Toronto chanteuse, songwriter, performer and Zoomer radio host Lily Frost has earned her place in Canada’s music scene elite. With 14 critically acclaimed albums to date, her latest Retro-Moderne is an aptly named album that lovingly captures the best sounds of the '60s and '70s while updating them through Frost's unique perspective. The new video produced by Frost, for her single "Rock Me Baby" from that album, will be released on Friday, December 3, 2021.

“Rock Me Baby” is a long distance love song Lily co-wrote with Jesse Singer and Chris Soper during the tracking of her 2019 LP, Retro-Moderne. It might be the only song with that title that doesn't actually "rock." Instead, it finds Frost cooing sweet nothings into her lover's ear with a gentle sigh, breathy vocals. "I had a rough voice memo of the chorus which I played for them.

Check out “Rock Me Baby”  on YouTube here:

This week we spotlight Haven on the Queensway 1533 The Queensway Toronto. Monday to Thursday 8:30 am to 4:00 pm Phone: 416-640-2005 Email: info@havenontheq.com   Haven on the Queensway operates a food bank that provides groceries, household products, personal hygiene items and even pet food to anyone in need in the community.

It’s a lady laden line-up this week. Stepping in with Legacy singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading's new forthcoming album, Consequences, one of her most intimate and direct yet and one that wears its conscience and its heart on its sleeve.

As a teaser, Armatrading has released the album's first single "Already There". Due to drop June 18th (Digital) and August 13 (CD/LP) via BMG, her 22nd studio album to date, Consequences ably illustrates the fact that Armatrading never likes to repeat herself. It is in no way a follow up to 2018's UK's Top 30 oeuvre Not Too Far Away.

Right, this week spotlighting food banks in Parkdale in Toronto, another high poverty location with perennially under stocked food banks. Please give what you can and best way to do so, go out and buy groceries at a local store and take them to your neighbourhood food bank. If you do contribute, let me know which one and where and I’ll give you and the food bank a shout out. Thanks.

Parkdale Community Food Bank 
1499 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6R 1A3
Open Wednesday to Saturday 11-3:30 p.m.
Currently, hours are changeable. (416) 532-2375

Fort York Food Bank 
380 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 1S6
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 9a.m.–2p.m. Hours may differ Phone: (416) 203-3011

Into the music we go. When it comes to describing the indie-folk undertaking that is Canadian artist Noble Son — aka Adam Kirschner, singer/songwriter, actor, and VFV (very familiar voice) — his new single “Sad Dumb Lovesick Young Kid,” and album Life Isn’t Fun, I’d say it’s one that’s generating a lotta media, usually thick with hyperbole.

All femme trio Joseph returns with a seven-track EP, Stay Awake, released digitally by ATO Records. The collection includes three new songs - "All," which opens the set, a demo of "50, 60, 80" and the closing track, "Stay Awake" plus re-imagined versions of two older songs and stunning covers of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and the Rolling Stones' " Moonlight Mile."

Natalie Schepman, who founded Joseph with her two sisters, Allison Closner and Meegan Closner, says, "Stay Awake is a small collection of songs we put together to help ourselves deal with heaviness. It's a bit of telling it like it is. It's a bit of a 'keep going.'"

"When we were recently reminded of Tears for Fears' song 'Everybody Wants to Rule The World,' it hit us how pertinent it is today even though it was written in the 80's. Today, maybe more than ever," explains Natalie, who added a few lines after the bridge that especially speak to the times we live in:

'Make the most of freedom and pleasure.

A guerilla-punk-Balkan-folk-brass band massive like no other, LBO traces their genesis back about 8 years to the streets of Toronto, where a quartet of energetic busking troubadours began to amass a battalion of like-minded musical travellers, and the dozen strong Orkestra was born. Since then they’ve been nominated for 2 Junos and won a Canadian Folk Music award, been heralded as a groundbreaking, genre-bending phenomenon by media and fans. They’ve toured in more than a dozen countries, leaving a trail of fiercely dedicated fans in their wake. Equal parts exhilarating precision and reckless abandon, their live shows are truly immersive experiences, ranging from the ecstatic to the cathartic.

Earlier this year, rapper, radio host, and now soft rock singer, Shad released a surprise album, Adult Contempt, under the name Your Boy Tony Braxton. He is preparing to hit the stage with Tokyo Police Club for three nights at The Mod Club on December 8, 9 and 10 in support.

Recently Your Boy Tony Braxton shared the music video for album track “Good (Enough).” The video, directed by Justin Broadbent, takes us on a trip back to the 90s and features Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning trying to rent a copy of Speed 2 on VHS.

"So, this is a song about a man who's just beginning to understand what's behind his loneliness, insecurity, and rage," explains Shad. While Broadbent added "I wanted to make a video that affirmed it was ok to like things like Speed 2. We often get in our heads about our futures or art making and need to take a step back and truly enjoy things for what they are."

If you name check sibs Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, you’re liable to step off with thoughts of warm, fuzzy, alt roots pop. You’d also be very wrong about what they do. A better clue is that Mick ‘The Clash’ Jones produced current album, ‘The Third’, dropping now.

Described as "a gift to those of us who still believe in magic,” and three years in the making, it’s a worthy follow-up to their highly acclaimed 'Smoking In Heaven.’ That one coughed up enough coin for the crew to build a new 16 track analogue studio in a derelict Indian restaurant in Camden Town, resulting in an album and a sound pushing ahead what all that came before.

An early fan of the band, Mick Jones was keen on his gig as producer. Jonesy T spent four months rehearsing with the band at their home and utilizing many forgotten recording techniques. "This magical, heart-warming record really does produce a feeling of wonder,” says Jones. Something else Jonesy brought round was an enhancement of the group’s rockabilly leanings with a side of edgy vibe.