Having our own history working in big box record stores, we know that Tuesday’s tend to be big release days in the entertainment world. In light of it being a Tuesday,(and honestly, what else do Tuesday’s really offer?) we bring you this installment of our ‘List of 5′ series:
5 New Albums Out This Week
Click any of the album covers to check out more information.
There’s not a whole lot we can say about Toronto musician Shaun Boothe that can’t be gleaned from simply giving his tracks a listen. As intelligent and soulful as they come, Boothe is celebrating the recent release of his single, “Do It For You” and the continued success of his newest project, The Biography Series. Focusing in 12 different cultural icons, Boothe tells these inspirational life stories through rhyme and video footage of each icon. So far covering Muhammad Ali, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Sean Combs and Oprah, his next focus will be on Tupac Shakur.
Boothe has been writing songs since he was about 10 years old, but it wasn’t until he won a national competition put on by Canada’s Much Music that Boothe truly began to look at music as a serious profession. Winning 25,000 toward a car, spending money and a summer job at Much Music, Boothe turned around and sold the car back to the deal the same day, invested in himself and started working toward making music his full-time job.
Read our interview with Shaun to check out what making music full-time has meant to him and visit his site to get a free download of “Do It For You”
Photo by: Eddie O'Keefe
Currently recording their second full-length at Engine Studios in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, Secret Colours are counting their blessings. The band is looking forward to exploring new directions in their sound with the assistance of producer Brian Deck and while for now the record has no tentative release date, Chicagoans can enjoy the five-piece at a variety of festivals and venues throughout the summer.
Forming somewhat organically by a desire to play music, Tommy Evans simply invited people he knew to join in on songs he had written. High School friends Dave Stach, Dylan Olson and Justin Frederick came on to play guitar, bass and drums, respectively, an arrangement that worked as is until one day a recording session called for a harmony out of their range. “Originally it was just the four of us guys, until one day when Dave couldn’t record a vocal harmony, because it was too high of a note. So we had Margaret sitting there, and just had her sing the part instead. From there it just sort of made sense to add her to the lineup.” (Tommy Evans)
Now as a group of five Secret Colours has all the diversity they could need to reach into every corner of their potential and the young Chicagoans plan on doing just that in the coming year. “We’re playing around with much more instrumentation on this new record, and we want to be able to show that complexity in our live performance. Other than that we’re just going to keep on doin’ what we do: playing music.”
Fresh from the studio, Chicagoans Empire State Express are spending some time in Chicago’s venues before dropping their newest single, “Revolving Doors”.
Forming in 2009, Mat Koehler, Jesse Woelfel and Mike Bruder headed the band’s initial line-up along with Chris Steele, back when their sound was more focused around old school rock n’ roll and rockabilly. A few years later the band still holds onto that sound somewhat, though the line-up has changed to feature Tim O’Donnell on the bass, Derrick Martens on drums, while Chris continues to do his thing with the microphone and guitar.
Since the band is playing Double Door later tonight, we thought we’d share an interview the three did with us this past week. Keep reading to learn more about the music Empire State Express makes, the things that influence them and what they’re plans are for the coming year.
