17 March 2023 - Metric - False Dichotomy

The Juno Awards were on Monday.

Canadian band Metric were nominated for a couple of them, including Group of the Year, based in large part on their 2022 album, Formentera, their first in four years (back to that in a second). This was one of the singles off that album, and it's something of a banger in its own right.   While they didn't win, it's still an honour to be nominated.

Just because it took them four years to release anything new does not mean they didn't do anything.  In 2021, they did this thing.  That brought the band to an international spotlight once again, so it made a lot of sense for them to follow it up with something more than a limited pressing vinyl only greatest hits album (they did that, too).  

Back to this song and not anything from a Michael Cera movie.  This continues Metric's history of flashy, modern synth-rock, bringing a unique sound that actually works post-pandemic.

16 March 2023 - Babygirl - Always

Last year, we featured a lot of new music.  One of the most popular posts we featured was by a band called Babygirl.   

We figured we'd check and see if they have any new music, and indeed, they do.  And their sound has gotten deeper and richer - a more mature Babygirl, if you will.  

This song was released a few months ago, and it is a pop-rock cool jam about breaking up and those conflicted feeling that still linger afterwards.  It's mournful and beautiful and bass-heavy, all at the same time.  The video was filmed in your mom's house a vacant house that was owned by a 100-year old woman who probably bought it for $40 in the 1970s (not my joke - it's from the behind the scenes video).  

By the way, the band has a new EP coming in April - you can pre-save it on your favorite streaming service and I'm willing to bet the band would appreciate it.  

15 March 2023 - Lindi Ortega - Tin Star

So this was like five years ago. One of my favorite country singers, Lindi Ortega, was playing my local 250 seat venue.

I was beyond stoked. At the time I was running a country site (after I left WGP and TC) where the writers were more concerned with the comings and goings of Florida Georgia Line or Sam Hunt as opposed to country music of substance like the Turnpike Troubadours or Elizabeth Cook. Needless to say the teaching of new writers was fun, the content, not so much.

That night it was nice to not only see a favorite artist of mine, but to write about her performance which was amazing. And maybe turn someone on to a great country artist...from Canada.

I was fortunate to chat with her after the show. She signed her Tin Star CD for me and we took a picture (which I told her I wanted to use for the review...well and again years later for this blog).

Anyway, Lindi is awesome. She hasn't put out a record in years and I for one would love another one. But until that time comes I'll enjoy her previously released records.

14 March 2023 - Avril Lavigne - Bite Me

You probably know we write this articles in advance.  So, we are writing this not knowing how the Juno Awards went last night - but we are pulling for this song to be Single of the Year as we write this. 

So, if it won, congratulations to Avril.  If it didn't win, SHE WAS ROBBED.

(Update: It did not win.  This did.) (She did win the Fan Choice Award, so that's good)

Let's talk about this song.  Released in late 2021 on Travis Barker's new label (he's drumming on the song as well), it's a throwback to Paramore Lavigne's earlier work - that pop-punk that defined her career for so long.  Clearly, it's an endearing love song that isn't at all angry.

It's also the best thing she's done in a decade. 

The video for the acoustic version of this song is kind of hilarious - with Avril doing dental work with a giant pair of boltcutters.  More interestingly, this extremely angry song works really well as a melancholy ballad.  

The "Tonight Show" live version of this song falls somewhere in the middle of the two versions - keeping both the anger and melancholy.

13 March 2023 - The Weeknd - Sacrifice

The 2023 Juno Award nominations were announced at the end of January.  The Weeknd led all nominations with six. 

The awards are tonight, in Edmonton, hosted by Simu Liu.  The Weeknd, and specifically this song, are predicted to win big. If the predictions are right, we look like geniuses right now.  If they aren't, we're probably going to be posting some Avril Lavigne tomorrow.

