelowna on the 27th!

• Kirk

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“Sleep On The Floor” (Lumineers) by Dan Mangan

While Dan Mangan is prepping for his European tour dates to support his JUNO nominated and Polaris shortlisted album Being Somewhere, he gave us a recording of his Lumineers cover.

“When I got word I’d be touring Europe supporting The Lumineers last year in June, I knew I wanted to cover one of their songs,” says Mangan. “They have so many hits but ‘Sleep On The Floor’ was always the one I’d crank when it came on the radio. Wes has a distinctive and strong vocal approach, and I thought it would be interesting to attempt the song with a whisper. Rather than wide open chord changes, a simple piano plodding along keeping pace. The song is about escape, and as somebody who has literally spent a fair amount of time sleeping on floors and couches around the globe, I wanted to explore the sonically comforting elements of my own nostalgia from a life on the road.”

It’s very unique take on the song - check it out below!

• Christine

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“Burial Ground” by The Decemberists

It’s been six years(!!) since we heard new music from The Decemberists, but last week they dropped “Burial Ground”, along with a string of North American tour dates.

The new song features The Shins’ James Mercer on vocals (what a pairing!) and Colin Meloy says "'Burial Ground' is in that time-honored popsong tradition, a paean to hanging out in graveyards. The melody hook came to me in a dream and I hummed it into my phone on waking. Most dream-songs are bad; this was the exception.”

Have a listen for yourself below, and be sure to check them out in Vancouver at the Queen E on July 29th!

• Kirk

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Songs of the Week: January 29 - February 04, 2024

“The endLing” by Talia Schlanger

Huge congratulations are in order for Talia Schlanger on the release of her record Grace For The Going this past week!
It’s a gorgeous collection of songs and stories that make it hard to believe that is is her debut album.

The single “The endLing” was written about the extinction of a species of frog (specifically this guy named Toughie), with an “endling” being the last known living creature of a species before extinction.
Of the “Rabbs fringe-limbed treefrog”, Talia says it “had a very distinct call, and when I read the article all I could think about was how after Toughie died, nobody would ever hear that call again. What does it mean to lose a sound forever?”

Talia has a few shows on the East Coast, and an album release show in Toronto - and hopefully this means she’ll be bringing it to the West Coast soon enough!

• Christine

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“Maybe Borealis” by Nathan Shubert

If you’ve seen a Vancouver band play live, there’s a strong chance you’ve seen Nathan Shubert play piano or keys. They’ve played with the likes of Jasper Sloan Yip, Jody Glenham, No Sinner, and loads more, but for the last few years, Nathan has been focusing on their own solo piano compositions.

Last week, they released their latest, with “Maybe Borealis”, a gorgeous blend of piano and synth that feels just like the song’s namesake.

It’s their first single since last year’s album, The Moon From Here, and you can have a listen for yourself below!

• Kirk

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“Tree of Woe” ft. Damian Abraham by The Halluci Nation

Super fun new video for the song “Tree of Woe” that is part of The Halluci Nation’s project The Road To Halluci Mania with their EP Path Of The Heel.

The album is based around the wrestling character archetype (The Heel) and in this particular video Damian Abraham of the band Fucked Up, who lends his vocals to the EP, has kinda, sorta, definitely gone off the deep end. He literally has a tin foil hat on at one point.
Check it out below.

• Christine

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“a little life” by la lune

Last week, Vancouver’s la lune released their latest single, “a little life”.

The shoegaze-y song starts with a haze of guitars and vocals, slowly building to a dense wall of sound.

Check it out below, and if you want to hear it live, you can catch them at Green Auto on Feb 11th with Autonomous Apes and Floating Faces, or opening for Art d'Ecco at the Cobalt on Feb 23!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: January 22 - 28, 2024

“FSHG” by The Rural Alberta Advantage

As they get ready for their upcoming Winter North American tour, The Rural Alberta Advantage have released new video for “FSHG”.

