The Killers are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their sophomore record Sam’s Town with some remastered vinyl and a 7″ Singles Box set.
Time is a funny thing. I remember when Sam’s Town came out back in 2006 and feeling like, “hey this isn’t more Hot Fuss!” But now Sam’s Town has become one of my favourite Killers records. “Read My Mind” and “When You Were Young” are the two singles I consistently go back to. If I am on the radio and need to slot in a Killers jam, it’ll usually be one of those two.
My love of vinyl collecting has waned with time (and maybe the economy and not having tons of extra cash to spend on wax) BUT if I were to get involved with any of these Killers reissues I’d probably be into this 7″ Singles box set.
The box set is limited edition! Not a thing I care too much about, but if you’re a collector, that could matter. I just think 7″ singles are fun. Impractical, but fun. When I do get into the beers I like “DJing” 45s. Very active way to listen to music. The box set has all the Sam’s Town era jams; “When You Were Young,” “Bones,” “Read My Mind,” “For Reasons Unknown”) with their respective original B-sides. It also includes a bonus fifth 7” with “Peace Of Mind” on the A-side and “Read My Mind” (Like Rebel Diamonds Mix) on the B-side.
Gotta get after a Friday in old Vancouver town. Trivia tonight at Train Wreck Brewing in Port Moody and a ton of Earthquakes and Crewe soccer. I’ll leave you with a link to an old interview I did with Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr back in 2009 in Victoria’s Save-On Foods Memorial Arena. Fun show, great dudes, and this blog post went moderately viral (for me) back in the day.
Heyo everybody. It’s been a minute since I’ve jumped on the old Morning After Show blog. Music blogging is something I have done for a lot of years going all the way back to the times before the word “blog” was a thing. Then blogs stopped being a thing and I slowly faded away. But I will say, I did enjoy it and I’m having a bit of a back-to-the-basics kinda moment in my life so here we are. I also like how music blogging keeps me exploring new music and also engage with my idiot email inbox which is still flooded by new music PR hype. Thank you for sending it, I ignore 99% of the emails. I don’t think that will hurt anyones feelings though because I reckon most are just AI hallucinations anyway.
Alight. new music time. Death From Above 1979 announced their 6th LP and a new song, the title track, “Private Lives.”
On the way to soccer practice with my youngest we rocked the new song then went down the DFA algorithm. I loves me some DFA as that amazing You’re a Woman, I’m A Machine record came out in 2004 when I was a baby radio DJ. We played the heck out of that album on The Zone in Victoria and I have such a warm nostalgia for it. My 9-year-old loving DFA’s music the first time he was experiencing it made for a rocking drive to the soccer pitch. Of all the songs, he wanted a repeat play of “Private Lives.” (and also loved “Little Girl”)
Little dude asked me, “what is Private Lives” about? Luckily for me, I DID read my email the other day and was able to basically recite the PR; “The song ‘Private Lives’ is a declaration of privacy in an era of overexposure. We are compelled, often by one another, to share our most intimate moments and quietest thoughts. To what end? More often than not, to be part of a cheap consumer feedback loop. Ultimately though, it’s just a ripping rock song with maniacal riffs!” the band explains. “Our new 10-song LP, Private Lives, represents a renewed commitment to the pure industrial magic of electricity. We’ve never been able to do anything halfway. Much like Kim Bodnia’s dance performance in the video for the lead single, it’s all or nothing for us.”
Death From Above 1979 will be heading out on tour again in 2027. When they roll through Vancouver in March it’ll be at The Vogue Theatre. ALL AGES. Maybe I’ll have to bring the little dude.
Death From Above 1979 2027 Tour Dates:
02/02 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee
02/04 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory San Diego
02/05 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
02/06 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory Orange County
02/09 – Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall
02/10 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
02/11 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
02/24 – Waterloo, ON @ Maxwell’s
02/25 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
02/26 – London, ON @ London Music Hall
02/27 – Ottawa, ON @ The Bronson
03/01 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Beanfield
03/02 – Quebec City, QC @ Imperial Bell
03/03 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
03/05 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
03/06 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
03/07 – Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
03/08 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
03/15 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
03/17 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
03/18 – St Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
03/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
03/20 – Winnipeg, MB @ Park Theatre
03/22 – Red Deer, AB @ Bo’s Bar & Stage
03/23 – Edmonton, AB @ Midway
03/24 – Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre
03/26 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
03/27 – Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom
03/29 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
03/31 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
I’ll leave you with a shitty iPhone picture of the last time I went to see Death From Above 1979 at the Vogue in November of 2024. it poured rain that night! Of course.
