“Bars and BBQs” by Shad

Well, I found my “Song Of The Summer”!

Shad released the track “Bars and BBQs” off his newly announced album Start Anew, and while it’s mellow and breezy, it’s chock full of Shad’s classic wordplay. (My favourite being right off the top with “I’m a free spirit. Like open bars with booze.”)

The press release says: “The first verse is all playful lyricism, but the second adds layers of meaning. From the positive aspects of bars (lyrics) and BBQs (food and community) to a contrast in language: “Sickness in every CELL and there’s more addiction/From what’s stored in kitchens to us stored in prisons/That’s BARS and BBQ's”.”

The album (out October 31) is “a project about embracing change, challenging comfort zones, and seeking renewal amidst uncertainty” - which I think a LOT of people can relate to. I cannot wait to hear more of it.

Christine

“Wreck” by Neko Case

Neko Case is back! Last week the iconic singer released a brand new song, “Wreck” and announced her first new album since 2018’s Hell On.

“Wreck” is a soaring new track, a great tease for the album, entitled Neon Grey Midnight Green, which was largely recorded live off the floor in Neko’s own studio in Vermont. Case produced the album herself, saying: “There are so few producers who are women, nonbinary, or trans. People don’t think of us as an option. I’m proud to say I produced this record. It is my vision. It is my veto power. It is my taste.”

You can pick up the new album, Neon Grey Midnight Green on September 26, and Neko Case will be hitting the road with her band this fall for a lengthy tour, including a stop here in Vancouver at the Vogue Theatre.

Kirk

“Neon Cowgirl” feat. Neil Finn by Tami Neilson

Canadian-born, New Zealand-based artist Tami Neilson has released the title track from her album Neon Cowgirl, (referencing the large neon cowgirl on Broadway in Nashville) which was released this past Friday.

The song features Neil Finn (of Crowded House) and the story of what Neil and the band meant to Tami is a beautiful one:
"I wish I could time travel and play this song for past versions of myself.

The teenager sleeping on the floor on a mattress after her family band had lost everything. She got a job at the makeup counter of a local pharmacy. Her small paycheque supported all five of them for a while. “Fall at Your Feet” by Crowded House played multiple times a day through the pharmacy speakers. She sang the harmony quietly, feeling defeated and wondering if she’d ever be in music again.

The 27 year old who sat in the audience with her brother Jay in the darkness of Toronto’s Massey Hall, listening to Neil Finn and his brother Tim sing “Disembodied Voices", a song about siblings. She grabbed Jay's hand while they both cried, knowing she was moving across the world to New Zealand in just a few weeks.

2 decades later, I walked through the doors of the Ryman Auditorium to fulfill a lifelong dream of performing on that stage for the first time. Neil had invited me to open for Crowded House - the Kiwis invading Nashville! Jay was by my side, my husband and children in the wings, the Finns watching side stage, the audience were on their feet and the Neon Cowgirl shone down on us all."

Christine

“Naive” by Softcult

Ontario-based sibling duo Softcult released their latest single last week, “Naive”.

The new track is a dreamy, shoegaze vibe, with the band elaborating, “It’s about coming to the painful realization that the person, idea, or reality we trusted and believed in never really existed in the first place. This song is about the moment the scales fall from our eyes after we realize we’ve been romanticising someone or the idea of someone. After this moment we’re no longer able to see them or the world as innocently as we did before.”

You can check out the moody video below, and keep an eye out for when they hit The Pearl here in Vancouver on October 16!

Kirk

“A Scourge Laid Upon The Earth” by Mappe Of

Of course I’m going to immediately listen to a song called “A Scourge Laid Upon The Earth”.

The new track is the latest from Mappe Of — moniker of “multi-disciplinary, multi-instrumentalist and musical visionary” Tom Meikle — and comes with the announcement of a new album, Afterglades, which is an “experimental sci-fi-folk record about reckoning with the end of the world alongside the people you love.”

“A Scourge Laid Upon The Earth” swings wildly from eerily calm to chaotic post-rock, and was the last song written for the album, as Tom explains, “It felt like there needed to be a sense of weight to this chapter of the story, there needed to be some chaos as a payoff for all of this reflection. This is in many ways the extinction level event. It needed to be heavy and raucous, retribution for all of our mistakes. It’s a bit of my dormant heavy metal energy emerging from me.”

They released a a performance of the song filmed live at Catherine North, and you can grab the new album Afterglades when it’s out on September 19 via Paper Bag Records

Kirk