The year was 2003, and during a late-night adventure to Steak n Shake (gross, I know, I was young and stoned, cut me some slack), my then-bandmate / house-mate / life-mate and I made a musical discovery that would change the course of our lives. Windsor, ON radio station 89X, one of two rock stations available across the border where we lived in Michigan, was airing Change of Heart’s 1995 masterpiece Tummysuckle from start to finish. Our minds were blown from note one, and we sat there in the Steak n Shake parking lot, fighting every impulse of our weed-induced hunger, until the album was finished. Our band and entire group of friends soon after became obsessed; Tummysuckle served as the soundtrack not only to our munchie rides, but late-night woods romps, daytime hang seshes and, well, pretty much everything.
Since then, Change of Heart — and the band’s founder and mastermind, Ian Blurton, who has stayed active as both a musician and producer — have been both a source of curiosity for me and a expository tale of how man-made borders dictate music consumption: every Canadian to whom I mention Blurton’s name immediately showers him in accolades and hails him as a generational genius, while every American gives me a quizzical look.
Hopefully Blurton’s newest track will bring about a change… of heart… (sorry)… by showcasing his talents to the world.
“Upon Yesterday” displays a different side of Blurton than we’ve seen before, finding him leaning into classic metal tropes pioneered by the likes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and newer bands that borrow heavily from those influences like Grand Magus and Ghost. The song relies on ballsy guitar crunch, meaty riffs and twin-guitar leads to propel its mid-paced groove forward, and it’s got an absolutely infectious chorus that’ll work its way deep your earholes on first listen. Above all, it’s got a distinctly Blurtonian knack for compositional excellence that you’ll recognize as soon as you hear it. The TLDR version: it rocks.
The song will appear with the previously released “Space Is Forever” on a 7″ that will be released by Yeah Right Records this May. These two songs will not be included on Blurton’s upcoming Signals Through The Flames full-length (release date TBD), but are meant to serve as an introduction to the future.
Blurton has some live dates lined up this spring in Toronto and Montreal; peep ’em below the embed.
3/24: Toronto @ Velvet Underground w/ Lucifer + Spell + IBFN
4/17: Toronto @ The Horseshoe w/ Dead Quiet + IBFN + Mount Cyanide
5/1: Montreal @ Turbo Haus w/ Dead Quiet + Mountain Dust + IBFN
5/4: Toronto @ The Dakota 7″ release party with IBFN + Rough Spells + Sick Things
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