photo by Scott Munn
I already expressed my major excitement to get a new Rich Aucoin song when he put "Release" out into the world a few weeks ago...
...well now we have another one to listen to, with (another) awesome video to boot, called "The Middle".
The new EP, Hold, will be released on March 16th and I'm still eagerly awaiting the Vancouver tour date announcement. In the meantime, listen to The Middle below/watch the video by Meags Fitzgerald.
photo by Drew Young
Hey Ocean! is back!
I never really thought they'd be gone forever (I mean, they HAD been playing shows after the hiatus), and we've been getting singles for the last 5 months, but they've announced a new album called The Hurt of Happiness (out April 6th) and just released the title track.
The band had a tour last fall, performing songs old and new, and has 3 Canadian performance dates listed for April currently, so keep an eye out for more.
Almost four years after her debut full length In Flames, Kandle is back with some brand new music to tease a followup.
"When My Body Breaks" is a slow burner that features a voice that may (should) sound familiar: July Talk's Peter Dreimanis.
Kandle says: "When My Body Breaks is a somber drifters tale written on the road. A verse on a stormy highway, a chorus in a neon lit super 8 between towns, a bridge in a dive bar waiting to play for 50 bucks and a drink ticket. I was raised moving from town to town, an anxious, off-kilter kid with a bowl cut and a strange name desperately wanting to belong. Now I find myself a grown, wandering nomad - serenading strangers in search of the home I’ve never found. There’s an underlying haze of beauty in solitude where you find yourself caught between two worlds - what is and what could have been."
One of my favourite Canadian singer/songwriters is WiL, who is gearing up to release his 7th(!!) studio album. Gold Mine was written, recorded and entirely self produced at his home studio over the course of fourteen months, and the first taste of it is "A Long While".
The song is deeply personal, about the problems of staying with one person for a long time, with WiL saying "I think if you have established that you deeply love someone and can’t imagine life apart then you’ve got yourself a challenge worth facing head on. It is not possible to go back in time but it is possible to ask yourself what it was that made you fall in love in the first place. I would argue more than not it is because we saw the some kind of gold in that person.
"So yeah, It’s no secret that this song is about my wife and I. I think the most amazing thing is that she was OK with me airing my laundry. I mean; everyone goes through hard shit. It’s real. It’s life. I think the main thing is that I care. I care so damn much that I addressed it in a song!"
No word yet on when the album is due out, but you can catch his blurry hands live on February 18th at the Railway. And if you've never seen him live before, well, let's just say there's a reason his website and "online presence" is all named 'IBreakStrings'.
It's been four long years since the last time we heard new music from Yamantaka //Sonic Titan, but this week they gave up the first aural peek at their brand new album, Dirt.
"Someplace" puts the "sonic" in Yamantaka // Sonic Titan with a thunderous intensity that has me looking forward to the new album.
Dirt is out March 23 on Paper Bag Records, and they wrap up an extensive tour right here in Vancouver on May 18th at the Biltmore (and if you haven't seen them live before, you absolutely have to).
One of my favourite albums last year was Fear/Nothing from Belle Game, and now we have another taste from the album with the b-side "Only One"
It's a dreamy, electro-driven song that's on par with anything from the album. You can catch them (and hopefully hear this song) live on tour, including their hometown show here in Vancouver on February 23 at the Imperial!
Credit - Paul Aarntzen
I've mentioned it before, my favourite new discovery from last year's Vancouver FOlk Music Festival was the Halifax quintet Hillsburn. So I'm definitely looking forward to hearing their new album, The WIlder Beyond, which is out February 2nd.
They've teased the album with a few songs so far, and the latest is "Cover It Up", showcasing the band's three-part harmonies with their infectious indie-rock. Check it out below!
Mathew V's not broken anymore...according to this new single he released on Friday!
This talented young artist, who is on the 604 Records roster, is exploding right now, and I suggest you get on the train ASAP.
Check out his other music on Spotify right now, keep an eye out for the debut (604) record in 2018, and listen to the new single "Broken" below.