(London, ON:) Burgeoning Metropolis

James Vincent McMorrow - Early in the Morning

2011-03-30T13:57:00.005-04:00

When I got really inspired at the beginning of the year and thought I might get really going writing about music again, I was really blown away by a couple of albums. And now that I'm not looking so hard for new music, it's become increasingly rare for me to come across something that I feel like is really worth sharing. Also, I'm feeling more and more like it's not really worth the time to type out a review that sounds something like "meh, pretty good... I guess". That, and the Beiber fever I've caught is severely influencing my taste in music.

Having said all that and based on the title of the post, you may have guessed that Irish singer/songwriter James Vincent McMorrow's Early in the Morning has really jumped out at me. Despite sounding a striking amount like John Mayer on a couple of tracks (meaning, if I ever hear anything he does on the radio I'll immediately delete this post and deny ever endorsing this album), McMorrow does a fine job of straddling the line between emotive and melodic without getting overly schmaltzy (with the exception of the John Mayeresque stretches). At his most melodic and commercial McMorrow sounds like some type of Mayer/Bon Iver/Ray LaMontagne hybrid e.g. "If I Had A Boat" and on "We Don't Eat".

As the album progresses, McMorrow morphs into more of a Bon Iver/one man Fleet Foxes sort of routine... and the switch is sort of remarkable. To the outside observer (me, for example), it almost appears as though there was some type of intervention where somebody convinced him to make the record more marketable and wrote a few hooks for him, or showed him the list of a-listers John Mayer slept with. If you've decided your anti-John Mayer -- and it's not a ton of John Mayer -- then you'll want to start downloading on iTunes at "This Old Dark Machine".

Either way, a great album that's well worth listening to.

Let's Book Club!: The Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard

2011-02-09T21:44:00.005-05:00

Chris Ballard's The Art of a Beautiful Game is subtitled The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA, which in my estimation, is a slightly misleading title. At once the book seeks to detail the nuance of a variety of different parts of the game: Kobe's killer instinct, Steve Nash's passing, shooting with Steve Kerr. However, the book only touches on these subjects in broad, general terms. In essence, it's a "thinking fans" guide to the NBA... if the fan only has a grammar school education.

The chapters, each of which tackles a different aspect of the game, tend to follow this formula: introduction to the subject, a reader's digest background on the subject, a bunch of quotes from other people about the person and subject, summary of chapter/thoughts on the future of the aspect of the game.

My biggest gripe with the book is that it appears the book was written based solely off interviews and personal anecdotes. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with that, and that's the way that the majority of sports journalism is done, and that works well the two column articles that show up in the local sports pages. But, to qualify as something for a "thinking fan" there has to be some degree of, a) background knowledge of the literature in that area; and b) original research. Even for a mass market book I'd settle for a summary of new original research (see Gladwell, Malcolm), but, unfortunately, Ballard manages to cite exactly one book through the entire 200 pages.

So, my recommendation would be that if you are familiar with things like PER, true shooting percentage, a pinch post, then this might be a book to pass on... you're not going to get anything new. On the other hand, it is a well written book with some fun anecdotes, so if you're not planning on attending the Sloan Conference at MIT (or have no idea what I'm talking about), then it may be a fun little read.

Grade: C

Up next: After how easy I found this one, I think I'm going to head back to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

2011 Book Club Results
1. Into the Wild | John Krakauer (207 pages) | B-
2. Dance Dance Dance| Haruki Murakami (393 pages)| A-

3. The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History| Free Darko (not applicable)|A

4. The Art of a Beautiful Game| Chris Ballard (228 pages)| C

When the Devil's Loose by A.A. Bondy

2011-02-07T22:53:00.003-05:00

Not breaking news, really. But a really great album that ought to be heard.

I can't exactly remember when I first heard of A.A. Bondy. It might've been on Friday Night Lights or possibly through a friend via Facebook, but in either case I do remember be utterly mesmerized by his sound. The strange thing about this hold he has on the listener (in this case, me) and the way he's able to captivate, is that he doesn't possess any of the tools that would immediately wow you. He has a nice voice, but it certainly doesn't over power. His songs are simple and straight forward -- he's not producing anything approaching a Sufjan Stevenseque opus, and yet, I'm hard pressed to think of an artist I've come across in the past year that I've been affected more by.

On his 2009 release When the Devil's Loose Bondy sings like a man who is tired. While there's nothing that particularly stands out about Bondy's music, he emotes, and his fatigue is so tangible that it's hard not to slow down with him. Given Bondy's background, the world weary and fatigued sound seems entirely appropriate. According to wikipedia, from 1994 - 2003 "Scott" Bondy was the lead singer of a grunge rock band called Verbena housed on Capitol Records. After viewing a couple of their music videos on youtube, namely, "My Baby Got Shot", I was exhausted.

For many song-writers this might drive them to begin to write some horribly self-absorbed and self-pitying type work, but this is something that When the Devil's Loose is very clear to avoid. The songs are slow and wistful, but the stories seem to serve as more of a cautionary tale rather than a source of out and out regret, though it certainly possible that what sounds like regret to me is actually just a southern, Mississippi Delta sort of thing.

Let's Book Club!: Free Darko Presents The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History

2011-02-07T11:14:00.007-05:00

In his book What is History E.H. Carr distinguishes between "facts of the past" and "historical fact" arguing that, if I remember correctly, "facts of the past" are forgotten and "historical facts" are what historians have collectively deemed important. Therefore, the thesis from Carr is that history is constructed by those that write it, meaning the stories of the marginalized are often under represented or not represented at all. In Carr's view, history isn't an accumulation of facts, history is about how stories are framed into a coherent narrative.

In the The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, the Free Darko collective have taken the grand narratives of basketball history and have deconstructed NBA history beyond just dates and facts. For those not familiar with the Free Darko, their writing is highly literate often drawing on references from the classics to current, and often obscure, pop-culture references. If basketball is an art form, as its oft described, then the latest collection of short essays from Free Darko is art-history. The magic of all this is that they do this without sounding arrogant or pretentious, and they do it in a way that captures the characters in basketball.

While having the appearance of a coffee table book akin to Jon Stewart's America: The Book, the writing is much more than reader's digest clips of the past. Stylistically, the book is stunning, with some graphics that will knock your socks off, but the prose in the The Undisputed Guide is what makes the guys at Free Darko some of the most interesting writing in basketball today.

At the beginning, the pre-history of basketball from Naismith to the beginning of the ABA does read a little like a history text, but without any real source material there really wasn't any room to do what Free Darko does. And what they do, is pick the untold swag out of the history of professional basketball -- they tell the stories that are untold in the popular myths about professional basketball, and they cast a new light on the stories that we do know -- the similarities between Wilt/Russell and the fun of the Duncan/Popovich San Antonio Spurs, for example. While wins and losses are significant, to Free Darko, they are only as significant as the way they make us feel about the dynamics, style, and players on the team.

Most interestingly, the authors examine how the giants of the game Russell and Jordan, impact how we look at mere mortals like Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson; and Barkley and Malone. They look at the eclectic early 70s New York Knicks (future Senator Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, etc.), the similarities between Kareem and Bill Walton, how the 1984 draft (Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley) transformed the draft from business transaction into spectacle, and the beauty of AI's individual approach to playing a team game. In each section of the book the writers of Free Darko are able to find the art/style/meaning in their subjects (yes, even the Duncan/Popovich San Antonio Spurs).

The real morale from The Undisputed Guide is that, there's meaning to the game beyond championships and popular myths of heroism, that often, the narratives that go untold are equally meaningful.

Grade: A

Upnext: I'm reading Dave Eggers A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I'm Foster Wallacianly dense, so I'll probably mix that in with Chris Ballard's Art of a Beautiful Game. I'm expecting the Eggers book to take a little so expect thoughts on the Ballard book next...

2011 Book Club Results
1. Into the Wild | John Krakauer (207 pages) | B-
2. Dance Dance Dance| Haruki Murakami (393 pages)| A-

3. The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History| Free Darko (not applicable)|A

Destroyer - Kaputt

2011-02-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

I put on Destroyer's newest release in the car the other day, left the volume on low, and promptly forgot about the album. The next day I went out to go pick my sister up at the airport, I wondered how Liz had got a muzak installed in our car over night without me knowing (joke!). But seriously, from the outset of this album it sounds like Dan Bejar has channeled his inner-Will-Ferrel-Yazz-Flute, or was contracted to write the score for a teen drama circa 1985 and then decided to write lyrics over the music.

The bizarre part of all this, gentle ribbing aside, is that it absolutely works and this album is certainly a front runner for album of the year. Yes, it's early, but Kaputt is absolutely stellar.

Bejar's songs have always been my favourites off all of the New Pornographers albums, but I've felt like that's mostly because he's been restrained by Carl Newman's pop-sensibility. Most often (with the exception of Destroyer's Rubies and "An Actor's Revenge") his music has gone over my head. I've thought, he's an interesting lyricist, he's got an interesting cadence to his voice, but... meh. Maybe it's just that I'm too low brow and need at least some semblance of a hook or chorus in my songs.

I'm convinced that at least half my adoration for this album comes from the fact that it's a light, breezy, sort of album which is perfect for the weather here in Durham, NC today: shorts, flip flops, and windows down in the car. The other part, I think, is that the album draws you in with a really easy, steady rhythm at the beginning. The light snare (?), the synth noises, seem like the perfect fit for Bejar to wander with his often bizarre and cryptic lyrics.

That steady rhythm seems to permeate through the entire album, and that rhythm gives Bejar the leeway to freelance. And the album has that feel to it, fresh, almost like it's unscripted. Like the way that I imagine great jazz comes together -- where the drummer starts off with a beat, and then the other musicians come in and layer on top of each other. The last layer being Bejar, who's vocals sound like half lounge singer and half poet.

The moral of the story is, give it a chance. I always find that these types of albums, the ones that sound like they're going to be terrible -- either by their description, or by your first impression of the first few notes -- are often the ones you become the most attached to. I'm attached to this one.

... at least the first minute and a half of the video is worth watching even if you want nothing to do with the album... eat your heart out Napoleon Dynamite...

Let's Book Club!: Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami

2011-02-01T12:48:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure whether I have anything really earth shattering to say about Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance. The book is another solid addition in Murakami's rather impressive collection. It doesn't move the reader (me) on the same scale that Kafka on the Shore or Norwegian Wood did, and it's not an epic story like The Wind-Up Bird Cronicle (which may well be one of my favourite works of fiction of all time), but it's good.

After looking at Murakami's bookography, Dance Dance Dance falls right after Norwegian Wood a novel which garnered him much unwanted fame in his native Japan. NW was a more prototypical novel, without the strange surreal elements that often makes Murakami's work so different, and DDD seems to be a return to the strange.

The more I think about it, the more I think I actually really enjoyed Dance Dance Dance. I did, after all, read the entire book in 4 days. But, it's probably not the book I'd recommend first to people who haven't read anything by the Japanese super-star author... I'd check out the other ones I mentioned above first.

Grade: A-

Up next: Probably Chris Ballard's The Art of a Beautiful Game... I ordered approximately 100 basketball books from Amazon, so, it's going to be a lot of that in the next while. That said, I'm pretty keen on reading Murakami's memoirs What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

2011 Book Club Results

1. Into the Wild | John Krakauer (207 pages) | B-

2. Dance Dance Dance| Haruki Murakami (393 pages)| A-

My Favourite 5 Springsteen Videos/Songs

2011-01-31T11:20:00.008-05:00

So, I feel like I might not have clearly communicated my love for all the things Springsteen in my last post, entitled "I'm in love with the Gaslight Anthem", or whatever. At any rate, The Boss is one of my all-time, all-time, favourites and since I've been singing "Hungry Heart" to myself for the last 3 days straight, I thought this post might be a way to right myself with the music gods.

Having said that, all that stuff I said about him pandering to the working man is so absolutely, unabashedly true. His attire in the videos are, in order: plaid shirt, sleeves cut off; suit jacket and button up shirt; plaid shirt, sleeves rolled up; coveralls; plain white t-shirt, jeans. So, basically, in three of the five videos he looks like he's just been working on his car in the driveway, one he was actually working on a car, and in the other he looks like a professional musician. And, hilariously, in "Glory Days" which just missed the cut, the video opens with the Boss on a construction site running some enormous super drill... I'm just saying...

After spending the morning watching these videos, the contrast between the Springsteen videos from the 80s and everything that's being done now is really striking. Most of the videos are done in long form, there's a surprising amount of non-song dialogue, there are almost 'scenes', and you almost feel like Springsteen is trying to sell you on his songs. Not in a sleezy way, but in a I really like my music and you should too, sorta way.

In contrast, today, music videos basically don't exist and Much Music and MTV have evolved (or devolved, depending on your point of view) into places for reality shows about rich drug addicted teen mothers celebrating their 16th birthday (or something). But the videos that are being made are either larger than life productions that are symbols of how successful the artist is, or aspires to be (basically every pop/rap/rnb video); or more subversive videos by smaller bands which are deliberate attempts to demonstrate how they don't need an expensive video to enjoy making music (think OK Go).

Frankly, I'd take anyone of these Springsteen videos over 99.9% of the actual music videos being produced today. They're simple, straightforward, and just about the Boss selling his tunes. No agent, no building a brand or crafting an image. If smell what the R.O.B. is cooking, you should check out videos by Colin Medley, Southern Souls, LaundroMatinee, and, of course, the grandfather of these sorts of videos, La Blogotheque all of which are more or less in the grand tradition of... 80s music videos... weak ending...

5. "Born to Run" Born to Run

4. "The River" The River

3. "Hungry Heart" The River

2. "I'm on Fire" Born in the USA

1. "Dancing in the Dark" Born in the USA

... great song... it's my favourite because it's given me my signature wedding dance move: the underbite-shimmy-snap. Also, is that the chick from Cougartown?

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

2011-01-27T17:47:00.004-05:00

Not sure whether this blogging thing is going to take again, but what the hell...

On a recent Bill Simmons podcast w/ Adam Carolla they did this bit about Bruce Springsteen and how his music was so overtly, unabashedly, middle-class. They went on about his newest (and most made-up release) Factory about the factory that makes the factories was shutting down... a little over the top... but right on point. The gag being that the Boss would do whatever he could to connect with blue collar middle America. While I don't think his motives are quite as suspect as Simmons and Carolla joked that they were, Springsteen's middle class nostalgia, seems disconnected in the post-internet age. Suffice to say the Boss hasn't been middle class in, say, three decades, so what's he really got to say about losing your job at the steel mill.

I bring this up because my first exposure to The Gaslight Anthem taps into this blue collar theyreshuttingdownthefactorythatmakesthefactories vibe that Springsteen made famous on Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. Beyond the obvious comparison between the gruff rock voice of lead singer Brian Fallon and Springsteen, both parties seem to capture the anger/confusion/longing for something simpler, of their respective generations.

I think what makes the connection between Fallon and the GLA and Springsteen interesting is how, simultaneously, they are so similar and so different. Both the GLA and Springsteen speak the same NJ blue collar language of the working man, but the more than 30 year gap between the emergence of the GLA and Springsteen is indicative of how that language and how that sub-section of blue collar steel belt America has changed.

In Springsteen's era the group was more populous, starting to wane, but hanging on. As such, the Boss' music seems longing, but hopeful and the edges of his music are softer, more palatable, and somehow seem less important. Maybe this has to do with The Boss as a rock icon or our/my familiarity with his songs, but in comparison American Slang, doesn't quite have the same sense of urgency, or meaning, or personal importance.

For example, when most people (and I've had this argument several times) that most people think "Born in the U.S.A." is a pro-America song, and while the lyrics are decidedly not, the melody might as well be the new American national anthem. In 2011, Springsteen's music feels as though it should be in a commercial for the newest Chevy Pickup Truck.

In contrast, American Slang (the album) and "American Slang" (the song) feels as though without a bigger audience to connect to, that they can speak for downtrodden in New Jersey. American Slang feels as though it's the sound track for the guys who didn't finish high school, and are going to have a tough time of it in a knowledge based economy where manufacturing work doesn't exist in America. Where Springsteen feels like he's selling pickup trucks, the GLA is the soundtrack for the Dicky Eklunds of the world.

None of this is to say that the GLA is better than Springsteen. Springsteen is, IMHO, one of the greatest rock 'n' rollers of all time, and without the Boss, there is no Gaslight Anthem. What I am saying is that the Gaslight Anthem has taken the torch, and from now on they're be speaking for NJ.

"American Slang (acoustic)"

The Gaslight Anthem w/ Bruce Springsteen "The '59 Sound"

Easily the Best Music Video. Ever.

