“Try a Little Tenderness” by Peter Dreams

Hot off his role in the incredible Ryan Coogler flick Sinners, Peter Dreams has released a cover of the classic “Try a Little Tenderness”.

A follow-up to his debut solo album, Peter Dreams and MOONRIIVR, the song is a perfect fit for the July Talk frontman, with a burst of soul and his distinctive vocals.

You can check out the song below, or pick up his album now, or find him in a couple songs on the Sinners soundtrack! Seriously, the movie (and the music in it) is so good, go see it when it returns to IMAX this weekend.

Kirk

“The overpass” by Amy Millan

With her new album out at the end of the month, Amy Millan is sharing one more single off the album with “The overpass”

The song is a gorgeous, contemplative single looking back at Amy’s youth in Toronto. She elaborates: “When I was 22, my first boyfriend’s mom died. It was a shock, it happened fast. The night of her funeral, a group of us went over the Bloor viaduct in Toronto and a couple of us got on the ledge and walked across what could have been a deathly end. There was no protection from falling off and below is a hundred feet directly onto the highway. It was famous for suicides in Toronto until they finally put up protective wiring a few years ago. That night still haunts me with the thought of what an idiot I was. As weird as aging is, being in my 20s was a stupid time. Kissing all my friends to figure out which one was the one. It was all very unruly and I felt mostly lost. Turning 30 was the best thing that ever happened to me. I never believe people when they say “oh the good old days” so my sardonic sarcastic feeling on that notion finally made it into a lyric.”

Watch the video below, Directed by Sara Melvin, and catch Amy when she heads out on tour this fall, including a date here in Vancouver on October 20th a the Fox Cabaret!

Kirk

“The Evil That You Know (Let it Go)” by Twin Rains

This is the guitar solo I needed today!

Toronto’s Twin Rains is back with more new music, hot on the heels of the release of their song “Quick Sickness”.

“The Evil That You Know (Let it Go)” was inspired by a storm, says one half of the band Jay Marrow: “This tune started as a wall of sound of guitars and drums that felt like a loud thunderstorm, so the synthy break was created to mimic the calmness of the storm’s eye. It ended up really working and now my favourite moment is when the storm crashes back in for the final chorus.”
“This song—and a lot of our work, actually—examines self-deception,” added singer Christine Stoesser “I don’t think I’ll ever run out of things to say on that subject.”

Let’s hope there’s more where this came from!

Christine

“coloured lights” by Yawn

We’re a month out from the debut LP of Yawn, the new project from Julia McDougall, and are getting another taste with the “coloured lights”.

The new single is an upbeat dreamy synth-pop tune, and McDougall says it’s a “party song for existentialists. It’s a song dedicated to the lonely and the weary, for everyone who’s ever wondered if they might always be alone—even in a crowd. In the song we meet some familiar characters at a party; the loud guy joking and telling stories on the balcony with a lit cigarette in his hand, the best friend who knows something is wrong. Ultimately, we realize that some things never really find a resolution - you can be left questioning the same things forever and sometimes there’s nothing else you can do but dance.”

wish i could’ve is out on June 13th and Yawn will be doing a quick jaunt through BC next month, including a show on Jun 21 at Green Auto.

(Also, I am really digging the pixel art for the single!)

Kirk

“Quick Sickness” by Twin Rains

Toronto’s Twin Rains is back with their first music since their album Laws of the Universe was released back in 2023.

The new single “Quick Sickness” was created while singer Christine Stoesser was sick and isolated with COVID, and felt she was “overdosing on the internet” (we’ve all be there!).

She says: “Spending the whole day online only made me feel sicker and more isolated, so I swore off the internet for the second day of my isolation. That night, I heard the chord progression of the song in my head while I was trying to sleep.”

The song is a dreamy pop song that, unless you listen closely to the lyrics, you might just get swept away with the guitars and beat.

Christine

“Ballad of the Last Payphone” by The New Pornographers

Last month, The New Pornographers surprised everyone by releasing a pair of new singles on a 7” vinyl, through A.C. Newman’s substack, Ballad of a New Pornographer.

