SARAH SLEAN MAPS NEW COURSE WITH DOUBLE ALBUM LAND & SEA OUT THIS FALL

INKS DEAL WITH PHEROMONE RECORDINGS;

CELEBRATES JUNOS WITH LIGHTFOOT SONG ON JUNO TELECAST AS PART OF ALL STAR TRIBUTE

Toronto, ON – March 29, 2011 – Singer / Songwriter enchantress, multi-disciplinary artist Sarah Slean found herself in fine company Sunday Night during the JUNO Awards telecast. As part of the 40th Anniversary tribute performance which also featured City and Colour, Derek Miller, Greg Keelor, Justin Rutledge, Kevin Hearn, Serena Ryder and The Sadies, Sarah along with Jim Cuddy paid tribute to Gordon Lightfoot, singing If You Could Read My Mind. “I was really honoured to be a part of the JUNO celebration. Collaborating with Jim on such a iconic song by one of Canada’s music heroes was a dream come true,” said Sarah right after the performance.

Sarah Slean has a lot to tweet about these days! Having just inked a record deal with Toronto’s Pheromone Recordings, she’s on cloud nine and beaming to announce that her 8th and 9th studio albums (a double album) will be available on September 27th. A whole new magnificent Slean is revealed with Land & Sea. Best summed up by Sarah herself “The release of Land & Sea is an achievement of a long held creative goal for me – to explore my love of both Pop and Classical elements in one project. Land is 9 unabashedly glad pop songs produced by Joel Plaskett and mixed by Gordie Johnson. Sea is darker, with a more philosophical focus lyrically, and will be recorded with a 23 piece orchestra under the direction of the venerable Jonathan Goldsmith. It’s nothing less than thrilling to be working with these incredibly talented collaborators on 18 songs spread over two discs. ” The first single from Land, entitled, Set It Free, goes to radio on May 2nd. Sea will be recorded live this June at Revolution Recording in Toronto.

Over the course of her 12 year career Sarah Slean has made seven albums, starred in short films and a movie musical, published two volumes of poetry, exhibited original artwork across Canada and shared the stage with four of the country’s leading orchestras. She has been nominated for three Junos, two Geminis, and her records have been released in over 10 countries world-wide.

Record of the Month Club: Degeneration Street by The Dears

By Dave Bidini

Canadian music is finally pear-shaped, thank the Lord. It used to be that the head was Rush and Neil Young and kd lang and Arcade Fire and BTO, while the ankles supported all of these fine little bands trying to climb up and hang off the body’s belt buckle, only to find out that there was no waist, no middle. We once produced only big and small bands, but now the good and scrappy have a place to live, be and play; selling a few thousand records, playing cities with nice, 500-seat theatres and, when their new record comes out, talking to Jian and Rich about their direction and choice of producer and why they used a Mellotron on song four and what’s it like to be living together in a big house in Hamilton, anyway?

There is a flagon of examples: Luke Doucet, Jim Bryson, The Weakerthans (not to mention Jim Bryson with The Weakerthans), Veda Hille, The Constantines (RIP), Hey, Rosetta!, Dan Mangan, Amelia Curran and Hawksley Workman, among others. Some are a little bigger, or a little smaller, than others, but together, they thicken rock ’n’ roll’s waistline, a sign of modest prosperity in a business where the head is shrinking and the feet are sore and tired from a lifetime of carrying around such weight.

Montreal’s The Dears are one of those belt-buckle bands, and, if Degeneration Street, their sixth studio album, is any indication, they are about to become the rhinestone jewel on that movement’s gleaming waist-plate. Writing about The Dears, and espousing their strengths, has never been easy because The Dears are are a very, very good band (they are also my band’s label mates, so let me get that out of the way now). The Dears are not neo-punk-ska-swing and they are not Lenny Kravtiz’s new discovery and they did not write the theme song to Tangled 2 and none of the members are the sons or daughters of corrupt public officials. They are stolid in their music-making, and relentlessly interesting, and although their formlessness is a huge part of their appeal, it probably means that Canadian rock ’n’ roll won’t ever use them for a hat. But that’s OK, too. Their music has too much depth and detail to be appreciated only from afar. Each time you listen to this record, you listen closer, and with each listen, more is revealed.

Murray Lightburn is The Dears’ singer. His range, timbre, feel and emotional capacity make him sound, sequentially on Degeneration Street, like Prince, Burton Cummings, Paul Weller, David Bowie, Ozzy, a Tielli (more John than Martin), Declan McManus, Alun Piggins and, on Thrones, Howard Moon of the Mighty Boosh singing The Ice Flow Song. Of course, like any great singer, he sounds like himself, too: self-assured in both roars and whispers.

