Jon Mckiel – Hex

$15.00$26.00

Jon Mckiel
Hex
Cat#: YC-061
Released: May 3, 2024
Format: LP/CD/Digital

The songs of Jon McKiel are born of the bruised marshlands of remote New Brunswick, from the craggy shores of the Atlantic coast; places where nature is a powerful wonder and the made-world is in slow decay. His new album, Hex, is a bloodshot pop record steeped in our dystopian present, tempered, across its ten tracks, by an existential umami. His lyrics combine natural elements with bits of fantasy and lucid dreamscapes, all tangled with the transmuted horrors of our thoroughly modern present. In his music, what might otherwise be construed as paranoia or pessimism, is softened by a genuine sense of longing and tenderness.

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PLEASE NOTE: This is a special Pre-order offer. Any orders including Hex will ship on or before May 3, 2024.

The songs of Jon McKiel are born of the bruised marshlands of remote New Brunswick, from the craggy shores of the Atlantic coast; places where nature is a powerful wonder and the made-world is in slow decay. His new album, Hex, is a bloodshot pop record steeped in our dystopian present, tempered, across its ten tracks, by an existential umami. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s cult favorite Bobby Joe Hope, which Aquarium Drunkard called “an unlikely masterpiece” and Gorilla vs. Bear listed as one of their favorites of that god-forsaken year.

After two solid decades of refining his practice, during the creation process for Bobby Joe Hope, McKiel unlocked new sampling techniques, fundamentally changing the way he makes music. Hex sees that practice extended into even more evocative terrain. Performed and produced again in close collaboration with JOYFULTALK’s Jay Crocker, the duo offer up another collection of songs as disquieting as they are comforting. Expertly evoked by Paul Henderson’s twisted collage on the cover, Hex is equal parts flower field and burning building.

The music moves subtly between moods, carrying themes of fate, doom, family, love and distrust in the digital age. The eponymous lead track is an eerie, subterranean banger whose looped percussion and dirt-nasty bassline bring to mind low fi hip hop flipping early 70s Gene Clark. Elsewhere, on ‘Memory Screen Pt 1’, McKiel’s nostalgia-drenched vocals bring to mind more sounds of the 1970s that appear sonically wider than the largely mono “Bobby Jo Hope”. Then there are moments like ‘Under Burden’, whose skittering drum machine and saccharine synths suggest the cult works of that other Bobby Brown. The album also features McKiel’s first cover committed to tape, a haunting version of a tune called ‘Concrete Sea’, as sung by Terry Jacks (of ‘Seasons In The Sun’ and Poppy Family fame). An earlier version of the cover first cropped up on Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions wherein Mckiel contextualized the selection: “This is actually a song from my childhood. Jacks was at the forefront of ’60s and ’70s-era musicians who were using their platforms to speak out or sing about environmental issues, eventually leaving music entirely to pursue a more peaceful and natural way of life, something that I deeply relate to. The chorus hook has been in my head for about 25 years…”

Regardless of mood, the songs are all adorned with the world-weary poetics heads have come to expect from McKiel. In his music, what might otherwise be construed as paranoia or pessimism, is softened by a genuine sense of longing and tenderness. His lyrics combine natural elements with bits of fantasy and lucid dreamscapes, all tangled with the transmuted horrors of our thoroughly modern present. When McKiel sings of “memories cooked down into usernames” or how “the color of time has gone from green to grey”, the listener is carried to the heart of our grim realities. When he suggests that “one song could kill the king”, we’re reminded that there may just be some dusty magic out there worth believing in.

Track Listing
  • Hex
  • String
  • Still Life
  • The Fix
  • Under Burden
  • Memory Screen pt. 1
  • Everlee
  • Lady's Mantle
  • Concrete Sea
  • Memory Screen pt. 2
  • All songs © Jon Mckiel 2024 except Concrete Sea by Terry Jacks
  • Recorded and Produced by Jon Mckiel and Jay Crocker
  • Mastered by Harris Newman
  • Performed by Jon Mckiel and Jay Crocker
  • with Nicola Miller on saxophone on HEX
  • Artwork and design by Paul Henderson - The Centaur, paper collage, 16 x 20 cm, 2023
  • Daniel Romano’s Outfit – Too Hot To Sleep

    $15.00$24.00

    Daniel Romano's Outfit
    Too Hot To Sleep
    Cat#: YC-062
    Released: March 1, 2024
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Too Hot To Sleep is simultaneously a transcendent document of the spirit, and a swaggering, street level blast of power-pop and Stone’s derived rock ‘n’ roll; a surprisingly direct shout down of the corrupt politicians and techno fascists that police our bodies, pollute our world, assault our connections; a reason and occasion to dance, to sweat together at one of The Outfit’s legendary live shows wherein everything comes faster than the next, no breaks, no outside, there is only now, there is only all of us here together, alive. A public offering of each to each.

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    Can you describe your song-writing process?

    DR: In order to bring about the good song there is a certain amount of magic to be summoned. Though there are a variety of ways to achieve it, allow me now to break down one of my favourite methods: Without food, take to your post with the hungry wonder of the morning. Getting down to it, allow everything to begin slowly– thought, breath, moment– until you’re buried, little by little in a celestial blackness where all common ideas dissolve into ash and all that didn’t serve you is gone. It’s in this original darkness that the virtues of your heart begin to ignite.

    Come hither dialecticians! Come into the darkness to discover light! Creativity is technique, study, and process, and above all, a commitment, to the self and the self’s relationship to the world. So, too it is an opening, or the result of an opening, to the gifts the world and the world cosmos bring. One conceives as one receives. Magic, yes, but magic summoned actively.

    Daniel Romano has been busy. Count the many hungry mornings at the post. Since the release of the massive, singular, La Luna in those long ago days of autumn 2022, full brilliant albums have been made and set aside (maybe two, maybe more), vast landscapes have been crossed and re-crossed, the maps redrawn, songs remade nightly with passion and gusto.

    Now here, in the depths of northern winter, arrives Too Hot To Sleep, simultaneously a transcendent document of the spirit, and a swaggering, street level blast of power-pop and Stone’s derived rock ‘n’ roll; a surprisingly direct shout down of the corrupt politicians and techno fascists that police our bodies, pollute our world, assault our connections; a reason and occasion to dance, to sweat together at one of The Outfit’s legendary live shows wherein everything comes faster than the next, no breaks, no outside, there is only now, there is only all of us here together, alive. A public offering of each to each.

    Count the many hungry mornings. Count the many and the one. Here the rock band is a self-contained creative unit: making music, design, art, and film. Making image and sound at its most primal, immediate, and sophisticated. A synthesis of influences from in and out of time. See the videos the band has created, for Field Of Ruins (wigs and costumes), Chatter (props and close-ups), Where’s Paradise (skateboarding and landscape), State Of Nature (symbol and story). See the icons and emblems emblazoned on T-shirts and jackets, secret signs for those who know, declarations of membership and understanding. Hear the blend of voices in service of the song.

    See the darkened barroom. The stage lights rise. Here we are, together, go!

    Track Listing
  • You can steal my kiss
  • Where's paradise?
  • State of nature
  • All of thee above
  • That's too rich
  • Chatter
  • Field of ruins
  • You saw me in sunshine
  • Too hot to sleep
  • Generation end
  • Recorded by Daniel Romano and Ian Romano and Engineered by Kenneth Roy Meehan at Camera Varda.
  • Mixed by Daniel Romano with Ian Romano.
  • Mastered by Kristian Montano.
  • Artwork and layout by Daniel Romano.
  • Additional recording by Daniel Romano, Ian Romano, Carson McHone and Shannon McGrath.
  • Performed by: Daniel Romano, Ian Romano, Carson McHone, Julianna Riolino and Roddy Rossetti
  • Music composed by Daniel Romano and Ian Romano.
  • Lyrics written by Daniel Romano
  • Spider Bite – The Rainbow And The Dove

    $22.00

    Spider Bite
    The Rainbow And The Dove
    Cat#: YC-060
    Released: June 16, 2023
    Format: LP/Digital

    Warmongers run the newspapers, the daily podcasts, the social media feeds. Capital creates and harvests our despair. Cultural heroes are as money-mad as bankers, standing on corpses, wearing diamonds. The songs of this age are hopeless. In this world of lies, Spider Bite celebrate truth: raw, ragged, and full of brave energy, bravely dreaming of possible futures in the immediate and active now, in this exact and ever active present: after the flood, in the ruins of love.

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    Warmongers run the newspapers, the daily podcasts, the social media feeds. Capital creates and harvests our despair. Cultural heroes are as money-mad as bankers, standing on corpses, wearing diamonds. The songs of this age are hopeless. In this world of lies, Spider Bite celebrate truth: raw, ragged, and full of brave energy, bravely dreaming of possible futures in the immediate and active now, in this exact and ever active present: after the flood, in the ruins of love.

    Spider Bite is the sound of Daniel Romano (The Outfit, Ancient Shapes, Attack In Black), Ian Romano (Daniel Romano’s Outfit, Career Suicide) and Steven Lambke (Constantines) returning to their roots in the thriving pit of DIY punk with a perspective, skill, and energy that can only be gained from long experience in music, art, and stubborn cultural creation. Spider Bite began in the depths of the first COVID-19 lockdown, a world poised between protests and rebellions, when a fearful silence held its breath, twitching the curtains, and strange imaginations ran unleashed through dark streets. Long-time collaborators Daniel Romano and Steven Lambke, who together established the artist run record label You’ve Changed Records in 2009, and monster drummer Ian Romano chose this moment to indulge their shared love of energetic street punk, releasing the self-titled debut as a Bandcamp-only release in May 2020. The album was enthusiastically embraced and even cracked the best of lists on some of the more adventurous independent music blogs. But still. Time passes. More wars. More storms. More ruin caused by greed. Spider Bite reconvened in the spring of 2022, recording The Rainbow and The Dove, an album that assembles the wisdom teachings of punk elders into a passionate rejection of settler-colonialism, environmental racism, and the general exploitation of the world by monarchs and resource extraction companies. Every moment is historical. Spider Bite celebrate a continuity of protest and refusal, and the communal joy of loud energy. Animated by a surprising humor and immense instrumental power, Spider Bite create a vibrant portrait of living in violent times.

    This is our music.


    This LP collects both the self-titled release and The Rainbow and The Dove onto a single black vinyl LP record.

    Track Listing
    SIDE ONE (2020)
  • BLOOD AND SUFFERING
  • HOSPITALS AND GRAVEYARDS
  • UBI
  • ESCAPE VELOCITY
  • SNITCH LINE
  • RED DAWN
  • SEA TO SHINING SEA
  • HEAT WAVE
  • BALL’S FALLS
  • SPIDER BITE
  • SIDE TWO (2023)
  • SMASHED GLASS
  • HUMAN BODY HUMAN BRAIN
  • FIBREGLASS CITY
  • GARBAGE NIGHT
  • HOPEFUL MONSTERS
  • AIR-CONDITIONED HOUSES
  • SPLATTER TEST
  • HAZMAT SUIT
  • THE RAINBOW AND THE DOVE
  • PARTING SHOT
  • Spider Bite:
  • Ian Romano
  • Daniel Romano
  • Steven Lambke
  • Side one mix by Kenneth Roy Meehan
  • Side two mix by Ian Romano
  • Mastering by Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory
  • Artwork and Layout by Daniel Romano
  • Daniel Romano – “Dandelion”

    $22.00$40.00

    Daniel Romano
    "Dandelion"
    Cat#: YCA-004
    Released: February 17, 2023
    Format: LP/Digital

    “Dandelion” blooms a previously undiscovered and unknown sweet spot between 60’s psychedelia and 70’s power-pop, equally pastoral and street-wise, every note tuned to moving and astounding melody. “Dandelion” offers lush arrangements of unforgettable, legend-making songs, performed entirely by Daniel himself.

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    SKU: YCA-004LP Category:

    PLEASE NOTE: The combo option includes both new Daniel Romano Archive LPs: Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Forever Love’s Fool” (YCA-003) and Daniel Romano – “Dandelion” (YCA-004).

    YOU’VE CHANGED RECORDS LAUNCHES THE ARCHIVE SERIES, OFFERING FIRST EVER LIMITED-EDITION VINYL PRESSINGS OF ALBUMS PREVIOUSLY RELEASED ONLY ON “BANDCAMP”!

    In 2020, Daniel Romano and his increasingly exalted band “The Outfit” were forced home, faced with the cancellation of tours and all live engagements at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Almost immediately, Daniel instigated a near legendary run of new albums, releasing 10 full-length albums in the span of nearly the same number of weeks. Genre-spanning, astoundingly distinct artistic achievements, these albums were originally released exclusively in digital only formats on Bandcamp. They were direct and immediate missives from one of the most talented, prolific, ambitious, and exciting artists of his generation. We are thrilled to release these albums now in very special limited-edition vinyl pressings.

    ——

    “Dandelion” blooms a previously undiscovered and unknown sweet spot between 60’s psychedelia and 70’s power-pop, equally pastoral and street-wise, every note tuned to moving and astounding melody. “Dandelion” offers lush arrangements of unforgettable, legend-making songs, performed entirely by Daniel himself.

    “In the spring of the year, God-like bodies imagine themselves into existence. Sprouting from crust and seed into the rich meats of reality. They speak not and know not, and yet they dance and sing inside the warming wind. A song too is born of this improbable metamorphosis. From the abyss around the prism and then summoned through it into light. This is the mystical posture of life. The reaction of nothing against nothing to form “something” — beauty or savagery — it becomes ours to delineate. But in its essence it is us and we are it and neither are either or anything. These songs are the offerings of spring. They draw breath apart from breath. In you and in me, parallel and reversed, true and false, bloomed from the mists of mystery and held only by what cannot hold.” – Daniel Romano

    Released simultaneously with the limited-edition LP – YCA-003 Archives Vol 4 – Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Forever Love’s Fool”

    Track Listing
    1. If You Don't Or If You Do
    2. Novus
    3. Maybe Today Will Be Curious
    4. Cornelius
    5. Plum Forever
    6. Silent Spring
    7. She's In A Folded Wing (But Flying)
    8. The Farther Side Of Love
    9. Ain't That Enough For You
    10. The Patience Of A Kiss
    Credits
    • Recorded, produced, and mixed by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Kristian Montano

    Daniel Romano’s Outfit featuring Danny Carey – “Forever Love’s Fool”

    $22.00$40.00

    Daniel Romano's Outfit
    "Forever Love's Fool"
    Cat#: YCA-003
    Released: February 17, 2023
    Format: LP/Digital

    At the heights of ambition, Daniel Romano’s Outfit deliver a wandering spell of melodic backbone, accompanied by percussionist extraordinaire Danny Carey (of TOOL fame). Rising in union with the first pounding hearts of dawn, up and down the arcades of devotion and on through the sunset, where the earth-life fades, Forever Love’s Fool is a single hard-edged, complex, multi-part epic (an approach the band would later develop even further on their 2022 masterpiece La Luna). It is intricate, precise, energetic music tied to a progressive rock inspired universal vision. Onward into the furthest reaches of love eternal.

    Clear selection
    SKU: YCA-003LP Category:

    PLEASE NOTE: The combo option includes both new Daniel Romano Archive LPs: Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Forever Love’s Fool” (YCA-003) and Daniel Romano – “Dandelion” (YCA-004).

    YOU’VE CHANGED RECORDS LAUNCHES THE ARCHIVE SERIES, OFFERING FIRST EVER LIMITED-EDITION VINYL PRESSINGS OF ALBUMS PREVIOUSLY RELEASED ONLY ON “BANDCAMP”!

    In 2020, Daniel Romano and his increasingly exalted band “The Outfit” were forced home, faced with the cancellation of tours and all live engagements at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Almost immediately, Daniel instigated a near legendary run of new albums, releasing 10 full-length albums in the span of nearly the same number of weeks. Genre-spanning, astoundingly distinct artistic achievements, these albums were originally released exclusively in digital only formats on Bandcamp. They were direct and immediate missives from one of the most talented, prolific, ambitious, and exciting artists of his generation. We are thrilled to release these albums now in very special limited-edition vinyl pressings.

    ——

    “A red rose absorbs all colours but red;
    red is therefore the one colour it is not.
    What we have in love, when we truly love, is the absence of hate.”
    – Daniel Romano

    At the heights of ambition, Daniel Romano’s Outfit deliver a wandering spell of melodic backbone, accompanied by percussionist extraordinaire Danny Carey (of TOOL fame).

    Rising in union with the first pounding hearts of dawn, up and down the arcades of devotion and on through the sunset, where the earth-life fades, Forever Love’s Fool is a single hard-edged, complex, multi-part epic (an approach the band would later develop even further on their 2022 masterpiece La Luna). It is intricate, precise, energetic music tied to a progressive rock inspired universal vision. Onward into the furthest reaches of love eternal.

    Released simultaneously with the limited-edition LP – YCA-004 Archives Vol 5 – Daniel Romano – “Dandelion”

    Track Listing
    1. Forever Love's Fool
    2. Side One (11:17)
    3. Side Two (11:22)
    Credits
    • Daniel Romano - Vocals, Guitars, Melotron, Organ
    • Dany Carey - Drums, Percussion
    • Ian Romano - Drums
    • Roddy Rossetti - Bass
    • David Nardi - Guitars, Saxophone, Synth
    • Julianna Riolino - Vocals
    • Written, composed, recorded, produced, and mixed by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Kristian Montano

    Status / Non-Status – Surely Travel

    $22.00

    Status / Non-Status
    Surely Travel
    Cat#: YC-054
    Released: September 23, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    Exploring their expansive, sky-sweeping folk rock from a fresh angle, Status/Non-Status drive head-on into a natural complement to the earth-shaking sonic landscapes they’re known for. A loose concept album written as a travel log of animals in flight, the record brims with open air reflections, while gazing out of a blurry window and acknowledging what it can’t see clearly. Blending the melted psychedelic gauze of distorted Americana, with thundering flashes of post rock, Sturgeon implements softness generously. At the core, remembering that lyrics that break through universally sing with clarity about experiences that “chop at the knees.”

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    Surely Travel is pressed in black vinyl. Includes printed lyrics and a 12×14″ poster featuring original collage artwork by Adam Sturgeon

    What’s revealed when you archive the quiet moments during time spent on the road? For Adam Sturgeon, the result is a crystalline glimpse into the unseen — and gratifying — moments of personal renovation we rarely pay attention to; where a blown out tire incites calm rather than rage, and moments of frustration invite grace instead of judgment. This is the vantage of Surely Travel, the newest album by Status/Non-Status, the evolving musical project of the Anishinaabe artist and community worker, and a close-knit group of collaborators.

    Exploring their expansive, sky-sweeping folk rock from a fresh angle, Status/Non-Status drive head-on into a natural complement to the earth-shaking sonic landscapes they’re known for. A loose concept album written as a travel log of animals in flight, the record brims with open air reflections, while gazing out of a blurry window and acknowledging what it can’t see clearly. Blending the melted psychedelic gauze of distorted Americana, with thundering flashes of post rock, Sturgeon implements softness generously. At the core, remembering that lyrics that break through universally sing with clarity about experiences that “chop at the knees.”

    Recorded over 10 days at Deadpan Studios in Sudbury, the goal was to chisel things down down to the bone. Where past records built atmosphere out of heavy swaths of sound, overlaid with harmonies, the band opted for a single vocal take, a Wurlitzer, and ran a $100 classical guitar through an amp. Written in the company of others, whether from the back of a van, or with a baby on the other side of the door, Sturgeon wrote sections of the record in near silence — whispered lyrics and muted bass riffs that started as lullabies, only to be blown out later. It interlaces the album’s material composition with its central inspiration: the inconsistent perception of glamorous associated with life on the road, and the reality of over-indexing on time spent in an unreliable, stuffy van; the wrenching sacrifice of time away from loved ones, in favour of only seeing a gas station and vacant roads for hours on end.

    Where the acclaimed, Polaris Prize Long Listed album Warrior Down (2019), and its celebrated follow-up the 1,2,3,4,500 Years EP (2020) required a mighty sonic landscape to fit its lofty reckonings of nationhood, trauma and familial memory, Surely Travel tightens its scope, but not its ambition. Instead, peering inward to examine the self within its surroundings, and to underscore identity and indigeneity from the smallest spaces or ordinary experiences. Conjuring the awe of sunshowers through the rearview mirror, Surely Travel intentionally doesn’t over-promise optimism, but rather celebrates the small wins of a human-sized approach to resilience and healing.

    Track Listing
  • Blown Tire
  • Has It Been So Long
  • Mashkiki Sunset
  • Mainly Crows
  • Bineshiinh
  • Travelogue
  • When They Were
  • What Am I To Do
  • North Adelaide
  • Surely Travel
  • Credits
  • Recorded and Mixed by Matthew Wiewel, Deadpan Studios
  • Mastered by Harris Newman, Grey Mastering
  • Layout/Design by Blake Stevenson
  • Collage by Adam Sturgeon
  • Daniel Romano’s Outfit – La Luna

    $24.00

    Daniel Romano's Outfit
    La Luna
    Cat#: YC-055
    Released: September 9, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    Consisting of a single massive song in 12 individual parts, plus pulse quickening overture and truly grand finale, La Luna is an unprecedented artistic achievement by one of contemporary music’s most ambitious and consistently surprising practitioners. Daniel Romano sets his visionary poetry to exuberant tune – it is epic, immaculately and extravagantly arranged, and truly cinematic.

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    La Luna is a single LP in a gatefold tip-on jacket. It is a thing of beauty. Like the moon. Full lyrics included.

    Come poet, contemplate the moon, here at the end of day, in this timeless moment be timely, awaken the spirit, and sing….

    Consisting of a single massive song in 12 individual parts, plus pulse quickening overture and truly grand finale, La Luna is an unprecedented artistic achievement by one of contemporary music’s most ambitious and consistently surprising practitioners. Daniel Romano sets his visionary poetry to exuberant tune – it is epic, immaculately and extravagantly arranged, and truly cinematic.

    Through close observation the observed is drawn near. Identification becomes possible. A sympathy indistinguishable from grace. Are we not like the moon? the poet might ask. Yes, does ask. In the long song. La Luna is a hymnal or scroll for modern seekers, brought to life by the impeccably skilled Outfit, (Julianna Riolino, Roddy Rosetti, David Nardi, Carson McHone, Ian Romano) with swagger and joy. Transcendently melodic, undeniably classic and shockingly contemporary, La Luna synthesizes teachings from the sacred texts of rock and roll and psychedelic-folk (Beatles, Fairport Convention, even the Stones, Queen…) into a new testament for a new time. It was recorded in a blast of radiant activity at the band’s own Camera Varda studios.

    Uploading this record to the digital void, the algorithms suggested a classification of “Progressive Rock”. These programs seek to know the present, to characterize the moment, by what is known of the past. Remember that these inhuman programs were made by human minds: these are our ways of knowing. Haven’t progressive tendencies always drawn from the past, through reinvigorated traditions, through recontextualization, through creative mimicry, through the mis- or new-interpretation of fragmented texts? The modernists stole from ancient myths, or extracted techniques from cultures not their own. Revivalists send electricity through old practices, corrupting ears and original intent, eliminating meaning. One may dream of a clean start, a clean and genuine light. And in the exuberance of beginning it can feel possible.

    Side 1 of La Luna is experienced as a document of first asking: musical themes are introduced, lyrics, later to be repeated, are given first voice. There is a lightness, not of illumination necessarily, but of feeling. The Outfit, the ever-masterful Outfit, giving collective voice to the poet’s words. Yes, close followers of Daniel Romano’s may well know his poetry oft bends to the Romantic, to the Mystical. You have read it in the collections of his poetry (Weaker Animals Too, At Last There Is No End); you have heard it sung in the psychedelic folk masterpiece Finally Free. These words gain new weight as Julianna Riolino, David Nardi, and Carson McHone weave their own voices around Daniel’s, taking lead on individual verses, joining in immaculately arranged harmony. It is, in accumulation, a collective voice – a liturgy, an act of public worship. And like all worship, it is seeking an understanding of our place, of the very nature of our existence. A seeking that, despite moments of ecstatic clarity, given great musical voice throughout, ultimately discovers its own limits, discovering a place of ultimate unknowing: discovers “true wisdom in seeking”; discovers “Memory and Fate / And all that we create / Pale against the weight
/ Of the keeper”

    And so, with Side 2, we begin again, of course, more troubled, beginning again with all the unsolved riddles and questions of existence, down in the deep black groove. Where once the lyrics measured our closeness, now they measure our distance (“Prayer is but a personal obsession”). Side 2, haunted by echoes, crossed by shadows. If this is perhaps true of Side 2s everywhere, La Luna strikes me as unique in its brave acknowledgement of the facts. One must reckon with the past, the Grand Preceding; personal history of course, but also the harrowing recognition that the individual is born of collective histories.

    Original light. The moon is a mirror, and so the poet too is a mirror, inheriting language, reflecting in words the world that passes their consciousness. The world of great complexity, of an infinite and incomprehensible, ungraspable, abundance of things and history, of pasts. And from those shards of ideas and sounds and lyrics form finally a shining truth, a life. We are not born of the original light, of the void, we are born of the great heaving complexity – and there is our joy and our freedom and our beauty, to recombine, to reinvent – Sing it out to me!

    “Everything is truly what you are
    See, how sweet mystery brings about everything”

    I offer this thought to any who have criticized Daniel’s work as pastiche, as costume, as being casual or tossed-off, of insincerity. Who have judged his rambunctious, genre-traversing productivity cynically. What you hear is the play of life. What you hear is the skill and inspiration to rejoice, to build, to make family. To make great light of the questions of the spirit. I admire this light. “What of us if we deny love?”

    All poets before have contemplated the moon. One makes their own offering. One offers their song from the moment to the eternal, one sings the eternal to the moment. Both.

    And so, we end at the beginning (“In the end we appear as a dream…”) to ask again the same questions, but knowing perhaps the song a little better, knowing better the voices we sing along with, happily anticipating the chorus and our joining in the chorus.

    Turn the record over. Play again. Sing again. The moon rises.

