PONDERCAST EPISODE 50 : PLENITUDE

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Thanksgiving happened, but Laurie Brown’s fridge is still feeling it. On Pondercast Episode 50 : Plenitude, its that fridge that is the inspiration for this episode. You know that feeling when you open the door and see your fridge packed with good food? We start there. Let’s feel full together.

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Pondercast’s Moon Merge event in partnership with The Bentway was a major highlight for Joshua Van Tassel and Laurie Brown. Over 8000 people crowded under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto to see Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon and listen to a live Pondercast and ChoirChoirChoir!!!, Bernice and Rich Aucoin. Check out this one minute film Pondercast made of the night.

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Pondercast is powered by listeners. If you’d like to share the musical love, you can start by sharing this episode. If you feel like that’s just not enough, please consider becoming a patron of the show via the Pondercast Patreon here. Patrons receive a behind the scenes look at Pondercast, first notice of new episodes, and access to monthly Ponder Playlists. 

And if you’ve ever wondered how Laurie, Joshua, and Ty actually make a Pondercast episode, they’ve given a peak behind the curtain with a new video.

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Of course, the best way to learn about new episodes and stay in touch while you are up in the clouds is through the Pondercast Newsletter. Sign up here. 

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Recently, Killbeat Music partnered with the team at Pondercast to bring you Ponderbeat, a series of special episodes featuring selections curated by Brown from some of Killbeat’s latest releases. The fourth episode of Ponderbeat is live now, featuring music from Ada Lea, Begonia, Close Talker, FET.NAT, River Tiber, Tamino and more.

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WOOLWORM SHARE “LET ME WEAR THE MASK” FROM UPCOMING LP

WOOLWORM’S THIRD LP, AWE, DUE OUT NOV 8 VIA MINT RECORDS

LISTEN AND SHARE “LET ME WEAR THE MASK” HERE

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“...this killer tune will have you playing it over and over again.” - Indie88 (on “Hold The Bow”

Photo Credit : Lovisa Drever // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Next month, Woolworm will release their third LP, Awe, expanding the band’s already robust songbook even further by offering a new take on their heavy, hardcore-inflected indie pop sound. Today, the Vancouver act shares the second single from the album, “Let Me Wear The Mask”.

“This song felt like it was about so many different things during the writing process, and it ended up being sort of abstract as a result,” says frontman Giles Roy. “When we play it, I think of my own destructive tendencies, as well my attempts to curb them with what amounts to dishonesty. Sometimes I find genuine release in that escapism. That said, hopefully people will find their own meaning here. That's really what I want for all of our music.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “LET ME WEAR THE MASK” HERE

With their massive sonics and anthemic pop songwriting, Woolworm is an arena rock band that just so happens to perform in DIY venues. Their music, which somehow seamlessly combines shoegaze, Britpop, post-punk, hardcore and black-metal into an impossibly cohesive sound, is the sum of their parts. Heather Black pounds her bass like she’s ripping a basement punk set before delivering sweet vocal harmonies straight out of the C86 compilation. Nick Tolliday pummels his drums with the reckless abandon of the hardcore scene that birthed the band. All the while, dual guitarists Alex Pomeroy and Giles Roy offer intricate, complex riff interplay as often as they stomp their pedals and break into hard-hitting power chords. 

“People seem to be rightfully wary of rock in general,” Roy says, admitting that his band’s complicated genre blending is rooted in the familiar. “I like the underdog feeling.” That scrappiness is self-evident, but make no mistake: Woolworm are anything but underdogs. 

The band’s bleakly fulfilling 2017 LP Deserve To Die saw them smashing their heads against the wall, meticulously planning every note before entering a real studio with venerable Vancouver producer Jesse Gander. This time around, they recorded with labelmate Jay Arner whenever the inspiration hit.

LISTEN AND SHARE “HOLD THE BOW” HERE

“Even though some of these songs date back to before Deserve To Die, we allowed ourselves to be spontaneous and open-minded here and took a collage approach to the overall record,” Roy says of Awe. “We let it be scrappier and more diverse and less symmetrical.” 

The result is a collection of songs that are bristling with immediacy and, well, life. “Deserve To Die was a sort of exorcism, and this one’s more of a meditation,” Roy continues. “That one took so long to write and record that finally releasing it had a cathartic effect. But now we’re done with death. For the foreseeable future, at least. This is more of a life record.”

PRE-ORDER AWE HERE

The bleakness of Deserve To Die has also dissipated thanks to Woolworm’s relationship to Canada’s music community writ large. The band’s malleable sound has allowed them to play recent shows with artists as diverse as country pop crooner Orville Peck and mysterious hardcore legends Integrity, and no one has batted an eye. As a result, Woolworm have connected with audiences and like-minded musicians around the country.  

“Ultimately, I think the album is about other people — trying to relate to someone, sometimes succeeding brilliantly, sometimes failing horrifically. Just the process of connecting with anyone is such a trip,” Roy says. “It’s so fucked up to have a real person in front of you and know that you’re each just hiding in your own mind. You can wind up knowing them pretty well but you will never know what it’s like to actually be them. So we’re all alone in our own realities, but then we’re all constantly trusting each other in so many ways. That can go horribly wrong, but when it goes right, that’s the most beautiful thing I can think of.”

Overwhelming feelings, lived-in melodies and masterful rock music. It’s all more than enough to inspire Awe.

PERFORMANCE DATES
Nov 15 - Vancouver, BC - Red Gate w/ Kamikaze Nurse, Outpatient, Juice

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AWE TRACKLIST
A1. Awe
A2. Dogman
A3. Hold the Bow
A4. Soon
A5. Finally
A6. Live for You
B1. Might as Well
B2. Much Too Much
B3. Can’t Be Fucked
B4. Without Will
B5. Let Me Wear the Mask
B6. Woe Is Me

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TAMI NEILSON UNLEASHES “ANY FOOL WITH A HEART” VIDEO

WATCH AND SHARE “ANY FOOL WITH A HEART” HERE

CANADIAN-BORN, NEW ZEALAND-BASED DYNAMO VOCALIST TAMI NEILSON 
DUBBED “FIRE BREATHING BELTER” BY ROLLING STONE

CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN NOVEMBER 16

CHICKABOOM! DUE FEBRUARY 14 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

PHOTO CREDIT : Si Moore // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

No one forgets the first time they saw Tami Neilson. She can hush a room with an original song that channels the hurting spirit of Patsy Cline or the sensuality of Peggy Lee, or bring the audience to its feet on a rockabilly raver.

She’s an artist with real range, whose powerful voice can take on big ballads, golden-age country, heartfelt gospel, soul-infused R&B, Western swing, even old-style rock ’n’ roll. Tami encompasses them all and is a personality-powered cyclonic force of nature in stylishly retro attire, long lashes and a stacked-high beehive.

 Previous media accolades come from both sides of the Atlantic, including Rolling Stone, which called her “a fire-breathing belter on her own terms” and the U.K.’s Guardian, which asserted that “her powerhouse voice recalls 1950s stars such as Wanda Jackson and Patsy Cline.”

Of her new album’s title, CHICKABOOM!, Tami explains, “I wanted to write an album of punchy little songs, popping firecrackers that, when stripped back to nothing but a guitar, percussion and two voices, would still go boom!”  The new collection, out February 14, 2020 on Outside Music, brings much personal and family history to the table. Returning in full force to Tami’s recording and live performance zone is her brother Jay Neilson, her co-star in the “Any Fool With A Heart” video. The clip was directed by brother Todd Neilson (ValiantMade) and highlights the twisted sense of family humor that is classic Neilson. According to Tami, “ it’s a 1950s Musical Meets Spaghetti Western series of ways to die was a perfect way to tell a story of heartbreak and unrequited love.” The duo keeps coming back to face greater perils with big smiles on their shining mugs.  

WATCH AND SHARE “ANY FOOL WITH A HEART” HERE

“Any Fool With A Heart” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Tami grew up performing across North America with Canada’s Neilson Family Band, working alongside greats such as Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, and Kitty Wells. With her parents Betty and Ron (her late father, a songwriter of considerable accomplishment) and two brothers Todd (drums) and Jay (bass), she spent years on the road learning her craft. This enabled Tami to explore her increasing vocal and emotional range and build a deep well of musical influences to draw upon when she started to write her own material.

Subsequently, Tami fell in love with a New Zealander, moved to the bottom of the world and began her solo career. Though she left the comforts of her loving family and musical community in Canada, over many years she built a platform for herself through open-mic nights, playing soulless casinos and the dead-air time-slots at festivals, finding a small group of fellow travellers and supportive players; a series of increasingly impressive albums followed.

WATCH AND SHARE “HEY, BUS DRIVER!” HERE

The early records saw her in a self-created territory between mainstream country and alternative country, a couple recorded around the kitchen table back home in Canada with brother Jay, who is now an acclaimed producer and songwriter. Then awards started coming in New Zealand for albums that added breadth to her “country singer” label: Best Female Artist, Best Country Album, Best Country Song, an APRA Silver Scroll (songwriting) award and Album of the Year nominations. Her 2014 release Dynamite! received rave reviews in Britain’s MOJO and The Guardian named it a Top 10 Best Country Music Album. Her songs appeared on the Netflix series Wanted and the terrestrial TV series Nashville.

Tami Neilson’s singing and writing is too big to contain, as entertainment company HMV Canada noted: “There are singers and then there is Tami Neilson, for whom the word singer just isn’t big enough.”

The road has now led to CHICKABOOM!, which is something different again, and even more personal. “In the past year, I started to notice something,” Tami says. “The artists I would spend time with backstage at festivals, the ones I gravitated to the most and followed on social media ... artists like the Secret Sisters, Shovels & Rope, Kasey Chambers, Brandi Carlile ... they all had family performing with them. When you tour away from loved ones, it makes a world of difference to have part of your village with you on the road. Not to mention, nothing can come close to that special blend of blood harmonies and silent communication that only comes from being onstage with a person for over 30 years. Family has always been a huge part my music-writing, recording and creating with me, but I wanted family on this project and on the road with me again.” Brother Jay flew to Auckland, New Zealand from Toronto to record a selection of new songs that have unmistakable sibling magic and harmonies. “I don’t think he quite understands what he’s gotten himself into but now the album’s coming out it’s a bit too late. Sucker,” she laughs.

And if you’ve missed Tami— on record or in concert — then you are in for a treat ... and you might not quite understand what you’ve gotten yourself into either.

TOUR DATES
Nov 16 - Wakefield, QC - Blacksheep Inn
Nov 18 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club Theatre 
Nov 21 - Sorel Tracy, QC - Azimut Diffusion
Nov 22 - Quebec City, QC - Palais Montcalm
Nov 23 - Repentigny, QC - Centre D’art Diane Dufresne
Nov 28 - Knowlton, QC - Théâtre du Lac Brome
Nov 29 - Longueuil, QC - Theatre de la Ville
Nov 30 - Saint Therese, QC - Cabaret BMO

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