Indier Than Thou

Amazing!

2008-06-25T09:22:00.002-04:00

Our dear friends the Lava Lamps are kicking ass and taking names! Nicely done!

94.9 CHRW Top 30

TW Artist Title Label
1 Lava Lamps Yellow Umbrellas Independent
2 The Black Keys Attack & Release Nonesuch
3 -- Portishead Third Island
4 -- Tokyo Police Club Elephant Shell Saddle Creek
5 -- Jason Collett Here's To Being HereArts & Crafts
6 Olenka Warsaw Girl Independent
7 The Pack A.D. Tintype Mint
8 CPC Gangbangs Mutilation Nation Swami
9 Teenage Head With Marky Ramone Teenage Head With Marky Ramone Sonic Unyon
10 Born Ruffians Red, Yellow And Blue Warp

Year List Things Pt 2: The Days of Yore

2008-01-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

This actually has nothing to do with anything, basically, but I thought I'd put together a list of things that SHOULD have been on the list last year. Because, you know, they should've been on the list, last year. By last year, I mean '06, not '07 which is technically already the REAL last-year. My little Best of '07 thing will probably only be finished years from now. That's okay though, because no one reads this and because... because there's a writer's strike, yeah. Yeah.

Please click the link in the title of this post, by the way.

And now without further ado...

5. Paris Hilton - Paris
It reggae...! No, this isn't actually on this list because I want to make fun of it. I've nothing to make fun of here... it's great. I don't really like hearing everybody's bull about "oh she's famous for nothing and she's such a bad influence and she's a lazy rich whore and she's disgusting and everything she stands for is repulsive and - " well, shut up, assassinate her if it bugs you so much. Also, I can't remember if I put the Charlotte Gainsbourg album on last year's list (but I remember in any case that I was close to doing so) and people are allowed to genuinely like her without getting stuff thrown at them. Why's that? It's the same deal. Rich and successful daddy, lots of arguably undeserved cash, thriving or once-thriving-not-so-much-anymore supermodel career, unimpressive voice that's doctored quite a bit, most likely they don't write their own songs (I know Charchar doesn't and I doubt Paris does)... the only thing different is the sex tape. Or so you might think. Maybe that link's not quite as extreme as whatever Paris did, but still. The other difference is Charlotte being Eurotrash which is not as frowned-upon as it should be... instead, people seem to respect it. But really. Ew. Europe. Anyway, this album achieves everything it sets out to achieve (it's catchy, poppy, dancey, etc.) which is more than can be said for a lot of albums by all those Respectable Artists that seem to be all the rage lately.

4. Elton John/Lee Hall/Liam Mower/etc. - Billy Elliot: The Musical, Original Cast Recording
This is beautiful. Here, this speaks for itself:

Watch the whole thing! That's an order. If it doesn't give you the shivers then you have a heart of stone.

3. Tool - 10 000 Days
Admittedly this album had to be forced on me, practically at gunpoint, really. But something very good that can be said about it is that even when I was trying my very hardest to dislike it (I just don't want to look like one of those Bret-Easton-Ellis-obsessed, Bill-Hicks-teeshirt-wearing, drug-doing Edgy types, okay? Gosh!), I ended up... loving it. The guy's got a really good voice, really flexible, haunting, too - I mean, once you get past how annoying he probably is in person. The drums on this album are just...just...wow, you know? I usually don't give a shit about whoever's drumming, it's usually just some angry young man hitting things and that, but on this album...shiiit. According to a friend of mine this is "polyrhythmic drumming". No idea what the hell that means. But it sounds, um, exciting? Like lots of running horses! The lyrics can be lame though; so, so lame.

(But kind of funny, too! I was going read the whole list of comments looking for someone who responded to "try pulling your foot out of your mouth asshole!" with "what's a mouth asshole?" but it really just wasn't worth the trouble. But then like... is it your mouth's asshole?)

2. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
The number one reason this made the list was that I like Beirut a lot, but don't feel like Flying Club Cup is going to be on my list for '07 just because, I dunno, this stuff is a little repetitive. I like it a lot but there's stuff I like more, so. So I'm putting this here just to prove I'm not ignoring it (and to tell all two people that read this blog that I think Zach Condon is the most attractive man alive).

1. Anathallo - Floating World
Pitchfork gave this a pretty nasty review. Like...really nasty. The Sufjan Stevens comparison and the comments about the lyrics are accurate enough that they sting... but seriously? Given what that stupid site says about Animal Collective, they should... well, they should shut up. I'll save the Pitchfork rant for another day (or maybe never, basically: the people working for Pitchfork Media all suck! Bah!), but hey, go ahead and read the review up there but imagine that everything they say about the album was meant in a good way. Then buy or download the album, and like it, because it takes a lot less effort to enjoy than "Marc Hogan" would have you think. It's great. Or if it isn't I'm just young, dumb and easily impressed. Both options are equally possible but I like the first better and because of the first two thirds of the second one (try and work that math out, whheeeeee) I think that you should agree with me.

And, Bonus!

Best of 2008 (maybe, who knows): The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
(oho! oho! such a hacker i am!)

Year List Things Pt 1: The Bottom Five

2007-11-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

Just for the record, this used to be a bottom ten, not five. The list was padded by things that were actually genuinely awful, because, though I wanted space to complain about the five below, I didn't want them all so high up on the list, really. They weren't even BAD per se, I just love to whine. But then I realised I didn't really care enough to go beyond one word ("sucked") with the other five actual-bad ones and, I dunno, some of them I didn't want to admit having listened to. Oh, but just because I wanted to avoid being told I'm wrong becausethatmakesmeuncomfortableANYWAY, I gave Positive Polly her say against all the Negative Nancy stuff.

And here it is then. Sorry in advance.

5. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Guys. The emperor isn't wearing any clothes. I can't stand how many people are completely smitten with this album...I think it's just noise. Just like getting punched in the ear repeatedly for much, much too long. Punched rhythmically, but still. Then that semimelodic highpitched tweedliness on I think every single track is kind of just like the ringing of your ears after you've been punched for too damn long. This punching motif thing is well-suited to the fact that of course my brother loves this album more than he's ever loved anything which is doubtlessly not very much, but still. This album is as much of a gruesome mess as its cover art.

But Positive Polly Says: Certain snippets of it are great. A lot of "Chores" is fine, most of "#1" and "Winter Wonderland" are bearable, and I really rather like all of "Derek".

4. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
They just stole the essence of some of the more second-rate Arcade Fire stuff and then made it greasier, a lot greasier (literally and beginning with the hair). For some unkown reason I actually expected really good things from The Stage Names and all it turned out to be was straight-up Boring to listen to. Apperently the lyrics are supposed to be "powerful" or some other such crap, but I don't care and can't find a way to make myself care. I still consider Okkervil River an incomprehensibly over-respected version of... The Spill Canvas or something.

Positive Polly: Good in-the-car-with-your-friends music, I suppose. Also my father loves Okkervil River, says they're good to listen to while running, and I kind of agree. SO what I mean is, this album does have a very nice energy to it...or...something...

3. The Bird and the Bee - The Bird and the Bee
Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again... Where Nelly went wrong, The Bird and the Bee COULD have gone right: by shutting up.

Positive Polly: That's a completely invalid critique. It means...nothing. The "again and again"s weren't even typed out, they were COPIED AND PASTED. Per-THETic.

2. Feist - The Reminder
While typing that title, a particularly gruesome image popped into my head: a dozen crazy leering middle-aged valium-addicted hyenas pouncing on and tearing apart the young unsteady-legged antelope that's lagging behind the rest of the pack. I find Feist fans are viciously, viciously obsessed with this album and with defending it at all costs. But hear me out! First off I'll apologise for the fact that Feist fans aren't really all middle-aged valium addicts. In fact, the Big Deal with Feist is that she's supposed to appeal to everyone from my Rihanna-obsessed younger sister to the crotchety old guidance counselor at school who likes to limp about tearing down hallway decorations...and she does, she appeals to everyone. Why? Because her little ditties are so goddam playground-melodic, all conchord and no dischord, all perfectly and sweetly likeable with nothing intriguing to propel The Reminder forward past its overaccessible prettiness. Like Belle and Sebastian, but even simpler (if that's possible) and with less heart. It's like she TRIED to write the most hypermarketable, ipod-commercial-tailored album ever. Yawn.

Positive Polly says: But so CATCHY, and suuuuch good latte background music. Nice job, Starbucks!

And my idea of the worst thing to happen musically in two-double-oh-seven:
1. Corneille - The Birth Of Cornelius
Why? Why does this exist? There is no reason or justification for this monstrosity. None.

Positive Polly is in tears and thus currently unavailable for comment.

Back In Several Colours Including But Not Limited To Blackish

2007-10-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

So as October draws to a Close, a couple very not magical things begin to happen. Leaves fall, and stuff. Homeowners offer you petty change to rake said leaves. Non-homeowners rake up those last bits of petty change they can panhandle before retreating into their Men’s Shelter treeholes for the colder months. Smashed pumpkins decorate the streets to pave the way for the garish Christmas lights to come. All the tech companies start hawking the next big craze for you shell out for in honour of the particular religious holiday you’ve chosen as justification for your pre-winter splurging. The rain of homework starts to pour in and I start using this blog for the procrastinatory umbrella that it is. Oye seasons.

Yeah, all of these things are kind of annoying but I think you’ll survive it. The reason for this banal little return of mine is mostly actually due to my love of 1. Lists, 2. Lists, and 3. Lists. Specifically, the kind that come at the end of the year – Top Ten Albums, Tracks, Annoying Things About Amy Winehouse, etc. I realize that there’s a good 2.25ish months’ worth of eartickling yet to come our way but the early bird gets the worm. That is to say, the person who starts doing this sort of thing before other people, is a person who…started doing this too early and will probably miss some stuff.

Um…

In summation, I’m going to start listing shit soon and I thought I’d warn you so you could get some good running distance in there or something. Also the title contains a link to the sleek and delicious revamped Hype Machine, and lastly here is this really wonderful video:

I'm so tired of America

2007-10-09T23:36:00.000-04:00

"I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down."
Hey, this kinda sounds like a radiohead song...off kid a or something?
(click on title, sit back and enjoy.)

This Is Awesome!

2007-08-22T17:06:00.000-04:00

All summer I've been working at the campus radio station here in London (CHRW 94.9). Part of my job is to decide which albums will go into the on-air studio for the DJ's to play and which go in the garbage. See, 20-30 albums are sent to the station each day and most of them are crap. Yesterday I put on this band I'd never heard called "The Coathangers". Most of the record was ok until the song called "Nestle In My Boobies" came on. This song is awesome.
(directions: click title for link, then rock out!)

