Yes Nice

Canadian rock collective Yes Nice, , have an odd, upbeat summer anthem in “Hot River” the first offering from their sophomore album Warm Gun, slated to drop in August. Hear and download the track after the jump.

Featuring bright organ chords, warm guitar chords and enough “heys” to fill up a football stadium, ”Hot River” is maddeningly catchy, the type of cut perfect for summer time drives or drunken karoke nights. Your choice.

Founded by childhood buddies Scott McKellar and Nathaniel Wong, Yes Nice first introduced their sunny-side-up brand of indie rock with their 2007 self-titled EP. Since then, the boys have picked up members Jillian McKellar, Darren Frank, and percussionist Peter Hendrickson.

Listen to and download “Hot River,” and view the band’s tour dates below. - The Truth About Music

Canadian indie rockers Yes Nice are set to release their sophomore LP, Warm Gun, in August. The album’s first single is “Hot River,” a fun organ-laden track. - Surviving The Golden Age

I spend most summers avoiding upbeat feel-good music, typically it’s just not my thing, this year has been a huge exception… for the first time I can’t get enough of it. Bands such as Yes Nice help in a big way by putting out music strong enough to get stoked for which is only made better by aligning so well with an awesome summer worthy of being soundtracked.

From the very moment “Hot River” begins the positive tone is set and just builds as it goes letting up in vocal breathes just before the chorus which sets up the hook to be sung along in unison, from there it’s all optimistic history, it really is brilliant that they chose to drop this one in July.

Yes Nice are out of Canada and are just starting to build a name for themselves, they’ve got a good thing going and it’s translating well through their songs, I’m stoked for what is in store for these guys. - Listen Before You Buy

I spend most summers avoiding upbeat feel-good music, typically it’s just not my thing, this year has been a huge exception… for the first time I can’t get enough of it. Bands such as Yes Nice help in a big way by putting out music strong enough to get stoked for which is only made better by aligning so well with an awesome summer worthy of being soundtracked.

From the very moment “Hot River” begins the positive tone is set and just builds as it goes letting up in vocal breathes just before the chorus which sets up the hook to be sung along in unison, from there it’s all optimistic history, it really is brilliant that they chose to drop this one in July.

Yes Nice are out of Canada and are just starting to build a name for themselves, they’ve got a good thing going and it’s translating well through their songs, I’m stoked for what is in store for these guys. - Listen Before You Buy

Yes Nice is an indie rock group from Vancouver. Their punchy pop tunes can appeal to fans of Said the Whale. For example in their new track Hot River you can’t help but want to sing along. It’s fun and inviting. Their next LP Warm Gun is going to be released sometime in August. - Ride The Tempo

Vancouver-via-Edmonton indie rockers Yes Nice are self-described "total control freaks" who "don't like anyone having a say in what we do," but the band relinquished a little control by handing their tracks over to some friends for a remix EP, which is simply titled Yes Nice Remixed.

The five-track collection came out today (February 13) through Bandcamp, and it features contributions from BC acts Oh No! Yoko, Humans, and Germany Germany, plus L.A.'s Tribe of Zebras. Get it for free below.

In a new post on their official website, the band shed some light on their forthcoming full-length album, tentatively titled Warm Gun, which they describe as "a musical journey sort of like Dark Side of the Moon if it was recorded by a bunch of real-estate tycoons who loved singing Air Supply ballads." Consider us intrigued. - Exclaim!

Vancouver-via-Edmonton indie rockers Yes Nice are self-described "total control freaks" who "don't like anyone having a say in what we do," but the band relinquished a little control by handing their tracks over to some friends for a remix EP, which is simply titled Yes Nice Remixed.

The five-track collection came out today (February 13) through Bandcamp, and it features contributions from BC acts Oh No! Yoko, Humans, and Germany Germany, plus L.A.'s Tribe of Zebras. Get it for free below.

In a new post on their official website, the band shed some light on their forthcoming full-length album, tentatively titled Warm Gun, which they describe as "a musical journey sort of like Dark Side of the Moon if it was recorded by a bunch of real-estate tycoons who loved singing Air Supply ballads." Consider us intrigued. - Exclaim!

A band that any music blog would strive to discover -- Canadian indie rock collective Yes Nice are set to release their sophomore LP, Warm Gun, in August, featuring the addictive pop track “Hot River.” Enjoy. - Winnie Cooper

Based out of Vancouver and Edmonton, Yes Nice is a five-member group that we discovered a while back through mutual friends. The more we listened to their music, the more we felt this group’s magnetic energy.

Yes Nice combines a celebration of sounds, instruments, and props through a modern/contemporary alternative rock medium. That’s only the beginning. Their songs will take you on a journey — to your highest feelings of triumph and accomplishment, and to the deepest depths and full scope of your emotions.

Enjoy the journey that’s Yes Nice. - FluidArt

Rating: 4 stars (of 5)

"Beautiful stuff from this Canadian four-piece. Similar to countryfolk Broken Social Scene in a pop/lo-fi way. There's something in the water in Canada!"

- Math Priest

Rating: 4 stars (of 5)

"Beautiful stuff from this Canadian four-piece. Similar to countryfolk Broken Social Scene in a pop/lo-fi way. There's something in the water in Canada!"

- Math Priest

Rating: 4 stars (of 5)

"After only two gigs, the members of Yes Nice are thinking about changing their name, according to drummer Aidan Lucas-Buckland. Noooo, bad idea. Yes Nice is the perfect moniker for this local quartet of phenoms. Their self-titled debut is a precious -- as in delicate, beautiful, rare -- collection of indie-pop, Patrick Wolf-ish delights, sparkling with xylophones, violins, tambourines, and accordions. Lyrically, their songs are far from ambitious -- kisses, diamond rings and disillusioned lovers are some of the themes -- but their arrangements more than compensate. Sous la lune is a Parisian lullaby. Tango shimmies like a spooky Latin number. Hay-ay-la-ma-fay-ah feels like a rain dance crossed with a Simon & Garfunkel campfire ditty, while Children Talk With The Old People sounds like Beck leading a choir of children from Sesame Street. Even a cold-hearted, cranky soul such as Oscar would approve. Yes Nice perform tonight at Jekyll & Hyde, 10610 100th Ave., with Whisker Kiss, Hector Fector and Orange in the Light."

- Sandra Sperounes

Rating: 4 stars (of 5)

"After only two gigs, the members of Yes Nice are thinking about changing their name, according to drummer Aidan Lucas-Buckland. Noooo, bad idea. Yes Nice is the perfect moniker for this local quartet of phenoms. Their self-titled debut is a precious -- as in delicate, beautiful, rare -- collection of indie-pop, Patrick Wolf-ish delights, sparkling with xylophones, violins, tambourines, and accordions. Lyrically, their songs are far from ambitious -- kisses, diamond rings and disillusioned lovers are some of the themes -- but their arrangements more than compensate. Sous la lune is a Parisian lullaby. Tango shimmies like a spooky Latin number. Hay-ay-la-ma-fay-ah feels like a rain dance crossed with a Simon & Garfunkel campfire ditty, while Children Talk With The Old People sounds like Beck leading a choir of children from Sesame Street. Even a cold-hearted, cranky soul such as Oscar would approve. Yes Nice perform tonight at Jekyll & Hyde, 10610 100th Ave., with Whisker Kiss, Hector Fector and Orange in the Light."

