Dizzy
By Will McGuirk
“It’s a lesson in letting something dissolve without resistance, knowing when to let the finch out of the cage because you know it’s right thing to do.” - Dizzy
"Deadweight is about believing in yourself and finding the strength to let go of what happened. It's only you that can determine who you are." - Jade Turner
Hayden, photo by Christie Greyerbiehl
By Will McGuirk
"I was inspired to write this song after covering a Leonard Cohen song called ‘Avalanche’ for the promotion of the film Death Of A Ladies Man. I switched the finger-picking guitar to a rolling piano part and liked the feel so much, I just kept playing until this chord progression appeared. The words came later after an autumn visit to Newfoundland. To me, the East Coast imagery matched the circular playing perfectly.” - Hayden
“‘Just Before The Morning’ came from a burst of creativity after we finally reconnected in the studio. The song explores the cyclical nature of life and the many ways in which we begin again.” - Local Natives
“PUP live is PUP at our best and also at our worst. Raw, scrappy, and holding on for dear life.” - Stefan Babcock
Hayden's annual Dream Serenade benefit concert takes place on November 12 at Massey Hall. Tickets here.
Ellen Froese, photo by Landon Johnson
This open mic is a safe space where you can express yourself musically, no judgement, only encouragement.
Read More
By Will McGuirk
Vinyl revelling this weekend will include The Unraveling of PUP, the TO punksters punking the world; Folly Group with its Franz Ferdinand fronting Television-isms, the tenacious debut from Koffee, the courageous debut from Daniel Casimir, and the silver anniversary of Placebo, plus so much much much more.
Partner, photo by Lesley Marshall
By Will McGuirk
We have been in this now for some months. Closer to the end than the beginning, no idea, closer to the beginning than the end, no idea, but of the now, musicians are present and in this present presenting the new now.
PUP have a new most relevantly titled EP, ‘This Place Sucks Ass’. This PSA will be out on Little Dipper Records Oct 23 2020. The Ep consists of tracks which didn’t make the cut for “Morbid Stuff’, among them “Nothing Changes” and “Floodgates. There is also a cover of Grandaddy’s “A.M. 180”. Lead single is “Rot”. Cheery as a new puppy are PUP.
“Literally any city, whether it was Lethbridge, Alberta, or New York City, we’d be like, ‘This place sucks ass.’ We have so much negativity, and sometimes it becomes so extreme and ridiculous that we start to find it funny. But at this moment in time, it feels so fucking real. Wherever you are, it sucks ass right now. So, wherever you live, whatever your circumstances, this is an EP about the place you’re from, and the place you're at now.” - Stefan Babcock
“As we develop a more keen sense of necessary change in this country, and as COVID 19 simultaneously leaves us in a state of uncertainty, we need a reminder – in hypeman form – to find our new state of normalcy. We have to continue to strive towards our goals, yearning to find success despite these setbacks. Bag Up is the celebration of that yearning” - Haviah Mighty
“Growing up, I was made fun of by family and community for the ‘darkness’ of my skin - my own parents told me not to play in the sun! Shadeism or colourism is a form of anti-Blackness and a massive issue in the South Asian community and other communities of colour. Europeans asserted a colour-based hierarchy in the colonies they invaded centuries ago that to this day play a role in the skin discrimination people of colour face within their own communities. This video is the counterpart to a song that celebrates me finally coming out from hiding in the shade I was thrown and unlearning Eurocentric ideals of beauty.” - Romana
“I want to draw people in with that serotonin hit you get from a catchy, well-crafted song. But once they’re in, I want to implicate them in all of the grim, unsightly realities of what’s going on in our country. As they’re singing along, it’s like ‘What did he say? What am I chanting right now?’” - Mobley
HEALTH have a new album of collaborations with suck folks as Soccer Mommy and JPEGMAFIA. The record drops Oct 16 2020 but the first single “Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. is out now.
