‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ said judgemental Santa, as he walked by the three young women at Sherbourne and Dundas.

This week we spotlight Second Harvest Central Food Bank 1450 Lodestar Road Unit 18 Toronto, Ontario
Tel: 416-408-2594
email@secondharvest.ca

The Turkey Drive goal is to provide 8,000 turkeys to our agency network to help nourish people who have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Member agencies have been coping with the new realities of providing emergency food relief during COVID, whether it’s changing their community dining programs to take away meals or offering prepared hampers instead of food bank access. Many agencies have closed their doors, which has put further strain on the food resources of agencies that have remained open.

Support your local food bank. The need is dire.

It’s a digital Christmas y’all. The otherworldly Sultans of String is doing a zoom celebration of their Billboard charting festive release Christmas Caravan, featured on the New York Time Hits List.

Indie-pop singer-songwriter BAYLA is back with a bang! Ok, Brittany Kwasnik is back with a new name, new sound and a big win, first time out the gate. Montreal based BAYLAhas been announced as the winner of the 7th Annual RBC Emerging Musician Program, a part of Canada’s Walk of Fame Emerging Artists Programs and Scholarships. With over 1000 applicants BAYLA wowed the committee with her upbeat and infectious single “Monster”.The accompanying video is thematically linked and probably inspired by the Toy Story films. As the Grand Prize winner, BAYLA will be attending and performing at Canada’s Walk of Fame Awards Show and Gala on November 23 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Award-winning singer/songwriter Christina Martin has released her seventh and newest album, Wonderful Lie — including new single, “The Winner Takes It All.” 

“I haven’t split with anyone in a while, but when I sing this song it reminds me of how hard breakups can be,” Martin shares.

“It’s definitely a favourite of mine from my high school days, singing along and dancing to ABBA., before I knew anything about breaking up with someone or getting dumped.”

The release of Wonderful Lie comes amidst Martin’s extensive 49 date cross-country tour, from Newfoundland to British Columbia, with longtime lead guitarist and producer Dale Murray. Audiences will be treated to the newest music live throughout a combination of cozy house concerts via Home Routes (Chemin Chez Nous), as well as clubs, cafes and theatres.

Long known and lauded for her signature indie pop-to-rock style, Wonderful Lie sees Martin wading effortlessly into the roots rock and Americana sound pool. Among the album’s 10 songs, four stand stellar as original compositions.

Amateur Hour is the new album from genre-hopping songwriter Chris Velan and it started out as songs about a relationship and all the emotional baggage that comes with it; desire, love, resentment, pain. But soon he realized that the relationship he was exploring was the one with himself.

Due out September 14, Amateur Hour unfolds like a series of monologues in a one-act play where the characters are locked in a room and forced to respond and react to unexpected news, discovering that what they thought to be true of themselves was in fact not.

First single, “All Time Record”, is a bit of mystery for Velan. “It came in the form of an urgent stream of babble that I had to quickly record into my phone and then later transcribe and translate,” he says. “It wasn’t as much about the meaning of the words as it was their sound. I think that’s why it retains this elusive, joyful quality. It doesn’t want to be pinned down.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “ALL TIME RECORD” HERE