MOONRIIVR ANNOUNCES THE TASCAM SERIES EPS

THE TASCAM SERIES EPS - TWO LIVE, OFF-THE-FLOOR COLLECTIONS : THE DORVAL SESSIONS & LIVE AT JENNY’S BAR - OUT NOVEMBER 20 VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE “LET THE WORLD TURN” (LIVE AT VICTORIA’S)
BUY / STREAM “LET THE WORLD TURN” (LIVE AT VICTORIA’S)

PRE-SAVE THE TASCAM SERIES EPS HERE

TOUR DATES BEGIN THIS WEEK

MOONRIIVR IS THE NEW PROJECT FROM GAVIN GARDINER (THE WOODEN SKY) AND CHAMPAGNE JAMES ROBERTSON (LINDI ORTEGA), FEATURING BEN WHITELEY (THE WEATHER STATION), AND LYLE MOLZAN (KATHLEEN EDWARDS) 

Photo Credit : Heather Saitz // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MOONRIIVR are pleased to share the first installment of their Tascam Series: The Dorval Sessions and Live At Jenny's Bar, two collections that capture the band live in action, on the streets of Toronto, bringing a taste of their charming, faded elegance to front stoops and locally-owned businesses in their neighbourhood.

Since the 2023 release of their critically acclaimed debut album, Vol 1, MOONRIIVR has quickly made a name for itself. Respected producer and bandleader, Gavin Gardiner (Wooden Sky, All Day Coconut) and renowned guitarist, “Champagne” James Robertson (Lindi Ortega, Dwayne Gretzkey) have respectively made their mark on Canada’s musical landscape, and together, are eying new frontiers. Their aesthetic is taped together by vintage gear and a deep love for the weirder fringes of ‘60s pop psychedelia. Timeless melodies drift over vintage rhythms - made by drummer Lyle Molzan (Corb Lund, Kathleen Edwards) & bassist Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station) - touching on influences from the golden era of Western pop music while maintaining a distinctive and innovative sound.

Following tours across Canada and Europe, MOONRIIVR has embarked on an exciting new recording project: reimagined takes of songs from Vol 1.  As an ode to their nostalgic sound and their Toronto roots, they took to a portable analog tape recorder, and brought their performances to community staples around their neighbourhood. They turned to their well loved Tascam 388 to serve as the portable recording studio. “It fits easily in the back of my car and means we leave the computers at home,” says James.

WATCH / SHARE “LET THE WORLD TURN” (LIVE AT VICTORIA’S)
BUY / STREAM “LET THE WORLD TURN” (LIVE AT VICTORIA’S)

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

The project features two installments: The Dorval Sessions and Live at Jenny’s Bar. The Dorval Sessions were recorded live at Fabien’s Unisex Hair Salon, Yorgo the Cobbler and Victoria’s Flower Shop - beloved storefronts at the corner of Bloor and Dorval. On ‘Let the World Turn’ Whiteley's double bass and Molzan's snappy hand percussion create a tactile, kinetic underpinning for Robertson's graceful baritone uke playing and Gardiner's winsome lyrics.  As the last note decays, a cheer goes up from the crowd of passersby gathered on the sidewalk to listen.

The second installment was recorded at Jenny's Bar, a local favourite on Dundas Street West. Gardiner is quick to point out that “Jenny herself is a big supporter of the community – and of course the band,”  The bar’s regulars were encouraging as the band squeezed into the back corner of the room and cheered them on as the band ran through electrifying versions of “Midnight at the Garden Hotel” and “Bachelor Nation”, MOONRIIVR’s tribute to the devoted fan base of the long running reality TV show.

A love letter to their hometown and a perfectly framed snapshot of a well oiled machine, the first installment of the Tascam Series: The Dorval Sessions w/ Live At Jenny's Bar offers a wonderful live compliment to the MOONRIIVR discography, and will be available online and cassette November 20th via Victory Pool Records.

