Tag: Solo

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Amy Millan [2025]

Amy Millan at Club Saw, Ottawa – October 17 2025

Artist: Amy Millan
When: October 17th, 2025
Where: Club Saw, Ottawa
Context: I’ve seen Stars live five times and Broken Social Scene twice* but it had been quite a while since I’d seen either one. However, this wasn’t the reason why I really wanted to see Amy Millan, even though I do often lean towards the songs she sings with Stars. I had never seen her play live solo, just never got the chance, even though I had enjoyed her two previously released solo albums. Before buying the ticket, I had only given her newest album, “I went to find you”, a cursory listen, only becoming much more familiar with it in the week leading up to the show. Having said all this, I still found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed Amy Millan’s performance. Her extremely talented backing band included Christine Bougie** (guitar and lap steel), Stefan Schneider*** (drums), as well as fellow Stars members Chris McCarron (guitar) and her partner Evan Cranley (trombone and percussion), and she brought her friend Jenny Whiteley up onstage mid-set to duet on “Baby I”****. But it was Millan herself who lit up the stage, not only with the lovely, lilting, and soft touch on vocals that we’ve come to know and love, but with her in-between song banter, proving herself to be humble and hilarious and human. It was such that she could have played anything and we would have been with her the whole way. But she pleased Stars fans with a couple of their tunes, including a lovely solo performance of “Ageless beauty”, a personal fave, and with the exception of a Weeping Tile/Sarah Harmer cover, the rest of her set was solo material, mostly from that new album, performed so beautifully that it has infinitely risen in my esteem.
Point of reference song: “The overpass”

Amy Millan close up and personal
Chris McCarron and his headband on guitar
Stefan Schneider on drums
Evan Cranley with his trombone
Christine Bougie rocking the guitar
Amy dueting with Jenny Whiteley
Evan on the percussion 
Chris McCarron and his game face
Amy and Stefan
Rocking out

*Both times with Amy Millan

**Has performed with Shania Twain and Bahamas.

***Has performed with Owen Pallett, Belle Orchestre, among others.

****A song Whiteley had written and Millan had covered on her first solo album, “Honey from the tombs”.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #9 Andy Bell “Love comes in waves”

<< #10    |    #8 >>

Ever since pioneering shoegaze rock band, Ride, called it quits rather spectacularly back in 1995, I’d been firmly planted in camp Mark Gardener in terms of following the post-breakup careers of the two warring principal songwriters and driving forces behind the band. I’d always preferred his voice and with the exception of “Vapour trail“, enjoyed far more the songs he led with Ride. I always thought he’d do greater things. Who knew the opposite would turn out to be true?

Sure, Gardener was the first of the two to record and release a solo album by a long shot. However, Bell seemed to get back on the horse quicker, forming Hurricane #1 in 1996, a band of whom I’ve still only heard a few tracks but who released a couple of reasonably successful albums before breaking up a few years later*. Shortly after that, he was recruited by the Gallagher brothers to replace founding Oasis member Guigsy, a job for which he had to quickly learn the bass. He stuck with them until their rude implosion a decade later** and stayed on with Liam for a couple of albums under the Beady Eye moniker. Fans (and readers of this blog) will know that Ride successfully reunited just over ten years ago and not only toured but have released three amazing new albums that build beautifully on their legacy. There’s also been a host of other collaborations and projects that I know little about or only heard tell of so I won’t list them, but know Mr Bell has been quite active indeed.

And in the midst of all this productivity, Andy Bell has been writing, recording and tinkering with songs, a step away from all of these projects, refining and honing sounds, lyrics and melodies. Apparently, “The view from halfway down” became something more than just a ragtag collection of song snippets shortly after David Bowie’s death, this event lighting a fire under Bell’s comfy chair. As a debut solo album, it works perfectly, recognizable enough as Andy Bell but different enough to set it apart from his other projects. And, yeah, some excellent tracks here.

“If you’re searching for meaning
Or a secret worth revealing
And you’re missing the feeling
Of connection, a reflection back from above
You’re ready to ride the first wave of love”

“Love comes in waves” is the opening number and the lead single from the album, a clarion call, a demand for attention. It’s frenetic jangling guitars repeating and not giving up, pounding it in to you, dancing up and down your spine. Meanwhile, the drums just chug along, breathless and immovable, like the unbreakable ocean that he’s comparing with love. A thing of beauty that creates a space that I would definitely want to revisit again and again, sometimes dancing, sometime just being.

*Hurricane #1 was re-formed by cofounder Alex Lowe without Bell and really, the rest of the original lineup in 2014.

