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An iconic Canadian media figure, Sook-Yin Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, musician, actor, visual artist and broadcaster who has immersed herself in myriad creative collaborations. Many of them were made with her life partner and frequent co-creator Adam Litovitz, including their 2015 ethereal electroacoustic album jooj. Though Adam passed away in 2019, his work with Sook-Yin lives on with jooj two, an unapologetic dive into playful art-pop and a document of a lost language between lovers. The album will arrive on April 9 via Mint Records. 

(TW: Suicide) While financial difficulties and external pressures contributed to the end of their romantic relationship, Sook-Yin and Adam remained best friends and creative partners. As he was busy with a soundtrack for Netflix, Adam gave Sook-Yin his blessing to continue working on their second album without him. Increasingly, Adam struggled with anxiety and depression, compounded by a prescription drug dependency that exacerbated insomnia and pain. Tragically, he died by suicide on June 16, 2019. 

Adam’s passing was a profound loss for Sook-Yin and so many who loved him. Sook-Yin saw pieces of Adam’s irrepressible spirit — as well as the story of their relationship — contained within the music they had recorded for jooj two and was determined to share it with the world. With the assistance of mixer Steve Chahley (U.S. Girls, Badge Époque Ensemble, Darlene Shrugg) Sook-Yin completed the album and will share it with the world this spring.

Despite the circumstances surrounding its completion, jooj two is a celebration of life, especially Adam’s. Playful experimentalism drives the pair’s life-long love of pop music and taps into moments from across the genre’s vast history from the warm psychedelic sunshine of “Rumble Like a Stranger” to the neon lit autobahn of “Run Away of Her” and the buzzing euphoria of “Re-Veil.” 

There is intentionality and inherent uniqueness to their songwriting approach that first took shape by Sook-Yin responding to a musical phrase with vocal melodies and stream of consciousness lyrics. Those experiments were transcribed and delightfully interpreted by Adam then returned to Sook-Yin for finessing. The resulting wordplay across 11 enigmatic and accessible tracks evokes the feeling of a new language being born.

jooj two is a fitting collaboration to cap off a lifetime of work together.

“... a one woman media arts convergence. One of those truly original people our culture spits out once every generation or so.”
  -THE GLOBE AND MAIL 

Their new album, Which Way Am I?, is out August 7, 2020 on Mint Records

One of Mint's longest running acts, Tough Age, are back today with the announcement of their 4th album, Which Way Am I?, a great indie rock record inspired by the DIY adventurism of 80's underground labels like Flying Nun and Rough Trade. The band premiered the album's first single today via FLOOD Magazine on which bassist Penny Clark channels Cate Le Bon before the song takes on a meditative motorik coda. 

Listen to "Repose"

Tough Age continue to change shape on their new album, Which Way Am I? Drifting into unexplored territories of dreamy guitar workouts while expanding their instrumentation to include flute, synths, and organs, they hit fresh strides. Cultivating the collaborative approach of their last LP, Shame, this album finds bassist/vocalist Penny Clark contributing lead vocals on three songs with music written by guitarist/vocalist Jarrett Evan Samson. Side one’s shorter run-times fight against the current with frenetic agitation, while side two’s meditative, melancholy songs welcome death’s sweet embrace.

Pre-Order Which Way Am I Here

While they originated in Vancouver, Tough Age has since been based in Toronto since 2015 as a trio consisting of Samson, Clark, and drummer Jesse Locke (Simply Saucer, Chandra). Establishing themselves locally while touring across Canada, the U.S. and Japan, they have honed their approach to the point of psychic connection. 

Pre-Save Which Way Am I? on Spotify and Apple Music

Which Way Am I? was once again recorded with producer Peter Woodford at his Montreal studio the Bottle Garden (Homeshake, TOPS, Tess Roby) and mixed by Mint veteran Jay Arner. The influence of New Zealand and Australia is still evident, to the point of Clark teasing Samson’s obsession with being signed to Flying Nun on the ripping “Penny Current Suppression Ring.” Yet Tough Age also introduce new colours into their musical palette, such as the hooky Television Personalities punk of “My Life’s A Joke & I’m Throwing It Away” or “Possession” featuring Claire Paquet on flute, nodding to the twee-pop of Look Blue Go Purple and pastoral textures of early King Crimson.

