SoundSalvationArmy

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 records of 2011. The opening track, “Halloweens Pt. 1 and 2″ came across as painfully lo-fi on the Bomb The Music Industry split 7″ that came out last year. Like all the songs on Sit Resist it has a comparatively glossy studio sheen that is enhanced by an impeccable mix and mastering. Where the lows on the 7″ were so low as to require one to crank the volume only to have the speakers burst when the full band comes in on the back half. The new cut has a bit of a smoother transition, not entirely sacrificing dynamics but making it a lot easier to listen to.

Now, nitpicking aside, let’s talk about the songs.

I wrote rather enthusiastically about “Master of Art” and it’s wily “Be My Baby”-aping opening drum beat a couple months ago, but it’s remarkable how stirring that song remains after a LOT of repeated listens. The best way to describe the multi-tracked vocals on the song’s back end might be to quote the immortal words of Garth Algar: they wail.

The song also represents a few thematic and lyrical examples that carry themselves all the way through the record. One of the last phrases in the song is, “The wait is just a little longer,” a word and concept that comes back in spades on two tracks at the album’s end (companion pieces “The Wait” and “The Weight”). Time appears to be something that weighs heavily on Stevenson, showcased in the next song “Caretaker” as well, in which she implores herself to write down her childhood memories before leaving the home she grew up in behind for good. The future looks bleak in “The Healthy One” as well; while it’s one of the jauntiest numbers (thanks to playful accordion and xylophone) it’s also an incredibly bleak tale of an entire family being decimated by disease, leaving just one little child behind to spend the rest of their life alone.

On the other hand is “Red Clay Roots,” a song that transcends time itself. Stevenson explained in a recent interview with AMP magazine.

I wrote that song after I found my grandma’s unfinished manuscripts. She was writing her memoirs before she died and she told me she was going to name it “Red Clay Roots” when she was finished, but she never did finish it. It’s about her growing up in Greenville, South Carolina. Her mother was a bottle smasher during the temperance movement, and her father and three brothers all drank themselves to death, but she pulled herself out and moved to New York to sing with Benny Goodman. I wrote the song to sort of celebrate her story because she didn’t live long enough to tell it herself.

The song is an eery, tin can-sounding recording that features a dusty distortion on a spare acoustic guitar part and several vocal tracks. The layered singing and humming that make up the bulk of the track create an incredibly subtle but moving effect. The lyrics hew closely to the description you see above, creating a whole package that would be perfectly comfortable on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

For me the album culminates with the final three songs. “The Wait” is the perfect embodiment of how timely yet out-of-their-time Stevenson and the Cans are. It’s pretty rare that you hear someone who is only 27 sing about their “life’s work” and “waiting for a train to come” and actually BELIEVE it. The band builds to it’s most raucous moment yet, electric guitar, trumpet, and drums all chiming in a melodically cacophonous coda that wanes into “The Weight.” Its finger-picked acoustic guitar and strings provide a temperate, gentle denoument to that moment of passion and fury while the repeated lyrics and withering tone of Stevenson’s voice emphasize the point: the wait is killing her.

Even more disarming is the record closer, “I See Dark,” a track that re-establishes the band’s penchant for experimenting within a familiar sound (something Stevenson did in spades on her first 8-song album, A Record). While it opens with some waltzing accordion, there are a few breaks of discordant distortion that might sound more at home on an Explosions In The Sky record. It works its way out with singing so pained and vulnerable it has to be genuine; Stevenson has revealed in some interviews that when the band raised the idea of changing the song from its recorded form she broke down in tears. She says it’s the most personal song she’s ever written.

The songs on Sit Resist aren’t upbeat summer jams. Stevenson writes from an extremely personal place and more often than not the subject matter, if not the backing music, is undeniably bleak. But for my money you won’t hear another record like this all year. It’s modern but respective of musical history, it’s powerful without resorting to power chords and screaming, it’s personal without being overly confessional. There isn’t a bad song on here and there isn’t a song you won’t find engaging on some level. As I said before, Stevenson is singing like she’s exorcising demons. I wouldn’t wish ill on anyone else but if that’s what it takes for her to keep writing songs like this then I hope she never finds salvation.

 

 Laura Stevenson & the Cans - The Healthy One: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Laura Stevenson & the Cans - The Wait: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’re quick you can download Sit Resist for free from the LS&TC tumblr. Albums can be bought physically from that site and the album is on iTunes too.

Pat entries accordian, Don Giovanni Records, folk, indie rock, Laura Stevenson, Laura Stevenson & the Cans, Laura Stevenson and the Cans, rock, vocalists

For a band that has always asserted its punk rock spirit, the group’s new EP Peacemaker is probably the softest the City Streets have ever sounded.

That’s not a bad thing.

