My idea is pretty simple. Pick a label, and offer up five songs courtesy of five of their heaviest hitters. It’s time to shine a light on the people still willing to venture down the thankless road of helping bands get their songs out and heard.
With so much music being recorded at home and thrown blindly into the abyss, it’s time to celebrate the Canadian outlets will risk losing their collective shirts to help make some money for bands and offer some stability.
It’s probably not kosher to talk about in public circles, but if I had to make a life or death choice, You’ve Changed would be my favorite label. If this blog was the mom in The Good Son, YC would be Elijah Wood, and we’d hold onto them with a super kung-fu grip as other labels plummeted to their death.
They are as consistent as the breakfast at a local diner, even though no two acts sound remotely alike. With a keen ear, they label is able to move from the scrappy pop anthems that propel Shotgun Jimmie’s dry sense of humor to the fractured folk of Baby Eagle to the DIY/punk ethos that is, was (sigh) Apollo Ghosts and still offer up some of hte best pure country talent in Canada (Daniel Romano and The Weather Station).
Seriously, you if you don’t own the entire catalog, you can’t go wrong randomly picking up the fantastic Marine Dreams LP or a classic collection from one of Jimmie’s past gems. Do yourself a favor and make with the orders.
To help us out, You’ve Changed has offered up a collection of lost songs that are probably better than anything we’ve ever posted on this blog. First up, Shotgun Jimmie gives us “Sunlight”, an outtake from the recording sessions from his new LP Everything Everything. If this is what he thinks needs to to marinate longer, imagine how tasty the main course is. Ian Kehoe offers up a dubby home recording – “Feeling This Down” – that is funky as hell. Baby Eagle happily dug up a demo recording of “Brave Women Bother My Dreams” (my favorite cut from the tragically underrated Bone Soldiers) and Attack in Black gave “Resurrection Blues” – an old Baby Eagle joint – a proper rework when they were working on the split EP that somehow didn’t make the final cut.
Oh, and fittingly with the shitty news of the end of Apollo Ghosts, we have what might be the last song to sneak out from their lab. “If I Can Change, You Can Do It” is a snappy pop punk nugget. It’s a optimistic call to action and a fitting end to the magic they’ve offered warmly to anyone that will listen.
As for You’ve Changed, I’d urge them to never change. Please keep curating and cultivating talent, and reminding music fans why a label is more than a factory to pump out records and search for hits. You’ve Changed isn’t just a taste maker, they’re a game changer hoping to expand your musical range.
Hey there! You should read this original post on the hill by going here: Starting Five:: You’ve Changed Records
