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Dermot Kennedy Announces 2023 North American ‘Sonder’ Tour

Eric Alper
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Dermot Kennedy Announces 2023 North American ‘Sonder’ Tour

(October 24, 2022) – Today, Platinum-selling singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy officially announces his upcoming The Sonder Tour – a North American run taking place this Spring. Produced by Live Nation, the 28-date tour run will kick off in Vancouver making stops at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City and additional stops in Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston before wrapping up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in mid-June.

Nominated for the “Best International Male” BRIT Award in 2020, Dermot has now amassed nearly 4 billion streams across platforms and has the best-selling debut album in Ireland of this millennium, making him a platinum-selling artist in over 12 countries. His unique ability to unify and heal through his music has been apparent since the inception of his organic and meteoric rise. His poetic, compelling music has resonated with music lovers across the globe, with notables including Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Shawn Mendes all calling themselves fans.

The tour comes in celebration of the acclaimed artist’s new album, Sonder, to be released November 4th on Island Records/Interscope. Pre-order ‘Sonder’ here. Sonder, which means “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own,” resonated deeply with Dermot and is an exciting new musical chapter for him. Highlights from the album include the beautiful piano ballad “Innocence and Sadness” recorded fully live in one take, the infectious “Kiss Me,” the lead single ‘Something to Someone’ which has topped over 20 million streams, and “Dreamer,” which he recently performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert watch it HERE. The Sonder 2023 Tour will bring some of Kennedy’s first live performances of songs from the new album to North American fans for the first time.

Check out the full tour routing below and stay tuned for more from Dermot Kennedy coming soon.

Upcoming Live Dates
Sat, May 06 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
Tue, May 09 – Seattle, WA – WAMU Theater
Wed, May 10 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
Fri, May 12 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater
Mon, May 15 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Wed, May 17 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
Fri, May 19 – Las Vegas, NV – The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Sat, May 20 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
Tue, May 23 – Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Wed, May 24 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
Fri, May 26 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
Sat, May 27 – New Orleans, LA – The Fillmore
Tue, May 30 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Wed, May 31 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
Fri, Jun 02 – Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
Sat, Jun 03 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
Tue, Jun 06 – Franklin, TN – FirstBank Amphitheater
Wed, Jun 07 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Fri, Jun 09 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
Sat, Jun 10 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sun, Jun 11 – Montreal, QC – Place Bell
Tue, Jun 13 – Washington DC – The Anthem
Wed, Jun 14 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
Fri, Jun 16 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Mon, Jun 19 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Tue, Jun 20 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion

Alvvays Announce 2023 Spring Tour

Eric Alper
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Alvvays Announce 2023 Spring Tour

Today, JUNO Award winning Toronto-based outfit Alvvays announce their spring 2023 tour in support of their globally acclaimed third studio album Blue Rev, out now via Polyvinyl Records/Celsius Girls. Kicking off in Ottawa on March 2, the tour will make its way across Canada before wrapping at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on March 17th.

The Toronto quintet are currently on the road for their fall tour in support of Blue Rev, recently wrapping dates in the UK and travelling through the United States and South America before ending the year at home with back-to-back shows at Toronto’s HISTORY.

2023 SPRING TOUR
March 2 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre
March 3 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
March 4 – London, ON – London Music Hall
March 5 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre
March 8 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
March 9 – Saskatoon, SK – Coors Event Centre
March 10 – Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
March 11 – Calgary, AB – MacEwan Hall
March 13 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
March 15 – Victoria, BC – Capital Ballroom
March 16 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
March 17 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom

Alvvays never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev. In fact, the band began writing and cutting its first bits soon after releasing 2017’s Antisocialites, that stunning sophomore record that confirmed the their status atop a new generation of winning and whip-smart indie rock.

Global lockdowns notwithstanding, circumstances both ordinary and entirely unpredictable stunted those sessions. Alvvays toured more than expected, a surefire interruption for a band that doesn’t write on the road. A watchful thief then broke into singer Molly Rankin’s apartment and swiped a recorder full of demos, one day before a basement flood nearly ruined all the band’s gear. They subsequently lost a rhythm section and, due to border closures, couldn’t rehearse for months with their masterful new one, drummer Sheridan Riley and bassist Abbey Blackwell.

