• SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • NEWS -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • Photos by Mikki Simeunovich -
Menu

SLOWCITY.CA

  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • NEWS -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • SLOW -
  • Photos by Mikki Simeunovich -
×

Hayden, photo by Christie Greyerbiehl

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Hayden, The Bros. Landreth, Gabrielle Shonk, Ruby Singh and the Future Ancestors, blesse, Local Natives, Hot Chip, and PUP

Will McGuirk October 13, 2022

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.








Tags Hayden, Killbeat, The Bros. Landreth, Whats The Story, blesse, Hive Mind, Hard Copy Media, Hot Chip, Gabrielle Shonk, Local Natives, Indoor Recess, PUP, Ruby Singh and the Future Ancestors

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Ghost, Weather Station, Jordan Klassen, Miloe, Pup, Anyway Gang, Alex Izenberg, and Jacob Henley

Will McGuirk March 3, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“I wanted the video to capture the feeling of surrender the song has; a feeling of surrendering to emotion at the expense of everything else, within a world that is not necessarily conducive to that softness. I wanted the video to be overtly emotional and sensual, and so I turned to the stereotypical signifiers of these things; beaches, sunsets, the colour red, a sort of operatic performance of emotion. I think the video is an evocation of the feeling of being in love; obsessed with someone or something regardless of your surroundings, where you are, what is happening. Reaching towards softness and touch, even from within aloneness.” - The Weather Station

“Ash Wednesday” is really “a song about redemption and hope, and I love how Wayne contrasted that with a horroresque video,” - Jordan Klassen

“I’m getting closer to making the unconscious conscious with this song and the others. It is difficult to just write when you are constantly bombarded with what is right or wrong, I’ve started looking within more so than before.” - Alex Izenberg








Tags Ghost, Indoor Recess, Jordan Klassen, Killbeat, Anyway Gang, Hive Mind, The Weather Station, MIloe, Alex Izenberg, Hard Copy Media, Jacob Henley

Deanna Petcoff, photo by Nadia Doss

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Jerry Leger, Georgia Harmer, Abigail Lapell, Deanna Petcoff, Sam Jr., Ghostkeeper, Niall Mutter, Allegories, and JIMBO

Will McGuirk February 17, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“There's no smoke and mirrors in what I do and that can be rewarding for both the creator and the listener. Are we not all just trying to survive in some way?" - Jerry Leger

“I wrote it during a long period of emotional manipulation that made me question my own reality. I had enough sad songs and I just wanted to rock out.” - Georgia Harmer

“Make it sound like you're driving a stolen car at night after you've robbed a bank and you pull over to a bar at the side of the road for a drink to contemplate your next move. While you've been sipping your drink you've been also locking eyes with someone across the room. On your way out the door you stop by their table and after a few words you both make a run for it!’” - Sam Jr.

“It’s about yearning to return to that powerful spot: that piece of land where I have played in wonderment with the Creator as it engaged as Mother Earth and Grandmother Sun; that place in time when spirituality was simple, concise and magical…and I felt safe, inspired, and grateful." - Ghostkeeper

“I found myself having one foot caught in the past and the other in the future. I wrote this song from a place of acceptance, being ok with the duality of the two, and finding peace somewhere in between." - Niall Mutter










Tags Killbeat, Sam Jr, Ghostkeeper, Jerry Leger, Deanna Petcoff, Hive Mind, The Bros. Landreth, What's The Story, JIMBO, Auteur Research, Allegories, Georgia Harmer, Niall Mutter

Lindsay Schoolcraft, video capture

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Lindsay Schoolcraft, Jadea Kelly, Begonia, Ellen Froese, Ava Kay, Sister Ray, Les Cooper

Will McGuirk January 27, 2022

By Will McGuirk

"If you know about the Twin Flame phenomenon it is because you've experienced it yourself. You meet someone that you feel you've known forever. Everything changes around you: your life, your thoughts, your path and purpose. Intensely romantic or intensely painful, they are the mirror of your soul and ignite you to "wake up" to who you truly are.” - Lindsay Schoolcraft

