Apologue Podcast

Confusionaires are a world-class rock & roll band that are constantly pushing the boundaries of what rockabilly and country music can be. The trio of Edmonton-based musicians has built a sound that’s synonymous with the hardest-hitting country and rockabilly acts around with sound that stands on its own. Their sound fills dance floors with fans from age 8 to 80. Since the inception of Confusionaires in 2017, the trio have focused heavily on live performances throughout Western Canada, earning their place as festival darlings and as a must-see live act. Their impact has led to the successful release of 2 full-length albums and 2 E.P.'s – And now their third full length album, and most ambitious collection of works to date: "Westernization". Confusionaires are bringing this new crop of thoughtful and hard-hitting songs to the people that believe that music should have a little dirt under its fingernails.

Website: https://confusionaires.com/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/confusionaires

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Brock Pytel, best known as the singing drummer for late 80’s Montreal pop-punks The Doughboys, has just released his new solo single, Anemic Heart. The single is the follow up to his 2022 single, Hurrah Hooray. The Vancouver transplant’s two latest singles were both from a session he did in 2011 at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with Howard Bilerman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire) after some Doughboys reunion tour dates with The Foo Fighters. The track features two of his former bandmates, Jonathan Cummins on the Jazzmaster, and Jon “Bond Head” Asencio on bass (both of whom are in Montreal’s The Low Sixes) and was mastered by Ronan Chris Murphy (Gwar, King Crimson). The song meanders from jangly verses that seem to be pulled from The Rolling Stone’s “Their Satanic Majesty’s Request” into melodic choruses that call to mind 90’s pop crossovers like The Fluid or Afghan Whigs. Accompanying the new single is Pytel’s video for Anemic Heart, filmed and edited by prolific Vancouver artist RD Cane. The video features blurry cityscapes, fires and idyllic beach scenes that compliment Pytel’s melancholic lyrics and harmonies, painting the contrast of a love gained, then lost. In the years between the sessions for the singles and their subsequent releases, the recordings fell into an extended dormancy. Pytel was buried under seemingly endless hours working in Vancouver’s film industry where eventually the  stress and lack of sleep caught up with him. Reflecting on his mortality, (after serious health issues in 2020) Pytel explained, “One of the things that really hit me at that time was how little music I’d put out into the world compared to how big a part of my life making music is. I was really motivated to get things going in that regard. These digital singles are me clearing my plate, so to speak, and making room for the new. When things seem to be lagging with the SLIP~ons (waiting for mixes, etc.) it helps with the frustration of working on getting these songs out.” With renewed vigor and determination, Pytel plans to complete more solo singles from the H2T sessions in the months ahead, and unleash a 5-song vinyl EP of his power pop band SLIP~ons in Summer 2023. 

D I S C O V E R

Bandcamp: http://brockpytel.bandcamp.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brockpytelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/brock.pytelSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1NQdziyMx6vWJyVlUv27a0?si=obKMIc9cR5e-SsftdX7RJA

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Mixed by Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus), "I Taste Blood" has a dark and punchy treatment, capturing the raw and ferocious energy that Ace Of Wands can achieve in their live performance.  Exploring the genre of Dream Rock through immersive / intricate soundscapes, and captivating live performances - the band compels audiences to listen with attention and not shy away from the dreams that may reveal hidden parts of themselves.

At the core of the band, multi-instrumentalist Lee Rose sings, plays violin/guitar and synth-bass foot pedals simultaneously while Anna Mernieks and Jody Brumell accompany her on swirling guitar and thunderous drums. Their instrumentation, soaring vocals, and commitment to artistically-driven visual elements explore the depths of overwhelming emotion and transcend typical pop and rock forms. "I Taste Blood" was inspired by the magnetic, electrical energy of being in the presence of someone that you desire, especially when you realize that the feeling is mutual. Exploring a gritty and sensual sound, this is the first song written for the band by guitarist Mernieks.

On January 20th Toronto's Ace Of Wands will release their new single "I Taste Blood" from their upcoming album "Desiring" (set for release on March 31, via Fortune Stellar Records).

Website: www.aceofwandsband.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/aceofwandsbandEmail: [email protected]: http://facebook.com/aceofwandstorontoTwitter: http://twitter.com/aceofwandsband

TOUR DATES

Long Winter at The Tranzac, Toronto, ON — February 4, 2023

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Portland, Oregon’s Bothers have just announced the release of their sophomore LP “II” on San Antonio/PDX label Dirt Cult Records. The band’s self-titled debut album was a concise and raging lesson in relentless punk 'n' roll, with tips of the hat to bands like Motörhead, and Hot Snakes. ‘II’ marks a new era for the band. Heavier and more expansive, the album ventures into the realm of metalic hardcore with fiercesome riffing and dynamic tempo changes. The melodic intensity of their first release remains, resulting in an album that calls to mind influences like Tragedy, Laughing Hyenas, Jesus lizard, Neurosis and Born Against. 

