I'm sure going solo is a harrowing experience for band members. Stepping away from your comfort zone to do something very different from what your audience is used to/expects from you must be a difficult decision. That's why Graham Wright's new solo record is kind of a pleasant surprise: it isn't all about willfully subverting expectation. It feels more like having some extra songs and not knowing what to do with them. The keyboardist and vocalist with the acclaimed fuzz-pop combo Tokyo Police Club doesn't make a point of casting off his full-time band's youthful exuberence or the [...]
Bad news, gang. Our long-time friends in The Burning Hell have had a major stroke of bad luck while preparing to finish up a months-long tour of Europe. The folks at Exclaim are reporting that the group's entire earnings for the tour were stolen during the night in Poland. Quoth the band's Nick Ferrio: When we got up in the morning to drive to Berlin for the last show, we found the driver side window smashed out and the van had been rooted through," band member Nick [...]
While it might not make or break the sales of a record, it never hurts when an artist has a really good back-story for a new album release. We've seen it time and time again, even recently, whether it's Bon Iver's "heartbroken, ill mid-westerner ensconces himself in a cabin to write miserable break-up songs" or Kanye West's search for redemption leading him to write a total freak-out rap masterpiece. Well, Winnipeg indie rockers The Details have a pretty good story behind their new full-length Lost Art too. The funny thing is they really don't need it. [...]
Buckle up for some surprising news, readers: I've been getting older these last few years. Shocking though it may seem, it's true. To make matters worse my aging has been totally cliched. I go out to shows less and less often, "classic" soul and pop music has become my usual go-to instead of punk rock, my girlfriend and I stay in and read more often than we go out drinking, and sometimes I even go to bed before midnight. My teenage self is so ashamed. Junior Battles, it seems, can relate. The plucky Torontonians found a [...]
Listening to Northcote's latest album is kind of like listening to the first solo record Sarah Harmer put out some 12 years ago. There's something about back-porch acoustic guitar song craft that just feeds the soul. It's comforting, it puts a smile on your face. Is it groundbreaking? No. Quite the opposite, I suppose: it's built on a very solid footing. Matt Goud has been around the block a few times. His recent acoustic guitar-slinging folk project has previously produced a flawless EP, Borrowed Chords and Tired Eyes , that perfectly sets the stage for this full [...]
The brilliant Laura Stevenson & The Cans have a new video out. It's pretty great. Remember, albums can be bought physically from their tumblr and the album is on iTunes too .
Canadian culture is an odd thing. In a lot of respects it is as much a mirror of the pervasive American entertainment spectrum we're inundated by through no fault of our own. But while Canada struggles to create mainstream, popular art in the film and television realms truly Canadian music is a lot easier to come by. You know it when you hear it, whether it's the punk-tinged story songs of John K. Samson or the choral allegories of Bruce Peninsula or, yes, even the overtures to modern rock radio of The Tragically Hip. That's a big [...]
Laura Stevenson sings like she's exorcising demons. It's an inexplicable fact that can't be ignored: she can have all the backing band she wants, but me? I'm showing up for that voice. That incredible, soaring, searing , voice, that voice that can do anything it's told. On their first full-length record Stevenson truly becomes one iwth her backing band The Cans, and long-time listeners and new fans alike reap some incredible benefits from that meeting of the minds. Fans of their previous releases get eased into what is ultimately and undoubtedly one of the top [...]
Melancholic songwriting about love gone wrong is a dime a dozen. Quality is in short supply when everyone and their kid sister is uploading a sappy ballad onto YouTube. That's why Spring Breakup is worth a million damn dollars. Earlier this year the duo quietly (practically silently) put out their sophomore album. You'll recall their debut got me pretty excited . Mathais Kom is one of the most brilliant songwriters in Canada, his wit and dour world view complement each other perfectly. Kim Barlow is a delightful foil, all precious and precocious and every bit as subtly [...]
This independently-released album might be the single most astounding, fully-realized release of 2010. And yes, that includes Kanye West's record. Expectations are undoubtedly low for a mostly-local band when they put their first record out by themselves. Logistically speaking it's tough for them to get ears on their music. That's obviously changing with the internet but I'm willing to bet if there's a thousand bands with songs on Bandcamp there's a million. It's a lot to wade through. That's why I'm thankful for sites like Herohill , the east coast-centered blog site that is constantly shedding a [...]
