Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Charlotte Cornfield, Reuben and the Dark, Le Couleur, Whipped Cream, Bodywash, Sabai & Runn, and Chris Picco,

By Will McGuirk

“A catchy love-song, with cars. Where it feels like the narrator could go anywhere and do anything.” - Charlotte Cornfield

"’YES’ is one of the band’s favourite songs to play live, so we decided to track a live off the floor version of it to capture some of that energy we give it during our show. Songs always take on a new life once you start performing them in front of an audience". - Reuben and the Dark

“Loneliness after a party transforms into a dismantling of things, and rearranging them somewhere else.” - Bodywash

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

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.

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“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

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summersets, photo by Brittany Lucas

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“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

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"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

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Dawes, Shirley Collins, Busty and the Bass, Mike Block, Jenny Banai, Le Couleur, Lou Canon, Aiza, Scenic Route to Alaska, and Krosst

By Will McGuirk

Reach out but don’t touch yet, stretch out to feel but don’t feel anything yet. . . do you feel comfortable in your skin, out in your skin among other skins. . . didn’t you feel more comfortable inside when you interacted with the world online. . . where, when skin didn’t matter. . . ready for that space again, ready to retreat further inside and leave the outside out there. What has changed? You have changed.

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Scenic Route to Alaska · Closer

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Haviah Mighty, David Strickland, Le Couleur, Grace Gillespie, the OBGMs, Alex Izenberg, Mike Block, Bros Landreth, Owen Barney, Chris Grey,

By Will McGuirk

The vocabulary around electronic media is drawn from water - waves, streams, surfing, navigating, and the fuel for electronic media growth has been music. Music is as ubiquitous and necessary as water. Music is utility.

“Thirteen speaks factually and candidly, to the painful journey of Black people in North America. And it speaks to how that journey has morphed into continued racial prejudice, using the media and using the law. To get rid of white supremacy is to identify it at its root. I hope when people watch Thirteen, they feel moved to do their part in reversing white supremacy. I hope we can begin to see one another as equal – a dream I've always hoped could one day be a reality. And I hope people realize that it's going to take WORK! Who is willing to work, to make change?” - Haviah Mighty

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“Much of my time is spent trying to reassure myself through rationalizing and acceptance, heard in the song’s verses, coupled with outbursts of inward frustration that I express in the choruses.  I think it’s a pattern we have all been through throughout lockdown. We are trying with all our hearts to make the most of this gift of time and be ‘grateful for the day’ but then realizing that we are sipping coffee and trying to create (or just get on with work) while ambulances are filing past.” - Grace Gillespie

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Mike Block · Expression of Concern (feat. KINAN ADNAWI)

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“As dancers, we express ourselves through movement. We tried to capture what it was like for us in that moment and empathize with those who were going through the same thing. It’s easy to forget we don’t fight this by ourselves, and this video is our way of reaching out to say we are there with you.” - Liam Caines, Royal Winnipeg Ballet

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Paul Kelly, Le Couleur, Fontaines DC, Shade, Tunnel, and Dirty Projectors

By Will McGuirk

Days is getting longer, urge is getting stronger, steppin’ out, staying in. . . to make for the sake of it. . . to keep on keeping on. . . to face the struggle. . . to turn around and see you are back where you started. . . all that time and nothing. . . one imagines the incremental steady climb will be successful but it is the violence, the explosion, the revolution, the suddenness of the act and change emerges on the other side. . . been spending too much time catching up.. . it’s as if we need to be shaken vehemently from our slumber.

 “It’s a lament in the form of a lullaby. A lullaby that sounds a warning. I hope it doesn’t come true but some of it already has.” - Paul Kelly

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TUNNEL · Super Charged Powerball

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Lynne Hanson, Logan Ledger, Nathaniel Rateliff, Le Couleur, Brielle Ansems, Lower Dens, Alexandra Lost and Humans

By Will McGuirk

Post-Bone Moon, heard the crow, hear the crow sap will flow, evenings are lighter, the worst is yet to come but it too shall pass. Lets strive to rise above it all.

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"I wanted to pay tribute to this mythical plane Concorde, by bringing it as a love break-up. . . These are the last moments of the plane, which remembers its memories, its image, its exploits,”  - Laurence Giroux-Do

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“It's like Cowboy Krautrock.” - Jana Hunter

“We liked the idea of creating a new story from an old one, and of amplifying a film's existing emotional palette by juxtaposing handpicked images with contemporary sounds.” - Alexandra Lost