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: Daniel Romano

Artist: Daniel Romano

Songs: I Had To Hide Your Poem in a Song + Hunger is a Dream You Die in

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

Daniel Romano - I Had To Hide Your Poem in a Song

Daniel Romano - Hunger is a Dream You Die in

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. I actually hadn't seen Daniel Romano performing since that fifth anniversary show, and in the interim he's travelled many miles, ditching his cowboy hat and Nudie suit for a mod-ish ensemble. And although his band has the same "country" alignment (pedal steel and all) he had then, the sound has pushed outward in all directions into a sort of spaced-out Cosmic American Music. Romano seemed eager to amp up and revise his songs, spitting out lyrics with Dylan-ish Rolling Thunder speedfreak intensity. The label's co-founder was formerly a bit of a prodigal son exploring the fringes of The Industry, but Romano has been easing back into the YC fold with last year's Ancient Shapes side project, and the brand-new Modern Pressure once again has a YC number on its spine.

Recording: Richard Laviolette

Artist: Richard Laviolette

Song: Someone To Tell My Story When I'm Gone

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

Richard Laviolette - Someone To Tell My Story When I'm Gone

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. Switching over to a full-on, seven-piece country band took a bit of time, and Richard Laviolette seemed a little nervous his group was going to get the proverbial hook after just three songs. They managed to get a reasonably full set in, but it gave a leave-it-all-out-there edge to this tune. With a John Prine drawling howl (plus Lisa Bozikovic's keybs prodding things along, plus Aaron Goldstein's pedal steel, plus Jessy Bell Smith's backing vox) this showed off the joyful energy on Laviolette's recent Taking The Long Way Home album.

Recording: Shotgun Jimmie

Artist: Shotgun Jimmie

Song: King of Kreuzberg

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

Shotgun Jimmie - King of Kreuzberg

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. Jim Kilpatrick's one-man-band technique grows ever more sophisticated, with his suitcase kickdrum now enhanced by a whole array of percussion tools (including a pedal-operated shaker!) and sounding rather rawkin'. Some special YC family flourishes on the night included an Attack in Black cover and a duet version of "Skype Date", crooned with Misha Bower.

Recording: Misha Bower

Artist: Misha Bower with Will Kidman

Song: Hostage Taker

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

Misha Bower with Will Kidman - Hostage Taker

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. Leading with the quietest set while crowd filled in, this set featured just Misha Bower's voice backed by Will Kidman's guitar. They've been working on these songs for a while now (and are now getting ready to record an album of Bower's tunes together), so there was no shortage of easy interplay between the pair.

Recording: Shotgun Jimmie

Artist: Shotgun Jimmie

Songs: Game of Pricks [Guided By Voices cover] + You're Such an Only Child [Attack in Black cover] + You've Changed

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, ("You've Changed Records 5th Anniversary Celebration"), May 22, 2014.

Shotgun Jimmie - Game of Pricks

Shotgun Jimmie - You're Such an Only Child

Shotgun Jimmie - You've Changed

Full review to follow. Renowned for touring with an ever-shifting pick-up band of friends, it was no surprise to see that Jim Kilpatrick had drafted Ross Miller and Ian Kehoe (both of whom had been on stage multiple times already during the evening) as well as once-and-future Constantine Will Kidman. That lineup gave Kilpatrick's songs a bit more garage-rock snarl, though never so much as to overwhelm their underlying geniality — which is to say there were no cha-cha-cha's to be had this time 'round. The set (short, as were all of the evening's performances) ended with a couple covers, including an homage to label-prefiguring Attack in Black (with Daniel Romano joining in).

Recording: Daniel Romano

Artist: Daniel Romano

Songs: Hard On You + More Love from a Stranger^*

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern ("You've Changed Records 5th Anniversary Celebration"), May 22, 2014.

Daniel Romano - Hard On You

Daniel Romano - More Love from a Stranger

Full review to follow. Ever since "graduating" from You've Changed to a bigger label and bigger stages, I haven't seen as much of Daniel Romano and his Trilliums. But his return here as a "secret guest" definitely completed the night. More than ever, Romano is delving into his weary/wired classic country frontman persona, his thousand-yard stare peering through the missing haze of cigarette smoke to see if the ghosts of Hank or Gram are somewhere at the back of the room.

^* So far as I know, Romano has not (yet) recorded this one, which is a co-write with The Sadies' Dallas Good, though the latter did contribute it to The Good Family Album, where it appeared under the title "Life Passes (and old fires die)".

Recording: The Weather Station

Artist: The Weather Station

Song: Shy Women

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern ("You've Changed Records 5th Anniversary Celebration"), May 22, 2014.

The Weather Station - Shy Women

Full review to follow. With the stripped-down, back-to-basics All Of It Was Mine out of her system, Tamara Lindeman has come full circle somewhat, with a new band version of The Weather Station making its debut. That added some more folk-rock propulsion to the new material — if you reverse-engineer these travelogues, you might up up back at Topanga Canyon. But even with pedal steel and backing vocals, there's still a spareness at the centre of it all, carried by Lindeman's pure voice and nimbly-picked guitar. Tantalizingly, she passingly referred to having not one but two new albums in the can, so I suspect this band is going to be getting called into action again soon.

Recording: Marine Dreams

Artist: Marine Dreams

Song: Blank Moods

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern ("You've Changed Records 5th Anniversary Celebration"), May 22, 2014.

Marine Dreams - Blank Moods

Full review to follow. The fifth anniversary party for essential label You've Changed Records had plenty of retrospective celebratory moments, but it also showcased artists who are busily pushing forward with new things. Though Marine Dreams' Corner Of The Eye is less than a year old, this night was also the release party for its follow-up, Lemon Tree. Perhaps reflecting on its gotta-get-these-songs-out-there spirit, the recording is a bit more stripped down than its predecessor — but that also gives a lot of room for the live incarnation of the band to clothe the arrangements in some infectiously bouncy energy.