Toronto – 2011 has been a bit of a Canadian revelation for me. I’m not just saying that to suck up to CBC (which I’d gladly do) for the Searchlight competition. Between Destroyer, The Dears and Young Galaxy, my rotation as of late has been filled with Can Con material. Now you might be thinking – Ricky, you are well mannered and nicely dress young man, but that is purely a lie. To that, I offer you some proof via my last.fm account:
Young Galaxy first struck my fancy with their EP Swing Your Heartache, a slow and beautiful track that tugs at your heartstrings and is one of the rare genuine songs that you would want to take out a lighter and hold in the air at a concert. Not an iphone, not your blackberry, not whatever blow torch I use to light up, but an actual lighter. That’s how good that song is.
Due to my short attention span, I was unable to follow much of Young Galaxy’s career shortly after that. When I received the track We Have Everything in my mailbox not too long ago, I decided to revisit them like an old friend. Much like that person you had written off in high school, then added them on Facebook and sadly discovered they were more successful then you, I was surprised to find how awesome that tune was. With interest at a maximum level, I checked out the album and discovered that it was quite amazing. Catherine McCandless’s voice sounds more confident and stronger then ever before and their dream-pop/rock was given a nice disco kick to the ass, compounding in an album that’s catchy, spacey and moderately danceable all at the same time. Songs like We Have Everything and Covering Our Tracks just sound like hit singles and as much as I loved the slowly paced cosmic light show that was the band circa a few years ago, I think I like this new beat driven version a lot more.
Young Galaxy plays Lee’s Palace as part of Canadian Music Fest on March 10th, at 10:15 pm
They also play other cities
Mar 17 – Boston MA – TT The Bears
Mar 18 – New York City NY – Mercury Lounge
Mar 19 – Brooklyn NY – Knitting Factory
Mar 21 – Philadelphia PA – Ku Fung Necktie
Mar 22 – Washington DC – Red Palace
Mar 23 – Pittsburgh PA – Brilobox
Mar 24 – Akron, OH – Musica
Mar 25 – Chicago IL – Empty Bottle
Mar 26 – Fort Wayne, IN – Brass Rail
Watch the music for We Have Everything here
Young Galaxy – We Have Everything: Play Now
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