Sister, Sister

MOZART’S SISTER

Mozart’s Sister (Montreal-based musician and producer Caila Thompson-Hannant) just recently wrapped up their tour with Diana. Mozart’s Sister’s sophomore album Field of Love will be out February 17th on Arbutus Records.

Field of Love began life in 2015, and was inspired by Cailia’s childhood love of ‘90s dance pop: “I wrote Field of Love at a point when I truly did feel I was floating in a field of love. Once I got going the songwriting process happened very easily. As the songs came I realized: oh I really like these. There was a naivety to them and I felt like I could really cut loose when writing”.

She also recently announced her first set of shows for 2017 with Teen Daze.

Tour dates:

THE SILVER LAKE CHORUS

The Silver Lake Chorus recently uploaded their video for their cover of Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Sister Winter’. Watch it on youtube.com.

The large group features Anthony Starble (Tenor), Ben Fordham (Bass), Bobby Halvorson (Tenor), Ed Kiniry-ostro (Tenor), Erin Rye (Alto), Heather Ogilvy (Soprano), Jen Daking (Soprano), Jett Kwong Kelly (Soprano), KC Daugirdas (Tenor), Kel Pritchard (Soprano), Kevin Kim (Bass), Lijah Barasz (Alto), Mikey Wells (Choral Director), Miles Hartfelder (Tenor), Nikki Olivia Black (Alto), Rita Soultanian (Soprano), Sam Breslin (Bass), Sarah Etemadi (Alto), Simone Longoria (Soprano), Taylor Heisley-Cook (Alto), and Victor Mazzone (Bass).

Last year (2015), the Silver Lake Chorus released their self-titled debut album on Six Degrees Records.

SISTER SPECIES

Minneapolis’ Sister Species recently released their first-ever music video called ‘Star’, watch it on youtube.com.
The song is taken from their album Closer Now, which came out June of 2016.

The female-fronted 7-piece orchestral pop band includes sisters Abby and Emily: Abby Kastrul (Vocals, Guitar), Emily Kastrul (Vocals, Accordion, Piano), Jake Baldwin (Trumpet), Lars Johnson (Drums), Noah Ophoven-Baldwin (Trumpet), Ryan Hays (Double Bass) and Sten Johnson (Trumpet).

The group (along with Flora Fauna & Pat Keen) will be playing at the Aster Café in Minneapolis this Friday, January 13.

SISTER HELEN

Brooklyn-based prog-punk band Sister Helen started their year off with the release of their latest single ‘The Blending of Blue and Green’…. despite breaking up as a band in 2017. Their self-titled farewell album comes out January 13th, 2017, and their last ever show is taking place tomorrow (January 9th) at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn, New York.

Eva Lawitts (bass/vox) describes the album as “a concept album about friendship and helplessness. There’s no specific narrative, but every song examines the underlying themes from a different angle. There are two perspectives, that of the ‘Friend’ (who pleads throughout the album ‘please help me’) and that of the ‘Finest Mind’ (who cries back ‘I’m so sorry I can’t help you’). These two characters sing to and about each other, trying to make sense of their relationship but are simultaneously being ruled by overwhelming doubt, narcissism and impotence.”

The Wizard Of Oz-inspired video called ‘Tin Man’ from Irish electro-folk group Saint Sister recently came out on vinyl via Communion Singles Club (for the month of December). The actual song was inspired by John Donne’s poem The Sun Rising.

Saint Sister formed in 2014 by Morgan MacIntyre and Gemma Doherty. The duo released their debut Madrid EP last year, and received radio support from Phil Taggart and Huw Stephens (Radio 1), as well as all the blogs, including Clash and The Line Of Best Fit.

Following two sold out headline shows in Dublin, expect the girls to do more live shows this year. The ‘Tin Man’ 7” is out now on Communion’s Singles Club.

Did you know that La Luz’s Lena Simon is the sister of Sarah Simon from Magic Magic Roses? Sarah, along with Kate Sweeney formed Magic Magic Roses in 2008 and released The Living Room in 2010. Sam Berman joined the band in 2011.

Recently Magic Magic Roses released a track called ‘Dusk’, the title track from their third album on Seattle’s Plume Records.

The San Francisco band wrote, “Many millions of thank you’s to everyone who helped us get this done. Everyone who donated and pre-ordered…you are incredible and we love you! Come celebrate with us at our album release party at Small Works on December 10th. Also big thank you’s to Plume Records for putting this thing out there, Lena Simon for her brilliant production, Johnny Goss at Dandelion Gold Studio for recording/mixing, Adam Straney at BreakPoint Mastering, and our incredible musicians Sam Berman, Damon Scott Bennett, Morgan Henderson, and Bill Patton. And finally, thank you to Rachel Kaye for making our beautiful cover drawing and Andrew Paynter for taking the photo that inspired it. We are feeling so very lucky today.”

New York Times called Cass McCombs “one of the greatest songwriters of our time”, recently released his eight studio album Mangy Love. His new single and music video is taken from the album and is called ‘Run Sister Run’. ‘Run Sister Run’ was directed by Rachael Pony Cassells and made in collaboration with young Indigenous leader, activist and athlete Tracie Léost and her family.

Cass McCombs Tour Dates:

Sister Polygon Records (not to be confused with British label Polygon Records) is releasing Priests’ Nothing Feels Natural on January 27th.

Priests is also doing an extensive tour in 2017 in support of the new record. See dates below: