By Maggie McPhee
Vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Neil Smith on how his indie band has written one of Vancouver’s luckiest success stories of the 21st century.
Days before their upcoming tour is set to kick off, Philadelphia’s Slaughter Beach, Dog – a three-piece band containing two former members of the iconic disbanded emo outfit Modern Baseball – is making sure that anyone who attends is acutely aware of all of the acts on the bill. Touring off of the release of their acclaimed 2020 album, At the Moonbase, the band’s latest collaboration “Just Like Me” recruits opening acts Anika Pyle and Trace Mountains for a tender and harmonized acoustic number about empathizing with each other.
“I remember piecing the words together while vacuuming corn chips out of the van after a tour, and I liked how disarming the first line felt. I forgot about the song until last year, getting ready for our first shows back,” frontman Jake Ewald says about the song’s long journey to release. “A few months ago, Anika Pyle called me and suggested that she, Dave Benton (of Trace Mountains) and I should work on something collaborative to coincide with our tour. We all jumped at the idea and I sent over my unfinished demo.”
The tour commences in Toronto on May 2, and will be hitting the stage in Western Canada for shows in Edmonton (May 13), Calgary (May 14) and Vancouver (May 16).
By Maggie McPhee
Vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Neil Smith on how his indie band has written one of Vancouver’s luckiest success stories of the 21st century.
By Stephan Boissonneault
With haunting themes and guttural power, the duo crafts an album that challenges, ignites, and transforms.
By Glenn Alderson
In a visually stunning video, the indie folk songstress explores themes of growth and self-reclamation.