2010-03-09T21:37:00.003-05:00

is this:

It's unclear what, exactly is going on here, but whatever it is it's spectacular. My favourite parts are as follows:

1. The way he strolls along (note the exaggerated arm movements on the wide angled shots).
2. That he looks confused through a good deal of the song. It appears that they asked him to lip sync without ever hearing the entire song.
3. There are no discernible words in any language in the entire song.
4. The part where he goes super high, like those old Kia? commercials (1:26). What really solidifies the high pitch notes is the spin and point that goes along with it.
5. And when they go low and he looks directly, meaningfully, into the camera.
6. The laughing at 1:53. I'm not sure there's ever been laughing like that in a song. For about 5 seconds straight, with the music.
7. The decor. Really nice job matching the wall cover with his tie.
8. When he gives up trying to lip-sync at 2:14.

If you'd seen this before and didn't pass it along... shame on you...

Sorry K'naan, you DO have a soul

2010-03-05T10:35:00.000-05:00

Sometime last year I wrote some thoughts about K'naan's album Troubador, and I was pretty luke warm on the whole thing. My issues with the album were that it was over produced, had no heart, and I pointed to "If Rap Gets Jealous" ft. Kirk Hammett of Metallica as a prime example of why that was the case. Part of my distaste may come from the fact that the album included a guy from Metallica (douches!) who I'm picturing doing some kind of (douchey) underbite while he plays the guitar, but it also runs contrary to the "my music doesn't need no touch ups" line at the beginning of the song (at least the Dusty Foot version). Yes, I do get the irony of me complaining about a song where the message of the song is 'I don't care if you don't get what I'm trying to do here'. But, to be fair, the message is more about the rap/rock genre than it is about artistic integrity.

That was the crux of my beef with Troubador -- the unnecessary guest appearances by the Metallica, the Maroon 5 guy, Damien Marley, etc., etc., and the whole aesthetic of 'we need a bunch of guests so that we can reach a wider demographic'. More than anything, I would say that it was disappointing that music that has the potential to be so meaningful gets glossed over so that it becomes "more appealing". I had basically written off K'naan as a pawn of whatever record label snatched him up, until the other morning...

... when I watched NPR's 'Tiny Desk Concert' ft. K'naan and friends where he performed "Take A Minute", "Fatima", and "Waving Flag"... which brought me back to all the reasons I thought The Dusty Foot Philosopher was so interesting/moving and really, really, catchy at points. His story and his story telling are so compelling that it seems like all he needs to do is make sure the production on his albums doesn't ruin it. Of course, with a live performance in the NPR office it's pretty easy to avoid over producing, but it'll be interesting to see how K'naan moves forward. Now that he's "cashed in" -- it'd be very interesting to find out whether he's actually made any money, though with "Waving Flag" being the 2010 World Cup song I suspect he's making some serious coin from that -- what route he goes (hip hop or hip pop?). Is this worth even talking about at all, because maybe with his new found financial security he doesn't have anything interesting left to say anyways. I hope not, because when K'naan's production team gets out of his way I feel like his one of the most interesting, charismatic artists of any genre around...

Beach House - Teen Dream

2010-03-01T10:43:00.002-05:00

So, yeah, it's been a while.

An explanation/excuse: I've been putting together PhD applications (actually, only one, but still) and it's not that I didn't have time, but more that my mind has been elsewhere. I'm hoping to get back to blogging a little, though I expect I'll be doing less and writing more about a variety of different topics rather than just sticking to music. We'll see how it goes though.

I guess the other thing is that I haven't really been keeping track of what's going on in music...

Beach House's first two albums s/t [2006] and Devotion [2008] really didn't do anything for me. Teen Dream, the third release by Beach House, really couldn't have come along at a better time for me, personally. The album evokes some of the nostalgia of those John Hughes movies like Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, or even Risky Business (not a John Hughes movie, I know, but it feels like it should be) where you just know that things are going to work out. That no matter how far behind the proverbial 8-ball the protagonist(s) get, everyone is going to be happy and learn the lessons that they need to learn.

Teen Dream is just about the perfect title for the album. In conjunction with the whole John Hughes thing, the album just sort of washes over you, one song blending into another (and you may, in fact, not remember listening to the whole album). Nothing on the album really stands out, which is not to say there aren't outstanding moments, because there are on just about every song, but the way the album flows bringing you up so gently and down so slowly you never really notice. I'm imagining this is the way heroin feels. Probably not.

But even if it isn't as good as heroin, it is a terrific album, and something I've listened to more from start to finish then I have just about anything else in the past year. Teen Dream never really deviates from that washed over ambient psychedelic sound, and they have enough material that it works, but not so much that you get sick of it. And then there's the closing track, "Take Care" that is like the Notebook level romantic. Even if you're not a huge music dork, there's a pretty good chance you're going to like this album.

Avatar

2009-12-30T18:06:00.001-05:00

Now, if you want to read something really clever and incisive about James Cameron's Avatar, then read this NYT piece by Adam Cohen about how the 3D medium helps the viewer to enter the world of, and thus sympathize with, the Na'vi. Otherwise...

I was completely oblivious to the hype surrounding Avatar. I've managed, somehow, to avoid seeing any sort of movie previews ever, since the only thing I watch on TV now is basketball and the news (traffic) -- for whatever reason, they don't play movie previews on TSN, TSN2, The Score, NBA TV or CP24.

So, without any sort of bias or expectation going in, I was a blank slate. I didn't really know what to expect, though, given that it was a James Cameron movie, I probably should've expected something epic, or at least something trying to be epic. Cameron, as you may have heard over the past few weeks, was responsible for Aliens, Terminator, Titanic (and also, Aquaman). Of course, as you may have heard via the media, or some type of social media, Avatar definitely managed to be an epic experience and then some.

My impression is that most people viewed Avatar (3D) as an experience, one that should not be missed, and one that you're going to tell your (real, or hypothetical future) kids about. If you haven't seen it, go see it, but don't be an idiot see the regular 2D version 'cause it's cheaper (though I should talk since my Dad paid).

If I have a problem with the film it's all the unrealized thematic material that was left unexplored. There was a vague attempt to cultivate a sort of imperialist vs. natives storyline, but that was never fully actualized, and in the end the movie didn't really say anything. Cameron's take seems to be: nature and people in touch w/ nature = good, and people out of touch w/ nature = bad. But there's nothing more complex than that, no attempt to justify the human's conquest to unearth the super-valuable rock underneath 'HomeTree', and the human/military/mining characters are all two dimensional to have any reason for doing what they're doing.

I guess it's just that there's so much potential ground for them to cover in the movie: the avatar in/out body experience, the idea of (human)being vs. nature, "othering" as a justification for genocide, and so on. That said, I feel like there are two very strong mitigating factors for the film missing out on any real deep sort of thematic exploration of, really, anything: 1) much of the unrealized thematic material is only possible b/c the visual elements of the movie were so well done, i.e. the film is so strong in that area it allows for alot of really interesting possibilities; and 2) complaining about a lack of thematic depth in a James Cameron movie kind of feels like complaining that LeBron James hasn't kicked many field goals lately. So, for all the people who were upset that this wasn't Remains of the Day or something, you probably walked in the wrong theatre.

In sum, if you haven't seen Avatar in 3D yet, go, it's cool to look at.

Best Canadian Albums (excluding Toronto) of 2009

2009-12-28T10:16:00.001-05:00

9. Dan Mangan (Vancouver, BC) Nice, Nice, Very Nice
[mp3] Dan Mangan - Robots
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #42
A couple of months ago you couldn't go anywhere, and when I say "anywhere" I mean a Canadian based or Canadian music blog, without hearing about Dan Mangan. Now that his album has been out for a while, the very clever video for "Robots" has been released, he's done touring for a bit (I think), I've begun to appreciate his song-writing more. I'm not sure exactly how to describe his sound to those who don't know him, but suffice to say he may have become my favourite hobo singer-songwriter (I'm sure someone plays the spoons somewhere on this album).

8. The Liptonians (Winnipeg, MN) s/t
[mp3] The Liptonians - Charlie's Back!
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #18
I haven't listened to the full s/ted album by the Liptonians in a good while, but I can say that "Charlie's Back!" is one of my favourite songs of the year. As I mentioned when I wrote about their album, the melody, the story, the instrumentation all remind me of Ben Folds (before he got neutered and started writing children's songs) and the quirky characters that he used to write about. If you ever enjoyed Ben Folds or piano driven poppy sort of tunes, these guys are well worth checking out.

7. Dog Day (Halifax, NS) Concentration
[mp3] Dog Day - Happiness
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #26
If Stars wore black, and exclusively black, they would be Dog Day. These songs are every bit as good as Set Yourself on Fire, though they're certainly not as burned into the memory of 'indie' loving hipsters as SYoF.

6. That's the Spirit (Ottawa, On) Staying Places
[mp3] That's the Spirit - Orienteering
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #40, Exchanging emails with...
If you ever read (or saw the movie) The Phantom Tollbooth when you were a kid you should have an idea of what Staying Places sounds like. Of course there's no auditory component to the actual book (unless it's an audiobook), but it (Staying Places) has this whimsical element to it that makes you feel like you're going off to some sort of fantasy land (even if you're not on drugs). This all makes me wonder what listening to this album on mushrooms would be like... if anyone has any answers there's a guest blog post in it for you...

5. Julie Doiron (Halifax, NS) I Could Wonder What You Did With Your Day
[mp3] Julie Doiron - Consolation Prize
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #38
I'm not sure how I'd never listened to Julie Doiron before this year, but I hadn't, though if there was one Canadian-folk music icon (stretch?) that I was going to miss it makes sense that it'd be Julie Doiron. Doiron, and her music, are understated to the point that she doesn't seem like she cares a whole lot whether people are listening or not. If you like folky sort of music, and you've heard Doiron, chances are you've been capitvated by her laid-back, conversational style. And this album, from what I understand, is one of her best.

4. Chad VanGaalen (Calgary, AB) Soft Airplane - B Sides EP
[mp3] Chad VanGaalen - Corvette
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #39
Sure, it's an EP full of B-Sides, but it's still really friggin' good. I'm not sure I read anyone complain about Soft Airplance (the A-sides), but all the talk about how 'accessible' read: not weird, probably peeved a few of his more devoted fans. Well, I imagine that the B-sides'd make those people happy. It's more experimental than the actual album, which may explain why they got relegated to the B-sides EP, but if you're a fan of Chad VanG fan the EP is not to be missed. And it may still be free at softairplane.com.

3. Patrick Watson (Montreal, QC) Wooden Arms
[mp3] Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #16
I've listened to this album a bunch of times over the past few weeks and I'm convinced that Wooden Arms is the most underrated album of the year. It doesn't have the standout Coldplay impersonations like "Lucious Life" and "the Great Escape", it's more cryptic, more reliant on found sounds (apparently crap found in the Watson household), but the songs and the songwriting are every bit as good as his Polaris winning Close to Paradise... and the more I hear the album the more I think it should move up... maybe this should actually be two... or one... too late now. Also, you should really watch these Blogotheque videos if you haven't...

2. Pink Mountaintops (Vancouver, BC) Outside Love
[mp3] Pink Mountaintops - Axis Thrones of Love
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #22
Given my distaste for Black Mountain, some other incarnation of this band, I was utterly shocked at how much I enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, Outside Love. The album sort of feels like a cross between the Mamas & the Papas and Led Zepplin, which is an unlikely combination that really seems to work.

1. Said the Whale (Vancouver, BC) Islands Disappear
[mp3] Said the Whale - Camilo (the Magician)
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #44
I find myself surprised that a pretty poppy album ended up at the top of this list. On Islands Disappear Said the Whale, while poppy, demonstrate that they are capable of writing more dramatic or introspective songs (like Band of Horses or the New Pornographers), and have put out an album that isn't getting nearly enough love. This was easily the second best Christmas gift I got this year (I got one of those sexy iPhones)... thanks Santa.

Toronto's Best Albums of 2009

2009-12-17T10:08:00.000-05:00

When I started compiling my year end list and trying to rank everything, it became exceedingly clear to me that comparing local Toronto band X to Jay-Z just wasn't going to work. Not that I haven't done that in the past, my top three albums last year were Chad VanGaalen's Soft Airplane, Ketch Harbour Wolves' Dead Calm Horizon, and Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreaks, but it just seemed like this year, there was going to be such a weird grouping of albums that it didn't really make sense to do a single list. So, sadly (or not, I suppose) you're going to have to wade through a series of 4/5 lists... or not...

10. Sunparlour Players Wave North
[mp3] Sunparlour Players - Battle of '77
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #19, Live @ the Theatre Centre Aug. 14. 2009
One of my favourite bands in the city, one of the best groups to see live in the city, and, I think, one of the best albums to come out of the city as well. There's still the moments of unbridled energy on this album that we saw on Hymns for the Happy, but the story telling "Battle of '77" and "Point Pelee" is something new, and something that makes me really want to hear them put together some type of concept album - i.e. like Sufjan did w/ Michigan, Illinois... I smell an album about Tomato country!

9. Howie Beck How to Fall Down in Public
[mp3] Howie Beck - Flashover
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #21
If I were to be completely honest, after seeing Howie Beck open for Hayden once, possibly a couple of times, I would've bet very strongly against me endorsing one of his albums. At the time I think I probably felt like he was just another song-writer. This album shows a lot more depth and breadth than I was expecting, and is just a generally well put together singer-songwriter album.

8. Hayden The Place Where We Lived
[mp3] Hayden - Let's Break Up
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #24
I'm not sure whether I'm more surprised that Hayden turned around and put out two albums in two years or that neither album featured some type of grizzly murder scene, but either way another Hayden record is always a good thing. He's never going to put out anything that'll bowl you over (though "Trees Lounge", the lead song to the Steve Bushemi movie of the same name, was one of my favourite songs ever), but you can always count on him to write songs that mean something. There's never any waste, never anything half-hearted, and I'm just about worked up enough right now to proclaim him the greatest Canadian song-writer ever (I'm not that far off, am I?).
Q1: Can anyone confirm deny that Hayden leaves his house more/less than once per week? I have this vision of him being like the Sean Connery character in Finding Forrester.

7. Timber Timbre Timber Timbre
[mp3] Timber Timbre - Demon Host
Elsewhere: n/a
After Taylor Kirk was good enough to send me Medicinals, his debut album recorded under the pseudonym Timber Timbre, I was good enough to take about 11 months to write about it. It was nothing personal, it was just a record that, while incredibly good (review here), requires that the listener is in a certain frame of mind to listen to. It's just like, you don't flip on a movie like, Schindler's List, when you want something to watch. Similarly, I haven't written anything about Taylor's new(ish) s/t record since I just haven't been in the right frame of mind to write about it. That said, if you can get yourself to that place, wherever that is, it's a great, haunting, record.

6. Ohbijou Beacons
[mp3] Ohbijou - Black Ice
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #27
Ohbijou has been one of the most blogged bands here since the BM's inception in 2007, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but this album is beautiful. And beautiful in a sort of Grace Kelly, Mrs. Don Draper, you're worried if you touch it you might break it, sort of way.

5. Bruce Peninsula A Mountain is a Mouth
[mp3] Bruce Peninsula - Inside/Outside
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #4, Live @ the Horseshoe Jan. 31. 2009
Initially, I had this album pegged as one of the best of the year, but with no slight directed toward the band, there were a few others (below) that were just that much better. That, and BP fell prey to the dreaded Liz effect, whereby the band doesn't get played in my house b/c Liz is not a fan -- oh, if you could see her face everytime BP comes up on iTunes shuffle. Still, a great, almost movement of an album.

4. The Wooden Sky If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone
[mp3] The Wooden Sky - Something Hiding For Us in the Night
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #30
This album, more than any other this year, really surprised me. I didn't really know the Wooden Sky prior to this album, and I listened to the album a few times and it gradually dawned on me that IIDCHYKIG is a really great album. I'm not sure why it took so long, but I think I started to really become more affected after seeing the video for "The Late King Henry". The video, resembling something of a religious revival ("save me/take me to the river and bathe me"), had enough soul(?) to make me think about getting baptized... or something... it's early... forgive me...

1(T). Black Hat Brigade Fathers
[mp3] Black Hat Brigade - Zombie City Shake (Basement Sessions)
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #20, Exchanging emails with... the Black Hat Brigade
The BHB have been one of my favourite bands, not just in Toronto but anywhere, since they release of their first s/t EP last year. Given that the band has, you know, jobs, we haven't exactly seen albums at a Ryan Adamseque clip, but what they have released (the Fathers EP) and a video for "Zombie City Shake" has been extraodinary. Here's to hoping that we get a full length next year...

1(T). Evening Hymns Spirit Guides
[mp3] Evening Hymns - Broken Rifle
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #48, Live @ the Tranzac Dec. 4. 2009
I've talked about E.H. and the album S.G. alot in the past weeks, so, suffice to say I'm definitely not sick of it! I bought the vinyl last week and that's pretty awesome too.

