Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’

GRIZZLY COAST – ” Forever “

Posted: April 6, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Grizzly Coast is the musical project of Toronto based indie-rock musician Alannah Kavanagh.

Dreamy guitar rock sensibilities combined with thoughtful lyricism evokes the feelings of longing and loneliness that you experience when you know you’re on the cusp of the end of a relationship. “Forever” is dynamic in its soundscape with an eclectic melody and powerful vocals. From the imaginative, yet highly-analytical mind of Alannah Kavanagh comes Grizzly Coast, the Toronto-based indie rock project with heavy-hitting instrumentation that tears up the stage and heavy-lifting lyrical narratives that compel you to think deeper.

Formerly performing as an acoustic singer-songwriter, Grizzly Coast wears her expansion into full-band territory well, having toured her powerful and effervescent live show throughout Ontario and Alberta, including opening slots for Fast Romantics, Begonia, and Exclaim! magazine’s Class of 2020. Grizzly Coast blends her trademark thoughtful lyricism with dreamy guitar rock sensibilities on her singles Half-Light Boy and High-Functioning, and is releasing her debut EP this spring.

Band Members
Alannah Kavanagh – Vocals, guitar, keys
Jacqueline Tucci – Guitar
Pavel Soltys – Bass
Dakota Wotton- Drums

KIWI Jnr – ” Football Money “

Posted: March 9, 2020 in MUSIC
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You may not know Kiwi Jr., but you’re probably more than familiar with the sensations their music brings about. They might sound like all your favorite 1990s and 2010s indie bands, but you really can’t beat guitar-pop if they’ve got the gratifying hooks—and Kiwi Jr. deliver those goods and more. Their debut album, Football Money, is lyrically amusing and melodically euphoric—what more could you want from a band like this?

Just when you think you have heard every catchy hook laden song in pop history and believe there is nothing left in the tank in 2020 songs burn bright and all sparkly on tracks that make the hairs on the top of your ears reverberate like antennas.”.

Toronto’s Kiwi Jr. are probably sick of Pavement comparisons at this point, but it’s hard to listen to their excellent 2019 album, “Football Money”, and not think of Stephen Malkmus’ old band at least a little, given the slacker pop jams and singer/guitarist Jeremy Gaudet attitude-heavy delivery. But Kiwi Jr. bring to the proceedings their own bouncy pop style, more than a little Britpop flair, and style (and hooks) for miles and miles. Having just given Football Money a U.S. release in January.

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The Band

Brohan Moore: Drums, Backing Vocals
Brian Murphy: Guitars, Backing Vocals
Jeremy Gaudet: Vocals, Guitars, Keys
Mike Walker: Bass, Backing Vocals, Keys

Aaron Goldstein: Pedal Steel
Alec O’hanley: Backing Vocals, Keys
Hunk and Junk: Backing Vocals
Peter Rankin: Keys

‘Football Money’ LP out now via Persona Non Grata

DANA GAVANSKI – ” Yesterday Is Gone “

Posted: January 23, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Dana Gavanski by Tess Roby

Dana Gavanski today announces her debut album Yesterday Is Gone, out 27th March. To mark the announce, and following on from her BBC 6Music A-listed single ‘Catch’, Dana is sharing her new single ‘Good Instead of Bad’.

Speaking about the meaning of the song, Dana explains “it’s about reflecting on the end of a relationship and how quickly things change. The desire to make up for everything that wasn’t done or wasn’t done right. The muddiness of breaking up, and not knowing if it’s the right decision. Not saying the right things, not being able to express the complexity of what we’re feeling. Things change and that’s that – not being able to turn back and undo a bad move. It’s an attempt to see from the other’s perspective and understand how hard it is for them as well. Reflecting on the intractability of certain decisions.”

Yesterday Is Gone is a co-production between Dana, Toronto-based musician Sam Gleason, and Mike Lindsay of Tunng and LUMP. On the title track, Dana Gavanski sings ‘I’m learning how to say goodbye / to let you go and face the tide / to wrap my feelings in a song’. To wrap her feelings in a song: this is the task Dana has dedicated herself to with this record. By turns break-up album, project of curiosity, and, as Dana puts it, “a reckoning with myself”, Yesterday Is Gone is her attempt to “learn to say what I feel and feel what I say” – an album of longing and devotion to longing, and of the uncertainty that arises from learning about oneself, of pushing boundaries, falling hard, and getting back up.

