MEKO BRAIN (MIKE O’BRIEN) SHARES DEBUT SINGLE, “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES”

MEKO BRAIN, THE NEW SOLO PROJECT FROM MIKE O’BRIEN (ZEUS), SHARES FIRST SINGLE VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE

Photo Credit : John Butler // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Meko Brain is the fantastic new solo project from Mike O’Brien. Keen observers of Canadian indie music will know his work through an impressive list of projects, first and foremost his long-running pop outfit Zeus, which since 2009 has produced an encyclopedic style of pop/rock music, and they've amassed a pile of much-loved albums on the venerable Arts & Crafts label. And you’ve likely seen him as a sideman with other Canadian stalwarts such as Dan Mangan, Bahamas, and Jason Collett.

Today, he shares his first single, “Anyone Else's Eyes”, which features patiently unfurling nylon-string guitar chords and a hushed, earnest vocal espousing the merits of a multi-faceted worldview. A fitting introduction for an artist whose own multifacetedness, brings to mind both Canadian contemporaries such as Sandro Perri, Michael Feuerstack, and Peter Elkas, as well as history's true titans of song. 

“I think we can all benefit from the old adage of walking a mile in someone else's shoes,” says O’Brien. “It has to be possible to step back and zoom out and try to see someone else's point of view. The easiest way to adopt this mentality for me is to apply it to my immediate personal relationships. In a sort of montage way, I think I wanted to express this idea/feeling in the song.”

WATCH / SHARE “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “ANYONE ELSE’S EYES” HERE

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OMBIIGIZI RETURN WITH NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO, “CONNECTING”

JUNO AWARD NOMINATED & POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE SHORTLISTED  COLLABORATION BY ZOON AND STATUS/NON-STATUS’S SOPHOMORE ALBUM EXPECTED LATER THIS YEAR

WATCH / SHARE “CONNECTING” HERE
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OMBIIGIZI, the JUNO Award nominated and Polaris Music Prize shortlisted collaboration of Zoon (Daniel Monkman) and Status/Non-Status (Adam Sturgeon), returns with the new single “Connecting”. An exultant anthem awash in searing guitars and jangling rhythm that erupts in raw emotion, “‘Connecting’ explores the idea that we’ve not always been given a choice in how to define ourselves. Is it the Indian Act, our identities, our family or the company we keep. It starts with you and we believe,” OMBIIGIZI says. Accompanied by an animated music video directed by Joseph Howard, “Connecting” is propelled by the growing harmony of Indigenous voices.

“What is connection?Who defines the path we follow? What choices do we have in the cycle? Why do we continue down a particular road? When will we find the solutions to the madness? Where will we go from there?”

“Connecting” is out today via Arts & Crafts. The sophomore album follow-up to 2022’s Sewn Back Together is anticipated for release later this year.

WATCH / SHARE “CONNECTING” HERE
BUY / STREAM “CONNECTING” HERE

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MORE ABOUT OMBIIGIZI
The Anishinaabe revival is accelerating. Our artists are becoming more resurgent in all realms: telling the stories, singing the songs, and creating the imagery to further solidify our everlasting presence on this land. The soundtrack to this movement is diverse, profound, and beautiful. The Anishinaabe sonic revolution is richly layered and wide-reaching, inspiring and influencing all generations to gather, sing, and speak, as we’ve always done. And at the core of this renewal are artists like Ombiigizi.

Adam Sturgeon (aka Status/Non-Status) and Daniel Monkman (aka Zoon) have come together in the spirit of making noise in a good way for our people. They have documented this moment in time while paying homage to the ancestors who kept our language and stories alive. There is embedded in it a deep respect and love for Anishinaabe sounds and voices. They proudly tell family and community stories, and they exquisitely conjure a hopeful future that will result from our current collective efforts to share our realities with each other and the world. - Waubgeshig Rice

PRAISE FOR OMBIIGIZI

“...a sonic blend of post-rock, shoegaze and alternative — an earthy and slightly psychedelic sound…Of the 10 albums on the short list for this year’s Polaris Music Prize none pack an emotional punch like “Sewn Back Together.” - Toronto Star

"With all these styles woven together as part of an essential and ongoing social conversation, Sewn Back Together is ultimately a work of healing. With introspective, emotional resonance and formidable guitar tones, OMBIIGIZI's noise cuts through the static, loud and proud” -  Exclaim! 

