Download “Petrified World” below, and if you like what you hear you can order the album here.

• Downloads

• “Petrified World” from Everything Is Real

Circlesquare: Songs About Dancing And Drugs

Today is the day that Circlesquare’s highly anticipated record Songs About Dancing and Drugs is finally available in Canada. This is the kind of album that comes around once in forever, and we are proud to partner up with electronic label K7! on its release. Visit the Boompa online shop and order it now now or visit your local record store and grab a copy. We also be releasing an amazing video for “Dancers” in the upcoming weeks featuring So You Think You Can Dance Canada top ten finalists Miles Faber and Vincent Noiseux, so keep your eyes peeled.

Boompa.ca: loved and mugged

The Boompa site got a face lift a few months ago, complete with pigeons and watercolours, mountains and rain (very Vancouver). A few days ago the site was included in Smashing Magazine’s Web Design Trends For 2009. The Boompa site was designed by our own Erin Nicholson who reads Smashing daily, and is very excited about all this. The site design has been so well received that it has even been stolen by a music blog. How flattering! The case has been brought to the court of public opinion that is the Beggars Group’s Soundalak Musak: Wordpress Theme Edition. Thanks Adam F, you are the favourite!

Woodpigeon: Treasury Library Canada

Woodpigeon’s double CD Boompa debut, Treasury Library Canada c/w Houndstooth Europa, will be released next week. We love Woodpigeon and think you will too. They make the loveliest orchestral indie folk around and will make you feel good about life. You can order it in advance through the Boompa shop now and you can get a free 7-song Woodpigeon EP called La Commission Scolaire, through emusic. If you happen to be in Vancouver next weekend you can see Woodpigeon perform on Friday night at Little Mountain with Chris Smith and Jody Glenham, and on Saturday at Performance Works as part of the PuSH Festival. If you aren’t in Vancouver, or any of the European cities they stop off in during their February old-continental tour, you can watch the video for “A Moment’s Peace For Mary Christa O’Keefe”. You should just watch it. It’s very, very Canadian.

Coming Up

April: Leeroy Stagger - Everything Is Real
June: Patrick Brealey - Title TK
August: The Scott Walker Band (aka The Salteens) - Title TK
September: Woodpigeon - Die Stadt Muzikanten

• Downloads

• Knock KnockWoodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
• “Lay All Your Love On Me”Woodpigeon - ABBA cover

Video: Woodpigeon - “A Moment’s Peace for Mary Christa O’Keefe” from Treasury Library Canada

Leeroy will be on the road with his Glaswegian pal Roddy Hart, heading to some remote and not so remote parts of Scotland supported in part by Tune Up. Established in 2003, Tune Up is an initiative of the Scottish Arts Council funded by the National Lottery that aims to bring high quality live music to communities the length and breadth of the country.

“Roddy and I have played together every time I’ve been to Glasgow we have a mutual love of all things Springsteen” Stagger laughs from his Lethbridge, Alberta home.

Stagger then heads to London for his only English date of year, and there’s no better spot for it than the notorious What’s Cookin Club, a venue that holds a special place in Stagger’s heart as he’s played there a handful of times already. “It basically looks like Carolyn Mark’s house but only in England, and it’s run by two of the coolest people I know.”

This is also the first time Stagger will be heading to Germany. Despite never having toured mainland Europe before, Stagger says “I seem to have a healthy fan base there, so it will be exciting new ground for me.” With 89 shows under his belt already this year Stagger is no stranger to the road and he’s anxious to get back out there.

UK Tour Dates:
Nov 04 - Aberdeen - The Lemon Tree
Nov 05 - Inverness - Hootenanny’s
Nov 06 - Dunnethead - The Lighthouse
Nov 08 - Stirling - The Tollbooth
Nov 10 - Edinburgh - Cabaret Voltaire
Nov 11 - Glasgow - Oran Mor
Nov 14 - London - What’s Cookin Club

German Tour Dates:
Nov 16 - Mulheim - Palette
Nov 17 - Mulheim - House Concert
Nov 18 - Gelsenkirchen - Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Haus
Nov 24 - Lahr - Schlachthof
Nov 30 - Berlin - Berlin Guitars

You can hear Leeroy and his friend Matt Hopper sing an acoustic version of “Just In Case” from Beautiful House by visiting Leeroy’s MySpace page. The song was part of Leeroy’s Sony Connects performance.

For those of you who can’t make it out to any of these shows, you can visit Leeroy’s MySpace page where he’s uploaded a new, unreleased song called “Sleep Under the Stars.”

Last but not least, there are tour plans in the works for Europe this fall, so keep checking back for details!

“Depression River is a reference to the town where I grew up. It’s this really small town on Vancouver Island,” explains Stagger. “A lot of bad things happened to me when I lived there, the most significant being the death of my brother. So the record is a kind of release of all these things.”