Holly Humberstone’s Paint My Bedroom Black is one of fave albums of the right now. The second cut off the record is a song called “Into Your Room.”
Humberstone released a re-recording of the track featuring MUNA. Nice spin on the song.
Humberstone said, “I’m obsessed with MUNA and have been wanting to work with them for ages. I’m so thankful that I finally get to have them bring their magic to one of my songs.”
Dig it.
Holly Humberstone will be doing her first headlining tour of North America in 2024.
05/05 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East 05/07 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club 05/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of Living Arts 05/09 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club 05/11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel 05/12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel 05/14 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall 05/16 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall 05/17 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre 05/18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café 05/20 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater 05/21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell 05/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether 05/27 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre 05/28 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos 05/29 – Vancouver, BC @ The Commodore Ballroom
Ugh, I love her so much. OK, I need to find a job to fund my rock & roll lifestyle and then I have to get into this Commodore show.
Noah Kahan as a Grammy nomination for best new artist, a date with Saturday Night Live on December 2nd, and a new duet with Gracie Abrams (also a Grammy nominated Best New Artist, neat).
Kahan has been re-releasing duets of songs from his 2022 album Stick Season. His latest teams up with Abrams who will be opening some stadium shows for Taylor Swift in 2024!
The song is called “Everywhere, Everything” and Kahan says, “Gracie puts her whole heart into every song she writes and note she sings, and I found myself completely swept into her world the first time I heard her. So incredibly excited for you all to hear her incredible take on ‘Everywhere, Everything.’”
Abrams adds, “I’m so honored that Noah asked me to join him on ‘Everywhere, Everything.’ I’m constantly in awe of the heart and sincerity behind each of his songs, and I feel crazy lucky for the opportunity to sing on one of my favorites. Noah really is the best, and I am simply a fan.”
I’m a fan too Gracie.
Kahan is having a time right now. He as recently on BBC 1 Live Lounge where he covered Olivia Rodrigo’s “lacy.”
Noah Kahan will be touring all over North America in 2024.
WE’LL ALL BE HERE FOREVER TOUR 2024 NORTH AMERICA DATES: March 2 Tempe, AZ Extra Innings Festival ~ March 26 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena – SOLD OUT March 28 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome – SOLD OUT March 29 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place – SOLD OUT March 30 Saskatoon, SK SaskTel Centre April 02 Winnipeg, MB Canada Life Centre April 06 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena – SOLD OUT April 07 London, ON Budweiser Gardens – SOLD OUT April 09 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre – SOLD OUT April 10 Quebec City, QC Videotron Centre April 13 Montreal, QC Bell Centre – SOLD OUT April 14 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena – SOLD OUT April 16 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena – SOLD OUT April 20 North Charleston, SC High Water Festival ~ May 3 Atlanta, GA Shaky Knees Festival ~ May 20 Asheville, NC ExploreAsheville.com Arena – SOLD OUT May 22 Asheville, NC ExploreAsheville.com Arena – SOLD OUT May 24 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena – SOLD OUT May 25 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena – SOLD OUT May 28 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center – SOLD OUT May 29 Burgettstown, PA The Pavilion at Star Lake – SOLD OUT June 04 St. Louis, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – SOLD OUT June 05 Kansas City, MO Azura Amphitheatre * June 07 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center June 08 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center – SOLD OUT June 11 Dallas, TX Dos Equis Pavilion June 13 Houston, TX The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – SOLD OUT June 14 Austin, TX Moody Center – SOLD OUT June 18 Chula Vista, CA North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre June 21 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl – SOLD OUT June 25 Denver, CO Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT * June 26 Denver, CO Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT * June 29 George, WA The Gorge – SOLD OUT July 01 Ridgefield, WA RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater – SOLD OUT July 03 Wheatland, CA Toyota Amphitheatre July 05 Berkeley, CA The Greek Theatre – SOLD OUT * July 06 Berkeley, CA The Greek Theatre – SOLD OUT * July 09 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT July 13 East Troy, WI Alpine Valley Music Theatre – SOLD OUT July 15 New York, NY Madison Square Garden – SOLD OUT July 16 New York, NY Madison Square Garden – SOLD OUT July 18 Boston, MA Fenway Park – SOLD OUT ^ July 19 Boston, MA Fenway Park – SOLD OUT ^ August 2 Montreal, QC Osheaga Festival ~
Ugh, I want to go to that Vancouver show so bad but SOLD OUT.
