“CANDU” by The Rural Alberta Advantage

It’s been nearly five years since we heard new music from The Rural Alberta Advantage, but last week the trio released not one, but TWO new tracks!

“CANDU” and “AB Bride” are the first in what the band is calling a “distinctly divergent course” for releasing their music. They will be putting out an ongoing series of new songs and EPs, as they're written and recorded by the band, with live shows to support them.

The new songs also see the return of original member Amy Cole, rejoining Nils Edenloff and Paul Banwatt, and if these two songs are any indication, it’s going to be a heck of a year of new music!

Kirk

“When You Turn on the Light” by Frog Eyes

Vancouver’s Frog Eyes announce their surprise return last week, releasing their first new single in four years(!)

"When You Turn On The Light," is the debut track off their upcoming album, The Bees, and features Carey Mercer’s distinctive vocals driving the melocic indir rock tune.

Mercer says: "I never made music when I was 21. I wanted to be a painter. I lived in an apartment with friends in Vancouver, and my room was full of cans of toxic enamel-marine paint. I would wake up at 3:30pm and paint on my bedroom wall, this crazed fresco, a hellish umber landscape that glittered street light reflections from the enamel paint. I had to sleep by my open window because the fumes were atrocious, and I started to deteriorate, but the fresco was really coming along.
Some of the roommates were amazing musicians, some of them passed away. I think the song ‘When You Turn on the Light’ describes walking into my bedroom in that apartment.
One time, I came home from a late afternoon walk and the building manager was standing in my bedroom looking at the painting with a look of wonder but also fear, and the fear turned to anger when I walked in. She kept her food in our fridge because her roommate kept stealing her cream cheese, and we used to dread the sound of her key turning in our lock. But it meant we could eat her cream cheese. When she confronted me about the fresco, I told her I was enriching the apartment and lied about my standing in the world, describing upcoming shows in Milan and Turin. And Toronto, for believability. She left and we were evicted a bit later but I think it had more to do with other things and not just the fresco."

Frog Eyes also be playing the Vancouver edition of the Paper Bag Records 20th Anniversary weekend, along with Frankiie and Gold & Youth at the Rickshaw on March 4th!

Kirk

“Psychic Jailbreak” by Cancer Bats

Need something to wake you up this Monday morning?!
”Psychic Jailbreak”, the new single by Cancer Bats will definitely fit that bill.

It’s the first, and title, track from their new album that will be coming out on April 15th through (their own label) Bat Skull Records. Lead singer Liam Cormier said that they “needed to kick things off with a total banger of a track that makes you want to pump your fist in the air, smash your head to the beat, all while screaming the call to action REJECT THE FALLACY OF TIME!".

Yep. That tracks!

Christine

“90 Days” by Common Deer

Toronto’s Common Deer shared the first single off their debut full-length album, MAXIMALIST last week. “90 Days” sees the band shifting from their indie rock roots to more of a synth-pop sound, but is no less catchy from their previous tunes.

Singer Sheila Hart says the new record tackles a range of raw and honest themes, from mental health, abuse, and addiction, to sexism and obsession, all with an undeniably raw vulnerability, adding "MAXIMALIST is a celebration of excess and a refusal to compromise, however misguided that might be.”

And with song titles like “Negative Thot”, “Fuckboi”, and “LonelyFans”, I am definitely intrigued to hear the full album when it drops April 1st!

Kirk

“Love Ballad” by Combine The Victorious

Happy Valentine’s Day to those that celebrate.
Here’s a little love ballad, conveniently called “Love Ballad”, by Vancouver’s Combine The Victorious.
<3

Christine