Will Currie and the Country French Announce Sophomore LP, Premiere New Single

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Sarah Murphy

Waterloo, ON-based indie rock troupe Will Currie and the Country French released their debut LP Awake, You Sleepers back in 2011 and the four-piece is finally ready to follow it up with another full-length.

Titled They Killed Us, the sophomore effort will arrive on June 9 via File Under: Music.

The record was produced by Will Currie and Sam Hillifer in the group's hometown, and is described in a press release as "an unabashedly autobiographical account of the band's quiet years," since releasing their debut four years ago.

The songs were inspired by Leonard Bernstein, childhood memories, and the ups and downs of everyday life, and are highly narrative pieces — telling tales of politicians, friendships, gang war, rival lighthouse keepers and a singing cowboy. Though, as the title implies, things don't end particularly well for anyone.

In conjunction with the album announcement, the band have shared a mini-doc about the record, featuring appearances from Jay Ferguson of Sloan, Graham Wright of Tokyo Police Club and the guys from ASAP Science.

Additionally, the band have offered up the lead single from They've Killed Us and Exclaim! has got the exclusive premiere. "No, Nothing" opens as a piano-driven ballad, with additional instrumentation weaving its way in, until it eventually explodes into a lush, loud and dramatic orchestral pop number.

--taken from: Exclaim!

Elephant Stone "Motherless Child (Love's Not War)" (Jay Ferguson remix)

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Josiah Hughes

Montreal psych rock unit Elephant Stone released their Three Poisons LP last year, and they're gearing up to revisit the material with a new remix record called ES3PRMX. Today (April 8) we get an idea of what the release will sound like with an outtake.

The track is a remix of "Motherless Child (Love's Not War)" by Sloan's Jay Ferguson. Elephant Stone's Rishi Dhir explained why they reached out to Ferguson in a statement to Exclaim!, saying:

Back in '91, Sloan was our (Canada's) answer to Nirvana. They shared the same knack for a pop hook as Nirvana, but shoegazed more than grunged. In their pixieish guitarist, Jay Ferguson, I saw a kindred spirit: I sensed we both shared a love for the Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds, and Big Star — the "4 B's" as I like to call them. We've met a few times over the many years since my old band supported Sloan in Toronto back in 2003 (I distinctly remember a teenage Asian kid screaming "Rock on, Milhouse!" at me during our opening set. I was none too pleased and told I'll like to have few words with him post-set... but I digress). So, when this remix album came up, I thought it would be great to get a more pop-than-psych take on one of our tracks. It was difficult to sequence this song with the rest of the album, so I figured it would be cool to release it as an outtake.

Listen to Jay Ferguson's take on "Motherless Child (Love's Not War)" below.

ES3PRMX will arrive on June 2 and will also include contributions from the Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe, the Horrors' Tom Furse, the Black Angels' Alex Maas, the Dandy Warhols' Peter Holmström and others. The release can be pre-ordered here on iTunes, and cassette version will be released by Burger Records.

--taken from: Exclaim!