Five Star Songs; The Primitives- Thru The Flowers

Beautiful, sunny and warm, holiday Monday here in Toronto, and what better way to cap off this day than to play some 80's indie pop from The Primitives. The Coventry band were best known for their hit song "Crash" here in North America, but they had a string of really great singles throughout the 80's in the UK. "Thru the Flowers" was the first single they ever released in 1986 on Lazy Records, however just before they signed with RCA records, they re-released a more polished single of the song, which also appeared on their 1988 LP Lovely. Check it out below, especially if you are into bands like Veronica Falls, Fear of Men or The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

The Primitives are still together and touring. Let's hope they come back to North America in the near future.

New Music: Sharon Van Etten: Every Time The Sun Comes Up + Your Love Is Killing Me

Is there a better female indie singer-songwriter hailing from North America right now than Sharon Van Etten? Other than Feist or Angel Olsen, I cannot think of any. And Feist is between albums right now, so that means Miss Van Etten is deservedly receiving a lot of attention. Just listen to "Every Time The Sun Comes Up" and "Your Love Is Killing Me", two truly majestic songs that are probably going to be on a lot of top 10 lists at the end of the year.

Both tracks are taken from her new album Are We There, out May 27th via Jagjaguwar.

New Music: School- Easier

School are back, and there here to "school" you on making really good music. If you may recall we posted a couple of the Swedish band's songs, "SoLong" and "Clouds Aside" back in January and now they have provided us with their newest track "Easier". The new song keeps the same sound of those earlier tracks, in other words, extraordinary indie pop for people who like their music with a side of jangle guitar. Check it below:

New Music: Christopher Owens- It Comes Back To You + Stephen

Early last year former Girls front man Christopher Owens released his solo debut album, Lysandre, an inconsistent effort, but the album did contain a couple of treasures- most notably the lead single "Here We Go".  No word on a new album from Mr. Owens, but there are rumours that an announcement on the new LP could be forthcoming in the very near future. To tease us the singer-songwriter has dropped a couple of new songs over the past few weeks. First, is the beautiful " It Comes Back To You", a heartbreaking song reminiscent of the music from his old band. And even more heartbreaking is the soulful "Stephen", which according to Stereogum, is an ode to Owen's late brother, who passed away at the age of two, when their family was living in a cult. Check both tracks out below:

New Music: The Luxembourg Signal- Distant Drive

Okay...the warm weather has been holding off for way too long. It is time for some summer music and The Luxembourg Signal are here to fulfill that need. The Luxembourg Signal are an indie pop group made up of former members of seminal UK twee bands Aberdeen and Trembling Blue Stars. By the sound of their latest single "Distant Drive", that twee-ness has stuck around from their former musical incarnations. Perfect jangle indie pop for warm summer days, if they ever come. Check it out below:

New Music: Lykke Li- No Rest For The Wicked + Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone

When I was offline with computer issues for a couple of weeks in March the wonderful Swedish songstress Lykke Li released a couple of new songs from her upcoming new album I Never Learn. The tracks "No Rest For The Wicked" and "Love Me Like I'm Not Made of Stone" find Li at her hauntingly beautiful best. Looking forward to the new LP.

I Never Learn is out May 6th via Atlantic.

Five Star Songs: Shout Out Louds- Hard Rain

Another iPod discovery, "Hard Rain" came on my shuffle last week and totally surprised me. The song is the last track from the 2007 Shout Out Louds' Our Ill Wills LP, and features singer Adam Olenius' whisper voice, punctuated with the heart breaking sweetness of Bebban Stenborg's singing that all melds into a raucous guitar smeared ending. One of those songs from an unappreciated album that I totally rediscovered this weekend. Check it out below:




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New Music: When Nalda Became Punk- Song For Carrie Mathison

What a great name, I think When Nalda Became Punk should get the award for best band name of 2014.

I figure these Spanish twee-gazers are heavily influenced by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart because they sound an awful lot like TPOBPH, and they have a passing reference to TPOBPH (blink and you miss it) in their video for "Song For Carrie Mathison" Not sure who Carrie Mathison is (Homeland girl?? I've never watched the show), but she should be honoured to have such a superb song dedicated to her. Check out the South Park-like video for the track below.