1(T). The Wilderness of Manitoba Hymns of Love & Spirits
[mp3] The Wilderness of Manitoba - Evening
Elsewhere: Pick of the Week #36, Live @ the Garrison Oct. 29. 2009
So, I guess this is a lesson to bands who are interested in getting written up on the BM, write an album about spirits. I'll be sure to enjoy it. But seriously, Hymns of Love and Spirits is probably my most listened to album of the year, and an album that not enough people have heard, yet. This is a band to expect big things from in 2010.

Let's Book Club!: Race in Play by Carl James

2009-12-16T10:13:00.005-05:00

I suspect that this book is probably not going to be for everyone. It's a very academic look at race, and the student-athlete, or, in many cases athlete-student. So, rather than me getting into my thoughts on students' construction of their athletic identity and so forth, I'm going to very highly recommend that you read The Last Shot by Darcy Frey (cited a number of times in this book), which is like a literary version of Hoop Dreams, but shorter and better.

Up next: I'm just about to order "Miracle at St. Anthony's" (about Bob Hurley and his high school basketball dynasty in Jersey City) -- see the movie trailer (excellent) here -- though, after reading Race in Play I'm much more critical of Hurley's reputation; a couple of books on sport philosophy/sociology; "Season on the Brink" about Bobby Knight and the '85/'86 Indiana Basketball team; and the "Jordan Rules" about MJ. We'll see which one of these emerges out of the pack... or, if I can finish any of them before the end of the year...

1. The Inner Game of Tennis | Timothy Gallwey (134 pages) | A
2. The Last Shot | Darcy Frey (240 pages) | A+
3. The Road | Cormac McCarthy (287 pages) | A+
4. Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell (299 pages) | C+
5. The Last Season | Phil Jackson (304 pages) | B-
6. The Sunset Limited | Cormac McCarthy (160 pages)| B-
7. The Education of a Coach | David Halberstam (288 pages)| B+
8. Downtown Owl | Chuck Klosterman | (288 pages)| B
9. Can I Keep My Jersey?| Paul Shirley| (336 pages)|C-
10. Then We Came to The End| Joshua Ferris| (416 pages)|B+
11. Friday Night Lights| H.G. Bissinger|(400 pages)|A++
12. Strokes of Genius| L. Jon Wertheim|(208 pages)|B
13. Who's Your City| Richard Florida|( 345 pages)|C
14. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men| (336 pages)|A
15. The Book of Basketball| Bill Simmons|(736 pages)|C-
16. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again|David Foster Wallace| (368 pages)|A-
17. Race in Play| Carl James|(258) pages|n/a

Best Songs of 2009: "Corvette" by Chad VanGaalen

2009-12-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

Chad VanGaalen, by all accounts, is a pretty weird dude. Not weird because I'm sure the two of us have different hobbies (I think it's unlikely he's a big NBA/Raptors guy), but more because he writes really strange songs that typically surround the topic of death. "Corvette" from the Soft Airplane B-Sides EP, of course, is not really a whole lot different. I mean, the song isn't entirely about death, but the song does start out with the premise that "he" got reincarnated as a corvette, meaning, of course, that he died -- unless I'm way off base with my understanding of the basic tenants of reincarnation.

Despite dealing with blood/guts/death and other such subject matter, the tone of CVG's music, like in "Corvette", is always is more of a imaginative curiosity about death rather than, say, dealing with the subject in an I want to die sort of way. He kind of reminds me of, and I'm sure I've said this before, Tim Burton. Of course, the two generally find themselves operating in two different mediums (though CVG has animated a couple of his own videos), but I'm not sure things like Beetle Juice and The Corpse Bride are too far off Infiniheart and Soft Airplane.

The CVG/TB connection, for me, runs beyond even the obvious thematic connections of their work into their ability to create these backwards, bizzare dream worlds of life and death and whatever exists inbetween. So, while I'm not sure I'd want to permanently reside in alternate universes that CVG/TB create, it's a fun visit every once in a while.

[mp3] Chad VanGaalen - Corvette

PS - I'm pretty sure he's still giving away the entire B-Sides EP at softairplane.com.

Pick of the Week #49: The XX

2009-12-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

The XX are of one the biggest, if not the biggest, acts to emerge from the blog-o-sphere this year. Last year we had Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, and this year we have The XX. And while the three acts sound very different, the common thread between them, as I see it, is that they have all carved out their own very unique sound.

For B.I. that sound was sort of an encompassing, straining, falsetto; for F.F. it was the big, choral harmonies; for the XX it almost seems like their trademark is the empty space, the silence between notes, the cryptic electric guitar, and the drum claps that subtly guide the pace of their songs.

I think the thing that is the most impressive about the debut album from The XX, XX, is just how simple the album is. The guitar riffs sound like I could've written them (note: I played the guitar for approximately 1 month in eighth grade before I quit), the vocals are more laid back - they don't ever really jump out at you, and the beats certainly aren't anything that's going to make Kanye, Dre, or 9th Wonder worry, but the whole, in this case, is certainly greater than the sum of it's parts.

In a way, it's almost hypnotizing, which may sound like a little bit of a back-handed complement, but I mean it in a good way. As Liz pointed out, the beats on everyone of the songs sound roughly the same, there's some sort of variation on the guitar riff, but it's not super different, and the vocals sort of hover in the empty spaces kind of like two people trying to make small talk at a party. The further you get in to XX the more it feels like you just sort of get in to some sort of drug induced rhythm, and by the time you think of doing something else the album is over. And when it's over, like any good drug induced trance, you want more...

[mp3] The XX - Crystalized

Oh, and congratulastions to Ryan O. for winning the passes to the Ketch Harbour Wolves show tonight at El Mocambo in T.O..

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale
Pick of the Week #45: Noah and the Whale
Pick of the Week #46: Mos Def
Pick of the Week #47: The Acorn
Pick of the Week #48: Evening Hymns

Best Songs of 2009: Ketch Harbour Wolves "Letters"

2009-12-09T14:57:00.000-05:00

I'd like to dedicate this post to the commenter the other day who pointed out that Glasvegas' "Geraldine" was put out in '08. It was... probably, but it ended up on my computer in 2009, so, whatever. And with that, I'll point out one of my other favourite songs of 2009 released in 2008, "Letters" by the Ketch Harbour Wolves. Seems like an appropriate tie-in with the contest for KHW tickets for this coming Friday, December 11th in Toronto.

I've fluctuated on KHW's album Dead Calm Horizon. Not on whether I like it or not (it was 1c on my Best of 2008 list), but on which song was/is my favourite. Over the course of the last year I've changed my mind a few times, but I've gradually come to a point where, when listening to DCH I'll skip to "Letters" at the end of the album, then play the album from front to back so I can hear it (the song) twice.

I think it might be because Dead Calm Horizon is generally pretty dark, but "Letters" sort of feels like the light at the end of the tunnel. The gentle banjo picking (I think), and the more down-tempo nature of the song, the band has created the feeling that it (whatever it is) is over. In the case of the band, it, apparently, is the loss of loved one (to another location, not, it seems, to death). But the underlying message that I take away from the song is one of acceptance -- it reminds you that sometimes you ought to relax and let go of things you can't change... good advice (if that's what they're saying)... and either way, it's a great song.

[mp3] Ketch Harbour Wolves - Letters

Let's Book Club!: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (prt. 2) by David Foster Wallace

2009-12-08T10:20:00.001-05:00

Part 1, the first three essays.

David Lynch Keeps His Head
Not really sure what to say, since, you know, I've never seen anything that David Lynch -- a filmmaker -- has ever produced/directed/acted in/been involved with, I think. Having said that, DFW's descriptions of everything outside of detailed comparisons of his (Lynch's) different films is insanely entertaining.

Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional... (cont'd)
If you don't have any idea of what goes on behind the scenes at a professional tennis tournament, or don't know what tennis' minor leagues are like (but you care), this is a really interesting read. The essay, for me at least, is significantly more interesting because it's set in MTL during the (now named) Roger's Cup (somewhere I've been!).

The part of the essay that leads me to believe that DFW may have been the modern incarnation of Nostradamus: he describes Agassi's groundstrokes as "like Borg if he were on both steroids and methamphetamines".

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
... is the best essay of the bunch, but is also the most tragic (though the writing itself is hilarious), which, as I mentioned when discussing "Suicide as a Sort of Present" in Brief Interviews, is how down on life he sounds (in ASFTINDA), or how a vividly he talks about wanting to die (SAASOP). Sad.

Sad, yes, but at least he's given us something to smile about -- I mean, his whole interpretation of what a Cruise is, a Cruiseline's attempt to aggressively ensure that you relax and pamper yourself. The way he describes people moving in/on/around the Cruise Ship, "bovine", his interaction with his tablemates and his intense dislike for one of the women at his table as well as his feud with the ship's captain is indescribably funny.

Mostly, the essay works so well because going on a Cruise is generally something that people think they want to do; it is, supposedly, fun -- much like, say, going to a concert or sometype of sporting event. But DFW, as is his way, finds and uncovers all that is truly strange, when you really think about it, or, when you spend 50-60 pages analyzing it.

1. The Inner Game of Tennis | Timothy Gallwey (134 pages) | A
2. The Last Shot | Darcy Frey (240 pages) | A+
3. The Road | Cormac McCarthy (287 pages) | A+
4. Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell (299 pages) | C+
5. The Last Season | Phil Jackson (304 pages) | B-
6. The Sunset Limited | Cormac McCarthy (160 pages)| B-
7. The Education of a Coach | David Halberstam (288 pages)| B+
8. Downtown Owl | Chuck Klosterman | (288 pages)| B
9. Can I Keep My Jersey?| Paul Shirley| (336 pages)|C-
10. Then We Came to The End| Joshua Ferris| (416 pages)|B+
11. Friday Night Lights| H.G. Bissinger|(400 pages)|A++
12. Strokes of Genius| L. Jon Wertheim|(208 pages)|B
13. Who's Your City| Richard Florida|( 345 pages)|C
14. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men| (336 pages)|A
15. The Book of Basketball| Bill Simmons|(736 pages)|C-
16. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again|(368 pages)|A-

Contest! Ketch Harbour Wolves, Chinese Food & The Rest @ El Mocambo, Fri. Dec. 11th

2009-12-07T13:34:00.000-05:00

Ketch Harbour Wolves are a really great band. They put out an outstanding (and still free!) record last year, Dead Calm Horizon, and they put on an excellent live show. They are playing this coming Friday, and will be joined by Hamilton's The Rest, who has been discussed on the Burgeoning Metropolis before, as well as Chinese Food (who I know nothing about).

At any rate, it sounds like it should be a great show, and you can win a pair of guest list spots for the show this Friday, December 11th @ El Mocambo in Toronto. If you're 19+ and in the GTA e-mail me at londononburgeoningmetropolisATgmailDOTcom and I'll select a winner at random.

And if you win, hopefully I'll see you there... the KHW have informed me that there's a new album that is pretty close to being done, so, I'm pretty curious to hear the new material. If you don't win, you can pick up advanced tickets at: http://www.stubmatic.com/ketchharbourwolves/event/2510 for $8. Or, Jen Polk has a contest running too.

If you're looking for more info on the bands see:

[mp3] Ketch Harbour Wolves - Letters
[mp3] Ketch Harbour Wolves - Words

[mp3] The Rest - Walk on Water (auspicious beginnings)
[mp3] The Rest - Sheep in Wolves Clothing

Evening Hymns CD Release w/ The Harbour Coats @ the Tranzac, Dec. 4. 2009

2009-12-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

My experiences Thursday and Friday night really couldn't've been a whole lot different. While Thursday night was primarily and friends and family sort of thing, Friday night was a real scenester sort of... scene. I don't go to a ton of shows, but I recognized at least two dozen or so people from other pretty awesome bands. This may have been because there were, according to the National Post, 16 or so of Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns)'s closests friends (I assume) that appeared on his new, and excellent, album Spirit Guides.

When Paul found out that the Harbour Coats were opening for Evening Hymns, who I was really interested in seeing, he suggested/insisted that we get there early. After the first few bars of the first song I figured out why... and everyone else did too, I guess, because the packed main room at the Tranzac went from being a-buzz to library quiet (note: not the Weldon Library @ Western). So, after the first song I turn to Paul and say something like, "Wow, that guy sounds a lot like Springsteen"; to which Paul replies something like, "Yeah, he's the lead singer of the Constantines, people have been calling him an angry Springsteen for years". Me, "Oh" (if that exchange made Paul sound like a dick, he wasn't, he was very nice about my Constantines ignorance).

I thought the Harbour Coats set was outstanding, so I'm pretty anxious to start listening to some old Constantines records, while I anxiously await a release from the Harbour Coats.

As I mentioned on Friday morning Evening Hymns is the project of Jonas Bonnetta w/ a little help from his friends. On stage Friday night he brought out a pile of friends. I can remember seeing: Mike Dugay, a guy from Ohbijou, the guy from the Wooden Sky, a girl from the Magic, and others, I suspect. They weren't out there with him all the time, the Evening Hymns set fluxtuated between singer-songwriter and big orchestral band type music, but the highlights of the night for me all involved the full band. Especially live, from 5 feet away no less, songs like "Cedars" "Broken Rifle" and especially "Mountain Song" -- the ones with the choral parts -- sounded, for lack of a better word, awesome.

The only thing I wonder, given how busy all the parts of Evening Hymns are, is whether people outside the GTA are going to get to see this band. I won't speculate, because I have no idea what the plan with the band is, but it'd be a real shame if some form of this band didn't get across the country. In part, because they put together a helluva show, but also because Spirit Guides deserves to be in the discussion for next year's Polaris Prize, and I feel like bands without a strong national following (see: basically everyone I wanted to win the Polaris) aren't able to capture a broad enough spectrum of voters to end up being short listed.

[mp3] Evening Hymns - Cedars
[mp3] Evening Hymns - Broken Rifle

The Harbour Coats (or, Bryan Webb)

A video by Colin Medley

Evening Hymns

Another video, also by Colin Medley.

Don (is) Campbell @ the Hideout, Dec. 3rd, 2009

2009-12-05T11:27:00.005-05:00

It's hard to know exactly what to say about the Don (is) Campbell (Experience). Mostly, that's because Don and I grew up together, are good friends, and there is no sense in which one can provide an objective opinion on the music of someone who is a grade school chum of theirs (and a member of the 1994 London Gus Macker - Toilet Bowl Winning 3 on 3 team!).

I can say that among my group of friends there was some sense of trepidation -- what if Donny's originals completely tanked? We've seen him play covers for the last decade, know that he is a tremendously talented guitarist, and we've heard snippets of his song-writing, but, as a parent, you worry. So, basically, Don had somewhere near 50? 100? or so parent, or parent-like figures in attendance on Thursday to see him perform his first set of originals w/ a backing band (which included one of his brothers, another brother as the emcee/hype man, and his sister selling merch). And the first few songs we all sort of sat around, nervously, trying to figure out how this whole Don-trying-to-be-a-musician thing was going to work out.

It turns out, it went great. Don's not going to be the next big blog act, that's just not the aesthetic of his music, but given his knack for writing accessible, catchy, hooks; his stage presence, and the fact that Don just has that... look (and you can have him in your bedroom for only $15! -- you had to be there).

I guess, to me, what Thursday night proved is that his success is going to be determined not by ability -- there's a market out there for his music -- but whether he's going to be able to get his music to the ears of the right people to distribute that music. So, if you know someone who knows someone, do me a favour and pass along Donny's myspace link. After all, this is the best chance I have of living out my Entourage fantasy...

The Don (is) Campbell (Experience)

Pick of the Week #48: Evening Hymns

2009-12-04T09:00:00.002-05:00

In a recent National Post article, Jonas Bonnetta explains that he stopped recording under his own name because he didn't want to get pigeon holed as just another dude with a guitar. So, the story goes, Bonnetta began recording under the moniker Evening Hymns -- something that suggests more of a collective effort... maybe it's the use of the plural... I'm not sure.

On the album, Spirit Guides (Out of This Spark), Bonnetta certainly differentiates himself from the countless other guys w/ guitars that are out there. He employs, according to the National Post, no less than 17 of his closest friends on the 9 song, 42 minute album, which, as you'd expect, gives the album a much deeper, broader, sort of feel. The album, at times, boarders on Sufjan Stevens circa-Michigan territory or a Skyskraper National Park Hayden, mostly b/c of the often orchestral feel and the outdoorsy, nature inspired lyrics, but those just sort of hint at what Spirit Guides is about.

Spirit Guides seems deeper or more meaningful, somehow; maybe it just feels more personal. I've only had the album since Monday, so, I'm determined to be less hyperbolic than normal so I should just leave it and say that Spirit Guides is easier to connect with -- not better, just easier to connect with. Where Michigan, and Suf Stevens as a song writer can get a little preachy and Hayden can be so aloof, Bonnetta seems much more comfortable talking about himself.