“Indigenous futurism through a heavy psychedelic folk lens” - NOW

"Together, Monkman and Sturgeon show new plaintive depths to their writing, crafting a tribute to the joys and innocence of childhood." - Under The Radar

"Ombiigizi’s debut, Sewn Back Together, flows like a river, finding a path forward against all obstacles" - Dominionated

“Anishinaabe songwriters Adam Sturgeon and Daniel Monkman measure the weight of the world on Sewn Back Together.” - RANGE

“subtly psychedelic and strikingly pretty …noise as catharsis, care, the sound of people coming together” - Maisonneuve

“Hazy electronic soundscapes, gentle guitar strumming and stirring vocal harmonies.” - NEXT 

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OLD MAN LUEDECKE’S NEW LP OUT TODAY, SHARES NEW VIDEO FOR “GUY FIERI”

OLD MAN LUEDECKE’S NEW LP, SHE TOLD ME WHERE TO GO, PRODUCED BY AFIE JURVANEN, OUT TODAY VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC

WATCH / SHARE “GUY FIERI” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO WITH AFIE JURVANEN) HERE

BUY / STREAM SHE TOLD ME WHERE TO GO HERE

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Today, two time JUNO Award winner Old Man Luedecke releases his upcoming Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas) produced album, She Told Me Where To Go, via Outside Music. To celebrate, he’s sharing the new video for album track, “Guy Fieri”, a song “of a night drive in the mountains performed by me and Afie on our acoustic guitars from the couches at my home in Nova Scotia”, says Chris Luedecke. “Kids and lunch were just out of view and everyone was very quiet while we sang the song. The song is one of hope and highlights the plight of the gig worker everywhere: ‘Do less bad work but get paid more, is what everyone is looking for’ and is named for the Food Network TV Star who also ate at a stop on the night drive through Lake Tahoe CA.”

WATCH / SHARE “GUY FIERI”(LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO WITH AFIE JURVANEN) HERE

MORE ABOUT OLD MAN LUEDECKE
How did Old Man Luedecke go from touring the world with his banjo to suddenly giving it all up to work as a deckhand on a scallop boat, and abandoning his signature instrument?

“I was just going over to my scallop farming neighbour’s house to get some scallops to have for dinner”, says Chris. “Knowing that the live music world had slowed down, he asked me if I wanted a job on his boat” And so, Luedecke accepted and began going out to sea in the North Atlantic, not far from his family home in rural Nova Scotia. He was giving up the game of music. 

 WATCH / SHARE “SHE TOLD ME WHERE TO GO” HERE

Throughout that time working on the water, song ideas would pop in his head, and Chris would stash them away in his sea salt-stained notebook and battered iphone, not sure if anything would ever come of them. During downtimes, Chris and his family would host all-day sap boils and wiener roasts over an open fire on their property where they tapped their maple trees and boiled the sap to make syrup in the late days of several winters. A frequent visitor to these fires was Afie Jurvanen, aka Bahamas, who brought his family over for the BBQ and syrup and to chat music and play around on their guitars. 

WATCH / SHARE “DREADFUL WIND AND RAIN” HERE

“What about not playing the banjo on your next record?” suggested Jurvanen. Initially, Chris thought those may have been fighting words, and prepared to throw down with his fellow JUNO Award winner. Luckily, it didn’t come to blows and Chris understood that Afie’s question was rooted in how much of a fan he was of Chris’s song writing, and that maybe perceptions of the banjo distracted from that. This was the moment that “She Told Me Where to Go'' was conceived.

LISTEN / SHARE “MY STATUS IS THE BADDEST” FT. BAHAMAS HERE

“I was a musician, a banjo player, known for my old-time Appalachian-based sound, and Afie thought that we should let go of the chains and expectations that come with writing songs around an instrument, and that I should just write the songs without the instrument in mind. He convinced me to abandon my signature sound, and I had this newfound sense of freedom in my song writing.”

She Told Me Where to Go is a journey through the darkness and light of mid-life. The songs wrestle, long form, with the value of an artist in a time when music is ingested in fifteen second increments. There’s hopefulness in “Guy Fieri” but “Holy Rain” and “Misfits in Old Clothes” capture the ongoing struggle. 

LISTEN / SHARE “THE RAVEN AND THE DOVE” HERE

The album took time. With Jurvanen producing, they worked on the songs for almost two years and then spaced out the tracking and the vocals over 10 months. This is the longest gestation period ever for an Old Man Luedecke record. “I took a note from the world of theatre, rehearsing and tweaking the songs endlessly before they were ready for the stage, or in this case, the studio.”

It might have been easier to just quit the game, and stick to scallops, but being able to let go of the instrument that made him, brought new life to his songs and the album-making process. 

And fans need not worry, the banjo is always close at hand. There’s a treasure trove of songs that have soundtracked the lives of many, that feature that signature sound. The absence of the banjo is not forever, just for now. 

BUY / STREAM SHE TOLD ME WHERE TO GO HERE

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SHE TOLD ME WHERE TO GO TRACKLIST
01 She Told Me Where To Go
02 Guy Fieri
03 Going On The Mountain
04 The Quiet Good Goes On
05 The Raven and the Dove
06 Shine On Love (ft. Reeny Smith)
07 My Status Is The Baddest
08 Forgive My Anger
09 Red Eye
10 Our Moment In The Sage
11 Holy Rain

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