5 Questions with Rags #80 - Kandle

Sometimes things happen around me and I miss them completely. Then I get blindsided by the existence of said thing. This happened last fall when I was writing for the Rifflandia festival guide and was assigned to write a bio for Kandle. I went in not knowing anything about her and was astonished at her immense musical talents when I put on her first independent release Set The Fire. (What. An. Album.) How I had completely missed nearly a decade of this incredible musician who was from my hometown?! How the fuck did I manage this? And she's the daughter of west coast music legend, 54·40 frontman Neil Osbourne? Truly this was a tremendous blunder by me. Luckily she was easy to track down so I could find out more.

Though she grew up in and around it, music wasn't always the end goal. “My whole life I think I was doomed and destined to be an artist,” Kandle says with a laugh. “I am kind of into everything. I went to school for photography in Victoria. I do a lot of drawing and painting. I started writing poems and then I started playing guitar. I kind of started doing music by accident.” It's a good thing for music lovers that accident occurred because Kandle has been consistently untouchable - delicately balancing modern sounds with big nods to crooners of the past – without ever sounding like a pale imitation of that past. “I've definitely always been a sucker for all of the classic crooners. I learned to sing by copying Billie Holiday when I was teenager. Growing up in the 90s with a rock dad I was really into alternative stuff, every “head” band – Radiohead, Portishead.” Even though you can hear the influences throughout her music, Kandle is most definitely not doing an homage – her music is entirely her own and all of our ears are better for it. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to not only write about this amazing artist for one of my city's biggest festivals, but also that she was so easy to track down and so effervescent when I did! Enjoy this wonderful instalment of 5 Questions with Rags featuring the powerful KANDLE.

1. What is the first album you remember buying with your own money?
It was Our Lady Peace, Clumsy. I was a diehard fan when I was like 6. I may have peed myself when I met them. <laughs> My dad never full got my obsession with them. I think they were opening for him around the time I got obsessed and he was just like, “ooookay.” I was just screaming “Superman's Dead” in my little overalls. It gets me every time.

2. What's the best memory you have of a teacher or mentor growing up?

This is going to be a shoutout to my Oak Bay art teacher. Mr McGulky. (Note: I cannot confirm the spelling on this. Please forgive me if it's wrong!) It was my, I dunno, sixth high school at that point? I'd kind of given up on making friends and fitting in after that many. For the first little while there, even now we're still friends, but he was my only friend there for awhile. I had pretty crippling anxiety about getting bullied, not fitting in, not doing well in school. Everyone knew I was a bad seed. He would lie for me. He would write notes for me to get out of science class. If I was freaking out about something, he would have my back. He would always roll his eyes and complain about it but he looked after me and I always really appreciated him. He's always proud of me.

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The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album review)

The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album Review)

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The Dough Boys self-titled debut is a perfect slice of chilled-out jazz-rap swagger; a confident, hazy-blazed way to introduce themselves to the world. In the opening track “Eulogy” BRAINiac declares “I don’t need the beat, I’ll kill this a capella” and with his previously laid evidence I have no doubt this is true, but I'm glad he doesn't go a capella because the melding of the MC with The Dough Boys has created something unique, dripping with ideas and energy. The Dough Boys have some serious musical chops and obvious chemistry that raise their debut to something unique in the quickly saturated jazz-rap world. At a time when a lot of albums are seemingly created for a streaming world, with too many tracks – songs stretched to 4 minutes to maximize profits, etc, The Dough Boys have a created a sharp, focussed, well-thought out piece of art to start their journey with. The album leaves you wanting more, not thinking about where the fat could have been trimmed.

“Dogs Gotta Eat,” the albums first single and a rework of the track that appeared on BRAINiac's incredible Lunch Meat (2019), is an obvious highlight. It brings some heaviness that the original didn't have while doing the very important work of giving that incredible hook – one of the best to come out of the west coast in a long time – a new breath of life. And there is the hook for the whole album – this is serious jazz-rap ysht with a full band, immediately setting it apart from a lot of the bedroom/solo produced jazz-rap that is filtering out into the musical world these days. The Dough Boys are able to pull out a surprising number of sounds and feelings from within small, connected framework. The beautifully lilting summer love anthem “Your Man” floats down the ear canal, while “Blunt” comes in dense and heavy – much like the feeling of smoking a proper blunt. Very different songs, that both directly hit what they're trying to do while fitting incredibly nicely on the same record.

