Big Smoke - Charity "Spring Sampler" 2017

In celebration of its two-year anniversary, Vancouver indie label Big Smoke has released its annual ‘Spring Sampler’ for immediate download, with all proceeds going to the Inland Refugee Society of BC.

The compilation features recent tracks from all of the labels rostered acts—as well as some of the other projects their members are involved in—with the purpose of drawing attention to Vancouver’s thriving alternative arts community.

The album is available as a pay-what-you-want download exclusively through Big Smoke’s bandcamp page and all proceeds will go to the Inland Refugee Society of BC, who are dedicated to providing refugee claimants with essential services in British Columbia, Canada.
https://bigsmokevancouver.bandcamp.com/album/big-smoke-spring-sampler-2017

Earlier this week the label also announced its second annual birthday party, to be held on March 25th at Gam Gallery in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The show will feature performances from four acts off the sampler, with more information available on the Facebook event page.

Big Smoke Premiers "The Vancouver Connection, Vol. 1"

Big Smoke is a brand new Vancouver-based music label, that you might recognize from it's collaboration with Keys To The Streets, has just released it's first compilation album called The Vancouver Connection, Vol 1.

The playlist features 10 tracks by Vancouver bands, including Reef Shark, Dead Soft, Woolworm, and more.

The album officially comes out on August 14th, and you can pre-order it on their bandcamp page (and save 25% when you do so!) either digitally or on vinyl, and get two songs immediately.
Take a listen to some awesome Vancouver-based music below:

Keys To The Streets - Video #1 ft. Tariq "Radio Song"

For the second year Big Smoke has teamed up with Keys To The Streets to film musicians performing intimate concerts on the public pianos located throughout the city.

The first video this year features Tariq on the piano in the Strathcona community garden.

To see where all the pianos are located, click here. To see the archive of all the performances from this year and last, click here.

Here's what Adam Sharp of Big Smoke has to say about this video:
Tariq Hussain has been a huge part of the Vancouver music industry for some time now, and it’s an honour to have him open up this year’s series of Big Smoke x Keys to the Streets videos with "Radio Song.”

Between his time as a touring artist and as an active industry member he’s made a sterling effort to further the scene here in Vancouver, and seemed like a natural choice to open this project up with.

When I approached Tariq, he expressed a little concern at his piano playing skills - his ‘instrument of choice’ being guitar - but this simple and sparse arrangement jives so well with the calm mood inside Strathcona’s beautiful community garden. We shot this at 10am on a Friday, and the gentle ringing in the background from one of the community lots serves as a sweet accompaniment to this thoughtful tune.