YOUR favourite leftfield Canadian songwriter, Chad VanGaalen, is shaping up to go public with his accolade as the World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener, his new album for Sub Pop on March 19th; and as part of his podium speech on receipt of that trophy, we can reveal from his hastily scribbled notes, a new track, “Nightwaves”. Listen with us.
It’s a wonderfully lo-fi, Velvetsy dream, Chad blurred into a background of shimmering organ, a certain Oriental feel to the keyboard and guitar intervals; if you remember The Revolving Paint Dream and The Sneetches, that kinda vibe. Excellent.
It swirls hypnotically around the mantra for our times: “Isn’t your machine calling to you?”
Chad says it’s “… about the endless news feed. Giving in to your digital calendar, when all that’s on your to-do list is checking the online updates.
“Like a William Gibson waking nightmare, boring marketed as sexy.”
It’s a counterpoint to his album-revealing single drop “Samurai Sword”, of which we noted: “That dinkin’, plinkin’ pipe beat is the perfect insouciant beat for a raggedly wonderful tale of a samurai sword missing in action, as Chad sings: ‘Has anybody seen a samurai sword? / It may have fallen off my belt onto the forest floor / And I’m hoping maybe somewhere here has possibly seen it … it has a blade that’s been tempered by the blood of the gods / And a tiny little sticker of a dog.’”
Oh, while you’re here: on April 8th, Chad will be performing a live-streamed gig from his Yoko Eno studio via NoonChorus. The show will be available for viewing in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia at 7pm local time. Attendees will be able to stream the performance for five days following and will also be able to buy merch; you can purchase tickets for the event here.
Chad VanGaalen’s World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener will be released by Sub Pop digitally, on CD and on orange-gold vinyl with blue and red trails (!) on March 19th; you can order yours direct from Sub Pop’s Mega Mart; Flemish Eye in Canada, and select independent retailers in North America and also in the UK. There’s also a new T-shirt design.
Connect with Chad on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at his website.
