Apologue Podcast

Apologue Productions

Apologue Productions

  1. APR 29

    #418 Jennifer Foster

    “Jennifer Foster’s new album Powerline is a wonderful collection of songs. No shortage of sweet melodies or intimate lyrics, and all sung in a voice that is lovely and unpretentious” – Ron Sexsmith Jennifer Foster is a Canadian singer-songwriter whose music blends classic pop-folk songwriting with warmth, curiosity, and emotional honesty. Her songs are hooky and heartfelt, inviting listeners in with melody and drawing them closer through her vivid storytelling. Her new album, Powerline, out in April, is an acoustic-driven collection that offers Foster’s most personal songwriting to date. Part love letter, part map, many of the songs were inspired by the New Brunswick farm where she grew up – colourful snapshots of the landscape that shaped her, and of her rich inner world as she navigates relationship, loss, and change. It’s a goodbye to a time, place, and version of herself. Powerline marks Jennifer’s fourth release; her previous album earned a JUNO nomination for Producer of the Year (Michael Phillip Wojewoda). She has collaborated widely across the Canadian music landscape, working with artists such as Ron Sexsmith, Carole Pope, Lori Cullen, Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies), Moe Berg, and The Pursuit of Happiness. You might also recognize her from her five seasons singing as a “Jazzagal” on Schitt’s Creek. Whether she’s playing with her four-piece band or holding a room solo, it’s her warmth and authenticity that draw audiences in. “It was my dad’s dream to have a farm. But he was learning as he went, so my whole upbringing was about experimentation and play”. Like a hobby farm where you find your way and make things up as you go along, Jennifer’s songs have a way of taking listeners to unexpected places – disarming, soul-deep, and very satisfying. Social Links: Facebook Instagram Bluesky Spotify Apple Music YouTube Bandcamp Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    46 min
  2. APR 7

    #417 Justin Maurer of J MAU and the Kiss off

    Los Angeles, California’s J MAU & THE KISS OFF emerge from what they lovingly call their “beloved hellhole” with their debut single “Poison,” out March 25. Founded in 2025 by Justin “J Mau” Maurer, longtime punk lifer and founder of Clorox Girls, Suspect Parts, L.A. Drugz, and Maniac, the project finds Maurer turning toward something darker and dustier without losing the bite that’s always defined him. “Poison” is a cinematic honky tonk murder ballad filtered through decades of West Coast punk history. It’s the first glimpse of a songwriter who’s always followed the feeling, even when it led somewhere uncomfortable. Maurer’s story isn’t mythology. It’s messy and real. A CODA raised between Los Angeles and Bainbridge Island by a single Deaf mother, American Sign Language was his first language. Punk became his second. After surviving a turbulent childhood and helping put his abusive father in jail as a teenager, Maurer found autonomy in the underground. By fifteen he was booking shows and touring. By twenty he was releasing records and circling the globe with Clorox Girls. Along the way he built a parallel career as one of the country’s most respected ASL interpreters, working alongside prominent political figures like Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden, stage interpreting for punk legends like Alice Bag and The Avengers, interpreting Deaf actor Troy Kotsur’s historic 2022 Academy Award acceptance speech, and appearing with Kotsur on Curb Your Enthusiasm. His life has always moved between worlds. After stints living in Madrid, London, and Baja California, and in the wake of a divorce that leveled him, Maurer found himself flat on his back in an East Hollywood apartment, cowboy boots still on, old country records spinning. Hank Williams. Buck Owens. Merle Haggard. Gram Parsons. Kris Kristofferson. Townes Van Zandt. He finally understood it. “Real country music is poetry,” Maurer says. “It’s about failure, heartbreak, and the tragic human condition. Music to laugh and cry and live and die by.” That rock-bottom clarity led him to write “Poison.” Recorded at Savannah Studios in Boyle Heights with Ignacio “Iggy” Gonzalez and backed by Patrick “Butterworth” Vasquez and Kevin “Quake” Milner, the track moves like a slow-burning reckoning. Acoustic strum, restrained rhythm, and a haunted vocal that feels equal parts confession and warning. From his window in Pico Union, Maurer could hear children playing at the elementary school across the street. Listening to old country compilations full of doomed protagonists, he imagined himself as a man on the run whose days were numbered, watching that schoolyard and knowing he might never see it again. That’s where the line came from: “When will you see the children play / You never will again.” The refrain doesn’t comfort you. It circles back like a hard truth you can’t shake: “It’s got a way / That poison’s got a way / It’s got a say / It’s got the final say.” The single arrives with an 8mm-shot video co-directed by Maurer’s former MANIAC bandmate Zache Davis and Marta Ribate Gracia-Davis. Grainy, sun-bleached, and edited with a careful hand, it plays like a spaghetti western fever dream, a corrido where the protagonist must confront how he’ll be remembered before the end comes calling. The artwork, designed by longtime collaborator Matthew “Snake” Davis, leans into vintage flash tattoo skulls and silent-film menace. J MAU & THE KISS OFF Online INSTAGRAM| SPOTIFY| BANDCAMP| FACEBOOK| YOUTUBE Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    1h 20m
  3. MAR 31

