Fresh Tracks: Scenic Route to Alaska, Larch Gold, Brett Kissel, Martin Kerr

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Scenic Route to Alaska: Lasts Forever

Edmonton’s Scenic Route to Alaska is known for its indie-rock sound, catchy harmonies and barbed ear-worms. For its seventh album, the trio has matured but maintains its scrappy brand of rock. The group, Trevor Mann, Shea Connor, and Murray Wood, decided to self-produce Lasts Forever, recording it at Studio Bell in Calgary. Vocals from Mann were recorded in Wood’s basement, which also serves as the band’s rehearsal space. The resulting album is the sturdiest, liveliest collection of tracks the band has ever put out.

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Themes of loss and nostalgia loom heavily over Lasts Forever. “Streetlights always burn out when I’m walking underneath/Maybe that’s just your funny way of saying hi to me” is the first lyric listeners hear in album opener Call It A Coincidence. The band lurches into a slowburn rocker, paying a mournful tribute to someone’s aching absence. The funeral atmosphere is interrupted by jubilant rocker, Lasts Forever, which has the Mann singing about “betting the farm” and “putting your heart on the line.”  An album highlight comes early in Stardust. A driving rocker propelled by chugging guitar and bass while held steady by a sturdy backbeat, the song soars and begs to be jammed on in a live setting. Equal album standout, Complicated, returns to the wistfulness theme through the catchy chorus: “We both grew up in the ’90s baby/All those rom-coms, they were so misleading.”

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The album is rife with live-from-the-floor sonic personality, such as how the band’s vocals harmonize with the guitar lick on Need Some Sun to the live-wire instrumentation on the ballad Here Goes Northing and the saxophone solo on NYE.

Lasts Forever is a cohesive listen; a testament to the band’s maturity as songwriters. Listen to it on all major stream platforms. Scenic Route to Alaska is performing at the Starlite Room May 10 with support from Kaeley Jade and Dylan Ella.

Larch Gold: Ugly City

Dan Sabo’s Larch Gold project has returned with a new EP, Ugly City. Joined by Jordan Jeschke on bass and Matt Tonn on drums, Sabo’s indie-rock sound rides a hefty groove on these four tracks.

Breaking off from his previous works’ lighter-weight material, the EP starts with the scene-setting What’s My Excuse This Time. Bubbling over with frustration and a sense of never being satisfied, Sabo sings deflatedly, asking “What’s the use? What’s my excuse this time?” Pensive electric guitar is entangled with Wurlitzer and shuffling drums, giving the EP a looser vibe.

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Next song, You Don’t Even Know This, is built over a skeleton piano track, giving off Spoon vibes. Title track Ugly City features Sabo calling out grey walls, bland birds and obscured art (hey, who ya callin’ ugly?). Light touches of organ and guitar soon erupt into a ’70s rock eruption. The EP ends with the light, funky Coal Town, striking a sunny chaser to the self-critiquing heaviness of the preceding tracks.

Listen to Ugly City on your favourite streaming service. Larch Gold will be performing songs from Ugly City at Soho May 9 on a bill that also includes T. Buckley and Rosina Cova.

Quick hits

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Arguably Edmonton’s most controversial anthem singer, Brett Kissel has a new single, Let Your Horses Run. A driving, uplifting contemporary country track, Let Your Horses Run leaves no room for self-doubt.

“It’s really an advice song for anyone ready to take on the next big leap in their life, explaining that you can be a force of nature if you want to be, and you can be unstoppable if you put your mind to something that inspires,” says Kissel in a press release.

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ASKO is the new project from nêhiyawak drummer Marek Tyler. Mixing percussion with electronic sounds, ASKO presents a unique sound while incorporating elements of powwow dancing. Tyler says his new song, nikâwîs, “is for the aunties and nieces and their courage to dance, to be seen, be okimâw (the boss).” ASKO’s debut album is set for Sept. 9.

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Fresh off a mini Canada tour, Edmonton’s Martin Kerr has given us another taste of his upcoming EP in the form of An Old Prayer. “It’s abstract, with imagery of broken dreams and empty promises that make up so much of modern life and late-stage capitalism. We’ve been chasing mirages of material happiness, and now that we’ve found they weren’t real, we’re ‘trying to relive every memory,” Kerr says in a press release. The accompanying EP After the Apocalypse is due out June 28.

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