Wares new album, Survival, is out April 24, 2020 on Mint Records

After being on Mint's radar for the past couple of years based on the strength of their fierce live show and their moving 2017 self-titled album, we're excited to be working with the Edmonton band on the release of a new record. Today, Wares announced the LP, Survival, with the launch of the album's powerful first single. According to Wares' singer and guitarist, Cassia Hardy, "Surrender into Waiting Arms" "is a song about consent and safe sex. After years of hard work processing trauma and thawing from self isolation, it’s the profound joy of building complete trust in your partner, and in a relationship built on respect and good communication. ‘Survival’ is the story of recovery as a non linear path of healing and disruption. The narrator in this song, at the midpoint of the album, finds freedom in safe, sane, and consensual love." 

Few albums combine raw vulnerability with shredding solos as seamlessly as Wares’ Survival. On her first release for Mint Records, Edmonton’s Cassia Hardy blazes through riff-wielding indie-rock symphonies for anyone striving to stay alive and create a brighter future. By sharing her own journey towards hope, she hopes to light a path for anyone lost in the dark. As Hardy explains in its liner notes, “this record is dedicated to decolonial activists, anti-fascist agitators, prairie queers fighting for community and a better life.”

Previous Wares releases have flickered with a slow burn, yet Survival lights the fuse from ominous to explosive in its first 60 seconds. This change in mood can be credited to the past year of touring across Canada with the stalwart live band of keyboardist Jamie Mclean, bassist Matthew Gooding, and drummer Holly Greaves, who also perform throughout the album. Their arrangements are meticulous, while Hardy’s production alongside engineers Mason Pixel and Jesse Gander (Japandroids, White Lung) refine these songs into crystalline clarity.

Hardy’s dramatically enunciated vocal delivery has earned comparisons to Destroyer’s Dan Bejar, but she draws more inspiration from Arthur Russell and cult Albertan queer-punk group Fist City. Her sonic imagination travels far beyond overdriven shredding, from the swooning acoustic guitars of “Jenny Says” to the Hold Steady-style organ-rock of “Surface World.” The result is 2020’s answer to Against Me!’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues or G.L.O.S.S.’s Trans Day of Revenge with a far wider musical range.

The pain and passion in Hardy’s voice is unmistakable as it becomes clear these songs are literally about life and death. The feverish riffs of “Hands, Skin” open the album with her account of an assault, before the elegantly swaying sound of “Tall Girl” describes Hardy’s isolation from a kindred spirit in its powerfully plainspoken refrain: “I regret not getting to know you better.”

By the end of its first side, “Surrender into Waiting Arms” finds the singer gaining enough confidence to open herself up to the world in a triumphant emo anthem. Yet by side two’s “Complete Control” she has returned to a withdrawn state in the hopes that someone can drag her out, culminating in one of the album’s most powerful organ-drenched passages. “There are ups and downs,” Hardy explains. “It’s not like ‘I went to therapy and now I’m 100% great.’”

In a society that turns its back or attacks those not recognized as one of their own, outsiders are forced to band together. This desire for connection is reinforced in Hardy’s lyrical references to human bodies: “undisciplined” or “hardened” skin, tense muscles, aching shoulders, and unwashed clothes run bringing listeners into vivid intimacy. By the time we reach the album closing title-track, she admits just how hard life can be, unleashing her agony in raw-throated shouts. “It’s a brutal business and it lays you low / like a condom wrapper on a service road.” Yet Hardy stays alive to fight another day for the people out there who might need her most.

“The songs on this album are really personal to my journey,” she concludes. “The worlds inside it are about carving out an identity and learning acceptance so you can join a community for a better world. Finding people and opening your heart to companionship, love, and vulnerability is the real deal. I just want to reach people wherever I can.”

Vancouver's lié Share Bizarre Video For Albums First Single "Digging in the Desert" 

Their fourth album, You Want It Real, is out February 28th, 2020 on Mint Records

Today, lié announced their new LP, You Want It Real, with the launch of a video for the first single. "Digging in the Desert" is a spiky and blistering post-punk track highlighted by surreal lyrics and an equally bizarre video by Vancouver director Justin Gradin (known for his strange videos for White Lung and Black Mountain). The song pairs heavy bass and skull-searing guitars as bassist and vocalist Brittany West guides us through the sandy moonscapes of New Mexico — a setting she’s picked to explore what she describes as “hedonistic feelings and being eaten alive by the hardships of love playing out in a fever dream in my mind."

