Gigs: Donovan Woods, Mavis Staples at Massey Hall

By Will McGuirk

Donovan Woods Friday May 27 2022. Tickets here.

Mavis Staples Saturday May 28 2022. Tickets here.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Jerry Leger, The Weather Station, Donovan Woods, Valerie June, Mamas Gun, Pierre Kwenders, Denzel Curry, Franz Ferdinand, and I Am Snow Angel,

By Will McGuirk

"The opening line (‘break in the new world but let me keep my job’) is hopeful, it's actually quite a hopeful song. I like to think that real happiness involves being respectful, appreciative and considerate. The words have these deeper layers and questions but Angie Hilts singing with me really lifts it up to a nice place. It's just fun and fortunate to play rock 'n' roll with my friends and we've all needed some fun these days." - Jerry Leger

“The song was written long before the pandemic, but when we recorded it, on March 11, 2020, it began to feel eerily prescient. The day it was recorded truly was the end of an endless time, and as ever, I don’t know how the song knew. Somehow, the music captures that instability; it is ungrounded and diaphanous, it floats and drifts.” - The Weather Station

“I write about them again and again, just hoping people will still be interested. So the title is poking fun of myself, that I’m theoretically this big sad guy who keeps getting dumped and writing fucking songs about it,” - Donovan Woods

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Lowell, Emma Cook, Donovan Woods, Andy Shauf, Geoffroy, AHI, Elise Boulanger, Yukon Blonde

By Will McGuirk

“Caroline is both a nostalgic take on my childhood, while at the same time a cynical view on how wasted my youth was in the hands of my teenage self (an insecure, closet bi, miserable kid trying to fit in- all while pissing off my parents” - Lowell

"It tells the story of a woman who has been completely unseen and unappreciated by her partner for many years. In my imagination, she believes in her own worth and finds the strength to leave, but in reality, I’m not sure she ever will." - Emma Cook

“It’s about learning that someone you still have feelings for is suddenly in the same town as you for the night, and the inevitable thoughts and chain of events that might set into motion.” - Donovan Woods

“I guess it’s a very mature version of myself who wrote this, hah. It’s about accepting and coming to terms with the fact that a relationship has come to its end. It’s about moving on, letting go, and feeling okay about it." - Geoffroy

“You don’t really need to compete with yourself, you just need to challenge yourself.” - Jeffrey Innes, Yukon Blonde

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Elise Boulanger · It Started In The Garden

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Nathaniel Rateliff, Donovan Woods, Debra-Jean Creelman, Soccer Mommy, Louie Short, One True Pairing, Megan Nash, and Suzie Ungerleider,

By Will McGuirk

“‘Golden Arches’ is a song of escape and a song of possibility. Built from a load of software loops during hot days spent inside, dreaming of the drizzling open road.” - One True Pairing

“It’s about sitting with grief and loss. Feeling all of the heavy and uncomfortable feelings. And wanting to hear nothing but your own heartbeat.” - Megan Nash

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Career Boy, Braids, Elvis Costello, Billy F Gibbons, Mike Edel, summersets, Justin Rutledge, Donovan Woods, and Real Estate

By Will McGuirk

“For me it's usually the emotional and sonic qualities of a song that catch me first and the rest of it later. After getting deep into the lyrics I enjoy that it's calling out the fake and the shallow; I like doing that in my songs. So this one goes out to the influencers.” - Mike Edel

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Real Estate The Band · Half a Human

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Donovan Woods, Kyp Harness, Matt Berninger, Middle Kids, Laila Biali, Paris Pick, Ormiston, LAL, and Gift of Tongues

By Will McGuirk

Vibrations, waves, across the universe, billions of years, then you appear, vibrating, making more vibrations, disrupting the flow, pushing out, pushing back at the noise of the Big Bang with your own voice. So keep going, keep voicing, keep being here, and going there.

(from PR)
In 2020, Donovan Woods released Without People via his own Meant Well label. It’s an album that ranks as Woods’ most successful release with more than 10 million streams and climbing. Due March 26, a new deluxe edition of Without People adds four bonus tracks (two new originals and two alternate mixes) and is available for pre-order now. 

A new piano rendition of “Grew Apart” cuts right to the bone, and an acoustic interpretation of “Whatever Keeps You Going” pairs Woods with the pure voices of the J.P. Robarts Public School Music Project in London, Canada. 

The school’s choir (consisting of grades 3-8) formerly sang with Woods in 2019 at one of his concerts in London. Woods always knew he wanted to feature the choir on a project, but during the pandemic, Woods learned that while the schools had reopened, the children were only allowed to hum during choir practice due to the nature of health and safety protocols. He then, with the help of their parents and choir director, Jane Kennedy, enlisted the children’s choir to individually submit homemade cell phone videos of themselves singing the song. All 19 students were able to share the “stage” again with Woods through this video.

