Donovan Woods and Tom Power Launch CBC Comedy Podcast While ‘Squander Your Gifts’ Keeps Growing
Donovan Woods is having a genuinely full spring. The Toronto-based singer-songwriter has launched a brand new CBC comedy podcast alongside Q host Tom Power, dropped his EP ‘Squander Your Gifts,’ and is currently on the road with a touring schedule that stretches from Ontario to Europe and back. The podcast, The Big Five, is out now with new episodes dropping every Monday on CBC Listen and wherever podcasts are available.
The Big Five pairs Woods and Power with a rotating cast of celebrity guests to settle the most absurd and surprisingly compelling debates imaginable: what are the objectively definitive Big 5 farm animals, types of hats, or slang terms for “butt”? The first episode features TV and film director Jordan Canning, with guests this season including Vivek Shraya, William Prince, Lindsay Ell, and Elamin Abdelmahmoud among others. It’s the kind of project that makes complete sense for Woods, whose warmth and wit are as much a part of his identity as his songwriting.
That songwriting is very much front and center on ‘Squander Your Gifts,’ a five-track EP dedicated to his friend and longtime Nashville writing partner Abe Stoklasa, who passed away in November 2023. The two collaborated closely for years, co-writing “Leaving Nashville” for Lady A’s Charles Kelley and Woods’ own breakout “Portland, Maine,” first recorded by Tim McGraw. The EP carries that history with it, and lead track “I Talk About You” does exactly what Woods does best: it tells the truth without flinching. Atwood Magazine described it with precision, noting the song captures “exactly what grief does to us, how it spills into conversations uninvited, how it refuses decorum, how it demands witness.”
Woods is currently playing a run of Ontario dates before heading out across North America this spring supporting The Paper Kites, with a European run following in the fall. It’s a long road, and every stop counts.
Tour Dates:
April 21, 2026 – Kitchener, ON – Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts
April 23, 2026 – Sarnia, ON – Imperial Theatre
April 24, 2026 – Ridgeway, ON – The Sanctuary
April 25, 2026 – St. Catharines, ON – St. Thomas’ Anglican Church
April 28, 2026 – Oshawa, ON – Biltmore Theatre
April 29, 2026 – Paris, ON – River’s Edge at the Arlington
May 1, 2026 – Austin, TX – Emo’s Austin^
May 2, 2026 – Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall^
May 4, 2026 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville^
May 6, 2026 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club^
May 7, 2026 – Boston, MA – Royale^
May 8, 2026 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts^
May 9, 2026 – New York, NY – Webster Hall^
May 10, 2026 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS^
May 12, 2026 – Toronto, ON – History^
May 14, 2026 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues Chicago^
May 15, 2026 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue^
May 17, 2026 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre^
May 19, 2026 – Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom^
May 20, 2026 – Vancouver, BC – The Centre for Performing Arts^
May 21, 2026 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre^
May 26, 2026 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern^
June 7, 2026 – Wolfville, NS – Devour! Studios
June 9, 2026 – New Glasgow, NS – Glasgow Square Theatre
June 11, 2026 – Halifax, NS – Light House Arts Centre
June 12, 2026 – Margaretsville, NS – Evergreen Theatre
June 13, 2026 – Moncton, NB – Tide & Boar Gastropub
June 14, 2026 – Fredericton, NB – Wilmot United Church
July 17, 2026 – Guelph, ON – Hillside Festival
Oct 8, 2026 – Oslo, NO – Oslo Concert Hall
Oct 9, 2026 – Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn
Oct 10, 2026 – Gothenburg, SE – Gothenburg Roots Festival
Oct 11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DK – Loppen
Oct 13, 2026 – Munich, DE – Backstage Club
Oct 14, 2026 – Cologne, DE – Yard Club
Oct 15, 2026 – Erpe-Mere, BE – gEM
Oct 16, 2026 – Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg
Oct 17, 2026 – Amen, NL – Cultureel Café de Amer
Oct 20, 2026 – Paris, FR – Supersonic Records
Oct 22, 2026 – Bristol, UK – Lantern Hall
Oct 23, 2026 – London, UK – Oslo Hackney
Oct 24, 2026 – Manchester, UK – Hallé at St Michael’s
Oct 25, 2026 – Glasgow, UK – The Hug and Pint
Nov 11–15, 2026 – Miami, FL – Moon River at Sea
^Supporting The Paper Kites
Johnny Orlando Drops “Charlotte” and Announces ‘Songs for Young Lovers’ With Three Intimate Shows
Johnny Orlando has a new single out and a sophomore album on the way, and both arrive with a clear sense of direction. “Charlotte” is out now on all streaming platforms, and ‘Songs for Young Lovers’ follows on June 12, available to pre-save now. The single lands with a loose, unguarded energy that signals a real shift in Orlando’s approach, less calculated, more alive.