PRE-SAVE THE TASCAM SERIES EPS HERE

BUY / STREAM VOL. 1 HERE

TOUR DATES
Sep 14 - Supercrawl - Hamilton, ON
Sep 20 - Bar 379 - Peterborough, ON
Sep 21 - The 27 Club - Ottawa, ON
Nov 07 - Idle Eyes Collective -  Calgary, AB
Nov 08 - Owl Acoustic Lounge - Lethbridge, AB
Nov 09 - The Aviary - Edmonton, AB
Nov 22 - Green Auto - Vancouver, BC
Dec 13 - Times Change(d) - Winnipeg, MB

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

THE TASCAM SERIES EPS TRACKLIST

THE DORVAL SESSIONS
01 Flowers On The Fire Escape
02 Blonde Hair Now
03 Let The World Turn
04 A Mother TO Me
05 The Hypnotist

LIVE AT JENNY’S BAR
01 10,000 SUNS
02 Bachelor Nation
03 Midnight At The Garden Hotel
04 Run

MOONRIIVR ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM

MOONRIIVR REVEALS VIDEO FOR “MOTHER TO ME”

WATCH / SHARE “MOTHER TO ME” HERE

DEBUT LP, VOL. 1, OUT NOW VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS

BUY / STREAM VOL. 1 HERE

MOONRIIVR IS THE NEW PROJECT FROM GAVIN GARDINER (THE WOODEN SKY) AND CHAMPAGNE JAMES ROBERTSON (LINDI ORTEGA), FEATURING BEN WHITELEY (THE WEATHER STATION), AND LYLE MOLZAN (KATHLEEN EDWARDS) 

TOUR DATES IN JANUARY 2024 // TICKETS HERE

“Sounds as if Buddy Holly and Chris Isaak made a record with Damien Jurado. The slowmotion-surf on “10,000 suns” as well as the Folk-Blues “Run” with it’s sizzling analogue amps are outstanding.” - Rolling Stone (Germany)

Photo Credit : Colin Medley // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MOONRIIVR, the quartet of vocalist Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky), guitarist "Champagne" James Robertson (Lindi Ortega), bassist Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), and percussionist Lyle Molzan (Kathleen Edwards) recently released their idiosyncratic indie-folk debut LP, titled Vol. 1. Today, the band is releasing a video for their track, "Mother To Me", which was featured on the aforementioned LP.

"This song celebrates those relationships in life that are strong enough to withstand even the fiercest gales." said Gardiner of the track. "I’ve been learning to accept that time changes everything and sometimes you just have to be ok with where you are today and let tomorrow be tomorrow."

Crafted with a Tascam 388 tape recorder, Vol.1 is representative of an amalgam of influences, laced with sweetly reverberating slide guitars, wonky string synths, and nimble percussive environments that Rolling Stone DE said, "Sounds as if Buddy Holly and Chris Isaak made a record with Damien Jurado."

MOONRIIVR's knack for creating sonic worlds that are at once lightly trippy and wholly inviting means that, as much as Vol. 1 draws on inspirations from decades past, it maintains a pleasing, distinctly out-of-time feel. The band's album rollout included tracks like, "Midnight at the Garden Hotel", "Bachelor Nation", and "The Hypnotist", which all released alongside their own videos. 

WATCH / SHARE “MOTHER TO ME” HERE

MORE ABOUT MOONRIIVR
The story of MOONRIIVR’s incarnation began in the spring of 2020, early days of the pandemic. Gavin Gardiner – best known as the front person for JUNO Award-nominated indie-folk mainstays The Wooden Sky, and as a producer and engineer at All Day Coconut studios for artists such as Fiver, Jason Collett, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – visited his friend “Champagne” James Robertson at the Robertson family farm north of Toronto. After years touring as lead guitar with acts like Lindi Ortega and Dwayne Gretzky, Robertson was similarly adrift during those strange early pandemic days. The two had been circling around each other in the Toronto music scene when the chance to collaborate landed in front of them. Armed with a vintage Tascam 388 tape recorder, mellotron and a nylon string guitar the two got stuck in and quickly realized they had stumbled onto something special. 

WATCH / SHARE “FLOWERS ON THE FIRE ESCAPE” HERE

The songs on MOONRIIVR’s aptly titled debut, Vol. 1, came together on an old analogue tape machine, laced with sweetly reverberating slide guitars, wonky string synths, and nimble percussive environments. MOONRIIVR's knack for creating sonic worlds that are at once lightly trippy and wholly inviting means that, as much as Vol. 1 draws on inspirations from decades past, it maintains a pleasing, distinctly out-of-time feel. The band half-jokingly likened the album to ‘Buddy Holly meets Krautrock’, and strange as it sounds it's not far off the mark. 

WATCH / SHARE “BACHELOR NATION” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “10,000 SUNS”  HERE

Thematically, the songs are wide ranging, providing a winning contrast to the laser focus of MOONRIIVR's sonic architecture. Running the gamut from personal reflections on finding pleasure in the minutiae of everyday life on “Blonde Hair Now” to meditations on some of the more disturbing and inescapable developments in world politics over the last few years (“Midnight at the Garden Hotel”, “Flowers on the Fire Escape”), Gardiner deftly addresses these seemingly disparate thought-poles with a balance of opacity and directness. While not beating the listener over the head, Gardiner doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics, be it climate change or navigating friendship schisms that developed around divergent pandemic politics. It's the kind of record that can thrum warmly in the background but also pays dividends for those listeners willing to dig a little deeper. 

WATCH / SHARE “MIDNIGHT AT THE GARDEN HOTEL” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO) 
WATCH / SHARE “THE HYPNOTIST” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO) 

After this initial round of writing and recording sessions at the farm, the two decamped back to Toronto where they roped in first-call bassist Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station, Basia Bulat, Julia Jacklin) and percussionist extraordinaire Lyle Molzan (Kathleen Edwards, Corb Lund), and continued tweaking and refining their sound during weekly sessions at All Day Coconut. The two added a new layer of depth to the proceedings, with Whiteley's tasteful, earthy bass playing providing a warm anchor to the music, and Molzan largely eschewing a standard drumkit in favour of triangles, congas, and other sundry percussive items.

WATCH / SHARE “BLONDE HAIR NOW” HERE

Finally, MOONRIIVR returned to the farm to pull the whole thing together. They set up shop in the garage, placing guitar amplifiers in cars and opening and closing the car doors to adjust sound leakage during recording. The 30 degree July heat made it necessary to keep the garage doors open, letting the natural ambient sounds of their rural environs seep into the background of the songs. Gardiner in particular delighted in this refreshing change from the status quo, re-setting himself with this open-ended, at times magical creative process, which he says “really opened up a whole new musical world to me that I had heard in the music I loved.”

BUY / STREAM VOL. 1 HERE

TOUR DATES:
Jan 25, 2024 - Red Deer, AB, Canada - Bo's Bar and Grill 
Jan 26, 2024 - Edmonton, AB, Canada - Winterruption Festival 

MOONRIIVR REVEALS VIDEO FOR “10,000 SUNS”

WATCH / SHARE “10,000 SUNS”  HERE

DEBUT LP, VOL. 1, OUT NOW VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS

BUY / STREAM VOL. 1 HERE

MOONRIIVR IS THE NEW PROJECT FROM GAVIN GARDINER (THE WOODEN SKY) AND CHAMPAGNE JAMES ROBERTSON (LINDI ORTEGA), FEATURING BEN WHITELEY (THE WEATHER STATION), AND LYLE MOLZAN (KATHLEEN EDWARDS) 

TOUR DATES IN JANUARY 2024

“Sounds as if Buddy Holly and Chris Isaak made a record with Damien Jurado. The slowmotion-surf on “10,000 suns” as well as the Folk-Blues “Run” with it’s sizzling analogue amps are outstanding.” - Rolling Stone (Germany)

Photo Credit : Colin Medley // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Following the release of MOONRIIVR's debut album, titled Vol. 1, the quartet of vocalist Gavin Gardiner (The Wooden Sky), guitarist "Champagne" James Robertson (Lindi Ortega), bassist Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), and percussionist Lyle Molzan (Kathleen Edwards) are releasing a video for their track, "10,000 Suns".

Crafted with a Tascam 388 tape recorder, Vol.1 is representative of an idiosyncratic brand of exotic indie-folk, laced with sweetly reverberating slide guitars, wonky string synths, and nimble percussive environments that Rolling Stone DE said, "Sounds as if Buddy Holly and Chris Isaak made a record with Damien Jurado."

Discussing the contents of the track, Gardiner said, "10,000 Suns addresses the weight of the past. How one can be crushed by shame, anger and regret. I’m not searching for answers within the song, but simply living in the present and looking towards love & forgiveness."

