MISTER NOBU CELEBRATES LP RELEASE DAY WITH LIVE STREAM SONG + PONY SHOW - TODAY AT 4PM ET

JOIN MISTER NOBU’S SONG + PONY SHOW - A RECORD RELEASE PARTY IN A TIME OF COVID

TODAY AT 4PM ET ON FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

WATCH AND SHARE “FALLING DOWN” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

MISTER NOBU’S TAVIE OUT TODAY VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

BUY / STREAM TAVIE HERE

Photo Credit : Matthew David Sleep  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today at 4pmET, join Mister Nobu (the solo project of Nobu Adilman, co-founder/director of Toronto's Choir! Choir! Choir!) to celebrate the release of his full-length record TAVIE. He’ll play songs solo, unbox the vinyl, play clips from the record, answer every burning question you’ve ever wanted to ask and offer everyone virtual gyoza! 

You can watch the live stream on the Choir! Choir! Choir! Facebook page (like the page and you’ll get notified when the stream starts). Or, audiences can join in on Mister Nobu’s Instagram.

JOIN MISTER NOBU’S SONG + PONY SHOW - A RECORD RELEASE PARTY IN A TIME OF COVID

TODAY AT 4PM ET ON FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

TAVIE features twelve songs that mark the highs and lows of a relationship slowly falling apart. It’s kind of a happy/sad thing that’ll appeal to people okay with having feelings. TAVIE was produced by Rob Benvie (Thrush Hermit, Bankruptcy), mixed by Byron Kent Wong, mastered by Noah Mintz and is out on Arts & Crafts today.

Today, Mister Nobu is also sharing the lyric video by Nick Sewell for the album track “Falling Down” featuring “getaways to Tuscany from many moons ago”, says Nobu. “A nostalgic look back to a world that will never be the same. We are all falling down.“

WATCH AND SHARE “FALLING DOWN” HERE

MORE ABOUT TAVIE
The album is “mostly about connection,” says Adilman. “From my TV work to music stuff, I generally like to explore human interaction by throwing everyone into weird and collaborative creative environments. Music has a beautiful way of pulling people’s guards down, and cutting through lots of emotional red tape quickly. Music helps me process my emotions, my life, and, if I can get it down in a song, then I feel more resolved.”

Some have said they hear traces of Lennon, others McCartney, perhaps some Dennis Wilson, maybe some Judee Sill and Sibylle Baier, but here's hoping for .01% of Frank Ocean.

LISTEN AND SHARE “BEST OF ME” HERE

TAVIE was produced by Rob Benvie (Thrush Hermit/Bankruptcy), and mixed by Byron Kent Wong, mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering. Mister Nobu is joined by many friends including Benvie, Mike Belitsky (The Sadies), Matt Murphy (The Super Friendz/Flashing Lights/TUNS), Moshe Fisher Rozenberg (Absolutely Free), members of Choir! Choir! Choir!, and Danielle Duval, with string arrangements by Chris A. Cummings (Marker Starling) + Benvie.

Nobu Adilman is one of the two founding members of Choir! Choir! Choir!, the international phenomenon that has collaborated with David Byrne, Patti Smith (twice!), Stewart Copeland, Rufus Wainwright, Brandi Carlile, and more. They’ve wracked up millions of views on YouTube, sung for Lionel Richie on American Idol, been the subject of a half-hour PBS All Arts special for their 2019 performance at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and performed at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. Even Rick Astley dropped by their Toronto weekly to RickRoll a sold-out crowd! And, most recently, held a gig at the border between Mexico and the US, with Nobu leading a group of singers from a stage in Tijuana, and his partner, on the other side of the wall, in San Diego.

BUY / STREAM TAVIE HERE

Never one to sit idle, Nobu’s documentary film SHORT ROUND UP premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival earlier this summer. The film follows Nobu’s search for the Asian men who, like him, auditioned to be “Short Round” in Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom, their first shot at becoming Hollywood Stars. Nobu has also appeared as a series regular in the cult-hit TV show and films Trailer Park Boys, co-created and starred in forty episodes of the gonzo cooking/gadget creation show Food Jammers seen on the Food Network and Cooking Channel, and travelled in the US in a short-bus powered by vegetable oil meeting innovators of green science for Invention Nation on Discovery Science USA. 

Nobu started out as a writer on Canadian episodic television (Emily of New Moon, Cold Squad), and then co-hosted, with his brother, a couple of national Canadian TV shows (Smart Ask!, ZeD), and acted as a pop culture reporter (>Play). In the late 90s he co-founded and played in the Halifax rock band Rick Of The Skins (ROTS), and in the early 2000s he released his first solo album as Mister Nobu titled C’mon Wid Your C’mon.

