“Even Rats Can Feel The Sun,”Aaron Read’s newest album, balances the playful lines between soft lyrics, and sun-styled guitar rifts. Built from the place where pop meets unique, ”Even Rats Can Feel The Sun” comes together as gently as the tide washing driftwood away. The entire album feels like a late night walk on a sandy beach – relaxed, warm, yet still a little adventurous.
Aaron Read’s music is as cautious of its listeners as it is of its self. It washes in, pulls you out, and carries to back to shore. While Read explores the limits of his electric guitar, his quirkiness is undeniable. ”Even Rats Can Feel The Sun” is an ode to the ease and beauty of summer. Wander out with Read and you are sure to be taken care of.
The title’s irony is obvious – clearly such innocuous-looking brothers such as the Johnsons merit an innocuous sounding record, right? Wrong. Shahman’s “Sounds That Look Like Us” is crushing, devastating, and best of all, unpredictable. It’s the soundtrack to a dark, empty room: you’ll never know what lurks within until it’s too late. Take, for example, “Like An Old Friend”, which features whispered, ethereal vocals, tempered with subtle, sparse drumwork — that is, until the track explodes into fiery screams, howling guitars, and relentless noise. All in two minutes. The last words of the album — and a perfect conclusion — are “background white noise fodder for your dreams”. Close your eyes, delve in, and explore.
“I’m no longer young, with eyes open wide,” Doug Hoyer sings on “The One For Me,” off his newest LP “To Be A River”. Doug has been called a lot of things throughout his career: storyteller, troubadour, pop purveyor. But older? Wiser? Reflective? Contemplative? … Doug?
The Cameron Brothers, Scott and Braden, are well traveled. As youths they gusted about rural and urban Ontario, never settling for long. Where families are uprooted, transplanted so frequently into new soils, you find the strongest bonds. Now residents of Toronto, their album features an envious dramatis personae, consisting of some of the strongest characters in the city’s rising folk scene. Notable are vocal harmonies by Kirty and 