    Track Listing
  • La Luna - Part 1
  • La Luna - Part 2
  • Credits
  • Music, Arrangements, and Lyrics by Daniel Romano
  • Performed by Daniel Romano, Roddy Holiday, Julianna Riolino, David Nardi, Ian Romano, Carson McHone, Kenneth Roy Meehan, Mark Lalama, Raha Javanfar, Aaron Hutchinson, Kristian Montano
  • Julianna Riolino – All Blue

    $14.00$22.00

    Julianna Riolino
    All Blue
    Cat#: YC-059
    Released: October 14, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    Julianna Riolino knows how to capture and highlight beauty before it fades. She spent her days running up to the release of her solo debut helping restore the stained glass windows at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. Surrounded by symbols configured in bits of 19th century French glass, Riolino couldn’t help but reflect on her own past and the memories of pains, healing, and love strewn through it. “It made me think about life as a balancing act, and we’re all just trying to do our best to navigate it,” she says. That focus on morality and the stretch of time seeped naturally into Riolino’s Americana-indebted songwriting, resulting in the golden, fluid All Blue. “If I was a painter, this would be my blue period,” she says. “I’m looking at my life, all my decisions lined up, and either atoning for them or laughing them off.”

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    SKU: YC-059LP Category:

     

    Julianna Riolino knows how to capture and highlight beauty before it fades. She spent her days running up to the release of her solo debut helping restore the stained glass windows at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. Surrounded by symbols configured in bits of 19th century French glass, Riolino couldn’t help but reflect on her own past and the memories of pains, healing, and love strewn through it. “It made me think about life as a balancing act, and we’re all just trying to do our best to navigate it,” she says. That focus on morality and the stretch of time seeped naturally into Riolino’s Americana-indebted songwriting, resulting in the golden, fluid All Blue, due October 14th from You’ve Changed Records. “If I was a painter, this would be my blue period,” she says. “I’m looking at my life, all my decisions lined up, and either atoning for them or laughing them off.”

    The true religious fervor both in Riolino’s life and in the LP is directed towards icons like Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and The Band. Inspired by those artists, Riolino asked for a guitar as a child, and began teaching herself how to bring similar life to the melodies in her head. And while she honed her voice by participating in school musicals, songwriting remained a deeply personal venture. “I sang at every opportunity, but I didn’t share my songs with people until I was 18 or 19,” she says. The first song she decided to play for friends was “Lone Ranger”, a reimagining of which now acts as the lead single for her debut solo album ten years later.

    That track perfectly encapsulates Riolino’s ability to reenvision the warmest strands of musical sepia and put her own individualist stamp on them. “I’m a lone ranger in this lonely world,” she repeats, Thomas Hammerton’s honky-tonk piano romping over the rippling rhythm and buzzsaw guitar. The song’s urgent independence plays throughout the record, Riolino for better and worse taking sole ownership of her place.

    The stories are told with a hefty dose of wit and wordplay mixed into pitch-perfect representations of classic Americana tropes. Riolino has shown that same duality in her role as a member of cult favorite Daniel Romano’s backing band, The Outfit, here utilizing Romano as a guitarist and putting a tighter focus on her powerful vocals. The sway and twang of “Queen of Spades” veils references to the other three suits in a deck of cards, Riolino rewarding closer listens though even the surface level is downright Parton-esque. “And it breaks my heart in two/ Pieces of a portrait be/ Happiness and fragility,” she sings, pedal steel guitar gliding through her tight harmonies, the song a musical middle finger to an insincere lover.

    Second single “You” brings Roy Orbison tinges into the mix, charging headlong between girl group harmonies repeating the title and nimbly dense verses–as if Riolino is attempting to convince herself that she doesn’t need someone, even if she hates to see them leave. “Oh retroflex the feeling/ Of thoughtful micro-needing/ Of my mind and soul/ I don’t really need you,” she insists, her voice soaring majestically into the upper register.

    Recorded in August 2020 at the now-shuttered Baldwin Street Sound, All Blue was produced by Aaron Goldstein and largely features a cadre of musicians playing together in the room. “Recording live made for some long days, but it was a lot of fun and I had the benefit of working with some really talented people,” Riolino says. “It helped create this feeling of glimpsing a moment in time. It’s like therapy: I could just let out this period of life and then move forward.”

    Leaning more heavily on emotional reality than diary details, the kernel of truth and experience always shines through in Riolino’s songwriting. That duality rings like a lovesick bell on “Isn’t It A Pity”, a track lodged somewhere between AM radio breeze and the florid wash of Waxahatchee. Trilling organ and Roddy Carlyle’s rangy bass play the perfect complement to Riolino’s sweetly strummed acoustic. “Isn’t it a pity, isn’t it a shame/ The flowers in our garden have bloomed and shed their fray,” she bounces, before adding lines about astral projection, bringing a modernist edge to the vintage proceedings.

    Blending past and present musically represents Riolino’s own experience as well, the songs written over a period of years, their meanings picking beyond that stretch and pulling lessons forward. And in that process, her philosophical lyrics bring that complexity forward to the listener in surreally sweet melodies, pouring growth and healing directly through the ear and into the heart. “For me it was about looking into a reflection of who you once were, letting go of that idea of who you thought you needed to be, and being okay with who you are.”

    Track Listing
  • If I Knew Now
  • Isn't It A Pity
  • Lone Ranger
  • Archangel
  • Queen Of Spades
  • Hark!
  • Memory Of Blue
  • Why Do I Miss You
  • Long Feeling
  • You
  • Thistle And Thorned
  • Credits
  • All songs by Julianna Riolino
  • Julianna Riolino - vocals, guitar
  • Aaron Goldstein - producer, pedal steel, guitars, percussion
  • David Nardi - guitar
  • Roddy Carlyle - bass, twelve string guitar
  • Ryan Gavel - bass
  • Ian Romano - drums
  • Thomas Hammerton - keys
  • Anthony Ronaldi - baritone sax
  • Jason Bhattacharya - drums, percussion
  • Daniel Romano – guitar
  • Kenneth Roy Meehan - engineer, mixing
  • Kristian Montano – mastering
  • Daniel Romano – artwork and design
  • The Burning Hell – Garbage Island

    $15.00$22.00

    The Burning Hell
    Garbage Island
    Cat#: YC-056
    Released: June 24, 2022
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Garbage Island is an album about what we lose when things fall apart, and what we can gain from collaborative regeneration. It takes place in a crumbling near-future world that bears a distinct resemblance to our own, beginning with the violence of collapse, loosely narrating the escape of the album’s unnamed protagonists on a pedal-boat swan, as they trade doom for danger on their way to a future home built from the detritus of the old world. Along the way, the band narrates both the need for action and the joys of refusing to hustle, nostalgically pines for the days of post-apocalyptic touring life, celebrates escape and solitude, and ends with the hesitant suggestion that the end of the world can’t last forever. Garbage Island showcases songwriter Mathias Kom’s irreverent, surrealist lyricism, but while there is humour, there are few jokes. It’s either the darkest record The Burning Hell has made, the most reassuring, or the most fun. It might be all three.

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    THIS ITEM IS FOR NORTH AMERICAN ORDERS ONLY! FOR EUROPEAN ORDERS PLEASE VISIT https://bbislandmusic.com

    Gatefold LP with art by Emmie Tsumura. Ecovinyl — random colour splatter from reused off-cuts at pressing plant.

    As a companion piece to the album, the Garbage Island Ornithological Society is proud to announce the publication of the first edition of the Illustrated Field Guide to the Birds of Garbage Island, edited by Mathias Kom and featuring work by Shary Boyle, Toby Goodshank, Booboo Tannenbaum, Jeffrey Lewis, David Ivar ‘Yaya’ Herman Düne and many more.

    The first 100 Garbage Island LP orders will receive a free copy of this groundbreaking ornithological study of future imaginary birdlife.

    During that first pandemic summer, I walked down to the shore every morning and watched the seabirds shriek and dive. Despite their constant scavenging and my own beachcombing, the ocean was always redecorating the rocks with more old lobster traps, buoys, plastic water bottles, bits of rope, and other ambiguous treasures, like a broken claw machine spitting out knick-knacks at a child who had already claimed her coveted stuffed dinosaur and didn’t want to play anymore. I was reminded of Garbage Island, imagining a volcanic mountain of trash rising from the ocean, perhaps playing host to colonies of screeching gulls or harbouring post-apocalyptic pirates. Also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, Garbage Island is, in reality, an enormous mass of floating marine debris, mostly microplastics, trapped in an endless gyre by ocean currents.  There are no pirates living there.

    The image of Garbage Island wouldn’t leave me alone, and somewhere in the dark, soupy brain-place that songs come from, a world began to emerge. A world made from the flotsam of our lives, the ultimate repository for the human race’s epic collective moulting season. A world where birds reasserted their prehistoric dominance, a world where new forms of plant life sprung up, leaves veined with translucent plastic. There were humans in this world, too, but not many. Those that survived relied on endless improvisation, the ingenious repurposing of whatever physical scraps of the old world they uncovered in the elastic soil of their island refuge. Their main pastime: birdwatching.

    Garbage Island is an album about what we lose when things fall apart, and what we can gain from collaborative regeneration. It takes place in this crumbling near-future world that bears a distinct resemblance to our own, beginning with the violence of collapse, loosely chronicling the escape of the album’s unnamed protagonists on a pedal-boat swan, as they trade doom for danger on their way to a future home built from the detritus of the past.

    Along the way, the album narrates both the need for action and the joys of refusing the hustle, imagines a futuristic nostalgia for the days of post-apocalyptic touring life, celebrates escape and solitude, and concludes with the hesitant suggestion that the end of the world can’t last forever. The songs feature the omnivorous genre-bending and rapid-fire surrealist lyricism the band has been known for in the past, but while there is humour and playfulness in abundance, there are few jokes. It’s either the darkest record The Burning Hell has made, the most reassuring, or the most fun. It might be all three.

    Making a record about a future world of disintegration and renewal while the real world seemed to be collapsing around us felt right. Ariel Sharratt and I were locked-down on our farm on PEI, forced to embrace the slowness, patiently collecting sounds and ideas, orienting ourselves toward process. With tours perpetually cancelled, rescheduled, and cancelled again, we reconnected with the primal urge to simply make music, rather than perform or manage it. Our collaborator Jake Nicoll was stuck in Ontario, where he had been visiting his dad’s farm when the pandemic was declared, but he was able to cobble together some forgotten recording gear in an abandoned sheep pen, and we started sending tracks back and forth.

    This is the first record the band (Mathias Kom, Ariel Sharratt, and Jake Nicoll) has engineered, produced, and mixed entirely by ourselves, and time and distance allowed us to revel in the slow joy of collaboration and discovery, a joy that leached out onto the tapes and circuit boards. Our comrades in St. John’s (Darren Browne, Jud Haynes, Kelly McMichael, Krista Power, and Mara Pellerin) contributed musical brilliance, and cameos from Ariel’s brother Jesse and her dad Steve enrich the album. We painted over our usual canvas of bass, drums, and guitar with a homemade dulcimer and glass harmonica, ASMR-inspired breakdowns made from the sounds of actual garbage, watery synthesisers, harmoniums, woodwinds, and field recordings of oceans and bird sounds contributed by supporters all over the globe, which stitch the songs together as the album transitions from the end of the world to “The End of the End of the World.” As the first snowdrops emerged in the spring of 2021, what was becoming Garbage Island was mixed in a 1970s camper trailer Jake had spent the winter converting into a mobile, solar-powered recording studio.

     

    – Mathias Kom
    Garbage Island will be released on June 24, 2022, through You’ve Changed Records in North America and BB*Island everywhere else, with artwork by Emmie Tsumura. A companion comic book, Illustrated Field Guide to the Birds of Garbage Island, will accompany a limited first edition, with contributions by artists including Shary Boyle, Darren Hayman, Shotgun Jimmie, Booboo Tannenbaum, David Ivar Herman Dune and more.

    Track Listing
  • No Peace
  • Nigel the Gannet
  • Birdwatching
  • Dirty Microphones
  • The Last Normal Day
  • Empty World
  • Minor Characters
  • All I Need
  • Swan Boat
  • Bird Queen of Garbage Island
  • Speechlessness
  • The End of the End of the World
  • Recorded in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Studio J, in Baden, Ontario at the Weber Farm Cabin and the Scamper, and in Fairfield, PEI at the Fairfield Social Club.
  • Produced by Jake Nicoll with Ariel Sharratt & Mathias Kom.
  • Mixed by Jake Nicoll in The Scamper.
  • Mastered by Norman Nitzsche at Calyx in Berlin.
  • Artwork and layout by Emmie Tsumura.
  • Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Content To Point The Way”

    $21.00

    Daniel Romano's Outfit
    "Content To Point The Way"
    Cat#: YCA-002
    Released: May 20, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    “Content To Point The Way” offers fans the long-awaited return of the traditional timeless country that Daniel Romano became known for on albums such as Sleep Beneath The Willow, Come Cry With Me, and If I’ve Only One Time Asking, but here elevated by his current group The Outfit, world’s finest purveyors of musical skill and vibe. Stunning wordplay, timeless songwriting, and musical brilliance combine on one of Daniel Romano’s most popular releases.

    Clear selection
    SKU: YCA-002LP Category:

    YOU’VE CHANGED RECORDS LAUNCHES THE ARCHIVE SERIES, OFFERING LIMITED EDITION VINYL PRESSINGS OF DANIEL ROMANO’S RENOWNED 2020 “BANDCAMP” ALBUMS!

    In 2020, Daniel Romano and his increasingly exalted band “The Outfit” were forced home, faced with the cancellation of tours and all live engagements at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Almost immediately, Daniel instigated a near legendary run of new albums, releasing 10 full-length albums in the span of nearly the same number of weeks. Genre-spanning, astoundingly distinct artistic achievements, these albums were originally released exclusively in digital only formats on Bandcamp. They were direct and immediate missives from one of the most talented, prolific, ambitious, and exciting artists of his generation. We are thrilled to begin releasing these albums now in very special limited-edition vinyl pressings.

    “Content To Point The Way” offers fans the long-awaited return of the traditional timeless country that Daniel Romano became known for on albums such as Sleep Beneath The Willow, Come Cry With Me, and If I’ve Only One Time Asking, but here elevated by his current group The Outfit, world’s finest purveyors of musical skill and vibe. Stunning wordplay, timeless songwriting, and musical brilliance combine on one of Daniel Romano’s most popular releases.

    Released simultaneously with the limited-edition LP – YCA-001 Archives Vol 3 – Daniel Romano – “Vision Of The Higher Dream”

    Track Listing
    1. If Words Can't Express
    2. Bits And Pieces
    3. They Haven't Got A Word For That Yet
    4. You'd Think I'd Think
    5. You've Always Been With Her
    6. A Pig Is A Pig Jig
    7. Diamonds And Dogs
    8. Little Shirley Melrose
    9. I'm So Lost Without You
    10. Make Believe Love
    Credits
    • Recorded by Daniel Romano
    • Mixed by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mastered by Kristian Montano
    • THE OUTFIT:
    • Roddy Rossetti - bass
    • Julianna Riolino - vocals
    • Ian Romano - drums
    • Daniel Romano - vocals, guitars
    • David Nardi - vocals, guitars
    • with:
    • Mark Lalama - piano
    • Aaron Goldstein - steel guitar
    sold out

    Daniel Romano – “Visions Of The Higher Dream”

    $21.00$40.00

    Daniel Romano
    "Visions Of The Higher Dream"
    Cat#: YCA-001
    Released: May 20, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    “Visions Of The Higher Dream” is an expression of rich, visionary psychaedelia, powerfully arranged and immaculately performed, and thoroughly beautiful in its scope and in its details. It is as complete a statement, and as fully executed a vision as the famously restless Daniel Romano has offered: a timeless and timely evocation of the higher dream.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

    SKU: N/A Category:

    PLEASE NOTE: The combo option includes both new Daniel Romano Archive LPs: Daniel Romano – “Visions Of The Higher Dream” (YCA-001) and Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Content To Point The Way” (YCA-002).

    PLEASE NOTE: This is a special pre-order offer. Any orders containing “Visions Of The Higher Dream” will ship on or before May 20.

    YOU’VE CHANGED RECORDS LAUNCHES THE ARCHIVE SERIES, OFFERING LIMITED EDITION VINYL PRESSINGS OF DANIEL ROMANO’S RENOWNED 2020 “BANDCAMP” ALBUMS!

    In 2020, Daniel Romano and his increasingly exalted band “The Outfit” were forced home, faced with the cancellation of tours and all live engagements at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Almost immediately, Daniel instigated a near legendary run of new albums, releasing 10 full-length albums in the span of nearly the same number of weeks. Genre-spanning, astoundingly distinct artistic achievements, these albums were originally released exclusively in digital only formats on Bandcamp. They were direct and immediate missives from one of the most talented, prolific, ambitious, and exciting artists of his generation. We are thrilled to begin releasing these albums now in very special limited-edition vinyl pressings.

    “Visions Of The Higher Dream” is an expression of rich, visionary psychaedelia, powerfully arranged and immaculately performed, and thoroughly beautiful in its scope and in its details. It is as complete a statement, and as fully executed a vision as this famously restless artist has offered: a timeless and timely evocation of the higher dream.

    Released simultaneously with the limited-edition LP YCA-002 Archives Vol 4 – Daniel Romano’s Outfit – “Content To Point The Way’

    Track Listing
    1. Where May I Take My Rest
    2. I Cannot Be More Lonely
    3. Girl In A Bath Full Of Tears
    4. Lilac About Thy Crown
    5. Nobody Sees A Lowered Face
    6. Boy In A Crow-skin Cape
    7. At Times The Fools Sing Freely
    8. Nothing Is Still (In A Shaken Heart)
    9. Visions Of The Higher Dream
    10. Paper Rose
    Credits
    • Recorded, performed, mixed by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Kristian Montano
    • Raha Javanfar - Violin
    • Joseph Shabason - Saxophone, flute
    • Aaron Goldstein - Steel Guitar

    Steven Lambke – Volcano Volcano

    $20.00$42.00

    Steven Lambke
    Volcano Volcano
    Cat#: YC-053
    Released: April 29, 2022
    Format: LP/Digital

    Volcano Volcano makes songs and poems and worlds out of the rudimentary, ordinary, everyday things at hand. There are parts of Volcano Volcano that are an excavation into the evils that engulf us, into the mess we’ve made of life and the world, but with the purpose of dreaming together a new world “re-ordered from below”. There is a cast of characters in these songs that provide the sustenance for this: high tides, worlds filled to the brim, full moons and shooting stars, sunsets, daybreaks and twilight, reconstituted truths and love anyway, sidewalk-crack flowers, sparks and moons in the ocean, a living, a singing anyway. A sort of way of living that mines the everyday for surprise, tiny burst of joy and a dedicated practice of hope.

    Volcano Volcano lets us all be “fear-filled dreamers, joyful, tall, and brave”, and within those dreams, we learn new possibilities.

    Clear selection
    SKU: YC-053LP Category:

    NOTE #2: The Steven Lambke 3-Pack is a special offer that includes all three full-length Steven Lambke albums: Volcano Volcano, Dark Blue and Days Of Heaven at super-duper discounted price!


     

    VOLCANO VOLCANO
    album notes by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

    I’d describe Steven Lambke as a working musician – that is, someone who is embedded in, responsible to, and who holds space for a community of artists that create against the odds of the music industry, without contracts, awards, and acolytes. Lambke is the sort of person that you can go to with nothing but an idea, and he’ll do whatever he can to support you in actualizing that idea. That’s rare.

    I first met Steve several years ago in a park in Peterborough, ON. He was dressed in his own humility, apologetically selling his own merch. I bought a copy of his chapbook “Lyrics”. He seemed embarrassed at the very transaction. I liked that.

    He’s seen the music world from all angles – as a singer-songwriter performing as Baby Eagle, as a touring boy-band rock-and-roller as a member of the Constantines, as the Creative Director of Sappyfest in Sackville, NB and finally, as a co-founder of the artist-run label You’ve Changed Records. These experiences have led Lambke to create on the margins of an industry driven by sales and a particular kind of recognition, and to think carefully about how he embodies his practice of art-making, and the work his music is doing in the world.

    I’m writing this in the dreariness of the end of October in Ontario, while the pandemic continues to crush independent music and art-making. Tom Power is on the radio interviewing Ed Shereen on his new record. Shereen is talking about his worst nightmare – which is releasing a record into the void, with little engagement from the public, without radio play and without as Shereen says, being part of the conversation.

    Maybe that sounds reasonable to the audience of CBC’s q.

    This sounds absurd to me. Not only is Shereen’s worst nightmare the reality most musicians live within, but our reality is one that despite dismal bank accounts is a reality that is also full of joy, richness, community, and meaning if you know where to listen. Lambke’s new release, Volcano Volcano is the evidence.

    Volcano Volcano is an invitation, an exploration of potential, an opportunity for listening and thinking and relating that holds space for otherwise thinking and shared meaning-making. The making of this record, from its sonics and aesthetics to its lyrics and composition communicate a vital potential to communally re-order, re-invent and re-connect to something beyond ourselves. This requires something out of the ordinary from both performer and audience. It asks us to think of music and performance in an open and expansive way, beyond the normal separate enclosures wherein the performer turns up the volume demanding to be heard and seen, basking in applause, before selling merch side stage, and then driving away to a sad motel somewhere. It requires us to meet.

    Written over the past few years, not specifically during the pandemic, and recorded at Camera Varda (the studio built by Daniel Romano) in Welland in January 2021, the album’s approach spilled out of the studio and into the real world. Lambke took the basic studio-quality bed tracks home, taking responsibility over the rest of the process, experimenting with singing, mixing, and utilizing a series of (in his words) “junky instruments” – $30 guitars from Goodwill, a recorder and a melodica/melodion, dollar store shakers and the cheapest tambourine – sound making vessels that in the hands of an amateur might be cringe worthy heavy-handed metaphor. In Volcano Volcano, these are the moments where practice braids together sound and lyrics – and those are the moments that feel most alive, stretching one’s expectations of the very act of recording and listening.

    It seems clear to me that the aural was a foundational methodology of the making of this record. In “Brave Thoughts”, the time is played loose, and playing like that requires a commitment to listening to the other sounds in the band and allowing the lyrics to become embodied in sound. That deep practice of listening then becomes a meditation on meaning making. Lambke’s lyrics are coded, layered, and full of multiple meanings, and yet free of symbolism for the sake of symbolism. Lyrically the album is specific, and an affirmation of the natural worlds around us. These songs are filled with tiny moments that daily life can gloss over, but where minds like Steven Lambke’s find abundance. Both lyrically and musically, this album makes songs and poems and worlds out of the rudimentary, ordinary, everyday things at hand.

    There are parts of Volcano Volcano that are an excavation into the evils that engulf us, into the mess we’ve made of life and the world, but with the purpose, I think, of dreaming together a new world “re-ordered from below”. There is a cast of characters in these songs that provide the sustenance for this: high tides, worlds filled to the brim, full moons and shooting stars, sunsets, daybreaks and twilight, reconstituted truths and love anyway, sidewalk-crack flowers, sparks and moons in the ocean, a living, a singing anyway. A sort of way of living that mines the everyday for surprise, tiny burst of joy and a dedicated practice of hope. Listen to the chorus of the title track, “Volcano Volcano” and you’ll be whistling it around the house in your jogging pants for hours after the record ends. In “April, May, June” the choir of junk is a having a spoon fight, naked under the moon. The final track, “Dream with Me”, is the perfect summation of the record. It invites us, and compels us, creators and listener, to dream together, through sorrow, doubt and fear.

    Volcano Volcano lets us all be “fear-filled dreamers, joyful, tall, and brave”, and within those dreams, we learn new possibilities.

    Track Listing
    1. Volcano Volcano
    2. The World Filled To The Brim
    3. April, May, and June
    4. Brave Thoughts
    5. Bats In Blue Twilight
    6. Every Lover Knows
    7. Truth Marks
    8. Sea Level
    9. Turn The Planet Over
    10. Sorrow And Doubt
    11. Dream With Me
    Credits
    • Performed by:
    • Steven Lambke – vocals, guitars, percussion, melodion, recorder
    • Daniel Romano – drums, organ, vocals
    • David Nardi – bass
    • with:
    • Carson McHone – vocals
    • William Kidman – guitar solo on “Sorrow And Doubt”
    • Recorded by Daniel Romano at Camera Varda and at home in Toronto by Steven Lambke
    • Mixed by Steven Lambke
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering
    • Written by Steven Lambke
    • Artwork by Shary Boyle
    • Layout and Design by Paul Henderson
    sold out

    Apollo Ghosts – Pink Tiger

    $24.00

    Pink Tiger
    Apollo Ghosts
    Cat#: YC-057
    Released: March 11, 2022
    Format: 2LP/Digital

    Pink Tiger is a 2-part, 22-song epic by Vancouver’s DIY superheroes Apollo Ghosts! Part 1, “Pink” (LP 1, tracks 1-11), is an intimate home recorded acoustic based cycle that grapples with loss, illness, death, and memory. Part 2, “Tiger” (LP 2, tracks 12-22) is an exuberant indie-garage rock celebration of the persistence of friendship, music, and hope. Apollo Ghosts draw on a long history of independent and locally focused music making, from Flying Nun to K Records to their own Vancouver scene, to reinvigorate indie guitar rock songwriter with ambition and poise.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

    SKU: N/A Category:

    Pink Tiger is the 2-part, 22-song epic return by Vancouver’s beloved DIY champs Apollo Ghosts!

    Part 1, “Pink” (LP 1, tracks 1-11), is an intimate home recorded acoustic based cycle that grapples with loss, illness, death, and memory. Part 2, “Tiger” (LP 2, tracks 12-22) is an exuberant indie-garage rock celebration of the persistence of friendship, music, and hope. Apollo Ghosts draw on a long history of independent and locally focused music making, from Flying Nun to K Records to their own Vancouver scene, to reinvigorate indie guitar rock songwriting with ambition and poise.

    —-

    “About seven years ago, I stood around a makeshift fire pit in a clearing on a small gulf island with a group of my best friends. We burned a beer can and made jokes. When I started recording the first half of this record, I thought everything was falling apart. For six months, I could only hear from one ear and the doctor said it could be something quite serious. The cedars were still dying. My dad was still dying.