The song is off their most recent album, The Rise & The Fall, and is chill tune that was recorded live off the floor, during their final recording session for the album. Singer Nils Edenloff explains, “I wanted us to record ‘FSHG’ live off the floor and feel like a counterpoint to the rest of the album. We laboured over so many minute details on 'The Rise & The Fall', and I wanted to record ‘FSHG' while it still felt organic and raw. Lock it up before we had a chance to tinker with it too much. I also wanted people listening to the record to feel as though they’re peeking in on a brief and momentary event. So much of the album deals with events and snippets of time, and with ‘FSHG', as the song progresses it starts to evaporate, pulling away from the listener and fading into nothing. Sort of reminding us that not everything lasts forever.”

Check out the video below, which was recorded at that very session, and make sure you check them out on tour, which includes a stop here in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom on February 17th!

• Kirk

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“Stars At Midnight” by Harrison Brome

I needed some mellow music this Monday morning, and the new track, “Stars At Midnight” from Vancouver’s Harrison Brome hit the spot.

The song is the title track from his new EP that came out on the 26th of this month, which has five new songs in total.

Of the release Brome says: "It walks you through a story of heartbreak and an endless want for a connection that has faded away. I wanted to capture some moments we've all likely encountered in a relationship, emotional and physical separation, wishing you could turn back time, and holding onto something that might no longer be there. It tells a story of lost love and the want to find the light that used to shine brightly between two people."

You can stream the EP by clicking here.

• Christine

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“Marion” by Alana Yorke

Alana Yorke has such an incredible story that I have to start with it, before I delve into the new release, so here it is:

In November 2022, Alana Yorke woke up one morning and realized she was unable to move her left arm. A few days (and numerous hospital tests) later, she discovered she’d had a hemorrhagic stroke that affected the right hemisphere of her brain (associated with creative expression) in the parietal lobe (responsible for receiving and filtering sensory input). What could have been an unmitigated disaster changed Yorke’s life. The previous decade had been filled with profound challenges — during a sample-gathering scuba expedition as part of her academic work, she ran out of air and subsequently developed debilitating PTSD. The stroke, however, was a serendipitous force: the psychological heaviness suddenly lifted, and Yorke found herself freed from past emotional baggage and propelled by euphoric creativity. While the album that would became Destroyer had always been part of a process of plumbing the depths, Yorke was consumed by a desire to share what she had experienced on the other side of the veil. “The goal was to bring these images and stories back to our world,” she explains.

Just. Wow.

The gorgeous new track “Marion”, and the first single off the album that is to be released in May, is an exploration of generations and what ties them together. The strings at the beginning really grabbed me, as did her haunting voice, and the visuals in the accompanying video. Definitely give it a watch.

• Christine

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Songs of the Week: January 15 - 21, 2024

“Mind Reader” by David Vertesi (ft. Jill Barber)

Last week David Vertesi announced his brand new album, and dropped his latest single, “Mind Reader”.

The new track features the lovely voice of Jill Barber, pairing excellently with Vertesi’s own smooth vocals, for a heartbreaking song. Vertesi explains, “Throughout the pandemic, many of my friend's longtime relationships began to crumble. Problems they had ignored for forever seemed to come to a head when they were stuck inside together for the lockdowns. This is loosely based on one of those stories.”

In fact the new album, Fictionalized, is essentially a concept album “on the collective spiraling of the pandemic years”, and aside from Jill Barber, features songs with Jordan Klassen, Haley Blais, and Sam Lynch.

Fictionalized is out February 27 on Tiny Kingdom!

• Kirk

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“True Love Waits” by Adaline

It’s officially two months until the new EP Hymnal from Adaline is released, and we have a new track from it to celebrate.

Of “True Love Waits”, Adaline says “This song draws inspiration from the evangelical purity culture movement of the 1990s, specifically 'True Love Waits,' which advocated abstinence as a means to honour God. This song explores the underbelly and dysfunction of this kind of teaching.”

