TAMI NEILSON TO REISSUE DELUXE VERSION OF ACCLAIMED LP CHICKABOOM! WITH ADDED LIVE TRACKS

WATCH AND SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR “CALL YOUR MAMA” HERE

CHICKABOOM! DELUXE VERSION OUT FEBRUARY 19, 2021 VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

PRE-SAVE CHICKABOOM! DELUXE HERE

PHOTO CREDIT : Si Moore // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

After a year of building momentum, including performances at Americanafest in Nashville in the fall of 2019, and a confirmed slot at Willie Nelson’s famed Luck Reunion, Auckland-based, Canadian-born musician Tami Neilson launched her new album CHICKABOOM! in February, 2020.

The collection received rave reviews from top-drawer publications such as MOJO, Rolling Stone and American Songwriter. No Depression ironically proclaimed, “Just call 2020 the Year of Tami!” In a matter of weeks, as COVID-19 took over the world and New Zealand and the rest of the world plunged into lockdown, Tami’s world tour was cancelled, and all that hard-earned momentum ground to a halt. Still hoping to make her NZ dates, she entered Neil Finn’s iconic Roundhead Studios to promote those shows and perform with her band (whom she hadn’t seen in four months) and the 12-piece Big Boss Orchestra for the very first time for Radio New Zealand’s LIVE Sessions national broadcast. These one-take, reimagined selections make up five new dramatic arrangements on CHICKABOOM! DELUXE. 

Not long after the world went sideways, 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 additional videos from CHICKABOOM! can be viewed on her YouTube channel here. 

WATCH AND SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR “CALL YOUR MAMA” 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! was also nominated for Album of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards (previously named Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards). 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked Tami to perform at her campaign launch before her landslide re-election after Tami included an actress playing the PM in the music video for the track "Big Boss Mama”, released for International Women’s Day in 2019 (view it here: link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxeOu6v6F8)

As Tami states, PM Ardern “came up to me at the Music Awards after the video played on the big screen and said, ‘You know you could’ve just asked me to do it!’ I said, ‘You were on maternity leave, so I didn't want to bother you.’ She laughed and said, ‘Ok, well, next time!’ I'm gonna hold her to it.”

PRE-SAVE CHICKABOOM! DELUXE HERE

CHICKABOOM DELUXE! TRACLIST
01 Call Your Mama
02 Hey, Bus Driver!
03 Ten Tonne Truck
04 Queenie, Queenie
05 You Were Mine
06 16 Miles Of Chain
07 Tell Me That You Love Me
08 Any Fool With A Heart
09 Sister Mavis
10 Sleep

New bonus tracks – Live at Roundhead Studios
11 A Woman’s Pain
12 Call Your Mama
13 Roimata (Cry Myself To Slee)
14 Walk (Back To Your Arms)
15 You Were Mine

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BERNICE SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR “IT’S ME, ROBIN” FROM UPCOMING LP

WATCH AND SHARE “IT’S ME, ROBIN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “IT’S ME, ROBIN” HERE

TORONTO EXPERIMENTAL FIVE PIECE NEW LP, EAU DE BONJOURNO, OUT MARCH 5, 2021 VIA TELEPHONE EXPLOSION

“The song is a luminous expression of existentialism and synthesized saxophone from Robin Dann,” - The Globe and Mail (on “It’s Me, Robin”)

“On “Groove Elation,” they offer up a warm and delicate rhythm that lures you further into its waters on everyday elations, from the abstract (“Maybe our spirits align”) to the concrete (“Maybe it’s an orange you’re peeling”). Listening to the eclectic Toronto group alchemize genres feels like ruminating on a summer love; the ever-changing and exciting possibilities swirl around you.” - Pitchfork (on “Groove Elation”)

“The track... plops Dann front and centre as synths, saxophone and other blips dart in and out. All this talk of space can feel distant, but Dann and member Felicity Williams' harmonies draw the listener in to something much more intimate. Like an optical illusion, focusing your mind and energy on a work by Bernice can yield many satisfying rewards.” - CBC Music (on “Groove Elation”)

“The track captures so much about what makes Bernice special, with bandleader Robin Dann delivering pure poetry surrounded by dreamy R&B textures. It may have the intimacy of a party for one, but it really feels like a big-hearted invitation for the whole world to tenderly boogie.” - The FADER (on “Groove Elation”)

Photo Credit : Colin Medley // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Bernice, the experimental pop vessel of musician/songwriter Robin Dann and her longtime collaborators Thom Gill (keyboards, guitar), Philippe Melanson (e-percussion and drums), Daniel Fortin (bass) and Felicity Williams (voice), are sharing another new track from their upcoming LP, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5 via Telephone Explosion (figureight records EU/UK).

