I just got back from three weeks in England, where I saw a bunch of great shows and gigs — including a fantastic Geordie Greep performance and what now appears to have been The Who’s final show with drummer Zak Starkey at Royal Albert Hall. I’d tell you more about it all, except I don’t have time — I’m already getting ready to hit the road again to catch Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds on their first North American tour in eight years, along with a trio of shows by the mighty Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit. Thankfully, I do have time to round up this week’s latest and greatest Canadian singles and videos. All aboard:
Strange Plants | Horseshoe Smile
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Strange Plants return with Horseshoe Smile, a bouncy psychedelic-pop throwback that lives somewhere between Tears For Fears and The Beatles’ Revolver era. Happy, trippy, and just the right amount of weird, the track playfully critiques curated digital personas and the exaggerated performances people put on to appear perfect. The song’s title refers to the exaggerated “horseshoe” shape of over-laughed upper teeth — a not-so-subtle jab at the fakeness we often witness in public and online personas. Driven by a rad horn arrangement in the bridge, Horseshoe Smile leans fully into its retro-pop influences while distorting them through a funhouse mirror. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Robbie Crowell (Sturgill Simpson, Deer Tick), Horseshoe Smile is featured on Strange Plants’ eponymous debut album, recorded at Creative Workshop Studio in Nashville and due June 6.”
Moonshine & Various Artists | Moon + Monkey Effects
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following a period of intense creative exploration across East Africa, Moonshine unveil SMS for Location, Vol. 6 — an album that transcends musical and cultural boundaries. Due May 2. the 20-track mixtape fuses ancestral rhythms with forward-thinking electronic production. The result is a vibrant and borderless soundscape rooted in the collective’s diasporic vision of global club culture. Collaborators include DJ Lag, Pierre Kwenders, UNIIQU3, Branko, Vanyfox, Black Rave Culture and many more. Today, the Juno-nominated collective dive deeper into their ever-evolving soundscape with two singles. Moon channels the Lisbon scene’s pulse with DJ Satelite, DJ Gálio and Kelly Gomez, while Monkey Effects taps into the raw energy of Durban producer DJ Lag.”
Leif Vollebekk & Angie McMahon | Take It To The Limit
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leif Vollebekk and Australian singer-songwriter and musician Angie McMahon have unveiled a captivating new cover of the iconic Eagles hit Take It To The Limit. With emotive vocals and haunting lap steel arrangements from the Grammy-winning musician Cindy Cashdollar, (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Ryan Adams), Vollebekk and McMahon reimagine the song, offering a fresh yet reverent interpretation to this timeless anthem. “I grew up listening to those gorgeous Eagles harmonies with my dad,” Vollebekk says. “One cassette, side A, side B. And flip it again. I love the orchestra (it’s partly why I added an orchestra on Revelation) but it’s the blend of their voices that gets me on this song. The artwork is a photo I took on a solo roadtrip from Colorado to Los Angeles, passing through the painted desert, Winslow, Arizona and the mystical Joshua Tree. ‘Put me on a highway / Show me a sign.’ You don’t know exactly what it means but you know how it feels. I feel it has a little bit of that California magic.”
Frankie Flowers | Hex
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Waterloo alternative artist Frankie Flowers returns with her haunting new single Hex. Fusing dark-wave, alternative and synth-pop influences, Hex explores the emotional push-and-pull of limerence — the intoxicating yet uncertain space between love and longing. With gritty industrial textures, distorted synths, and Flowers’ mesmerizing vocals, Hex is an exhilarating dive into emotional turbulence and sonic unpredictability. “Hex is about limerence in relationships — the disorienting feeling of being emotionally drawn to someone but unsure if the connection is real or imagined,” Flowers says. “You’re in that liminal space, craving answers that never seem to come.”
