Tag: Toronto ON

 

Initially starting her career as the frontwoman of Toronto, ON-based band The Wayo, Charlotte Day Wilson is a 23 year old classically trained singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, who has since emerged out of her hometown’s  jazz, soul, and R&B as a solo artist of note, adding herself to a list of growing artists including friends and collaborators BADBADNOTGOOD and River Tiber. Wilson’s debut single “After All” is reportedly about re-socializing after spending some time inside cocooning while also suggesting the freedom of embarking towards new endeavors, and sonically the song pairs Wilson’s husky and effortlessly soulful vocals with an ethereal production — which consists of staccato stabs of organ, warm blasts of horn, skittering drum programming, gently swirling electronics. Interestingly, Wilson’s vocals and the song reminds me quite a bit of The Brand New HeaviesNever Stop” but breezier and moodier.

 

 

 

 

Born in Reno, NV and currently based in Nashville, TN, alt rock/blues rock artist Jack Berry can trace the origins of his recording career to when he wrote and recorded his first album while studying in Los Angeles. Berry then worked and performed along the West Coast as one half a of a duo before before he decided that it was time to go solo. Relocating to Nashville, Berry spent several months couch-surfing and writing and recording material with the hopes that he could catch the attention of that city’s local press.

Eventually, Berry began receiving praise from outlets both locally and nationally from the likes of Nashville SceneThe Deli MagazineBlues Rock Review and others, which resulted in slots at Toronto‘s North by Northeast (NXNE), CMJ and SXSW‘s Red Gorilla Festival. Since then, Berry has played a number of venues between his home base and NYC; however, 2016 may be his breakthrough year with the Spring 2016 release of his latest album, Mean Machine. 

“The Bull,” Mean Machine‘s first single is a sultry and bluesy single that pairs arena rock friendly power chords, propulsive and carefully syncopated drumming, an anthemic hook and Berry’s seductive crooning and howling that sonically seems to draw from Soundgarden (think of “Mailman” “Spoonman,”and “Fell on Black Days” off Superunknown) as it does from old-school blues and contemporary rock.

Ursa Major is a 19 year-old Toronto, ON-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who describes his work and sound as Psychedelic R&B as he claims that his sound manages to fit in a comfortable middle ground between the sounds of the past and the contemporary electronic production — although to my ears, the Canadian producer’s debut single “Dusk” bears an uncanny resemblance to JOVM mainstay act, Gosh Pith as the song pairs rumbling and wobbling low end, skittering drum programming and soulful vocals in a song that focuses on lust, loneliness and desperate longing. That shouldn’t be surprising as the young and super talented Canadian artist has noted that his early work focuses on past loves, a fear and inability to move forward, and the complicated and heartbreaking process of falling in and out of love repeatedly. And if you remember anything about being 19 it seems that love was a fickle and ridiculous thing.

 

 

Comprised of Broken Social Scene‘s Lisa Lobsinger, The Beauties‘ Paul Pfisterer and Transistor Sound and Lighting Co.’s Martin Davis Kinack, the Toronto, ON-based self-described galactic dream pop trio Laser quickly won the attention of major media outlets such as Nylon, Spin and BUST Magazine with the release of “Leaving It Too Late” and “Do We All Feel It” the first two singles off the trio’s soon-to-be released debut full-length album Night Driver. Reportedly, the band’s sound — and in turn, the sound of their debut effort — takes cues from electronic and atmospheric albums and late night, country drives from Lobsinger and Pfisterer’s Toronto home to Kinack’s remote “studio in the forest.” And as a result the material on the album meshes electronic and analog elements and was written as though it were particularly designed to be the soundtrack for a introspective and meditative drive into the country.

