ADA LEA PRESENTS NEW SINGLE / VIDEO FROM NEW LP, OUT FRIDAY

WATCH AND SHARE “can’t stop me from dying” HERE

BUY / STREAM “can’t stop me from dying” HERE

NEW ALBUM, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, OUT THIS FRIDAY VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

“‘damn,’ from the Montreal-based singer-songwriter Ada Lea, unfolds like a quiet epiphany: a gradual accumulation of feelings and frustrations that, in an instant, snap into a sudden clarity.” - The New York Times

“[‘damn’ is] propulsive, unsettling and exquisite – and an impressive way to kick off an album.” - NPR Music

“[one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden] separates itself from the pack of a lot of similar folk music being made nowadays by being particularly crisp and well-defined.” - Stereogum

PRE-ORDER one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden HERE

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Photo Credit: Kristina Pedersen // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Montreal’s Ada Lea (the moniker of Alexandra Levy) will release her new album, one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden, this Friday on Next Door Records. Today, she presents a new single/video, “can’t stop me from dying”. Throughout the track, there are subtle sonic flourishes that make it especially compelling. Although other songs feel timeless with a 70s studio sheen, “can’t stop me from dying” sounds completely modern in its use of electronics, sound effects, and pitched vocals. Its video, directed by Katerine DM, reflects this modern feel, mimicking a Sims character wandering through a town before having a wild, dancing-filled night.

About the song’s origin, Levy explains: “I had just come off a difficult tour and was in a kind of trashy mental state and just couldn't shake the weird feeling. I kept imagining this character who dies multiple times throughout the course of a night whenever she makes a mistake, always restarting with a little more clarity than where she began, with the intention of doing things differently the second time around. These versions learn from past mistakes and the takeaway of ‘next time, I’ll do things differently’ is how you win the game - not using the mistakes as justifications to the mountain of shame with which we often use to torment ourselves. We’re gonna mess up, we’re gonna hurt people, nothing can stop that from happening and nothing can stop you from dying!”

WATCH AND SHARE “can’t stop me from dying” HERE
BUY / STREAM “can’t stop me from dying” HERE

Inspired by personal experience, daydreams, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, the lyrics across one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden center storytelling on a bigger scale. The experience and emotions of a year are communicated through Levy’s vignettes of city life. Her prose is centered in its setting of the St. Denis area of Montreal as it draws up memories from local haunts like Fameux, La Rockette, and Quai des Brumes in rearview reverie. She creates a balance through the album’s year by splitting her songs evenly into four seasons. 

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden charts unavoidable growth that comes with experience. It’s both a collection of walking-paced, cathartic pop/folk songs and a book of heart-twisting, rear-view stories of city life. 

WATCH AND SHARE “partner” HERE
BUY / STREAM “partner” HERE

WATCH AND SHARE VIDEO FOR “damn” HERE

WATCH AND SHARE “HURT” HERE
BUY / STREAM “HURT” HERE

PRE-ORDER one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden HERE

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one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden TRACKLIST
01 damn
02 can’t stop me from dying
03 oranges
04 partner
05 saltspring
06 and my newness spoke to your newness and it was a thing of endless
07 my love 4 u is real
08 backyard
09 writer in ny
10 violence
11 hurt

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PONDERCAST EP 169 : COLOURS

If music is a language, then colour must be too. In Episode 169 of Pondercast, Laurie Brown asks, does a colour sometimes stop you in your tracks? Can you look around and see how you have pulled your favourite colour close to you?

“I bought Kassia St. Clair's book The Secret Lives of Colour because reading a book that had a different colour on every page combined two of my favourite languages,” says Brown. “Many of the stories you will hear in this episode about how we humans make colour for ourselves came from this book.”

With Joshua Van Tassel composing original music, this episode explores colour as a commodity, a drug, as a poison and as good medicine. We ponder colour as a palette for hate, and how it can also move us to a more peaceful end of the spectrum.

LISTEN TO PONDERCAST EP 169 : COLOURS

Every Monday morning Laurie Brown will post a new 20 minute Guided Meditation. Meant for everyone - no experience necessary. Great way to start meditating, and a great way to find support and encouragement for your practise.

LISTEN TO PONDERCAST GUIDED MEDITATIONS HERE

Pondercast is able to expand their offerings because of the support you have helped build on Patreon. We are really hoping that this new season will move you to become a monthly donor at www.patreon.com/Pondercast or, a one time donor on our website at www.pondercast.ca

For those of you who have already taken the Patreon plunge, thank you - your support has made this happen.

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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 ninth episode of Ponderbeat is live now, featuring music from Allison Russell, Dana Sipos, Treephones, Aasiva, Charlie Houston, Joseph Shabason, and more.