In fact, even if you don’t venture further into this eight-song collection than opening track “Windowpanes” you’d best consider yourself lucky. It sets a remarkable tone for the generous EP, a gorgeous opening number that really shows the depth of understanding of the human condition this band has. Still young men, the group, led by prolific songwriter Rick Reid, presents a startlingly mature and insightful perspective on life in all of their work and “Windowpanes” is just one more example. It wistfully recalls the diminished scale of adulthood, how as a child something as simple as spending a night in a hotel with nothing to do seems like an adventure; as a grown up the closest you can come is trying to recall how it felt to have that experience in your advanced years. Certain things may stay rigid and unchanged, but in the context of memory there’s something else at play: while the things we derive pleasure from are constantly shifting we don’t have to be devoid of pleasure. Reid relishes in the simple pursuit of the feeling.

While the band’s music never comes close to the kind of reckless hedonism such a philosophy might suggest, they seem to enjoy and exploit their ability to constantly change their sound in subtle ways. This record carries “Windowpanes” wistful, contemplative vibe throughout its entire running time, making it a stark contrast to the comparatively harsh punk rock tones of 2010’s The Jazz Age, one of my favourite albums of last year.

It’s easy to see how the two fit together and where the divide between them lies. Texturally, Peacemaker is closer to their previous full-length, cleanly and sharply produced; The Jazz Age was steeped in reverb, fuzzed-out bass, and furiously-strummed power chords, it’s production and arrangements giving the songs a calculated grit and danger that matched the lyrics perfectly.

The Jazz Age and its accompanying aesthetic is perhaps best summed up in the track “Irish Rose.” It’s Reid at his most damaged, a whiskey and cigarette-ravaged growl taking the place of his usual cleanly-sung vocals, standing in for the gutter heroes of punk rock’s yesteryear. References to drug use and women that are no good for you, sung from the perspective of a man that’s no good for anyone, paint the picture of a tumultuous downfall that plays its way through the album’s length before reaching a kind of redemption in the final song.

It’s a big rock record that stands as a singular feat, but one that also cries out for Peacemaker, a quiet companion piece that serves as the logical cool-down to it’s predecessor’s righteous fire. Built more around acoustic guitars and gentler rhythms, the songs here feature more stand-alone hooks and traditional song structures (choruses are back!). Even better, crossover-country sister act Myrol provide some sublime vocals that flesh out Reid’s melodies in a whole new way.

One of two tracks available on the group’s website, stand-out “Outside A Lover” could be a duet from Elvis Costello’s quieter moments, its casual pace and plucky guitars frame a sultry duet that is a perfect showcase for Reid and the Myrol’s. The lyrics are fairly surface-level but the demanding love story and folk pop backdrop makes for one of the band’s most accessible songs to date.

Perhaps it’s the Myrol influence manifesting in the music, but there are more country influences than normally manifest on the City Streets’ records. It’s most prominent on “Red Light Runner,” where shuffling drums and pedal steel guitar work alongside Reid’s vision of a dusty little town. “St. Avarice” also melds the group’s rock leanings with a shuffling old-country beat, dusting off the spirit of a ramblin’ man looking for a good woman to change his life (until he remembers that women aren’t good for him after all).

“Neon Lights” is the lone menacing piece here, the thundering toms and anxious bass compressed and high in the mix. It’s a moody piece about conflict in relationship and how a person’s identity can be affected by something that may or may not be something after all.

On The Jazz Age the group sang about, “the disappointment of imagined lives,” a narrative that allowed them to develop character pieces about people likely more damaged, dramatic, and deluded than they ever will be. Peacemaker offers a more real-life set of circumstances, hewing closer to a more relatable, everyday experience. But these songs never come off as plain or recycled. Following their muse has helped this band create some seriously interesting pieces of rock and roll and it is and always will be a treat to see where their seemingly boundless creativity takes them.

 

 The City Streets - Windowpanes: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The City Streets - Outside Of A Lover [3:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Buy Peacemaker and more at the group’s website or iTunes. Check out Myrol’s webstore as well.

Pat entries Best of, Best of 2010, Best of 2011, Canadian content, Edmonton, indie rock, Montreal, rock rock

Slow Down, Molasses is not just a clever name. To say that this band’s songs take their time to get where they’re going is more often than not an understatement. Thankfully for music fans, however, they’re not so patient when it comes to putting out new songs.

The Saskatoon group is embarking on a new journey, releasing its new album Walk Into The Sea in digital formats today (CD and vinyl will follow on the 15th). The one-time mostly-folky alt-country act has chosen the perfect title for an album that sees a shift in form that flows naturally from its earlier work. It’s also an album that sets the band apart from other collective groups, which seem to be becoming more and more prevalent in Canada’s independent music scene.

I remember seeing the band live for the first time last year. They played a typewriter on-stage, something that astounded me then and still kind of astounds me now (glad to see it’s still in the mix on the opening track, by the way). But the change in band leader Tyson McShane’s MO is clear right from the start. Lead track “Sometimes We All Fall Apart” establishes the past and the present immediately, opening with a lonesome guitar and mournful, tastefully-reverbed vocals before a hint of feedback leads builds into a full-on, heavily distorted electric guitar build. The song is a sorrowful lament about loneliness, an emotion that’s writ throughout many of the tracks on the album.

