Ten Kills the Pack – Girl of My Dreams

Dan Mangan – Diminishing Returns

Clairo – Sexy to Someone

Maggie Rogers, Sylvan Esso – Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old

Car Seat Headrest – True/ False Lover

Nia Nadurata – Souvenirs

The Beths – Metal

Charlie Houston – Slut for Excel

Neil Young – Let’s Roll Again

and here is a collection of our episode artwork made by Heather Swail!!

and the notes

Dan Mangan – Diminishing Returns

This week, I chose all my songs from recent Arts & Crafts releases. So this is a bit of a homage to a great Canadian company that supports wonderful Canadian artists. My four selections all come from this playlist

Dan Mangan has his own Substack, so I am going to share what he has written about his newest release.

Hello love,

This is the last single drop before the full album in just a few weeks!

I don’t presume to know what is in store
Or just how many wolves are at the door
But I have seen your body bending
With the morning light ascending
And I will die defending our diminishing returns

I popped a GoPro on the end of my guitar and wandered down Commercial Drive just a few blocks from my home in Vancouver. Here’s the “visualizer” vid with lyrics:

He also adds something about the current political climate in Canada. I agree with him. Truly, I feel like the Canadian Darth Vader has been vanquished!!

With the result of the recent Canadian election, there’s a sense of relief in the great white north. We’re not out of the woods. The world is still a mess, but I’ll take the victories when they come. There’s a toxic divide in Canada, just like there is in the US and elsewhere. I hope Mr Carney can unite the country and help us remember what Canada can stand for when we are at our best. I have hope for the future.

Amidst the chaos, bringing Natural Light to fruition this past fall was a life raft for me. I wish I could just send it to you all right now. It’s the culmination of my life’s work. Probably all down hill from here! hah.

Thank you for your eyes and your ears. Big love,

x
Dan

Maggie Rogers, Sylvan Esso – Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old

I knew I had heard this before!

Ian Sweet Releases New Cover of Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems for a Seventeen Year‐Old Girl”: Listen

That’s about yet another cover

apparently, there is an entire cover version of Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot it in People

Look at this!!

Full tracklist:

1. Capture The Flag (Ouri)
2. KC Accidental (Hovvdy)
3. Stars And Sons (Toro y Moi)
4. Almost Crimes (Miya Folick & Hand Habits)
5. Looks Just Like The Sun (The Weather Station)
6. Pacific Theme (Mdou Moctar)
7. Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl (Maggie Rogers & Sylvan Esso)
8. Cause = Time (Middle Kids)
9. Late Nineties Bedroom Rock For The Missionaries (Benny Sings)
10. Shampoo Suicide (SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE)
11. Lover’s Spit (serpentwithfeet)
12. Ainda Sou Seu Moleque (Sessa)
13. Pitter Patter Goes My Heart (Babygirl)

you can pre-order the album here (June 6)

A little bit more from KillBeat Music

“Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” is available now. The song takes on a newfangled pop energy with Sylvan Esso’s exultant production laying the groundwork for Maggie’s soaring “Dream about me” chorus. 

“‘Anthems’ is one of those songs that fundamentally changed my life,” Rogers reflected on the Broken Social Scene song’s impact. “There’s something about the lyrical repetition that functions as a sort of mantra within the song and it made me understand at a very early point in my creative life that music could be a form of meditation. Broken Social Scene has long been one of my all-time favorite bands and covering it with my dear friends Nick and Amelia from Sylvan Esso was an absolute joy beam dream.” 

Sylvan Esso added, “It was a joy to cover this beautiful song with Maggie- we all grew up loving this record- to be asked to cover ’Anthems…’ together was an honor and led to a truly lovely time.”

So I had to look up Maggie Rogers, and again – big surprise, she is amazing with a storied musical career already

From Wikipedia – there is a lot more there!!

Margaret Debay Rogers (born April 25, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Easton, Maryland.^[1] After her song “Alaska” was played to artist-in-residence Pharrell Williams during a master class at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, she gained widespread recognition.^[2] She has released two independent albums, The Echo (2012) and Blood Ballet (2014), and three studio albums, Heard It in a Past Life (2019), Surrender (2022) and Don’t Forget Me (2024). She was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2020.

