SoundSalvationArmy

You ever think that one of your favourite artists is sort of off his game? Like, he released a bunch of awesome albums early in his career (seriously, several albums that are well on their way to becoming genre-defying classics not even ten years after their release) and then he started to kind of flame out? Maybe he released some albums that were not as good. Not BAD, just… not quite up to par with what you’ve come to expect.

That’s exactly how I feel about Hawksley Workman.

But based on what I’ve been hearing from his new album, Meat (it drops January 19, which I have already earmarked as a happy day in music land, cuz Spoon’s Transference comes out then, too), this might be the recording that puts him squarely back in my good graces.

He’s released several singles from the album. So far, my favourites are “You Don’t Just Want To Break Me” and “We Ain’t No Vampire Bats,” but “We’ll Make Time,” has all the hallmarks of a great Hawksley song: Chanted almost-rap lines, quirky melodies, driving rhythms, hand claps, a hooky chorus and a big, fat, rockin’ section in the middle. I haven’t heard anything from him that I’ve liked this much since “Striptease.”

When For Him And The Girls came out, I felt like I was listening to Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits meet up and agree that Tom would write and Leonard would sing and they’d make gorgeous, creepy, ethereal music together. Then came Last Night We Were The Delicious Wolves and glam Bowie comparisons were not out of place. Lover/Fighter was a little more commercial, but it still had a distinctly Hawksley way about it. The duality of love and anger was much more obvious, though, I think less fully explored than it could have been. After that, I tuned out for a couple years. Maybe because I was introduced to Hawksley when his songs had a very warm, natural vibe. His later stuff has been kind of antiseptic and, well, cold. It’s the difference between a lumpy loaf of artisan bread with chunks of grains and sunflower seeds in it and a perfectly square loaf of Wonderbread. The new songs seem like a happy return to the chunky, homemade bread. There are still some synth elements, but just enough to make it crisp. When it’s sprinkled into the mix, I don’t mind. In fact, I kinda like it. When it takes over everything, not so much.

My favourite Hawklsey Workman songs are about tender destruction and utter devotion. He sings about beauty and pain and the simplicity of love and I bet you’re thinking “Big whoop. Lots of musicians do that.” I dunno. They might try, but they don’t often succeed on the level he does. When he’s on, he’s fucking ON. Listening to a good Hawksley Workman song is like watching this scene from Punch Drunk Love:

Barry: I’m lookin’ at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna fuckin’ smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze it. You’re so pretty.
Lena: I want to chew your face, and I want to scoop out your eyes and I want to eat them and chew them and suck on them.
[Pause]
Barry: OK. This is funny. This is nice.

Hawksley, like Barry and Lena, knows what it is to love the sight of something so much that you want to destroy it. Which is why I love “You Don’t Just Want To Break Me.” This song builds to a whooping, screaming, yowling climax that oozes sex and hurt and anger and above all, passion! Hawksley’s voice is like a spreading bruise; violent but beautiful. You want to look away. You want to examine it intimately. You want to listen and that’s, like, all of the battle for a musician. You can stream all these singles on his website, which also has links to iTunes and Six Shooter, where you can buy them as MP3s.

And hey, if you’re in Guelph in February (I won’t be, so sad!), Hawksley is playing the Hillside Inside festival before heading out on a cross-Canada tour of this bad boy. Catch him if you can. His live performances are the stuff of legend and something every fan of live music should see. You can pre-order Meat from Six Shooter Records, where you can also buy all his other albums. Including Almost a Full Moon, which I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend. Let’s call it a “seasonal” album and let’s also say that it’s his best work. I’m giving you a track from that one as an early Christmas present. Enjoy!

 

 We Ain't No Vampire Bats - Hawksley Workman: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 A House Or Maybe A Boat - Hawksley Workman: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Canadian content, Hawksley Workman, live music, mp3, new release

A couple years ago, I went to see Jill and Matthew Barber perform at the Dublin Street United Church in a blizzard. Outside it was snowing and blowing and inside, people crowded into the pews for a toasty warm celebration of sound. I love hearing music performed in churches. They’re such great spaces that are built to carry sound.

So you should not miss tonight’s show there by the saucy, harmonious, gorgeous Good Lovelies: Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore.

Ain’t they sweet?

They sang backup on Jill Barber’s last album (which was awesome) and they are fresh off a win at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, where they took home the prize for best New/Emerging Artist. They’re going to fill Dublin Street United to the rafters with their beautiful music and I think you should go.

I know for a fact that this trio from Toronto has been wowing the folk festival set this summer with songs from their first, self-titled album, their earlier five-song EP Oh My, and the newest addition to their discography, a Christmas album called Under the Mistletoe.

They don’t reinvent the wheel on the seasonal album, and why should they? Finding an album of Christmas Carols has lately become an exercise in annoyance and futility. For example, I saw the latest A Very Special Christmas album recently. And I realized that while I might have recognized a name or two, I couldn’t tell you what the performers looked like or name another song of theirs. Gone are the days when U2 and Springsteen and Bon Jovi played on those things. Look, I know Christmas songs are lame. But you are talking to a woman who knows all the words to Christmas Wrapping and Christmas in Hollis. So this throwback of singing classic Christmas songs beautifully is a nice respite and I should thank the Good Lovelies for their effort in stealing Christmas music back from Taylor Swift. I’m very sorry to say this, but she cannot sing. She’s terrible. I’m sure she’s quite nice, but her voice is just… not good. Please, instead of buying your mom her album for Christmas, maybe give the Good Lovelies a try. YOU might even like them!

Beyond the Christmas album, I really love what the Good Lovelies are doing elsewhere. I’m biased though, cuz harmonizing is one of my favourite things to do when I’m singing along to stuff while puttering around in my apartment. I frequently entertain the thought of putting together a smart, sassy girl group that would perform retro pastiche songs in kicky matching outfits. Though I gravitate more to the Phil Spector wall-of-sound girl groups when I do this in my head, I also love the straight-ahead harmonies of the 40s.

The Good Lovelies are what you would get if the Andrews Sisters met the Be Good Tanyas in a saloon. Their songs are upbeat and swinging and fun and they’ll leave you with a smile on your face. Who could resist such lush harmonies? Don’t front. It’s not you.

My favourite song of theirs is “Whiskey.” It’s a charming little ditty about bad behaviour encouraged by sipping on whiskey and tequila and the ramifications of the resulting hangover. You’ve been there, swaying slightly in your nylons and party dress in the kitchen, staring bleary-eyed at the bunch of bananas on your counter, your drunken brain telling you that you should eat one because electrolytes. It won’t be the first time your foggy mind betrays you that night. Bonus material on this track: Listening to the post-track patter as the Good Lovelies try to work up some burps.

You can hear some of their best harmonies are on the track “Sleepwalkin’” from their debut. Just gorgeous. Keep up the good work Good Lovelies!

I command you to buy their albums from Maple Music. And check them out on tour, especially if you live in Guelph and want to hear some magic tonight at Dublin St. United Church with Roxanne Potvin. Doors are at 7:30, the show gets started at 8 p.m. and tickets are $20 at the door.

 

 Good Lovelies - Santa Baby: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Good Lovelies - Whiskey: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Good Lovelies - Sleepwalkin' : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries folk, Guelph, live music, mp3, the Good Lovelies

I’m getting antsy for the new year. Real antsy. And not January 1. No, that’s usually pretty overrated. But there is no way that the new year could be worse than 2009. It’s been a stinky year for both Pat and I, but I see things looking up in 2010!

In part because Spoon’s new album, Transference, is supposed to come out January 19. How long have I been waiting for this!? Two years. That’s how long! In the new world order of flavour of the month ridiculousness, that is forever.

If you don’t know who Spoon is, maybe you should educate yourself. Because I’m going to lay down a little truth sauce here. I would say that about 75 percent of the music I hear, all the “hot new music” MP3 blogs are trying to get you to listen to, is garbage. I can’t keep up with it all. I think to myself at least once a week “Aren’t there enough songs?” Oh, I’m so old! When I was a girl, music came on wax cylinders!

Maybe I’m being too harsh. It’s not, like, offensive garbage. I just don’t listen to most of it and think: “This right here is the sound of the aughts.” Maybe that’s why I don’t post quite as often as I should. I can’t stand to think that I’m just feeding the machine. What I write about is usually carefully considered. Life is too short to listen to shitty music. But I seriously digress.

Getting down to it: Spoon is hands down my pick for band of the decade. They were fashioning bold sounds before this new millennium rang in and I hope they continue to do so with Transference.

Stereogum revealed the album cover last month and the first single, “Written in Reverse” followed soon after. I’ve been listening to it non-stop ever since.

Britt Daniel somehow manages to write songs that sound exactly like Spoon songs should without becoming incredibly repetitive.

Their back catalogue is filled with the best pop rock this side of The Pixies. I swear, I could (and do) open up my Spoon playlist and never get bored. I love all their albums, but their last one, the ridiculously titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was especially fantastic.

It says something that in the two years since that album was released, nothing has even come close to unseating “The Underdog” as the top played song on my iTunes. And there are five other songs from that album in the top ten.

“Written In Reverse” is a fantastic example of Spoon’s best work: Daniel’s nasal, hopped-up-on-cold-medication drawl, a building hooky chorus, angry guitar, a false ending and on this track, a piano pounding away in the background.

In short, I love it. Can’t wait for more. And I don’t want to spoil it too much by talking about it right now, especially since this is the first I’ve heard of the album. I just want to lay back, turn it up, nod along and wait for Transference to make its debut.

You can buy pretty much all of Spoon’s back catalogue at their web store. On vinyl, even! Go get it!

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Spoon - The Underdog: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Britt Daniel, mp3, Spoon

I want to preface this post by stating how much I respect Blue Rodeo. I like them very much. If I had to pick a band to accurately represent Canadian Music, I’d pick them over the Tragically Hip any day of the week.

First, and perhaps most important, they are grace and humility personified. They are truly nice, talented, genuine people. In short, they are the total polar opposite of Nickelback, which I think you will agree is a good thing. Then there are all the other reasons to love them:

They’re technically solid musicians. Their albums stand up to repeated listens years later. They have a wide, wide audience appeal (country fans, jaded hipsters, those with more mainstream tastes and my mom can all agree on Blue Rodeo) but they’ve never sold out, either. They seem like mellow, down-to-Earth kind of guys. Jim Cuddy has a great voice. They support younger acts and use their HUGE following to showcase talented musicians by having up-and-comers open for them on tours. They are solid and dependable. And Cuff the Duke could certainly pick a worse band to try and emulate.

Oshawa’s Cuff the Duke are going out on tour with Blue Rodeo in January. They recently (like, last night) played a show at the eBar in Guelph. I wish I could tell you more about it, but I had to take a miss to catch up on some beauty sleep.

Their latest album, Way Down Here, released this past September, reminds me STRONGLY of Blue Rodeo. That’s probably owing to how it was produced by Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor. I missed this album when it first came out. It didn’t exactly blow people away and I can understand why.

The group’s sound on Way Down Here is more lush, but it probably sounds the least like a Cuff the Duke album. It plays out like part of their musical progression, but for me, part of their charm was their spare sound and stripped-down approach to Canadian folk rock.

I think back to “Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker,” “Surging Revival” and ”If I Live or If I Die” as great examples of their talents. They were poppy without being precious. Jaded, but not disaffected. This a completely different sound, more of a fuzzed out, ’60s vibe — kind of like Blue Rodeo meets The Hollies. It’s accessible and I like it, but I’m not sure I like it as much as I loved Life Stories For Minimum Wage or Sidelines of the City. They always sounded like a band that knew exactly who they were, but now… there’s not much there, there, you know?

If the Interwebs can be believed (and when have they led me astray before?) this is Keelor’s first major effort as a producer. I like the sound he gets from Cuff the Duke, but then, I like Blue Rodeo. And they sound an awful lot like Blue Rodeo here. In fact, Petti sounds so much like Cuddy on “Follow Me,” the whole thing sounds like such a Blue Rodeo effort, that I thought I better check to make sure it wasn’t a cover. I suppose if they’re borrowing a little, they could’ve done far worse.

The album waivers between sweet, jangly, rootsy pop like “Follow Me” and “Listen to Your Heart” and the shaggy, bombastic Dylan-gone-electric chimes of “Another Day In Purgatory.” There are other classic rock nods. The short instrumental, “Farley the Dog,” with its twangy, Ennio Morricone guitar, sounds like a slower, sadder reprise to Led Zeppelin’s “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.”

