Song of the Day: December 2, 2015 - "Five Minutes" by Her

I think this song had me in the first 4 seconds, but I listened to the (ironically) remaining 3:40mins of "Five Minutes" and loved it just as much.

Her, are still a brand new band, from what little I've been able to gather on them, though the musicians themselves have long established themselves in the French music scene (the two are formerly of The Popopopops).

Their first release, titled "Quite Like", is also an awesome song - you should listen to that on Soundcloud too, or, if you're not at work, check out the video - and definitely was the first step towards them gaining attention.

I honestly cannot wait to hear them live at the Trans Musicales festival...but for now, I'll listen to this on repeat. Oh, and they just released a video for the song as well, so you have even more to watch:

Song of the Day: December 01, 2015 - "The Ridge" by Sarah Neufeld

Arcade Fire member/violinist Sarah Neufeld has just released the first single and title track from her new solo album The Ridge.

The sweeping and beautiful song also features (bandmate) Jeremy Gara on drums and clocks in at just over 8 minutes, but it is definitely easy to get wrapped up or lost in.

The album comes out on February 26th via Paper Bag Records, check the track out below:

Song Of The Day: November 30, 2015 - "Sophia" by Van Damsel

Every few days I have Van Damsel's song "Best Of Everything" on a loop in my brain, so I got pretty damn excited when they recently released a new song, "Sophia", to join it there.

The band, who just won 3rd place, and $50,000!, in the Peak Performance Project finale, is set to release their self-titled LP in early 2016 and I cannot wait.

Check out "Sophia" below.

Song of the Day: November 29, 2015 - "I Can't Play Piano, Pt. 1" by Jon Benjamin - Jazz Daredevil

Sterling Archer. Bob Belcher. Coach McGuirk. The Can of Mixed Vegitables from Wet Hot American Summer. H. Jon Benjamin is a well known voice actor and comedian. But he is not so much known as a jazz pianist.

And that's probably because he is not. He doesn't know how to play piano. He doesn't even like jazz. But that didn't stop him from releasing a jazz album entitled well, I should have...*

*learned how to play piano

He says:

We all start from the same place and build from there, gathering references, structures, techniques, modes, nuances, etc. and, as artists, we strive to build some- thing purposeful. Well, I Should Have…* is the culmination of hours (almost 3) of conception with the goal to bring something, in the tradition of the great vanguard jazz artists like Miles Davis, Roach, Mingus, Monk, et al, close to pure spontaneity. Jazz is the ocean…I am just one wave forming one curl, crashing once onto some remote beach somewhere in time. And that wave makes a small imperceptible change in the slope of the sand, upon which at some point in time a baby turtle will walk across, leaving his trail for just an instant, before the tide washes it clean. That’s a pretty cool analogy. More to the point, I do not play piano and I made this jazz album. Some tell me, “Hey, Jon, tone it down.” Some even say, “Really, Jon?” A few have said, “Get the fuck away from me or I’ll fucking punch you in the face.” I know the risks in making this album. I know what it is like to do something that no one else would think to do. Most would call this reckless. I call it jazz. What you are about to experience is an aural auto da fe. I am the jazz daredevil.

– Jon, New York City, July 2015

Song of the Day: November 28, 2015 - "The Enforcer" by Monster Truck

If this song isn't on the next edition of Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'em Hockey something is off in the world. I mean it's CALLED "The Enforcer" and it's almost like Monster Truck wrote it to go along with a 'best of' fights and hits compilation.

Seriously, I put this video on mute and played the song over it and it was seamless.

Monster Truck's new album, Sittin' Heavy, is out February 19th via Dine Alone Records. Check out the song below and get jazzed for this tonight's edition of Hockey Night In Canada!

Song Of The Day: November 27, 2015 - "I'm Gonna Be Myself" by The Sheepdogs

It's Grey Cup weekend once again, and this year it's happening in Winnipeg.

As always lots of events are surround the 103rd annual football game, including musical acts, parades, and activities.

This year The Sheepdogs will performing for the Grey Cup Festival  (tonight) along with other bands throughout the weekend like The Trews, 54-40, Loverboy and more.
Check out the full listings of what is happening here. 

Today's song of the day is The Sheepdogs' "I'm Gonna Be Myself" which you can hear/watch the recently released lyric video below. The band has also announced a spring tour of Canada with a stop in Vancouver at the Orpheum on February 19th.

3am Playlist #22: Trans Musicales Preview

This time next week I'll be in France, pouring over my festival guide debating what bands to see at the 37th Rencontres Trans Musicales De Rennes.

Running from December 2nd to 6th, the festival covers so many genres across the many venues that I'll be able to find a little bit of everything.

I dove into the very large artist list and picked out a few of my favourites and bands I didn't want to miss, and compiled them into this week's playlist (below). France, Brazil, Greece, South Korea, Netherlands, United States, and even Madagascar are all covered country-wise in the compilation, and of course Vancouver's own Dralms, the sole Canadian of the bunch.

Take a listen, discover something new, and have a little ROMO about not being there with me. Stay tuned this week for updates!

Song of the Day: November 26, 2015 - "Game Show" by Majical Cloudz

Majical Cloudz have released a video performance of their song "Game Show" which is off of their latest album Are You Alone? from Arts & Craft.

The video/song was filmed at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust in October at the launch show for the album and is a very haunting and powerful, yet delightfully awkward performance, as I find Majical Cloudz to typically be.

Click below to check it out...