    A year later, we recorded the second half of the record on Gabriola Island. My ear finally cleared up after the sessions were over. We listened to the final masters in the middle of the heat dome summer during the Perseid meteor shower. The heat dome eventually ended. In the fall, Amanda and I planted dozens of trees (Garry oaks, willows, alders and maples) around that fire pit. Our bass player Robbie’s having a baby this spring. Amanda’s started restoring hand-crank sewing machines. She says everything can be mended. It might be too late, but I’m going to keep planting trees every year going forward anyways.

    Apollo Ghosts joked that this was a feeble attempt at making our own ‘Tusk’. Some influences this round: The Bats, Dear Nora, Little Wings, Tom T. Hall, The La’s, Beverly Glenn Copeland, disco beats, ocean swims, trees, Lucia Berlin & Lydia Davis, and as always…. the local music scene.”
    — Adrian Teacher.

    —-

    Apollo Ghosts are a band formed in Vancouver, B.C. Canada in 2008 (founded on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh). Apollo Ghosts live currently feature Amanda P. on bass, Robbie N. on bass, Adrian Teacher on guitar and Dustin B. on drums.

    Pink Tiger was recorded by Jordan Koop (Orville Peck, The Courtenays) at the Noise Floor on beautiful Gabriola; a gulf island located in the unceded traditional territory of the Snunéymux First Nation. Additional production and mixing by David Carswell (Destroyer, New Pornographers) at JC/DC Studios in Vancouver.

    Track Listing
    LP1 “PINK”
    1. Pink Tiger
    2. Melatonin 5G
    3. Cloud Hotel
    4. But I'll Be Around (Acoustic Version)
    5. Rookery
    6. To Set The King Bloom
    7. Morning Voice
    8. Deodora
    9. Anxious Love, Pt. 2
    10. Dirty Spoons
    11. Surfer's Ear
    LP2 "TIGER"
    1. Spilling Yr Guts
    2. Heroic Dose
    3. OK Soda
    4. But I'll Be Around (Electric Version)
    5. Soft American
    6. Pink Boys
    7. Peace Motive
    8. Acid Jenny
    9. Gentlemen Go To Heaven
    10. Golden Teacher
    11. Island Kids
    Credits
    • Amanda P.-drums, vocals
    • Robbie N.-bass, vocals
    • Adrian Teacher-guitar, vocals, piano, midi, synths, drums
    • All songs Apollo Ghosts (SOCAN) (c) 2021
    • Cover art by Aaron Read.
    • Gatefold art by Gil Goletski.
    • Layout and Design by Paul Henderson.
    • Back cover typeface by Lesley Johnson.

    Julie Doiron – I Thought Of You

    $20.00

    Julie Doiron
    I Thought Of You
    Cat#: YC-052
    Released: November 26, 2021
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Julie Doiron is back! Every bit an instant classic as only she can masterfully create, Julie Doiron emanates a radiative force with her guitar and her unmistakably indomitable voice. We live for these moments, when our dearest friends find their way back to the places they love, and we once again hear their voices rise back into our lives. Featuring stunning musical contributions from Daniel Romano, Ian Romano, and Dany Placard.

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    Julie Doiron is back with I Thought Of You, her first solo record since 2012’s So Many Days. Every bit an instant classic as only she can masterfully create, Julie Doiron emanates a radiative force with her guitar and her unmistakably indomitable voice. Julie Doiron is a maker of songs and a teller of stories, wielding her instruments like a craftsperson would their tools.

    In her time away from the solo spotlight she has remained entwined with music, albeit in consortions with others; releasing a critically acclaimed record with members of Cancer Bats and Eamon McGrath under the name Julie and The Wrong Guys, reworking some of her previous work in Spanish for Spanish label Acuarela and returning to her otherworldly collaboration with Mount Eerie for Lost Wisdom pt 2, to name but a few. These are additions to Julie’s long and storied history of collaboration, working with luminaries like Gord Downie, Herman Dune, a split record with Okkervil River, and the unforgettable and iconic Eric’s Trip, the first Canadian band ever signed to legendary American record label Sub Pop.

    Ever the bountiful songwriter, Julie had been writing songs in the 9 years since her last solo record, keeping them close and waiting for it to feel right to head back into a studio. When the time came, she enlisted close and trusted friends to collaborate in the process: the uber-prolific and multi-talented Daniel Romano, superstar drummer Ian Romano, and Quebecois songwriter Dany Placard on bass. Together the quartet retreated to a cabin in the woods to record Julie’s first solo offering in 9 years. The resulting album, I Thought Of You, is every bit a return, as Julie Doiron finds her way back with new songs to enthrall our hearts, while simultaneously finding her way back to herself. We live for these moments, when our dearest friends find their way back to the places they love, and we once again hear their voices rise back into our lives.

    It’s Julie’s voice that rises to meet us from the get-go. Album opener “You Gave Me The Key” welcomes us in, a quintessential Julie Doiron song where she announces with a joyful resignation “here I am, starting over again”. Title track “I Thought Of You” is a rolling twang-tinged Doiron jam, an instant classic. As we move towards the tail end of the record we share in “Darkness To Light” a soulful ballad ruminating on moving our way out of dark days and into lighter shades. On “Back To The Water” Julie sings over gently plucked strings “I’ve been here before” as she has, and so have we, and we are once again here together.

    I Thought Of You is a return of the breath and fire of Julie Doiron and we are lucky to find ourselves back in the embrace of her tender and powerful forces.

    Track Listing
    1. You Gave Me The Key
    2. Thought Of You
    3. Dreamed I Was
    4. Just When I Thought
    5. Et Mon Amour
    6. Good Reason
    7. Cancel The Party
    8. How Can We?
    9. Darkness To Light
    10. Ran
    11. The Letters We Sent
    12. They Wanted Me To Say
    13. Back To The Water
    Credits
      All songs written by Julie Doiron
    • Peformed by: Julie Doiron, vocals, guitar; Dany Placard, bass; Daniel Romano, guitars, keys, percussion; Ian Romano, drums; Michael Feuerstack, pedal steel on Darkness to Light
    • This album was recorded in February 2020 at Studio B-12 in Valcourt, Québec and at Studio La Shed in Montréal, Québec.
    • Engineered by Dany Placard with the exception of the vocals for The Letters we Sent which were sung at Studio La Grosse Rose in Memramcook, NB, engineered by Mico Roy.
    • Mixed by Kenneth Roy Meehan.
    • Mastered by Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering.
    • Photo by Jules Boislard-Gauthier.
    • Design by Daniel Romano.

    Daniel Romano – Cobra Poems

    $12.50$20.00

    Daniel Romano
    Cobra Poems
    Cat#: YC-051
    Released: September 10, 2021
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    If all the words of joy should shed their syllabic countenance, would they not still resonate at this same frequency? If distillate love made aural and amplified struck every unbidden ear, would it not blossom with this same audible bouquet? Here then is the document – the evidence, the proof, the truth, the real thing, the one thing, the only thing. Daniel Romano’s Outfit, now and always. Call it communion. Call it a rhapsody. Call it Cobra Poems. Go on. Dig it.

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    The earth is a drum, they say. Shrouded by magnetic halo that beats and oscillates in traceable resonance. All heaven can bear witness to the sonorous vibrance of our globe and mark that claim as truth. Who then is bold enough to strike its batter-head? Who hears the metronomic thrum at the heart of all earthbound life and marking the tempo, plays in rapturous consonance? Who tunes the harps and lyres of all lowing beasts, to blaze euphonic across the glowing firmament? The Outfit, The Outfit, The Outfit, The Outfit. Strum, and strike, and sing, in tune, in joy, in love. Mark well the name. They who lift the bowing head of every grieving flower. They who coo that unvanquished animal hymn to every dog, and ox, and muskox, and muskdog. That well-shod fiefdom of unmatched capacity. That feckful gang beholden to spirit alone. If child is father to the man, then what cosmic nursery sired such pleiadic songsmiths? The trueborn enemies of all tuneless brutality. The wreckers of every false rural minstrel and showboat lout of ill-repute. The Outfit, The Outfit, The Outfit, The Outfit. The crater is rent, and surfeit chasmic beasts quake and roil in naked lust for the spoils of beauty. Who strikes the silver chord that shudders their miasmic vaults? Who heralds the balm of love? If music be the fuel of lungs then pray on this. The Outfit, The Outfit, The Outfit. If all the words of joy should shed their syllabic countenance, would they not still resonate at this same frequency? If distillate love made aural and amplified struck every unbidden ear, would it not blossom with this same audible bouquet? Here then is the document – the evidence, the proof, the truth, the real thing, the one thing, the only thing. Daniel Romano’s Outfit, now and always. Call it communion. Call it a rhapsody. Call it Cobra Poems. Go on. Dig it.

    Track Listing
    1. Tragic Head
    2. Even In The Loom Of A Caress
    3. Nocturne Child
    4. The Motions
    5. Holy Trumpeteer
    6. Animals Above Our Town
    7. Tears Through A Sunrise
    8. Baby If We Stick It Out
    9. Still Dreaming
    10. Camera Varda
    Credits
    • The Outfit:
    • Daniel Romano
    • Ian Romano
    • Julianna Riolino
    • Roddy Rozetti
    • David Nardi
    • with Mark Lalama, Carson McHone, Aaron Hutchinson, David Romano
    • Recorded and Mixed at Camera Varda by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mastered by Kristian Montano
    • Photograph by Carson McHone
    sold out

    Daniel Romano – Fully Plugged In

    $18.00$35.00

    Daniel Romano
    Fully Plugged In
    Cat#: YC-050
    Released: September 10, 2021
    Format: LP/Digital

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    PLEASE NOTE: The combo option includes both new Daniel Romano LPs: Daniel Romano – Fully Plugged In (YC-050) and Daniel Romano – Cobra Poems (YC-051)

    Recorded live in Atlanta in early 2020 in the final hours before the stages of the aching world fell dark, and the wandering, yearnful musicians were sent home to recollect, to reminisce, to plan – or in the case of the famously prolific Daniel Romano to reactive a dedicated studio practice – Fully Plugged In celebrates the sweat filled nights, the communal noise, the profound physical presence at the heart of rock and roll. Together the Outfit bring a classic swagger, an epic, electric, eternal folk, a primal freedom to a setlist drawn from Romano’s rich songbook, (the Kink’s God’s Children sticking around long enough to get a full (and beautiful) run-through). Outfit singer Julianna Riolino, who’s voice blends so perfectly with Romano’s own, steps powerfully into the spotlight at key moments, ripping open the song in surprising opener “Rhythmic Blood” and ripping open your heart in the country weeper “The One That Got Away (Came Back Today)”.

    Here, hear – wild sounds, genius song-writing, ebullient drumming, exuberant musicality, and disparate influences are powerfully, uniquely synthesized. Shockingly united. Fully Plugged In.

    It’s time to get live.

    Track Listing
    1. Rhythmic Blood
    2. God’s Children
    3. Impossible Green
    4. Anyone’s Arms
    5. First Yoke
    6. All The Reaching Trims
    7. She Was The World To Me
    8. The One That Got Away
    9. Gone Is (All But A Quarry Of Stone)
    10. A Rat Without A Tale
    11. I’m Alone Now
    12. The Pride Of Queens
    Credits
    • The Outfit:
    • Daniel Romano
    • Ian Romano
    • Julianna Riolino
    • Roddy Rozetti
    • David Nardi
    • Recorded Live at The Earl
    • Mixed by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mastered by Tony Cicero
    • Photograph by Carson McHone

    Status / Non-Status – 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years

    $14.00

    Status / Non-Status
    1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years
    Cat#: YC-047
    Released: May 28, 2021
    Format: 12" EP

    Status/Non-Status is the new name for the ongoing musical work of Anishinaabe community worker Adam Sturgeon (Nme’) and his longtime collaborators (formerly known as Whoop-Szo). The band spent a decade carving a path through Canada’s DIY scene before achieving their widest recognition with 2019’s acclaimed long player Warrior Down (You’ve Changed Records). This album confronted Sturgeon’s complex family history and identity and was long-listed Polaris Prize among numerous other accolades. Here, the band emerges renewed, with more stories to share. 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years was recorded in Mexico and is highlights the band’s unique mix of heavy psychedelia, anthemic indie rock, political story telling, and inter-cultural exchange.

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    Status/Non-Status is the new name for the ongoing musical work of Anishinaabe community worker Adam Sturgeon (Nme’) and his longtime collaborators (formerly known as Whoop-Szo). The band spent a decade carving a path through Canada’s DIY scene before achieving their widest recognition with 2019’s acclaimed long player Warrior Down (You’ve Changed Records). This album confronted Sturgeon’s complex family history and identity and was long-listed Polaris Prize among numerous other accolades. Today, the band emerges renewed, with more stories to share. 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years was recorded in Mexico and highlights the band’s unique mix of heavy psychedelia, anthemic indie rock, political story telling, and inter-cultural exchange.

    Adam is ‘non-status’ as defined by the Canadian government. Adam’s grandfather Ralph made the difficult decision to enfranchise in order to support himself and his family by joining the Armed Forces. Enfranchisement was the government’s term for the legal process of turning in one’s Status Card, terminating one’s Indian Status, and becoming instead a Canadian citizen. It was a pillar of the government’s assimilation policy and a requirement for any Indigenous person who wished to enlist.

    In the name of providing a better life for himself and his family, Ralph was required to forsake his Anishinaabe roots, an all-too-common experience for Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. Acts of colonial violence such as enfranchisement, the residential school system, and the Indian Act  have resulted in disconnection amongst generations of Indigenous people from their communities, languages, land, and identities. Today, new voices are rising up and — through acts of reclamation via art, language, music, and community — taking back spaces that have been dominated by settler culture for so many years.

    Who is native enough? Who ‘counts’ as Indigenous, and who does not? These questions swirl through the Canadian arts discourse today, impacting every medium and revealing fundamental inadequacies within our current identity-defining systems. For Adam, the proof is in the work; his commitment to telling his family’s story with integrity and truth informs every aspect of his music and his life. Now a father to his own young son, it is the future that allows Adam to dig further into his roots.

    “When we tell stories, we have a responsibility to tell the truth. Do the necessary work to earn trust. Share your experience as one voice within a greater circle … and find a home.”

    1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years, featuring lead single “Find a Home,” is out this spring on You’ve Changed Records / Grizzlar Records. It is available as a deluxe single sided 12″ EP with graphic etching on side B.

    Track Listing
    1. Find A Home
    2. Genicidio
    3. Untitled Travelogue
    4. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
    5. 500 Years
    Credits
    • Recorded by Jesus Canibales in Guadalajara, Jalisco province, Mexico, at Rockweiler Studio
    • Production and editing by Kyl Ashbourne and Adam Sturgeon
    • Mixed and Mastered by Jesse Gander at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver, Canada

    Fiver with The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition

    $14.00$18.00

    Fiver
    Fiver with The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition
    Cat#: YC-049
    Released: May 7, 2021
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Simone Schmidt is a versatile and thorough craftsman — a distinct vocalist, guitarist, and wordsmith; a rigorous researcher, producer, and designer; a friend to many and enemy to some. Over the past 13 years and 7 full length records, Schmidt has largely rejected the logic of the music industry, employing many aliases in the course of creating a robust discography that engages various strains of North American folk and Country music, from Old Time to Psychedelic Country. In a totally unpredictable follow up to the historical fiction of Fiver’s Audible Songs From Rockwood (2017), Fiver with The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition wrangles the impulses of a new generation of improvisational musicians toward an unexpected reimagining of Country music and its possibilities.

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    Do you ever, come evening, in fine freeway traffic,

    collide with the fear of your talents mis-used?

    You look to the drivers who pleasure in honking,

    their noise ill-directed as the prior abuse.

    • From “Sick Gladiola”

     

    Simone Schmidt is a versatile and thorough craftsman — a distinct vocalist, guitarist, and wordsmith; a rigorous researcher, producer, and designer; a friend to many and enemy to some. Over the past 13 years and 7 full length records, Schmidt has largely rejected the logic of the music industry, employing many aliases in the course of creating a robust discography that engages various strains of North American folk and Country music, from Old Time to Psychedelic Country[1]. In a totally unpredictable follow up to the historical fiction of Fiver’s Audible Songs From Rockwood (2017), Fiver with The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition wrangles the impulses of a new generation of improvisational musicians toward an unexpected reimagining of Country music and its possibilities.

    Throughout 2017-2018, Toronto-based Simone Schmidt (Fiver) traveled east to a small white house in Scotch Village in unceded Mi’kma’ki, to arrange the music with Bianca Palmer (drums, percussion), Nick Dourado (lap steel, piano, vibes, sax), and Jeremy Costello (synths, bass, voice). Known for their work with Beverly Glenn Copeland, the unit was dubbed the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition for their improvisational tendencies and geographic location. Indebted to Dourado and Palmer’s teacher, drummer Jerry Granelli (Vince Guaraldi trio) and the improvised music community of the Creative Music Workshop, theirs is a practice based in deep listening and presence in the moment.  What better players to realize a set of songs concerned with the aggregate experiences that compose the now, the cycles of life and death, labour and political thought borne by the present condition?

    Throughout the 8 song album, Schmidt’s characters describe a world on the brink. They sing it into being through Country’s forms and tropes —  some rendered intact, some tangential, and some pushed off the road to new historical ends.  The album’s first single, “Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)”, provides the clearest musical touchstone to the tradition, as Schmidt and Costello croon over a walking bass, acoustic guitar, lap steel and creative brushwork. Confronted with the forked tongue of a dynastic power, Schmidt calls for revised strategies of solidarity to confront dishonesty: “The high road once proposed leads only to a negative peace,” references MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which he admonishes the white moderate “who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” As with most of Schmidt’s writing, from here the song can be read multiple ways, and it should be. “Sick Gladiola” is a wise take on the classic “country-boy-moves-to-the-city-to-make-it-big” song in the footsteps of Waylon, Sparks, Hall (you name ‘em, they’ve done it).  Rather than lamenting the loss of innocence, the singer bemoans the parallel desecrations of the human spirit, creative vocation, and the land, as a result of this patterned uprooting. Here Schmidt nods to 80’s Country production, with phaser, piano, synth, sax, all stacked in considered passages.

    But the throughlines to Country are not always so central to the sound — Dourado’s chops, Palmer’s voicing, and Costello’s dexterity ensure that the arrangements owe as much to Duke as they do to Deford. Album opener “Yeah But Uhh Hey” employs Roger Miller style nonsense lyrics toward a gig worker’s work song: “That’s one carrion cold only doing what it’s told cuz it’s for money… Yeah-but-uhh.. hey, we’ll find a way to make it right.”  Is the chorus a question or an affirmation?  The double meaning drives home the precariousness of conviction.  “Death Is Only A Dream” responds to a Ralph Stanley’s gospel song of the same name, upending his Christian comfort in heaven with the mournful assertion that, in retrospect, paradise is a moment alive together on earth. This may not be country music at all, but as the dirge builds from mournful minimalism to outright celebration, Dourado’s piano voices the melody of traditional folk song John Henry, a reference to loss, labour and reformation.

    Schmidt’s voice is versatile, capable, and always its own. “Jr. Wreck” investigates what new modes of honesty are available through rejection. At once devastating and funny, the Atlantic School’s impeccable timing provides Schmidt’s ancient sadness the space to sing the word “piss” with subdued sophistication. “Paid In Pride” describes a trophy wife’s labour, as Palmer holds a steady four-count on the bass drum and an almost disco groove on the hi-hats. It builds into banger territory — cavernous and paranoid, overwhelming, almost violent — dissolving into the elegant acoustic sounds of its origin. Album closer “For Your Sake” is an achingly beautiful folk song sung over Schmidt’s piedmont picked guitar which arrives out of the wash of Costello’s new age synths and wordless vocal, like the very union described in the lyric: “Come to me in times of trouble / I would be there for your sake / for your sake in mine is doubled / yours and mine in tandem quake.”

    From beginning to end, Fiver and the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition remain open and adaptable to sound and natural gestures. The playfulness and virtuosity of their live performance can be heard through the album’s arc, as the songs transition from one to the next or fall apart, sometimes in a racket, more often in a total jam. The result is an album that doesn’t baffle the listener with sonic illusions, sly production, or gimmicks. Rather, it graciously invites us into the wonder of a gathering of people who are getting serious and having fun, who know how to listen to each other, listen together, and tap into the  beauty emerging from shared space.

    [1] Lost the Plot (Triple Crown Recordings 2011), Audible Songs from Rockwood (Idee Fixe, 2017) as Fiver,  Still Holding (Idee Fixe Records, 2016) and If It’s Real (Idee Fixe Records, 2012) with the psychedelic rock band The Highest Order, and Songs of Man (Outside Music, 2011) and Forest of Tears (Blue Fog Recordings, 2008) as the frontman of One Hundred Dollars.

    Track Listing
    1. Yeah But Uhh Hey
    2. Leaning Hard (On My Peripheral Vision)
    3. June Like A Bug
    4. Jr. Wreck
    5. Sick Gladiola
    6. Death Is Only A Dream
    7. Paid In Pride
    8. For Your Sake (featuring Special Costello)
    Credits
    • All lyrics by Simone Schmidt
    • All songs performed and arranged by FIVER & THE ATLANTIC SCHOOL OF SPONTANEOUS COMPOSITION
    • Jeremy Costello – Bass, Synthesizers, Voice & Bird Whistle
    • Nick Dourado – Lap Steel, Piano, Vibes
    • Bianca Palmer – Drums, Percussion
    • Simone Schmidt – Guitar, Voice
    • Produced by Simone Schmidt
    • Engineered by Gavin Gardiner at Hotel2Tango
    • Mixed by Gavin Gardiner at All Day Coconut
    • Mastered by Phil Demetro at the Lacquer Channel
    • Cover art by Simone Schmidt & Jeff Bierk
    • Photographs by Jeff Bierk

    Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Theory Of Ice

    $14.00$22.00

    Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
    Theory Of Ice
    Cat#: YC-048
    Released: March 12, 2021
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, artist, and musician who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. The result of an ongoing practice in the poetics of language reclamation and the aesthetics of relationship, Theory of Ice breaks open the intersections between politics, story, and song—revealing a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.

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    Theory of Ice is a powerful act of world-building and creative sovereignty by Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.

    One of the most compelling and important Indigenous voices of her generation, Leanne is the renowned author of Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail); This Accident of Being Lost (winner of the MacEwan University Book of the Year; finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire); As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance (awarded Best Subsequent Book by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association); and the creator of the album f(l)light which combined complex poetry and multi-layered stories of the land, spirit, and body with lush electronic/acoustic arrangements. This new album, Theory Of Ice is the result of an ongoing practice in the poetics and aesthetics of musical relationship, the material originating in written poetry, and worked into surprising, richly organic, song-forms through a collaborative generative process with bandmates Ansley Simpson and Nick Ferrio, producer Jonas Bonetta (Evening Hymns), and producer Jim Bryson.

    “I step over watery edges…” The opening line of the album’s first track “Break Up” welcomes you into a world likely not encountered or immediately recognized by the majority of the North American settler population. Imagery circles in fragments, as water moves between forms: ice, liquid, air. We are at the intersection of states, the intersection of ways of understanding, of ways of describing, contemporary science mixing with Nishnaabeg intellectual practices. The language is precise, and surprising in its precision: “there is euphotic rising and falling / orbits of dispossession and reattachment // achieving maximum density: 39 degrees farenheit.” (Disorientation is okay. I too had to look up “euphotic”: “..of, relating to, or constituting the upper layers of a body of water into which sufficient light penetrates to permit growth of green plants” according to Merriam-Webster). Poetry often leans on metaphor for its effect, for its shocks: metaphor as an assertion of likeness, of something shared, it shocks with the newness and unexpectedness of the comparison. This type of language works because a fundamental unlikeness between the objects of the metaphor is understood, and so the distinction between objects is ultimately confirmed. The language here shocks in a different way. This language reveals relationship, embedded Nishnaabemowin appearing as both definition and poetry, a revelation of a way of thinking: “aabawe: the first warmth of spring / aabawe: a loosening of the mind / to forgive.” I hear this as a generous invitation, a reinvention of understanding, the chorus rising beautifully on a melody of “gathering” of “swimming towards light”, “thinking”, “rethinking”, and “thinking otherwise.”

    Life is lived within water, we are made of water, we need clean water to live, and water exists in different states: ice, liquid, air, snow. Given a particular set of circumstances (for example where capitalism or settler-colonialism obliterates meaning, connection, and bodies) you might wish to live somewhere solid. You might want to live where you can be held, and where your hope can be held fast. In Noopiming: The Cure For White Ladies, the narrator speaks from within a frozen lake, where “there is solace in being cut off”, and “there is freedom enmeshed within that state”, asserting “being frozen in the lake is another kind of life.” Many of the songs of Theory Of Ice appear as poems in Noopiming. The album and the novel are related but distinct works, two parts of a greater project of thinking, of describing the world, of affirming a Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg existence through story and song and art. I believe “OK Indicts” is sung from this place of holding, from within this ice: “I saved shards of hope”; “I saved drops of light”. A song is a beautiful place to hold a thought, to honour a life.

    Viscosity, the property, is a measure of a fluid’s internal resistance, its internal friction. “Viscosity”, the song, rides a thick groove, a reckless darkness of thick bass and drums, as it ruthlessly dissects a contemporary world that celebrates connectivity over connection, taking hard measure of the inherent friction and alienation in our social-mediated society: this “yelling the loudest in the empty room”; this “feeding fish to insecurities.” And then, after an unexpected, disrupting piano solo, rising and falling, another voice enters, and the song rises, less alone, removing itself from that world of digital violence, peeling off from the “blue light.” A remarkable change is enacted and described: building a fire, alert to the coldness of the world, and the warmth of each other, in relationship, “careful moment after careful moment.” The careful, articulate delivery of the poetry, the communal act of playing music, of singing together, of listening to each other, of trusting in each other in the creation and generation of the song – this offers a model of how worlds are generated.