As someone that went through Catholic school in the 90s and 2000s, and saw some of the damage and consequences that abstinence-only teaching can do, this resonates with me.
And on top of this it’s a beautiful song with gorgeous vocals and strings to boot.

• Christine,

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“Nobody Escapes” by Mother Mother

Last Friday, Mother Mother released their latest single, “Nobody Escapes”, but the even bigger news was the tour announcement which included a show here in Vancouver at Rogers Arena(!!)

The new song is the latest off their upcoming album Grief Chapter, and starts pretty chill before descending into a fever dream. Ryan Guldemond explains “we sing cheerily about the indiscriminate nature of death and how, regardless of status, good looks or physique, the reaper comes for us all. The animated video that accompanies our rollicking and blasphemous album opener follows suit, depicting a sinister factory where conveyor belts and machinery crudely sort through freshly fallen souls.”

Check out Grief Chapter when it’s released February 16th, and catch Mother Mother (with Cavetown) at Rogers Arena on June 15!

• Kirk

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“Lost Without You” by Shred Kelly

I was VERY excited to hear that Shred Kelly was heading out on the road to celebrate the release of their album Blurry Vision.

In February, March and April, the band will be jaunting back and forth across the country, including a stop here in Vancouver on March 29th at the Biltmore Cabaret, with Vancouver’s Hyaenas in support.

And while we wait for that magical day to come, they’ve also released a beautiful and wonderfully fun video for their track “Lost Without You”, that they partnered with cinematographer and animator Kenta Kikuchi from Pender Island to create. Check it out!

• Christine

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“So What” by JEEN

Want another February release? Then JEEN has good news for you! Her latest album, Gold Control, drops February 2nd, and last week she gave one last tease before its release.

“So What” is a hazy, dreamy tune that JEEN says is about “never-ending uphill battles, and wishing you could freeze time to stay with someone you can’t enough of.”

Check out the lyric video below!

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: January 08 - 14, 2024

“My Status is the Baddest” ft. Bahamas by Old Man Luedecke

Old Man Ledecke…without a banjo?!

Yep! That’s the direction that Chris Luedecke is taking with his new album, at the suggestion of Bahamas (Afie Jurvanen)! His first new song in years “My Status is the Baddest” definitely has a Bahamas-esque tone to it, but with Luedecke’s signature songwriting, with this one reflecting on parenthood.

Good thing we didn’t fully lose Luedecke to the scallop boat (not joking) that he has been working on since the pandemic!

• Christine

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“Waiting For The Laughter” by iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ

Over the last few months we’ve been getting steady releases from iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ, but now we finally have news of a full album! nīna is due out on April 12th, and is said to be “profoundly autobiographical”.

The latest single, “Waiting For The Laughter”, was co-written with akaMatisse of Keys N Krates, and is dense & sweeping, yet melancholic, with iskwē explaining: “Each time the mirror faces, I find brand new lines and deeper creases. The art of aging never changes; we all get older every day. Somehow women are told we age out faster, life spinning out so quickly, it can be hard to live up to all the beauty standards that keep changing along the way. I find it dizzying to think of the times I’ve loathed my body, how I pluck, colour, and cover the natural body I was born with. Will I stop? Probably not. Do I try to push myself as far as I can in order to love the body and being I was born with? Every day. I’m constantly searching for the laughter in it all. Laughter is medicine after all. Waiting for the laughter to drive the hurt away.”

If what we’ve heard so far is any indication, nīna is one of my most anticipated albums of the year so far, and I can’t wait to hear it!

• Kirk

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“Alone In America” by Hotel Mira

Ahead of their “I Am Not Myself Canadian Tour”, Hotel Mira has dropped a brand new video for “Alone In America”.

The earworm of a song is from their recently-released album, I Am Not Myself, and the new video follows the band’s exploits in Las Vegas, playing into “the glitz and sleaze of the distilled over-the-top grotesque idea of America.”

Their tour kicks off later this week, and includes a stop at the legendary Commodore Ballroom here in Vancouver, joined by Fake Shark!

