Founded, formed and fronted by the enigmatic Jeremey Meyer, the heavy, hard-hitting Hawaiian alt-rock outfit MDMP has collaborated with Mike Evans from the UK metal band Profiler for the electrifying single “Fire.”
According MDMP’s Jeremy Meyer, when he has an idea for a song, he searches music platforms for other musicians or songs with similar motives and sounds. During an intensive search for the perfect sound to interpolate into “Fire,” Spotify stepped up and recommended Profiler to him. So, Meyer reached out to Evans, and just asked him.
“The concept for this song was to reach back to the glory days of nu-metal and be influenced by the likes of bands such as the Deftones,” Meyer said. “The lyrics reach to a place of challenging relationships to whom or what is subject to the listener’s relatable experience.”
With lyrics like “The temptation gets clearer,” the listener relays their own experience to the song. This allows for a universal listening experience. “Will you fight this fire with fire,” Meyer implores through a refrain backed by lingering guitar chords.
This musical collaboration reaches the beaches of Hawaii, the hot mid-summer air of the Midwest of the USA and crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge of Bristol in the UK. This song is sure to be enjoyable with a low-lit room and a beverage of choice.
There are times in all relationships when you drive each other crazy. Maybe someone drinks or smokes a little too much or complains about their weight but bulldozes junk food every night. But despite their annoying and frustrating habits, we don’t leave. This is the theme of North Battleford, SK’s alt-folk artist Jackie K’s “We Can’t Quit,” the third track off of first full-length album, She’s A Story.
In a first for them in their relationship, Jackie K and her husband, Tom Kroczynski, wrote “We Can’t Quit” last summer. A difficult couple of years inspired the couple to put together a country duet track that symbolized their enduring commitment to one another.
“We had been smoking cigarettes on and off during the pandemic, and it was time to stop,” Jackie K said. “The last few years have been hard, so much additional pressure. The song is about making the decision to keep trying to be better but also to know when it’s time to cut each other some slack. Life can be hard enough.”
Jackie K and Tom take turns serenading listeners with examples of their bothersome behaviors, then outlining why everything stays the same, even when they try to change for their spouse. But what might separate others hasn’t divided these two – their true vices are each other.
“It’s just a fun country song with more than a little bit of truth telling!” Jackie K explained. “Oh, and we did quit smoking, but I still eat too many chips and he’s got a mouth on him!”
This honest tune is one of several storytelling songs within She’s A Story. Recorded in Saskatoon by producer Randy Woods and mastered at Mojito Mastering in Toronto, Jackie K is responsible for the album’s vocals, keys, and trumpet, with Tom providing bass. Kyle Krysa plays the project’s drums, Connor Newton is on sax, and Woods sprinkles in some magic on guitar.
Released on March 8th to coincide with International Women’s Day, She’s A Story tells the tales of women, some personal to Jackie K and others abstractly relevant to the world’s women and the lives they lead.
“The stories belong to women,” she said. “Women’s roles have changed. Things are different now than they have been. It’s harder, it’s more work. If somebody can relate to an aging parent, or being queen of their castle, that will make me happy.”
“We Can’t Quit” is sandwiched in the center of the album, introducing the complexities many women live with in their relationships.
“She’s eating, he’s swearing, she’s drinking too much beer, he’s smoking – there is frustration amidst the underlying love and support that is there in any relationship,” Jackie K said. “We love John Prine’s ‘In Spite of Ourselves’ and used to sing that a lot. We certainly took some cues from his expert songwriting.”
Based in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Jackie K has represented the big skies of Treaty Six territory for a long time. She often incorporates her love of the prairies and its people into her music, and her creativity has taken her around the world, most recently to Ireland in January 2023 to showcase at Your Roots Are Showing with Tom.
When she isn’t writing or performing, Jackie K is teaching. Jackie teaches band and guitar to high school students at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, paying it forward to help the next generation express themselves through sound.
Her passion for music is evident in every anecdote on the album, and the culmination of her cooperation with her husband aligns perfectly with Jackie K’s plan for the project. Check out “We Can’t Quit” and She’s A Story – both available now.
