My favourite Prince Edward Islanders are back and they have their dance pants on.
While any details of an upcoming album are scarce, Paper Lions released a slick, synthed-up song called "Believer" a few days ago. It's a bit more poppy that their previous album My Friends, but as catchy and infectious as ever.
November....everyone's least favourite month amiright? It's my birthday on Saturday and I even dislike November.
It's cold. Grey. Raining. (Snowing even.) Summer seems SO far away... and now that we hit Daylight Saving (most of us), it's dark.
Well, to cure your autumn-time blues and seasonal affective disorders, Vancouver has a TON of shows (seriously, so many) coming up this month where you can get warm and sweaty indoors, and forget how gross outside is.
In our concert calendar, we have 15+ shows over the next few weeks to choose from, and I decided to fill today's playlist with music by those artists.
Whether you're heading to the Imperial, the Media Club, the Biltmore, the Fox, Guilt & Co, Skinny Fat Jacks, the Vogue, the Commodore, or the Orpheum, there is something for everyone this month to look forward to.
CLICK HERE or the image above to listen to the playlist - and check out what's going on in our CONCERT CALENDAR!
When I saw that there was a new Basia Bulat song released, I was excited.
When I heard that the new Basia Bulat song was produced by one of my favourites, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, I was ecstatic.
"Infamous" is a perfect blend of a musician with a famous producer; it still very much sounds like a Basia Bulat song, but has just of hint of James' influence. It really has me excited for the new album -- Good Advice out on February 12 -- which James plays electric guitar, synth, saxophone, and bass on.
While we were giving you Songs Of The Day from our awesome Then & Now lineup, The Besnard Lakes released some new music as well.
"Golden Lion" will come out on an exclusive 12" vinyl on November 13th and a full album titled A Coliseum Complex will follow on January 22nd of 2016!
Some of the band's lineup has changed since the last album recording, but the music has stayed true to their sound. Check out "Golden Lion" below:
We have a new song and a new video from the strange and wonderful mind of Grimes. Not only did she release a new single from her upcoming album Art Angels, which comes out digitally on November 6th.
The first single "Flesh Without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream" came out last week, with a video that she directed herself. I'm sure it inspired a lot of people's Halloween costumes, but what else should we expect from Grimes other than weird & wacky, and a catchy tune.
Check it out below:
Despite there being a line in this song that says "Don't need no feature on the blog", I decided to feature this new Classified track, "Filthy", as our Song Of The Day.
The rapper has a new album coming out in January and this video just came out the other day, and on the 6th (of November) the lead track "No Pressure", which features Snoop Dogg, will also be released.
Arkells recent released an acoustic version of their song "Dirty Blonde" off of the (Gold!) record High Noon.
The story behind it is pretty fun and sweet, and I'll post it below, and they made a video to go along with it that includes scenes from a wedding and the Harvest Picnic in Hamilton. While it's a beautiful video and an excellent version of the song, my favourite part has to be where Tim almost totally loses his drumstick on a failed flip [it's at 2:40 - just to draw even more attention to it, sorry Tim.]
Here's the story from Max as posted over on Communion Music:
"In August my old roommate and friend Mike got married to his partner Laura at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, down the street from the apartment where we used to live. The only trouble is that it was the same night as Harvest Picnic, a hometown festival we were headlining alongside Gordon Lightfoot. To make the best of this tricky situation, we went to the wedding from 3-8pm, hustled over to the festival from 8-11, and returned to dance the night away at the wedding after we finished our set. I was also honoured to be asked to played the first dance for Mike and Laura.
We've partnered with our friends at Communion to premier the video. To us, the essence of Communion evolves around the singer-songwriter spirit. This version of Dirty Blonde sounds the way it was originally written: on an acoustic guitar."
- Max Kerman, Arkells
PS The band is performing in Vancouver in February, two back to back shows at the Commodore.
I can't believe this song is ten years old this year. Released October 11, 2005 by an all star lineup calling themselves North American Halloween Prevention Initiative, "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" is a charity single that pokes more than a little fun at "Do They Know It's Christmas?".
All proceeds of the song were donated to UNICEF, and according to the official press release, the song "stems from a frustration with other benefit songs' misguided, somewhat patronizing attitude, and Western-centric worldview."
So just how "all star" was the lineup? Well, let's have a little rundown, shall we?
Win Butler & Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire
Beck
Buck 65
David Cross
Liane Balaban of Dessert
Devendra Banhart
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Feist
Gino Washington
Syd Butler of Les Savy Fav
Nick Diamond & J'aime Tambeur of Islands
Malcolm McLaren
Nardwuar the Human Serviette
Peaches
Dntel
Jenny Lewis & Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley
Roky Erickson
Chris Murphy of Sloan
Asya & Chloe of Smoosh
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
Russell Mael of Sparks
Subtitle
Steve Jocz of Sum 41
Tagaq
Anna Waronker of that dog.
Dan Boeckner & Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade
Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs