LP: live[music]project

New Spins: February 5-12, 2012

2012-02-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

New week, new playlist. Feeling organic and guitar oriented this week. Dance with your inner hippie, cry yourself to sleep, or just bathe in the bliss this time around.

Set to the hard beats and stark guitars of "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" dark twists follow each step of hedonism, foreshadowed with a bloody awakening on the pavement. Last week, I posted a video by The Do directed by Noel Paul, who with Stefan Moore, are the directing pair 'That Go' responsible for this fantastically shot Father John Misty clip.

Merival (Anna Horvath) creates crushing splendour; future desires sung to an empty apartment. See her play El Mocambo in Toronto on March 7th, look for her album (hopefully) this winter from Mudtown Records or hear her as part of the collaborative efforts of First Rate People.

Dr. Dog is new to me - a random long-tail find courtesy of aggregator Metacritic - but by no stretch, are they new. Here's a live version of "Lonesome" from the Pennsylvania psych-rockers' 7th (???!) album Be The Void thanks to WFUV.

Fresh off a tour promoting his solo album The Outcome of Weather, Leathan Milne (also of Miami Device & Zoomafloome) hints at elements of Sun Kil Moon through lush harmonies and open guitar chords in his gorgeously sad song "Here I Lie With You."

She caught my heart with Failer almost 9 years ago now. Voyageur has garnered a lot of attention lately and the better writers have paid attention to Kathleen Edwards' ability to tell stories and captivate with a voice that sounds at the edge of breaking under the sheer weight of emotion behind it. Album production set aside, here's Edwards in her own light.

In about a month, Baltimore via Montreal quartet The Barr Brothers (not to be confused with Guelph's Barmitzvah Brothers) will play the Great Hall in Toronto with Little Scream, in what is undoubtedly, the show I'm most looking forward to this winter. As part of a CBC series, here they are handing vocal duties over to Francophone indie-folk singer Marie-Piere Arthur on the shiver-inducing "Beggar In The Morning."

New Spins: January 29 - February 4, 2012

2012-02-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's been an incredibly long time since I last posted. Travel and life have interrupted my usual patterns of devouring everything I can get my ears on. Back with renewed appetite, here's what I've been voracious about lately. Quiet, loud, invigorating, enthralling, bohemian, garage, folk, bliss, post-metal batch of miscellany... eat up, it's damn good stuff.

Review - Show #116: Whitehorse @ The Casbah Lounge

2011-08-17T15:37:00.004-04:00

"How does this one go again?" Luke Doucet was worried about starting a band with wife, Melissa McClelland at first, he said. Giving over your words to someone else? Messing with your lyrics? What if they're not good? How do you tell your wife you don't like what she wrote? "Fortunately she came back and had included two of my favourite albums by two of my favourite artists ever." With Blood On The Tracks and Let It Bleed affirming the partnership, Doucet's song "Broken One" was only one of a large handful of songs both he and McClelland have written and recorded over the years that found new life through Whitehorse at the Casbah Lounge last night.

With keys, bass, a stomp box, kick drum and a looping pedal, the duo built layers of rhythm and texture into their typically pluck and strum sets for the first of two rehearsal nights at the Hamilton venue, prior to their fall tours with first, Frazey Ford and then, Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe. "This was supposed to be a rehearsal gig with like 2 to 4 people here," said McClelland. "But then I was at my dentist today and he asked me about it." Word had spread and we tangled tightly amongst each other in the sweaty confinement of the lounge, leaning on every wall, sitting in every seat, or cross-legged right in front of the stage; a mixed crowd of old and young, family, friends, strangers.

It started with comfortable versions of Doucet's "Cleveland" from Blood's Too Rich (Six Shooter, 2008) and McClelland's "Go Down Matthew" from Thumbelina's One Night Stand (Orange, 2006) before moving into the first Whitehorse track "Killing Time Is Murder." We had been given the heads up that these gigs were to work out the kinks. The tech was new, looping new. A nervous energy pervaded the room as the track built up. Doucet in a cowboy hat and plaid, legs bowed saddle style and his right foot stomped out the kick drum pace; McClelland's tanned leather boots snapped back in response on the hardwood box beneath her feet, the loop pedal capturing the beat as she twisted her toes inward and dug her hips into the song's stomp/clap rhythm and dark harmonies. As if superstitiously holding our breath through a tunnel, we cheered, emerging on the other side, able to breath and relax.

The rest of the set followed suit. Anxious smiles, relieved smiles, McClelland and Doucet exchanging glances. Pausing mid-song to remember lyrics, or re-work a mis-timed loop; the audience glowing and radiating awe and captivation, in on the fun and the fuck ups. The two worked well off each other's talents; Doucet's impossibly fast hands producing cavernous, reverberant notes from his Gretsch, McClelland's careful acoustic strumming providing the horizon for reference and a way home through "Glenrio," "Emerald Isle" (another new song), "Mitzi's" from Doucet's 2001 album Aloha Manitoba, and McClelland's "Passenger 24."

Like couples do, they shared too much at times; Doucet built camaraderie by embarrassing his wife. "This next one is by a guy who's on my wife's 'list'." "Too much information! And he's way too old for me." The reply before Springsteen's "I'm On Fire." Doucet's revelation giving the song an unintended infidelitous subtext as McClelland sang "... tell me now baby is he good to you, can he do to you the things that I do." With a finale of "Broken One" and "Long Haul Driver," instantly recognizable tracks from Doucet's back catalogue, we disentwined and scattered. Whitehorse undoubtedly adds to Doucet and McClelland's live performance. I had seen the song-trading, guitar only approach before, and though captivating due to the enormous talents of each artist, never achieved this potency. Stomp away, Whitehorse.

Catch Whitehorse again on August 30 @ The Casbah Lounge, Hamilton (Free) or on any of their other tour dates from now through to Halloween: http://www.whitehorsemusic.ca/tour.html

Listen to "Killing Time Is Murder" on their website (http://www.whitehorsemusic.ca/index.html) or, grab the album Whitehorse on iTunes (August 30th release for other formats).

Set List (First recorded by, Album, Year)
Cleveland (Doucet, Blood's Too Rich, 2008)
Go Down Matthew (McClelland, Thumbelina's One Night Stand, 2006)
Killing Time Is Murder (Whitehorse, Whitehorse, 2011)
Glen Rio (McClelland, Victoria Day, 2009)
Emerald Isle (Whitehorse, Whitehorse, 2011)
Mitzi's (Doucet, Aloha Manitoba, 2001)
Passenger 24 (McClelland, Thumbelina's One Night Stand, 2006)
I'm On Fire (Springsteen, Born in The U.S.A., 1985)
Broken One (Doucet, Broken, 2005)
Long Haul Driver (Doucet, Fokestar EP, 2006)

Osheaga 2011: Day 3

2011-08-01T22:56:00.003-04:00

*For more photos from these sets and the rest of Osheaga visit: http://bit.ly/iyrNcR

The final day. The Metro was noticeably busier than it had been the day before, and the sub-par AC that has come to define summer in Montreal's subway system was equal to it's reputation. On the island, it was like the end of a semester, a final day to complete all that work that had been put off; scrambling to cram in as many bands as possible. There was a heightened energy, and determined footsteps making direct lines through the shortest routes to each stage.

I hurried through the gates and headed straight for the Scene De La Montagne to catch Scottish rockers Frightened Rabbit. On tour with Death Cab For Cutie, Scott Hutchison and crew have spent the summer playing to larger crowds, and it was incredible to see the gathering hoard show genuine excitement. Singing and clapping along to favourites, the audience was treated to an assortment from The Winter of Mixed Drinks and The Midnight Organ Fight and the surprising presence of Sing The Greys track "Music Now." Theirs is typically a melodramatic tone. Hutchison's lyrics are unapologetic, the music layered and cathartic. "This next one is one to jump to, but people don't usually jump at our shows," Hutchison told us. " So, you jump... I jump. A suicide pact." Joyfully bouncing to "Living In Colour" the fire hose was unleashed. Grateful hands touched the stream, cooling the dancing bodies below. After "The Wrestle" there was time for one last song and the words "...it takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm" flew out over the sunny afternoon, met with cheers.

Past the Piknic and back to la Scene Verte, indie press darlings nee foetuses, Smith Westerns were starting their set. In the skinniest of skinny jeans, they played their take on garage rock via a shoegazing glam aesthetic. "This is the worst song we have," stated singer Cullen Omori, at one point. The audience showed a measured detachment as well, politely following along, a slight sway being the only indication of sonic penetration. But as the set progressed and the joy and excitement of the band began to emerge - as they began to have fun - it gave the crowd permission to as well. Heads started bopping, hands up, as sparkly synth and a warbling Stratocaster, cut in the chorus by heavy classic rock riffs gave life to Dye It Blond stand out "Still New." As their set came to a close, the atmosphere had changed. Whistles and applause met with smiles and gratitude. But as always seems to be the case in the 'you can't enjoy yourself too much' in world of Pitchfork approved indie rock, enjoyment must be met with equal detachment and snark... "Thanks for choosing us over The Sounds..." "FUCK THAT BAND!" Someone in the crowd shouts. "Yeah! Fuck that band!" Omori responds. They laugh it off.

I relaxed in the grass, edited out shots from previous sets, and jotted down thoughts, it was 30 minutes later that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart began playing. From the first note of "Belong" the crowd was enthusiastic and covered the better part of the 'floor' area in the clearing before the stage. Cheering for solos, clapping to the beat, shouting their love, Kip Berman (vox, guitars) could only respond with "Merci. Merci beaucoup. Bon soir!" exhausting his French language skills. "It's so good to be in Montreal!" said Peggy Wang (keys, vox), "and not in the winter!" Shout outs to appreciative audience members peppered the space between songs; to the guy in the yellow shorts, the fan in the My Bloody Valentine t-shirt, and the guy who knew all the words to "Punk Rock Girl," smiles and thank you's from a band that seemed overwhelmed by the response to their set. "We're flabergasted that this many people are here!" Wang stated. Once a heavily Smith's influenced band whose aesthetic flowed from equal parts post-grunge and Madchester, the group's latest album has cranked the fuzz and crunch in the guitars and gone for the gut with its beats. The material plays similarly live, filling the outdoor space easily, the cranked amps giving new life to the earlier catalogue of songs like "Love Is Right" and "Everything With You" in the same propellant mix as "Heart In Your Heartbreak" and "The Body" from 2011's Belong. It closed with a reach back to 2007 with "The Pains of Being Pure At Heart." As the refrain was sung back by the crowd the stage manager walked out front and gave the kill sign. The band was over time by 3 minutes, they needed to stop; the chant from the band and the crowd as if in response, "We will never die. No, no, we will never die!"

The crowd began cramming in to near Ratatat levels. Ellie Goulding their object of affection. A Brit Award Critic's Choice recipient in 2010, and winner of the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, Goulding has risen to great heights within the UK, even singing as the only live act at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Her approach is unabashedly pop. But the sexy snarl in minimalist pink and black, dramatic eyes and grinding hips seem to be a front to thoughtful songwriting that comes from a place of honesty and personal connection. She's gorgeous, and sexy, but the music isn't hung on that. Goulding's eyes close tightest in the lyric moments of greatest pain and regret while her feet keep dancing and the beat drives forward. The songs seem as though a sheer curtain of pop had been placed over a bedroom window, Ellie on the other side, acoustic guitar in hand with an open journal on the bed. Her nimble voice is a breathy wisp when needed, belting and soaring when the moment comes, the juxtaposition strengthening the affect of each. She pulls at her hair. "I'm gonna dance to this one because I love it." Wrapping herself in the mic cable she did just that, the enormous crowd followed suit.

Time for a change. To the Scene Des Arbes, it's quiet magical forest feel emphasized by the relaxed attitude of the onlookers assembled. Gentle faces, books and blankets, this was the picnic crowd, the crowd you would expect for The Low Anthem. A pedal organ with the sign "Cancel Columbus Day," rotating speakers and stray signals, brass, clarinets, guitars and percussion, a stand up bass and the voices of Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams, all these came together in lush splendour to set soft folk ballads aloft on the evening air. The modern tales set in gentle 3/4 waltzes switched abruptly to the cries from Miller's nasal voice of "Hey, All You Hippies!"; the rotating speakers building to a cacophonous wash of sound behind crashing cymbals, organs and vocal harmonies. Adams takes the lead vocally from time to time, a timid demeanour belying a enormous voice and a strength of emotion. All the while every eye in the crowd is fixed on the stage. For the second time in a day, a crew member comes to cut off a divine set. Miller argues with him, the crew member apologetic but unflinching. The crowd backs Miller. "One more song" they called, "ONE MORE SONG!" He conceded and a breathy texture of brass began "This God Damn House" from 2007's What The Crow Brings with its heart breaking line of "I'll be back by 3 and I'll hope you'll be there." Miller wanders the stage in an instrumental moment and picks up a cell phone from the pedal organ, one from his pocket in the other hand. Dialing he returns to the mic. The instruments break away one by one as Miller whistles a tune, the two phones either side of the mic delayed, feeding back and echoing the windy notes.

It took some time to recover for all of us. Mostly we stood around for a moment in the blue-hued evening. I had other places to be. Across the bridge past the War Child Busking For Change tent, a short-cut to the main stage. My university-age self compelled me to see second headliner Death Cab For Cutie. Standing amidst the crowd of hugging couples and young girls, the first distinct bass notes of "I Will Possess Your Heart" immediately captivated that dormant part of my musical maturation. "We were worried you'd be too tired!" Ben Gibbard (vox, guitar) called out. Running around the stage with frenetic energy, the band followed the hits from Narrow Stairs and Codes and Keys with the interjection of The Photo Album's "Why You'd Want To Live Here." Guitar issues dogged Gibbard through the song, two successive guitars yielding silence and being tossed in rock star fashion towards the side of the stage as the vocals carried on unmarred. After the song, a break to fix the issue, guitarist and producer Chris Walla chatted the crowd up. "It's feels a little weird having the Tragically Hip play before us. It's great to play the same festival. They're personal favourites of mine," Walla having produced Hip singer Gord Downie's 2010 solo album The Grand Bounce. Tech issues sorted, "Grapevine Fires" came to glorious life, the thousands in attendance singing the words back in perfect unison. And as the "ooh's" and slow beat died out, I made my way through the crowd towards la Scene Verte, "You Are A Tourist" playing the walk out.

Soaked anticipation, fueled by alcohol and drugs, glow sticks tossed from the stage as the lighting rigs began to pulse and spin in lock step with the focus and coherence of the crowd. Jesse Keeler (JFK) and Alex Puodziukas (Al-P) are the East York electronic duo MSTRKRFT. They plan out the vibe of each show; create intentional feedback loops. They design the set specifically for the energy they want from the crowd; the music and the response symbiotic and exponential in their effect. They planned for sweat and ecstatic delirium. Cigarettes in hand, Crown Royal on the table, they took the stage. Cavernous vibrations of bass, hard enough to push my lungs into exhaling, spread like fissures through the ground, moving the crowd into a pulsing lunge. Hands high or caressing our own bodies as synth wound up and down our spines. Pressed close to strangers in the darkness, our faces were lit only in the blinding flashes of light the punctuated the drop of each new beat; we beamed at each other. Pure drenched bliss.

Osheaga 2011: Day 2

2011-07-31T12:27:00.003-04:00

(For more photos from these and other Osheaga bands, visit: http://bit.ly/iyrNcR)

The atmosphere was noticeably different on Day 2. A crowd of 38,000 had shrunk to 20,000 (still considered by the organizers as a successful day) and the composition of that 20k seemed more interested in the variety the day had to offer than any single headliner. Lunch put me late on the island, but I managed to sneak in with enough time to catch the end of BRAIDS' set. Pulsing and looping in the mid-afternoon sunlight on la Scene Verte, the band seemed transfixed by their own efforts; eyes almost always closed either to forget the hundreds gathered, or simply to find rapture in their own sound.

Soaked in 80's new wave, George Lewis Jr.'s debut album Forget, under the monicker Twin Shadow is a beautiful throw-back. Guitar in hand it's Lewis who also drives the live performance, pacing the stage, twitching madly at the shoulder with each chorused strum, singing with impassioned earnestness. A city not unfamiliar with melodramatic 80's influenced music (see: The Dears), the Montreal crowd happily danced and sang along to album standouts like "I Can't Wait" and "Castles in the Snow."

At this point, the plan at first had been to get myself set up at the main stage in anticipation of the long awaited return of Death From Above 1979, the duo of Jesse Keeler and Sebastien Grainger that called it quits in 2006. So out to the gravel pit I went. Sam Roberts was just closing out his set with "Where Have All The Good People Gone," thousands shouting the lyrics back on cue, and a crowd was gathering at the Scene De La Riviere for the start of the set by 2010 Polaris winners and 2008 long-listers, Karkwa. Though not well known outside of Quebec prior to their Polaris win, the band has been performing and recording for over 12 years at this point, and their following at the Montreal festival was not insignificant. Despite this, after performing Les Chemins de Verre lead off "Le Pyromane," singer Louis-Jean Cormier addressed the crowd. "We're Karkwa, we sing in French so don't worry if you didn't understand. Just dance and smile." The crowd obliged as the band smiled, exchanging looks and jokes.

Here's where the plan goes differently. Having seen Death From Above 1979 a handful of times back at the release of You're A Woman, I'm A Machine, I decided that this Osheaga afternoon would be about exploring artists who's music I've heard about, but never experienced. So it was back to la Scene Verte for Yoav. With only an acoustic guitar in hand, the Israeli-born, South African Yoav Sadan, layered and looped slaps, scratches and eerie vocals into the pickup, strumming and picking over the dense rhythms and soundscapes to create a mesmerizing form of near trip-hop. Smiles from the crowd, unprompted clap alongs and dancing urged it on. Sadan smiled in return, barefoot and happy, covering The Pixies "Where Is My Mind" to our delight. "A few years before my album came out, I played Osheaga," he told us. "I was on the first stage, first time slot, of the first day. It's good to be back."

Anna Calvi's music is hard to pin down. Equal parts Elvis, Hendrix, southern European folk music and gypsy soul, all hung of the deft fingers that seem to fly across the fretboard of her Fender. It started abruptly and there seemed to be barely a person in the hundred or so jammed to the front of le Scene Des Arbes who was actually there to watch the chanteuse. Heckling from the 6pm drunks waiting for Sam Adams an hour later. But as the murderous blues riffs mixed with her seductive, perhaps even malevolent voice, singing tales of heartbreak and heart breaking, appreciation grew for the artist who's 2011 debut album has been short-listed for the UK Mercury Prize (see: Polaris). Through pained expressions and emotive red lips, she played and a breeze swept over us, perhaps a reminder to exhale as we held out breath in the final notes.

If there was to be an unofficial headliner to Day 2 of Osheaga, it would be New York electronic duo Ratatat. With Bright Eyes and Elvis Costello to come on the main stages, those looking to channel the wind up of DFA 1979 headed to la Scene Verte. Every inch of space was filled save for a thin pathway along vendors tents, the horizon littered with raised hands attached to dancing bodies below. Head banging, and mugging for the audience over backing beats, Mike Stroud and Evan Mast manned guitars, synths and drums in what became an elegant grunge dance ballet of coordinated sound and visuals. Bobbing heads of birds projected on the screen behind them, danced in kind before giving way to a remix of Arnold's struggle with The Predator. The beats were enormous, and the crowd was euphoric.

The close of Day 2. Sound check at la Scene Des Arbes and a small blonde child is sitting behind the drums, headphones on, and being cheered on by the crowd. It's Holden, Fucked Up singer Damien Abraham's son, here on the last night of the band's summer of touring in support of David Comes To Life. Holden takes off in time for the band to take the stage. The late night crowd salivates and readies themselves for the onslaught. Droning guitars signal the lead-in riff to David single "Queen of Hearts" and as the notes break, Abraham jumps from the stage to stand on the barrier dividing him from the crowd. Screaming and sharing the mic with the crowd, the energy is incredible, full of rage yet joyful. Bodies begin flying over the top of the crowd and Abraham himself tosses his bulky frame onto waiting hands. On stage, Mike Haliechuck, Sandy Miranda, Josh Zucker and Ben Cook focus on their work, building the buzzing wall of sound that has come to characterize Fucked Up's music. "Twice Born" from 2009's The Chemistry of Common Life brought Sebastien Grainger to the stage in his shirtless, bleach blonde glory, screaming along and surfing the crowd. As it started, feedback squeals hummed over the night to close the set. Guitar upon guitar built higher to climactic release as Fucked Up closed the night with "Son The Father." The circle pit ramped up for one last riot; teenage angst or boyish idiocy powered the tossed bodies and violent shoves, smiles on their faces.

Osheaga 2011: Day 1

2011-07-30T14:05:00.004-04:00

(For full photo sets, visit: http://bit.ly/iyrNcR)

Masses streamed up the maze of winding stairs in Jean-Drapeau station to the cloudy island. A megaphone called out in French and English, directing the confused huddles of the stylish and the thuggish to the entrances and lineups. I sheepishly passed through a cordoned off media gate, the confused security guard unsure why I was allowed a camera, consulting his key to the myriad wristband colours and finally understanding the meaning. Through the search, another maze of tents. Vendors and advertisers, called out, offering gum or clothes or alcohol. I followed the bass. A narrow passage between two tents and the full scale of Montreal's Osheaga Festival became apparent. Two massive stages, Scene De La Riviere and Scene De La Montagne, sit side by side. In front of each, a hard packed oil coloured gravel, smooth from thousands of feet, running for hundreds of yards. Two simultaneous football games could run in front of each of these main stages, separated by steel barriers and the glare of security personelle. Back at the sound and lighting tents, another barricade divided the hillside lawn area from everything else, and again, the vendors.

I wandered, gathering my bearings as Kid Koala (Eric San) finished up a furious DJ set. Pulling at times from the catalogue of festival performers, San juggled 3 turntables of beats and scratches, tossing used LPs behind him, sweating heavily in his furry koala suit. Back to the path away from the main stages, I decided to explore the island more. Across a small bridge, large legs of steel arched high to reveal the enormity of Alexander Calder's angular sculpture L'Homme, it's angles and edges unobstructed by shadow and shine in in the dull overcast light. Beneath it's feet, the Piknic Electronik stage, more a concrete pad with speakers and a few tables, silent in a inter-set lull. Hidden in the forest beyond, the Scene Verte and Scene Des Arbes, the smaller stages, with their grassy knolls and stands of maples, a stark contrast to the moon-scape and metal monoliths that loomed ahead as I looping back to the main stage area.

Charles Bradley, a man in his early 60's, has lived a harrowing existence, full of trial. A childhood spent intermittently on the streets of Brooklyn, years of wandering North America, cooking, hitching, eking out enough money to just get by, it was a James Brown show that brought Bradley to this point. At age 14, Bradley's sister took him to see The Godfather, and it was nearly 40 years later that the mimickry of a teenager, having developed into the artistry of an adult, caught the attention of Daptone records' Gabriel Roth. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" he shouted in a near plea. "The more you give to us, the more we give to you!" The "Screaming Eagle of Soul" was ecstatic, descending into the crowd of smiling faces and blissful dancers as his band played on through the retro-soul songs of Bradley's debut album No Time For Dreaming.

The dual main stage leaves little time between performances, and Charles Bradley had barely begun towelling off as Broken Social Scene took off. The sun emerged behind the stage as the Toronto indie rock collective played through "Forced To Love" and "Texaco Bitches" from last year's Forgiveness Rock Record, alongside back catalogue favourites "Cause=Time" and "7/4 Shoreline" with help from Stars singer Amy Millan. A mellowed lolling Modest Mouse cover and a gorgeous swelling feedback loop of and ending to "Superconnected" were followed by the grandeur of "Meet Me In The Basement." "You've always been good to us Montreal," said Kevin Drew (vox, guitar). Sweaty, and all with instruments held high, the final marching unison notes finished the set to cheering audience holding their hands high with them.

I departed the stark main area as it began to fill farther and farther back with growingly agitated Eminem fans, eager for the night's headliner, fueled by afternoon heat and alcohol. Bran Van 3000 was coming to the stage, bumped to the slot that had previously been slated for Kid Cudi, the hip-hop phenom who cancelled early in the day due to illness. Chants of "Eminem! Eminem!" rang out from the crowd who had not been in front of BSS. I escaped to the woods.

The last notes of El Ten Eleven's set greeted me at the Scene Des Arbes, and I took a moment to rest. The sun was just beginning to set and the soft grass was a welcome change for my dirty and tired feet. As their set began, I turned to find a large crowd had gathered for Toronto's Rural Alberta Advantage. The feeling was palpably different. Paul Banwatt's heart-attack beats combined with the folk tinged vocals and minimalist keys and guitar of Nils Edenloff and Amy Cole, are euphoric. Positivity pervaded out as people danced and clapped along to songs from 2011's Departing and sang at the top of their lungs to favourites from 2008's Hometowns. Chant's of "PAUL! PAUL! PAUL!" came from a pocket of American boys as the band started in to "Drain The Blood." "This is such a beautiful night", said Nils and the sun departed behind the trees to the sounds of "The Dethbridge in Lethbridge."

My night was ending. As the American boys hugged and high-fived Banwatt, and went back stage, I sat in the grass beneath on of the larger maples and listened in to Timber Timbre, audible from the nearby Scene Verte, collecting my thoughts and replaying the day in my head and wondering if it was time to sleep. One last show though; The Barr Brothers. An offer of a coat to a waitress outside a burning club on a rainy Montreal night in 2004 brought the band to Canada from the US. As they set up, a small but excited crew gathered to watch. "Trust me. This will be amazing," a young girl had said over her shoulder, dragging her friends by the hand to the stage front. Brothers Andrew and Brad Barr with multi-instrumentalist Andres Vial and harpist Sarah Page are in fact no less than spectacular. Loops of dreamy feedback, pedal organ and gentle harp layer atop vivid, textural percussion as Brad plucked out blues and folk licks, his vocals drenched in reverberation. Nothing but pure entrancement and adulation poured back at the stage in return for the songs. Rapt and silent, he night stilled in our small pocket of the island and we ignored the growling sub-woofers of a main stage that moved farther away with each harp note. With a soft acoustic song preceding bows, it ended and we scattered into the fringes of the dark woods.

Playlist: Osheaga 2011 Preview

2011-07-28T11:08:00.000-04:00

Now in it's 6th iteration, Montreal's Osheaga Music and Arts Festival has attracted crowds in the tens of thousands for years yet has oddly remained relatively obscure until recently. Tomorrow morning I'll make the drive to la belle province, and see what this titan can offer. This week's playlist is a small slice of what you're missing if you don't find yourself in Parc Jean-Drapeau this weekend:

NXNE 2011 Photos: The Luyas, PS I Love You, Suuns

2011-07-08T16:31:00.000-04:00

From shining lights in the darkness, to technical snafus, bodily violations and sneering dance beats, the Horseshoe Tavern became a sweaty pit on the Thursday night of NXNE 2011 as The Luyas, PS I Love You and Suuns progressively packed the Queen St. venue.

The Luyas positively captivated. Through incandescent bulbs triggered in flashes and sequences by Stephan Schneider's beats, singer Jessie Stein's smile and voice pierced in brief flashes.

PS I Love You got off to a rocky start losing time to amp malfunctions and gear switchovers. Fans at the front winced through the crush of Paul Saulnier's decibel saturated riffs, while further back in the crowd, the mix allowed listeners to enjoy the textured feedback and driving beats.

As Suuns took the stage, skin and sweat came to dominate the crowd. With his angry delivery Ben Shemie was riveting yet carefully detached from the flow. Tightly packed, arms high, skirts higher, eyes closed, the stagefront amalgam danced.

Outside the bar, a lineup had extended westward to nearly Spadina by the time Suuns set had started; it had all but disappeared with the last pulses from the Montreal band as festival goers heeded the call of bed and morning commutes, unstuck from each other, skin cooling, they emerging into the light midnight rain.

Album Review: The Monster Show - "superheroes."

2011-03-30T23:12:00.000-04:00

the Monster Show
superheroes.
(2011)

“The hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
- Joseph Campbell

With the Monster Show’s latest album superheroes, the regions of supernatural wonder are made corporeal and common, as the myths we create of ourselves are unpacked. This is story-telling rock that draws it’s lineage from the likes of Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Skydiggers and Blue Rodeo. With lyricism at the forefront, Duncan Nicholls (vox/guitar) nods tacit credence to these songwriters who, like him, at their best moments illuminate our own and bring clarity to the details and emotions of times and places, conversations and thoughts, common to our experience.

Built over a two year span by Nicholls, Daev Mullholland (bass), Kerry Mullen (drums/percussion), Laura Robinson (vox/keys) and former band-mate, now fulltime Swede, Jennie Jackson (nee vox/keys), superheroes’ sonic elements also hearken to those influences. Springsteenian rock homage rings through bells and glockenspiel over racing pianos, and single guitar strums in the bookends of “This Is How It Is,” a Fleetwood Mac heartbreak sensibility haunts the hooks of “Blur” (a free download from their Bandcamp page). For all the comparison, superheroes has it's most successful moments when the source material is co-opted into a bricolage of the modern and the unfashionable, an aesthetic that has allowed the Monster Show to so deftly defy oversimplified genre description. It’s evidenced most clearly in the sequenced synths that rhythmically push a lazy banjo, fiddle and twangy electric guitar lick in what might be the album’s finest cut, “Betrays Me.”

Through a wide dynamic range created at the hands of producer Nicholls, and the mastering of Noah Mintz (Constantines, Broken Social Scene), the tracks loosely follow Campbell’s monomyth path. Our introduction (“This Is How It Is”) stands as a declaration and invitation to accept new circumstances and set out. “Dear Owen” (also a free download) builds to an outro that understands clearly the obstacles leading to far horizons along a road that must be taken. Driven by intelligent rhythms, lilting guitars and captivating vocals what follows are the trials that we face in our individual mythologies. Love, loss, regret, destruction, renewal, rebirth. The album cleverly arcs through these themes, building then releasing the tension through the juxtaposition of disparate sounds and emotions. One imagines the climactic final battle that our hero faces in the re-imagined pastiche of Bass Lion’s “More Than Islands” and the Monster Show’s “…Archipelago,” the quiet calm in the struggles end with “I’m Still Chasing Your Ghost” a triumphant return to “Last Week” and the moralistic impact and stark realizations of “Superheroes.”

But as the hero of the album’s last song declares, “these eyes, are your eyes” and the wonders beheld by superheroes aren’t vivid scenes of monsters and gods. No imminent doom avoided through feats of strength committed in the nick of time. These are common, everyday wonders. Mysterious adventure in simple moments, individuals, and conversations. Decisive victories won in our exchanges and micro-fragments of thought. The heroism of finding your place in another, determining self-direction, recalling a sense memory that jars, and pulls you back to a brief moment where leaping tall buildings in a single bound seemed entirely possible. In “The Last Picture In The World” Canadian poet, and inspiration to Nicholls, Al Purdy, wrote:

“if I were to die at this moment
that picture would accompany me
wherever I am going
for part of the way"

Our own moments of greatness are the pictures that accompany us and illustrate our individual mythos. These captured fragments, where hearts soar, skip and drop, are the boon gained through the superheroes journey and bestowed upon us through listening.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://themonstershow.bandcamp.com/track/betrays-me"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Betrays Me by The Monster Show&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

You can pick up superheroes here or in person when you see the Monster Show perform their acts of heroism on stage at Van Gogh’s Ear in Guelph tomorrow night (March 31) for free! And/or contact jason.blackwood@gmail.com to request an invite to an acoustic living room performance in Hamilton on April 2 (space is very limited).