Released as a single in January 2022, it reached #11 on the US pop charts, and was a hit all over the world.  Written by the artist and a score of others, including hitmaker Max Martin, the song has a funky sound that evokes memories of Michael Jackson and his style - which clearly influences The Weeknd. Lyrically, it's a typical club banger, talking about the hedonistic nature of the narrator's life. 

12 March 2023 - Lights - Banner

This is the 18th post we've made about Lights on this blog.  That is more than any #WGPHOF member.  That is more than my previous overposting of Charli XCX (17, by the way - 16 by me - if you include this post that totally featured her). 17 of these posts about Lights have been written by me.  

So why so much attention to a shapeshifting, namechanging artist?

Those who have known me for decades could tell you not only what my favorite album was (House Tornado, by Throwing Muses) but my SECOND favorite (Surfer Rosa, by the Pixies).  Since the late 1980s.  No album came close to those two for me.  Perfect albums.  I continually come back to them, for decades.  

Scott Colvin (who I will for this very last time give credit for scooping me on this one and who it's really killing not to post Britney Spears today) knows this. So when he reads the next paragraph he might be floored.

I can't say that anymore. Because over the past two years, I keep coming back to two other not-new albums: Roses by Cœur de Pirate, (by the way, also someone we've posted about no less than 18 times) and Siberia by Lights.  And the latter more than the former. 

(and, by the way, also Little Machines. Two albums now among my favorites)

Is Lights the new Kristin Hersh?  That may be an exaggeration, but the lyrical structure that Lights comes back to, song after song after song, is one that is flexible and hits hard.  This perhaps doesn't resonate more than it does with "Banner" - an uplifting, hopeful, but still dark song.  

I mention flexible.  I chose "Banner" here for a reason.  It was the first acoustic song of hers that I had heard (and I didn't know at the time it was Lights, because had I known, my blind spot would have told me to turn it off).  As of this writing, this version - the acoustic one - is her most played song on Spotify, by far.  

  

11 March 2023 - Drake - God's Plan

Canadian rap artist Drake has released a LOT of singles.  Literally, more than 140 in his 14-year-so-far career.

His biggest worldwide hit by far is this one, from 2018.  Written by Aubrey Drake Graham and a bunch of other people, the bigger story here is the video, where Drake really gave away almost $200,000 to random Miami residents (the video implies almost $1 million, but I assume not everything was done on camera).

But videos don't get to be the #1 song of the year as determined by Billboard, as this song was in 2018. This song was - it also spent 11 weeks atop the weekly charts - and was only knocked down by another of his own songs.  In total, Drake spent 29 of the 52 weeks of 2018 topping the Billboard pop charts - which is absolutely gigantic. 

By the way, in total, Drake has spent 54 weeks topping the Hot 100 - which is 5th most all time - Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, Rhianna and Beatles are the only artists with more,  He's also got the most #1 debuts on the chart, with 7 - including both this single and the one that replaced it ("Nice For What"), the first time that a #1 debut replaced a #1 debut at #1.  

It's pretty standard Drake-brand hip-hop, but also, it's got some real feeling behind it, so there's that. 

10 March 2023 - Rêve - Tongue

I figured, why let œ have all the clipboard fun?  Let ê get some play!

Seriously, the artist known legally as Briannah Donolo grew up in Montreal, Quebec... and started with music at a very early age.  A cunning linguist herself, she speaks both English and French, and yes, her music is in English, even with the non-standard English-language letter in her name.

Rêve brings an electronic sound that does not feel out of place in the club - a sexually-charged club that serves tongues at mealtime, but still.  The song is definitely not safe for work, as it is pretty overt in its sexuality - it's not talking about lengua tacos, unless that's some kind of euphemism, in which case, it IS talking about lengua tacos, if you know what I mean, winky-face emoji.  

This fresh new Canadian artist is nominated for THREE Juno Awards this year, which will be awarded Monday, and I'm not gonna lie - I'm rooting for her.

If you prefer your music without body parts on a platter, but with the same entendre-filled lyrics, but also, you aren't prone to seizures, go ahead and check out Rêve's performance below.  