    #416 Jeff Corso of Lethal Limits

    Oakland, California’s Lethal Limits is the solo project of Jeff Corso, a Bay Area punk lifer raised on coastal fog, cracked sidewalks, and the kind of East Bay shows that smelled like dust, sweat, and wet concrete. Based in Oakland and hailing from Half Moon Bay, Corso has spent decades inside the region’s punk and hardcore underground. Elevate, his new EP out March 13, 2026, lands like a familiar jolt. Four songs. No filler. Loud, melodic, and wired with the same nervous energy that once spilled out of basements, skate ramps, and all-ages rooms up and down the 510. Lethal Limits lives where punk crunch meets power pop clarity. The songs hit fast but linger, built on hooks that feel learned the hard way. There’s a strong 90s backbone running through Elevate, the kind that recalls flyer-stapled lampposts, Gilman Street matinees, and the melodic punch of bands like Hüsker Dü and The Pixies without drifting into revival territory. Corso writes like someone who came up when melody mattered just as much as volume, and when songs had to survive blown PAs and half-attentive rooms. Arriving nearly four years after Lethal Limits’ self-titled debut, a roughshod, self-produced full-length that quietly turned heads, Elevate shows a project sharpening its instincts. The edges are still intact, but new shades creep in. There’s flashes of Thin Lizzy-style guitar swagger, heavier 90s grunge weight, and a thicker low end, all while keeping the choruses front and center. It sounds like the natural evolution of someone who grew up on punk, skate videos, and college radio, then kept writing long after the scene changed. Recorded between February and April 2025 by Corso at Vam Vam Studios in Oakland, Elevate was mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden, giving the songs clarity without sanding off their grit. Corso handles nearly everything himself, guitars, bass, vocals, keys, tambourine, while drums from Aesop Dekker (Hickey, Ludicra, Agalloch) add weight and precision beneath the hooks. The result feels immediate and human, like a band playing live in a room, not chasing perfection but locking into feel. Photo Credit: Tom “da bomb” Corso Lethal Limits Online INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | YOUTUBE Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    58 min
  4. MAR 3

    #415 Brock Pytel of SLIP~ons

    What do you get when you combine two Canadian music lifers into one guitar-heavy power-pop unit that still believes in volume, melody, and sweat? You get SLIP~ons. Fronted by Brock Pytel of Montreal pop-punk staples Doughboys and anchored by Brian Minato, longtime bassist for Sarah McLachlan, the Vancouver four-piece make rock music the honest way. Plug in. Turn it up. Let it rip. Their sophomore EP Overtime arrives February 20, 2026 via Scamindy. SLIP~ons aim straight for the sweet spot where 90s alternative heft meets power-pop immediacy. Think Sugar-era Bob Mould muscle, Hüsker Dü urgency, and the loose confidence of The Replacements, with flashes of Ash and Dinosaur Jr. in the guitar tones. Rounded out by Rob “Shockk” Matharu of The Spitfires on guitar and Shane Wilson on drums, the band plays with instinct and economy. Nothing is overthought. Everything hits when it’s supposed to. Overtime takes its title from the sudden-death hockey period, used here as an extended metaphor for pressure, consequence, and the moment when everything sharpens. The EP leans heavier and more focused than the band’s debut, pairing Pytel’s gravel-edged vocals with punchy, direct arrangements that waste zero time. The lyrics widen their scope too. Politics surface naturally, filtered through experience rather than slogans. As Pytel puts it, “I made it all the way through side A without a single song about a breakup.” The shift is subtle but intentional, and it gives the record real weight. The EP was recorded by John Raham at Afterlife, formerly Mushroom Studios, a room steeped in Canadian music history. Raham’s resume includes work with Frazey Ford, Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq, Destroyer, and Pharis, and his approach here keeps the performances immediate while giving the songs room to move. Mixing duties were handled by Dave Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy, whose touch adds grit and tension without sanding off the edges. Overtime was mastered by Ronan Chris Murphy, whose work spans artists such as King Crimson, Ulver, and Gwar, bringing clarity and punch while preserving the EP’s raw, guitar-forward bite. SLIP~ons Online WEBSITE |INSTAGRAM| BANDCAMP | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | TIKTOK Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    55 min
  5. FEB 24

