The Arkells hail from Hamilton in Canada they have been together since 2008, Arkells met in school. They are a critically acclaimed rock n roll band, known for their classic songwriting, electric live shows, and workman like touring ethic.
Jackson Square, the band’s first full length LP was released in 2008 to critical and commercial acclaim, garnering the Juno Award for New Group Of The Year in 2010. In 2011, they released Michigan Left, a collection of blue-eyed soul, sing-a-long anthems. In 2012 they won the Juno Award For Group Of The Year, and the CBC Music award for Best Live Band.
Arkells have toured with acts such as Metric, The Tragically Hip, Tokyo Police Club, British Sea Power, Anti-Flag, The Black Crowes.
Their new album, High Noon, was written in Hamilton and produced by Tony Hoffer (Beck, The Kooks, M83). These collection of songs are the band’s most unabashed effort yet – politically charged, heart on your sleeve lyrics combined with adventurously modern and throwback production stylings.
Major Bands in Canada don’t always translate across to the Southern border into America just think of the great band The Tragically Hip. But with “Leave No Bridge Unburned” , their third album as Whitehorse, the married singer-songwriters and ace guitarists Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland are poised for a major breakthrough. Expanding its tense, focused, sexy sound to make room for desert twang and rockabilly hijinks, Whitehorse lends more drama to its compact tales of romance and risk. Spooky entreaties like “The One I Hurt” and first single “Sweet Disaster” would fit right in on the soundtrack to Season Two of the drama TV series like True Detective. Every year needs some noir, and Whitehorse brings it. Next release: “Leave No Bridge Unburned” will be out on Feb. 17th 2015.
From start to finish, Solids’ Blame Confusion is just one lo-fi indie rock gem after another. It seems unlikely that I’ll ever tire of the album. Formed by Xavier Germain-Poitras (guitar) and Louis Guillemette (drums), the lo-fi rock duo that is Montreal’s Solids don’t hide their grunge influences. They also understand, as Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, or early Silver Jews and the mirage of predecessors to their sound did, that sometimes a melody is sweeter and sometimes it really does have to fight hard (really hard – like a Balboa punching pork montage hard). But if you’re willing to put your ears to the test, “Blame Confusion” never fails to reward.
The layers of distortion and feedback effects of their particular take on grunge-hued rock that makes it so great.
Kicking off this orgy of decibels, “Blame Confusion” starts with “Over The Sirens”, which begins with a growing crescendo of feedback and distortion until a fuzzed out bluesy guitar lick and drum cacophony ensues. The track also includes indecipherable yelps from Germain-Poitras and an incinerating, “Off White” offers much the same and holds yet more similarities to Dinosaur Jr – screeching solos, whining, despondent vocals and the ever present fuzz of lo-fi recording. Lead track “Haze Away” throws up one of the many contagious choruses to the record, with howls of “Take my haze away!” inherent through its mid-section. “Laisser Faire” shows a more sombre hue to the band’s complexion, and contains the only visible reference to their French-Canadian background. At the record’s close, “Terminal” again shows a slower, more melancholic counterpoint to the previous squall of high octane grunge.
Solids do not know any other way of making music apart from going all out – and I am so glad that they do. Although they bring precious little new to the table, they have mastered the art of hiding beautiful melody under layers of glorious distortion.
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.
A small compilation of the Springsteen show in Vancouver
Want to follow a band on tour but don’t feel like sleeping in a van?
With our debut of July Talk’s six-part video series, From the Road, you can party onstage, backstage, and en route without actually leaving home.
Live vicariously through the gritty-yet-polished July Talk, a Toronto-based garage rock/alt-blues group whose current tour is being intimately documented by filmmaker Jared Raab via high-contrast, monochrome footage.
The first chapter trails the five-piece outfit as their high-energy act makes waves through North America. “This is a song about losing your goddamn mind!” shouts Leah Fay, one half of the group’s lead vocals, as they start in with their rock n’ roll theatrics once again.
Over the past year, our lives have been repeatedly turned upside down, as we’ve crisscrossed the globe in a tour van. July Talk – From the Road was born out of a necessity to share some of these experiences. We convinced our talented friend, filmmaker Jared Raab, to come with us and direct, shoot and edit a video series in the backseat of the van as we drive.
Chapter One follows us through the first leg of our North American tour. Detroit gets messy. Chicago is Leah’s kind of town and 1st Avenue, Minneapolis lives up to its name.
A follow-up to the series debut, the second of July Talk’s cathartically entertaining six-chapter video From the Road follows the band back to their homeland of Canada where they perform five shows, each to a sold-out crowd.
The band’s guitarist and vocalist Peter Dreimanis tells us more about playing various stages across the Canadian Prairies:
My birthday is the first in Winnipeg, which got nice and messy with one of our favorite tour parties to date. We head to my hometown of Edmonton for two shows at The Starlite and the best/worst pizza in the country. We head through Calgary and over the mountains to finish at the incredible Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver!
Filmmaker Jared Raab had this to say about the second installment:
Remember in Grosse Pointe Blank when John Cusack returns to his hometown for a high-school reunion and ends up having to save the father of his long lost love? Well, this chapter is exactly like that, only it’s a huge party in Winnipeg for Pete’s birthday. Everyone goes a little nuts and it leads to some deep introspection as the band crosses the prairies.
July Talk is a Canadian blues\alternative rock band formed in 2012 in Toronto. The band consists of singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, this is a really nice cover of a Wilco song with Peter’s raspy Vocal, the rest of the band are guitarist Ian Docherty, bassist Josh Warburton and drummer Danny Miles.
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