“Winnowing” – Bird City’s Debut Album – Out Today on Label Fantastic! and Coax

It’s here!  The day is finally here!

After more than three years recording, and the better part of a year preparing the release, Bird City’s album is available to the public.

Winnowing-cover-for-webBird City is the banjo/tenor guitar project of Jenny Mitchell, a Guelph, Ontario-based songwriter who previously performed as Jenny Omnichord and fronted the band The Barmitzvah Brothers among her many other musical projects.

Mitchell crafted the debut album by Bird City, Winnowing, over a three-year period with producer/engineer Scott Merritt at his Guelph studio, with a host of notable friends contributing. These included Bry Webb (Constantines), Nathan Lawr (Minotaurs), J.J. Ipsen (Jim Guthrie, Two-Minute Miracles), and Merritt himself on a multitude of instruments.

Tying it all together is Mitchell’s musical vision of creating out-of- body experiences through stark fragility, no matter how many instruments are on a track.

With Winnowing, Jenny moves beyond her quirky Omnichord persona, playing these exposed and poetic songs of paranoia, heartbreak and self-examination developed for nearly 15 years. Although she likes to describe her work as “tiny songs,” Winnowing is a towering achievement from an artist long considered one of Canada’s unsung treasures, who is poised to at last get the recognition she deserves.

As of today you can buy copies on bandcampCoax Records, and by requesting them at your favourite local record stores (distribution through Outside records)  The BEST of course is buying them directly from Bird City at one of the upcoming release shows (see posted dates below)  Check out this article about the record, from “The Record” 

Upcoming shows: 

Oct 28 :: Heritage Hall :: Guelph ON [w/ Scott Merritt]

Nov 5 :: The Burdock :: Toronto ON [w/ Sandro Perri]

Nov 18 :: House Show :: Meaford ON [w/Culture Reject]

Nov 25 :: The Casbah :: Hamilton ON [w/ Eiyn Sof & Mayor McCa]

Dec 9 :: Catalina’s :: Peterborough ON [w/Joyful Joyful]

Dec 10 :: Pressed :: Ottawa ON

Advanced stream up today on Grayowl Point!

Extremely excited to get to share this with you!  Tune in to Grayowl Point for an advanced stream of Bird City’s “Winnowing”.

We’re getting closer and closer to release date folks.  You can check out the upcoming tour dates below

Winnowing-cover-for-web

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 28 :: Heritage Hall :: Guelph ON [w/ Scott Merritt]

Nov 5 :: The Burdock :: Toronto ON [w/ Sandro Perri]

Nov 18 :: House Show :: Meaford ON [w/Culture Reject]

Nov 25 :: The Casbah :: Hamilton ON [w/ Eiyn Sof & Mayor McCa]

Dec 9 :: Catalina’s :: Peterborough ON [w/Joyful Joyful]

Dec 10 :: Pressed :: Ottawa ON

Donairs! Henry’s finally don(air)e it.

Well friends – guess what you’re looking at?  Remember our friend Henry Adam Svec, the songwriter who drew our attention to projects such as “The CFL Sessions”, “Folk Songs of Canada”, and “Folk Songs of Canada Now”?   Well here’s what happened: Henry FINALLY moved away from London, and ended up in Fredericton.  And while there, he developed an OBSESSION with donairs.  Photos of donairs, sound-collages, even a donair-themed radio show.  THEN Henry moved down to the United States.  And while some of us might have expected the result to be something innocent like “Folk Songs of America Now”, that’s not exactly what Henry had in mind.  THIS was his vision:

Donair Academy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry has made a VIDEO GAME ABOUT DONAIRS.  And it’s totally bizarre.  It’s totally Henry.  I should have seen this coming, but I’ll admit that I really didn’t.  Congratulations Henry.  Here are the details:

The donair has been gaining steam. Invented by restaurateur Peter Gamoulakos in the 1970s, when he was having trouble selling the traditional gyro to his Maritimer patrons, the sweet, milky beef wrap was named an official food of Halifax in 2015. Now the dish gets its own interactive digital game, entitled Donair Academy.

Created by Henry Adam Svec and Chad Comeau, Donair Academy lovingly and nostalgically hearkens back to the RPGs and digital encyclopedias of the 1990s, such as Final Fantasy and Microsoft Encarta. Players can explore the historical, gastronomical, and acoustic dimensions of this culinary artifact, which is a fascinating compromise linking Turkish, Greek, and Atlantic Canadian tastes. One struggles to describe the experience (surprising? enlightening? surreal?). In a sense, perhaps playing the game is just like eating a good donair.

“One never knows when donair knowledge will come in handy,” says Comeau. It is hard to elaborate further without giving away the game’s provocative conclusion, so the interested reader will simply need to play to find out how. But the game also probes bigger, more universal issues, using the Halifax donair as a springboard. “We wanted to make a game that mixed several dimensions of donair history and culture. Education, canonization, mobilization, mastication—it’s all in here,” says Svec.

Donair Academy is the first collaboration between writer and performer Henry Adam Svec (The CFL Sessions, Artificially Intelligent Folk Songs of Canada) and game designer Chad Comeau (La vie d’Arcade, Granny Games). Each having worked as Media Artist in Residence at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton (Svec in 2014-2015 and Comeau in 2016-2017), the idea first came to light when Svec encouraged Comeau to make a game about donairs on his Facebook page. What began perhaps as a joke has finished as reality. Also featuring a tense, dramatic soundtrack by WL Altman and Andrew Penner, Donair Academy is available for free online at www.donairacademy.org.

 

Let’s hear it for Edwin!

Hey friends!

If you’ve visited us here in the past little bit, you would have noticed the site was glitchy.  Thanks to our pal Edwin over at Relaxe Ave Recording it’s now fixed!   What  a guy!  He’s currently working on Wax Mannequin’s new album (out this fall!) and in his spare time he just ever so casually SAVED LABEL FANTASTIC!’S site!!!  What a guy.  Check out his studio, he’s a gem.

Bird City shows in small towns, with Bry Webb

Bry's tour poster May 2017

The new Bird City record (the first official Bird City record) will be released this autumn on Label Fantastic! and Coax Records.  In the meantime, Jenny has teamed up with longtime pal/Constantines’ front man “Bry Webb” to accompany him on a bunch of his tour of small Ontario cities.  Bry is going LOTS of places, you can check out his post on facebook to see his full list of dates, the ones featuring Bird City are listed below.  Bry is carving out a beautiful reconnaissance mission of small town venue connections, quite a magical feat, and if the shows goes well hopefully many Label Fantastic! artists will return to these towns.  If you or your friends are near any of these places we’d love to see you out at the shows!

Bry Webb w/ Bird City:

May:

13 – Manitowaning (Manitoulin Island) – Debajehmujig Creation Centre

14 – Peterborough – Artspace

18 – Owen Sound – Heartwood Concert Hall - w/ Long Branch

19 – Sudbury – Fromagerie Elgin

20 – Durham - Garafraxa Cafe

25 Kingston – Next Church

26 Stratford – Montforte

June 18 – Grimsby – The Pumphouse

 

 

Old Cabin’s “Saturn Return” out now on Label Fantastic! and Headless Owl

Saturn ReturnsIt’s here!  ”Saturn Return” by Old Cabin is officially released!  You can stream the album right now at Exclaim!   

Here’s the rundown: “The album opens with the previously shared addiction tale “Where Did You Go,” which is immediately followed by an accompanying suite cryptically titled “!?!” From there, we hear the stories of “Joe,” as well as “And Annie,” before Barr grapples with the absurdities of life on “I Got You,” and finally — and perhaps most powerfully — the aftermath of residential schools on “Don’t Leave Me Behind.”

Rich with layered characters and heavy themes, the album is am engaging exercise in modern musical storytelling told through a distinctly Canadian lens.”

