
Derek Branscombe '70s-styled radio rock - the sort marked by tight multi-part harmonies, guitars that go from chunky rhythms to smooth leads like the peanut butter aisle, and a laid back sort of pop songcraft that's inviting like a pitcher of beer on a hot Summer's day - has been back in style lately, and no one's done a better job of repping it locally than Zeus . Their 2010 debut Say Us won them plenty of fans both across Canada and abroad. Somehow amidst all the touring [...]

On May 8th, Kingston, Ontario garage rockers PS I Love You return with their sophomore LP, Death Dreams , via Paper Bag Records. The 11-track album was recorded alongside producer Matt Rogalsky in the band's rehearsal space. Whereas their debut LP, Meet Me at the Muster Station , was about the group's life in their hometown, Death Dreams incorporates themes outside the town limits, including life on the road and collaborations with beloved fellow Canadians . A press release goes on to explain that the album's central motif focuses on vocalist Paul Saulnier's recurring [...]

Death Dreams will see daylight on 5/8 via Paper Bag Records. It features: 1. Death Dreams 2. Sentimental Dishes 3. Don't Go 4. Toronto 5. Future Dontcare 6. Death Dreams II 7. How Do You 8. Princess Towers 9. Red Quarter 10. Saskatoon 11. First Contact PS I Love You recently dropped by Daytrotter. Purchase PS I Love You items via Insound. MP3: PS I Love You & [...]

Meet Me At The Muster Station was a great debut from Kingston duo PS I Love You . Now the band is set to ride that wave of success with their follow-up. Death Dreams has been scheduled for a May 8th release. You can expect to hear the first single, "Sentimental Dishes", shortly. Here's the track list: Continue reading »
Wilco played in LA this week and I missed it. Here's the worst part...I didn't even know they were playing. There was a time where I went to see 3-4 concerts a week. Now if I see that many a year...it was a good year. Part of having kids and working all the time, you give up certain things. Concerts seemed to be one of the first things to go. But now my kids are getting old enough that

ARTIST: The SWAG Report 92 with freebie mp3 downloads for songs by Will Currie and the Country French, Bleeding Knees Club, Brendan Benson, Halestorm, The Darcys, Seether and more! So much more! DATE: 01-25-12 WRITER: Don Loder Heya junky, Awright, I ain't got a whole lotta time ta dink aroun' witchu tuhday ya twerps, so's I'mma jus' get in, getchu yer SWAG an'get gone - ya get me? The upside fer you izzat I nabbed some pretty primo gear fo'ya dis week, [...]
Even quicker this morning: You know those Paper Bag Sessions videos that have been cropping up here and on other blogs? The ones that capture Paper Bag Records ' inimitable roster of artists delivering some pretty intimate performances for the camera (as shot by Southern Souls Mitch Fillion)? Well, the label has kindly gone one step further, by distilling a few of those performances into an audio-only format, and compiling them into The Paper Bag Sessions Volume 1 . Cuts by Austra , Cuff The Duke , Elliott BROOD , PS I [...]

Facebook Nestled amidst some concert announcements in a post last week were a couple of odd one-offs for No Joy and PS I Love You which were not part of any announced tour or timely promotional cycle. It didn't occur to me to ask why, but just a little bit of thought would have made the answer obvious - Wavelength . The dates of their shows corresponded to the four-day weekend of the Toronto music series' twelfth anniversary festival, and though neither of those acts is properly local - they [...]

Frank Yang Joel Plaskett is a guy who's established that he's not averse to applying a little bit of high concept to his brand of friendly, meat-and-potatoes rock - recall that his last release of new material, 20092s Three , was both triple-disced and triple-themed - so one shouldn't be too surprised that his next record also has to come with a bit of an explanation. As aux.tv reports, Plaskett and his band The Emergency will endeavour to record and release a new song every week [...]