9 March 2023 - Corb Lund ft. Hayes Carll - Bible on the Dash

When most people in the U.S. think Canadian country the first thought likely is Shania Twain. And while that’s a pretty picture it’s akin to putting ketchup on fries.

Canadian country to me starts, but nowhere stops with Corb Lund.

Corb’s been doing his thing for almost 30 years. His sound is definitely western. The dude can write straight-up sentimental classic country, but he’s actually at his best when he lets his freak flag fly.

“Bible on the Dash” with Hayes Carll (who is American, but we’ll forgive him) is one of his freakiest…and best. In fact, I’d say this may be grooviest song ever. And it’s funny. Dig.

8 March 2023 - Korea Town Acid - Telepathic Communications

I looked at the date I first discovered Korea Town Acid.

March 8, 2022.  It was a candidate for last year's #MapleLeafMarch.  Probably because Korea Town Acid was a 2022 Juno Award nominee for Best Underground Dance Single of the Year (not for this song).

In this video, we see a woman looking at times disinterested and bored as she explores what appears to be Toronto at night.  That woman has a name.  Her name is Jessica Cho - born in Seoul, Canadian since a very young age, and based in Toronto.  Jessica Cho is Korea Town Acid.  Korea Town Acid is Jessica Cho.  

Musically, the song is 100% electronic, with what sounds like lasers punctuating an ambient beat.  An ominous voiceover accompanies the captivating music.  

7 March 2023 - Cœur de Pirate - Adieu

You know, we write these posts of English-language QWERTY keyboards.  There's no œ key.  It takes some effort for us to CONTINUALLY write about Cœur de Pirate.

And yet, here we are.  Writing about Cœur de Pirate again.

Ms. de Pirate (You know I know her real name, people.  Issa joke) has released eight album.  Seven of them are really really good, and a couple of them are among my personal favorites of all time.  The eighth is her sophomore album, Blonde.   

But, to be fair, I didn't love all of the other seven right away (Roses and Perséides, absolutely I did from first listen), and that's what's happening with Blonde as well.  It's growing on me.  It's songs like this one - a clever pop song with a double bassline and a wicked video with a Bewitched theme (Cœur de Pirate as Serena) - that are selling me on this album.

If you don't know French, you don't know that this is a sad breakup song - and a raw one at that, early in the process, when you don't want to see the person.  On her native instrument, the piano, Cœur de Pirate really drives the true underlying sadness of the song home.  

6 March 2023 - Isabella Lovestory - Sexo Amor Dinero

Wait a minute.

That's not French OR English!

That's right, gentle reader.  Isabella Lovestory is a Latina artist based in Montreal.  Her edgy music is definitely performed tongue-in-cheek, primarily in her native language of Spanish (she was born in Honduras, but Canadian since her mid-teens), Reggaton with a strong women's empowerment undertone might be unexpected in Canadian music, but here we are.  

Of course, "Lovestory" isn't a traditional Honduran last name.  Her last name is Rodriguez.  This is a persona - she is both a musician and performance artist, and she has fun with it.  Music is meant to be enjoyed, even if she is singing about "amor hardcore".  

She is certainly an artist to watch.

5 March 2023 - DVSN - Don't Take Your Love

Most of the year, we are a five-day-a-week blog, at most.

In #MapleLeafMarch, there's too much content for five days.  So, we step it up to all seven.  This is why we're posting on a Sunday.

Today, we're going back to the 1990s.  No, wait, this song was released in 2022.  I'm sorry.  I just heard the song and I thought for sure that it must have been from the 1990s, given the sound I was hearing.   

No, DVSN (formerly dvsn - not a joke) are a modern duo, active since 2016 and signed to Drake's label.  Drake wasn't even on DeGrassi in the 90's yet.  The sound sure does bring back memories of 90's R&B, but the freestyle feel points more to modern hip-hop, so I guess it's a fusion piece.