The band’s one sheet succinctly captures the feel of the album in a way only the composers’ could capture. “When you decide it’s finally time to strip naked, scarf a fistful of peyote buttons, and drive an ’82 Cadillac Cutlass deep into the desert in the middle of a lightning storm, BOTHERS second LP should probably be blaring on your tape deck while you daydream about communing with the coyotes or some shit. Two tracks in, you can almost smell the ozone as the horizon explodes. Inherently primal, their second offering is nothing short of bespoke savagery - deeper, uglier, and stranger than their first outing. Imagine HUSKER DU finally found something to be genuinely angry about, or if you ran the first couple TELEVISION records through a boardwalk funhouse meat grinder. If you’ve never punched yourself in the throat hard enough to make the room spin like your future swirling down the shitter, this record will make you realize it’s time”.

Photo Credit: Lindsay Beaumount

Stream Album “II”  

https://dirtcultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ii

D I S C O V E R

Bandcamp: https://bothersband.bandcamp.com/music

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063520961948

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bothersband_pdx

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2gvPQCrgL8BROF2Ojn0zNe?si=xJL5EDicQUufglpilwsfY

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Vancouver’s Sunday Morning have just released their latest single with an a-side cover of Art Bergmann’s Canadian punk classic Junky Don’t Care and a b-side original called Explain the World. Sunday Morning is the brainchild of Vancouver music scene stalwart, Bruce Wilson. Wilson’s prolific art and music career took shape in New York and Detroit after his drug and alcohol fueled grunge-punk band “Tankhog” imploded in the late 90’s. Junky Don’t Care is a tribute to Canadian punk legend Art Bergmann, and an exercise in self-reflection for Wilson, who himself survived the challenges of addiction. “Art’s music has been a soundtrack to my life and his poetic lyrics and brilliant vocal delivery are qualities I’ve always aspired to,” says Wilson. "More than anything this song is a loving tribute to a man who has never stopped being an artist and whose work has influenced me since I was the pink haired teenager writing bad high school poetry in spiral notebooks during math class.” When it came time to make the video they reunited with their frequent collaborator RD Cane; an obvious choice considering he had already directed two of Bergman’s best known videos: Bound For Vegas and My Empty House.

Born on the Florida panhandle, Bruce Wilson spent his formative years listening to his parents' Velvet Underground and Beatles albums on repeat. Following decades of innumerable moves and fronting many bands from Tallahassee to Vancouver, Bruce Wilson emerged from a heroin induced haze uncertain about his future. After a long period of recovery and spending time in western Massachusetts he returned to Vancouver to cloister himself away for a year in a small room in east Vancouver’s Waldorf Hotel. There he started writing what was initially a novel and would end up being Sunday Morning’s debut self-titled album released in 2016. A third draft of the novel still sits on his bedside table waiting patiently for another rewrite. The album garnered widespread critical acclaim including being named best Vancouver release by The  Georgia Straight. In 2020 on the cusp of a global pandemic Sunday Morning released their  Consequence Of Love EP described by Canadian Beats as, “Layered and complex, both musically  and lyrically. It is creative and unique, utilizing a wide range of abstract influences like Iggy Pop and David Bowie, but adapting and translating their sounds into something wholly new and  enthralling.” 

D I S C O V E R

Website: http://www.sundaymorning.band 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/comesundaymorn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sundaymorningcomes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sundaymorningcomes

Bandcamp: https://sundaymorning2.bandcamp.com/releases

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1X7vLeWpjBCVqIs03SWZGu?si=3muP61UTTiKamVnR9t8JlQ

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Toronto and Montreal based trio, American Lips, have just announced the release of their latest 3-song maxi-single Waste of Crime on Ancient Fashion Records. American Lips features Death From Above 1979 drummer Sebastien Grainger and prolific producer Adrian Popovich, also known for his time in legendary Canadian rock act Tricky Woo. In explaining their newest offering the bands’ latest one-sheet asks you to ponder, “Ever wondered what it would sound like if The Art Of Noise produced a Plastic Bertrand record?” To clear up that question Popovich explains, “I spent a good chunk of 1988 listening to the Colors OST and the“Kiss”cassingle by The Art Of Noise and Tom Jones. This older kid Rob on my street who was into punk rock said “the Colors soundtrack is pretty cool but that Art Of Noise song is garbage!” As a nine-year-old, I’d yet to be called out on my questionable musical tastes. Rob made me a mixtape with songs by The Ramones, Misfits, Motorhead, The Buzzcocks and a bunch of other essentials. I’d never heard any punk music before and the impact it had on me was huge. Ffwd to 2022, when Sebastien unilaterally decided to add Fairlight sample horn arrangements to two new American Lips songs, the simultaneous feelings of glorious discovery and deep shame I felt in 1988 came flooding back”.