“Often we have to go a little far in one direction to learn something about ourselves,” Dana says. The months of solitary writing and self-doubt testify to this, but they’ve led to Yesterday Is Gone: an optimistic, steely-eyed gaze into the future.

KIWI Jr – ” Football Money “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Ask a dozen people to define the term “indie rock” and you’ll probably get a dozen different answers that include word combinations like “Archers of Loaf” and “Foster the People” and “indie rock is dead” . Artist: Kiwi Jr. Album: Football Money. Football Money is a 10-track album that has been five years in the making. The album opens with the track “Murder In The Cathedral.” Right off , I knew this was going to be a different kind of album:

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As the term has evolved over the past few decades—from its origins denoting music released by an independent record label to a vague descriptor of a certain kind of sound—it’s no wonder the words have lost much of their meaning. Make no mistake, however: Kiwi Jr. is an indie rock band. You can hear evidence of that all over their fine debut album “Football Money”, which has been released worldwide by Mint Records. (It came out only in Canada last year.) Someday, other band names will disappear from Kiwi Jr.’s reviews as the quartet further develops its sound.

Football Money is evidence they’ve clearly got the ability and the point of view to do exactly that. Until then, they’re working from a world-class playbook.

Band Members:

Brohan Moore: Drums, Backing Vocals
Brian Murphy: Guitars, Backing Vocals
Jeremy Gaudet: Vocals, Guitars, Keys
Mike Walker: Bass, Backing Vocals, Keys

Aaron Goldstein: Pedal Steel
Alec O’hanley: Backing Vocals, Keys
Hunk and Junk: Backing Vocals
Peter Rankin: Keys

Kiwi Jr. – Salary Man From the LP “Football Money” available on Mint Records (Canada) Available everywhere Friday 1/17/20 via Persona Non Grata

GREYS – ” Age Hasn’t Spoiled You “

Posted: January 17, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Toronto punk quartet takes a giant leap forward on their second album, crafting noise rock that’s not just aggressive, but keenly self-aware. With an album in constant conflict with itself, Outer Heaven pairs the manic energy of punk with a probing intellect that reaches beyond the genre. Vocalist-guitarist Shehzaad Jiwani described the band’s sophomore effort as an attempt “to make the noise more melodic and the melodies more dissonant.” Over the course of just 10 songs, Greys oscillate between hard and soft, anxious and acerbic, but they never sound anything less than fully engaged.

Four years ago, I probably wouldn’t have included Toronto punk band Greys as a band I like. There were experimental inklings in their two 2016 releases, Warm Shadow and Outer Heaven, but they finally threw out the rulebook on their 2019 album Age Hasn’t Spoiled You. You’ll find noise-punk, post-rock, electronic and psychedelic drone wrapped up in a beautiful and shadowy package, but it’s not without moments of accessible anthemics either (“These Things Happen,” “Arc Light”).

It’s a dense listen that draws on everything from punk, noise and psych-pop to jazz, trip-hop and industrial. They sneak in unconventional influences in a way that doesn’t seem disjointed or immediately jarring. There’s a magnetic sprawl to this album, and each musical tangent is a new, charming landscape along a picturesque, spontaneous drive to nowhere in particular. Though that’s not to say this album is directionless. The driving seven-minute centerpiece, “Aphantasia,” holds the album together and seamlessly swings like a pendulum from one idea to the next.

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Maybe it’s obtuse to include a genre-defying album like this in a genre-specific list, but if the point of punk is to push boundaries and question conventional wisdom, then Age Hasn’t Spoiled You seems like a noble inclusion. Greys traverse new frontiers, musical guile that make this album an immensely stimulating one.

TALLIES – ” Tallies “

Posted: December 24, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The late 80’s and early 90’s were a huge influence for many new artists. But when they cite sounds from great artists like Johnny Marr, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, and the Beach Boys, you know they are on track to something great. Combining up-beat drum beats, melodic bass riffs, jingly guitar leads, and fluttery lighter-than-air vocals, Tallies gives out a soft, yet bouncy ray of sunshine not unlike The Sundays’ debut album Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Tallies bridges that long lost sound with yet a new and youthful take on something all their own.

Coming out of Toronto, this indie pop band recently formed this year by lead singer and guitarist Sarah Cogan and guitarist Dylan Franklin. With Cian O’Neill on drums and Stephen Pitman on bass they release their debut album via Kanine Records and Fear of Missing Out.

Jingly, jangly, and memorable, Tallies hit the mark and leave a lasting impression with their debut album.

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Band Members
Guitar/Vocals: Sarah Cogan
Guitar: Dylan Frankland
Bass: Patrick McCormack
Drums: Cian O’Neill
debut album from Toronto, Canada’s Indie pop. Memphis Industries Records.
released January 11, 2019

DUCKS UNLIMITED – ” Get Bleak “

Posted: December 8, 2019 in MUSIC
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It’s a shame Toronto-based quartet waited until the very end of November to release “Get Bleak”, an EP so perfectly suited for summer that it’s almost making me angry thinking about all of the rooftop parties and barbecues it could have sound tracked. A perfect combination of contemporary modern indie rock à la Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and classic jangle pop bands like Belle & Sebastian or The Sundays, the four songs on Get Bleak is pure indie-pop bliss, filled to the brim with warm, swirling guitars. Lead singer Tom Mcgreevy leads the way with his calming but sure-handed vocals, singing songs about hopelessness that sound anything but. Sure, the band called this release Get Bleak, but there’s no chance you’ll feel any of the emotions they sing about throughout these four tracks—in fact, you’ll feel the exact opposite.

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Get Bleak is the debut release of a band that has just achieved something that’s become increasingly rare in today’s rather finicky indie-rock community…There’s a reason the Toronto group has cut through on the first try, though—and you can quickly find out why by hitting play on the title track, which will jangle its way straight into your life,

PUP – ” See You At The Funeral “

Posted: November 8, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Taking the piss of Halloween themed TV specials, Toronto’s Pup present “Growing Up Ghouls”, aka their new visuals for ‘Morbid Stuff’ fave ‘See You At Your Funeral’.

Titled “Self Care: A Horror Story”, it follows different lols and spooky themed tricks to stop you from feeling heartbroken, including to exercise (your demons) and achieving inner peace. Easy, eh?

Taken from their third record ‘Morbid Stuff’, when we spoke to them back in April about the album, frontman Stefan Babcock explained of its origins: “I was bored as fuck, sitting around thinking about all this morbid stuff. Like if anyone I’ve slept with is dead and I got stuck on death and dying and obsessive thoughts that won’t let up […] I think that’s part of growing up and becoming more mature, realising that it’s just not gonna fucking work out. It’s just not going to. Being able to let go, for better or worse, makes it become a bit easier with each passing year.”

DUCKS UNLIMITED – ” Get Bleak (EP) “

Posted: September 19, 2019 in MUSIC
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Upcoming 4 song 7″ vinyl by one of the most promising indie pop bands. From Toronto (Canada) to the world through Bobo Integral Records. Enjoy!! .
The fabulously named, Ducks Unlimited, are a Toronto-based jangle-pop quartet, who’ve already shared stages with the likes of The Goon Sax, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Weyes Blood.You’re going to immediately fall in love with this band, especially if you’re a fan of acts like the aforementioned, The Go-Betweens, The Chills and all the 80’s jangle-pop of Flying Nun and Sarah Records: they operate with that similar approach, melding hook-laden melodic guitars and these casually indifferent vocal lines.

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“A cracking slice of strummy goodness” – Brooklyn Vegan
“A jaunty slice of C86 indie-pop” – Paste Magazine

releases November 29th, 2019

METZ – ” M​.​E. “

Posted: August 20, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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On July 12th, Sub Pop Records released “Automat”, a collection of METZ non-album singles, B-sides, and rarities dating back to 2009, available on LP for the first time, and including the band’s long out-of-print early (pre-Sub Pop) recordings. It’s a chronological trip through the lesser-known material of Metz, the widely-adored and delightfully noisy 3-piece punk band from Toronto, ON.

The vinyl LP format of Automat included an exclusive bonus 7” single of Metz interpretations of three diverse cover songs, a glimpse of their wide-ranging and excellent taste. And, on August. 20th these three bonus tracks will be available in digital services everywhere. Rejoice! And then also go listen to: a cover of Sparklehorse’s “Pig,” from a very limited 2012 Record Store Day split single originally released by Toronto’s Sonic Boom record shop; “I’m a Bug,” a cover of the Urinals’ art-punk classic, originally released on YouTube (not an actual record label) in 2014; and Metz’s previously unreleased rendition of Gary Numan’s “M.E.”

released August 20th, 2019,
2019 Sub Pop Records
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