So Spirit Guides has that going for it, and it is also much more diverse than most guy w/ guitar albums. Part of this is due to the fact that Bonnetta has so much help, but just because people show up to help, doesn't mean that the album is automatically going to be better. In fact, though I have no experience recording or anything, I'd imagine with more people around, you'd have more ideas, and it'd be tougher to manage. Either way Bonnetta manages, and manages well, to put together a relatively diverse group of songs -- the more standard singer-songwriter "Laterns"; the calm then violent "Dead Deer" (if this was more stripped down, it'd be very reminiscent of Hayden); the more choral group efforts on "Mountain Song" and "Cedars"; along with a guitar riff and a piano part that feel like they're lifted out of an Elton John song on "Broken Rifle".

Regardless of all the whos and wheres and whys, the result (Spirit Guides, in case you've been sleep reading) is something somewhere near spectacular. Like most of those new premium cable shows, it's tight, there's no waste, and every time I listen to the album I have a new favourite song. And I know I promised not to get hyperbolic, but I promise this isn't hyperbole, this is one of the best records of the year. Not enough people are going to hear it, so listen to it, and then tell your friends.

[mp3] Evening Hymns - Cedars
[mp3] Evening Hymns - Broken Rifle

Dead Deer recorded by Colin Medley

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale
Pick of the Week #45: Noah and the Whale
Pick of the Week #46: Mos Def
Pick of the Week #47: The Acorn

Best Songs of 2009: Glasvegas "Geraldine"

2009-12-02T14:33:00.004-05:00

Before I get to the songs that're going to end up on ye olde year end album list I'm inclined to give a little attention to the ones that aren't going to be there. And Glasvegas and their self-titled album will not be there. Glasvegas, in my opinion, doesn't really do much that hasn't been done, nor do they execute the Brit-Arena-Rock formula well enough over a period of 10 songs to sustain my attention (which, admittedly, is very limited in the first place).

Even though the album as a whole isn't something I'm going to put on and listen to from start to finish, "Geraldine" is probably one of the best, most uplifting songs of the year regardless of genre. Between the driving electric guitar that runs through the song which is, at worst, extremely catchy, and at best, something somewhere near a force of nature. There's that, and there's something about the chorus "Al beh tha anghel on ya shouldah/ma nam is Geraldine I'm yo soshal wo-kah", which, in English translates to: "I'll be the angel on your shoulder/ My name is Geraldine I'm your social worker".

Maybe it's me, and the production value on Glasvegas is just too much for someone with my tastes, and we may disagree on the quality of the album, but I suspect we'll agree that this is one of the songs Best of 2009.

[mp3] Glasvegas - Geraldine

Exchanging e-mails with... Tor

2009-12-01T09:23:00.002-05:00

At some point at the beginning of the year I came across Illinoize the Tor/Sufjan Stevens 'remix tape' and declared it, somewhat inelegantly, the front runner for album of the year. And at this point in the year, I still feel pretty strongly that it's the best album that I've heard this year.

Anyways, long story short (though the rest of this post will be quite long) I got in touch with the author of Illinoize, Tor, and he very graciously agreed to trade some e-mails with me on remixing, mashing-up, his experience backpacking in Australia, as well as offering his opinion on who would win a fight between the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Bill Cosby.

Check some mp3s (that Sufjan has now given him the right to use!) that will make you want to throw your hands in the air like you just don't care... or something....

* * *

Tor. So, how does it feel having put out the Best Album of 2009? That's not much of a conversation starter, I realize, but if I haven't said so before (and I have) I think the album is absolutely outstanding. That said, as much as I really like the album it seems like a strange sort of concept at first - Sufjan Stevens and a pile of really great rap songs. How did you come up with the idea? And how long did it take you to figure out that it'd actually work? I guess I'm trying to figure out what the process was like from the inception of the idea to it becoming an actual album. I've got approximately a zillion other questions, but to make responding manageable I'll leave them for now. Hope the weather in Montreal(?) is a nicer than it was here in T.O. today... bah...
Rob

* * *

Hey Rob

Wow I don't know how to answer that first one! I actually read your article about it back in March when it first came out and you made that claim, stoked you still think so! ha.

It is a bit of a strange concept though I suppose - most 'mash-ups' or remixes or whatevers are usually about having a hype track or taking something current or super popular and mixing it with something else either classic or super popular so people go 'holy shit! i know that, and I also know that! now they're together!' So I was a bit surprised that it has been so popular as a lot of Sufjan Stevens fans probably hadn't heard of, say, Grand Puba, and vice versa.

I'm also a bit of a fan of super chill music and I was trying to come up with a project I could do to get back into producing music as I hadn't really worked on much for a few years. I had chopped up Sufjan's 'Star of Wonder' when I had my studio set up briefly before heading off on a year long road trip and did a little 5 minute drum loop and bassline to it before I packed up. After I left it was just me and my girlfriend living in a van around Australia in the middle of the desert or on deserted beaches for like 10 months so I had plenty of time for it to simmer in my head. I had my ipod on the trip and went through all his albums and had a few ideas for tracks that might work for it, with 'Star of Wonder' and Aesop Rock being the first and most definite one. When I got back I set up my studio and was able to throw songs in there and chop them up and over the next 3 months I came up with 7 tracks I was digging and about 5 other half finished ones that sounded like ass. I wanted at least 10 all up but a buddy of mine convinced me to cut it down to EP length and I'm glad I did.

As for the weather, I'm actually in Vancouver right now, been here since June - but getting home finally in the next few weeks! I'm sure it will be colder...

Cheers

~Tor

* * *

Tor.

That really wasn't the process I was expecting, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it probably didn't involve a trip around the world. So, when you're in the Australian desert how do you decide or even get an idea of what is going to work? Is it a feel thing or is it something to do with music/timing/time signature sort of thing (note: I am very, very, unfamiliar with technical music speak)?

I'm also kind of curious about the songs that didn't work. What songs did they involve and how did you come to the decision that they didn't work? Was it specific to a certain type of rapper? Are some easier to work with than others? I imagine that someone that does a lot of free association (is that what its called) like Lil' Wayne would be a tough guy to work with...

And yeah, it dipped below 0 in T.O. last night, so, I'd stay out in Vancouver if I were you...

Rob

* * *

Hey Rob

Yea it's probably not your standard process is it? Something about being that isolated and having no obligations or distractions I guess gets the ideas flowing. To get an idea of what was going to work while I was out there I mostly had to go off Sufjan's stuff as I really had no idea what acapellas would be available - that's the thing there are only so many songs that have been released usually on vinyl singles with instrumental and acapella versions on them so it can be slim pickings at times.

As for Sufjan's stuff i just went through songs that had the right tempo or timing (like a lot of his stuff can be in a swing beat or 3/4 time which is not going to work at all, ever, for hip hop... actually that's not true but it's rare) but a few of the remixes like 'Dumb I Sound' I sped up the song almost a full octave for it to fit in a hip hop tempo. Also, John Wayne Gacy Jr is played really really loosely so I had to chop the hell out of the sample to make it fit, which you can hear pretty clearly near the end of the song. For the most part though while I was out there I just had to go off vibe and vague ideas until I could get home and see what I could actually do with it.

When I was back and throwing acapellas at the beats I was working on, yea, there were a few rappers that just didn't work, for instance I really like Common and had a bunch of his stuff but he has this really relaxed way of rhyming (is that free association?) that I just couldn't get to sit right over the beats so I had to scrap him, and of course with other things you can have everything timed up and mixed perfectly but if the vibe doesn't work and the songs don't sound natural together there is just no way it was going on. So definitely some were easier to work with, both with sampling Sufjan and finding the right rappers. I actually had the idea to mix 'Chicago' with Commons 'Chi-City' but it was more of a novelty idea because in theory the brief attempt I made was ear-stabbingly bad.

And yes, I'd probably like to stay in Vancouver for the winter (it's where I'm from originally) but my music equipment is waiting back in MTL!

Cheers

~Tor

* * *

Tor.

I love the idea of "Chicago" w/ "Chi-city" as soon as you said that I had a vision (audio-vision) of Suf singing "I drove to Chicago" followed by Common chiming in with "and ya say Chi-City". I think he does do a lot of free association -- when he rhymes something, and connects it with something seemingly completely unrelated, I think -- which is what makes it difficult to mash-up b/c his rhyming isn't in some type of time signature... I could have just made that all up.

So, I'm curious how you got into this, beat making, mashing-up, etc? I figured that after a few emails I'd be able to tell if you were an "indie-rock" guy who happened to make beats, or vice-versa and I've gotta say I still have no idea. I'm curious, top-5 Desert Island albums. Have you done anything else aside from the Tor/Suf Stevens mash-up? Feel free to plug anything that you're doing, working on, or whatever.

Hope all is well....

Rob

* * *

hoy Rob;

Maybe I'll give the Sufjan / Common thing a shot for Illinoize 2! Nah, there won't be an Illinoize 2 - I've got a good idea for my next project but I'm not saying anything yet until I have some more tracks finished, and when it's done I'm going to try some different types of promotional stuff (with Illinoize I basically released it and emailed a bunch of blogs until they started writing about it, and it just snowballed from there). For instance releasing a single and building some interest in the project before it's released and more traditional methods like that, mailing lists, using the twitters and facebooks better, as I really have / had no idea about promotional stuff so far and am just winging it - actually as a blogger who deals with this stuff every day maybe you have some tips for me?

As for my history, I started messing around with making music about 7 years ago while I was living in Australia and got the attention of some guys in the Oz music scene. I ended up doing a few remixes for some bands that got released nationally down there. At that point I shifted my focus to running a small recording studio instead of making my own tunes, and had a decent run recording local bands for awhile until I moved to Montreal. Illinoize was my project to get back into making my own stuff again, and the first thing I've really finished and released and it's a good feeling!

My top 5 desert island albums would probably be
1. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Thank God For Mental Illness
2. Bonobo - Days To Come
3. Cunninlynguists - A Piece Of Strange
4. Rodriguez - After The Fact
5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

I don't know if that gives you an idea if i'm an indie-loving beatmaker or a beat loving hipster maybe somewhere in between, it's played out to say but I like whatever is good music and I go through fazes of listening to super mellow acoustic stuff to hip hop to electronic stuff and whatevers going around. I'm trying to take my time with new albums now because with basically every piece of music ever available at your fingertips any time it is kind of overwhelming and it causes people not to really get to know anything and just flip through albums, feeling like if they spend too much time on it they're missing out on something else. Just got to slooww dowwwnn.

So yea if you have any tips for me on blogosphere promotion, current states of music, more questions about my stuff, an infamous lightning round or cut me loose, its up to you!

Cheers

~Tor

* * *

Tor.

Really sorry for taking so long -- it's not that I'm trying to string this out, I swear -- I've actually been sick for the last week or so (which would also explain the lack of blog posts), so, let's finish this off with a bang.

RE: Illinoize 2 (Electric Bogaloo)! and promoting it... I don't envy you. One of my best friends, a guy who's going to be in my wedding party and actually a girl who's going to be my girl's bridesmaid, are both trying to make it as musicians. It's tough. There are so many musicians, blogs, mp3s, mp3 aggregator sites, etc. that the market is so fragmented I'm not sure how and who is making any money in music these days. As far as getting noticed goes, obviously it helps to have awesome music -- usually the cream does rise to the top -- but it's really like any other job: you've got to network, contact people, be nice, charming, personable, and then maybe things will work out...

If you're still there, let's try a lightning round... and I'll apologize in advance if these questions get a little ridiculous.

1. Favourite TV show (current).
2. Favourite Sports Franchise.
3. Least Favourite Sports Franchise.
4. Best movie of the decade.
5. Last album that you listened to and really loved.
6. Greatest rapper of all time.
7. Favourite book.
8. When you arrive at the pearly gates you would like God to say...
9. Who would win in a fight between Bill Cosby and the Fresh Prince?
10. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who and why?

If you wanna plug anything, or let anyone know about anything that you've got going on please do.

Thanks again, and sorry about the delay with this last email... it's been fun.

Best,
Rob

* * *

Rob;

It's all good on the delay, I've been all over the place as well and am finally getting in a good email session.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! As for trying to get noticed it is true what you say, I only started getting into the music blog scene earlier this year and holy shit is it scary the amount of stuff coming out. Its like a constant flood of music that seems like most people consume digest excrete and move onto the next thing. But I've been building my networking skills this year with Illinoize so hopefully I've collected enough leads to hit them hard with the next thing!

Alright I'll give these questions a shot;

1. Favourite TV show (current). - South Park has been absolutely killing it for about the past 3 seasons. I love how they just do not give a shit and will destroy anyone that gets in their way. And the fact that they can make the entire show within a few days always means that it's super current and fully awesome.

2. Favourite Sports Franchise. - I am not that much of a sports guy but I'm a fairweather Canadiens fan. And it's a good excuse to go to the pub.

3. Least Favourite Sports Franchise. - All of the ones involved in the NBA, NFL or MLB

4. Best movie of the decade. - Children of Men. That movie blew my mind and every time I watch it I discover something new, or pick up on a new theme.

5. Last album that you listened to and really loved. - The xx's album has been my favourite recently. Their mix of deep bass, MPC beats, soft guitars and vocals is completely working for me. They've got a lot of hype, but I think it is entirely deserved.

6. Greatest rapper of all time. - That's gotta be a tie between Q-Tip and Andre 3000. Their deliveries are not at all similar but get me stoked every time. Listen to Andre 3000 on this to see what I mean --> http://hypem.com/#/track/741704/Fonzworth+Bentley+-+Everybody+feat+Kanye+West+Sa+Ra+Andre+3000+

7. Favourite book. - Not much of a reader probably because my attention span is too short, but when I read I seem to like dry British humour like Douglas Adams or Ben Elton.

8. When you arrive at the pearly gates you would like God to say... - I dont know... Welcome?

9. Who would win in a fight between Bill Cosby and the Fresh Prince? - I think Bill Cosby had a genuinely rougher childhood. Fresh Prince only played B ball outside of the school. And got his ass kicked and had to move to Bel Air. Tho they'd probably both try to make each other laugh rather than actually fighting.

10. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who and why? - Probably a successful touring band like Radiohead to experience an audience going nuts right in front of you. It would be surreal. And some good perspective for a studio guy like me about getting out there.

As for other stuff I have some exciting news since I last emailed you. I was contacted by Sufjan's publishers and Asthmatic Kitty records and they have extended a license for me to use Sufjan's samples for my remixes, so it's all legitimate and endorsed by them! I think that is such a refreshing change to have the publishers get on board for something like this - usually it's the opposite that the lawyers are knocking on guys doors who do unauthorized remixes. I'm just super stoked by the whole situation.

And I'll be sure to let you know when my next mixtape is coming out, which isn't too far away...

Thanks for having me Rob, it's been good times.

~Tor

If you made it through all that you deserve, and probably want, to know that the "Illinoize" remixtape is STILL(!) a free download at illinoize.biz.

[mp3] Tor/Sufjan Stevens - Night Zombies/Talkin' My Shit ft. Brother Ali
[mp3] Tor/Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man/I Like It ft. Grand Puba

Best Songs of 2009: Monsters of Folk "Temazcal"

2009-11-29T20:59:00.002-05:00

For the last couple of years I've created a "Best of 200_" playlist on my iTunes and everytime I hear something really catchy, I copy it over to the playlist. More often then not, most of the songs on the playlist are great songs from my favourite albums of the year; other times, like today, they happen to be standout songs on albums that are marginal, not very good, or that I just haven't listened to all that much.

The Monsters of Folk (Bright Eyes, M. Ward, the guy from My Morning Jacket, and another guy) and their self-titled album, considering the pedigree of the group, is a little bit underwhelming. This, I think, probably has a considerable amount to do with the group having very little to prove. Every member of the group has had a pretty substantial amount of success (save perhaps for the mystery man), and while I'm sure getting together was fun, I'm not sure the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You just don't get the sense that these guys were really pushing each other the way they might have, more that they sort of got together and wrote an album.

I guess what I mean to say is that the Monsters, collectively, don't really have a distinctive sound as a band. The songs on the album tend to rotate around, B.E. gets a song, MMJ's Jim James gets a song, and M. Ward gets a song and the others play Ringo (the other guy is Ringo the entire time). So, given my distaste and/or general lack of enthusiasm for the last couple outings of all the artist it should be unsurprising that I'm luke warm, at best, on the Monsters of Folk as a full-length, 15 song album.

Having said that (Curb reference!), I wouldn't have mentioned the album, particularly under the auspice of "Best of 20__" if there were no redeeming qualities here. And so: the one thing this album has done, IMHO, is brought out flashes of the coherent, but still sort of tortured, Bright Eyes. The best example of this, as you may have guessed, is on "Temazcal" the slow, strum and stop, song that makes you feel as though your in the middle of the denouement of an Old West love story. B.E. shows flashes of the lyricist that he was, and why early in his career people were calling him the next Dylan (probably not happening so much anymore), though that comparison, I think it goes without saying, was probably a little much to say the least.

