Month: March 2014

RHR ARTIST SONG OF THE WEEK – MARCH 27

Instead of posting a Thursday Track this week, I wanted to pay tribute to our friend Jay, who has been gone from us for exactly 1 year, now. The link to his album is still live, and I encourage all who knew him to take a listen to remember. I strongly encourage those who didn’t know him to take a listen to get to know him better.

Jay was a great songwriter. He wrote with the likes of Grammy Award winner Gordie Sampson (who wrote ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’), and found friends wherever he went. People liked Jay. His friends loved him. He made really awful puns and strange wordplay jokes that you could ONLY laugh at if they came from his mouth. He stayed too late at parties. He was a father of 2. He gave us great songs.

To Jay.

http://jaysmith.bandcamp.com 

RHR ARTIST SONG OF THE WEEK – March 20

As mentioned on the socials and the Exclaim! post below – The Olympic Symphonium has a new album out this week. The Thursday Track comes from that album, Chance To Fate. It is called “Home”. It’s an indie folk lullaby of sorts. Dreamy and contemplative. “I’m ready and I want to go home”. Listen below.

Also – if you’d like to see the guys pull off another pretty piece in the backseat of Jeff’s Musical Car, check out the video below. Three men, two guitars, one stand-up bass. Yep – a stand-up bass.

RHR ARTIST SONG OF THE WEEK – MARCH 13

The Thursday Track for March 13th is a really nice piece from Brooklyn-based, NS raised Producer / DJ / Remixer, Bit Funk. He’s toured the US, Europe and Canada and he’s mad awesome. Can I say that? Mad Awesome? EIther way, here is Bit Funk’s “The Long Road Ahead”.


 

From Indiecurrent – March 2013:

Bit Funk is a straight up craftsman; there’s no way around it. With every small intricacy and beautifully flowing beat that he puts together, you can see the time and effort that Bit Funk puts into each of his singles, and nothing is a greater example of this than his newest single, “The Long Road Ahead.”

In it’s fullest form, “The Long Road Ahead” is a mellowed out disco beat that is entrenched with vocal loops and repetitively punchy beats. Listening to it all the way through, you may find it hard to believe that this groovy beat, which is elongated over multiple loops, isn’t tiresome or drawn-out. Instead, the single begins to take on an enlivening aura of it’s own and soon enough you’ll have the enthralling beat playing it on repeat.

 

New Olympic Symphonium Streaming on Exclaim!

A Nice piece in Exclaim! on The Olympic Symphonium’s new album. Stream HERE.

 

The Olympic Symphonium

‘Chance to Fate’ (album stream)

By Matthew Ritchie

Since their formation back in 2005, laid-back New Brunswick roots rockers the Olympic Symphonium have gone for gold with three albums’ worth of contemplative indie folk. But, much like Patrick Chan and Elvis Stojko before them, the band aren’t content to simply rest on their laurels. Their fourth full-length effort, Chance to Fate, arrives March 18 through Forward Music Group. Until then, stream the album in full on Exclaim.ca.

Recorded over four days at the Salty Towers Inn and produced by Joshua Van Tassel (Great Lake Swimmers, David Myles), Chance to Fate finds the atmospheric quartet ruminating on such complex ideas as life, loss, love and spirituality. Starting out with the slow-burning “Seize the Day,” the band mine a treasure trove of mellow folk-rock gold over 11 tracks, providing lap steel-assisted slow jams (“Sacred Son”), sinewy country songs (“Jasper”) and muscular soft rock (“Stronger,” the album’s title-track).

Hear for yourself by listening to the Olympic Symphonium’s new LP in the player below, which you can find underneath the band’s upcoming tour schedule.

If you like what you hear, don’t forget to pre-order the album over on the group’s Bandcamp page, which includes an exclusive remix EP featuring Michael Feuerstack (Snailhouse), Tim Crabtree (Paper Beat Scissors) and Joshua Van Tassel.

Tour dates:

04/04-05 Charlottetown, PE – East Coast Music Week
04/11 Quebec City, QC – L’Agitee
04/12 Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
04/13 Toronto, ON – The Piston *
04/15 Boston, MA – Club Passim
04/16 Biddleford, ME – The Oak & The Ax
04/17 Montreal, QC – Casa Del Popolo
04/18 Ottawa, ON – Pressed
04/19 Burlington, VT – Nectar’s
05/01 Saint John, NB – Park Ave. United Church
05/02 Fredericton, NB – Wilmot United Church
05/03 Halifax, NS – Sonic Temple
05/16 St. Andrews, NB – Paddlefest

* with Michael Feuerstac