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.

It was reported earlier this week that singer-songwriter Cady Groves has passed away at just 30 years old (obituary). Anyone who followed her eleven-year career knew her to be a vivacious, talented, and caring person. She will be sorely missed.

Cady leaves behind an all-too short catalog of published works that includes several EPs and singles. According to friends and family, she was preparing for the release of a full-length album when she passed.

To commemorate her life and work, I’ve assembled a 51-track compilation of demos, features, and “unreleased” songs that Cady recorded and shared on various platforms over a period of roughly nine years. It’s my hope that these songs continue to reach and be enjoyed by fans new and old for years to come.

The artwork for the collection uses a photograph by Glamour Kills, shot for their 2011 Summer clothing line. I do hope they don’t mind. I could think of no better image to capture Cady’s essence during the time period in which many of these songs were recorded.

The compilation’s tracklist is ordered by date. Tracks are dated by the best approximation for when Cady first released them on the Internet. In some cases, like with “Roll (Ride 'Til We Die)” or “Pouring Kerosene,” these demos weren’t heard by the public for many years after they were written and recorded.

The collection is comprised only of Cady’s music that is not available to purchase or stream on services like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. We will continue to update and document the project, so if you know of anything missing here, please reach out.

I’d like to relay that the Groves family is requesting that donations be made in Cady’s name to the Music Health Alliance or MusiCares. I strongly support doing that if you can.

Tracklist:

1. Take It All (feat. Ethan Gibson)
2. I'm Still Here (demo version)
3. City of Lights (demo)
4. Not Someone I'd Call My Friend
5. Like A Soldier
6. Better Than Better Could Ever Be (feat. Stephen Jerzak)
7. Blend
8. Your Worst Fear (demo)
9. All That I Need Is You (feat. Cady Groves) - Andrew De Torres
10. Mending Fences
11. He Left (acoustic demo)
12. Nights Too Cold To Sleep Alone
13. The Sting (demo)
14. Meant To Be (demo)
15. Fantasy (demo)
16. If I Die Young (The Band Perry cover)
17. Crazy (In Love) (demo)
18. Never Enough (demo)
19. The Only Exception (Paramore cover)
20. Yellow Brick (demo)
21. IDGAF
22. Revenge
23. 4 Years (Casey's Song)
24. Your Enemy
25. So Called Love (demo)
26. I Want It (demo)
27. Merry Go Round (demo)
28. Pouring Kerosene (demo)
29. Completely (demo)
30. Roll (Ride 'Til We Die)
31. Take My Hand (demo)
32. You Can Have My Car (Inadequate Lover)
33. Not Afraid of You (demo)
34. Another Day In The Life (demo)
35. Temperamental (demo)
36. Stuck On You
37. I'm My Only (demo)
38. Live My Life (demo)
39. Graffiti Love (demo)
40. Same Old (live acoustic)
41. Show Me You Love Me (demo)
42. Similar Taste...Similar Touch (feat. Chase Ryan)
43. Bring Back The Sun (Our Lady Peace cover)
44. Hell Or High Water
45. Crybaby (demo)
46. Mr. F (demo)
47. Anything But You (demo)
48. We Survive (demo)
49. Red Handed
50. Stand Here Alone (feat. Andy Lawrence)
51. Kitchen Island (demo)
52. Find Out For Sure
53. Jump In The Lake (demo)

Changelog:

V1 - May 6, 2020 - Initial release

• 51 demos, features, and unreleased songs collected from Myspace, Purevolume, Tumblr, Soundcloud, and YouTube over the course of roughly 9 years.

• “The Only Exception” was taken from a radio session at B98.5 Studios in Neptune, NJ. I RX’d two coughs out of the beginning of the session.

• ID3 tags and filenames list the earliest known date for the track’s availability online.

V2 - September 24, 2021 - First revision

• Collection expanded to 53 demos, features, and unreleased songs collected from Myspace, Purevolume, Tumblr, Soundcloud, and YouTube over the course of roughly 10 years.

• Collection title changed to reflect new date range. 2018 -> 2019

• “Kitchen Island” is a demo from 2017 shared by Cady’s moth Carol and brother Cody on May 2, 2021.

• Similarly, “Jump In The Lake” was shared by Carol and Cody on July 30, 2021. No date was attached, but It can be assumed that it was recorded in late 2019 or early 2020.