Pop star Dua Lipa was recently chatting on Australia’s Triple J about working with Kevin Parker of vibey psych rocker Tame Impala. Dua Lipa’s new single is called “Houdini” and in a previous iheartradio interview she described the sound as, “a very psychedelic throughline overall, ‘Houdini’ has so much electronic variety, but at same time it has a lot of interesting instrumentation and feels very organic as well… that’s something I really wanted to convey on the album.”
With Triple J she talked about how important the Perth, WA rocker’s sound is to her, “in terms of things that I’m obsessed with, Currents has been the soundtrack to my life. It’s one of my favorite albums ever ever ever. [It] was kind of like the gateway drug for me into Tame Impala. It completely changed my life and so it was very, very cool to be able to collaborate with him this way.”
Stafford, Vermont’s Noah Kahan is enjoying a time right now. His 2022 album, Stick Season, was re-released in 2023 as the deluxe, Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever), and has climbed back onto the billboard charts.
Today Kahan shared a collaboration with Hozier on his song “Northern Attitude.”
Kahan has listed Hozier as inspiration of his before and reflects on that in this quote from the press release, “if you know me at all, you know this collaboration is something very deeply special and important to me. I used to sit down at the table with my guitar and just try to capture a fraction of the emotion and beauty that Hozier encapsulates in each song he writes. It never quite worked, but each song was better for trying. To have one of my heroes performing this song with me is something I’ll tell my grandkids, or at least my next dog.”
Hozier shares this about his experience, “this song left an instant mark on me when I first heard it, I loved it immediately. I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know Noah more since we first sang together at Iron Blossom Festival this year, and I’m so glad we could get together on this version of his beautiful song.”
Noah Kahan has been touring relentlessly and will be crossing Canada in early 2024. Won’t make it as far as Halifax but does have an impressive amount of shows in the great white north. I have my eye of Cours eon the Vancouver show, but ticket prices…ugh, nuts! Plus my wife is a veteran of the Great Taylor Swift War, so we’re trying to figure out how to financially recover from that.
WE’LL ALL BE HERE FOREVER TOUR 2024 NORTH AMERICA DATES: Tue Mar 26 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena – SOLD OUT Thu Mar 28 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome – SOLD OUT Fri Mar 29 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place – SOLD OUT Sat Mar 30 Saskatoon, SK SaskTel Centre Tue Apr 02 Winnipeg, MB Canada Life Centre Sat Apr 06 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena – SOLD OUT Sun Apr 07 London, ON Budweiser Gardens – SOLD OUT Tue Apr 09 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre – SOLD OUT Wed Apr 10 Quebec City, QC Videotron Centre Sat Apr 13 Montreal, QC Bell Centre – SOLD OUT Sun April 14 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena – SOLD OUT Tue April 16 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
Currently on Surge 105 we’re rocking “Dial Drink.” Kahan recently shared a video of a live performance of the song from the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
The Killers have been smashing out modern rock hits for two decades now and on December 8th they’ll put a bow on it with the career spanning hits collection, Rebel Diamonds.
The Las Vegas, Nevada bands has 7 studio albums and the collection will feature at least one track from each album, the recent single “Your Side of Town,” plus the new song “Spirit.”
The press release shares a little of the “why” behind this project:
The collection is made up of songs that embody who The Killers are as a band, in addition to including some favorites of theirs that have resonated over the years – tracks like “Be Still,” from 2012’s album Battle Born or “Dying Breed” from 2020’s album Imploding The Mirage or “A Dustland Fairytale” from 2008’s Day & Age, which the band recently re-recorded and performed with Bruce Springsteen.
In the teaser video, lead singer Brandon Flowers says, “see it’s been said that what’s remembered lives and we’ve racked up stadiums full of memories the past twenty years, enough to fill lifetimes. Twenty songs for twenty years – Rebel Diamonds.”
