White Hot Guilt release a brand new - Electric Circus inspired - video for their single Little Things. "Electric Circus was always a program close to my heart," shares Josh Warburton (July Talk & one-half of the duo). "I actually appeared on a Halloween episode in the late 90s, and the fact that it was originally recorded during the afternoon allowed it to be this magic pot of gold that any Queen West pedestrian could stumble upon. To create a retrospective parody featuring a White Hot Guilt tune only felt natural.” Indie 88 premiered the video on the July 21st album release day. The self-titled album is available now via TDM Inc, distributed by Fontana North at fontananorth.lnk.to/WhiteHotGuiltEP.

After a brief hiatus, Country music legend Adam Gregory is back, and the award-winning singer is bringing a fresh new single with him available now on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play.

“Dirt Road Therapy” is the first of many upcoming singles to be released, which, along with several performances including the Big Valley Jamboree in Alberta on August 6th, lead up to the launch of Gregory’s latest album due to come out early 2018.

This initially seems to be a new independent release from a new US band. But a few years ago the Jack Roberts Harvey Band punched out an excellent, pulsing blues album called ‘Devil On A dirt Road,’ an album that was easily one of the best independent releases of the year. Jim Roberts and the Resonants is none other than the same basic outfit with a new, reinvented name and, yet again, another top-dollar, blues release that could once more prove to be one of the finest indie offerings of the year.

Award-winning artist Ann Vriend (AV) releases new video for the single "Get Back To Me," included in AV's new EP Anybody's Different, (Aporia Records) which has already received significant media attention. In addition to the Maple Blues Awards Cobalt Prize win for "All that I Can," the Australian EP release reached #2 on theirSoundslike Café national playlist, and "Will You Be There" has been added in high rotation at Quesada and z-teca burrito restaurants across Canada. The EP has been charting on national campus radio, reaching #1 on theCJSR Edmonton Top 30 and continuous charting on CKUA's Top 30 from April to July hitting #12. Ann was also nominated for Female Artist of the Year for the 2017 Edmonton Music Awards.

Modern musical partnerships are no new things. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash; Duane and Gregg Allman; Doc and Merle Watson; Simon and Garfunkel; Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge – you get the picture, no doubt. With Nashville treasures and general US recording remarkables, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams you again have the real deal, a pair of seemingly intuitive musicians, singer-songwriters and all round stellar performers who seem to have arrived on the scene already fully formed.

Grabbing the chance to speak with both Campbell and Williams at home in world-festival-famous Woodstock in upstate New York on the brink of the release of their latest album, ‘Contraband Love,’ on Red House Records, it becomes readily apparent that this pair do almost everything together, including interviews. Both are in relaxed mode though about to hit the road playing with Emmylou Harris before kicking off with two New York nights, on a gruelling US-wide tour that they both agree will be tiring at times.

One of Canada's most lauded independent bands, Lowest of the Low, announced earlier this year a string of live dates this summer including an appearance at Hillside Festival this Friday and a headlining show at The Danforth Music Hall on September 9th. Now the band are excited to announce that their fourth studio album Do The Right Now is set for release on September 8th via Pheromone Recordings.

On the single, front man Ron Hawkins reflects, "Powerlines is a song about my experiences writing the first Low album, Shakespeare My Butt. I had recently broken up with a long time partner and moved into a punk rock squat with some crazy characters I called friends. Every day I walked through the city with a notebook and drank in bars and went to galleries and shows and hung out in my little bohemian circle of anarchists, punks and poets. I became the protagonist in the movie of my life and the city was a cinematic sidekick and factored into the lyrics like a companion."

The underground West Coast hip hop/funk pioneer, Declaime (aka Dudley Perkins), connects with West Coast hip hop heavyweight, Blu, for the cerebral new single, Internally Yours, which premiered via Mass Appeal. Serving as the lead single for Declaime's forthcoming album, Young Spirit, the song features production by Georgia Anne Muldrow.

"Internally Yours is about inner truth. I'm talking about all the cats running this world to see that they are just like us,” says Declaime. “Their heart beats just like us. The whole album is about how the media and government, food messing with the kid's heads and their young spirits. Blu's speaking on some truths he had locked inside of him."

Due out on August 18 via SomeOthaShip Connect/eOne Music, Young Spirit balances Declaime's unique rapping delivery over psychedelic funk and jazz-laden production by Georgia Anne Muldrow and Madlib. The album also includes guest features from Saul Williams, Aloe Blacc, and more.

Declaime and Georgia will be going on tour in September. Stay tuned for updates on the cities they’ll perform in this fall.

