GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS CAUGHT LIGHT PHEROMONE RECORDINGS/HARBOUR SONGS INC. Yes, Great Lake Swimmers have been around for a while, and have a slew of recordings under their belt, but that is not the sole reason they are one of the greatest current [...]
LARKIN POE BLOOM + AN ACOUSTIC COMPANION VOL. II TRICKI-WOO RECORDS Rebecca and Megan Lovell (more professionally known as the duo, Larkin Poe) have become favourites for fans of blues and rock, even though they have had a relatively muted [...]
DAVID GARLAND THE SPARK INDEPENDENT Looking at the track records of many artists, it is no wonder anymore that some old hands keep on producing music at later stages in their life. Some keep making great music, some don’t, and others keep [...]
BADLANDS NOBODY DIES RITE Badlands is transboundary Swedish producer, composer, and sound designer Catharina Jaunviksna, who has so far released some quite intriguing albums, and her latest, Nobody Dies, is her fourth. So, what would that [...]
PURITY RING PURITY RING THE FELLOWSHIP MUSIC LABEL No, Purity Ring’s self-titled album is not the duo’s first, it is actually their fourth. There could be a variety of reasons why bands and artists come up with a self-titled album [...]
AFTERNOON BIKE RIDE RUNNING WITH SCISSORS FRIENDS OF FRIENDS MUSIC Another not so easy to define Montreal band, this time a trio that goes by the name of Afternoon Bike Ride. Their third full-length album, Running With Scissors, is more proof [...]
CUDDLE MAGIC UNDERWATER EGGHUNT RECORDS Is there such a thing as ambient folk or folky dream pop, or both? Of course, there is a resounding yes there, as bands and artists like Big Thief have amply shown, and now you can add Cuddle Magic to that [...]
WILDER MAKER THE STREETS LIKE BEDS STILL WARM WESTERN VINYL Brooklyn’s Gabriel Birnbaum seems to be all over the place these days, either as a music curator/PR man, solo artist, or as a member/principal songwriter of dark, jazzed-up folk [...]
MAURA WEAVER STRANGE DEVOTION FEEL IT RECORDS To devoted fans of pop punk, the name Maura Weaver might sound familiar as she was a member of such an outfit that went under the name of Mixtapes. Weaver decided to leave and pursue a solo career, [...]
TEKE::TEKE HAGATA DELUX KILL ROCK STARS Labeling Montreal’s Teke::Teke can be a tricky thing. With seven members, it is more a musical collective than a band. On the other, most critics label them as a psych rock band, but with so many [...]
TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND AND LEON RUSSELL PRESENT: MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN REVISITED LIVE AT LOCKN’ FANTASY RECORDS Reviving an original live show that captivated audiences some 50 years or so ago is an extremely tricky [...]
WHITNEY K BUBBLE FIRE RECORDS Sometimes, when an artist has a great voice, it just might not matter what they sing about or what the songs are like. Well, there should at least be a song there. But if the lyrics do have some substance and the [...]
LÉNA BARTELS THE BRIGHTEST SILVER FISH GLAMOUR GOWNS Does being a solo artist these days mean that you have to stick to the quieter, gentler realms of music? Not if you are Portland transplanted to NYC artist Léna Bartels, as her second album [...]
CARSON McHONE PENTIMENTO MERGE RECORDS Some intriguing music brewing over in Ontario when it comes to the very broad category of singer-songwriters these days. Carson McHone’s latest album Pentimento is here to show us why. The reason is [...]
ALEXEI SHISHKIN GOOD TIMES RUE DEFENSE Artists dabbling with all the variants of lo-fi/bedroom pop and all closely connected musical forms, seem to be having a sort of a hard time these days for no apparent reason, as quite a few of them are [...]
GWENIFER RAYMOND LAST NIGHT I HEARD THE DOG STAR BARK WE ARE BUSY BODIES Making an instrumental album is a tough prospect to start with, when it is a solo instrument affair even harder, and you can triple that if that instrument is an acoustic [...]
WHITEHALL NATIONAL FINALS RODEO ENCI RECORDS Big record companies seem to be always giving up on something, and these days it might be that melodic, guitar-driven pop/rock. People over at ENCI Records don’t seem to think that is a good [...]
KATY PINKE & WILL GRAEFE PATTERNS GLAMOUR GOWNS So many artists, those who are well-known and those who are not so well-known, are taking stock and reviewing what they have done so far, as well as where their inspiration comes from, and they [...]
MARGO PRICE HARD HEADED WOMAN LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS Margo Price has always been an artist whose audience didn’t care much what genre her music fell into, and yes, it more often than not falls within that often too strictly defined one that [...]
SUNYEARS THE SONG FORLORN VILLA/YEP ROC Peter Morén of Peter, Bjorn and John has been a busy guy recently. After nine albums with the band, and during the pandemic, Morén decided to do some solo work, which brought along SunYears, his solo [...]
BILLIANNE MODES OF TRANSPORTATION INDEPENDENT It is a crowded house over in the singer-songwriter habitat. So many of them these days have to go on their own to present their music. And if you are just 22 years old and come from Milton, ON, [...]
GEORGIA HARMER EYE OF THE STORM ARTS & CRAFTS Georgia Harmer has one of those voices that simply wins you over, even if the song she sings doesn’t amount to much. Yet, when the songs she sings do amount to quite a bit, the effect is [...]
HILLARY REYNOLDS CHANGING SEASONS INDEPENDENT Quite a few singer-songwriters come up with their music and lyrics in the spur of the moment, as spontaneous as it can get. Others, like L.A.’s Hillary Reynolds here, take a more meticulous [...]
JAKE WINSTROM RAZZMATAZZ! INDEPENDENT Power pop was never as big with music critics as some other genres or sub-genres, maybe because of that pop element within the term. Very often they labeled it as something that hasn’t changed that [...]
