Recording: Partner

Artist: Partner

Song: Gross Secret

Recorded at Longboat Hall (You've Changed Records 8th Anniversary Celebration), April 22, 2017.

Partner - Gross Secret

Geez — has it really been three years since the excellent You've Changed label celebrated it's fifth anniversary? Time flies, but friendship lingers, and this night featured many of the same musicians, either on stage or just hanging out in the now-fancier-than-ever basement of the Great Hall. Unlike most of YC's album-focused artists, Partner have been playing the modern hype game, releasing songs and videos one-by-one and letting the excitement percolate — all the way to the point that they were the natural choice to be the evening's headliners. That meant while most of the songs in their set have been around for awhile, the scope of the band's rock'n'roll vision continues to expand — now encompassing gloriously-impractical double-necked guitars and an even greater propensity to step into the spotlight to whip off a wicked solo. Lucy Niles and Josée Caron were still buzzed from checking off "meeting Melissa Etheridge" off their career bucket list and in a mood to push out as many Saturday Night party vibes as humanly possible.

Recording: Partner

Artist: Partner

Song: Lesbian Green Day

Recorded at Sonic Boom (Record Store Day), April 16, 2016.

Partner - Lesbian Green Day

Leading off an excellently-programmed afternoon of free in-store entertainment for Record Store Day, Partner once again eschewed their rhythm section and guitar solos to play a stripped-down set. Sometimes (as with "Everyone Knows You're High") that is a means to showcase a song that'd sound good in any context, but a couple songs here sounded more purpose-built for acoustic arrangements, including "Gross Secret", played "in the style of Neil Young". This little song shows the band at their most self-aware, making a couple meta-observations and not sticking around for a second more than the idea requires.

Recording: Partner

Artist: Partner

Songs: Hot Knives + Creature in the Sun

Recorded at The Garrison (Wavelength Music Festival 16 – Night 2), February 13, 2016.

Partner - Hot Knives

Partner - Creature in the Sun

Wavelength's sixteenth anniversary festival was a little less adventurous than last year's sesquidecade spectacular. For the first time in recent memory, the festival settled into one home base for three nights (along with one daytime excursion off-site) and the programming eschewed retrospective turns for a future-focused weekend, daring audiences to invest in the musical here-and-now. The festival's middle night saw the most rock action and the biggest crowd, packed in on a cold night to get sweaty. After their afternoon acoustic set, Lucy Niles and Josée Caron were rejoined by their rhythm section to rock out in convincing style. Mixing Green Day-ish punk with Weezer-ish popcraft (and a bit of Team Dresch's desire-dramas) this was an enormously fun ride. Except for a slight overindulgence with an unnecessary vocal effect, this was pretty much spot-on and one of the highlights of the festival.

Recording: Partner

Artist: Partner

Song: Let The Chips Fall Where They May [acoustic version]

Recorded at Markham House: City Building Lab (Wavelength Music Festival 16 – Day 2), February 13, 2016.

Partner - Let The Chips Fall Where They May

Wavelength's sixteenth anniversary festival was a little less adventurous than last year's sesquidecade spectacular. For the first time in recent memory, the festival settled into one home base for three nights and the programming eschewed retrospective turns for a future-focused weekend, daring audiences to invest in the musical here-and-now. The lone excursion away from The Garrison came with this afternoon all-ages show in Markham Village — a cozy up-close-and-personal affair that offered a chance to sit on the floor and listen. The field trip vibe was completed with a school bus ride that shuttled attendees away to the evening show. This Sackville duo, still riding the hype of their recent viral video, supplemented their main evening set with this acoustic amuse-bouche. Working as much as a slacker comedy tag-team, Lucy Niles and Josée Caron punctuated their songs with oodles of personality. There'd be more "shred" in the mix later in the day, but stripping the songs back revealed hints of Veruca Salt and a soupçon of Plumtree.