Music

Fans of Vancouver’s music scene may know Justice McLellan from his work spearheading the electro pop sounds of Mesa Luna, but McLellan has now branched out into something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from his other band with the beautifully plaintive Blue J. Whereas Mesa Luna would submerse you with their electronic collage, Blue J chooses to casually invite you into their all organic world. Their debut track, “Early Show”, kicks this off with an organ drone that gives way into a gently strummed melancholic guitar.

Alex Cameron has been called a lot of things. Art Sleaze. Smarmy. Or as one YouTube commenter pointed out, he is, “Disgusting, but I love it.” One descriptor that always should come up when the Australian entertainer’s name comes up is talented.

When Roger Hodgson left Supertramp in 1983 few people had any pretensions about him ever replicating the massive success of 1979’s Breakfast in America, the group’s multi-platinum album that practically redefined an entire generation’s attitude towards the quintessential morning meal (according to a 2011 interview with Time Out Beirut, Hodgson’s preferred breakfast of choice is eggs benedict).

If your Facebook friend’s skin-deep political screed blaring the most obvious clarion call of progressive politics were set to music, then it would probably sound something like Natasha Bedingfield’s “Hey Boy”, her hot take-laden jam culled from the soundtrack to Served Like a Girl, a new documentary profiling a series of American women returning to civilian life after tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s all well and good.

It’s refreshing to see a band come back after a twenty-year hiatus and jump back into the fray as if no time has passed at all. Oxford’s Ride is such a band. Joining the ranks of the recently reunited Slowdive, the band is currently in the middle of a never ending tour cycle as well as, yesterday, releasing a brand new single entitled “Pulsar”.

A couple weeks back, The Go! Team treated us to “Semicircle Song”, the first single off their upcoming album Semicircle.  Today the Brighton based collective have shared the video for this wonderfully infectious hit. Directed by bandleader Ian Parton and his neighbor Boise Vincent, the clip is a bold, bright and colourful piece of confectionary.

Toronto’s Pony is a heaven sent pop dream come true. Their new EP, Do You, is out today via Buzz Records, and to accompany it, the awesome video for the single “Small Things”. The clip features Pony singer and main songwriter, Sam Bielanski, and a group of friends spending some time messing around with a skateboard, hanging at the mall and just generally enjoying each other's company. There’s something about the way it all comes together that just oozes with happiness.

Stockport, England’s Findlay is on a roll. The talented musician released her debut album, Forgotten Pleasures, in March and has since spent her time playing Glastonbury, The Isle Of White Festival, and sharing stages with such luminaries as Iggy Pop and Brandon Flowers. Today Findlay drops the video for her latest single “Monomania”.