The duo themselves are pretty renowned in their own right, with one half of them being the producer behind some of Drake's biggest hits, which is probably why Nineteen85 has a few Grammy nominations (and a win, for Best Rap Song - "Hotline Bling", which he co-wrote and produced- in 2017) in the past on top of the Juno nomination for DVSN this year.  

Also, they're Canadian.  I feel like I have to say that.  This video was clearly filmed in Toronto, their hometown.  

4 March 2023 - Harm & Ease - Steady Roll

I don't know a lot about Harm & Ease - or, I didn't when I went searching for information about this great band from Burlington, Ontario, Canada, who happen to also be nominated for a Juno Award this year.  

SO I did a Google search.  The first result was their official website and here was the description given:

"causes of plagiarism essay using spatial order do essay writing websites work what to write my college essay about local business plan writer."

What?!

Luckily, that was just some wacky preview text and there's a lot more information at their official website.  Turns out this breakthrough band has been around since 2010 but spent some time kicking around Argentina before returning to Toronto.  But they're in Canada now, and their music rocks - and you should take notice.

3 March 2023 - Lisa LeBlanc - Pourquoi faire aujourd'hui

Those outside of Canada probably think Quebec is an outlier, but New Brunswick - the province where Lisa LeBlanc hails from - is bilingual, and the only officially bilingual province in Canada.  French is pretty widely spoken there. 34% of residents could conduct a conversation in English or French. But do you hear about Bloc Brunsycois?  No, no you don't.  

Actually, there was a Parti Acadiaen in the 70's and 80's, which was trying to separate the francophone portion of New Brunswick into a new province, but that's not really the same thing - they still wanted to be Canadian.  

You've learned your Canadian cultural fact of the day, Americans.  And probably a few Canadians.

But let's talk about Lisa LeBlanc.  She describes her music as "trash-folk" and yes, she does sing songs in both English and French (although primarily French).  A 2023 Juno Award nominee for best francophone album, Chiac Disco.  1) it's damn good 2) this song, which is very much NOT folk, closes that album.  It is, in fact, a disco romp with a lot of roller skating in the video.  

For those who don't know French, the song title literally translates to "Why Do Today".... as in, what you could do tomorrow.   It's more about living in the moment and less about procrastination.  It's also super fun.  By the way, if you listen closely, she DOES give a couple of little English-language clues (which is a hallmark of Chiac, a dialect of French that borrows some words from English).

I was thinking - what would this song look like live?  I got my answer.  Boy, doesn't she look like she's having fun here?

2 March 2023 - Flower Face - Sugar Water

Flower Face is the stage name of Montreal artist Ruby Mckinnon.  

This is the third single off her SIXTH album, The Shark In Your Water, released in 2022 after a four-year wait. She tends to do a fair bit of her recordings in her bedroom.  I don't know if this one was recorded there (the video implies that it was not), but I do know she wrote the song and performed all the instruments and vocals.  

Before you go there....  I wasn't one of those people waiting for her alt-pop gem of an album for four years. I *just* discovered her, and think she's fantastic.  The reason I keep coming back to #MapleLeafMarch is because I keep discovering artists I love that I would not have otherwise heard.  Canadian independent music doesn't get play in the States like it should.  

The self-deprecating video plays like a game of Rock Band and shows Flower Face's multiinstrumental talents.

1 March 2023 - The Stellas - Gravy

I have been waiting a YEAR to post this.

Last year, we went hog wild on The Stellas and their daughters.  And, as I was writing these posts last year, I wondered out loud - didn't mom and dad ever exploit the acting talents of their daughters.

Yes.  They did.  And at about 2:05 of this video, it looks like Maisy is providing vocals, too (she at least knows the words).  

To be fair, this 2014 single was after the debut of the ABC show Nashville.  

That's right.  It's #MapleLeafMarch #3.  Get ready for another month of Canadian content.

28 February 2023 - Imani Coppola - Legend of a Cowgirl

So, here we are, at the end of another month, and getting ready to start something big.

