Mary Milne

"...and if juggling a drum kit, tap shoes, harmonica and guitar aren't enough- her lyrics will be."
J. Gillespie-Producer

"Combining the plaintive melodic complexity of Joanna Newsom with the lyrical playfulness of Shel Silverstein, Mary Milne's songs are a tonic."
Jim Conley-Pipeline Installations Manager

"The first time I heard Hard Bones, I wept like a baby. It's that good."
Julie Bot-Member of the GTO's

"If you were to set fire to what remains of rock and roll, Mary Milne would rise out of the ashes."
-Patrick

"Milne is the child that Bob Dylan and Mary Tyler Moore never had together."
Gabrielle Prefontaine-Archivist

"..........like outsider music for socialites" Patrick

"I wish my life was a musical and Mary Milne had written the soundtrack"
Joe Lofranco-Car Salesman - word on the street

Ben Rayner's reasons to live


Aug 09, 2009 04:30 AM
Ben Rayner

Mary Milne, Don't You Know I Love The Leavin'. Take that, digital! Never paid a whit of attention to the lovely Mary Milne until I was charmed by the album art to her latest EP, which convincingly replicates the look of a lovingly weathered old folk LP from the `60s. And yes, kids, you can judge a book by its cover – this one's a keeper. Don't You Know I Love The Leavin' offers just a brisk, seven-song taste of the Toronto singer, songwriter and sometime tap dancer's offbeat talents, but it covers rather a lot of ground: winsome acoustic ditties, plaintive piano balladry, rustic country rambles and, on "Song For Pony," a bit of carnivalesque music-hall weirdness. Milne's wonderfully imprecise voice and childlike melodies put her ever so slightly in the "naïve folk" category, but she never indulges in the self-conscious cuteness of, say, a Kimya Dawson, and her spartan, mostly self-played arrangements have a lot of subtle colour to them that's not necessarily evident on the first pass through. "Beatrice" is as gorgeous as sad gets.

Broken Social Scene, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Not sure how my chums in BSS managed to keep this swooning, snail-paced Joy Division cover – from the forthcoming soundtrack to the Rachel McAdams (mmm) flick The Time Traveler's Wife – a secret from this Ian Curtis obsessive until it started streaming on Pitchfork.com this week, but well done, lads. Call it "Lover's Spit Will Tear Us Apart."

YACHT, See Mystery Lights. Jona Bechtolt and Claire Eva..... - Toronto Star

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news/content/1333680.html - Buffalo Avenues

As marketers strive for an image of authenticity, the classic jingle has fallen out of favour. With the music industry changing, indie bands have become more willing to lend some credibility by licensing snippets of their songs for advertising use. And as that has been on the rise, the music written specifically for ads has also started sounding more like good music.

While it is not new, the trend has gotten to a point where the indie sound has become the norm in advertising; the jingle is the anomaly. Here are some examples of advertising music that belongs as much on SoundCloud and iTunes as it does in a 30-second spot.

Read more in the full story by Susan Krashinsky.

Toast This Life

Advertiser: Alexander Keith’s

Music house: Grayson Matthews

For viewers who went to the Internet to seek out this ad, Keith’s embedded a link in the YouTube video asking, “Like the song?” It then directed people to the Keith’s page on popular music sharing service SoundCloud, where they could listen to the full cut.



I Don’t Care if I Ever Come Down

Advertiser: Bell Canada

Composer: Jay McCarrol and Stefanie McCarrol

Music house: Eggplant Collective

The recent ad for the Sony Xperia caused viewers to go to Yahoo message boards and Bell Canada’s Facebook page to ask where they could find a longer version. All the interest has led the brother-sister McCarrol duo to form a new band called Go Bird Go. They have released three songs so far on SoundCloud, including a full version of the Bell ad hit. The band is currently in talks to possibly release an EP.





