Partner band – 7th Level Music

Review: Partner – Time Is a Car

Partner‘s newest EP, Time Is a Car, is both a throwback to their love of fellow Canadians Rush and a drive into the future of their careers as rock icons of their own.

The title track, with its danceable bass from Lucy Niles, brings in post-punk guitars by Joseé Caron and existentialist vocals from both of them such as, “If you’re part of the fabric, do you know you’re a thread?” “Boundaries (No Offense)” has a country twang to it that accentuates the theme of leaving a relationship and putting up a metaphorical fence so you won’t return because you know it would be bad for both of you.

After the lovely, almost ambient “Rest Stop Interlude,” we floor it with “Fear That Closes the Heart” – a track in which Partner happily wear their Rush influence on their sleeves. On it, Caron and Niles sing that they’re “Scared to let go of the fear, scared of what might take its place.” The ego is a tough bastard, and it will go all it can to keep its hold on you.

Partner encourages us to finish the race on the closer, “Not Today,” with powerful lyrics like “Not today, but one day, the world won’t be the same…The things that we believe in will evolve and they will change…When illusions turn to dust and institutions rust, maybe that’ll be the day truth will light the way.” It’s a strong example of how Partner have grown as songwriters, and it has Caron’s fiercest solo on the record.

It’s more good stuff from Partner, who seem to get a hit every time they’re at the plate.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mar at Mar on Music!]

Partner discuss metaphysics (sort of) on their new single, “Time Is a Car.”

Partner are back with a new single and video “Time Is A Car“. It is a new single for a new era as we enter 2022 and the youngest member of Partner (Josée Caron) enters her 30s. This single follows Partner’s Never Give Up (You’ve Changed Records) and their break out debut album, In Search of Lost Time.

TIME IS A CAR

A Message from Partner: “This is a song that we wrote while reflecting on the years that have passed and the way that the passing of time offers fresh perspectives. Fittingly enough it’s ready just in time for us to present it to you on Josée’s 30th birthday. Time sure does fly!!

We had a distinct idea for the visual accompaniment to this track and we knew there was one person who could bring it to light; our beloved and frequent collaborator Lesley Marshall. However, when we were informed that the time to make a video was upon us, it seemed close to impossible that we would be able to make the trip to meet with her. While she is close to our hearts, we were separated by 4580km (2845 miles for our USA/UK friends). However, Lesley and the team at MAVN thankfully remained undaunted by such concerns. The result is one of our very favourite videos to date.”

“Time Is A Car is a meta music video. A music video in a music video. It’s what would have happened if Thelma and Louise escaped with all the money and drove happily ever after off into the sunset and had wonderful prosperous lives. Fueled by music video epics, pulp films, and ripe with sarcasm, Time Is A Car, has the parody quality of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage and the vibrancy of Megan Thee Stalion’s Thot Sh*t.”
– Director Lesley Marshall

During a brief period in 2020 when it was safe to travel, the band headed to Gabriola Island on BC’s West Coast where they quarantined themselves for 14 days in a cabin writing and rehearsing, and then headed into the studio for 7 days at The Noise Floor Recording Studio. “Time Is A Car” is the first song from this session. More to come later in 2022.

Lucy and Josée formed Partner in the spring of 2014. They were looking to experiment with genre, discuss being gay, and share some jokes and ideas. Their objective has remained the same over the past seven years, although in that time their sound has shifted considerably.

Partner’s debut album In Search of Lost Time (2017) made an impact with its big guitars and polished sound. The record, mixed by Chris Shaw (Ween, Bob Dylan, Cheap Trick), landed a spot on NPR’s All Songs Considered, along with Stereogum, Noisey, Exclaim, CBC Music, Indie 88 and many more best of 2017 lists. The album was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize, and Partner were the recipients of the SOCAN songwriting prize for their song “Play the Field”.

