Sound Salvation Army

When I was in University I edited and wrote for my school’s student newspaper, the Carillon. I also had an advice column for the romantically retarded. It was called the Book of Love (for what should be obvious reasons). That title had nothing to do with Stephin Merritt.

But there is a tangential connection. At the time I had no business dispensing advice to people with romantic problems, having fallen into a series of ineffective and one-sided relationships with sexually aggressive women with low self-esteem (how little things change). The advice that came out of that piece of work was based more around a loose concept of what should work in any given situation: communication. I’d make a few jokes, impugn someones manhood (either theirs, mine, or their boyfriend), and then tell them to talk about whatever was bothering them with their partner. To say it was half-assed is putting it mildly.

Stephin Merritt, on the other hand, doesn’t do things half-assed and when he bases a project around an idea it comes out a little more successful. That’s what lead to the release of 69 Love Songs a little more than ten years ago. The triple album was less a collection of love songs and more a collection of songs about love songs.

Of course, that would be nearly impossible to pull off without penning a few earnest, genuine love songs along the way. “The Book of Love” is a classic of the genre, covered by a variety of artists that showcases how pervasive and wide-raging Merritt’s work really is. Peter Gabriel’s version is best-known, a treacly string-bomb that was included in a romantic comedy starring (blech) Richard Gere. Quirk-filled singer-songwriter and former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty offers a rather faithful live take, although he drops a few notes here and there (Fleet Foxes singer Robin Pecknold’s take is also pretty straight-forward). British multi-instrumentalist Catherine A.D. released a version on her first EP, flipping the acoustic guitar for piano, synths, and some masked glock.

Then there’s Library Voices. Regina’s highest-profile band of 2009 start with electric guitar as the lead instead of acoustic, but they keep the reverb wet and roomy. One singer keeps Merritt’s baritone melody intact while Carl Johnson overlays the same melody an octave higher, giving the lyrics extra weight and depth. Two-thirds of the way through an authoritative drum line, tambourine, and some ethereal synths give the track a strong full-band finish. The band, notorious for its double-digit membership, keeps restraint at the forefront by including nothing that’s unnecessary. The gorgeous arrangement is simultaneously at odds with and complementary to Merritt’s original; moving beyond the sparse arrangement conflicts with Merritt’s slavish devotion to the idea as the sole focal point, but I’ll be damned if this track isn’t pretty enough to be an inspiration for the 70th love song song.

 

 Library Voices - the Book of Love [3:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Magnetic Fields - the Book of Love [2:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Peter Gabriel - the Book of Love [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Mike Doughty - the Book of Love [3:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Catherine AD - the Book of Love [2:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Robin Pecknold - the Book of Love [2:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can get their album in any fine record store and on zunior and iTunes.

Pat entries anniversaries, Canadian content, Catherine AD, Library Voices, love songs, Magnetic Fields, Mike Doughty, Peter Gabriel

I’ve been on the road for the last month, backpacking through central and eastern Europe. Internet access has been spotty and despite my best efforts, I missed my mom’s birthday. I feel like poop. And I’m still employment free, so I don’t know if going home for Christmas is going to happen, but being away from Canada for so long has me longing for my prairie home. Saskatchewan is hard to explain to people here, so when they ask where I’m from, I just say Canada and tell them I live near Toronto, which is true. But there’s a little part of me that thinks “liar!” every time I say that.

When I was young, it was drilled into me that where you are from is everything. My grandpa loved paging through local history books that detailed the families in the area and what they did and how many kids they had, how many acres they farmed, etc. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of those things. Whenever I would tell him about a new friend I made whose parents farmed, he’d look them up in one of his books and then, the next time we spoke, he’d go “Say, that Marcotte girl you roomed with, the one who reads the news on the CBC, is she from Southie? I knew her grandpa.” Of course he did.

Travelling has made me a little resentful of the fact that in a sea of foreigners, I feel the most foreign. I am not from Toronto or Vancouver or Montreal, one of the three Canadian cities foreigners seem to recognize immediately. I’m from the huge, expansive middle part, the one with straight sides that everyone says is flat and boring. Even back in Canada, I get the sense that people brush my home province off as if it didn’t matter or was the worst place to be from, so why advertise that fact? Here, at least it is understandable that nobody has heard of my home town. In Canada, I get a little indignant, because Tommy Douglas, the greatest Canadian, introduced the country to universal health care there.

