Hey Blenderites!

I’m really trying to be more regular about showing up here, so I’m back this week with a fantastic mellow track that I was sent almost exactly a month ago (and have only gotten around to posting about now, sorry guys!)

First, please know that although Teen Ravine only formed a little over a year ago, and have a mere 262 Facebook likes/followers, the duo is far from unknown. You might recognize Nick Rose from a little band called Sweet Thing, or as Colin from TV’s Orphan Black, or, most notably (in my opinion), one of the lead vocalists of Toronto’s most famous supergroup cover band loosely named after a prominent hockey player, Dwayne Gretzky. The other part of the duo is no stranger either. Dan Griffin was the founding keyboard player and one of the songwriters on the first two albums of a band that is arguably one of the biggest bands in Canada right now, Arkells. He left the band between 2011 and 2012 to attend law school. Also in 2011, he put out one of my absolute favourite singer/songwriter albums ever (Leave Your Love), and toured with his band Dan Griffin and The Regrets into 2012. He followed that up with his EP, Bordertowns in 2013, and has been relatively quiet since, until now.

“Hall of Horrors” is our first peak at the band’s upcoming self titled debut LP (due out this month). According to the band, the album started as “an exploration of physical and emotional alienation. One of us had just left a long term relationship and the other had spent a year confined to a dark room recovering from a concussion.”

The song tries to illustrate that feeling you have when you wake up in the middle of the night and have absolutely no clue where you are. You try to shake it off and go back to sleep, but you just can’t. So you lie there as your mind wanders to places you’d rather not let it go, and yet you can’t seem to stop it. You reach out for someone you’re used to having there next to you, as reality sets in.

It really evokes that feeling you get blissfully sitting on your couch (or laying in bed) for the 3rd, 4th, or 5th straight hour…melting into the softness of the music, and the cushions, and overall becoming one with the space between dreams and being awake.

Look out for these guys, their full length is sure to be amazing.

Until next time,

Marc