Partner’s follow-up EP Saturday the 14th found the duo embarking on bolder and more playful compositional excursions. Throughout this highly experimental period, ideas for the next album began to coalesce. In the summer of 2019 Lucy and Josée joined all-star drummer Simone TB (US Girls, Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg) in the studio to create their second full-length album, titled Never Give Up. With Never Give Up, Partner returned to their classic rock roots and awakened their truest gifts to deliver their most exciting, riff-laden effort yet.

Partner Links
Time Is A Car – https://listen.lt/PartnerTimeIsACar
Website: http://www.partnerband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partner.music.band/
Bandcamp: https://partnerband.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partner_band/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/partner_band
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/partnerband
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@partnerband/

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[Thanks to Mar at Mar on Music.]

Review: Partner – Never Give Up

I don’t know if there’s an award for Most Fitting Album Title of 2020, but Partner‘s new album, Never Give Up, might win it if there is. It seems that everyone has shouting this for the entire year. Everyone is fighting a battle. This has been true throughout all time, of course, but internal and external battles seem, and often are, magnified in this year no one will be sad to see leave.

Thanks heavens we have bands like Partner (Josée Caron, Lucy Niles, Simone TB) to recharge our batteries with massive riffs and songs about sex, rock and roll, and being comfortable in your own skin.

I love that they open Never Give Up with an introduction song – “Hello and Welcome,” which has Caron and Niles sharing vocals about how happy they are to be rocking off our collective socks. The breakdown on it is like stomping the gas pedal on a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. “We’re Partner…We’re not foolin’ around,” Caron sings. Those riffs certainly aren’t. “Rock Is My Rock” is full of power chords and hand percussion s Caron and Niles sing about how rock and roll not only keeps them afloat through hard times, but how it can shake us out of the funk this crazy year has dropped on the world like an oppressive net. “I wouldn’t want to imagine a world without rock,” Niles sings. Who can argue with that?

Caron’s vocals take on a bluesy swagger on “The Pit,” a song about letting go of anything holding you down. “Honey,” a song about Caron’s guitar is, appropriately, full of big guitar riffs. “This guitar sounds like honey going down,” they sing, and they’re right. It does. “Big Gay Hands,” a favorite in their live sets, is a strutting, sweaty, sexy track about hotties and the hotties who love them.

“Good Place to Hide (at the Time)” reminds me a bit of Rush, who are known influences on Partner, with its echoing vocals, switching time signatures, and space-rock riffs. “Roller Coasters (Life Is One)” is a piano-first rock opera ballad about navigating through the madness of 2020 and the world in general. “At the heart of each day lies a brand new, scary, sweet surprise,” Caron sings.

“I couldn’t remember my postal code if I tried,” Partner sing on “Couldn’t Forget” – a peppy song about memory and self-deception with some country twang for good measure. Simone TB’s drum lick on “Here I Am World” is slick, reminding me a bit of the opening beats on Blondie‘s “Rapture.” Caron sings about grabbing “each scrap of joy” and Niles reminds us that “each day is a precious gift.” It sums up the theme of the album, and the best way to get through this nutty year, quite well. The record closes with the chugging, powerful “Crocodiles,” in which Partner warn us that many beasts (often ones self-created) lie in wait around us to catch us up in their maws if we let them.

Never Give Up is the metaphorical shot in the arm we all need right now and easily one of the most uplifting albums of the year.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mar Sellers.]

Partner open up their “Big Gay Hands” with new single.

Partner have shared the video for one of their most anticipated songs and a natural queer anthem “Big Gay Hands.” A live favourite from the past 3 years, Big Gay Hands is the third single, from Partner’s Never Give Up (November 20th on You’ve Changed Records) the follow up to their break-out debut album, In Search of Lost Time.

BIG GAY HANDS

“This song is about a wild night on the town filled with queer desire. It is an important song to us because it expresses a feeling we know is shared by many. There are a lot of songs out there about women’s bodies but this is the only song we know about big gay hands. This song is dedicated to the hotties and to those who love them.”
– Partner

Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019.

The band described the process of making the album. “In October of 2018 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album.”

