The Weather Station – project of Tamara Lindeman – marks her bold return with a new single “Robber”, featured here on a limited edition 7 inch, together with B-side “Better Now”, which is exclusive to this vinyl single. The 7 inch is out now on Fat Possum Records and Outside Music.
Recorded in at Canterbury Studios in Toronto in Spring 2019. Featuring musicians Kieran Adams, Philippe Melanson, Marcus Paquin, Johnny Spence, Brodie West, Ben Whiteley, and Tamara Lindeman.
The first music from The Weather Station since the critically acclaimed S/T album in 2017, Robber marks a bold shift in sound and tone for songwriter Tamara Lindeman. With jagged saxophone and percussive complexity, the track builds slowly over the course of five minutes, see-sawing between order and chaos.
“I think in my life I’ve been pretty naive, always tried to see the good in everyone (still do), always tried to make do with what is and not think of what can’t be (still do),” says Lindeman. “But those attitudes are dangerous when applied at a societal level, especially at this moment in time. I think we’re all in denial a bit, about where we are, and what is happening, because it’s easier on some level, easier to try and make do with what’s missing than to see what’s missing. I think it’s hard to believe in the robber, hard to even see the robber; it’s easier to try and make love to or glamourize the robber. It hurts too much otherwise. To put it straight; there are real human people who are literally robbing us and all future generations of all of everything that matters, right now. But we literally can’t see that as a society, because for one thing we’ve been taught not to value what is taken, and for another because we’ve been taught to glamourize and love the taker. We love to love the taker. We don’t know how to see the victim of the taking.”
Oh brother, Toronto’s finest return with the darker, maladjusted nephew of last year’s Morbid Stuff… “This Place Sucks Ass”. Including a mother of a cover of Grandaddy’s “A.M. 180” alongside five other anxious, bitter and angry classics, this record sure ain’t for mom and dad.
Our NC exclusive version of “This Place Sucks Ass” is pressed on White, Orange and Green Swirl Vinyl, in a limited edition of 600 pieces
“This Place Sucks Ass” EP. October 23rd. Yes, that’s a real title. Yes, it started as a joke that felt like it came true. No matter where you live or what your circumstances, this EP is about the place you are from & the place you are at now. Because both of those places suck ass. New song “Rot” out now. thisplacesucksass.com
The EP features three songs from the Morbid Stuff sessions, two covers, and then a brand new track that is single “Rot,” which was written and recorded this year. “Rot” features that super-charged punk / power pop sound that the band has fully made into their own, on full display with all of the chaos that this year has brought.
You can pre-order it right now! Bundles include t-shirts, sweatpants, totes, colour your own vinyl variants and “This Place Sucks Ass” pencil crayons. The EP art was designed by our pal Brandon Lepine. We also have the vinyl as an animated picture disc!.
To celebrate the EP release, we are doing our first ever livestream show on October 23rd. The show will be called “THIS STREAM SUCKS ASS – THE PUPTHEBAND LIVESTREAM EXPERIENCE” & it will be broadcast live from Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto. Directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux.
We are eternally grateful for any & all support. We hope this music finds you safe, as healthy as you can be, and committed to the fight for social justice. We’ll see you out on the road as soon as it’s safe for us all to be together again!
Hannah Georgas has a seemingly endless capacity for crafting textured pop songs. Since her debut, the Toronto-based musician has won numerous awards and racked up multiple nominations, including four JUNO nods, for everything from Best New Artist to Songwriter of the Year.
Masterfully produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner, this has all the hallmarks of a breakthrough album, as melding electronics and acoustics frolic about Hannah’s spellbinding vocals.
The eagerly anticipated follow-up production to the work that Dessner did on Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’, ‘all that emotion’ comprises deeply personal songs reckoning with the past, set in a warm, enveloping sound world with lyrical themes of change and resilience. for fans of Eve Owen, Feist, Phoebe Bridgers, Daughter and the National. “… sparse, staggering… [Aaron Dessner’s] immersive production, including layered keyboards and twinkling harmonics, pairs perfectly with her elegant voice” – uncut.
we’re equally enamoured with Hannah Georgas’ soon-to-be-breakthrough fourth album. with studio controls helmed by the National’s Aaron Dessner, who recently gave Taylor Swift’s latest album an extra shot of pizzazz, delicate acoustic instrumentation nuzzles up to magical electronics as they bear witness to Hannah’s emotionally charged vocal performance.
With a name that sounds like a remote village in Sweden, Westelaken are actually a quartet from Toronto, Ontario. Having first emerged back in 2018, with their self-titled debut, the band have had a productive 2020, releasing a split-EP with fellow Torontonians Hobby, as well as one of their own, The Pool of Blood. While that record only arrived last month, the band have wasted no time in following up with their most impressive step to date, brand-new album, The Golden Days are Hard, ten songs that show both the variety and quality of Westelaken’s songwriting.
In some ways, Westelaken could be pinned as an alt-country band, yet they’re not one that fall neatly into any particular box. Across the ten tracks they span influences and genres, from the Neutral Milk Hotel-like opening track, The January Song, through to the title track, a 10-minute opus, which combines the emotional vocals of Daniel Johnston with the bar-room balladry of Kyle Craft. Lyrically too, The Golden Days are Hard is a record that explores the layered emotions of modern living, an album laced with fear, resignation and just a touch of hope, it muses on topics of death, friendship, and finding the kindness that’s still left in humanity. While it could have been a heavy record, The Golden Days are Hard manages to portray a brightness that’s beyond its themes, it sounds like a bold next step, from a band whose talent could take them anywhere.
here’s an album what’s got ten types of songs.
The January Song, that’s a country-lobster city-lobster type song.
The April Song, dying type of song.
Grace, that’s a dying and living type song.
Mercy, “milk-of-human-kindness”, that’s an eye-of-the-dog, three-types-of-souls type song.
The Pool of Blood is a two paths type of song and The August Song is a one path type of song.
White Lichen, that’s a “you break it you buy it” type song.
The October Song, that’s a “you bought a ghost story and there are no refunds” type song.
Ghosts Explode, that’s a living and dying and worship the sun type song.
The Golden Days are Hard, now that’s a you-know-me-better-than-I-know-myself type of reckoning type song.
there are several additional type songs that these ten pick up here and there like stray radio signals ricocheting off street lamps and open palms and little rocks collected between the sidewalk and the yard. feel free to take note of ’em but a comprehensive list won’t be much more useful than the one we’ve got here anyhow.
Westelaken is Alex Baigent – electric bass, upright bass, synth on track 1, backing vocals (all over the place but most prominently in tracks 1 and 9) Rob McLay – percussion, synth on track 10, backing vocals (including harmonies on tracks 1 and 8) Jordan Seccareccia – guitars, vocals Lucas Temor – piano, banjo, backing vocals
with
Paul Vroom – “organ” on track 3, backing vocals
Rachel Bellone – vocals on track 3
and Slurry (Rachel Bellone, Tago Mago, Patrick McKenna, Steven Lourenco) on group vocals
Dana Gavanski has had something of a break-out year in 2020, her debut, Dana Gavanski has had something of a break-out year in 2020, her debut, Yesterday Is Gone, drew widespread acclaim following its release back in March. By all rights, Dana should currently be touring the album far and wide, however with those plans now on hold until 2021, she is finding new ways to share her music with the world. Her latest project is a brand new covers EP, “Wind Songs”, due out next month, and this week Dana has shared the latest single from it, her cover of Chic’s track, At Last I Am Free.
This period of enforced isolation came at a particularly odd time for Dana, not only was it meant to be a triumphant moment, marking her album’s release, it also came shortly after relocating to London. Channelling this isolation into something positive, “Wind Songs” arrives as a comforting draft of familiarity, by tapping into some of her favourite songs, Dana taps into a wider love of music, and its ability to root us. Take, At Last I Am Free, it is a track Dana only discovered in the last year, yet takes a special place with her, not least for Robert Wyatt’s beautifully odd rendition of the song which, “blows my mind, with his bizarre but amazing vocals and arrangement: that soft and gentle mellotron flute that pushes the song along coupled with his shrill wizardly voice“. Dana’s own take is led by her crystalline vocal, shimmering atop a warble of electronic keys and pulses of rhythmic piano. Wind Songs feels like a beautiful aside, a look at the songs that made Dana Gavanski the fascinating musician she is, and hint at just how much more there is still to come from her.
Toronto indie-punk trio Tough Age have shared their new album “Which Way Am I?” ,via Mint Records, following singles “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away,” and “Repose.”Which Way Am I? is the follow-up to 2017’s Shame. Taking cues from Flying Nun indie-pop and speedy ’80s punk, “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away” is the sound of melancholy whiplash. It’s part happy-go-lucky breeziness and part painful self-destruction, and either way, it’ll get you all riled up.
Like most of their crate-digging contemporaries, the new record explores all kinds of new directions, experimenting in different areas of post-punk while implicitly nodding to the pocket-sized punk of Dirtnap Records .