The songs of Blue Rev thrive on immediacy and intricacy, so good on first listen that the subsequent spins where you hear all the details are an inevitability. This perfectly dovetailed sound stems from an unorthodox—and, for Alvvays, wholly surprising—recording process, unlike anything they’ve ever done. Alvvays are fans of fastidious demos, making maps of new tunes so complete they might as well have topographical contour lines.

But in October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow Canadian Shawn Everett, he urged them to forget the careful planning they’d done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces, and mixing the results.

Every element of Alvvays leveled up in the long interim between albums: Riley is a classic dynamo of a drummer, with the power of a rock deity and the finesse of a jazz pedigree. Their roommate, in-demand bassist Blackwell, finds the center of a song and entrenches it. Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan joined Rankin and guitarist Alec O’Hanley to write more this time, reinforcing the band’s collective quest to break patterns heard on their first two albums.

Alvvays’ self-titled debut, released when much of the band was still in its early 20s, offered speculation about a distant future—marriage, professionalism, interplanetary citizenship. Antisocialites wrestled with the woes of the now, especially the anxieties of inching toward adulthood. Named for the sugary alcoholic beverage Rankin and MacLellan used to drink as teens on rural Cape Breton, Blue Rev looks both back at that country past and forward at an uncertain world, reckoning with what we lose whenever we make a choice about what we want to become.

Sure, it arrives a few years later than expected, but the answer for Alvvays is actually simple: They’ve changed gradually, growing on Blue Rev into one of their generation’s most complete and riveting rock bands.

2022 FALL TOUR DATES
October 26 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore ^ [SOLD OUT]
October 27 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore ^ [SOLD OUT]
October 28 – Pomona, CA – Glass House ^
October 29 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern ^ [SOLD OUT]
October 30 – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park ^ [SOLD OUT]
November 02 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater ^
November 04 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall – Downstairs ^
November 05 – Dallas, TX – The Studio at The Factory ^
November 07 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse ^ [SOLD OUT]
November 08 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works ^
November 09 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel ^
November 11 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ^ [SOLD OUT]
November 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall ^
November 15 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall ^
November 16 – New York, NY – Kings Theater ^
November 18 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner ^
December 7 – Santiago, CL – Fauna Primavera Festival
December 10 – Buenos Aires, AR – Music Wins Festival
December 11 – São Paulo, BR – Balaclava Fest
December 15 – Toronto, ON – History ^
December 16 – Toronto, ON – History ^ [SOLD OUT]
^ w/ Slow Pulp

FOLLOW ALVVAYS
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

###

Louis Tomlinson Announces “Faith In The Future” World Tour In 2023

Eric Alper
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Louis Tomlinson Announces “Faith In The Future” World Tour In 2023

Today, Louis Tomlinson announced the North American Tour dates for his headlining world tour in addition to his recently announced UK and European Arena tour for 2023. The “Faith In The Future World Tour” tour will span across North America from May to July and include shows at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Forest Hills Stadium in New York City, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado and more before bringing the singer-songwriter to Europe from August to November next year including a date at London’s O2 Arena. See below for the full tour routing.

Yesterday, Louis Tomlinson unveiled one final taste of his upcoming album with the release of ‘Silver Tongues’ – listen here. ‘Silver Tongues’ is a rousing earworm, bursting at the seams with joyful nostalgic energy. Written with Joe Cross (Lana Del Ray, Courteeners) and Theo Hutchcraft from Hurts, the track is another bold step forward sonically for Louis.

“Silver Tongues’ is probably the song I’m most proud of on the record”, says Louis.

This Friday sees the release of Louis’s long awaited second album ‘Faith In The Future’. The title epitomizes Louis’s optimistic worldview, producing a collection of songs designed for the live environment. After spending the first portion of his adult life working 100 miles per hour, Louis reveled in taking his time to make sure he got his sophomore album right. He’s made Faith In The Future on his watch, and collaborators include Mike Crossey (The 1975, Wolf Alice), Rob Harvey, Dan Grech (The Killers, The Vaccines, Halsey), Nico Rebscher (Alice Merton) and the aforementioned Joe Cross and Theo Hutchcraft.