The noisy ending dovetails with second cut “Bodies,” which picks up where it’s predecessor leaves off: McShane is standing before a sprawling body of water, remembering his own death. While the band’s sound has been called “as spacious as Saskatchewan,” the vivid imagery presented here seems to suggest that this record is informed as much by all of Canada’s scenic landscapes as a whole, not just our own dusty province. The track’s languid pace is familiar for the band as well, a slow arrangement that is as much shoegaze as anything also serves as the listener’s first taste of what’s to come: gradually-sawed violins, complementary horns, and a patient build-up all lead to a squalling wall-of-sound ending that shows McShane and his large group of players aren’t afraid of venturing into a noisy mix as long as every part continues to serve the song as a whole.

The appearance of more straight-forward rock and roll comes in the form of tracks like “Late Night Radio” and the fantastic instrumental number “Wake Me Up At The Coast” (which is really the only track that justifies the inevitable Broken Social Scene comparisons). Both feature quicker tempos, fearless power chords, and fantastic auxilliary instrumentation, namely the very-welcome presence of a terrific horn section.

The remainder of the album is an incredibly lush and lovely exercise marked by gorgeous, if occasionally sombre, songs. McShane’s fantastic duet with east coast indie maven Julie Doiron is definitely a highlight as the two paint an evocative picture of fall on the prairies, fragile fallen leaves collapsing around them. Their voices are wonderful counterparts, McShane’s breathy delivery blending with Doiron’s as intimately as the trumpets and strings do in the instrumental breaks. It’s a pastoral tune that, like several songs here, brings a tangible, visceral set of images to mind.

McShane’s lyrical scene-setting, combined with the purposeful and creative instrumentation, production, and mixing of this record, creates a remarkable listen that will elicit different reactions and lyrical interpretations from every listener. That open-ended universality can and should make Walk Into The Sea one of the more notable releases from our humble province this year, if not Canada.

The band is heading out on tour soon, which is great for two reasons: you can see them live and they’re taking fellow Saskatchewanian Jeans Boots along with them.

Jeans Boots is the stage name for Jeanette Stewart, a creative rock and roller who has also just issued a new EP of her own, Txt Msgs.

Stewart’s sound could be described as a combination of Best Coast and Eric’s Trip, gritty guitars and playful, occasionally cooing vocals that shove classic pop-rock arrangements ahead full-throttle. The frequently-muscular rock sound that dominates this recording was a bit jarring at first, being that I was really only familiar with some of her older acoustic numbers, but it couldn’t suit her better. She sounds like she’s been playing this kind of music forever.

All in all, it’s shaping up to be the first can’t-miss tour of the spring. Make sure you don’t!

 

 Slow Down, Molasses - Feathers [2:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Slow Down, Molasses - As Meant To Be [5:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Jeans Boots - Dark Forces [4:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Slow Down, Molasses (yeah, I’m capitalizing all the words) albums are available at their Bandcamp page for a VERY reasonable price. If you prefer iTunes for some reason or CD Baby for some fool reason those are there too.

Jeans Boots has a shiny Bandcamp site that is even MORE affordable!

Tour dates, yo:
March 10 - Saskatoon - Caffe Sola Walk Into The Sea w/ Dreaming of Electric Sheep (All Ages album release)
March 11 - Saskatoon - Amigo’s (Walk Into The Sea album release & tour kick off)
March 12 - Edmonton - Wunderbar w/ Jeans Boots and Jessica Jalbert
March 15 - Vancouver - The Biltmore w/ Jeans Boots and Aunts & Uncles
March 17 - Calgary - Broken City w/ Deadhorse and Scars & Scarves
March 18 - Regina - O’Hanlons w/ Jeans Boots
March 19 - Winnipeg - The Lo Pub w/ Jeans Boots, The Empty Standards and The Slow Dancers
March 20 - Thunder Bay - The Apollo w/ Jeans Boots
March 22 - Toronto - The Horseshoe w/ Jeans Boots
March 24 - Halifax - Gus’ Pub w/ Jeans Boots, Dance Movie and Klarka Weinwurm
March 25 - Fredricton - The Capitol w/ Sleepless Nights and Writer’s Strike
March 26 - Sackville - The Royal Canadian Legion (Shotgun Jimmie CD release)
March 27 - Charlottetown - Baba’s w/ Jeans Boots
March 29 - Montreal - L’escogriffe w/ Jeans Boots
March 30 - Ottawa - The Raw Sugar w/ Jeans Boots and The Ethics
March 31 - Peterborough - The Cannery Arts Centre w/ Jeans Boots and Typewriter
April 1 - Toronto - The Garrison w/ Forest City Lovers and Kite Hill
April 2 - London - APK Live w/ Forest City Lovers and Olenka & the Autumn Lovers

Pat entries Canadian content, indie rock, Jeans Boots, Julie Doiron, live music, musical typewriters, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Slow Down Molasses

Pretty tough to really put into words how excited I am about this one, you guys. Laura Stevenson and the Cans are releasing a new album!