It’s a great record – we were lucky enough to witness Jona perform it in its entirety on the Golden Bus earlier this month.  Be sure to keep an eye on his tour schedule.  If you’re out in western Canada, check out one of these upcoming dates:

09/19 Whitehorse, YT – Waterfront Trolley Roundhouse
10/07 Vancouver, BC – The Merge
10/08 Prince George, BC – The Legion
10/10 Edmonton, AB – The Buckingham
10/11 Edmonton, AB – The Sewing Machine Factory
10/13 Saskatoon, SK – Vangelis
10/14 Regina, SK – Break Out West
10/15 Regina, SK – Break Out West

 

Old Cabin previews new EP with “Where Did You Go” …announces Canadian tour dates

Old cabin photo

Old Cabin is crossing Canada on tour!  In celebration of “Where Did You Go, the first offering from his forthcoming EP, Saturn Return, available later this summer via Label Fantastic!

Melding an East Coast sensibility with a Northern aesthetic, Old Cabin builds intricate sonic landscapes. At times scrappy, and at others soulful and calm, the songs – helmed by principle songwriter Jona Barr – are presented with an earnest and heartfelt sincerity and depth.
On “Where Did You Go,” the debut single from the forthcoming Saturn Return EP, Old Cabin stradles a fine line of seeking new ways forward while carrying the weight of what’s left behind. Chronicling a narrative that documents the struggles of addiction, the single echoes the themes of painstaking growth found throughout Saturn Return. It is beautiful a slow burn accentuated by meticulous string work, ethereal melodies, and intricate guitar picking.
Ahead of the EP’s release, “Where Did You Go” will be released as a special 7″ single, via Headless Owl Records. This limited edition vinyl single will feature the song split into two parts to compile the A Side (“Where Did You Go”) and B side (“!?!”).
On his upcoming Canadian tour, Old Cabin enlists a series of seasoned veterans to round out his full band including Kyle Cashen (Old Time Machine), Thean Slabbart (Bosveld), and Pascal Delaquis (Hilotrons).

Listen to the sprawling track HERE or below.

Catch him in a town near you!  Dates are as follows:

June 01 - Whitehorse, YT @ Arts In The Park
June 03 - Prince George, BC @ The Legion
June 04 - Quesnel, BC @ The College of New Caledonia
June 05 - Kamloops, BC @ Red Collar Brewing
June 08 - Victoria, BC @ Copper Owl
June 09 - Vancouver, BC @ The Merge
June 12 - Calgary, AB @ Local 510
June 13 - Edmonton, AB @ The Buckingham
June 15 - Regina, SK @ Durty Nellys
June 16 - Winnipeg, MB @ The Windsor
June 17 - Thunder Bay, ON @ The Foundry
June 18 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Lop Lops
June 19 - Sudbury, ON @ The Townhouse Tavern
June 20 - Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
June 22 - Ottawa, ON @ Bar Robo
June 23 - Guelph, ON @ The Making Box
June 24 - Hamilton, ON @ HAVN
June 25 - Peterborough, ON @ The Garnet
June 26 - Toronto, ON @ The Monarch Tavern
June 30 - Saskatoon, SK @ Vangelis
July 01 - Rocky Mountain Horse, AB @ Frog Fest
July 10 - Atlin, BC @ Atlin Arts & Music Festival
July 16 - Annie Lake, YT @ Popechella/Rympelooza
July 23 - Dawson City, YT @ Dawson City Music Festival

The White Funz! HANK! TWO NEW RELEASES THROUGH LABEL FANTASTIC!!!

I am SUPER pleased to announce these two new releases.

One is a once-in-a-label-lifetime type of fantastical release, a compendium of 24 songs and beautiful art pieces that attempt to render a portrait to illustrate the mythological legendary “Mulagi”

One is a beautiful vinyl from one of my favourite bands from the BLOCKS Recording club era in my teen years.

We get to release a book/album about a legend, and an album FROM a legend.  This is a magical day.

Here’s some info about each – I hope your day is as great as mine is now!  Try to make it out to a release show near you!