Simply put, “It’s Me, Robin” is Robin talking to herself. “How to be? How to live?” says Dann. “A small metal bowl floats away into the lake and sinks – but below the waves she sits on her cool bottom, her shape shifting self not full of water but of the water, edges dissolving as her identity reforms, grows, reforms, grows, reforms, like the fascia of a body reinventing itself with each twist and bend. A sign, a cross, a road, a potato – who are you?”

WATCH AND SHARE “IT’S ME, ROBIN” HERE
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Eau de Bonjourno arrives nearly three years on from the release of their Polaris Music Prize-nominated 2018 LP Puff: In the air without a shape (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff). It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing. 

Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. 

LISTEN AND SHARE “GROOVE ELATION” HERE
BUY / SHARE “GROOVE ELATION HERE

The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist. 

“We have an impulse to open doors that you might not expect, and that translates from groove to melody to lyric,” says Dann. “Phil and Thom have this strong aversion to building a beat that sits there in front of you and does exactly what you expect it to do. We come out of so many musical traditions and are trying to make something that’s not a direct descendent of any of them. We’re trying to make the music that feels like us right now.”

The album was written at an artist centre on the Toronto Islands, a short ferry ride from the city across Lake Ontario, over the course of a month in a repurposed school portable. Dann welcomed the band into her writing process over a concentrated time period for the first time, sharpening their focus “with the intention of creating a group of songs that speak to each other and tell a collective story.” Between writing sessions the band would skinny dip and cook, often with Madonna’s personal chef, who Dann says “was at the artist center writing a novel not about Madonna, but not not about Madonna.” 

It was this idyllic location where Dann met the feathered friend that inspired “Lone Swan”, a bird who followed her along the beach, or perhaps vice versa. Its subdued, weightless sound and straightforward lyrics of romantic longing were an experiment in themselves, as she attempted to write “a folk song that anyone could sing with a larger than life meaning.” This guiding theme of deconstructing identity is also found in “It’s Me, Robin”. While practicing the ancient Indian principle of ahimsa (non-violence towards herself and all living beings), she speaks to our vulnerability and multiplicity with the belief that “we are always a product of all the people around and who came before us.” 

Dann imagines these songs as vessels, inspired by visionary sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guinn’s book The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Redefining the notion of a creative work from a phallic tool used to inject singular meanings, she now sees them as containers for portals into moods and worlds that are individual to each listener. “You present a basket and then we’re all inside it,” she says. “There’s feeling in it for me, is there feeling in it for you? When it’s done, the basket falls away and we move on to the next. It’s thinking of these songs as one large shape that holds us instead of moving along a linear time-space pathway.” 

In late 2019, Bernice traveled to Brooklyn to record the album with Ismaily, who members met through previous collaborations with Sam Amidon and Leif Vollebekk. Like their writing sessions during Dann’s artistic residency on Toronto Island, they aimed to record in a concentrated time period to generate a cohesive sound over 10 days in the studio. With a shared understanding of the language of jazz and a boundless musical imagination, Ismaily brought a fresh, energizing dynamic to the group of musicians who have known each other for fifteen years. “Rather than wasting time by breaking things apart and talking about them, he encouraged us to just keep going,” says Dann. “We embraced things that felt good and didn’t question them.” 

Ultimately, it is this playful spirit that continues to guide the music of Bernice. Pulling from their jazz schooled education in improvisation, the five members create ad hoc games to stir their minds at all moments when they’re together. “Big Mato” began from a conversation one morning on Toronto Island when Dann shared the anecdote that her nephew used this term to refer to oversized tomatoes. As they riffed on lyrics about waking up in the morning craving a salad and choosing ingredients, this evolved into a euphemism for love and intimacy. Its delivery is earnest and straight faced, while the song’s feeling remains effervescent. 

“I think that’s the only way to make art,” concludes Dann. “If I take myself seriously, nothing good will come of it. I have to come from somewhere that feels like pure imagination, turning off the self-critic, and finding flow. All of those words that artists use a lot to me just mean finding joy. When we make music together, we look for things that make us laugh and groove and that feels great.”