    “Surface Tension” arrives in a hush, Leanne dueting with John K Samson (of The Weakerthans), her friend, peer, and, through his work with Arbeiter Ring, sometimes publisher. It’s a quiet, beautiful celebration of the “simple stolen moments” and our ability “to love when we are able.” I hear the song as a gift, making those moments feel more possible, more present.

    The continuity of Indigenous resistance, rebellion, and truth is reaffirmed with a powerful new arrangement by Leanne and her band of Willie Dunn’s “I Pity The Country.” Most widely known as the first track on the essential Native North America Vol 1. (Light In The Attic, 2014) compilation, the song’s ongoing relevance and resonance is a powerful indictment of the continuation and persistence of settler colonial violence in North America. The presentation here is completely contemporary and rattling in the caverns of history.  It is a song filled to the highest edge with sublimated rage and a profoundly caring humanity in every word: the settler colonial state is not hated, it is pitied, for its smallness, its evil, its perpetual cruelty. I have heard this song sung at protests and marches, against the illegal occupation of unceded lands, in support of water and land protectors, by beautiful voices rallied together, united in a hope for restoration and justice. I heard Leanne and Ansley and Nick sing this song at Native North American gathering in Ottawa, in a room filled with Willie Dunn’s family and his peers, Willie Thrasher, Eric Landry, Willie Mitchell, the great poet Duke Redbird, the film-maker, musician, and force of nature Alanis Obomsawin. Immediately before Leanne’s performance news reached the auditorium that Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley was acquitted by an all-white jury in the murder of Colton Boushie, the 22 year old man from Cree Red Pheasant First Nation. Screaming. Crying. Terrible silence. This is the only song I know that can hold this feeling. It’s the only song I know that’s big enough. I pity this country.

    The experience of art is a powerful way of knowing, of learning; it is a gift from the world to the listener. It is an action and a way of being for the maker, it is a relationship with the world. I am thankful for the generosity of the worlds here, the life here. Life goes on in the details, and death too, a part of life. The world is amassed with details. The poet records those details as precisely as she can, singing of blankets, books, plastic flowers, pierogis, and cabbage rolls; singing of the disappearance of kids, of trailer hitches, coffee, spoons. While we were finalizing the master for the album, Leanne was definitive that it was not organized in a linear, narrative manner. It works laterally, non-hierarchically. It works musically. Yet, “Head Of The Lake” offers something like a conclusion. In the face of tragedy and in resistance to ongoing colonial violence, relationship is affirmed: “We made a circle and it helped.”; “Singing broke open hearts.” Here are Ansley and Nick, singing together, singing with Leanne, a moment of surprising beauty, understanding, and peace, and something like a conclusion, however provisional, partial, but also something like an acknowledgement of love: “in realization / we don’t exist without each other / she says: there’s nothing about you / I’m not willing to know.”

     

    – Steven Lambke

    Track Listing
    1. Break Up
    2. OK Indicts
    3. Viscosity
    4. Surface Tension
    5. I Pity The Country
    6. Failure Of Melting
    7. The Wake
    8. Head Of The Lake
    Credits
    • leanne betasamosake simpson - singing and speaking
    • ansley simpson - acoustic guitar, singing, electric guitar
    • nick ferrio - acoustic, electric, & 12 string guitars, bass, synth, keyboards, singing
    • tanner pare - drums, percussion
    • jim bryson - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, synth
    • john k. samson - vocals
    • jonas bonnetta - keyboards, synths, percussion, bass, singing
    • music written by nick ferrio, jonas bonnetta, ansley simpson and jim bryson
    • i pity the country written by willie dunn
    • engineered by heather kirby & jonas bonnetta
    • additional engineering by jim bryson, nick ferrio, & john k. samson
    • mixed by gavin gardiner
    • mastered by heather kirby
    • produced by jonas bonnetta
    • additional production by jim bryson
    • recorded at port william sound in mountain grove, ontario, with additional recording at fixed hinge in stittsville, ontario
    • album art by nadia myre

    Partner – Never Give Up

    $12.50$35.00

    Partner
    Never Give Up
    Cat#: YC-046
    Released: November 20, 2020
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    With Never Give Up Partner has fully developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons, while furthering their celebration of Rock! Crowned with guitar solos and humorous subject matter, Partner remain committed to a radical sincerity: “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, “never give up”.”.

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    PLEASE NOTE: The Partner 3-Pack is a special offer that includes the full-length albums Never Give Up and In Search Of Lost Time, and the EP Saturday the 14th in your chosen format!

     

    Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019.

    The band described the process of making the album. “In October of 2019 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album.”

    Not all the songs came so easily. Some took over a year to complete. Some taunted the band with their elusivity. Some forced Partner to rip them apart and build them back together more than once. Never Give Up was written in rehearsal spaces, in the band’s bedrooms, in a condo, in friends’ and strangers’ houses, Air BnBs, in a cafe and on Josee’s couch and in the studio, and in the booth. “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, “never give up”.”

    Track Listing
    1. Hello And Welcome
    2. Rock Is My Rock
    3. The Pit
    4. Honey
    5. Big Gay Hands
    6. Good Place To Hide (At The Time)
    7. Roller Coasters (Life Is One)
    8. Couldn't Forget
    9. Here I Am World
    10. Crocodiles
    Credits
    • Guitar & Vocals by Josée Caron
    • Bass, Vocals & Keyboard by Lucy Niles
    • Drums & Percussion by Simone TB
    • Written & Produced by Partner
    • Engineered by Steve Chahley
    • Recorded at Palace Sound
    • Additional Engineering & Overdubs by Katie Wayne
    • Mixed by Chris Shaw
    • Mastered by Joao Carvlho
    • Original Artwork by Paule Guilmain-Langlier
    • Layout by Josée Caron & Paul Henderson

    Daniel Romano – How Ill Thy World Is Ordered

    $12.50$18.00

    Daniel Romano
    How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
    Cat#: YC-045
    Released: September 18, 2020
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Let’s list the facts and see which ones hold: How Ill Thy World Is Ordered is the 9th full-length Daniel Romano album to be released in 2020, but the first to manifest in the physical mediums (LP/CD) since the career spanning, era-defining live album “Okay Wow” was released way back on March 27th. This one too, features the mighty skills of The Outfit, the tightest of tight-knit rock and roll bands: Julianna Riolino (vocals), David Nardi (guitar, vocals), Roddy Rossetti (bass), Ian Romano (drums), supplemented here by Mark Lalama (organ, piano), Briana Salmena (vocals), Victor Belcastro (sax) and Aaron Hutchinson (trumpet). The band assembled in studio in a perfectly tuned geometry to record these new songs following simple guidelines and simple rules: play the whole thing, in sequence, 3 takes or bust, with no overdubs; play “the sound of the feel of a snake bite”; play “a heist on horseback for fool’s gold”.

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    With your left eye closed, Daniel Romano seems a master synthesizer of sound and genre, a collage artist combining the corrupted influences of a century of so-called popular music forms, a chameleonic acrobat with a near-criminal authenticity. With the other, he’s revealed as a sincerely dedicated, passionately motivated songwriter aghast at the injustices of the world, a caring bandleader and generous collaborator, a spirited and shockingly playful artist tapped into a great, unyielding inspiration.

    Let’s list the facts and see which ones hold: How Ill Thy World Is Ordered is the 9th full-length Daniel Romano album to be released in 2020, but the first to manifest in the physical mediums (LP/CD) since the career spanning, era-defining live album “Okay Wow” was released way back on March 27th. This one too, features the mighty skills of The Outfit, the tightest of tight-knit rock and roll bands: Julianna Riolino (vocals), David Nardi (guitar, vocals), Roddy Rossetti (bass), Ian Romano (drums), supplemented here by Mark Lalama (organ, piano), Briana Salmena (vocals), Victor Belcastro (sax) and Aaron Hutchinson (trumpet). The band assembled in studio in a perfectly tuned geometry to record these new songs following simple guidelines and simple rules: play the whole thing, in sequence, 3 takes or bust, with no overdubs; play “the sound of the feel of a snake bite”; play “a heist on horseback for fool’s gold”.

    What unexpected anthems emerge! ‘A Rat Without A Tale’, ‘Green Eye Shade’, ‘First Yoke’, ‘A Secret Still To Be Betrayed’, ‘No More Disheartened By The Dawn’ shock with the full impact of their melodies, the harmonious combination of distinct human voices, the chromed accents of a perfectly arranged horn section, and more guitar playing, real, honest-to-the-core lead guitar playing than Daniel has previously committed to tape. The two-part ‘Joys Too Often Hollow’ and the beautiful closer ‘Amaretto and Coke’ show the band as adept at the swing and sway of softer sentiments, and as quickly tender as brave.

    The always-darkened clubs and the strange and dirtied hovels that offered remote shelter to this particular breed of restless musicians on their long and winding journeys across the continents have darkened more. It’s a different age to ply a trade. Every day reveals new cracks in the artifice, new crimes from the oligarchs and politicians, new types of genocide and dispossession. New visions of contempt. O, how ill this world is ordered.

    Yet music can lift the spirit, can, uniquely, restore dignity. To sound together, bringing hope:

    No more disheartened by the dawn,
    No more a sorrow will I see,
    No more shall time go trembling on,
    No more will I sing misery,
    No more the future will I fear,
    No more an ending coming near,
    No more the shades forever drawn,
    No more disheartened by the dawn.

    ————–

    LP: High quality stereo LP pressing in a beautiful Tip-on jacket

    CD: How Ill on a bright and shiny disc. Play it in your old car forever

    Track Listing
    1. A Rat Without A Tale
    2. How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
    3. How Ill Thy World Is Ordered
    4. Green Eye-Shade
    5. First Yoke
    6. Joys Too Often Hollowed
    7. Joys Too Often Hollowed Pt 2
    8. Drugged Vinegar
    9. Never Yet In Love
    10. A Secret Still To Be Betrayed
    11. No More Disheartened By The Dawn
    12. Amaretto And Coke
    Credits
    • Daniel Romano - vocals, guitar
    • Julianna Riolino – vocals
    • David Nardi – guitar, vocals
    • Roddy Rossetti – bass
    • Ian Romano – drums
    • Mark Lalama – organ, piano
    • Briana Salmena – vocals
    • Victor Belcastro – sax
    • Aaron Hutchinson – trumpet
    • Kenneth Roy Meehan – mix
    • Dan Weston - master

    Jon Mckiel – Bobby Joe Hope

    $22.00

    Jon Mckiel
    Bobby Joe Hope
    Cat#: YC-043
    Released: April 24, 2020
    Format: LP/Digital

    Tell me what you see. A game of hide and seek. A field wears the fog like an ancient argument. Wayward voices take shape just up ahead. Count down from 10 and be alone again. Abandoned to potential. In the green wide open. The rest belongs a mystery.

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    How do you speak through a stranger? Contain multitudes. And begin to find new kinds of design in accident. True story. In September 2015 Jon bought an old Teac A-2340, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, tapes included. He exchanged a few emails with the online seller while negotiating a deal, but they never met. The first time Jon tested out the machine at home it disclosed a beautiful dream. A single tape of astounding samples from an unknown source. He nicknamed it the Royal Sampler. They began to jam together.

    I want to hear you speak. The tape might have been a lost demo for the games of hide and seek that accustom us to evasion. Listening and gathering, the only way out was through. A collaboration constructed in echo. The completed songs seem to start mid-sentence, waiting a little further along the trail. Watch your step the ground gets uncertain by the bend. The maple trees in giggling fits. The shoreline no longer sure. I hear the mourning dove. Hang on a second. You were saying. Sometimes what’s past isn’t prologue it’s blocked. How you have to pause for your mind to work backwards. Not to remember but to unforget. What if something’s missing and you get stranded in “the futureless future”? Distend time? The not-so-distant waves wrinkling. An answer. 1968 isn’t just some numbers. Scraps of an otherwise. Maybe written in another language or maybe…Is that what you meant?

    The album was recorded during the summer of 2019 at Jay Crocker’s home studio in Crousetown. Under the watchful eye of Edward Snowden and a Blue Heeler named Judy. Jay and Jon transferred all the material they could excavate from the Royal Sampler along with the dialogic samples Jon had been making since that fateful September introduction. They combined these two samples with the following design principle: even in the songs organized around a Jon sample, the stranger would be woven in. A shared sonic architecture. The rest belongs a mystery.

    Tell me what you see. A game of hide and seek. A field wears the fog like an ancient argument. Wayward voices take shape just up ahead. Count down from 10 and be alone again. Abandoned to potential. In the green wide open. The colour of another time. The hammock gets twisted in the wind. Knotting and undoing. A fishnet. Let loose or captured, a life repeated, a life revised. Nothing is effortless. From another era insisting, there all along. I was there all along. These sounds, like truth, can be measured in time. Speak through me. Who can tell you what is real?

    Track Listing
    1. Mourning Dove
    2. Object Permanence
    3. Management
    4. Cold Hand Becomes The Master
    5. Night Garden
    6. Private Eye
    7. Deeper Shade
    8. What Kind Of Love
    9. Secret Of Mana
    Credits
    • Recorded by Jay Crocker and Jon Mckiel in Crousetown, NS and Sackville, NB
    • Mixed by Jay Crocker
    • Mastered by Harris Newman
    • All songs written by Jon Mckiel
    • Album art: "Knock Knock", paper collage, 8.5x12" 2019, Paul Henderson
    • Design by Paul Henderson
    sold out

    Daniel Romano – “Okay Wow”

    $15.00

    Daniel Romano
    "Okay Wow"
    Cat#: YC-044
    Released: March 27, 2020
    Format: LP/Digital

    In a shocking turn of events, Daniel Romano has decided to give you exactly what you asked for–– He and his unparalleled live band, The Outfit, have decided that you deserved it, that it is in fact already yours––and they want to say “you’re welcome.”

    The record is called “OKAY WOW”. Which is probably what you’ll say when you listen to it. It’s all your favourite songs except superior in every way to the versions you’ve exhausted.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    In a shocking turn of events, Daniel Romano has decided to give you exactly what you asked for–– He and his unparalleled live band, The Outfit, have decided that you deserved it, that it is in fact already yours––and they want to say “you’re welcome.”

    Band attributes of note: They all wear the same size clothing. They take the same vitamins and they love with the same warmth and tenderness. They are an outfit, united in song and banded in vitality. If you have seen them, you know all of this as it is evident. If you haven’t, then close your eyes and set the dial to ten, turn the heat up in your sparse, stuff-less, undersaturated, air-plant filled apartment and drop the needle into The Outfit.

    The record is called “OKAY WOW”. Which is probably what you’ll say when you listen to it. It’s all your favourite songs except superior in every way to the versions you’ve exhausted.

    “OKAY WOW” was RECORDED LIVE by Kenneth Roy Meehan the 1st while on tour across Scandinavia.

    The Outfit is: Daniel Romano, David Nardi, Roddy Rosetti, Ian Romano, Juliana Riolino and Tony “The Pope” Cicero

    OKAY WOW special edition LP is limited to 1500 units worldwide. Tip-on LP jacket. High quality LP pressing.

    Track Listing
    1. Empty Husk
    2. Toulouse
    3. Hard On You
    4. Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)
    5. Roya
    6. The Long Mirror Of Time
    7. Hunger Is A Dream You Die In
    8. Strange Faces
    9. Turtle Doves
    10. Sucking The Old World Dry
    11. Nerveless
    12. Human Touch
    13. Modern Pressure
    14. What's To Become (Of The Meaning Of Life)
    15. When I Learned Your Name
    Credits
    • Album recorded live in Scandinavia and mixed by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mastered by Ryan Morey
    sold out

    Transistors Sister Super Package!

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Transistors Sister Super Package
    Cat#: YC-TSSP
    Released: Dec 4, 2019
    Format: LP

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    Wow! Look at this! It’s the Shotgun Jimmie Transistors Sister Super Package! Features Transistor Sister (2011) and Transistor Sister 2 (2019), two stone-cold all-time classics packed with heart, riffs, good times, and sing-a-long feelings. And now, as never before, the Transistor Sister Super Package includes the bonus LP, Field of Trampolines (2016)!!! A world of Jimmie awaits!

    Available in super limited quantities for a super limited time only, it’s the Shotgun Jimmie Transistors Sister Super Package, a perfect compliment to any record collection.

    Transistor Sister
    1. Late Last Year
    2. Suzy
    3. King Of Kreuzberg
    4. Paper Planes
    5. Confidence Lodge Stairwell Recording #1
    6. Transistor Sister
    7. Too Many Flowers
    8. Stereo And The Stove
    9. Swamp Magic
    10. Piano
    11. Peace And Love
    12. Masterpiece
    13. Haze
    14. Refrain
    15. Bar's Open
    16. Bar's Closed
    Transistor Sister 2
    1. Blues Riffs
    2. Tumbleweed
    3. Hot Pots
    4. Ablutions
    5. Fountain
    6. Suddenly Submarine
    7. Piano (with band)
    8. The New Sincerity
    9. Sappy Slogans
    10. Highway 401
    11. Jack Pine
    12. Sorry We’re Closed

    WHOOP-Szo – Warrior Down

    $16.00

    WHOOP-Szo
    Warrior Down
    Cat#: YC-041
    Released: November 1, 2019
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    WHOOP-Szo is a blazing force of DIY rock. Fronted by Anishinaabe-Canadian community leader Adam Sturgeon, the band has spent nearly a decade carving out a reputation for themselves, rising on the strength of their musicianship, songwriting, and tireless touring. Thunderous and ground-breaking, harmonious and generative, on Warrior Down, WHOOP-Szo create an emotional weather-storm that dances conscientiously between anger and discipline, frustration, and hope for a concise, focused 35 minute examination of injustice, history, cultural reclamation, and Indigenous solidarity. Heavy and meditative, employing caustic humour, thick sludgy guitars, powerful drumming, and vocals that range from sweet to unhinged, WHOOP-Szo address the poisonous legacies of colonialism and effect positive change in the wider Canadian music and arts community.

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    “Who is that?”

    This is the first question you’ll have when you see the arresting portrait on the cover of WHOOP-Szo’s latest album, Warrior Down.

    “That’s my grandfather,” bandleader Adam Sturgeon explains. “Military man and residential school survivor,” he adds, letting that description sit before discussing what it must have been like for the Indigenous men of his grandfather’s generation to be summoned to the defense of their oppressors.

    Sturgeon’s experiences as an Anishinaabe-Canadian are woven into the songs on Warrior Down. We learn more about his grandfather in album closer “Cut Your Hair”; a fragile acoustic reflection on his grandfather’s experience in residential school, and the ongoing resonance of that familial trauma.

    Structurally fluid and immense in emotional scope, Warrior Down offers a series of dichotomies — pummeling percussion and sparkling gentleness, thrashing distortion and acoustic levity — that give it the dynamic of a creation story. Elemental forces compete and collide even as they seek equilibrium. The driving optimism of “Amaruq” gives way to the dissonant thud of “Gerry.” The forceful chant of “Long-Braided Hair” becomes the serene unison of “2CB.” The sparse and sardonic “6.1 – 6.2” leads to the foreboding and ruthlessly self- examining “Oda Man.” Sonically and thematically, Warrior Down depicts the unfolding of a cultural big bang, in which eruptions of truth activate a succession of healthy confrontations.

    The confrontations embodied on Warrior Down take the form of cultural callouts and personal reflections on identity. The record opens with the buoyant romp of “Amaruq.” Amaruq is an Inuktituk word meaning “wolf”. It’s also the name of a school in Nunavik where Sturgeon and Palm worked during 2012. “Amaruq” is an entry point into discussions of the Inuktituk language and multilingualism in Canada, and serves as a dedication to the community that welcomed the band.

    After this paean to Indigenous solidarity comes a discordant dirge that tells a tragic true story from Sturgeon’s life. “Gerry” opens with the indelible words: “Well, my cousin Gerry was shot by a cop.” When Sturgeon was growing up, he shared a deep, brotherly connection with his cousin Gerry, who gave Sturgeon his first guitar. Gerry, who moved to Holdfast, Saskatchewan lived a reclusive life, embittered by his family history told throughout the song. It was there that he was shot and killed in his own home by an RCMP officer, in a shocking instance of police brutality that has gone uninvestigated to this day. And so the song violently grieves: “Warrior down in Saskatchewan town.”

    This pounding chant transitions into the mournful musing of “Long-Braided Hair” (working title: “Missing and Murdered”). On this track, the national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women is posited as a type of cultural insanity: an institutionalized lack of love that encroaches on any sense of hope and connectedness in society. With this song, WHOOP-Szo bear witness to something that is being kept quiet and make it very, very loud, personalizing and amplifying the experiences of marginalized people. “Long-Braided Hair” is an urgent call for accountability, and for justice.

    “Oda Man,” is a variant of odemin, the Anishinaabe word for strawberry. The strawberry is often called the “heart berry.” It symbolizes connectedness, and is foundational to teachings about creation and love. Lending still more depth: Adam is the father of a beautiful baby boy named Oda. “Oda Man” is foreboding and fragile, examining an emotionally cut-off version of masculinity alongside one that embraces emotion as a creative force. It is a reclamation of positive male values that relates back to the teachings of the heart, and seeks a form of healing that comes from resisting barriers to connection and learning how to yield to love.

    The use of language is an important part of what gives the songs on Warrior Down their shape. Reclamation is an ongoing theme for WHOOP-Szo, who routinely integrate Anishinaabe words and teachings into their art to reassert aspects of Indigenous culture that have been endangered by the forced fragmentation of families and communities.

    If listeners translate “Naanan” and “Nshwaaswi,” they will learn that tracks five and eight are titled with … the Anishinaabe words for five and eight. These titles serve as an invitation to think about language, and to contemplate the replacement of English numbers with Anishinaabe numbers as a countermeasure to the replacement of Indigenous names with Euro-Canadian ones that characterized part of the assimilative process in Canada.

    If listeners research “6.1 – 6.2,” they will eventually discover the concept of “Indian status” as it is outlined in Sections 6(1) and 6(2) of the Indian Act, which set out the criteria for having a legally recognized Aboriginal identity.

    Whether listeners want to engage with the instructiveness of the songs or just sit back and enjoy them, Warrior Down provides.

    So, who is the warrior on Warrior Down? Is it Gerry? His grandfather? Or Adam himself?

    The answer is not clear-cut. The role of a warrior cannot be filled by a single person, any more than the work of warriors can be performed by any one of us alone. But on Warrior Down, the strength of WHOOP-Szo’s music is made available to anyone whose world has been shocked by new truth; who feels like their spirit is scrambling in pursuit of balance; who realizes it is a fight to try and lead with love, and tries.

    Track Listing
    1. Amaruq
    2. Gerry
    3. Long Braided Hair
    4. 2CB
    5. Naanan
    6. 6.1//6.2
    7. Oda Man
    8. Nshwaaswi
    9. Homemade Candles
    10. Cut Your Hair
    Credits
    • WHOOP-Szo: Adam Sturgeon, Kirstin Kurvink Palm, Joe Thorner, Eric Lourenco, Andrew Lennox
    • Recorded and mixed by Kyle Ashbourne at the Sugar Shack in Deshkan Zibing (London, ON)
    • Drums on 1-5 recorded by Nathan Lamb and Adam Sturgeon at the Out of Sound House
    • 6.1//6.2 recorded by Dave Trenaman and Colleen Collins at The Quarantine in Port Greville, NS
    • "The Noisy Mountain" by Zachary Gray
    • Mastered by Stu McKillop at Rain City Recorders
    • Typeface and drawings by Bennie Allain
    • Design and layout by Alayna Hryclik
    sold out

    Ancient Shapes – A Flower That Wouldn’t Bloom

    $16.00

    Ancient Shapes
    A Flower That Wouldn't Bloom
    Cat#: YC-042
    Released: October 25, 2019
    Format: LP/Digital

    “A Flower That Wouldn’t Bloom” is the third offering from the flower pop super group “Ancient Shapes”. They have been called “ the best band since computers” and also “incredibly good as hell” when it comes to their live engagements and sock hop shake down events. Inside this heated material you will find such subjects as sadness, happiness, loneliness, togetherness, longing, acceptance, colonial guilt complexes and home town optimism.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

    SKU: YC-042LP Categories: ,

    “A Flower That Wouldn’t Bloom” is the third offering from the flower pop super group “Ancient Shapes”. In all realities it is the amalgamation of two recording sessions that took place almost a year apart–– in essence this is the greatest hits compilation.

    Ancient Shapes is comprised of Daniel Romano, David Nardi, Vee Bell, Roddy Rosetti and Ian Romano. They have been called “ the best band since computers” and also “incredibly good as hell” when it comes to their live engagements and sock hop shake down events. The group has  traveled the world over sharing their songs and ideas with others, now they offer us this: A flower that just refuses to bloom.

    Inside this heated material you will find such subjects as sadness, happiness, loneliness, togetherness, longing, acceptance, colonial guilt complexes and home town optimism.

    There was the first one, and everyone seemed to like that, and the second one people liked too… this is the third one. Odds are good.

    Track Listing
    1. Separation Anxiety
    2. Piss Coloured Glasses
    3. A Flower That Wouldn't Bloom
    4. Glass Curtain
    5. Audrey
    6. Welland 2020
    7. To Be Touched
    8. Chinese Leather
    9. Albatross Blues
    10. Dirty Little Hands
    11. All The Kids
    12. Reconciliation Nation Now
    13. Loose Ends
    Credits
    • All music, lyrics, recording, performance by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Dan Weston

    Shotgun Jimmie – Transistor Sister 2

    $10.00$14.00

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Transistor Sister 2
    Cat#: YC-039
    Released: August 2, 2019
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Are you ready for the new sincerity?! Shotgun Jimmie’s new album Transistor Sister 2 is full of genuine pop gems that champion truth and love. Jimmie focuses largely on family and friends with a heavy dose of nostalgia and hyperbolic takes on the everyday, reconstructing familiar scenarios, from traffic on the 401 (the beloved and scorned mega-highway through Toronto known to all touring musicians as the place where punctual arrival at soundcheck goes to die) to cooking dinner. Here’s the manifesto: renounces cynicism, promote the positive.