In celebration of the new album, Louis will perform “Silver Tongues” on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon tomorrow on NBC at 11:35pm ET/10:35pm CT. He will also celebrate album release with a special, one-night only, sold out show tomorrow night at New York City’s Irving Plaza.

Featuring both the anthemic first single ‘Bigger Than Me’ and indie punk fan favorite ‘Out Of My System’, the album begins in emphatic style with the pounding drums of ‘The Greatest’, which Tomlinson says is a celebration of the relationship has amassed with his avid fanbase. Other stand out tracks include indie floor-filler, ‘Written All Over Your Face’, blissful roof-down summer anthem, ‘Lucky Again’, tearjerkers ‘Angels Fly’ and ‘Holding On To Heartache’, alongside the retrospective ‘Common People’, a beautiful and poignant homage to his hometown Doncaster.

There’s a delicate balance to ‘Faith In The Future’, with Louis exhibiting the full capability of his talents whilst never refraining from sounding unapologetically like him for a nanosecond. ‘All This Time’ sees Louis dip his toes back into dance music, whilst ‘She Is Beauty We Are World Class’ is a full-blown dance track perfect for an Iberian sunset, yet still feels genuine and honest.

‘Walls’ was an album Louis needed to get off his chest, but he now has uncompromisingly expanded his wings and evolved.

In 2021, Louis was listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records for breaking the record for the most livestreamed concert by a solo male artist. Louis hosted one of the biggest live stream concert events ever held, selling over 160,000 tickets to fans in over 110 countries and raising funds for several important charities and touring crew affected by the pandemic. Following the huge success of the festival’s 2021 debut, August also saw the return of Louis’ highly successful The Away From Home Festival. The one-day event was staged this year at the stunning Marenostrum Fuengirola in Malaga Spain, hosting 18,000 fans and selling out in just 24hrs with a line-up of some of the best new British bands.

US & Canada Tour Dates
05.26.2023 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
05.27.2023 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
05.29.2023 – Laval, QC – Place Bell
05.30.2023 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
06.01.2023 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
06.02.2023 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre
06.03.2023 – Cincinnati, OH – The ICON Festival Stage
06.06.2023 – Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live! Outdoor
06.07.2023 – Indianapolis, IN – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
06.09.2023 – St. Louis, MO – Saint Louis Music Park
06.10.2023 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
06.13.2023- Milwaukee, WI – BMO Pavilion
06.15.2023 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion
06.16.2023 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
06.17.2023 – Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s Stir Cove
06.19.2023 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford Premier Center
06.21.2023 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
06.24.2023 – Seattle, WA – WAMU Theater
06.26.2023 – Vancouver, BC – Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
06.27.2023 – Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield Concerts
06.29.2023 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre
06.30.2023 – Los Angeles, CA – The Hollywood Bowl
07.01.2023 – Las Vegas, NV – The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan
07.03.2023 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
07.06.2023 – Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
07.07.2023 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
07.08.2023 – Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
07.11.2023 – St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre
07.13.2023 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood
07.14.2023 – Tampa, FL – Yuengling Center
07.15.2023 – Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
07.18.2023 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
07.19.2023 – Charlotte, NC – Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre
07.21.2023 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
07.22.2023- Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
07.24.2023 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
07.27.2023 – Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at The Mann
07.28.2023 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage
07.29.2023 – New York, NY – Forest Hills Stadium