The Ecstasy and the Void: an introduction to the Occult of Mulagi - The White Funz

hank_showers_FRONTPublication Studios Guelph and Ecstasy and the Void_Promo-picLabel Fantastic! are proud to co- present The Ecstasy and the Void: An Introduction to the Occult of Mulagi, the world’s first compendium of the apocryphal lore and mystery surrounding the Serbian folk-hero, Mulagi. Sayings, fragments of stories, and unearthed poems have been brought to life in twenty-four original artworks by twenty-four original artists from across the globe. Having brought the folk history of the British Isles to life with the popular Devon Folklore Tapes series, Scotland’s The White Funz were hired to score an original soundtrack, coming full circle to unite the artworks and written words of Mulagi. Twenty years in the making, this unforgettable release is both challenging and rewarding, comforting and perplexing. But as it has been said since time immemorial: To pass across the desert, streams turn to mist. To find a way to Mulagi, desist, desist, desist.

Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/man-meets-bear/the-white-funz-transmissions-from-the-interior-of-the-mulagi-nebulonic-cloud
Pick up a copy of this beautiful book and cassette volume at the Kazoo! Showcase Friday October 30th @ Ebar, Guelph

Showers of Happiness - Hankhank_showers_FRONT

hank_showers_FRONThank_showers_FRONT‘Showers of Happiness’ is the 4th album by Hank following on from 2009′s ‘The Luck of the Singers’ (Blocks Recording Club). Mixed and mastered in Kitchener, Ontario by Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) with sleeve and label artwork by his daughter Rowan Blake. 14 pop songs, 38 minutes. Featuring Lex Vaughn (Lesbians on Xstacy), Magali Meagher (The Phonemes), Chris Cummings (Marker Starling), Tara Azzopardi (The Pining) and many more!

 Pick up a copy of the vinyl at their release show this Sunday October 25th @ Jane Bond, Waterloo

Blimp Rock’s “Sophomore Slump” Out Today!!!

Press Photo #2 - 06032015Today!  One of my favourite bands of ALL TIME has given us a second full-length record to fall in love with.  If you had asked me three years ago if my favourite band in 2015 would be a MARKETING TEAM I would have thought that an extremely unlikely circumstance.  But marketing WORKS folks, at least when you’re marketing Blimp Festivals.  Check out their new album, check out their vintage office supplies, check out all things Blimp Rock at:  http://www.blimprockenterprises.com/

Here’s a word from the team themselves:

ATTN: People of business!

We have a very important announcement for you today.  
Blimp Rock will be releasing our second album, entitled “Sophomore Slump” on
April 7th.

Let’s All Stay In Tonight” – the first single is not so much a rejection of the nightlife, but an endorsement of the indoors. It is a ‘call to couch’ for those of us who enjoy cheese plates, early evenings and small groups of people. Listen via Soundcloud, Bandcamp or watch the video.

As both a band and a marketing team, we have focused on funding our $700k festival that will take place on a blimp floating over Lake Ontario. We plan on reaching our goal by releasing albums, touring as a relatively unheard of Southern Ontario rock band, and selling vintage office supplies such as rolodexes, fax machines and floppy discs.

After the runaway success of “Lake Ontario Lifeguards (L.O.L.)”, expectations ran high at the BRE offices for a follow-up. Will we ever surpass the hype of L.O.L.? Was the first record better? Can we ever raise $700 000? Regardless, Blimp Rock has made a second album.

However, it is a good idea to get our sometime, so Blimp Rock will also be embarking upon a “Powerpoint Tour of Ontario” starting April 11th.
Each show includes a Powerpoint presentation on our business plan, followed by a rock concert.  

We’d be very appreciative if you shared the news with your associates.
Thank you for your business,

Blimp Rock Enterprises”

Press Release (AR)

Presentations:

Apr. 11 – Guelph, ON – Kazoo! Fest
Apr. 16 – Oshawa, ON – The Moustache Club
Apr. 17 – Hamilton, ON – Homegrown Cafe
Apr. 18 – Maynooth, ON – The Arlington Hotel
Apr. 19 – Peterborough, ON – The Spill
Apr. 24 – Windsor, ON – Phog Lounge
Apr. 25 – Toronto, ON – The Dakota Tavern
May. 1 – Ottawa, ON – Raw Sugar Cafe
May. 2 – Montreal, QC – Le Cagibi
May. 8 – St. Catherines, ON – Mahtay
May. 9 – Midland, ON – The Boathouse