Watch "Digging in the Desert" Here: https://youtu.be/sUjrU9sYEQA

With ties to techno and a penchant for earth-rumbling post-punk — along with a staunch willingness to stop rape culture, privilege and patriarchy in its tracks — there’s no denying that Vancouver trio lié [pronounced “lee-ey” and lower-case preferred] are an integral force in the global underground. Since forming in 2013, they’ve only grown louder, brasher and more intense as they’ve developed their sound across numerous releases and a near endless stream of international DIY tours. That momentum has culminated in You Want It Real, an eight-song LP to be released on February 28, 2020 via Mint Records.

You Want It Real, the band’s fourth album, expands on previous themes with an assured intensity and plenty of world-weary lyrics. Sonically, lié’s recordings have unleashed the full-bore wall of sound that’s present in their live shows. That’s due in part to the work of legendary punk producer Jesse Gander (White Lung, Japandroids), who has helped unlock a further disharmony of melody and feedback in the band’s relentless aggression.

Pre-order You Want It Real Here: https://www.mintrecs.com/store/you-want-it-real

Limited to 300 copies on yellow vinyl!

Vancouver's Woolworm Share New Albums First Single "Hold the Bow" Via Indie88

Their third album, Awe, is out November 8th, 2019 on Mint Records

Today, Woolworm announced their third LP, Awe, with the launch of the first single via Indie88. "Hold The Bow" is an urgent and uptempo track sprinkled with jangle and backed by heavy drumming. The song was inspired by Marina Abramović's performance art piece Rest Energy, says frontman Giles Roy. “The image of two people leaning back opposite each other, one holding a bow and the other holding an arrow pointed at their heart. Like the piece itself, the song is about complete trust. It's also a sort of love song, but not possessive, romantic love. It's more about unconditional love.”

Listen now:

Pre-order the LP now and receive limited edition white vinyl!
https://www.mintrecs.com/store/awe

Vancouver's Necking Sign to Mint!

We're putting out their debut album, Cut You Teeth, on July 5th, 2019

Check out their first single, Big Mouth, now!

Mint Records is thrilled to announce the debut album, Cut Your Teeth, from one of Vancouver's most exciting new bands, Necking. The band has earned a reputation for their energetic and fun live shows in the city after playing almost every weekend for a year.

Today, Necking shared the ferocious first single, "Big Mouth," from their new record via Exclaim. Drummer and lyricist, Melissa Kuipers, reveal the inspiration for the track; "Big Mouth is the dollar store version of “Our Lips are Sealed” by the Go-Go’s covered by Hilary and Hailey Duff. It’s about having a mediocre time with someone and them leaving convinced you’re obsessed with them. This song is the brave face you put on after you’ve overshared and overstayed your welcome."

Cut Your Teeth is about finding independence after being stuck in a cycle of codependence. It’s about being fixated on the wrong thing and figuring out how to pay attention to yourself instead. The songs are about loss, getting too involved with your boss and living in a studio apartment. At its core, Cut Your Teeth is about trying to navigate relationships of all kinds - romantic, friendly, professional - and fucking up a lot, but making it work. The album is loud, angry, funny, and deals with our everyday experiences. It’s about being bummed, but in a fun and sexy way!

Dumb shared a video for the first single and title track from their upcoming album - Club Nites - being released via Mint Records on June 7th, 2019. Coming in at just over two minutes, there is a snarl and boisterousness from the four-piece, reminiscent of the likes of Bodega and The Fall.

"A disjointed tangle of nervous energy, (Club Nites) seems to pick up shrapnel and debris as it rolls along, all while maintaining some semblance of pop music." - Stereogum

On the single, Dumb singer Franco Rossino says, "Social interaction often gets institutionalized by the club, and this song breaks down some of the anxieties and joys of being at the club/thinking about the club, but as if we are at the club whenever we are in public. At the club at night-time, we are permitted to loosen our language and become uninhibited, we do what we want rather than what we are required to. A light is shed on previously hidden motives, and our daytime secrets become revealed embarrassingly."

Dumb are good at plenty of things, but relaxing isn’t one of them. The Vancouver four-piece write feverish tunes at a frantic pace, delivering catchy post-punk songs in two-minute blasts of wiry riffs and indignant social critiques. Less than a year since they signed to Mint Records for 2018’s Seeing Green, they’re already back with a new full-length, Club Nites -- this time with even more neuroticism and indignation!

As the title indicates, Club Nites is a collection of narratives drawn from the nightlife ecosystem. Attempting to break from the typical romanticized version of “the club” as seen on TV, the album instead depicts a bleak social setting, where we zoom in on seemingly petty details in order to reveal the cracks that Hollywood forgot to fill.