Album Review: Cedar - "Alternate Endings"

2011-03-19T16:15:00.007-04:00

Cedar
Alternate Endings
(2010)

With the collapse of the founding wave in 1994 and the rush of major labels at the time to sign grunge-esque bands, the "post-grunge" era began. For those of us who were slightly too young to have witnessed the angst first-hand, we had to dig a few years back to understand the source of the 'post'-sound which came to dominate record sales and the MuchMusic video flow through the mid-90's. With grunge, the emotional dynamics had been cranked, apathy to scream, and along with the textural contrasts of distorted guitars and stark bass, a rejection of theatrics and posturing. Post-grunge adjusted the pallet. Some shimmer and sheen, and a pop sensibility emerged. Suddenly liking The Beatles, and an attentive, careful approach to songwriting was OK again. In Canada, this sound emerged in some part in the Halifax music scene, where bands like Sloan, Thrush Hermit and Superfriendz had headlined "the new Seattle." In the UK, it was Radiohead who had taken their teen years of Johnny Marr and Morrissey and married it with the post-grunge aesthetic in Pablo Honey and The Bends.

Formed in the early 2000's and heavily steeped in the aural textures and trappings of their post-grunge teen years, Toronto band Cedar have released their second album, Alternate Endings. With feet firmly planted in the sounds of the early 90's, Alternate Endings is a lush, spacious and at times, anthemic rock album whose overtures and interludes weave together a collection of songs that illuminate modern contrasts with a retrospective sound. Theirs is an un-self-conscious brand of post-grunge, concerned first, with heart and feeling.
Though the sound is similar to that of bands like Radiohead, the setting has changed. Where grunge and post-grunge bands contrasted rockstar posturing with abandoned factories and working class imagery, Cedar's city is a modern third-wave metropolis where we seek to reconcile a service-based life shrouded in glass, with the call of the wild and the haptic enticement of the organic. The music finds strength in this dichotomy. Over his flowing vocals, Craig MacLellan and Brett Trider's guitars, as on the track "This Spaceship" are at times tightly constructed edifices, built carefully on precision playing, reminiscent of Pavement or Sebadoh. At times, the songs and soundscapes grow rhizomatically, organically reaching skyward, like those in "Your Own World" or "Peaceful Protest at Fake Lake" where Cedar find themselves most pulling from the Dinosaur Jr. pallet often visited by Broken Social Scene. Jeremy Drury's frenetic drumming and the the clean tones of Pete Nickerson's unexpected and lyric bass complete the sonic package. Both balance control and chaos. They bottle lightning, and fill out the quiet contrasts to the carefully out of tune guitars of rhythmic standout "Not A Good Time."

Overall, there is a sense that Alternate Endings is simultaneously of, and very much not of, it's time and that it is with the impact and emotions of those early Radiohead days that it stands most aligned. Radiohead influencing a band is certainly not unheard of, especially in Toronto where throughout the beginning of the last decade once a week we would hear about this band that was the "new Radiohead." But whereas Pilate in those days simply emulated a vocal styling, Cedar manages to fully capture the energy of Generation X's heyday, and filter it through the well thought out approach of the un-ironic independent rock bands of today. Alternate Endings offers those of us who came of musical age in the 90's an opportunity to recapture moments with our younger selves, where we can revisit what became of our ambitions and love as we've aged and moved into a new era. For others, a younger generation, Cedar is a window on the last new beginning of rock music, from a time when blood and passion trumped kitsch, irony and sing-alongs.

Cedar will be bringing the sounds of Alternate Endings to the Cameron House in Toronto on April 2nd and the album is available in digital and 12" vinyl formats through www.cedarsongs.ca and your favourite digital music retailer.

Winnipeg Folk Festival Announces Full Lineup

2011-03-19T13:10:00.001-04:00

With the full revelation of the 2011 festival lineup, it has become clear that Winnipeg Folk is aiming to increase it's popularity as a must-attend party in the prairies. On grassy hills, dancing into the sunset and welcoming the sunrise, this year's audience will get to see incredible performers like...

... and if that isn't enough to get you out for the weekend, add K.D. Lang, Toots and the Maytals, The Be Good Tanyas, Caracol... this list goes on. For the complete performer line-up for Winnipeg Folk 2011, head to the festival website.

CMW 2011 Photos - (A band called) Gay, Will Currie & The Country French @ The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom

2011-03-16T14:23:00.003-04:00

The celebrations had wound down. There was certainly a shift in focus amongst the music industry to the next big week of multiple venues as a large assortment of bands, but I was still in Toronto and eager to catch a few more bands on Sunday night. I made my way to The Gladstone Hotel and entered a practically empty main ballroom. The bartender remarked how much of a change the night was, that they had been busy all weekend, 'crazy' even.

With a few young guns eager to watch friends or boyfriends, standing close to the stage in a clump, and a few curious onlookers lurking on the fringe of chairs, Gay took the stage. Theirs is a quirky mix of a Kinks influence with at times a David Byrne vocal delivery. Hear the track "Nothing I Would Do For You (But Nothing At All) on their Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/arewenotgay and find more photos of their set on Flickr

Will Currie & The Country French carry a heavy dose of Billy Joel and Elton John with them. Their piano driven pop-rock songs are illuminated through simple structures and melodic vocals that recall an innocence and honesty that is often lost in the drive for irony amongst Southern Ontario retro-rock bands. The audience had swelled by this time, the Toronto/Waterloo band clearly being the draw of the night at the Queen West hotel, and as the performance went on, it was clear why. Currie has a magnetic physical presence on stage, channelling Jerry Lee Lewis as he frequently stood over his keys and mugged at his bandmates or quietly and soulfully leaning over his mic to croon. His band are equally animated, everyone lost in the music and radiating with the joy of playing together. View the full set of photos here and check out the band's video for "Railroad" on their website.

CMW 2011 Photos - Jasper Sloan Yip @ Bread & Circus

2011-03-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

Vancouver singer-songwriter Jasper Sloan Yip hadn't made it east of Chilliwack for a gig before Canadian Music Week. He, along with drummer Graham Serl, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Brichon, pianist John Tanner and vocalist/violinist Stephanie Chatman hopped a flight for the weekend, and found themselves on stage at Kensington watering hole Bread & Circus, before a full room of eager listeners. Seated at tables and chairs, standing and leaning against the sides and back, smiles found on the faces of old friends, reunited family and simple strangers - I walked in mid-way through the first song to hear more from the man that a friend from the west coast insisted I see.

Jasper's songs are earnest pop. They evoke a lyrical space that reveals the character of a Pacific metropolis - openness and depth in the presence of looming mountains, dazzling glass, steel and unending surf. These are songs of yearning for rooted connection in the urban setting, sung by a heart that bleeds. Through up tempo shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar, bouncing bass, a $4 rented banjo, an old piano and vivid violin to lingering ballads sung solo, finger-picked perfectly, there was Jasper's tenor vibrato, at times a breathless [bronchitis tinged] whisper, at times a warbled cry, both the timbre of a soul having seen its share of hurt and celebrating it's return to joy.

The set ended and friends were made by the bar. The fraternity amongst bandmates extended to new fans. Drinks flowed, hands shaken, hugs exchanged. A girl in hipster glasses, worn and then tossed from the stage by Serl, a banker handing out his card while lining up shots, the revelation of Jasper's resemblance to the King of Thailand... the afterglow of a joyous performance.

For more photos from Jasper's set, check out the album on Flickr

CMW 2011 Photos - The Belle Game @ The Dakota Tavern

2011-03-13T15:51:00.002-04:00

"It must feel good to play a show like this." I said to Adam Nanji, founding member of folk pop sauvants The Belle Game. Since Adam's move to Montreal, the band who he had formed in Vancouver with vocalist Andrea Low and guitarist Alex Andrew, doesn't often get a chance to perform together, let alone to a packed house, ready to dance at The Dakota Tavern. Travel and separation yielded dividends for the band though. Nanji met pianist and vocalist Katrina Jones in Montreal, and her lush, soft voice added to the vivid textures of their roots-tinged show Saturday night. Under the strings of incandescent bulbs and the glitter of the mirror ball all seven pieces of The Belle Game's live act gathered together with their back to the wooden walls and the eager audience lining the bar and brick pillars of the cozy basement venue. The musicians smiled as they turned to play what will likely be one of the best live performances I'll see in a while.

Though starting slow, the set eased into a higher energy, with Low and Andrew both taking their turns hammering a floor tom, pinning the back beat behind increasingly frenetic percussion. The movement on stage urged movement in the crowd as one short-haired blonde pulled up her skirt and moved her hands in waves, eyes closed and rapturous. Smiles from the periphery, a sense that the blonde was on to something. On stage, the grins widened - the dynamos spun faster, and they urged everyone on to the dance-floor.

If the difficulties of distance fail to incumber them, this septet will continue to be a must see live band. Their EP Inventing Letters is available now, and we can expect a full-length debut by spring. Until then, you can stream the beauty of The Belle Game...

FULL PHOTO SET of 32 shots on FLICKR

CMW 2011 Photos - Hooded Fang @ El Mocambo

2011-03-12T16:42:00.001-05:00

El Mocambo was a dance party from the word go. I walked in at what had started as a Friday night, but was now pushing 2am, to Hooded Fang just starting their set; a surf tinged retro pop-rock wall of sound awash in guitars, brass, keys and percussion. One of the larger late night crowds urged it on. They pulled up their skirts, spun circles, danced on stage and clapped along through songs like "Highway Steam" and "Green River," - slow danced to the end to "Almost Done." Insistant, the crowd even managed to pull an encore out of a band who's first set of the day had started over 12 hours earlier, and bleary eyed, but smiling, was performing their 3rd set of the day. Listen to the album Hooded Fang on the band's bandcamp site.

CMW 2011 Photos - The Coppertone, The Jezabels @ Lee's Palace

2011-03-12T15:56:00.001-05:00

The Coppertone is sexy grime. Grinding blues riffs, bone-crushing distortion and slides. Amanda Zelina and crew blew away the opening slot at Lee's Palace Friday night as part of Canadian Music Week. The bull, the dream, a new album - head to http://www.thecoppertone.com/

Australians exploring inroads to the Canadian music scene, The Jezabels have spent the last week travelling southern Ontario in support of Yukon Blonde, showing why they are deserving of several listens. Swelling, looping guitars soar over rich pianos, vocals reminiscent of the urgency and uniqueness of Kate Bush bled out by Hayley Mary and deep rhythms propel these songs. Hear the sound at http://www.thejezabels.com/

CMW 2011 Photos - Allie Hughes, Meligrove Band @ Sneaky Dee's

2011-03-12T14:37:00.002-05:00

The incomparably dramatic Allie Hughes brought her unhinged and uninhibited performance to the stage at Sneaky Dee's Friday night as part of Canadian Music Week. Veiled and facing away from the packed room, the overture played. What followed was a musical story of ambition ("There are many industry people here this evening, and if you form a line at the back at the end of the show I promise to listen to all offers before making any commitments"), love & loss (oh, Chad), murder (by drum stick), and redemption through self discovery (and Britney Spears). Find out more about the Allie at http://alliehughes.com/

Meligrove Band took the 1am slot at Sneaks, and delivered a tight punch. 'Oh' faces abound, leaned back guitar riffs, borrowed bass rigs pushed to their limit and feeding back. Hear the band's latest LP Shimmering Lights at http://www.meligroveband.com/

CMW 2011 Photos - Monogrenade @ El Mocambo

2011-03-11T19:09:00.004-05:00

A sparse Friday afternoon crowd at first sat cautiously, but gradually stood and edged towards the stage as Montreal's Monogrenade brought sparkling life to their lush, layered compositions at El Mocambo. Formed in 2008, and having recently released their debut full-length, Tantale on Quebec independent label Bonsound, this was a rare Anglo-world performance. Catch Monogrenade tonight as part of the Bonsound/XM "Quebec House" Showcase, 10:30pm downstairs @ El Mocambo (464 Spadina Ave.)

For more Monogrenade check out their CBC Radio 3 profile and find a free download of the track "M'en Aller" at their website.

2.11 vol. 2

2011-02-26T16:19:00.002-05:00

This volume's tracks:
1. Hooded Fang - "Green River"
2. Fol Chen - "C/U"
3. No Gold - "Rainforts"
4. The Monster Show - "Betrays Me"
5. Armen at the Bazaar - "Anna's Song"
6. Sufjan Stevens - "The Owl & The Tanager"

Searchlight Top 30?!?

2011-02-17T15:32:00.002-05:00

Huh?! Incredibly humbling to make the Top 30 in R3's search for The Best Music Website in Canada. Toss a vote this way if thou doth have the inclination @ http://r3.ca/0CvO

Sadly, the sites I was backing (aside from LP) didn't make the Top 30. Voter apathy as Grant claimed? Not on this end. Either way, check out:

North by East West (aka NxEW) - www.nxew.ca
Chromewaves - www.chromewaves.net
Indie Craft Attack - www.indiecraftattack.com
Turn Up My Photo - www.turnupmyphoto.ca

Lots of amazing sites to choose from still in the Top 30. Check all of them out. Read and listen. We all do this out of a passion and love for music, and we'd love to share it with you.

Bonaroo 2011 Lineup Announced

2011-02-15T13:16:00.003-05:00

Bonaroo announced their 2011 lineup today and here's a slice:
Eminem, Arcade Fire, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, Neil Young, My Morning Jacket, Robyn, Iron & Wine, Florence & The Machine, Deerhunter, Explosions in the Sky, Big Boi, Primus, Sleigh Bells, Matt & Kim... if you're in to that sort of thing, you know, with talent and variety. Tickets go on sale this Saturday (Feb 19) @ 12pm EST. Info here.

Oh, and Conan has something to add:

2.11 vol.1

2011-02-15T13:11:00.001-05:00

Watch the videos (sometimes), and download the tracks for free.

In this volume:
1. Yuck - "Rubber"
2. Young Galaxy - "We Have Everything"
3. No Age - "Fever Dreaming"
4. Twin Shadow - "Castles In The Snow"
5. tUnE-yArDs - "Bizness"
6. Meligrove Band - "Bones Attack!"

[Follow the jump for videos and downloads]

Yuck - "Rubber" [Fat Possum, 2011]
*Video=NSFW (Nudity and glandular grossness)
Download: "Rubber"-MP3 (right-click>"save target/link as")

Young Galaxy - "We Have Everything" [Paper Bag, 2011]
Download: "We Have Everything"-MP3 (right-click>"save target/link as")

No Age - "Fever Dreaming" [Sub Pop, 2010]
Download: "Fever Dreaming"-MP3 from rcrdlbl.com (follow link)

Twin Shadow - "Castles In The Snow" [Terrible/4AD, 2010]

Download: "Castles In The Snow"-MP3 (right-click>"save target/link as")

tUnE-yArDs - "Bizness" [Marriage/4AD, 2011]
Download: "Bizness"-MP3 (follow the link embedded below)

The Meligrove Band - "Bones Attack!!!" [Nevado, 2010]
Download: "Bones Attack!!!"-MP3 (right-click>"save target/link as")

Download: Germany, Germany "Take Your Time / Reflections"

2011-02-14T12:51:00.000-05:00

Take Your Time / Reflections (Distorted Disco, 2011)

With over 100 downloads in the last 24 hours, it's time you made your way over to the Distored Disco site and grabbed yourself a free digital copy of Germany, Germany's latest single.

Via two cuts from the upcoming "massive LP" due to drop in the next few months, Take Your Time / Reflections spotlights Drew Harris' swelling heart penchant with aplomb. It's Molly Ringwald wearing headphones on a lonely Valentines day, four on the floor shoe-gazey dream pop through deep circuit pulsing synths, stuttered pianos and reverberating guitars.