 LISTEN TO KILLBEAT’S COLLABORATION WITH PONDERCAST - PONDERBEAT EPISODE 09 HERE

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ASTRAL SWANS REVEAL SECOND SINGLE FROM UPCOMING LP

Photo Credit :Tiffany Leung // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Astral Swans is Matthew Swann - a human song-maker specializing in abstract narratives of lonerism, frailty, absurdity, and whimsy, all told with darkly comedic empathy, and helpless concern. Today, Astral Swans shares the second single, “Spiral”, again featuring the vocals of Julie Doiron, from the upcoming self-titled album, out October 8, 2021.

Album opener, “Spiral”, was “the first song I wrote after Covid quarantine, in March 2020,” says Swann. “It’s about seeking out joy, and trying to escape pain in ways that backfire, within reference to the hamster wheel of late stage capitalism; consumerism, addiction, neoliberalism, the reduction of identity to social media posturing, etc ad infinitum. It’s about trying to escape something that seemingly has no escape, in spite of its glaring foolishness and lack, and the desperation which it brings to a person's humanity. In the studio we went for a 1970’s wrecking crew polished country vibe speckled with synth exploration a la Stereolab and Broadcast. Once again Julie’s vocals are the cherry on top. When I sent the final album to Jim Bryson (who’s one heck of a producer in his own right), He simply replied ‘you have Julie Doiron on it, you’ve already won the war’.”

WATCH AND SHARE “SPIRAL” FT. JULIE DOIRON HERE

BUY / STREAM “SPIRAL” FT. JULIE DOIRON HERE

MORE ABOUT ASTRAL SWANS
The new self-titled record is Astral Swans most upbeat, catchy, and immediate album to date. Each song operates as an absurdist short story filled with Swann’s wry observations of the sad beauty of mundane moments. Swann almost exclusively composed the songs internally on solo walks throughout various cities around the world (pre-covid), and the same city over and over again (during covid). As Swann describes it, “the melodies were written in my head, on long walks alone, like spontaneous flowers sprouted from the id; ecstatic downloads from the cosmos. Sometimes the lyrics appeared with the melodies, other times they were refined more consciously, after the fact.”

The songs range from affirmations of joy amidst dread, composed in the streets of Shimokitazawa Tokyo (“Wind In A Mindless Universe”), to ballads of disoriented uncertainty set against the backdrop of early quarantine (“Spiral”). Songs about birds heckling the anxious and heartbroken in Vondel Park Amsterdam (“Bird Songs”), to a cover of the Cat Power classic, “Cross Bones Style” sung as a duet with Julie Doiron (Eric’s Trip, Mt. Eerie). The album closer “Awake For A While”, is an interrogation of somebody who is trying to piece together the events that transpired over many days of, well...being awake.

WATCH AND SHARE “FLOOD” FT. JULIE DOIRON HERE

BUY / STREAM “FLOOD” FT. JULIE DOIRON HERE

Astral Swans was produced and engineered by Paul Chirka (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra), and Brock Geiger (Reuben and the Dark), with Swann functioning as a third producer. Sonically it is rich and spacious, and features a diverse array of sounds ranging from delicate string arrangements, to atmospheric synth freak outs, and deconstructive guitar solos. All the while, seated atop all the instrumental beauty and chaos floats Swann’s uniquely haunting voice which effortlessly warbles and swoons through its natural range and into Swann’s trademark falsetto. Astral Swans ST brings with it an arts commune worth of fantastic collaborators. Guest performers include: Julie Doiron (Eric’s Trip, Mt. eerie) Cassia Hardy (Wares), LT Leif, Scott Munro (Preoccupations, Chad VanGaalen), Shalom Toy (SilverRing), Laura Hickli (36?), Minami Taga (Mako Puri), Swann’s childhood friend Carolyn Sweet, Jim Bryson (Kathleen Edwards, Weakerthans), and more. Each guest adds their own unique addition to the sound, bringing their own bit of the world into Swann’s solipsistic compositions. 

In 2015 Swann gained prominence as the first artist signed to Madic Records, an imprint of Arts & Crafts helmed by JUNO award-winning musician Dan Mangan, and created for the purpose of releasing Swann’s debut All My Favourite Singers Are Willie Nelson. The album received widespread acclaim, Noisey described it as “a stark, beautiful project that embraces darkness rather than shying away from it.” The Calgary Herald called Swann an artist of immeasurable depth, incredible smarts, remarkable bravery and infinite charm, creativity and insight. 

2018’s Strange Prison (co-produced by Preoccupations’ Scott Munro) earned even more attention including accolades from  Paste, Tiny Mix Tapes, Post Trash and a host of others. The album’s single CONTROLS reached number one on CBC radio 3 which led to a performance on CBC q, which highlighted Swann’s ability at “grabbing listeners' attention and holding onto it.” 

PRE-ORDER ASTRAL SWANS HERE

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ASTRAL SWANS TRACKLIST
01 Spiral
02 Flood
03 Blackhole Town
04 End Of The World (Missing You)
05 Sympathy For The Stupid
06 Bird Songs
07 Wind In A Mindless Universe
08 Cross Bones Style
09 March 28/20 
10 Beautiful Things Happen
11 More Nothing Than Something
12 I Was Awake For A While

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