UK artist Piers Baron had this to say about his single ‘Leap of Faith’ in an e-mail, “‘Leap of Faith’ is a song about new beginnings, a journey from one place to another, taking chances and making it work.”
He originally performed under the name Baron and he received support from The BBC’s Annie Mac and his music made several appearances on the UK dance charts.
Baron recently scored the soundtrack to The Flat Earth, a film by Ty Evans, a skate video director who’s been called the Steven Spielberg of skateboard videos.
Chances have shared a free stream of ‘Fire to Go’ from debut album Traveler, out on April 27.
The band describes the track as being, “an anthem of resilience”.
“It’s an empowering break-up song that talks about taking a stand and resisting the temptation to let someone back into your life when you know it’s a mistake,” Chances said in an e-mail.
Catch the band on the following dates;
April 26th – Phi Centre, Montreal
May 3rd – Le District, Quebec City
May 8th – This Ain’t Hollywood, Hamilton (with The Ferns and Calcedon)
May 9th – The Burdock, Toronto (with Chelsea Reed/David Macmichael)
“We’re all looking for leadership that is benevolent and generous, and truly has the will of the people in everything they do,” Arkells‘ frontman Max Kerman said in a statement. “We’re comforted every day by the people in our neighbourhood who go the extra mile for their community – especially when they don’t have to. We love that person. This song is about the opposite of that: it’s about the guy who acts like Robin Hood, but is the farthest thing from it. But that’s OK: look around and you’ll find people’s champs all around ya.”
He’s speaking of the band’s latest track ‘People’s Champ’, streaming for free. It’s taken from their forthcoming fifth album, due out later this year. The single was written and produced in Toronto with long-time collaborator Eric Ratz.
The Arkells will play their biggest show to date in Hamilton on June 23 at Tim Hortons Field with Cold War Kids and Ellevator. Combined with the band’s sell-out show at Budweiser Stage in Toronto with July Talk in the summer of 2017, they have raised $18,000 for The Rally. Proceeds will be donated to Refuge: Hamilton Centre for Newcomer Health.
Catch Arkells on the following dates;
April 13 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 15 – Dublin, IRL @ Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 16 – Dublin, IRL @ Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 18 – Belfast, UK @ Limelight (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 20 – Aberdeen, UK @ The Garage (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 21 – Edinburgh, UK @ Liquid Room (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 22 – Newcastle, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 24 – Sheffield, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 25 – Liverpool, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 27 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 28 – Exeter, UK @ Uni Great Hall (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
April 30 – Cambridge, UK @ Corn Exchange (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 1 – Southampton, UK @ O2 Guild Hall (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 2 – Southend-On-Sea @ Cliffs Pavilion (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 4 – Leicester, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 5 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 8 – Hull, UK @ Hull City Hall (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 9 – Norwich, UK @ UEA (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 11 – London, UK @ Roundhouse (Supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls)
May 12 – London, UK @ Dingwalls
June 23 – Hamilton, ON @ Tim Hortons Field: The Rally w/ Special Guests Cold War Kids, Bishop Briggs
June 30 – Timmins, ON @ Hollinger Park – Stars & Thunder Festival
July 7 – Thunder Bay, ON @ Marina Park – Thunder Bay Blues Festival
July 27 – Belleville, ON @ Empire Square Live
Aug 5 – Saint John, NB @ Long Warf – Area 506 Festival
Sept 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Stanley Park – SKOOKUM Festival
Sept 8 – Edmonton, AC @ Victoria Park – SONiC Field Day
Brooklyn quartet BOYTOY have shared a free stream of ‘Static Age’ from their forthcoming second album Night Leaf, due out on April 27 via Papercup Music.
The album is out on Stolen Body in the UK and Europe and will be released on cassette via Burger Records.
This follows the release of ‘Mary Anne’;
BOYTOY was formed by Saara Untracht-Oakner and Glenn Michael Van Dyke who bonded over a love of surf music and rock and roll. They released their self-titled EP in 2014 and followed it with their debut album Grackle in 2015.
They followed this with a slew of 7″ singles and Chase Noelle on drums and Lena Simon on bass. The band recorded Night Leaf with Kyle Mullarky’s (Allah Las) at his Pump House Studio in Topanga Canyon, outside of Los Angeles.
Catch BOYTOY on the following dates;
04/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Secret Project Robot
05/01 – Frauenfeld, CH @ KAFF
05/02 – Biel, CH @ Le Salopard
05/03 – Lyon, FR @ Le Sonic
05/05 – Berlin, DE @ Maze
05/07 – Bussels, BE @ Le Chaff
05/08 – Le Havre, FR @ McDaid’s
05/09 – Lille, FR @ E.T. Aloha
05/10 – Gent, BE @ Leffingeleurem Fest
05/11 – Paris, FR @ Club LFSM
05/12 – Nantes, FR @ Bras de Fer
05/13 – London, UK @ Lock Tavern
05/14 – Cardiff, UK @ The Moon
05/15 – Glasgow, UK @ Nice n’ Sleazy
05/16 – Brimingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
05/17 – Newcastle, UK @ Head of Steam
05/18 – Bristol, UK @ The Crofter’s Right
05/19 – Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape
Toronto artist Bossie, aka Anne Douris, has shared the video for ‘Strawberry Moon’ from her debut album Not Pictured, out on April 27 via Culvert Music.
“Growing up as girls, messages about how we should look and behave come at us from all sides, so you’re constantly carrying around these expectations. It’s overwhelming,” Douris said in a statement. “The director, Allison Johnston, and I wanted to visualize that by physically building this overwhelming world through the looking glass. We wanted it to look as bizarre and over-the-top as it can sometimes feel to be a woman. So I constructed these colossal make-up products as a way of showing how these images of “beauty” are not only ridiculous and disorienting, but literally a huge burden.”
Catch Bossie on the following dates;
04/07 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace w/ Born Ruffians
05/05 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G w/ Language Arts
08/17-19 – Elora, ON @ Riverfest
01. Mild At Heart
02. Meteor
03. Strawberry Moon
04. There Will Be Time
05. A Lot Like Love
06. The Outsider
07. As Good As It Gets
08. Tell It All
09. Post Teen
Young Galaxy‘s Catherine McCandless shared a rather revealing fact about the video for ‘Frontier’ in an e-mail; “I almost shot this video naked. It needed to be naked though, not me. I wanted a real, raw, and blasted out with light communication that didn’t have a plan behind it. We wrote the song ‘Frontier’ and realized that it was, and is the manifesto for this album.
“Down Time grew around it. ‘Frontier’ is the core and the data from which all the rest of the songs derive their meaning. It needed to be a stripped down signal coming in to a loved one. With a concept of intimate detail, high contrast, and work-like, utilitarian dress we shot a non-performance performance video featuring light, textures, bravery, and braun. I wanted to shoot a love letter that fortifies, works for change, and spills over in it’s celebration of the place of this love.”
McCandless directed, filmed and edited the video with rararacquiao.
The track is taken from the Montreal duo’s latest release Down Time, out on April 6. This marks the first truly independent release from McCandless and her bandmate/husband Stephen Ramsay.
The album was written with a sense of reinvention as they stepped away from the music industry and took control of their careers. Down Time sees Ramsay and McCandless tackling the topics of late period capitalism, the rise of nationalism and neoliberalism.