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    Are you ready for the new sincerity?! Shotgun Jimmie’s new album Transistor Sister 2 is full of genuine pop gems that champion truth and love. Jimmie is joined by long-time collaborators Ryan Peters (Ladyhawk) and Jason Baird (DoMakeSayThink) for this sequel to the Polaris Prize nominated album Transistor Sister from 2011. José Contreras (By Divine Right) produced and recorded the record in Toronto, Ontario at The Chat Chateaux and joins the band on keys.

    In characteristic Shotgun Jimmie fashion, the songs on Transistor Sister 2 focus largely on family and friends with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Jimmie’s hyperbolic takes on the everyday reconstruct familiar scenarios, from traffic on the 401 (the beloved and scorned mega-highway through Toronto known to all touring musicians as the place where punctual arrival at soundcheck goes to die) to cooking dinner.

    The album’s lead single Cool All the Time is a plea for people to abandon ego and strive for authenticity, featuring contributions by Chad VanGaalen, Steven Lambke and Cole Woods. The New Sincerity serves as the album’s manifesto; it renounces cynicism and promotes positivity.

    “I decided to make a sequel because I loved making the first one. I value the experience of making records as much as the end product. I know that I’m always trying to make something good, but I’m also aware that the process is the thing that I’ll think about and revisit in the future. With this album, I really wanted to recreate the immersive experience of making the original. The first one was recorded in Nova Scotia in a beautiful little town. The session had the feeling of a destination artist residency. We swam in the ocean and watched scientists cut the head off a shark; they were very eventful days. Maybe I also wanted an excuse to hang out with Jay and Ryan for a week. The three of us are spread out across the country, so being together is a rare treat. On the last day of the session we played a rock show at a tiny Toronto club. We literally went straight from the studio to the venue. It was completely packed with pals from all over; it was the best! I played the first Transistor Sister acoustic, then the full band performed Transistor Sister 2 from top to bottom. The show provided our session a very hard deadline and was probably the cause of some studio stress, but it was a perfect magical ending to the week.”

    Track Listing
    1. Blues Riffs
    2. Tumbleweed
    3. Hot Pots
    4. Ablutions
    5. Fountain
    6. Suddenly Submarine
    7. Piano (with band)
    8. The New Sincerity
    9. Cool All The Time
    10. Sappy Slogans
    11. Highway 401
    12. Jack Pine
    13. Sorry We’re Closed
    Credits
    • Shotgun Jimmie: Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica
    • Jason Baird: Bass Guitar, Saxophone and Flute
    • Ryan Peters: Drums, Vocals, Piano, and Auxiliary Percussion
    • José Miguel Contreras: Ace Tone Organ and Vocals
    • Steven lambke: Wurlitzer Piano
    • Cole Woods: Moog Prodigy Synthesizer
    • Aaron Goldstein: Pedal Steel Guitar
    • Chad VanGaalen: Vocals and Tambouring (Cool All The Time)
    • Recorded and Mixed by José Miguel Contreras at the Chat Chateau
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering
    • Artwork & Design by Paul Henderson
    • Produced by José Miguel Contreras

    Steven Lambke – Dark Blue

    $14.00

    Steven Lambke
    Dark Blue
    Cat#: YC-037
    Released: March 29, 2019
    Format: LP/Digital/Chapbook

    Dark Blue is a celebration of ritual, a series of creation myths, a document of disruption, an attack on colonialism, a lament for environmental ruin, and evidence of endurance and transcendence. It is a product of this time, an album that marks the 10th anniversary of artist-run label You’ve Changed Records with a special collaboration between co-founders Steven Lambke and Daniel Romano. Energy is immediate and harnessed in a collaborative process between poet and muse, inspiration and scribe, guitar and voice and drum.

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    Tell me a story,
    beginning and ending.
    Most of what happens,
    happens again.
    This time I’m listening:
    leaves rustling;
    feet shuffling
    towards the door;
    there’s dust and coughing;
    “you call that singing?”
    I’m always beginning
    again.

    The weather is changing. Rhythms and interactions that had seemed eternal degrade. The realm of the uncertain expands. Uncertainty inspires fear, fear inspires rage. Points of recognition are shifting, points of return becoming rare. The measure of human meaning and dignity has been reduced to discussions of financial gains and losses.

    A song can seem a slight thing. Barely there. Unless it is in the midst of being sung or being heard it could be said to exist only in potential or in memory. What is the form of this potential? A balance of words, chords, melody. Balance implies an interaction. The song is the point of balance that is returned to, potential turned into action with intention. In this way the song is the music of ritual. Ritual is the creation of human meaning through repetition.

    With Dark Blue, Steven Lambke builds a visceral swirl of narrative images, dense with allusions and invocations, rich with imagery and scene, into a series of creation stories, a document of disruption, a lament for environmental ruin and the destructions of colonialism, and a stubborn evidence of endurance and transcendence. It is a product of this time, a collaborative process between poet and muse, inspiration and scribe, guitar and voice and drum.

    The release of Dark Blue marks the 10th anniversary of You’ve Changed Records, the label co-founded in 2009 by Steven Lambke and Daniel Romano. A collaboration yields its own energy. Evocative poetry and guitar work reminiscent of Lambke’s long career with indie legends The Constantines combine with Romano’s multi-instrumental skill and production talents in a music that is sophisticated and immediate, intimate and expansive.

    But what act of creation could ever be called complete? The song reacts to the world into which it is sung, and acts on that world. The outcome is never known and the song is not sung the same way twice as everything surrounding it will have changed. The song moves through the world like a rendezvous of atoms.

    My faith had grown thin.
    Ribs showed through my skin
    like the handprints of the sculptor.
    Unfinished thing. Restless wandering.
    It’s a beautiful world
    until you drop down dead at the sight of it.

    Back to back, belly to belly
    I remember everything
    Lay me down and love me
    Back to back, belly to belly

    Begin again. Calling equally to the past and to the future, the song has a double existence as an expression of memory and an expression of hope.

    Track Listing
    1. Fireworks
    2. At The Start Of The Song
    3. Both Of Me
    4. I Will Not Lie To You
    5. Major Rager
    6. Cut Flowers
    7. My Love Is Impure But Enduring
    8. White Horses
    9. Troubled By The Night
    10. Back To Back
    11. Dark Blue
    12. All My Days Are Light And Gold
    Credits
    • Performed by:
    • Steven Lambke - vocals, guitars, percussion, organ
    • Daniel Romano - drums, percussion, guitars, vocals, organ
    • Dave Nardi - bass, organ, guitars
    • Mark Lalama - piano, accordian
    • Ian Romano - drums on White Horses and second drums on At The Start Of The Song
    • Recorded by Daniel Romano
    • Additional recording by Steven Lambke
    • Piano and accordion recorded by Mark Lalama
    • Mixed by Graham Walsh
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal
    • Cover Art by Shary Boyle. Swallow, 2015. Porcelain, glazes
    • Photograph by Sean Weaver
    • Layout and Design by Daniel Romano

    Ian Daniel Kehoe – Secret Republic

    $16.00

    Ian Daniel Kehoe
    Secret Republic
    Cat#: YC-036
    Released: March 22, 2019
    Format: LP/Digital

    Ian Daniel Kehoe is a classic songwriter pulling from a seemingly endless supply of hooks, dancing in silver face paint and an assortment of wide shouldered sports jackets, appearing like an emissary from a better world.  Secret Republic is an entirely self-assured debut record, ten confident, immaculate pop songs, drenched in analog synth and punchily articulate in their pursuit of love, beauty and rhythm.

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    It seems now that Ian Daniel Kehoe has been hiding in plain sight.  A classic songwriter pulling from a seemingly endless supply of hooks, dancing through his debut video in silver face paint and an assortment of wide shouldered sports jackets, Kehoe appears somewhat like an apparition, an emissary from a better world.  Secret Republic, Kehoe’s debut under his own name, is an entirely self assured first record, ten confident, immaculate pop songs, drenched in analog synth and punchily articulate in their pursuit of love, beauty and rhythm.  Recorded and performed entirely by Kehoe himself, the record is a introduction to this world, one where melody reigns supreme, every love is a true love, and the singer searches endlessly for “prizes through the mazes of the jungles, prizes at the tips of the poles.”

    While Secret Republic may be a debut, Kehoe has appeared on the musical scene in various guises.  For the past few years, he has toured extensively as a drummer for Andy Shauf (Anti Records), The Weather Station (Paradise of Bachelors), and Julia Jacklin (Polyvinyl).  Before that, he was bassist and songwriter in Attack in Black (Dine Alone Records), while releasing several records as Marine Dreams (You’ve Changed Records).  But Secret Republic is something entirely new; the debut of Kehoe as a preturnaturally confident front man and producer, with a tight grasp on every musical weapon at his disposal.  Secret Republic is a record made in a home studio, a record where Kehoe played and recorded every note, and yet it doesn’t feel inward looking or introspective.  Many of the songs are constructed as crowd pleasers, songs to be played from bleachers, soundtracks to first dances and first kisses, songs that could sit alongside ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ on the radio circa 1983.  That isn’t to say though that the record feels universal or ordinary.  While being eminently approachable, it would be impossible to see it as anything but the product of a very singular mind, one particularly attuned to beauty, and to the taut magic of a perfect riff.

    Those who know Kehoe, know him to be almost mythologically prolific.  Secret Republic is one of only four records Kehoe wrote in the last year, all while touring heavily.  But while this output may summon an image of the single minded producer, holed up in a home studio, the music itself insists on such vivid ideals as beauty, love, and the spirit.  ‘Through the thunder I swear I heard a whisper from the heart of the storm’ he sings on the title track, elaborating on a ‘secret republic, talking downwards’ from the clouds.  ‘Fate Gets Closer’ and the dead serious ‘One Picture’ are wildly romantic, speaking to a notion of endless love and destiny.  ‘Evil People’ is almost funny, with its ‘Thriller’ esque haunted house sounds and ascending chorus.  Live, Kehoe sings in full voice, arms held upwards, disarming the crowd with a curious mixture of seriousness, humour, and showmanship.  Kehoe is alive to the joyful and almost comedic possibilities inherent to the role of the pop singer.  Witnessing Kehoe stop a set to read an original poem, or lead a brief discussion of an idea of infinity, a curious alchemy is created in the room, as the audience hovers between laughter, curiousity, and reverence.  To Kehoe perhaps, these states need not be so opposed.

    Kehoe has always been a disciple of pop music, in the most traditional sense of the word.  A lover of Nick Lowe and Harry Nilsson, Queen and Michael Jackson, Kehoe adheres to the idea that music should be moved to, danced to, sung along to.  To Kehoe, this is both the most serious thing in the world, and also not serious at all.   And this is borne out on Secret Republic, a record to soundtrack a love either deep or glancing, a record for dancing or for thinking, a record both heavy and feather light.

    Track Listing
    1. Prizes Through The Mazes Of The Jungle
    2. One Picture
    3. Secret Republic
    4. It's Hard (Livin' Without You Girl)
    5. Fate Gets Closer
    6. Evil People
    7. Crying Again
    8. What's A Liar Know Anyway
    9. Doing Fine (Without Your Trust)
    10. Interlude
    Credits
    • Written, Performed, Recorded and Mixed by Ian Daniel Kehoe
    • Harmony Vocals by Tamara Lindeman
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering
    • Design and Layout by David Nardi
    • Cover Photograph by Rima Sater

    Partner – Saturday The 14th

    $7.00$10.00

    Partner
    Saturday The 14th
    Cat#: YC-038
    Released: April 5th, 2019
    Format: 45 RPM 12", CD

    Partner is committed to exploring and breaking down the limits of their minds in the name of Rock. Saturday the 14th represents the first steps towards a bold new future as the band question the rules and question themselves, while offering a few tantalizing hints for what lies in store next.

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    Partner is funny, but not a joke. Gay, but not for each other. Best friends Josée Caron and Lucy Niles confidently harness the infinite power of Rock to explore a variety of niche yet strangely universal themes.

    Partner’s debut album In Search of Lost Time was named one of the best records of 2017 by NPR’s All Songs Considered, Stereogum, Noisey, Exclaim, CBC Music, Indie 88 and many more. The album was shortlisted for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize, and Partner were the recipients of the SOCAN Songwriting Prize in 2018 for their song “Play the Field”.

    Partner is committed to exploring and breaking down the limits of their minds in the name of Rock. Saturday the 14th represents the first steps towards a bold new future as the band question the rules and question themselves, while offering a few tantalizing hints for what lies in store next.

    Features Long & McQuade, a tribute to Canada’s most popular and ubiquitous guitar store, and Tell You Off which was debuted on the NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.

    To purchase a digital copy of Saturday The 14th, please visit our Bandcamp page.

    Track Listing
    1. Fun For Everyone (Minions)
    2. Stoned Thought
    3. Tell You Off
    4. Long & McQuade
    5. Les ailes d'un ange*
    • *featured on CD version only
    Credits
    • All songs written, arranged and performed by Lucy Niles and Josée Caron
    • Produced by Josée Caron
    • Engineered by Max Cotter
    • Additional engineering by Josée Caron
    • Mixed by Chris Shaw
    • Mastered by João Carvalho
    • Cover artwork by Brandon Celi
    • Layout by Colin Medley

    Daniel Romano – Finally Free

    $12.50$16.00

    Daniel Romano
    Finally Free
    Cat#: YC-035
    Released: November 30, 2018
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Finally Free sings like a radical revelation, exploring the concepts of music as a celestial being, flora as a consequential ancestor, and singing, no matter its quality or sound, as the endmost important output of our species. Finally Free contains a vivid religious articulation despite its clear condemnation of a god as a singular ruling white male. New words have replaced old words for new meaning and the definitions have been left up to interpretation. It seems safe to say that Romano has broken the literary soil hard and ferociously to find the remaining repose in our current “danse macabre.”

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    Finally Free is Daniel Romano’s eighth long playing album in the last eight years, a prolific output of recording, producing, designing and delivering entrancing, poignant and creative records.

    Finally Free could stand alone as a being pivotal record if it were only its profound and breathtaking prose on paper. Daniel Romano writes like an agnostic Whitman in his prime, exploring and uncovering new language and meaning for old sentiments grown tired. Finally Free sings like a radical revelation, exploring the concepts of music as a celestial being, flora as a consequential ancestor, and singing, no matter its quality or sound, as the endmost important output of our species. Finally Free contains a vivid religious articulation despite its clear condemnation of a god as a singular ruling white male. New words have replaced old words for new meaning and the definitions have been left up to interpretation. It seems safe to say that Romano has broken the literary soil hard and ferociously to find the remaining repose in our current “danse macabre.”

    “FINALLY FREE” was recorded with one single microphone in “sitting vocal position”. The songs were written as they were recorded and the single microphone was surounded by various instrument work stations for Romano to play. The microphone never moved which means the room itself was mixed instead of the individual tracks.” Finally Free was recorded on a 4 track Tascam cassette recorder.

    Harking back to Romano’s early studies and obsessions in traditional folk music while simultaneously conveying a surprisingly modern and engaging aesthetic, Finally Free is dense with new wisdom and blissfully encouraging in these end times.

    Track Listing
    1. Empty Husk
    2. All The Reaching Trims
    3. The Long Mirror Of Time
    4. Celestial Manis
    5. Between The Blades Of Grass
    6. Rhythmic Blood
    7. Have You Arrival
    8. Gleaming Sects of Amiran
    9. There Is Beauty In The Vibrant Forms
    Credits
    • Written, Recorded, Performed, Engineered, Produced and Mixed by Daniel Romano
    • Piano on Between The Blades Of Grass and There Is Beauty In The Vibrant Forms by Kay Berkel
    • Collage by Daniel Romano and Lauren Speer
    • Illustrations and Artwork by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Dan Weston
    sold out

    Ancient Shapes – Silent Rave

    Ancient Shapes
    Silent Rave
    Cat#: YC-034
    Released: October 5, 2018
    Format: 45 RPM 12"

    Ancient Shapes celebrate and shake with the supernatural under-dogs. Ancient Shapes sing abrasively as the bottom feeders, no-eyed from years of pitch darkness. “Silent Rave” is a collection of raw, lucid poems, exploring various crevasses of love, the natural world, and also more love. Daniel Romano shrieks with immediacy as he never has in his other endeavors, running through a bubble gum power pop landscape with an urgency that can only be described as punk.

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    The heart-like form in the cracked muddy ground. The faces turned away from the fire. The unwanted flowers of spring – Ancient Shapes celebrate and shake with the supernatural under-dogs, they sing abrasively as the bottom feeders, no-eyed from years of pitch darkness. In this, they bring a new source of light; with an urgency that can only be described as “punk”.

    Daniel Romano, (writer, producer, performer, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, artist) of the group “Ancient Shapes” is also known for his rock and roll and sometimes folk and sometimes country and western act that wears his birth moniker. Romano has been a highly prolific and independent force in today’s un-garbaged musical and lyrical output for the last 15 years. He is reluctantly awarded and renowned. Some say genius others say trash-boy.

    Ancient Shapes shift the language of punk. “Silent Rave” is a collection of raw, lucid poems, exploring various crevasses of love, the natural world, and also more love. Romano shrieks with immediacy (as he never has in his other endeavors) over a bubble gum power pop landscape.

    Punks and the punk-less together find common ground in these electric folk-tales of smeared foliage. See them live to understand. Listen to the record and fill in the gaps in your creative brain. You’re good at it!

    Critics like it.
    People like it too.
    Disclaimer: (some don’t)

    Here’s to another century of ice.

    Track Listing
    1. Giant Coma
    2. Another Century Of Ice
    3. Mental Slavery (We Can't Quit)
    4. Wabash Wreckingball
    5. Violence In The Mouth Of Age
    6. My Adidas (Revisited)
    7. Political Rain
    8. Black Leather Jacket
    9. The Girl Of God's Lips
    10. Blood Orange
    Credits
    • Written, Performed, Recorded by Daniel Romano
    • Cover photo by Sebastian Buzzalino
    • Layout by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Dan Weston
    sold out

    Ancient Shapes – Across Canada 2018 Photo Book

    Ancient Shapes
    Across Canada 2018
    Cat#:
    Released: June 4, 2018
    Format: 6x9" B+W Photo Book

    A collection of black and white tour photos from Ancient Shapes’ cross-Canada January 2018 tour, from Vancouver to Montreal. 120 pages, 147 photos, 6×9” format, includes photos from the stage, the van, the beds, the hotels, the freezing cold road stops and the results of drinking too many Labatt 50s as captured by photographer Sebastian Buzzalino.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    A collection of black and white tour photos from Ancient Shapes’ cross-Canada January 2018 tour, from Vancouver to Montreal. 120 pages, 147 photos, 6×9” format, includes images from the stage, the van, the beds, the hotels, the freezing cold road stops, and the results of drinking too many Labatt 50s, as captured by photographer Sebastian Buzzalino.

    “I’ve had the privilege of working with Dan on a couple of tours, but this was the first time documenting his punk project, Ancient Shapes. Huddled in a busted van full of speed holes as we raced across Canada at the height of winter, I captured a more frenetic, urgent side of his music. Between the close quarters, the packed venues and our scrappy camaraderie, these represent some of my most visceral and intimate photos to date.” – Sebastian Buzzalino

    “Sebastian Buzzalino is an invisible summer. When behind the camera, he is disguised and blends into even the most vivid scenery. This ability is what makes him able to capture the raw, living, bleeding imagery that he does. Never have I met someone with such a quick response and attention to a subject. Above all this, when the camera comes down, his beautiful smile appears.” – Daniel Romano

    To see more of Sebastian’s work please visit Unfolding Creative Photography.

    This item is available individually and cannot be bundled with any other items from our shop at this time. Thanks for understanding and supporting!

    Nap Eyes – I’m Bad Now

    $12.50$16.00

    Nap Eyes
    I'm Bad Now
    Cat#: YC-033
    Released: March 9, 2018
    Format: LP/CD/Digital
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    I’m Bad Now, the most transparent and personal Nap Eyes album to date, constitutes the third chapter of an implicit, informal trilogy that includes Whine of the Mystic (2015) and Thought Rock Fish Scale (2016). The brilliantly reductive title is something I’ve heard my four-year-old son and his friends announce verbatim when roleplaying the perennial game of heroes and villains, “good guys” and “bad guys.” “I’m bad now,” he declares, but an equivocal binary is implied: it’s only a matter of time or trading places before he (or anyone) has the capacity for good again. Perhaps goodness will manifest in the multiverse, on a different circuit than this faulty, frayed one. Is that faith or fantasy? And what is the difference? The title is also, of course, a sly Michael Jackson appropriation that can also be more simply read. “When you can own your capacity for badness, you can also grow up in some way,” enigmatic songwriter Nigel Chapman said when discussing the album and its themes. “Children can’t be ‘bad,’ because they are children. As an adult, you can — or should — only be bad as little as possible.”

    While Chapman composes Nap Eyes songs in their inchoate form at home in Halifax, Brad Loughead (lead guitar), Josh Salter (bass), and Seamus Dalton (drums), who live a twelve-hour drive away in Montreal, augment and arrange them, transubstantiating his skeletal, ruminative wafers into discourses that aim to transcend what Nigel, in the song “Dull Me Line,” self-laceratingly deems “bored and lazy disappointment art.” The band provides ballast and bowsprit to Nigel’s cosmical mind. The nautical metaphor is not just whimsy: Nap Eyes are all Nova Scotians by raising and temperament, acclimated to life on an Atlantic peninsula linked narrowly to the rest of North America. “Follow Me Down,” with its “broad cove” and bay, and “Boats Appear,” with its “steam trails rising from the sea,” both offer an evocative sense of place for these otherwise mental mysteries. We are very many creatures, with innumerable possible courses to explore. So let fly the cosmical mind into the gray night, dear listener.

    Track Listing
    1. Every Time The Feeling
    2. I'm Bad
    3. Judgement
    4. Roses
    5. Follow Me Down
    6. You Like To Joke Around With Me
    7. Dull Me Line
    8. Sage
    9. Hearing The Bass
    10. White Disciple
    11. Boats Appear (CD / Download only)
    Credits
    • All music by Nap Eyes
    • Lyrics by Nigel Chapman
    • "Hearing The Bass" lyrics by Danika Vandersteen
    • Recorded and mixed by Howard Billerman with Mike Wright at Hotel2Tango, Montreal, QC
    • Mastered by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering, Brooklyn, NY
    • Cover drawing, caligraphy, and cover photo by Danika Vandersteen
    • Inner sleeve collage by Allison Higgins
    • Design and layout by Danika Vandersteen, Brendan Greaves, and Miles Johnson
    sold out

    Nap Eyes – 3 LP package

    Nap Eyes
    3 LP Package Deal
    Cat#:
    Released: March 9, 2018
    Format: LP

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    Get all three Nap Eyes albums at a special discounted price! This package deal includes I’m Bad Now (YC-033), Thought Rock Fish Scale (YC-024), and Whine Of The Mystic (YC-022). PLEASE NOTE: This offer is available to Canadian customers only.

    In just four short years, Nap Eyes have made much ado about meaninglessness with rock ‘n’ roll songs that shake just offbeat and smart lyrics wrapped in bemused ennui. – NPR

    …songs that are lucid with laser-like focus and freeze-framed detail. – Pitchfork

    One of the most fascinating songwriters we have today. – Newsweek

    Purveyors of beatific, sun-drenched roadtrip tunes. Nigel Chapman is owner of one of the most beautiful voices I’ve heard in years. – NME

    Partner – In Search Of Lost Time

    $12.50$16.00

    Partner
    In Search Of Lost Time
    Cat#: YC-032
    Released: September 8, 2017
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Heavy as a crush, nimble as a thimble, smart as a doctorate, stupid as edible underwear, these 12 songs shudder with wit, melody and the peerless confederation of Josée Caron and Lucy Niles. None of their influences – not Weezer, Ween, Dinosaur Jr or any of the lesbian superfecta (k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge, Tegan, Sara) – marry Partner’s craft for singles and their willingness to laugh at themselves – at least not with the same smiling candour. In Search Of Lost Time proves that it’s always more freeing, and probably more fun, to be the butt of the joke.

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    Partner is the “mature” effort of two best friends named Josée Caron and Lucy Niles. Borne of their bizarre and fortuitous friendship, Partner confidently harnesses the infinite power of Rock to explore a variety of niche yet strangely universal themes.

    After a freakishly productive year of writing, recording, and touring, Partner are ready to release their debut to the world, titled In Search of Lost Time (September 08, 2017). Their enthusiastic and action-packed live set has led to them being named the “best new band in Canada” in the Globe and Mail, and although “Partner hasn’t even released an album yet, [watching] one of their sets, it’s clear right away that they’ve arrived fully formed.”

    Influenced by acts as varied as Melissa Etheridge, Ween, kd lang, and Prince, Partner delivers a refreshing and vital twist on a classic, prompting you to re-think what you thought was possible in Rock.

    Track Listing
    1. Everybody Knows
    2. Comfort Zone
    3. Gross Secret
    4. Angels From Ontario
    5. Daytime TV
    6. Sex Object
    7. Ambassador To Ecstasy
    8. Play The Field
    9. You Don't Have To Say Thank You
    10. Creature In The Sun
    11. Remember This
    12. Woman Of Dreams
    Credits
    • All music and lyrics written by Partner
    • Recorded in April 2016 at Candle Recording
    • Engineered by Josh Korody
    • Assistant Engineered by Dylan Frankland
    • Recording supervised by Steven Lambke
    • Additional overdubs engineered by Max Cotter and Tynan Dunfield
    • Edited by Kevin Brasier
    • Produced by Josée Caron and Kevin Brasier
    • Mixed by Chris Shaw
    • Mastered by Joao Carvalho
    • Photography by Colin Medley
    • Layout by Paul Henderson
    • Art direction by Josée Caron
    • Vocals and Lead Guitar by Josée Caron
    • Vocals and Rhythm Guitar by Lucy Niles
    • Bass by Kevin Brasier
    • Drums by Simone TB

    Daniel Romano – Modern Pressure

    $12.50

    Daniel Romano
    Modern Pressure
    Cat#: YC-031
    Released: May 19, 2017
    Format: LP/CD

    Modern Pressure is Daniel Romano's ambitious and surprising new album, and marks his return to You've Changed Records for the first time since 2010's classic Sleep Beneath The Willow. The twelve tracks boldly ask, “What age is this? What blooming weight do we carry?”. Written in observational scrutiny beneath the overcast atmosphere of 2016, the record vigorously tackles the present-day heaviness we contain in the jotting bones of our guilty expressions. It pleads for the restoration of empathy and resonance, to fill the empty chamber once again.

