Hamilton, Ontario baroque-pop quartet Superstar Crush unveil their darkly romantic new single, “Fire Escape,” a vampirical, stampeding whirlwind of unrequited love and poetic disarray. Equal parts chaotic and cinematic, the track is their first new music since 2024’s Crushed to Meet You EP, and the latest preview of their debut full-length, due summer 2025.
Written during a spell of writer’s block and sparked by a melody tapped out on a plastic windowpane, “Fire Escape” embodies the band’s flair for dramatic imagery, magnetic hooks, and gloriously off-kilter structure. Anchored by a three-way vocal interplay and a wall-of-sound production that nods to Springsteen, Broken Social Scene, and Arcade Fire, the song builds to a psych-rock outro, complete with glockenspiel flourishes and cinematic string swells.
Lyrically, “Fire Escape” drips with disheveled longing and literary references, from RAW Magazine comic covers to Japanese and French romance films. Written in another friend’s vocal range as a songwriting experiment, the track demanded collaboration: “We all had to sing it together just to hit the notes,” the band jokes. The final result is uniquely theirs – a jarring, electric portrait of emotional freefall.
Produced by Tyler Kyte (Dwayne Gretzky), the song features a haunting violin arrangement by Helen Faucher, written so late in the process the band nearly forgot it existed until she brought it to life in the studio: “It was like déjà vu,” they say. “We just hoped it worked, and it did.”
Canadian indie singer-songwriter Andrew Spice continues on the momentum of his acclaimed comeback single, “High Park,” with a scorching new track, “Rage Stage.” A blistering gothic pop ballad laced with defiance and theatrical intensity, “Rage Stage” is a furious reckoning with betrayal and a radical embrace of righteous anger as part of the healing process.
Written by Spice and produced by JUNO–nominated collaborator Matthew Barber, “Rage Stage” builds from a whisper to a snarl, combining searing lyrical vitriol with sweeping, genre-bending production. Spice’s haunting vocals anchor the track with raw vulnerability, channeling grief into catharsis.
Too often, we are rewarded for being complacent in the face of injustice. Anger can actually be our best friend when it motivates us to fight back for the right cause. “Rage Stage” is about embracing my own fury, standing up for myself, and conquering an enemy. – Andrew Spice
On their debut single, Philadelphia duo Gun-Shy Butterfly – the collaborative force of Julie Exter and Andrea Tarka White – make an unforgettable entrance.
With “Dark Side,” they summon the ghosts of ‘90s alt-rock and grunge not as a nostalgia act, but as a vehicle for urgent and lived truth. It’s gritty, melodic and emotionally unfiltered – a track for anyone who has been dismissed, diminished or erased and decided, finally, to stop apologizing.
Listen here:
From the opening bars, “Dark Side” makes its mission clear. A thick wall of fuzzed out guitar crashes forward, underscored by relentless pounding rhythms. Exter and White keep the structure lean, the parts tight, but the sound feels much bigger. Their vocals cut through the distortion with sharp, melodic urgency, the kind that makes you sit up and pay attention. Harmonies buzz, crackle and scorch and linger like smoke in the wake of a personal firestorm.
But what elevates “Dark Side” beyond a well-executed homage to Veruca Salt, The Breeders, or early Hole is the emotional precision. There is no coyness or artifice. Just clarity. And rage. And the slow burning strength that emerges when you finally accept that sometimes the only way forward is straight through your own wreckage.
At the heart of “Dark Side” is a searing narrative of loss and self-assertion. Andrea Tarka White, who penned the lyrics, pulls no punches in describing the song’s origin. It was a time when she lost everything – friends, community, her social identity – all in the fallout of a betrayal that left her isolated and angry. But rather than shrink from that anger, she leaned into it. She chose the more honest choice:
“Dark Side is about a moment in time when I lost absolutely everything: my friends, my social life, and my sense of self. People had to choose between me and a lying, cheating man, and they chose him. I was so angry, not just that I lost everything, but that he somehow didn’t.
At that moment realizing how bifurcated everything felt, him or me, right or wrong, dark or light, it changed something in me. I realized that love isn’t about being positive all the time. Or being nice. It’s about embracing all of who I am and moving forward. Which sometimes means standing up for myself and leaving people behind.”
In that spirit, “Dark Side” becomes more than a breakup song. It’s kind of like a cultural exorcism. It speaks to a wider exhaustion shared by many women (and others) who’ve been told, explicitly or otherwise, that survival must come with a smile, that pain should be polite, and that rage is somehow unseemly.