    #414 Nicole Laurenne of The Darts

    Seattle’s all-women garage-rock wrecking crew The Darts kick off their new album cycle with “Midnight Creep,” the first advance single from their upcoming LP Halloween Love Songs, out March 3 on Adrenalin Fix Music. The single drops Tuesday, January 13 and finds the band slipping deeper into the spooky, swagger-heavy garage-trash universe they’ve been flirting with since day one. If you’ve ever wished the Back From the Grave comps came with a dance craze, you’re already in the right neighborhood. The Darts have spent the last decade carving their name into the global underground with Farfisa-first garage chaos, sold-out shows across Europe, the UK, and North America, and multiple sold-out vinyl runs. They’re known for genuine, close-to-the-crowd performances and Nicole’s honest connection with the room, a band that brings people into the show and plays from real joy rather than polish. They’ve landed sought-after KEXP live sessions and hit major festivals like Punk Rock Bowling, Binic Folk and Blues, SJOCK Festival, and Bear Stone Festival, earning fans ranging from Dave Vanian to Stephen King to Jello Biafra. With Nicole Laurenne (vocals and keys), Rebecca Davidson (guitar), Lindsay Scarey (bass), and the returning Rikki Watson (drums), this lineup feels like the most dialed, dangerous, and joyfully unhinged version of the band yet. “Midnight Creep” started as a surprise curveball when Lindsay brought Nicole a demo called “Phantom Creep.” Nicole was already quietly writing a Halloween-themed album and immediately heard a chance to chase something different: an honest-to-ghoul old-school monster dance, the kind that might’ve aired on a haunted Shindig episode taped in a basement full of fog machines and paper-mâché bats. She rebuilt the tune into a slinky, organ-driven earworm; Lindsay created a simple, go-go-friendly choreography; and suddenly The Darts had a Halloween banger that felt both brand-new and weirdly familiar. They’ve been testing it on the road for months, from Switzerland to Cincinnati, and everywhere in between. The reaction has been instant every night. Whole rooms start doing the dance without needing to be shown. It’s instinctive, like the ghosts of old 45s are moving people around by the hips. To bottle that energy, they teamed up with Frogman director Anthony Cousins, who shot a gloriously campy video steeped in B-movie mood: basement gloom, creature-feature attitude, and the dance front and center for anyone ready to join the creep. It looks like the lost midnight-movie segment some long-gone TV station forgot to broadcast. Photo Credit- Tina Gross The Darts Online INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    58 min
  6. FEB 17

    #413 Gene Champagne

    After the success of his version of the Ohio Express “Yummy Yummy Yummy” last year   Champagne decided to to revisit “I Can’t Pretend” as song he was familiar with as the drummer for Canada’s Teenage Head who recorded their version of the punk/surf classic on their 1985 album “Trouble In The Jungle”. “This is a song that I have loved for a very long time and I have always thought of recording it” says Champagne.  “It fits really well with the new material I am currently writing. The vibe of the song is perfect and it seemed like a great opportunity to give the song some attention and put a bit of my style into it”. “Because this is a cover song my goal was to keep the integrity and spirit of the song yet lend a little bit of my style. I wanted this song to blend well with what original music I have been writing and recording and I think it turned out just the way I intended”. Gene Champagne from Hamilton, On Canada is a singer/songwriter and solo artist, also known for being the drummer for Teenage Head, The Killjoys and The Black Halos. His version of “I Can’t Pretend” is two parts CanCon.  Gene will be supporting The Boys (UK)  Fri March 13th       – Toronto,Ontario- The Horseshoe Sat March 14th      – Hamilton,Ontario -The Corktown Sun March 15th     – London,Ontario – Palasad Social Bowl Links Spotify Apple Music  Bandcamp Instagram Facebook Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    45 min
  7. FEB 10

    #412 Felix & Luca of ‘The Fake Friends’

    Bombastic and intimate, sarcastic but vulnerable; Montreal’s Fake Friends lives on the edge of duality. Fuelled by the manic charisma of frontman Matthew Savage, the six-piece post-punk outfit is an engine that runs on making tunes and ripping gigs with a sincere bravado that is downright infectious to witness. The many lives of the band are hard to track; starting out as a reason to hang out throughout 2020, the band has since rotated through enough members to roster an NHL team. Through it all, the band’s founding fathers Matthew Savage (vocals/cult leader) and Luca Santilli (guitar/rock god) – who history will remember as roommates – have retained the same ethos of making danceable rock with dedicated unseriousness alongside good friends. Now rolling out a lineup with Michael Kamps (bass/aura farmer), Felix Crawford-Legault (guitar/golden clown composer), Bradley Cooper-Graham (keys/disney adult) and Michael Tomizzi (drums/gambling savant), Fake Friends are as wild and productive as they’ve ever been.  “A lot of us have known each other for many years,” explains Matt. “It just sort of came together organically as different people moved out of the band, and I just replaced them with all the people I’ve always played music with. For whatever reason, this time, it’s cookin’.”  Photo Credit: Nick Pegg The Fake Friends Online INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    52 min
  8. FEB 3

    #411 Kye Alfred Hillig

    Tacoma, Washington songwriter Kye Alfred Hillig returns with “Ezekiel Bobbing For Apples,” the new single arriving January 7, 2026, and the first release from his upcoming album The All-Night Costume Company, due March 4. Built around haunting guitar leads and striking male-female harmonies that nod to the emotional gravity of classic country duets like Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, the track introduces Hillig at his most direct and melodic. It sits between alternative-country and indie rock, carrying the tension and plainspoken urgency of a songwriter raised on punk rooms rather than polish. Hillig has spent more than two decades working the margins of the Puget Sound music scene, balancing songwriting with the realities of work, responsibility, and long stretches outside the spotlight. Since stepping fully into his solo work in 2012, he’s released a deep catalog of records defined by sharp hooks and lyrical candor. His songs often land where discomfort and dark humor overlap, more interested in honesty than resolution. Fans of Father John Misty, The Jayhawks, and early-era The Shins will recognize the instinct for narrative and melody, even as Hillig’s voice and perspective remain distinctly his own. “Ezekiel Bobbing For Apples” moves with restless intent. The arrangement is lean but charged, guitars circling and cutting while the rhythm section pushes steadily forward. The blend of voices adds weight rather than gloss, creating moments of tension and release that feel earned instead of ornamental. Lyrically, the song sits with a kind of open-eyed vulnerability. “It’s really a bit of singing up from the bottom of the well,” Hillig says. “Everything feels kind of screwed and hopeless at times, but the message is I am with you. There’s something freeing about saying that out loud.” Shaped by years of DIY spaces and unvarnished rooms, the song carries a quiet defiance, even as it stretches into broader country and indie-rock forms. It never pauses to second-guess itself. Kye Alfred Hillig Online INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | BANDCAMP | FACEBOOK Checkout my YouTube Channel with long form interviews from the Subversives | the History of Lowest of the Low. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuxFWKuRdmn9j8UTW6AHwS_f Also my Weekly Tour Vlog is up an live on the YouTubes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9d1VSeOHYuwphwhc4zd0VgY66f1OUQZp Pledge monthly with Patreon https://www.patreon.com/apologue Shop Apologue products at http://apologue.ca/shop Check out new Four Square Here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/brighton-beach-ep https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/seven-oh-seven https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/industry-at-home–21st-anniversary-remix-remastered https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/foursquare/when-weeks-were-weekends

    1 hr
5
out of 5
30 Ratings

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Apologue Productions