News: Jay Crocker Announces Co-Stars Tour Dates
Saved By Radio recording artist from Calgary, Jay Crocker, has once again stepping out from his studio Sea Legs, where he has been producing and playing on some of Calgary’s finest albums of the last few years, to release his new solo album, Co-Stars. Colliding old-school pop song craft with experimental tendencies, Crocker’s sense of composition and adventure is unleashed in full over the album’s 10 quick-moving tracks. Looking past the all-encompassing melodies and gazing deep into the sounds of Co-Stars is like glancing into a skilled magician’s bag of tricks – you’ll never quite figure out how it’s all been done. At one moment pulsating and severe, while at the next gentle and serene, the force behind Co-Stars is one grappling with the possibilities of sound, wide eyes and blown eardrums echoing in Calgary’s sprawling beltline. Jay Crocker is now preparing to leave his city and studio behind and bring Co-Stars on a national tour. Co-Stars is set for release on February 15.
March 03 - Montreal, QC - Concordia University - Majello performance
Tucked away behind an inauspicious house a fair distance from Calgary’s oil-rich downtown core rests an unassuming shack unlike any other. 10’ x 10’ in size with scuffed hard wood floors, full of rare (and in some cases, even homemade) recording implements and instrumentation, this shed is a rare anomaly in the digital age – a fully analogue studio without even a digital clock as distraction. To those in the know, this simple hand-built shed is Sea Legs, the secret hide-out bunker and personal recording space of Jay Crocker, producer and arranger of several of 2010’s finest Calgary-produced records including Ghostkeeper’s self-titled Polaris Prize-nominated opus (on Flemish Eye), internationally acclaimed NOMORESHAPES’ Creases Crisis (on Flemish Eye / Drip Audio), and Ryan Bourne’s The Super Modern World of Beauty (released by Saved by Radio).
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Co-Stars Tour Dates
March 03 - Montreal, QC - Concordia University - Majello performanceMarch 09 - Sackville, NB - Struts - w/ John Mckiel
March 10 - Halifax, NS - the Paragon - w/ John Mckiel
March 11 - Fredericton, NB - The Capital - w/ Young Galaxy
March 12 - Saint John, NB - Peppers Pub
March 16 - Hull, QC - La Temporaire
March 17 - Guelph, ON - Ebar - w/ Shotgun Jimmie, Peter Elkas
March 18 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac - w/ Metal Kites
March 20 - Montreal, QC - Le Cagibi
March 24 - Winnipeg, MB - The LO-Pub
March 25 - Moose Jaw, SK - TBA
March 25 - Moose Jaw, SK - TBA
March 26 - Saskatoon, SK - The Sola Cafe
March 31 - Lethbridge, AB - TBA
April 01 - Regina, SK - TBA
March 31 - Lethbridge, AB - TBA
April 01 - Regina, SK - TBA
April 02 - Calgary, AB - Glenbow Museum - "Soundtrack of the GlenBow"
April 08 - Edmonton, AB - The Wonderbar - w/ Krang, DeadHorse
April 09 - Calgary, AB - The Marquee room - Co-Stars release Show
Tucked away behind an inauspicious house a fair distance from Calgary’s oil-rich downtown core rests an unassuming shack unlike any other. 10’ x 10’ in size with scuffed hard wood floors, full of rare (and in some cases, even homemade) recording implements and instrumentation, this shed is a rare anomaly in the digital age – a fully analogue studio without even a digital clock as distraction. To those in the know, this simple hand-built shed is Sea Legs, the secret hide-out bunker and personal recording space of Jay Crocker, producer and arranger of several of 2010’s finest Calgary-produced records including Ghostkeeper’s self-titled Polaris Prize-nominated opus (on Flemish Eye), internationally acclaimed NOMORESHAPES’ Creases Crisis (on Flemish Eye / Drip Audio), and Ryan Bourne’s The Super Modern World of Beauty (released by Saved by Radio).
But while much of Crocker’s props these past few seasons has focused primarily on his gifts of production and arrangement, much like Sea Legs itself there’s far more to Crocker than simply a set of skilled fingers at the mixing desk. Performed almost entirely by his own hand within the walls of Sea Legs tiny confines (and a couple of apartment spaces in Calgary and Montreal), the cheekily-titled Co-Stars (since there aren’t really any) marks the studio re-emergence of one of Canada’s most unique musical talents from noted side-man behind the scenes to front-and-centre.
The pummeling opener ‘Super Disease’ meshes distorted quick-fingered riffs with a hook so sticky it’s unforgettable after the first listen, while the gorgeously elegiac ‘Beard in a Mirror’, sees Crocker attempt to define himself with the lyrical knock-out, “There’s a few words that come to mind when I try to describe myself this time: earthquake / handshake / paranoid believer just trying to be a dreamer.” Furthermore, it’s a rare record that can string together the electro gristle of ‘Porno is a Mustang’ and the gentle The Band-style shuffle of ‘Beaver Hat Man’ and still sound from the same source. Surely, here is a musician who never sits still.
Hard to pin down? Maybe. Worth giving into and following through its myriad nooks and crannies? Definitely.
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