Classic Canadian Alternative: Rhymes with Orange

Rhymes with Orange were a pop-tinged alternative band from Vancouver. I actually met the band in a Golden Griddle restaurant back in the day. Such memories. Check out some tunes:

"Toy Train"

"She Forgot to Laugh"

Pic from Facebook.

New July Talk video for Someone

I'm a huge, huge July Talk fan. I'm certainly not alone in wanting new music from the band to be released. In the meantime, we can enjoy more and more brilliance from their eponymous début.

Here's the latest July Talk video. It features the band having fun in a motel room. The tune is "Someone" and it's awesome.

As always, the band is touring. If you're local, I hope you were lucky enough to get tickets for their now sold out St. Patrick's Day show at The Hoxton. After that, they're off to Europe before coming back for WayHome Festival in July.

New Metz

Metz rocked us all with their first album. They've got a new one on the way for a May 5 release and we get to hear the new tune "Acetate". The new album is simply called II and if this tune is any indication, it's going to be another super-intense bludgeoning cacophony of barely-restrained power. I've got to see these guys live.

They're on tour and playing Toronto's Lee's Palace May 1-2 and somewhat locally at Ontario's WayHome Festival in July.

Pic from Facebook.

Whitehorse Leave No Bridge Unburned with new album

Whitehorse just released a new album called Leave No Bridge Unburned. The duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland produce tunes that are rootsy and groovy with cool harmonies and southern-fried guitar riffs. I managed to miss their live set at TURF in 2013, but they claim to, "...present a full band sound using live loops, bits and pieces percussion, and swapping guitars left right and centre on stage."

Soak up some tunes and grab your tickets to their tour. They're on stage at Toronto's Massey Hall on May 8.

"Downtown"

"Sweet Disaster"

"Baby What's Wrong?"

"Tame as the Wild Ones"

"The One I Hurt"

Pic from Facebook.

Royal Blood. What else do you need to know?

Royal Blood became one of my favourite discoveries of 2014 with their uber-powerful self-titled début album. The album featured prominently on my favourite albums of 2014 list, several songs appeared on my favourite songs of 2014 list and their powerhouse show at Toronto's Lee's Palace was significant because I knew even then that I would never get to see them play a venue that intimate again.

Last week they impressed us all with a win of Best British Group at the Brit awards and they put on a massive performance of "Figure It Out". Congrats to this great band and I look forward to the amazing things they'll do as their career progresses. This post will catch us up on the recent happenings in the Royal Blood camp.

Here's that Brit Awards performance:

Hurray Hurray for the first of March, Royal Blood is covering the Police's "Roxanne".

They also released a new video for "Out of the Black"

They've put out some b-side tracks: 'Hole', 'You Want Me', 'Love And Leave It Alone' and 'One Trick Pony'.

Here they are covering T. Rex's "20th Century Boy". Great tune!

And finally, a video for "Ten Tonne Skeleton"