I’ve done you a disservice by not talking more about Stevenson’s debut EP. It sort of fell into the cracks after it was released in 2008, in the sense that I hadn’t heard it until early 2009 after I’d already put together my annual best-of junk. I kind of worry all of her and the Can’s future work will be overshadowed by that eight song collection, in fact.

Released under Stevenson’s name by Quote Unquote records, the donation-based download-only label run by her Bomb The Music Industry! bandmate Jeff Rosenstock, A Record is a shiver-inducingly beautiful collection of songs loosely wrapped around an incredibly unique and uniquely-powerful voice. The first sound you hear is Stevenson’s multi-tracked cooing on opener, “Baby Bones.” It’s a structure that flows through about half the songs here: her guitar and banjo are relegated to quiet accompaniment while her angelic vocals soar through every possible note in whatever key she’s singing in. Then there is “Landslide Song/The Dig,” a track with punk rock guitars and drums melding with a bright horn section. “Source and the Sound” could be a Mazzy Star track, synthesizer notes pushed to the front of the mix while distorted vocals are pushed lower. Drums and distorted guitar power chords cut in halfway through, adding to the syrupy feel of the song. With a group of contributing musicians, several of whom would go on to form her backing band The Cans, the short (23 minutes!) album cuts a wide swath through numerous sounds, textures, and genres. It feels like a full listen.

For me, the highlight comes with “A Shine To It.” Another song comprised entirely of finger-picked guitars and a mournful vocal performance, it’s a captivating contradiction. While the tenor of the song is decidedly maudlin, Stevenson’s lyrics are a testament to the power of love, or more accurately the power love can have over us. She talks about resorting to selling her own blood to buy baubles and trinkets she thinks might please her lover, who remains distant regardless. It’s a haunting, even heartbreaking song that shows the full power and majesty of her singing, let alone her guitar playing.

The same goes for her cover of BTMI!’s “It Ceases To Be ‘Whining’ If You’re Still ‘Shitting Blood’” — possibly one of the finest covers I’ve ever heard.

Which brings us to this week and the debut of the first track from Stevenson and The Can’s forthcoming album, Sit Resist, out April 26th. “Master of Art” follows the progression the band set out on with its Holy Ghost 7″, a more expansive, full-band sound that trends closer to rock than the intimate acoustics of A Record. It opens with a wink to Phil Spector’s 60’s girl groups with its kick drums and tambourines, bringing in some gentle shaker, electric guitar, and bass leading into a chorus that flexes just a bit more muscle. Stevenson’s voice hasn’t lost an ounce of its power, exploding into some impressive runs in the choruses and the lyrics pick up where the intimacy of her previous songs left off, though it isn’t without it’s own sense of melancholy.

I’ve been saying since I found out last year that this record would be coming out that it will be the best album of 2011. “Master of Art” only makes me believe that even more. Rcrd Lbl has the exclusive, get it from there below.

Stay tuned to the group’s web store for pre-order information or to get other tunes. Don Giovanni Records will be releasing it.

 

 Laura Stevenson - A Shine To It [2:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pat entries acoustic, Don Giovanni Records, indie rock, Laura Stevenson, Laura Stevenson and the Cans, rock

It’s surprising we don’t see more massive, mainstream cross-over success with indie artists. You’d think with über-successful bands Coldplay and Kings of Leon that rely entirely on their ability to synthesize something an arm’s length from real emotion, so carefully ensconced in sounding earnest that nonsense lyrics can seem like cathartic epiphanies, more bands that actually take the time to actually BE earnest and mean what they say would eventually take hold.

But perhaps Hey Rosetta! is making their way down that road. The Newfoundland/Labrador six-piece saw a surge of success the last couple of years thanks to their second record, Into Your Lungs, which was released in summer 2008. While cynics might hear a record draped in pretension the highly-orchestral arrangements and drawn-out song lengths are evidence of a remarkably well-realized intent and vision. Singer Tim Baker’s impassioned vocals provide the anchor for the music, his sincerity and passion weaving its way through every note.

That being said it should be interesting to see what happens next for Hey Rosetta!, given that they’re releasing a brand new album next week that focuses and tightens up their sound while bringing in new elements.

Opening track “Seeds” is a manifesto for the album, with singer Tim Baker intoning, “We don’t look back/because we don’t need that.” Maybe not the most poetic statement but it does prove prescient, as Hey Rosetta! endeavor to move past the pervasive quit-build-loud dynamic that marked most songs on their first full-length. Eschewing slower build-ups, most of the songs on Seeds waste no time, heading straight into a full-band arrangement. There are also more straightforward rock and roll passages to be found.

I say passages because these songs are constantly in flux. The arrangements on the record are definitely next level, morphing from one phase to the next, songs ending up with a totally different palate of sounds than they began with. The transitions are far from jarring, but consider a song like single, “Welcome.” Baker’s ode to a friend’s newborn baby might be the catchiest song on the album, exploding right from the start with a pretty standard four-piece rock band sound, adding some strings to the chorus that follow the instrumental melody. Half-way through the entire arrangement drops out, reduced to Baker and some sparse guitar picking. Swirling strings make a return, carrying the bridge to the 2:55 mark when the distorted rock guitar comes back full force, soaring to new heights through the end of the song.

That’s the band’s stock in trade, the kind of dramatic number that is their bread and butter. “Yer Fall” follows in the same vein, opening with solo piano, adding drums and falsetto vocals, transitioning into a brief string interlude before moving back to the piano and drums and building into something approaching a frenzy in order to explode into one of the album’s biggest choruses. Baker sings at the top of his lungs alongside distorted electric rock guitar, the strings, drums, piano, all colliding into each other before dropping into a brief, quiet coda. Or take “Young Glass,” which adds and/or takes away a new instrument every 45 seconds or so, bringing them all back for a climactic finish at the song’s conclusion.

But while Hey Rosetta!’s fans seem to take great pleasure in the highly orchestral, jam-packed song formations, one of the most enjoyable moments on the album is it’s closing track, “Bandages.” Primarily just Baker and his acoustic guitar, it’s one of the most straight-forward, simple numbers here. Ghostly atmospheric sounds provide a wider canvas of sound for the first four minutes or so, before some march-worthy drums, tambourine, glock, and a raft of backing vocalists waft in and out of the last minute to augment the gorgeous vocal melody. It shows that for all their bells and whistles the core of each Hey Rosetta! tune is a solid, beautiful melody that would stand on its own regardless of how many kitchen sinks were thrown into the mix.

Baker is also set on relating a true, real human experience to his listeners through his lyrics. Be that by penning a song with real-world advice to the aforementioned baby (”I’m sorry this is it/it’s cold and hard and badly lit/and there’s no backing out of it/so forget where you’ve been/it’ll never be that good again/and we must only look ahead/soon you’re 33 and everything you tried to be/is pulled apart by fear and grief/but young hands build you up”) or in “Young Glass”’s reassurance that even if when you feel alone there’s an entire world all around you waiting to be explored (inspired, as The Broken Speaker tells us, by a J.D. Salinger book).

On the whole the record is somewhat shorter and perhaps considerably more concise than its predecessor, the shorter songs coming in briefly enough that they’ll set up well as singles in the coming months. It’s an intense listen that requires active listening if you really want to get the full scope of it.

Fans of earnest rock and roll may have just found their new bellwether.

 

 Hey Rosetta! - Yer Spring: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Hey Rosetta! - Young Glass: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You’ll find Seeds available in all forms (pre-order so far) through the Hey Rosetta! website. Older CDs are also in there, I think.

Pat entries 2011, Canadian content, epic rock, Hey Rosetta!, indie rock, orchestral rock, rock

It seems like every punk in the world is setting aside their power chords and picking up an acoustic guitar these days. I have to say, it’s getting a bit tired.

Too often there’s some kind of affectation to it, like the only kind of non-punk music punks feel comfortable playing is something akin to old outlaw country: songs about booze, bottles, women, and hard times. Fun at first you guys, but you’ll never be as good as Drag The River so why bother trying (Greg Graffin of Bad Religion being one of the worst purveyors of warmed-over country and Americana on albums so bad even the Weakerthans couldn’t save them)?

Chris Wollard’s solo work has proven much more satisfying to me, an example of what can happen when a truly gifted musician follows whatever muse captures him. While the first solo track he put out was acoustic it had much more of a straightforward rock or pop feel. His surprisingly flawless debut full-length, recorded with his band The Ship Thieves, spanned a ridiculous amount of rock niches from 90’s alternative to power pop to sensitive ballad.

No one would ever mistake Wollard’s previous full-time gig in Hot Water Music as immature, so it sounds not-quite-accurate to call his solo/Ship Thieves work more mature. It’s a different kind of mature, with tracks on the self-titled LP carrying a decidedly grown-up tone. “All The Same” is about a couple who fall asleep on the couch watching a movie, foregoing a night out for a night of rest. “Oh, Whatever” sounds like an apathetic anthem on the surface but it’s informed by enough age and experience to feel genuine and reasoned in its misanthropy. “Hey B” resonates with the endless weariness that only decades on the road can create.

Which brings us to Wollard and the Ship Thieves 2010 release, an untitled 7″ with two songs that showcase how much further the band has moved ahead of that first album. Both songs are considerably more up-tempo; A-side cut “Anybody Else” is the most rocking song they’ve committed to tape yet. The song has an insistent, bouncy bass line and a simple pop-rock guitar chord progression that doesn’t even bother to try taking center-stage. The constant snare strikes push the song along with every beat and you can see the smile on Wollard’s face despite his consistently-gruff singing.