“Feeding money and time into artistic pursuits can often feel like feeding coins into a broken parking metre.” - Jadea Kelly

”I wrote "Go" about moving on and moving forward: leaving home for the first time, chasing your dreams, leaving a town, leaving a relationship or a life behind.” - Ava Kay

“When you just want to be around someone all the time but aren't sure how they feel about you, so you second guess every text and every phone call before finally just being vulnerable (AH!) and letting the other person know how you feel. I feel like this phase of a relationship is all at once exhilarating and torturous.” - Begonia







Tags Les Cooper, Auteur Research, Jadea Kelly, Indoor Recess, Ava Kay, What's The Story?, Ellen Froese, Killbeat, Begonia, Sister Ray, Hive Mind

Chastity's new album 'Suffer Summer: a review

Will McGuirk January 17, 2022

By Will McGuirk

At the core of what Brandon Williams, aka Chastity, does is community. He is a dissolver of differences and a gatherer of commonalities. From his days as a hometown Dungeon kid to his present release ‘Suffer Summer’ his intentions seem to be, more than seems to be, to be honest, to bring the disparate and perhaps the desperate together. 

His notorious DIY barn shows in north Whitby (his hometown) were icons of that idea. Those gigs were country backyard shenanigans with Metz, K-Os, as well as local Durham Region bands Mary + Adelaide and Wooly. At a gig in TO I saw him perform, he brought on Alexisonfire for the encore and they carried him on their shoulders, a happier kid I don’t think I have ever seen. Heroes as pals, does it get any better.

He also once took over the Whitby Courthouse Theatre for a gig with Dizzy, and once again it was an intimate collection of folks who became friends by the end. He has the knack. His songs too have that knack.

The new album ‘Suffer Summer’ on Dine Alone, also is a gathering; Williams welcomes in. He has co-writes with Stefan Babcock of PUP on a couple of tracks , David Mitchell from Gulfer plays bass, and Dallas Green of City & Colour duets with him on “Vicious Circle,” a co-write with his wife Linnea Siggelkow, aka Ellis.

Chastity’s desire to reach-out, work with, blend, blur, applies to the sounds too. It’s hard to pigeonhole this kat in a rock ‘n roll genre. Even if one could it says more about the reviewer than the review but either way here goes, showing my age - Williams is adventurous an artist as Robert Smith of the Cure, an act I would lean into for Chastity on the basis of a previous track, “The Girls I Know Don’t Think So” from the album ‘Home Made Satan. Williams is as willing to play around with expectations and challenge his audience, to challenge himself, but, although Chastity has the melodic sensibility of Smith he also has 30 years of something else; and what that is is bands he has seen in-person, in dark clubs, small clubs, within the camaraderie of the audience, in the sweaty connections of the mosh-pit, and that is what Chastity is at his core and somehow within all the noise, all of the punk, all of the pummelling, all of the thrash, all of the suburban angst, all the orchestrations, all the righteous rage that there is on ‘Suffer Summer’, it is the innate empathy for others that carries this album. There’s a humanity in this music that, again, showing my age, I can only recall feeling in the Clash and Fugazi, and Broken Social Scene, and even BSS is two decades ago so what do I know, but I know it when I hear it and I hear it in Chastity.

Tags Chastity, Ellis, Pup, Gulfer, City and Colour, Alexisonfire, Hive Mind

Chastity

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Chastity, Cots, Kyla Charter, Ellen Froese, Charlotte Day Wilson, Begonia, Rachel Bobbitt, Wet Leg, and Sam Weber,

Will McGuirk December 2, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“It's about the feeling of not being heard, and just wanting to escape the cycle of thought - planning your next move, and thinking and thinking about what you could say to make them hear and understand you.” - Ellen Froese

“I was taught to believe that there was always a right or wrong and beyond that, that there was a heaven and hell waiting for us after we die and we just had to live our lives accordingly to end up in either place. I had a lot of fear of screwing up and a lot of fear of the unknown. As I've grown, all of those binary ways of thinking have more or less been shattered.” - Begonia