**Of course, he was asked to join them on their wildly successful reunion tour this past summer/fall as well.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

Categories
Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2023, part four

Getting down to the wire now, heh? Just two more days left of 2023 after today. I think we might just manage it.

I usually do this thing sharing the final part of my ongoing annual playlist on the morning of New Years Eve but I’ve decided to switch it up for 2023. My last post of the year, the last word as it were, will be dedicated instead to my favourite album that the year offered us. It feels fitting now but we’ll see how it feels when it’s all said and done.

And I know I just inferred that the finish line is a welcome sight but honestly, 2023’s been a pretty good year. A marked improvement on the last, which was a huge leap forward on the previous two combined. I can’t really say things are back to normal* but they feel more familiar, if not weirdly surreal. The COVID is still around and the numbers still seem higher than they should be for a pandemic that is ‘over’ but we seem weirdly dismissive of it. Nonetheless, I’ve experienced a lot of post-pandemic firsts this year, like the first time back in the office, first time meeting some of my colleagues in person, first indoor concert, first train ride, first road trip across the border, whew. All of it has been exciting but also saddening for all the experiences that we collectively missed out on.

I don’t really want to talk about everything else that’s been going on in the world because it’s more than just a little crazy, so many deaths and so much damage and so much loss. So I’m just going to get back to the music. These last twenty five songs is a blend of new ones released over the last three months and a few b-sides, songs that had been released earlier on but for some reason, I missed them the first time around or just couldn’t fit them.

If you haven’t already perused them, I invite you to go have a look-see at parts one, two, and three. If you’re already in the know, have a gander at the highlights:

      • Kicking things off right with “Real life” a new song from the raw and frenetic Canadian indie rock trio, The Rural Alberta Advantage
      • Emma Anderson‘s (ex of Lush and Sing-Sing) debut solo album “Pearlies” has lots of great moments that show she hasn’t lost her dream pop sensibilities and “The presence” might be the closest sounding to epic Lush of the bunch
      • As Trans-Canada Highwaymen, Canadian 90s alt-rock royalty, Steven Page, Chris Murphy, Moe Berg, and Craig Northey unleashed an album of 70s Can-rock covers, like this faithful take on The Guess Who’s “”Undun”
      • “Panopticom” is the first track on the first new album of new material by Peter Gabriel in 21 years and shows he’s still incredible at what he does
      • Toronto-based Breeze gifted us 90s alt rock aficionados with an early Christmas present with a new album that includes the wonderful “Ready for love”
      • The dreamy “Amnesia” by M83 is definitely unforgettable
      • “Cicciolina”, from Cumgirl8‘s debut release on 4AD show that raw inventiveness that brought the legendary indie label to sign them

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “Real life” The Rural Alberta Advantage (from the album The rise & the fall)

2. “Will anybody ever love me?” Sufjan Stevens (from the album Javelin)

3. “Nothing is perfect” Metric (from the album Formentera II)

4. “I want it all” The Drums (from the album Jonny)

5. “Full time job” Squirrel Flower (from the album Tomorrow’s fire)

6. “Is this love” Pip Blom feat. Alex Kapranos (from the album Bobbie)

7. “The presence” Emma Anderson (from the album Pearlies)

8. “Laff it off” Pony Girl (from the album Laff it off)

9. “Undun” Trans-Canada Highwaymen (from the album Explosive hits, vol. 1)

10. “Baby blue” Sundara Karma (from the album Better luck next time)

11. “So many plans” Beirut (from the album Hadsel)

12. “Give me everything” The Polyphonic Spree (from the album Salvage enterprise)

13. “Another life” Spector (from the album Here come the early nights)

14. “Panopticom (Dark-side mix)” Peter Gabriel (from the album I/O)

15. “Ready for love” Breeze (from the album Sour grapes)

16. “Don’t say it’s over” Gaz Coombes (from the album Turn the car around)

17. “Amnesia” M83 (from the album Fantasy)

18. “XIII” Dark Horses (from the album While we were sleeping)

19. “Pontius Pilate’s home movies” The New Pornographers (from the album Continue as a guest)

20. “Pick” Fenne Lily (from the album Big picture)

21. “Everything is sweet” Sophie Ellis-Bextor (from the album Hana)

22. “Now that’s what I call obscene” The Boo Radleys (from the album Eight)

23. “I inside the old year dying” PJ Harvey (from the album I inside the old year dying)

24. “Cicciolina” Cumgirl8 (from the EP Phantasea Pharm)

25. “Coming home” Echo Ladies (from the album Lilies)

Apple initiates can click here to sample the above tracks as a whole playlist.

And as always, wherever you are in the world, I hope you continue to be well. Above all, enjoy the tunes.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the other playlists I’ve created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.