The much buzzed-about Toronto-based band Alvvays and their first session for World Cafe. We first heard about Molly Rankin and the band in 2013 when Frank Yang of the blog Chromewaves presented them as a band to watch on our visit to Toronto. Their self-titled debut came out last year and within a month had become the most played album on college radio. Make sure to listen to the band’s performance of “Adult Diversion.”
Posts Tagged ‘Alvvays’
ALVVAYS – ” Adult Diversion ” on World Cafe
Posted: February 13, 2015 in MUSICTags: Alvvays, Toronto, World Cafe
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ALVVAYS – ” Live On KEXP “
Posted: January 18, 2015 in MUSICTags: Alvvays, KEXP, Live, Molly Rankin, Toronto
Alvvays members Molly Rankin and Kerri MacLellan were childhood friends, who began playing music with Alec O’Hanley while in high school. Rankin is the daughter of John Morris Rankin of The Rankin Family. Molly Rankin released a solo EP titled “She EP” in 2010 and then formed Alvvays with MacLellan, and O’Hanley, and new members Brian Murphy and Phil MacIsaac. Following tours with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Peter Bjorn and John, the group recorded a full-length album, Alvvays, an superb indie pop album full of great songs which was released by Transgressive Records
Alvvays performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded December 2, 2014.
Songs:
Ones Who Love You, Dives, Archie, Marry Me, Party Police,
ALVVAYS – ” Party Police “
Posted: January 16, 2015 in MUSIC, NOTTINGHAM CITY VENUESTags: Alvvays, Bodega Social Club, Toronto, Transgressive Records
From the self-titled debut Alvvays album, out now on Transgressive Records, their new unveiled release “Party Police”, the next single from their lauded eponymous debut. It’s set to get released on Transgressive – one of our Labels Of 2014 – on 23rd February.
In out interview/eavesdrop, the label’s Tim Dellow described Alvvays as “the greatest new band Expanding, he said: “I mean talk about great debut albums, this is just end to end, every song is incredible. Lyrically, and lead singer Molly Rankins just incredible. It’s just one of those bands – like Belle And Sebastian or Camera Obscura meets Breeders – amazing kind of really intelligent, brilliant modern female perspective that both seduces and undermines at the same time; a really tough slant.”
Toronto’s Alvvays have announced ‘Party Police’ as the next single from their self-titled album,
One of the most reflective tracks from their acclaimed debut, the rousing chorus of ‘Party Police’ has seen the track quickly become a live favourite in the indie-pop band’s set.
Alvvays return to the UK for a full European tour on 21st January. Having already sold out the London and Manchester dates of the run, the band recently announced new shows in those cities for September 2015. Tickets are available now.
ALVVAYS – ” Adult Diversion ” Best Albums Of 2014
Posted: December 7, 2014 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Adult Diversion, Alvvays, Best albums of 2014, Canadian. Toronto
Alvvays are a Canadian Band with one of 2014 best pop records, with its gorgeous sunny weather feel and jangle guitar, the eponymous debut album from Canadian indie band Alvvays (don’t be fooled, you just pronounce it as Always) is full of C86-sounding jangles and emotional hooks. a particularly poppy and energetic sound, they’re the perfect antidote to the miserable weather outside. There’s a real air of Camera Obscura and to some extent She & Him about Alvvays and there’s no doubt in my mind that these guys will soon emerge from the underground.”
The lenses in their glasses are real, they know who all the bands pictured on their Tumblr actually are, and they have made one of the most jangle-filled and impressive debut albums of 2014 so far. The band started as a solo project for Molly Rankin, the daughter of famous Celtic musician John Morris Rankin, who died in a road accident when Molly was just 12 years old. But Alvvays don’t focus on the morbid; instead they offer a diary-like insight into their lives. “Alcoholism, depression and parties and relationships seem to always exist in whatever I write,” Rankin said in a recent interview. After picking up Molly’s best friend, keys player and childhood neighbour Kerri Maclellan plus bandmates Alec O’Hanley, Brian Murphy and Phil MacIsaac along the way, the Toronto group worked on their debut album with Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh and producer John Agnello as well as fellow Canadian Chad VanGaalen at his excellently named Yoko Eno studio in Calgary. Together they elicit the twinkly thrills of C86-era indie, The Magnetic Fields, Pavement or, if you prefer, Best Coast. The band Alvvays most often resemble, however, is 4AD’s Camera Obscura. ‘Archie, Marry Me’ is by far the best song on this album – a bona fide hit
It’s full of sun-bleached summer jams like ‘Adult Diversion’, a tale of obsessively following a loved one from afar, and the Phil Spector-esque ‘Party Police’. The spectral ‘Red Planet’ concludes the album with the sound of waves lapping against the shore, set against a woozy synthesizer as Rankin sings, “I waited out here for you, but that was just delusional.” It’s a stunning end to a great debut record laced with melancholy and beautiful moments.
ALVVAYS – ” Adult Diversion “
Posted: December 4, 2014 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Alvvays, Canada, Molly Rankin
Alvvays self-titled debut album arrived in a blur of hype, for whatever reason they were accepted by certain incredibly hip corners of the world as the saviours of guitar music. They should by all accounts have had no chance at breaking through into mainstream success, but on this short but perfectly formed collections of songs they not only lived up to expectations, but blew them out of the water.
The Canadian five-piece, fronted by the stunning voice and superb lyrics of Molly Rankin, crashed through thirty-three minutes of stunning pop-songs, not least the best single of the year “Archie, Marry Me”. Three minutes of reverb heavy guitars, tumbling bass and Molly pleading with her loved one to forget all the nonsense that goes with it and just marry her for the old fashioned reason of being hopelessly in love…it’s perfect!
Musically accomplished, lyrically intriguing, wonderfully produced and perfectly paced, if you thought there wasn’t any more room in the market for another great pop-tinged guitar band, one listen to this stunning album will change your mind.
ALVVAYS – ” Archie Marry Me “
Posted: April 25, 2014 in MUSICTags: Adult Diversion, Alvvays, Archie Marry Me, Toronto
Alvvays with a great first single“Adult Diversion” this is the follow up and even better than the first song from Alvvays the Toronto based power pop quintet, rapid reverbed jangly guitars aplenty, Beneath the fuzztone guitars and Molly Rankin’s sadsack vocals on what sound at first like straightforward indie-pop tunes beats a droll heart shot through with a subversive streak. Rankin strikes an impressive balance in her lyrics between lovelorn woe and deadpan wit, tackling 20-something romantic angst with a sly wisdom well beyond her (and, frankly, most people’s) years. She and her band of Toronto transplants draw on the wistful, plaintive sound of mid-’80s British indie-pop—jangling guitars, swirls of atmospheric keyboards
The Fat Angel Sings 