Remember when Halifax's bustling indie music scene was so effervescent it was referred to as "the Seattle of the North?" Yeah, the statement's mooching presskit-ready statement was good for a few chuckles, but what made it full-on snicker worthy was the fact that, geographically speaking, Halifax is further down south than Seattle. Yeah, I realise that the "north" appellation referred more to Canada than to Halifax itself (DUH!), but I still have a matter of contention with it! There is no excuse for mental slovenliness like trying to make us believe that Halifax is up higher [...]
Looks like it's time for another A Limerick Ox giveaway! Indeed, kind denizens of the Internet, here is your chance to win a copy of Cinderpop 's newest and excellent release, A Lesson In Science. If you have been itching at the chance to acquaint yourself with this Vancouver-based band and their wondrous pop concoctions, what a perfect opportunity this is to go ahead and do it, courtesy of the gentle-hearted folks at Killbeat Music and Popaganda Records. Entering the contest is easy: all you have to do is post a [...]
It's interesting because most of the time, the music featured on music blogs (including your humble ox-cart of servitude) is made by up-and-coming, fresh-out-of-the-gate, wet-behind-the-ears and other hyphenation-heavy-idioms bands. It's not often you come across a situation quite like that one of The Pedaljets, a band whose heyday was back in the mid-to-late 1980's, having spawned albums which generated national critical acclaim and had opened for acts like Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Meat Puppets and pre-UFO era Flaming Lips. Yet they broke up, for reasons as vast and nebulous as band break-up reasons can be, [...]
Yikes! Another really hard week to decide who to single out as my five favourite songs out of the bucket of tunes I wrote about over the past seven days. There has been a rather spectacular mix of interesting new stuff and old favourites poking around with new material, so it's rather complex to get the feel for five exceptional songs which are a cut above the rest. So without further exception, here is the list of my five favourite songs I wrote about in the past week, in order of appearance: [...]
The danger of reading Sylvia Plath is to have the tragic circumstances which formatted her death precede her work. However, when considering The Bell Jar it is extremely difficult to separate the two, especially considering the semi-autobiographical nature of the novel. Echoing her own experience through that of her protagonist Esther Greenwood, The Bell Jar is the life of a young, talented English major who attempts to cope with a society which expects her sensitive, gifted self to set herself into preordained roles, causing her to break down as her identity becomes suppressed. [...]
I had recently given a quick nod to South for their song Better Things which had been circulating recently; a fine track which came together nicely, a good song, but something just wasn't clicking. It seems there's another song from their album You Are Here drifting along the seas of bandwidth, which I believe deserves some particular attention because it's especially good. So let's give a little A Limerick Ox real estate to Wasted. Rolling drums and siren-like keys waste no time in carrying us into this highly textured, [...]
And, as such, we bring our special, totally planned and well thought-out "Songs For Your Summer Days" edition of A Limerick Ox to an end. And we cap it all off not with a perky danceable number which inspires one to get together with friends on the beach. No, in fact, this one is for that part of summer where you're looking up at the dusky July sky, clear and pinpricked by a endless curtain of sparkling stars, losing yourself in the multitude, where everything seems wistful and full of endless possibilities. For those moments, let [...]
More electronic goodness from the excellently named James Pants with Ka$h . Because the Ox loves the Vanilla Swingers so much, here are two more great songs from their first upcoming LP: Danger In The Past and I'll Stay Next To You . The Black Diamond Heavies have a case of the deep soulful blues with Bidin' My Time . Cloetta Paris can show [...]
Blame it on the sunshine, blame it on being the first day of May, but it seems as though all the music I'm listening to has very sunshiny ways about them. And it's affecting my choices for the blog today. I already wrote about The Little Ones and their blue sky wondertune, and now this next one has "summer song" tattooed all over it, so I guess I have a theme going today which just spontaneously popped into reality; might as well just roll with it, shouldn't I? Well then, ahem, here [...]
How summery can a song about a tropical island located approximately 315km south of Manila be? Very. Extremely, very. The Little Ones pull off a balmy charmer entitled Boracay, named as such for the Filipino island destination full of white beaches, sultry sunsets, and blue, open oceans. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well so does the song: what starts out with a gentle, sliding guitar hook, turns into a lighthearted mishmash of clanging instrumentation coming together for a mischievious, peppy jaunt. Spry and bouncy, the melody rolls along, shifting ever so slightly [...]
I am so glad that I don't have to do job interviews anymore. It's not as much the dressing up, the painstaking selling of oneself, and the necessary exuberating affability than the questions. The questions. The endless barrage of self-answering questions which you're supposed to shift and shape into the perfect "I figure this is what you want to hear" response to make your potential employer believe you're in for it more than the money, even though he knows damn well you're just in it for the money. But the worst, the single [...]
Old homey week charges on today with Stereolab landing in at the party with its RSVP, swarthy hats, and fresh new material. Witness how they recieve grateful pats on the back, handshakes, and clamourous "good to see you!" salutations. They've been missed. People like having them around. They've thrust this party up a couple of notches. As the crew brings its usual deft beat crafting to Three Women, a funked-out bassline sets the stage for a perfect groove, both laid back and playful, set in bright, summer beach house [...]
Is there really enough political drama in the world right now? Is the pot being stirred energetically enough, or could we be doing better? I mean, sure, we have the Conservatives and that Elections Canada mess . And Barack Obama's former minister is always good for a few kicks. But is it enough politico hubris to quench our thirst for scandal and dissent? No! That is what I say to you this morning, gentle readers. And we'll go overseas to get our fix if we need to. Which [...]
Earlier this week, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) called for Stéphane Dion and the opposition Liberals to join them in their campaign to support net neutrality legislation which will protect the privacy and rights of all Canadians using the Internet. No word about their participation yet. In fact, no word on where they stand, period. It turns out the Liberals are just as nebulous as the Conservative government is on the issue. A quick search on the party's official website turns up zero results for "net neutrality." [...]
There's precious very little that can shoot down my typically weather-influenced mood from "peachfully good" to "soppingly grumpy" today. Nope, the grey-as-carbuncles sky which looms above me and the 70mm+ of rain which is pouring down has some serious competition up against it if it wants to get me into a state of gloom typically associated with such climate conditions. Strike one against it was the call from my accountant announcing the generous return I would be getting from filing my taxes this year, which is, of course, pipingly delicious news. Strike two is the concept [...]
In other news, the arrival of new iMacs from our friends at Apple mean that this dude is ready to drop his G5 PowerPC machine for one of those new aluminum Intel-powered joyboxes. I've been due for an upgrade for about six to seven months, but I wanted to wait for a new product cycle to start and take advantage of the new upgrade. That time is now upon us and my giddyness can best be described by listening to the Baskervilles excellent Caught In A Crosswalk. Originally a song created [...]
Dan Friel's Ghost Town Pt. 1 is like a M. Night Shyamalan film. No, not because it has drawn-out sycophantic crane shots, but rather because it has a great twist. See, even though the song starts out with disembodied yips and fluttering tones swerving into each other announcing the arrival of an electro-noise rampage, we actually end up in the midst of a head-bopping, albeit fractured, mindmeld of a pop tune. The Parts & Labor member seems to have concocted Ghost Town Pt. 1 as if it were performed by a parade [...]
Wonderful song by South entitled Better Things . Spaced-out new waveyness can be found in All Remote And No Control by Eric Avery . Enjoy these two songs from the Flashing Red Lights : The Big Idea and Strings & Bass . 100 Year Picnic invite us to the ambient sounds of Greener Than The Trees . Get [...]
I get emails : Hey, What's with all the club music? R U GAY? - yo mama I found it odd that my mother would write me something like that, especially since she usually favours the writing of full words instead of using letters which phonetically sound as words in order to replace actual words in a bid to look cool. Because my mom is anything but cool. That utter lack of coolness also totally prevents my mom from reading my blog. I [...]
Yeah, we've been hearing a lot about these guys who just put out their first studio album in about a decade. That's interesting and all, but do you know who else is putting out their first full-length recording in over ten years? Free Kitten! Yes, the same noise-rock superband (if there was ever such a thing possible) made up of Kim Gordon, Yoshimi P-We, and Julie Cafritz (sans Mark Ibold this time; gee, wonder why ...) are returning with a new helping of gritty fun. Yet while those other guys [...]
A Limerick Ox
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Big Boi & Theophilus London (feat. TRE LUCE) - 'She Said OK'