I have to imagine that Library Voices co-lead singer Carl Johnson would understand. He used to be with National Frost, a band that got its start in Estevan, which is the Ying to Weyburn’s Yang.

Regina, which is close by, also has a rep as a place you don’t want to advertise being from. I cannot tell you how many bands I have seen come through the city only to make that stupid, aging joke about the name (city that rhymes with fun/I won’t make fun of your city’s name because your mayor asked me not to, but I don’t want to sound like a pussy/your city sounds like vagina!), perform a mediocre set and leave. Bah, to them! We will make our own bands! And they will rival any of those that have come before! THEN you’ll see!

I’m not sure if Library Voices exactly rival, say, the New Pornographers, but they’re on their way to that! They are a big, sprawling collective (ten members) and they certainly sing kicky, energetic songs with clever lyrics.

And I love them for it. In particular, Things We Stole From Vonnegut’s Grave is special and interesting and sweetly indifferent, just like Vonnegut himself. I love the chanted chorus: “And so it goes…/ And so it goes…/ Until you’re unstuck in time/ Fate’s worse than death/ Don’t hold your breath/ There’s an asterisk before your name” Plus, they quote my favourite Vonnegut saying: We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be.

The song is on their debut EP, Hunting Ghosts & Other Collected Shorts and if it seems like they should hurry up and release a new, full-length album, don’t worry. It’s on its way! I saw them play at Hillside Festival this summer, where they had one of THE best sets of the weekend. Everyone loved them and with good reason. Soaring harmonies, complex songs with a variety of unexpected instruments and chords that sound maddeningly familiar. They’re like faces you can’t quite place. You may think you’ve heard them before, but every listen reveals new surprises and twists. They’re also purveyors of my favourite pop-song accoutrement: hand claps.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but they are a band on the way to big, huge, exciting things. Their songs are hooky, danceable and sing-along-able, filled with riffs on all kinds of ‘tures, including pop culture, literature and adventure. And because they are from Saskatchewan, you can bet they have a mom or a grandpa or an uncle or some other relative who won’t let them get big heads about their future success. That’s just the way it is back home.

Speaking of back home…

I love the crush and the rush of the big cities I have visited. I love the insular beauty of the secluded villages I have visited. I keep threatening to move to Europe, because what have I got to lose? But it doesn’t matter how far from Saskatchewan I wander or where I end up living. I will always be from the same place and that place will always be home. Thanks for reminding me of that, Library Voices:

You should know by now
Lost girls don’t find
Themselves over seas
You can never go back to young & free
Just tell story through laptop screens

I can tell you that these lyrics from Love In the Age of Absurdity are true. Because I am writing this on a laptop in a hotel room in Istanbul and I am almost ready to go home with no big revelations about myself other than that I will never take coin-op laundry for granted again.

Check out Library Voices when they come to a city near you, Ontario:

Oct. 27th - Hamilton - The Casbah
Oct. 28th - Guelph - The E-Bar
Oct. 29th - Toronto - The El Mocambo
Oct. 30th - Ottawa - Live Lounge
Oct. 31st - Barrie - The Mansion

You can get their album in any fine record store and on zunior and itunes.

 

 Library Voices - Things We Stole From Vonnegut's Grave: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Library Voices - Love In The Age Of Absurdity: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Canadian content, Library Voices, live music, mp3, Regina, travelling

I’m going to preface this entry by mentioning that I recently wrote a piece for the Toronto Star about some upcoming festivals in southern Ontario that you can go see this summer if you wanted to get out of Toronto. I was just there last week for the Neko Case show at Massey Hall (I was gonna review it and then I had interviews and stuff to do, so I didn’t, but she was brilliant, obviously.) and she said she was glad she could make it to town for the biannual garbage strike. What I’m trying to say is: Toronto smells. It’s not their fault, but really, if you can leave that behind for a weekend, why wouldn’t you?

One of the festivals I mentioned in the article is Hillside in Guelph and it starts Friday. One of the commenters on my story rightly points out that you cannot call this festival “little.” And I did not. So there. The commenter also says it is now nearly impossible to get tickets. This is true. But it is also true that I said there are Friday passes left. And if you wanted to, you could buy some. Like, say, if you went to TicketPro, you would find tickets for Friday. AND Sunday! Man, look how nice I am!