Zach Bryan’s set titled album came out at the end of August and topped both the country and rock charts. The record features a few collaborations including this cut deeper on the record, “Spotless.” You’ll notice a familiar vocal as The Lumineers’ Wesley Schultz joins Bryan.
Zach Bryan’s 2024 Quittin Time Tour features a handful of Canadian stops.
March 17 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena March 18 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena November 17 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place November 18 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place November 20 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena
Oh I wanna go to that Vancouver show, but tickets to concerts are out of control and Zach Bryan is no different. I’ll check these dynamic prices on the day of the event to see if they come back to Earth.
Spent my weekend with the new solo album from BROCKHAMPTON leader Kevin Abstract. The album is called Blanket.
Abstract is known for hip-hop with BROCKHAMPTON but Blanket is very much an alternative record. In a press tease Abstract said, “I wanted to make, like, a Sunny Day Real Estate, Nirvana, Modest Mouse type of record, but I wanted it to hit like a rap album.”
I had to go on a drive this weekend and had the album going front-to-back, and then back again to a song called “Madonna.”
“Madonna” is a high-cost production that boasts the creative talents of Abstract’s most frequent collaborator, Romil Hemnani, and the top songwriting partners of Harry Styles, Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson. The song is a serious ear worm and knowing that some monsters in pop music were part of it is evident.
When the chorus kicks in, I have the volume cranked.
She’s better off in the club dancin’ how she wanna Do her thing, what she feel, smokin’ marijuana Spend her bands how she needs, she thinks she Madonna She thinks she Madonna, maybe she Madonna
Last Friday an interesting record came across my music listening adventures. The group was called Trans-Canada Highwaymen and the song was called “Theme From the Trans-Canada Highwaymen.” It was a silly song but I clicked on the bio because I was curious about where these guys with an amazing geographical name were from. They were vaguely familiar sounding.
Turns out the group is a Canadian “super group” featuring Sloan bassist Chris Murphy, Odds guitarist Craig Northey, former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, and The Pursuit of Happiness’s Moe Berg. They came together to record a bunch of AM rock radio staples of a by-gone era.
The boys were aiming to create a record that harkens back to the old K-Tel compilation album. And they wanted to cover all those classic Canadian Content bands that might have shown up CJCH.
The album even has an incredible title and cover, Explosive Hits Vol. 1.
On this album, you’ll hear Steven sing “Undun” (The Guess Who), “Rock Me Gently” (Andy Kim) and “(I Believe) There’s Nothing Stronger Than Our Love” (Paul Anka). You’ll hear Craig sing “Tonite is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love” (April Wine), “Make My Life a Little Bit Brighter” (Chester), “Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat” (The DeFranco Family) and “Can’t Catch Me” (Bim). You’ll hear Chris sing “Lovin’ You Ain‘t Easy” (Michel Pagliaro), “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” (The Poppy Family) and “Carry Me” (The Stampeders). You’ll hear Moe sing “Pretty Lady” (Lighthouse), “Raised on Robbery” (Joni Mitchell) and “You, Me and Mexico” (Edward Bear).
“We’d been sporadically doing shows for a couple of years and having a blast laughing at each other’s jokes and playing each other’s smash hits. The question eventually arose. ‘What should we do next?’ We knew, whatever it was, it should only include smash hits. It was Chris who said ‘how about Explosive Hits?’. We laughed …so therefore it had to happen. Covid locked us all down so the plan was hatched to each hand pick a few Canadian AM rock radio hits from the very late 60’s and early 70’s. Our AM radios had helped shape our DNA and none of us had strayed too far from our inner child. Our arrested development was going to make this easy. We’d record our parts remotely and they would be aggregated and mixed in the Odds North Vancouver studio. Out of the blue Steven surprised us all with a new song that described our origin story — ‘Theme from TransCanada Highwaymen’. It was obviously an Explosive Hit so we had to throw it on our growing bonfire of Canadian rock heaters. So…four Canadian musical mavens from the 80’s and 90’s sing the Canadian songs of the 60’s and 70’s. Makes total sense. As Moe says, “Don’t think too much about it. Act now”.
OK, yes the band sounds a lot like your Dad and his friends’ cover band that plays a show or two at the local pub or farmer’s market. Let’s leave you with a slice of Haligonian nostalgia. Trans-Canada Highwaymen covering April Wine.
