Praise for I'll Bring The Stereo

"[Mike Evin] has taken the idea that 'there's nothing new in music' and made a mockery of it. In short, he has created an album that cannot be defined." (Niagara Tribune)

"Mike Evin is a rarity - a pop composer who isn't afraid
to use his wit or to wear his heart for all to hear."
(CBC Radio)

"...like a hammer hitting squarely on the nail every time,
he hits a vein with every song on this eleven-track gem"
(CD Baby Editor's Pick)

"It's refreshing to hear a young pianist with so much power-pop punch and such a great ear for arrangements.
(Eye Weekly)

"Most impressive."
(Scene Weekly)

"...smart, sardonic tunes that poke, prod and playfully skewer
the absurd details of daily life with a stubborn sense of
exasperation and joy"
(XPress Weekly)

"His knack for story-telling and melodies can almost compete with his ease at the keys, almost."
(Echo Weekly)

"Mike Evin reimagined the piano-pop songbook"
(The Indy Weekly)

 Praise for Let's Slow It Down

"Evin follows 2004’s I'll Bring The Stereo, a stylistic patchwork of a record laden with bells and whistles (and snarky tunes like “Stripper in My Car”), with the far more sleek and focused new mini-album Let's Slow It Down, a slightly country-tinged
six-pack of meditations on domestic bliss."
(Montreal Mirror)

"...charming, unabashedly romantic songs"
(Eye Weekly)

"...feel-good pop tunes that not enough people know about"
(NOW weekly)

"...simple, sweet songs that drill to the core of domestic
bliss"
(The Coast)

"...pure, sweet soft pop"
(Broken Pencil)

  
About

"Yeah! ... All right now"

Montreal/Toronto/Halifax piano pop force Mike Evin hollers out to his hometown friends on his new album, Good Watermelon, and they holler back. This is Mike's fourth recording--his most personal, mature and live recording yet.

Recorded April 2008 at Montreal's Breakglass Studio by Paul Forgues (who also worked on 2005's I'll Bring the Stereo), Good Watermelon was mixed and captured live onto 2-track analog tape. Mike enlisted his gang--including Montreal collective Ideal Lovers (Zac Decamp, David Payant, Mike O’Brien and Joe Grass), Andy Creeggan, Emma Baxter (Orillia Opry), and Angela Desveaux--to be his backup band. Andrea Dawes arranged a string section. Everyone was singing and dancing together in one room, and on songs like "Great Pop Song" and "We Should Dance" you can tell. Fans of domestic love EP Let's Slow it Down (2007) will appreciate songs like "Good Watermelon," "Me and My Love" and "This Soul."

Mike has recorded with Jim and Andy Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies), Toronto guitar legend Kurt Swinghammer, Ron Sexsmith’s touring band (Don Kerr, Jason Mercer and Tim Bovaconti) and has shared stages with Ron Sexsmith, Amy Millan, Sarah Harmer and Martha Wainwright. He's been on campus/community radio and has played live on CBC shows FUSE and Routes Montreal. His song "Soapbox Racer" was recently featured in a Red Bull ad.

But you have to see Mike play at a bar, or a folk fest or a barbecue to get a sense of what he's about. As Canuck exile Dan Bryk puts it: "Veering between Randy Newman (cynical) and Jonathan Richman (earnest), often within the same song, fans of wry, cynical/earnest piano pop should catch his shit. Mike possesses phenomenal hooks and truly awesome stride-y piano chops--that is, when he's not finger snapping and hand clapping the audience into some otherworldly bliss."”

My story according to my honey