RGM presents The Maple Leaf Roundup #21
Joni Mitchell, Daniel Lanois, Alanis Morissette… Justin Bieber. Canada’s rich and varied musical heritage clearly has a trickle-down effect, as music of a consistently high calibre pours in abundance from its shores. Here at RGM, we shine a light on the best new Canadian music we can find, not just in the hope we’ll unearth the next Sarah McLachlan but also because we believe there’s something in the water over there that makes the music extra special. We hope you find something here, in the latest Maple Leaf roundup, to love as much as we do.
Photographer Credit: Karolina Turek
We begin in Vancouver, BC, where we find Michaela Slinger and her stunning new song ‘Make You Sad’, taken from the forthcoming debut album Panorama. If a twenty-something Patty Griffin had accidentally stumbled into an R&B recording session and decided to just go with it, the results may have sounded a bit like this. Slinger’s musical maturity is edged with a youthful fire and the subtle sass in the production here draws the song gloriously out of the acoustic shell whence it came.
Michaela Slinger is on Twitter: @michaelaslinger
Caveboy Photo Credit Farrell Tremblay
If pop of an eighties vintage is more your thang, then you very much need to know that Montreal trio Caveboy have recently celebrated the first anniversary of their debut LP, Night In The Park, Kiss In The Dark, with a deluxe edition and two new singles: ‘Good In You’ and ‘Dirty Hands’. They’ve also issued a brand new video for the excellent ‘Find Me’. Lead vocalist Michelle Bensimon would give an in-her-prime Belinda Carlisle a serious run for her money and - together with bandmates Lana Cooney and Isabelle Banos - has created a sound that is just unassailably cool. Like being an entire year late to a party. Luckily for us, it feels like this one’s just getting started.
“This song started as my own little private anthem but it really came alive as this vibrant piece of youthful naivety and nostalgia when Michelle and Lana helped bring into the Caveboy world. It’s a reflection on the clarity of hindsight - when the rose coloured glasses come off and you can see past moments and memories in a completely different light.”
Photo Credit: Sebastian Buzzalino
Well, that must have been one hell of a bash because we wake up feeling decidedly odd, all the way over in Calgary, in the arms of Chad VanGaalen. ‘Samurai Sword’ is the first single from his upcoming new album, which is due for a global release via Sub Pop. The song is weird in all the right ways and comes with a suitably whacked-out animated short by the man himself. The result feels like a ragged collaboration between the Flaming Lips and Mike Judge. We like it but we’re not entirely sure why. The album, World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener, promises to be similarly far out and is released on March 19th.
To bring us back to earth, we turn to Munroe for some beautifully woven words of wisdom in the form of latest single ‘Don’t Rush To Get Old’. Simple folk fingerpicking rolls over warm tape-hiss, giving the song a field-recording vibe. This goes hand in hand with its mesmeric video which sees the artist leading us across sunshine-drenched farmland and past a Richard Serra sculpture which sits in the landscape as unobtrusively as any tree. A similar subtlety and weight can be found in Kathleen Munroe’s intimate, matter-of-fact vocal; this is lo-fi loveliness in full bloom.
Connect with Munroe via Twitter: @kathleenmunroe
Photo Credit: Ken Bergman
We leave you now with the immersive lullaby that is ‘I Just Want To Walk In The Dark With You’, by Manitoba-based singer-songwriter Paul Bergman. The track is taken from Bergman’s forthcoming LP (his sixth). The gentle haze of the vocal is somewhat at odds with the song’s insistent, pulsing beat, but the two elements manage to come together to create an irresistibly hypnotic effect, as ambient sounds and reverb-soaked piano and guitars flood the soundscape. If you don’t have sweet dreams after this, we’ll give you your money back.
And with that, we’ll tuck you in, turn out the light and tiptoe quietly away until the next Maple Leaf turns and falls. Gentle gold drifting into our hands. Thank you, Canada.
The Maple Leaf is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
And we’re back! “From whence?” I hear you cry, in your florid way. Back from Canada, of course. We swam all the way, on our backs, our music-loving arms filled with a freshly picked bunch of hot new songs, gifted to us from our creative compadres ‘cross the waves. Imagine that. And we did it all for you.