• Kirk

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“Holster” by The Strumbellas

It’s just under a month until the new album, Part Time Believer, from The Strumbellas drops (Feb 9) and we have another new single from the record.

The band says the new album will be about either being depressed or optimistic, and the latest single “Holster” fits that bill.
Dave Ritter says that the track bounces between “feeling like a failure and feeling like a hero. I hear the cry of someone who always almost overcomes their demons–who stumbles at the crucial moment every time–but comes roaring back, still believing that maybe this time they’ll come out on top.”

The band is heading out on a Canadian tour in February starting in Vancouver on the release day for the record, at the Commodore with Michael Bernard Fitzgerald opening.

• Christine

Songs of the Week: Holiday Edition 2023

“Last Christmas” by The Matinee

Well, #Whamageddon I guess!?
At least it’s with a fun Americana-style twist courtesy of Vancouver’s own The Matinee!

The band has their own original Christmas songs, but have never done a cover. Of the choice of song, lead singer Matt Layzell says: “You can’t go a few hours without hearing this one during the holidays, and we hope our version stands up and stands out and has you feeling festive for years to come.”

I definitely think it does!

• Christine

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“xmas angels” by JEEN

If you know me, you know I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas or holiday music. But the few songs I do like always seem to be on the more… downbeat side, so I am happy to add “xmas angels” from JEEN to the list.

The lo-fi song was written and recorded by JEEN in her attic, with drums later added by Stephan Szczesniak, and she says “It’s a melancholy track about the people we miss the most.”

• Kirk

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“Christmas Eve” by Laryssa Vachon

This is definitely not a holly jolly Christmas song, but hell is it ever fun!

Vancouver musician Laryssa Vachon has penned a song about Christmas Eve, aka her birthday. It covers the downfall of having such a date, lack of celebration (and usually alone), and both being a burden while simultaneously and continually being let down by those around her.

So needless to say Laryssa “really fucking hate[s] Christmas Eve”, but Happy Early Birthday Laryssa!!!

• Christine

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“Running on Empty” by Adaline

Okay, so this isn’t technically a holiday song, Adaline’s single “Running on Empty” from her new Ep Hymnal (due out March 22nd), is about the “stress and anxiety felt by many LGBTQ+ individuals during the holidays”.

“The new single hopes to resonate with those returning home to religious communities and families that still believe they need to be “saved””, says the press release.

It’s a beautiful and haunting song, and with it a video that was produced and edited by Adaline herself.

Have a safe and loving Holiday season everyone.

• Christine

Songs of the Week: December 04 - 10, 2023

“Bluebird Wine” by Elliott BROOD

Hot on the heels of their last album Town, Elliott BROOD have announced that the partner album Country will be released next year.

To go along with that announcement, they’ released the first single from the record, a BROODified cover of Rodney Crowell’s song “Bluebird Wine”.

The band is touring in Ontario and then Europe in the new year, and hopefully when they album is out, they’ll make their way back out west, as that last show was awesome.

• Christine

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“The Wolf” by KROY

You may know Camille Poliquin, as one half of the JUNO Award-winning duo Milk & Bone, but recently she’s been releasing new music under the name KROY.

“The Wolf” is the second single she’s dropped this year, a haunting and ominous track that spotlights her vocals over a soft guitar, about “a frightening, all-consuming love that you can’t live without”

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

• Kirk

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“10,000 Suns” by MOONRIIVR

I let you know last month that there was a new super-group on the scene, called MOONRIIVR, and they’re becoming a new favourite of mine.

Their album, simply titled Vol. 1, is out, and they’ve released a new video for the track “10,000 Suns”. It’s a super sweet, simple and slow tune about “the weight of the past”.
Vocalist Gavin Gardiner (whom you might recognize from The Wooden Sky) says it’s about: “how one can be crushed by shame, anger and regret. I’m not searching for answers within the song, but simply living in the present and looking towards love & forgiveness”.
Check it out below!

• Christine