The track is on the band's EP Indie Pop or Whatever? which you can pick up here.

New Music: Sales- Chinese New Year

I wish I heard this song earlier last week because it would have been perfect timing to feature it on Friday, the actual Chinese new year- although, I do believe they are still celebrating because today is an official holiday in Hong Kong. Sales are from sunny Orlando Florida and you can here the tropical influence on their single "Chinese New Year", a song that is both twee and sunshine pop all rolled up into one. Check it below:

New Music: Simian Ghost- Echoes of Songs (Tribute to Trish Keenan)

It was three years ago this month that we lost the wonderful Trish Keenan, singer for experimental dream pop band Broadcast. Every time I here the music of Broadcast now it brings a tear to my eye, knowing that Keenan's beautiful voice has been silenced by an ugly disease.

Swedish indie pop band Simian Ghost are similarly fond of Keenan's work and have recorded a new song in tribute to the singer. And the band nails it with the beautiful "Echoes of Songs", a song that is not too far away from their own sound but also has an underlying echo of Broadcast's music. Listening to the first few notes, you'd swear it was Broadcast's "Before We Begin." Check it below:

New Music: School- SoLong +Clouds Aside

School is a brand new four piece indie band who hail from Gothenburg Sweden, and like so many of their Swedish contemporaries, they make almost flawless pop music. The band have just released their first two singles, "SoLong" plus "Clouds Aside", two songs that make you wish that summer would hurry up and get here. "SoLong" is a short, but sweet straight forward indie pop song, while "Clouds Aside" has a towering chorus and leans toward anthemic dream pop. Both are really good!!!! Listen to both tracks below:

New Music: Elephant- Elusive Youth

One of our favourite bands on the blog, Elephant, keep churning out great new music on their way releasing their debut LP.  No details of a release date for their new record yet, but we are crossing our fingers for the spring. Their newest song "Elusive Youth" is more twee than the swooning dream pop of their previous singles and reminds of great bands like Camera Obscura or the Concretes. Listen below:

New Music: Francis Lung- A Selfish Man

You may remember last year a quirky new band from England called Los Porcos that was formed from the ashes of WU LYF.  The bassist for both of those bands, Tom McClung, has decided to go out on his own and has started a new project called Francis Lung. "A Selfish Man: is the project's debut single, a happy bit of sunshine guitar pop with lyrics that speak to the break up of WU LYF. Listen below:

New Music: Alvvays- Adult Diversion

Alvvays is a new Toronto indie band that features some Canadian East Coast heavyweight musical pedigree. Among its members are Alec O'Hanley, the former bassist of P.E.I. indie rock band Two Hours Traffic and singer Molly Rankin from Cape Breton's The Rankin Family, one of Canada'a most famous Celtic musical families.

You can hear a hint of that Celtic influence on the band's new single "Adult Diversion", although it is more akin to modern day Scottish indie pop than the folk music of Rankin's family. But the song is definitely not gloomy and it almost sounds like something Best Coast might put out. Check out the video for the song below:

Alvvays self-titled debut LP will be coming out in the very near future.

Five Star Songs: Aztec Camera- Walk Out To Winter

It's only the second day of winter, and in Toronto, the weather has been absolutely abysmal. Last weekend - a week before winter even started- the city had a huge snowstorm which left it blanketed in 20 centimetres of the white stuff. As soon as all of that snow melted another storm came barreling in from Texas and has left the city plastered in ice. The storm blew in last night and has left thousands of downed trees and multiple power outages in its wake. Not a good start to a season that is often unpredictable in this area of the world.

Canada is often stereotyped as a cold, snowy land where we only get warm weather four months of the year. In many parts of the country that is true, but in Southern Ontario there have been many winters where we have received little to no snow. I remember a couple of years ago laughing at our friends in the Northeast United States who were hit with several Nor'easter storms. This left cities like New York and Boston snow bound while just a few hundred kilometres away in Toronto we were enjoying unseasonably warm weather, and what precipitation did fall was mostly rain.

