I'm a sucker for a good horror movie (an even bigger sucker for a horrible horror movie), a few friends, and doing scary things like wander up to a cemetery at midnight ( esp. Stepp Cemetary) or exploring an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Indy even has an abandoned asylum and an abandoned [...]
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 [...]
I went to a life altering show last night, and I'm going to another one tonight, so I figured that I'd better get off of my round rump and review last week's excellent show at The Garrison before the backlog gets too ridiculous to handle. The promotional teaming of two of the city's finest, namely Dan Wolovick of TWM fame, and Tyler Wade of Zygiella fame, couldn't help but boast a lineup that would satisfy the need of every local music loving hipster in town. This was my first time checking out [...]
I hope that you're enjoying my deliberately dragged out and unabashedly self indulgent list of the top 50 albums of the decade , as selected by me; but I currently interrupt the countdown to bring to you this very special announcement and contest. There have been many exhilarating unions made in the past: Superman and Muhammad Ali ; Run DMC and Aerosmith , and Vodka and Red Bull come to mind, but none have had the universal impact that is sure to result from the joining of forces that is to take place [...]
We haven't or at least I haven't been personally great with promoting local talent and admittedly I'd like to take the time to do so every now and then. Four great local bands, not all from Toronto but from the surrounding areas and are playing a show at The Garrison on Saturday November 28th. I'm familiar with two of the bands, The Germans and Black Hat Brigade. The Germans opened for a Vampire Weekend show an without knowing any of their material, they showed off good stage presence. Black Hat Brigade , I know particularly [...]
I have been working on a party mix for Halloween, for no reason other than I just like to do that kind of thing. It currently consists of 132 songs, and I am trying to wittle it down but it seems like every time I take one out, I put another one in. The selection includes not just obvious must-haves like Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party;" but also things that just sound kind of weird or spooky, like Caribou's "Irene" and Lindsey Buckingham's "Slow Dancing." Remixes are well-represented with examples like [...]
Some of you may be aware of the awesomeness that is Black Hat Brigade . If so, you are likely aware that both their self-titled debut , as well as their sort of recently released Fathers (Pick of the Week #20) , were both stupendous records and some of my favourite recordings over the past couple of years. That, and their live show is pretty fun too. What you may not be aware of (until you saw the post title) was that the band has put together their first video [...]
Image by Jack Dylan Here is part 4 of who I might or will see at Pop Montreal on Oct 3rd. 1:15pm: Faust at Espace Reunion which is a Symposium 7:30pm: End Of A Year at Underworld 8pm: Diamond Rings at Carbaret Juste Pour Rire Options: Daehyun Kim at Green Room 9pm: Kyrie Kristmanson at Calgibi Options: Centretown Cripplers at Il Motore 10pm: Rich Aucoin at L'Escogriffe Options: Katie Stelmanis at Casa Del Popolo The Balconies at Il Motore (MUST [...]
This past weekend featured a collection of some of the greatest live music I've seen in a while. Unfortunately, I missed the first day which featured Sadie Hell , Still Life Still , Parlovr , and Converters . Word is that Still Life Still and Parlovr killed it in front of a less than sizable crowd. Friday, featured The Balconies , The Love Machine , Modernboys Moderngirls , and Oh No Forest Fires . As far as energy goes, this was [...]
A little while ago I introduced you the excellent Toronto based band Black Hat Brigade . The five piece band released a wonderful EP last year that contained 5 songs of explosive joy. Now they have been hard at work and have recently released "Fathers", an EP in name but LP by nature as it clocks in at just over 30 minutes and contains 8 tunes to make you smile. This band is very good at producing the kind of music that makes me smile. Glorious melodies, vibrant and explosive guitar, urgent passages, unique and striking vocals and crisp [...]
Enjoy your weekend, fölks. Now, Now Every Children "Everyone You Know" from Cars Black Hat Brigade "Zombie City Shake" from Fathers EP The Octopus Project "Wet Gold" from Golden Beds Lou Barlow "Gravitate" from Goodnight Unknown Monsters of Folk "Say Please" from s/t (M. Ward, Jim James, Mike Mogis, & Conor Oberst) Rock out with the Umlaut every Friday .