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Middle Kids, photo by Ellen Virgona

“I want to make music that loves its listener. Music that makes people feel seen, seen in the tiny little places that hide away in their hearts. I want people to hear our music, and feel a sense of love. And when I say love, it can be challenging, intense and tough. But it’s in the guts.” – Hannah Joy, Middle Kids

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“Ciel is someone who we have watched grow and develop into a global talent at the same time embodying a local Toronto spirit. Her remix for us speaks to a Toronto that had no musical genres in clubs. It bends and weaves into an expression that is well known to the darkest clubs and most cavernous warehouses. We employ you to join in the vision of this remix in solidarity with the community and all that came to take part.” - LAL’s Nicholas Murray

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GIFT OF TONGUES · 10 The Art Of Loneliness

“‘The Art Of Loneliness’ is a dance-pop song which sounds triumphant, but upon closer listen feels tragic.The lyrics here are the closest I get to a private monologue with me trying to convince myself that loneliness isn’t such a painful situation. I’m trying to trick myself into thinking being alone isn’t so bad and the artful way I do it." - David Johnston, Gift of Tongues

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Matthew Cardinal, Sameer Cash, Margo Price, Donovan Woods, Airliners, Yukon Blonde, Tucker Lane, and Rooks

By Will McGuirk

“Boy you’re gonna carry that weight a long time” sang four working class lads from Liverpool in hats from fifty years ago and they knew and fought forward, its tough to be tough. Its hard to be a hard man. We can’t crack, when we crack we break. We haven’t learnt to bend. . . yet, and yet . . .

“I would like it if people listened and interpreted the music anyway they want to. I don't think these songs need a narrative, and I think certain moods come through some of the tracks, while other moods might only be heard by individual listeners.” - Matthew Cardinal

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“‘Stay In Touch’ is about male friendship, and about how we as boys are not given the language to articulate pain or loss. . . Like when our friend lost his dad. Or when our form of a high school reunion was a funeral for one of our own. For those of us mourning the loss of innocence and the realization that the world was not made of us, for sensitive people who want the best for those around us. When we feel like we are not enough. When it gets too much, and when the money dries up, stay in touch with your mother, stay in touch with your high school band, stay in touch with me.” - Sameer Cash

Cash’s album ‘This City” will be released Friday, Sep. 11, 2020 on Postwar Records.

Order the vinyl here ->

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“To me the song is about, not only watching someone you love move on, but coming to terms with the realization that not only do you have to learn to let them go, but you have to be happy for them,” - Donovan Woods

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Airliners · Copenhagen

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Yukon Blonde have announced their fifth studio album, ‘Vindicator’ will be available on Nov. 13, 2020 on Dine Alone Records. Their new single “You Were Mine” is out now.

Preorder the vinyl here ->

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic -post Moonshine edition with Donovan Woods, Nathaniel Rateliff, Marcus King, Jenn Grant, The Blue Stones, Hot Chip, Lexxicon, HEALTH with Xiu Xiu

By Will McGuirk

In a world in which the centre will not hold, in a world where division is norm, fragments of shattered orders realign along old ideas on a global scale, so too the artists realign themselves. Look for them. Stand with them. Connect with them.

“We can always be in touch. So heartache must be getting harder.”  - Donovan Woods

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“The Party is a story about a woman, filled with anticipation in those moments while getting ready for the party, which sometimes feels like the best part,”  says Grant. “It’s about the evening to come, of dancing and love and loneliness and gathering. And something that resonates with this time of year, under all the sparkling lights.”

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic - A Tribe Called Red, Whoop-Szo, Dan Edmonds, Dan Mangan, Bear's Den, Donovan Woods, Jacques Greene, Elephant Stone, Sam Weber, Pup, Katie Bulley,

By Will McGuirk

We are slowcity.ca, we are slow for a reason, we pause, we wait, we give voice when we give voice and if what is said is worth saying it will always be worth saying no matter when it is said and if what is heard is worth hearing it will be worth hearing no matter when it is heard.

“This song is for the people who are working hard to make the world a better place than the one they were left with. This is for the fighters and the defenders. Part of being strong is also taking the time to stop, let go and release. Our DNA is of earth and sky.” - Bear Witness, ATCR

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"It imagines someone looking back on their own life and walking into their old house, reliving some pivotal moments of their life and re-engaging with who they are as a person and where they're at now. I read Winter, the novel by Ali Smith, and it really inspired me to want to write songs specifically about Winter. I think it's an incredibly inspiring time of year and it was a really fun and collaborative process for Kev and I to work on these songs, flesh them out, and bring them to life: embracing piano ideas and more acoustic elements whilst still exploring electronic textures behind the more reflective lyrics and sparse arrangements. - Andrew Davie.

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“If social media has taught us anything, it’s that there are a lot of unhappy people out there who are trying to find a way out. They are looking for meaning and something to believe in… or nothing to believe in… We all want the same thing, but are trying to achieve it in different ways.” - Elephant Stone

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“I’m trying to say that good things and bad things will happen, but not because they’re good or bad, but because they’re true, and the truth always comes out in the end. No matter how tragic or joyous.” - Sam Weber

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic - As the Fall brings new beginnings with Leonard Cohen, Jenn Grant, Iskwe, Frankie, Overcoats, Donovan Woods, Julian Lamadrid, Aphrose, Once A Tree,

It seems the Fall is the start of much, rather than the end; modern society seems to work in opposition. Perhaps its the school year or municipal budgets that evoke such an impression. Or perhaps all of this is the culmination of work submitted, quietly, anonymously, slowly, diligently, one seed at a time. I may perhaps never sync with this rhythm but there are those who do.

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