“Left To Lose” is slightly reminiscent to the LP’s “You Always Leave,” thanks to it’s brushed-snare drumbeat, vaguely recalling country the latter’s country leanings. Wollard’s acoustic guitar, world’s away from the damaged back-porch sound of he and fellow HWM frontman Chuck Ragan’s Rumbleseat recordings, takes the lead once again with a bright set of open chords and a sprightly-picked lead. The catchy chorus may be short on words but it’s long on hooks, the falsetto sections bringing Wollard closer to genuine crooning than he’s come before.

It’s clear Wollard and the band have come into their own as a cohesive unit, operating under a hive mind that is producing songs that are as dense, brief, and catchy as possible. The body of work he’s released under his own name is definitely more full-realized than The Draft, the band he formed after HWM’s collapse with HWM’s bassist and drummer. That project seemed like it was still aiming for HWM territory but was unable to reconcile the fact that that previous outlet simply didn’t exist anymore, that the dynamic had shifted. This 7″ may only be two songs that end far too quickly but it’s enough to make it clear that this band is a living, breathing entity, that is fully realized and has its best work ahead of it.

Oh yeah…and then there’s this thing.

Or more specifically these things. It was a busy year for Hot Water Music, just like it was for Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves. His reunited band continued to play gigs all over the world and No Idea Records, HWM’s long-time home, continued to issue new volumes in their Live In Chicago 7″ series. We’re up to four now and it’s a magnificent collection, especially for die-hard fans like me who haven’t yet been able to find their way to one of those shows.

Captured at a reunion date at Chicago’s legendary Metro theatre, each record contains four songs from what was a speedy, lively, and furious set. Some of the records are mostly old songs, some are split, some have mostly new songs, but all see the band firing on all cylinders and not missing a single intricate note.

The packaging is terrific. Each record is on its own colour of vinyl, corresponding with the coloured insert in the record, and the covers are die-cut with the band’s classic logo.

Just for fun, here’s a few of those tracks for fans like me. I’ve been lucky enough to be on top of the order rushes when they go on sale, but each of the four volumes is now completely sold out. Var, No Idea’s mastermind, has indicated that we’ll get up to at least six chapters so make sure you keep your eye peeled.

 

 Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves - Left To Lose [2:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves - The Same To You: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Hot Water Music - It's Hard To Know (live at the Metro) [3:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Hot Water Music - Rooftops (live at the Metro) [2:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Hot Water Music - A Flight and A Crash [2:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Hot Water Music - Alachua (live at the Metro) [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can get the second pressing of the Anybody Else 7″ from Sound Study Recordings in their web store. It’s a limited run of 500! On lavender vinyl! The always-amazing No Idea Records also has them for sale in their distro catalog. No digital for this little number, but iTunes has the eponymous LP.

Pat entries 7" singles, Best of, Best of 2010, Chris Wollard, Chris Wollard and the Ship Theives, Hot Water Music, indie rock, live music, No Idea Records, pop rock, reunings, rock

I love it when a group I’m quite literally completely ignorant of hits me over the head like a brick with a song that comes totally out of left field.

Admittedly, my expectations were low for Cold War Kids. Not being familiar with their previous works, I checked out their 2010 EP Behave Yourself on a whim and was knocked on my ass. The California band apparently emerged as one of those annoying blog-buzz bands that I never bother to listen to (sorry, Black Kids/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah/whatever). Thankfully, I somehow missed the buzz altogether.

The track “Coffee Spoon” seemed like a revelation from the first spin, despite the confused central metaphor that gives the song its title. Singer Nathan Willett’s off-the-charts-high falsetto evinces the best of white-boy soul, as does his plaintive vocal melody in the chorus. The chord progression that underpins the falsetto sections is busy, constantly shifting, filled with fingers fervently hammering on notes only to retreat just as quickly. It’s a slinky, bouncy descending melody that is as good as I heard throughout 2010. Now, if only someone could explain to me how a human is at all like a coffee spoon (maybe his girlfriend dumps sugar directly down his gullet every morning?).

Being an EP this collection of leftover tracks from years gone by is admittedly brief. It may also explain why it’s so good, depending on what reviews of the bands two most-recent full lengths go: reviewers who have followed the band all the way along seem to suggest that they peaked with their debut LP and are slowly sliding into mainstream blandness with their latest.

But the rest of the EP is just as strong as “Coffee Spoon.” Lead-off number “Audience” is an insistent stomper whose piano chords help hold support a fuzzy, plodding bass-line; airy back-ground wailing and harmonies from Willett flesh out the mix as well. The re-recorded “Sermons” (which has appeared in different forms on two previous releases) is a terrific slow-burning soul number and “Santa Ana Winds” builds to a dramatic flourish, riding on the upper register of Willett’s voice. The latter two make some reviewer’s comparisons to Jeff Buckley seem rather on-the-nose, as Willett is absolutely swinging for the fences with very reminiscent results.