UK & EUROPEAN TOUR DATES
08.29.2023 – Hamburg, Germany – Barclays Arena
08.31.2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Royal Arena
09.01.2023 – Oslo, Norway – Spektrum
09.02.2023 – Stockholm, Sweden – Hovet
09.04.2023 – Helsinki, Finland – Ice Hall
09.05.2023 – Tallinn, Estonia – Saku Arena
09.07.2023 – Riga, Latvia – Arena Riga
09.08.2023 – Kaunas, Lithuania – Zalgiris Arena
09.10.2023 – Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena
09.11.2023 – Lodsz, Poland – Atlas Arena
09.13.2023 – Vienna, Austria – Wiener Stadthalle
09.14.2023 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Stozice Arena
09.15.2023 – Budapest, Hungary – Budapest Arena
09.17.2023 – Bucharest, Romania – Arenele Romane
09.18.2023 – Sofia, Bulgaria – Arena Armeec
09.20.2023 – Athens, Greece – Petras Theater
10.01.2023 – Bilbao, Spain – Bilbao Arena Miribilla
10.03.2023 – Lisbon, Portugal – Altice Arena
10.05.2023 – Madrid, Spain – WiZink Center
10.06.2023 – Barcelona, Spain – Palau Sant Jordi
10.08.2023 – Turin, Italy – Palau Alpitour
10.09.2023 – Bologna, Italy – Unipol Arena
10.11.2023 – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal
10.12.2023 – Antwerp, Belgium – Sportpaleis
10.14.2023 – Paris, France – Accor Arena
10.15.2023 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome
10.17.2023 – Cologne, Germany – Lanxess Arena
10.19.2023 – Prague, Czech Republic – O2 Arena
10.20.2023 – Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena
10.22.2023 – Munich, Germany – Olympiahalle
10.23.2023 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion
11.08.2023 – Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena
11.10.2023 – Sheffield, United Kingdom – Utilita Arena
11.11.2023 – Manchester, United Kingdom – AO Arena
11.12.2023 – Glasgow, United Kingdom – OVO Hydro
11.14.2023 – Brighton, United Kingdom – Brighton Centre
11.15.2023 – Cardiff, United Kingdom – International Arena
11.17.2023 – London, United Kingdom – The O2
11.18.2023 – Birmingham, United Kingdom – Resorts World Arena

MATELL Mourns Loss of AARON CARTER With Release of “Honest Man” and “Something To Fk With” Singles

Eric Alper
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MATELL Mourns Loss of AARON CARTER With Release of “Honest Man” and “Something To Fk With” Singles

The power of music has always been a vessel for connecting with others – it supersedes language, indifference, and beliefs. It is a method that has brought the farthest ends of the world closer together, and Matell’s newest releases, “Honest Man (DJ Tremelo Remix)” and “Something To Fk With (DJ Tremelo Remix)” embody that very sentiment.

Matell’s passion for music has always been clear. However, there were few people who influenced him as much as actor and rapper, Aaron Carter. A handful of conversations fueled by a deep connection with music between Carter and Matell made the Colorado-based artist want to release the singles now.

After Carter’s untimely passing, it became a fire that will burn forever within Matell.

Matell reflects on his light-hearted conversations with Carter, saying, “We tossed around ideas and talked about other things along the way. Aaron would want me to talk about music, which was a shared passion between us. His spirit carries on in his music. My heart goes out to his son Prince Lyric Carter.”

Matell’s collaborative effort embody the spirit of Carter’s music and general take on life. Matell wrote these songs exclusively for Aaron to sing and produce on his Rakkaus Records. “‘Honest Man’ came from a conversation about people taking you seriously. Carter told me he would stay home and work on his music, despite what people said – and that’s where I got that concept.”

““Something To Fk With” came from our messages online. We would go back and forth writing instrumentals to lyrics or vice versa, and I decide to change one of those compositions to reflect the current climate in the news and the chaos in the world.”

Matell has appeared as a featured performer in tribute to iconic jazz singer Nancy Wilson at the BMA Music Awards, and as a special guest on Minnie Foxx’s Los Angeles concert tour. He has been honored by VH-1’s Save The Music and nominated for Song of the Year as a lyricist for “We Will Survive.” Matell was also nominated for the Best Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Writing for “Eastern Trees” by the American Poetry Society.

Matell says, “Rest In Peace, Aaron Carter. Your family, your fans, and the world truly mourns for you. Your spirit lives on through your artistic integrity.”

Alt.Rockers Friendly Giants Releases Haunting Call To The Past With “Dancing By Myself”

Eric Alper
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Alt.Rockers Friendly Giants Releases Haunting Call To The Past With “Dancing By Myself”

Friendly Giants boomed to life during the mandatory lockdown of 2020 when John Wittmayer and Shawn Fisher met and workshopped each other’s songs. As bands go, the duo added more talent to their collective, adding James Stephens, Barry Jones, Amy Heasman and Holly Schweitzer. Trevor Yost incorporates drums into some of the band’s discography. Each member lends their respective talent, be it Fisher on violin, Jones on trumpet, or Wittmayer on vocals.

“The sum of our parts creates music that we all identify with, and this sharing is what thrills us to keep creating,” Wittmayer says.

On their new track, “Dancing By Myself,” Heasman leads the vocal track with a dark, haunting call to a past lover or close friend. She croons, “What do you see when you look inside me? What do you feel when you brush up beside me? Why can’t you know if you can dance by my side? I’m not a muse for your own gain. I’m not a fool to play your games.”

The revenge saga crescendos into a brooding synth wonderland full of hollow bass drumbeats and consistent hi-hat hits. Jones’ trumpet licks mesh with Heasman’s croony questions throughout the outro, where the title comes into the spotlight.

“I’m dancing by myself,” Heasman exclaims while Jones trills through his trumpet melody, pungently trilling under the pensive refrain.

Although Heasman contributes her evocative lyrics to Dancing By Myself, Wittamayer conceived the tune. “I had the initial idea and music for Dancing by Myself. I was awkwardly trying to learn Cubase 10 during the long dark winter months of the Great Covid Lockdown. I was exploring electronica and beats and worked at composing semi-organic melodic statements accompanied by hypnotic beats on a computer,” he said.

Wittmayer added the band prides itself on running an open and non-judgmental environment where each member can pitch their ideas. Our musical collaboration allows room that no idea is not worth exploring. We try it out, and if it sticks, we all embrace it. So far, so good,” he said.

Once Heasman penned the perfect lyrics for the tune, Fisher and Jones took to production, and Wittmayer recorded his “delicious, dirty guitar riffs.” The band stated this single elicits a “gypsy influenced-polyrhythmic Moroccan groove, with a powerful homage to a Bulgarian sounding women’s choir.”

Friendly Giants favors a genre-blending atmosphere of indie tones and free-sounding hippie-pop. “The band is endlessly inspired by the Slocan Valley’s lively artistic communities and their surrounding landscape where music brings people together,” Wittamayer said.

“Dancing By Myself” is out now, and keep your eyes peeled for Friendly Giants’ debut album dropping in spring 2023.

Bree Taylor Offers Hope for the Lonely-Hearted in Soaring Single “My Last Breath” from New Album ‘Dauntless’

Eric Alper
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Bree Taylor Offers Hope for the Lonely-Hearted in Soaring Single “My Last Breath” from New Album ‘Dauntless’

It can be demoralizing to go through a string of disappointing dating experiences and be left empty-hearted and empty-handed. Pop-country songstress Bree Taylor wrote her latest single “My Last Breath” – available now – with that frustration in mind, and as a salve for the desire to give up. “My Last Breath” is merely one song of perseverance on an entire album, Dauntless, dedicated to fearlessness.

A soaring pop song with just the right amount of country jangle and twang, “My Last Breath” is a stream of sunlight in a dark room, a ray of hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

“Have you found that special someone that you’ll love until your last breath after tons of heartbreak?” Taylor inquires in the adjoining caption to the music video on her YouTube channel. “Maybe you’re still going through disappointing dating experiences and haven’t found them yet. I hope this song resonates with you no matter your relationship status, because I wrote it when I was not in a place of feeling this beautiful love, but it gave me HOPE that I could one day have that BIG ‘love you until my very last breath’ kind of love.”

Even with its big, bold production and wailing guitars, the shining star of “My Last Breath” is Taylor’s voice, captured in its rich honey tones and whiskey notes, and also in its deep empathy and feeling. In the video, Taylor walks through sunflower fields during the golden hour, enjoying the beauty of her surroundings – and the beauty of her own company. You get the distinct sense that Bree Taylor is rooting for your lonely heart – even if it’s on the other side of the world – and that big, beautiful love she knows you’re going to find, even if right now that just means a deeper relationship with yourself.