Sarah Jickling, neurotic songstress and theatrical front woman of pop-rock band The Oh Wells, is taking to the stage on her own as Sarah Jickling and Her Good Bad Luck and will be releasing her first solo album When I Get Better on Friday, July 14th. When I Get Better documents Sarah’s mental health issues and is a candid portrayal of her ongoing struggle with debilitating anxiety and bipolar disorder. The first single ‘This Time’ explores the difficulties of maintaining friendships and romantic relationships while living with a mental illness. Click here to watch the acoustic live video and album teaser premiering today at The Revue. Sarah Jickling’s new solo project pairs the unbridled emotion of her voice with synths and loops, and graduates lyrically from high school daydreams to honest accounts of a chaotic young adulthood. On When I Get Better, Jickling paints an honest picture of the past few years of her journey to recovery, and explores what it means to “get better” when living with a chronic mental illness.

Last winter I walked into a Kim Doolittle show just as she was wrapping up a song called "Snowballs Day In Hell." It's a droll little narrative about why she no longer takes requests at shows and I wished I'd heard more. Got my wish on a muggy summer's eve when I entered HRL just as the lady was getting started on, yeah, "Snowballs Day In Hell." so finally heard the whole thing and it was worth it.

If you were looking for a mosh pit last Saturday, you probably didn't find it at the Danforth Music Hall. But the self-described 'old farts' of Toronto's own Do Make Say Think definitely delivered excitement for the crowd, even if it was more in the form of a mesmerized audience swaying back and forth, bathed in purple light.

Originally an art project which practised in the basement of the CIUT radio building, Do Make Say Think is now over 20 years deep into a career that is as innovative as it is referential. Their music lacks lyrics, but is packed with emotion and energy. The average track length is maybe 9 minutes, and when I first heard it long ago as an artsy 14 year old, it reminded me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor complete with emotional rollercoaster, the jazz drum beat which is reminiscent of a train chugging forward into eternity but without the despair or obvious political messaging of Godspeed.

In anticipation of her debut album release, Ivory Castanets, due this Friday May 5^th, Cat Clyde shares a new song, Chimes In The Night , which premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio Show, as well as online via The FADER . The song follows her track Mama Said , which was the first piece of music to quickly grow on streaming platforms, along with Like A Wave and The Meadow .

On July 14, 2017, Philadelphia’s own Boris Garcia will release Around Some Corner on Porchwerk Music label for fans everywhere. The band called on their secret weapon, Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth fame to take the role of producing the album. Carbone moves Boris Garcia’s songs of whimsy and emotion and molds them into complex compositions, making it look effortless.

Tim Carbone on Boris Garcia’s songwriters Jeff Otto and Bob Stirner – “As Lennon and McCartney did for The Beatles - they add just the right shadings to each other’s compositions to make the picture complete.”

Boris Garcia on Tim Carbone - “He visualized the music we had in our heads and made it appear on the disc. His experience and ridiculous musicality made it seem like we had George Martin in our midst, constantly pushing, screaming, laughing….stoking the embers and fluffing the froth. Boris Garcia’s journey to a great extent is about the relationship that we have maintained with Tim, both musically and in personal bond.”

The chestnut haired jazz singer finished Kitty White's "So Many Beautiful Men" with a knowing grin and a vocal swagger and as the place erupted in applause murmured, "Story of my life in my younger days. Now I'm focused on my big bad handsome man," beaming at the lucky gent in a scrum of well wishers as she launched into Imelda Mays "Big Bad Handsome Man."

So yeah, Linda Carone is a damn fine singer but she also brings da show. Abetted by a stellar crew of George Koller ( upright bass) Johnny Johnson (saxes, bass clarinet) Michael Shand ( piano) and Mark Kelso( drums), LC did that thing where she sets up a time trip by telling a little bit about the origin of a tune, applies her own vocal interpretation, then hands it over to the personna who takes it all the way home to the Thirties or so with a sense she fits the period like a kidskin glove and with nary a break in character.

Two of Toronto’s iconic musicians, reggae master and soulful singer Jay Douglas and outstanding trombonist/composer Chris Butcher (of the Heavyweights Brass Band), have teamed up to write, record, and release “Messengers,” an anthemic reggae single and video that aims to be the change we want to see in this world by spreading the word of peace and love. The two recorded an instrumental version as well, for more varied radio play.

