
News
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News *
Premieres, live reviews, and other information you need to stay up to date with the Canadian music scene.
We premiere the first single, called “Difference Vs. Change” from POP POP VERNAC’s upcoming EP, A Sense of Human.
We premiere the video for “A Perfect Pair” from Toronto’s Fortunato Durutti Marinetti, the latest single from his July 25th LP Bitter Sweet, Sweet Bitter, due out on July 25th via We Are Time.
We premiere “When Things Go And Set You Back” from pseudo-antigone, and share news of their just announced fourth record Melancholic Melodrama, coming out on August 15th.
Pick of the Week
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Pick of the Week *
Full reviews of the best new Canadian releases. Each week we give you a break down of multiple albums we think you need to hear and support.
Now we are given a bit of a different take on Quinton Barnes’ creativity with the release of Black Noise only a few months after CODE NOIR was released. Both conceptually and in execution, this new album is a thoughtful interrogation into noise, improv, and experimental sound composition which started out of a casual 2022 tweet that he tossed into the aether: “‘I want to work with noise/improv musicians in some capacity … not sure how yet but the idea is there’.”
Simone Atenea Medina Polo reviews the latest record from Toronto’s Eliza Niemi: Progress Bakery is an incredible sophomore album that shows off the breadth of what Eliza Niemi can do.
With this record, SENTRIES steps out of the bedroom and onto the stage—but it doesn’t feel like a departure. Instead, it feels like a natural expansion: same ghost, louder haunt.
The question was left hanging at the end of the former trilogy: what would a new Backxwash release look like after that set of releases? The answer that the album offers is a reconstruction of Backxwash sound prior to God Has Nothing To Do With This informed by the accomplishments of the last decade of her musical career.
The Loss is an exercise in catharsis, but its fury is tempered at all times by grief, by uncertainty.
III at ease features much of what there is to love about this band, and it might be an excellent jumping off point for new listeners who might eventually work their way back through their releases to grasp the breadth of what Preoccupations can do.
Live aux Foufounes is not derivative or tired or formulaic. It’s fresh and alive and pulsating. The music still contains some of the straight-time fury of punk, with bombastic, short songs played fast and loud. But they are also played really, really well.
As underscored by its title, Jimmie is the first release under the real name of Jimmie Kilpatrick, who has long performed as Shotgun Jimmie. It sees Kilpatrick incorporating experimental recording methodologies while delivering more of the ever-catchy hooks and clever, empathic lyrics he’s known for.
Men I Trust has released two excellent records when measured in their own terms. Both of these albums show off two aspects of how this band approaches composition and songwriting, and it is really up to the listener to discern which of these approaches appeals best to their aesthetic sensibilities.
Rare are the records where a whole community went into making them, rarer even are artists who they go lengths to honour that work and influence behind-the-scenes. In Relation by Cassia Hardy is one such record, stemming from a devoted songwriter who invests all of herself to making explicit what this all means by way of sticking to her ethical and political commitments.
Chinese Medicine contains multitudes on The Trans Agenda. It is both a collection of stories and a statement of a band on the rise that leaves no doubt that they are one of the most vital punk bands active today.
Explosive post-hardcore energy from the very first second, the mathematical synchronization, pounding bass, fuzzy yet focused guitar, and complicated drumwork, Water Margin’s Gleaming Cursed has all this, and more.
Quick Picks
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Quick Picks *
Curated and written by Jeff MacCallum, the Quick Picks section is updated every Friday with up & coming or lesser known acts, as well as singles or small EPs by Canadian favourites.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Mikail Kayani steps in to deliver this week’s edition of the Quick Picks column.
Our Sled Island preview continues: Jeff MacCallum talks about four releases from bands playing in Calgary from June 17th-22nd.
Our Sled Island preview continues: JD Ormond talks about four releases from bands playing in Calgary from June 17th-22nd.
On this special edition of the Quick Picks column, Jeff MacCallum covers four releases from acts playing at this years Sled Island Music Festival.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Jeff MacCallum delivers four new Quick Picks.
Features
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Features *
Lists, written interviews, live reviews, and opinion pieces that are all centred around… you guessed it… Canadian music!
With its singularly charged atmosphere, its wide-armed inclusiveness, and its relentless celebration of creativity, Sled Island served up a well-needed reminder that life truly is beautiful and these shared moments of cultural and human experience are worth opening myself to, despite any of the other stuff that might cloud my mind. Thank you Sled. My heart is full and my ears are happy and I feel at home again in my city.
The Cups N Cakes team does their round-up of the best releases of 2025 so far.
Our writers go through some acts they’re looking forward to seeing at Sled Island 2025.
It’s time for a Spring check-in: Cups N Cakes volunteers chime in on which releases they’re looking forward to in the Summer of 2025.
It’s time! It’s the Cups N Cakes Network’s annual round up of the releases we’re most excited for in 2025. A few of our writers took up the task, and are excited to dish on albums, both confirmed and not, that we’re looking forward to in 2025.
In our last piece before the end of the year, Sean Davis Newton tells us about a few of his top picks from 2024.
For our penultimate Best Of article, Cups N Cakes founder and the current maestro of our Quick Picks column Jeff MacCallum runs through his year in music.
Chris Lammiman and Ava Glendinning talk about some of their favourite releases from 2024.
Cups N Cakes volunteer Clay Geddert takes the reins today to tell us about some of us his top picks from 2024.
For 2024, the Cups N Cakes Network is approaching our year-end lists a little differently: we’ve asked some of our volunteers to tell us a bit about their favourite releases this year. Today, we kick things off with longtime Cups N Cakes volunteer Harman Burns’ Best of 2024.
This album feels human and vulnerable. It is bleepy and bloopy. It sounds like a record made by two people who really like each other. Two people who are setting the other up for success.