“My Last Breath” is the final single off Taylor’s debut album Dauntless, representing her metamorphosis as a person and an artist. “Dauntless was chosen as a title because the word encompasses who I have become as a person and as an artist in being bold, fearless, courageous and unapologetically me,” Taylor explains. “It represents coming into who I am and standing up for myself and what I believe in and not being told who to be or having to fit someone else’s mold of who they think I should be.”

Dauntless kicks off on an upbeat, exuberant note with “Turn It Up” – “I need a guitar/ pedal to the metal/ and a fast car” – celebrating life, and the love of music. “Burning Bridges” (which soared to No. 1 on the Canadian Indie charts in October 2020) promotes forward movement, and the willingness to keep going despite any roadblocks. Then, with its laid-back chorus of “put your beers up in the air,” “Sha La La” comes along as an ode to fun, and memorable nights out full of live music, karaoke, and, yes, plenty of beer! The smash hit “Kryptonite” – which yielded a second No. 1 hit on the charts, along with nominations for “Song of the Year,” “Video of the Year,” and “Best New Artist” from the Mississauga Music Awards – is about an addictive relationship that’s wrong even though it feels so right.

Meanwhile, the heartbreaking “Cry” hit No. 2 on the Indie charts, and it captures the healing power of a good cry before you dust yourself off and move on. The shimmering “Drive” goes back to the theme of putting the pedal to the metal, about a revitalizing road trip with your best girlfriends. “On My Own” further encapsulates dauntlessness, in an introspective examination of trusting oneself and going it alone. The album concludes on the aforementioned “My Last Breath,” simultaneously about a life-changing love, and the aching desire for it before it arrives.

With commanding vocals, and ability to resonate, Taylor is an ode to a young Shania, or Trisha Yearwood. For Taylor, singing, writing, and performing were built into her DNA and, by the age of six, the soon-to-be breakout artist was already exhibiting signs of being a musician. Despite her hearing impairment, she found her voice, and eventually trained with the legendary vocal coach to the stars, Bob Garrett (Los Angeles) and Lorraine Lawson (Toronto, ‘The Launch’), and released a debut EP Unbreakable in 2019, before releasing her full debut this year.

Bree also holds philanthropic causes close to her heart. Supporting and bringing awareness to mental health, human equality and poverty, Bree recently kicked off her new concert series ‘Cheers & Beers’ on June 10th, 2022, in support of TenFed and Kids Against Hunger Canada, helping to feed children and families suffering from food insensitivity in Canada and across the globe.

Burna Boy Releases New Mini-Documentary “Whiskey” On Hometown Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Eric Alper
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Burna Boy Releases New Mini-Documentary “Whiskey” On Hometown Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Burna Boy has released “Whiskey” – a hard-hitting mini-documentary that displays gripping visuals of the continued pollution, flooding, and overall negligence in his hometown of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. “Whiskey” also appears as one of the Grammy-winning musicians most poignant songs on his sixth studio album, Love, Damini.

The mini-doc features first-hand accounts from members of the community, giving form to the realities they face including: an inconsolable mother who tearfully recounts the loss of her son due to sickness as a result of the pollution and a lack of medicine, a doctor reiterating the extreme effects of the damage to the oil city — with the water surrounding the city polluted by crude waste, to an old truck driver complaining about the bad roads, which has claimed the lives of people who have no choice but to use boats to be able to cross to the other side.

At an exclusive screening of the mini-doc in London last night, Burna Boy went on to say, “Everything was a lot worse than the way I left it. The air was fully polluted, everything would be black when you wake up, even the cars. It’s really what you see in the documentary. This is real life, everyday life for my people. I feel like we’ll make songs about everything else, so why not make songs about what’s really going on and what’s really affecting the people in real time. That’s what the song ‘Whiskey’ is. I hope it does its job and creates the necessary awareness and some type of change comes from this. If you don’t know, now you know.”

Burna Boy, who frequently partners with philanthropic initiatives, highlights The R.E.A.C.H. (Reach Every Available Communal Household) – a charitable organization based in Nigeria which helps to provide resources to the community that raised the African Giant. All donations to The R.E.A.C.H. go directly to victims of the community as they work to provide aid via food, clean water, household necessities and medicine.

