Thanks to everyone who those who helped score The Choir Practice an opening gig for Jarvis Cocker. The gods of indie pop salute you!

On May 15th, Choir Practice’s debut self-titled album is out! Our non-compulsory chorus line, made up of Vancouver indie veterans, includes Coco Culbertson (the Gay), Larissa Loyva (P:ano) and ten of their friends!

And, be sure to stop by the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street) on May 18th for The Choir Practice CD release party with Victoria Victoria and The Greenbelt Collective!!

"In last week's Straight, we reported that Jarvis Cocker was advertising on his MySpace page for local bands to open his shows during his current tour. When that was written, the former Pulp frontman hadn't yet selected an act from Vancouver for his May 1 Commodore appearance. But a couple of weeks ago Cocker's label, Rough Trade, e-mailed the Choir Practice with the good news.
"We were pretty surprised," says singer-bassist Shane Turner , who also plays in Love and Mathematics. "I was saying to a couple of the people in the band that he wasn't going to check our MySpace page. Then we got an e-mail a week later saying he wanted us to open. It's a good feeling because three of us are huge Pulp fans. Which is kind of funny, because he said in the interview that he's avoiding bands that are influenced by Pulp. Luckily, we don't sound like we are. But This Is Hardcore is one of my favourite albums."
The Choir Practice was formed about a year ago by the Gay's Coco Culbertson "as an excuse to drink wine and sing with friends", says Turner. Featuring anywhere from eight to 12 members, the group's vocal-heavy pop is showcased on a Mint Records debut due out May 15. The band plays a CD-release party at the Railway Club May 18." - Shawn Conner, The Georgia Straight

We love Tuesday new releases. And, If you just can't wait until September 18th for Bella's sparkling debut, No One Will Know, stop by MapleMusic and pre order your copy today.

And, if you're not out to build your cd collection, the record is digitally yours via iTunes. "Give it a Night" is iTunes' Free Single of the Week. Download it here.

If you missed Bella's Vancouver show with the lovely Brunettes, be sure to check out their upcoming tour dates; they just might be visiting a city near you!

 

 

We're pleased to welcome delightful and talented songstress Larissa Loyva into the Mint Records family - or, rather, welcome her back. You may already know Larissa from her stunning vocal and songwriting contributions to previous Mint releases from P:ano and The Choir Practice. After working with these groups, defined by their strengths as ensembles, she's now taking centre stage with her new solo project Kellarissa.

"Kellarissa" literally means "in the basement". Think shag rugs, red lampshades, cocktail hour and muumuus. With synthesizer and vocal loops smothered in a haze of reverb, Kellarissa asks eternal questions disguised as pop songs.

Flamingo is Kellarissa's Mint Records debut. We can't reveal the release date quite yet, but, can promise you that the record is a stunning kaleidoscope of Kellarissa's haunting vocals, her prized Candied Yam(aha SK15) synthesizer, bits of coloured glass and other surprises.

Photo credit: Adam PW Smith adampwsmith.com

That's right! The summer issue of our little artist driven zine shall be out and in a record shop near you on (or around) June 1st. I'm not going to spoil it, but soon, secrets shall be revealed, comics shall be doodled and recipes shall be shared. Friends such as Carolyn Mark, Immaculate Machine, The Awkward Stage, Novillero and P:ano, to name a few, write 'em. Then, you read 'em. Hooray!

Also, we are still accepting advertising submissions. The deadline is May 25th. Heckle Shena for more details.

 

We love our Minterns. Minterns typically tackle a variety of projects, many that contribute to promoting upcoming albums and tours. Minterns also help maintain peace and ballance in the office. Sure, it’s not 100% glamorous, but, there are several perks to Minterning. Minterns will make interesting new friends. Minterns will probably be sent to a show or two. Minterns will sample a release or two before they hit the streets. Everyone wins.

Ideally, we would like a student who needs to complete a practicum in order to graduate. If that person possesses their own laptop, is detail oriented, can work independently and has some background knowledge or interest in the music biz, that is a bonus!

We ask that our Mintern is available for at minimum of 24 hours a week (spend four six-hour days a week in the office). The duration of our Mintern’s stay is dependent on their course requirements. This is an unpaid temporary gig and a terrific opportunity to learn about the complexities of Canada’s music industry.

Please send cover letters and resumes to shena@mintrecs.com.

