The Sophomore Slump is a very real and measureable thing that looms before every new band: the almost certainly doomed second album. There’s never any guarantee of safety for anyone – not The Doors, not The Who, not Arcade Fire, and most certainly not MGMT. For some, it’s a slight downward dip from the genius of their opening act to the level of ‘still pretty fantastic’. But for more, it’s their seemingly Deus Ex Machina powered debut sputtering out under the pressures of touring, of turning out a face melting follow-up, or simply admitting their drug-addled fledgling effort was a one-off. So if Reversing Falls needed a gap year or three to get their heads screwed on, who can blame them? Their second album has been worth the wait, and instead of a slump, it makes their debut look more like a warm-up. Continue reading New Music: Reversing Falls’ ‘Reversing Falls 2’
Tag Archives: Music
Everything You’re In For At Shivering Songs
Fredericton, New Brunswick will once again be playing host to the Shivering Songs music festival, taking place between January 21st and 24th. The festival has recently announced the full extent of their 2016 line-up, with the notable additions of Mo Kenny, Marine Dreams, and Les Hay babies. Continue reading Everything You’re In For At Shivering Songs
New Music: Courtney Smith’s ‘Turn Left Fifteen Years Ago’
Courtney Smith’s new release, ‘Turn Left Fifteen Years Ago’, marks itself as a solid debut album, providing an experience as full of wistful melancholy as the title implies. Featuring a heavily acoustic-driven folk basis throughout, Smith is able to capture a consistent sound while still toying with it enough to keep each track unique and the album free of repetition. From the slow-paced depression of ‘A Folk Song’ to the upbeat, rolling tempo and panoramic poetry of ‘Senses’, Smith’s melodies are pleasant to the ear yet evocative in both content and sound of a life spent drifting and doubting. Continue reading New Music: Courtney Smith’s ‘Turn Left Fifteen Years Ago’
Peer Review: The Best Music of 2015
2015 has always been premembered as the year we all get hoverboards and self-lacing shoes. Instead we got Islamophobia, Star Wars, and more of Miley Cyrus expressing her orifices. A mixed bag in general, but inarguably not our most brilliant moment this decade; a harbinger of our downward spiral, and the seemingly inevitable rise of President Trump in 2016. So what has brought us to this? If music is the articulation of our cultural zeitgeist, then what does the soundtrack to 2015 sound like? Rather than impose on you our tastes in music, we asked some of our favourite East Coast musicians about their favourite songs to come out this year by other East Coast musicians and this is what we got. Continue reading Peer Review: The Best Music of 2015
Retrospective: Wooden Wives (2005-2015)
“Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.”
— “Crossing the Bar” Alfred Lord Tennyson
For a lot of us, Wooden Wives has been a fixture in the Saint John landscape, a benchmark for experimentation, collaboration, and what the local music scene can achieve by rolling up its sleeves. If you’ve gone to nearly any two shows in the Port City, chances are you’ve seen somebody play three sets by now. Hyperbole aside, this is the collaborative nature of the arts in Saint John, and for my five cents Wooden Wives embodies this ethic of building together and facilitating a thriving arts community. Continue reading Retrospective: Wooden Wives (2005-2015)