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    Modern Pressure is Daniel Romano’s ambitious and surprising new album, twelve tracks that boldly ask “What age is this? What blooming weight do we carry?”. Written in observational scrutiny beneath the overcast atmosphere of 2016, the record vigorously tackles the present-day heaviness we contain in the jotting bones of our guilty expressions. It pleads for the restoration of empathy and resonance, to fill the empty chamber once again.

    In this chamber, Romano’s voice leads as a lantern. Prolific and resourceful as ever, the recording phase took place in a minimalistic cabin in secluded Finnsäs, Sweden over the month of August 2016 (with additional string and horn players being added at Baldwin Street Sound in Toronto, ON in October, 2016). Engineered by long-time collaborator Kenneth Meehan, the fevered pace of work lent itself to the unrestrained and undeviated nature of the songs themselves.

    Romano holds a pivotal key to the exploration of our present day condition; he takes another valiant and dynamic stride. Modern Pressure is his first album for You’ve Changed Records since 2010’s classic Sleep Beneath The Willow.

    LP versions of Modern Pressure include a digital download of the album.

    Track Listing
    1. Ugly Human Heart Pt. 1
    2. Modern Pressure
    3. Roya
    4. The Pride Of Queens
    5. When I Learned Your Name
    6. Sucking The Old World Dry/li>
    7. Ugly Human Heart Pt. 2
    8. Impossible Green
    9. Jennifer Castle
    10. Dancing With The Lady In The Moon
    11. I Tried To Hold The World (In My Mouth)
    12. What's To Become Of The Meaning Of Love
    Credits
    • All music and lyrics by Daniel Romano
    • (Fake Love Songs) lyrics by Chris 'Loons' O'Toole
    • All performances by Daniel Romano
    • Additional performances by: Mark Lalama (piano), Aaron Goldstein (pedal steel), Raha Javanfar (violin), Brian Moyer (trumpet)
    • Recorded in Finnsnäs, Karlstad, Sweden by Daniel Romano and Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Additional recording at the Old Sumbler House in Fenwick, Ontario and Baldwin Street Sound in Toronto, ON by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mixed by Dan Weston, Daniel Romano and Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Mastered by Dan Weston
    • Photo by Kay Berkel
    • Artwork and Layout by Daniel Romano

    Richard Laviolette – Taking The Long Way Home

    $10.00$15.00

    Richard Laviolette
    Taking The Long Way Home
    Cat#: YC-029
    Released: March 10, 2017
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Taking the Long Way Home, Guelph ON singer-songwriter Richard Laviolette’s fourth full-length album, is a record to warm the heart as well as the dance floor. Combining all the grace and grit of the classic country music of his childhood with a masterful lyricism, Laviolette explores resiliency in the face of change, illness and death. Weaving together humour and despair, these songs are, as he sings, “full of grief and praise; stories we all know.”

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    “As a songwriter, Richard Laviolette should be celebrated, quoted, and covered around campfires by anyone who appreciates the sincere craft of this kind of work. His songs are personal and political, poetic and literal, uplifting and challenging, and all-together free of bullshit. His voice is true and he knows what he’s doing.” -Bry Webb, The Constantines

    Taking the Long Way Home, Guelph ON singer-songwriter Richard Laviolette’s fourth full-length album, is a record to warm the heart as well as the dance floor. Combining all the grace and grit of the classic country music of his childhood with a masterful lyricism, Laviolette explores resiliency in the face of change, illness and death. Weaving together humour and despair, these songs are, as he sings, “full of grief and praise; stories we all know.”

    Produced with Andy Magoffin (who recorded Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills’ All of Your Raw Materials in 2009), Taking The Long Way Home owes its warmth, rhythm, and country flair to a rough and ready ensemble of musicians, including Lisa Bozikovic on piano, Matthew Reeves on lead guitar, Jessy Bell Smith (Skydiggers) on vocal harmonies, Julia Narveson (Ever Lovin’ Jug Band, Lake of Stew) on fiddle and double bass, Aaron Goldstein (Cowboy Junkies, Bry Webb, Daniel Romano) on pedal steel, Heather Kirby (Ohbijou, Vag Halen) on electric bass, and Aaron Curtis (Two-minute Miracles) on drums.

    When Richard started writing songs for the album it was intended to be a collaboration with his father, Darrell Laviolette. Ultimately, Darrell was unable to participate in the recording due to his responsibilities as a caretaker for Richard’s mother, Marie (who had Huntington’s Disease), but this initial concept set the tone for the rest of the album. The opening track ‘Grey Rain’ takes a nostalgic trip through Richard’s childhood home, small-town life, and the longing to move away. ‘Old Country Music’ acknowledges the early impact of country music in Richard’s life, recalling in detail those weekend mornings being woken early by his father’s record player blaring George Jones, Patsy Cline and Hank Snow. The title track ‘Taking the Long Way Home’, written while recovering from a major surgery, was originally a document of Richard’s health, chronic pain and long surgical history, but in the context of the album it has come to represent the roads we all end up on in our lives.

    Each song here is a different way home. It is an album about exploring old memories through the lens of the present day. It’s about family, relationships and home. It’s about remembering what the motivating forces are in your life and thinking about how they have changed over time. It’s about honoring the music you were raised on and making an honest attempt to capture a piece of that in your own words. And it’s about creating connections that pass the music and the stories on through generations.

    Track Listing
    1. Grey Rain
    2. Two Guitars
    3. Someone To Tell My Story When I'm Gone
    4. Louella Austella
    5. Old Country Music
    6. Taking The Long Way Home
    7. Red Wing Blackbird
    8. The Rock And The Moss
    9. My Grandma's More Punk (Than Most Punks I Know)
    10. Yesterday's Gospel
    11. You've Really Got Me On The Run
    Credits
    • Richard Laviolette, guitar, vocals
    • Jessy Bell Smith, vocals
    • Lisa Bozikovic, piano, vocals
    • Aaron Goldstein, pedal steel
    • Julia Narveson, fiddle, double bass
    • Aaron Curtis, drums
    • Matthew Reeves, guitar
    • Heather Kirby, electric bass
    • Nathan Coles, vocals
    • Cid V. Brunet, vocals
    • Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Andy Magoffin at the House Of Miracles, Cambridge, Turtle Island
    • Layout by Colin Medley
    • Cover photo by Erin E. Warner
    • Illustration by Justin Gordon
    • All songs by Richard Laviolette (SOCAN 2017)
    sold out

    Jon Mckiel – Memorial Ten Count

    Jon McKiel
    Memorial Ten Count
    Cat#: YC-030
    Released: March 10, 2017
    Format: LP/Digital

    On Memorial Ten Count (named for the fabled toll that marks the death of a champion boxer) Jon Mckiel offers vital guitar rock, equal parts blister-forming-grit and punch-drunk-wistfulness, a system of love, a peace sign to America, completely free of macho posturing, recalling in turn the anthemic restlessness of early Kurt Vile and the delicate thought-play of Chris Cohen, with intricate guitar arrangements evoking the expansive jams of Television.

    Memorial Ten Count was recorded live to tape on the south shore of Nova Scotia by experimental composer, weird jazz-guy, and lead guitarist Jay Crocker (of JOYFULTALK, No More Shapes, Ghostkeeper), and features the powerful rhythm section of Sean Dicey (also of JOYFULTALK) on bass and Aaron Mangle (Cousins) on drums.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    “Mckiel’s a headliner; his kind of underground, dreamy, riff-oriented math-pop is the way of the future and is spellbindingly great.” – Exclaim

    “…as utterly freakin’ perfect as pop tunes get”
    – The Toronto Star

    PLEASE NOTE: These are the last remaining stock of Memorial Ten Count and the jackets have very slightly damaged corners.

    Memorial Ten Count, whose name derives from the fabled toll that nods to the death of a champion boxer, is the impassioned new album by Sackville, NB’s Jon McKiel. Across ten songs the mood shifts with deft precision, reminding the listener that a good fight consists of equal parts blister-forming-grit and punch-drunk wistfulness. But what, exactly, is worth fighting for?

    Recorded in the nether regions of Nova Scotia with analogue guru Jay Crocker (Joyfultalk, No More Shapes, Ghostkeeper), the album’s sound is warm and worked-in. The raw performances, caught straight to tape, showcase McKiel at his most rugged and versatile, recalling in turn the anthemic restlessness of early Kurt Vile and the delicate thought-play of Chris Cohen, with intricate guitar playing that evokes the expansive jams of Television. Regardless of its mood, the alluring lyricism and in-the-pocket playing makes the blues-inflected Memorial Ten Count a testament to deep chemistry.

    Lock-grooved lead track ‘Boss’ finds McKiel prying open the jaws of precedence with an eerie calm, refusing to be overtaken by the specters of the past. ‘Impossible GIF’ is a tech-wary narrative that pines for a truer way of communication. These ideas return over and over throughout the record; with gorgeous hints of abstraction, McKiel digs into the struggles of connecting with others, and with one’s own prescribed identity. The tenderhearted gem ‘Still Remain’ pours over with such concerns: ‘I wanna leave this reflection/I wanna bury the names/And when we leave a transmission/there can be some mistakes.”

    While McKiel dazzles with fever-dream narration, his band moves in and out of the frame with a singleminded precision. Bassist Shawn Dicey (Joyfultalk) and drummer Aaron Mangle (Cousins) provide the songs their powerful guts while Crocker (doubling as lead guitarist) sears his way through heavy rockers like ‘Conduit’ and ‘High Five (Living A Lie)’ with stadium-sized riffs. On the softer sides, like ‘Brothers’ and ‘Unknown Source’, Crocker offers an affectionate touch and the compositions reveal an introspective nostalgia.

    And so the question lingers: What is at stake? What is worth fighting for? As the bell tolls on Memorial Ten Count, McKiel muses by his lonesome, strings delicately bent, returning to his own foundations; conjuring a kind of strained lullaby to his offspring. From this the listener may surmise: the fight is for the future. For the forming selves and those yet to come. And the stake we lay claim to is the love and abiding thereof.

    Track Listing
    1. Boss
    2. Impossible GIF
    3. Brothers
    4. Jewel In The Sun
    5. Unknown Source
    6. Conduit
    7. High Five (Living A Lie)
    8. Still Remain
    9. Turf War
    10. Memory Cook
    Credits
    • Recorded and Mixed by Jay Crocker at The Prism Ship in Crousetown, Nova Scotia, using an Otari MX-5050 tape recorder
    • All songs written by Jon Mckiel
    • All songs arranged by Jon Mckiel and Jay Crocker
    • Guitar and vocals: Jon Mckiel
    • Guitar: Jay Crocker
    • Bass: Shawn Dicey
    • Drums: Aaron Mangle
    • Mastered by Harris Newman
    • Design and Artwork by Will Vandermeulen
    • Cover Photograph by Andrea Thorn
    sold out

    Ancient Shapes – Ancient Shapes

    $12.00

    Ancient Shapes
    Ancient Shapes
    Cat#: YC-026
    Released: May 26, 2016
    Format: LP/Digital

    Ancient Shapes is the surprising new project from songwriter Daniel Romano, playing immediate and fierce power pop reminiscent of early Buzzcocks and Television with surprising hints of Romano’s roots in hardcore and a lifelong Dylan fascination. The music is hard and desperate, as it should be, the vocals balanced on the rails but never quite falling off. Ancient Shapes is a study of a blank and nameless generation. This is the sound. These are the moves. The name is Ancient Shapes. May we all have fearless death tomorrow.

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    Ancient Shapes is the surprising new project from songwriter Daniel Romano. Though he is best known for his recent work evoking the sounds of classic country music, he’s always been a free and restless spirit, a gifted and masterful musician and artist, a magpie flying free of genre.

    Romano was feeling defeated after a lengthy production session. The drums were set up and he rolled tape, banging through 20 minutes of rhythm just to get the sweat out. There and then Ancient Shapes was born, and quickly blossomed outward with layers of brash guitars and trebly bass. All this in a day’s work but the words, soon to be found amid the abandoned poems that did not have a home beyond the pages scattered on the floor. What didn’t fit was cut. What space remained was improvised.

    The result is instant, immediate and fierce power pop reminiscent of early Buzzcocks and Television with surprising hints of Romano’s roots in hardcore and a lifelong Dylan fascination. The music is hard and desperate, as it should be, the vocals balanced on the rails but never quite falling off. Ancient Shapes is a study of a blank and nameless generation. This is the sound. These are the moves. The name is Ancient Shapes. May we all have fearless death tomorrow.

    Ancient Shapes is presented as a Double A-side with the entire program appearing on both sides of the LP, and includes a download of a digital copy of the album. This world-wide exclusive LP pressing is available only from You’ve Changed Records.

    Track Listing
    1. Public Hymns
    2. Ancient Shapes
    3. The Dance Of The Blossoming Selves
    4. I Wanna Put My Tears Back In
    5. Someone Always Blushing
    6. Navigator
    7. Fearless Death Tomorrow
    8. The Last Word In The World
    9. Hurricane Lady
    10. The Trembling Dogs (And Even You Aren't Here)
    Credits
    • All instrumentation, music, and lyrics by Daniel Romano
    • Recitation in "Ancient Shapes" by Chris "Loons" O'Toole
    • Recorded and Mixed by Daniel Romano and Kenneth Roy Meehan at The Navy, Fenwick, ON
    • Mastered by Kenneth Roy Meehan
    • Artwork by Daniel Romano
    • Ancient Shapes (SOCAN 2016)
    sold out

    Adrian Teacher and the Subs – Terminal City

    Adrian Teacher and the Subs
    Terminal City
    Cat#: YC-028
    Released: May 27, 2016
    Format: LP/Digital

    What happens when the thing you love begins disappearing in front of your eyes? Adrian Teacher and the Subs debut album Terminal City is a 25-minute, ten song album that documents a rapidly changing city, an endangered planet, faltering relationships and personal loss. His latest release gives gentle nods to the 70s UK pub rock scene (think proto-punks like Squeeze or Nick Lowe) and is a return to classic form – filtering heavy subject matter through the 2 1⁄2 minute frantically upbeat power-pop song.

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    What happens when the thing you love begins disappearing in front of your eyes? Adrian Teacher and the Subs debut album Terminal City is a 25-minute, ten song album that documents a rapidly changing city, an endangered planet, faltering relationships and personal loss. His latest release gives gentle nods to the 70s UK pub rock scene (think proto-punks like Squeeze or Nick Lowe) and is a return to classic form – filtering heavy subject matter through the 2 1⁄2 minute frantically upbeat power-pop song.

    Terminal City was recorded to tape at the Bottle Garden in Montreal by Peter Woodford (Freelove Fenner, Moss Lime) and also recorded and mixed by David Carswell (Destroyer, New Pornographers) at JC/DC studios in Vancouver. The Subs are on tour through the Summer of 2016 with Julie Doiron and Jon McKiel

    Track Listing
    1. Emily Carr Punks
    2. Victory Square
    3. Called Up
    4. Charmless Babes
    5. Terminal City
    6. Forget America
    7. Westfalia 79
    8. I Feel The Same
    9. Weird At Shows
    10. Be Prepared To Stop
    • Adrian Teacher - Guitar and Vocals
    • Robbie Nall - Bass and Vocals
    • Amanda Pezzutto - Drums and Vocals
    • with Ridley Bishop - Saxophone; Aaron Read - Violin; Mef, Jory, and Cole - Backup Vocals
    • Recorded at Bottle Garden Studios, Montreal, QC by Peter Woodford
    • Recorded and Mixed at JC/DC, Vancouver, BC by David Carswell
    • Mastered by Joshua Stevenson at Otic Sound, Vancouver, BC
    • Artwork by Rob Ondzik
    • All songs by Adrian Teacher (SOCAN 2016)
    sold out

    Partner – Healthy Release

    Partner
    Healthy Release
    Cat#: YC-027
    Released: April 8, 2016
    Format: Cassette

    A collection of early recordings, including the singles ‘Hot Knives’, ‘The “Ellen” Page’, and ‘Personal Weekend’. Limited run, only available at shows!

    Category:

    A collection of early recordings, including the singles ‘Hot Knives’, ‘The “Ellen” Page’, and ‘Personal Weekend’. Limited run, only available at shows!

    Track Listing
    1. Healthy Release
    2. Partner Theme
    3. Hot Knives
    4. Sex Bracelet
    5. Friend On My Street
    6. Personal Weekend
    7. The "Ellen" Page
    Credits
    • Performed by Josée Caron and Lucy Niles
    • Tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 engineered by Max Cotter, mixed by Max Cotter, Steven Lambke
    • Tracks 3, 5, 7 engineered by Colleen Collins and Dave Trenaman, mixed by Kevin Brasier, Max Cotter, and Steven Lambke
    • Mastered by Gavin Gardiner
    • Design by Colin Medley and Josée Caron

    Shotgun Jimmie – Field Of Trampolines

    $10.00

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Field Of Trampolines
    Cat#: YC-025
    Released: March 18, 2016
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Beloved Canadian entertainer Shotgun Jimmie returns with Field Of Trampolines, a hi-fi masterpiece, a celebratory, catchy, and completely charming collection of songs about camping, art school, band crushes, and life on the road.  Produced by Joel Plaskett.

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    …Shotgun Jimmie, what about us? How do we feel? Here’s how: We feel like each of us just got high-fived so hard that our finger-bones shattered. We’re all nursing our poor hands, & grinning.” – Sean Michaels, Said the Gramophone


    Field of Trampolines is a perfect summer album, recorded at the Eastern end of a cross-Canada tour in August 2015. Shotgun Jimmie and his band (Winnipeg’s wonderful Human Music) slept under the stars, played rock shows and swam every possible lake. Crowds were surfed. They ate from orchards and cooked by campfire. Field of Trampolines was produced by Joel Plaskett in his Dartmouth, NS studio. Joel is a magician, a musician and a legend. They worked quickly, recording live and mixing fast in a single 4-day session. Joel captured the summer vibes like a glow bug in his bare hands.

    Here are 10 songs celebrating life’s joys: life on the road (Join The Band), natural phenomena (Solar Array), and camping (Triple Letter Score). There are a series of tributes to Jimmie’s friends and inspirations: The Constantines are saluted in Constantine Believer, Attack In Black in Love Letter, and the legendary Eric’s Trip in Song For Julie, Chris, Rick + Mark. Jimmie’s current life as a student at art school also gets due airtime: “I’m losing sleep over Georgia O’Keefe” he sings in Georgia OK. And as the batteries run down on the nostalgic and entirely wonderful Walkman Battery Bleed, you’ll be looking to flip back to the A side and play it all over again.

    LP is pressed on white vinyl.
    CD version comes in a beautiful slim cardboard sleeve.

    Track Listing
    1. Join The Band
    2. Georgia OK
    3. Solar Array
    4. Triple Letter Score
    5. Project 9
    6. Field Of Trampolines
    7. Love Letter
    8. Constantine Believer
    9. Song For Julie, Chris, Rick + Mark
    10. Walkman Battery Bleed
    Credits
    • Performed by Shotgun Jimmie, Jory Hasselmann, Marie-France Hollier, and Cole Woods and special guest Joel Plaskett
    • Produced by Joel Plaskett
    • Engineered by Thomas Stajcer at New Scotland Yard, Dartmouth, NS
    • Mastered by J. Lapointe at Archive Mastering, Mineville, NS
    • Cover art: "Champion" by Shotgun Jimmie
    • Photographed by Kevin Bertram
    • Design by Paul Henderson
    • All songs by Shotgun Jimmie, SOCAN 2015

    Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale

    $9.00$14.00

    Nap Eyes
    Thought Rock Fish Scale
    Cat#: YC-024
    Released: February 5, 2016
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “Nap Eyes are one of the best rock bands in business today, handily spanning the space between Bob Dylan and The Microphones. Nigel Chapman’s songwriting grips like the best of them. A timeless release, already.” – The Fader

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    “Nap Eyes are one of the best rock bands in business today, handily spanning the space between Bob Dylan and The Microphones. Nigel Chapman’s songwriting grips like the best of them. A timeless release, already.” –  Fader


    There is a short poem by the mystically inclined minimalist poet Robert Lax, the entirety of which comprises this single sentence:

    the angel came to him & said

    I’m sorry, mac, but
    we talked it over
    in heaven
    & you’re going

    to have to live
    a thousand years

    It’s delivered as an apologetic aside, a joke (“sorry, mac”), but this epigrammatic curse carries a weirdly devastating weight. It’s not immortality that this blunt angel promises—if you can accept the unfathomable premise, living forever might have its fringe benefits, I guess—but just a millennial attenuation of desire, of pain. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown and Kris Kristofferson, why me?

    The spectral visitation that occurs in the Nap Eyes song “Alaskan Shake,” a centerpiece of the Halifax band’s gorgeous new album Thought Rock Fish Scale, invokes, oddly and unbidden within the song’s narrative context, a black swallow with a crutch, a familiar who heralds “the ghost of the early morning.” “Speaking like a bell”—an apt description of how songwriter and guitarist Nigel Chapman intones his alternately cryptic and concrete lyrics—this unnamed ghost incites little boys and girls to “stand up and be peaceful” and to memorialize a thousand years of foremothers. The song ends with a generationally unspooling refrain of “My old great, great, great, great, great, great / Grandmother mother mother mother.”

    It’s one of several movingly ineffable moments on the album that gathers loved ones and legacies at a cautious if affectionate distance, folding them into carefully articulated but centerless koans. Like the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” in “Click Clack,” these eight songs are deceptively simple and gentle, almost radical in their purity of intent and populist subject matter—they are, after all, minimalist rock and roll ruminations on family, friends, work, faith, feelings. But Chapman’s plainspoken poetry, divested largely of description and rhetoric, renders them enigmatic, oracular, allegorical. So in “Stargazer,” ennui and indecision are distilled to a base need “to be clean and try to control my body / ’Cause nobody else going to.” In “Trust,” what shrinks call “trust issues” catalyze somatic paranoia: “Somebody look at me / Do I have a glass eyelid? / Do I have a glass forehead? / Can you see through it?” And in the shivering, anthemic “Lion in Chains,” the eponymous beast hangs, heraldic and haunted by hometown nostalgia, above singer and audience alike—but only following a beautifully banal stanza about the hot water heater problems at the laboratory where Nigel works as a biochemist.

    Nap Eyes recorded their second album in the crisp daylight of late May 2014, in the living room and screened porch of a seaside family home near Pictou, a small Nova Scotian town whose evocative name derives from the Mi’kmaq word for “explosion.” Like all of their recordings to date, the album is framed by a set of severe self-imposed strictures: a mere four days to capture as many songs as possible completely live, with no overdubs, to a temperamental old TEAC four-track ¼” tape recorder. The result is a document pristine in its intentional imperfections.

    After the dark, drunken night of Whine of the Mystic (recorded nocturnally in Montreal), Thought Rock Fish Scale brings blinding sunlight and blue horizon to these elemental stories of water, fire, and spirit. Compared with its predecessor, this album is far less concerned with the effects of alcohol—excepting “Click Clack,” with its admission that “Sometimes, drinking, I feel so happy but then / I can’t remember why … Sometimes, drinking, I don’t know my best friend for my best friend”—and more concerned with negotiating the mornings after, all the hungover or otherwise creaky, tentative new mornings of a life assembled from discrete days.

    Musically, a new delicacy and tautness manifest here as well, a patient willingness to wait; Josh Salter (bass), Seamus Dalton (drums), and Brad Loughead (lead guitar) exhibit consummate restraint. Sonic touchstones remain similar—The Go-Betweens (particularly Robert Forster’s melancholic bite), The Only Ones, Lou Reed, Nikki Sudden, Bedhead—but here the players circumnavigate the negative space of those artists’ styles, summoning them with fond absence, with silences. (Listen to how “Mixer” uses the space between ringing chords to deconstruct a coed party episode—the most archaic and trite of teen pop tropes—into an analytical out-of-body experience, charting a path from the mall to “my Jesus” to a local judge’s recriminations.)

    Thought Rock Fish Scale deploys the language of anxiety and self-reflection as a sort of symbolic vernacular. (“Heavy with moral learning / you grumble and bite,” Nigel sings in “Don’t Be Right.”) Chapman’s songs ask us to consider the ways in which we stupefy and medicate ourselves into passivity and longevity; to consider how we seek to lose ourselves within ourselves; how we endeavor to reorient the mind, or if you will, the soul, to disappear into ease and forgetting. Indeed, Nap Eyes make soul music, in the sense that their music describes, from a position of uneasy humility, the often mundane maintenance of the fragile human soul. How long can we keep ourselves buoyed or crutched, even provisionally, like that sad swallow in “Alaskan Shake”? As Nigel asks in “Mixer,” “Then again what else is there / Another life, some other way?”

    – Brendan Greaves, Paradise of Bachelors

     

    LP format is pressed on virgin vinyl with heavy-duty full-colour chipboard jacket and lyrics insert, and includes a digital download. CD format comes in a gatefold chipboard jacket including lyrics.

    Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale is available in Canada exclusively through You’ve Changed Records. For International orders please visit our collaborators at Paradise of Bachelors.

     

     

    Track Listing
    1. Mixer
    2. Stargazer
    3. Lion In Chains
    4. Don't Be Right
    5. Click Clack
    6. Alaskan Shake
    7. Roll It
    8. Trust
    Credits
    • Nap Eyes is Nigel Chapman, Seamus Dalton, Brad Lougheed, and Josh Salter
    • Recorded live to 4-track tape, without any overdubs, on the North Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, 2014
    • Recorded and mixed by Mike Wright
    • Mastered by Patrick Klem at Klemflastic Sound
    • Back jacket and label photos of Pictou by by Nigel Chapman
    • Sleeve photos by the Chapman family
    • Cover drawing by Danika Vandersteen
    • Design and Layout by Brendan Greaves

    Steven Lambke – Days Of Heaven

    $9.00$14.00

    Steven Lambke
    Days Of Heaven
    Cat#: YC-023
    Released: October 30, 2015
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    The poem/songs of Days Of Heaven look beyond language, beyond love, beyond god, into the void, trying for a good light and a rough grace. This tender, intimate, and personal album by Steven Lambke, Constantines member, You’ve Changed Records founder, and former Baby Eagle, features Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station and Ian Kehoe of Marine Dreams, and special appearances by Richard Laviolette, Mika Posen, and Darcy Hancock (Ladyhawk). They make a close, rich sound, thick with flowers and crossed by swallows, as hard as dead stones, as gone as an echo in the silence.