Frontman Wayne Petti’s voice is almost unrecognizable on some tracks. I don’t know how I feel about that, but his guitar solos are flat-out better. My favourite song “Promises” features a truly fantastic, fuzzy solo that pours out of your speakers. It’s a standout moment. Together, with the relentless drumming, “Promises” evokes the best of classic rock. They switch back to the familiar haunted folk/country sound that put them on the map with songs like “Rocking Chair” and “Need You.” I think Petti’s been better as a songwriter. He’s walking a tightrope over cliche valley. He teeters sometimes, but doesn’t quite fall in. Maybe by the next album we’ll see what he was trying to get to on the other side.

This album could have been a mess. Actually, it might even be a mess, but it’s a mess that works. In the future, when we look back on Cuff the Duke and their recorded history, Way Down Here will probably be the overlooked classic you wish you’d paid closer attention to. I like my country with a tinge of psychedelia. I think the disparate sounds clash just right. It’s a formula The Sadies have perfected and Keelor knows his way around those boys, too, since he plays with them in The Unintended. I’ve followed Cuff the Duke for quite awhile. I’ve seen them live more than a few times. They’ve earned the right to take a chance or two, so I don’t begrudge them a change in direction, I just hope they don’t get lost on the way.

You can buy Way Down Here on iTunes or at their official web store. Also, be sure to check local tour dates in the new year! Cuff the Duke is comin’ to a city near you!

 

 Cuff the Duke - Follow Me : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Cuff the Duke - Promises : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Cuff the Duke - Surging Revival: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Blue Rodeo, Canadian content, Cuff The Duke, Greg Keelor, mp3, rock, roots, Wayne Petti

The purpose of a music blog, one supposes, is to update frequently, preferably as things happen or as soon after they happen as possible. That’s always my intent, but then life happens.

So here I am, almost a week after the fact, telling you about the show I saw in Toronto last Wednesday. Sorry, but that’s how it goes sometimes!

Anyhoo!

Peaches feels cream. Or at least, that’s what her new album, I Feel Cream, would have you believe. I don’t know if feeling cream means she’s feeling more mellow these days, but Peaches’ new release is definitely a little less… raw than her previous efforts and that’s not at all bad. She’s employing some restraint in her songs without sacrificing any of the blatant sexuality and rampant swearing that has made her famous. And if this album is lacking the bombastic oomph of her earlier stuff, it makes up for it with its all-around vibe of an artist coming into her own in an entirely new way. I read a review of Peaches’ Fatherfucker that claimed she sounded bored singing about sex, which is too bad since that’s her bread and butter. The reviewer went on to say Impeach My Bush was a huge improvement over that earlier effort. I worry that some will think I Feel Cream is similarly “boring” because she isn’t screaming “Fuck the Pain Away.”

I think her musical progression can be looked at in the way you look at sex. It’s like, the more sex you have, the better you become at it. Peaches is a woman who knows her sex. She does it all the ways. And this time out, it’s like she’s in a steady relationship that’s healthy and exciting and the sexy is dirty and fun and mutually satisfying on the deepest levels. It’s also more subtle and stealthy and knowing. There’s a slyness to it that I think comes from being very, very good at what she does and a certain soulfulness behind the barked lyrics that comes through strong in her singing.

And besides, BOY does she know how to please with her live shows! They’re sexual, screwy, loud and all-around fun for those of us who would otherwise have no place to wear our hot pants and fishnets. It’s interesting to listen to the album and then hear her live. Her shows tease and build and explode into an orgasmic delight of lazers and costumes and chanted calls for the removal of clothing.

The mid-week show at the Phoenix was a hometown visit for Peaches, who was once an elementary school music teacher, and the crowd showed its appreciation early and often. Especially when she got her parents on stage. Mr. and Mrs. Peaches looked happy to be there, standing beside their daughter, who was, at the time, resplendent in gold chains and a white body suit under a pair of HUGE fake breasts. Then she bid them adieu, like “Bye mom and dad! I have to sing about fuckin’ now.”

Peaches with her mom and dad at the Phoenix in Toronto.