Gun-Shy Butterfly torpedoes that notion. Here, darkness is not weakness – it is armor. It’s clarity. It’s the fuel for transformation.
The title alone is a challenge to binary thinking- good/bad, victim/villain, light/dark. A butterfly that flinches but never stops moving. That duality threads through the song’s DNA and defines the band’s ethos.
And the DIY ethic behind the track only deepens its impact. Much of “Dark Side” was recorded in Exter’s basement, where raw takes became the backbone of the song’s visceral sound. Guitar tones were captured on the first try. An impressive feat that speaks to both musicians’ instinctive command of their instruments and their refusal to over-process the realness out of their work. Final vocal tracking was completed at The Daisy Corner and The Gradwell House, with mixing by Dave Downham and mastering by Kim Rosen (Knack Mastering) providing a final sheen that never sacrifices grit.
Gun-Shy Butterfly also offers something refreshingly rare in the current music landscape: a voice of women in midlife who are still making, growing and loudly refusing to disappear. Both Exter and White are mothers in their 40’s, navigating parenthood, work and creative life in tandem.
“Dark Side” is a song for anyone who has been gaslit into silence. For anyone who has walked away from everything they knew in order to reclaim who they are. For anyone who has learned, sometimes too late, that self-respect isn’t always gentle. And that’s okay!
Keep up with everything Gun-Shy Butterfly on the Website
With their 20th year in motion, Octoberman returns with “We Used To Talk of Death,” a nostalgic, tape-warmed indie rock single that meditates on aging, memory, and the inevitable weight of time. Recovered from a forgotten 2014 demo, the track now arrives fully realized – leaner, rawer, and more resonant than ever.
“One day I was going through old hard drives and stumbled upon the original demo,” says guitarist/vocalist Marc Morrissette. “It was meant for [2014 album] What More What More back in the day, but I wasn’t into the outro. I cut that section out, brought it to the band, and suddenly it clicked.”
Lyrically unchanged from over a decade ago, the song hits differently now. “Whether it’s losing a loved one or becoming a parent, life events shift how we think about death,” says Morrissette. “This song used to feel hypothetical. It doesn’t anymore.”
“We Used To Talk of Death” was the final song recorded during three days at Ottawa’s Little Bullhorn Studio with longtime collaborator Jarrett Bartlett (Howe Gelb, The Acorn, Jim Bryson), tracking straight to two-inch tape with no click tracks or computer screens in sight. “It was so refreshing,” says Morrissette. “Especially after spending so much time glued to screens in general.”
Brooklyn-based retro soul-rock outfit The Slim Kings return with a smoldering new track, “Keep On,” that explores the quiet strength of patience. In a world addicted to speed and certainty, the band flips the script by choosing to sit still, to wait, and to trust.
It’s a song about giving someone the space they need without letting go of your presence. A slow burn with vintage soul textures, “Keep On” is rich in restraint, resolve, and realness.
From its laid-back groove to its timeless sentiment, “Keep On” is equal parts support system and soul serenade.
It’s about knowing when to step back and when to show up. Sometimes the best thing you can do is let the answer come on its own. – The Slim Kings
With his new single, “I Know This,” St. Catharines-based artist Joe Lapinski delivers a raw and rhythmically charged celebration of new love. Ecstatic, visceral, and vulnerable, the track pulses with the chaotic beauty of falling fast and hard. Produced alongside longtime collaborator Dave Clark (Gord Downie’s Country of Miracles, Rheostatics), “I Know This” fuses indie rock grit with danceable New Wave urgency – equal parts Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.
Featuring a transcendent saxophone performance by Karen Ng (The Weather Station, Andy Shauf), the song captures the disorienting rush of first touch, first dance, and the inner peace that comes from simply knowing love is real. It’s the second single to be shared from Lapinski’s forthcoming new album, New Day, out on June 27th, 2025.
Driving forward with punchy beats and swirling textures, “I Know This” is a celebration of surrendering to love in all its vulnerability. It was designed to move you – to the dancefloor, or deeper into your own heart.
“I Know This” is about the chaos that comes with new love. It aches with beauty. I knew I wanted a solo instrument to reflect the emotional waves throughout the song and Karen absolutely nailed it. Her part is other-worldly. – Joe Lapinski
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