The video (song sung by M. Ward):

[mp3] Monsters of Folk - Temazcal

I'm going to try and do one or a couple of these every week until the end of the year, though I'm not sure I'd hold your breath and wait for it to happen.

Pick of the Week #47: The Acorn

2009-11-27T09:47:00.001-05:00

With all that's been going on lately I haven't been listening to a whole lot of new stuff and rather than forcing a Pick of the Week -- picking something that I can't completely get behind -- I've opted to go with something from archives...

If you're a regular around here you'll likely recall me discussing Ottawa's The Acorn at one point or another, but often I find that it takes me hearing a name 2/3/10 times before I actually get around to giving something a try. So, more than anything I was hoping with this week's pick would remind you how excellent this group of Ottawanians is.

Their last album, Glory Hope Mountain, was released in 2007 and I ranked it as my 19th favourite album of that year. And certainly that isn't a bad ranking, but looking back at my list I'd be inclined to re-rank it inside the top-5 with the note that it is likely my most listened to album from 2007.

Wouldn't that make it my favourite you'd ask? Well, I dunno. I guess the way I look at it is that there are albums on the list i.e. Kanye, The Besnard Lakes, Panda Bear, that have, in my opinion, higher highs and more 'wow' moments. So, the others may be more interesting, at times, but you've really got to be in the right frame of mind to listen to them. I mean, I thought No Country for Old Men was a great movie, possibly my favourite of 2007, but I haven't watched it nearly as many times as I've seen, say, Role Models, mostly b/c with NCfOM you've got to be in the mood for a movie that demands that much attention.

Now, I wouldn't suggest that Role Models is the musical equivalent of the Acorn or Glory Hope Mountain, but it could be. And by that I mean that Glory Hope Mountain is constructed in such a way that you can shut your mind off, go on auto-pilot, and enjoy the gentle guitar picking or you could turn up the volume in your car and tap away to the tribal drums. The album might be background music while you do whatever is it you need to be doing (sleeping, driving, it, etc.), but it also has the ability to be something that you could really sink your teeth into. The album, which is a tribute to the lead singers mother (R.I.P.), also has the emotional weight of albums like Funeral, Everything All the Time, and the new (and excellent) album by the Wilderness of Manitoba Hymns of Love and Spirits.

Whatever you want to do with/to Glory Hope Mountain it's certainly an album that, if you give some time, you'll enjoy more on the 50th spin then you will on the 1st.

"Dents"

[mp3] The Acorn - Crooked Legs
[mp3] The Acorn - Glory (live)

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale
Pick of the Week #45: Noah and the Whale
Pick of the Week #46: Mos Def

Talking to Americans...

2009-11-26T19:30:00.004-05:00

Sorry, but this is just too hilarious not to pass along, though I expect some of you may have seen it. Not all Americans are this ridiculous (dear lord, I hope), and obviously they're taking the most extreme interviews for effect, but it's kind of heart breaking to me that people are that belligerent about stuff they are so uninformed about.

Sick a camera in someone's face and unless they're practiced at interviewing they're going stumble, mix their words, whatever, but to be so aggressive about things you have no knowledge about... scary... also, kind of hilarious...

At any rate, some actual music-related content up tomorrow (PoTW #47), I'll have another email exchange up at the beginning of the week, and now that I'm back and healthy things should get back to business as usual.

Let's Book Club!: The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

2009-11-24T20:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure I want to spend any sort of time writing a "review" of The Book of Basketball mostly because this Deadspin review says just about everything that needs to be said about Simmons and TBOB (thanks, Wasko).

But, a few random sort of thoughts on the book:

A better title for the book probably would've been Everything I've Ever Thought About Basketball.
There has been a lot of manufactured discussion by Simmons/ESPN/whoever about the length of the book and my thoughts are this: length isn't an issue if you have 700 pages worth of stuff to say. Simmons, in my opinion, did not have 700 pages worth of stuff to say. This becomes VERY apparent if you read the book all at once. It is highly, highly, repetitive.
An extension of the second note: don't read the book all at once, keep it in the bathroom.

Pick of the (last) Week #46: Mos Def

2009-11-23T14:04:00.001-05:00

Yeah, a little late, I realize, but I've been sick so if you could all give me a break that'd be great...
On the bright side, I've got a great album for ya'll (expect a little more slang this week).

I certainly wasn't expecting The Ecstatic, the mighty Mos Def's fourth album (fifth if you include Black Star w/ Talib Kweli), to be any good. Why? Well, mostly because he hasn't released anything worth hearing in a decade. Yes, actually a decade -- this isn't me exaggerating to make a point:

1998: Black Star (with Talib Kweli)
1999: Black on Both Sides
2004: The New Danger
2006: True Magic
2009: The Ecstatic

Granted that's only two albums The New Danger and True Magic that really stunk (or, were marginal if you're in a generous mood), but when you don't release anything that's good either and you spend most of your time making movies your fans are going to ask some questions.

The thing that I always wonder, is that after someone has a certain degree of success - as Mos had with Black Star, Black on Both Sides, and the pile of guest spots he did on other albums - whether they have the motivation and/or inspiration to do anything worthwhile. I mean, when was the last time someone's 7th album was better than their 2nd or 3rd? Usually, people get complacent, things get formulaic, and artists tend to avoid rocking the boat. And Mos' had a pretty successful movie career over the last 5-6 years, so, what does the guy have to prove?

Well, it seems like he wanted to prove that he's not some Hollywood-douche-actor. The Malcolm X quote at the outset of the album on "Supermagic", and the deep, ominous sounding tuba that drives the beat on on the second track "Twilight Speedball", set the tone for the album so by the time the ruler, Slick Rick, makes his guest appearance on the third track "Auditorium" it's been established that not only is Mos going to try, but that he may be as 'on' as the 25 year old Mos who gave us the classic Black on Both Sides.

The Ecstatic isn't going to be that iconic, in this music landscape those kind of albums basically don't exist, but it's very good. It's probably too experimental to cross over and gain Mos a whole lot of new fans (rapping in Spanish on "No Hay Nada Mas" doesn't exactly make me think I'm gonna be hearing anything of this album in da klub), but if you ever found yourself missing Mos Def... he's back.

Pitchfork has a good review.

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale
Pick of the Week #45: Noah and the Whale

Let's Book Club!: Open by Andre Agassi

2009-11-14T12:06:00.000-05:00

For the record, I haven't read Open (yet, I'm planning on it), but there's been so much interesting commentary around the book that, being a tennis guy, I feel compelled to say something about my childhood idol.

By now you've heard (or you're hearing now) about his father chaining him to the court in the early mornings, the weave, the tanking, etc., etc., and oh... the crystal meth. I don't do a ton of reading on tennis stuff, but enough to hear that the likes of Safin, Martina Navratilova, and Nadal have come out and questioned why Agassi would make his crystal meth use public after all these years. Basically, their suggestion has been that: 1/that this hurts the game by damaging the public perception that the game is clean; and 2/ that this is a rather thinly veiled attempt to sell some books; which has led to the 40+ tennis playing community to think, why would he admit to this?

To me, while Safin's criticism comes off as a little bit of sour grapes, and I find it hard to hear Martina's from her high horse (she complains about everything), Nadal's concerns seem very reasonable. The thrust of Nadal's complaints against Agassi all seem to stem from his ability to taint the public's thinking about tennis as a 'clean' sport. His reasoning goes, if Agassi circumvented drug testing, why wouldn't other star players (potentially ones with bulging Popeye-esque biceps) be using drugs also? So, while Nadal's critique seems a little self-serving at first, at the heart of what Nadal is advocating for is honesty (Uncle Toni has raised him well), from Agassi and from the ATP.

That said, it doesn't seem to me that what Nadal is advocating for and Agassi's book is doing (coming clean) are really at odds. My impression is that honesty really is what is at the heart of this Agassi autobiography. He certainly doesn't need the money, particularly after having married Steffi Graf (and her accountant! BA-zing!), it seems like he just wants to tell the truth and get on with the rest of his life. Frankly, I'd be surprised if anyone watched him on 60 minutes and thought he was being anything other than completely honest...

And this is where Navratilova's Roger Clemens comparison is pretty out to lunch -- the reprehensible part about Clemens' behaviour was that, not only did he break the rules, but he lied about it afterward. Now Agassi, to his credit, is coming clean and we're upset about it?

I mean, I get what people are irked about -- particularly when people get into the he's so brave coming forward bullshit (should we be praising every athlete who doesn't do drugs and doesn't break the rules?), but that's not it either. I think the point being that everyone has their own challenges, and we ought to applaud people who are trying to improve themselves. He's trying to make up for past wrongs, and so good for him.

To sum up:

Good for Agassi for coming clean, and kudos to him for all the do-gooding he's done post-crystal meth use.
For someone without a G.E.D. he is very articulate and well spoken.
To me the issue is not the type of drug use (recreational vs. performance enhancing) or even the drug use itself, it's that he was dishonest (a bad thing) and now he's being honest (a good thing).
His honesty now (still a good thing), doesn't make up for his past dishonesty, but it certainly makes it better, and it also makes him... human...

... if you thought I had a lot to say about Open now, wait until I actually read the book...

Pick of the Week #45: Noah and the Whale

2009-11-12T23:06:00.001-05:00

In part because I thought it'd be fun to have back to back picks of the week with the word 'Whale' in the title of the band name, and in part because I've been listening to Noah and the Whale's The First Days of Spring almost exclusively this week, I present to you... Noah and the Whale's The First Days of Spring...

Before seeing Noah and the Whale at Criminal Records a couple of weeks ago they weren't on my radar screen at all. I'm fairly confident they were/are a pretty hip/happenin' blog band, but I just never got on board -- I'm not a sheep! After seeing them and enjoying the 3/4/5 songs that they played, I was ready to give The First Days of Spring a few good listens, but I wasn't expecting it to light my world on fire or anything.

And it hasn't... it's not that kind of album. It is, after all, a break-up album. I see you're processing that whole Spring metaphor they've used... re-birth, new beginnings, very clever. Even it's not the world-fire-lighting type of album, it is exceptionally good at what it does do, capturing that post break-up moment that is often full of both hope and despair. In that respect, the album feels a little bit like the post-relationship reflection of a dumpee, looking back at all the relationship without remembering all the awful things that happened in the relationship that led to the break up in the first place.

What strikes me about the band and their album is how affecting I've found them both, particularly given that I'm in the opposite place in my own life (soon to be married -- sorry ladies). It's not just the symphonic string arrangements, although that's certainly part of the whole mood, but it's the way that the vocals - very somber, conversational, and almost hoarse at points - create this really beautiful contrast.

Hopefully with the success of The First Days of Spring they should have their pick of groupies so that the next album will turn out a little happier... I'm hoping a bikini inspired, beach themed, summer album... although I'm not holding my breath...

[mp3] Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale

Jay-Z w/ N.E.R.D., J. Cole, Wale @ the Air Canada Centre. Oct. 31.2009.

2009-11-09T15:18:00.002-05:00

(via muchmusic)

I was really kind of torn whether or not to write anything about going to see Jay-Z (or, the G.O.A.T.) at the Air Canada Centre on Halloween. If you wanted a recap of the show you'd be best off to check out the Toronto Star or some other legitimate journalistic outfit, and, frankly, I'm not sure if the "indie" (mostly) music blog readership was interested in hearing about the Jigga Man's delivery of "Big Pimpin'" or how the light hit his $50,000 gold necklace. That said, I've never been one to exclusively recap and I've probably driven away all the dirty hippy snobs (maybe it's the name calling?), so, some thoughts on Jay-Z and the arena concert experience:

Liz and I walked to the ACC (nice!), grabbed a hot dog on the way (nice!), in retrospect we should've planned our route because it took us approximately 10 mins longer to get there than it should've (25 mins instead of 15, who am I to complain).
It was absolute Zoo outside the ACC. In addition to scalpers there was a hoard of guys giving out after-party flyers -- Halloween, Saturday night, etc. I'm a little bit claustrophobic and this was a little disconcerting... we had to try 2 or 3 entrances before we could find one that wasn't horrifyingly crowded.
When we finally got in line there appeared to be a scalper trying to talk the (very) young couple out of a pair of tickets and he (the scalper) pulled out a wad of at least $500 bucks. This may become a re-occuring theme, but this is 1.A. -- things you don't see outside Lee's Palace.
Also, and I realize it was Halloween, but things were a lot skankier than I was expecting. I mean, I'm sure that Jay-Z has some fans that are strippers, but I'm pretty sure that there aren't that many strippers within driving distance of Toronto.
B/c of the great hot dog detour and finding an entrance where we felt like we weren't going to be mobbed or mugged, we only caught the last 3 mins of Wale and J. Cole. I like Wale, the mixtape about nothing was one of my favs of '08, but most of what he was saying was completely inaudible. No big deal.
Pharrell was great, but haven't listened to any N.E.R.D. since their first album ... In Search Of so I only recognized a couple of songs. I forgot how raunchy "Lapdance" was...
Kudos, to Pharrell for bringing 20-30 girls/women to come on stage and skank it up. If he owns a strip club, this is for sure how he auditions the dancers. On an unrelated note my (future un-born) daughter is never going to a rap concert.
By the time everyone had found their seats it began to occur to me how strange a group the crowd was at the concert. In the immediate vicinity of where Liz and I were sitting: 35-40 Black Man w/ appropriately aged Asian GF/wife (right); group of 22 -27 West Indian kids dudes and chicks (further right); group of 16 - 20 Black/White rapper kids wearing jerseys and straight brimmed NewEra hats with the stickers still on (behind); two teenaged girls who snuck in mickeys (plural) of Vodka, and had some pretty serious rapper hands (left).
Jay-Z appears, through the bottom of the stage no less, and appears to be completely unfazed by the fact that 20,000 (or however many people fit into a sold out ACC) are screaming at the top of their lungs (less me, I'm half perplexed amazed that this many people are that excited about seeing a single human person perform some songs).
To be fair, at that point I was kind of in awe b/c: 1/the response of the crowd; 2/that he is so cool about it; and 3/that he just possesses that je ne sais pas that you can just feel from the first row of the 300 level.
Was really impressed with how they set up the stage, very simple, band way back (two drum kits, horn section, plus other instruments), large dark black stage w/ a sort of vertical tiled video screen in behind. Ornate and visually impressive, but definitely not gaudy or over the top. I guess that's what you get when you have a million dollar (estimated) set-up budget.
Jay-Z is an entertainer and a businessman, which is something that goes without saying, but his show was certainly reflective of his business interests. Not only does he put on good show (that's probably the best business), and give opening slots to his proteges, but he really canvassed his catalog to make sure that people weren't walking away thinking, I wish I had heart "insert song title here". Of course this meant that with 11 studio albums that he was just going to give us snippets... fine, no biggie. Continuing on that Jay-Z is a shrewd businessman trend, he spent an incredible amount of time 'connecting' with the audience -- thank you for coming, pointing out people in the audience, etc.,... have never seen anyone do that, that much... very shrewd.
Lastly, if I had one gripe, it was all of his "if you dream it, you can do it B.S." ... that's all well and good, but you're not really helping anyone with that crap. This is the modern version of the Michael Jordan syndrome - where kids forget school for dreams of playing pro basketball. Of course this is doubly bad when it has never been easier to put out any type of music recording, there has never been less money in the music business, and there has never been a better role model for young minorities (Barak Obama has made smart, cool).

Contest: The Wooden Sky @ Lee's Palace -- Friday November 13th, 2009

2009-11-06T11:07:00.004-05:00

The Wooden Sky, Pick of the Week #30, the 17th hottest band in Canada (according to this country's music community), the 7th hottest band (according to me) and the authors of the album If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone will be playing at Lee's Palace in Toronto next Friday (Nov. 13th).

Anyways, if you want to go see the show with a friend ft. openers Brian Borcherdt (who I don't know) and the Hooded Fang (who I've seen once before and enjoyed), PLUS a copy of the Wooden Sky's excellent album If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone then e-mail me at: londononburgeoningmetropolisATgmailDOTcom.

As an aside: I haven't run contests before because, basically, I haven't been totally behind the stuff that people (PR companies) have wanted me to give away. As I've said before I think the Wooden Sky is great and I'm very excited about seeing this show... hope to see you (yes, you) there...

Pick of the Week #44: Said the Whale

2009-11-05T19:27:00.001-05:00

Is it the 44th week of 2009 already? God that's depressing. But you know what isn't depressing in any way, shape, or form? This hilarious, hilarious, phone message... oh, and Said the Whale's Islands Disappear.