Nia Nadurata – Souvenirs

she is just starting out and has been on CBC Q already

from CBC

Nia Nadurata is an up-and-coming indie pop singer from Toronto who just released her first EP, Still Living With My Parents. It captures the thoughts and emotions of a young artist who’s at an important intersection in her life as she starts on a new path as an adult. Nadurata made her solo debut in 2023 and has collaborated with artists such as Russ, Preston Pablo and Nonso Amadi. She joins Tom Power in our studio to talk about her music and to set up a song called Souvenirs

Charlie Houston – Slut for Excel

who is Charlie Houston? Her name is coming up all over the place.

This is what Arts&Crafts writes

Today, Charlie Houston releases “Slut For Excel”, the second single from her forthcoming debut album. Houston will be performing the song on the road this fall supporting global rock sensations The Beaches on tour in the United States.

Evoking the playful pop-funk production of the Talking Heads classic “Once In A Lifetime”, Houston analyzes her life to date against the achievements of her family in this groovy indie pop single. “I have three older siblings. Two are lawyers and one is a consultant. And I am a struggling musician. I always catch myself comparing my life and choices to that of my brother and sisters. I think comparison is a universal struggle. Maybe life would be easier if I was just a slut for excel,” reflects Houston.

a bit more on Charlie Houston – I like how she thinks!!

Toronto’s Charlie Houston has announced plans for her debut album Big After I Die, which will arrive through Arts & Crafts on January 31.

Today, she shares lead single “Lewps,” which finds the artist ruminating on the human tendency to “overthink embarrassing moments to a point of insanity,” according to a press release.

“I often find myself reliving my most embarrassing moments months or years later for absolutely no reason,” said Houston. “I think this is a very relatable problem. I find it hard to be present, I’m always thinking about the past and things I wish I could have done differently. Such as one time while playing baseball with my ex-girlfriend and her friends I tried to run to first base and ate it before I even got there.”

Hear that below, where you’ll also find the album’s tracklist.

Charlie Houston – Lewps (Live at House of Hearts)

This is from Exclaim!

Bob’s Notes

Ten Kills the Pack – “Girl of My Dreams”- single

Ten Kills The Pack is Canadian folk singer-songwriter Sean Sroka based in Toronto.  This is his latest single after leaving the Nettwerk Records.

“girl of my dreams” by Ten Kills the Pack

Clairo – “Sexy to Someone” – Charm

Clairo is  28 year old Claire  Cottrill. Like many of her generation, she  began posting music on the internet at age 13. Clairo rose to prominence following the viral success of the music video for her  single “Pretty Girl” in 2017. Charm is her third studio album  Clairo, released last  July.

I chose ”Sexy to Someone” as I love the neo soul feel to the number plus the video is wonderfully silly.  One viewer states, “ I love how this video has the vibe of two friends recording shit because they can.”  A warning though – the following video includes smoking , an axe and a cheap Yeti costume…

Car Seat Headrest – “True/ False Lover” – The Scholars

Car Seat Headrest is a band from  Virginia.  Beginning as a solo recording project by main man Will Toledo in 2010, Car Seat Headrest self-released 12 projects on the music platform Bandcamp between 2010 and 2014 before signing to Matador Records in 2015. I started to listen to the band after hearing  2016’s Teens of Denial album.

Their new album is a full blown “rock opera” set at a fictional college campus called Parnassus University. The Scholars follows multiple students at this imagined school, some of whom possess supernatural powers.

True/False Lover is one of the shorter songs on the album. 

The Beths – “Metal”

The Beths are a New Zealand band, formed in Auckland in 2014. I have loved this band the moment I heard them.   All three of  their albums are well worth hearing and owning.  Metal is a new track and the first new music they’ve released since 20222. They are embarking on a North American tour later this year.  See them if you can. 

Neil Young – “Let’s Roll Again” – Talking to the Trees

Like last week’s Willie Nelson selection, what more can one say about Neil Young ?  The man is about to release his 48th! studio album! Talking to the Trees will be released later in June.  The advance track is Young’s scolding of the Big Three automakers and their reluctance to convert quicker to electric vehicles.  

And in a first for The Old Fellas blog, I am including an article from MotorTrend magazine.