Go Ga Ga For Spoon

2007-08-18T18:31:00.000-04:00

First, I would like to apologize for the title of this post. I am sure that a million music journalists have used this lame type of pun for the new Spoon record entitled "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" but...I just couldn't help myself. And I wanted to...fit in or something. I've had second thoughts about writing a post about Spoon, because, I mean....are they really that indie? They are on MERGE-technically an independant label started by the band members of Superchunk in 1989, but, aren't they sort of common knowledge?? possibly not.
Obviously I decided to write the review due to the FACT that the record is soooooAMAZING. I LOVE "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga". It's like "Summerteeth" era Wilco but Better. Lots of super strummy acoustic guitars and horns galore! I'm not sure about the second track-it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the ga ga...kinda spacy and pointless...but the rest are GEMs! "Don't You Evah" is sooooo groovy. Kinda Dandy-Warhols esque and WOW the drums and WOW the bass and WOW the guitar and they all come in at different times and fit so well together like a stunningly executed square dance on a Saturday night in some rural small town Ontario. The real ga ga moment, however, is the Jon Brion produced "The Underdog". Did you need a reminder of how awesome 70's era Billy Joel is? This will remind you. But it's new, I mean it sounds cool, not too 70's....jeez, just buy the record already.
p.s. click on the lame title for the link!

Coming Soon...

2007-08-18T11:40:00.000-04:00

ok, so it's been awhile but I've been busy. Soon I will get my act together and you will see posts about SPOON and THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS. I know these aren't the newest of new releases, but the M.I.A. kinda sucks and I don't want to listen to it again to figure out why (well, it's club music and I guess it's supposed to be repetitive...).
Maybe I'll throw in THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS as well.
ta-ta,
Mosey.

CBC Fuse, and Ronderlin

2007-06-04T18:02:00.000-04:00

CBC Fuse, which would probably be my most favourite thing in the world at this very moment.

Then, Ronderlin which is just about my second favourite thing.

The Magic That is Ohbijou!

2007-05-26T23:17:00.000-04:00

So I saw this band open up for Great Lake Swimmers a few months ago, and we were all blown away. But they seemed like one of those bands that are awesome live, but maybe not so good recorded...you know, the kind of band that has a sort of UNRECORDABLE spark or something. I finally heard the record "Swift Feet for Troubling Times" last weekend (thanks Iain!!) and now must eat my words. The magic, I think, is captured remarkably well...it's lush and pretty and catchy and sweet. Lots of violins, harmonies, banjos and a clever title to boot. This is from their website: "Laying in bed, in a fit of unbridled happiness, hitting me like an unexpected sneeze, I looked at you and said....ohbijou.” aww...how romantic...another perfectly pertinent adjective for the magic that is OHBIJOU.
Favourite songs: The Otherside, The Woods.

Water!

2007-05-20T15:01:00.000-04:00

In honour of May 24 and cottages and the like, here is this. Water, beaches, sailing, whatever. THOSE things. Those things the loser boating community can't experience because of this shit weather, which makes me pretty happy, though I'm sure the boaters don't care about that or anything else really (which is a boater characteristic, they all have it, even kayakers).

You know, I want a boat! If anyone has any information on how I could get myself one and live on it forever without getting attacked by pirates or sea police or water vehicle safety guys, it'd be nice.

This is a right "WAVE" of mp3's (ha, ha) and took seventeen years just to upload and link to, so there are no descriptions or anything.

1. Genessaret (Going Out Over 30,000 Fathoms of Water) - Anathallo

2. Water - Jason Mraz

3. Underwater's Where The Action Is - Kelley Stoltz

4. Whilte Waves - Shearwater

5. Paper Boat - Belle and Sebastian

6. It's As Clear - Let's Go Sailing

7. A Seafood Song - The Divine Comedy

8. Where There's A Will There's a Whalebone - Islands

9. Seaside - The Kooks

10. Sea Legs - The Shins

11. Between the Moon and the Ocean - Bon Savants

12. Ocean - poor Yorik

13. You're the Ocean - Teitur

14. Beach Song - Speechwriters LLC

15. Ride A White Swan - T. Rex

16. Moving Pictures, Silent Films - Great Lake Swimmers

17. The River - Marz (with an umlaut!)

18. My Love (Diplo Remix) - Justin TimberLAKE?!

19. Tidal Wave - David Gray

20. The Flood - Bishop Allen

21. The Great Salt Lake - Band of Horses

22. Stowaway - Tullycraft

23. Some Things Make Your Soul Feel Clean - Duke Special

24. Big Boat - M. Ward

25. Kaskaskia River - Sufjan Stevens

26. Catch The Wind - Donovan

27. Sailed On - Landon Pigg

28. Know Which Way The Wind Blows - The Postmarks

29. Heaven - Swimmer

30. I Know There's An Answer (Beach Boys cover) - Sonic Youth

On thirty-first thought, I don't know if the boating community would ever allow me to have a boat of any kind and I should probably forget about it and go back to my sad ghetto wall-painting dreams.

Bonus! The Ocean Doesn't Want Me - Tom Waits

Wolves!

2007-05-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

This is a, um, wolf. C/O Google Images, where else. I especially like how that gisele...horse...thing just stands off to the side, like Dick Cheney in that one youtube video, or you know, the wolf's modeling agent. He's ready to make a hit on whoever tries to renegotiate his client's contract. However, the wolf's poses smack of stasis and his career will go nowhere.

Anyway, yes, of course, it's been noticed before. Wolves, or well, the word at least (both plural and singular...) are everywhere - everywhere! There are other words like that, too, that just kind of pop up in songs and song titles and band names and such, so watch out because this may become a regular thing - this week, wolves, next week: the sea. Maybe.

Anyway it took me about twelve years to figure out how to put up these mp3...things...so I hope this works for you.

Wolves at Night - Manchester Orchestra
I begin here with what is hands down my least favourite track on the list. I accindentally uploaded it with the rest of the stuff and it's got the wolf thing so I might as well leave it. It's all just noise, made even more grating and unpleasant to listen to by his nasally and awkward-sounding voice. Enjoy.

The Wolf - Miniature Tigers
Oh, the dreaded handclaps! Not only do I hate them no matter what the context, this is worse because the song already has this very marked, pounding, repetitive thumpy-ness about it. The lyrics are kind of lame, also... "I'm on your trail, I can smell your blood, I've had enough with unrequited love", okay. Kind of a weird metaphor. And then it seems he forgets the metaphor altogether to moan for a while about how "everyone's looking at you like they want to...everybody's looking at you like they want to..." want to what? Oh, go home with you. Sure, I want to take a wolf home, and have it in my bed, and share rabies with it (by the way the new Chuck Palahniuk book is not good). All things considered, though, I kind of like this one.

The Reputation of Ross Francis - My Latest Novel
Because I love this song, and the album it's on - which is of course called "Wolves". Oh, it's gorgeous. If there's one song here that you bother downloading, let it be this one (if you've not already of course).

Say Wolf in the Summertime - Page France
I apologise for the sound quality. Just imagine, though, how good it could sound on a proper recording, or how it would've been live - when he sings, "damn near fell in love..." or later, when the girl comes in, or, "why do you care when the notes go wrong/I'll sing it for me, it's my own damn song..." - this is absolutely the best spring/summer song, or at least, my favourite, for now. If only I could find a better version of it...

Bluebells - Patrick Wolf
You know.

The Bonsai Tree - Peter & the Wolf
Anyone I have shown this song to thus far has hated it...why!? It's so simple and sweet, and as absolutely lame as this sounds, if Bonsai trees could make music I say they'd sound a little like this. I was really fond of the Peter & the Wolf story with music when I was a kid (regretfully, I've got it only on vinyl and am too lazy for Limewire so no mp3's...), and I flipped when I found I liked this (band? guy?) almost as much. Again, this is a more or less seasonally appropriate song, I think. I love spring far too much for my own good.

Middle Distance Runner - Sea Wolf
You're A Wolf - Sea Wolf
Well then. This is all very folksy stuff, so I'm sorry if you hate it. I like Middle Distance Runner best but the other obviously has the more appropriate title. Is it May 8th yet? Sea Wolf's EP, Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low (lyrics from this very song! The second one, that is), comes out then. Not that I've heard more than maybe four songs, but I recommend it in advance but don't hit me if it sucks. I'd be excited enough to know the date today if I wasn't so broke, but hey.

Raised by Wolves - Voxtrot
I'm a hypocrite who can't think up enough wolf songs, kay, thanks, bye.

Things I Don't Know - Wolf Parade
I managed to keep Wolfmother out of this, and I held back on that one TV on the Radio song, but just couldn't keep away from both the Patrick Wolf thing and the obligatory Wolf Parade track. This is kind of new though, eh? I think? At least that's something.

And as it happens that is really all I have to say about Wolves. 'Night!

Sverige

2007-05-01T19:20:00.000-04:00

Sweden is home to your favourite and soon-to-be-favourite musicians:

El perro del mar, Peter Bjorn and John, Shout Out Louds, I'm From Barcelona, the Cardigans, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Dungen and the Sounds, to name but a few since there's way more.

For a country of 9 million, it's quite a powerhouse.

Listen here!

Jeremy Warmsley!

2007-04-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

I love this man.

Happy Sunday morning.

best/crappiest band names of the week

2007-04-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

PRIZE FOR BEST BAND NAME OF THE WEEK GOES TO:

get cape. wear cape. fly

PRIZE FOR WORST BAND NAME OF THE WEEK GOES TO:

To Separate The Flesh From Bone

MOST ANNOYING BAND NAME:

Alex Delivery. This is not some guys name, this is a dumb Billy Talent rip off (of a name, that is-I have no idea what they sound like).

Frank Turner - Sleep is for the Week

2007-04-11T23:36:00.000-04:00

So, perhaps you all know of this man. Perhaps not. He seems to be attracting a fair amount of critical attention. His self description runs as follows: "I like to consider myself part of a wider continuum of UK-based folk-influenced music."

Frank Turner's songs start out sounding like misplaced Oasis B-sides, but the lyrics are surprising and catchy, and the melodies are full of as many surprises as Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island (and they are surprising in the same way: the sudden soaring up an octave and the unexpected dropping down one, the long, lovely sustained notes, etc.). It's just him singing and playing a guitar. Neat, me thinks. Your thoughts?

Winehouse Part 2

2007-04-04T01:28:00.000-04:00

Ok, I think I'm obsessed. I've just spent the last hour listening to all these solo acoustic songs on myspace and she's so fucking awesome!! There's all these videos of her singing while sitting in this retro green chair with some acoustic guitar player that we can't see for some tv show or something...and most especially, you should check out "you know I'm no good" amazing! I'm excited like I was about Feist or Cat Power...it's been awhile. The funniest thing is that when she sings she sounds like a old black american blues singer from the 1960's, but when she speaks in interviews, she sounds like sporty spice!
Here's another picture of this hot mama...wait, who the hell says "hot mama" anymore? Well, I'm bringing it back, baby!
I think she looks like her majesty P.J. Harvey in this pic...

OH MAI GAHD!

2007-04-02T17:17:00.000-04:00

Eurovision!!! There's about one month until the Semi-Final and a record 28 songs have made it! 28, wow! Eurovision, wow!!!

Neophytes to the brilliance that is this song contest really should go here so the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS "Song-O-Mat" (Finland spent the money it would take to afford the "ic" on Lordi's costumes last year) can tell them which song is their favourite. It's actually against the rules of Eurovision to just pick for yourself, and the rules of Eurovision are also more or less the law according to the European government. Or so I hear.

In any case, though at first I felt I should support Andorra's entry as it's in my language (waaaaaah!), it was actually too stupid to even handle. Like there's hilarious-Eurovision-stupid and then there's...this, which is just stupid.

So after I fasted for a week due to that little upset I continued my search for a favourite, and for a while decided that they're all just too hilarious this year. What with classically Eurovision song titles such as "LovePower", "Get A Life - Get Alive" and "Time to Party", and delightfully foreign/confused/out-of-date videos like this and this, it looks like Helsinki is going to host a really freaking solid Eurovision 2007...those 28 entries sure all do deserve to be here!

But finally, I settled on Teapacks' "Push The Button" (Isreal's entry), which at first worried me a bit because I'd heard, in passing, that it was actually going to be a genuinely good song? But no, no, thankfully, I'd heard wrong, and it was justly terrible and hence, AMAZING. Not only that, it looks as if these gypsies may be banned this year, because their groundbreaking Klezmer-meets-hard-rock-ish-techno is just a little to controversial, eh? Also I guess people were bit confused by random use of scat in inappropriate places, the singer's awkward torso-rocking, and the vaguely inuendo-ish sound of the group's name.

It's not weird, it's just crappy!

2007-03-31T17:49:00.000-04:00

The Stooges- The Weirdness

This album sucks. It's like your younger brother started a punk band, and he's really excited about it and you overhear them practicing in your basement and when he asks you what you thought all you can say is "dude, you guys sound good, but...get rid of your singer." I even heard that Steve Albini didn't want his name on it as producer so they used the term "engineer" instead...
One good thing is that the album thankfully contains pics of Iggy with his shirt on (well, he has a jacket on but you can barely see his bare chest peeking through..phew). I didn't think any pictures of un-shirtless Iggy existed!
During the uber-crappy song called "My Idea of Fun", Iggy drones over and over: "My idea of fun/is killing everyone", and on the annoying "ATM", I think he's saying "money is simply the loot/gonna bullshit the bullshit up". It has been suggested that he's being trite on purpose-point taken, but if I wanna hear that crap I'll go down to the local shithole on a monday night (they save monday nights for the bands that suck) and shake my fist in the air to my little brothers new band...if I had a little brother.

I don't have time for this now but...

2007-03-30T01:34:00.000-04:00

Rubik are amazing. Fjord Rowboat, Harmonica, Yoko Casionos, Jenn Grant, Frida Hyvönen, Christine Fellows, Pipettes, the View and Metronomy are good.

Computers Are Crazy!

2007-03-19T20:26:00.000-04:00

Even if you're not a Nine Inch Nails fan (and I kind of hope that you aren't!) THIS is worth checking out. You can imagine yourself that you are a big-name producer and that The Mayor will shortly pay a visit to your home and your fancy computer to give you a sash and some money.

Something else that's snazzy and computers-and-music-related is Loop Duplicate My Heart - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names[mp3] which I am quite sure you will have already heard but if you've not...there it is. But I warn you, it is littered with crappy handclaps.

Lastly there is a very long but interesting thing to read about music and the internet, if you at all care.

Amy Winehouse!

2007-03-18T01:10:00.000-04:00

BACK TO BLACK
ok, so I know everyone's been talking about this chick for awhile, but I've always been a late bloomer, ok?? and in my defense, her last album sucked.
BUT THIS ONE'S STUNNING!
It's sorta retro-motown -girlgroup-r&b meets Miseducation of Lauryn Hill meets low-fi- Christina Aguilera-pop!....she can sing like nobody's fucking business!
and now I must excuse myself while I listen to the title track over and over and over again...I'M OBSESSED!
"we only said goodbye with words/I died a hundred times/you go back to her/and I go back to black"
(other notable tracks include rehab and tears dry on their own)

It's cold outside...we need to stay warm!

2007-03-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

The Postmarks are my warm, cozy slippers. I want to cuddle with the postmarks by the fire on those cold winter nights. Maybe it's because they're from Florida, but heat seems to pulsate from my speakers while I listen. A hint of Postal Service, a dash of Frou Frou and a pinch of early Stars, I think. www.thepostmarks.com

...untitled?

2007-02-19T20:44:00.000-05:00

Here are some links because...well, I don't really know why, but I thought that since I found them pretty rad, you might, too!

First of all, there is THIS.

Not only is the video hilarious (Where did he get that suit fitted?! Why is he moving his hands like that...invisible gloves? What's the deal!), the one English comment pretty much makes my life.

Then, THIS. Which apparently, is old news, but it shocked/amused me! The two alternate sides to the story can be found here and here, and on a site referenced by the first article, that I lost the link to.

If you don't already know and don't feel like dealing with a whole lotta reading, basically, Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy's "This Lamb Sells Condos" is actually just vicious slander against this "Brad J. Lamb" character who does, in fact, sell condos. It appears that Brad Lamb is a bit of a dick --

"You know, the thing about music and me -- and this is kind of me in general -- I like stuff and I don't like stuff. I like people and I don't like people. It's not the kind of music I like. But apparently, it's a good song, apparently it's a song people like and I think it's won some awards, it's just not my kind of music and it doesn't appeal to me, regardless of the words." (Oh, sure, Brad...SURE.)

--but, Owen Pallett is a cutie! A truth exposed by both his photograph (durr) and this quote:

"I am a very fortunate person to have been blessed with wildly vivid emotions. I feel ecstasy and despair daily, usually more than once. Yesterday I played violin all day and cried myself to sleep with the joy at my good fortune. So, yes, I think there's a romanticism in my lyrics. I get teary-eyed over a good cup of coffee."

I mean, how can you not fall in love with that? Is it even possible?

Then, totally my favourite movie ever ever ever, by my new favourite guy-who-makes-movies, can be found here (La Jetee). The above photograph, apart from being meant to mock Kit a tiny bit, is from Sans Soleil, another movie made by the same guy (Chris Marker) some years after that other one. This is actually relevant to the whole "music" thing, I promise! Basically Sans Soleil is kind of, but not quite, a mockumentary, made by a made up guy called "Sandor Krasna", whose brother, "Michael Krasna" (also made up) does the making of the music! It's all very late eighties/early nineties kind of stuff that sounds all cheapy and tape-recorder-y, to match the messed-up-VCR effects on the actual vidoe stuff but it's totally the most awesome thing ever in the context of the movie!

In other news, happy birthday to my mother, who is ABSOLUTELY THE COOLEST PERSON EVER.

And just for good measure here is another thing I quite enjoyed. (thank you, hannah)

-Clara

The Drunken Speech of the Deposed Dictator

2007-02-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

In Tears of the Valedictorian, Frog Eyes have added Spencer Krug and made themselves listenable. Their previous efforts featured awesome song titles like "Our Lordship Has Devised a New Billing System" but, to enjoy the songs themselves you really had to immerse yourself in them, and if you did so, you risked going insane. While this danger still exists, it is, at least, no longer an arduous adventure. "Bushels" is a singularly great song; starting off with a fantastic piano line and then, as Carey and Spencer are wont to do, transitioning into an entirely different song, and then another one. There are still annoying bits and it's not going to be played at your local Shoppers' anytime soon, but this time it's worth the pain. What doesn't kill you makes you stranger. (For the opposite turn in fortunes, see the latest Modest Mouse)

Mosey's Top Ten Of 2006-FINAL INSTALLMENT!

2007-02-17T18:30:00.000-05:00

10. Joanna Newsom-Y's
9. Emily Haines-Knives Don't Have Your Back
8. Sufjan Stevens-Avalanche and Christmas Songs
7. Jolie Holland-Springtime Can Kill You
6. Neko Case-Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
5. Kimya Dawson-Remember That I Love You
4. Band Of Horses-Everything All The Time
3. Amy Millan-Honey From The Tombs
2. Awkward Stage-Heaven Is For Easy Girls

1. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins-Rabbit Fur Coat
....IIs it country? Is it indie-rock? Is it folk? Is it gospel?
Let's say it's an alt-country-indie-rock-folk-gospel hybrid. Great songwriting, georgous harmonies, not over-produced like the last Rilo Kiley record, guest stars Ben Gibbard (my future husband, if he wasn't such a dick), Conor Oberst(my future husband if he wasn't so moody) M. Ward (a brilliant man). A cover of a Travelling Wilbury's song that's slightly annoying after 67 listens-this album's got it all!

Julie Doiron's Woke Myself Up

2007-02-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

I've decided to take a break from my top ten and write about something new! I'm halfway through my first listen of the new Julie Doiron record, and I'm liking it more than any of her other records. The guys from her old band, Eric's Trip appear on Woke Myself Up, and it has elements of ET, but I think I might like it better than any Eric's Trip record as well. It's sortof taking the best of her solo stuff and the Eric's Trip stuff and putting it together. I love the creepy harmonies of "swan pond" and PERFECT heart-wrenching harmonies of "no more/no more". It's a little more up tempo than her previous solo records, and I think her writing style has matured as well. Call me crazy, but most of her previous solo albums had songs about her baby crying, or about how she misses her kids...or just really obvious slightly boring lyrics-so I think this album's an improvement...slightly broader subject matter, or less obvious anyway....like instead of her saying "crying baby, crying mother, that's what I am" she'll do a more general observation like "You're feeding your kids the best you can with what you've got". I'd give it an "A".

Internet!

2007-02-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

Internet - featuring: Dan Boeckner & Hadji Bakara of Wolf Parade, Nick Diamonds of Islands, and Syd Butler of Les Savvy Fav.

Best band ever? Certainly best band name ever!

Also, a different internet has the new Andrew Bird. Listen!

Again, How Much Is Too Much?

2007-02-03T11:43:00.000-05:00

Handclaps in songs, baby. Handclaps in songs.

Rilo Kiley - The Frug
Viva Voce - From The Devil Himself
Lo-Fi-FNK - A. D. T.
El Perro Del Mar - I Can't Talk About It
Maps & Atlases - Every Place Is A House

Give me a moment please, to get over an almost crippling desire to make a really bad pun about my 3rd favourite STI.

Okay thanks, I'm ready.

Anyway: are there far too many songs with handclaps in them? I claim there are! I find handclaps annoying and ugly!

I sort of liken them to an old fat bald man walking into my photographs. I've got this perfect scenic framing all worked out, and the camera's settings are all just right (for once), but then I push the button and, damn, it's Horatio the Janitor all up in my memories. It's damaging, you know. And all I want to do is show my mommy the badass shot of the bean in Chicago with all the reflections lined up the way I want them to be, but this guy's mug is in the way, always in the way, with his pockmarked scalp and you can just SEE from the way he's blurred at the edges how RUDELY he must've been darting around, getting in EVERYBODY's pictures--

Besides, you see that shit in the liner notes, "thank you to so-and-so for your delightful handclaps", and it's like, wow so-and-so, you've amounted to so much, this is the life you chose?, etc.

Also I beg you to consider what exactly the handclap is: when you clap, the flesh and bone in your palms are knocking against one another. Try it! It's like if you were beating a rug with a flyswatter, but your rug and your flyswatter are MADE OF MEAT. Only nothing like that I would assume, but it's still gross.

What's more, all three bands mentioned in the first "How much is too much?", use handclaps! Coincidence...?

Still Livin' In The Past-2006, that is...

2007-02-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

The Awkward Stage-Heaven Is For Easy Girls
So this-(drumroll, please) was my second favourite album of 2006.

Ok, The Awkward Stage (more like the AWESOME stage!)….there seems to be an abundance of adjectives beginning with “A”, that I have the audacity to use in conjunction with The Awkward Stage…astonishing, astounding, amazing, awesome…ok, well, maybe not that many. Bottom line is: I love them-and if YOU love smart, well written, catchy, pop songs without the boring lyrics you’ve heard over and over again, you may love them as I do. Let's start at the beginning-where The Moron's Are Winning (title of first song). The record starts with a chorus…I love when they do that!! Hook you in right away with “There is war on and all of the morons are winning, they are winning year to year”. Every time I hear this song I imagine an american flag swaying slowly in the breeze with George W.'s face super-imposed upon it. Another sparkling moment occurs in the song Sad Girl Radio with the lyric "sad girls hate the mirror for all it shows, and don't show/sad girls find comfort in familiar t.v. shows/sad girls got secrets that nobody else knows." It reminds me of my mother asking me just why I felt the need to watch episode after episode of the O.C. and all I could think of was that it was "comforting".
I talked to Shane Nelken after he played here in London last fall and we became myspace pen-pals, so I asked him a few questions about the album.

Mosey: I'm a little worried about the title of the album. Can I be a feminist and still like an album called Heaven Is For Easy Girls??

Shane:Well, you might say it is a celebration of sorts of female sexuality from a slightly juvenile male P.O.V. I have always hated the stigmatization of sexuality in women. We are going to reclaim the word "slut" then take back the streets. I like to think that there is a special place in heaven reserved for enthusiastic sex positive women who take pity on lonely perverted comic book geeks like me. In a nutshell, the song is a love poem to an adult film star named Janine.

Mosey: And Jeanine also happens to be the name of your keyboard player?

Shane: Coincidence...She thought it was funny that the title song of the album mentioned her name over and over...fate?

Mosey: Definately. What I loved most about the album was that these extremely poppy hooky songs pop out at you first, but after a few listens, you start to really appreciate the hidden gems like Sad Girl Radio and T-Rexia Nervosa...T-Rexia reminded me of the sonic youth song Tunic(song for Karen)which is also about Karen Carpenter. Were you familiar with the Sonic Youth homage when you wrote it?

Shane: I'm glad you liked the song. What I can tell you about it is I saw the Todd Haynes film Superstar the Karen Carpenter story and was really moved. I am a sonic youth fan and of course knew the song tunic but had not made the connection at all until you mentioned it. I guess i didn't realize it was about KC. Been a long time since i heard it.
Her story is very tragic and I'm sure there are plenty more KC inspired songs out there. what's your favourite Carpenters song?

Mosey: I'd have to say "Superstar". Does that make me lame?? I just remember being a teenager and seeing the video of the Sonic Youth cover with Thurston standing there with one of those adorable skinny mics in the video.... Tall and shaggy and dressed up in a suit and tie, I fell in love!! it was so sad and....heartbreaking....and...hot!

Shane:Mine is definitely This Masquerade. which i believe was a
cover but I love her version.

Mosey: Yeah, her voice was so haunting...it could be because we know now that she was going through so much, but it really seems like you can feel the pain in her voice.

Shane: Her story is very tragic and I'm sure there are plenty more KC inspired songs out there.

Mosey: Yours is definately one of my favourites! I loved the sixties soul-type chorus of voices!! it sounds like Karen is singing with all the angels in heaven or something!

Shane: Yeah, I originally had just one female harmony accompaniment and it was my friend Kurt (co-producer/engineer) who deserves all the credit for the choral harmonies. I loved the idea of having a chorus of angels blaspheme.

Mosey: Thanks for answering my dumb questions...by the way, I was checking out your myspace friends, and I couldn't help but steal Borat from your list...

Shane: My Borat is your Borat.

And since I'm not a real music journalist, I'll leave you with this quote from allmusic about the album(in case you weren't already convinced)

"If you can listen to the title track and not end up with the hook stuck in your head all day, you are made of strong stuff indeed. Heaven Is for Easy Girls is the kind of record that will leave you with a warm feeling inside and a goofy grin on your face; it also lends more credence to the belief that Vancouver is the center of the guitar pop universe."

Fire!

2007-02-02T08:13:00.000-05:00

Much as I found their first album kind of annoying, their second album is quite an accomplishment. That and they're bringing back the organ! There's been a void in my life ever since I left the church choir that can only be filled by the power and majesty of that instrument. Ok, I don't know how to write. But still, the point is that organs sound cool. Anyway, (I never thought I'd say this but) big-it-up for the Arcade Fire. Also the exact same can be said for the latest Clap Your Hands... record. Sheesh, what's next? Me, liking a BSS album? Don't think so!

Architecture in Helsinki: Australian Terriers of Indie Pop

2007-01-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

AUSTRALIAN TERRIERS: Small hairy creatures yelping for meat and jelly from a can, and sometimes wearing cones around their faces.
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI: Small hairy creatures yelping for meat and jelly from a can, and sometimes wearing cones around their faces.

AUSTRALIAN TERRIERS: Used for rodent and snake control, adept at driving most living creatures and some non-living creatures away after a certain period of time with their exhaustingly obnoxious bark.
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI: Used for rodent and snake control, adept at driving most living creatures and some non-living creatures away after a certain period of time with their exhaustingly obnoxious bark.

AUSTRALIAN TERRIERS: Despite their many faults, their even disposition does make them suitable companion dogs.
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI: Ditto.

OTHER MUSICAL TERRIERS
James Blunt: West Highland Terrier of Breathy Musical Weeping
Ja Rule: Jack Russell of Hip-Hop
Animal Collective: Fox Terriers of Noise
Paris Hilton: Poodle Terrier of Lazy-Eyed Celebrities
Belle and Sebastian: Scottish Terriers.
The Arcade Fire: Airedales of Montreal
Six Organs of Admittance: Kerry Blue Terrier of Freak Folk
Google Image Result for Terrier Look Alike

Thank you for your time.

"Get Your Art On"? ft. Participation: Un Question Pour Vous!

2007-01-21T13:59:00.000-05:00

I think this is a very cool thing!!!

But wait. If you feel like taking a look at the little art projects people have sent in to them...are they really good, or really bad? I honestly can't tell. But I do get the impression that pretty much anyone can design an appropriate cover-artwork-square-thing. Which is...depressing? Because designing album art could very well be one of the very raddest jobs out there, but I get the feeling, based on these examples others have sent in, and Sharpie graffiti on bus seats, and even just little sketches in the margins of kids' notes at school, that everyone is equally qualified for it. Art is easy, shit that looks good can happen out of anyone - maybe even YOU. Unfair, damnit! It makes my dream job far too easy to do and not get paid for, and damn near impossible to do in exchange for moneys. Also it makes me feel so very not-special.

AND, is there maybe a finite number of styles of album art out there? Bad grammar, maybe, but stuff looks the same as other stuff. I think.

Anyway, enough of that because I really must pose a certain question to The Ones Who Know (...I'm looking at you, Voxtrot fan guy):

Why isn't the Wolf Parade fellow really really really famous? He's talented and good looking with some likewise talented and good-looking chums, with whom he's made quite a bit of music. Near everyone who's heard them, likes them, and enough people have heard that you'd think word of mouth would make them bigger than U2. Would him and his cronies maybe be starsies if they were to unify their body of work or whatever, find some way to give it just one name instead of the one million different names they go by now? Or is it that they're Canadian (but has that ever mattered really)? Or that maybe I am dumb; uh, there's something obvious that I'm missing or what? They just aren't interested in getting lots and lots of money for something they do very well, or...is something stopping them? If so, what is it? Do they just need a bit more time?

Mosey's Top 10 of 2006-second installment

2007-01-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Author’s Note:
If you’ll remember from the end of my first installment of the top ten, I had a hard time with #5. I woke up this morning, after several strange, choppy dreams about wall-to-wall carpeting, with Kimya Dawson’s song, “Underground”, in my head, so I took it as a sign.

5. Kimya Dawson-Remember That I Love You

So, quick recap if you don’t know who the hell Kimya Dawson is: she was in the cool, quirky, self-effacing, self-proclaimed “anti-folk” outfit The Moldy Peaches in her formative years, who sang silly songs and wore silly outfits onstage. I love that they wanted to call themselves “anti-folk” when I could write an article on how Remember That I Love You is so neo-Bob Dylan folk, complete with colossal narratives and politics-on-sleeve lyrics….but I’ll save that for another post. For the record (tee-hee, pun!) I wrestled with putting the following records at #5: The Born Ruffian’s EP, Tokyo Police Club’s EP, and Cat Power’s The Greatest, but decided on Kimya because of the following lyric from the song “Giants”: “I like giants/especially girl giants/cause all girls feel too big sometimes regardless of their size”. WARNING!! These songs will glue themselves to the inside of your medulla oblongata, and you will not be able to pry them loose!!

(I inputed “cranium” into Thesauras.com and it gave me “medulla oblongata” so I don’t know what the fuck it means! Long Live The Internet!!)

4.Band Of Horses-Everything All The Time

Magnet magazine suggested we could call them “My Morning Jr.”, and the sound is similar to My Morning Jacket, but I think Band Of Horses comes off with a much more nostalgic, romantic sentiment. Let me paint a little picture for you: when Everything All The Time came out, in March of 2006, I liked it a lot. At the record store where I work, someone kept throwing it on, and as spring turned to summer, that like grew to love. When fall came around, the play copy got buried under piles of other c.d.’s, and like one of Leonard Cohen’s sentimental one-night stands, Band Of Horses became a sweet, covert memory. It remained thus buried, until one fateful evening while watching an old episode of The O.C….and my love for Everything All The Time suddenly came rushing out in a flood of love and neediness! (such is the perplexing nature of love!) I so missed those opening notes that signaled the beginning of the song “funeral” that I was almost weak with desire! Oh, Wherefore Art Thou, Band Of Horses, and when will I see thee again? I cried into the unforgiving wind. Luckily, I went to work the next day and secured myself a copy. Sometimes I sleep with it under my pillow.

3. Amy Millan-Honey From The Tombs

Okay, so I’m finally ready to admit that I’m not a huge Broken Social Scene fan….I liked the song “Lover’s Spit” but that’s about it…I would probably agree if someone said they were overrated…but don’t tell anyone I said that. I think that in the case of BSS, the sum of its parts is greater than the whole (whatever that means, I’m no good at math). I’m not sure why I love this album so much. The songwriting is solid, the instrumentation is cool…it’s sortof a country-pop album, but more rock/pop than Neko Case. Oh, I just remembered…she talks about drinkin’ all the time! That’s the country in the record! Whenever I listen to it I think to myself: “I have to write more songs about whiskey and wine!”. I get all excited, sit down with my guitar and…it doesn’t come out as bad-ass as the Jenny Whiteley-penned song Baby I. When Millan laments: “Sometimes I feel like my only friend is a whiskey glass”…I know exactly what she’s talking about.
(One of my favourite live shows of 2006 was when I saw Amy Millan at NXNE, in Toronto, sometime in the summer. She had a plethora of extremely talented musicians/friends backing her up for most of the set. The pinnacle, however, was the song: Pour Me Up Another, where she stood alone on an empty stage with her finger picking soft chords on her guitar. I remember exclaiming to my friend: (loudly, as I had been drinking), “IS THIS SONG ON THE ALBUM?? I DON’T REMEMBER IT!!!” 'Nuff said.

Another Author’s Note: (hey, I’m getting about as sick of these pretentious ramblings as you are, BELIEVE ME!) However I wanted to apologize for not including #’s 1 and 2, and give you the excuse that I’m tired…(and o.k. truth is, I want to waste my time watching YET ANOTHER old episode of the O.C.)

Another Great Thing About Sweden

2007-01-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

We all know about Sweden's extensive social programs, including their 62 weeks paid parental leave (with a right to return to the same job) as well as, of course, all of their attractive residents, but they've also added Peter Bjorn and John to their impressive resumé.

Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

2007-01-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

About a fortnight ago, Ned and I took the Rolls-Royce out for a simply delightful spin across the countryside near the manse on the Riviera. You know how Old Ned likes his drives! We bantered on breezily, as Ned and I do when the driving mood strikes us, mulling over the art and literature of the age, chatting about esprit de corps, jovially pursuing nothing in particular as the fields of Cap Ferrat blurred sentimentally past.

Now, as we drove and idled and picked apart Flaubert, Old Ned couldn't help but notice the simply stifling rural silence encroaching upon us as the conversation(s) du jour grew stale. Miles away we were, simply miles from the manse, with not a conversational foothold to be found!

But Ned is of course the kind of ever-so-prepared chap I simply die to associate with. With a simply startling "fiddle-de-dee!", he burst out a disc of music he'd purchased recently, a collection of ditties he referred to as Viking black metal.

What the hell? Who MAKES this stuff? That's actually all it is: Viking black metal. Nordic hard rock. Whatever. It's the worst! Not since Lordi have I been so delightfully disgusted!

Now, these guys are a little vanilla when put up against Lordi who do, in fact, oooooze menace and authenticity. One "John Hegg" of "Amon Amarth" can roar and wail all he wants about "VALHALLAAAAAAA", but whereas Mr. Lordi is HARDCORE (and married!), I'm pretty sure John Hegg is just a regular old guy turning his personal experiences into music. Just like Dave Matthews really did "do it", these guys really DID ravage your village and rape your sister!

DON'T EVER LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM!

Note: My hard drive fizzled out. I made my daddy take the computer to an expert and there's nothing for it, I lost everything - EVERYTHING! That music library took years to compile! I actually assigned album artists, and album art, composers and genres to all of it! Made sure there were no "Iron and Wine"s among the "Iron & Wine"s! AND IT'S ALL GONE NOW! I'll probably never find those Hilary Duff concert bootlegs again. So I suppose I'm starting again from scratch, and memory. I cried. ON TOP OF THAT, I watched the first half of Memento yesterday and am actually DYING to watch the rest of it, but can't yet, AND Eurovision is beginning! Point is I'm going a little nuts! More than a little, and I just couldn't help myself!!! Members of upper-class British society listening to Nordic death metal, not funny? Probably! BUT COME ON THESE GUYS HAVE LIKE 23948 ALBUMS AND THEY SERIOUSLY THINK THEY ARE VIKINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Voxtrot

2007-01-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives,

Raised by Wolves,
Rise up in the dirt!
Wrecking Force;
Missing Pieces
Sway.
Trouble.

Not poetry. Those are Voxtrot tracks. Go listen. Full-length being worked on...

Best of 2007

2007-01-08T19:11:00.000-05:00

Update: Ok, too enthusiastic. Oops.

Mosey's Top 10 of 2006-first installment

2007-01-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

10. Joanna Newsom-Y’s

This is one of those haunting records that grows on you--slowly, creeping up inch by inch. Also, this is going to sound extremely cheesy, but I think It’s helped me to grow (yikes, worse than I thought). Now look, see-(I start snapping here) it used to be I only liked pop music….there was a time that I couldn’t even follow a Bjork song… “where is this going?” I would ask myself, then throw the cd across my living room in annoyance. Now I feel like I finally understand! There are hooks, in the work of both Bjork and Newsom that seem to dig into you slowly instead of catching you quick and frying you up for dinner. My favourite part occurs in the last song, where Newsom’s voice reaches a feverish squeak while repeating the phrase “and I miss your precious heart” over and over again. Plus it’s got lots of harp!

Emily Haines-Knives Don’t Have Your Back

This grew on me too….so much so that after only a couple of listens, I actually convinced a friend not to buy it. I take it back! It’s not really pop music, see…the piano sort of meanders around. Sometimes chugging a rhythm, sometimes not so much. If you listen closely, between the low notes of the piano, you can hear the sound of a rocking chair on a porch far, far away. I love the darkness of this record, and Haines’ low raspy voice breathing: “this call costs a fortune and it’s late where you live” in Crowd Surf Off A Cliff.

Sufjan Stevens-Avalanche and Christmas Songs

I love this prolific bastard…though with each album he seems to get further and further away from his “plan” to write an album dedicated to each of the states in the United States-still I wouldn’t put it past him. Avalanche is the outtakes from his previous album Illinoise, but I think I like it better….it’s possibly more of a pop album. The Christmas album is not as annoying as it sounds…Stevens mostly makes cute pop songs that mention Christmas. It’s a limited edition 3 cd set with awesome packaging including stickers and the cords to play along with all the songs!

7. Jolie Holland-Springtime Can Kill You

The first song kills me-it’s about taking the bus home after staying at your (new?) lover’s house the night before and how everything seems to be drenched in sunlight and coated in honey. She’s “still dressed up from the night before, silken hose and an old parisian coat” sigh. Couple this with the pretty, drowsy barroom voice of Holland and you’ve struck gold. It’s dark and sad too-the song Stubborn Beast is subtitled pleading bitterly with fate and includes one of my favourite lines from the album: “But like a stubborn beast when the barn is on fire, I might resist you when you try to save my life”

Neko Case-Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

I’m pretty sure that Neko is the re-incarnation of Patsy Cline. I’m probably not the first to postulate this, however, but I never read music magazines anymore so who knows. I’m just realizing that the dates work-Cline died in a plane crash in 1963, Case was born in 1970. C’est possible! Cline was never punk rock enough to get banned from the Grand Ole Opry, I guess, but the 50’s were tamer times. So Maybe Neko is Cline crossed with the ghost of Sid Vicious. Case also has a heap of indie cred hip-ness by way of: first, going to art school in Vancouver, second: playing drums in the punk band Maow, and third: singing with indie-rock darlings The New Pornographers and alt-country heroes The Sadies. But fuck all that, this album is brilliant. Thanks to Case, people everywhere are holdin’ out for That Teenage Feelin’.

authors note:Mosey thought this top ten might be getting a bit wordy and hard to digest in one sitting, so she will hold you in suspense (that's right I'm grabbing you there) until the final installment....and also she hasn't completely decided on number 5...

Karen Dalton - In My Own Time

2007-01-07T03:04:00.000-05:00

Nick Cave, Lenny Kaye and Devendra Banhart rave about her. Pitchfork gave the record its coveted 9.0 rating (although those guys are retarded, so who gives a fuck?). Bob Dylan was a peer. But this record is

36 years old, and Karen died, homeless and fairly unknown, in the streets of New York in 1993. Why the delay?

Well, I'm not sure. This record, Karen Dalton's second album released in 1971, was out of print ages ago, and was a rare and valuable find for those people you read about in Nick Hornby books who live in record stores. It was the Holy Grail of 70s folk. Now, it's been reissued, and over Christmas I heard for the first time her oft-described other-worldly voice, and I wish I had heard it sooner.

(work in progress)

-kit

MySpace!

2007-01-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

"It's a great way to get connected, keep in touch with old friends, make some new ones...BE BETRAYED BY ONE."

So a kid at school wrote this lengthy, whiny monologue about the emotional hazards associated with MySpace's illustrious "Top Friendzzzz" category, right, and then Time Magazine goes on for a million years about who and what has catapulted it/his/her/them/other -selves/-self into artistic greatness via this weird-ass website network...thing, so I figured it was time to hit up this dark and dreary and LAME (well, if you're like me, and start off not knowing where the hell to look) corner of the internet for myself. Admittedly I didn't get very far, but I'm learning.

I now present!
MY MYSPACE TOP FRIENDS, BUT NOT ON MYSPACE, YAH. ACTUALLY JUST FIVE MYSPACE LINKS TO...STUFF.

Ilona Mitrecey
I recommend you listen to: Un Monde Parfait

She's this twelve year old Parisian pop-star prodigy with videos of dancing marshmallows and such. I don't care that she doesn't write her own songs, or that she does a ton of commercials (eeeaagrr..), or that her voice is very doctored, or even that her videos look like Japanime or something awful like that. The "comments" section of the thing is dominated by NAZIS! What's not to like? "Danke schon, Ilona!" (that might be a curse! i don't know!) Oh, and that song up there? There used to be a better version of it up, with more awesome accordion action. This one is more techno and less French-outdoors-cafe-but-on-acid. Oh, well. A better video can be found here: http://wufs.net/coop/media/1-minute/Perhaps_512k.wmv !

DJ Hunnicutt,His Winnipegian Friends (not just those ones, there are many more on his "list", including Moses Mayes, that stuff's really good)
I reccommend you listen to: Memories

This is actually a poor replacement for Casper, because I lost the link to his thing (but if you can find it: he's a young Londoner and a very good freestyler, and I know he has a myspace SOMEWHERE...). Anyway, Hunnicutt's been around for a long time but no one seems to care, probably because he's just a tadge less "original" and "innovative" than he thinks he is (though, still pretty good) and thus hardly anything special, and also, maybe because he's had his fifteen minutes or whatever, maybe even some time before I was born. Though I do doubt that. Oh, he's got an OK record label, Peanuts and Corn, if you're at all interested. And there's a tutorial on crab-eating somewhere on the page, again, if you're interested. Two fun facts! One, he knows a lot about M*A*S*H, two, peanuts and corn are not only two of the slowes-digesting foods, they're also two of the top carriers of the CANCER-CAUSING "aflatoxins" also found in many animal products and genetically altered fruits and vegetables! Carcinogens everywhere you turn - learn about it, replace old insulation, don't inhale cleaning fluids, and fight cancer!!!

The Arsoncityscape
I recommend you listen to: We Will Go Down In History

Oh, brother - literally. There is nothing wrong with shamelessly promoting family members, especially if they're not bad, for a bunch of just-outta-highschool-ers. They've been doing this "glam rockpop" or "softcore emopop" (credit Isaac Sherry, 2007) since they were like eleven, and I guess the hard work (and breaking strings off my guitar, which I later had to pay for myself, which was totally not fair, until I got his bike stolen and now we're pretty much even, but not quite seeing as the bike was mad expensive, anyhow) pays off, or something. They've grown a lot in the past half-decade, from Grand Theft Gumball (the Simple Plan pastiche group) through to who they are now, and I got to watch them do it! But enough family sappiness. If you ignore the howling girls in my grade who respect them more than I do, and see nothing wrong with discussing their Madrenas Family Fantasies with me, they're great live, too. Unfortunately their very good looking bassist left recently, and they only just recently recorded some new stuff that's not finished yet, so I'm posting this right before they'll undergo changes, etc, or hit puberty or whatever. So if you don't like them now maybe you'll like them later?

Chris Bush
I recommend you listen to: The Ducks, VERY LOUDLY!

It's not even Chris Bush that I'm wild about, it's that one song. Pity it's not the full version there: the beginning of it, this lovely quietly swirling breathy-sounding-keyboard version of the main piano theme, that swells into the piano you hear here (hear here, hah), has been cut. It's still gorgeous, though! Words can't really describe this, especially if you don't know the Angles in America story, but try and picture: Prior and spectral Louis dancing by Prior's hospital bed, until the melody sort of...peaks, at which point, Louis drifts away to the park bench upstage, in Central Park, where he really is (in actuality he abandoned the sick Prior weeks ago). Prior dances with the air until suddenly, music changes, lights as well, he falls, coughing, into a red spotlight, sobbing and wheezing and twitching and sick until, finally, the music dies down and he collapses completely. The lights are back to normal, he's not dreaming anymore, just lying there, motionless............oh Christ it was such a good scene.

Roar & the Wolf
I recommend you listen to: Ghotel + Right Angles

Loverly electronica! Music avec le texture! This stuff is very Postal Service, and very awesome. I'm sort of typed-out, though (my arm's sore from giving blood - DO IT, easiest life i ever saved!), so I'm not going to go on for too long here. Just yeah, Ghotel is one of those wonderful modern-young-love-feeling songs like Such Great Heights (but not as sickeningly hear-it-everywhere-you-turn) that always puts a smile on my face. Am I making any sense, at all?

Also, www.myspace.com/exesandeyes is a friend of mine I've never actually gotten around to listening to, so if you want, you can do that.

Lastly, before I faint, Seth Cohen has a myspace. What does this mean? Can I contact him? MARRY HIM? ...please?

Beck - The Information

2006-12-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

Though Beck has been around for a while, I had my way with him for the first time with The Information, the artist’s seventh album. Should I be embarrassed that my Beck virginity was not lost with the earlier and more highly recognized and nod-worthy works like Odelay or Sea Change? Maybe, but I have reasoned that saving myself gives me a unique and appropriate vantage point for interpreting and appreciating this new collection.

My perspective is fitting in that I get a well-rounded taste in an “album that splits the difference between the two Becks, dressing up his ambling beat science in Godrich's [album producer] dystopian keyboard squeals and humming synths. There's an overall kitschy spookiness.” Spin. Kitschy, if not the best compliment, is comforting in the sense that even if I missed things the first time around, I can still relish in experiencing some of the same feelings Beck’s earlier work, whether they be superior or not, evoked in others. For those that have been privy to Beck’s sound may find this album to be a nostalgic all-encompassing reflection of the artist. If you however, are looking for the old inventive Beck to come up with something a little bit more avant-garde (as he has been recognized by some for doing in the past), this is not that album.

This review of earlier styles comes across in the first two singles, Nausea and Think I’m in Love. Where Nausea has a funky hard edged movement-inducing beat, Think I’m in Love adds some easily appreciated emotion in a more soothing sound. The rest of the songs can essentially be pegged into these two perhaps too overly generalized categories fairly effortless. Do not interpret this as meaning the songs each lack a unique quality. What makes them so similar is the way they are put together with the same highly addictive formula; Beck comes up with a menagerie of sounds that all come across as unusual and yet are instantly picked up with affection. He fills them in with lyrics that may or may not mean anything to the listener and in the end, you easily and willingly give your ear and let yourself relish in the cool ambience created by the final product. The standouts in my book are Cellphone’s Dead (minus the baby coos and child’s voice which sound a little too like trashy hip hop versus respectable hip hop), Think I’m in Love (pleasantly chock full of sentiment and thus a song easily about YOU, the listener), and No Complaints (because of the lyrics and the little dodo do at the end easily win me over).

Considering that these three songs only account for 1/5 of the all the information, one does feel a tad inclined to criticize Beck for creating such a long album. While the almost double song-list may be rationalized as warranted within the idea that it explores the “two Becks”, it does become a bit tedious when trying to make it through the entire album in one sitting and even a little redundant after a while. I still in fact have yet to make it through the final song, The Horrible Fanfair, Landslide, Exoskeleton.

All in all this album is a win because it is classic Beck…well so I am told…it’s all fresh Beck to me. But it is a loss for exactly the same reason. Beck is probably most appreciated for his originality and that, while it does shine, is not as ...well original as in his older records. I can easily look beyond this though and appreciate the record in and of itself, enjoying each offering of Beck’s effortless cool.

Can't You Just FEEL The Wetness Behind My Ears...

2006-12-25T22:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, it may be just a trifle presumptuous of me to make a (VERY VERY LONG WINDED) best-of-2006 list when I heard maybe eight or nine percent of anything that came out, and also, everyone else on this site thing is probably way more qualified than me in this respect… But because I have little to say about Regina Spektor, it’s either this, or a picture of an eggplant (actually – good ones of those are really easy to find all over the internet, check it), or nothing at all. So?

Well first I’d like to state that two very epic albums didn’t make the list. Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale was simply too hardcore. I tried to put it on the list but it gosh, I got sick of putting bandaids on all the wimpy wounded albums who simply couldn’t live up to da spawn of Wu-Tang, yo. Also Futuresex/Lovesounds, though Sexy Back was the only listenable track, needs to be mentioned as it had the word “sex” printed on the insert at least ten times, assuming the word “sex” and the word “love” are interchangeable (“who ARE you, you’re fifteen, shut up.”)

Speaking of fifteen, that’s what it is, it’s a top fifteen. But go ahead and disagree with me about any of this and I’m sure you’ll be right.

15. The Blow – Paper Television

This album feels sort of pour-able. Like turning on a faucet – it’s on, and then it’s nice, and then it’s off. Maybe not extremely special, but really catchy nonetheless. And leaves lovely little evaporating beads of water on the bottom of your sink! Because what would the bugs drink otherwise? Thanks, Khaela Maricich and Jona Bechtolt, for keeping the bugs satiated! Sorry what? Well your album’s really nice to hear, so thanks for that, too. But why do you guys look nightmarishly like men?!

Favourite Song: Parentheses (which I’m playing on loop RIGHT NOW)

14. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block

I’ll admit I only gave the album a listen because I was waiting for another Sharon Lois & Bram (I am forever waiting for another Sharon Lois & Bram.) That and my friend Levi classified the music as “shoegazing”, so what is that, anyways. Anyways. I like a lot of the vocal…stuff. Cute little guy-singing-with-girl harmonies or whatever, duets, are they called that?

Favourite Song: Young Folks – listen to it!

13. Vincent Delerm – Les Piqures d’Araignees

Bilingualism rules! I think this guy helped Yann Tiersen with the masterpiece that was the Amelie sountrack. Obviously this album doesn’t – couldn’t ever – live up to that, but it’s lovely nonetheless. The songs are so simple I’m sure you, or maybe Nick Carter, could have written them. In fact I think Nick Carter could be this guy’s American counterpart! But that doesn’t matter, at all, because French is the sexiest language and this album shows it.

Favourite Song: Favourite Song (seriously.)

12. Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope

My apologies! I’m constantly making fun of this creepy little Russian girl and her bouncy little songs and clicky-sounding little voice and little cookie-cutter fashionista fans and their use of non-words like “obv” and “def”. But honestly? When it comes to school coach bus rides to Toronto where it’s a choice between singing along to Fidelity or watching Elf, which would YOU pick? Besides: the Fidelity video: frigging gorgeous.

Favourite Song: On The Radio

11. The Whitest Boy Alive – Dreams

I’m trying to work the pun “black by popular demand” in here but it isn’t working. So anyway, this is the guy from Kings of Convenience being totally non-electronica-y and instead very traditional (drums. bass. guitar. voice.), and the simplicity is really very lovable. Hardly any layering, few effects, just clean and clear (but not a facewash?) and put-together sounding. The album is so Zenn-y and so effortless to listen to and totally the aural expression of its cover art; check that.

Favourite Song: Above You

10. Gym Class Heroes – As Cruel As School Children

The album that initiated my obsession with the phrase “on a scale of one to awesome I’m the shit”. Seriously, I can’t stand it when people complain about hip hop. You don’t like this stuff then you’re just a perverted old man trying to pick fights with teenage girls and watch them get “flustered”, also, the paint on your van is chipping guy and you have gnarly hands? On a scale of one to awesome, this album’s the shit!

Favourite Song: Scandalous Scholastics, but kudos to 7 Weeks for making a The Academy Is… song tasteful, and to New Friend Request for being the song I’d use to explain 2006 to the people of the future.

9. Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther

Fancy! I don’t know where the hell this came from, actually, but everyone is all over it, and I can kind of see why. It’s so delightfully old fashioned! It’s big sweeping stuff that sounds crap played quietly, but is totally worthy of listening to with eyes closed when blaaaaaaared. My family hates me? Ah, well! My ears don’t! …yet.

Favourite Song: Young Bride or Roscoe or Bandits or…well you get the picture

8. Copeland – Eat, Sleep, Repeat

This is the only non-local band I’ve seen live! (not counting individual artists as bands…) I’m pretty sure Aaron was drunk as hell but he can “emote” or whatever (and SWEAT) like no other. Tears in my eyes, seriously. (they come back on March the first!!!) They’ve gotten smarter and more worldly or something since their last album, though, and not as sappy – though still really maudlin, in a good way. Christy whistey, this album would make me cry if I let it. Though I don’t know where they stand in terms of public approval – do people hate them, or just not give a shit?

Favourite Song: I Think I’m Safer On An Airplane

7. Girl Talk – Night Ripper

Can you find any other, better obscure British mixtape hip hop? I didn’t think so. This isn’t necissarily “quality” stuff, if you want to engage in musical bigotry, but it’s mad fun to listen to and a wicked cool concept.

