![[Listen] Minotaurs- Open the Doors (feat. Sarah Harmer)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4682996_lg.jpg)
by Tiana Feng It's been a while since we've heard from Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs gang. Recently they revealed Open the Doors off an upcoming LP called New Believers . The song definitely has a groovy rhythm that warrants some hip shaking, and why not it's almost the holidays. All this dancing makes you completely forget that this song has some political G20 undertones.
Here's the deal. African rhythms and Fela inspired jams are amazing, but indie rockers have not only pillaged the village, they've salted the fields. Every time I hear the term afrobeat, I just assume the output is going to be roughly akin to hearing a Fela cover band kick off a hippie festival at 2PM on a Friday. Minotaurs - the afrobeat / folk collective led by Nathan Lawr - leverages the prerequisite horns and percussion (and demands action from the people), but it's Lawr's willingness to fuse his own indie folk style into the [...]
The post the tragically hip w/ sarah harmer "the lookahead" video appeared first on Captains Dead .
Out of the ashes of several Kingston bands comes Music Maul . The group, formed around former Hell Billys' frontman Trevor Henderson, brings together veterans of that town's scene, including Sarah Harmer , for a unique musical experience. A synthesizer and squeezebox play off each other to make for a unique electro-roots blend. It's a sound that is often at odds with itself, and one that takes much getting used to for the listener. A psychedelic squeezebox and trippy beats turn "Know Me" into a recipe for musical seasickness. The malicious clash [...]
Frank Yang I'm sure that the timing was just coincidence, but if Friday night's Wavelength show at the Buddhist temple at 918 Bathurst featuring Bry Webb and Del Bel was meant as a last-minute bit of lobbying for my Polaris Prize ballot - long-list voting had opened that day - then I salute them. Well played. Though I've had a year to mull it over, there was very little actually locked down on my list of the top five Canadian "albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard [...]
We're braving it alone this week, the wee one, the elderchild and me. And though this meant an especially sniffly, snuggly Monday night, happily, the four stages of grief have passed quickly in such intense, obvious circumstances, leaving us accepting, if not yet perfectly balanced in our adoption of the adapted dance that is life with Daddy. If I'm nervous but grateful for the chance to try, it's in no small part because my time with the kids is too often stolen from Mama's world. From the moment we find ourselves on the [...]
![[Re-Introducing] – Kathleen Edwards](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4043363_lg.jpg)
Tweet Two things I know as fact about Canada; one, it's cold as hell. And two, they export some of the best modern singer songwriter music available. Not the whiny angst ridden varitey that you seem to get here in the US. Certainly, with artists like Laura Marling and Ellie Goulding , the UK is still leading the pack. But Canada is closing the gap quick. Especially with fantastic emerging artists like Kathleen Edwards . [...]
Toronto - The holiday season is an interesting time of year, one in which one's usual resitance to things that might be considered slightly corny or cheesy are in fact actually embraced. Christmas specials we've seen dozens of times over, albums by Mariah Carey, all of them are kind of OK at this time of the year. When this tendency to like Christmassy stuff is combined with a solid lineup of Canadian talent, it turns into something very much like the Andy Kim Christmas concert. The annual charity event, now in it's seventh year, was raising funds this night for Julliette’s [...]
Though it falls on Columbus Day, Canadian Thanksgiving Day seems relatively untainted by the parallel history of white privilege and savagery which have come to typify the two American holidays with which it shares either date or name. Rather, though giving thanks in the territories is still partially grounded in the European exploration of territories and provinces, Thanksgiving Day in Canada was originally established as a harvest holiday, pure and simple, first as a natural extension of the human need to celebrate the cornucopia, and subsequently by proclamation, in 1957. My connection to Canadian Thanksgiving is familial: [...]
Filed under: News Mark J. Terrill, AP Photo Radiohead singer Thom Yorke took to the band's site Thursday (Aug. 11) to voice his opposition to the ongoing Alberta Tar Sands project, especially the construction of Keystone XL, a proposed 1700-mile pipeline stretching from the Alberta Tar Sands to oil refineries located in the Gulf of Mexico. "President Obama is soon to make a decision on whether to press one of THE big [...]
Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News [...]
Toronto - It's been awhile since we did one of these posts, but lets not dwell on what is in the past and go to the present. My Morning Jacket July 11, Kool Haus It sure took a long time, but Kentucky's My Morning Jacket can be certified as rock stars now that Circuital has become a certified smash success with not just the indie crowd, but with regular upstanding citizens as well. Jim James and his bearded friends bring their live stage show to the Kool Haus tonight for [...]
Frank Yang One perennial highlight - okay, for two years - of my SXSW adventures was throwing day parties where we could invite Japanese Action Comic Punk outfit Peelander-Z to wreak havoc. So it was nice to see that not only were the Peelanders in town for NXNE , but they had an all-ages afternoon show scheduled at Sneaky Dee's on the Saturday. I guess Toronto's still getting used to the idea of having shows when it's still daylight out, because the gig was only attended [...]
Filed under: News , Exclusive , Awards , Junos Chris Young, CP There was plenty of gear at Toronto's Ricoh Coliseum, just not the type usually affiliated with Canadian musicians. The Juno Cup, an annual celebrity hockey game pitting former National Hockey League players (NHL Greats) against a team of Canadian artists (The Rockers), held its practice Thursday afternoon to prepare for the big game tonight. And for Billy Talent [...]
Ted Bois Sometimes you just get a hankering for some Dan Bejar, a need to ride that train of thought through station stops no one else's visit and which moves at that distinctive languid-yet-mile-a-minute cadence. And while it's possible to get one's fix via with his mandatory three-songs per New Pornographers record or various side-projects, it's Destroyer that offers the best, purest hit of Dan. The catch being that like one of his most obvious influences, David Bowie , you never know what form that hit is going to take from one record [...]
Ted Bois Sometimes you just get a hankering for some Dan Bejar, a need to ride that train of thought through station stops no one else's visit and which moves at that distinctive languid-yet-mile-a-minute cadence. And while it's possible to get one's fix via with his mandatory three-songs per New Pornographers record or various side-projects, it's Destroyer that offers the best, purest hit of Dan. The catch being that like one of his most obvious influences, David Bowie , you never know what form that hit is going to take from one record [...]
Sarah Harmer: Go To Sleep [ purchase ] I love this 2004 lullaby from Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer. But today it serves a stronger purpose, reminding me that of all the resolutions I've ever made regularly -from quitting smoking to spending more time with my children - the one that ultimately would make the biggest difference in my life would be going to sleep earlier. Being naturally nocturnal runs in my family: I have strong childhood memories of my siblings, my father and [...]
Brandon Showers The final week of the year - a time for reminiscences, reflections and regrets. And leading the pack in the regrets department, at least as far as the blog goes, is not giving more attention to Miles Kurosky's solo debut The Desert Of Shallow Effects , even though Kurosky's set was a highlight at SxSW . It's an album that should have gotten a lot more facetime hereabouts, considering I'd been waiting for it for nigh on seven years, ever since Kurosky's band Beulah [...]
Filed under: News , The Hit List Canadian acts continued to make their mark at home and abroad in 2010, with bands like Montreal's Arcade Fire topping the album charts in the US, UK and Canada while selling out shows wherever they went. Recently, the small town of Vevey, Switzerland, even played host to an all-Canuck festival featuring indie faves like Broken Social Scene (whose latest album debuted at number two domestically) and Owen Pallett , the Arcade [...]
Ride The Tempo
Herohill
Captain's Dead
Snob's Music
Chromewaves
Cover Lay Down
Listen Before You Buy
The Panic Manual
Spinner.com
Star Maker Machine
New Diarrhea Planet – “Separations”
Andrew Clarke - Under The Sun (Cyclist Gospel Remix)
HAERTS: “All The Days”
Sexy Track // “Devil Or Angel” // Lou Doillon
