If you're a frequent visitor here, then you'll no doubt already be familiar with You've Changed Records and their impressive catalogue of releases these past few years. Someone once accused my of only writing about the label's music because co-founders Daniel Romano and Ian Kehoe are from my hometown of Welland, Ontario. My response: "Get your head outta your ass, and listen to these records and try telling me You've Change isn't putting out some of the best Canadian music in a decade." Like Arts & Crafts before them, the inter-connectedness of You've Changed's roster has been steadily building a [...]
I am a sucker for a killer surf-pop tune, and The Re-Bops are promising to deliver a succulent selection of them on their forthcoming debut LP, Drag Race . The St. Catahrines based band of Nic Waterman (Vocals, Guitar), Steve Morley (Drums) and Liam Cosby (Guitar) recently unleashed "RocknRoll Guitar Man" on the world and it's an infectiously dirty ditty that's sure to get under your skin in a good way. Waterman was previously with Guelph's The Emerald City, and Cosby and Morley worked together in The Gas Station Junkies, [...]
Afie Jurvanen isn't going to suffer from high blood pressure any time soon. The connecting thread between Barchords , his new album as Bahamas , and 20092s debut Pink Strat is the laid back, relaxed and mellow vibe of the music. Jurvanen's left his days as a player in other people's band in the past; he's as comfortable in his role as band leader as he is in a well-worn pair of jeans, and that comes across so effortlessly in Bahamas sound. For all the similarity between the two records, [...]
The City Streets are a band on a mission. A few missions, actually. The Montreal-based band (originally from Edmonton) has two new full length albums in the pipelines: Winter Lightning was recorded with Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wolf Parade) at Montreal's almost legendary Hotel2Tango studios, and Sawdust & Rum , recorded by the band themselves in a small cabin on the Atlantic Ocean in Nova Scotia are both set to see the light of day sometime soon (no specific release dates set yet). As well, band members Rick Reid, (vocals [...]
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Back row (from left to right): Carl Johnson (Library Voices), Megan Bonnell, François Cloutier, Becky Ninkovic (You Say Party), Daniel Lee (Hooded Fang), Brandon Chandler, Stephen O'Shea (You Say Party), Amy Eligh (Casablanca Media Publishing), Nils Edenloff (The Rural Alberta Advantage), Charles F (Winter Gloves) ; Front row: Jana Cleland (Casablanca Media Publishing), Lance Schibler (engineer), Lizz Hunt (Casablanca Media Publishing), Nate Kreiswirth, Jon Janes (The Mountains & The Trees), Jason Haberman (The Paint Movement), Colin Buchanan (Paper Lions), Josh Schroeder On Sunday, August 14, 2011, fourteen songwriters [...]
Cuff the Duke are getting set for the U.S. release of last year's Morning Comes album (available to our neighbours to the south on February 28), and are doing so with a new five-song EP of covers called In Our Time . The band have been premiering one of the new tracks each week at Filter magazine for the past two weeks, and Quick Before It Melts is pleased to bring you the Canadian premiere of their cover of the Guided by Voices tune "Smothered in Hugs". Cuff The Duke's Wayne Petti offered up [...]
I have a couple cats, and they both like to hang around my desk when I'm blogging. I don't mean curl up at my feet or sleep on the floor kind of hanging out, I mean up on the desk, sprawled out between me and the keyboard basking in the glow of the monitor kind of hanging around. I'm always intrigued by their response, or more likely lack thereof, to the music that's coming out of the speakers a mere centimeters from their ears. So there they were, one perched on the desk, the other standing on the headrest to [...]
Maybe I'm outing myself here, but I've never been a Leonard Cohen devotee the way some of my compatriots are (or pretend to be), but I know enough of the man's work to feel comfortable in discussing Old Ideas , his new LP. Coming a mere eight years after his last album, Old Ideas carries lot of familiarity to it, as if it were an album of music we've already heard. Road tested on his recent world tour, some songs already have the patina of time stamped upon them. That's probably [...]
Maybe I'm outing myself here, but I've never been a Leonard Cohen devotee the way some of my compatriots are (or pretend to be), but I know enough of the man's work to feel comfortable in discussing Old Ideas , his new LP. Coming a mere eight years after his last album, Old Ideas carries lot of familiarity to it, as if it were an album of music we've already heard. Road tested on his recent world tour, some songs already have the patina of time stamped upon them. That's probably [...]
Over The Bluffs , the debut release from The Holiday Crowd is described by the band as a love letter to Scarborough, the childhood home of singer Imran Haniff and guitarist Colin Bowers. Maybe so, but there's more than enough flirting with late 80s British jangle pop here to make Morrissey blush with affection. "While She Waits" could easily have been on Meat Is Murder , and even though its sound references such a specific time, it's simple melody sounds timeless. There's much to love about The Holiday Crowd, basically because they're going against [...]
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Louise Burns "Drop Names Not Bombs" Facebook: Louise Burns Twitter: Louise Burns
Louise Burns "Drop Names Not Bombs" Facebook: Louise Burns Twitter: Louise Burns
Marine Dreams released a stark, but very engaging new video this week for the song "Sudden Dark Truths" off the QBiM-endorsed Marine Dreams album. Marine Dreams - Sudden Dark Truths from Jared Raab on Vimeo . Facebook: Marines Dreams
Back in '10, when writing about John K. Samson 's Provincial Route 222 EP, I called it "a succinct, lush 3-song set that makes the listener beg for more." Perhaps my begging wasn't emotive enough, for no new work showed last year, but Samson wasn't resting on his laurels. He recently told Exclaim! magazine "I decided to do this project of three seven-inches covering three different sections of road in Manitoba. And then after I did two, I realized I wanted it to be four ― there wanted to be [...]
Cameron Wittig In the early days of QBiM, it seemed strange if a month went by where I didn't write something about Andrew Bird , let alone years between posts. A brief recap is in order, then? Bird's 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha was a shoo-in for end of year honours 'round these parts after its March release that year, and was probably the most played album of '07 for me. 20092s Noble Beast was good, but didn't have the pull of its predecessor. Since then, [...]
Tommy Chase Lucas I had a chance to become familiar with Montreal-based artist Claire Boucher, aka Grimes , last year when her album Halfaxa was being considered for Polaris nomination, and she struck me as someone of great potential and mystery. She comes from a scene where the only rules are ones you allow yourself to set, so it's no surprise that her every movement seems unencumbered by fashion, fad, or fame. She's attracted a lot of attention that way, and deservedly so, for her music can be approached [...]
Okay, I'm sick and tired of writing and rewriting this review. So you tell me, what do you need to know more: a) how in God's name did The Darcys end up covering the whole of Steely Dan's Aja , or b) how good (or bad) said cover album is? If you said a): Picture it: Toronto, early 2010. The Darcys are a week away from playing an anticipated Canadian Music Week when their singer Kirby Best ups and leaves the band. Boom! [...]
Quick Before It Melts
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