Discography

Chloe Moriondo's Blood Bunny tour kicked off in Cleveland last night with a sold out show at Mahall's Twenty Lanes.

The line for the gig wrapped around the building prior to doors with dozens of fans and their parents waiting eagerly to get inside. Chloe and opening act Addison Grace made appearances at the building’s side-window to wave hello to those standing in the adjacent gas station’s parking lot.

Grace kicked off the show with a solo acoustic set, followed by Jackie Hayes in the first of three supporting performances on the tour. It was a one-two punch of sugar and spice with Grace’s sweet melodies warming up the crowd for Hayes’ high-energy two-piece performance.

Chloe’s set, which was packed with tracks from her new record, some old favorites, and two unreleased tracks ("Sammy" and "Bloodhound") was accompanied by a lovely cover of The Cranberries' eternal hit "Linger." You can watch that performance above.

Editorial Note: Clearly, the video I captured isn't as well composed at it could be. The Mahall's stage has a mere two-foot rise from the floor (if that… I didn’t bring my yard stick last night). This makes it difficult to see much unless you're right up front. As a tall person, I find it morally incorrect to impede the view of the short in situations like these. I hope the audio will suffice.

The new songs, both about dogs, came as a surprise. Blood Bunny came out in May. It was followed by an acoustic EP in July. She told the crowd last night to expect a new EP soon, on which the song “Sammy” will be found. This one falls in line with her previous material. It’s a whimsical song about her blind dog of the same name. The second unreleased track, “Bloodhound,” is a departure into hyperpop. Heavy vocal effects met with frantic dog barks brought an entirely new energy to the room just as the set met its end.

Chloe Moriondo’s set decoration, following her sold out performance at Mahall’s.

Moriondo turned just 19 the day previous to the show. I mention this not to fall into the trap of saying “she’s such a good performer despite her age,” but because commanding an audience like she does so early in her career is worthy of remark. The performance was fantastic. She brings a nervously excited energy that you can hear in her laugh in the first seconds of the video above. It emanates through the room, infecting everyone.

She has a deep connection with her fans, which goes both ways. During all of the sets, you could hear repeated compliments thrown from various corners of the space to the performer on stage. “You look cool” or “you’re so amazing” were commonly heard, earning blushes and thank you’s from everyone on the receiving end. At one point, Moriondo checked in with the crowd to make sure they were staying hydrated. You hear this a lot at shows— it gets hot under the lights and surrounded by people—but rarely do you see a noticeable wave of fans leave their places in the crowd to fetch some water from the back bar when it’s suggested by the headliner mid-set.

If you get the opportunity, catch Chloe on tour. I believe she’s destined for greatness. I hope she continues to wield the influence she has on her young fan-base with continued positivity and for progressive action.

In October 2011, Brandon “Roy English” Wronski and Cameron “BRKLYN” Trowbridge, both formerly of Dead Letter Diaries and Eye Alaska, began releasing music under the banner Canary Dynasty. Joining them were collaborators Cody B. Ware and VerBS.

Here’s a fun fact: Boston outfit Bad Rabbits were once listed under the collective’s website, but never released anything with the Canary Dynasty banner.

From the Canary Dynasty website (seemingly plagiarized from Wikipedia):

Canaries were once regularly used in coal mining as an early warning system.[3] Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the mine would kill the bird before affecting the miners. Because canaries tend to sing much of the time, they would stop singing prior to succumbing to the gas therefore alerting miners to the danger. The use of so called miner's canaries in British mines was phased out in 1987.[4]

Hence, the phrase "canary in a coal mine" is frequently used to refer to a person or thing which serves as an early warning of a coming crisis. By analogy, the term climate canary is used to refer to a species that is affected by an environmental danger prior to other species, thus serving as an early warning system for the other species with regard to the danger.[5]

The same occurred in England. First the birds were only owned by the rich but eventually the local citizens started to breed them and, again, they became very popular. Many breeds arose through selective breeding, and they are still very popular today for their voice.

When explorers discovered large dogs on one of the islands, the island became known, in Latin, as Canaria Insula ("Island of Dogs"), the root of Canaria being canis ("dog"). By about A.D. 300, the entire group of islands had the Latin name.

Because only male canaries sing, the traders tightly controlled the supply of male birds and created a monopoly on them. This kept the price of canaries high, increased their desirability and made them affordable as pets only by the wealthy

Brandon would continue releasing under the Roy English moniker for a few years before adopting Jagwar Twin as his new persona. Cameron has found continued success with BRKYLN by adding Cody Nadeau as a creative partner.

The Canary Dynasty project lived for roughly a year, culminating in a shower of singles over Tumblr, Soundcloud, and YouTube. The metadata for some of these songs hinted at a Canary Dynasty Mixtape. So although the primary duo of Roy and BRKLYN never formally released the tape, I eagerly collected it track by track and compiled one of my own. This 15 track collection contains every song released by Canary Dynasty.

Tracklist:

Changelog:

V1 - February 12, 2021 - Initial release

• 15 singles encompassing the career of the Canary Dynasty collective.

Following the release of Big Bad in June, Christopher Browder has taken a new approach to a handful of tracks from Mansions’ fifth full-length album. These scaled-back takes, while not fully unplugging, approach the feel of Dig Up The Dead (Acoustic), re-released by Bad Timing records last year.

These mixes differ from those heard in the video series of the same name Browder released last month.

Listen to the collection below and grab a copy of Big Bad on vinyl while you’re at it.

The Beths release their sophomore album, Jump Rope Gazers tonight, which—from my point of view—impossibly bests their debut. This is one of my favorite releases of the year.

Over the last few months, The Beths have periodically been streaming home studio sessions called Live From ‘House’ for fans across the globe to enjoy (first, second, third). These have coincided with the release of several singles and music videos to promote the new record. The final stream will occur tonight at 6PM EST to celebrate the release of the record.

The art direction for the group’s live streams and tour posters for this cycle has been really nice. The artwork, created by Toby Morris, has been so great, I did my best to compile a sampling of it into a 5k background for my home machine. That image can be found above.

Grab a copy of the record digitally on Bandcamp or a physical copy on the band’s store page.