ARTS & CRAFTS CELEBRATES FIVE JUNO NOMINATIONS

ARTS & CRAFTS CELEBRATES FIVE JUNO NOMINATIONS

                                                                                                      

TOBIAS JESSO JR, MAJICAL CLOUDZ, DAN MANGAN + BLACKSMITH, AND BADBADNOTGOOD ALL NOMINATED FOR 2016 JUNO AWARDS

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 The votes are in for the 2016 JUNO Award nominations, with Arts & Crafts artists being selected six times in six different categories. Tobias Jesso Jr. leads the way with nominations in three different categories, Adult Alternative Album Of The Year, Songwriter Of The Year, and Breakthrough Artist Of The Year. Majical Cloudz’ latest record Are You Alone? received a nod for Alternative Album Of The Year, Dan Mangan + Blacksmith’s Club Meds is up for Recording Package Of The Year, while congratulations are in order for Arts & Crafts artist BADBADNOTGOOD whose collaboration with Ghostface Killah, Sour Soul (released on eOne Music), is nominated for Rap Recording Of The Year. The winners of the 2016 JUNO Awards will be announced on April 2 and 3 in Calgary.

PRAISE FOR TOBIAS JESSO JR.’S GOON

“A spellbinding debut” The Vancouver Sun
“an indisputable triumph and a staggering opening statement” NOW Magazine

 PRAISE FOR MAJICAL CLOUDZ’ ARE YOU ALONE?

 "A haunting, ethereal and intense listening experience, at once raw and polished, intimate and yet somehow unknowable.” The Globe And Mail
“On Are You Alone?, Majical Cloudz are at the height of their powers, opening themselves up fully and inviting the listener in.” Exclaim!

PRAISE FOR DAN MANGAN + BLACKSMITH’S CLUB MEDS

“bold musical backdrops… a grand, emotional climax” The Guardian
"spectacularly well played, arranged and produced. ..the transfixing depth and detail of the mix tends to hook you even before these rather evasive songs get their hooks in you." The Toronto Star

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RAE SPOON SHARES "STOLEN SONG" FROM UPCOMING ALBUM 'ARMOUR'

RAE SPOON SHARES “STOLEN SONG” FROM UPCOMING ALBUM

ARMOUR OUT FEBRUARY 19 VIA COAX RECORDS

CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN FEBRUARY 16

LISTEN TO “STOLEN SONG” HERE VIA BEATROUTE

PRE-ORDER ARMOUR HERE VIA COAX RECORDS

PRE-ORDER ARMOUR HERE VIA BANDCAMP

  

PHOTO CREDIT : FOXX FOTO                   

Only a few short weeks remain before Rae Spoon takes to the road with a full string of Canadian tour dates to support their upcoming album, Armour. Today, thanks to the fine folks at BeatRoute, listeners are treated to another track from Spoon’s eighth LP. Featuring drum programming from Berlin artist Alexandre Decoupigny, “Stolen Song” remains optimistic and positive in light of a difficult situation.

“A couple of years ago, a band put out a music video with a gender variant protagonist,” says Spoon. “I felt like the portrayal only perpetuated stereotypes about trans/gender diverse people. It really upset me because no one in the band or the actor was gender variant/transgender. It felt like my identity was being treated like a costume to make the band appear more interesting. Then I realized that there are a lot of these examples in the music/arts industry. I have also mistakenly appropriated culture from other people. ‘Stolen Song’ is a call to folks, including myself, to stop using identities that don’t belong to us in our art.”


LISTEN TO “STOLEN SONG” HERE VIA BEATROUTE

Rae Spoon has been called one of Canada’s best songwriters and their new album Armour does not disappoint. Set for release on February 19 via Coax Records, the ten new songs hold all of the lyrical depth indicative of Rae Spoon’s compositions while showcasing their distinctive voice. "I wrote Armour in three different cities at my kitchen table over a couple of years,” says Spoon. “I had a couple of really hard years after My Prairie Home came out. It left me with a lot of questions about how I was going to live with trauma after I was so open about it on screen. At the same time I fell in love and got married. The experience of choosing hope over despair really plays itself out in the lyrics.”

Armour’s self-produced enigmatic soundscapes blur the lines between organic and electronic instruments. Recorded at Calgary’s Arch Audio Studio, Rae Spoon claims, “there was a lot of experimentation with analog synths and electronic music programming along with my usual guitar and vocals. I took my tracks to long-time collaborators Alexandre Decoupigny and Lorrie Matheson and it became an album. I think the production shows a level of sophistication I have been working towards for years."

Armour is the highly anticipated follow-up to the Polaris Music Prize nominated My Prairie Home, a musical about Spoon’s fraught childhood in Alberta. As much as My Prairie Home was about Spoon’s upbringing as a queer youth in a Pentecostal household, Armour is about their view of the future. Moments of reckoning with trauma and self-preservation mingle with messages of hope and survival. Armour explores the idea that there is no instruction manual for healthy adulthood, asserting that the attempt to construct meaning is itself the point of life. Armour is a tribute to the intimate space where both hope and despair have space to share the same voice.