The tracks pull from a diverse source set. A tired lobby piano in Abbotsford, recorded on an iPhone New Year's morning, an vocal sample from an early EP, stolen glances in a bus window reflection. They reaffirm what this Victoria, BC artist does best - ratcheting the tension between electronic and analog, dance-floor and bedroom, euphoric and contemplative, through tight hooks, propellant beats and unmistakable reverence to the gods of New Wave electronic dance.

Download: Take Your Time/Reflections

CBC R3 Searchlight - Top 60!?

2011-02-10T00:16:00.000-05:00

A tremendous amount of thanks for your help in Round 1 of the CBC Radio 3 Searchlight. Your votes put Live Music Project in to the Top 60 music websites in Canada! I'm incredibly grateful and absolutely gob smacked.

Now, another week of voting is ahead and the field is even tighter, so lend me your button pushers and head to http://r3.ca/0CvO and find LIVE MUSIC PROJECT on the randomly sorted list. Remember the time you vote... because any votes cast twice in 24hrs will cancel each other out! The Top 30 will be announced next Wednesday by Grant Lawrence on CBC R3. Between now and then though, do yourself a favour and check out as many of the Top 60 as you can. Some of my favourite sites on the whole wide interwebs are on that list!

Till next time, only gratitude,
- Jay

Julie Doiron made me swoon on a Tuesday night. (LP Show #77)

2011-02-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

At Hamilton's Casbah last eve, preceded by Lou Cannon and Jay Baird, this Canadian music goddess backed up by Will Kidman (The Constantines), absolutely enchanted with an hour and a half of heartbreak, hard times, genuine sweetness, nostalgia and nervous charm. Thanks Julie.

Bass Lions slide through worlds with "...Is Diamonds"

2011-02-09T16:34:00.008-05:00

(Originally posted as 'Spotlight: Bass Lions' on www.nxew.ca, December 2010)

In late fall, Nathan Stretch, Anthony James, Ryan Lynch, James Vander Zaag and Janine Smienk ventured out on a string of CD release shows in support of …Is Diamonds the beautifully wrenching, accomplished follow-up to the success of Bass Lions’ More Than Islands. They stayed local for the release shows, never venturing far from home, but this is not how the album came to be. Last week, in a conversation that reminded me of why I love talking to artists about their work, lyricist/vocalist Stretch illuminated the path from there to here…

Rewind - late 2007. Bass Lions is Stretch, James, Vander Zaag, Charlie Murray, and Lisa Horvath. Things paced break necked with their debut EP More Than Islands that winter. "It was all changing and moving fast. Nick [Bernal] had just started Nevado, we signed, made the album quickly and started touring… like magic.” Armed with 15 minutes of new music that had been praised as “bold and beautiful” and “promising” a van, filled with gear and friends, trekked across the country. You can hear the excitement, and youthful energy of a band’s first explorations in the record – clapping, shouting, sing-alongs, vocal hooks. It’s youthful exuberance, spry compositions, raw sound, yet all tempered with the shadow of something more somber.

As More Than Islands took on life, tumult followed. In Ontario that winter Vander Zaag’s father had his last days before succumbing to cancer. The tour was an attempt to reclaim something of the normalcy of a time prior. “But we crashed the van in the Rockies. It was a complete write off. Everyone was ok, but we were as far away from home as we could be and I felt like I had got everyone into this situation that we hadn’t really been prepared for. There were repercussions and a genesis of change in that winter. You start thinking about what dies and what survives the hardest times.”

Regenesis and change came. Scrub forward; Lisa and Charlie departed amicably after the tour. New band mates Ryan Lynch and Janine Smienk have filled out the quintet. Two musicians have had weddings and the band has taken a step towards independence, moving out of the regular Nevado Records roster. Stretch isn’t discouraged by the change though. “They were tough times that we got through. Things were spinning quickly and were really hard to pin down, but the music and the band are still at the centre. We are stronger as a unit. Stronger than any of us individually.”

The shadows that stalked the catchy choruses and refrains of that first record come fully forward in the 8 songs that comprise their sophomore release …Is Diamonds. Second albums are difficult by nature. The ‘sophomore slump’ is a time “developmental confusion,” psychologists claim, “stemming from a struggle to achieve competence, the desire for autonomy, establishment of identity and development of purpose.” Bands can struggle in the gravity of finding themselves after being thrust into the dazzling new of a well-received first album. But Bass Lions used the mass of More Than Islands to propel their new music forward, opening gateways to the spiritual and incorporeal. “We had unfinished business with that album. When we toured, we only had the six songs from the E.P. and one from our old band Reily. We’d crank it out, leave the stage and always wish we had something that fit the spaces. This album is a bridge from the last; …Is Diamonds is a transition between worlds.” And Stretch sees the titular diamond as a vital to this. “This substance, the hardest thing in our world, still let’s light through. It refracts it though, reflects it and changes it.” …Is Diamonds is the reflected and refracted light of More Than Islands. "It’s is a document of that time – a record of the 3 years since that tour.”

“The road is wicked,” aptly begins …Is Diamonds with lines blurring past on the obsidian trail of “Dynamite Quartz.” A lament of that westward push, the impact of the journey, and loves struggles in the wake, it was written as a response to a refrain from K/W band The Monster Show. The beat itself drives urgently forward yet the song’s character plods slowly across the country mounted atop the spinning leveler of his steamroller. From this departure point, the album slices deeper into the cuts of More Than Islands through the shadows. “I like the idea of the song and the shadow song; the contrast and tension of singing something complex simply, or something violent beautifully, something boastful sadly - of competing drum kits, subversive keyboards, disjointed phrasing. The music acting on the lyrics - they're not just words, they're words sung. We never disconnect the form and the lyrics, words don't stand alone; they have that sonic context.” Pop moments juxtaposed with somber imagery. “Wind-Up Bird” follows that construction. Inspired by the evocative Japanese fiction of Haruki Murakami, a theme of loss and distance pervades. As paper flowers are left behind and two people find themselves no longer in love, a merry-go-round guitar and lilting key hook dance lightly and sweetly; a child-like innocence over a tragic ending.

Contrast continues. At light speed slapped strings propel “You Brought The Bass.” “The goal was to make a club banger, but not.” It’s a subversive track; tongue in cheek as it heads to the club with hangers on for decoration and enough booze to lubricate the night. “It’s black humour. Taking the piss with people that could be our audience, which maybe we have no right to do.” “Perfect Cuts” is another salient example of how the dichotomous technique of Bass Lions can create an intense affect. When read in the form of a press release, the lyrics are almost humorous; a band having fun with their presentation. “Our bass is in your face… this is what you like now!” But buried under a dirge-like march, the contrasting voices of Smienk and Stretch and a low-end electronic hum, it becomes post-apocalyptic indoctrination. Programming the crowd.

"“New Intuition” started as Nick [Bernal, Producer] just having fun with looping back a drum beat and playing back things we said in the booth as a joke. I’ve got something to go with that, I told him.” The promise of the intense rhythm, the galloping cadence, breaks under the tension to reveal a stark riff against the dark beauty of harmonies singing their paranoia. In the album standout, the antithetical angle allows the biggest hook and only crowd sing-along of ..Is Diamonds to carry the contrition of “Goodbye Mouth.” Keen elegy nested in a sharp dance beat as Stretch offers his instrument up in compunction. “I’m interested in what that says about you that it’s your favourite,” he asked me, always curious about the place a song takes someone else; how other ears hear it.

Through the process of creating the album, that feedback was vital and there was always great faith placed in the thoughts and ears of others, especially their producers. “Nick was in Reily and after that started Nevado. He’s very intertwined and was really active in the studio. It was easy, because we’ve worked together for so long and his opinion is always useful and informed. Thomas Vander Zaag (who did some additional recording for …Is Diamonds) knows everyone so well -- he was in the van when we flipped it. With such close relationships, their opinion is always valid. They were there so they get their say.” Though Stretch begins writing most songs on his own with a guitar, the collective ultimately builds the soundscape. “I keep everyone there in mind, imagining parts and leaving space for them. But when I bring the songs to the whole band, sometimes they can sense that space, sometimes they actively subvert it.” It’s a process that works to create the push-pull effect and a sense of disparate parts joining together. “We tried to keep things open in the studio and give everyone a hand in the genesis.” “Varicose Veins” was created in that open space. By virtue of it being a studio oriented song, it wanders the farthest into the electronic; skipping and snapping, as soft electronic pops accent wave rush cymbals over rootsy banjo and music box bells.

Sweetly and softly in it’s timbre ..Is Diamonds closes itself to “Oh God Come Back.” Lyrically, it’s more akin to Revelation; shattered selves, floods, needles through the eyes, a prayer for death and the return of God (“Come back, bring the sword… the time for forgiveness is over…”). “She’s at the point where everything could just end, she could throw in the towel, and sees the second coming as renewal through fire,” says Stretch of the song’s character. “She welcomes a violent cleanse and change, and appeals to something more powerful than herself. The sword comes for everyone though, each person wields it as their own.” It’s the shadow song at it’s most frightening; the assembly of the beautiful and the violent. A perfect end to a near perfect record.

“There’s no unfinished business with this one.” The set has been completed in what could be seen as a catharsis. There is fulfillment of the ‘sophomore slump’ constructs; a band with their sonic identity assured, their independence and autonomy gained. Which leaves purpose and direction to be resolved. “My head’s in the next one, but I don’t know where it will go. It won’t be a continuation, at least not deliberately. But we’ve got to be willing to let things be what they are.” What dies and what survives? The question interjected by a white van, roof down on the side of the road and the loss of a loved one. This tension, the fine line between worlds physical and spiritual, the gateway from bodies to ghosts, the refraction of light through the diamond, it pervades the songs. What will die and what will survive of Bass Lions, what will transition through the gateway of …Is Diamonds? “I’m not sure. The band is strong as a unit, but with everything we do, we’re not afraid to slash and hack, to change and evolve. It’s dangerous, but sometimes you’ve got to be willing to burn it all down.”

"...Is Diamonds"on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/bass-lions-is-diamonds/id403274438
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/basslions
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6114696706
CBC Radio 3: http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Bass-Lions
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/basslions#g/u

Sasquatch 2011 Lineup Revealed...

2011-02-07T16:32:00.004-05:00

Down the coast from Vancouver and through the mountains, across semi-arid foothills. A span of iron jumped the Columbia river, a sunset on the canyon rim... Sasquatch Festival. Last we met, I was living in BC, and 2011 may require reunion.

The lineup for 2011 was announced yesterday. It has been criticized for being what some might see as safe, and true enough, but it's a list that will have mass appeal. The full lineup is available here and includes a large smattering Canadians midst a field of pitchforked radar dodgers, hipster dance hype, indie rock staples and some unfortunate top 40 ad sales rock. Aside from the reunion of DFA 1979, is there the possibility that after announcing collaboration and recording, Krist Novoselic (nee Nirvana) will be playing with Foo Fighters in their headlining slot? If you should make your way to The Gorge over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend this year, here's who's on my must-see list...

Best Coast, Black Mountain, Chromeo, Das Racist, Death Cab For Cutie, Death From Above 1979, Deerhunter, Iron & Wine, Matt & Kim, MSTRKRFT, Ratatat, Robyn, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Sharon Van Etten, Skrillex, Sleigh Bells, Smith Westerns, Surfer Blood, The Antlers, The Decemberists, The Radio Dept., White Denim, Wilco, Wolf Parade, Yeasayer

List: Most Memorable Shows of 2010

2011-01-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

(Reposted from the End of 2010 Lists)
These six shows are the ones that will stick with me; the ones most deeply etched, the ones the crawled in the farthest and wrapped themselves around the wiring.

Owen Pallett @ The Lincoln Alexander Theatre, February 27
"As you watch him build, construct, and compile the bold threads of each layered composition, there's a sense of awe and wonder. You want to crawl inside his head and see the parts; watch the delicate machinery of his classical mind as the string lines, percussion and vocals are choreographed into a fervent swelling existence."
[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/03/show-29-february-27-2010-owen-pallett.html]

Fucked Up @ The Opera House,
February 26
"It felt as though 9,999 of the 10,000 watts in The Opera House were slowly being pumped into the atmosphere. You felt it more and more in your body. It swelled and grew in your gut. Bodies continued flying from the stage, some hitting the hands of waiting caregivers, others hitting with clenched jaws and pained expressions."
[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/02/show-28-february-26-2010-fucked-up.html]

Titus Andronicus @ Sneeky Dee's,
April 9
"I found myself moving in pulses, holding firm to the speaker as the intermittent waves from the pit sent me sideways and over it. I held my ground in a small pocket of us who wanted to enjoy, and bask in the incandescent flow."
[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/04/show-42-april-9-2010-titus-andronicus.html]

Frightened Rabbit @ The Opera House, May 4

"We beam as Hutchison steps forward of the monitors and unplugs his guitar, leaves the mic behind and with a chorus of kindred, sings soft "oohs" aside lyrics of memory and loss. It's our soundtrack, but his life."

[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/05/show-45-may-4-2010-frightened-rabbit.html]

Bass Lions @ 30 Garfield,
November 13
"Faces close together, expectant, as you’re bathed in the simultaneous sound, unable to turn away as you look for signs of connection. It’s intimate and stripping but strengthens and emboldens our desire."
[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/live-review-bass-lions-and-monster-show.html]

Ra Ra Riot @ The Mod Club,
December 1
"The songs bruise hearts as ripe peaches, plucked at their peak, gentle pressure softening an unrecoverable small portion. Pangs, pains, furrowed expressions, elation and reminiscence as my hand clutched across to my shoulder or beat in perfect synch against my chest."

[http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/12/show-74-on-my-heels-ra-ra-riot-mod-club.html]

List: Top 8 Albums of 2010

2011-01-05T00:28:00.007-05:00

2010 was a fantastic year. Here's the soundtrack (in no particular order)....

Fol Chen
Pt. II: The New December
(Asthmatic Kitty, July 6)

"There's a monument that they say they'll build to the way things were. But we can't return." The apocolypse has come. Fol Chen holds our hand through the new world - ashen and acidic - they, the insurgents railing against the authority. It's Les Mis in the wastelands. A virus has been unleashed in The New December. It consumes words and sounds - syllables and notes skitter and jerk across the songs as the instrumentation bends and twists. Small moments lend to the grand imagery; a march, a quiet acoustic guitar and a reminiscently French folk melody, a dirge welcoming the green daylight through clouds on a broken path, parties in the underground. This album is a work of narrative art and the songs find strength through pure pop and funk dressed in the patina of a crumbling world.

Also Listed: Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #10 "The Holograms"
More Info: http://asthmatickitty.com/musicians.php?artistID=27
Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/part-ii-the-new-december/fol-chen
For Example...

And then...

Owen Pallett
Heartland
(Domino, January 12)

Lewis would have fit in with the droogie-droogs in the farmlands of Spectrum. Pallett takes writer Paul Auster's notion of the author being his character's deity and explores Lewis' relationship with him. Their coming together, their time as a pair and the disintegration. The young farmer speaks to his creator throughout, praise, pleads, demands, rages. But it's Pallett's string arrangements that beg the listening. Recorded with a full orchestra, and played in his live show with little more than a violin and a single guitar or keyboard as accompaniment, they race and lilt at times, scrape and squeal others. "You want to crawl inside his head and see the parts; watch the delicate machinery of his classical mind as the string lines, percussion and vocals are choreographed into a fervent swelling existence." (excerpt from review of Show #29)

Also Listed: Most Memorable Shows of 2010
More Info: http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/owen-pallett/

Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/heartland
Live Review: http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/03/show-29-february-27-2010-owen-pallett.html
For Example...