From the dramatic intro "Dear Elkhorn" I thought I might be in for another band similar to my new favourites the Wilderness of Manitoba, or one of last year's best blog bands, Fleet Foxes, which would've been a good thing, but it was not to be. Instead, Said the Whale progress through the rest of their album with an almost choral power-poppy sort of sound that is reminiscent of stuff like the New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, Band of Horse's Funeral, or even the latest poppier album from the Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell.

To a certain extent I'm surprised that I like Islands Disappear as much as I do. With no disrespekt to the band, I just haven't had much of a taste for the poppy sort of bands as they always seem like they're "on"... c'mon, nobody is that happy all the time. Said the Whale is a happy, poppy sort of band, but there are moments on the album that are quieter and show that they're not just churning pop songs, they have feelings (as a band) too. I think the outdoors/wilderness/travelling theme of the album helps in this respect, for whatever reason, their real (or potentially fictional) trip across Canada makes me feel like the quieter, more introspective moments come from honest experience and reflection rather than seeing the latest Michael Moore movie or reading the latest Naomi Klien book.

I think the albums biggest strength though is it's diversity (much like the New Pornographers at their best), their ability to pound out a really, really, catchy song like "Camilo (the Magician" (which may well be the best "pop" song of the year), but they balance that off with some softer songs "Dear Elkhorn" "Islands Disappear" etc. and sometimes, somehow, they manage to do both at the same time "Emerald Lake, AB".

It'd a little disingenous - although probably not unexpected - for me to suggest that this is one of the best pop albums of the year, particularly since "Santa" sent me this album roughly a week ago. That said, Islands Disappear was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, and is the kind of album that makes me glad that I decided to start a (mostly) music blog. You really ought to go out and buy this album.

[mp3] Said the Whale - Dear Elkhorn
[mp3] Said the Whale - Camilo (the Magician)

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan
Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Some Videos: "Camilo (the Magician)", "Raise Your Dead (Reprise)", "Demon Host"

2009-11-03T09:52:00.005-05:00

"Camilo (the Magician)"

Band: Said the Whale (Vancouver, BC)
Album: Islands Disappear
Thoughts: I'm not entirely sure this song/video is representative of the album as a whole, though both the album and the video are pretty excellent. The song/video is power-poppy, while the rest of the album is decidedly more subdued, but if you were ever a fan of Death Cab/The New Pornographers/possibly Band of Horses at least watch the video.

"Raise Your Dead (Reprise)"

Band: Dog is Blue (Toronto, On)
Album: ... Makes Ghost Noises
Thoughts: It's certainly not a Michael Bay production (but what is), but it's a neat look at Paul putting together one of those cool dog skeleton art things... painting, is it a painting? Anyways, if you don't recall me talking about ...Makes Ghost Noises (Pick of the Week #28) it's a great singer-songwriter album which you should all buy from Zunior for $5.55.

"Demon Host"

Band: Timber Timbre (Toronto, On)
Album: Timber Timbre
Thoughts: This would've been much more appropriate to post on Halloween - seriously creepy sound - but better late than never!

Noah and the Whale @ Criminal Records. Oct. 31.2009

2009-11-01T09:52:00.000-05:00

I'm a follower of Criminal Records' (Queen St. W., Toronto) twitter account and when I got up yesterday morning they tweeted that Noah and the Whale would be performing in their store in 20 mins. And since I'd seen the name (Noah and the Whale), but had never listened to any of their stuff before I thought I'd give it a shot. Although, there's the chance that I had never actually seen the name and was remembering the movie The Squid and the Whale (starring Jeff Daniels, good flick) or Canadian band Said the Whale (new record out now, very good, expect to hear more soon).

Either way, Liz got her Starbucks and we headed to C.R. to go check this unknown (to us) band. When we got there there was a pretty substantial line outside the store and not being one for crowds I suggested we walk for a minute and then come back to see how busy it was actually going to be -- we walked in to Urban Outfitters (where rich people go to look like they're poor) and then back to C.R.. It wasn't too bad. C.R. seems to be a little bit like a clown car in that respect -- I have no idea how that many people fit into such a (seemingly) small space.

At any rate, Liz was particularly impressed by the band and so was I. It could be that Brits (and their stupid sexy accents) just make everything sound so much more profound/important/significant. Perhaps a report on their latest album, The First Day of Spring, will be coming, but until then this video should give you an idea of their live sound (which is going to be better than any description than I could possibly right).

Noah and the Whale, duh.

Olenka and the Autumn Lovers, The Wilderness of Manitoba, Slow Down Molasses @ the Garrison -- Oct. 29. 2009

2009-10-31T11:21:00.004-04:00

Last night was the first time I'd been to a show in ages. It's one of those things, like going to the gym, you forget how much fun/how good it is for you until you go again. Of course, it helped that all of the bands were excellent.

Band no.1 was Slow Down, Molasses (Saskatoon, SK) who had been touring with the headlining Olenka and the Autumn Lovers (London, On) on their trek through Canada's East Coast which, presumably, took them to the Halifax Pop Explosion. They started slow (hah! pun), maybe it was the time change, maybe was the sound... feedback... ugh, maybe it was that I hadn't had enough to drink yet, or maybe they were just getting warmed up, but by the 30-40 minute mark they seemed to hit their stride and their songs really started coming together.

But the night really belonged to Band no.2, the Wilderness of Manitoba. I mean, this part of T.O. is their hood, I think, so it's fitting and it makes sense, but the minute they set into their first multi-part harmony it felt like the room just stopped... like everyone, collectively, had just been stunned. I've heard their album/EP, Hymns of Love & Spirits (pick of the week #36) and said it was one of my favourites of the year (and it is b-t-w), but somehow, in the age of autotune when things aren't always what they seem, you never really know if artists are actually as good as they sound recorded. They were that good, and then some. In fact, if wouldn't surprise me in the least if they had told me they recorded their entire album in one take. My buddy Don (CD release Dec. 3 @ the Hideout!) said that he thought these guys are on to big things, and I couldn't agree more, the only barrier for them, really, is going to be getting people to see/hear them and if they do, you'll be able to say you heard it here (or somewhere else) first!

Band no.3, Olenka and the Autumn Lovers, is a band that I'd been meaning to check out for quite some time, but for whatever reason (mostly my own reluctance to leave my house) I'd never made it out to see them play. I think given the performance that came before them, the fact that the crowd had noticeably thinned, and many people had 'checked out', it would be unfair to judge OatAL on their performance. Not that their performance was bad, in fact, I really enjoyed it, but their songs are not suited for a noisy bar full of patrons who were probably more interested in talking about the WoM's set. I could probably be lumped in with that bunch, though, to my credit, I was attentive -- I didn't talk.

While OatAL set was a marginal disappointment, through no fault of their own (and I really do look forward to seeing them again in a quiter setting) they were responsible for the high light of the night: a rousing rendition of Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" feat. members of Slow Down, Molasses. The Eastern European tinge to Olenka's songs really give a different feel to one of the Boss' best songs.

[mp3] The Wilderness of Manitoba - Dreamcatchers (live @ the Garrison)
[mp3] The Wilderness of Manitoba - Manitoba

[mp3] Olenka and the Autumn Lovers - 45 (live @ the Garrison)
[mp3] Olenka and the Autumn Lovers - Flash in the Pan

Slow Down, Molasses

The Wilderness of Manitoba

Olenka and the Autumn Lovers

See some real photos via Chromewaves.

A Shut-Ins Guide to the Hottest Canadian Bands '09

2009-10-30T11:03:00.004-04:00

(Photo Credit)

Last year when picking my top 10 for Matthew/i(heart)music’s Hottest Canadian Bands poll my metric for hotness was “artists that I like more this year”. Certainly, that will remain part of my (unknowable) formula this year.

The second part of this year’s (unknowable) selection formula measures how, air quotes, successful the band has been this year: Have people been writing about them? Going to their shows? Have they been winning awards real or imaginary? Do they have a twitter account? If so, do they post hilarious stuff for my enjoyment? And so on…

The third part of the (unknowable) formula is how I think the band/artist needs some help, or how much I feel compelled that others should hear the band. In this respect, all other things being equal, the lesser known band will get the nod over the more established.

The forth part of the (increasingly more knowable) formula is that I’m a huge homer, meaning, given the chance to promote a band from close to where I live now (Toronto) or where I used to live (London) I’ll take it.

A couple of picks to land on the master list that you’re not going to see here because I haven’t heard the albums: Fucked Up (polaris winner b/w #5 – 10), The Balconies (#7 – 15), Zeus (#15 – 30), Julie Fader (#15 – 30), Japandroids (#10 – 20). Also, K’Naan (#3 – 14) whose album I have heard, but generally thought it was over produced, a little bit broad compared to his debut, but will have won over a bunch of new fans, since, he is actually quite good....

* * *

Here're my picks, although you might note that only my first 10 picks will count on the i(heart)music master list.

15. Timber Timbre (Toronto, On)
Last album: s/t
[mp3] Timber Timbre – Demon Host
Why he/she/they are here: Because he has steadily grown on me since releasing the harrowing Medicinals [2007] (pick of the week #13). While having a slightly different – yet still seriously creepy – aesthetic he put out another album that should be played on doorsteps for many, many, Halloweens to come. That, and he made a big leap by signing with Arts & Crafts, which is a pretty big deal and presumably means that this won’t be the last year we’ll see him on the master list.

14. Rah Rah (Regina, SK)
Last album: Going Steady
[mp3] Rah Rah – Betrayal pt.1
Why he/she/they are here: mostly because Going Steady (pick of the week #2) was an album that I felt deserves, and continues to deserve, a lot more attention that it is getting. This might be a geography thing, which is unfortunate, but the lyrics behind Going Steady are just so engaging and clever, when combined with the swelling, epic sort of instrumentation make me feel as though I have to sell people on this album every chance that I get. Also, I feel a little guilty because if I had got off my ass to see them this year they probably would’ve been between 7 and 10 spots higher.

13. Pink Mountaintops
Last album: Outside Love
[mp3] Pink Mountaintops - Vampires
Why he/she/they are here: despite my distaste for Black Mountain, Stephen McBean and co. have put together an incredibly memorable psych rock album. Outside Love is an album that I wanted to dislike, but I just couldn’t. Somehow, they are able to melt these heavy, distorted guitars with layered, often angelic harmonies to create a sound that mixes ‘90s grunge rock with the flower power of the ‘60s to create what will be one of the best albums of 2009.

12. Ketch Harbour Wolves
Last album: Dead Calm Horizon
[mp3] Ketch Harbour Wolves - Letters
Why he/she/they are here: basically, cause I completely missed out on including them on this list last year. They haven’t really done anything this year i.e. they haven’t released an album, but I have heard some new songs (live, which are excellent), and I’m pretty excited for a second album which I’m told is coming some time next year (if I’m remembering correctly).

11. TOR
Last album: Illinoize
[mp3] Tor/Sufjan Stevens – The Tallest Man/I Like It ft. Grand Puba
Why he/she/they are here: because this might be the best mash-up album… ever. Not that, off the top of my head, I can think of more than say, ten or so, but Illinoize (pick of the week #12) is wicked awesome. Theoretically, you wouldn’t think having Aesop Rock rapping over a Christmas song would work (“Star of Wonder/None Shall Pass”), but I suppose that’s the beauty of this album – Tor uses Suf’s lush instrumentation to serve as the back drop for some good rap tracks and he makes them great.

10. Ohbijou (2007 - #2)
Last album: Beacons
[mp3] Ohbijou – Black Ice
Why he/she/they are here: because they’ve gradually picked up more and more steam every month since they released Swift Feet for Troubling Times (potw #7)a couple of years ago. They’ve shown up on magazine covers, been playing all kinds of shows, and Beacons (potw #27) is really a heck of a record. I mean, the stretch of four songs from “Eloise and the Bones” to “Make it Gold” is about as good as this type of melodramatic pop music gets.

9. Diamond Rings
Last album: Diamond Rings/PS I Love You Split 7”
[mp3] n/a
Why he/she/they are here: because the video, with those value village NBA jerseys, eye make-up, and moon-walking is highly entertaining. I confess, being familiar with the D’Urbervilles (but not knowing John O personally) I never would’ve predicted he was capable of this kind of sound/video/aesthetic…

8. Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Last album: Either s/t or the Papillonette EP
[mp3] Olenka and the Autumn Lovers – Flash in the Pan
Why he/she/they are here: in part because I’m a huge homer and they’re from London – they haven’t released anything this year; but, the other part is that the often cryptic, Eastern European influenced Olenka (think a female Beirut) writes some excellent songs. I think if I had these albums in my sweaty mitts last year one, or potentially both, could’ve ended up on my top-10 list.

7. The Wooden Sky
Last album: If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
[mp3] The Wooden Sky - Something Hiding For Us In The Night
Why he/she/they are here: maybe it’s just me, but I really didn’t see this album coming. I knew the Wooden Sky existed, but they were sort of just another Toronto band whose name I had seen a bunch of times in show listings, on other blogs, and in those really awful mass press release type things that PR companies send out. The Wooden Sky have really demonstrated on If You Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone (potw #30)that they are one of the best bands Canada has to offer right now. Plus, in conjunction with Scott Cudmore, they’ve been putting of the most entertaining live videos I’ve seen in a while, thus making “The Late King Henry” one of my most sung in the shower songs this year. Yeah, I bet the bands feeling really good about that.

6. Dan Mangan
Last album: Nice, Nice, Very Nice
[mp3] Dan Mangan - Robots
Why he/she/they are here: I’m sort of Dan Manganed out, having written about him last week (potw #42), but suffice to say that he has differentiated himself from the zillions of other singer-songwriters out there and released a memorable album that hints at him becoming a staple of Canadian music for years to come.

5. Bruce Peninsula
Last album: A Mountain is a Mouth
[mp3] Bruce Peninsula - Steamroller
Why he/she/they are here: because although some cooler, trendier types were listening to them last year, I wasn’t, and that means I get to include them on my list. Having seen them live didn’t hurt either – since they were an absolute force of nature…

4. Chad VanGaalen (2007 - #7, 2008 #1)
Last album: Soft Airplane – B-sides EP
[mp3] Chad VanGaalen - Corvette
Why he/she/they are here: in part, because I’m still bitter about him losing the Polaris Prize. But, bitterness aside, the Soft Airplane B-Sides EP (potw #39) – once you get past the weirdness – is every bit as good as the original album… and he was the hottest in Canada last year so I may still be feeling some residual hotness from 2008.

3. The Rural Alberta Advantage (2008 - #10)
Last album: Hometowns
[mp3] The Rural Alberta Advantage - Frank, AB
Why he/she/they are here: because they’re really hot. They’ve signed a record deal, they’re playing all over the place (even on ABC, weird), and from the new/unreleased songs that I’ve heard they don’t show any signs of slowing down.

2. Wilderness of Manitoba
Last album: Hymns of Love and Spirits
[mp3] Wilderness of Manitoba - Manitoba
Why he/she/they are here: because, without mincing words, this is a band (and an album) that more people ought to be hearing. Before (Pick of the Week #36) I suggested that they were the best parts of Fleet Foxes (the multi-part choral harmonies) and Bon Iver (the really tangible heartache) and I think that’s still true, but after spending more time with their music, I think they deserve a great deal more than that comparison because regardless of whether they go on to become famous, or release more albums, or whatever, this is a truly, truly, special album. Also, now the reviews are starting to come in and they are very, very, good.

1. Black Hat Brigade (2008 #4)
Last album: Fathers EP
[mp3] Black Hat Brigade - Zombie City Shake
Why he/she/they are here: because they’re my favourite band that doesn’t really have a national following. They’ve release two super-wicked EPs (s/t and Fathers) plus a great (particularly considering the budget) video for “Zombie City Shake”. So, I guess this is my way of hoping that a few more people will check out the BHB if I can bump them a little higher on this year’s list.

Pick of the Week #43: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

2009-10-29T20:09:00.000-04:00

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are a strange, strange, looking group. At times E.S. looks like a longer haired version of Aldous Snow (the rock star character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and at other times he looks like a member of the McPoyle family (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), so, not a group that is going to be appearing any CK ads anytime soon. But, we all know that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and so even if you don't want to invite E.S. and the M.Z.s out with you to the Klubs, you really ought to check out their album Up From Below.

Why? Aren't they like every other hippy, love-in, commune sort of band you ask? Well, in number, appearance, and outlook, yes; but their music is not something that you need to be on your way to a sit-in or some type of protest to enjoy. Like the Sgt. Pepper's Beatles meets the big epic band sound of the Arcade Fire E.S. and the M.Z.s craft hopeful sounding songs with great clappy and snappy sounding choruses...

Short of time and heading out to see Olenka and the Autumn Lovers (London!), the Wilderness of Manitoba, and Slow Down Molasses at the Garrison tonight. Hopefully some thoughts and photos from that later on...

