“Get To You” by Begonia

Begonia has to be one of the hardest working people in Canadian music right now. It’s been a little over a year since her Polaris short-listed album Powder Blue, and she’s already set for her next release, The Open Swim EP.

The first single off the EP is “Get To You”, featuring Alexa Dirks’ powerful voice over a groovy R&B beat. Alexa says “this song is about trying to get through to someone you can't seem to get through to. When you feel like you're constantly showing someone who you are and they can't or don't want to see it.”

The Open Swim EP is out July 17 on Birthday Cake Records, and was co-written & produced by Begonia & Marcus Paquin, with contributions from her frequent collaborators and producer duo, deadmen!

Kirk

“Talking” by The Darcys

The Darcys just feel like summer to me, and I’m extremely excited that they’ve announced their next album! No official date yet, but if the new single “Talking” is any indicator, I know I’m going to enjoy Rendered Feelings.

The track was on a recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy (may this show never go away so more indie bands can get their music on it!), and the band joked that “watching the episode taught us how to remove a fence pole from another human’s body without using anesthetic.”

Listen to the sweet track that feels like a hazy summer afternoon below, and then go stream it a few hundred times for them!

Christine

“Harsh” by BOBBI

As we creep closer to the release of her EP, BOBBI has released the title track, “Harsh”

The new single is a haunting song, and BOBBI says “This is the first song I ever produced by myself. It’s the sum of all the lessons I learned while creating this body of work. I went through a lot personally while this project came together, and this song kind of felt like the punctuation to a very tumultuous time.”

Harsh is out May 24th, and you can stream the title track HERE, or check out a gorgeous live version below!

Kirk

“Nothing To Report” by Fold Paper

You’re going to want to crank it for the brand new song from Fold Paper.

“Nothing To Report” features ripping guitars and pounding drums, with raw vocals from singer Chell Osuntade, for an energetic post-punk tune that immediately hooked me.

“Nothing to Report” is the first single from the band after signing to Royal Mountain Records, and you can check out the video below!

Kirk

“No Safe + Sound” by July Talk

A year after the release of their album Remeber Never Before, July Talk are back with a deluxe edition! The new version of the album features two new songs, including “No Safe + Sound”, produced by Kevin Drew.

According to Leah Fay Goldstein, the new song is “a series of promises. It is about greeting uncertain and imperfect futures with a willingness to show up and keep trying. The nagging divine and communal pressure that urges us to never lose hope is as mundane and as vital as the blood in our veins. You don’t tell your heart to pump or your lungs to breathe, they just do it. Yes there will be suffering, yes there will be valid reasons for fear, but there will always also be love. Love is the cure, love is the greatest assurance of all. Love is how we got here. Love is why we stay.”

The Deluxe album also features three live recordings from their 2023 tour, “After This,” “Human Side,” and “I Am Water", as well as a ‘piano version’ of “When You Stop”. Keep an eye out for it on March 8th!

Kirk

“Hello Everyone (Ceasefire Now)” by Jenn Grant

Last week Jenn Grant released “Hello everyone (Ceasefire Now)” alongside an incredible group of over 35 musicians from across Canada, Ireland and Australia.

The song was co-written with Daniel Ledwell, and features Aquakultre, Justin Rutledge, Mo Kenney, Sarah Slean, Terra Lightfoot, The Once, and Tim Chaisson, among many, many others.

You can pick up the song on Bandcamp, with 100% of proceeds going to Palestinian Red Crescent Society (as well as see a full list of everyone involved).

Kirk

<a href="https://jenngrant.bandcamp.com/track/hello-everyone-ceasefire-now">Hello Everyone (Ceasefire Now) by Jenn Grant</a>

“Dancing For The Soldiers” by Adrian Glynn

Adrian Glynn (whose folk group The Fugitives was nominated for a JUNO in 2022) is about to release a new solo album (tomorrow!) titled You’re Just A Place That I Know.

The new work is based around his family heritage, and keeps his dark-folk sound, but uses the addition of traditional Ukrainian instruments and a Ukranian-Canadian Choir.

Glynn says: “After speaking with my Aunt Genya, the story-keeper of my Ukrainian side of the family, a couple years ago, I began composing a song-cycle that follows the details of my grandparents’ narrative, including: my Baba, at 16, being forced by Germans from her Carpathian village into forced labour a thousand kilometers away; my Dido folk-dancing to win cigarettes from impressed Allied soldiers in a refugee camp; my Baba invoking the words of poet Taras Shevchenko to lay her husband to rest after their long life together in Montreal; and lastly, to my own final visit with my Baba in her room at Royal Vic hospital, her memories now a mosaic of dementia as we flipped through an old photo album together”.

“This album is not about modern Ukraine, but certainly the current and horrific existential threat to my ancestral homeland spurred me to to tell this story of my grandparents’ flight from war to settle somewhere unfamiliar. A story that is all too true for Ukrainians today, 80 years on”.

Take a listen to one of the new songs, “Dancing For The Soldiers”, below.

Christine

“Bruised” by BOBBI

A few years ago, Vancouver musician Kaylee Johnston picked up, moved to London (England, not Ontario) and started making music under the name BOBBI.

New she’s back with a brand new song “Bruised”, which was mere weeks before her life -- and the entire world -- was upended in 2020. It’s a haunting electro-pop tune about ‘spiritual narcissism’, and is the first new single off her EP, coming out later this year.

The song was written with Model 86, and you can check out the video directed by Adem Boutlidja below!

Kirk

“She Told Me Where To Go” by Old Man Luedecke

Last week Old Man Luedecke released the title track from his new album She Told Me Where To Go.

The album was produced by Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas) and sees OML putting down the signature banjo for it. Don’t be worried though, as you’ll hear in the track below, the new music is hella fun.

He’s heading out on the road for a string of dates with Matt Anderson, and his own tour, and while there’s no Vancouver date yet, you bet I’ll be keeping an eye out!

Christine

Songs of the Week: April 29 - May 05, 2024