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Posts Tagged ‘Said The Whale’

said the whale

I blogged the other day about Said The Whale’s incredible song “Miscarriage.” Today, the album that song is off of is out.  The record is called As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide. I’m listening to it right now on Spotify while I get ready for my radio show.

Their fifth record still delivers that Said the Whale indie rock vibes that you’d expect form the band…but their is more weight to many of the songs. The band is playing around with tones and textures….and in that space, I am not sure if I’ve heard a “Camilo” or an “I Love You” (their highest charting single and the only one to chart in the US).  The brightest songs might be “I Will Follow You,” “Step Into Darkness,” or “Heaven.” “Confidence” is also kinda fun, but at the same time maybe also the weakest on the record.

After hearing the album, I still think “Miscarriage” is the standout track. “Emily Rose” is also a pretty indie-folk jam and the final cut “Lilac and Willow” has the band smashing guitars and making wonderful weird noises.

The band begins a tour that will bring them west in Toronto.

March 31 (release day) – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
April 1 -Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
April 4 – London, ON – Rum Runners / London Music Hall Complex
April 5 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre Theatre
April 6 – Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
April 7 – Kitchener, ON – Centre in the Square
April 8 – Peterborough, ON – Red Dog
April 12 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
April 27 – Pender Island, BC – Hope Bay Studio
April 28 – Victoria, BC – Sugar Nightclub
April 29 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
May 3 – Kelowna, BC – The Habitat
May 4 – Calgary, AB – Commonwealth Bar
May 5 – Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room
May 6 – Saskatoon, SK – Cosmopolitain Senior Centre
May 7 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre

album

The cover art is cool. It from a 1967 Nat Geo photo.  “American bison charge through heavy snow in Yellowstone National Park, November 1967.”

Go with yourself.

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said the whale.jpg

Vancouver indie rocker’s Said The Whale have a new record out next week called As Long As Your Eyes Are Open.

The new record features the trademark bright sounding indie rock we know from the band like the songs “I Will Follow You” or “Heaven.”

But there is one song on the album that stands out with it’s weight. The song is called “Miscarriage.” It is a personal tale of loss and healing. About lead singer Tyler Bancroft’s emotions after his wife and him experienced some hardship trying to grow their family. Maybe it is a song that will resonate with your own life story?

Miscarriage is a unique kind of loss in that you’re mourning what could have been. It’s a lonely kind of loss, because miscarriage is rarely discussed. And it’s a loss of control—realizing that the future may not turn out the way you had imagined it. For me this was especially disarming since I didn’t realize how much I wanted a child until I was faced with the possibility of never having one. Miscarriage strips the joy from pregnancy and turns it into a source of grief and anxiety.

But whatever sadness and anger I was feeling was only a fraction of what my partner was experiencing. The shame associated with her body not doing what it’s ‘biologically designed to do,’ the loss of control, and the uncertainty about reproductive health-—these things are all devastating. Watching the person you love go through that is heartbreaking, and it took everything I had to comfort her along with trying to comfort myself. I wrote this song in the throes of our experience. It was cathartic and therapeutic, and a lot of tears were shed.

I won’t say I’m glad we went through what we did, but I will say that our experience has provided me with a perspective and an empathy that I may not have otherwise had. Our experience also makes me feel like the luckiest person on earth because our story has a happy ending—our third pregnancy was carried to term and our son was born in the summer of 2016.”

The band will tour Canada. Their first show is in Toronto on the day their 5th album comes out.

March 31 (release day) – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
April 1 -Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
April 4 – London, ON – Rum Runners / London Music Hall Complex
April 5 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre Theatre
April 6 – Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
April 7 – Kitchener, ON – Centre in the Square
April 8 – Peterborough, ON – Red Dog
April 12 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
April 27 – Pender Island, BC – Hope Bay Studio
April 28 – Victoria, BC – Sugar Nightclub
April 29 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
May 3 – Kelowna, BC – The Habitat
May 4 – Calgary, AB – Commonwealth Bar
May 5 – Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room
May 6 – Saskatoon, SK – Cosmopolitain Senior Centre
May 7 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre

Go with yourself.

 

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unnamed

Happy New Year intrepid music blog reader! I hope you had a great Christmas holiday. Coral and I had fun spoiling our kids, visiting with both our families AND our son turned three.

My hours this week are little weird as I’m filling in on the morning show, but I wanted to share a brand new song that came down the pipe today…and really, just get back into the rhythm.

Vancouver band Said The Whale will be releasing their 5th album, As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide, on March 31st.

Said the Whale is a popular Canadian indie rock band, and they’ve been on modern rock radio on the West Coast for a bunch of years. US modern rock fans would maybe know the band for their 2013 song “I Love You.” I remember that because we road tripped down to California that summer and I punched up LIVE in San Francisco and there they were, pumping on my stereo!

The song “Step into Darkness” has mature lush sound. Reminds me of a Death Cab for Cutie song.

***

Had a chance to start my 2017 on the trail snow shoeing with my daughter. What a great beginning.

Go with yourself.