“Uncompromisingly honest … haunting and eclectic … Depression River is as mighty as the Mississippi. 4.5/5 stars” - All Music Guide

“Hailed as a rising voice on the alt-country scene … Stagger displays a wisdom well beyond his years.” - Blogcritics.com

After a brief break from almost 2 months on the road in the USA alongside Alaska’s Matt Hopper, Stagger’s heading south again next week in support of Depression River’s release stateside. The west coast tour will see Leeroy meet back up with Hopper for a half dozen shows in California before they work their way north. Upcoming dates below with more shows to be announced.

19.04 Los Angeles, CA - The Hotel Cafe *
25.04 Los Angeles, CA - The Mint
26.04 Lake Forest, CA - Gypsy Lounge
28.04 Davis, CA - Sophia’s
29.04 Yosemite, CA - Curry Village Community Centre
30.04 San Francisco, CA - The Makeout Room
04.05 Boise, IL - Neurolux
05.05 Portland, OR - The Blue Monk
12.05 Duncan, BC - The Garage Showroom ^

* Noon hour show, by invite only
^ w. Indio Saravanja

Leeroy Stagger has another few shows in the Mid West, before returning to America’s hat for Canadian Music Week. Then he heads back south for SxSW and another string of tour dates that will keep him down there well into May. For up to date tour dates click here, or visit Leeroy’s MySpace page where new shows are being added almost daily.

Urban Rush airs on channel 4 in Greater Vancouver today at 5pm, 7pm and 11pm, and then again tomorrow at 1pm, 7am and noon. You can also tune in on southern Vancouver Island tomorrow at 5pm on channel 4 in Victoria, and channel 11 in the Cowichan Valley.

“Depression River is a reference to Shawnigan Lake, the town where I grew up. It’s basically this really small town on Vancouver Island,” explains Stagger. “A lot of bad things kind of happened to me when I lived there, the most significant being the death of my brother. So the record is a kind of release of all these things.”

A deep and moving album filled with heartfelt confessions and observations, Depression River is shaped by a not-so-idyllic childhood in the rural outskirts of Victoria, British Columbia. Reflecting the sensibility of the of’ monikered but rarely as à propos as when it is applied to Stagger, songs like the opener “Where I Live” and “First Time Hurts” reveals a tempered self-awareness far more eloquently than most folks at 23. But it’s the straightforward honesty and somewhat autobiographical lyrics of tracks like “Depression River” and “One of the Lucky Ones” that take you to a personal, internal world laid bare.

“Most of what I write comes from real life experiences,” Leeroy explains. “Sometimes mine, sometime not. The song ‘Carol’ just came to me one day and I kind of went with it. A lot of people relate to that song because it deals with real subject matter — it has life and death and pain and happiness… real things, you know? Then, there is a song like ‘One of the Lucky Ones’ which is definitely autobiographical, even though the main character is female. That’s just how it came out. Maybe I didn’t want to share that, but I guess I just did,” he laughs.

In support of Depression River’s release stateside, Leeroy will be touring the USA extensively with Alaska’s Matt Hopper. Upcoming dates below with more shows to be announced.

01.02 Vancouver, BC - The Gallery Lounge
02.02 Victorio, BC - Lucky Bar
03.02 Galiano, BC - Grand Central Emporium
04.02 Seattle, WA - High Dive
05.02 Portland, OR - Imbibe
06.02 Redding, CA - Billy Bombay’s
07.02 Sacremento, CA - Marilyn’s on K
09.02 Yosemite, CA - The Loft
12.02 Oklahoma City, OK - Blue Note
14.02 St. Louis, MO - The Red Sea
22.02 Memphis, TN - International Folk Alliance
28.02 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
01.03 Chicago, IL - The Hideout
05-06.03 Toronto, ON - The Cameron House
07.03 Montreal, PQ - The Tap Room
08.03 Wakefield, ON - The Blacksheep
14.03 New York, NY - Pianos
15-17.03 Austin, TX - SXSW
30.03 Lakeland, FL - Lillian’s
02.04 Orlando, FL - The Lodge
09.04 Austin, TX - Room 710
19.04 Prescott, AZ - Raven Cafe
20.04 Flagstaff, AZ - Flagstaff Brewing Co.
26.04 Lake Forest, CA - Gypsy Lounge
05.05 Portland, OR - The Laurelthirst

December 8 and 9 Leslie Alexander, Dustin Bentall, Wendy Bird, Cameron Latimer, and Leeroy Stagger will take the Opry to The Chapel in Vancouver in benefit of the Potluck Society in Downtown Vancouver’s Eastside by getting individuals and companies to sponsor songs. For more information on how to sponsor a song for the Vancouver shows please contact info@potluckcatering.com.