Now the band has released the lyric video for one of those songs, “Ballad of the Last Payphone”. The single is a melancholic reflection of the titular payphone, with Newman explaining: “This song was inspired by a Raymond Carver story called “Fat” and tells the story of a person visiting the last payphone in NYC where it currently sits, in the Museum of the City of New York. The narrator doesn't know why they are so fascinated by it, but to us it should be obvious. Obvious to me, at least.”

Check out the video below, animated by Michael Arthur, and head to Newman’s substack where you can become a member & order the vinyl that includes the b-side “Ego Death For Beginners”

Kirk

“Elevator Love Letter” (Stars cover) by Noble Oak

I’ve been excited by the current series of cover songs to celebrate 20 years of Last Gang Records, and none more so than the newest: Noble Oak interpreting the Stars classic “Elevator Love Letter”.

The video includes Patrick Fiore of Noble Oak intercut with pictures and footage from Stars outstanding 25 year career as he delivers a gorgeous version of the song. He notes: “Like so much of the early Last Gang catalogue, the first two Stars records were mainstays in my late high school/early university listening world. I remember first hearing ‘Elevator Love Letter’ in my friend's apartment and instantly being hooked by everything about the song, from the swirling reversed guitar lines to the brutal honesty of Amy and Torquil's words. It brings both me and the teenager in me immense joy to be able to offer up a recreation of this wonderful piece - I'm pretty sure he wouldn't believe it if I told him he'd be doing that one day.”

Other covers of the project include a pair of Metric songs, Maia Friedman’s take on “Love Is A Place” and Dear Boy covering “Combat Baby”; Low Hum’s reinterpretation of “Romantic Rights” by Death From Above 1979; Alice Ivy’s take on MSTRKRFT’s “Easy Love”; Anand Wilder doing the New Pornographer’s “Challengers”, and Cadence Weapon & Dan Only doing “Ungirthed” by Purity Ring.

Kirk

“Ruby” by The Deep Dark Woods

Whoa, this new track (“Ruby”) from The Deep Dark Woods just gave me a flashback to 2011 and their song “The Place I Left Behind”.

Like most everything we get from DDW, it’s a very moody and melancholic, but always has more depth behind it. Lead singer Ryan Boldt says he “wrote it during a strange and difficult time, after the sudden loss of my dear friend and tour manager, Kiko, and just before my daughter was born. It was a mix of heartbreak and anticipation that I will never forget.”

The band’s yet-to-be-announced record should be out in late 2025, and they also released some tour dates, including a stop on October 24th in Vancouver at the Fox Cabaret.

Christine

“help myself” by Yawn

I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve heard from Julia McDougall, so I was excited to find a brand new song from her new project Yawn in my inbox.

“help myself” is actually the second single released in as many months, and is a wonderful dream-pop jam from the Vancouver singer, which challenges toxic positivity & the pressure to be the “best version” of ourselves.

Julia elaborates “It’s about the various kinds of doubt and darkness that we face, and how the constant noise of social media and mainstream culture dulls our ability to love ourselves. It was inspired by social media ads I was served during the early, frantic days of COVID isolation that were promising me that now was the time to finally ‘get ripped’. It seemed detached from our lived reality that in the middle of a global pandemic, we were being force-fed so-called wellness ads that completely overlooked the psychological and emotional impact we were all facing. The song is about our relationship to ourselves, and how our media consumption habits make it easy to go about our lives without truly connecting to who we are. It’s also about the struggle to find meaning in the mundanity of everyday life – standing in grocery store lines, going to work, going to a work out class, scrolling all the while – and how sometimes it’s impossible to make sense of how the sum of all of these things add up to a life.”

The new single comes with an announcement of Yawn’s debut album, wish i could’ve, which was produced by Jo Hirabayashi (of Jo Passed) and will be available on June 13th!

Kirk

“Aegean Blue” by Common Holly

Last week, Montreal’s Common Holly teased her latest album Anything glass with a brand new single, “Aegean blue”

The gorgeous piano paired with Brigitte Naggar’s ethereal vocals are exactly up my alley, with Naggar explaining, “Aegean blue is a reckoning in meaninglessness and unending pursuit. The words came in a moment of change and of re-evaluating. This song sits squarely in the album’s theme of orienting toward what matters most, doing things differently when they aren’t feeling right.”

Check out the contemplative video below, and mark June 13 for the release of Anything glass!

Kirk

Songs of the Week: May 05 - 11, 2025