The first single the group is called “Repose,” and while it is one of the record’s sleepier cuts, it’s by no means tame. Clark takes on vocals for this song—as she does with many of tracks—before the five-minute track gives way to a sprawling John Dwyer–like guitar odyssey. “‘Repose’ is me trying to write a song about peaceful things after all of my misery songs on the previous record and 7″,” she shares. “I had mixed success in achieving my goal. I always write the melody first and then I decide what I want the song to be about, and then I write the words (sometimes words slip in during the melody part and then I have to write around them). To me, ‘Repose’ sounded like a calm and solitary night, so everything in that song happens at night.”
“I wrote the music for ‘Repose’ one morning when I should have already left for work,” Samson adds. “It came very quickly (but not quickly enough to avoid being late), but didn’t feel like something I could write a melody for. We practiced the song without Penny singing, so the first time we heard her vocals were live in the studio as she recorded them, and Jesse and I both were stunned. It felt like a real left turn for Penny, and I think shows the depths of talent she sort of just tucks away and dishes out when she feels you’ve earned a piece of it.”
Tough Age – “My Life’s a Joke & I’m Throwing it Away” From the album ‘Which Way Am I?’ out on Mint Records released on August 7th, 2020
It’s going to be clear to you and everyone else at the party that the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes discography could more than suffice for a day full of blowing up stuff. But in case you’re looking for some more recent bratty punk and some original songs, Pup’s newest album, 2016’s The Dream is Over, can freshen up your punk rock playlist.
The Toronto four-piece makes it look effortless as they turn songs about wanting to kill your buddies into shout-along anthems. The album title comes from a phrase the lead singer Stefan Babcock’s doctor used after Babcock actually shredded his vocal cords. So on a holiday when accidentally killing your friends is a real possibility and screaming is a must if you want to be heard, this record seems appropriate.
PUP’s ability to channel anxiety, depression, and generalized misanthropy into pummeling pop-punk hooks is an endlessly renewable resource. The band is also a good enough live act to justify the fact that half their lyrics seem to be about the exhaustion of touring. In 2019, the Canadian quartet followed up 2016 breakthrough The Dream Is Over with the equally great — and equally antisocial — Morbid Stuff. It helps that lead singer Stefan Babcock is one of punk’s great chroniclers of malcontent, even, and especially when he leans on self-deprecation: “Half the crap I say is just things I’ve stolen from the bathroom walls of shitty venues across America,” he snarls in “Full Blown Meltdown.”
For the past six years, Toronto’s experimental pop mutineers, Jaunt, have been working on and anticipating the release of their first album, All In One. The band, which features several of the city’s well-avowed musicians, created a richly imagined, fully developed project which is emblematic of Jaunt’s realized sound and spirit — a kind of bright generativeness, which came from a wide rolodex of influences, pleasantly ranging from hip-hop to new-age.
With two EPs under their belts over the past four years, Jaunt‘s “All In One” the Toronto experimental pop band’s first full-length — is the fruit of years of labour and it shows in the tightness and completeness of each track.
With the help of co-producer Alex Sowinski of BADBADNOTGOOD, the band are united in their ability to create so many moving parts and countermelodies while maintaining focus on one lead expression throughout each track. Jaunt’s ability to replace the hegemonic idea of lead guitar with a variety of acoustic piano licks is refreshing and allows the guitars to shine in a more rhythmic role.
This move can be tricky, but Jaunt introduce subtle hooks that keep the listener up to speed with the progressions of each composition, like in second track “Nostalgia for the Present Moment,” which features catchy, cutting piano melodies throughout the composition. The harsh upper register of an old piano dangles over the vocal melodies in contrast to the smoothly chorused synths that melt to fill the spaces in-between.
Our debut album ‘All in One’ is out everywhere today! We’re beyond thankful for everyone who helped shape the record in some way or another over the last few years. Despite the strange moment we’re currently collectively experiencing, it feels important for us to release this music now. It was a labour of love, and I feel the music reflects a sense of optimism and positivity that’s good for all of us!
Thanks for being here, The Band: Pat, Caitlin, Daniel, Duncan, Nick & Tom
Two dollars from each record purchased will be given to Black Women in Motion, a “Toronto-based, youth-led organization that empowers and supports the advancement of Black woman and survivors of sexual violence.” Jaunt will match all proceeds/gross sales up to $5000 CAD.
The Debut Full-Length Record from the Toronto Experimental Pop Group Jaunt. On Exclusive Light Blue Vinyl
METZ have released a new single entitled “A Boat To Drown In”, taken from their forthcoming album, “Atlas Vending”, due out 9th October.
Atlas Vending comes as the Toronto noise-rock trio’s fourth studio album, following 2017’s Strange Peace, which was recorded with revered engineer Steve Albini. The upcoming release was co-produced by Uniform’s Ben Greenburg and was engineered by Seth Manchester at Pawtucket, Rhode Island studio Machines With Magnets. Released alongside A Boat To Drown In was a music video directed by Tony Wolski.
