Plastic Harpoons Modern World Lolipop Records You can call it Americana, or Americana-infused rock, after all, that sound these days encompasses so many things, it is turning into an ever-widening category. Whatever the case, the only [...]
MR. STRANGE, WE’VE GOT A THING A CONVERSATION WITH JENN VIX Jenn Vix is an artist that has covered quite a number of genres in her music, and possibly she just might be a fan of The Grateful Dead too. Yet, whether that is the case or not, one of [...]
Various Artists Ain’t Nothing But A House Party – 60’s And Early 70’s Club Soul Classics Cherry Red Records It just might be a mistake to name the popularity of 60s and early 70s soul a ‘soul revival.’ The [...]
Various Artists Deep In The Woods: Pastoral Psychedelia & Funky Folk 1968-1975 Cherry Red Records Cherry Red is one of those record labels renowned around the world for their practically immaculate reissue series, particularly when it comes [...]
Rising Appalachia Live From New Orleans At Preservation Hall Independent Sisters Chloe and Leah Smith who are the leading lights behind Rising Appalachia, Americana independents that were able to garner quite a following outside the mainstream [...]
Quadeca I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You Dead Air Records Working within, or trying to revive, if you will, a genre many consider dead and buried can be quite a serious obstacle for an artist, renowned or not so renowned. Sticking to a concept [...]
Jackson Mico Milas Blu Terra Apollo Records At some point, all that you have done before, all the experience you have gained the way you have evolved as an artist, should come to fruition at some point. Of course, if there is a modicum of talent [...]
Chris Cleverley Broadcast The Secret Verse Independent The times when singer songwriters would limit themselves to a single acoustic instrument and vocals and lyrics that were only talking about their hurt feelings are still here (well, a little [...]
Tenci A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing Keeled Scales Whenever you encounter an artist or a band you did not have a chance to hear before, the first thing you do is try and make a comparison – who do they sound like, or to whom you can [...]
Tod Lippy Closer Than They Appear Independent There are two basic criteria to judge a covers album. One is the choice of the covers, the other is the way they are (re)interpreted and/or re-imagined. And usually each of those is usually quite [...]
Jason Collett Head Full Of Wonder Arts & Crafts Whether it was his work with Broken Social Scene or solo, Jason Collett was never an artist who stood still. He always left his fans wondering what he’s going to do next. So, not to leave [...]
Various Artists Brown Acid: The Fifteenth Trip RidingEasy Records “The Beat Goes On”, title of one of the two best songs Sonny & Cher recorded together, kind of stuck beyond the song itself, and it seems it is something that can [...]
Dan Mangan Being Somewhere Arts & Crafts Ok, so there are certain canons and formulas for any musical genre, and that includes folk music as the domain of singer songwriters, where you don’t go further than mid-tempo and favor your [...]
Alex Roberts Love & Supernatural Mottow Soundz When some artists come up with anniversary editions, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the initial release was an enormous success with the audience. Quite often, they want to bring to the [...]
Robyn Hitchcock Shufflemania! Tiny Ghost Records Robyn Hitchcock is often dubbed as ‘the modern day Syd Barrett’. Ok, the comparisons can be made, with Hitchcock’s penchant for all things psych and left-left-field lyrics, yet [...]
Christopher Ward Spark Of Desire Warner Music Canada Back in 1978 when this album was first released, baroque pop was something of a dirty word. It was all either punk (the hardcore stuff first) or commercial versions of hard rock/heavy metal. [...]
Sloan Steady Murderecords/Universal Music If currently there is a band/artist that is truly keeping the flame of power pop burning, not just in Canada but around the world, it is Toronto via Halifax magicians Sloan. Steady, their latest album, [...]
Mal Continuous Short Feature Film Pirate! If you think the title Continuous Short Feature Film by Los Angeles musician/visual artist Mal (they) has a deeper meaning, it certainly does. Yet, it also actually refers to a continuous short, 20-min [...]
Eliza Edens We’ll Become The Flowers Independent Since Nick Drake’s enigmatic artistic figure left us too early, many other singer/songwriters, both male and female, were compared to his entirely individual musical and lyrical [...]
Stephen Becker A Calm That Shifts NNA Tapes Sometimes, artists hit it right on the nose when they come up with an album title, but often that is not the case, particularly when debut albums are concerned. Yet, here is a debut album that does [...]
Barrett Davis The Ballad Of Aesop Fin Independent Being an artist that wants to explore all the aspects of a certain genre that very often operates within strict rules and music formulas can be a tall order even for seasoned musicians, let alone [...]
Ev Bird Puff Piece Royal Mountain Records If you are an artist/musician based in Montreal, you may be tempted to retreat indoors when the winter takes its hold. One of those is take an extensive listen to your record collection, something that [...]
Various Artists Listen To The Red Rock Vast Horizons Music Inc. Gigi Love, the key artist behind this compilation, is from Utah herself, so it is no wonder that she knows exactly why she needed to organize a group of like-minded artists to [...]
Chico Romano Vol. 5 Ramp Local It seems to be a fact that artists who change their monikers once in a while have very wide musical taste and interests, and want to keep those tastes and interests distinct. Yet, very often, thy merge and seep [...]
