photo by Morgen Schuler The Wilderness of Manitoba has been working hard for the past year. Among their numerous 2011 releases were the beautiful and haunting LP When You Left The Fire and an international EP for the lead single off of the album, "Orono Park." "Orono Park" also got a lot of attention last years, as it was featured on a Glamour Kills mixtape and was nominated for the best Daytrotter recording of 2011 (you can listen to their Daytrotter session here ). After briefly celebrating the holidays, the [...]
At first listen, anyone familiar with The Wilderness of Manitoba is going to hear similarities in band member Will Whitwham's new solo project, Lake Forest . My first thoughts when listening to "Autumn Skies" was : a) that's a beautiful sounding song, and b) that song sounds like The Wilderness of Manitoba. As I read a bit about Whitwham's motivation to record alone, I began to get a sense of where these two projects were different, but it wasn't until I went back and spent some time with Hymns of Love and [...]
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 [...]
Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , In House Damon Dahlen, AOL In House is AOL Music's series in which we welcome artists into our offices to play some music, chat with our staffers and, generally, just hang out. For our latest visit, we sat down with Canadian crooners the Wilderness of Manitoba to discuss their album 'When You Left the Fire.' [...]
The year is coming to a close, and in less than a week, 2011 will be no more than a memory. As we set our resolutions and prepare for the next chapter in our lives, many of us will be reflecting on the past year and the events that defined it - both for ourselves and society. For Earmilk , every year is defined by the music it brings to the table. We live and breath music over here, celebrating it to the highest extent as well as scrutinizing it to the finest detail. The beautiful thing about music is [...]
The year is coming to a close, and in less than a week, 2011 will be no more than a memory. As we set our resolutions and prepare for the next chapter in our lives, many of us will be reflecting on the past year and the events that defined it - both for ourselves [...]
Merry Christmas everyone!! This year Christmas has fallen on a Sunday. This week is special since the Top 10 is all Christmas/Holiday themed songs. So if you were wanting to check out the current singles don't worry some of the songs from chart #87 would re-enter next week. This year Montreal's Belgrave has the Christmas #1 in my singles chart. Trying to make this all Canadian with two non-Canadian acts in the Top 10. Yes there are two acts that covered the same song but I wanted to be diverse. Some [...]
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 [...]
Frank Yang Much of Dan Mangan's appeal comes from his everyman-ness - and his beard, if you ask certain friends of mine - so when he was playing the back rooms of bars, as at The Rivoli in October 2009 or The Horseshoe in April 2010 , it felt perfectly natural. Those shows also felt utterly jam-packed - because they were - making it unlikely that the club circuit would be able to serve his ever-growing audience for very long. And so when he played Trinity-St. Paul's in his last proper [...]
Keith Klenowski Just to be clear: filling Massey Hall for two nights in a row is no mean feat. Not many bands can do it once, let alone twice, but when The National did just that last June in support of their breakout album High Violet , it felt like an arrival - the best and most natural setting for a band that had graduated from the bar circuit and were taking their rightful place in the city's most hallowed room, hopefully for years to come. [...]
![Shawn Clarke – Like Birds Too Tired To Fly [Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3707269_lg.jpg)
The Toronto music scene works in crazy and closely knit ways. This is the case for Shawn Clarke . It's one of those blink and you miss kind of things when you see a musician/band live at shows. Looking through the photos that I've taken, I was surprised to capture Shawn in other bands he sometimes or used to play. So why not check out what his music. Shawn Clarke is a folk singer/songwriter from Toronto. He previously played in bands like Olenka and the Autumn Lovers [...]
Tornoto five-piece The Wilderness Of Manitoba stand out from the abundance of folk around at the moment by taking it back to basics. Orono Park from the band, who return to the UK next month, is a relaxed, acoustic song that relies on its modesty to make it so affecting. There's no heavy production, no over-produced vocals and only a few instruments are utilised to ensure that the silky harmonies are never lost. It also acts as a perfect track to help you wind down at the end of a long day. [...]
We've been fans of The Wilderness of Manitoba for a while now, so it's nice to hear that the band have confirmed two London shows for the end of September. Sep 27 - Tamesis, Embankment Dock, London Sep 28 - Slaughtered Lamb, London If you've not heard their music before, make sure you check out 'Orono Park', which is taken from their current album When You Left The Fire .
The Wilderness of Manitoba . What a name for a band. Hailing from Toronto, these makers of chamber folk have already rocked (or should that be folked?) their own country and the US with debut album 'When You Left The Fire', and now they're hitting UK soil to release it here too. Their live expeditions over in the US have so far included support tours with Cloud Cult, Rasputina and Aimee Mann, and they've already toured here in the UK too, playing End Of The Road and London's Camden Crawl in 2010. The English equivalent is [...]
Caleb Beyers Even though Kathryn Calder had well-established her songwriting credentials prior to joining The New Pornographers via her tenure in the now-defunct Immaculate Machine , her 2010 solo debut Are You My Mother? still came as a surprise to many - myself included - for how musically sophisticated and lyrically poignant it was, while still being tremendously tuneful. No one doubted Calder was talented - holding her own in a band of such musical heavyweights was plenty of proof of that - but [...]
Tweetvaso link I've come across this song from The Wilderness of Manitoba on a few occasions, and I've had conflicting feelings each time. I believe I drafted a post about the song upon first hearing "Orono Park" several months ago, but when I heard the song shortly thereafter, I found myself questioning what that former...
Canada is secretly conspiring to take over the United States in the Folk/Americana music category. The Wilderness of Manitoba are a chamber folk quintet from Toronto comprised of multi-instrumentalist and vocalists. We fell in love with the band's latest album, When You Left The Fire , with its lush ambiance and warm four-part harmonies. Their communal approach to song craft layers in textures of lap steel, cello, banjo, and harmonica into a haunting and sparse folk sound. If this is your first introduction to The Wilderness of Manitoba, don't plan to turn it [...]
There are some songs that try far too hard to get you to love them, and then there are those that are so effortless that you can't help but be completely charmed. This absolute beauty from Toronto-based quintet The Wilderness of Manitoba falls into the latter category with no difficulty whatsoever. The swoon-worthy vocal interplay that makes up much of 'Orono Park 's ' first two minutes is a far more effective hook than you'd ever give it credit for, and [...]
August 15 @ Origami Vinyl In-Store August 16 @ Hotel Café The quintet The Wilderness of Manitoba just released the album When You Left The Fire and now they're out on the road touring. Dueling guy/girl vocal harmonies between lead vocalist Will Whitwham and back-up singer Melissa Dalton are a great match for their indie folk instrumentation. Although they are from Toronto, Ontario and not Manitoba at all, their sound is that of wilderness, drawing similarities to Vancouver/Pacific Northwest bands like The Head and the Heart and Said the Whale. Check them out in [...]
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