Tag: Sudbury ON

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Will Powers · RIVERS

 

Will Powers is an emerging Sudbury, Ontario-based folk singer/songwriter and musician. Powers’ latest single, “RIVERS” is heavily influenced by the cottage his family owns on the French River. “. . . in rent years, I’ve become more aware of its history as an important trading route in early colonial times,” Powers explains in an email to me. “I’ve often thought about the significance of us occupying that land, which is now a pristine provincial park.

“Living in the twenty-first century amidst a pervasive ignorance of colonial history has pushed me to learn about the general circumstances that enabled us to be there today, and obliges me to convey a message of respect to that place.” “RIVERS,” he adds is a personal acknowledgement of the complex realties behind my presence on that river.

Centered around shimmering and reverb-drenched acoustic guitar, some pedal effected electric guitar, a propulsive backbeat, Powers sonorous baritone, the lushly arranged yet kind of dusty “Rivers” brings to mind — to my ears, least — Nick Drake and Loving. It’s a gently buzzing yet half-remembered dream of a song. “My voice shouldn’t necessarily be the one being heard in this arena, but rather be the one relaying towards Indigenous voices, attempting to draw attention to them and their needs,” Powers adds. “I hope that ‘RIVERS’ can serve as a conduit as I come to terms with my position within reconciliation.”

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about the Sudbury, Ontario, Canada-based punk act Tommy and the Commies, and as you may recall, the band, which is comprised of  Jeff Houle, best known as the creative master mind of Strange Attractor; Jeff’s brother Mitch, with whom he’s played in power pop act STATUES; and frontman Tommy Commy can trace their origins to when Commy dragged Jeff Houle into a punk rock venue bathroom stall to play an inaudible demo on his phone. And as the story goes. the Houles decided to collaborate with Commy, after being impressed by his vocals.

The trio’s full-length debut, Here Come .  .  . is slated for release later this month through Slovenly Records, and “Devices,” the album’s first single revealed a band that specializes in a furious and blistering mod punk that recalls power pop and  The Ramones on speed,  while centered by an incisive criticism of our addictive obsessions with our electronic devices. “Suckin’ In Your 20s” the Canadian trio’s latest single off their full-length debut continues in a similar vein as its predecessor as its an angular bit of breakneck power pop-influenced punk with enormous, rousing hooks that manages to be reminiscent of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO-era DEVO; in fact, the song seems underpinned by an anxious nihilism that evokes our socioeconomic moment.