Night Driver‘s third and latest single “Disconnect” pairs Lobsinger’s sultry yet ethereal vocals with twinkling synths, boom-bap drum programming, angular guitar played through gentle reverb, equally angular bass and a steady, motorik groove in a song that possesses brooding atmospherics while radiating both an effortless cool and a comforting warmth; after all, the song is about the disconnect (and resulting confusion) within an intimate relationship and puts in terms in a way that says “we’ve all been there at some point — and holy shit does it ever suck the life out of a relationship that may have been going well up to that point.”

 

 

 

 

New Video: More Face-Melting Power Chord Rock from Toronto’s METZ

With the release of their self-titled debut effort through Sub Pop Records, the Toronto, ON-based trio Metz received both national and international attention for a sludgy, face-melting power chord-based sound reminiscent of Bleach and In Utereo-era Nirvana, A […]


Classically trained, Toronto, ON-born, Los Angeles-based soul/pop singer/songwriter Crystyna Marie has had a lengthy music career, which can be traced to when she was teenager — she has been in and played with a number of Ontario-based acts and had been featured as a demo singer for a number of locally-based indie labels. After relocating to Los Angeles, the Canadian-born singer/songwriter had a stint in a pop act, Greencat; however, writing and releasing her own music with her own voice was where her real passion was.

As a result of her own experience as an artist, who has been with a number of labels, Marie decided that in order to shape her sound the way the she felt fit, that releasing music completely on her own was necessary. “Loaded Gun,” is the first single off the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s forthcoming EP, slated for a February 29, 2016 release pairs Chrystyna Marie’s sultry and soulful vocals with a classic bluesy and soulful sound — propulsive yet simple rhythms, soaring hooks and 12 bar blues-based guitar chords and bursts of keyboards in a song that has its narrator describes the heady first days of a new love to a loaded gun — something that could quickly be combustible and unpredictable.

Unlike many of her soul, pop and blues-inspired contemporaries,  Chrystyna Marie’s debut single possesses an underlying sense of danger along with the prerequisite sultry seductiveness.

New Video: Metz’s Furious Video for “Spit You Out”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past couple of years, you may be familiar with Toronto-based trio Metz. With the release of their 2012 self-titled debut through Sub Pop Records, the trio received both national […]

New Video: The Auras’ Brit Pop Channelling, New Single

Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past month, you may recall that I’ve written about the Toronto,ON-based psych rock sextet The Auras.  Comprised of long-time friends longtime friends, Aaron McCoy (drums), Hank Van Harten (bass, […]

New Video: The Psychedelic and Colorful, New Video for The Auras’ “Sure Shot”

Comprised of long-time friends longtime friends, Aaron McCoy (drums), Hank Van Harten (bass, vocals), David Zboch Alves (keyboards, vocals), Peter Dasilva (guitar, vocals), Robb Schaede (guitar and vocals) and Dallas Wheeler (guitar, vocals), the Toronto,ON-based sextet […]

Live Footage: METZ on Seattle’s KEXP

With the release of their self-titled debut effort in 2012, the Toronto-based trio Metz received both national and international attention for a sound that may remind listeners to Bleach and In Utereo-era Nirvana, A Place to Bury Strangers and Japandroids as their material is […]

New Video: The Hazy, Neon Colored, New Video for Dirty Ghosts’ “Cataract”

If you’ve been following JOVM over the last couple of years, you may be familiar with Dirty Ghosts, the solo recording project of its Toronto-born, San Francisco-based singer/songwriter/guitarist and creative mastermind, Allyson Baker. Baker has […]

New Audio: Introducing The Effortlessly, Soulful Sound of ZForbes

ZForbes is a Toronto-based producer/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist and beat maker, who has developed a reputation for effortlessly soulful productions and his latest single “Work That” will further cement that reputation as the single is comprised of chopped […]

New Audio: Dirty Ghosts’ Post-Punk Leaning, New Single “Quicksand Castle”

If you’ve been following JOVM over the last couple of years, you may be somewhat familiar with Dirty Ghosts, the solo recording project of its Toronto-born, San Francisco-based singer/songwriter/guitarist and creative mastermind, Allyson Baker. Baker has had […]