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    “Lambke is one of Canada’s best lyricists: put your headphones on and give in to the temptation to close your eyes.” CBC Music

    Memory is the daughter of heaven and earth, and the muse is a daughter of memory and everything. It is traditional for an artist to call on the muse at the beginning of an endeavour. This suggests that the great works of art begin, not in the presence of the muse, but in her absence. – Amanda Jernigan

    What one can’t speak, that one must pass over in silence – Wittgenstein.

    If Steven Lambke were a bird he’d be a Zeppelin – Daniel Romano

    The poem/songs of Days Of Heaven look beyond language, beyond love, beyond god, into the void, trying for a good light and a rough grace. This tender, intimate, and personal album by Steven Lambke, Constantines member, You’ve Changed Records founder, and former Baby Eagle, features Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station and Ian Kehoe of Marine Dreams, and special appearances by Richard Laviolette, Mika Posen, and Darcy Hancock (Ladyhawk). They make a close, rich sound, thick with flowers and crossed by swallows, as hard as dead stones, as gone as an echo in the silence.

    Shary Boyle’s ceramic sculpture La Lune graces the cover; grace and muse, a thing of beauty

    Track Listing
    1. Days Of Heaven
    2. Hummingbird
    3. Sunflower Mind
    4. Memory Forever
    5. Silence/Love
    6. Dead Stones
    7. A Good Light And Tired Feeling
    8. You Know Me Well
    9. Moonshine Brother
    10. Under A Dumb Moon
    11. Days Of Rough Grace
    Credits
    • Songs By Steven Lambke
    • With Tamara Lindeman, Ian Kehoe, Ross Miller, Mika Posen, Shary Boyle, Richard Laviolette, and Darcy Hancock
    • Recorded and Mixed by Jeff McMurrich at 6 Nassau St, Toronto
    • Additional recording by Steven Lambke, Ian Kehoe, and Tamara Lindeman
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal
    • Cover Art: Shary Boyle. La Lune, 2012. Porcelain, glazes
    • Photograph © Rafael Goldchain, 2012
    • Layout and Design by Paul Henderson

    Nap Eyes – Whine Of The Mystic

    $9.00$12.00

    Nap Eyes
    Whine Of The Mystic
    Cat#: YC-022
    Released: July 10, 2015
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “Nap Eyes’ Whine of the Mystic is a ragged splendour, one of the best things in ages. A band from Halifax with a sound like young caterpillar and old silk, like the Velvet Underground and Electrelane and Destroyer and Guided by Voices. Like liking a drink you know isn’t good for you; that’s good for you, that’s good for you, that you know isn’t good for you. They are a rock band just so faintly tripping. Sean Michaels, Said the Gramophone

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    “Nap Eyes’ Whine of the Mystic is a ragged splendour, one of the best things in ages. A band from Halifax with a sound like young caterpillar and old silk, like the Velvet Underground and Electrelane and Destroyer and Guided by Voices. Like liking a drink you know isn’t good for you; that’s good for you, that’s good for you, that you know isn’t good for you. They are a rock band just so faintly tripping. They are priests of Shaolin and the Holy See, with electric guitars in their hands, with an un-fancy drum-kit. Nap Eyes’ songs are mazey and riddled, but ambivalent about their mazes, ambivalent about their riddles; in this way they remind me of good smoke, holy incense smoke, always true to its incantation.” Sean Michaels, Said the Gramophone


    Drink wine, for it is everlasting day.
    It is the very harvest of our youth;
    In time of roses, wine and comrades gay,
    Be happy, drink, for that is life in sooth.
    – Omar Khayyám

    Whine of the Mystic is Nap Eyes first full-length album, a brilliant small-batch brew of crooked, literate guitar pop refracted through the gray Halifax rain. Recorded live to tape with no overdubs, it’s equal parts shambling and sophisticated, with one eye on the dirt and one trained on the starry firmament, inhabiting a skewed world where odes to NASA and the Earth’s magnetic field coexist easily with songs about insomnia and drinking too much.

    The record’s punning title references (and wryly deflates) the great 11th-century Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet Omar Khayyám’s famous propensity for wine-soaked mysticism. Songwriter, singer, and rhythm guitarist Nigel Chapman’s songs share with Khayyám—a rather quaintly old-fashioned inspiration—a certain vinous preoccupation that may well lubricate the similarly conversational tone and philosophical focus. Throughout the record, workaday details punctuate (and puncture) cosmic concerns, as Nigel wrestles with air and angels, struggling (and often failing) to reconcile the Romantic rifts, both real and imagined, that define our lives: between chaos and order (or wilderness and paradise, as in “Tribal Thoughts”); solipsism and fellowship (“Dreaming Solo” vs. “Oh My Friends”); the anxiety of social (dis)orders both big and small (“The Night of the First Show”; “No Man Needs to Care”); and the various intersections and oppositions of religion, art, and science (“Dark Creedence” and “Make Something.”)

    The latter three collapsing categories ring particularly relevant for Chapman, a biochemist who spends his weekdays in a research lab, mutating the gene/DNA encoding of a cell-surface receptor protein. As with us all, our diurnal labor and studies inform our creativity, day creeps into night, and so it’s no surprise that sicknesses of “brain protein aggregation” and “up-regulated oncogene” appear in “Make Something,” infecting, by proximity, the more traditionally songwriterly tropes of heart sickness that haunt “Oh My Friends” and “Dreaming Solo.” The two longest and most ambitious songs here, “Delirium and Persecution Paranoia” (which takes place, in part, within the Earth’s core) and “No Fear of Hellfire” (which takes place, appropriately, on a Sunday morning) clatter and buzz along with heedless momentum, tackling, respectively, unstable psychology and geology, and the riddles and contradictions of faith. The songs resonate because they manage to delicately balance the cryptic and the quotidian, rendering a compellingly honest equivocation without evasiveness, a relatable ambivalence without apathy.

    Originally released in 2014 by Plastic Factory Records in a highly limited edition of 200 LPs, Whine of the Mystic has gone largely unheard beyond the finely-tuned ears of Montreal and the Maritime Provinces, so Paradise of Bachelors and You’ve Changed Records are delighted to make it more widely available. In typically insular Halifax music scene fashion, Nap Eyes shares three of its four members—Josh Salter (bass), Seamus Dalton (drums), and Brad Loughead (lead guitar)—with two other notable local bands, comrades and sometime touring partners Monomyth (Josh and Seamus’s project) and Each Other (which includes Brad as well as Nap Eyes recording engineer Mike Wright.) Though the indelibly wistful vocal melodies are Nigel’s, Josh, Seamus, and Brad are the primary architects of Nap Eyes’ keen sonic signature, which cruises briskly and beautifully along the dog-eared axes of jangle-jaded Oceanic pop music (The Clean, The Verlaines, The Go-Betweens), and through the backpages of Peter Perrett (The Only Ones, England’s Glory) and Nikki Sudden (Swell Maps, Jacobites), via all things Lou Reed and Modern Lovers, without ever sounding very much like anything else happening today.

    Part of the secret of Nap Eyes may reside in their avowed recording method, which eschews any overdubs in favor of capturing the immediacy and singularity of full-band live performances. Nigel explains their methodology best: “You get the feeling of the song; everyone’s feeling, all as one take in time, so things fit together naturally, and even mistakes sound natural. This not to discredit any of the incredible recordings made by different principles; it’s just its own kettle of fish.” As a result, both lyrically and musically, Whine of the Mystic articulates the urgency of youthful grace. It’s the sound of being young and alive in the city, a tenuous and impermanent counterpoise of recklessness and anxiety, archness and earnestness. “The very harvest of our youth,” indeed!

    -Brendan Greaves, Paradise of Bachelors

    LP format is pressed on virgin vinyl with heavy-duty chipboard jacket and lyrics insert, and includes a digital download. CD format comes in a gatefold chipboard jacket.

    Track Listing
    1. Dark Creedence
    2. Make Something
    3. Tribal Thoughts
    4. Delirium And Persecution Paranoia
    5. No Man Needs To Care
    6. Dreaming Solo
    7. The Night Of The First Show
    8. Oh My Friends
    9. No Fear Of Hellfire
    Credits
    • Nap Eyes is Nigel Chapman, Seamus Dalton, Brad Lougheed, and Josh Salter
    • Recorded live to 4-track tape, without any overdubs, on the North Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, 2014
    • Recorded and mixed by Mike Wright
    • Mastered by Patrick Klem at Klemflastic Sound
    • Back jacket and label photos of Pictou by by Nigel Chapman
    • Sleeve photos by the Chapman family
    • Cover drawing by Danika Vandersteen
    • Design and Layout by Brendan Greaves
    sold out

    Marine Dreams – Producer’s Wonderland

    $10.00

    Marine Dreams
    Producer's Wonderland
    Cat#: YC-021
    Released: January 27, 2015
    Format: Cassette/Digital

    Ian Kehoe is Marine Dreams. I want to make this clear as he brings us this new and very personal album. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ian in his home studio, Producer’s Wonderland is the work of a singular vision and a unique mind.

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    Ian Kehoe is Marine Dreams. I want to make this clear as he brings us this new and very personal album. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Ian in his home studio, Producer’s Wonderland is the work of a singular vision and a unique mind.

    Displaying Ian’s robust commitment to ongoing creativity and continuing development as a songwriter and musician, Producer’s Wonderland is rich in melodic and rhythmic adventures. Vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar textures mix with programmed drums and synths in deep and surprising pop songs.

    If this is a new sound for Marine Dreams, it increases my impression that this is an album about personal growth, about learning – there’s even a song called “Learning Experience” that describes the making of Lemon Tree, the previous Marine Dreams album. It’s as if what is being “produced” is not just the music, but also the person making the music. What does it mean to love (“Love(After Eros The Bittersweet)” named for the Anne Carson book), to maintain life-long friendships (the tender and beautiful “Michael”), to live with uncertainty (“No Use”)?

    There are big questions asked here, but asked joyfully; posed and arranged in a group of absolutely wonderful and magical songs.

    Track Listing
    1. One Question
    2. Polished Stone
    3. Snake Fish
    4. No Use
    5. Learning Experience
    6. Sunny Starry Moon
    7. Love (After "Eros The Bittersweet")
    8. Michael
    9. Men Without Grace
    10. Prisoner Of Eternity
    Credits
    • Written, Performed, Recorded, Produced, Mixed, and Mastered by Ian Kehoe
    • Tamara Lindeman is The Voice in Sunny Starry Moon.
    • Love (After Eros The Bittersweet) was inspired by Anne Carson's book Eros The Bittersweet.
    • Photography and Layout by Colin Medley
    sold out

    Community Theatre – Northern Register

    Community Theatre
    Northern Register
    Cat#: YCR-020
    Released: October 9, 2014
    Format: LP/Digital

    Community Theatre is a unique recording project featuring Shotgun Jimmie, Steven Lambke (Baby Eagle/Constantines), Ian Kehoe (Marine Dreams/Attack in Black), Richard Laviolette, Michael Feuerstack, Mathias Kom (The Burning Hell), Wax Mannequin, Colleen Collins and David Trenaman of Construction and Destruction, and Kyle Cashen. Northern Register was recorded in Whitehorse, YT, with each member contributing a new song and their singular musical abilities to the mix.

    Community Theatre – Northern Register is a split release with Headless Owl Records.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    Community Theatre is a unique recording project featuring Shotgun Jimmie, Steven Lambke (Baby Eagle/Constantines), Ian Kehoe (Marine Dreams/Attack in Black), Richard Laviolette, Michael Feuerstack, Mathias Kom (The Burning Hell), Wax Mannequin, Colleen Collins and David Trenaman of Construction and Destruction, and Kyle Cashen. Northern Register was recorded in Whitehorse, YT, with each member contributing a new song and their singular musical abilities to the mix.

    This limited edition 180g LP comes in a beautiful gatefold jacket featuring illustration and collage by acclaimed visual artist Shary Boyle.

    Community Theatre – Northern Register is a split release with Headless Owl Records.

    Track Listing
    1. Plymouth Acclaim: For Sale
    2. I Think My World Just Got A Little Bit Bigger
    3. Slowly
    4. Engines
    5. Onward & Upward!
    6. Winter Studies No. 4
    7. Snailhouse
    8. The Quickening
    9. Will You Know?
    • Featuring Shotgun Jimmie, Steven Lambke, Ian Kehoe (Marine Dreams), Richard Laviolette, Michael Feuerstack, Mathias Kom (The Burning Hell), Wax Mannequin, Construction and Destruction, and Kyle Cashen
    • Illustration and Collage by Shary Boyle
    • Recorded and Mixed by Jordy Walker
    • Mastered by Ryan Morey
    • Layout and Design by Corey Isenor
    • Executive Producer: Andrew Stratis

    The Weather Station – What Am I Going To Do With Everything I Know

    $12.00

    The Weather Station
    What Am I Going To Do With Everything I Know
    Cat#: YC-019
    Released: October 14, 2014
    Format: 12" EP/Digital

    The Weather Station returns with this limited edition 12″ 45 RPM EP. The 6 song EP was recorded with Daniel Romano and the acclaimed North Carolina band Megafaun. Each side of the record is a trio of interconnected songs: Side A is a meditation on knowledge, Side B is a narrative, a love story in three parts. It is a quiet, yearning, and soulful record that expands on the acoustic folk of All Of It Was Mine (YC-011) while deepening the intimacy.

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    “…these tracks all feel uniform and effortless, like first takes captured in real-time by a band that has lived the story just like Lindeman. For songs so intimate, and performances so inward, such careful singularity feels like a remarkable feat.” – Pitchfork


    The Weather Station returns with this limited edition 12″ 45 RPM EP. The 6 song EP was recorded with Daniel Romano and the acclaimed North Carolina band Megafaun. Each side of the record is a trio of interconnected songs: Side A is a meditation on knowledge, Side B is a narrative, a love story in three parts. It is a quiet, yearning, and soulful record that expands on the acoustic folk of All Of It Was Mine (YC-011) while deepening the intimacy.

    Track Listing
    1. Don't Understand
    2. What Am I Going To Do (With Everything I Know)
    3. Seemed True
    4. Soft Spoken Man
    5. Time
    6. Almost Careless
    Credits
    • Tamara Lindeman - vocals, guitar
    • Daniel Romano - guitars, bass, percussion, keys, vocals
    • Phil Cook - organ, guitar
    • Brad Cook - bass
    • Terry Lonergan - drums
    • Aaron Goldstein - pedal steel
    • Carleigh Aikens - vocals
    • Carleigh Aikens - vocals
    • Felicity Williams - vocals
    • Recorded by Daniel Romano (2, 4, 5, 6) and Brian Haran and Jim Bob Aiken (1, 3)
    • Mixed by Stew Cookes (1, 4, 5, 6) and Tamara Lindeman (2, 3)
    • Mastered by Jeff Elliott
    • Photography and Design by Colin Medley
    sold out

    Constantines – Shine A Light

    Constantines
    Shine A Light
    Cat#: YC-018
    Released: June 10, 2014
    Format: LP + 7"

    Originally released by Three Gut Records (Canada) and Sub Pop Records (the rest of the world) in 2003 and since named one of the top 200 records of the 2000s by Pitchfork and often cited as one of the best Canadian records ever, this legendary album has been out of print since 2007. You’ve Changed Records is proud to make this LP available with this Deluxe 11th Anniversary Reissue featuring a newly cut vinyl master and packaged with a special bonus 7inch containing 3 B-sides recorded at the time of Shine A Light. The original gatefold artwork was re-photographed to show it’s age and the past 11 years of neglect in dank basements.

     

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    This deluxe reissue has been made with a newly cut vinyl master and is packaged with a bonus  7” containing 3 B-sides from the time of Shine A Light:

    • Thank You For Sending Me An Angel – a cover of the Talking Heads song recorded during the Shine A Light sessions
    • I Am A Raw Youth – a live recording of a song by Royal City from a live 2003 CBC session.
    • Hotline Operator (2003) –a distinct piece from the song included on the Constantines 2005 LP Tournament of Hearts with which it shares a name. Some might call this a jam; some might call it a trip; it is certainly “out”.  In any event it displays an inclination towards free musical expression not always apparent from The Constantines recorded output, but well known from parts of their legendary live shows. Recorded in a fog during the 2003 sessions for Shine A Light.

    This is the first ever vinyl pressing for these B-sides.

    LP Tracklist:
    1. National Hum 2. Shine A Light 3. Nighttime/Anytime (It’s Alright) 4. Insectivora 5. Young Lions 6. Goodbye Baby & Amen 7. On To You 8. Poison 9. Scoundrel Babes 10. Tiger And Crane 11. Tank Commander (Hung Up In A Warehouse Town) 12. Sub-Domestic

    Bonus 7 inch:
    1. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel 2. Raw Youth 3. Hotline Operator (2003)

    Track Listing
    1. National Hum
    2. Shine A Light
    3. Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)
    4. Insectivora
    5. Young Lions
    6. Goodbye Baby & Amen
    7. On To You
    8. Poison
    9. Scoundrel Babes
    10. Tiger And Crane
    11. Tank Commander (Hung Up In A Warehouse Town)
    12. Sub-Domestic
    Bonus 7"
    1. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
    2. Raw Youth (Royal City Cover)
    3. Hotline Operator (2003)
    sold out

    Marine Dreams – Lemon Tree

    $10.00

    Marine Dreams
    Lemon Tree
    Cat#: YC-017
    Released: May 22, 2014
    Format: Cassette/Digital

    I’ve never seen a lemon tree; or, I’ve seen not knowing. It’s entirely possible to look at a tree and, if think at all, think only: “there’s a tree.” To be aware that something exists in all it’s particulars outside of your understanding is a peculiar type of knowing. From something very small, a word perhaps, or a name, the idea takes on weight and shape. It roots and flowers and blooms, bears fruit, seed, and sapling, through multiplying generations of bewilderment.

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    I’ve never seen a lemon tree; or, I’ve seen not knowing. It’s entirely possible to look at a tree and, if think at all, think only: “there’s a tree.” To be aware that something exists in all it’s particulars outside of your understanding is a peculiar type of knowing. From something very small, a word perhaps, or a name, the idea takes on weight and shape. It roots and flowers and blooms, bears fruit, seed, and sapling, through multiplying generations of bewilderment.

    There’s a cool shade between the lines of trees. A human voice is singing: “I do not know! I do not know!” The sound echoes off the wood; the orchard itself is singing.

    Two lovers lie beneath the trees. They decide to look together through the leafy branches for the sky and tell each other what they see: a leafy sky that’s filled with suns! Dark green leaves like holes in the light!

    -Steven Lambke

    Track Listing
    1. Video Life
    2. Remembering
    3. Flowers For Healing
    4. So Long
    5. Blank Moods
    6. Constant Love
    7. Blowing Steam
    8. Days
    9. Naked Fool
    Credits
    • Ian Kehoe - All sounds, recording, and mixing
    • Tamara Lindeman - additional playing
    • Steven Lambke - additional playing
    • Ross Miller - additional playing
    • Dan Weston - mastering
    • Colin Medley - layout
    • Sylvie Smith - title font
    • M. S. Giganti - cover photograph
    sold out

    Marine Dreams – Corner Of The Eye

    Marine Dreams
    Corner Of The Eye
    Cat#: YC-016
    Released: September 24, 2013
    Format: LP/Digital

    Ian Kehoe returns with this poetic acoustic pop record. Recording again with his frequent collaborators Daniel Romano, Ross Miller, Ian Romano and Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station) he plays his deepest thoughts and the flickering wonders of an active mind into gorgeous and adventurous songs.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    “…an intensely poetic, earnest, melodic and groovy listen” – NOW Magazine


    Ian Kehoe returns with this poetic acoustic pop record. Recording again with his frequent collaborators Daniel Romano, Ross Miller, Ian Romano and Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station) he plays his deepest thoughts and the flickering wonders of an active mind into gorgeous and adventurous songs.

    Track Listing
    1. Faces
    2. Straight Path
    3. Damp Eyes
    4. Corner Of The Eye
    5. Roots Come After Lengthy Waits
    6. How Can I Be So Misunderstood?
    7. I Won't Be Abandoned
    8. Morning
    9. Guarding My Love
    10. Scared Of Burning Up
    Credits
    • Ian Kehoe - Vocals, 12-string acoustic
    • Tamara Lindeman - Harmony vocals, flute
    • Daniel Romano - Harmony vocals, guitar, drums
    • Ross Miller - Bass
    • Ian Romano - Drums
    • Recorded by Daniel Romano
    • Mastered by Tapes and Plates
    • Design and Photography by Colin Medley

    Shotgun Jimmie – Everything, Everything

    $9.00

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Everything, Everything
    Cat#: YC-015
    Released: March 26, 2013
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “…one of my favorite songwriters these days. He sounds like Jonathan Richman jamming with Eric’s Trip at a Wes Anderson’s house.” – Joel Plaskett

    He's still Jimmie after all these years; a lo-fi and in love masterpiece.

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    Track Listing
    1. Standing In A Line
    2. Big Sur
    3. Growing Like A Garden
    4. Adventure In The Heart
    5. Last Night
    6. Carry On
    7. Sum Of My Parts
    8. 3212
    9. Ladyhawk
    10. North!
    11. Skype Date
    12. Bridge Street Stage
    13. Over A Million
    14. Proud Champions
    15. I Will Climb Mountains
    16. Everything, Everything
    Credits
    • Recorded by Shotgun Jimmie
    • Mixed by Cam Loeppky and Shotgun Jimmie
    • Mastered by Harris Newman
    • Written and Performed by Shotgun Jimmie
    • Julie Doiron sings on Bridge Street Stage
    • John Kilpatrick plays a dumpster door on I Will Climb Mountains
    • Cole Woods plays a trombone on 3212
    • Leanne Zacharias sings on Last Night
    • Artwork and Design by Thunder and Lightning, Ltd

    Apollo Ghosts – Landmark

    $5.00

    Apollo Ghosts
    Landmark
    Cat#: YC-014
    Released: May 15, 2012
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “…the band’s catchiest and most contagiously foolish yet” – The Toronto Star

    Punk, pop, and proud. A 15-track epic from these late great Vancouver heroes.

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    Landmark is your debut with You’ve Changed Records. It seems like a natural fit (there are even references to fellow You’ve Changed artist Shotgun Jimmie on the album) but how did the collaboration come about?

    Adrian: It was actually really easy. It’s funny to see stuff pop up like, “Apollo Ghosts sign to You’ve Changed records” when in fact nothing has been signed. There were no papers or fountain pens. I got to know Steve last summer while I was living in Sackville, New Brunswick. A summer bro-mance if you will. I played some drums for him in a jam-space. We had a few beers. I asked him if he’d be interested in putting out a future Ghosts record and he seemed really into it. You’ve Changed is no paperwork and no bullshit. Ideas and promises are made verbally, informally and honestly. We’re honored to be associated with such great bands on the label. (The Line of Best Fit)

    Track Listing
    1. What Are Your Influences?
    2. American Joint
    3. I'm In Love With The U.S.A.
    4. Why Can't I Be The Man On Stage?
    5. Violet Margaret
    6. So Much Better When You're Gone
    7. Landmark
    8. Weekend Fantasy
    9. Day of Glory
    10. For What They Do, They Do
    11. Paralysis Of My Long Clerkship
    12. I Followed The Rules And I Got Everything
    13. Guitar Brother
    14. Newcastle
    15. Will You Forget Me?
    Credits
    • Jason Oliver - Guitar
    • Amanda Panda - Drums
    • Jarrett K - Bass
    • Adrian Teacher - Guitar
    • Sleeve Artwork: Amanda Curti
    • Insert and Layout: Melanie Coles
    • Recorded by Jay Abner and Adrian Teacher in Vancouver, BC, November 2011-February 2012
    • Mastered by Prairie Cat Mastering in Belvidere, Illinois

    Baby Eagle and the Proud Mothers – Bone Soldiers

    $5.00

    Baby Eagle and the Proud Mothers
    Bone Soldiers
    Cat#: YC-013
    Released: March 6, 2012
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    If there were such a position to be held, Steven Lambke would be the rock and roll poet laureate. Bone Soldiers, his fourth record as Baby Eagle, abounds with military metaphor.  It is the work of a veteran.  Loud, brief, and incendiary, it’s both a return to his punk roots and a continuation of his increasingly sophisticated work with lyrics.

     

     

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    “I dealt myself the winning hand: the lizard and the bleating goat, the eight of bones. But if I could choose the type of beast that I would most happy be, I’d be a man, my love, short, fat, and strong.” – Hurricane Weather

    If there were such a position to be held, Steven Lambke would be the rock and roll poet laureate.  Putting in ten years as a guitarist and vocalist in The Constantines, releasing three, now four records as Baby Eagle, and co-founding scrappy independent label You’ve Changed Records (Daniel Romano, Shotgun Jimmie, The Weather Station), Lambke’s output has been ceaseless.  No wonder that Bone Soldiers, his fourth record as Baby Eagle, abounds with military metaphor.  It is the work of a veteran.  Loud, brief, and incendiary, it’s both a return to his punk roots and a continuation of his increasingly sophisticated work with lyrics.  As with the critically acclaimed Dog Weather, the record is a perfectly interconnected narrative.   Lines that casually mix thorny questions of purpose and meaning with rich imagery and seemingly minor incident.  Gorgeously bent guitar solos face up to Lambke as grinning narrator, wheezing, shouting, and whispering his way through a rich stew of rhythmic precision and pop decadence.