Speaking of Metz’s upcoming release, guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins explained in a press release that the band’s goal when approaching their fourth release was to “remain in flux” and “grow in a natural and gradual way”. “Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” Edkins said. “We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not [to be] satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ‘90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers. but there was never a moment where Metz sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth. If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, Metz not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth. Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offer a snapshot of today’s modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole.
Sub Pop Records, the band’s record label, noted that Atlas Vending will mark a change from the band’s previous releases, describing the record as METZ’s most “dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career”.
“While past METZ albums thrived on an abrasive relentlessness, the trio embarked on Atlas Vending with the goal to make a more patient and honest record – something that invited repeated listens rather than a few exhilarating bludgeonings.” “It’s as if the band realised they were in it for the long haul, and their music could serve as a constant as they navigated life’s trials and tribulations.”
“Atlas Vending” by METZ on Sub Pop Records released 9th October
Psych rock is having a moment, and with it brings tons of new bands trying to sound like Tame Impala and Ty Segall. Mother Tongues, meanwhile, draws on a vast range of influences, from krautrock keyboards to theatrical guitar solos amid clean instrumentation, for a sound wholly their own. Debut EP Everything You Wanted is due July 31st on Buzz Records.
Finally! After many revolutions around the sun, Mother Tongues have announced their debut EP , “Everything You Wanted” (out 07/31) and shared psych opus, “Let You Down” that explores themes of mysticism, free will, and romance.
Mother Tongues harks back to a time when music and mysticism were entwined, carrying on the canon of psychedelic music that came before them, taking things somewhere new and unexplored. A link to the past, a glimpse into the future. The group has been a prominent part of the Toronto music scene for the last 5 years. Members Lukas Cheung, Charise Aragoza, KonradKarczewski, Nick Kervin , Hannah Bussiere Kim were brought together through a mutual love of everything from 60s french pop, to break beats, kraut rock, shoegaze and film scores. With an equal embrace of pop sensibilities and the experimental, the group has come into ah an inventive new sound reflective of their eclectic palette. They have toured the U.S and Canada, sharing the stage with notable artists such as Dilly Dally, Fucked Up, U.S Girls, The Mattson Two, The Sadies, Doldrums, Moonking, and Yves Jarvis. They have played festivals and showcases that include Night Owl Fest, River & Sky, Transmit Fest, NXNE, CMW, Bloor West Fest, SWIFF, Exclaim’s Class Of series, Long Winter, Crystal Lake, and Hollowfest.
The group’s performances are an explosive experience that pulls the audience in with metronomic kraut rhythms, they weave in and out of different genres and spaces seamlessly. Serene moments of lush shoegaze drones contrasted with punishing breakdowns. Comparisons have been made to Stereolab, Broadcast, CAN, and The Flaming Lips. “Everything You Wanted” is the debut release from Toronto based Mother Tongues. On the sound of Mother Tongues, Cheung the founding member of the group states, “We’re always striving to create an atmosphere, It should feel like a space, real, or imagined. Music has always had that power over me, to take me somewhere glamorous and grand or stark and uncomfortable; it transports you. It can grant you access to all these impossible spaces, it’s like you can strum two chords and all of a sudden you’re in a new room, a different era.”
At the same time the songs off “Everything You Wanted” are a reflection of a very real community. A blossoming psychedelic music scene in Toronto. The set of songs have grown and gone through countless revisions through 5 years of live shows. They’ve been informed by audiences, and other bands. “It’s really full circle that these songs I wrote in an apartment as a form of escapism have cultivated such a rich community, it’s made us friends around the world and given us the opportunity to tour and travel.”
The group covers a lot of ground, from the single “Let You Down” that starts as a fast paced pop song soaked in nostalgia then weaves into counterpoint guitar parts reminiscent of Phillip Glass and ends in a cacophony of swirling, phasing guitars . The title track where walls of shoe-gazey guitars lay the bedwork under musings of “too much excitement for me”. Grooves and a thumping baseline that brings to mind influences like Stereolab, sit seamlessly next to Sabbath worthy fuzz lines in the song “Fortunes”. Metronomic Kraut rhythms disintegrate into doom metal breakdowns in the 7 minute epic “Eternity”. “We’re music lovers and that’s who we made this record for, it’s our compass and the catalyst for everyone and everything near and dear to us. More than anything I hope the record expresses a sense of wonder to the listener. I think we downplay that aspect, you’re rippin’ it through a fuzz pedal, vibrating frequencies in the air and affecting people’s emotions, changing their brain chemistry. That’s magic.”
Mother Tongues’ debut EP, Everything You Wanted, arrives on July 31st 2020.
The Fat Angel Sings 