- Sandra Sperounes

Indie
Yes Nice
Blindfolded
****
Recent Edmonton ex-pats Nathaniel Wong and Scott McKellar — a.k.a Yes Nice — bare their souls on their beautiful and ethereal new album Blindfolded. The tracks are rich and full soundscapes; with lush orchestration, soaring background vocals, and mournful cello’s swirling around their songs of passion and longing. “Don’t you know it’s only cause you can’t/You want to love her like you love yourself,” Wongs mourns on the wistful “Only cause’ You Can’t.” Much of the album is dreamy meditation – the perfect soundtrack for gazing out your frost-whorled windowpanes at the tundra outside — but when the boys kick it up-tempo they have enough zeal to bring a smile to even the most jaded hipster. “I wanna wait for judgment day/You say ice and I say up in flames,” Scott McKellar belts with unbridled passion on the jubilant gallop of “Horses” — possibly the funnest song about the end of the world not written by R.E.M. Gorgeous and nuanced, Blindfolded will warm your heart on the coldest winter night.
JOSH MARCELLIN - See Magazine

"Oh my God. What just happened? A lot of times we get local CDs that include a photocopied cover, a spray painted CD-R and a band's name just sort of stuck on there with a note that directs one to the band's Myspace page for more info. It's kind of a symptom of more accessible recording technology that we get a lot of 'first albums' that sound like they ought to have been first demos. So I don't really know what happened here-how Yes Nice was able to create such a perfectly complete album on its first go round. From the opening numbers, which are an acoustic warm up for what is to come, to the acid trip middle which drags you into some sort of operatic underworld, to my favourite track, 'Children Talk with the Old People,' which bounces around like a Today's Special episode about block parties and then descends into the darkest track 'Agnus Dei,' this album is so multifaceted and interesting that I just accidentally listened to it four times. I have no idea how the group will recreate any of this live, but I am going to find out."

- Bryan Birtles

"Oh my God. What just happened? A lot of times we get local CDs that include a photocopied cover, a spray painted CD-R and a band's name just sort of stuck on there with a note that directs one to the band's Myspace page for more info. It's kind of a symptom of more accessible recording technology that we get a lot of 'first albums' that sound like they ought to have been first demos. So I don't really know what happened here-how Yes Nice was able to create such a perfectly complete album on its first go round. From the opening numbers, which are an acoustic warm up for what is to come, to the acid trip middle which drags you into some sort of operatic underworld, to my favourite track, 'Children Talk with the Old People,' which bounces around like a Today's Special episode about block parties and then descends into the darkest track 'Agnus Dei,' this album is so multifaceted and interesting that I just accidentally listened to it four times. I have no idea how the group will recreate any of this live, but I am going to find out."

- Bryan Birtles

Paul Blinov / paul@vueweekly.com

On Blindfolded, ex-Edmontonian group Yes Nice sounds like the Arcade Fire caught in a warm updraft: sweeping, often joyous string-loaded pop music that swells with kaleidoscopic colours. Opener "Empty Space" bursts at the seams in covering all of that; quieter numbers, like "And The Whale," with its omni-present hum or ivory-key closer "Mountain Man" hold up, well, nicely when the band strips away the barrage of instruments and sounds, too. Strange standout "Horses," with a religious chorus of "I'm gonna wait till judgement day / You say ice and I say up in flames," musically wouldn't be out of place on Paul Simon's Graceland, or just where it is, as the penultimate track on an album of above-par indie pop.



Yes Nice
Blindfolded
(Independent)
4 stars

- Vue Magazine

Hits And Misses
Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, December 19

BLINDFOLDED

Yes Nice

(Independent)
Rating 3 1/2

Yes Nice is yet another former Edmonton act. No! The swoon-rockers now live in Vancouver -- along with the other half of our city's musicians. We'll forgive them, only because their new effort, Blindfolded, is a luscious, cinematic effort inspired by The Beatles, Danny Elfman scores, and the residents of Whoville. Nathaniel Wong's voice is at its pillowy-softest on Water Wine, a reverential number replete with piano, strings, horns and a chorus of Whos, while co-vocalist Scott McKellar rallies the troops on Horses, which feels like one of those euphoric arms-in-the-air gospel ditties spurred on by tambourines and whistles. Giddy up!

Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton Journal - Edmonton Journal