“In the past, each HEALTH LP has been accompanied by a corresponding remix record. This time, despite being called DISCO 4 in the interest of continuity, we offer you a collection of original collaborations with artists we admire. Also, FUCK 2020.” - HEALTH
"This song is about a wild night on the town filled with queer desire. It is an important song to us because it expresses a feeling we know is shared by many. There are a lot of songs out there about women’s bodies but this is the only song we know about big gay hands. This song is dedicated to the hotties and to those who love them." - Partner
By Will McGuirk
To have hope but not faith. To continue although experience says other. To build, to make, to write, to sing, to continue. forward . . even as 2020 becomes a year of looking back and accepting we collectively took the wrong fork in the road. Will we ever learn? Look to the artist as they forge ahead, voyageurs on the stream which engulfs the rest of us.
“At the moment, living in a complicated quarantine surrounded by invisible (and not-so-invisible) plagues upon us, fragmentation is palpable: a splintering of social ties, of nature's capacity to regenerate, of something vague that once felt stable and now feels unreal...... All of these things hover between us and within us.” - Peter Burr, Austra art collaborator
“I have this idea in my head that our music generally feels out of place against the backdrop of summer, but the dynamic of the city in its current condition really captured the solitude and confusion behind the song in a way that feels compelling.” - James Thomson, Nation of Language
“‘The Swans’ is a present day, apocalypse-era reply to Springsteen's ‘Dancing In The Dark’ or Bowie’s ‘Modern Love’. I wrote it before the pandemic, but in anticipation of the need to live above and against the fire and brimstone, to forever fall in love with the natural world. “ - NYSSA
PUP, photo by Jess Baumung
By Will McGuirk
Moving over to let PUP in. . .
“During our quarantine, I couldn’t go to our jam space. I also live in a small apartment and my neighbours understandably get very annoyed and/or concerned about my mental state when they hear me yelling my head off about getting stung by bees or killing my bandmates or whatever garbage these dumb songs are about. So I started making demos and recording in my car in a parking lot across the street from my house. Every few minutes, cops would slowly drive past to see what the unhinged kid in the busted up Ford Escape was doing. But I’m white, so lucky me, my biggest worry was that they’d judge my precious lyrics. White privilege is real. Defund the police.” - Stephan Babcock, PUP
PUP, photo by Jess Baumung
By Will McGuirk
If there is no filter between thought and action, between heart and art - and like meeting a neighbour and asking how you getting thru? the artist responds with a song.
Pantayo, photo by Sarah Bo
Jitensha. Photo by Bonnie Jean
By Will McGuirk
The nice weather brings out the neighbours, gets folks on the street, chatting about winter issues and Spring plans. Those who have been woodshedding projects bring them out and its time now to see what the artists have been making. My child and his pals are among those airing out songs in public. They have a band, Mary & Adelaide. They have a show at the Diezel Room, DT Oshawa on Friday, April 12. They are on a bill with Montrealers, Jitensha, an indie folk duo, also airing out songs and taking them on the road. Jitensha will kick off this open mic and the brilliance of Jadea Kelly will dispel any winter hangovers with her Old Weird America cover of “Amazing Grace”. Pup, Haviah Mighty, and my one of my fave acts Operators also drop by,
Shows
Jitensha - Friday April 12, The Diezel Room, Oshawa
Haviah Mighty - Friday, May 3 @ the Drake Underground, Toronto
Jadea Kelly - Thursday, May 9 @ The Burdock, Toronto
Pup - Sunday, July 7 @ RBC Echo Beach, Toronto
Charlotte Cornfield - Photo by Jenna Ledger
By Will McGuirk
Well, I’ve no idea how we got here March. Your turn is done, Spring is springing, its almost over and thus its time to begin, get the music outside, get yourself outside, sit on the deck and turn up slowcity'.ca’s open mic with a wide range of new rad tunes from Lucy Rose, Charlotte Cornfield, Lee Harvey Osmond, Dynoro x Ina Wroldsen, AMAARA, PUP, Alae and HAVIAH MIGHTY.
SHOWS
amaara March 25 @ The Great Hall, Toronto
Haviah Mighty - April 5 @ The Diezel Room, Oshawa
PUP - April 7/8 Danforth Music Hall, Toronto
Lee Harvey Osmond - May 3 @ Koerner Hall, and May 16 @ Hugh’s Room, Toronto