Tags Ellen Froese, Killbeat, Chastity, Hive Mind, Charlotte Day Wilson, Rachel Bobbitt, Indoor Recess, Sam Weber, Wet Leg, Hard Copy Media, Cots, Kyla Charter
chastiywhitby.jpeg

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Chastity, Andrea Ramolo, Jasper Sloan Yip, Ellyn Woods, Chris de Burgh, Bazooka Joe 204, Conditioner, Mauvey, and Thao and the Get Down

Will McGuirk September 15, 2021

By Will McGuirk

"This song is about stepping out of the silence and coming together to use our voices for change. There is power in numbers and in song and in carrying each other.” - Andrea Ramolo

“In ‘On the Beach’ we float through the ‘wild motion’ of this new frontier, affirming that we can ‘separate the water from the waves’ before looking up one last time “as the constellations drift apart and lose their shape” to say that we ‘would do it all again’” - Jasper Sloan Yip

“Many people have experienced the challenges of staying together despite being apart, and this is my own story of feeling that pull and hoping that a relationship would survive.” - Riley McCluskey, Conditioner

“Endless thanks to director Linda Mai Green and her fantastic team for giving me the opportunity to physically do what I have been trying to figuratively get at for so long: destroy artifice and defense and false altars, tear away shame and guilt strip by strip, and to be light and free enough to join my life and love, already in progress.” - Thao










Tags Chris de Burgh, That Eric Alper, Chastity, Hive Mind, Bazooka Joe 204, Killbeat, Conditioner, Andrea Ramolo, What's The Story, Jasper Sloan Yip, Hard Copy Media, Thao and the Get Down, Ellyn Woods, Auteur Research, Mauvey, Indoor Recess
image001.jpg

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with K-Os ft. KAGE E, Common, AHI, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Miloe, T. Buckley, Alias, Flossing, and The R Train

Will McGuirk August 20, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“What does a new day, a brighter day feel like being told through an emcee and some gifted musicians? How could this music be an example of the beautiful aspects of revolution that include joy, self-love, compassion, dreams, peace and good times? “ - Common

“This universe can often leave us feeling small and insignificant. But I truly believe that our lives are part of something bigger and more meaningful than we understand. You and I are the prospect, and it’s important to live our lives like they’re worth something because our impact on each other is far more immense than we can ever imagine.” - AHI

“When I was writing the record we were in the middle of a pandemic and our future looked pretty bleak. I just continue to try to write from a place of hope. Then my own neurosis, and maybe being a libra gets in the way, and I can’t make up my mind.” - Nathaniel Rateliff

"American statistician Edward Tufte once said, 'There are only two industries that refer to their customers as users: illegal drugs and software.’” - Flossing








Tags Miloe, Indoor Recess, Common, T. Buckley, Jason Schneider Media, Flossing, The Syndicate, The R Train, City Bird Publicity, Alias, Hive Mind, AHI, K-Os, KAGE E
Kevin Drew A Picture, but not this one ^, this is a photo by Colin Medley

Kevin Drew A Picture, but not this one ^, this is a photo by Colin Medley

Slowcity.ca Open Mike with K.D.A.P., Wet Leg, Art d'Ecco, Slow Death Lights, Nick Ferrio, Cowboy Junkies, Bobbo Byrnes, and Bad Waitress

Will McGuirk June 16, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“It's about understanding the obstacles we set up in front of ourselves. Personal deception and self-sabotage. It's about opening up and trying to figure out how to be a better human being, be more vulnerable.” - Nick Ferrio








Tags Kevin Drew A Picture, Kevin Drew, Killbeat, Colin Medley, Art d'Ecco, Paper Bag Records, Cowboy Junkies, Nick Ferrio, Slow Death Lights, Bobbo Byrnes, That Eric Alper, Hive Mind, Bad Waitress, Wet Leg, Hard Copy Media
AM_LP_LMS_hirescover.jpeg