Song for song this is definitely among the strongest short-players released in 2010. It’s also a good primer for their brand new, just-released album as well (if my first listen is any indication.) While critical analyses of their latter-era results may be anything but flattering, I have to admit that my first listen to the newly-released Mine Is Yours has been overwhelmingly positive. It is quite slick, no doubt thanks to the large part Kings of Leon (BARF! WORST BAND IN RECENT MEMORY!) producer Jacquire King played in recording, producing, and mixing the album. It’s unabashedly pop, but the pop sensibilities of Behave Yourself are what drew me in. At this early point in my knowledge of the band’s recorded output I’m more than happy to hear more of their pop side.

 

 Cold War Kids - Audience Of One: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Cold War Kids - Finally Begin [3:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Physical copies of the band’s latest album are right here. iTunes is at this link. Older releases, including Behave Yourself are over here.

Pat entries America, Best of, Best of 2010, Cold War Kids, EP, indie rock

Manitoba is a miserable place in the winter. I should know — I’m from Saskatchewan (where it’s worse) but I lived there for a couple of years. I wouldn’t spend it shacked up in a lake-side cottage for nothin’, not even for the sake of a collaborative album with one of Canada’s most celebrated indie rock bands.

But lo, that’s what the gentleman Jim Bryson did last year. The winkingly-titled The Falcon Lake Incident (a locally-famous UFO spotting happened there decades ago) was recorded in the dead of winter with the members and recordists occupying a single cabin. A terrible idea but it yielded amazing results.

I struggled for weeks on how best to do actually discuss the content of this record. That is, until friend of the blog Emmet Matheson summed it up in the best way possible: it’s an album that is unremarkable in its greatness. “No jaw-dropping moments, just consistently well-crafted/executed. Like Law & Order in 1993,” he explained on his Twitter account.

And he’s right. See, Bryson is a pretty unassuming singer and songwriter. Like the Weakerthans’ John K. Samson his style is low-key and intimate, not often lending itself to bombast or showboating. He doesn’t grab for your attention, he slinks into your mind-grapes and works his magic from the inside out. The Weakerthans, whom Bryson has been a touring member of for a few years now, do add some rock and roll flourishes and some uptempo energy but the songs are never overpowered by their presence, only augmented. The album never strays far from Bryson’s gentle pop hooks and softly-delivered vocal tonalities, which prove to be a terrific match for Samson’s equally unique backing harmonies.

It’s something that starts with the softly-picked acoustic guitar opening of “Raised All Wrong” and continues through the electric guitar and quick pace of “Wild Folk” into the textured, atmospheric build-up and the straight-forward palm-muted power chords of “Up All Night” and the piano-led closer “Anything At All,” which culminates in the album’s single massive, clattering, noise-riddled, feedback-laden climax. It’s in every note in between, every impossibly golden, incredibly catchy melody.

I guess in the end there really isn’t much to say about The Falcon Lake Incident. In my head, this review always more or less read, “If you like either of these acts than you will get a big ol’ boner over this record.” I don’t think you can put it any simpler than that.

Maybe you’ll just have to listen to these here songs and see what I mean.

 

 Jim Bryson & the Weakerthans - Fell Off The Dock [3:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Jim Bryson & the Weakerthans - Up All Night [4:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ottawa’s Kelp Records is handling a vinyl release that is really terrific. MapleMusic is doing digital and CD and you can also get a few old releases while you’re at it.

Pat entries Canadian content, effulgence, indie rock, Jim Bryson, steppin' out, Weakerthans

For a while this cover art made me not even want to play the record. Look at it. It’s amazing. Is there any way a record could live up to that stirring image? It is perhaps the most bad-ass cover art I’ve seen in a very long time.

Now that that’s out of the way: well done, Black Mountain. Your latest album, Wilderness Heart continues to impress. You apparently can do no wrong.

If you know the group and its members’ history at all you know how prolific, varied, and good their past and present projects are. Stephen McBean continues to release material under the Pink Mountaintops moniker (as recently as last year), a sly and slick counterpoint to the proggy and riff-heavy Black Mountain. Drummer Josh Wells and singer Amber Webber also comprise the creative core of Lightning Dust, who released their own incredible album last year. Guitarist Matt Camirand is a principal member of the gloomy alt-country group Blood Meridian. And those are just the bands that are still active; the past project list on their Wikipedia page is so long you’ll need a nap halfway through.

Black Mountain’s last album was the apex of their Led Zepplin guitar histrionics and Sabbath bombast paired with some spacey, ethereal moments reminiscent of Pink Floyd (or so I’m told; Floyd was never my cup of tea). I loved the album for its sprawling, ambitious structures, especially on the eight minute opus “Tyrants” and the languorous “Stormy High.” While the groove of first album standout “Druganaut” was less present it was more than made up for thanks to stylish atmospherics and a sound boiled down from every form of rock imaginable.

