A few months ago, the Toronto singer and sound manipulator Lydia Ainsworth released the lovely and cinematic debut album “Right From Real“. And now she’s the latest in a long line of indie types to cover Chris Isaak’s deathless 1989 torch song “Wicked Game.” Ainsworth has been doing the song live for a while, and now she’s shared a recorded version of it, which layers up her voice in subtle and effective ways. Her version is mostly just voice and piano, but it feels lush and finely orchestrated, mostly because of quiet production details that you might not consciously notice but which add to the feel of the thing.
Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’
LYDIA AINSWORTH – ” Wicked Games “
Posted: December 17, 2014 in MUSICTags: Composer, Lydia Ainsworth, Right From Real, Toronto
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The WOODEN SKY – ” Lets Be Ready “
Posted: December 16, 2014 in MUSICTags: Lets Be Ready, The Wooden Sky, Toronto
The past year was one of reinvention for the Wooden Sky. The Toronto roots-rockers ditched their label to start their own, switched up their lineup and, most noticeably, revamped their sound. While the band’s first three albums might have felt at home in a living room or the front of a church, “Let’s Be Ready” belongs in a rock club.
Of course, the Wooden Sky have been playing in those kinds of clubs all along, often re-imagining their folky, acoustic-led tunes as cathartic indie rock anthems in live settings. Their latest effort is the first to properly capture the powerful, ethereal energy that the five-piece conjures onstage in the process. You won’t find the raw energy of tracks like opener “Saturday Night,” the airy “Our Hearts Were Young” or uplifting “When The Day Is Fresh And The Light Is New” elsewhere in the band’s discography.
Nor will you find a sound quite like that of the Wooden Sky elsewhere in the scene. It wasn’t really begging to be reimagined — they were always masters of packaging terrific songwriting within a moody, atmospheric aesthetic — butLet’s Be Ready nevertheless took a chance, and it paid off in spades.
All it took was encouragement from one of the most courageous vocalists of the 20th century to get a New York University grad student (and Toronto native) to sing. Thus became Lydia Ainsworth, Joan La Barbara protégé, whose fractured-fairytale, electro-etched chamber music skirts, a widening chasm of unspeakable terror. Whether that chasm is an encroaching technological age or something way more personal, naming her influences and guessing at her fears aren’t fair ways to describe Ainsworth’s debut. Because the lush Right From Real is something altogether so much more immediate: pop with a perfectionist’s bent poised irrevocably on the cusp of a complete breakdown.
From first track “Candle,” in which a well-made bed of strings gives way to first Ainsworth’s confident voice and then the dissolution of the same—her harmonies faulting, flickering like the flame of the light source she names—through a bleeping choral séance “White Shadows”, unnerving hymns to robot religions “Malachite”, and certifiably radio-ready hits fringed with face-melting fog (“PSI”), Ainsworth’s first album is more than impressive, it’s impeccable. And it’s all there in the name: she pulls order from chaos; she extracts the “right” from the “real.” Not because she feels obliged to temper her more experimental tendencies with pop trappings, but because in the neatness of a traditionally minded song, the more unwieldy, destructive sentiments of her art burn ever fiercer. It is a fierce debut, after all, and being Lydia Ainsworth’s first, one wonders where she has to go from here. Like Grimes, who similarly found her voice on Montreal label Arbutus, Ainsworth’s gift for melody and effortless arrangements will undoubtedly mean bigger things. But if Right From Real’s tendencies are any sign, she’s heading face-first deeper into that chasm. Things are about to get really real.—
JENNIFER CASTLE – ” Pink City “
Posted: December 15, 2014 in MUSICTags: Owen Pallett. Jennifer Castle, singer songwriter, Toronto
Jennifer Castle – Pink City: Jennifer Castle crafted one of the more beautiful records of the year. Hailing from Toronto, her voice recalls the energy of Laurel Canyon like some 40-year-old folk record might. But “Pink City” is much more than a yesteryear retread. Gentle rolling guitar, Owen Pallett’s lush string arrangements and Jennifer Castle’s voice – an indefinable thing that is at once fragile, delicate and rugged – are just some of the elements that make up this collection of gorgeous, pastoral folk songs.
JULY TALK – ” From The Road “
Posted: November 29, 2014 in MUSICTags: Canada, Garage Rock, Indie. Rock, July Talk, Sleepless Records, Toronto
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 – ” Jesus Stopped The Train ” Wilco Cover
Posted: November 29, 2014 in MUSICTags: Canada, July Talk, Sleepless Records, Toronto, Wilco
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.
STARS – ” What Difference Does It Make ” Smiths Cover
Posted: November 17, 2014 in MUSICTags: Canada, Indie. Rock, Smiths, Stars, Toronto
Stars’ music has been described as “beautiful, eloquent indie pop”characterized by lush instrumentation, nimble production and mixing, narrative lyrics, and soft but nuanced vocals. The band’s style has evolved from an electronic-pop sound as heard on Nightsongs to more rock-based instrumentation on their following three full-length albums, reflecting the permanent additions of singer-guitarist Amy Millan and bassist Evan Cranley on Heart and eventually drummer Pat McGee on Set Yourself on Fire.
Performing at the CMJ week in New York City Dilly Dally from Toronto were one of the bands everyone wanted to see, so when they played early Friday they exceeded everyones expectations. Their sound is great Singer and guitarist Kate Monks has a voice that can turn to a roar at any given moment their sound is more mid tempo Indie rock but they are no slackers on stage clearly a band thats locked in and look like they no where they are going and the best way to get there. To date there has only been a couple of songs from Dilly Dally but if their set is anything to go by they have a pretty promising album.
DILLY DALLY – ” Candy Mountain “
Posted: November 3, 2014 in MUSICTags: Canadian, Dilly Dally, Fat Possum Records, Katie Monks, Rock, Toronto
The first thing you’ll notice about Dilly Dally is Katie Monk’s voice. Every word, every note is a battle to escape. Singing sounds excruciating, forcing all of the air out of her body in a violent trial by fire . Even when she takes a step back, she’s filled with an acerbic knowing: “She’s a really good friend,” Monks throws out in a casual aside before descending into another firing line of howls. She’s backed by murky grunge, a carefully constructed tidal wave of sound that ebbs and flows with her vocals. The Toronto four-piece has been taking things slow and methodically, just like their music — they’ve been around since 2009, but have only released some sound each one more precise than the last.
The Fat Angel Sings 