Always the first to be last to the table, Mint has joined the 21st century and has released our very first digital-only release, a brand-new EP from the Buttless Chaps entitled CBC Radio 3 Sessions.

The CBC Radio 3 Sessions is available now exclusively through iTunes and Zunior.com. It features old friends, Jesse Zubot (Fond of Tigers, Zubot and Dawson) on violin, and Peggy Lee on cello. The release includes a myriad of the Chaps' favourite songs; "Fresh Horses", "Migratory Birds" and a cover of the Echo and the Bunnymen classic, "The Killing Moon," to name a few.

Since their formation in 1998, the Chaps have toured the Canadian and US wilderness extensively and performed with artists such as The Rheostatics, The Handsome Family and The Stars. Their brooding jangly orchestral folk music will make you come to the realization that life, although pointless, is also wonderful.

Cuddlecore pioneers, cub, and their recently remastered and rereleased Betti-Cola and Come Out Come Out were recently reviewed by the illustrious folks at Pitchfork. Here's what they had to say:

"Like most artists, 1990s cuddlecore queens Cub resented being pigeonholed. In a way, that's kind of a shame. When I say the Vancouver-based trio's early recordings are among the cutest things I've heard, I'm giving some of my highest praise, but to most people, "cute" probably means something less, well, substantial. Especially when applied to three young women with only modest technical chops, the term could seem both confining and condescending. Sure enough, Cub were moving in a noisier direction by 1997, when they called it quits. In interviews, singer/bassist Lisa Marr would emphasize her smoking and drinking, two very grown-up vices; at another point, then-drummer Neko Case shocked an unruly audience member with a roundhouse right. Twee as fuck, maaan.

Cub may have been understandably uncomfortable being written off as cute, but their music-- mostly punky three-chord twee-pop similar to Sacramento's Tiger Trap or a Pacific Northwest all-girl Ramones-- was often more memorable, emotionally affecting, and flat-out fun than so much of the self-serious, middlebrow cock rock that tends to top year-end lists. Their 1993 collection of EPs and new material, Betti-Cola, which features future New Pornographer and solo songstress Case behind the kit on a couple of tracks, shows Cub finding their ramshackle, sweetly innocent voice. When they began to toy with their squeaky-clean image on 1995's Come Out Come Out, a good band got even better. Both albums, recently given the deluxe-reissue treatment on original label Mint, come as endearingly awkward reminders of a free-spirited enthusiasm too often missing in today's crop of licensing-ready indie-pop upstarts. At least cuteness can be controversial.

Featuring cover art by Archie Comics artist and Josie & the Pussycats creator Dan DeCarlo, Betti-Cola compiles Cub's early Mint EPs, Pep and Hot Dog Day, and adds 15 newer songs-- plus, on this reissue, four previously 7-inch-only tracks and one live "Wipe Out" goof. Girly and unabashedly juvenile, Betti-Cola lets Marr, guitarist/singer Robynn Iwata, and a rotating cast of drummers breeze through songs about chinchillas, dolphin boys, flying carpets, and eventual Destroyer guitarist Nicolas Bragg; like Jonathan Richman post-Modern Lovers, Cub prove that childlike whimsy can be, in the words of Joe Harvard, "a purer form of rebellion." As with most proudly amateurish bands, Cub actually improved given practice, so jangly mid-album tracks like lonesome "Pretty Pictures" and popsicle-packing "A Picnic" are among the best here, charming and melodic. "It's true, the world is ugly/ But everything could change," Marr sings on "Someday", a wrenchingly optimistic love song for no one. The covers-- the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl", Beat Happening's "Cast a Shadow", Daniel Johnston's "Tell Me Now"-- are well chosen, always neatly suited for Cub's powerfully light-hearted delivery.

Cub tighten up as a band still more for Come Out Come Out without losing their appealing simplicity, thanks in part to increasingly confident songwriting. Having a full-time drummer, Lisa G., probably also helped. The reissue tacks on an alternate version of adorable watching-you-sleep song "Your Bed", a silly live version of "Cast My Shadow", a sillier radio rendition of the debut's "My Chinchilla", and an, uh, ambient-house mix of early song "Go Fish", but the original full-length itself still stands as one of the better twee-pop albums from an era that also brought us great material from the Pastels, the Softies, Rocketship, Tullycraft, and others. "New York City" captures the joy of being young and in love in a big city, with fuzz-tone guitars and girl-group melodies, while organ-accented "Everything's Geometry" goes for jangly guitars but fuzzy math: "If 1 is 3 and 3 is 9, then we can be happy all of the time." Here, pumpkins turn into princesses, and a "flaming red bobsled" can be a thing of menace. A closing Go-Go's cover, "Vacation", is as deceptively exuberant as you'd expect.