Wilderness Heart may be a slightly lesser album, but not because the band has cooled its ambition to be everything to everyone in the rock kingdom. “Let Spirits Ride” is one of their hardest and fastest numbers yet, channeling Lemmy Kilmister’s right hand in all its glory. Keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt throws some incredibly dense tracks on songs like “Old Fangs” and fleshes out some of the more low-key arrangements on “Radiant Hearts” and “Buried By The Blues.”

Those softer sounds might be the most prominent feature on the record, in fact. The massive riffs are still present on the album but there is also a lot more acoustic guitar, slower tempos, and gentler sounds. In a good way, I mean; it’s still bombastic, but not in an “amps to 11″ kind of way. The new dynamic is introduced right from the opening track, “the Hair Song.” It’s possibly the most 70’s element here when taken as a whole. It also pushes the interplay between McBean and Webber to new heights. This is possibly the most well-integrated the two of them have ever been. They sound more like a pair than ever and the result is fantastic.

There’s no huge left turn here, no massive departure. If you’ve enjoyed Black Mountain’s previous work then you’ll dig what’s happening here. Hell, the extra sheen and time-capsule tunes might even have a chance at gripping some airplay on modern or classic rock radio. As pretty much the best band that ever opened for Coldplay maybe its about time.

 

 Black Mountain - Let Spirits Ride [4:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Visit Jagjaguwar for all your Black Mountain music needs!

Pat entries Black Mountain, Canadian content, classic rock, folk rock, indie rock, rock, rock and roll, rock monsters, rock rock

What the hell Regina?

As previously mentioned, dancey Regina indie rock band Despistado reformed this past week. The series of shows culminated with a set at the Exchange on Saturday night. A set that rocked. It’s just too bad no one was there to see it.

I’m being somewhat facetious. It wasn’t a sell-out, but there were plenty of people there. They drew about as many people as a lot of notable acts that play there do. But there were still tickets being sold at the door and there was people sitting, which means there was still plenty of floor space not getting used.

I suppose it makes some sense; the torch has been passed. The O’Hanlon’s hipster crowd spends their time jerking off to Library Voices albums and filling the room for their shows. Where Despistado was the toast of the town six years ago, playing the larger Distrikt to a much more frenzied crowd, apparently all they get now is a cursory glance from people looking to re-live their heyday.

This band is smart though. Singer/guitarist Dagan Harding, one song into the set, asked the crowd how many of them had never seen the group play before. Half a dozen hands went up. Understandable I guess, considering their name and music has disappeared in the last five years.

Sadly, most of the crowd seemed like they were indifferent to being there. Small pockets of people actually bothered to dance, clap along, or sing. Much of the people towards the front of the stage stood still, mouths slightly agape, watching the resurgent group tear through nearly every song they ever wrote with just as much passion and ferocity as ever.

Craig over at the Dog Blog also noticed some people leaving before the show was over. To them I offer my strongest, “What the fuck, people?” You come for a reunion show and then leave before the encore? Really?

I’ve always thought Regina audiences don’t deserve the quality of music we have here. That view has only been reinforced.

I thought the band had a great set, though. They were incredibly sharp throughout but the beginning of the set seemed slightly off, as though it took them a few songs to get their legs underneath them. It wasn’t that the sound was off, but the chemistry between them just wasn’t popping like it used to. Once things came together (at the perfect moment, no less: the rollicking, tom-heavy harmony-frenzy “Bubbles”) it was like I was back at the Distrikt six years ago seeing them for what would turn out to be the last time. They were all over the stage, rocking out in their muted, understated way. They grooved, they smiled, they laughed, they played hard. They didn’t miss a single note, even on their trickiest songs. It was something to behold.

I chatted with drummer Brennan Schwarz before the show and he said they’d been rehearsing like crazy for the last week or so. More importantly, he stressed how great it was that the members themselves were happy playing them. To hear him tell it the tour that ultimately served as the last nail in their collective coffin ended with them literally at each others throats. The joy on his face while he was pounding out track after track on Saturday showed vividly how far they’ve come.

And the songs! These songs are still so good. I’d forgotten how they come across in a live setting, how energetic they are, how lyrically meaningful and striking they are. I mean, “Lipstick,” people! There just aren’t a lot of songs that are better than “Lipstick.”

Aside from the audience the only complaint I have is that they didn’t go for broke. Schwarz told me that they’d actually written a new song during their rehearsals. He was trying to get the rest of the group to play it during their three-song encore, but they either didn’t hear him or didn’t agree. Hopefully it’s a sign that there’s more to come from Despistado in the future. But even if more shows aren’t in the cards, however, this was a very satisfying note to go out on.

 

 Despistado - Lipstick [3:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Despistado - Burning House [2:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pat entries dance music, Despistado, indie rock, live music, people are the worst, Regina, reunions