Local Releases

bolstered by hovering organ tones and transitory electric accents; melancholic-sweet harmonies fill out the aching, acoustic love anthem.

Tinge Big Deep Sigh

In the song “Pennyroyal Tea,” Kurt Cobain once sang, “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld, so I can sigh eternally.” Not every artist possesses the ability to impel listeners to breathe deeply, but this is definitely the case with Tinge’s debut EP Big Deep Sigh. The project hearkens back to when Indie was more Punk than pretentious and when Emo was less of a post-goth fashion statement than an angst-ridden, authentic, and worthy successor to Grunge-era music. Veronica Blackhawk – along with bassist Jordan Tate and drummer Lincoln Brown – is Tinge, who released their first five-song collection at the beginning of March via House of Wonders Records. Originally from Northwest Angle 33, Blackhawk resides in Winnipeg; however, it’s the liminal space of wandering between that is most evident in their lyrics –something that’s also sonically palpable. But unlike the sentiment expressed in the line, “I just can’t explain myself to anyone” (from “Armed to the Teeth”), the reason Big Deep Sigh resonates so immediately and profoundly is that the artist has found a way to make plain the raw emotion of not feeling quite at home in the world through brilliant songwriting. Blackhawk’s poignant yet unwavering voice, coupled with the calculated precision of the seamlessly woven instrumentation, serves as a vehicle to transport the listener into a realm beyond, where one both sees and feels seen.

As soon as one hears the opening two chords from “Native Tongue,” Tinge’s hook is already deeply embedded in one’s heart, and it’s known that something transcendent is about to take place. The emotive interplay of playfully sad guitar, bass, and steady drums are hypnotic, and then the vocals hit with such a beautifully subtle and paralyzing force. Transfixed, the landscape suddenly begins to shift, revealing new heights and depths that weren’t initially apparent. Blackhawk’s singing is truly mesmerizing on this track. As for what follows in “Eye Contact,” there seems to be a dreamy channeling of the best of ‘90s Alternative (e.g., The Cranberries, Nirvana), which is paired up with some lighthearted yet edgy Math Rock in the high-school-nostalgic “Big Crush.” The “Burden Complex” is, as the title suggests, with unexpected shifts in tempo signaling how out of control life can feel. And this all leads to the last track, which was the first single to be released. If there was ever a song that could typify neo-Emo, it’s “Armed to the Teeth,” which is gloriously introspective and melancholy and has so many layers to uncover that it demands being listened to on repeat for every aspect of it to be sufficiently savoured.

Big Deep Sigh is available at tingetheband.bandcamp.com as a digital download, as well as being offered on limited edition cassette.

“Heaven on a Hellbound Train” proves Derksen’s humanist lyrical chops, musing on the power of common struggle in the song’s conclusion: “It’s not who you are, it’s not where you’ve been… We’re all trying to get to heaven on a hellbound train.” The song’s roaming, alt-country manner embodies both the notion of a common human journey and its author’s own reflective explorations of free will and pain.

“One Stab at the Good Life” marks a spiritual Country entry with its tragic union of mundanity, pain, and pure aspirations. It feels impossible not to find one’s own tired, early-morning Winnipeg self in its weary pining.

“Fuck You and Fuck Your Friends Too” is somehow equal parts bitter, astute, and graceful. Fleshed out by twisted idioms and an indignant guitar solo, the catharsis is nonetheless palpable: “Well the devil works in awful ways/ He sometimes sends an angel face/ With beauty and a walk like grace,” gives way to the title lyrics’ final uttering.

Derksen’s record feels uniquely fascinating, Canadian, and relistenable. Carried by a clear voice whose vibrato stresses cut with precision emphasis, this record weaves a dazzling plot from myriad personal and musical threads. Paul Newsom witness to the absolutely horrendous situation we were put in and the fallout we are all living in. The long memory is a radical act. Rob Crooks’ new record, The Empire is in Decline and Growing Weaker by the Day, is a way to recover the long memory.

Picking up where his previous EP Introducing the Ghost left off, Rob Crooks explores themes of alienation, the pandemic, and revolution. While Ghost is earnest and introspective, The Empire is in Decline is angry and decisive in its indictments. Not one punch is pulled, and nor should they be. The center is too weak to hold us. Guest appearances by Kitz Willman and Yy add heft to an already heavy EP. Yy, in particular, on the track “Excursions,” sounds so smooth, rapping over a relentless beat.

This is music to plan the arrest of longterm care profiteers to.

Scott Price

Winnipeg singer-songwriter Noah Derksen makes strikingly earnest music. It’s probably thanks to this fact that seeing his most recent album come up marked “Explicit” on streaming services feels momentarily surreal - if only for the presence of several pointed and beautiful breakup songs on the record.

Sanctity of Silence’s tracks only occasionally resembles the sleepy, daydreaming ballads of Derksen’s first EP. In line with the course charted by the two subsequent full-length albums prior to it, Sanctity feels packed; purposeful; and meticulously developed. The record is essentially personal in a manner that seems all the more compelling for Derksen’s extroverted approach to song structuring.