In typically tireless fashion, the band will immediately hit the road in North America upon the new album’s release. Clinging tightly to their DIY ethos, you will likely find the band engaging in meaningful interactions with their community and beyond, as they are doing their best to negate the spectacle by being approachable. If you’ve ever felt alienated by club nights, Club Nites is the antidote.

Today, Toronto's Kiwi jr. unveiled the video for their first single, "Leslie", off their debut album Football Money. The track is a pulpy murder mystery wrapped up in a two-minute burst of catchy garage-pop and this spirit is reflected in the video, a take off on French noir films of the 60's. The video debuted via Exclaim.ca.

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/kiwi_jr_sign_to_mint_records_for_footb…

The four members of Kiwi Jr. all live in Toronto, though they originally hail from Charlottetown, PEI, separately finding their ways to the big city over various points in the past decade. Now, having found a common language in jangling power-pop and hyper-literate college rock, they are releasing their debut album: Football Money which comes out March 29th, 2019 via Mint Records.

“It’s very much a Toronto record,” says singer-guitarist Jeremy Gaudet. “Even though we’re East Coasters, there’s no nostalgia or romanticizing small towns. This album is about the neighbourhoods we live in and our lives here.”

Kiwi Jr. — featuring frontman Jeremy alongside bandmates Brohan Moore (drums), Brian Murphy (guitar) and Mike Walker (bass) — make jangling power-pop anthems for that second coming of age, when young adulthood turns into full-blown grownup responsibility. Football Money’s 10 tracks document long-term relationships, proper adult jobs, and life in a big city that doesn’t care if you exist.

The brisk 27-minute LP is stuffed with instantly hummable hooks, but Kiwi Jr.’s knack for sweet simplicity is balanced by a love of complex song structures. Grooves turn on a dime, golden melodies emerge and are never repeated, and the lyrics are full of literary references and crafty narratives. Dig past the euphoric group shouts of title track “Football Money” and you’ll find a nuanced look at gentrification while “Salaryman” explores the wild lifestyles of hard-working office drones who party all night only to pass out on bus stop benches.

“Instead of being introspective, these songs are looking outward,” Jeremy explains. This album is about the people we meet and things that happen to make up our days and weeks. It’s less about trying to express ourselves — it’s more interpreting the outside world.”

Kiwi Jr.’s songs are laid-back but never lazy, as the band poured over the LP throughout the course of two years with producer Aaron Goldstein (Daniel Romano, City and Colour). It was mixed by Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh (Preoccupations, METZ), with additional instrumentation and production from Alec O’Hanley (who plays with Brian in Alvvays).

Now that Football Money is done, it serves as a proof that, although big-city life can be alienating, you can still find yourself again by making an album with your friends.

It's that wonderful time of year when everybody decides to ruthlessly rank all the wonderful music they've listened to over the 11 months. We're not above it though! We asked a bunch of our bands to send in year end lists and then made a massive playlist out of it over at Spotify!

Dumb

Spirit of the Beehive - Hypnic Jerks

Table Sugar - Collected Acknowledgements

Navy Gangs - Poach

Palberta - Roach Going Down

Andrea Schiavelli - Good Time Now

Amused - Not Raj

Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy

Pllush - Stranger to the Pain

Milk - Mattress Ranch

Luge - Tall is Just a Feeling

Jarrett Samson (Tough Age)

Bodega: Endless Scroll

Masahiro Takahashi: Omnipresent Windows

Platitudes: Lauds & Matins

Keiji Heino & Sumac: American Dollar Bill- Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On

S.H.I.T: What Do You Stand For?

Dorothea Paas: One For the Road

Lithics: Mating Surfaces

U.S Girls: in A Poem Unlimited

Mope Grooves: The Waves

Sabiwa: 輪迴

lié

CRUMB - Community Service

Surfbort - Friendship Music

Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman

Table Sugar - Collected Acknowledgments

Shame - Songs of Praise

Juice - Demo 2018

The Protomartyr/Spray Paint -  split 7” “Irony Prompts a Party Rat”

Body Break - Instrumentals no 1.

Policy of Truth - Demos II

Helena Hauff - Qualm

Jessica Jalbert (Faith Healer)

Alanis Obomsawin - Bush Lady 

Christine and the Queens - Chris

Dumb - Seeing Green

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once

Kristian North - The Last Rock and Roll Record

Neil Young - Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live

Power Trip - Opening Fire (compilation)

Sophie - Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides

Tony Molina - Kill the Lights

Video Age - Pop Therapy

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