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Browse our archives of past newsletters to see what we’ve been up to, or to catch up on something you may have missed. The most recent newsletters are listed below, followed by links to past newsletters organized by year.
- (08-16-2017) CANASTA - Next Sun. 9/17 @ Beer on the Wall's "Ma...
- (08-16-2017) CANASTA - Next Thurs. 8/24 @ "Argyle Night Market...
- (06-10-2016) CANASTA - New Drummer, New Houses and a Free Show...
[2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009] [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2015] [2016] [2017]
“…Canasta has been one of my favorite Chicago bands for some time now, as well as
ranking near the top of my list for the smartest and hardest working groups in town.
”
— Jim DeRogatis
full text
“…you need to hear this band… witty and whip-smart, that's Canasta. Deft arrangements and intricate polyrhythms
are oh, so pretty.
”
— Chicago Tribune
full text
“…masterful construction of hooky songs… Perhaps too polished for the
hipster set, or enigmatic with their sporadic release schedule, Canasta holds their own against
the big craftsmen of pop…
”
— Epitonic
full text / recording session
“It has continued to write songs that fill themselves out in all the right places -
offering quirky and charming, gritty and mopey succinctly… they’re that good.
”
— Daytrotter
full text / recording session
“…a celebrated stalwart of ‘orchestral pop’…
intricate, delicate, sometimes deeply emotional pop music.
”
— Chicago Sun-Times
full text / cover photo
“…as versatile a rock band as the city has ever offered.
”
— Illinois Entertainer
full text
“…deftly balances between being very much
of its time
”
and place and carving out something individual at the same time…
The whole band has a great ear for performances that complement each other’s work and
provides the icing on the cake…
— Ned Raggett, AllMusic
full text
“Best of Chicago 2010… loaded with intricate yet accessible
orchestral pop music.
”
— Huffington Post
full text
“Rarely is new music categorized as being both immediately
accessible and dizzyingly complex, but [Canasta] manage this feat so adroitly at
times that it even makes Win Butler and Régine Chassagne look like rookies…
manages to astound just as much on the first listen as it does on the fifth…
”
— Adequacy.net
full text
“This stuff is almost prog-rock in its scope and ambition, hurtling along on a sea of
”
dense instrumentation and atypical rock instruments…
we love Canasta, and don’t
see how anybody wouldn’t.
— Chicago Tribune
full text
“Kitchen-sink indie par excellence, Canasta has a
”
way with cacophony that is
often as
tuneful and melodic
as it is bursting with ideas…
— Time Out Chicago
full text
“…sounds so
unbelievably good that no major label could improve it… This may seem like an
exaggeration, but believe me, indiepop has seldom sounded so pretty as it does
”
on this second album…
— Heaven (The Netherlands)
full text
“Winner: Best of Chicago 2010 Fans’ Poll
”
— The Deli
full text
“…The Fakeout, the Tease and the Breather is one of the best Chicago
albums of the year.
”
— Metromix / RedEye
full text
“The orchestrated pop on this local sextet’s new full-length
is so perfect—every note falling
into place with deeply satisfying craftsmanship—that you’ll swear you’ve heard
it before. But you haven’t…
”
— M. Kendrick, Chicago Reader
full text
“The tone is set for an album of open-air chamber pop that sounds like it wants to go
haywire (and become a mess) but has been expertly subdued and shaped and is thus sublime…
Pop rarely sounds this warm and natural when it’s this intricately composed.
”
— Chicago Sun-Times
full text
“Chicago’s premier orchestral indie pop outfit…
The lengthy break between this and their intriguing 2005 debut, We
”
Were Set Up,
allowed the
band’s already dynamic
sound to blossom further…
melody that soaks deep into your skin before you know what happened…
strikingly gorgeous songs…
— IGN
full text
“At the start of Canasta’s new album, you can almost feel storm
clouds parting for the 11 sunny, rollicking songs that lay ahead. For nearly
a decade, the local chamber-pop group has managed to retain its ambition and
melodic optimism, without ever coming across as winking…
”
— The Onion
full text /
cover photo
“…this is not a case of local overhype… a detailed and sophisticated
body of songs… you will be wondering just like me: How is it possible
that these guys haven’t got a
”
major contract yet?
— Pop+Rock (Greece)
full text
“The Fakeout, the Tease and
”
the Breather is an example
of a band
working at the
height of their powers…
The lyrics are haunting, the melodies
gorgeous, and the instrumental performances by everyone involved are powerful
and evocative…
— Music. Defined.
full text
“…they display both an ambition and a
sense of range that any number of early 21st century American groups described
in similar terms would be wise to follow… subtle… mesmerizing… stunning…
”
— AllMusic
full text
“…Canasta’s strength has been mixing genres, ever so slightly, to keep it
unpredictable… The band’s impressive orchestral pop, which really could catch on at
any moment in a big, big way, will not cease in its power – listening again for the first
time in a long while, I can’t believe I was able to put it down in the
first place.
”
— New City
full text
“Canasta has slowly made a name for itself in recent years,
thanks to its inventive arrangements… (the band) has separated
itself by layering
”
its sounds while retaining remarkable catchiness…
Canasta looks primed for a considerable breakthrough.
— NPR’s “World Cafe”
full text
“Chicago’s Canasta play a rich and usually satisfyingly lush brand of orchestral pop… impressively diverse… rapturous…
”
— PopMatters
full text