Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Slow Leaves, LAL, Charlie Houston, Middle Kids, and much more music

By Will McGuirk

Fast and furious babies not slow and level like we like - but with everyone home and tech so close those who make songs are making a lot of them so this open mic is going late. But lets start with slow - Slow Leaves, one of my fave finds in the last couple of years, authentically heartfelt, its the perfect sound for times like these; small, isolated, longing yet finding the warmth, the purpose, in the small slow things, in the domestic, the familiar, the inevitable. Yes hunker down, we are in for the long haul, we are in for the lockdown but with Slow Leaves in the ears we will get through it . . Slow Leaves is Grant Davidson, take the time.

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“The song inspired an idea where the people and their surroundings are stuck in their own behavior, both physically and mentally. It’s a deeply touching song moved by a lot of energy, where the illustrations and the motions reflect a feeling of my interpretation of the song’s intention and atmosphere, without being too distinct.” - video director and animator Jonna Hallberg

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Tampa · Irene

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“Respect the Gift" is about using our ‘gifts’ for good, and not taking for granted the everyday freedoms and luxuries we have. There’s never been a more important time to appreciate all that we find precious, especially given the world we’re living in today,” - Adrian Sutherland

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The Mandevilles · Lightning

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The Neighbourhood Watch · Focus Up

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His His · Winter Journal

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with The Weather Station, Scott MacKay, TV Priest, Kandle & Kendel, Rhye, POSTDATA, Virgil Abloh, Devan, Triptides, The Neighbourhood Watch, and The Barettas

By Will McGuirk

I wonder how they do it, hang on until years from now another discovers the work, lying there in a bin, or back of a library or in a box in a storage locker, or perhaps on an old hard drive in the back of a drawer, and then Eureka! Shared gleefully at the discovery - Christopher Columbus like one would imagine… Its a marvellous place I am in where I get the gems, they sail across my stream, they are intimate to me, but one can only do what one can and I can only urge you to listen and marvel. The Weather Station, there with Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards in my canon. . . if you need some door propped open. Open, you will not be disappointed, there has never been any disappointment from the Weather Station, there has only been song after song, soul after soul edifying moment, album after album of change-ups and growth and journey and a hand held out to journey along and no disappointments only soul after soul edifying moments evermore.

“Trying to capture something of the slipping feeling I think we all feel, the feeling of dread, even in beautiful moments, even when you’re a little drunk on a sea cliff watching the sun go down while seabirds fly around you; that slipping feeling is still there, that feeling of dread, of knowing that everything you see is in peril,” says Lindeman. “I feel like I spend half my life working on trying to stay positive. My whole generation does.”

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Once upon a time there was a man named Handsome Ned who stepped onto the stage of the Cameron House and I wasn’t there. However records had been invented. I imagine Ned would have been happy to have Scott MacKay open for him or even open for. Or perhaps one could hear in Scott MacKay Orville Peck if he didn’t go for Baroque.

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“Press Gang” is about the shifting role in the dissemination of information and ideas, and how the prevailing narrative that the “Death of Print Media” has contributed to a “post-truth” world.

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“We wanted to be somewhere else for a spell and it was granted by whiskey, reverb and 6 beautiful, dark tunes from the early 70s. We boarded his silver spaceship looking for respite from the pandemic…”

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Artist, architect, engineer, creative director, artistic director, industrial designer, fashion designer, musician, DJ, and philanthropist, Virgil Abloh, can very much be described as a multi-hyphenate man. For Abloh, who is also the Chief Creative Director and founder of Off-White™️ and Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, music has always run deep.

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“Writing songs for me is a way to uncover my underlying feelings about something –putting elusive emotions into tangible sentences, and coming to terms with them. My only guideline for writing these songs was to try to be as honest with myself as possible, and follow my instincts without all the self-inflicted barriers that I usually let get in the way.” – Devan

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