The title track is instantly memorable,

Rob Crooks The Empire Is In Decline And Growing Weaker By The Day

Released March 3, 2023, Saskatoon Folk Rap records.

I think it’s fair to say that everyone had a rough couple of years starting in March 2020 — the constant stress and uncertainty mixed with a swirl of constant grim news. Our minds are good at protecting us and will block out memories that are too painful or traumatic so we can move along with our lives. I’m not judging anyone’s coping mechanisms because they were in short supply, but we should bear

Cookie Delicious Fox In Golden Armour

Anyone who is familiar with the Winnipeg music scene has surely happened upon Joel Klaverkamp’s music over the years. But one could be forgiven for perhaps not knowing his name since his projects since 1989 have been multitudinous. From the teenage hair metal band Breakneck Inferno to the indie-forward cyberpunk project Robojom, to the latest broody dance-rock outfit Cookie Delicious, Klaverkamp is perpetually involved in the process of reinvention. Is he now the armour-clad Reynard first seen on the cover of his 2022 single Forget It? And how long before the next iconoclasm? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, Fox in Golden Armour provides listeners with nearly 36 minutes of what has been selfdescribed as “hypnotic creamsicle,” which aptly describes the swirl of tasty beats, sweet hooks, and biting lyrics. The album grapples with various themes of perspective and powerlessness, love and loss, and soberly dealing with and accepting change. Sight – i.e. seeing and being seen – preoccupies the artist and serves as the main thread that runs through each and every song, which is mirrored by the dynamic interplay between Klaverkamp and backing vocalist Domo Lemoine (who appears on every track except the trippy outlier “Bite Your Medicine”). Though quite different in style, the dual vocals, stark drums, minimalist guitars, and synthrootedness of Fox in Golden Armour is somewhat reminiscent of the recent rock opera Atum by The Smashing Pumpkins; though Cookie Delicious is much closer in alikeness to certain incarnations of LCD Soundsystem or Beck. we felt were the best we’d ever written. So, we recommitted ourselves to each other for one more album and found a lot of clarity through that - it was our last chance to make the record we’d always wanted to make”.

The result of this one last hurrah of creativity and determinism is one of the most introspective and sonically fascinating projects I’ve heard from an indie artist this decade.

THE FAMOUS SANDHOGS THE SONG-POEM STORE VOLUME 21

far this year, it’s safe to assume that much more music is to be expected before the year’s out. In fact, as soon as these words are read, Volume 21 might already be ancient history, and the reader could be hearing their very own song on Volume 22, Volume 23, or Volume 24.

Mykhailo Vil’yamson

Lizzards Lizzards Ii

“Seeing Further” is the most radiant song on the album – its drums and bass capture the cadence of summer cruising. But while it might first appear with the playful wah at the start of “Code Words” that a party atmosphere will continue, it quickly becomes clear through layers of instrumentation that a less jovial course has been set. The deeply reflective “Fall to Pieces” confirms this movement, with its solitary, reverb-heavy piano chords impelling the listener to stop and drift. Its tone still contemplative, the tempo picks up again in “Another Time,” which is punchy and highlights all aspects of the band’s lineup. The second half of the album begins with a steady descent into even greater darkness and self-reflection via “Into This Dream,” followed by the enigmatic fever-dream of a track, “Bite Your Medicine.” However, when all seems potentially lost existentially, “Help Me” brings things out of depths with some self-propelled beats, steady bass, and a pensive guitar solo. And it all concludes with the assertively buoyant call to action in “Turn Back.” What should one “annihilate” though (as so urged by the repeated lyric)? I guess what needs destroying in oneself and the observable world is up to the listener to decide.

Vil’yamson

Mykhailo

Yes We Mystic Trust Fall

Winnipeg’s own Yes We Mystic’s third and final album, Trust Fall, was released on October 21st, 2022. The group describes it as (in addition to being heavily inspired by Kate Bush) “the songs were most proud of, and that we fought the hardest to bring into the world.”

“At the beginning of last year, we found ourselves scattered. Despite our love for the band and one another, we could sense that life wouldn’t allow the five of us to pile into a van to play songs across continents again. We considered calling it quits, thinking— ‘we’re happy with the last record we made, would that be such a bad note to end on?’.

What pushed us to continue was the new songs we were working on, which

The album opens with the bombastic track “Long Dream.” It was the first single released for the album, and it works as a perfect jumping-off point to the record. It gradually builds with its instrumentation culminating in a truly epic conclusion. “It has what we see as the quintessential example of the ‘yes we mystic build’ in this unique way where the tension is always rising for pretty much the whole song,” I was told. I also think it is important to note how well it flows into the next track, “High Beams.” This is something that I immediately noticed on the first listen is how well each track flows into the subsequent one. The pacing here is just great and makes for a much better experience.