The album takes a darker turn on songs like bloodstained "Life of Crime", but it never loses its spirit of fun. Where Betti-Cola seems assured of the modern ideal of romantic love, Come Out Come Out interjects playfully self-aware anxiety next to the giddiness of tra-la-la love songs like "I'm Your Angel". On "Tomorrow Go Away", Marr sings (with some irony): "We never talk of love/ 'Cause I'm much too cool for that now/ And you fuck me on the floor/ 'Cause there's no room for a bed... We eat lunch with your parents while you're wishing I was dead." It's been said that you can reason someone into believing in God, but you can't reason them out of it, and I wonder if it's the same way with true love: Once you've taken that leap of faith, does everything change? Bad as they may have wanted to be, Cub landed squarely on the side of the angels. And that's totally punk rock." -Marc Hogan, May 10, 2007, pitchforkmedia.com

Hooray for Mondays! Sure, you probably scour record stores for new releases on Tuesdays. And, yes, Saturday morning cartoons are pretty good too. However, for the next 5 Mondays, Nardwuar the Human Serviette is counting down the weeks until The Evaporators' hyperactive and strangely educational Gassy Jack is out by releasing a series of sporadic music videos on www.mintrecs.com.
 
Gassy Jack and Other Tales, The Evaporators' fourth full length release, will be on record store shelves on November 6th.
 
And a second DVD dose of Nard's renegade celebrity interviews, titled Welcome To My Castle, is out on November 6th too. The DVD will include Nardwuar's bizarro encounters with The Junos, Gilligan, Prime Minister John Turner, Jello Biafra, Timothy Leary, the Degrassi Kids, Ron Jeremy, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Flea, Ernest Angley and many, many, many more.
 
Beginning at 9:00 on November 1st, Nardwuar is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of his Vancouver Radio Show (1987-2007) on CiTR fm 101.9 with a 20 hour, "Live on the Air" Nardwuar Interview Marathon. Shortly after that, on November 2nd, Nardwuar's CD/DVD release party will take place at the UBC SUB Ballroom. Performances by The Evaporators, The Pack and more will join our sleep deprived punk rock superhero. Does Nardwuar ever slow down? Well, not really.

Mint is pleased and proud to welcome Edmonton, Alberta's Hot Panda to our dysfunctional family!

When you get compared, in the same breath, to everything from Daniel Johnson to the Talking Heads, you know you have a sound that's hard to pin down. Since their formation during the particularly chilly winter of 2006, the members of Hot Panda (Maghan Campbell, Keith Olsen, Chris Connelly, and Heath Parsons) have yet to sit down and have the discussion that goes: "So, what should we sound like?". The result is a swath of tunes that sound like anything and everything. Brit pop, gypsy swing, opera solos, Robert Pollard style lo-fi jangles, glammy Roxy Music keyboards, and "melodies that will be impossible to dislodge from your temporal cortex" (ChartAttack), all find their home in the music of Hot Panda... sometimes all in the same song!

After the recording of their 2007 EP Whale Headed Girl, Hot Panda took to the road, and I guess you could say the road took to them! The band hasn't looked back since, ever wheeling over Canada in a questionable 1977 ambulance, taking their rambunctiously theatrical live show to "kids who like to dance" all over the nation. In February 2008, Hot Panda took the time to travel to Winnipeg and record their first full length record, which will be coming out on Mint Records in the near future!

After numerous meetings at Granville Street's Taco Bell Cantina, Mint Records is proud to announce the latest addition to their family, Vancouver indie pop sensation, Bella.

Bella's infectious harmonies and dreamy vocals compliment Mint's quirky roster much like photosynthesis and flowers or Nardwuar the Human Serviette and plaid. They go together so well, that on Friday afternoon they tied the knot and the recording contract was signed.

The love affair began shortly after the band was handpicked to open for the New Pornographers at the Exclaim! Mint Roadshow. Since then, Randy Iwata just couldn't get Bella out of his head. "I love this band," said Mint co-founder Bill Baker, "like, LOVE this band."

Currently, Bella are hard at work, preparing for their upcoming album, No One Will Know, due to hit the streets on September 18, 2007.