Celebrated multi-PLATINUM Canadian entertainer Dean Brody is taking it back to his roots with today’s announcement of a headlining National tour coming this fall. Fans will join Brody in an intimate evening of acoustic performances for the Right Round Here Tour kicking off in October, with more Canadian dates to be announced later this summer. To celebrate the tour, Brody will also release a full-length album by the same name — Right Round Here — this fall. Tickets go on sale for the first leg of the tour this Friday (June 2).
Brody dropped “Paint the Town Redneck,” a new track for fans that encapsulates his downhome country upbringing and the excitement he feels every time he gets to bring that lifestyle and fun-loving energy to a new group of friends.
“I am really looking forward to getting out on the road to play some of my favourites from my catalogue and also music off the new album,” said Brody. “I’ve wanted to get out to do an acoustic theatre tour for years, celebrating the small towns that make Canada the great country we get to live in, and am so grateful we finally get to do it this fall”
For the first time in his celebrated over 15 year career, Brody will bring his vast musical catalogue to small-town theatres in Canada. Kicking off on the West Coast in October, each night Brody will take fans on a chronological journey through his music with an intimate acoustic performance and the storytelling his songwriting has been acclaimed for. Additional dates across the country will be announced later this summer.
Right Round Here Tour Dates
10/11 McPherson Playhouse Victoria, BC
10/12 Cowichan Performing Arts Centre Duncan, BC
10/13 Port Theatre Nanaimo, BC
10/15 Vanier Hall Prince George, BC
10/17 Vernon Performing Arts Centre Vernon BC
10/18 Charles Bailey Theatre Trail, BC
10/19 Key City Theatre Cranbrook, BC
10/20 Red Deer Memorial Centre Red Deer, AB
10/21 Vic Juba Community Theatre Lloydminster, AB
10/22 TCU Place Saskatoon, SK
10/24 Conexus Arts Centre Regina, SK
10/25 Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium Brandon, MB
10/26 Anne Portnuff Theatre Yorkton, SK
10/27 + 10/28 Club Regent Event Centre Winnipeg, MB
11/3 Kingston Grand Theatre Kingston, ON
11/4 Centre In The Square Kitchener, ON
11/8 Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts Brantford, ON
11/11 Legacy Hall, Deerhurst Resort Huntsville, ON
11/13 Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts Oakvile, ON
11/14 Brockville Arts Centre Brockville, ON
11/15 The Empire Theatre Belleville, ON
11/17/23 Chatham Capitol Theatre Chatham, ON
11/18 Centennial Hall London, ON
I’m Martha Quinn and you’re watching the “MTV Basement Tapes”, the show that makes you the talent scout. Now….we show you six unsigned bands from around the country you watch the videos and then you vote for your favorite by calling a special 900 number that we’ll show you later. Tonight tonight’s winner gets a complete line of Casio instruments to outfit the whole band including the Casio CZ101 synthesizer and the CK200 keyboard and of course they come back …to compete against our other five finalists for the grand prize.
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram or Twitter
Crowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseCrowded HouseSpirit Of The BearSpirit Of The BearSpirit Of The BearSpirit Of The BearSpirit Of The BearSpirit Of The BearCrowded House
Much like its name, “Pixie Dust,” the new song from Ottawa-based pianist and composer Huguette Lavigne, is shimmering and transfixing, putting the listener under a hypnotic spell.
A wholly instrumental piano piece from her new album Jazzed Up Dreams, “Pixie Dust” manages to be both bright and haunting at the same time, evoking both optimism and an ache for bygone days.
When she wrote it, Lavigne imagined an enchanted forest, a mental or spiritual place to retreat from the many difficult demands on our time, resources, and attention in today’s increasingly difficult epoch.
“First, you find yourself on a mysterious path as you enter a strange, lush, and hypnotic green forest,” Lavigne invites us to imagine. “Then, you let yourself slip into enchantment, illusion, and the supernatural. With a sprinkling of golden, glitter-like fairy dust, you are mesmerized. Keep your eyes open for the green-goddess fairy at the end, you may even think that anything is possible.”
The corresponding video guides us on this journey, using beautiful animation to take us on a tour of a mossy forest alive with glittering fireflies, electric trees, shimmering milkweed, glowing mushrooms, moths, and butterflies, and, yes, plenty of fairies.