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EAU DE BONJOURNO TRACKLIST
1 Groove Elation
2 It’s Me, Robin
3 Big Mato
4 Dry River Bed
5 Lone Swan
6 Empty Cup
7 Personal Bubble
8 Your Beautiful House
9 Infinite Love
10 We Choose You

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STRIPPERS UNION RETURN AFTER 10 YEAR HIATUS WITH NEW LP, THE UNDERTAKING

STRIPPERS UNION - ROB BAKER (THE TRAGICALLY HIP) AND CRAIG NORTHEY (ODDS) - RETURN WITH NEW DOUBLE LP

PRE-ORDER THE UNDERTAKING HERE

LISTEN AND SHARE FIRST SINGLE “WE ARE THE UNDERWORLD” HERE

Photo Credit : David Bastedo // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

In 2006, Strippers Union, fronted by Rob Baker (The Tragically Hip) and Craig Northey (Odds) released their debut LP, Strippers Union Local 518, and then followed it up with The Deuce a short five years later. Now, nearly a decade later the band is ready to share their third LP, The Undertaking, a double LP recorded at The Bathouse Studio with drummer Pat Steward and bassist Doug Elliott.

Distributed digitally via The Orchard, Disc 1 of the double LP will be released digitally on February 5, 2021 and Disc 2 will arrive March 12, 2021. The album is also available on limited edition vinyl which includes both discs and arrives February 5, 2021.

Today, they share the first track, “We Are The Underworld”, of which Baker says, “we were musing on the idea that the majority of beings live behind the scene lives with no perceived power or glory, often unaware of the power they actually hold, individually and collectively - especially as ‘we’. The ingenuity required to survive is more amazing than the trivial exploits of the ‘powerful’. The real power waits and it's beautiful when it shows itself. ‘We’re the dirt that starts the pearl’.”

LISTEN AND SHARE FIRST SINGLE “WE ARE THE UNDERWORLD” HERE

“We Are The Underworld” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Why so long a wait between albums? “These last 10 years have had their share of unexpected twists and turns,” says Baker in a full essay on the new album which can be read here. “Suffice it to say that my life was in upheaval. My lifelong dream, which was embodied by The Hip, had come to a sudden and very final end. It was, oddly, both profoundly sad and fulfilling, and it left a void for me. What was I to do now? With my dream done and my sense of personal identity badly shaken, I began the process of trying to figure out what I might do with the remainder of my life. I descended into my home studio and applied myself to the one thing I can count on to keep the demons at bay, which is songwriting and recording. Apparently there were more demons than I realized, and before long I was overflowing with demos… more than 50. Originally I thought I would include an album's worth of personal tunes with a book that I'm writing about my misadventures and shared laughs in The Hip...and I may still do that, but it struck me that a lot of these tunes were Strippers Union material.

I convened with Craig in the spring of 2018 and began playing him demos that I’d accumulated over the past year or two - songs which I felt might be SU contenders. We nailed the lyrics and melodies for five tunes in three days. Over the next 18 months we had three more writing sessions as well as exchanges of ideas through Dropbox. By the start of 2020 we were up to 18 tunes. Initially my plan was to use my bass lines and programmed drums - I’d spent a lot of time getting them right and I was pretty proud of the work - my ego wanted to see ‘all instruments played by Rob Baker’, but my better judgement told me to give Pat Steward and Doug Elliott a crack at those parts. These guys have been playing together so long that they are a well tuned machine - ruthlessly efficient and tasteful. I headed to North Van with my hard-drive in tow and spent three days in Craig’s Doghouse of Thunder Studio with Pat and Doug nailing down the bass and drums on 18 tunes in three days!”

Why a double album…why make an album at all? “Excellent questions,” says Baker. “A double album because I really like this batch of tunes and feel that it is an eclectic set that covers a broad expanse and represents our diverse interests. We didn’t do it for you - we do it to please ourselves. I've always operated under the assumption that I am not special or unique - so if it's something I like, then there are lots of others who will like it as well. 

I'm proud of these songs. I’m proud of the work. When we were young we wanted to conquer, to be respected and adored. Time marches on. These songs reflect who we are now - a little less bravado and a little more restraint, less inclined to thrash and more inclined to find a little truth, a little meaning, and to revel in the little pleasures.”

Rob Baker’s full essay on The Undertaking can also be found on our website here.

PRE-ORDER THE UNDERTAKING HERE

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THE UNDERTAKING TRACKLIST

DISC 1
01 We Are The Underworld
02 Take The Edge Off
03 Traveller Traveller
04 The Enforcer
05 Dogstar
06 Invitation
07 Too Close To The Truth
08 I’ll Find You In The Mountains
09 When I Come Back As A Dog

DISC 2
10 Into Your Arms (The End)
11 No Fear
12 Take It Back
13 No Rain Tonight
14 Permanent Damage
15 Damn Hallelujah
16 Way Down
17 Identify Thief
18 All Clear

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