If there’s anything we need more of in today’s world, it’s peace and love. Jay Douglas and Chris Butcher bring that essential truth to the fore, and remind us of our crucial roles in creating that spirit. As the beautiful lilt of the song carries its gentle but insistent spiritual message, they encourage us to "Rise above hate and fear / Don't be no chump." Interesting – and intentional – how “chump” rhymes with a name we all know. ;) As the song says, “We can build a bridge with peace and love.”

"There are songs and lyrics that are timeless and that deserve to be heard. I think of music as timeless, an old song can sound new. If you haven't heard a song before, it's new to you. It's all about finding these songs I love and doing them my way. People who hear me sing say I seem to find just the right songs from an era that suit my voice, but that I don’t necessarily sound like any other singers in particular."

Introducing Linda Carone, vintage jazz and blues vocalist, a niche song stylist and interpreter of popular music from the 1930’s and beyond. A late bloomer currently making a name for herself around Toronto, an interpreter who goes way, way back and deep for her songs and then reimagines them. Delivers them with a voice that can do beautiful, rich, sultry and provocative, often in the same song. Ms. Carone’s natural and diverse approach to music has shaped her vocal style in a way that is playful, intimate, and unpretentious. An equal opportunity music appreciator, she's equally at home at a Jackie Richardson gig as at a concert by The Damned.

Monica Chapman has a love for the classic movies but it was the musical selections that stole her heart. As a young girl, she watched the movies and Broadway songs captured her.

This is her third CD offering and this one covers a span of over five decades, from the 1930’s, adding jazz classics and For her third album, she has gathered a number of tunes from motion pictures and put her own spin on them. They cover nearly five decades and go as far back as the 1930’s and up to the 1960’s.

With the extremely talented hand of producer/arranger/pianist Bill King and some of the best jazz players on the scene and you have her new CD Small World.  The song choices are exquisite and the production is smooth and tasteful.

The opening track, ‘A Shine on Your Shoes’ takes your right back to the time of Broadway show tunes. The band really cooks on this one and Monica Chapman belts it out with all her heart.

Blackjack Billy, good-time group, known for getting the party started, has a brand new single titled “How to Get the Girl” featuring Canadian country act, Madeline Merlo. The single, set for release to Country radio May 3 and available everywhere May 5, was written by Noll Billings, Jeff Coplan and Tim Hicks. It showcases the powerful vocals of both Blackjack Billy lead vocalist Noll Billings and Merlo, while playfully breaking down the right way to ‘read the signs’ and win over a girl in up-tempo, high-energy, Blackjack Billy style.

Born as a result of discussing failed attempts at winning the admiration of women as Billings, Hicks and Coplan were songwriting in Nashville, Coplan notes, “it became clear that some crazy things had been done and said to try to get girls. Tim said that maybe there’s actually some good advice from all our failures, and that’s how ‘How to Get the Girl’ was born. We thought it would be great to get the female perspective on it so we immediately thought of Madeline. We are all fans of her and not just for her killer voice. She’s a sweetheart and tons of fun,” said Jeff Coplan.

Listening to a Matt Andersen CD is an exciting audio experience, seeing Matt Andersen with a full band is awesome, but seeing Matt Andersen solo takes it to a whole other level. 

The man and his guitar is something I wasn’t really prepared for. Andersen was over the top on all levels, his hold on the audience, his powerful and controlled vocals with acres of dynamics and guitar mastery that made his acoustic guitar sound like an entire band.

Submitted by Lenny Stoute

"Please don't be smoking anything in the entrance. Please move away from the entrance." The security was addressing a large fogbank of high-grade resin hanging over the sidewalk directly in front of the venue as fans of the Aussie septet got their weed on. The vibe out front was all love and brotherly hugs as the fans of the neopsychedelic outfit adhere strongly to the hippie ethic and inside, it was thus also with the addition of genre touches like wizard hats and an excellent Lizard Gizzard mask.

There are some musicians who seem to achieve the near impossible by imprinting themselves in a memory with a flash of sheer individuality, a signature sound or something similar that makes them instantly recognisable. We can think of Dylan, The Beatles, The Stones – all musicians that have captured that remarkable essence over the years. I’m not trying to say that New York-born bluesman Eric Bibb is the new Lennon, McCartney or Dylan but he does have that extraordinary quality of a voice and musical style that renders him immediately recognisable, a rare familiarity bound up in his very being.

By my reckoning this is about his third release in the past twelve months, following hot on the heels of The Happiest Man In The World and Lead Belly’s Gold. Migration Blues takes as its theme the seldom more relevant subject of often necessary movement of the underprivileged and disadvantaged and the struggle for survival in a harsh world. Bibb has the evident ability to write songs with depth and meaning that also retain memorable melodic hooks and soulful purpose.