So, let's talk about someone's biggest hit, and how it doesn't define them.

I am, of course, talking about "Legend of a Cowgirl", the only song by Imani Coppola to ever hit the charts.  Described by Wikipedia as living "in Bedford-Stuyvesant with her cat", which of course was the most important fact of the day, Coppola released this song in 1997 to commercial and critical success.  

And no, you aren't imagining.  "Sunshine Superman" by Donovan is absolutely sampled here.

The song is great.  Absolute pop perfection.  But it doesn't define Imani Coppola.

Just because this is her biggest chart hit does NOT mean she hasn't been successful.  Quite the contrary - the multi-instrumentalist has written many of your favorite commercial jingles - brands like Chase, Target, Revlon.  She's also an accomplished violinist.

By the way, she hated this song.  Which, well, I don't understand, but artists have their own opinions about their own work.

Here she is, performing it live.  Donovan was unavailable for this live performance.

21 February 2023 - M.I.A. - Bad Girls

It's said that your musical taste is formulated in your teens.  The music you like for the rest of your life is the music you are exposed to during the years 13-19.

This song, one of my favorites, was released on my 40th birthday, so I reject that thinking.  So, I reject that thinking.  This song, co-written by M.I.A., incorporates a lot of Middle Eastern-influenced beats that didn't exist broadly in popular music when I was 13-19.  

I encourage you to grow with me and enjoy this song, mid-tempo and in your face from the Moroccan dessert.  

20 February 2023 - k-os - The Love Song

Next week, we begin our third annual #MapleLeafMarch.  You know, that one month of the year that I fill with Canadians, for absolutely no reason other than I am the world's biggest fan of poutine.

But today is k-os's birthday.  He turns 51 today.  So, rather than wait a week, we feature his 2005 hit from NEW ZEALAND - where it was featured in a commercial for Vodafone.  

It's not a love song.  

17 February 2023 - Weezer - Island In The Sun

I cannot believe we've never, ever posted Weezer here.  

Well, let's fix that with their best known song.  

Wait, you mean it wasn't a hit in the US?  Well, it was OUTSIDE the United States, which is amazing for a song that shouldn't have even existed.   Producer of their (second) self-titled album and Cars frontman Ric Ocasek pushed for its inclusion, and it ended up being the single released after the much darker "Hash Pipe".  

So, about that video.  It's got a Mexican wedding theme.  But, say you don't want a Mexican wedding.  Say, for example, you want to see Rivers Cuomo sing at a baby bear, but you didn't want Mikey Welsh in the video.  Wouldn't it be great if there was a video like that?

Thanks to Spike Jonze, there is.

16 February 2023 - Miley Cyrus - Flowers

It's hard to believe that Miley Cyrus is 30.  Her first trip(s!) to the pop charts happened when she was 15 - and still playing Hannah Montana. 

Fifteen years later, she's still releasing hits.

She's been to the top of the pop charts before, but "Flowers" is setting up to be her biggest hit by far - debuting at #1 in the US and all around the world, and staying there for three weeks in the States as of this writing.  The song, a breakup song that is more of a profession of self-love, is funky and poppy and instantly singable and danceable.   More to the point, it is a breakup song that is likely about Liam Hemsworth, her ex - the song was released on his birthday.  

The video caused a run on black lingerie thanks to the outfit Miley wears starting at the 1:00 mark of this video.  

15 February 2023 - Curve - Chinese Burn

We seem to come back to Curve an awful lot.  For good reason - they are a band that had real forward-sounding music, continually.  They reinvented themselves, continually.

And they broke up way too soon.  

This song, the lead single from their third album, Come Clean, waste no time getting right into the high-energy music.  It is so high energy it was featured in the TV series La Femme Nikita, and also Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  Is it the theme song for all shows adapted from better movies?  It is angry and powerful throughout, and I'd bet they loved it in the clubs.

Buffy loved it in the club.