OMBIIGIZI’S NEW LP, SHAME, OUT TOMORROW VIA ARTS & CRAFTS
WATCH / SHARE “STREET NAMES AND LAND CLAIMS” HERE
PRE-SAVE / PRE-ORDER SHAME HERE
PURCHASE PHYSICAL SHAME LP HERE
Photo Credit: Natasha Roberts // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Tomorrow, OMBIIGIZI, the Anishinaabe-Canadian band led by Daniel Monkman (aka Zoon) and Adam Sturgeon (aka Status/Non-Status), will release their sophomore album, SHAME.
OMBIIGIZI embarks on a starkly honest, yet richly uplifting journey on their new album. "Shame is a thing we all share," the band says of the album's title and core theme. "While the last album [2022’s debut Sewn Back Together] focused a lot on the positive force of healing despite odds, SHAME let’s things slide - it shares the things we don’t always say, it calls to others to heal and reminds them it’s OK - to feel, to be angry or sad, and that the world we experience can set the drag on high. But always it calls you in and forward."
Ahead of the release of SHAME, they are highlighting the track "Street Names and Land Claims." 'We are the effect and our shame is hard to define,' OMBIIGIZI sings over the sounds of their towering guitars constructed on ancient syncopated rhythms, the band's quintessential blend of modern and traditional elements. Charged by its themes of Indigenous land rights and colonization, the poetry and distortion of Adam Sturgeon unites with the vast soundscapes of Daniel Monkman, as OMBIIGIZI ride the razor's edge of society's confrontation with Mother Nature.
“‘Street Names and Land Claims’ was another song where it was really fun to push ourselves into territories of interesting timing, rhythm, and adding a bit more grit to the table," remarks Sturgeon. "The lyrics are totally abstract and confused just like the spiritually broke language of English. And we really played on that theme a lot with juxtapositions and the silly things that people put in their pockets to inform themselves that they’re living in the right way, and that everything is a contradiction.
"We need to drive to the environmental protest. We have to spend eight million dollars on the echo-chic pants. Our lattes cost $12 and we’re not giving the change to the people sitting outside the coffee shop," he continues. "So ‘Street Names and Land Claims,’ even the song title is very time-appropriate as we tear down statues."
WATCH / SHARE “STREET NAMES AND LAND CLAIMS” HERE
PRE-SAVE / PRE-ORDER SHAME HERE
PURCHASE PHYSICAL SHAME LP HERE
Through SHAME’s irrepressible storytelling and captivating sonics, again recorded with Nyles Spencer with Kevin Drew at The Tragically Hip's Bathouse Studio in Kingston, Ontario – promising better tone, wider strident-to-bliss dynamics, more of what this collusion of creative souls does best – OMBIIGIZI (pronounced om-BEE-ga-ZAY, meaning this is noisy) conjure a future from the remnants of the stolen past.
“Ultimately, the main point of the songs is that within each of us is an ability to love oneself and to heal.”
WATCH / SHARE “CONNECTING” HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “ZIIBI” HERE
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
LISTEN / SHARE “CITY TRIALS” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “LAMINATE THE SKY” HERE
LIVE PERFORMANCE DATES
Nov 22 - The Monarch Tavern - Toronto, ON
DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
SHAME TRACKLIST
1. Laminate The Sky
2. Street Names And Land Claims
3. Connecting
4. What Was Said
5. Hands Are Up
6. City Trials
7. Photograph
8. Ziibi
9. Oil Spills
10. Shame