Not all the songs came so easily. Some took over a year to complete. Some taunted the band with their elusivity. Some forced Partner to rip them apart and build them back together more than once. Never Give Up was written in rehearsal spaces, in the band’s bedrooms, in a condo, in friends’ and strangers’ houses, Air BnBs, in a cafe and on Josee’s couch and in the studio, and in the booth. “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, ‘never give up’.”

Partner Links
Big Gay Hands – https://smarturl.it/p8u9de
Website: http://www.partnerband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partner.music.band/
Bandcamp: https://partnerband.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partner_band/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/partner_band
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/partnerband

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[Thanks to Mar at Mar on Music.]

Partner “Never Give Up” with new album due this November.

The follow up to their break out debut album, In Search of Lost Time, is out November 20th on You’ve Changed Records and the band has released a DOUBLE single “Hello and Welcome // Rock Is My Rock”, with two incredible videos:

HELLO AND WELCOME // ROCK IS MY ROCK

Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019.

Partner Links
Partner Album – https://youvechangedrecords.com/product/partner-never-give-up/
Website: http://www.partnerband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partner.music.band/
Bandcamp: https://partnerband.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partner_band/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/partner_band
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/partnerband

Keep your mind open.

[I never give up on the idea of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Mar at Mar On Music.]

Partner release new single – “Good Place to Hide (at the Time”)

BandCamp // SoundCloud

“How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?” – Plato

“You find yourself in a room with a locked door. You have always been there. It is all you have ever known. You have no reason to believe you could leave, no reason to believe you would ever want to. And then one day you hear the murmurs. Faint at first, you can’t make out the words. But their very existence tells a truth that you have always known. There is something else. And you search and search and just when you are feeling spent and the bright beam of hope has faded to a glimmer, it reveals itself to you, miraculously. The key. And so you cast aside your doubt and grin with victory. But when you slide the key in, behind the door there is another locked door. The search continues.

We wrote this song over the course of about a year. We had long wanted to explore the idea of hiding, of hidden truths. A chance phrase from our friend Alfred set this song in motion. We hope you enjoy our newest offering.”
– Partner 2020

Partner, the loveable guitar shredding Canadian stoner goofballs Lucy Niles and Josée Caron are back and ready to rock, with a new single for a new decade. The band spent the end of 2019 in the studio and have some surprises for 2020.

BandCamp // SoundCloud

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Review: Partner – Saturday the 14th

Always one to follow their creative whims, Partner (multi-instrumentalists Josee Caron and Lucy Niles) released Saturday the 14th earlier this year. It’s a five-song EP that lets them stretch their creative muscles and embrace multiple influences.

“Fun for Everyone (Minions)” is an electro-laced dance tune that has Caron and Niles telling everyone to “dance like a Minion and not give a care about anyone’s opinion.” It’s a shame if this hasn’t been remixed by multiple DJs by now, and it will be an even bigger shame if the next Despicable Me film doesn’t feature it on the soundtrack.

Partner having a song called “Stoned Thought” shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s a fan of the band, since they have openly sang of their love of the herb (i.e., “Hot Knives,” “Everybody Knows You’re High”). It’s a witty song about cool things they thought of (song ideas, high philosophy, etc.) while high and now can’t remember.

“Tell You Off” is a tongue-in-cheek country tune complete with dobro and Niles rocking a harmonica solo in-between lyrics about chewing out a neighbor over their bad behavior. “Long & McQuade” is a salute to the band’s favorite music equipment store in Canada. Caron’s solo on it is outstanding.

The album ends with the downright beautiful “Les Ailes d’un Ange” (“The Wings of an Angel”) – a French vocal ballad that Partner have admitted is their attempt to write a song that fellow Canadian Celine Dion might sing.

It’s a fun EP that is a welcome appetizer for their next full-length album (which they have claimed will be a rocker. I have no doubt of this.).If you’re feeling down and need your luck to change, try Saturday the 14th.

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