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TAVIE TRACKLIST
01 Best Of Me
02 Falling Down
03 Ways
04 Take A Knee
05 All This Time
06 Etude
07 Either Way
08 Underneath
09 Do You Know Me
10 Deep In A Dream
11 All Of This
12 I Don’t Want To Lose You

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BRAIDS RELEASES VIDEO FOR POWERFUL NEW SONG “SNOW ANGEL”

WATCH AND SHARE “SNOW ANGEL” HERE

SHADOW OFFERING RELEASE DATE POSTPONED TO JUNE 19

PRE-ORDER SHADOW OFFERING HERE

“The music – lush electronic textures, delicate piano melodies and driving rhythms – is cinematic in scope, offering Armageddon and salvation in turn. 8/10” – Uncut

Credit: Melissa Gamache 

Due to the pandemic striking the world right now, montreal-based indie trio Braids are postponing the release of their new album Shadow Offering to June 19. The record will be out via Secret City Records. Produced by Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie), the new album finds the band at their most personal, unabashedly flexing a new sense of confidence through songs that reach a higher level of artistry and collaboration. Today they shared a brand new video for the song "Snow Angel," a powerful opus that features singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston's most visceral performance to date as she leans passionately into her anger, diving deeper into frustrations and anxieties about her internal and external worlds.

The Fader agrees saying “Chris Walla lets the band breathe throughout the epic track, letting the energy ebb and flow as Raphaelle Standell-Preston switches her vocals between singing and spoken-word. The whole thing builds to a frantic final third in which the chaos and confusion is palpable”

PRE-ORDER SHADOW OFFERING HERE

 Of the track, Braids said : “‘Snow Angel’ was written in the immediate wake of the 2016 US election, as our collective conscience took a sharp inhale. It’s a diary entry of sorts – a snapshot of the mind grappling with our era’s endless barrage of content and destruction, continents away and close to home. *This* moment, with our world in the midst of a pandemic, is admittedly a new context. But I can’t help but sense the song speaks to feelings many of us are experiencing – uncertainty, angst and a desperate desire to make sense of it all.

For me, it was deeply therapeutic to write and sing this song; saying things out loud can help us to not feel so alone, can help validate our natural fears about the future of our world, and can bring to light some of the hard questions that many of us are asking ourselves. I believe that art can change our relationship to fear. We hope this song can offer you a moment of catharsis and relief, in the same way writing and performing it has for us.”

A luscious and expansive release, Shadow Offering leads us through a sonic tapestry of narrative. With heartbreaking honesty and precision, listeners traverse a nuanced and complicated world: one full of beautiful contradictions. Although the album directs itself at the failures of people to love and be loved, it also seeks to restore justice and attain blissful union. It's arc crests through the dark towards the light and learns how to dance with the dizzying rhythms of the heart. The songs bubble, sustain, dissolve, expand, and retract.

 Lead single "Young Buck" is also out now, an effervescent ode to impossible love that exudes an undeniable magnetism. It was praised by Pitchfork, The New York Times, The FADER, MTV, Stereogum, and Consequence of Sound who called it "a bouncy good time; in the tug-of-war between mind and matter, these pulsing synths are clearly on the side of the body."

 Last fall they released "Eclipse (Ashley)," a song dedicated to Standell-Preston's best friend that sinks deep into a feeling of reverie for nature, the love found in friendship, and the vital essence of personal reflection. The New York Times raved "Raphaelle Standell-Preston sings with openhearted earnestness" while Stereogum named it "one of the best Braids songs ever, a power ballad built from cascading pianos, off-kilter rhythms, and a rising surge of atmospheric strings."

Also due to the COVID-19 circumstances, Braids' US and European spring tour has been postponed to the fall. The new dates will be announced shortly.

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SHADOW OFFERING TRACKLIST

01 Here 4 U
02 Young Buck
03 Eclipse (Ashley)
04 Just Let Me
05 Upheaval ii
06 Fear Of Men
07 Snow Angel
08 Ocean
09 Note To Self

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JAUNT SHARES VIDEO FOR TITLE TRACK OF UPCOMING LP ALL IN ONE

16 MM SHOT VIDEO FEATURES JAUNT’S TOM HELLIWELL IN SOLITUDE, PAINTING HIS SELF-PORTRAIT

WATCH AND SHARE “ALL IN ONE” HERE

ALL IN ONE ARRIVES APRIL 16, 2020

PRE-ORDER ALL IN ONE HERE

Photo Credit: Sylvain Chaussée // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

 Toronto-based six-piece Jaunt are set to release their debut album All In One on April 16 and today they are sharing the video for the title track. Directed by Pia Perez and Sylvain Chaussée and shot on 16mm film, the video features lead singer Tom Helliwell in solitude painting his self-portrait. This is the second video in a series of six, depicting the members of Jaunt at home within a moment of time; caught, slowed down, under a microscope, on repeat, and in reverse.

With members of the band either in self-isolation from being exposed to Covid-19, recently laid off as a result of the virus, or stuck in Mexico, “All In One,” seems somewhat prophetic. 

“The song is an optimistic ballad about what it means to be present,” says the band. “We hope it can spark a bit of joy and encouragement for those who listen in these strange times that we are collectively experiencing. In a way, the song feels mysteriously prescient for the moment. Hope everyone is staying safe, connecting with their loved ones, and keeping their head up. 

Written in one fruitful session, the band attempted to preserve the essence of the moment by keeping the original demo vocals and replaced the back track with instrumentals recorded with BADBADNOTGOOD’S Alex Sowinski. “All In One” quickly became the album’s centrepiece and began to inform the direction of the remaining nine songs. 

 Jaunt recently shared “Delighted To Be Spoken To”, the second single from the upcoming LP and a song about resisting self-pity by developing a practice of gratitude for the fleeting, simple, joyful details of life. The accompanying video video was the first in the aforementioned series of 6 tableaus – 1 for each band member – depicting mundane, yet vibrant and playful environments caught, slowed down, under a microscope, on repeat, and in reverse shot on 16mm. “Delighted To Be Spoken To” features vocalist Caitlin Woelfe-O’Brien.

Recorded over three years and engineered in collaboration with Alex Sowinski, this collection serves as a travelogue for the band’s growth. All In One celebrates connection, creativity, and adaptation all passed through the lens of desktop pop sensibilities and an endearingly adventurous spirit. Equal parts experimental and infectiously raw, faintly electric and distinctly exposed, the cornucopia of styles and sounds presented in All In One finds itself glued together by a palpable and unique sense of understanding and friendship. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT MOMENT” HERE

More about Jaunt

A trip down memory lane might credit Jaunt’s beginnings to an elixir of coincidence and surrendering to try something new. Pat O’Brien, now the band’s guitarist, met future lead singer and songwriter Tom Helliwell at a Halloween party, striking a friendship that manifested across a few years of jams and shared musical creations. Somewhere along the way, Pat booked a show out of the blue, the band released their first EP, Chat, and Jaunt had graduated from a digital manifest of closeted collaborations to something tangible. Keyboardist Daniel Reardon entered the fold for the band’s first performance, followed closely by the addition of drummer Duncan Hood and bassist Nick Nausbaum.

Jaunt’s artistic palette, social circle, and resume developed quickly and organically, alongside their time active in the Toronto music scene. Duncan’s friendship and collaborations with Alex Sowinski intersected with Nick’s ties to the Montreal ecosystem that produced breakouts like Homeshake and Yves Jarvis; this further fostered creative community and opportunities to tour and record on top of groundwork already established by Pat and Tom. Duncan and Nick began performing with Charlotte Day Wilson as her backing band and would cross paths with vocalist and video artist Caitlin Woelfe-O’Brien playing similar venues. A friendship was sparked, Caitlin contributed her voice to coloring the band’s second EP, Cue, and now is a full-time member of the group. By this time, Jaunt had become a well-oiled machine: a synergetic sextet fueled by earnest ambition and artistic momentum. 

The band’s origin story is the genesis for what would become their full-length debut. In name, All In One, evokes wholeness while feeling vast, a testament to the record’s breadth of musical directions and underlying cohesiveness. Thematically, it’s an homage to changes and evolution experienced by Jaunt on both an individual and collective scale throughout the album’s creation.  The unpredictable variables in the bandmate’s lives – new jobs, partners, successes, failures, Tom moving to Hawaii for love – all provided a backdrop and clear pathos as they developed a consistent collection of works. Some songs on the album are more recently recorded; others were pocketed for future use. The goal and meaning of All In One was always on the horizon as Jaunt navigated unwaveringly toward it. 

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ALL IN ONE TRACKLIST

01 All In One
02 Nostalgia For The Present Moment
03 Crushed Velvet
04 Pt 2
05 True Affections
06 Bakers Moves
07 Obvious Answer
08 Callous Standard
09 Suggestions
10 Delighted To Be Spoken To 

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