If there is any justice in rock ’n’ roll in Canada — and the jury is still out — the record’s second song, 5 Chords, should be both a Shoppers Drug Mart staple and the track that makes the parents of Indie Kids understand (“We should be home tonighttt”). Lightburn’s voice is the track’s focus, and unlike many of his peers, there are no spaces around the performance’s structure or delivery. His voice fills the song the way Bono filled New Year’s Day or the way Bowie swam inside Look Back in Anger. Because of the elusive nature of The Dears’ sound, putting Lightburn in the class of those singers is the easiest thing the reviewer has to do.

As a band, The Dears have no hook, but as songwriters, they have a multitude. If Tiny Man sounds like something leftover from Super Furry Animals’ Rings Around the World, then Easy Sufferings borrows from Steve Harley’s best work. The album’s closing — and title — track is a five-minute journey that imagines The Carpenters slathered in an expressive, post-bop sensibility. It begins as a lovely, slow ballad before becoming absorbed in a mess of gnarled synthetics, a languid swing procession that loses its way in an encroachment of noise. It’s a stirring moment, and with Lightburn’s vocal towering above the mix, it’s as emotional as anything I’ve heard since this column started almost 12 months ago.

Degeneration Street — the name evokes the equally fine middle-classic, The Weakerthans’ Reconstruction Site — is The Dears’ best record, and probably the best Canadian record of the year, so far. What happens to it now is obviously owing to the nature of music in our country. It will get heard in the cool clubs and cafés; on the campus stations and CBC; on AUX and maybe George and maybe even Fallon or Craig Ferguson. The Dears will tour and have great shows and showcase a band at their creative peak for a growing pack of eager fans. And while the middle will continue to hold them close, excuse The Dears if they turn their eyes to what’s above. Maybe something will click and they will be recognized as being more than just very, very good. Degeneration Street, at least, is deserving of such attention.

This new collection of mesmerizing orchestral rock and deeply evocative pop is definitely for fans of the band’s operatic hysteria and is the ultimate culmination of the band’s unhinged onstage catharsis and studio sophistication.

Spin Magazine raves Degeneration Street “heads back to the big, Brit-inspired sounds of 2003’s No Cities Left … Singer-guitarist Murray Lightburn still shoots for Smiths-like profundity and emotional resonance – there’s talk of G-d and bearing crosses – but this time he’s got the hooks to back it up.“ Songs such as “’Thrones’ brims with passion, as Lightburn alternates between a bold vocal melody and an angry shout.“ Entertainment Weekly goes on to say “The Dears were churning out sweeping, blustery epics long before ”dramatic indie rock from Canada” was its own subgenre, and Degeneration Street, sees them perfecting the template. Singer Murray Lightburn’s somersaulting pipes soar over a tangle of brawny guitars, and while their tense theater-rock evokes everyone from Coldplay to Arcade Fire, the Dears are expert practitioners” Rolling Stone adds “A four-part song cycle involving apocalyptic prophecy and frozen hell, Degeneration Street often reads as art-rock with a death-metal storyline … Lightburn’s amoebic tenor is still the main attraction: soul crooner one minute, punk shouter the next.” Alternative Press simply calls “Degeneration Street” “impeccable.”

Watch a live performance of “Blood” from Mexico City here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQTkBuSMvFQ

“Degeneration Street” will be released this coming Tuesday, February 15th on Pheromone Recordings in canada and Dangerbird Records worldwide.

TOUR DATES (more dates to be announced shortly): With Eulogies

March 4th Sugar Victoria, BC March 5th The Venue Vancouver, BC March 7th Crocodile Café Seattle, WA March 9th Slim’s San Francisco, CA March 10th The Troubadour Los Angeles, CA March 17th SXSW Austin, TX March 18th Dangerbird Records Showcase Austin, TX March 19th SXSW Austin, TX
April 13th Frannz Club Berlin
April 14th AB Club Brussels
April 15th Le Fleche D’Or Paris
April 16th Melkweg Amsterdam
April 18th Hoxton Bar & Kitchen London
April 19th Borderline London
April 20th Ruby Lounge Manchester
April 21st King Tuts Glasgow

www.thedears.org/
www.facebook.com/TheDears www.myspace.com/thedears http://twitter.com/thedears