Inspired by Wax Trax! Records, Shep Pettibone, Art Of Noise, and a hot cut from The Ghostbusters OST, American Lips shed the punky garage-wave of their 2017 debut LP “KissThe Void,” and take a hard-drive dumpster-dive, emerging with a kind of “sample-bank pop” -at once danceable, but stylistically hard to pin down (don’t call it dance punk!). Double A-sides “Waste Of Crime” and “Labor Of Hate” are backed by extended dub remix“Labor Of Dub.” Fans of mid-80s Cabaret Voltaire, Ghostbusters OST, Decadent Dub Team, Rocket From The Crypt and Plastic Bertrand will rejoice in the exquisite peppering of influences in these new compositions. 

WebSite: https://ancientfashionrecords.com/

D I S C O V E R

Twitter: https://twitter.com/american_lips

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americanlipsss

Bandcamp: https://americanlips.bandcamp.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanlipsband

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5srNG8oK8FdG7qe9jiH7p7?si=mkAMZTuzQnO2CWxt4nrmpQ

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Spike Slawson along with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes have been putting out records since the late 90s. they take old songs and punk-y-fy them. They take, in my opinion, an ironic and satirical look at popular music and make it digestible to people who would never listen to them in the first place. the best part of a cover band!!

This is Spike's 3rd time on the show and it was one of the good ones! Spike is also one of the good ones!!

Go See MF&TGG by getting tickets HERE

YouTube of Spike in a car!

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The Sweet Kill have just announced the release of their debut LP Darkness with their newest video-single by the same name. The Sweet Kill is a one-man post-punk project which focuses on the more dark and gothic side of the genre. Perpetually recording and producing at his own The Audio Studio in Los Angeles, Pete Mills wrote The Sweet Kill’s sonic cinematic debut Darkness with the intent to inspire those lost in the shadows of life. Driven by cold synths, atmospheric guitar and melodic bass, multi-instrumentalist and velvety crooning baritone Mills conducts a darkwave masterpiece of romantic sorrow echoing the laments of The Cure and Joy Division.  

The video for the single Darkness was shot and produced in Los Angeles by director James Mitchell. The video features Mills in a straitjacket, tormented by an inescapable, faceless antagonist draped in S&M gear. While Mills is tortured and teased by his nemesis in erotic black vinyl, he comes face to face with a real-live panther which eventually becomes one with his inner being. Reflecting on the meaning of the single Darkness, Mills states, “The spark between dark and gothic attraction can lead to a charged demise. Perpetually intertwined with murky chemistry and twilight solemnity, Darkness polarizes this extravagance”. Starring Murphy The Panther, the video for Darkness also features actors/dancers Andrea Feyler, Paradise Brittain, Luliia Lozovaia, and of course Pete Mills as himself.

Socials:

Closer Video 

https://youtu.be/0lvUMJBhPKM

Satellite Video (unlisted)

https://youtu.be/eA9tLQ7-6bo

Darkness Video (unlisted)

https://youtu.be/iwDiMYhMcAQ

Website

http://www.thesweetkill.com

https://twitter.com/thesweetkill

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/artist/445d0aCtpY1jmpLO87SfNu?si=x7ivetUYQ_yXII25w5ydDg

Dark & Gothic Spotify Playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zbP9IG7sTjaeWUM4SZI9O?si=97abde55eea14de8

Apple Music

Pandora

Soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/thesweetkill

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UWUW came into being when Jay Anderson and Ian Blurton came together through a run of shows, backing mutual friend and singer/songwriter, Kate Boothman as her drummer, and guitarist, respectively. Anderson suggested bringing in Jason Haberman, a talented bassist, who Anderson had seen play with Toronto indie-folk band, The Wooden Sky. Realizing they didn’t want an instrumental record, they layered on bright horns and smooth vocals, lifting the songs from instrumental jams, to the undefinable yet distinctive sound that is, UWUW. Saxophonist, Jay Hey, was brought in to provide horn arrangements, along with Tom Richards on trombone and Patrick McGroarty on trumpet, all three contributing on every song. The result is a blissfully cool album with music that will appeal to all listeners, from record store snobs, garage rock slobs, and even psych-pop heartthrobs!

Photo Credit: Colin Medley

D I S C O V E R

Bandcamp: https://uwuw.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wearebusybodies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uwuw_abh

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Support my ride to conquer Cancer in June: HERE

Ray Carlisle is the founding member of teenage Bottlerocket. The band has been together since 2000.They've released over 11 albums since 2003 and are presently on tour in support of 2021s "Sick Sesh!"

Photo Credit- Jason Pendelton

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Bottlerocket#Studio_albumsWebsite: https://teenagebottlerocket.com/Tour dates: https://teenagebottlerocket.com/tour-dates/

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