[No name]

Advertiser: MasterCard Canada

Composer: Jeen O’Brien

Music house: RMW Music

This track was specifically designed to sound like a “needle drop” from an existing song. Both MasterCard and its ad agency, MacLaren McCann, “have received numerous requests to get a copy of the full-length version,” creative director Cam Boyd said.

“The traditional jingle, extolling the benefits of a product through song blatantly, the consumer's too smart for that,” Mr. Boyd said. “…You need to do more than just a 30-second commercial, and communicate to people these days. We can't just hold up our product anymore and say, ‘Buy this.’ The music is a part of that.”



Shadows and Lights

Composer: Mary Milne

Advertiser: Ikea Canada

Music house: Eggplant Collective

The singer wrote the song for this sweet Ikea spot, and it ended up on her album. “It really is like releasing a single – that’s your video,” Rocco Gagliese, a partner and music producer at Eggplant Collective, said of an ad’s ability to confer buzz on the musician who writes for it. - The Globe and Mail

Mary Milne – Morningtown

Lost in a moment. MARY MILNE’s single ‘Morningtown’ is the moment when we capture the sense for the vastness of this world. And even more incredibly, how through this haystack of life, we can find such a singular love. The possibilities are unfathomably impossible. From a mathematical point of view, it doesn’t makes sense. But it happens, every day. The goodness of it all, buids this dam of expectations, though. And as reliance for each other flourishes, the bridge to that happiness may shake and rattle. For some, that bridge will crumble, taking with it all of the secrets and small moments, shared with it. The kind of pain, is as stupendous as the ‘needle’ of true love that once defined the relationship. But that’s life. That’s how things go. That’s how humans conduct such a trade. ‘Morningtown’ is a folk single from Mary, and was part of the wave of songs she’d developed in the wake of new motherhood. Sprinkles of new perspectives and angles gained a foothold, dynamically adding to her songwriting and ultimate enjoyment for all of us to relate. - comeherefloyd

You know that insurance commercial that makes fun of the idea of a "she shed"? It's not really a joke, when you think about it. When Virginia Woolf called for a "room of one's own," she understood the importance of having a physical place for women to set aside their other obligations to pursue their creative passions. After giving birth, Canadian singer Mary Milne found herself turning towards music that could be created (and played) around the needs of a tiny human. While Milne followed a new interest in electronic music, she was also pulled towards calm, contemplative folk music.

While "morningtown" has a sing-song, lullaby-like quality, its themes are quite mature. "As we get older our perceptions are constantly changing-how we see our parents, our lovers, our jobs, our art forms," Milne wrote to me. "Morningtown looks at the freedom that comes with gaining a new perspective as well as the nostalgia we can still have for things we know aren’t meant to be.”

“It was the first song I released after a long time. I chose to record a very simple one-mic version of it because I realized I had gotten too caught up in both trying to make music more electronically and also trying to chose songs that I thought might have the right algorithms & would make it onto a playlist. I realized I was drifting from the essence of why I love songs and songwriting. Morningtown seemed like the right place to start.”

That honesty shines through for me. I know there's not much of my own commentary here, but I think the song is so delicate, yet so strong and assured, that it speaks for itself. I was so taken by the lyrics, I asked Mary to share them with us.

I used to look for you in mirrors
in darkened window panes
to see what your faded heart was doing
and try and make mine do the same

you used to call me after midnight
when you were feeling in between
the darkness and the morning light
the real girl and the dream

fallalalalal what could I say
gather up those feathers and fly away

oh take me down to morning town
so I can see things clear and plain
I used to think you were the whole ocean
but you were just one drop of rain

these days I look for you on sidewalks
or in those cars that pass me by
and I wonder if I should go and find you
for one more round of
hello and goodbye

but seasons change and something keeps you
up there in my rearview mirror
along with all those other objects
that may be closer than they appear

tralalalalala what could I say
gather up those feathers and fly away

oh take me down to morning town
so I can see things clear and plain
I used to think you were the whole ocean
but you were just one drop of rain - adobe and teardrops