This is hip-hop and the Dough Boys make sure to allow their MC to be front and centre but the moments when they take the spotlight are arresting and impactful. Check the back half of “Collage” where BRAINiac's flow has gains big momentum just to stop dead and give way to a heart-aching saxophone solo. “Amidst Everything” floats on a cloud of spacey, drifting keys. I haven't thought of a guitar as a secret weapon in many years, but here on the Dough Boys' debut, the guitar is a shockingly effective weapon – like on “Thirst” where the guitar just gives the song such a perfect, slinky, sliding-through-the-night feeling. (Check out guitarist Ranger's generally fantastic solo output too. Especially this wonderful single.) And none of it works without a rhythm section, after all, this is hip-hop, and the rhythm section holds the proceedings together tightly.

With their smart, stoned-out, perfectly chilled debut, The Dough Boys are staking their claim as an act to watch on the west coast to watch. They've built a base for something special going forward. And even if they just stopped at this one album, they could rest easy known they've created a legit summer classic of an album.

Support the boys and pick up the album on Bandcamp (It’s also available to stream wherever you like to stream things.)

Sexweather - Sexweather (Review)

Sexweather – Sexweather (Review)

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The first time I saw Sexweather live my first thought was “This is one of the worst bands I've ever heard.” By the end of the set I was loudly declaring to anyone who would listen, “This is one of the best bands I've ever seen in my life!” The potent combination that informed that performance – passion, skill and excitement that boarders on recklessness – oozes from every nook and cranny of the power trio's eponymous, self-titled debut. I've listened to Sexweather fucking countless times since its release last summer and I still get the feeling that it might all just fall apart at any moment. That is a truly beautiful thing in music and something that is generally only found in a live setting. Sexweather is a record that manages to capture that elusive feeling – a rare album, indeed.

Is the production? That's a big part of it, because the production here is truly phenomenal. The sound has an very deep, familiar warmth, and it's a bit rough; but it doesn't sacrifice modernity or cleanliness to achieve its decidedly classic sound. Sexweather is just, end-to-end, a really, really good sounding record. Immaculate production aside, this is all about the powerhouse collection of 10 songs that make this record.


The idea that a mini tour through Americana would come from the Canadian west coast in 2019 is kind of a baffling one, but here we have it. The album is an ode to the many facets of American music. There's a straight ahead 70s acoustic campfire singalong, “Wendy.” There's the really fucking good, laid-back jazz rap of “Musician.” The down and dirty blues-rock of tracks like “Golden Ticket” and “Black Bayou,” the latter of which is an especially sticky, sweet sludge for your ears. The hard-driving “Takedown” is perfect speeding-down-the-highway-at-night-with-a-cigarette-in-your-mouth music, and what, may I ask, is more Americana than that? Don't usually use the word “bratty” these days when talking about any kind of guitar-based music but “Punanawa” (which I just spelled correctly on the first attempt, thank you) is one of the straight-up brattiest songs I've heard in a long time and it's fun as hell.

Putting your biggest song at the end of the album is a thing I've missed in a lot of albums I've heard and Sexweather does just that as they close things off with “Abracadabra.” The hook on this song is absolutely ridiculous. Legit will be stuck in your head for days after just the first listen. Each member takes lead vocals. It's a little musical journey that feels like three songs in one. It's a lean 6 minutes but feels like a muscular 3.5. If any other song ended this album I would genuinely complain and it would ruin the experience. But another song doesn't end it. Sexweather ends with “Abracadabra” and as such, I can say this is one of the most genuinely pleasing albums I've heard in a very long time. This is a goddamned good record and one you should listen to.

Pick it up at Bandcamp.