Great Waves officially began in an old portable converted classroom at Pine Lake Middle School. Paul (bass) told his desk-mate Will (guitar) that he could "play bass and sing real good... Chris Cornell style." Although Paul never quite backed up his claim, the two became friends and over the years played in several bands together. After adding Ashley on lead vocals and later Ryan on drums, they found collaborators that pushed the band to become greater than the sum of its parts. With a little help from friend David Bahr and lead by Ashley’s dreamy vocals, Great Waves plays a unique blend of alternative rock and folk, that has been likened to everything from Allison Krauss to The Pixies.

I'm Tony Saxon.
I write music.

Trike is a duo, comprising of Stephen Taylor and Xania Keane. Stephen plays keyboard, digital guitar, trombone and sings. Xania plays fiddle, glockenspiel, keyboard, sings, dances (Irish/Quebecois style) and raps.

Trike's style is Synth-pop, New Wave, with various other elements. They are audience-interactive, teaching people dance moves they make up. Their songs are catchy pop songs, high energy and dancey. Onstage, there is a great deal of theatricality and performance.

Their influences are: Pulp, The Cure, Talking Heads, Devo, The Cars, Belle and Sebastian, old Public Enemy, Magnetic Fields and Joy Division.

There is a lot of humour in the music, and the songs are pretty bouncy/happy, although there are also a lot of bittersweet emotions in the lyrics.

Addicted to performing, Trike has played almost forty shows since the beginning of September in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, Canada.

Trike also won $20,000 on "The Gong Show" (a contest which was on radio and television) with their instructive-dance song, The Trikey, which enabled them to go on tour to Europe in the Spring of 2008.

Their album, "The New Album" was number six on the charts of Kootenay Coop radio for three months.

Learn it by Heart is a fresh new sound developed by spunky singer/songwriter Cara Cortese. Being the sole member of the band Cara has spent countless hours working towards perfecting her talent. Though the band is still in its beginning stages, with the help of ACOSM Records the production of Learn it by Heart’s debut CD is underway.

Cara spent her childhood moving around with her family, living in England, Singapore and of course her home country Canada. Since her parents now live in Australia, Cara lives in the beautiful city of Toronto with her twin sister.

While growing up, Cara was always a musician. As a child she was always the first to begin singing along with the radio, and certainly made sure she could be heard over her two sisters. When she finally got bored of not having all the attention on long car rides, Cara began singing harmonies, which began the next level of her musical interest. Finally, after many years of bothering her parents, at the age of 14 Cara received her first guitar. Her family anticipated that this would just be another phase that Cara went through, but to everyone’s surprise she spent many hours locked in her room teaching herself how to play the instrument. But in true Cara style, she never liked to take things slowly, before she had even mastered how to play more than four chords, she wrote her first song.

After finishing high school, Cara knew that her parents wanted her to have a post secondary education so she ventured off to Wilfred Laurier University to study Honours Arts. However, Cara spent most of her time in her dorm room writing new songs and experimenting with home recording. To gain experience in performing, Cara played at open mike shows and spent a lot of time in Toronto searching for any opportunity she could get.

While Cara is currently studying English at Ryerson University she balances the work load of school and music with pure determination. Though Learn it by Heart is still a green project, Cara’s hard work and continued song writing should make for a well-rounded debut CD.

•  Lovely
•  This song is addictive
•  Folky with a dash of...

The Sargasso Sea is James BonTempo, formerly of Lupine, The Amy Hall Monitors, and La Makita Soma, crafting jittery beats a la Aphex Twin & Squarepusher and mixing them with more traditional pop stylings.

•  the disagreement
•  Wishing for Remixing!
•  There is a lot to...

New Years Resolution came together in January of 2003, resolving, among other things, to do our dishes, stop jaywalking, and make beautiful music together.

Having been active members of the Vancouver music scene in several other bands (Trail vs Russia, down the lees, Skinjobs, The Stunts, Queazy), the smart and savvy three of us were looking for an outlet to satisfy our quirky pop music appetites.

We are very excited about Bullets of Love, our debut full-length independent CD, which made the top 10 of Vancouver college radio charts within the first month of release. The 11 tracks feature Dana Ayotte on Wurlitzer piano, bass, and backing vocals; LL Schultz on guitar, vocals and Casio keyboard; and Melanie Covey on drums. With influences ranging from The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie and Yo la Tengo, to Blonde Redhead and Shellac, we have a versatile and original sound. Songs are anywhere from pretty and melodic pop, to edgy post-punk or just purely danceable. Handclaps are a reliable staple of every live performance.

Terminal City Weekly’s Jeff Lee says “…songs on Bullets are catchy and often quite pretty…NYR’s sound has more edge, and substantially more depth, than what you might hear on the Top Six at Six.”

In the past year we have been invited to open for established touring acts such as Xiu Xiu, The Organ, The Nein, and Minus the Bear as well as headlining our own successful live shows. This year we have also completed a yet-to-be released Live at the Hive 2005 session (a compilation of live recordings commemorating the 10th anniversary of hot local studio The Hive) and participated in Vancouver’s alternative independent Music Waste Festival.

We continue to conquer the West Coast with regular live shows in and near Vancouver and look forward to a video project, and touring in 2006. Not to mention getting those dishes washed. The jaywalking, however, is incurable.