Orlando is direct about what “Charlotte” represents. “The song isn’t about one person, it’s about that phase of just going out, making mistakes, and not overthinking anything,” he says. “I wanted it to feel chaotic, nostalgic, and actually fun again.” It does. The track carries a reckless momentum that suits it, and it works as both a standalone statement and a thematic anchor for the full record.
‘Songs for Young Lovers’ as a whole follows that same instinct. Orlando drew from the music he grew up on and prioritized feeling over polish throughout the recording process. “I wanted the record to feel live and lived-in,” he explains. “It was less about perfecting details and more about chasing a feeling.” That approach gives the album its shape, and “Charlotte” is where it all clicks into place. “‘Charlotte’ kind of ties everything together,” Orlando adds. “It’s probably the moment where I stopped overthinking and just let everything exist in the same place.”
To mark the release, Orlando plays three intimate shows in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles this June. Tickets are available now at johnnyorlandomusic.com.
‘Songs for Young Lovers’ North American Dates:
6/3 – New York, NY – Baby’s All Right
6/5 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
6/9 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
Photo Gallery: Slaughter To Prevail, Whitechapel, and Attila at Toronto’s History on April 18, 2026
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram or X.
Watch The Chainsmokers Turn Lollapalooza Chicago Into a Full-Scale EDM Takeover in 2019
On August 4, 2019, The Chainsmokers took the Lollapalooza stage in Chicago and delivered exactly what a festival crowd at peak summer demands: relentless energy, chest-rattling drops, and a light show built to match. Hits like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Call You Mine” hit differently at that scale, with the duo’s polished EDM production turning Grant Park into one massive dancefloor for the duration of the set.
Watch Wet Leg’s Intimate 2022 Studio Session Capturing a Breakthrough Moment Before the World Caught Up
Right in the middle of their breakthrough year, Wet Leg stepped into the 3voor12 studio in Hilversum for a 20-minute session that distilled everything sharp and sardonic about the Isle of Wight duo into one compact, crackling performance. With just guitars and synths in a minimalist space, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers delivered the garage post-punk energy of their self-titled debut, including the deadpan viral hit “Chaise Longue,” with the kind of focused intensity that made it clear this was a band built for stages far bigger than the one they were standing on.
Watch Pearl Jam Bring Beyoncé, and a Central Park Crowd to Their Feet in 2015
Pearl Jam’s 2015 headlining set at the Global Citizen Festival on Central Park’s Great Lawn was never just a concert. The Seattle rock legends brought their full catalog and their convictions to a crowd of thousands of activists, tearing through “Alive,” “Better Man,” and “Do the Evolution” before closing with covers of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” The night’s defining moment came during the encore, when Eddie Vedder was joined on stage by Beyoncé for a duet on “Redemption Song,” a collision of two artists at the peak of their powers, on a night built around something bigger than music.
Québécois Math Rock Duo Angine de Poitrine Is Breaking Every Formula AI Tries to Follow
Essayist Will Francis took a close look at Angine de Poitrine, the Québécois experimental rock duo whose elaborately dissonant math rock has been quietly breaking the internet, and his conclusion is pointed: their music is so structurally unpredictable that generative AI simply can’t replicate it. As Francis puts it, AI is trained on the formulas that dominate modern music, and Angine de Poitrine have deliberately walked away from all of them. The ripple effect has been real, with YouTube musicians including Charles Cornell and a very exasperated Rick Beato both responding to fan requests to weigh in on the duo’s KEXP performance.
Watch Motörhead’s 2015 Resurrection Fest, One of the Last and Loudest of Lemmy’s Life
This one matters. Motörhead’s performance at Resurrection Fest in Viveiro, Spain in the summer of 2015 is one of the final recorded concerts of Lemmy Kilmister’s life, and he spent every second of it proving exactly why Motörhead were unlike anything else in rock. Flanked by Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee, Lemmy tears through an uncompromising set of classics including “Damage Case,” “Stay Clean,” “Ace of Spades,” and “Overkill,” his thunderous Rickenbacker bass and gravelly roar holding the Spanish crowd completely in hand. It’s raw, it’s loud, and it’s irreplaceable.
Video: The Killers Bring the House Down in a Triumphant Las Vegas Homecoming Set
Few bands carry a city the way The Killers carry Las Vegas, and their headlining set at the Life is Beautiful Festival in September 2023 made that connection impossible to ignore. Filmed professionally at the festival’s 10th anniversary celebration in downtown Las Vegas, this performance captures Brandon Flowers commanding a massive crowd through a set full of stadium-sized anthems, with the band’s signature blend of heartland rock, new wave, and post-punk revivalism hitting harder than ever on home turf.