Right now I'm so overcome by the amount of music coming at me right now I don't know what to do about it. I'm working hard to make sure that nothing passes me by, even at a time when unsolicited submissions to the site are higher than ever (three this week alone! that's huge for us!) Obviously something has to rise to the top of the heap any time a heap accumulates somewhere, and the record that's doing that for me right now is the newest effort from a band called the Lucksmiths, First Frost. [...]
The Weakerthans doing something they don't often seem to do: a cover song! This song is taken from a short compilation 73 put out by No Idea Records and AK Press , a collective that publishes "radical" books. The Read Army Faction was a fundraiser for the publisher and features songs from a CD fundraiser called Return of the Read Menace . However, I've never seen that compilation and I'm not convinced it actually exists, so I'm qualifying this as a vinyl-only release. Anyhow, the 73 features some really great [...]
I noticed we were creeping up on it a while back but it just sort of happened without me noticing: we hit 100 posts! There have been more than 100 if you want to get technical, but we've now logged 100 full, content-havin' posts in just over a year. Continued thanks to the other folks that have contributed and to everyone who actually stops by and checks our stuff out. Now if we can just get people to stop hotlinking to our files the world would be perfect! Check out our [...]
So I have a deep and abiding appreciation of Bob Dylan and his body of work. There are just a certain number of artists that are impeachable because they changed music forever and/or have a consistently amazing catalogue. At least, that's what I thought before last weekend. About a month ago in a flurry of ticket-buying activity I secured a couple of passes for Bob Dylan's so-called "Never-Ending Tour" as it came through town. Now I'm no fool; I know and accept what Bob Dylan is today. He's the opposite of the acoustic-slingin' folk hero that has been [...]
Congratulations to Sound Salvation Army's favourite presidential candidate. Well, all of America really. Even in Canada we can taste the hope.
Quite a story behind this beauty. For my weekly vinyl giveaway I'm featuring a couple of tracks from the self-titled debut LP by Armchair Martian, a self-styled country-punk band from Fort Collins, Colorado. The first big foray into music for Jon Snodgrass, his intention was reportedly to create punk rock music, "that you can two-step to." In the vast majority of their songs that's not necessarily the case, but Snodgrass did create his own incredibly raw, brutal guitar tone right from the start that has served as his trademark sound right to this day. The songs [...]
So about a week or so ago I had the immense pleasure of seeing Neil Young, Death Cab For Cutie, Feist, and Hayden all live in concert in the span of two days. They were separated into two different concerts, of course, but the unusual anomaly being that they played the same venue on back to back nights, leading to a very unusual juxtaposition. Neil Young, of course, is a legendary musician with a long and storied history that is all but guaranteed to sell out every venue he wishes to set up his pipe organ [...]
Boy, I haven't written here in months. Yeah. Life. What're you going to do? Well, I'm going to write. I decided the best way to remedy my lack of posting here was to write about a song that I have been enjoying all summer long. I never imagined it would stay with me well into autumn, which is when I usually like to move to the warmer songs in my catalogue. Your Springsteens and your Elvis Costellos. The space heaters of my music collection. I can hear the power and the heat in their urgent vocals and it [...]
In the interest of once again shamelessly promoting one of my favourite new artists of the last several years, this week's vinyl spotlight is shining heavily on Austin Lucas. I've featured Mr. Lucas several times before since first hearing his latest LP, Putting The Hammer Down . He's primarily an incredible vocalist, a great guitarist, and has really tapped into a unique "roots" sound. Up to this point that's had a great deal to do with his father Bob, a life-long country musician and gifted arranger and instrumentalist. On his latest 103 vinyl-only release, [...]
"You're so warm/oh, the ritual/when I lay down your crooked arm" So I've been listening to vinyl records for the last six or seven years, but it's really amped up the last year or so as it's suddenly become commercially viable or cool or whatever again. It's pretty great to have the big art, the effort that goes into it, the whole tactile experience. Lately, however, I've been doing everything I can to destroy that experience. My lady's mom gave me a comedy LP she found at a garage sale or something, [...]
Sound Salvation Army
Watch: Trailer for Dave Grohl’s documentary, Sound City
Childish Gambino - "Heartbeat" (Official Music Video)
First Aid Kit – Emmylou
Hardwell Bootleg Pack 2012
James Blake – Live Album