Frank Yang The baseline for any Fucked Up show is glorious mayhem. Add in factors like a hometown show, a full-album recital of their ridiculously ambitious and critically-acclaimed, concept rock opera David Comes To Life , the last gig of an insanely busy year in support of said album that took the band around the world from bars to festivals to arenas, a fundraising benefit for Barriere Lake Solidarity , and a lineup made up of some of the band's favourite acts from Toronto (and outlying regions), and expectations [...]

I f you went through adolescence in the early to mid 90's, you probably have a real soft spot for great guitar centric grunge rock. Thats why you owe it to yourself to give this track from Olympia, WA based Milk Music a serious listen. 'Beyond Living' isn't exactly grunge, but it certainly finds some roots there both in sound and geographically. More of a mix of some Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du, The Replacements and some fuzzy guitar [...]

Daniel Boud If the ubiquity of decorations, lights and carols wasn't enough of a hint, let me be the one to break it to you - like it or not, the Christmas season is upon us. And with the holiday season comes Christmas concerts and performances, but if Handel's Messiah or The Nutcracker Suite aren't your speed, local hardcore heroes Fucked Up would like to offer you an alternative - a complete album recital of David Comes To Life . As touring commitments for [...]

Their set featured: Get Over Leftovers Meet Me At The Muster Station (Part 1) Meet Me At The Muster Station (Part 2) Download all tracks here. PS I Love You recently debuted a video for 'Leftovers'. Purchase PS I Love You items via Insound. MP3: PS I Love You & Diamond Rings - Leftovers

David Black That Ryan Adams' retirement from music - declared at the start of 2009 as a result of personal, medical, and industry factors - wouldn't last was never in question. You don't go from being as prolific as he had been over the past decade and a half to radio silence without a relapse or two. That said, he made a pretty good go of it for a while, busying himself with writing and being Mr. Mandy Moore. By early 2010, however, he was clearly ready to get back to making music [...]

Paul Saulnier—singer, guitarist, and benefactor of initials for PS I Love You —is a man of few words. Though his band's name looks like something you'd find on one of Deep Elm's late-'90s Emo Diaries compilations, the duo's 2010 debut album, Meet Me At The Muster Station , is actually a reverb-heavy blend of indie rock and metal-inspired guitar shredding. Despite the Ontario-based group's mostly unintelligible lyrics, Saulnier manages to pack more meaning into his soft-voiced yells than any angst-ridden, Hot-Topic-shopping kid yelping about the woes suburbia could ever manage. The emotion discerned within Saulnier's blurry vocals [...]
Filed under: News , Awards Nick Helderman Many thought Arcade Fire were unstoppable when it came to racking up awards but singer-songwriter Katie Moore has proved otherwise after beating out Win Butler and crew for Canada's 2011 ECHO Songwriting Prize . Moore won for ' Walk Up Like This ,' beating out 'We Used to Wait' by Arcade Fire, 'Beat and the Pulse' by Austra , 'When [...]

THIS WEEK'S BEST BET: Night of Sweet Relief w/ Royal Thunder, A: The Color, Skin Jobs Saturday, October 15 The Earl - 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316 Admission $8 / Purchase Tickets There are a lot of great opportunities for live music this week — psyche drone trio CAVE tonight at 529 , post-punk pioneer Bob Mould this Friday at Eddie's Attic and This Piano Plays Itself's final show this Sunday (also [...]

THIS WEEK'S BEST BET: Night of Sweet Relief w/ Royal Thunder, A: The Color, Skin Jobs Saturday, October 15 The Earl - 488 Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta 30316 Admission $8 / Purchase Tickets There are a lot of great opportunities for live music this week — psyche drone trio CAVE tonight at 529 , post-punk pioneer Bob Mould this Friday at Eddie's Attic and This Piano Plays Itself's final show this Sunday (also [...]

( email | facebook | twitter ) It's easy to lose sight of the fact. But man, back in 1982, we meant it. We were not going to shave, or cut our hair, or wear a suit, or paint our bedroom walls white, or conform to society, and all of those jerkstore football players were just too dumb for our complex, well-read, greasy-skinned corner of the universe. It's pretty much all we talked about back then. The words "time" and "spare" come [...]