[mp3] Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros - 40 Day Dream (live Daytrotter)

"Home" on Letterman

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing
Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan

Let's Book Club: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace, part 1

2009-10-27T10:43:00.001-04:00

I mentioned when writing about Brief Interviews with Hideous Men how maddening, at times, David Foster Wallace can be to read. He's the kind of guy that doesn't let you rest -- he doesn't waste words, he's always probing, challenging, testing you, and his writing is just so dense, that it can get pretty exhausting after a while. Of course, on the flip side, this is also the best part of his writing -- how he breaks down everyday life things with such detail and nuance, and, consequently, elucidates the quirks and in our personalities/interactions/cultures, etc..

As a side note, if my writing has seemed even more convoluted and difficult to read lately then I would chalk that up to me sub-consciously mimicking DFW.

At any rate, given the challenge of getting through a DFW book, let alone a book of full of 40 - 70 page essays, I thought I'd read about the first half of the book, write about it, pick up another book, and then give the second half a go. But, given that there's no real unifying theme - as far as I can tell (and I'm highly caffeinated at the moment) - I thought I'd write a quick (or possibly long) blurb about each of the first three essays.

1. "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley"
DSiTA is about Foster Wallace's junior tennis experience in rural Illinois. FW explains how he, in Brad Gilbertian fashion, became one of the best players in his area at 14 by learning to play with the wind (consequently, he describe that was the peak of his tennis results). More than anything, I think, this essay validates the piece that DFW wrote about Roger Federer in the New York Times Magazine a few years ago ("Roger Federer as Religious Experience")... the guy knows, at least a little bit, tennis.

Tangent: Also, it kind of made me nostalgic, but in a, I can't believe how serious and specialized sports have become. Given that DFW is (or was, I guess) precisely twenty years my senior, junior tennis, I'm sure, had evolved between his and my time. But, I feel like, post-2000 the rate of change - with junior tennis, as with everything else - has been significantly more rapid. If DSiTA were set in 2009, DFW playing on public courts with friends, would've been left in the dust. The kids he competed against would've been playing tournaments since they were nine, strength and speed training since they were eleven, and even the mediocre players would only be going to school for only a half day to fit in their training... not to mention the two or three best kids in the area would've left to go to an IMG Academy in Chicago or Florida. Ugh.

2. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction"
This essay illustrates perfectly what I find so interesting and maddening about DFW. The whole premise of the essay, which I confess I don't entirely understand, is that television is a reflection of what we, as a society, want to see -- and possibly, that fiction writers don't understand and/or take that seriously enough. Now, I guess the trouble with the essay, for me at least, is that I think DFW is trying to make a point, but I don't entirely get what he's quote "really trying to say". There's enough interesting sort of sub-points along the way, that it doesn't really matter, I guess, but I feel like this is the sort of essay that makes me feel like I wish I'd taken at least one or two English classes through University.

Also, as an aside, it's interesting how - given the time b/w the writing of this essay (mid-90s) and my reading of it (last week) - many of the points still ring true, although you'd have to replace "VCR" with "DVR" and/or "Cable" with "Satelitte" or "the internet" etc.

3. "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All"
I think the essay that I've got the most out of, so far. The essay is written from DFW's perspective as a Harpers' (not Harper's Bazaar) feature writer going back to rural Illinois to go to the State Fair. Amid discussion and description of Middle America, there's an interesting discussion on community and the difference b/w what the rural do for leisure (get together with people: State Fair) and what city folk do (get away from people).

Of course, the best parts of the essay involve DFW's almost scientific curiosity with everything surrounding the fair: the carnies (small hands), the patrons, the participants in various events, and how he can write about the experience as though it's like he's encountered alien life. This is sort of strange considering he is from rural Illinois, but while he's from there, given his parentage (both, I think, University professors), it's not surprising that he doesn't feel that sense of community with the fair patrons/participants that he describes.

.... expect part two in a month or so... I've just begun reading The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein, and based on how angry it's made me I think it's entirely likely that I'll be finished it by the end of the week...

The Invention of Lying

2009-10-24T11:26:00.001-04:00

Ricky Gervais is a very funny dude, but, given that he appeared -- possibly even starred in -- a movie called Ghost Town that looked positively putrid, I had pretty low expectations for The Invention of Lying. I mean, the Rom-Com genre tends to castrate the funniest of funny comedians, see: Rock, Chris... look at his filmography, ugh. Why The Invention of Lying you ask? Well, it was on at the right time and a certain someone, let's call her E.Lizardbreath for anonymity's sake, didn't want to go to a late, late, movie b/c she had to work in the morning.

Surprisingly, however, the movie was pretty good for a Rom-Com. A good date movie for sure.

The premise of the film is pretty self explanitory, there's a world where there is no deceit, deception, or evading the truth, and Ricky G. figures out that he can say things that are not true. This, I think, is a pretty interesting concept that was actually discussed on a Bill Simmons Podcast not too long ago: take a lot of the things we take for granted, writing, for example. Imagine the first guy, or conceivably gal, to say maybe I should take this rock and scratch this other rock (or whatever) and make some type of mark so I can remember (some important thing). It's pretty incredible, if you think about it.

At any rate, the film derives some pretty hilarious moments from both the blunt -- "you are short and fat and have a snub nose", and the ridiculous "we need to have sex or the world's going to end", but also the observational humour and the way that we sugar coat or tip toe or rework what we want to say to make people feel better. In that sense it's a really interesting bit of pop-psychology, as is most good comedy, I guess.

So, in conclusion, if you're interested in seeing something easy, light, entertaining, that you'll feel pretty good about at the end The Invention of Lying is a good move.

Exchanging e-mails with... That's the Spirit

2009-10-23T10:36:00.003-04:00

Now that I've got a little more time on my hands I think I'm going to start up this "Exchanging e-mails with..." segment again. It's been really interesting getting some insight from different bands/artists and figuring out what their life with music is like: what their goals are, their motivation, what tours are like, etc.. Hopefully it's an interesting read, but, if not, I think it makes me a slightly better (sort of) music blogger...

This time around I bounced some electronic mails back and forth with Ottawa singer-songwriter That's the Spirit (Pick of the Week #40), or, Ben Wilson.

* * *

Ben.

So, I guess the first thing I'm sort of curious about is how you respond to reviews both from blogs and from "real" print media, and how successful you think you've been in getting reviews? I think, at this point, it seems like getting someone to write about you seems like it must be a challenge. I mean, I don't run a big operation here, but I'm getting all kinds of emails from all kinds of people -- and especially PR companies.

BTW - I'm not sure if you saw the Nilsson videos that I linked to when I wrote about your album, but the Ringo narrated version is pretty brutal so I hope you weren't/aren't offended...

Rob

* * *

Not at all. But I was wondering whether you thought I might be on acid, or had a pointy head...

Staying Places was the first time I released an album into the world of blogs and internets, so yeah, at first it was daunting, and a little bit upsetting. I really thought people would like it, but the Pitchforks, the Stereogums and the Brooklynveganses, etc. weren't answering my emails and I never took into account that they're getting hundreds of similar emails a day, from trusted sources. I had no idea what I was doing; I was pretty naive and thought the 'big ones' are the ones that decide whether or not your record is good enough...that my music would speak for itself in this new democratized blog world where 'cool people my age are deciding what gets press'!

It sounds kind of stupid but it's easy to let that stuff get to you, you know? Especially when things are so new. But despite the challenges I think the record's had a good run so far in terms of press and blog reviews. And in the end, nothing's better than having someone see a show or listen to the CD and like it so much they start genuinely forcing people to listen to the songs - when you feel you've really connected somehow, which is worth a thousand articles really. So I just take things in stride.

b

* * *

Ben.

Acid, pointy head, whatever, I'm not one to judge. Although, I'm kind of curious what inspired your whole sound. Is it something that you try and work at to create some sort of affect, or is it just what music sounds like when you play it? I often wonder with albums like yours, or others like any of Beirut's albums, the Sufjan Stevens state albums, Bruce Peninsula, Timber Timbre, etc. etc. etc. how you create a sound that seems to create an entire world or something. I think that's something really unique about Staying Places that I don't see on a lot of other albums. I'm very curious to your response to this one, because the only explanation I can think of is that you watched/read the Phantom Tollbooth repeatedly as a kid.

On the second point, re: being discouraged about stuff on the internet I completely understand because that's essentially what I went through when I tried to figure out how to start a blog. I know almost literally nothing about computers and so when I decided that I wanted to do it -- the third or fourth time -- I started emailing guys that ran the blogs that I read and basically no one answered back. Finally, a couple of people Ack at the Herohill, Matthew at i(heart)music and Allan at AWmusic, Paul at the now basically defunct Wolves, Hawks and Kites (but also of Zunior) all turned out to be very helpful -- in fact, Allan actually hosts all the mp3s here and I write a weekly, sometimes more, post at his site. It's the same things that keeps this site going, getting emails, people leaving comments, that makes you feel good about what you're doing.

Now that I've made this about me... I'm wondering what the best feedback or the best comments you've got on your music are? Best show moment? Place you'd most like to play? What would be the best possible break for you right now?

And lastly, so we don't run out of stuff to talk about, since I'm in the midst of doing my write up for the hottest Canadian Bands Poll, do you have any suggestions?

Rob

* * *

Phantom Tollbooth - nice. Funny you should tie in the children's book theme(s) too. The cover art was made for me the year I was born by my uncle, a children's author named Tim Wynne-Jones. There is something child-like to the record, thematically - the travel theme is something everyone can relate to I think. The endless car trips with the family as a kid, the constant desire to be somewhere else...

My sound just comes out, i really don't try to sound like anything. except that i usually write around a theme, since i don't want to have albums that are just collections of songs. in terms of the creativity question, you can't really create in a vacuum. any music you create, whether you like it or not, has to come at least in part from the neural synapses, sounds you've heard recently. i listen to a lot of classical and orchestral stuff as well as a lot of indie rock, and whatever's lying around. but it's those two worlds, classical and indie-rock-folk-whatev, i feel most comfortable in, that's what i grew up with, and i guess as a result that often comes out as 'bedroom folk music that's maybe just slightly challenging'?!

I think there's a lot of 'hot' bands in Canada, which is great, but I'm a bit jaded and picky about what I think is truly artful. The artists I'm obsessing over at the moment would have to include tune-yards, lightning dust, timber timbre... and snailhouse and yellow jacket avenger will always be on that list. But local is where it's at. Everyone should make a point of spending at least a weekend or two going to see bands from their own town that they've never heard. I'm always surprised to hear what i hear, when i get a chance to go out just because i'm curious to hear stuff...music that's often way before the point band members decide 'it's time to monetize this'! There's the drunken bar bands and the serious metal bands and the singer-songwriters in restaurants fighting to be heard above all the talking...for me it's not as exciting to see folks that have been trying to perfect the same set, or worse, the same banter, for years. There's something real and inspiring about getting out to see a fledgling local band or artist that's just a sort of intangible inspiration because it comes from a real place.

b

* * *

Ben.

Sorry about the delay - things have been... well, I bought both NHL '09 and NCAA Football '09 and I've been watching a lot of TV. So, no real good reason for being slow.

That's really cool about the album art and your uncle... I think that might be where I'm getting that Phantom Tollbooth vibe from.

And I completely agree re: people seeing local music. It's kind of a shame for me that I just started to get into the London (On) scene right before I left, then, it was too late. But Toronto has been awesome - there are so many bands and so much going on that it is basically impossible to keep track of. One extreme to another. What's the scene like where you're at? Ottawa, right?

That said, and I do really like local, small venue sort of stuff -- but aren't there times where you really want to see someone who is really, really, really, good? Typically, I think, that doesn't happen in small venues -- at least for long. I mean, if you're really good (typically) you move on to bigger venues/audiences, more money, endorsements, your own clothing line.... thoughts?

Rob

* * *

I've been meaning to get back to my Wii Zelda myself!! Somday soon....working too hard these days.

The Ottawa music scene is kind of small - Ottawa's really just a village-like capital city. But it depends on how you look at it I guess - like every city there are a tonne of bands doing really different things - it's only small in the number of them that appeal to the indie rock/folk/experimental-type CBC-radio 3 friendly crowd. I love it here. Ottawa's small enough to be recognized easily in the music community and get gigs fairly often, but big enough to carry some weight in Toronto and Montreal where the crowds are. Some amazing artists right now - there's the Kelp Records clan (the Acorn, Hilotrons, etc), a new band called The Gallop that are fantastic, Poorfolk/Winchester Warm and the White Whale gang, anything Paul Granger is doing, and some new favourites like the Balconies...nearly every weekend there's a good local band playing. Ming Wu (local photographer)'s website and natcaprock.blogspot.com are good sources to catch up on all things local rock....the scene is really growing and folks are coming out to more shows, which is great.

But yeah, sometimes I just want to see a touring band that is just insanely tight and talented. Zaphod's is a great spot for that, since it's big enough for a lot of national touring acts but still pretty intimate, and has amazing sound. The thing about Ottawa is we're not always the most adventurous sort here. We're a lot of public servants, I guess, so lots of good restaurants around, but we're not so much the late-night music venue-goers. Which is good in that awesome bands like Said the Whale, Two Hours Traffic or Amy Millan will still play Zaphod's (just 180 capacity I think)...but bad too, in that getting people to come to the local shows is still a challenge. I tend to stay away from the bigger hall- or theatre-type shows unless there's something really amazing in town, which isn't that often.

b

* * *

Ben.

Yeah, I get that - re: the types of show goers. London is, or at least was, the same sort of crowd except replace civil servants with rich university students. From what I can gather, that may have started to turn around a little bit -- now we (they) have the London Live Arts Festival which is free, and they've got some relatively big names in the past few years: Final Fantasy, Grizzly Bear, and, actually, that's where I first came across the Acorn (who are probably one of my top-10 Canadian artists of the last 3/4 years).

I always felt like, with London at least, half the problem was getting a venue that would fit bands like -- I don't know Chad VanGaalen, Great Lake Swimmers, etc. the sort of top-level "indie" bands. The kind of venues like Toronto has in spades: Lee's Palace, the Horseshoe, El Mocambo, and on and on and on. I feel retarded for not going to more shows, but I feel like there must be like 20 of those kind of venues in Toronto. Do you think the scenes are tied to the venues i.e. a "Field of Dreams" sort of thing -- "If you built [the venues] they will come?". Does that make any sense?

If there's anything else you want to say - or plug - please feel free to do so. I think we're starting to reach the point where very few people are actually going to read this (though it's been fun) except possibly my parents (to check that I'm not doing drugs)...

Rob

* * *

Yeah, one of the cool things about Ottawa, though, is that there are lots more tiny venues (like, under 100 capacity) popping up, which is great, since it adds a sense of community where smaller or less-known artists can get together, and not be constantly under pressure to sell beer (i.e. get hundrends of bums in seats) for the clubs which is just impossible sometimes. That said I think we still need a mid- to large-size venue in Ottawa that would appeal to agents for bands like Iron & Wine or Fleet Foxes etc. who always skip over our fair city! Though bands like that do come eventually when they're on the 'sympathy tours' (those tours hitting the towns they didn't hit when their records came out 2 years ago....)

well then I just want to give a shout out to your folks. hey Rob's parents! and anyone else out there!

b

A friendly reminder that you can check out Ben's music on myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/thatsthespirit or you can purchase Staying Places for only $5.55 at Zunior.

[mp3] That's the Spirit - Head for the Hills
[mp3] That's the Spirit - It's Curtains for You

Pick of the Week #42: Dan Mangan

2009-10-22T19:43:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of singer-songwriter/guy-with-a-guitar types out there, here's why: 1/ it's a relatively easy genre to get into -- in 00s, to put out an album you need a guitar and a Mac; 2/ there's a relatively low degree of difficulty putting together a s-s album -- it's hard, unless you have zero talent, to sound really bad; 3/ it's a great way to score chicks -- see Mayer, John; and, b/c of reasons 1, 2, and 3 there is a sort of self-perpetuating cycle where, it appears at least, to be an ever increasing number of singer-songwriter/guy-with-a-guitar types out there. And though my evidence is purely anecdotal, I definitely get way more singer-songwriter albums sent my way than anything else.

So, given all this, Dan Mangan and his album Nice, Nice, Very Nice is all the more impressive.

The album starts off with "Road Regrets", which, if you were to just listen to the guitar part, could be virtually any song written by a non-descript white person in the last 30 years (although, thinking about it, that's not uncommon with s/s material). But what makes "Road Regrets", for me at least, is Mangan's heartwarming nice-guy-with-a-beard gruff but somehow sweet vocals. It's the sound of a traveller telling stories, but you're not quite sure how much of any given story is fact and how much is fiction; and he's not doing it maliciously, maybe just to entertain himself, or those listening.

There's the aesthetic and a (seemingly) sensitive side ("The Indie Queens are Waiting", "Fair Verona", etc.), but there's also just enough funny, quirky, sort of lyrics -- like the whole chorus on "Robots": Robots need love too, they want to loved by you/They want to be loved by you; or his self depricating admittal that: I'm ambitious when giving up.