Favourite Song: the album is actually more just one continuous track?

6. The Divine Comedy – Victory for the Comic Muse

One of the most unjustly ignored albums ever, I found. Perhaps because this and all other of TDC’s stuff is really just a thinly-veiled Scott Walker impression? Though that doesn’t matter anymore – Mr. Walker’s dead to me after the pretentious, unlistenable abomination that was The Drift, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, Bach as an influence really shines through here, the whole album’s kind of like a study in instrumentation, and beautiful. Orchestral stuff is rad? And the stories in the lyrics are just so vivid and his voice is just so grand and…I could go on forever…

Favourite Song: A Lady of a Certain Age (the lady’s increasing drunkenness is actually palpable when you hear the song, it’s just too good…)

5. Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit

So apparently thirty billion minds think better than one. This band may have far too many people in it, but they really… “deliver”, even though it is really easy, too easy, to make fun of them. The only track I managed to genuinely hate though, was the first: "ohh if i could make se-ense of it all...i wish that i could SEE WHY EVERYONE LIKES THIS DUMB BAND?!" They’re a bit like Billy Joel though, both in the way the sound and the way they just…are. Like you recognize they’re not exactly brilliant, so why can’t you get these songs out of your head? Why are you still astounded at how cleverly (and Scottishly!) these lyrics are strung together, in a sort of way that makes it so you actually can’t physically stop yourself from singing along? Eh, it doesn’t matter. This Stuart fella’s simply charming.

Favourite Song: We Are The Sleepyheads (rrrrghsocatchy…) NO I CHANGED MY MIND, Dress Up In You is better

4. Lily Allen – Alright, Still

Imagine Noel Coward, in drag, on speed, imitating old school Nelly Furtado in a cockney accent. Or like, a chavvy Regina Spektor, Regina minus that sort of dreamy ennui stuff, and more honest. Also, witty, and kind of bitter. Plus Lily Allen’s fans don’t say “fave”. And every track on this thing could be some other album’s flagship single. They’re all just that good. I think, at least. Maybe not? Alright, still. (OH HO.)

Favourite Song: buh, all of them? LDN’s my favourite at the moment

3. Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming

I’m obsessed with vocals and generally can’t listen to anyone who can’t sing right but – oh wait, what’s this? Maybe this is only on here, and so high up on the list, to try and balance out the distinct lack of Canadians (sorry?). But I think I just love this album and can’t figure out why. Actually yeah, it’s just spectacular. Epic even. I’m raving, can you tell?

Favourite Song: I’d say the title track, but it takes eight minutes to do what They Took A Vote And Said No does in three.

2. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

Admittedly at first I hated this album. What I loved about the Decemberists was that feeling like they recorded down by the docks in the fog, or something. This album didn’t feel that way at all, initially. Too polished and expensive-sounding but almost phony. I thought it wasn’t as dynamic as Picaresque, not as quirky (??) as Her Majesty, not as impressive as The Tain, etc, etc – but how wrong I was. I gave it a few more listens and then eventually a few bazillion more listens and I think every album should be like this. It’s a concept album but not as in-your-face concept-y (read:lame) as other concept albums. It’s tight, musically, lyrically, just really really good. And, as I now see (hear!), not worse than their other stuff in fact, on the contrary, it’s the culmination of everything Colin Meloy’s done so far and I’m sure they’re only going to get better from here. This album is…uh…perfect, almost.

Favourite Song: toss-up between Yankee Bayonet and O, Valencia!, if songs could flip coins

1. CLAY AIKEN – A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS!!!!!!!

So I’m sure I speak for the entire world when I say we all love Clay’s new look, eh? And like, just how awesome he is? Did you see him on Oprah? Did you? Did you? He finally reavealed his true feelings for Simon Cowell? SO emotional. (I’m not entirely kidding actually – I saw ‘im live! His first Canadian concert! It was Claymate History!)

Favourite Song; ALL OF THEM (just kidding, it sucked)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off

2006-12-10T07:04:00.000-05:00

I have to first admit that I may not be as 'au courant' as I once was because of the musical and cultural backwater in which I now live. I should have posted this review weeks ago.

The Walkmen's third studio album, A Hundred Miles Off, is fantastic. Much has been made of singer Hamilton Leithauser's voice and how he must have been studying Bob Dylan's pronunciation. It is true that what often annoyed people in the past about the Walkmen was his drawl, and he does sound a lot more like Dylan on this record, but the record is more properly an homage to Dylan's songmanship than his diction.

On the Walkmen's two previous albums, “The Rat” and “Little House of Savages” became their most popular cuts, due in large part to the promotion the band received thanks to the NBC show The O.C. Both tracks are thoughtfully included on my copy of the album (but this may only be for the Japanese version) and coupled with “Fly Into the Mystery”, give a nice indication of the direction the band has taken so far. There is even a festive Christmas song, “The Christmas Party”, which is really fun and quite sweet. This album is largely a departure from that trajectory though, and it's a good one.

“Good For You's Good For Me”, “This Job is Killing Me” and “Emma, Get Me a Lemon” give the best indication of the band's new sound: soaring melodies that scrap both ends of the singers vocal range, rhythms reminiscent of Animal Collective's Feels, and choruses that are worthy of not just Dylan, but any folk hero. The record does feel more like a rare find from some undiscovered 60's label than a 2006 release, but this is not a bad thing. I like 60's music.

“All Hands and the Cook”'s unrelenting beat and rhythm hammers its way into your subconscious, and gets lodged there. It's nice though. The song feels too short, but after repeated listens, it feels more natural. The swift and unexpected chord changes on a distorted electric organ give the song a sinister feeling that is dispelled by the pleasing chorus. The song is so good that it can block out all the negative-aura-creating-powers that Seoul can muster.

The best song on the record is “Lost in Boston”. It starts out with the slower tempo of many Walkmen songs, but is closest to what the uninitiated might call a rock song. By my count, there are three distinct bridges, each of which I eagerly anticipate every time I listen to it. In the throws of the most rocking part, the lines “Now, you can hear us shout, from miles around, somewhere uptown” are screamed over well-placed chord changes. It's enough to make you scream right along with it. Or go and drink rum and chocolate. “Brandy Alexander” is yet another great song; the kind of tune that should get regular play on college radio and lots of covers from earnest 18-year-olds trying to impress their girlfriends. The melody is simple, sweet and memorable.

This album has so far gotten me through the vomiting of children, the constant implied threat of dismissal, the incompetence of airlines that don't record who purchases a ticket, and one severe blow to the head. It's that kind of album. It's that good. Go out and buy or steal it right now.
-kit

Mashups, Cover Albums, Crazy People

2006-12-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

Xiu-Xiu will release an album of covers next year with Sunset Rubdown providing a track. Deerhoof has had this album of covers available for free for a while now.

Also, this is happening: Scarlett Sings Tom Waits. Finally, if you're one of those millions of people whose favourite bands are both Queen and G-Unit, now they're together, at last.

Sophomore Slump

2006-12-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

The new Killers' first six songs off their new album are alright. The same can be said for Bloc Party's latest effort. Sad to say, but it's also the truth. Is this opinion borne merely of the disconnect between my expectations and the result or is it grounded more in objective reality? Well, given that music is an inherently subjective experience, it would have to be the former. So are the standards I am holding these bands to unfair or unreasonable? Perhaps, but there's little that can be done about that.

Baby Rock!

2006-11-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

This may cause the single most important transformation in early childhood education since education itself was made mandatory.

Now, you probably led a deprived childhood, er, babyhood. But don't fret, your babies can listen to the music of Bjork, the Pixies, the Beatles, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, the Cure, Nirvana, Coldplay etc in remastered soothing sweet lullaby form. Please go here or here and have your rattle ready.

From the site:
"Baby Rock Records transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies, sending your little one to a slumberland of sweet dreams. Delicate instruments such as the glockenspiel, vibraphone, mellotron, harp and bells create a soothing atmosphere of sound. These charming recordings are sophisticated enough for everyone to enjoy, yet gentle enough for your little angel. This is cherub rock for a new generation."

I actually like it a lot.

This definitely should have happened sooner.

How much is too much?

2006-11-21T02:31:00.000-05:00

The Boy Least Likely To, The Bicycles, Math and Physics Club, what's with all this cute indie rock? Now, don't get me wrong; I love animals and kid-like illustrations and melodic music, but when do we reach the saturation point? As Socrates said, 'Check out the tits on that one" Wait, that was a creepy eighty-year old man from the British consulate in Chongqing. Sometimes I get my stories confused. Anyway, as Socrates said "everything in moderation", so if you can't handle this much indie cute-ness, here's the polar opposite, who today released a 'best of'.

Swan Lake - Beast Moans

2006-11-11T00:49:00.000-05:00

If O.J. Simpson can write a book confessing to the murder of his wife, hypothetically, then I can review this album as though it has already been released... hypothetically. Swan Lake is the combined effort of Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes). Now you may be wondering why you should care about yet another Canadian indie band supergroup, and if you don't like the music of one or more of the bands mentioned the short answer is that you shouldn't. However, the creature they have created together has something of its own voice.

The good news if you are a fan of Bejar's, Krug's or Mercer's previous work is that this album is exactly what you are looking for. Beast Moans, as their press release states, is "their debut record featuring, among other things, beast moans, starling voices, cobra hi hats and arpeggiating pianos." All of that is well and good, but the problem is that Bejar, Krug and Mercer are such distinctive and recognisable songsmiths that each of the tracks sounds like their respective bands. "The Freedom" sounds like a Destroyer song, "All Fires" a Sunset Rubdown track, "The Parisan But He's Got To Know" a Frog Eyes track, "The Freedom" a Destroyer song, "Bluebird" and "Are You Swimming in Her Pools" a Sunset Rubdown track, etc.

This is not a bad thing. The hooks in Spencer's songs are as good as any he has written for Wolf Parade or Sunset, the lyrics on Bejar's tracks are as thought-provoking and interesting as any Destroyer line ("The freedom to be alone with/ the freedom to be alone" "I put a hex/ on the telephone line/ that brought your voice to me/ disembodied and cheapening everything it used to mean") and Carey's vocals are as frantic as fans of Frog Eyes have come to expect. Taken together, some of the tracks do have a sleepy feel, like the songs you half-hear from across the lake at someone else's summer cottage. The feeling is shattered though with the fragmentary styles refusing to gel, making the album more a poorly put-together mix-tape from a musically savvy friend than the product of three combined artists.

This is a little surprising considering how close Mercer and Krug are. Krug has been an occasional member of Frog Eyes since the release of "The Bloody Hand", and they used to be roommates! They both toured with Bejar, played on "Notorious Lightning and Other Works" and formed Destroyer's band on the European tour of "Your Blues". For all this co-operation, Swan Lake have only a fleetingly coherent sound. If I hadn't been such a fan of their main gigs, I doubt I would have given this record a second spin.

However, perhaps the lack of a consistent and distinct sound is a good sign. Swan Lake could have tried to force some painfully artificial "combined style", like a dilettante DJ making his first mash-up. The choir of exaggerated efforts and compromise to the furious vortex of resigned cooperation is nowhere to be found. Instead you have some neat songs that don't go well together, but sound pretty good. Swan Lake's moans are not so much those of one beast, but more the dissonant cries of three murders headed in different directions. Or, some other, better, metaphor.
-kit.

All Fires (mp3)
The Freedom (mp3)

Africa

2006-11-09T17:10:00.000-05:00

First, I’d like to state for the record that I have great trouble with the labels ‘world music’, ‘alternative’ and ‘indie’. Basically, you shouldn't define genres using relative terms that have nothing to do with the genres themselves.

The necessary alternative to ‘world music’ must be ‘non-world’ music. This doesn’t make any sense. ‘Alternative’ music is a misnomer since it is usually mainstream, and as such, not the alternative. Finally, ‘indie’ music is rarely ‘independent’ in the sense that the producer is the owner. Instead, the producer’s work is owned by record labels, which may not even be that small and whose main difference may simply be an inferior capacity to distribute. Ideally, ‘independent’ labels are different by ensuring that artistic integrity is not compromised by corporate goals in the course of the production process. But I think that too often an artificial dichotomy is drawn between ‘indie music’, ‘alternative music’, ‘world music’ etc and this can serve to obscure rather than clarify. In reality, there is a continuum between the ‘mainstream’ and ‘indie’ music. More importantly, what's 'mainstream' in one place is 'indie' in another.

All of the above is a preamble for the following point. Africa, home to a plethora of cultures, styles, traditions, etc possesses a cornucopia of musical talent. Among that talent, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Salif Keita, Rokia Traoré, Cecile Kayirebwa, Orchestra Baobab, Cesaria Evora and Mulatu Astatke, among many others, feature prominently. They make ‘world music’. It is very mainstream amongst connoisseurs of ‘world music’ but it is also very ‘indie’ in the sense that the ‘western mainstream’ does not recognize ‘world music’ as much or as often as it should. I hope that this post goes some way towards correcting that deficit.

On a related note, Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) has worked with Malian musicians on Mali Music and with Tony Allen on his new project the Good, the Bad and the Queen and I am pleased to report that, like most things he has done, the results are impressive.

Land of Talk - Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss

2006-11-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

There isn't much press available for Montreal's Land of Talk, but what little there is has compared them to both Tokyo Police Club and Cold War Kids. The energy of the former and the interesting melodies and leads of the latter make the references meaningful, but a more revealing comparison is with early Cat Power. On first listen, Elizabeth Powell's vocals are just as startling as Chan Marshall's were and continue to be.

Her self-proclaimed "anti-folk basement rock" sounds like one of those genre titles mercilessly mocked in "indier than thou" parodies, but it does mean something. These are not folk songs, and this is definitely rock. I saw the band open in April for Wintersleep, who they blew out of the water. Unfortunately, virtually no one was there to witness it, and this band is deserving of so much more critical acclaim.

If the Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss EP is any indication, the forthcoming full length record will be very good. For a trio, Land of Talk pack a lot of clever hooks into their music, and mercilessly thrash out choruses when need be. The melody of "Speak to Me Bones" sneaks up on you, lodges itself in your head, and won't stop shaking, while the quick key change is still surprising on repeated listenings. "All My Friends" is the catchiest track, with Powell's almost mournful voice coupled with upbeat lyrics. The quick tempo and muddy guitar lines nicely compliment the cheerful chorus: “fucking around, pretending there's a problem. Figure it out.” The driving beat and rhythms on "Summer Special" and "Breaxxbaxx" are provided courtesy of Bucky Wheaton (drums, back vocals) and Chris McCarron (bass, back vocals), and give the record a solid spine.

The thing I find really strange about reviews of female artists or female fronted bands, from Beth Orton to Liz Phair, is that male and female reviewers alike feel compelled by some unspoken law of criticism to mention how "sexy" the vocals are, how "sexy" the artist is or how it is impossible to pin down what property it is that makes the band so "sexy". With no disrespect to the physical appearance of the band members, this record is not about being sexy, unless I have seriously misunderstood the track "Magnetic Hill" ("I need help with direction.") It's much more about capturing the feeling of loneliness in all its multifarious guises. Then again, I suppose you could find anything, including loneliness, sexy. That would make you a bit of a sexual predator, but maybe you are ok with that.
-kit

Happy Yet Sad

2006-11-08T01:30:00.000-05:00

I wish there was a word for that. Logic would seem to suggest that there shouldn't be. But if it existed it'd be the most accurate word to convey my feelings about two cool shows going on in Toronto this upcoming week.

On Thursday, November 9 at The Boat you could see The Patients . The patients made an ep in 2003 and then disappeared for three years. I guess they got tired of pretending to not exist so they decided to finally make the full-length "Get Well Soon". Check
them out, they're a lot of fun live.

then

On Wednesday November 15th at The Drake, you could see Handsome Furs. Handsome Furs is a side-project from Dan Boeckner of Atlas Strategic and Wolf Parade fame. (Check out Wolf Parade's other side-projects Sunset Rubdown, Johnny and the Moon, Swan Lake, Frog Eyes, if you haven't already) Anyway, it's just him on guitar and his fiancé Alexei Perri on drum machine and other gizmos. It's pretty minimalist and pretty fucking cool. He's a super nice guy and I have little doubt that this will be really awesome.

....and I'm stuck in fucking Kingston!

Xiu Xiu - The Air Force

2006-11-06T16:15:00.000-05:00

There is a lot of pretentious bullshit written about Xiu Xiu:
“Over the last five years, Xiu Xiu has come to make an utterly original mixture of home-studio goth-pop, confessional singer-songwriter outpourings and chamber music.” - THE NEW YORK TIMES

" The Air Force is a wraith, and wraithlike it moves according to genuine, human rhythms; we see frontman Jamie Stewart staring into the void, or into the past, or dipping his hands into the sick pink hues of human grease, into bad love, suicide, rape, sex, stormy friendship, domination, dependency, with husky voiced lyrics that come rising up like steam from some deep and dark and cold dungeon miles below Earth's surface." - KILL ROCK STARS

“It takes a true songwriter like Stewart to make such brutality meaningful…Xiu Xiu are one of the few indie bands that's still challenging their audience” - UNDER THE RADAR

Nevertheless, much of it is true. This is by far and away Xiu Xiu's best record. It is not just more accessible, but the brief patches of catchiness and pattern are destroy with deft timing, like gently caressing your forearm with a razor blade before driving it hard into your skin.

"Bishop, CA" is the track that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. The "walla walla walla walla walla walla hey" hook over industrial beats and a thick guitar lead is enough to make even the most skeptical critic take notice. Caralee McElroy's vocals on "Hello From Eau Claire" will make you want to marry her; she ends her list of what she can do with "I can humiliate myself to your face. I can weep through my own midnights." Not since the Magnetic Fields has such a minimalist synth line been so attractive.

The lyrics that are drawning the most critical attention ("Your black hair is like black hair. Mine I promise is a jerk's hair. Your acne is like a pearl. Mine I swear is brimstone.") from Buzz Saw sound the usual Xiu Xiu theme of beauty in imperfections, and in "The Pineapple vs. the Watermelon", his ruminations on his father suicide are as usual disarmingly honest ("The bird I am looking for is not in me. It is you.")

However, it is the unexpected rhythms--the industrial beats out of nowhere, the lush acid crush basslines, the complete dissonace--that emerge half-way through "PJ in the Streets", "Vulture Piano", "The Fox & The Rabbit" or "Save Me Save Me" that really make this record so special. You have to give it time to work its magic on you, but like the proverbial perverted old man who lives under the bridge, it will haunt and touch you if you let it.

The cover art includes an icon of Jesus, and it is surprisingly appropriate. Once I had accepted it, listening to this music become a regilious experience, absorbing me totally, and at the height of an orgasmic crescendo, the whole thing comes crashes down in one giant kick to the face. I cannot mix metaphors fast enough here. The record is fucking brilliant.
- kit

Immediate Attention Required

2006-11-03T17:14:00.000-05:00

They speak for themselves:

Finnish indie Cats On Fire (If you like melodies and Finnish people, well then go here)

Gospel indie Thurston Revival (Skinny white guy doing electro-gospel, what?)

Folk indie Johnny and the Moon (another side-project from Canada's best band)

Post-punk-alt-indie Moving Units (inexplicably, unjustifiably and unfairly unknown in Canada at least]

Psychologists may claim that it's better to give many tiny rewards instead of one big one. Fuck them, enjoy!

Vincat - i like their older stuff better

2006-11-03T15:27:00.000-05:00

This is the inaugural posting for Indier Than Thou, so I wanted to choose something you probably haven't heard... yet. And that's a shame, not only because this album has a truly awesome name--it not only presupposes a long and storied future for themselves, but one that will be worse. So get onboard now.

Vincat come from Victoria, BC, and describe their sound as an old cherished friendship. I saw them play a short show in London, and immediately fell in love. While their album isn't nearly as good as they are live, it's still lots of fun. I could try and describe their sound, but it's much better if you hear it for yourself here. Intial comparisons to the Hidden Cameras don't do tribute to their lovely horn lines, and I can't say enough good things about their horn lines. Yet it's really the rocking chorus that do it for me with any band, and Vincat delivers. "Into the lightning" satisfys with bar after bar of fulfilling power chords, while "Somebody Stole my apple sauce" has a refrain that you find yourself humming when you most want not to, and will make your Dad phone David Cooper's parents demanding an explanation just as he did twenty years ago, and it was really just embarrassing; I mean, did he really not see that this would be viewed not just as an invitation to steal more fruit-flavoured treats, but also a gang beating? Dad! C'mon! It's a battlefield out there. Why must you cost me some much pain and treats?

Erm... Moving on... "Dying in Frisco" and "Aberdeen" are fine if you like The Whitlams, but never admit this to anyone but an Australian. "Uh Oh" draws the Hidden Cameras comparison, but is far more interesting. But for me, the whimsical "Pirate Love" ends the album perfectly, with enough echo in the vocals to make the Grand Canyon jealous. Mock power ballads never sounded so good.

Ok, so instead of rambling on about the virtues of the record, for which the English language may be insufficient, I will list the top five reasons you should check them out:

The linernotes credit not only a combined chinese/fish and chips place (a brilliant invention in and of itself), but also pharell and the whole N.E.R.D. crew, an all-too-rare tribute.
As you can tell from above, the album art showcases not only a freakin' T-Rex, but a T-Rex on a surfboard, a pink elephant on a banana (Just try to not think of it! You can't!) and a Narwhal!
Tubas, French Horns, need i say more? Only Beyonce loves horns this much.
SUPER TEEN ANTHEMS. If you are like me, and most people aren't, you would die for some more TEEN anthems à la T-Rex, am I right?
There following has a moniker: Vinkittens!

-Kit