Tour dates across Canada supporting Armour begin February 16 and all performance stops can be found below.

WATCH AND SHARE THE LYRIC VIDEO FOR “ARMOUR” HERE
PRE-ORDER ARMOUR HERE VIA COAX RECORDS
PRE-ORDER ARMOUR HERE VIA BANDCAMP

CANADIAN TOUR DATES

Feb 16 - Calgary @ The Ironwood w/ Ethan Cole
Feb 17- Edmonton @ the Mercury Room w/ Sherry-Lee Heschel
Feb 18 - Saskatoon @ La Relais w/ Ursa, respectfulchild and Homo Monstrous
Feb 19 Saskatoon @ Out Saskatoon (talk)
Feb 20 - Winnipeg @ The Good Will w/ LAL and Joanne Pollock
Feb 25 - Montreal @ Casa Del Popolo w/ Glenn Nuotio
Feb 26 - Ottawa @ Pressed Cafe w/ Glenn Nuotio
Feb 27 - Kingston @ the Artel w/ Kris and Dee
Feb 28 - Toronto @ Holy Oak w/ Party Time
Feb 29 - Toronto @ Holy Oak w/ Glenn Nuotio
Mar 3 - St John’s @ The Ship w/ Neil Conway
Mar 4 - Halifax @ The Company House w/ Lee-Ann Poole
Mar 5 - Sault Ste. Marie at Gore Street Cafe
Mar 11 - Galiano Island @ TBA
Mar 12 - Galiano Island @ Grand Central Emporium
Mar 13 - Vancouver @ Skinny Fat Jacks
Mar 17 - Victoria @ Victoria Event Center w/Corwin Fox


ARMOUR TRACKLIST    

01 Armour
02 I Hear Them Calling
03 Written Across The Sky
04 Can’t Go Right
05 Wrestles With Death
06 Stolen Song
07 The Beast Is Me
08 Flood
09 Go For The Kill
10 Try Again At Everything

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JASON COLLETT SHARES FULL ALBUM STREAM OF 'SONG AND DANCE MAN' AHEAD OF FEBRUARY 5 RELEASE

JASON COLLETT SHARES FULL ALBUM STREAM OF SONG AND DANCE MAN 

 BAHAMAS’ AFIE JURVANEN PRODUCES ICONIC SONGWRITER’S 6TH ALBUM

OUT FEBRUARY 5 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

AVAILABLE TODAY VIA ITUNES

LISTEN TO SONG AND DANCE MAN HERE 

 PRE-ORDER CD AND LIMITED EDITION VINYL WITH GOLD FOIL PACKAGING

 PHOTO CREDIT: ISIS ESSERY

The wait is almost over. Jason Collett will be releasing Song And Dance Man on February 5. To celebrate, the Toronto songwriter premiered album opener  Provincial Blues on George Stroumboulopoulos’ national weekly radio program, The Strombo Show, this week, and also treated listeners to a preview of the live show when he visited the CBC q studio with Zeus as his backing band. Now Jason Collett is offering up a full album stream of Song And Dance Man courtesy of CBC Music. Listen today and watch for Canadian tour dates to be announced soon. 

LISTEN TO SONG AND DANCE MAN VIA CBC MUSIC HERE
LISTEN TO JASON COLLETT AND ZEUS PERFORM ON CBC q HERE

 Produced by Bahamas’ Afie Jurvanen, Song And Dance Man’s thirteen songs bear the wit and melody of classic Jason Collett: contemplative reflections on getting older, backed with an affinity for freewheeling disco music. The album’s conspiring themes of love & loneliness, sun & shadows, are buoyed by its soaring sound. Each song rises into an easy, spacious groove, lead by Jason’s languid melodies and Afie’s sun-drunk bass.

The result is a dynamic addition to a strong body of work. Recorded in spring 2015 with long-time collaborators drummer/engineer Don Kerr (at his Rooster Studio), Christine Bougie on guitar & lap steel, Zeus’ Neil Quin on backing vocals, and Afie holding it down on the bass, Song And Dance Man may be Jason Collett’s finest effort yet. The storied songwriter is back in the spotlight, more comfortable than ever in the guise of entertainer.

SONG AND DANCE MAN TRACKLIST

1. Provincial Blues

2. Song And Dance Man

3. Forever Young Is Getting Old

4. Long Day's Shadow

5. Little Sparrow

6. If She Don't Love Me Now

7. Singing American

8. Love You Babe

9. Black Oak Savanna

10. Where Does Your Love Go?

11. Nobody's Fool

12. It Don't Matter Anymore

13. Staring At The Sun


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