Now it looks like it is our turn to suffer. December has been extremely cold and stormy and it looks like we may be in for the winter long haul. Might as well embrace it, after all, winter can also be very beautiful.

Scottish indie pop band Aztec Camera knew this and wrote one of the best winter love songs ever. "Walk Out to Winter" was written by the genius Aztec Camera singer Roddy Frame, and was featured on the band's 1983 LP High Land Hard Rain. How could you not like lyrics that are as genius as this:

"Met in the summer and walked 'til the fall
And breathless we talked, it was tongues
Despite what they'll say, wasn't youth, we hit the truth

Faces of Strummer that fell from the wall
But nothing is left where they hung
Sweet and bitter, they're what we found
So drink them down"

Listen below:

New Music: Hibou- Hide Away

It's a cold, snowy night outside and along comes indie pop artist Peter Michel, aka Hibou, to warmly brighten all of our days up with his latest single "Hide Away." This is the first song he has released since the excellent Dunes EP earlier this year. This track is slightly different than those songs, as the jangle rock has been replaced by tropical sounding guitar, and the sound has more of an electro pop feel, however Hibou's magnificent washed out, dream like melodies are still in place. Listen below:

Hibou is working on his debut album which should be out early in 2014.

New Music: Snowbird- Porcelain

Here, in this part of the world it is cold, dark and this weekend we are expecting a large snow storm to make things even more wintry. It may not show it on the calendar, but winter is definitely here. It is a good time to stay indoors and chill to some great music.

Snowbird are a new duo who make music that is perfect for listening to at this time of the year. The project consists of Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde and singer Stephanie Dosen, who you may know from her collaborations with José González, Massive Attack and The Chemical Brothers. The couple will release their debut album next month and they enlisted some musical heavyweights to guest on the record including Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead, and Ed Pullido of Midlake. "Porcelain" is the first single from the LP and it is a stunningly, beautiful piece of music. Watch the wintry video for the song below:

Moon will be out in January via Bella Union.

New Music: Elephant- Snowday

The title of this song takes me back to my childhood where I had fond memories of waking up on some winter mornings, looking out the window, and finding a fresh blanket of whiteness on the ground. There would be a bit of anticipation before you turned on the radio, but then the DJ would make the announcement; school was closed and it was officially a snow day.

Elephant transform the happy feeling of that moment into their songs and maybe that is why they named their latest "Snowday". The track is the B- side to "Shapeshifter",  an another excellent song that was featured a couple of weeks ago on the blog.

Really hoping a new album is in the works for 2014 from these guys.

New Music: Los Campesinos!- Avocado Baby

Welsh indie rockers Los Campesinos! are all set to drop their fifth studio album No Blues next week. "Avocado Baby" is the second single to be featured from the LP. Listen to the morbid, but fun, indie pop track below:

No Blues is out October 29th via Wichita but if you want to hear it early you can stream the new album over at Pitchfork.

Five Star Songs: Frightened Rabbit- Swim Until You Can't See Land

Finally caught Scottish indie pop band Frightened Rabbit in concert the other night even though this is the third time the group has played Toronto in the last couple of years. Both of their earlier shows at The Mod Club and The Phoenix sold out quite quickly and it was tough to get tickets. This time the show did not sell out and the vacuous venue The Kool Haus looked only half full. The band played a lengthy 1 hour 45 minute set made up of songs form all of their albums and EPs, not just songs from their recent LP Pedestrian Verse.  They even reluctantly played their biggest hit, the celibacy celebrating song "Keep Yourself Warm" even though singer Scott Hutchinson stated that at the beginning of the tour that they were not going to play it.

One song I was disappointed they didn't sing was "Swim Until You Can't See Land", my favourite track off of The Winter Of Mixed Drinks LP. The track can be interpreted as a redemption song for someone who is trying to forget the past. It's a song that anyone who has ever ended a relationship or hit hard times can appreciate, especially if they are trying to overcome that adversity. Listen to the track below: