ANDY SHAUF RELEASES NEW SINGLE “LIVING ROOM”

LISTEN AND SHARE “LIVING ROOM” HERE

THE NEON SKYLINE OUT JANUARY 24 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

PRE-ORDER THE NEON SKYLINE HERE

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN FEBRUARY 7

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Photo Credit: Colin Medley // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Next Friday, January 24 via Arts & Crafts, Andy Shauf will release The Neon Skyline, “a remarkably evolved variety of break-up album, one whose match of melodicism and bruised romanticism makes it somehow suggestive of Lou Reed’s Berlin as re-written by Paul Simon” (Uncut). Today, he shares a new single, “Living Room”, which follows the previously released lead single “Things I Do” and track/video “Try Again”. On top of heartbreak, friendship, and the mundane moments of humanity that define his songwriting, Shauf makes music that explores how easy it is to repeat the same mistakes of your past. This is immediate in the foreboding “Living Room”, during which a character falls into the same, disheartening pattern her father was once in and later asks herself, ‘How hard is it to give a shit?’

LISTEN AND SHARE “LIVING ROOM” HERE

The Neon Skyline's interconnected songs are all written, performed, arranged and produced by Shauf, and follow a simple plot: the narrator goes to his neighborhood dive, finds out his ex is back in town, and she eventually shows up. His characters are all sympathetic here, people who share countless inside jokes, shots, and life-or-death musings when the night gets hazy. The songs on The Neon Skyline ultimately take solace in accepting that life goes on and things will be okay.

Ahead of Andy Shauf’s North American tour, which kicks off next month, there will be advance listening events internationally for The Neon Skyline (all are open to the public and listed here). Tickets are on sale now and all dates can be found below. 

WATCH AND SHARE “TRY AGAIN” HERE

LISTEN AND SHARE “THINGS I DO” HERE

ALBUM LISTENING EVENTS
Jan 14 - Montreal, QC - Aux33 Tours 5:00 PM
Jan 14 - Calgary, AB - Blackbyrd Myoozick 5:00 PM
Jan 14 - Edmonton, AB - Blackbyrd Myoozick 5:00 PM
Jan 22 - Ottawa, ON - Spark Beer 7:00 PM
Jan 23 - Toronto, ON - Skyline Restaurant 10:00 PM

More Info Here : https://andyshauf.com/cometotheskyline

ANDY SHAUF TOUR DATES
Feb. 7 - Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups *

Feb. 8 - Lexington, KY @ The Burl *

Feb. 9 - Knoxville, TN @ Barley’s Taproom *

Feb. 11 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In *

Feb. 13 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *

Feb. 14 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk *

Feb. 15 - Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co. *

Feb. 18 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *

Feb. 20 - Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theater *

Feb. 21 - San Francisco, CA @ August Hall *

Feb. 22 - Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s *

Feb. 24 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall *

Feb. 25 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos *

Feb. 26 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom *
Feb. 28 - Calgary, AB @ Bella Concert Hall *
Feb. 29 - Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room *
March 2 - Saskatoon, SK @ Broadway Theatre *

March 3 - Regina, SK @ The Exchange *

March 4 - Winnipeg, MB @ Park Theatre *

March 5 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Hall *

March 6 - Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo *

March 7 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *

March 13 - Lyon, FR @ Epicerie Moderne

March 14 - Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa

March 17 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds

March 18 - Glasgow, UK @ Mono

March 19 - Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
March 20 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

March 21 - Bristol, UK @ Fiddlers

March 22 - Brighton, UK @ Chalk

March 25 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique Orangerie

March 26 - Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
March 27 - Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
March 28 - Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje

March 30 - Hamburg, DE @ Elbphilharmonie
March 31 - Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen

April 1 - Stockholm, SE @ Nalen Klubb

April 2 - Oslo, NO @ Ingensteds

April 4 - Berlin, DE @ Silent Green
April 5 - Cologne, DE @ Luxor

April 6 - Rouen, FR @ Le 106
April 7 - Paris, FR @ Trianon

April 8 - London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire

April 23 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall ^
April 24 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall ^ - SOLD OUT

April 25 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre ^

April 26 - Sheffield, MA @ Race Brook Lodge ^

April 28 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club ^
April 30 - Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw ^
May 1 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^

May 2 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat ^

May 4 - Charlottesville, NC @ The Southern ^

May 5 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle ^

May 6 - Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle ^

May 8 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West ^

May 9 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks ^

May 10 - Birmingham, AL @ Saturn ^

May 12 - Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi ^

May 13 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Andy Warhol Museum ^

May 15 - Asbury Park, NJ @ House of Independents ^

May 16 - Woodstock, NY @ Colony Cafe ^
 


*= w/ Molly Sarlé

^ = w/ Faye Webster

PRE-ORDER THE NEON SKYLINE HERE

The Neon Skyline Cover Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

THE NEON SKYLINE TRACKLIST
1. Neon Skyline
2. Where Are You Judy
3. Clove Cigarette
4. Thirteen Hours
5. Things I Do
6. Living Room
7. Dust Kids
8. The Moon
9. Try Again
10. Fire Truck
11. Changer

ANDY SHAUF ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
BANDCAMP

SCOTT HARDWARE ANNOUNCES NEW LP, ENGEL, SHARES NEW SINGLE

LISTEN AND SHARE “JOY” BANDCAMP / SPOTIFY

ENGEL OUT APRIL 3 VIA TELEPHONE EXPLOSION

PERFORMANCE DATES BEGIN JAN 29

“Connecting his love of both dance music and new wave pop, while subtly taking on queer political issues in his lyrics” - VICE

“A sonic leap forward for the Toronto producer, while still maintaining the inherent hazy chillness we fell in love with in the first place” - Silent Shout

“While his club inspirations are easy to spot on debut Mutate Repeat Infinity, he’s still got a least one foot in the indie pop world” - NOW

Photo Credit : Shelby Fenlon // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

On April 3, 2020, Toronto’s Scott Hardware will be releasing Engel, his second full-length album, and first on Telephone Explosion Records. It will mark the end of a three-year process of writing, recording and letting down his guard (for better or worse.) 

The first new track off the LP, “Joy” is “a song not about experiencing Joy but a promise to myself to keep looking for it,” says Hardware. “Reading the lyrics back revealed to me that I consider this pretty hard work; I’d have to keep pushing the boundaries of my own spirituality, sexuality and relationships to find it. By the end of the song I’m begging no one and nothing in particular to ‘give me to my Joy’.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “JOY” BANDCAMP / SPOTIFY

His last album, Mutate, Repeat, Infinity, was the culmination of a years-long obsession with the HIV/AIDS crisis and how it was shaped by capitalism. Hardware’s early years after coming out were shaped by the courage of people close to him who were dealing with difficult diagnoses. 

“Looking at these situations from a macro/societal lens must have been the only way I could process and share those years of my life and my loved ones’ lives with an audience” Hardware recalls. “From a writing and production standpoint, I was trying to re-imagine various eras of dance music and sound as urgent and vital as they would have in their heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s.” 

Within a year of moving back (to Toronto) from Berlin, Scott watched Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire and was immediately filled with its inherent curiosity. The film, in short, follows angels around pre-unification Berlin as they listen to the thoughts of the mortals they are surrounded by. 

“I sought with this album to capture the film’s velvety feeling – in turns funny, depressing, dark and mundane – in LP form” Hardware says. “These songs imagine Wenders’ angels buzzing around my friends, my family and I. Writing from their point of view allowed me unfettered access to my own thoughts about them and myself.” 

In the title track, the subject is in a relationship with a mischievous angel (named Engel,) who is probing his mind against his will. “Here he comes to comfort me, but like a fly around my head I’d sooner swat him dead,” is sung over an off-the-grid deconstructed house piano. A symphony of creaking trains and industry envelops the banging piano and delicate strings on the chorus while our hero complains “He’s here with that look again, he knows what’s happening, inside,” not, it would seem, ready for this level of vulnerability. 

“Millionaire” swoops in on a courtship doomed from the beginning: “He’s a Millionaire, and what a Millionaire says goes”. A sense of inferiority follows the protagonist in his efforts date a richer man than himself – the romance being cut short because of the poorer man’s insecurities. He decides: better to be alone than to feel beneath. 

“Millionaire” is the most delicate song on Engel. Sullen guitars glide over a rolling plain of harps, drones and underwater motifs with Deidre Nox’s beautiful vocals bringing an almost camp level of melodrama to its crescendo as Hardware and Nox sing together: “you can feel him like he’s always been there.” 

The song ends on a sour note, in a swamp of drones and fallen electrical wire buzzes – and back where the protagonist began. 

“Survivor’s Guilt” ties Engel to Hardware’s previous work with its premeditation on illness and the grief left in its wake. A digitized voice reads a sister’s eulogy to her brother lost to suicide after years of losing his friends around him to “a disease.” The six-minute instrumental takes respective production cues from both Boyz II Men and vaporwave. A chopped voice asks sadly, ‘How can I survive surviving?’ before Nox appears once again, singing the song (and album) to sleep. 

Engel’s cover art is adorned by an image by artist Chris Curreri called the Insomniac. Curreri’s work winks and nods to queer sex, emotionality and darkness, and this piece is no different. This is work that reaches back to queer artists such as Francis Bacon and brings back with it a timeless everyday horror faced by queers: shame. 

These are artists who visualize monsters and demons hiding in plain sight. Like singing to dead queer ancestors on Mutate, Repeat, Infinity, Hardware is trying to make sense of another queer cross-to-bear, this time coming from within. The image is gory and difficult, not unlike the process of digging shame from one’s spirit. Engel, in its preoccupation with angels, the afterlife and private thoughts holds hands with the image. 

PERFORMANCE DATES
Jan 29 - Montreal, QC - La Plante w/ Cindy Lee and Lee Paradise
Jan 30 - Toronto, ON - The Boat w/ Lee Paradise and Soft Matter

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

ENGEL TRACKLIST
1. Intro
2. Millionaire
3. Blu Again
4. Joy
5. Engel
6. Left Hand
7. Bound Together
8. Survivor’s Guilt

SCOTT HARDWARE ONLINE
BANDCAMP
FACEBOOK

SARAH HARMER DEBUTS HAUNTED, WINTRY “ST. PETER’S BAY”

LISTEN AND SHARE “ST. PETER’S BAY” HERE

CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN MARCH 24

ARE YOU GONE, THE FIRST LP FROM SARAH HARMER IN A DECADE, IS OUT 
FEBRUARY 21, 2020 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

PRE-ORDER ARE YOU GONE HERE

Photo Credit : Vanessa Heins // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

“St. Peter’s Bay”, the second song from award-winning singer-songwriter and environmentalist Sarah Harmer’s new album, Are You Gone (February 21 via Arts & Crafts), is out today. A haunting juxtaposition of the swell of emotions at the end of a relationship against the drama and hardness of winter, “St. Peter’s Bay” (the album opener) introduces Sarah’s first full body of work in ten years as a darker, edged-out evolution of the “razor-sharp songwriting chops” (NPR Music) and “plainly hooky” melodic sensibility (Rolling Stone) that earned Sarah’s debut album You Were Here unanimous praise in 2000.

LISTEN AND SHARE “ST. PETER’S BAY” HERE

“St. Peter’s Bay” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

 A cinematic love-letter to wilderness and the depth of human feeling - with a surprising backstory - Sarah said: "I wrote St. Peter's Bay on the plane to Prince Edward Island for a Hockey Day In Canada theatre show, but the hockey part is only a prompt. The song is about the end of a relationship, set against the frozen shoreline of Lake Ontario. I thought what better way to start the record than with black and white pioneer era sound, and a tale of love burning down to its final ember.”

“St. Peter’s Bay” follows first track “New Low”, a rollicking, empowering electric guitar-laced call-for-uprising, inspired by the increase in community action that Sarah saw in the wake of the 2017 shooting at a Quebec mosque, the Women’s March, and Climate Rallies. Written directly after a setback in her community’s fight for fossil fuel divestment, “New Low”, together with “St. Peter’s Bay", reflects the distinct sounds and alternately political and personal messages that form the sonic and thematic breadth of the new album.

WATCH AND SHARE “NEW LOW” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

Motivated by the beauty of life, the urgency of the climate crisis, and the question of loss, Are You Gone is a meditation on the idea of presence, and a bookend to the questions posed on You Were Here. That album made many year-end critics’ lists (TIME called it the best debut album of the year), and earned Sarah performances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Ellen, a nomination for the Polaris Music Prize, and nine JUNO Award nominations and two wins to date. 

This February, to celebrate the release of Are You Gone, Sarah will be playing her first tour in a decade, and all dates are below.

PRE-ORDER ARE YOU GONE & VINYL DISCOGRAPHY HERE

TOUR DATES

Feb 26 - Alexandria, VA - Birchmere Music Hall
Feb 27 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
Feb 29 - New York, NY - Joe’s Pub
Mar 1 - Boston, MA - City Winery
Mar 24 - Peterborough, ON - Market Hall
Mar 25 - Peterborough, ON - Market Hall
Mar 27 - Huntsville, ON - Algonquin Theatre
Mar 28 - Belleville, ON - The Empire Theatre
Apr 1 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
Apr 3 - London, ON - London Musical Hall
Apr 4 - Guelph, ON - War Memorial Hall
Apr 14 - Meaford, ON - Meaford Hall
Apr 15 - Orillia, ON - Orillia Opera House
Apr 17 - Parry Sound, ON - Stockey Centre
Apr 18 - Sudbury, ON - College Boreal
Apr 19 - Sault Ste Marie, ON - Machine Shop
Apr 21 - Winnipeg, MB - The Garrick
Apr 22 - Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
Apr 24 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room
Apr 25 - Calgary, AB - Bella Concert Hall
Apr 26 - Nelson, BC - Hume Hotel
Apr 28 - Courteney, BC - Sid Williams Theatre
Apr 29 - Campbell River, BC - Tidemark Theatre
Apr 30 - Victoria, BC - The Capitol Ballroom
May 2 - Vancouver, BC - The Vogue Theatre
May 4 - Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
May 5 - Portland, OR - The Old Church
May 16 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

ARE YOU GONE TRACKLIST
1. St. Peter's Bay
2. New Low
3. Just Get Here
4. Take Me Out
5. Squeaking Voices
6. What I Was To You
7. The Lookout
8. Wildlife
9. Cowbirds
10. Little Frogs
11. Shoemaker
12. See Her Wave

SARAH HARMER ONLINE
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER