Yukon Blonde In Concert
Don't be fooled by the name — Canadian indie rockers Yukon Blonde aren't really from the Yukon. They actually hail from about 1,500 miles south, from the small picturesque city of Kelowna, British Columbia. After releasing a couple of EPs under the name Alphababy, the core trio of Jeff Innes (guitar/vocals), Brandon Scott (guitar/vocals), and Graham Jones (drums/vocals) relocated to Vancouver and rebranded themselves Yukon Blonde (a moniker that, depending on which origin story you believe, either stems from their fascination with the Yukon landscape, a namesake candy bar, a strain of weed, or a former manager's description of her own hair color). On their self-titled 2010 debut, Yukon Blonde seamlessly synthesized various strains of 21st-century indie rock — the quirky songcraft of The Shins, the angelic harmonies of Fleet Foxes, the expansive stargazing sound of My Morning Jacket. After developing a reputation as one of Canada's most exuberant new live acts, Yukon Blonde bottled up that energy on their sparkling 2012 follow-up, Tiger Talk, recorded with Black Mountain/New Pornographers producer Colin Stewart. The album hitched their gilded melodies to punchy, Strokes-style backbeats, yielding power-pop knockouts like "Stairway" and earning the group a nomination for Breakthrough Group of the Year at the Juno Awards. In 2014, Innes released the debut from his synth-pop side project, High Ends, and that New Wave vibe would unsubtly seep into Yukon Blonde's next album, On Blonde, with lead single "Saturday Night" sounding like some bygone Flock of Seagulls MTV hit. By this point, the trio had expanded into a quintet, with the official recruitment of bassist James Younger (of fellow Vancouver act Sun Wizard) and keyboardist Rebecca Gray. And their sonic evolution continues apace on 2018's Critical Hit, which sees the band becoming more deeply immersed in dance music and R&B grooves, but still exhibiting the effortlessly anthemic hooks on which they built their name.