Highlighting specific issues his hometown community is facing, Burna Boy hopes to shed light on other parts of Nigeria & Africa, the Caribbean, and the rest of world that suffers similar environmental issues. A proud Rivers State indigene who has been awarded a Distinguished Service Star (DSSRS), Burna Boy opens himself up to the world to show where he comes from, the part he’s played as an influential member of his society, and where he’s going – first as an individual, and then as an artist. Afterall, his first ever song was made in a tree house built on the pipelines in Port Harcourt.

For more information on The R.E.A.C.H. or to contribute with a donation please visit https://thereach.ng/.

The Postal Service And Death Cab For Cutie Join Forces For 20th Anniversary Co-Headline Tour

Eric Alper
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The Postal Service And Death Cab For Cutie Join Forces For 20th Anniversary Co-Headline Tour

Indie rock titans The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie have today announced plans for a landmark 20th anniversary co-headline North American tour. The extraordinary live run will see both iconic groups performing their seminal 2003 albums in full – The Postal Service’s RIAA Platinum-certified Give Up and Death Cab for Cutie’s RIAA Gold-certified breakthrough fourth studio LP Transatlanticism – two classics released within a mere eight months of one another that year.

Benjamin Gibbard, the co-founder of both bands, will pull double duty throughout the tour, performing with The Postal Service – comprised of Gibbard, Jimmy Tamborello, and Jenny Lewis – as well as with Death Cab for Cutie (alongside Nick Harmer, Dave Depper, Zac Rae, and Jason McGerr).

“I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003. The Postal Service record came out, Transatlanticism came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.” – Gibbard

The tour was announced this morning via an exclusive trailer on the band’s socials (watch HERE).

The sure to be highly-anticipated run will kick off September 8, 2023 at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, ME and continue through mid-October, with highlights including shows at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, Berkeley, CA’s Greek Theatre, and Los Angeles, CA’s Hollywood Bowl.

Pre-sales begin Wednesday, December 14 at 10 am (local) and continue through Thursday, December 15 at 10 pm (local). Sign-up for early access to tickets here. For the Hollywood Bowl show, American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Tuesday, December 13 at 10am PT through Thursday, December 15 at 10pm PT.

The upcoming tour will mark the first live performances from The Postal Service in over a decade, following 2013’s hugely successful 10-year anniversary reunion tour for Give Up – an album which still stands today as Sub Pop’s second highest-selling album in the label’s history, second only to Nirvana’s Bleach. The reunion tour was captured for posterity on a live concert film, Everything Will Change, released in 2014 and subsequently on a live audio album released in 2020 to digital streaming platforms.

Also in 2020, the trio joined forces to support HeadCount’s “Make Your Vote Count” campaign via a star-studded video of “Zoom Auditions” for new band members which featured appearances from fans including Anne Hathaway, Kenny G, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Slash, Huey Lewis, Caroline Polachek, Michelle Zauner, Big Freedia, and J Mascis, to name a few.

Meanwhile, 8x GRAMMY Award-nominees Death Cab for Cutie are currently celebrating the release of their critically acclaimed 10th studio album, Asphalt Meadows. Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winner John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Wallows), the new LP includes the explosive “Roman Candles” and chart-topping “Here to Forever,” the latter of which reached #1 at Alternative radio in October, after spending a record-setting nine weeks atop the AAA airplay chart this summer. The album received tremendous praise from outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Vulture, SPIN, Stereogum, and Pitchfork, who lauded the record as “a late career masterwork… a restoration of their creative momentum when a mere ‘return to form’ would have sufficed.”

Formed in Bellingham, WA in 1997, Death Cab for Cutie immediately entered the ranks of the era’s most definitive bands, thanks in large part to the remarkable power of co-founder, vocalist, guitarist, and lead songwriter Ben Gibbard’s complex, often bittersweet songcraft. The band made their worldwide popular breakthrough with 2003’s RIAA gold certified Transatlanticism, later named by NPR as one of “The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings.” Fueled by critical acclaim, an array of high profile soundtrack placements, and such hit singles as “The Sound of Settling” and “Title and Registration,” the album debuted among the upper half of the Billboard 200 – Death Cab for Cutie’s first ever entry on the overall chart. A 10th anniversary edition of Transatlanticism containing previously unheard demos and outtakes arrived in 2013, prompting NPR to write, “For all its ubiquity and imitators, Transatlanticism holds up as an exquisitely produced, largely flawless record in which every song is bound to serve as someone’s favorite.”