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TPC Alix Goolden

Tokyo Police Club and Said The Whale were both in Victoria last Friday. Both stopped by my radio show and both performed a song.

TPC did an acoustic break down of their Forcefield epic “Argentina.”

Said The Whale decided to get festive with their song “Summertime in Australia.”

Go with yourself.

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give us a break
Back in the day I was in a band called Smut Peddling Sam, and I had a radio show on the University of British Columbia’s CiTR that played predominately Canadian punk, rock, metal, indie….that sorta thing.  Living in the world put me in contact with a bunch of bands of the era.

My band released just one song and it showed up on the 2001 Spawner Records/Hourglass Records compilation Give Us a Break II.

Spawner collected a couple hundred bucks from a ton of bands, packed a compact disc full of tunes, then gave the discs away for free at Warped Tour stops.

The disc is full of great (mostly) Western Canadian bands of the early Oughts.  I think a song that might be of interest to modern rock fans today would be this cut from a group called My Buddy Dave.  The band featured a young Tyler Bancroft who would go on to form Said The Whale.   US readers to the blog might recognize “I Love You” which charted on US Modern Rock Radio last summer and is featured in this Samsung Galaxy commercial.

OK, Said The Whale… hot band in the year 2014.  Now let’s travel back to 2001.  Can you hear Tyler singing?

***

One more off that record because I still love the song to this day.  Calgary’s Darryl’s Grocery Bag and the song “Do You Like My Van?”

Go with yourself.

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ariel
As I have mentioned on this here blog, the Baker Tribe was recently on holiday to the US of A.  We drove The 101 and I-5 down to Disneyland then back up The 1 and 101 to Victoria.

Magical times.  California is a groovy place.  I clearly see why 38 and some odd million people live there.  You can eat In-N-Out Burger whenever you want!  Spoiled, the lot of ya!

My kid is obsessed with Ariel.  When she got to meet her in Fantasyland, well that did it… something totally flew into my eye.  Dust?

Bumped into Jim Carrey at Amoeba Records on Sunset, random… and saw a couple baseball games; Angels vs Athletics then the Giants got dismantled by the Reds.

Roadtrips are great because I love to drive, and I love to zone out listening to music.  I know that roadtrips do something for my creative and spiritual energy but I wasn’t exactly sure what. Then I read this article about how Lifehacking creates more work… the writer quotes the work of Andrew Smart from his book Autopilot:  “our brains seem to be doing a lot of previously undetected work while at rest) to argue that dedicating time to do nothing—literally sitting still and daydreaming—is absolutely necessary if we are to use our mental faculties and stumble upon new and original insights. To innovate, argues Smart, we must learn how to be idle—at a time when most corporations see idleness as a vice. By Smart’s logic, one way to subvert modern capitalism is to simply get as busy as possible: Your creativity will suffer— and you’ll be not much better than a robot, only far less productive.”

My wife and I listened to a lot of stuff.  We had “The World Famous” KROQ on the radio in LA.  I have now heard Imagine Dragons as much as anyone should in a lifetime.  Lots of Lorde “Royals” and weirdly they interrupt their synth pop briefly to play  Avenged Sevenfold? Sure… KROQ is World Famous so I guess they set the tone for the nation.  Driving up to San Francisco, we dialed up Live, “Everything Alternative.”  I think I prefer their style a little more AND they rocked Said The Whale.

One song that I had on a playlist that sounded amazing while drifting up The 101 through the Salinas valley was Daughter’s “Medicine” remixed by The Chainsmokers.

Go with yourself.

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My girl the Christi Wizard tried to tell me some fantastical fable about how Said the Whale took their band name from the lyric of a Hollerado song, “Walking on the Sea.”

Right? Fantastical?

First off… Said the Whale started in about 2007 and Hollerado maybe put their album out in what? 2010?  2009 tops.  So never mind the implications that the Wizard’s charge might have on the space-time continuum…. it is just so improbable.

Second… I remembered that I am in fact super besties with Tyler.  Well… Facebook friends.  I asked him:

the Christi Kay Wizard was trying to tell me that the name “Said the Whale” came from a Hollerado lyric. Does that even make sense? It doesn’t to me.
7 hours ago ·  ·  · See Friendship

    • Tyler Bancroft Believe it or not, it’s actually the other way around!

      7 hours ago · 
    • Jeremy Baker I can’t believe that either! Though I knew when you sang… “Camillo, he sure is one bad Hollerado” it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the song.

      7 hours ago · 

There you go… Hollerado took their name from a Said the Whale lyric.  That is science.

Hollerado – “Walking on the Sea”

Go with yourself.

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As my camping obsession continues to grow and await the final Canucks game (Game 4, Stanley Cup final… in Boston as the Nucks sweep)…. I’ve been wondering if there are any good camping songs or great outdoors anthems?

Yesterday I was dwelling on this very thought and trolling my Facebook when I saw a status from Christi Wizard: “A broken compass could mean spending the night.”

I thought, “isn’t that neat, the Wizard is into orienteering. huh, the things you learn about a person.”