![Black Hat Brigade: "Fathers" [Album Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/1869810_lg.jpg)
Many would argue that, when it comes to decade-old genres, it becomes harder and harder to write that which stands alone as unique. The same has been said over and over about post-rock, yet Black Hat Brigade seem to be creating a sound that, at least to some extent, is proprietary. After a brief single for their track "Zombie City Shake", they now give us an EP titled "Fathers" . "Zombie City Shake" shows just how unique a band Black Hat Brigade can be, adding vocals and dropping in [...]
It's mid-July, and here come the tomatoes! Little grape tomatoes, pear-shaped yellow tomatoes, and gobs of the most ginormous tomatoes I have ever grown. The big one above is almost the size of a softball. This is only what I picked yesterday. A lot more are on the way. Soon we will be eating them for lunch and dinner and on our breakfast cereal and giving them away to neighbors and co-workers. Sadly, I cannot figure out how to make them available to you for download. This photo is the only way they digitize. [...]
In part because ranking things is fun (particularly things that are un-rankable), and in part because I feel as though its important that I beat you all over the head with the stuff that I really like, I've come up with my 10 favourite albums (so far) of 2009. There was no real attempt at making this a thorough, scientific, list, or anything other than a snap-shot of what I think is good at the moment. There's approximately a 100% possibility that my year end list will not resemble this list in the slightest, but that's just because [...]
SURPRISES! Surprises keep my life interesting. The other night I pried myself away from my Mac long enough to go downstairs to print off some resumes because I hate my job. While downstairs, I decided to throw on CBC Radio 3 for a few minutes just to break the silence. And then: BAM. SURPRISE. I'm going to keep this short and sweet: Black Hat Brigade sounds like Wolf Parade had a baby with Headlights. And not just a normal baby, this is a baby with superior genes to most other babies. Listen to the fantastic [...]
Kitchen Party - Black Hat Brigade Fathers (2009) Canadian based indie band Black Hat Brigade released their second EP late last month at some Toronto club I don't know, because I'm in Vancouver. I'm sure it was a rockin' time, but it is the EP is what I am concerned about. The band's PR team sent me an advanced copy of the EP early last month. It has slowly creeped up into regular rotation on my [...]
Not familiar with the Polaris Prize ? They're like the Grammy's, except Canadian, and the jury is made up of people who like and care about music, and there's only one category, and the winner gets a cash prize. So, in another far more accurate way, they're the opposite of the Grammy's.... Despite being the editor/owner/president of this here prestigious blog I was not selected to the Polaris Jury. I know, I'm shocked too. But, luckily, you all still get to hear my thoughts on the Polaris process through my contribution to [...]
(photo: Tobin Photography) Funny things happen in the suburbs. You think the city would be a hotbed of talent and creativity, but leave it to bored suburban teenagers driving around in their mom's Pathfinder to come up with some of the coolest sounds on record. Black Hat Brigade fits that shoe, in some respects, seeing as pals Robert Haughey, [...]
The new EP – Fathers - from Brampton's Black Hat Brigade is good . Before we get into this, I just want to make sure people realize that, because what comes next is might sound negative and almost stopped me from reviewing this EP. BHB is not Wolf Parade , nor are they as good as one of Canada's best bands. The highs aren't as high and the lows are lower. Yes, vocally the songs may sound similar, but aside from that and a few keyboard augmented, apocalyptic riffs, I don't think the [...]
Alright, I'm going to try and make it through this post without any Austin Powers ' faja ' jokes... There are probably about four of you who will remember when I mentioned the first Black Hat Brigade EP and said flat out that it was better than anything Wolf Parade has ever done (note: this claim will only make any sense if you know that the Black Hat Brigade get compared to Wolf Parade). Well, this EP/album is equally good, maybe better. Certainly Fathers covers a little more ground [...]
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