WATCH / SHARE “10,000 SUNS”  HERE

MORE ABOUT MOONRIIVR
The story of MOONRIIVR’s incarnation began in the spring of 2020, early days of the pandemic. Gavin Gardiner – best known as the front person for JUNO Award-nominated indie-folk mainstays The Wooden Sky, and as a producer and engineer at All Day Coconut studios for artists such as Fiver, Jason Collett, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – visited his friend “Champagne” James Robertson at the Robertson family farm north of Toronto. After years touring as lead guitar with acts like Lindi Ortega and Dwayne Gretzky, Robertson was similarly adrift during those strange early pandemic days. The two had been circling around each other in the Toronto music scene when the chance to collaborate landed in front of them. Armed with a vintage Tascam 388 tape recorder, mellotron and a nylon string guitar the two got stuck in and quickly realized they had stumbled onto something special. 

WATCH / SHARE “FLOWERS ON THE FIRE ESCAPE” HERE

The songs on MOONRIIVR’s aptly titled debut, Vol. 1, came together on an old analogue tape machine, laced with sweetly reverberating slide guitars, wonky string synths, and nimble percussive environments. MOONRIIVR's knack for creating sonic worlds that are at once lightly trippy and wholly inviting means that, as much as Vol. 1 draws on inspirations from decades past, it maintains a pleasing, distinctly out-of-time feel. The band half-jokingly likened the album to ‘Buddy Holly meets Krautrock’, and strange as it sounds it's not far off the mark. 

WATCH / SHARE “BACHELOR NATION” HERE

Thematically, the songs are wide ranging, providing a winning contrast to the laser focus of MOONRIIVR's sonic architecture. Running the gamut from personal reflections on finding pleasure in the minutiae of everyday life on “Blonde Hair Now” to meditations on some of the more disturbing and inescapable developments in world politics over the last few years (“Midnight at the Garden Hotel”, “Flowers on the Fire Escape”), Gardiner deftly addresses these seemingly disparate thought-poles with a balance of opacity and directness. While not beating the listener over the head, Gardiner doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics, be it climate change or navigating friendship schisms that developed around divergent pandemic politics. It's the kind of record that can thrum warmly in the background but also pays dividends for those listeners willing to dig a little deeper. 

WATCH / SHARE “MIDNIGHT AT THE GARDEN HOTEL” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO) 

WATCH / SHARE “THE HYPNOTIST” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO) 

After this initial round of writing and recording sessions at the farm, the two decamped back to Toronto where they roped in first-call bassist Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station, Basia Bulat, Julia Jacklin) and percussionist extraordinaire Lyle Molzan (Kathleen Edwards, Corb Lund), and continued tweaking and refining their sound during weekly sessions at All Day Coconut. The two added a new layer of depth to the proceedings, with Whiteley's tasteful, earthy bass playing providing a warm anchor to the music, and Molzan largely eschewing a standard drumkit in favour of triangles, congas, and other sundry percussive items.

WATCH / SHARE “BLONDE HAIR NOW” HERE

Finally, MOONRIIVR returned to the farm to pull the whole thing together. They set up shop in the garage, placing guitar amplifiers in cars and opening and closing the car doors to adjust sound leakage during recording. The 30 degree July heat made it necessary to keep the garage doors open, letting the natural ambient sounds of their rural environs seep into the background of the songs. Gardiner in particular delighted in this refreshing change from the status quo, re-setting himself with this open-ended, at times magical creative process, which he says “really opened up a whole new musical world to me that I had heard in the music I loved.”

BUY / STREAM VOL. 1 HERE

TOUR DATES:
Jan 25, 2024 - Red Deer, AB, Canada - Bo's Bar and Grill *
Jan 26, 2024 - Edmonton, AB, Canada - Winterruption Festival *

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

VOL. 1 TRACKLIST
01 Blonde Hair Now
02 Midnight At The Garden Hotel
03 Flowers On The Fire Escape
04 No Turning Back
05 The Hypnotist
06 Let The World Turn
07 Mother To Me
08 Bachelor Nation
09 10,000 Suns
10 Run
11 Let’s Tell Everyone We Know
12 Only The Lonely Know How

MOONRIIVR ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM