Listen to Pratt & Moody's new soul gem "Hard Way To Live"

Pratt & Moody's new 45 "Hard Way To Live" with Cold Diamond & Mink sounds like a Darondo session outtake from 1973.

Here's the scoop from Timmion HQ...

Pratt & Moody return on May 15th with a new 7" single on Timmion Records, pairing “Hard Way To Live” with “You Bring Me Joy” – two deep diving soul cuts that reaffirm their place among the true pioneers of the modern sweet & beat soul revival. Written and recorded together with Timmion’s trusted house band Cold Diamond & Mink, the single continues a lineage that has consistently blurred the line between contemporary songwriting and timeless soul aesthetics.

The A-side, “Hard Way To Live,” finds Pratt & Moody firmly in their beat ballad lane. Built on a warm, funky foundation, the song balances emotional weight with melodic lift, as its chorus opens into crossover soul-pop territory. Lyrically, it wrestles with life-earned scars and the quiet difficulty of letting go of pain that they cause – the feeling of keeping on running even after you’ve spent the last of what you had.

On the flip, “You Bring Me Joy” unfolds like a slow-burning David Lynch scene, its dramatic crawl evoking soundtrack soul before bursting into a Stax-inspired chorus. Tremolo-soaked guitar lines nod to classic dark surf music, while Emilia Sisco’s gospel-tinged background vocals elevate the track into full emotional bloom. Together, these two songs offer a vivid preview of Pratt & Moody’s upcoming album – a deeper plunge into soulful storytelling, their tried and tested lowrider soul chops, and modern clarity, soon to follow on Timmion Records. 

You can pre-order a copy of "Hard Way To Live" via Bandcamp right here. Check it out below. 

 

Béton Armé, Bruiserweight, Ancient Greece, Charade @ Monarch Tavern, Friday

Montreal's Béton Armé headlines a Not Dead Yet punk/metal barrage with Bruiserweight, Ancient Greece & Charade tonight at 7:30 pm. 

Tickets for Béton Armé's show at the Monarch Tavern tonight are $27.82 and momentarily available right here.

Remembering French soundtrack ace François de Roubaix on his birthday

Remembering composer/musician François de Roubaix with some of his work sampled for tracks by Missy Elliott, Lana Del Ray & ODB. 

One For The Weekend: Nathan Lane with Marc Shaiman

For his final appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nathan Lane sang "Laughing Matters" accompanied by Marc Shaiman.

Remembering Serge Gainsbourg on his birthday

Remembering French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg with a few performances and a 1974 CBC interview en Français.

Belize's Garifuna Collective, Blandine Kiniki @ Koerner Hall, Thursday

After the unfortunate cancellation of Orchestra Baobab, the Garifuna Collective from Belize makes a fantastic replacement April 2.  

Here's the scoop...

From Belize, The Garifuna Collective a driving force in celebrating the rich cultural heritage and music of the Garifuna people, an Afro-Indigenous group community with a rich cultural heritage, originating from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and now residing in various countries, including Honduras, Belize, and the United States. 

Their music is “full of surging seaside rhythms and yearning, soulful melodies that hang in the memory” (BBC Music) and has been described as “an extraordinary blend that layers soulful, indigenous and African rhythms with sweet, lyrical melodies” (NPR). The band’s energetic and evocative live shows draw from their extensive repertoire, mixing traditional Garifuna rhythms with contemporary world music grooves.

 

Singer/songwriter and percussionist Blandine Kaniki, winner of an African Entertainment Award 2015 as Best Female Voice, blends the soul of rhumba with urban music. The Congolese Canadian singer’s 2019 album L’Antidote featured a powerful collaboration with the legend of Congolese music Nyboma and lead guitarist Lokassa Ya M'Bongo.

 

Presented in association with Batuki Music Society. Tickets for The Garifuna Collective with Blandine Kiniki at Koerner Hall (273 Bloor St. West) on Thursday, April 2 at 7 pm start at $50. Get 'em right here. Watch a few clips of the Garifuna Collective in action along with some Garifuna documentary footage below.  

 

Music biz legend Joe "Mr. C" McEwen has a memoir on the way

 A&R exec, writer and music fan Joe McEwen's memoir Tastykakes, Soul Songs & Shining Stars is out April 28th via ZE Books.

Here's the scoop...

ZE Books has announced the release of Joe McEwen’s ‘Tastykakes, Soul Songs and Shining Stars’ on April 28, a labor of love - half a century in the making - from a respected music industry stalwart. A Philadelphia native and an A&R executive for Columbia, Sire/Warner Brothers, Verve, and Concord Music Group - McEwen gathers a lifetime’s worth of encounters, essays, and reveries into one radiant collection, a love letter to rhythm-and-blues and soul music. Its pages are bursting with vivid, compelling, up-front and personal profiles (predominantly written by McEwen while working as a music journalist in the 1970s) with a host of indelible figures: Pops and Mavis Staples, George Clinton, Allen Toussaint, Betty Wright, Michael Jackson, Gamble and Huff, Don Covay, and many more.

“This book is meant to be a fan’s notes with, as its heart and soul, a collection of profiles all written between 1973 and 1978,” reflects McEwen in the book’s introduction. “While rereading these during Covid down time, the vitality of the voices and the vivid memories reconnected me with feelings and emotions that had been long stored in my mental attic. I thought they deserved a second airing.”

Alongside these portraits of legends at the peak of their powers are heartfelt musings spanning the 1960s through the ’80s - illuminating the creative processes behind the songs that defined a generation. Interwoven throughout are reflections on basketball, memory, and movement — parallel sources of rhythm, improvisation, and joy. The book culminates in an extended 2024 conversation with esteemed music author and longtime confidant Peter Guralnick (Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke), a fitting finale to a collection that captures the soul of a lifetime in music.

“This is a tribute to some of the music and artists that have provided me with the building blocks, the sturdy foundation for a career and a never-ending journey of wonder,” McEwen summarizes as the book’s final chapter concludes. “I saw James Brown at the Arena in West Philadelphia in the fall of 1966. It was the first music performance I had ever attended. Somewhere inside remains the heart of a 16-year-old kid at the Arena, overcome by a sense of uncomprehending, incredulous amazement at the drama and spectacle unfolding before me.”

Praise for Tastykakes, Soul Songs & Shining Stars...

“Joe McEwen has long been one of our most incisive connoisseurs of Black music, a journalist with the rare gift of radical empathy. Among the hits collected here: the best profile of Michael Jackson ever written. Read the book, play some music-and rediscover the gospel truth of American soul music.” - JAMES MILLER, author of Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock & Roll 1947-1977 and original editor of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll

“Joe McEwen’s collection is an essential text that captures the textures of pre-hip hop Black pop culture with a sensuous eye. The writing here is as soulful as the music it celebrates.” - NELSON GEORGE, author of The Death of Rhythm & Blues and City Life: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success

“Joe McEwen’s essays on essential musicians and athletes are so heartfelt and deep that this collection has the emotional wallop of a searing memoir. Every piece here is sweeter than a Tastykake.” - STEVEN LEVY, author of Hackers, Insanely Great, and Facebook: The Inside Story

“Joe McEwen writes beautifully about the Soul greats that he encounters in this book. It’s as electrifying as hearing ‘Dancing in the Street’ for the first time. Each chapter sends you straight back to the music. American art at its finest.” - GEOFF TRAVIS, Founder and currently joint MD, Rough Trade Records

You can pre-order Joe McEwen’s ‘Tastykakes, Soul Songs & Shining Stars’ right here. Check out an interview with Joe McEwen conducted by Barney Hoskyns for the Rock's Back Pages podcast.