2003 also saw Gibbard and Los Angeles, CA-based multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Figurine) unite as The Postal Service, a long distance collaboration named for their working method of exchanging tracks via the US Mail. The duo – joined by a number of friends including singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis – proved a phenomenon with the February 2003 release of their one and only studio LP, Give Up, earning worldwide applause and eventual RIAA platinum certification thanks to infectious electro-pop smashes like “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (a top 3 sensation on Billboard’s “Hot Dance Singles” chart), “We Will Become Silhouettes (which reached the top 3 on the Canadian Singles Chart), and of course, the magical RIAA gold certified “Such Great Heights.” The album’s stature continued to grow in the years following its original release, ultimately spending 19 non-consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard’s “Top Electronic Albums” chart. In 2013, The Postal Service reunited to mark the 10th anniversary of Give Up with their biggest headline tour ever, along with top-billed performances at such international festivals as Coachella, Primavera Sound, Lollapalooza, and Sasquatch. In addition, a commemorative 10th anniversary edition of Give Up saw the singular collection expanded with 15 bonus tracks, including two brand new songs, “A Tattered Line of String” and “Turn Around.”

THE POSTAL SERVICE // DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
SEPTEMBER 2023
8 – Portland, ME – Cross Insurance Arena
9 – Kingston, RI – The Ryan Center
10 – New Haven, CT – Westville Music Bowl
12 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall
13 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall
14 – Washington, DC – Merriweather Post Pavilion
17 – Detroit, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheater
20 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
21 – Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center
24 – Minneapolis, MN – Armory
26 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
27 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
OCTOBER 2023
3 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
4 – Las Vegas, NV – The Chelsea Ballroom at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
7 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
10 – Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre – UC Berkeley
13 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl

The Haçienda Gets The BBC Doc Treatment. Watch It Here.

Eric Alper
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The Haçienda Gets The BBC Doc Treatment. Watch It Here.

Here’s the recent BBC documentary on the story of the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, featuring contributions from the likes of Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Shaun Ryder, Noel Gallagher, Peter Saville, John Robb and others.

My Next Read: “Totally Wired: The Rise and Fall of the Music Press” by Paul Gorman

Eric Alper
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My Next Read: “Totally Wired: The Rise and Fall of the Music Press” by Paul Gorman

A raucous yet detailed look back at the evolution of the music press and the passionate rock and pop journalists who documented the sounds that changed our culture.

Totally Wired charts the coming of age of music publications covering the contemporary bands, trends, and scene. This book offers a history of the journalists who described the wild landscape of the rise of rock and its evolution from the 1950s to the 2000s, through R&B, pop, the Summer of Love, punk, and beyond. Author Paul Gorman chronicles the emergence of trailblazing music magazines in New York, Los Angeles, and London and their transformation into essential reading for anyone who cared about popular culture.

Gorman captures the extraordinary rise of the inkies on the back of rock and roll’s explosion into the postwar American and British youth culture. He recounts the development of individual magazines from their Tin Pan Alley beginnings to Creem, Blender, and Crawdaddy! followed by the foundation of Rolling Stone, NME, Melody Maker, and Sounds―as well as the emergence of dedicated monthlies such as Q, The Face, and Mojo. Evoking the golden age of the music press, the book is illustrated with iconic magazine artwork and archival photography throughout.

Writers such as Charles Shaar Murray, Greil Marcus, Nick Kent, and Tony Parsons not only documented the wild excesses of Led Zeppelin, the Who, and the Clash but also played an integral part in the development of the success of the bands themselves. Painting a complete picture of the scene, Gorman also tackles the entrenched sexism and racism faced by women and people from marginalized backgrounds as they tried to make it in the music industry, whether as musicians or journalists. An incisive and entertaining ride, this volume is perfect for anyone interested in popular culture, magazines, and underground cultural history.

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That Eric Alper

Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.

Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com

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