    Decamping to Toronto’s vaunted 6 Nassau with Constantines producer Jeff McMurrich at the helm, Lambke enlisted an all star team of friends and bandmates to be his Proud Mothers; Will Kidman (The Constantines), Ian Kehoe and Spencer Burton (both of Attack in Black), and Nick Ferrio (of his Feelings).  They recorded the whole thing live off the floor in a couple days at the tail end of a long tour.  The band sounds determined, bound in lockstep by time and meter yet taking every opportunity to slip out the sides, falling over into freewheeling solos, simple melodies with a few notes out of place, like a square that’s been hit by a hammer.  At times gentle, at times joyfully deranged, the disc never fails to be vivid, as Lambke talks duty, dischord, and tangled connection.  ‘We know love is a mongrel thing; a mix of chance and cross spirits’, he shouts in the pop laced Marching Orders.  By the last song, the crackling Hurricane Weather, we can hear the accumulated hum of four amps, brothers and bandmates standing in a room, listening to a final note of feedback oscillating and wobbling to its foreshortened conclusion.

    – Tamara Lindeman

    Track Listing
    1. Bone Soldiers
    2. Strange Bodies
    3. Brave Women
    4. Rebel Crimes
    5. Old Punks
    6. Good Times/Bad Times
    7. Marching Orders
    8. Peace on Earth
    9. Hard Truths
    10. Hurricane Weather
    Credits
    • Proud Mothers: Steve Lambke, Ian Kehoe, Nick Ferrio, Will Kidman, Spencer Burton
    • Recorded and Mixed by Jeff McMurrich at 6 Nassau, Toronto, ON, Oct 24-27th, 2011
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal, QC
    • Art and Design by Paul Henderson

    Marine Dreams – Marine Dreams

    $5.00

    Marine Dreams
    Marine Dreams
    Cat#: YC-012
    Released: November 15, 2011
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “bright, brainy guitar-pop… You’ll think fondly of Big Star, Guided by Voices, the Buzzcocks” — Toronto Star

    Marine Dreams debut is full of deep thought garage rock and mighty tuneful modern songs from Ian Kehoe of Attack in Black. Brave, and boldly sung.

    Recorded by Tapes and Plates in Welland, ON

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    Track Listing
    1. Fold The Sky
    2. Yet To See The Sun
    3. Season In Hell
    4. We'll Get Her Back In Your Arms
    5. New Decade
    6. No Face
    7. Sudden Dark Truths
    8. Visions
    9. I Can Laugh
    10. Marine Dreams
    Credits
    • Recorded and Mixed by Tapes and Plates
    • Mastered by Harris Newman

    The Weather Station – All Of It Was Mine

    $12.50$16.00

    The Weather Station
    All Of It Was Mine
    Cat#: YC-011
    Released: August 16, 2011
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “…new folk of the highest order” — Exclaim!

    Incisive and insightful folk music by Tamara Lindeman. A beautifully sung depiction of the growing things, and the crawling things, and the loving and hurting things that move around, bewildered and dazzled. All Of It Was Mine is fast approaching legendary status. Produced by Daniel Romano.

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    “…new folk of the highest order”— Exclaim!

    Incisive and insightful folk music by Tamara Lindeman. A beautifully sung depiction of the growing things, and the crawling things, and the loving and hurting things that move around, bewildered and dazzled. All Of It Was Mine is fast approaching legendary status. Produced by Daniel Romano.

    Track Listing
    1. Everything I Saw
    2. Came So Easy
    3. Traveller
    4. Trying
    5. Chip On My Shoulder
    6. Know It To See It
    7. Yarrow and Mint
    8. Running Around Asking
    9. Nobody
    10. If I've Been Fooled
    Credits
    • Tamara Lindeman - Vocals, Banjo, Guitars
    • Daniel Romano - Guitars, Vocals, Pedal Steel, Drums, Bass
    • Misha Bower - Vocals
    • Elaine Kelly - Violin
    • Dan Weston - Mixing
    • Fedge - Mastering
    • Produced and Recorded by Daniel Romano

    Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath the Willow

    $9.00

    Daniel Romano
    Sleep Beneath The Willow
    Cat#: YC-010
    Released: April 5, 2011
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “…gobsmacks with its dreamy visions of sixties country radio” — The Globe and Mail

    A master re-creation of the sounds and sentiments of classic country music and a stone-cold classic in it's own right, Sleep Beneath The Willow has gained accolades and fans from around the world for it's immaculate production and inspired songwriting. Performed and Produced entirely by Daniel Romano in his own studio.

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    Track Listing
    1. Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)
    2. Hard On You
    3. Lost (For As Long As I Live)
    4. Knowing That You're Mine
    5. Louise
    6. Helen's Restaurant
    7. Paul And Jon
    8. I Won't Let It
    9. Never A Forced Smile
    10. There Are Lines In My Face
    11. Nothing
    Credits
    • Daniel Romano - Vocals, Guitar, Pedal Steel, Drums, Bass, Organ
    • Misha Bower - Vocals
    • Produced and Recorded by Daniel Romano
    sold out

    Shotgun Jimmie – Transistor Sister

    $10.00

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Transistor Sister
    Cat#: YC-009
    Released: March 8, 2011
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

     “…channels all kinds of sloppy and beautiful rock’n'roll, words like lucky quarters and impromptu secret handshakes.” – Said the Gramophone

    Transistor Sister was written on tour in Europe and you can hear Jimmie in this new environment, telling the people he meets about back home, what it looks like, what falling in love there feels like, how we think about things like songs, and peace, and love. It’s a good way to see the world.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    “…channels all kinds of sloppy and beautiful rock’n’roll, words like lucky quarters and impromptu secret handshakes.” – Said the Gramophone

    World traveler, collaborator, under-dog, hard-working man, Shotgun Jimmie stakes his claim for the hearts and minds of millions with Transistor Sister. A much anticipated addition to a growing discography, following the solo debut The Onlys (Delorean) in 2007 (featuring the CBC Radio 3 and college radio chart-topping single “Bedhead”), and the much loved Attack in Black backed Still Jimmie (You’ve Changed) in 2009, Transistor Sister sounds a new confidence in Shotgun Jimmie, a confidence earned by the mile, by train or by busted up mini-van, on countless Canadian crossings and a couple of recent tours overseas.

    Transistor Sister was written on tour in Europe and you can hear Jimmie in this new environment, telling the people he meets about back home, what it looks like, what falling in love there feels like, how we think about things like songs, and peace, and love. It’s a good way to see the world; packing light, a bunch of two minute blasts of pop perfection (“Late Last Year,” “Suzy,” “Transistor Sister”), a few all out anthemic rock hits (“King of Kreuzberg,” “Swamp Magic,” “Peace and Love”), and a couple of stellar collaborators: Ryan Peters of Ladyhawk and Lightning Dust on the drums and harmonies, and Jay Baird of the Feist live band and Do Make Say Think on bass and flute.

    Transistor Sister is also the first Shotgun Jimmie album recorded in a fully operational professional studio, at Riverport NS’s The Confidence Lodge by Diego Medina, but it maintains the experimentation and spontaneous sense of creation of the best home recordings. Run down the stairs, slamming doors, grab a weed whacker from the shed and mic it through a wah pedal. It just sounds better doing it than it has before. The album was tracked and mixed in a couple of weeks at the end of August 2010, hurricane season, as the unusually warm waters off the south shore crashed and waves broke.

    Track Listing
    1. Late Last Year
    2. Suzy
    3. King Of Kreuzberg
    4. Paper Planes
    5. Confidence Lodge Stairwell Recording #1
    6. Transistor Sister
    7. Too Many Flowers
    8. Stereo And The Stove
    9. Swamp Magic
    10. Piano
    11. Peace And Love
    12. Masterpiece
    13. Haze
    14. Refrain
    15. Bar's Open
    16. Bar's Closed
    Credits
    • Shotgun Jimmie – Guitar and Vocals
    • Jay Baird – Bass, Vocals, Horns
    • Ryan Peters – Drums, Vocals, Auxillary Percussion
    • Diego Medina – Analog Synthesizers
    • Ilse Kramer – Back-up Vocals
    • Frederick Squire – Lap Steel Guitar on The Haze
    • Recorded and Mixed by Diego Medina at The Confidence Lodge, Riverport, NS
    • Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal, QC
    • Art and Design by Paul Henderson

    Baby Eagle – Dog Weather

    $12.00

    Baby Eagle
    Dog Weather
    Cat#: YC-008
    Released: August 17, 2010
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “the simplicity’s a ruse; … a richly crafted set of interconnected narratives” — Exclaim!

    Shambling garage and folk noise from Steven Lambke (Constantines) and a hearty pack of collaborators: Shotgun Jimmie, Daniel Romano, and David Trenaman and Colleen Collins of Construction and Destruction. The streetlights swing low, the mud is deep, the weather is bad, and all we can do darling is ramble on.

     

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    “the simplicity’s a ruse; … a richly crafted set of interconnected narratives” — Exclaim!

    Shambling garage and folk noise from Steven Lambke (Constantines) and a hearty pack of collaborators: Shotgun Jimmie, Daniel Romano, and David Trenaman and Colleen Collins of Construction and Destruction. The streetlights swing low, the mud is deep, the weather is bad, and all we can do darling is ramble on.

     

    Original Release Notes:

    “Dog Weather is the next great novel of my generation.”
    – Paul Henderson, Chairman of the Board

    Dog Weather is the new album from Baby Eagle and the latest release from You’ve Changed Records, a small Canadian label steadily building a reputation for the collaborative nature of it’s roster and the high quality of it’s product. YC co-owner and Baby Eagle songwriter Steven Lambke (Constantines) is back with a rock band featuring lablemate/co-owner Daniel Romano (Attack in Black), Shotgun Jimmie, and David Trenaman and Colleen Collins (Construction & Destruction).

    The story of this record isn’t all that different from a thousand others out here. Songwriter forms a scrappy band of talented friends when their schedules allow. At the tail end of winter the aforementioned band heads to a big rural house overlooking a vast body of water. Wood is burned, dogs shit, wind howls. Meals are cooked and people sing, play instruments, and a record gets cut. Serendipity trumps bad luck.

    What is different on this record, is the way its stories are told, what they describe, and the undeniable joy with which they’re played. It is a record full of natural imagery, domestic narratives and ragged characters trying to patch a wound of meaning on the world. This is a rock band shaking its wet fur dry, pulling its boot from the mud and driving another mile.

    Dog Weather is the third record from Baby Eagle, and its very much of its time. Its characters standing on the other side of some fast and reckless youth, some shitty day jobs, a little scarred but settled, holding very little, outside enough love to matter. Guitars come and go like flyweights in a barnfight, the drummer is a steady, smiling underdog. “What the hell did you expect from us? What more do you want?”

    Track Listing
    1. Day Of Our Departing
    2. Fisherman Or Fish
    3. Haybale Song
    4. Dog Failure
    5. Broken Bones
    6. Man Of My Time
    7. Thistle In Bloom
    8. Crooked Coin
    9. Child Of The Weather
    10. River Bank Sitter
    11. Me vs. The Devil
    12. American Drum
    13. Last Song Of The Night
    14. (The World Covered In Mud)
    sold out

    Richard Laviolette – All Of Your Raw Materials

    Richard Laviolette
    All Of Your Raw Materials
    Cat#: YC-007
    Released: July 6, 2010
    Format: LP/Digital

    “renews your faith in music by reminding us that it’s not a business, but art that should be shared and embraced.” — Herohill

    Acoustic songs of romance, protest, and struggle great. Full of life and mortality. A strong and magical voice that says what it means; and it means a lot.

    Category:

    “renews your faith in music by reminding us that it’s not a business, but art that should be shared and embraced.” — Herohill


    Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills play acoustic songs of romance, protest, and struggle, full of life and mortality in a strong and magical voice that says what it means; and it means a lot.

     

    Original Release Notes:

    Richard Laviolette writes a hundred songs a year. Songs of clever, heartfelt, rolling lyrics, sung in a strong, full voice. Echo and melody. Laviolette’s voice is a deep well of water. His lyrics are brilliant scraps of paper. Letters written home. He sings about death, anti-colonial struggle and long distance relationships.

    “All Your Raw Materials” is Laviolette’s 4th Album, and his first with The Oil Spills. Originally released independently on CD in September, 2009, the album was recorded live-off-the-floor at the legendary House of Miracles in London, ON the previous summer. We got a copy at a house show in Guelph, ON, and listened to it endlessly through the fall and winter. We loved it, and we wanted everyone to hear it. You’ve Changed Records is happy to make this album widely available and to offer it for the first time on LP.

    The Oil Spills are Geordie Gordon (The Magic, Barmitzvah Brothers, the Islands), Meredith Grant, Greg Denton, Mike Brooks (Kae Sun), Lisa Bozikovic, Matt Reeves, Jenny Mitchell (Barmitzvah Brothers, The Burning Hell, Jenny Omnichord). This highly talented cast step up to the plate and deliver a darling country album inspired by a childhood full of waking up on weekends to country, gospel, and bluegrass records blasting from the living room, records such as George Jones, Tammy Wynette, The Judds, Dolly Parton, Roger Miller, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Bob Wills, Neil Young’s ‘Old Ways’, and The Nitty Gritty Dirtband’s ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’.

    Richard Laviolette has previously released Aging Recycling Plant (with the Hollow Hooves, Independent 2009), Hands and Feat(s) (Burnt Oak 2007), and A Little Less Like a Rock, A Little More Like Home (Burnt Oak 2006).

    Track Listing
    1. Snuck Right Up
    2. Airtight; No Sunlight
    3. Break Down These Blues
    4. Telephone Wire
    5. Funeral Song
    6. Winterbreath
    7. Picture Cards
    8. This Evening
    9. With Tape and Purposeful Hats
    10. Yes, I Mean All of It
    Credits
    • Richard Laviolette, guitar, vocals
    • Jenny Mitchell, bass, vocals
    • Lisa Bozikovic, keys, vocals
    • Matt Reeves, guitar, vocals
    • Meredith Grant, accordian, vocals
    • Greg Denton, banjo, vocals
    • Geordie Gordon, fiddle, mandolin, vocals
    • Mike Brooks, pedal steel, vocals
    • Mathias Kom, ukulele, vocals
    • Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Andy Magoffin at the House of Miracles in London, ON

    Daniel Romano – Workin’ For The Music Man

    $9.00

    Daniel Romano
    Workin' For the Music Man
    Cat#: YC-006
    Released: June 1, 2010
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    “…the moment an artist discovered his true voice.” – Exclaim!

    Daniel Romano's debut solo album. This is the album where Daniel introduced his commitment and dedication to the craft of country music song.

    Available on 180 gram vinyl and CD.

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    Track Listing
    1. Workin' For The Music Man
    2. Missing Wind
    3. Losing Song
    4. On The Night
    5. So Free
    6. She Was The World To Me
    7. Poor Girls Of Ontario
    8. Your Hands
    9. My Greatest Mistake
    10. Joseph Arthur
    11. Workin' For The Music Man Pt. 2
    Credits
    • Produced by Daniel Romano
    sold out

    Daniel Romano – Songs for Misha

    Daniel Romano
    Songs For Misha
    Cat#: YC-005
    Released: January 6, 2010
    Format: 12" EP

    Currently out of stock

    4 Song 45 RPM EP – available only at shows and through mail-order!

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    Track Listing
    1. On The Banks Of Trilliums
    2. If You Guard My Heart
    3. Longer, Lonelier Days
    4. My Lost Lady (Is Found)

    Daniel, Fred and Julie – Daniel, Fred and Julie

    $10.00

    Daniel, Fred and Julie
    Daniel, Fred and Julie
    Cat#: YC-003
    Released: December 1, 2009
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    This unique collaboration between Daniel Romano, Frederick Squire and Julie Doiron is a record of Folk Music: three part harmonies, guitar picking, songs of romance, justice, murder, loafing, and complaint, horses and gambling, old songs in the public domain, public songs for singing together. Recorded live to tape in Fred’s garage in Sackville NB, Daniel, Fred, And Julie also features two compositions by Daniel that have become classics in their own right: Runner, about the eternal doomed ramblings of a man, sung here spookily and powerfully by Fred; and the lamenting and beautiful Your Love.

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    This unique collaboration between Daniel Romano, Frederick Squire and Julie Doiron is a record of Folk Music: three part harmonies, guitar picking, songs of romance, justice, murder, loafing, and complaint, horses and gambling, old songs in the public domain, public songs for singing together. Recorded live to tape in Fred’s garage in Sackville NB, Daniel, Fred, And Julie also features two compositions by Daniel that have become classics in their own right: Runner, about the eternal doomed ramblings of a man, sung here spookily and powerfully by Fred; and the lamenting and beautiful Your Love.

     

    Original Release Notes:

    Daniel, Fred, And Julie is a very special collaboration between three much loved musicians. Daniel Romano sings and plays guitar in Attack in Black. Calm Down It’s Monday’s Fred Squire sang and played guitar in legendary indie-rock group Shotgun and Jaybird, and is a jack-of-all-trades and master of some in the Julie Doiron band. And Julie Doiron is the legendary songwriter, singer, guitar shredder, collaborator with Mount Eerie, Gord Downie, Herman Dune, Wooden Stars, and member of Eric’s Trip, who needs no introduction. But this is a record unlike any previously heard from these fine and versatile musicians.

    Dan took the train to Sackville, NB in the summer of 2009, with a couple of acoustic guitars and a couple of song books of folk songs. The tape machine was set up in Fred’s garage. A microphone was placed on the floor in front of a semi circle of folding chairs. The weather was good that week, the garage door was open, cars would pass, and kids on bicycles. Arrangements were made up quickly, harmonies worked out, lyrics written on long scraps of paper, verses picked and chosen. Dan and Fred playing guitars, all three singing together. The songs were put down quickly, with no overdubs or edits, and the record was finished in a couple of days.

    A record of Folk Music, three part harmonies, guitar picking and strumming. Songs of romance, justice, murder, loafing, and complaint, horses and gambling. Old songs, in the public domain. Public songs for singing together. Daniel, Fred, And Julie also features two new compositions by Dan: Runner, about the eternal doomed rambling of a man, sung here spookily and powerfully by Fred, and the lamenting and beautiful Your Love.

    Daniel, Fred, and Julie is available on LP and CD and for Digital download. The record in all formats is proudly Mono.

    Track Listing
    1. The Gambler and His Bride
    2. Runner
    3. I Dream of Jeanie
    4. No One Knew My Name
    5. Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
    6. Down by the Weeping Willow
    7. Bonny Black Bess
    8. Clementine
    9. Your Love
    10. Johnny Sands
    sold out

    Attack in Black and Baby Eagle – Split

    $12.00

    Attack in Black and Baby Eagle
    Split
    Cat#: YC-002
    Released: May 5, 2009
    Format: LP/Digital

    Split was recorded in Welland ON, in the Romano household. It’s all a blur, making this record and Still Jimmie (YC-001), like one memory of people coming and going, making songs, making dinner, pot roast and coffee. Sleeping on a couch by the mixing board, sitting around the kitchen table singing. The Fall of 2008, like any moment, a split between the past and the future. This is the record we made.

    Out of stock

    Category:

    You’ve Changed Records 002, Split was born in the backseat of a Ford Econoline, somewhere near the Quebec – New Brunswick border. Some old tour van in summer. Some guys in bands. We were on our way home from the 3rd Annual Sappy Records Music Festival and we were inspired. The drive was long but the passions were high. We were full of fire and sunshine. We were hopped up on road snacks and ready. I’ll sing your songs if you sing mine. Let’s make a record, start a label. Why not?

    The idea grew once the tape was rolling. We started with one song each, Attack in Black covering Baby Eagle, Baby Eagle covering and backed by Attack in Black. This became two, and finally a happy four.  Eight tracks in total, two sides of a vinyl LP. Our favourite songs of each other’s, ruthlessly manhandled, reinvented, knocked around and abused, cut into new shapes. Baby Eagle’s rickety folk songs polished and tuned. Attack in Black’s youthful anthems busted into shards and aged. Sounds like a good idea.

    Split was recorded in Welland ON, in the Romano household. It’s all a blur, making this record and Still Jimmie (YC-001), like one memory of people coming and going, making songs, making dinner, pot roast and coffee. Sleeping on a couch by the mixing board, sitting around the kitchen table singing. The Fall of 2008, like any moment, a split between the past and the future. This is the record we made.

    Track Listing
    1. Some Things We Lose
    2. Half Moon on the City High
    3. Let Wander Your Restless Hearts
    4. Rainwater Blues
    5. Inches and Ages
    6. Leather Jacket
    7. Leaving Your Death in a Flowerbed
    8. Marriage
    Credits
    • Produced by Attack in Black and Baby Eagle
    • Steven Lambke, Daniel Romano, Ian Kehoe, Spencer Burton, Ian Romano
    • Jessie Stein, vocals, pianet / Julie Fader, vocals / David Romano, guitar
    • Recorded in Welland, Ontario by Julien Brousseau
    • Mixed by Daniel Romano and Julien Brousseau
    • Mastered in Mississauga, Ontario by Dan Weston
    sold out

    Shotgun Jimmie – Still Jimmie

    Shotgun Jimmie
    Still Jimmie
    Cat#: YC-001
    Released: March 10, 2009
    Format: LP/CD/Digital

    Jimmie calls this his serious record, and it is, in a way. but he codes his worry in rhyme and in tune. He makes jokes. He plays guitar solos. It’s wonderful. The songs are crunchy and catchy and unforgettable. There’s a shambling duet with Simone Schmidt of Toronto country bad One Hundred Dollars called “Quicksand.” There’s the questioning rock generation anthems of “Mind Crumb,” and “The Cost Of Doing Business.” There’s emotional laments: “Province to Province,” which sounds like one, and “Waist Deep In The Water,” which doesn’t. And there’s my favourite song: “Used Parts.” It’s a different sounding Jimmie, but it’s Still Jimmie.

    This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

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    Shotgun Jimmie used to play in Shotgun and Jaybird. Everybody loved Shotgun and Jaybird because they had great songs, they were funny, they were sad, and they were wonderful. They were sloppy and drunk and at times totally transcendent. They had a drummer that could hardly play, and then after he left, they had one of the best drummers imaginable. Everybody who ever heard of Sackville, New Brunswick wanted to see them play.

    After the band broke up Shotgun Jimmie made a record in his living room called The Onlys. Everybody loved it. He sang about getting up early in the morning, about writing songs, about good times and bad times and a mysterious “sparkle revolution”. He played a bunch of shows supported by a shifting group of some of the top musicians of our time: Construction and Destruction, Jesse Baird, Jay Baird, Bucky Buckler, Baby Eagle.

    Soon, Jimmie started playing a bunch of shows with Welland, Ontario’s Attack in Black. The shows were different then what they’d been before. What was once ramshackle and sweet and funny, was now still somewhat ramshackle, was sweet, funny and also pretty rocking. That is to say it rocked. They blasted through the songs with urgency and purpose. Then Jimmie wrote a bunch of new songs and recorded them with Attack in Black in their basement studio. Jimmie calls this his serious record, and it is, in a way. but he codes his worry in rhyme and in tune. He makes jokes. He plays guitar solos. It’s wonderful. The songs are crunchy and catchy and unforgettable. There’s a shambling duet with Simone Schmidt of Toronto country bad One Hundred Dollars called “Quicksand.” There’s the questioning rock generation anthems of “Mind Crumb,” and “The Cost Of Doing Business.” There’s emotional laments: “Province to Province,” which sounds like one, and “Waist Deep In The Water,” which doesn’t. And there’s my favourite song: “Used Parts.” It’s a different sounding Jimmie, but it’s Still Jimmie.

    Track Listing
    1. Mind Crumb
    2. Road Animal
    3. Province to Province
    4. Used Parts
    5. Louis Depson
    6. Waist Deep in the Water
    7. The Cost of Doing Business
    8. Dawson City
    9. Valentine's Day
    10. I Asked Cupid
    11. Tread Water
    Credits
    • Shotgun Jimmie, Daniel Romano, Ian Romano, Ian Kehoe, Spencer Burton, Julien Joseph Lucien Brousseau
    • Simone Schmidt, vocals on "Quicksand" / Jessie Stein, vocals on "Treadwater" / Dave Romano, Guitar on "I Asked Cupid"
    • Recorded and Mixed in Welland, Ontario by Julien Joseph Lucien Brousseau
    • Mixed in Mississauge, Ontario by Dan Weston

    Onward & Onward Super CD Package (The Middle Years)

    $30.00

    Various
    Onward & Onward Super CD Package (The Middle Years)
    Cat#:
    Released: November 13, 2020
    Format: CD Package
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    The Onward & Onward Super CD Package (The Middle Years) contains the following 6 works of unalterable genius on the coveted CD format, a halfway up the stairs portrait of the middle years of You’ve Changed Records, in perfect grooves, psychadelic hooks, care-worn wisdom, and worn-care joy:

    Nap Eyes – Whine Of The Mystic (YC-022)
    Nap Eyes – Thought Rock Fish Scale (YC-024)
    Shotgun Jimmie – Field Of Trampolines (YC-025)
    Richard Laviolette – Taking The Long Way Home (YC-029)
    Daniel Romano – Modern Pressure (YC-031)
    Partner – In Search Of Lost Time (YC-032)

    No explanations. No substitutions. Eternal perfection. While supplies last.

     

     

    Why The Heck Not? Super CD Package (The Early Years)

    $30.00

    Various
    Why The Heck Not? Super CD Package (The Early Years)
    Cat#:
    Released: November 13, 2020
    Format: CD Package
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    The Why The Heck Not? Super CD Package (The Early Years) contains the following 6 works of unalterable genius on the coveted CD format, a picture of the early years of You’ve Changed Records, painted in full-colour folk, noisy yelps, and potent indie pop:

    Daniel Romano – Workin’ For The Music Man (YC-006)
    The Weather Station – All Of It Was Mine (YC-011)
    Marine Dreams – Marine Dreams (YC-012)
    Baby Eagle and The Proud Mothers – Bone Soldiers (YC-013)
    Apollo Ghosts – Landmark (YC-014)
    Shotgun Jimmie – Everything, Everything (YC-015)

    The only reason is rhyme, the only rhyme is reason. All time classics. While supplies last.