I decided that this week, I would pick a handful of groups that I love who are performing at Hillside and write a bunch of entries about them for this poooooooor commenter who tragically could not plan ahead or get his ass online to buy tickets when they went on sale and apparently could not be bothered to click a link where tickets for two days are still available. You can’t tell, but I’m crying a single tear for this commenter.

ANYWAY! Hillside is famous for its community spirit, commitment to environmentalism and ability to pick unknown bands right before they make it big. There are a few groups on the roster this year that I think are poised to blow up huge and I thought, why not talk about them here while I’m figuring out what to see when?

Leading off is Regina’s Library Voices, one of my favourite discoveries from last year.

Yes. This photo is accurate. There are ten members of this group writing clever lyrics, soaring harmonies and creating a whirling dervish of sound. Library Voices made a six-song EP - Hunting Ghosts and other Collected Shorts - that is filled with hooky pop music that alternately yells its greatness from the rooftops and whispers its witty bon mots in your ear. But there’s always an urgency to it, like: “Listen! Listen! Please listen! Oh! Get this part… hear that? Yeah! We are on the same page! The best part is coming up… man! So awesome! Right?” Like they croon on the title track, “time is of the essence.”

At first, the only song I liked on Hunting Ghosts was the single, “Step Off the Map and Float,” but the more I listened, the more I heard. God. That sounds so lame, but it’s true. I don’t get people who claim that indie music is inaccessible. That is so fucking lazy and untrue. For instance, “Love in the Age of Absurdity” has a wailing guitar solo and a woo-woo-woo chorus of which Weezer would be jealous.

And how - HOW? - can you not love a band that extensively references Kurt Vonnegut in its lyrics? On “Things We Stole From Vonnegut’s Grave,” jaunty guitar riffs meet handclaps meet lush harmonies meet the shouted chorus of “And so it goes, and so it goes.” This equals big fun. We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be, indeed. The title of this post is what Vonnegut requested for his epitaph if, God forbid, he should die. One cannot presume to know what Vonnegut would have thought of a band incorporating his words into their lyrics, but I guess he might be amused. And so it goes.

And they continue to grow, musically. The dynamics on their new song, “Drinking Games” (which you can stream on their myspace because I don’t have it), are amazing. It’s like the goddamn Beach Boys I’m picking up so many good vibrations from this shit!

I can’t wait to see them live. It’s my experience that most collectives are great live. There’s more that can go wrong, sure, but the energy is always infectious and I’ve never had a bad experience with seeing groups that have more than seven members. Library Voices play Saturday, which is the one day of the festival that is sold out at all points of sale, so it’s a good thing you’re here!

The group joins Rah Rah, the Polymaths and Goldenmile in the growing category of great groups from the Reeg getting some much deserved buzz. They’re all on Young Soul Records, which hasn’t got a very up-to-date website, but maybe that’s because they’re busy signing more great groups. The Queen City should brag long and loud about these talents. Maybe then they wouldn’t all move away and I would no longer have to hear jerks from Winnipeg rag on the city as a talentless void. As if Winnipeg didn’t suck too. But I promise, Ontario, if you catch Library Voices on tour in Ontario in July, you will not be sorry. Here’s some tour dates, so you have no excuses!

July 21 - Toronto, On - @ Horseshoe Tavern
July 22 - Hamilton, On - @ The Casbah
July 23 - Windsor, On - @ Blind Dog
July 24 - Peterborough, On - @ Montreal House w/ The Burning Hell (Oh man, DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!)
July 25-26 - Guelph, On - Hillside Festival
July 28 - Toronto, On - @ Horseshoe Tavern
July 29 - London, On - @ Call The Office w/ Songs From A Room
July 31 - Thunder Bay, On @ Apollo

You can read about their tour adventures on their blog, and buy their stuff on zunior, sonic unyon and iTunes.

 

 Library Voices - Step Off the Map and Float: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Library Voices - Things We Stole From Vonnegut's Grave: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Library Voices - Love in the Age of Absurdity: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Canadian content, collectives, Guelph, Hillside Festival, Library Voices, live music, Regina, Toronto Star