TAMI NEILSON SHARES COVER OF WILLIE NELSON’S “PRETTY PAPER”

LISTEN AND SHARE “PRETTY PAPER” (WILLIE NELSON COVER) HERE

CHICKABOOM! OUT NOW VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

PHOTO CREDIT :  Sabin Holloway // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Tami Neilson is back with her number one musical partner in crime, brother Jay, for a special Christmas single, a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper” which was recorded last December as a SiriusXM Canada live session at the Dine Alone Records Store in Toronto. The song resonated with Tami as it is told from the viewpoint of a homeless person, and she well remembers the hard financial times her musical family endured during her childhood and the struggles faced by so many across the world right now. She says, “At a time when many of us celebrate the birth of a baby who was the personification of love, acceptance and compassion, this song embodies those reminders that we need to extend those same things to each other.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “PRETTY PAPER” (WILLIE NELSON COVER) HERE

It’s been a busy year for Canadian-born, New Zealand-based musician and “fire breathing belter” (Rolling Stone) Tami Neilson. Her current album, Chickaboom!, was released to rave reviews in February. Media fans included Billboard (“Upon hearing Tami Neilson’s voice, the listener is instantly transported back in time”), No Depression (“Neilson’s powerful vocals and her canny songwriting … make Chickaboom! a contender for one of the year’s best albums”), and American Songwriter (“… she’s as real a deal as they come”). As with other musicians, her touring plans were scrapped because of the pandemic, but she was able to participate in Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion livestream, one of the first music festivals to air online. It brought her dynamic presence tomore than 100,000 viewers. 

Not long after, the creative whirlwind got busy with her team, which includes her brothers Jay and Todd, musical and video collaborators, respectively. The Tami Show, a 12-episode series on YouTube was born as a welcome respite from quarantine life. Offering a glimpse into Tami’s life with funny anecdotes, fashion inspiration, hair and make-up tutorials, and THAT VOICE, the show, along with videos from Chickaboom!, can be viewed on her YouTube channel here.

The single “Hey Bus Driver” from Chickaboom! won Country Song of the Year at the New Zealand Country Music Awards and the track “You Were Mine” was nominated for the APRA Silver Scroll for Song of the Year. Chickaboom! has been nominated for Album of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards which replaces the previously named Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards on November 15 at Auckland's Spark Arena. 

Because New Zealand is under less restriction than much of the world, Tami was able to schedule dates in mid November with a brass band. She has waded into her home country’s political waters by endorsing NZ prime minister Jacinda Arden and performing at the politician’s campaign launch a couple of months back.

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YUKON BLONDE’S NEW LP, VINDICATOR, OUT TODAY VIA DINE ALONE RECORDS

BUY / STREAM VINDICATOR HERE

“It's been a decade since the Vancouver-based rock band released its self-titled debut, and there are few bands whose journeys have been this musically adventurous and rewarding. ...Vindicator, promises further experimentation in psychedelic and soul and dance pop" - CBC Music

"The fifth full length recording from the quintet builds on the synth-laden pop panoramas that made 2018s Critical Hit such a delight. Vindicator showcases a band nearing its second decade firing on all points" - The Vancouver Sun

"In an age of boring, watered down, corporate, vanilla, focus-group engineered pop-rock shenanigans, it's cool to hear a group like Yukon Blonde still taking educated risks and maintaining the same punk DIY credos that put them on the Canadian musical map in the first place." Exclaim!

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES ALBUM COVER

Today, Yukon Blonde are celebrating the release of their new LP, Vindicator, a record which “represents a kinda new beginning for us, because it was produced, mixed, engineered and recorded entirely ourselves; we made a decision after the last record to spend our money on gear rather than studio time,” says the band. “We made the record over several months at a cabin on Galiano Island, at our own studio in Vancouver, on Jeff’s kitchen table, and in James’ closet. Because we were not limited by time, it is more experimental, more indulgent, and collaboratively more lucid than anything we have ever made. 

 The whole process was an act of figuring out whether we were even capable of making a record from top to bottom ourselves at all - we did, it rules, and we feel accomplished; hence the title - Vindicator.”

Leading up to the release of Vindicator the band shared five singles and today is no different as new single and album track #3, “YGTT,” arrives alongside the record. “YGTT was a demo Jeff made around 2013 that was included in the batch of songs written for On Blonde, but ultimately was not used, “says Brandon Scott. “We revisited the demo while recording Critical Hit in 2017,  however the overall production when we finished ended up too polished and over tracked, and again, ultimately it never made the record. For this record James and Jeff were sifting through those track files from 2017, keeping what worked and stripping what didn’t. They re-tracked drums/guitars/ synths, and fully re-produced the song to capture the lo-fi charm that the original demo loop had (even though we didn’t use it until 2020, our good friend Shad sampled the opening horn section loop for his song “All I Need” on his 2018 LP A Short Story About War.)”

BUY / STREAM VINDICATOR HERE

After ten years since forming and five LPs in, Yukon Blonde have been characterized in a lot of different ways. They emerged as a guitar-heavy rock band with their debut self-titled LP in 2010 and by the release of On Blonde in 2015, Yukon Blonde were experimenting with slick, ‘80s inspired pop elements like those heard on the album’s driving hit single “Saturday Night”. More recently, on 2018’s Critical Hit, the Vancouver-based five piece band turned their attention to mood making, largely ditching their guitars in favour of synths and drum machines to build danceable, multi-dimensional soundscapes. 

WATCH AND SHARE “YOUR HEART’S MY HOME” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

With Vindicator, Yukon Blonde rewrite their story again. Jeffrey Innes (vocals/guitar/keys), Brandon Scott (vocals/guitar), Graham Jones (vocals/drums), James Younger (vocals/bass/keys), and Rebecca Gray (vocals/keys) douse keyboard melodies and relaxed grooves with psychedelic hues that are both playful and expansive. 

WATCH AND SHARE “YOU WERE MINE” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

From the opening track, Vindicator will immediately put you under a joyful spell and then never let you go. “We’re more mature and comfortable with ourselves now and we know that we can try something new even at this stage in our career,” explains Younger. “We completely deconstructed the narrative of the band and made the music that felt good at the moment.” 

WATCH AND  SHARE “GOOD TIMES” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

Vindicator is the first Yukon Blonde album written, recorded, and produced entirely by the band. It took shape in their jam space in East Vancouver, a cabin on Galiano Island, in a closet at Younger’s home, and in Innes’ kitchen. But this DIY ethos has always been the backbone of Yukon Blonde who are curious artists with a passion for honing their craft. 

WATCH AND SHARE “IN LOVE AGAIN” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

The in-house approach to Vindicator allowed Yukon Blonde to stretch themselves creatively and experiment with sounds and styles in ways they haven’t before. The band share vocal duties and Innes, the band’s primary songwriter, lets his lyrics, which touch on everything from love to redefining your relationship with social media, drive the shape of the songs. 

WATCH AND SHARE “GET PRECIOUS” LYRIC VIDEO HERE

Admittedly, making Vindicator by themselves was a creative risk but it’s one that’s paid off. Even the album title is a nod to how Yukon Blonde feel about the record’s outcome. As Innes notes, “You don’t really need to compete with yourself, you just need to challenge yourself.” 

“It’s a very rewarding feeling taking control of yourself and your creative ambition,” adds Younger. “It’s something that you can ride high on because expectations were met and fulfilled and that’s a joyous thing.” 

PHOTO CREDIT : Jeff Innes  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

BUY / STREAM VINDICATOR HERE

VINDICATOR TRACKLIST
It's What You Are
Fickle Feelings
YGTT
You Were Mine
Play Along
In Love Again
Good Times
Fuck It
Your Heart's My Home
Get Precious
Big Black Cloud

12" Black vinyl including a bonus  "Get Precious" 7" 

"GET PRECIOUS" 7” TRACKLIST

Get Precious
Get Precious (Jay Why Remix) 

PRAISE FOR YUKON BLONDE

"Future house party rocker status." - PASTE

"Erratic and lovesick." - Noisey

"If Wayne Coyne teamed up with Phoenix." - Clash

"Would feel at home on a 1980s John Hughes soundtrack." - SPIN

"An inherently sunny quality, drawing heavily from 1970s American radio rock." - NPR 

"Forget the folk, what we have here is harmonized rock with considerable punch." - Consequence of Sound

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DINE ALONE RECORDS

MEGAN NASH SHARES LYRIC VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE, “ARTIFACT”

SONGWRITER MEGAN NASH SHARES THE LYRIC VIDEO FOR FIRST NEW MUSIC SINCE 2017’S JUNO AWARD NOMINATED ALBUM, SEEKER

WATCH/SHARE “ARTIFACT” HERE

BUY / STREAM “ARTIFACT” HERE

Photo Credit : Aaron Sinclair // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

“Artifact” is “a song about discovering fragments of your former life; a letter from a past lover, a photograph from a perfect day, and how that discovery can be a punch in the stomach,” says. Megan Nash. “The lyrics in “Artifact” mean a lot to me so I wanted a lyric video to put emphasis on them,” the Saskatchewan songwriter continues. “Andrew Friesen’s visuals match the moody vibe of the song perfectly. I love Andrew Friesen’s work and am fortunate enough to say that this is the second video he has done for a song of mine. I am so excited for folks to see this video.” 

When the frigid winter ends and the earth absorbs every last blanket of snow, infinite dust blooms from the prairies. If you walk down a twilit dirt road in the middle of nowhere, south central Saskatchewan, that dust creeps onto and into you, cementing  your relationship with the endlessness of the place—endless skies, endless wind, endless dust. Megan Nash knows this feeling more intimately than most. Despite taking their music all over the world, their songs always retain some piece of the prairies. There’s the grit of dust in the crunch of an overdriven guitar; the howl of wind in a soaring, hypnotic eruption of horns. And there is a boundlessness in her voice—electric with timbres both luminous and dusky, coloured with the textures of her poetry—that can’t help but recall those spellbinding skies.  

With their 2017 album Seeker, Nash used that voice to establish herself as an artist with a singular vision. Mining loss, heartache, grief, dreams, and desire over lush soundscapes, she revealed themselves as the titular seeker—someone with a suitcase they never really empty, whose reach always exceeds their grasp. In the time since Seeker, Nash’s life has taken tumultuous turns. In their own words, the new music she’s been working on was written, “in the cracks of a foundation—in moments of reflection during years of whirlwind romance, gut wrenching heartbreak, reviving friendships, and life saving dog love.” They’re heavy, haunting, elegiac songs in which Nash has rendered themselves more vulnerable than ever. 

WATCH/SHARE “ARTIFACT” HERE

BUY / STREAM “ARTIFACT” HERE

“Artifact” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

In the middle of these mercurial past few years, Nash has been busier than ever on the road, most often with their seasoned backup outfit, The Best of Intentions (Dana Rempel on bass, Darnell Stewart on guitar, and Tanner Wilhelm Hale on drums). She’s played some of their biggest gigs both at home and on tour in Germany, Estonia, and the U.K., riding the momentum of her JUNO Award nomination for Seeker. And in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s been proactive finding ways to connect with fans via events like drive-in and virtual shows. Rest assured that if it’s possible, she’ll be following those highway lines in 2021.

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