Germany, Germany
Radiowave
(Distorted Disco, October 27)

Synth-pop sparkle over dark beats; a clear New Order love pervades Radiowave (down to the "Blue Monday" kick riff in "River"), Germany, Germany's first commercial release after a string of free EPs. Push-pull tensioned tracks that vary from ambient to straight bangers. It's laptop dance - bedroom house... music for the party and time alone on a shore line. Spend a few millicycles getting lost in your headphones with this one on repeat. THEN download everything Germany, Germany has to offer. Head to the website - all the albums (except Radiowave) are free!

Also Listed: Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #21 "Signals"
More Info: http://distorteddisco.com/artists/germanygermany

Album Review(s): http://glasspaperweight.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/review-radiowave-germany-germany/
For Example...

Frightened Rabbit
The Winter of Mixed Drinks
(Fat Cat, March 1)

This one has been hard. This album had to leave rotation for a while this fall... someone else 'owned' it. It was theirs to invade me through. Each song was her. Now however, it's taken to being something else entirely. It's a collection about resilience - about the fight for yourself in the wake of another. These indie-rock anthems soar. Guitar riffs take off over grand percussion, lofted by the sincerity and pain rung out in Scott Hutchison's brogue. As I drove across the country this summer, it was inevitable that this album was played. Every province, both oceans, the prairies, the mountains. Once it dragged on my memories of a girl gone. Now it inspires me. It reminds me of what I said when reviewing the band's Toronto show last spring: "We have to take our relationships for what they are, not the things they seem to be. If we hold on too tightly to the ephemeral, we run the risk of being hurt. And we've got enough regrets." Should have figured it out earlier, but either way, thanks Frightened Rabbit.

Also Listed: Most Memorable Shows of 2010, Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #18 "Nothing Like You"
More Info: http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artist/frightened+rabbit

Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-winter-of-mixed-drinks
Live Review: http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/05/show-45-may-4-2010-frightened-rabbit.html
For Example...

Robyn
Body Talk PT1/ Body Talk PT2
(Konichiwa, June 14/ September 6)

The last dance-pop album I loved this much was probably Rhythm Nation or Hanging Tough. And yes, it's THAT Robyn; "Show Me How" Robyn. There was something different about her in the 90's as the camera panned through the black and white lineup of oddities and pretty people, and it shines through these albums. Body Talk was released in 3 parts, the most recent of which (simply dubbed Body Talk) acts as a 'best of' of sorts. Unfortunately, it misses some of the highlights from the first two parts... thus I recommend the separates. No gushing, no subjugation, these songs assert Robyn's independence, her control over her image and present life as choices and consequences, not destiny and fucking rainbows. They bounce off each other... nights of debauchery and booze followed with the pain of loss and the realities of love. Introspective pop bliss, self-doubt to swagger - lessons learned and sage advice for the kids from an intelligent, beautiful woman while her party rages out of control.

Also Listed: Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #6 "Dancing On My Own"
More Info: http://www.robyn-us.com/

Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/body-talk-pt-1
http://www.metacritic.com/music/body-talk-pt-2
For Example...

Menomena
Mines
(Barsuk, July 27)

The net is wide. With vocals traded, styles exchanged, Menomena are difficult to pin to a single song. Likely because of the strange and wonderful writing process. A chunk of Mines goes thus: One member writes a riff, records it and loops it... pass the ball... loop plays, new riff gets played over top... repeat until everyone has had a shot. Next, take turns constructing and deconstructing the layered loops of guitars, drums, pianos or whatever else made the cut. Take a listen to "Tithe" and you can hear it clearly as xylophones and keys roll gently before cutting guitars and crashing drums take their place. The result are cyclical structures that seems to grow out of the ground and creep sunward. Shoots advance and recede a varying paces as the structure blooms - the final form often something quite unexpected. Though the bombast fires off early with "TAOS", the quieter moments of "Dirty Cartoons," "Killemall" and album closer "INTIL" beg for isolation in the midst speeding moments.

Also Listed: Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #7 "Dirty Cartoons"
More Info: http://www.barsuk.com/bands/menomena

Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/mines
For Example... (but get through Carson for 30 seconds first)

Ra Ra Riot
The Orchard
(Arts & Crafts, August 24)

It creeps up on you. An album that on first listen you smile and nod, but invades and builds fortresses around your music memories if you give it an inch. The hooks are carefully hidden, guerilla pop in the lush strings and dense rhythmic forests of The Orchard. Recorded during the summer of 2009 in a peach orchard, it's not the sounds, but the emotional landscapes that resonate the title. It's the feeling of something verdant that is in it's twilight, the sound of busy stillness, insects flitting as you lay in late-summer grass thinking about that one person who you can't have and the coming Fall. From my review of their show in Toronto this past December: "The songs bruise hearts as ripe peaches, plucked at their peak, gentle pressure softening an unrecoverable small portion. Pangs, pains, furrowed expressions, elation and reminiscence as my hand clutched across to my shoulder or beat in perfect synch against my chest. Around us, they were dancing, or bobbing, all drawn to the beauty of the band."

Also Listed: Top 25 Tracks of 2010 - #1 "Do You Remember", Most Memorable Shows of 2010
More Info: http://www.rarariot.com/

Album Review(s): http://www.metacritic.com/music/the-orchard
Live Review: http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/12/show-74-on-my-heels-ra-ra-riot-mod-club.html
For Example...

Bass Lions
...Is Diamonds
(Independent/Nevado Digital, October 26)

This album is near perfect for me. From a show in our living room, to one of the most interesting phone conversations I've had in a while, a difficult, but satisfying article to write, and ideal company on a perfect concert night, the folks in Bass Lions made the last few months of 2010 shimmer. Passed to me across a table at the Rivoli in October, this album has become a weekly listen. It's an indie-rock assembly of the violent and the beautiful, sublime and tragic, the innocent and the apocalyptic - 8 'perfect cuts' that brilliantly follow the More Than Islands EP. There isn't much to say that I haven't written already - take a read through the NXEW Spotlight from December (linked below) to get the full story on ...Is Diamonds and the path that lead the band to here. I'll leave you with my take away from that chat (and a personal goal for 2011)... some "required reading" courtesy of singer/guitarist Nathan Stretch: "With everything [you] do, [you] can't be afraid to slash and hack, to change and evolve. It’s dangerous, but sometimes you’ve got to be willing to burn it all down.”

Also Listed: Most Memorable Shows of 2010
More Info: http://www.basslions.com

Album Review(s): http://nxew.ca/?p=3936
Live Review: http://livemusicproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/live-review-bass-lions-and-monster-show.html
For Example...

List: Top 25 Tracks of 2010

2011-01-03T16:53:00.018-05:00

Hit up the hit counter. Spun most frequently in the year that was, though not always of it...

*This is how it goes: "Track" - Artist (Play Count) from Album [link to review] (Year of Release) - "Lyrics."

"Do You Remember" - Ra Ra Riot (95) from The Orchard (2010) - "Do you remember what you said to me then, under the oak trees with their leaves withering..."
"Ransom The Sunset" - Bass Lions (59) from More Than Islands (2007) - "So watch for me in the east, I'll be coming 'round again between the earth and the heavens."
"Fish In A Womb" - The Faint (43) from Fasciinatiion (2008) - "That slice in my neck, it's oozing jelly clear as glass. Between my finger and my thumb, it'll stretch for inches between them both."
"Bang Bang Bang" - Mark Ronson and The Business Intl. ft. Q-Tip (41) from Record Collection (2010) - "You live the shitty life we live the bomb-bomb vie. Hotter than your boudoir we rock the TV."
"How To Bicycle Home From Downtown..." - The Monster Show (41) from And In Our Final Days As Archipelago (2009) - "Put on your red flashing tail-light, brake only with your right hand. Carry the records in a recycled white grocery bag with your left."

"Dancing On My Own" - Robyn (41) from Body Talk Pt. 1 (2010) - "Yeah I know it's stupid, but I just gotta see it for myself. I'm in the corner watching you kiss her. I'm right over here, why can't you see me? I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home. I keep dancing on my own."
"Dirty Cartoons" - Menomena (37) from Mines (2010) - "I'm trying, but I've been misled by dirty cartoons. You'll keep me honest for old times sake. I'm begging of you; go home, go home."
"Androgynous" - The Replacements (37) from Let It Be (1984) - "Here comes Dick he's wearing a skirt, here comes Jane, you know she's sportin' a chain. Same hair, revolution. Same build, evolution. Tomorrow, who's gonna fuss?"
"Horseshoe Fortune" - The Russian Futurists (34) from The Weight's On The Wheels (2010) - "Surgeons, their scalpels slicing the skin upon your ribs, they did you worse for wear. Does it still hurt to care?"
"The Holograms" - Fol Chen (33) from Part II: The New December (2010) - "First the words were good, they helped us understand. But soon the sounds were doubled like holograms."

"Younger Us" - Japandroids (33) from Younger Us / Sex and Dying... 7" Single (2010) - "Remember when we had them all on the run, and the night we saw the midnight sun? Remember saying things like we'll sleep when we're dead, and thinking this feeling was never gonna end... Give me that naked new skin rush. Give me younger us."
"Duel" - Swervedriver (31) from Mezcal Head (1993) - "I'm going down, down to the marketplace. Going to learn to give. Going down, down to the sea marketplace. Going to learn to live."
"Take Me To The Islands" - Idlewild (30) from Post-Electric Blues (2010) - "With your sense of dislocation, you make the perfect travelling companion"
"Heartbeats" - The Knife (30) from Deep Cuts (2003) - "To call for hands from above to lean on, wouldn't be good enough for me."
"Ambling Alp" - Yeasayer (30) from Odd Blood (2010) - "Your lows will have their compliment of highs. And if anyone should cheat you, take advantage of or beat you, raise your head and wear your wounds with pride."

"To Be Forgotten" - Idlewild (29) from Post-Electric Blues (2010) - "I'm choosing words that seem to be forgotten as I use them."
"Crown On The Ground" - Sleigh Bells (29) from Treats (2010) - "You never doubted it, you're so proud of it. You're still a child right? And still proud of it?"
"Nothing Like You" - Frightened Rabbit (28) from The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010) - "There is nothing like someone new, and this girl she was nothing like you."
"In Media Res" - Los Campesinos (28) from Romance Is Boring (2010) - "Awake from sleep my head and shoulder wet against the window. A frost had formed and melted slowly, right through to my collar bone. If you were given the option of dying painlessly and in peace at 45, but with a lover at your side, after a full and happy life; is that something that would interest you? Would this interest you at all?"
"Meet Me In The Basement" - Broken Social Scene (27) from Forgiveness Rock Record (2010) - "Here we go!"

"Signals" - Germany, Germany (27) from Radiowave (2010) - "So shut your eyes. Just shut your eyes and go."
"No Wiser" - Idlewild (27) from Post-Electric Blues (2010) - "I roll in, and I roll out. Time passes and I'm no wiser."
"Date w/ IKEA" - Pavement (26) from Brighten The Corners (1999) - "I want to stay, but my time is wasting. Magic lands call my name."
"Furr" - Blitzen Trapper (25) from Furr (2008) - "On the day that I turned twenty-three, I was curled up underneath the dogwood tree when suddenly a girl, her skin the colour of a pearl, she wandered aimlessly but she didn't seem to see. She was listening for the angels just like me... So I took her by the arm, we settled down upon a farm, and raised our children up as gently as you please."
"Someone Great" - LCD Soundsystem (25) from Sound of Silver (2007) - "With someone new I could have started, too late for beginnings... To tell the truth I saw it coming, the way you were breathing. But nothing can prepare you for it... the voice on the other end."

Download: Germany, Germany "New Year"

2011-01-01T19:21:00.000-05:00

After several free EPs, and this year's brilliant Radiowaves, the generosity of Drew Harris with his art continues. A two track pack of digital bliss is up on the Distorted Disco site for the freeness. The pulsing acceleration of the single "New Year" and a re-up of the already phenomenal sounds of Death Cab for Cutie's "The New Year" ache for a bleary eyed 2011 morning, remembering the year that passed in smiling, broken fragments through thin morning light.

Head to: http://distorteddisco.com/releases/artist/germanygermany to download it now.

Happy New Year people.

Show #74: "On My Heels" - Ra Ra Riot @ The Mod Club

2010-12-02T16:10:00.011-05:00

“Do you remember what you said to me then…” I inhaled slowly; a sweet scent in the air. “… under the oak trees and their leaves withering.” I was immersed and transported, awash in the ebullient pleas of Wes Miles. Light fell from the stage as strings vibrated through punching guitars and impetuous beats. The estival wellspring of Ra Ra Riot’s The Orchard was present even within the steel and paint of The Mod Club Theatre. I had come in from a barren Toronto night to stand in a field, blossoms adrift in thinning light.

The city was cold and seemed empty as I walked down College St. to the show. What few cyclists and Wednesday night walkers inhabited the street went wrapped in their wool and down, hurried, bundled hipsters of the north, me in a light jacket, ill prepared for what has quickly become winter. Through the doors, the crowded venue stood close together and to the stage as if for warmth. Radiant shafts of light shone from the stage around Imaginary Cities as their pleasing Winnipeg pop soared through the classic rock sheen of guitar hooks and keys. Vocalists Rusty Martyas and Marti Sarbit deftly layered their instruments into a beautifully unique timbre through arrangements that leaven the thought of driving full speed across golden prairies in early morning light.

The variable consequences of Movember availed themselves in the intercession, as plaid swadled men, their pervish ‘staches, and nerd bespectacled girlfriends navigated the narrow walkways amongst fans. The room’s density seemed to peak as Most Serene Republic took the stage. Placed between Population, …Expanding Universe and Underwater Cinematographer favourites (“Present of Future End,” “Heavens to Purgatory,” “Content Was Always My Favourite Colour”), the newest compositions from the Milton sextet were played for the eager. The songs off the Fantasick Impossibliss EP mark the bands first recordings since the departure of 7th member, instrumentalist/vocalist Emma Ditchburn, and first on their label Home Of The Rebels. Live, the songs show a predilection for a tighter pop structure that suit the newest lineup. Which is not to say that they have taken grand steps away from the grandiose density of their discographic middle. Still, over tall, reverberant guitars, pulsing, wandering bass and impossibly accented, odd numbered timings, rich pianos and the unmistakable texture of brass swell TMSR into a fervent force; a liquidity and sense of affusion prevail.

Ra Ra Riot are a band to fall in love with and to. The frigid night was long forgotten in the summer sunlight of The Orchard and warmth of The Rhumb Line. The songs bruise hearts as ripe peaches, plucked at their peak, gentle pressure softening an unrecoverable small portion. Pangs, pains, furrowed expressions, elation and reminiscence as my hand clutched across to my shoulder or beat in perfect synch against my chest. Around us, they were dancing, or bobbing, all drawn to the beauty of the band. Hopeful plaints for the future in “Oh La,” knowing looks as the unmistakable drums of “Can You Tell” incited confession and profession. Miles paced the stage cleaving to the microphone as though it were the only thing keeping him safe in his exposition. His tenor voice importuned, reached outward, and clawed us back through the loves, the loses and lamentations. Mathieu Santos, Milo Bonacci and Gabriel Duquette flitted their gaze between band mates as they filled the soft spaces between Alexandra Lawn’s cello and Rebecca Zeller’s violin, with sharp, punctuated lines and unexpected meters. Looking around, couple after couple, whether or not coupled, danced through “Do You Remember” asking themselves Miles’ question “can I get you alone tonight” as one watched the other. Lawn sang Orchard ballad “You And I Know” to coital apogee; eyes closed and soft lips. Her voice and expression invited us behind closed doors as frenzied guitars lifted the song past it’s peak and blue light haloed her soft curls. Through sweat and delight, “Run My Mouth” ended the set. On it’s heels, a sincere appeal. Cheers and applause imploring an encore closed by the single that brought Ra Ra Riot back from a one-time end, “Dying Is Fine.” As Duquette’s drums raced with steadiness, Lawn and Zeller held pace to it’s abrupt drop off. Strings like falling leaves, gently coaxed us down.

Deep breaths seemed an attempt to hold the experience inside. The warmth a shield as we found ourselves smacked with the chill of December outside. Traveling the streets I found myself immersed still, unable to relinquish the vernal desire to connect, to reach out. As 1am came near, I stood on a darkened side street amongst large brick houses, the quiet sound somewhere behind of late night travel. The trunks of large, bare trees lined the cold, gleaming pavement in both directions. A sweet smell drifted farther. I could only try to hold on to as it knocked me on my heels.

Read this...

2010-11-30T16:05:00.013-05:00

"We can resist the banalisation of rock'n'roll. We must resist it. We have a sacred duty to inject magic and danger in to the bloodstream. We cannot let capitalism erode our souls. Music is about spirit, not matter; it's about our emotional lives, not our material status."

- Barney Hoskyns, Fmr. Ed. Mojo Magazine, US

Live Review: Bass Lions and The Monster Show @ Garfield North

2010-11-18T15:15:00.014-05:00

Music is about revelation and I find myself unceasingly enamoured. Songs have a preternatural ability to give me belief that what I have bouncing around in my cerebral matter can be found bouncing around in another. It can be intensely intimate and compels me to return for more as I find kindred thought through lyrics, kindred emotion through chords. Music feeds my comforts. I feel swaddled and assured; the opial urge to close my eyes and breath deep.

This weekend, Ontario bands Bass Lions and The Monster Show performed in our living room. My excitement grew in anticipation of the night; the anticipation of once again feeding my habit. A house show is particular though. It amplifies music’s psychic effect as myriad connections collaborate in a more intimate atmosphere; people who may be strange to one another experiencing something intensely personal in a very personal space. It’s like sharing headphones with someone you’re madly in love with but has no idea. Faces close together, expectant, as you’re bathed in the simultaneous sound, unable to turn away as you look for signs of connection. It’s intimate and stripping but strengthens and emboldens our desire.

With songs of desperate optimism and finding purpose in the trial, The Monster Show was the first to travel the wires to our ears in our arresting exposure. Their set crashed in waves; the shuffling morning light confessions of “Sara Says She’s Worried” to the beautifully urgent soundscape of standout “How To Bicycle Home From Downtown, Slightly Drunk, While Carying Three Used LPs” to the simple brevity of “Glory.” Through the hands and voices of Duncan Nicholls, Laura Robinson, Daev Mullholland and Kerry Mullen, new material from the Guelph/Waterloo quartet firmly grasped the soaring qualities and softest moments from their last release And In Our Final Days As Archipelago. Nicholls and Robinson sing with an urgency that pangs. Their faces revealing the circuitous route through their pounding chests that each word and sound has taken. Mullholland and Mullen giving tacit assent in their serene rhythms, eyes closed to the beat.

As the set ended, the expressiveness of others in room was devastating. They too had eyes closed in a Zen-like calm, locked gazes, singing unabashedly, knowing smiles, wonder, elation, lust – all from those who had not come here necessarily to reveal themselves or perform. Expressions often reserved for the gaze of lovers and intimates. Captured moments deserving of a softly lit afternoon with heads rested on shoulders rather than a room mixed of friends and strangers.

Still we pushed closer to each other in the gathering mass. Nowhere to turn where the gaze of another didn’t meet yours as Bass Lions pulled up chairs, bathed in warm lamp light. From the floor, the couch, the kitchen, the stairs - the focus became singular. The quiet harmonics of “More Than Islands” served as first steps and lulled before the beat demanded us back and flowed into the angular sex of “Perfect Cuts.” Drummer Anthony James smirked a knowing smile as the push-pull of his rhythms drove us in forward sways of meditative rapture. Two voices elucidated themes of longing, hidden passions, justice and the fall out of all three. Nathan Stretch started quiet, a reserved demand, spoken through a whisper-edged growl before spilling over into the insistence that we hear his pleading desires and prayers. Janine Smienk has a serene softness to her voice; a sparrow’s song at times chasing and times beckoning across the compositions, gliding then diving through tangled structures, before pushing through blinding light in the pursuit of what feeds her strength.

Their set wandered through the recent …Is Diamonds and their 2008 EP More Than Islands. Both releases carry a sonic density that is built in their live performance, on the talents of multi-instrumentalists James Vander Zaag and Ryan Lynch. Though somewhat hedged by the quiet nature of the evening, neither seemed confined or corralled as Vander Zaag elegantly articulated his vivid textures through a classical guitar and Lynch found his home between pulsing bass and onirismic keys. Through a pane of glass from the front porch I watched as Stretch coached friends and friends of friends in their role for the night’s final song “Ransom The Sunset.” Inside I slid through a crowd of pursed lips and clapping hands as they offered up their measured ‘oohs’ and sharp cadence. I settled near the wall and breathed deeply. As the last chords of the night rang through, I found myself pulsing, eyes closed, heart racing with the colour red and the thought of a girl in a room full of people doing their version of the same.

I’ve often had this live music high. With each show, I’m reenergized and reborn. I’ve never considered whether the makeup of my drug is in the music or in the group of people who have come together to experience it. I have called it catharsis en mass. We are cleansed with other acolytes and purged of our worries in a form of spiritual awakening. But what came first: the music or the ecstasy? Do we experience live music this way because we are ecstatic or are we made so because we experienced live music? Could it be that our overwhelming and accreting emotions as observers feed the band in an entropic loop of euphoria?

I find myself hurtling towards what some might consider a dangerous precipice. In the past, I’ve written about my heart’s unyielding draw to the musician, but as the night bore on, I met more and more people who revealed themselves as contributors to the pleasure. I’m heartened by the phenomenon and found myself flitting lustily between my ambitions and grand schemes, falling in love with every intentional and unintentional performer in the room. I know the danger of it, but am drawn nonetheless, like an addict. Recently, scientists have found that intense spells of passionate love are as effective at blocking pain as cocaine and other illicit drugs. The study’s subjects were like those of us in the room Saturday: they were “euphoric, energetic, obsessively thinking about their beloved and craving their presence.” The object of our desire, whoever/whatever it may be it would seem, activates our nucleus accumbens (the same reward giving centre involved in some addiction) telling our brain the simplest message: “You really need to keep doing this.”

When I woke up Sunday, a lingering notion of being impermeable to those things that haunt my affect crystallized through the grey-blue light. I walked through the day cloaked in nakedness of the people with whom I had shared the night and felt invincible. I am an addict. I’m in love, enamoured, with a drug. I really need to keep doing this. I’ve had a revelation.

*Show #73 - Saturday November 13, 2010. For full photo sets from the night visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55615652@N07/collections/72157625274922773/

Setlists:

Bass Lions

The Monster Show

Photos: Bass Lions @ Garfield North

2010-11-15T21:34:00.001-05:00

Comfortably quirky, Bass Lions brought their driven meanderings to our living room... here's what the lens saw. For the full set visit: http://bit.ly/bBCWW5

For the full set visit: http://bit.ly/bBCWW5

Photos: The Monster Show @ Garfield North

2010-11-15T17:47:00.010-05:00

The mellifluous Monster Show opened the Bass Lions CD release at our house in Hamilton this weekend. Here are some of their best moments captured in light and binary code. For the full set and more photos from the night visit: http://bit.ly/bg1p6Z

For the full set of The Monster Show and more photos from the night visit: http://bit.ly/bg1p6Z

Bass Lions / Monster Show Photo Preview

2010-11-14T10:54:00.000-05:00

A rainy morning after a beguiling night. Here's a taste of the nearly 1400 shots being edited down from the concert in our living room Saturday...

Library Voices @ The Casbah

2010-11-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

Show #65 - September 29, 2010: w. Paper Lions, Bend Sinister, The Social Workers

The Social Workers
I last saw The Social Workers in the winter. When opening for Woodpigeon, I ran down a list of diverse yet connected homages that this once referential Hamilton band drew from; a more refined Social Workers opened this night. Though still showing signs of a desire to be a Nick Cave or National cover band, their set started with creative arrangements that mixed genre, tempos and times with lyrics of loss, and isolation ("I know I fucked up somehow"). The set continued with a brand new track followed by their 'go-to' "End Beauty." "If we were hitting on a girl, we'd play this... but we're not hitting on a girl." It seems that the Social Workers might still be trying to fit too many ideas into each song. Vacillating between sparse early 2000's rock and sweeping and swelling builds in the instrumentals, the baritone vocals often stay too even keeled to bring the entire audience with them. I like this band though, and as they continue to grow, opening shows for some of the best bands in Canada, they will no doubt continue the refinement.

Bend Sinister
For a lot of people my age, diving into their parents' vinyl collection usually yields some similar finds; Supertramp's Crime of the Century, Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell and Springsteen's Born To Run. With the audacity to go full tilt at the source material, Bend Sinister has cranked up the nostalgia-rock and concocted a unique and singly communicable desire to dance from their influences. With Wurlitzer-sounding keys, a shredding SG, and shuffling drums, Sinister's pop anthems ride a Delorian fuelled razor line between the present and the past. We danced along to the retro-styled "Things Will Get Better," "Jimmy Brown" and "Nice Shot,"a song written just a few nights previous. "We premiered this one in St. Catharines last night - tonight we're going to play it a lot better." This is a 'wow' band.

Paper Lions
Paper Lions recently released their EP, Trophies and have positioned themselves as the next great working class Canadian pop-rock band. The hooks are instantly catchy, the choruses are sing-along choruses, and the young girls love to dance to it. Their live show fuels the hype by grabbing hold with an unrelenting grasp and shaking you awake. Showmanship layered on musicianship as they played "Hands" with David McDonald at first using only the titular tools to lend the song it's rhythmic spine. "Stranger In My Place" brought a chorus of voices lent gladly by the audience in a happy clap along trance. Covers of "Bohemian Rhapsody" "Salisbury Hill" and "Apache" slyly edged in on the PEI band's material, and drew knowing looks between eager members of the crowd. But for all the gimmickry and stage tricks, Paper Lions still showcase their talent and desire. Listeners close their eyes as reverb-drowned guitars come up for air - they scream and clip above the swelling surf of vocal harmonies and clean Telecaster chords. The songs tell the stories of thousands of kilometres travelled together, finding their way with their hearts, showered in the heat of stage lights, the appreciation of onlookers, and smiling all the while.

Library Voices
After relentlessly touring for the past year, Library Voices have finally taken a much-deserved rest. At the Casbah on this September night though, they were sure to leave everything on the stage before they did so. There's an electric vibration that fills the room at a Library Voices show. Some inexplicable energy conjured by 8 musicians through smiles, sweat, and song that pushes the crowd close to the stage, moves their feet and hands, and urges them to sing along. The short, shotgun-paced set drew mostly from Denim on Denim, their April 2010 release, and having transported the tracks out of the studio, the arrangements have evolved - vocals, keys and horns now trading their lines to each other in moves that only strengthen the impecable pop structures. After the show, I chatted with vocalist/guitarist Carl Johnson about the past year of touring. He beamed about the good vibes from audiences, the thrill of playing the opening slot of Calgary Folk Fest, his moment of intimidation sharing the stage with the likes of Timber Timbre and St. Vincent and the anticipation of writing new material over the winter. With the vinyl release of Denim only recently available after months of artwork issues, fans will have something to tide them over to the spring. If the new track (perhaps called) "Local Art" played in Hamilton is the direction, Library Voices new music will continue to travel far into fans hearts, riding the resonant waves of adjulation garnered over countless nights in small venues playing their music. "You gotta be who you are each time you play," said Carl. It's the approach you see the band take on stage at every show. No hesitation, no posturing - just smiles through sweat, blowing kisses to each other while dancing along, throwing their heads back and howling in unison about books, love and our ever-impending apocalyptic doom.

Set List
"Bookish"
"Write Me A Myth"
"Haunt This House"
"2012"
"Drinking Games"
"Insider Trading"
"Step Off The Map And Float"
"Bodies of Fiction"
"Hello Cruel World"
"Local Art(?)"
"Kundera On The Dancefloor"
"Crazy Love"

Live Audio: The Wooden Sky "You Ain't Going Nowhere"

2010-11-03T18:35:00.001-04:00

Following a glorious night packed snuggly into the Casbah, a handful of fans headed out to the alley off Queen St. N in Hamilton to catch The Wooden Sky's acoustic encore. With onlookers clapping and members of Yukon Blonde, These United States and Fox Jaws singing backups and stopping their feet, the Toronto band belted out this rendition of Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere"

A few photos and a full review of the show will eventually make it up here. But for now, enjoy.

Show #62 - July 22-25: Calgary Folk Music Festival

2010-09-08T19:11:00.005-04:00

Sitting in the afternoon sun, the grass beneath my bare feet, between my fingers with my palms to the ground, a vibration of pure and genuine enjoyment permeated Prince’s Island Park in Calgary. A diverse crowd emerged – young girls in short dresses, older men in fedoras and button downs, mothers and daughters, young children on shoulders with glow bracelets, rapt by what is going on around them. Hipsters, hippies, punks, cowboys, politicians, local celebrities and teens in flip flops and board shorts, a deficiency of shirts, some barefoot, the younger boys collecting plates for deposits.

This crowd watched workshops during the afternoons. A gorgeous wall of sound flooded our meadow seats as Library Voices, St. Vincent, Timber Timbre and Sunparlour Players jammed for what seemed an eternity on only the right notes. Side stage performances from Dan Mangan and Ohbijouinvited the wistful and communally spirited to join them. Brits Laura Marling and Frank Turner transfixed, while international acts Etran Finatawa and Coolooloosh destroyed the concept of genre through clashing and bending.

I would have never expected this vibe from a province seen by those of us ill-informed and ill-served by the partisan regional politics of Canada, to be uptight and staunchly conservative. In the evenings, the tarped field and fenced off ‘dancing only’ sections filled before the main stage. Fuelled by Cat Empire,Michael Franti and Stars the city became a bohemian mecca; flowing skirts, closed eyes and arms held high in a haze of sweat and dance. Calgary Folk is sonic bliss in the Canadian west.

Show #61 - July 16-18: River and Sky Festival

2010-09-08T19:05:00.001-04:00

Lying on my back, through the trees, I can see a sky full of stars. The river where we had swam that afternoon, cut through the bouldered channel and added an ambient texture over Daniel Romano'sunplugged campfire set. Around us, the tent village buzzed. New friends and old acquaintances sat around the stone circles that contain their fires, each blaze illuminating it's denizens instruments of choice; another night of music continuing after the music.

Along side local favourites, bands like By Divine Right and Born Ruffians created a lineup of performers not to be missed in River and Sky's second year. The main-stage sat hill side, an Ozark cabin relieved of a wall, exposed to the small field where perhaps a few hundred of us gathered. With ample room to sit, lie in the grass, or dance, the park served as the ideal venue for The Pinecones, Boys Who Say No, The Wooden Sky, Yukon Blonde, Plants and Animals and Ohbijou.

This is a wood-nymph music festival dream of the near-North; miles from the nearest city, a club-sized audience dancing riverside in the night-breeze before sleepily singing their own songs and shutting their eyes under a spalled black blanket of a sky.

Show #57 - June 18, 2010: Toronto Island Concert

2010-09-08T17:57:00.001-04:00

I first went to the Toronto Island Concert atthe beginning. Back when Arcade Fire was the festival opener; an upstart bandfrom Montreal with a sparsely package "Self Titled DemonstrativeAlbum" and BSS weren't the international rock superheroes they are today.Summers away from Toronto pulled me away for several years however. 2010 markeda return for me to Olympic Island. Toronto hummed on the sunny Saturday morningand as we approached the ferry turnstiles off Queen's Quay, bands playedmid-day sets in the park on a NXNE side stage. It seemed odd that one wouldhave to choose between the city's largest music event and the show curated byit's darling stars and sons, but thousands had sold out the grassy space of thepark.