While success, and by success I mean making money, depends on a whole variety of things that have nothing to do with music, Dan Mangan has all the ingredients to become a fixture in Canadian music for years to come. He writes music that's interesting, accessible, but there's a real lot of substance (whatever that means) in his words... in any event, I'm looking forward to the next album... no rush though Dan... whenever you're ready...

[mp3] Dan Mangan - Robots

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit
Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing

Well, it's not a disaster (like the Bay of Pigs)...

2009-10-20T20:01:00.004-04:00

I suspect a fairly substantial number of (LO)BM's readership is familiar with the work of the New Pornographers (except for my parents). Probably slightly fewer peeps are into or familiar with individual Pornographers: AC Newman, Neko Case, and the subject of today's post, Dan Bejar aka Destroyer.

I've never been a real active fan of Destroyer (which is the reason there isn't a whole lot of Destroyer talk here). There's always been something a little too arty, or this sort of poetic air to his songs that have always just put me off. I mean, really, who wears a scarf inside (photo)... c'mon! Despite my misgivings about Bejar's whole aesthetic, he writes (or sings) my favourite Pornographers songs and Destroyer's Rubies [2006] has somehow - possibly b/c the first 4 songs are truly outstanding - become a real go to album for me, like, I'd give it serious consideration for top-20 of the 00s kind of good.

So, given my distaste for the whole aesthetic but my secret love for his songwriting, I was ready to completely write of the whole Bay of Pigs EP - 13 mins. "Bay of Pigs" + 8 mins "Ravers" - as, well, a Bay of Pigs like disaster (I suspect that probably wasn't what he was trying to do with that title). I'm not sure it's my favourite, it's slow, there's some electronicness in it, and there are geniunely points in the title track where, when you're doing something else and listening you wonder whether the song is actually on, but I suppose that's Bejar.

Even with all that experimentation, there's definitely something there that people who like Bejar in the first place are going to really appreciate -- unless they forgot the album was on and went and did something else. Bay of Pigs, I don't think, will win over any new fans, but it should give Bejarophiles something to sink their teeth into. If you're new to Bejar, personally, I'd start with the song "An Actor's Revenge" and then move your way into Destoyer's Rubies... but that's just me...

[mp3] Destroyer - Bay of Pigs

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

2009-10-17T10:03:00.003-04:00

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (Liz thinks I should be using is here, and I suspect she's right, but it just doesn't sound as good) are my new favourite band. I've been spending any free time I've had the last couple of days watching Youtube of them perform a pile of different songs... it's pretty awesome stuff. Stuff that I think a lot, maybe all of you are going to enjoy.

I'm not sure this is the kind of group that I'd want to hang out with on a Friday night -- they remind me too much of the McPoyles (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)... just a strange sort of group. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not interested in seeing them when they swing by Toronto's El Mocambo on November 24th. In fact, quite the opposite. They seem like the type of band, especially given their size (numbers, not weight of the members), where I wouldn't be surprised by just about anything happening during/at their live show.

Kudos to my buddy Elliot for recommending these guys...

... now this is more like it...

Pick of the Week #41: The Ghost is Dancing

2009-10-15T11:07:00.002-04:00

Often, I think our favourite albums are ones that get you at the right time and place. Hayden's Everything I Long For was the perfect album for me in 9th grade to moap in my room to about how my parents didn't understand, Beirut's Gulag Orkestar was a great album to listen to while I lived in a horrible, moldy, basement apt in Seoul, SK and it turns out, The Ghost is Dancing's Battles On has been a perfect fit when attempting to deal with people who take their recreational activites far, far, far too seriously.

This whole time-place-mood thing probably explains why, although the band was good enough to send me their CD in April, I hadn't written about it. It just never seemed like the time to put on the boy/girl rock/pop album. And much like last week's pick, That's the Spirit, it's an album that has grown on my steadily since the spring. Otherwise, the distinctions between the two albums really couldn't be much different.

While TtS had the whimsical nature of children's adventure stories like The Point and The Phantom Tollbooth, tGiD's Battles On is reminiscent of the sort of epic fights that you get into with significant others when you're in a really unhealthy relationship, or the kind of fights that you get into with your parents during adolescence. The album has that sort of ebb and flow of one of those epic fights: talking firmly using 'I' statements, raising your voice a little bit, yelling, crying, yelling while crying, taking a break to calm down, resume yelling while crying and repeat. These aren't just spats, lovers quirrels, these are the sort of fights that you remember years later -- the make or break sort of fights, you survive, it signals the beginning of the end, or, I guess, it's the end of the end.

And this, to me, is what Battles On really captures, but it makes you feel like whatever happens, whatever you said (or they said about you) you're going to get through it, be okay, and come out even stronger. At any rate, if you're going through some type of battle yourself and you like the poppy-'indie'-rock-boy-girl thing, then this may just be the album for you.

[mp3] The Ghost is Dancing - This Thunder
[mp3] The Ghost is Dancing - Old Children

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen
Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit

Either the PM is a lot cooler than we thought, or, he continues to be the creepy kitten eater we always knew he was...

2009-10-12T00:07:00.006-04:00

When Canada's PM is not frightening (or eating) kittens, or hanging out and jamming with Yo Yo Ma, he likes himself some some good ole fashion "indie" rock... apparently. How do I know? Well, like many others, I subscribe to the Rural Alberta Advantage's twitter feed, where yesterday they tweeted "OMG! RAA on Prime Minister Harper's road trip mixtape (between Chuck Berry and AC/DC) http://tinyurl.com/yz33mkd". Uhhh, yeah.

I guess the first question on everyone's mind has to be, huh? Does anyone really believe that Stephen, or Steve, is listening to the RAA? And, presuming of course that this was the work of a clever staffer trying to score Steve some cool points with the Canadian 'indie' rock/music blog community... really? I'm not sure the Hype Machine crowd is going to go from not voting, or voting like most city dwellers vote (Green/NDP/Lib) over to the Conservatives because of a single trendy music selection. I mean, if we were really going to give Steve Harper (sorry, it's just more fun to call him Steve) an image makeover wouldn't we start with the big-sweep-side-part hair do? Maybe get him in a t-shirt?

Of course, the alternative is that the PM has actually come into contact with the music of the Rural Alberta Advantage, which seems, at the very least, odd. You've got to (or I have been) wonder how the RAA feels about that (presuming of course that we share the same - highly negative - opinion of our PM)?

[mp3] The Rural Alberta Advantage - Don't Haunt this Place
[mp3] The Rural Alberta Advantage - Barnesyard (live @ Daytrotter)

Edit: Hat tip (happy?) Rosie for passing along this discussion of whether or not Steve (continues to be amusing) Harper was lip-syncing or using other performance enhancers when he played with Yo Yo Ma.

Best New TV Show '09 - '10? Modern Family

2009-10-10T12:11:00.001-04:00

Generally, network TV - meaning, ABC/NBC/CBS - has been firing out a giant load of crap since sometime around the end of Seinfeld. Or, actually, sometime around after the 7th season of Seinfeld. I mean, with the exception of the Office and Friday Night Lights -- if FNL counts b/c of the DirectTV deal -- there has not been anything there really hasn't been virtually anything watchable (oh, I guess Arrested Development - but it got canceled, and Chuck - almost canceled).

Usually, and I think there's some type of multiplier effect for sit-coms, there are really awful broadly drawn characters spouting catch phrases at each other... with the odd pun thrown in for good measure. And if someone had tried to explain Modern Family it probably would've sounded something like another one of those shows: gay couple with adopted baby, family with a dad trying to be cool getting to know daughter's boyfriend, the wound to tight mother who has to fix everything, hard ass grandfather, etc. and so on.

Somehow though, Modern Family misses the trappings those other sit-coms and comes across -- or has come across through three episodes -- as much sharper. The characters, in particular, the three father figures played by Al Bundy, Ty Burrell "The Cool Dad", and the gay fathers Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet are all a little different, quirky, and their mockumentary style interviews rival some of the best that the Office has to offer.

Now, I'm not sure whether its the mockumentary style that works so well -- quick, name a mockumentary style show/movie that really hasn't worked -- but whether its that, or just that its been a well written show (through three episodes) I think it's going to be the best new show of '09 - '10. Normally that might not be saying much, but, actually, Community isn't half bad either...

Pick of the Week #40: That's the Spirit

2009-10-09T10:17:00.002-04:00

That's the Spirit's Staying Places has been on my computer since sometime around the end of last year, maybe early this year. Since then, whenever that was, I've put the record on roughly once a month and every time I've said to myself, hmph (or something like that) this is a pretty good record, and then I've gone about the rest of my morning/afternoon/evening. So, when I put it on the other day I figured being a (sort of) music blogger this is probably something I ought to write about.

Ironically, with an album titled Staying Places, Ben Wilson (That's the Spirit) was created that reminds me a lot of Harry Nilsson's The Point. For those of you that had parents did not make them listen to this cassette tape ad nauseum on family car trips (and are unwilling to check the link), The Point is a weird little tale about a boy who doesn't have a point on his head in a land of people who do, and he consequently gets banished from the kingdom, goes on a long strange sort of journey, and then, of course, he returns to his town to find that he does, in fact, have a point on his head.

That might seem like a strange connection, I realize. After all, Staying Places isn't a story or a cohesive narrative, but it feels like Ben Wilson is taking you on a trip of sorts, even it is sort of imagined, which, in my estimation, is more fun anyways. He kind of hints throughout the album at themes of navigation, traveling, meeting people along the way, but the instrumentation (and the cover art, above) on the album all hint that this is taking place in some sort of Point or Phantom Tollboothesque universe.

I guess the point (no pun intended) of all this is that, much like my experience with The Point -- which I now love -- is that it took a while for me to come around on it. Not that I disliked it at the beginning, but more that the more time I spent with it the more I came to really dig that whole universe. I'm having that same sort of relationship now with Staying Places, and the world that Ben Wilson has created, and I suspect if you are a fan of any sort of folk music at all, you'll feel the same way.

Now if you'll excuse me, someone has uploaded the entire 1971 movie version of The Point on youtube (narrated by Ringo Starr!), so, you know...

Update: I watched it last night and turns out Ringo's narration and the animation leave a lot to be desired. It really did not hold up as well as I'd thought. So, if you check it out, please don't hold that against Ben Wilson aka That's the Spirit...

[mp3] That's the Spirit - Orienteering
[mp3] That's the Spirit - Head for the Hills

Pick of the Week #1: Ketch Harbour Wolves
Pick of the Week #2: Rah Rah
Pick of the Week #3: Glasvegas/Animal Collective
Pick of the Week #4: Bruce Peninsula
Pick of the Week #5: The Antlers
Pick of the Week #6: The Darcys
Pick of the Week #7: Ohbijou (Swift Feet for Troubling Times)
Pick of the Week #8: Gentlemen Husbands
Pick of the Week #9: Chris Whitley
Pick of the Week #10: Alela Diane
Pick of the Week #11: K'naan
Pick of the Week #12: TOR/Sufjan Stevens
Pick of the Week #13: Timber Timbre
Pick of the Week #14: Justis
Pick of the Week #15: Hibiscus & Rosehips Compilation
Pick of the Week #16: Patrick Watson
Pick of the Week #17: Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
Pick of the Week #18: The Liptonians
Pick of the Week #19: Sunparlour Players
Pick of the Week #20: Black Hat Brigade
Pick of the Week #21: Howie Beck
Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops
Pick of the Week #23: Still Life Still
Pick of the Week #24: Hayden
Pick of the Week #25: Snailhouse
Pick of the Week #26: Dog Day
Pick of the Week #27: Ohbijou (Beacons)
Pick of the Week #28: Dog is Blue
Pick of the Week #29: Parkas
Pick of the Week #30: The Wooden Sky
Pick of the Week #31: Bowerbirds
Pick of the Week #32: Miss Maya
Pick of the Week #33: Ben Folds Presents ...
Pick of the Week #34: Mantis
Pick of the Week #35: Diamond Rings
Pick of the Week #36: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Pick of the Week #37: Asher Roth
Pick of the Week #38: Julie Doiron
Pick of the Week #39: Chad VanGaalen

"Robots" by Dan Mangan

2009-10-07T20:21:00.000-04:00

[Photo: Jonathan Taggart]

It seems like in the last month or so I've been hearing (reading, actually) a lot about this Dan Mangan character. People (other music bloggers) have been saying really nice things, like, for example, "[i]t's hard to believe that this new collection of stellar songs won't help him leave each tour stop with countless new fans in his corner". So, step one for me was to check out some of the free mp3s from his new record Nice, Nice, Very Nice.

One of those singles happened to be "Robots", as you may have guessed. On the face of it, "Robots" is relatively standard singer-songwriter fare -- he starts off strumming the guitar, a little light drumming comes in, we slow down a little, get a little quieter, and we have the formula for basically every dude with a guitar song written in the last twenty years.

Of course, this isn't the entire story... Once you get past the intro the song becomes inherently more interesting both musically and thematically. We get some horns that slowly start to seep in, the texture of Mangan's voice starts to vary a little bit, it becomes more expressive, and, additionally, also, the backing vocals gradually build to the point where we have a whole chorus of people explaining to us that "robots need love too", which, well, that's just good information to have. Thematically, the whole robots thing is just kind of a quirky, fun, way to tell what might have been, again, a pretty standard singer-songwriter tune.

On the strength of "Robots" I ended up picking up Nice, Nice, Very Nice from my local record store, and I'm thinking that this may end up being one of my favourite singer-songwriter records of the year... that is, if the rest of the record is this good...

[mp3] Dan Mangan - Robots

... a huge group of people singing the chorus... terrific...

Let's Book Club!: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

2009-10-06T09:32:00.001-04:00

So, yeah, I finished another book. Finally. I think I'm feeling a little back to school guilt i.e. I'm not in school now, but it's September, okay, October -- but it's the fall -- which is a time when you ought be thinking/learning/growing, or, alternatively, pretending to think/learn/grow.

After attempting (and failing) to read The Infinite Jest at least a couple of times, but knowing that Foster Wallace is an incredibly interesting/challenging writer, I thought that his book of short stories, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, would be a good warm-up (or, at the very least, I was curious to read the book before seeing the movie). Well, after reading through the bulk - say, the last third - of the book in the last two days or so I daresay that getting through The Infinite Jest seems pretty unlikely in the near future. It's certainly not that DFW is not a great writer, because there is no question that he is, but he may be too good, or, just too experimental at different points to get through 1,000 plus pages of tIJ (w/ footnotes).

The experimentation, at certain points during certain stories, works well -- e.g. the whole concept of omitting the interviewer's questions in the "Brief Interviews". Where I have the most trouble with DFW is when he gets into the overly technical/scientific/futuristic language/plots/sub-plots/footnotes which just requires so, so, so, much energy to concentrate and follow along.

The flip side to the technical/experimental nature of his writing is that often the technical/experimental nature leads to some really stunning sort of depth/complexity/nuance that he can find in the most basic human interactions. That, and again, with the B.I.s, the way DFW draws up these incredibly strange, neurotic, sick, bizarre, men with these strange, neurotic, sick, bizarre sexual experiences. Some of the B.I.s left me laughing out loud, some of them left me looking around, sort of incredulous, in a - did anyone else see/read that b/c I can't believe that someone put something that shockingly, hilariously, strange on paper, and at other points I was just left speechless.

For me, the saddest point of the book was the foreshadowing of the third last story "Suicide as a Sort of Present" (this will make more sense if you know that DFW committed suicide late last year). Who knows, maybe there's nothing there, but the way I read it, and how clearly he elucidates the anxiety and pain and the unmet expectations of the woman in the story makes you feel the struggle he must've been going through himself toward the end of/throughout his life. At any rate, despite how tough spots of this book are to get through, it's well worth reading for its unequivocal moments of brilliance.

Grade: A

Up next: More DFW, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do AgainA

Movie Trailer dir. by John Krasinski

1. The Inner Game of Tennis | Timothy Gallwey (134 pages) | A
2. The Last Shot | Darcy Frey (240 pages) | A+
3. The Road | Cormac McCarthy (287 pages) | A+
4. Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell (299 pages) | C+
5. The Last Season | Phil Jackson (304 pages) | B-
6. The Sunset Limited | Cormac McCarthy (160 pages)| B-
7. The Education of a Coach | David Halberstam (288 pages)| B+
8. Downtown Owl | Chuck Klosterman | (288 pages)| B
9. Can I Keep My Jersey?| Paul Shirley| (336 pages)|C-
10. Then We Came to The End| Joshua Ferris| (416 pages)|B+
11. Friday Night Lights| H.G. Bissinger|(400 pages)|A++
12. Strokes of Genius| L. Jon Wertheim|(208 pages)|B
13. Who's Your City| Richard Florida|( 345 pages)|C
14. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men| (336 pages)|A