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Alyson McNamara, Paris Pick, Nathan Lawr, Hildegard, Central Heat Exchange, Black River Delta, and Phantom Atlantic

Will McGuirk June 5, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“Our thinking is so polarized these days, there's no room for nuance or complexity. It’s sad really, because beauty and growth reside in these in-between areas.” - Nathan Lawr







Tags Jason Schneider Media, Black River Delta, Pavement PR, Hildegard, Killbeat, Phantom Atlantic, Auteur Research, Indoor Recess, Paris Pick, Alyson McNamara, Central Heat Exchange, Hive Mind
RA_hires3_RileySmith.jpg

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Sarah Neufeld, LAL, Autogramm, Rich Aucoin, Islands, The Lagoons, Ormiston, Black River Delta, and TEKE::TEKE

Will McGuirk April 16, 2021

By Will McGuirk

As we prepare to repeat, we can see the repetition, with the addition of time, as stasis. Yes you are here. . . again.

"'. . . it’s just me, centered in the whirlwind of my own creation. “The Top” represents change, and the struggle in making peace with oneself." - Sarah Neufeld

“I would not be where I am today without women like Rita, and my mother, who taught me that the power of strength to rise up and be strong is within us all. This recording and video are a tribute to them, and to any human who has felt the fight and is still fighting.” - Jenn Grant

“The lyrics of “Mantra” describe a certain relationship to satori, meditation, focus/flow, repetition, mind/no mind, of being in the zone. - director Shayne Ehman










Tags Autogramm, Ausländer, Islands, Hive Mind, Pavement PR, Killbeat, LAL, Sarah Neufeld, PaperBag, Black River Delta, The Syndicate, Jenn Grant, Indoor Recess, TEKE::TEKE, Girlie Action Media, The Lagoons
dizzyEPcover.jpeg

Dizzy unveil 'Bird Behind the Drapes' collaboration with Luni Li

Will McGuirk April 14, 2021

By Will McGuirk

Song goes out, if it loves you song comes back - Dizzy has a number of their songs go out and come back, flight filtered via ears and hearts of others. There is a timeline to the result, a succession of reveals, but first is Luna Li, the TO musician who shares this track, a behind the scenes look at “The Magician” with the band.

The tracks with other yet to be unveiled artists, will form an EP, ‘Separate Places’ and will be fully available June 11 on Royal Mountain/Communion Records.

The Oshawa, ON, based Dizzy have been nominated for Alternative Album of the Year at the 2021 Junos. for their record, “The Sun and Her Scorch.’

Tags Hive Mind, Dizzy, Luna Li, Royal Mountain Records
Islands_Packshot.jpg

Slowcity.ca Open Mice with Postdata, Black River Delta, Kyle McKearney, Leahy, Electric Religious, Kandle, Islands, FVZ,

Will McGuirk March 3, 2021

By Will McGuirk

Look ahead sure but look back too. Look ahead to see where you want to be but also most importantly look behind to see all those you need to bring up to where you are right now, first.




North 28 Music · Tears

Electric Religious · Catherine

“It is easy to overlook the subtleties involved in manipulation. For women with drive and motivation, one may already be conditioned to believe that your body or sexuality are the only real assets that society values of yours,” Kandle says of the song. “Under this conditioning, it isn’t hard to imagine all the ways these assets can be turned against you by an abuser, and the idea of using your body as a tool to move forward when all other avenues are closed doesn't seem so extreme. What other path is there? You start to believe it's your choice, albeit a self-sacrificial one. Only when you start to break free, it becomes clear that you were never given the choice in the first place. We play their game until we make our own.”



FVZ · On My Way (OMW) [feat. Siera]
Tags Auteur Research, Indoor Recess, Hive Mind, Pavement PR
Older →
Screenshot 2023-06-10 at 10.18.16 PM.jpg
TownBrewery.jpeg
SecondWedge.png
Atria_logo.png
apologue_logo2.png
kv_eyes.jpg
Avanti_logo.png
RMG SQ.jpg
11666057_10154039986198378_4496427229864055720_n.jpg
COnvergenceSQ.png