Songs of the Week: April 28 - May 04, 2025

“Olive Garden” by PUP

I got so excited when I saw that PUP announced a tour to support their new album Who Will Look After The Dogs?, and then I saw that they’re touring with Snotty Nose Rez Kids and my little brain exploded. That’s going to be a hell of a tour and you can count on me being at one of the shows on November 24th at The Pearl, and 25th at the Commodore (ugh, that’s so far from now!).

The latest track off of the album is “Olive Garden” - yes, about the chain restaurant - and the band even did a release party on the first of May with a whole Olive Garden theme.
About the song itself, lead singer Stefan Babcock says:
“This is a very stupid, but also wonderful song. The band gets all the credit for turning it into something really special. Zack (who plays drums) heard my cute little acoustic guitar demo and decided we should try and make it as heavy as possible. Which is objectively, a very annoying thing to suggest. But you know what, I’m glad I kept my stupid mouth shut, because it works. There’s a real magic in the way these sweet vocal melodies are bludgeoned by a wall of disgusting, grinding, detuned guitars. The whole song is kinda upsetting and uncomfortable but also, catchy and fun. And I don’t care what anyone says, ‘Olive Garden’ rhymes with ‘Grandma in a coffin’ –  listen to this crap and tell me I’m wrong."

• Christine

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“Dreaming” by The Darcys

The Darcys tour with The Blue Stones starts up again this week, and I can’t wait to see them when they play Vancouver on June 6th.

The band also announced a new EP, I Must Be Dreaming, with a few different versions of the track “Dreaming”, and a cover of Dua Lipa’s song “Don’t Start Now” that SLAPS (here’s the Spotify link).

I can’t wait to hear all new new music from their album Rendered Feelings live next month too!

• Christine

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“Take It On” by Georgia Harmer

Last week, Georgia Harmer released her third single of the year with “Take It On”, a slow-burn introspective piece driven by her raw vocals.

Harmer explains the song is “about the way I see myself, and the ways I have assumed others see me. It’s about the emotional labour of taking on conflict around me - and creating it internally - sometimes for the sake of having something to solve, to worry about, and noticing how that habit has weighed me down. This song is me holding a mirror up and being very honest about what I see.”

Hopefully we get news of a new album soon, but until then you can watch the video below, directed, shot, and edited by Nora Rosenthal.

• Kirk

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“eau miroir” by Ambre Ciel

I know there is less than zero chance this song was written & recorded for me, specifically… but everything about the new track from Ambre Ciel — from the haunting vocals to the beautiful piano to the sweeping orchestral arrangement assisted by Owen Pallett — is square in my wheelhouse.

“eau miroir” is the second single from the Montreal singer’s recently announced debut album still, there is the sea, which immediately shot up the list of my most anticipated albums of the year.

Have a listen below, and grab the album still, there is the sea when it’s out on June 6 via Gondwana Records.

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: April 21 - 27, 2025

“Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl”
[Broken Social Scene cover]
by Maggie Rogers and Sylvan Esso

Broken Social Scene’s breakthrough album You Forgot It In People will be celebrated next month with the release of ANTHEMS: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People.

The album is a track-for-track tribute to the iconic record, with each song covered by a different artist, including the likes of Toro y Moi, The Weather Station, serpentwithfeet, and many more! First out of the gate is a synth-pop interpretation of the classic “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” by Maggie Rogers and Sylvan Esso!

Rogers says “‘Anthems’ is one of those songs that fundamentally changed my life. There’s something about the lyrical repetition that functions as a sort of mantra within the song and it made me understand at a very early point in my creative life that music could be a form of meditation. Broken Social Scene has long been one of my all-time favorite bands and covering it with my dear friends Nick and Amelia from Sylvan Esso was an absolute joy beam dream.”

Have a listen below, and click here to presave the album and check out the full list of artists!

• Kirk

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“Backstab The Rat Race” by Cancer Bats

I needed something loud to wake me up this morning and Cancer Bats delivered.

The new track, “Backstab The Rat Race”, is a B-side release from their album Psychic Jailbreak and was released as a thank you to fans after their outpouring of support.

On April 21st while the band was touring in the US, they woke up to find their van and trailer were stolen. This included “instruments, customized gear, merchandise, personal items, and even the van’s catalytic converter” (the van was recovered). Their GoFundMe campaign helped keep them on the road and set them back up, as well as some of the companies they’ve worked with over the years.

There’s a special place in hell for people that steal from touring bands, and I really hope they manage to find their sentimental items at least. In the meantime, listen to the track below and if you want to donate click here (anything above what they need will be going to providing quality musical instruments to youth in remote Northern Canadian communities).

• Christine

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“Enough” by Common Holly

The more I hear from Common Holly, the more I am looking forward to the upcoming album, Anything glass.

The latest single, “Enough” is a beautiful (and existential) look at the contrast between light & dark, as Brigitte Naggar explains, “This track represents a spikier part of the record,” offers Brigitte. “It pokes out with sharper edges and a bit of noise. It speaks to the process of imagining that there could be such a thing as 'enough-ness,' and asks us to answer—enough for who? And for what?”

She goes on to add, “This song took a few forms. Was it an indie rock track? I didn’t really want it to be. A little acoustic number? A tiny bit 90’s hip hop? It certainly wanted to be silly and fun. We toiled with how to make it fun, interesting, weird, cool, but also warm? And relatedly, it offered a narrative of self doubt, of ambition, of perfectionism, and of ultimately shrugging it all off.”

Check out the video, and keep an ear out for Anything glass when it’s out on June 13.

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: April 14 - 20, 2025

“Crazy Streets” by Ewan Currie

These are the vibes I needed going into this week!

Frontman for The Sheepdogs, Ewan Currie has announced a solo venture and an upcoming album, Strange Vacation, and has put out the first track “Crazy Streets”.

The mellow vibes of both the track and the visualizer below hit exactly right for me this morning. Currie say the song “came from that feeling of being imposed upon by the city I was living in. Life just felt chaotic. You come home expecting to relax and find some solitude, but for me, that wasn’t achievable. It’s sort of a shout-out to big city living.”

• Christine

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“Cat Guy” by Propagandhi

Propagandhi is back with “Cat Guy”, the second single to their upcoming album At Peace.

The sardonic anthem proves the band is an sharp as ever, with frontman Chris Hannah explaining “From my songwriting perspective, the two things I was thinking of was capturing a little bit of Judas Priest’s Firepower LP as if SNFU’s Chi-Pig was writing the lyrics.”

At Peace is out May 2nd, and check out the feline friendly lyric video for “Cat Guy” below!

• Kirk

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“Take It To The Limit” (Eagles Cover)
by Leif Vollebekk and Angie McMahon

I love a good cover song, and especially so when it is a completely reimagined version of the original, and that is exactly what’s going on with this cover of The Eagles song “Take It To The Limit”.

Leif Vollebekk spontaneously recorded the song with Australian singer-songwriter and musician Angie McMahon during his last trip to Oz and I’m glad they did because it’s beautiful.

• Christine

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“A.ajax” by Peach Pact

Last week, Toronto’s Peach Pact released the lead single off their upcoming debut album, Die Hydrated.

“A.ajax” is a punk banger that confronts “society's fixation on status and identity”.

The song also comes with a rad DIY stop-motion video directed by Peach Pact and animated by claymation artist Adrian Venti! You can watch below, and mark June 13 for the release of Die Hydrated.

• Kirk

Songs of the Week: April 07 - 13, 2025

“Might” by Bells Larsen

Ahead of his upcoming album, Blurring Time, Bells Larsen has released his latest single, “Might”. The song, along with the rest of the album, aligns with the timeline of his transition. The press release goes into detail, elaborating “Larsen intentionally recorded his previous “high” voice and instrumentation in 2022, waited for his voice to drop after beginning testosterone, then asked frequent collaborator and longtime friend, Georgia Harmer to write vocal arrangements for his new “low” voice, helping him harmonize with his past self — an intentional, multilingual act of surrendering to change.”

You can pick up the album on April 25th via Royal Mountain Records, however Bells also shared some bad news last week. Just a couple days after releasing “Might”, he cancelled all scheduled US shows, explaining with the following:

Hi everyone - I hope you’re as well as can be.

I have to cancel all of the American shows on my spring tour (Boston, NYC, Beacon, LA, San Fran, Healdsburg, Arcata, and Merced). Refunds will be available at your point of purchase. I received an email on Tuesday from the American Federation of Musicians stating that I am no longer able to apply for a Visa because US Immigration now only recognizes identification that corresponds with one’s assigned sex at birth. To put it super plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the States. I hesitate to include a “right now” or an “anymore” at the end of my previous sentence, because—in this sociopolitical climate—I truly don’t know which phrasing holds more truth. The irony of this announcement falling exactly two weeks before the release of my album, which is about my transition, is not lost on me.

You can read the full statement on Instagram here.

• Kirk

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“Cut The Brakes” by Dan Mangan

In March Dan Mangan announced his next album Natural Light which is filled with “love songs about a society on the brink of collapse” - sound more and more poignant every day…

His latest track “Cut The Brakes” is the second track off the new record and “attempts a brief history of human evolution,” says Mangan. “We came from plants in the water. We made up stories, built monuments, had a lot of sex, and nobody is driving the bus.”

Excited for more new music and I cannot wait for the Vancouver show (but I suppose I’ll have to!) on October 3rd at the Vogue Theatre - click here for tickets.

• Christine

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“Leave Tonight” by Two Hours Traffic

I can already see myself swaying along to this one at a venue with a beer in my hand - it’s just so Two Hours Traffic.

This quote from lead singer Liam Corcoran gives me a hint at why: “another one of our countless attempts at writing a classic pop song, similar to what we grew up hearing on the radio in the late 80s / early 90s.” The story is of a doomed romance, and it’s easy to see why it fits into that 80s/90s vibe.

The band only has a few Ontario dates right now for a tour, but you’ll see me first in line if they make it out to Vancouver anytime soon.

• Christine

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“Sharpshooter ” by The Halluci Nation

I knew the latest EP from The Halluci Nation was a wrestling themed concept album, so a new single named “Sharpshooter” was not entirely unsurprising.

But what was shocking was guest vocals from The Excellence of Execution himself, Bret “The Hitman” Hart!

Bear Witness explains, “We are so excited for everyone to hear this project. It's been a dream of ours to bring this concept to life since we finished our Suplex EP. Kicking off this EP with a track that features such an Icon like Bret "The Hitman" Hart still doesn't feel real!”

With Tim “2oolman” Hill adding, “Bret is the greatest pro wrestler of all time and we have so many memories watching him over the years, so there is no one better to help us tell our Path of The Baby Face story. He is such a great guy and has been so supportive of this song from start to finish.”

Path of The Baby Face EP is out April 25, and you can check out the video, by ComboBravo, below, which features appearances by Damian Abraham, Mo “Kid Chocolate” Jabri, and Sebastian “The War Chief” Wolfe.

• Kirk

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Songs From The Gang - A Celebration Of Joel Plaskett by Various Artists

In honour of Joel Plaskett’s upcoming 50th birthday — and his 30+ years making music — a whole host of Canadian’s finest created a tribute album… in complete secrecy! Songs From The Gang - A Celebration Of Joel Plaskett is a double album that was released last week and features the likes of Arkells, Sloan, City and Colour, Frank Turner, Jenn Grant, Rose Cousins, Mo Kenney, The Sheepdogs, Alan Doyle, Matt & Jill Barber, Bahamas, and loads more, delivering unique cover of Plaskett classics. And better yet, you can watch his reaction to the surprise on instagram!

It was a tough pick, but on first listen my favourite of the bunch was “Nowhere With You” from Mi’kmaq musician Alan Syliboy & the Thundermakers, who blended Joel’s original lyrics with Mi’kmaq translations!

• Kirk

Christine chiming in here with HER favourite track from the album (which, give that whole thing a listen, because this was hard to pick!). I really love the Arkells cover of “Come On, Teacher” as it goes so well with Max’s voice and the “Drunk Teenagers” one is all kinds of fun…
But the Two Hours Traffic cover of “Deny, Deny, Deny” from Three (which I think is my fav album of Joel’s) was so great - it starting with a can being cracked and the “Let’s freaking do this” just made me laugh.

• Christine

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“Cavale” by Coeur de pirate

Coeur de pirate is back with a brand new single, “Cavale”! The new single is the title track to her upcoming seventh album, and is a soaring indie-pop anthem that will absolutely get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Cavale is out some time this fall, and explores “themes of longing, regret, and tangled love - hallmarks of Cœur de pirate’s lyrical world. Set against a driving, euphoric beat, the single channels the spirit of Springsteen, turning escape and return into an exhilarating sonic journey.”

She’s also got a handful of tour dates for later in the year (mostly out east, so fingers crossed for a Vancouver date!) and then a lengthy European tour next year.

• Kirk