#Michael Feuerstack

[dustedmagazine]

Michael Feuerstack — Eternity Mongers (Forward Music Group)

Photo by Anneke Hymen

Michael Feuerstack’s songs have a warm, burnished glow. His music sticks to the time-tested accoutrements of indie pop—acoustic guitars, shuffling drums, thready little melodies bolstered by lush female harmonies, occasional bursts of saxophone—but infuses them with depth and resonance. The words are simple but cleverly arranged, a workingman’s poetry delivered in a weathered tenor, but slyly subverting expectations. The best comparison, maybe, is David Bazan, whose songs feel plainly made and straightforward but reveal sharp insight and, sometimes, hidden cosmologies.

Feuerstack was one of two singer-songwriter-guitarists in Wooden Stars (along with Julien Beillard), a quirky, sometimes even mathy Montrealean indie pop band best known for its work with Julie Doiron. This solo record runs far more placidly, at least on the surface, than the Wooden Stars’ debut, The Very Same, though there are pockets of eccentricity even within these well-polished grooves.  You just have to look for them.

Indeed, Eternity Mongers’ best trick is lulling you into thinking you’re hearing garden variety indie pop, then pulling you up short. “You’re Mind’s Made Up,” an early single, proceeds with the easiest kind of flow, winding down warm currents of sax and massed vocals like an inner tube-ist on the first hot day. And yet, even here, amid the gentle contours of a song about spring coming and love ending, some existential posers rear their heads. “Am I getting through to you/If I pretend you’re someone else?” asks Feuerstack, and all of the sudden things don’t seem as clear and easy as before.

“Big Sails” likewise slouches deep in the pocket, its verse propped up by the bump of bass, the vibrato trill of organ but just barely; it seems always on the verge of drifting off into a nap. But listen to the way the guitar solo cuts right through it, or how the chorus opens up into an epic resolution. “I’ve got no particular place to go/Floating points in the distance glow/my passage is uneventful/I want to go where the big sails go,” and abruptly the song is no longer about staring off at the ocean, but instead about life and purpose and mortality.

The arrangements are integral to the way these songs pop, with Feuerstack himself singing, playing guitar and synths and occasionally weaving in some pedal steel. His core band—Michael Belyea on kit and other percussion, Kyle Cunjak playing bass and organ—grounds these melodies in an unhurried, unshowy well, while not one but two woodwind-ists blow in on saxophone, flute and clarinet.

Yet even so, the songs feel spare and unfettered, as on “Disenchanted” where the thump of drums, the nod of bass, the eerie flare of organ enhance, rather than dilute, an essential stillness. “You try to get a leg up, mind your inner child�� sings Feuerstack, as a woman’s voice wafts up and around him. “You punch the clock and do your time/but the corridor goes on for miles.” It sounds exhausting, dispiriting, discouraging, but the song lifts up into transcendence and it’s hardly sad at all.

Jennifer Kelly

[schroettner]

song of the day: “no such thing” by michael feuerstack. file under: folk rock, indie rock. this song is so good!

[jacobwren]

Eternity Mongers by Michael Feuerstack

[daggerzine]

Michael Feuerstack- “No Such Thing” single (Forward Music Group)

A pal sent me this song and I hadn’t heard of this Canadian gent before; but looking at his Bandcamp page, he’s got plenty of stuff out dating back a little over a decade ago so I was asleep at the wheel.

This song is from a forthcoming album, Eternity Mongers, which is out this Friday (April 19th). This song sounds like a good bit of slacker rock that’s catchy as hell and with lots of stuff going on (he and his band play it all including adding flute, sax, clarinet organ, and more plus cool backing vocals). The chorus goes something like this- “They used to call it growing up…but now we know there’s no such thing…..”

It also reminds me a little of the current crop of loopy, fun Aussie bands out there doing this kind of oddball pop.

I like it and will be looking for this full-length (you will too).

www.michaelfeuerstack.bandcamp.com

[lucloulou1963]

Will Samson - Flow, the Moon feat. Michael Feuerstack [OFFICIAL AUDIO]

[independentartistbuzz]

HILOTRONS Debuts Epic Release “Lonely Cinema (Omission of Sin)”

Mike Dubue has released music under the name HILOTRONS since 2001, in addition to producing and recording for other artists including The Sadies, Ian Tamblyn, and Timber Timbre – which he also plays keyboards and tours with. 

Inspired by film scores of the 1960's and 1970's, “Lonely Cinema (Omission of Sin)” is a 19 minute fantasia composed of four movements with the third movement as a separate song cycle in two parts. 

This piece of music is the fourth addition in a series, following Lonely Cinema I & II and the EP Suicide Kingdom, that HILOTRONS released in 2020 and 2021. Twangy surf guitars and an orchestra of synthesizers weave together ever-changing complex arrangements and soundscapes built on funk and rock rhythms that serve up ethereal melodies and sudden bursts of noise. 

Composed, arranged, produced, performed, recorded and mixed at his studio (Studio Cimetière) in a 167 year old church in Quyon, QC, Canada, Michael Dubue creates a soundtrack that takes the listener on an anxious and unpredictable ride, only to arrive in the rain where gloomy characters emerge and an operetta begins. 

“Lonely Cinema (Omission of Sin)” features crooner, musician, songwriter, producer and actor Geoffrey Pye (Yellow Jacket Avenger), who also wrote the lyrics and vocals in the song cycle, as well as musicians Mike Feuerstack (Bell Orchestre) on pedal steel and Olivier Fairfield (FET.NAT, Last Ex) on drums.

Listen in here:

https://linktr.ee/Hilotrons

https://hilotrons.bandcamp.com/track/lonely-cinema-omission-of-sin

[resistance765]

“Flow, The Moon” - Will Samson feat. Michael Feuerstack

[lucyhenleyon8tracks]

Check out my playlist on @8tracks: Traversing Realms by lucyhenley.

“I'm waiting for the stars to pop through the black above, waiting for the future to wash over me like so many salty waves - some as turbulent as my thoughts and some as velvety as a good kiss.” ― Matthew Quick, Every Exquisite Thing

cover: art by Tordis Kayma, shop at Society 6: https://society6.com/tekay

[burlveneer-music]

Bell Orchestre - House Music - sextet with an unusual lineup; a horn section of trumpet, trombone, & French horn; pedal steel guitar; violin; gongoma; electronics & more (Erased Tapes)

Erased Tapes announce Bell Orchestre’s House Music — an immersive ecosystem of an album to be released on March 19, and the first full-length work released by the acclaimed Montreal-based outfit in over a decade. House Music unfolds as one long piece, a recorded-then-sculpted improvisation that vastly expands their work, coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation in the creation of genre-defying musical worlds. In the album’s liner notes, the group recalls countless moments when, in kinetic moments of improvisation, “a nuanced piece of music would emerge organically, completely formed, without any plan or discussion or rational thought” — and then be lost because it wasn’t recorded. In conceiving a new album, they decided to celebrate the spontaneous and accidental, to centrally situate the act of collaborative, democratic creation in their finished work. With the legacies of improvisation-exploring greats like Talk Talk, The Orb, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and the late Ennio Morricone in mind, on House Music, Bell Orchestre captures the impulsive, connective, mysterious poetics of musical invention happening in real-time. With help from engineer Hans Bernhard, the band wired every corner of Sarah Neufeld’s (Violin, vocals) multi-story rural Vermont house. She and the mini orchestra’s other five members — Pietro Amato: French horn, keyboards, electronics; Michael Feuerstack: Pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals; Kaveh Nabatian: Trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals; Richard Reed Parry: Bass, vocals; and Stefan Schneider: Drums — assigned themselves to different rooms. They spent two weeks together in camaraderie, creation, and focused isolation to record their improvised sessions every day, but ultimately structured a 45-minute album out of a one hour-and-a-half long improvisation.  

[findasongblog]

More album releases by Find A Song artists!

Vancouver Sleep Clinic - Onwards to Zion

Vancouver Sleep Clinic released his debut project to critical acclaim in 2014 when he was just seventeen years-old. Now--following years of major label purgatory and a concerted effort on Bettinson’s part to reclaim his music for himself--Vancouver Sleep Clinic releasef its transcendent sophomore album, Onwards to Zion, written during a period of isolation in Bali with his friends in the fall of 2018. In a purposeful departure from his forays into electronically driven song construction, Bettinson wrote much of the album on a $100 nylon guitar bought at one of Bali’s only music stores. “I’d started getting used to making three-and-half-minute songs with a beat and a hook—but the thing is that I don’t really come from making beats,” he says. “I used to busk: that’s where I came from. The whole direction of this album changed for me once I realized I wanted to put the focus back on guitar again.”

Despite the relative simplicity of its origins, Onwards to Zion bears a distinctly collagic sonic palette, encompassing everything from ethereal atmospherics to psychedelic synth tones to hazy samples of ’60s jazz-pop records. Not only a return to the self-reliance of Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s early material, Onwards to Zion also marks a deliberate tonal shift from his multi-part project Therapy 1 and Therapy 2 in 2018 “The Therapy songs mostly came from a place of frustration—just me complaining about the situation I was in back then,” says Bettinson. “When I sat down to think about the new album, I realized I don’t want my discography to reflect bitterness: I want to put something positive into the world. So even though it’s got some darkness, and it’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times, the album is very much coming from a place of love. I’d love for it to leave people feeling re-energized, and ready to just keep pressing on in their own lives.” (press release)

Dylan Perkons- The Healing Day

A collection of richly orchestral songs that tell the story of an experienced songwriter finally stepping out to record under his own name.  Perkons has spent his career working on various projects, honing his craft both on the road and in the studio, so while The Healing Day is his first solo outing, it represents a much longer journey.

Perkons knew early on he wanted to work with producer, Jonas Bonnetta of Ontario folk-outfit Evening Hymns, and had the privilege of recording at his secluded Port William Sound in Mountain Grove, ON. The woods were the perfect backdrop for an album that required, above all else, space.  While the album was largely performed by Perkons and Bonnetta, The Healing Day also features a handful of Canadian indie mainstays like Michael Feuerstack (Snailhouse,The Luyas), Pietro Amato (The Luyas), Edwin Huizinga (The Wooden Sky), and Lisa Conway (L CON).  

The album draws influence from Canadian folk songwriters that have come before him and while Perkons’ familiarity is comforting, he uses it as the foundation for his atmospheric indie-pop. The opening instrumental track feels like dawn, bringing listeners immediately into the woods before Perkons’ deep baritone breaks in, beginning the album’s tellings of imperfect, but meaningful, love. The songs move through relatable despair, knowing sometimes love must be set free in order to grow.  There are also moments of reprieve where it is easy to imagine an audience singing along to the chorus in “Love Like Mine”. The album finishes with “Halfway to Winnipeg” where Perkons cultivates hope in the midst of self-deprecating sincerity.

The Healing Day is best described as layered. These are earnest, well-crafted songs, brimming with strings, french horn, electric piano and a plethora of synthesizers, creating a distinctive universe for the listener, one they will want to visit over and over again. (press release)

Foreign Television - Foreign Television

Foreign Television is the solo project of Francis Allen, a musician from Wales, UK, currently based in Moscow, Russia. This is the new, self-titled album, which will be released on October 21st, 2019. All songs are written and recorded between 2016 and 2019 by Francis Allen. Bands that have Influenced Foreign Television's sound include: Teenage Fanclub, Red House Painters, Radiohead, Mew, American Football, and The Smashing Pumpkins. The first Foreign Television album, 'Youthless', came out in 2013. The project was started in 2011, having released 4 instrumental albums as 'Snowmobile' between 2007 and 2011. The most noticeable difference between the two projects was the introduction of vocals and a new style of songwriting. A song off 'Youthless' (Olympic Christie) is going to be featured on 'Waking', a game coming out on Xbox in the next couple of months. (press release)

Portland - Your Colours Will Stain

Portland is the creative brainchild of musician and songwriter Jente Pironet. Sometime during the misty autumn of 2015, Jente collected a huge amount of song material, without a specific end purpose. Over the years, the songs were refreshed, adapted, rewritten and eventually gathered together and poured into a new creative receptacle by the name of Portland, a nod to the home of the late Elliot Smith.

After a short period of experimentation, Portland gradually began to patent a dreamy and melancholic pop sound. The lyrics are loaded with melancholy and nostalgia and the song structures are very recognisable and apt.

While Jente was completing his studies as a singer and songwriter at the PXL Music college in Hasselt, first-year student Sarah Pepels wandered down those same corridors one fateful day. The two shared the same student house but more importantly they shared the same interests and ideas about music. The ‘musical soulmates’ found each other and Portland soon became a duo. The song material was revisited and it quickly became clear that Jente and Sarah’s voices were a wonderful match. Along with Gill Princen on electronics and Arno De Bock on drums, Portland continued the search for their own sound.

The group had big ambitions from the start and set the bar high. They took part in Humo’s Rock Rally in 2016 and two years later they signed up for De Nieuwe Lichting. This Belgian radio competition run by Studio Brussels allowed the band to take a big step forward. They were crowned one of the three winners and the debut single ‘Pouring Rain’ became an unexpected success on streaming platforms. The next records ‘Lucky Clover’ and ‘Expectations’ showed that Portland meant business. The songs are all rich in dynamics and melody, while Jente and Sarah’s harmonious voices really strike a chord. A club tour sold out quickly and, in the summer of 2019, Portland was able to cross both Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop off their bucket list.  

Over the rest of the summer, the band worked on their debut album with producer David Poltrock (MIA 2019 for Best Musician). While yet another heatwave raged outside, sweat was literally dripping from the walls in Poltrock Palladium (Poltrock’s own studio in Brussels) and in the DAFT studio in Malmedy too. More than 100 songs and separate ideas were carefully weighed up. There was plenty of experimentation with rhythms, types of sound and structure as some songs were split up and then put together again.

'Your Colours Will Stain’, Portland's debut album, brings together 11 tunes that demonstrate perfectly who Portland is. From stylishly arranged and dreamy indie rock (‘Lady Moon’, ‘Ally Ally’) to funky, danceable electropop (‘You Misread Me’) to pure piano ballads (‘Pearls’). From grand and epic (‘Expectations’) to shamelessly poppy (the irresistible ‘Killer’s Mind’) to fragile and intimate (‘Moonlit’). And sometimes all at once (the overwhelming ‘Deadlines’). But in every song there's these two voices, two incredible voices that pull on all the heartstrings. With ‘Your Colours Will Stain’ Portland has created a mature and confident album, one that ticks all the boxes and shows a band that's ready for the bigger stages. (press release)

Manic Carbon - The Sun Is Gone & The Moon’s Off Too

Manic Carbon is a band risen from the ashes of yesterday's internet. Its members, spread between four cities and two continents, met on a long-dead music forum in the mid-2000's. Today, they make music by sending tracks back and forth, building and improvising on each other's ideas. "The Sun Is Gone & The Moon's Off Too," the band's debut album, is a nostalgic journey that descends from the slick, brooding opener "Enter the Dreamhouse," to the sunshine pop of lead single "The Reset Era," and the sublime cloud rap of "Gimme the Dream Touch" and "Talker." The record grows darker as it progresses, ending with the fearsome and haunting "Palindrome," where vocalist Moral Reef raps from a place of nightmare. The album is sure to please fans of Superorganism, Animal Collective, Toro Y Moi, and Brockhampton. (press release)

[robdicksonmusic]

Hey everyone, today is Bandcamp Friday, and my new full length album ‘Portraits’ is available now for pre-order!🤠 The first single ‘Aaron and Rae’ was released today! I’m really proud of this song. Let me know what you think. xo The album was produced by the beloved and talented James Bunton and includes contributions from many of my good friends and heroes including Ansley Simpson (@ansleysmusic), Bryan Webb, Mika Posen (@merganzermusic), Nic Hyatt (@nicohyattphoto), Micah Smith (@mrfranklin5), Drew Jurecka (@drewjurecka) and Michael Feuerstack (@m_feuerstack). The beautiful artwork was made by my friend Nico Paulo (@nnicopaulo). Recording this album was challenging due to COVID, however because of how in-depth the writing process and pre-production was with James via correspondence, the sessions in person were really relaxed and quite cathartic. It felt like a gift to be able to commit a whole week to recording with James in January 2021. A fair amount of accompaniment was added afterwards remotely but having the time together as core collaborators was really intimate and special. More to come soon. Thank you for listening. ❤️ #album #newsong #bandcampfriday https://www.instagram.com/p/CdOFfUdr2M5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dustedmagazine]

Julie Doiron — I Thought of You (You’ve Changed)

Photo by Matt Williams

I Thought Of You by Julie Doiron

“Yes I was living in this darkness, it called me out by name, and it told me all of the things I wanted it to say,” croons Julie Doiron in “Darkness to Light” from her first album since 2012’s So Many Days. The song is a gentle jangle, faintly countrified in the arcs of pedal steel that Michael Feuerstack, her collaborator in Snailhouse, vaults across the sound. Doiron’s voice flutters, as always, with a plain-spoken, weathered sweetness, fraying a little at the corners. She confides in us, as if over a cup of coffee, about her unfortunate dalliance with darkness and how it ended, with a determined move into the light.

Julie Doiron has come through a lot in her long career in music. She once rode the feedback-braced scree of Eric’s Trip as one of Canadian independent rock’s most recognizable faces and voices. She dueted Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum in Lost Wisdom with painful clarity and simplicity (and reprised it 11 years later in 2019’s Lost Wisdom Part 2). She has been spotted in a more or less domestic mode, making I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day in 2009 with Frederick Squire, at that time her partner in life as well as music. She’s been recording her songs in Spanish for the Acuarela label. But this time around Doiron is not fragile and wholly undomesticated and more inclined to sing in French than Spanish. She makes her latest album with a full rock band and a headlong sense of joy.

Doiron enlisted Daniel Romano, the head of the You’ve Changed label and front person for the Daniel Romano outfit on guitar, Ian Romano on drums and Dany Placard on drums. Feuerstack sits in on pedal steel on a couple of cuts, notably the title track. This larger ensemble activates Doiron’s own hard rocking instincts. She herself plays some jagged electric guitar as well as singing.

I Thought of You makes a gleeful racket right from the start, in “You Gave Me the Key,” where Doiron contemplates self-reinvention in between slashing bouts of electric guitar. The chorus kicks in handclaps and positive energy. “Starting over again,” never sounded so good. “I Thought of You” is, if anything even more driving, beginning in a Who-like guitar vamp, a spray of whammied surf chords. And “Just When I Thought It Was Over,” clatters and rambles with intricate percussion, Doiron’s vocals dreamy and distanced above the fray. That song, like a few of the others, hint at a long-delayed personal revival, an unexpected turn for the better. “Just when I thought I had nothing left to live for, just when I thought I had nothing left to need, you came out of nowhere,” sings Doiron.

I Thought of You arrives as many of us emerge blinking into the outside world, giddy about ordinary pursuits and wondering if we are foolish to feel so freed. It’s a moment for a full-on rock celebration, and Julie Doiron steps right into it.  

Jennifer Kelly

[americanahighways]

Song Premiere: Michael Feuerstack "Call of the Tired"

Song Premiere: Michael Feuerstack "Call of the Tired" @m_feuerstack @forwardmusic @clandestinenyc #harmonizethemoon #americanamusic

Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of Michael Feuerstack’s song “Call of the Tired” from his forthcoming album Harmonize the Moon, due to be available on March 5 via Forward Music Group. All songs on the album were written, played, recorded, and mixed by Michael Feuerstack, and mastered by Philip Shaw Bova. With the stillness of a bare bones approach, effortless vocals, and the ear of a…

[jacobwren]

The Air Contains Honey With a reading by Assiyah Jamilla Touré Fundraiser for Brique Par Brique Co-presented by Arts in the Margins

La Sala Rossa Wednesday January 31st, 2024 7:30pm doors / 8pm show $16 + tax in advance / $20 at the door NOTAFLOF

(The Air Contains Honey only performs once a year. Don't miss your chance!)

(The Air Contains Honey’s lineup is ever shifting. But on January 31st we believe it will be: Pietro Amato, Maude Arès, Patrick Conan, Michael Feuerstack, James Goddard, Thanya Iyer, Modibo Keita, Adam Kinner, Liam O’Neill, Lara Oundjian, Pompey, Stephen Quinlan, Rebecca Rehder, Catherine Fatima, Frédérique Roy, Mulu Tesfu & Jacob Wren.)

Advance tickets Facebook Event

Poster by Maude Arès

[cedricnoel]

After a couple weeks of going back and forth between the studio and my home to attempt to capture some adequate and real performances with classical guitar, voice, synthesizer and piano, I’m happy to release a small album of songs titled ‘nothing forever, everything’. Written in the middle of a bizarre and heavy time last fall, I sat down with the title written and wrote seven of the eight songs in two evenings as a tried to create some kind of emotional and creative release through the form personal concerts for myself. It’s a swell thing to get to do from time to time and helps to process whatever has happened in a period of time. In any case, I turned out to really like them and felt they were whole enough to share.

They are in the order they were written, with the same initial titles and I added the first song which I had written some time before afterwards. I want to thank Michael Feuerstack, Corey Gulkin, Tim Crabtree (Paper Beat Scissors) and Rachel Nam for contributing to this project and being so up for working within a short and spontaneous space of time. :) For now the album lives bandcamp, where I think all music should belong. If enough of you would like a tape, I will make some.

I hope you find some comfort and release in these pieces. Thx u. Always. For listening <3

all songs written by Cedric Noel recorded, mixed by Cedric Noel on St. Joseph and The Pines vocals by Corey Gulkin on 4 vocals, pedal steel by Michael Feuerstack on 4, 6 vocals by Tim Crabtree on 6 guitars, vocals, synthesizer, piano by Cedric Noel photography by Rachel Nam

Thank you Isaac and Jonathan for your guitar Thank you Steve and Isaac for your pop filters

https://cedricnoelmusic.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-forever-everything

[nobellnostorm]

Will Samson - Flow, the Moon feat. Michael Feuerstack [OFFICIAL AUDIO]