One thing that stood out to me was how good the production is here. The sound is rich and has so much depth. The vocals and instrumentals work perfectly with each other, neither one being drowned out, even in the most intense moments. In short, it just sounds really good.

Another highlight for me was: “Night mode.” The strings on this song combined with the vocals just paint this beautiful auditory picture. It perfectly highlights another one of my favourite things about this record which is its instrumental diversity. You go from strings to guitar to electronic elements, and they all flow together wonderfully.

The closing track, “Sun Room,” has to be my favourite on the album. It just perfectly encapsulates the melancholic feeling of the record.

This album does a fantastic job of portraying its theme of finding meaning in the monotony. Calling the album Trust Fall makes perfect sense, “A trust fall is, in and of itself, a meaningless exercise. But it’s also an expression of the idea that good will come of letting yourself fall”. “The record is a statement about letting life take you where it takes you. It also touches on the nature of memory and our relationship with the past, as most of our work has over the years.”

I was very impressed with this album overall, and it is as good a send-off as any group could wish for.

Jakob Sheppard

If there’s one artist that is able to arrange a pasticcio of completely unrelated lyrics into a coherent and beguiling whole – from an infant donating Canada Child Benefit money to CKUW’s Fundrive to the philosophical hazards of captaincy –it’s The Famous Sandhogs. Their latest release The Song-Poem Store Volume 21 brings the total number of songs they’ve recorded as a part of this project alone to 105 in less than three years. Similar to what was chronicled in the 2003 documentary Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story, the Sandhogs have imported a model of commissioning songs to Winnipeg where absolutely anyone is able to send them words and said poetry gets converted into songform … for free. All it takes is a simple email to thefamoussandhogs@gmail. com, and the result is akin to the title of track five from Volume 13: namely, “Send a Poem, Get Back a Song!” This anonymous musician has been setting such poems to music since March of 2020, and the momentum of these five-song EPs is continuing posthaste into 2023.

As for this most recent collection, although the songs literally have nothing to do with each other, Volume 21 is almost reminiscent of the soundtrack for a western film. The haunting voice of a narrator bard echoes off the canyon walls –seamlessly weaving five disjointed scenes together. At first, the landscape seems sparse. A subtle layering of worn guitar tracks marks the cadence of a disgraced and dejected marshal who is wearily riding out of town. “Helm” immediately captivates the listener with a contemplative intensity that cannot be contained and which subsequently explodes near the track’s end. After the fiery melancholy burns out, “South of Heaven” simultaneously presents a picture of regret and unfulfilled longing – the singular guitar and unfeigned voice conveying the image of a weary traveller who has found temporary respite in a campfirelit cave. While the tempo remains the same, spirited resolve characterizes what follows in “Phone is Where the Twine is,” with driving electric guitars and drums impelling listeners into new territory. And before things ultimately fade to black after the stripped-down, introspective “A Cat Named Gio,” TFS dispenses some levity in the hallucinatory aside of “Audrey the Baby.”

The Song-Poem Store Volume 21 is available exclusively on Bandcamp with a set cost of “Name Your Price.” Given that this is only the second release by The Famous Sandhogs so

The Lizzards have slithered back for their sophomore release, Lizzards II. Arriving via the local staple Eat Em Up Records, Lizzards II takes everything they brought to their S/T debut and brings a heightened ferocity. The vocals are snarlier, the guitars have quicker licks, the bass lines are boomier than ever, and the kit kicks with untethered tenacity.

The clearest takeaway from Lizzards II is the band’s undeniable chemistry and ego-less collaboration. Swapping singers is part of that, but it’s mostly evident in the very bones of their songs. “I Enjoy Being A Boy,” for example, kicks off with a thundering bass line well and swell enough to be the song’s main feature; that’s only until the face-melting guitar solo jumps off at a blistering pace. The chorus, which undoubtedly features the lyrics “I enjoy being a boy when I’m with you,” are backed by Beach Boys-esque “Oooohs.” It’s a tight track that comes in at under two minutes but makes a lasting impression.

One highlight on an album of highlights is “Freezing Cold,” a surfrock gem that features call-andresponse lyrics, endearing monitor buzzes, and, as one might expect, fuzzed-out guitars. It’s a catchy track that instantly makes you fall in love with the record.

Let’s also call attention to the impeccable penultimate, “The Leader.” Somewhat Sadies, somewhat Gun Club, this garage/country ballad is a perfect example of both genres’ propensity for cynicism, regret, and misanthropy. It’s probably the most lyrically dense track on the album (not that every song has to be) that wrestles with the nature of blind faith. “Come with me, and you will see you’ll reap just what you sow/ Trust in me, and I will lead to galaxies unknown,” says the song’s unreliable narrator.

There is everything you could ever want out of a garage album. Breakneck drumming? Check. Lofi vocals? Check. Scuzzy guitars that fucking rip with catchy riffs? Check and Check. It’s an undeniably old-school DIY rock that we don’t always get these days. Here’s to Lizzards III. Myles Tiessen