Absolute Treat | The Sun
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Absolute Treat, the new moniker of the Toronto multi-hyphenate pop group formerly known as Dilettante, shared the first single off their upcoming EP Main Street. It marks a pivot point in the band’s journey, having fully shed the hazy, lo-fi trappings of their previous project and turned their attention to the dance floor. With their new songs, the band — Natalie Panacci (vocals), Julia Wittmann (vocals, guitar), Zachary Stuckey (bass) and Bradley Connor (drums) — draw inspiration from the intersecting points where disco, pop, rock, and slinky R&B meet. Today, they share the EP’s opening track The Sun. “The inspiration for this song came from a place of emotional exhaustion and the feeling of being overwhelmed. It’s about those moments when everything feels too much, and you’re just holding on, trying to manage your thoughts and emotions, but it seems impossible to carry it all,” says Panacci. “When everything feels overwhelming, something as simple as the warmth of the sun is the only thing that provides any sense of comfort or relief. It’s also about isolation, the sense of waiting for something or someone to bring change, but ultimately realizing that you have to find your own way.”
Katie Tupper | Original Thoughts
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Katie Tupper’s year is off to a good start. After a meteoric rise on social media, with multiple videos going viral, she now has a captive audience in love with her voice. Today Tupper returns with another single Original Thoughts, a groove-heavy R&B track that explores the rush of feelings after an intimate connection. Made with Felix Fox (BadBadNotGood) and Justice Der, the track is layered with thick analog sounds that set the sonic stage for Tupper’s upcoming debut album, due later this year. “This song captured my feelings after this intimate connection that I had for the first time,” says Tupper. “I sort of felt my world shifting and my lines between curiosity and certainty became redrawn. Something that always felt really heavy and confusing became incredibly clear to me in the span of basically 72 hours and I wrote to try to capture the excitement I felt.”
Eric Sage | Canadian Beer (Party Remix)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Country-rock artist Eric Sage rides the wave of renewed Canadian pride with a high-octane remix of his 2024 single Canadian Beer. The new remix cranks up the volume on a track that already captured hearts across the country. “I have always loved big, anthemic songs,” says Sage. “There’s nothing like when they’re played at a concert or sporting event and the crowd goes wild. Canadian Beer had that feeling right away. With this important movement to ‘Buy Canadian’, I feel like the song is more powerful than ever! After I released the song last year, I received many requests for a Party Remix and now seemed like the right time to do it. In these trying times, what’s better than cracking open a cold one? And not just any old beer, make it a down-home, mother trucker, patriotic Canadian Beer!”
8know8 | Make It Work
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Toronto instrumental electronic artist 8know8 announces the self-release of her fourth studio album, She. A deeply personal and sonically immersive record, She continues Polly-Jean Vernon’s journey of self-discovery, expressed through intricate layers of synth and live percussion. 8know8 recorded She using her signature approach: Layering live drums and synthesizers in real time, preserving the raw energy of a live performance. “No quantizing, no electronic drum pads, no punch-ins. I want it to feel and be real,” she explains. “Mistakes happen, and you can hear some on every one of my records — but they sound real, in a world that is increasingly sterile and uniform.” The album’s focus track Make It Work embodies the intensity, frustration, and eventual triumph of the creative process, delivering a hypnotic blend of electronic and acoustic elements. “I was playing around with a synthesized music box sound and fell in love with the interplay of syncopated waves and hi-hats,” says Vernon. “This song started from that groove and evolved into something that truly represents my experience: life is tough, but you have to make it work.”
Dennis Ellsworth | Ride With You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the success of his 2023 album Modern Hope — nominated for Solo Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards — Canadian singer-songwriter Dennis Ellsworth officially returns on April 25 with Hardcore Freewheelin’, another stunning collection of his trademark blend of folk and power pop. He offers another preview today with the album’s opening track Ride With You, which sets the tone for Hardcore Freewheelin’s overarching theme of finding a lifelong personal connection. Dennis explains, “Ride With You is a song about promise, and remembering meeting someone important. In the first stages of love, there’s desire and lust, and the feeling of being saved. This song is about looking back and remembering the feelings when you realized commitment was forming.”