Turns out its a Said the Whale song about hiking in the BC wilderness! Well… I think its a metaphor for other things… but if you take the song at face value, its totally about camping!

Said the Whale – “B.C. Orienteering”

STW’s nod to the beautiful British Columbia has me inspired to find other wonderous camping songs.

My ganger James Sutton over at the Peak in Vancouver posted this free MP3 download today.  Kismet?

Elliot Brood – “Northern Air”

Download MP3 >> Elliott BROOD – Northern Air

I think I better put down a collection of camping songs for my next playlist.  Any thoughts about camping/hiking/lake/ocean songs?  Leave a comment.

Go with yourself.

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Vince Vaccaro at the Peak Performance Project. Photo: McAvoy

I woke up today much like any other; with a sore throat.

It just won’t go away.  BUT unlike any other day, I also woke to a winter wonderland!  Which normally I love, but it did give me a moment of heart palpitations as I am currently driving a borrowed car.

Yeesh… a borrowed car?  Yes.  Its been awhile since I last blogged because I have been so busy putting out fired and starting new ones.

Last week was the Peak Performance Project in Vancouver featuring my man Vince Vaccaro, plus music from Said the Whale and Kyprios. The concert was a music prize showcase and the winner would win $100,500.00 in grant money to help boost their career.

Vince called into my show last week and had an extra ticket for me if I could find a ride.

Bippity boppity promo… and Brett from Dave Wheaton Chevrolet called me up to offer to let me drive a tester Chevy Cruze car.

Twist my arm… I’ll take a free car.  Thank you Brett and off to Vancouver I went!

My adventure to Vancouver began on the 7AM ferry.  I piled all my broadcast gear into the trunk of the Cruze, filled up the gas tank and away! The ferry took me to 100.5 The Peak where I hung out with James Sutton and Tamara Stanners.  Then off to downtown to broadcast my afternoon show from the Tom Lee Music on Granville.

Vince stopped by the show with Nick Blasko for an interview.  He may have tried to grab my penis after I called him Sam Roberts.


The party at the Commodore Ballroom was completely sold out.  Vince was the first guy up and being the homer that I am, I thought he was the best.

In the end, Vince finished the competition as 3rd place.  He earned a grant for $50,000.  Said the Whale finished second ($75k) and Kyrpios ($100k) won the whole dealio.

me and Ben Worcester of Said the Whale.

Tyson from Acres of Lions and Jeff from The Racoons.

looks like Lewis from Acres of Lions and the lovely Laura Smith.

Vince Vaccaro with his hilarious novelty sized cheque.

Vince Vaccaro – “Costa Rice” (album edit)

Thank you Brett and Dave Wheaton Chevrolet for allowing me to use the Chevy Cruze on my adventure. Thank you to Vince Vaccaro and my freinds at the Peak and at Tom Lee for allowing my broadcast to run smoothly in Vancouver.  And the Victoria team of Bossman John, Boitano, Doug Marin, Jade, Webguy Bud and Russ for taking care of the project.

It takes a lot of people to make the radio go and the DJ is just one cog in the machine.

Go with yourself.

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Yesterday on the Zone Afternoon Show I was swarmed by rock and roll.  I had the opportunity to interview and hear a live performance from the groups Plants and Animals, Hollerado and Said the Whale.  here we go!

Montreal’s Plants and Animals were the first band to stop by. We talked about May the Forth Be With You;  how much their first record Parc Avenue ripped and came in second place a bunch when it was nominated for Junos and other prestigious things;  how much they crush live; the sonic differences between Parc Avenue and La La Land (their new album);  Adam Lambert and cruise ships; Tea; then they perform “Game Shows.”  Fun.

Download: Plants and Animals on the ZAS

Ontario’s Hollerado came by next.  They were playing at Lucky Bar that night and their show was fantastic.

Hollerado are from a small town outside Ottawa… but are they Sens fans, or do they cheer the Canadiens?

We talk puck; how they live in a van; how much they have traveled; London, Ontario totally sucks and Brazil totally rules; Record in a Bag is their album… but does it actually come in a back?; Juliet is the name of Hollerado’s hit song, but the video is a real trip.  In the video, the old lady is played by non-other than Ms. Margot Kidder aka Lois Lane in Superman!  believe that; They drank with her and those times they shared were special; they talk about Global Warming (but don’t worry I set them straight on the MYTH of global warming) and then they play “Americanarama.”

Download: Hollerado on The ZAS

The show ends with a return visit by everyone’s favourite magician singing band, Said the Whale.

STW lead singer Tyler sat on an airplane with Canadian indie rock royalty Emily Hanes, but does he spill the beans?; Said the Whale talks about the song “The Light is You.”  Wait an minute, I know that song?  But from where?  Turns out it is used in a Sun-Rype commercial!  Funny story about Sun-Rype… owned by Jim Pattison, the SAME local billionaire that owns the Zone… whoa.

Pretty song, fun interview.

Download:  Said the Whale on The ZAS

That’s all I got, go read a book.  And go with yourself, always.

oh and a baby.

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