Our weekly (or however often) roundup of the greatest music in the universe!! Usually it’s friends of mine or just music I like. I thought I’d start posting “liner notes” to help guide you through this journey and hopefully introduce you to some new, great music!
GOOD FORTUNE (Kelsey McNulty) - ON AND ON
This is the music of Kelsey McNulty. She’s from Toronto and we seem to have some common friends so I checked out this gorgeous and dreamy album. Some of the songs are in French and there is definitely a French pop vibe on some of the tracks.
THIS MAD DESIRE – ANTIFA AND THE SUPREMACISTS
This track is from our AMERICAN DREAM release and was a real hit with my drummer at the last show. (Dan Konopka from OK Go drums on the recording.) The lyrics are very political and it was so crazy because maybe a day or two after Dan cut his parts in California, I was assaulted here in Ontario. There was a good half a second after Dan saw the pictures of me all beat up and everything when he thought, “Was this the government coming after Mac somehow?” I actually sing about having a “smashed-in face” in the song. Life imitates art in our case!
SOFTCULT – SPIT IT OUT
Last fall, I met their manager at a conference and have been following them ever since. Actually a couple weeks ago, I attended a webinar where they were the main guest. Now I’m on their Discord etc. etc. They remind me a bit of 90s alt-rock like Veruca Salt.
MICHAEL STIPE – YOUR CAPRICIOUS SOUL
I love that Michael Stipe is still catching us off guard with the occasional great pop song. You could imagine this being done by R.E.M.
GLASSER – MIRRORAGE
I have no connection to Glasser other than I love this record. It came out a few years ago and I read they recorded everything in GarageBand – like me!
CHRIS BIRKETT – EVERYONE DESERVES A HOME
Chris is a world-class record producer and I’ve gotten to know him a bit over the past year as he produced This Christmas by Kim Thompson, which I co-wrote. He’s also a great songwriter. This tune makes me think of Paul Simon. Great message and great song!
FRUIT BATS - SWEET SWEET
I don’t know much about this band but they recorded an entire song-for-song cover album of Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. That alone is very interesting!
WET LEG – BEING IN LOVE
Wet Leg seem to be getting quite a bit of attention lately. They’re British, I think? This song is a bit 90s alt-rock-sounding as well, which I find refreshing after years of Kpop etc.
TIANDA – NOTHING BUT LOVE
Tianda is a singer-songwriter from Edmonton. I’m on her Discord and I’ve actually met quite a few interesting people there. She had been on a Canadian version of American Idol or something as a teenager and then kind of became disillusioned with the music industry but honestly, none of us who work in this industry can truly walk away. I met her on TikTok and she writes very catchy melodies.
SPOON – ON THE RADIO
Spoon are one of my fave bands. I saw them live headlining Supercrawl (free outdoor street festival) in Hamilton one time and I was blown away. I liked them before but honestly, I think they are one of the coolest rock bands of the past 20 years.
THE SMILE – YOU WILL NEVER WORK IN TELEVISION AGAIN
Spotify suggested this track. I love it! It’s got a bit of that noisy rock that I like that sounds like maybe they listened to the Velvet Underground before.
HORSEGIRL – BILLY
Another Spotify suggestion. The recording reminds me of lo-fi Sebadoh recordings and shoegazer music from the 90s.
TITANOSAUR – CONSPIRACY
I met Geoff through Tianda’s Discord (see above). He’s in the New York/New Jersey area and his deal is he plays metal and always wears this crazy dinosaur mask everywhere! AND he’s working on a remix of a tune from our upcoming album OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS (title track already out!).
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – UNNECESSARY DRAMA
My old bass player Gerry used to be really into them and we had many nights of my driving him back to Toronto from our practices in Guelph where we’d be listening to B & S. Glad to see they’re still around!
PARQUET COURTS – WATCHING STRANGERS SMILE
Another 90s alt-rock influenced song. Every time I check out this band, I tend to like them so I put this on here to see if I would like it even more after a while. Sometimes things take a few listens for me to really decide what I think. Take the Cult, for example. Forever, I was like, “I just don’t get it.” And then, suddenly, I got it!
WARPAINT –INTRO
Warpaint is up there with Spoon for one of my fave acts of the past 20 years. They became known partly because of their involvement with Josh Klinghoffer and John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers but really, their music is so dreamy and cool. They have a new album out now too.
MARY CLEMENTS –MEMORIES
Before Mary was releasing songs, I actually met her at a performance of Debussy’s Le Mer by the Hamilton Philharmonic. We were seated next to each other and stayed in touch. I actually remember jamming with her on piano at her house one time.
LTtheMONK -THE LO
LTtheMonk is Hamilton’s best hip hop/R&B artist and one of Canada’s leading artists in that world as well. We met over social media and occasionally crack jokes on Twitter. Even funnier is that we share a birthday so one year, I’m sure there will be a Birthday Bash for the ages!
MISE EN SCENE –NICER
Mise En Scene is a hip rock act out of Winnipeg. I don’t know them personally even though my roots are in Winnipeg. However, we are both due to be included on a vinyl compilation of Interlake-related artists at some point this year. I think the production might have been delayed due to worldwide vinyl shortages but I don’t know for sure. Mise En Scene put out a really great record called Winnipeg, California, which had some funny videos. I think they were on Garbage Hill for one of them, which for those not from Winnipeg, is this hill where people toboggan. Winnipeg’s so flat that the only way they could have a hill was to make a hill out of garbage and then landscape over it!
SMASHING PUMPKINS –TRANSMISSION
This is from the era around Adore when Mike Garson started playing with them. I have this on a bootleg somewhere so it was fun to come across an “official” release of this psychedelic, out there Joy Division cover.
If you like this playlist, please share it and follow these artists. Music is the fuel that fills our soul.
If you are an artist that would like to be included in the future, reach out anywhere and I’d love to check out your tunes!
Yours in music,
Mac