Music

Ponytails are a great band. When you see them play together they have such a natural ease and chemistry with each other that it’s easy to assume they are all great friends off stage as well as on. The band has just released their new Lester Lyons-Hookham directed video for the winsome stunner “Cherry Pie,” and with it the reveal that the band is a lot tighter that we may have initially thought.

There's no such thing as a slut. A woman who gets all the action she wants is studly. Holiday Sidewinder has the nerve and charm to pull off this message without delivering it from the cross, or at the very least, the soapbox. Her latest song, a number so sparkly and catchy it wouldn't be out of place as a Kylie Minogue hit, has a clear and boastful message: I got laid, it felt good, that's as simple as it needs to be. The lead voice in the song had a few mojitos, went home with a boy, barely remembers his face, and had a nice time.

Cat Power has been an indelible part of the American songbook for the last couple decades. Her songs are as beautiful as they are diverse. Her absence the last few years has definitely been felt but now Chan Marshall is back with a new single and video for “Woman”, off of her upcoming tenth studio album Wanderer (October 5th, Domino Records). Featuring some help from Lana Del Ray, “Woman” is quintessential Cat Power. A healthy dose of Americana tiered by a solid driving rhythm section and dreamy harmonies.

Lurking under couches and in cupboards behind corn starch in many American homes are the remnants of the last stand of guitar-based music, from back in the early part of this century. The front lines being fought by the White Stripes and the Starlite Desperation, the war eventually was lost when Jet exposed the flank by not obeying orders, and the entire army collapsed. 

The last ten or twelve years, it feels like nearly every mid-level act's video concept is "Kids having fun in America" and boy, did that get tiring. Wild Nothing's latest, although stylish and narrative-based, is so much more than that. To even the saltiest critics, it's beautiful wallpaper, feeling somewhere between a dark David Sedaris adaptation and Steven Soderbergh's Red Oaks. 

It wasn’t uncommon for 90s kids to spend their Friday nights nestled in front of the television watching the dancers getting loose on Queen Street West during the weekly broadcast of Muchmusic’s Electric Circus. Petra Glynt is bringing us all back to those days whether you were around for it or not. Montreal’s electronic powerhouse has just released the new video for her single “No Consequences” and it is absolutely draped in that perfect aesthetic.

If only there was a way to capture the feeling of summertime and keep it around for when you need it most. Park hangs with pals, road trips to the lake, the way a crush can make you feel. While we may not have a spray available to take us back to these moments, we do have Leisure Club. Vancouver’s tropical five piece have been setting our summer hearts ablaze the last few years and today they release the video for their brand new single “Hollow Heartbeat”.

A cold realization in life is that you’d think as you get older the emotions you felt as a teenager become something that mellows out and are gradually easier for you to deal with. Listening to the new single “Greyhound”, one of the highlights off of Scout, the debut album by Calpurnia, made me realize that this is probably not the case. A crunchy little number that’s propelled by a wandering, wonderful bass line and anchored with some of the most matter-of-fact, and honestly, quite charming lyrics.

Jack Tatum's Wild Nothing project has the distinction of creating the type of record that, when put on, company will either ask immediately what it is, or get a "These guys have always been pretty good, huh?" response. Wild Nothing fits a niche, but that entire space is unshared, taken up entirely by the spacious production that brims the genre. The latest single, "Partners In Motion" is a little more upfront than Wild Nothing releases of the past.