Lavigne came to the song via improvisation, sitting at her piano and just playfully experimenting until the entire work unfolded rather quickly. As part of her process, Lavigne does not fully write down her music, rather, she relies on her shorthand to summon her memory recall for future performances. The final piece is then impressively stored entirely in her head and fingers. Once her composition is recorded, she then moves onto the next score.
“Given the world’s seemingly precarious future, the social challenges, and other dire predictions, I’m happy to have created a theme that digs in to find the child in us, and the video delivers this to us splendidly,” she says. “Beautiful ethereal scenes unfold. The child escapes to a world of fairies and golden-sprinkled pixie dust.”
Huguette Lavigne was brought up in a milieu of three Canadian cultures – Franco Ontarian, Quebecois, and English Canadian. She has recorded three albums prior to her current one: Five O’clock Somewhere, Yin and Yang, and Free and Easy. Lavigne studied composition at McGill University and piano at l’universite de Montreal. Her music is influenced by elements of Neo-Classicism, Neo-Romanticism, Minimalism, Jazz, Folk, and Classical music from India. In effect, she creates a modern fusion of styles.
“Mating Cry,” the new single from Toronto-based Maple Blues Band goes into the jazz world for this, and is exactly what its name suggests – a sexily strutting tune that announces its grand entrance with bright horns and a fun, cocky confidence. And its tenor sax solo by Alison Young adds just the right amount of sultriness to seal the whole deal.
With crossover appeal in both jazz and blues, Maple Blues Band reached No. 1 on the Roots Music Report’s Canadian Album Chart for a fifth week total for their album Let’s Go, consisting of 12 of the instrumental compositions the band compiled during their association with The Maple Blues Awards. Their release of a full-length album of instrumental music is part of a master plan to launch the group into the performance market of festivals and concerts.
“Mating Cry” was composed by the late piano/organ genius Michael Fonfara. A founding member of The Maple Blues Band, Fonfara was with the band for 16 years.
“We added ‘Mating Cry’ to a show we did at the Calgary Blues Festival in August 2021 to make sure we wouldn’t run out of material,” recalls band leader Gary Kendall. “When I was editing a performance video of that show I realized that our version of that song was strong and should be added to the recording plans. And especially because it’s a fitting tribute to Fonf, who passed away in January, 2021.”
A highlight of the recording is Young’s aforementioned sax solo. “Alison is normally on baritone saxophone in our horn section, but I asked her to switch to tenor for the solo at our sessions,” Kendall recounts. “It was a good call for sure!”
The Maple Blues Band consists of Gary Kendall, bass/band leader; Pat Carey, tenor/saxophone/horn arrangements; Teddy Leonard, guitar; Al Lerman, harmonica; Jim Casson, drums; Lance Anderson, piano/Hammond B3 and accordionist; Howard Moore, trumpet; Meirion Kelly, trombone; Alison Young, baritone saxophone; and Roshane Wright, percussion.
The 12 tracks on Maple Blues Band’s Cordova Bay Records release Let’s Go are a group effort, as the songwriting credits are spread over 24 years, including past and present band members.
The Wandering Off, a dynamic rock duo from Calgary, Alberta comprised of husband-and-wife, Emily, and Kyle Corner, have released their third single “Knick Of Time” from their debut, self-titled album – both available now.
This electric, newly released energy-driven track by The Wandering Off is the third single from their 12-song self-titled record, released in conjunction with the full album. Knick of Time, which tackles the subject of mental health, is a big, loud rock song written from the heart and is the first track on the album, setting the tone for the rest of the record.
“The story of Knick Of Time is a personal one for us”, explains Emily. “It’s an inspirational tale from the other side of conquering a difficult time as there are so many people that struggle – and we can’t forget about the people who hold up and save someone they love through a dark time. Anyone can be anyone’s hero.”
The soulful rock and roll couple’s debut album was released on March 31, 2023, and is a product of the unexpected creative burst that emerged during the pandemic. With the chemistry of a long-term relationship and a mutual passion and talent for music, Emily and Kyle have produced a record that captures a nostalgic rock sound with a unique twist.
“There would be no record if Emily didn’t become my superhero. Many things saved me during that dark period and now music is one of them,” says Kyle about the creation of their new self-titled album.
The talented singer/song-writing couple recorded most of the new album in their home studio before recruiting mixing engineer Warne Livesey to add some of his own flavour and refinement to their recordings. The duo also worked with Blake Manning on drums at Noble Street Studios.
