Minty New Releases

Thieves
The Organ

The all-girl band from Vancity was one of reasons I got back into Canadian music after the terrible late 90s for which we are still paying. But the Organ changed it and their Grab That Gun is a personal fave. The band split too soon, however, but did manage to get back together to record some songs they had been working on. It's an extra treat from one of the finest bands of the last decade. Oh, I know it's the soundtrack for bedsit land but we all know what late-night loneliness feels like and The Organ put that in a groove. Think a female Smiths.

Cartography
Buttless Chaps

After 10 years of this unfortunate band moniker, it may be time to retire it. It's a misnomer. The BCs play a somewhat progressive strain of rock n roll... and the closest I can think of there is the Rheostatics but with less time changes. It's trippy and shoegazing, but still manages to find a common round with the likes of Images In Vogue or Strange Advance (through the vox of Dave Gowan). Ex-Rheo Tim Vesely (Violet Archers) actually guests. Their musical wanderings make it difficult to peg them down but suffice to say it's well worth picking up. There is a depth here that calls one back over and over. Think Blue Peter on a banjo.

Flamingo
Kellarissa

Larissa Loyva of Piano and The Choir goes solo here. With just her vox and a tip toe synthesizer, she brings you by the hand into a strange dreamworld of fleeting little things and flamingos, swirling planets and sundrops beneath a sky of clouds shapeshifting. Think Julie Doiron on piano.