Song(s) of the Day: May 14, 2016 - "On Paper" and "A Little Rain (A Song for Pete)" by Arkells

Way to ruin everything, Arkells. I had planned to put "On Paper" as today's SOTD, because: "May 14 I got a letter written from you, it's sitting on the dresser."

And then you had to go and release a humdinger of a song. Just a week after "Private School" -- the first single off the new album Morning Report -- comes the Motown-soaked "A Little Rain (A Song for Pete)"

So here you go, enjoy this double shot of Arkells for the songs of the day!

Song of the Day: May 13, 2016 - "Blood Moon" by Skye Wallace

With the song title "Blood Moon" off and album called Something Wicked, it's no wonder Skye Wallace has been dubbed 'the Queen of Dark Folk'.

"Blood Moon" is a bit more on the blues-rockin' side, though, as the song kicks dirt in your face while Skye snarls lyrics like "I'm the one from whom your mother told you to run and hide"

Produced by Jim Bryson, the album will be out sometime in the fall, but before then you can catch Skye playing at the Rickshaw with David Newberry, on June 26th.

Song of the Day: May 12, 2016 - "Delirium" by case/lang/veirs

Power trio case/lang/veirs, gave us another tease of their upcoming album this week with the fourth song from the self-titled release, "Delirium". 

"At first we thought what can we possibly write about, we don't even know each other, there were no themes," Veirs says. "So k.d. and I were having trouble writing and went on a walk. We saw this firework stand and we started looking at the names of the different fireworks, and one of them was called 'Delirium.' We were like, 'that's a good song title,' and we started building. [Neko] came in and, of course, [she] has a way of making everything great. She can even use one word to totally transform a song. We were writing things like 'the walls are falling in,' you know, trying to find a way of saying this person is in a delirious state. She said 'kaleidoscoping in,' and I was like, that's it! One word and the chorus went from cliché to magical."

case/lang/veirs comes is out June 17th on Anti-, and they'll be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for Vancouver International Jazz Fest on June 29th. 

Song of the Day: May 11, 2016 - "Fire" by Jesse Thomas - *Pistol Shrimps Special Edition*

Doing things a bit different today, with a special edition of Song of the Day...a Pistol Shrimps edition to be exact!

The documentary on the LA women's basketball team is having it's Vancouver premier tonight as part of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, and I'm pretty darn excited.
The film was directed by Vancouver's own Brent Hodge - you might remember him from such films as: "A Brony Tale", "What Happens Next: The Dan Mangan Documentary", CBC's Said The Whale Documentary "Winning America", and most recently "I Am Chris Farley".

I asked Hodgee for a suggestion for today's SOTD, and turns out that one of the Pistol Shrimp players is a musician, Jesse Thomas. So below we've got the trailer for the movie, and her song "Fire" which happens to be featured in the film.

You can get your tickets to see the movie by clicking here - there are two screenings, but tonight's includes a Q & A with Brent Hodge afterward...though, NO HATERZ allowed.

Song of the Day: May 10, 2016 - "CHALK" by MANICS

Gotta love when your bestie takes a trip and ends up discovering new music for you!

Based out of San Francisco, MANICS is Jordan Deherrera and Chris Sanders, who perform some excellent 'indie disco bass pop'.

The second I hit play on today's Song Of The Day, "CHALK", I got Bear Mountain vibes (think "Badu" and "Congo"), and when the vocals kicked in, hints of HUMANS (think "Water Water" and "De Ciel").

It left me dancing and wondering how we get them up to Vancouver and build that dream lineup with the Vancouver bands above...check it out:

Song of the Day: May 09, 2016 - "A Monday In May" by The Wild Romantics

Check out The Wild Romantics doing a Rich Rico Session for “A Monday In May” on this Monday in May. 

Song of the Day: May 08 2016 - "King of the Deep" from Our Debut Album

You may know Dave Shumka and Graham Clark from their hit podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself, from the comedy scene, or maybe even from their work at CBC Music. But what you may not know is both have been musicians, and they have merged their love of music, podcasts, and comedy (in that order) for a new show called Our Debut Album. 

Each episode in the monthly podcast follows the duo as they try to write a hit song in under an hour, until they have an album full of smash hits. And when I said "in that order" above, I meant that the Clark & Shumka are taking it seriously. No comedy songs; "Ween, or more serious" was their metric. 

The first episode came out this week where they write a 50's American Beach Rock jam called "King of the Deep", which they went on to record with Jay Arner. 

You can listen to how they created the magic here... or by subscribing wherever podcasts are available. 

And then head on over to their bandcamp to buy/listen to "King of the Deep"! 

Song of the Day: May 07, 2016 - "Companion" by Braids

Hot off their Juno winning album Deep In The Iris, Braids are releasing a brand new EP, appropriately titled Companion. You can check out the video for the title track, which was directed by Kevan Funk, who worked with the band on the videos for “Taste” and “Miniskirt” last year. 

Singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston has also written a powerful piece for Pitchfork on being a survivor of sexual abuse, and how it informed songs like "Companion", and "Miniskirt". I can't possibly do the article justice, so I urge you take a few minutes to read it here.