“We were big fans of Warne’s work, and he took a chance on us,” says Kyle. “He is a sound wizard! We learned so much from him. He added some polish to our recordings, and we were ecstatic working with him.”
The Calgarian duo have garnered worldwide attention with their first single “Hey There” receiving radio airplay in several different countries. The couple is grateful for all their success, and they are enjoying the closeness this experience is bringing them, referring to it as “the ultimate date night!”
The Wandering Off’s sound has often been compared to that of 90s grunge rock, as they draw inspiration from their favourite bands such as Garbage, Hole, Momma, and Letters to Cleo. Vocally, raw, and gritty with memorable hooks and melodies, this record captures an emotional, fresh yet familiar rock sound.
?si=e055da10f51e4ff0
We live in a world that increasingly celebrates youth and beauty in snapshots and doctors’ reality to taste, all while ignoring the value to be found in people and things with age, history and experience. Accomplished Guelph, ON-based blues/roots singer-songwriter David Deacon is eschewing instant aesthetics with his provocative new single “California Has No Winter”, released in tandem with his new album Four.
Soaking in the sunshiny tropes of the Golden State and delivering knowingly dark, spoken verses å la Leonard Cohen, Deacon points a poetic finger at the see through superficiality of today’s youth culture in his new release – and he certainly can. After five decades of creating poetry, music and visual art, careers as a race car driver, an advertising executive and a businessman and almost losing his life in a terrible motorcycle accident, turning a critical, musical eye on our modern societal state of affairs is Deacon’s hard won right.
“‘California Has No Winter’ is an observation about the thinness of the veneer of American youth culture, which stresses the beauty of the moment and has so little charity for the long term, the historic, the aging, the difficult,” explains Deacon. “It is my soft, non-belligerent, and very short version of Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’.”
While Allen Ginsberg’s 3-part opus is a voluminous hallmark of beat poetry, Deacon’s artistic observations are delivered in a tidier, four-and-a-half-minute song that packs its own, slow burn punch. Deacon’s softly commanding, world-weary baritone juxtaposed with an octave-higher female vocal rises into a crescendo in the outro, insistently asking “without seasons, without signs, how do we know when it’s over?” A very good question we should all ask ourselves from time to time.
You won’t see the leaves fall, there’s no snow at all
Time is only a clock, no need to take stock
You’re in the summer of life, you’ve got a California wife
California has no winter
While it certainly looks perfect on the surface, there’s a dark side to that shiny California coin. “It seemed to me that images of nature are perhaps the best possible way to contrast the idea of an eternal summer of life and the consequences of actually living that way both culturally and politically,” notes Deacon.
The third single from Deacon’s just released album “Four”, “California Has No Winter” is the album’s smoothly cynical cornerstone. As with all ten tracks on the new album, it was co-written by Deacon and his guitarist Andy Ryan. Deacon and Ryan also co-produced the new album, which was recorded by Grammy nominated and Juno winning producer Eddie Bullen and mastered by Lacquer Channel’s Noah Mintz. Rounding out Deacon’s musical quartet are Etric Lyons on bass guitar and Aaron Spinks on drums.
An album that marks a re-invigorated return to music making after a long hiatus, Deacon describes “Four” as ‘a ride that starts out on a freeway, takes a long stretch down a winding road, makes a few off-road excursions, and ultimately has faith that just keeping on will get you somewhere interesting.’ After years of writing, recording, and performing in decades past and detours into periods without music over the years, it’s the creative road ahead that excites Deacon now.
A chronicle of thoughtful and soulful reflections on life paths, relationships, and the state of the world around us, “Four” is a comprehensive example of Deacon’s approach to songwriting, which is two-pronged.
“I think the main starting point about writing songs for me is sorting out whether in my mind the song is a story or whether it’s a poem,” notes Deacon. “For example, the song ‘Poetry’ is a poem. That probably didn’t surprise you, did it? The song ‘Hard Time’ is the story that happened after the poem. They are both about the same woman, the same relationship but they were from different times and different points of view.”
It’s those different points of view about personal events and world perspectives that only an artist with David Deacon’s history and experience could possibly gather and turn into the poetry of his fourth album. With renewed vigor and creative spirit, the fourth time is the charm for this blues and roots journeyman.