Reaching the island, we passed a pile ofdiscarded blankets at the festival gate, as 2010 Polaris long-listers Zeusfinished their set. We zig-zagged through the seated crowd to find ourselves aspot in front of the soundboard from where we caught the haunted wanderings ofTimber Timbre and surf-washed, teen dreams of Beach House. Broken hearted rockersBand of Horses inspired girlfriends to clutch boyfriends arms and sigh. Butwith a full compliment of guests including Feist, Amy Milan, Sebastien Graingerand Forgiveness producer John McEntire this was homecoming for BrokenSocial Scene. Lisa Lobsinger, who has taken her share of lumps from the BSSfaithful, triumphed over the crowd with the call of forgiveness in "All toAll" and the orgasmic release of "Meet Me In The Basement"brought the sun beneath the horizon. The bulk of those born after 1980 madetheir way home as 90's legends Pavement took the stage. Burning their waythrough a veritable greatest hits, opening with "Cut Your Hair," theyplayed into the night. Looking to beat the crowds we left pre-encore, but asthe ferry made her slow crawl across the small Lake Ontario inlet back todowntown, the head-nods and cheers played us out with "Summer Babes."

(Note: A different version of this article appeared on nxew.ca on September 10, 2010)

New Spins: August 22-28, 2010 "Calgary Folk Fest Revisited"

2010-08-25T20:23:00.000-04:00

The songs and artists that made the highlight reel from this year's Calgary Folk Fest (July 22-25 @ Prince's Island Park)...

Ohbijou - "Barking At Your Door"
Written by Nathan Lawr, former drummer for Royal City, this song breaks my heart. You can find the live version from Calgary Folk Fest itself here.

Sunparlour Players - "Build It Up"
This song and I got acquainted as SPP played it with St. Vincent, Timber Timbre and Library Voices backing them up in a gorgeous wall of sound in the mid-day sun.

Caracol - "Laws of Sadness"
This Quebecois songstress was nothing but compelling in her collaboration with Po' Girl, Madison Violet and Annie Lou in a side-stage workshop.

Frank Turner - "Thunder Road"
The Rayban-ed semi-beardo spirit child of Strummer and Springsteen pays homage to his paternity. Mesmerizing. As he performed, Laura Marling sat side-stage with a smile on her face and her head resting on a guitar.

Show #56 - June 18, 2010: NXNE ft. Rich Aucoin @ El Mocambo

2010-06-27T23:38:00.001-04:00

In honour of the kid-like feeling i got... here's the adult-me version of the drawing that would
have gone on the un-ruled half of my Grade 2 journal on the Monday morning after NXNE.
Grade 2 me would have written this underneath:

Rich Aucoin, is the Willy Wonka of Halifax electronic music performance. He builds a concert of pure imagination where "anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There's nothing to it," or at least that's the way it felt. He has said, he "just wants to be happy with you" and given my experience during North By Northeast last week, here's a list of the ways he's going to make that happen...

1. Rich Aucoin gets you involved... The remix video projected on to a white bed-sheet screen has now prompted you to scream along with a goat to the heavy electro beats, both through Aucoin's synth and cranked out by Golden Dog Taylor Knox (see Show #22 for more on Knox) on a small kit. Instructions keep coming at you from the edited videos... lyrics, images, dance moves (more to come on the dance moves). An array of dollar store percussion also gets handed out. Despite the fact that Dollarama tambs tear themselves apart in the hands of non-toddlers, we played along with the beats.

2. Rich Aucoin makes you dance... Aucoin comes down off the stage, dancing his own ass off, and helps you out. Now I know it's tough for a Toronto crowd to break from it's carefully cultivated cross-armed rock show nod, but Rich is doing it. Sweating from moving through the songs before, we kneel down on the floor at El Mo and put a hand on the shoulder in front of us and...

3. Rich Aucoin makes you feel like a kid again... The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was remixed and playing on the screen (Aucoin's Personal Publication EP is synced to the film a la 'Dark Side of Oz'), balloons and beach balls on the stage. The ace-in-the-hole however was the parachute. Follow along carefully now children:

After playing 'popcorn' with the balloons and beach balls, Rich and his hand held strobe called for everyone to get in. We made a bubble, and danced in it. Here's what it looked like from inside...

You getting the feel of it yet?

The whole thing is pinned down by the music though. With Personal Publication available at Insound and CD Baby and more in the chamber ready to fire, Aucoin seems to teem with creative impulse in sound and visuals. It's a brilliant approach... be talented and be entertaining. Aucoin's disco indie rock doesn't feel over-tread, and manages to be catchy for a full set. Every song is a single, every song is one you'll sing back to yourself on your walk home. Perhaps it's the way he got me involved and taught me his songs, maybe it's the sweat from dancing, maybe it's the joy of having played like a kid. For an hour, my concert going world was changed and full of imagination. For an hour Rich Aucoin made me happy with him.

Show #54 - June 17, 2010: NXNE Day 2: NXEW Showcase @ The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom ft. The Mountains and The Trees, Olenka and The Autumn Lovers, Rock Plaza Central, The Coast, A Horse and His Boy

2010-06-25T03:11:00.001-04:00

There's always some fear about putting something you love in to the world. As the creator and director of the North By East West music blog, Justin Beach was taking a risk by putting together a showcase for NXNE and branding it with the NXEW.ca name. The risk was in picking the wrong bands, the wrong venue, the wrong MC, or failing to deliver or damaging relationships with any of the above.

Sure, it's about the music, but I'd be remiss to not first speak about the venue. The Gladstone Hotel has been a part of Toronto since 1889. It once hosted Canadian travellers along their excursions through this country as the last place in Toronto to drink before heading farther along the westward CPR line. Walking up the stone steps and into the foyer, the tall brick walls, dark wood and plaster moulding lend a sense of grandeur and intrigue. Pulled in by the architecture, I was also taken by the food. The Gladstone has bar none, the best fucking grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had (spoiler alert: it has apples and raisin bread). As I ate, Volcanoless in Canada played in the ballroom. To paraphrase the way Toro Magazine photographer Andrew Colvin put it, they rock the hardest I've heard acoustic guitars rock. As they finished up, I paid the bill and headed in past the black-suited doorman into the ballroom.

The room was sparse at first, but began to fill as The Mountains and The Trees took the stage. Jon Janes accompanied by Jillian Freeman played calm melodic folk in an earnest fashion; there's a sense that Janes is still surprised that people love his music. In his CBC t-shirt, with a banjo or guitar and a suitcase bass drum he told the tales that built the songs... time spent in the UK, Canadian stereotypes. What mesmerized me was when Janes unplugged and walked out onto the floor. The move itself isn't something unique in music performance, but as he walked out he told us about something from his childhood. When you're mad at someone you write them a letter, he said. You spill your hate and vitriol into it; pump pure negativity through the pen. Then you seal it, and you never send it. "Letter to a Friend" followed. Once the voices in the room had settled, the odd clink of a pint glass was all that could be heard aside from Janes and his guitar as he sang his letter aloud to the selfish path of a one-time friend. The Mountains and The Trees is startlingly engaging. Janes is so accessible as an artist and his stories feel like your own.

Olenka and The Autumn Lovers were considered by Toronto's Metro News to be one of the "5 Best Bets" at NXNE. They praised the London, ON band but focused on Olenka Krakus herself for her "resonant, wrenching voice anchors the band, alongside the narratives she adapts from personal experiences" (for the full article, visit here). As the showcase's MC, CBC R3 host Craig Norris introduced the band by telling us about their 'best-bet' status (I'm sure there's a John Cusack/Anthony Edwards cross-country road trip joke in there somewhere). The crowd cheered in agreement but Krakus seemed reticent to accept the monicker. She spent the show hiding behind blonde bangs and a deep, mysterious sexy growl and wail, but a sly smile showed the excitment and happiness she felt being on stage. Norris gave a shout out to CBC R3 blogger and NXEW contributor, John Teeter for introducing him to Olenka and The Autumn Lovers and was later overheard saying "I love when people catch on" in response to the band's hype. With 6 musicians behind her, Olenka played through myriad traditional stylings from the Canadian small-town-log-driver's-waltz vibe to the clear overtones of eastern European folk music. The full room applauded generously as they finished their set wildly.

I missed the indie buzz around Rock Plaza Central in 2006/2007, when their 3rd album Are We Not Horses received an 8.4 from Pitchfork and they were compared to the likes of Okkervil River and Neutral Milk Hotel. I'm pissed about that. Chris Eaton's vocal peculiarities belie his east-coast roots; spending his summers in Sackville, NB (home to Julie Doiron) and living most of the time in Toronto. With a brass section, violins, mandolins, banjos and 4 and 5 part harmonies, RPC built high drama into soaring narratives that smacked of a more aggressive take on another folk-rock masterpiece of 2006, The Decemberists The Crane Wife. Despite the comparison shopping, Rock Plaza Central's performance surprised me. Songs like "Handsome Men" and "Oh, I Can" hummed and gusted into fuller and fuller life as steam trains. Now to speak of the drama and intensity does not exclude Rock Plaza Central from the stories and humour; "This is what I use to sing my new baby to sleep" Eaton said of "I Am An Excellent Steel Horse" "but I say 'I am an excellent steel baby instead. After that, they lyrics don't really apply." Their love for the audience and joy in playing their music appeared completely genuine, and I smiled. I find my bliss when I get to close my eyes and smile as a band plays something grand from a place they love.

The night carried forward, but the audience began to transform. Skirts shortened. Hair lengthened and curled. Eyeliner in abundance. The young Toronto girls had arrived at the NXEW showcase and crowded the stage as the Toronto boys of The Coast began to setup. Resting in the rock echelons of pop with moments of Two Hours Traffic, Passion Pit, Gentleman Reg and David Gray, Ben Spurrs vocals demanded ears and vibrated with an edge of Ween. As they played, a guy from the back continually called that he loved them. Up front, the girls who likely honestly did, swayed with a passion and verve more often reserved for club nights. The Coast do what Frank Yang of chromewaves promised, they "got folks dancing without a single disco high-hat." Two brunettes stood as close as they could, one pulsing and grinding against the air of the ballroom as she pumped her fist and bit her lip. The other eyes locked forward, hand on her heart as she fought back the yawns of the midnight hour. I myself was feeling the sting of the Thursday night on my full-time work-a-day eyes but was pulled out of it by the set closer as 4:4 slow-burn gave way to a full soaring 6:8 bombast.

The announcement of a 2am surprise Japandroids show at The Dakota, the imminent end of subway service and the week night weariness we all seemed to be experiencing, thinned the crowd. With 1am approaching I myself was ready to leave on my drive back to Guelph and then Georgetown but was convinced back by a vote of 2:1 by friends. I was immediately shocked to life by A Horse and His Boy. Imagine this if you will: seeing a younger version of John Waters with swept bangs and wild hair in a hipster too-small suit jacket and skinny tie screaming 'Ballroom Blitz' style vocals over a funk-rock Animal Collective as a bespectacled Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) doppleganger in his everyday t-shirt plays keys and sings harmonies beside him. Add a drummer, bassist and guitarist, and you have A Horse and His Boy. The pretty girls had cleared at this point and gave way to the intensity and weirdness of the hippie girls and the caped couple as they danced together in a mashup of tango and magicians assistant. As the samplers cranked out the bleeps and bloops, bassist Sam Allen stood on tip toes, his instrument slung high as he bounced and screamed along to Aaron Simmons' lead vocals. Despite dreaminess in the chaos and the genius of the song "Home" I had to call it a night. 2 hours of driving lay ahead and the showcase had exhausted me while surpassing all expectations.

As I left the Gladstone Ballroom, I looked around for Justin Beach. Being a writer for NXEW I must say it's a strange thing to collaborate on a blog you love with someone you've never met. Beach had to be pointed out to me by a friend and with the music playing, it wasn't the time to introduce myself, as he stood, at the back near the bar, watching like a proud papa over his blog's showcase. Despite the thinning crowd for closer Amos The Transparent, there has been real excitement about the showcase from guests and bands alike and coverage in Decatur, GA based Paste Magazine. There's optimism around NXNE 2011 and talk of explanding to more nights. The risk was NXEW's to take, and clearly the night was worth it.

52 Shows Later...

2010-06-14T22:48:00.012-04:00

In honour of finishing the first 52 shows of the project here's some interesting tidbits of info...

The first "year" of the project took only 42 weeks

The Artists:
The first 52 shows featured over 120 artists
40/52 headlining acts were Canadian
12 bands were seen at multiple shows
Jason Collett (Show #18, 20, 30, 43), The Most Serene Republic (Show #4, 9, 12), Zeus (Show #12, 30, 43) and Bahamas (Show #13, 30, 43) hold the top spots for most appearances in the first 52.
12 artists from the first 52 shows are current or former bands from the Arts & Crafts record label, including 3 of the top 4 most appearance artists.
Before the project began I had only seen 11 artists from the first 52 shows live.

The Venues:
The first 52 shows were at 18 venues in 3 cities
I had not been to 10/18 venues before the project started
Top venues were:

The Casbah, Hamilton - 10 Shows (#6, 9, 17, 19, 22, 27, 38, 43, 49, 51)
Lee's Palace, Toronto - 8 Shows (#2, 3, 13, 16, 30, 33, 37, 47)
The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto - 8 Shows (#1, 5, 10, 12, 34, 40, 48, 52)

Show #1 and Show #52 were at The Horseshoe Tavern, starting and ending the first year

The Enablers:
9/33 Enablers were complete strangers before the project began
Annie came to 11 shows... 6 more than anyone else and also came to Show #1 and Show #52
Alison, Lara, and Jane are from outside Ontario, and Dan from Texas, making the longest distance enablers
There were many indirect enablers, people I met during the first year of this that aren't listed here... thank you randos, acquaintances and new friends

Guide: New Spins (June 6-12, 2010) "May-June Shows"

2010-06-11T16:26:00.000-04:00

Wow. I haven't posted in a WHILE. Here's a large selection of music videos, TV appearances and live videos from the bands that I've loved live since the beginning of May:

Stars - "Fixed" from the album The Five Ghosts (out June 22, 2010)
(Stars @ The Casbah on May 7, 2010 were Show #46)

The Sadies - "Flash" from the album Tremendous Efforts
(The Sadies @ Lee's Palace on May 22, 2010 = Show #47)

The Weakerthans - "Left and Leaving" from Left and Leaving (2005)
(video from Show #48 @ The Horseshoe Tavern, May 25 by starlitcath)

Justin Rutledge - "This Is War" from the album The Devil on a Bench In Stanley Park (2006)
(JR @ The Casbah on May 31 was Show #49. Live video by adammckinty was shot 3 nights prior at Neat Coffee Shop, Burnstown, ON)

The National - "About Today" from Cherry Tree (2004)
(Live video from Show #50 @ Massey Hall, June 8, 2010 by TheTurnet)

Caribou - "Odessa" from the album Swim (2010)
(Caribou was Show #51 on June 10, 2010 @ The Casbah)

Show #45 - May 4, 2010: Frightened Rabbit @ The Opera House w. Maps and Atlases, Our Brother The Native

2010-05-16T23:45:00.014-04:00

"Is that you in front of me, coming back for even more of exactly the same. You must be a masochist..."

Frightened Rabbit is a punishing listen for a man like me with regrets about women. Song after song, just back from the Opera House stage, a cognitive split as I remember low and high moments. Late night calls, showing up at front doors, ignoring, drinking too much. Warmth in the bed, soft eyes, falling hair. Without really taking stock though, the damage can be easier to remember. It can pile up into this insurmountable heap; you're sure it's your problem, your fault. Guilt sets in. Frightened Rabbit is the soundtrack to your fuck-ups.

What could she possibly be thinking... it was a source of regret that introduced me to the Scottish lads and she had to have known what she was doing. Sending a message or not, she has good taste; the Selkirk band's latest album Winter of Mixed Drinks has been generally well received by critics. The show sold out as well, much like the band's Horseshoe stop last July in support of their previous release Midnight Organ Fight. The set drew from both albums on this night, a near 50/50 split leaning towards the crowd pleasing epic moments of their sophomore effort.

The openers were a mix of the new and familiar. Our Brother The Native, with their freak-folk energy, hectic vocals and incredible beats drew a grab bag of reactions. Beats pulled you in, vocals tending to grate. Maps and Atlases, are alumni of the project from Show #2; math-folk of the nerdiest ilk. Two handed tapping over poly-rhythms with beards abound, the Illinois band was more than liked.

"Leave the rest at arms length, leave your naked flesh under your favourite dress... when they reach out don't touch them, don't touch them."

When I first heard Frightened Rabbit, it was instantaneous. There was a magnetic pull. Midnight Organ Fight is the soundtrack to the last 2 (maybe 4) years of my life, that thankfully I hadn't heard until those years were over. Standing in the packed venue, there was comfort in knowing that so many others felt connected to the same thing. When making terrible decisions en masse, they feel less terrible I suppose. But there was a sense of loss too; of detachment and betrayal. I won't be able to see the music that I've grown so intimate with, in a more intimate venue than this. Hundreds of others crowded around, pushing their way forward.

The truth of it is that none of the songs are ours to hold though. We can't get upset that someone is texting during the tales because they're Scott Hutchison's; his songs and experiences. He's out there tonight, 2 weeks later, in Seattle, sharing the words and notes with some other fan. Chances are, they had a rough couple of years relationship-wise too. We have to take our relationships for what they are, not the things they seem to be. If we hold on too tightly to the ephemeral, we run the risk of being hurt. And we've got enough regrets. So instead we smile during the encore. We beam as Hutchison steps forward of the monitors and unplugs his guitar, leaves the mic behind and with a chorus of kindred, sings soft "oohs" aside lyrics of memory and loss. It's our soundtrack, but his life.

Setlist / Encore (Album):

Skip The Youth (WMD)
Modern Leper (MOF)
Old Old Fashioned (MOF)
The Loneliness and The Scream (WMD)
The Wrestle (WMD)
The Twist (MOF)
Swim Until Your Can't See Land (WMD)
Footshooter (WMD)
My Backwards Walk (MOF)
Nothing Like You (WMD)
Heads Roll Off (MOF)
Good Arms vs. Bad (MOF)
Poke (MOF)
Living In Colour (WMD)
Keep Yourself Warm (MOF)

Show #44 - April 30, 2010: Jonsi @ The Sound Academy w. Death Vessel

2010-05-01T19:52:00.008-04:00

I am the subject of a rapturous moment. Hands pressed together infront of my chest, almost reaching up to hold my breath in my body as I smile in delight through "Grow Till Tall." Panes of projected glass fly off the set amidst a torrential rain and a flurry of lightning. Nature consumes the constructed set in reverse of the opener "Hengilas" where fire destroyed images of nature to reveal constructs of steel and grit. The broken facade of those industrial windows now barely obscures wind swept clouds projected against the patined grey sky as the stage goes dark and the decibels fade.

Beautiful is a word that can not begin to describe Jonsi's live show. The intricacy of the production was cause for the cancellation of a second night in Toronto, deemed to complex to be undone in time for the venue's next guests. Without enough time to deconstruct the set and clear the Sound Academy, two nights of ticket holders were invited in to the venue for Friday's show. Near the front it was unclear how many accepted the invitation, save for the exuberant applause that accompanied the end of each song; a communal overflow of joy and awe as walls of gorgeous sound dropped away.

It began unassumingly though. Death Vessel is a tightly built, thin man with hair to his waist and sunken cheeks. Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, heavy boots on his feet, and draped with a simple acoustic guitar, sound-hole taped over, the last thing I expected was a voice like Brendan B. Brown over psychedelic acoustic blues. Like A.A. Bondy, Death Vessel's (aka Joel Thibodeau) live delivery and songs beg for humid days of sunshine and willows on a large porch. There's a heart of the south that seems to pervade. With just himself, his instrument, 2 lights and the scrim behind Jonsi's instrument setup, Thibodeau strummed and plucked through a short set before thanking Toronto for its kindness and waving goodbye.

The lack of drama, the absence of theatre was short lived. Jonsi took the stage. As the visuals built though the first few songs, as the musicians rotated through their roles, animal spirits crept their way into the music in much the same way Jonsi allowed them to when writting Go. Our hearts raced, breath shallowed as the stray lines of a sketched deer began to find form and movement; a wolf pacing close behind. As "Kolnidur" reached its climax, the deer's spirit took flight passing through layers of set, in and out of the ephemeral and corporeal realms before re-rooting itself in it's cervidaen vessel. Jonsi himself grew more animated; he and his band pushing the song in pursuit. Reaching it's limits, the deer turned to face its hunter. From the sides of the stage, lines curved up past pianos and drums, creeping over the burnt faces of metal boxes, rising as antlers to meet the leaping wolf. A screen dropped away and the lines that had formed such animated creatures, scattered themselves across girders and glass to give way to a more human landscape. Dawn after the air-raid; singed buildings and naked trees remained.

This was a singular experience. One of the most transformational live performances I have ever seen. I wasn't looking for the tricks of light; for the technical glitches that would end the suspension of disbelief. I paid no attention to the man behind the curtain. For Friday night, Jonsi was The Wizard and I never wanted to go home.

Live video of "Kolnidur" in Toronto shot by Almightymoon:

Check out other wonderful reviews:
ChartAttack
Sticky Magazine
chromewaves

Guide: New Spins (April 25 - May. 1, 2010) "Show #3, 4 and 44"

2010-05-01T15:43:00.004-04:00

A longer one this week... going back into the earliest shows of the project (Show #3 and 4) and a prime example of what I experienced at the Sound Academy last night (Show #44).

Show #3 - September 26, 2009: Still Life Still @ Lee's Palace
Video for "Kids" from their 2009 album Girls Come Too.

Show #3 - September 26, 2009: The Hold Steady @ Lee's Palace
"Sequestered In Memphis" from Stay Positive. New album out Tuesday! Look for them on tour this summer.

Show #4 - October 15, 2009: Grand Archives @ The Mod Club
"Miniature Birds" video from their 2008 self-titled album.

Show #4 - October 15, 2009: The Most Serene Republic @ The Mod Club
"Jelly Chamber" from the just released EP Fantasick Impossibliss, the band's first release since the departure of vocalist/guitarist Emma Ditchburn earlier this year.

Show #44 - April 30, 2010: Jonsi @ The Sound Academy
"Sinking Friendships" from Go, the first solo album from the Sigur Ros frontman. This was shot during the tour's dress rehearsals, but there's lots of live video from Toronto on YouTube by Almightymoon

From counting down to counting up...

2010-04-29T22:03:00.001-04:00

Well, hooray! Calling it accomplished and pulling the plug on 1 show a week for a year my friends. Now it may be premature, but by the end of June with nearly 10 weeks remaining, I will undoubtedly succeed in my original quest to inspire myself, change my life and reconnect with one of the things I love most in this world. Now this doesn't mean I'm done, just that the Live Music Project will take on a new mandate: see 1 show a week; no end date.

With the end of NXNE, the Toronto Island concert will mark #53+ and I'll hit #54+ this summer while driving across Canada for several weeks. Thanks to everyone who's come along with so far; the list of enablers will only get larger.

Here's the shows that will be finishing off the original project:

#44 - April 30 - Jonsi @ The Sound Academy
#45 - May 4 - Frightened Rabbit @ The Opera House
#46 - May 7 - Stars @ The Casbah
#47 - May 31 - Justin Rutledge @ The Casbah
#48 - June 8 - The National @ Massey Hall
#49 - June 10 - Caribou @ The Casbah
#50 - June 13 - Tune-Yards @ The Horseshoe Tavern
#51 - June 15 - The New Pornographers @ The Sound Academy
#52 - June 16-20 - North By North East Music Festival

Bonus shows that will start the new format of the project:

#53 - June 19 - Broken Social Scene/ Pavement w. Band of Horses, Beach House, Timber Timbre, Zeus... @ Toronto Island
#54 - July 23-25 - Calgary Folk Fest w. Ohbijou, Library Voices, St. Vincent, Timber Timbre, Avett Brothers and more...

Guide: New Spins (April 18 - Apr. 24, 2010) "Show #1 and 2"

2010-04-25T14:54:00.004-04:00

Videos from the first 4 bands and 2 shows of Live Music Project... prior to the start of the blog. It's high time they got some love too. Enjoy!

Show #1 - September 7, 2010: Depreciation Guild @ The Horseshoe

Show #1 - September 7, 2010: Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ The Horseshoe

Show #2 - September 11, 2010: Maps and Atlases @ Lee's Palace

Show #2 - September 11, 2010: Ra Ra Riot @ Lee's Palace

Show #36 - March 14, 2010: P.O.S. @ Sneaky Dee's w. Astronautalis, Dessa

2010-04-22T21:26:00.005-04:00

Tommy Silverman of Tommy Boy Records has called out hip-hop acts to do more live. "Don't just pace back and forth," he said, "Watch rock stars. Be a rock star. Engage the crowd." P.O.S. is a rock star, but not in the pyrotechnic, drunk, bloated, sunglasses at night, million watt stadium sense of the term. It's a grimy, unglamorous urgency... it's engagement with emotions and ideals rather than simply the senses.

I was aching for something a little less clean at that point in the night. I had spent the first half of the evening at the Phoenix, with programmed lights, the pristine venue, the under 19 crowd. Parlovr, Young Rival and Born Ruffians were shiny and well rehearsed; tight performances that all satisfied, but after waiting in a 30 minute coat check line and for 20 minutes on College for the streetcar I was anything but sated. It's probably odd that I decided to end Canadian Music Week with only the second non-Canadian act of the 25 artists in 5 days of shows that I attended, but P.O.S. has shaped the way I see what hip-hop can do these days.

Up the stairs at Sneaky Dees and had my thirst for dirt quenched. Shameful as it is, this was my first time in the legendary Toronto venue. It's a hole in the best sense of the word; with a patina of credibility and sincerity. P.O.S. had started his set. A punk turned rapper, this is unglossed hip-hop with a conscience and direction. "We're not going to use the word bitch unless we're talking about politicians," P.O.S. said. There's swagger, but it's a self-assurance through a comfort in knowing yourself, not through elevated status.

The set pulled mostly from the 2009 release Never Better, the critically acclaimed album of tracks that scream from outside the mainstream. "Drumroll (We're All Thirsty)" became a sing along, "Savion Glover" a chance for P.O.S.'s DJ to unleash his scratching prowess. Dessa and Astronautalis both joined P.O.S. on stage at times, having opened the show. As Astronautalis came out someone heckled. "It's 2010," P.O.S. replied, "This is the year when dudes compliment other dudes." "I really like your shoes." "You're looking good." Again, self-assurance through the abandonment of the no-homo, overblown hetero narrowness of mainstream hip-hop.

His songs reference war, politics, alienation and self-preservation while leaving space for each listener to connect their experiences of each issue. P.O.S. treats them not as cosmetic scars solved by image, words, rhetoric, money and women... these are deeply felt struggles with deeply seeded causes. It's that commitment to the struggle, fought with certainty and swagger that draws you in to the show. There's power in his delivery. There's this sense, that night after night, he's driving his van, gear in tow, slogging it out at dirty clubs performing his heart out to say the things that he feels. It's the essential component of rock-stardom as I see it these days. Being so committed to your musical ideals that you'd sacrifice everything to have others see it your way even just for a minute or three. P.O.S. has answered the call for MC's; we were fully engaged and we all understood.

Guide: New Spins (April 11 - Apr. 17, 2010) "Happy Record Store Day"

2010-04-17T10:27:00.008-04:00

Heading out in a few minutes to hit Record Store Day in Toronto... here's who I'm looking for today:
*Author's note: Record Store Day finds were not made... Nice Nice Very Nice has yet to receive a vinyl pressing, Denim on Denim won't be out on vinyl until June due to artwork issues, ...Are the Roaring Night was sold out everywhere and Midnight Organ Fight is now in the mail from the UK.

(Time Sensitive Side-note: To those of you in Vancouver... 2pm at Red Cat Records, Dan Mangan's doing an in-store for Record Day)

Show #42 - April 9, 2010: Titus Andronicus @ Sneaky Dee's w. Hollerado

2010-04-10T21:54:00.001-04:00

With a ridiculous grin from ear to ear, sweat soaked, bruised and vibrating positivity, I stepped out on to College Street. I've just finished thanking Amy Klein, unassuming violin and bad-ass guitarist, for playing sick and Patrick Stickles, hobo-bearded, glazed-eyed front man, for the amazing experience of seeing Titus Andronicus live.

People were getting turned back from the door. Sold out, was the apparent reason. I left my extra ticket at the door and asked them to hand it off to the next person without one, but upstairs it was sparse. Later in the night, a count below capacity snuck a few more in. On my arrival though, having just missed the first opener Sandman Viper Command, I was able to snake my way to the front of the crowd (just behind the photographers) while the half filled venue wandered to the bar.

Hollerado took the stage. With the air of farting boys who love Zeppelin and Weezer, there was no doubting the testosterone behind the catchy pop-hooks. An "Imperial March" even broke out during one of the feedback fed interludes. Drawing from Record In A Bag, the set included stories about bums in France, bums in Canada, fake drugs, shitting poodles and the drummer burning down the only bar in town... each of course, came with a song. Menno Versteeg carries a smile on his face through the whole show that reads one part joy and one part trickster. The whole band bounces and closes their eyes through "Juliette", "Fake Drugs", "Do the doot do doot do" and more while Dan Reardon from Sandman Viper Command closed his, and pushed his way up front to sing along with the crowd. They shut it down after a while, seeming genuinely surprised at the crowd's love. Titus Andronicus was up next.

Even before Titus' set, the venue was buzzing and as soon as the music started, the gap-toothed, "I'm gonna elbow this mother fucker" boys took over the first 20 feet of the floor. As the first songs built and beat down, they pressed harder and pulled harder. We put our hands down on the stage, on the monitor, on anything that would hold us. Stickles took issue. The monitor as it turns out, had been totalled... the input jack torn from the housing by the violent ebb. His pedals were beer soaked, their cords being pulled and tugged by the same forces. "If you unplug it, it won't work," he tried to tell them. "Fuck the pedals!" was the call back. It was a purely destructive impulse. The music, though generally themed around isolation and anxiety, is intimate, close and inviting. It's constructive noise; it may be punk, but you don't need to bleed for it. I edged to the right side, anchored myself against the floor speaker and found some respite. I found space to dance, to smile and to worry less. And that is when it took hold.

As soon as I could let that fear go, like with Fucked Up, I wandered into a band that is opening up genres; splitting them apart and injecting new life into the cracks they rend. Titus Andronicus wasn't the typical indie cuteness, it wasn't punk rock snarl and rage. There are apparently myriad comparisons, putting the Glen Rock, NJ band along with Jersey's favourite son, Bruce. "That's just lazy generalizing." Patrick replied to a fan who shouted for them to play The Boss during the set. The keys and guitars blaze in bonfires, building a wall of sound with deadly efficiency and effect over Stickles' vocals which were pulled way back in the mix. Warmth isn't typically a word I would use to describe punk rock, but I think it's apt.

I found myself moving in pulses, holding firm to the speaker as the intermittent waves from the pit sent me sideways and over it. I held my ground in a small pocket of us who wanted to enjoy, and bask in the incandescent flow. Everywhere around me, eyes were closing as sweat dripped and people shouted lyrics back. My feet moved and bounced to "A More Perfect Union" from The Monitor. One gap-toothed rowdy stood feet on the stage, leaning back against his friends, shouting to the back of the room through "Four Score and Seven" in a chorus of moshers, finally made still. As time crept past 1:30, the boys shoves became nudges, and as the speed came up, the decibels swelled and a sprawling epic washed over us one last time, there was a feeling of elation palpable in all directions; catharsis before being sent out into the night.

This band... is special.