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

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

Will McGuirk March 19, 2021

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.

“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

“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

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 Mice with PUP, Haviah Mighty, Romana, Mobley, LAL, Local Natives, HEALTH, and Partner

Will McGuirk September 18, 2020

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

Buy the vinyl here ->

“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

Buy the vinyl here ->

"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

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Arkells, Sameer Cash, summersets, Krief, Le Couleur, LAL, Sam Roberts Band, METZ, and the Happy Fits

Will McGuirk August 21, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Its time I think for all of us to take a breath. Its been one hell of a year. Although we collectively hit the pause button back in Spring its still been go go go, an incessant propulsive hammering of dread, and with the country opening up, schools back and bubbles enlarged that sense of dread is amplified. I miss festivals. I go annually to rejuvenate my soul. I need it, I need trees and water and dirt and campfires at dusk and sky, so much sky. But there are trees in my yard and sky between the buildings in my city and water a drive away so I have been getting my festival vibes in fragments but still getting them. So do yourself a favour, grab some campfire vibes, go small, go slow, choose time, choose tunes, where ever you can, however you can, find a moment; outside, away from it all, remove the mask and breathe in deeply. As deeply as you can, feel it as deeply as you can, fill your boots. . . , pause. . . , and then strap on the mask and get back in the fight.

“I kept trying to find ways of communicating this illusive feeling that seems to plague my generation. This access to everything, but the need for nothing – it manifests itself in all aspects of our lives, from relationships, to the internet.” - Sameer Cash

“As we took this journey without the noise, the people, and the parties in our warehouse apartment, along with the constant grind outside, I found beauty in the stillness of our block.” - LAL

"Essentially, in my mind, it comes back to the need for some light. A way forward. To shine some kind of bright light on the future, the path that we’re walking and not giving in to despair," - Sam Roberts