Thursday Tunes is hosted by S. Krishna’s Books, which spotlights a different band/artist each week. I’m going to join in once a month to highlight Canadian artists.

My December pick are Canadian indie rock darlings Stars. They released their first album, Nightsongs, in 2001, which started to build some buzz. But it’s Set Yourself On Fire, released in 2004, that is considered their breakout album. It’s chalked full of layered, soaring melodies that will alternately make you want to sway or tap your toes (sometimes both in the same song!). It’s the kind of music that sounds great on record, but you’re never sure will translate well to a live setting. I’ve been to two Stars shows, and both times I’ve been blown away with how great they are live. Given the chance, I would go see them again without a doubt.

Here for your listening pleasure is “Ageless Beauty”, still one of my favourites.

Thursday Tunes is hosted by S. Krishna’s Books, which spotlights a different band/artist each week. I’m hoping to use these posts as a way to highlight Canadian artists.

This week I want to talk a little bit about Ash Koley, an artist I was introduced to through work, but has easily become on of my absolute favourites this year.

Ash Koley, the band, is a collaboration between Ash Koley and Phil Deschambault. Together they write such wonderfully catchy, quirky pop songs that even someone like me, who has shied away from anything remotely pop-ish for quite a while, has no choice but to embrace them.

Ash and Phil are currently working on an album, but instead of holding the songs to themselves, they have been releasing homemade music videos (which are fantastic!) as the songs take shape. I have so many favourites that I had a hard time picking which song to share with you. In the end I decided to go with their first single, “Don’t Let Your Feet Touch Ground.”

They have many more videos up on myspace and youtube. I so highly recommend checking them out, I don’t think I can say it enough.

Check them out!

Thursday Tunes is hosted by S. Krishna’s Books, which spotlights a different band/artist each week. I was so excited when I came across this meme the other day and because I love sharing music! I know, I know, my blog is called AlitaReads. But Alita listens to music, too. Often while reading. And working. And commuting. And eating. And sometimes while sleeping.

I’m hoping to highlight Canadian artists on Thursdays so that it doesn’t overlap too much with my Soundtrack Saturdays feature. Also because there are SO MANY fantastic Canadian artists out there!

First up we have Vancouver’s own Dan Mangan. I was introduced to his singer/songwriter, folky-ish music over 2 years ago, not long after his debut album came out, Postcards and Daydreaming. The song “Journal Of A Narcoleptic” off that album is one of my most favourite songs ever and the most listened-to song on my iTunes. This past year he released his second full-length album, Nice, Nice, Very Nice, which still features Mangan’s gravelly voice but is a bit more upbeat than Postcards. The video for “Robots,” his first single off the new album, just came out, and it’s pretty fantastic.