But I digress. Her set was a fine, sweaty mix of old and new tunes. I can’t pretend I love I Feel Cream as much as I love Impeach My Bush, but it’s still a solid entry into her discography and this shizz sounds great live. Trust me, she did two encores because we just wouldn’t leave! I danced and danced and shook my tail around like it was on fire! And when it was all over, I felt like I needed a damn cigarette.

During the course of the show, I also decided that I have to figure out how to make balloon animals, because at one point, she came out riding a motorcycle made entirely of balloons. So if I can get a job making elaborate balloon animal set pieces for raunchy rock stars, surely I will be set for life.

Opener Amanda Blank was all about winding it tight and watching it explode. I don’t want to say that women who rap are rare, because I just don’t know enough about them. But I feel pretty safe in saying that women who rap that well are given short shrift. I don’t even know if I can put M.I.A. and Santigold in the same category as her. They’re very good at what they do, but Amanda Blank is rapping for realsies. She’s the Mayo to the Miracle Whip of sundry other rappers and she will not tone it down. I wish to hell I could find the version of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” she spit out at the show.

Until then, I’m happy to listen to her album, I Love You, available on iTunes. Meanwhile, Peaches’ album, I Feel Cream is also available on iTunes and her online store, where you can and should purchase the rest of her albums. The business, yo. She’s the business.

 

 Peaches - Talk To Me: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Peaches - Fuck the Pain Away: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Amanda Blank - Make It Take It : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Amanda Blank, Canadian content, live shows, mp3, Peaches, rap, Toronto

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

So I just got a new computer. I’m typing this on a brand new MacBook Pro. So pretty. So shiny. So precious.

But I faced a serious challenge when it came to transferring my music library. It was a headache and a half and the only relief came when I realized that the first music I put on this bad boy was Rah Rah’s Going Steady.

It was the perfect way to bust this machine’s MP3 cherry. This album has been around for awhile, but it’s a feat that it still feels as fresh as the day I first downloaded it.

Rah Rah is another one of those huge collectives born in the wake of Arcade Fire’s success. Their sound is big and lush, but folkier than Arcade Fire. The songs are poppier, the lyrics sing-a-longier and if they are sometimes depressing, they are humorously so.

At Hillside Festival this year, another Regina collective topped many a “best performance” list. And Library Voices had a brilliant set. I walked into that performance a fan and walked out a bigger, drunker fan. Any band that can write a song dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut with the lyrics “There’s an asterisk beside your name” is all right by me.

I feel sorry for anybody who had to listen to me that weekend, but after seeing Library Voices perform, I was overcome with a profound and lengthy bout of homesickness. Which I expressed by morphing into Slater from Dazed and Confused and extolling the musical virtues of my home prairie province, saying loudly, to anyone who would listen “Maaaaaan, Saskatchewan bands, man! The prairies are where it’s at!” And “I miss the State. We were hardcore back in the day. You know a club is good when there are no doors on the stalls in the bathroom!”

And finally: “If you think Library Voices are good (and if you don’t, you’re stupid), you should hear Rah Rah! They’re even better!”

It’s nice for a change, to see bands from the prairies get their due. I had a big schwak of complaints written out, whining about Regina’s concert scene and the mandate to bring huge, awful acts through the city since the Stones brought their walkers and canes to town and put on the biggest outdoor concert in Canadian history a few years ago. But the I realized that I can’t very well talk about what I don’t know. And I don’t know Regina anymore, but Rah Rah does. And they hearken back to a time when the city was undiscovered on The Innocent One.

What I do know is that the city is breeding a new guard of bands that are gaining some deserved attention. Rah Rah was best band in Regina by the Prairie Dog in 2007, and it is a goddamn shame that they weren’t included on the Polaris list because Going Steady is an album deserving of your attention.

“Duet for Emmylou and the Grievous Angel” is the gem of the album. It plaintively laments living the single life in a small town the way you and your single friends do, but with a bittersweet The chorus wails “It is fashionable, to be single/ in big cities but not in small towns/ in Regina, Saskatchewan/ I fell in love with her frown.” That is the charm of Saskatchewan (and this group) in a nutshell. It’s easy to fall in love with a smile of a city like Vancouver. But falling in love with Regina’s frown is another thing. I also dig the fantastical love story that is “Tentacles” (he loves her and if not for the language barrier, he might marry her, though she has tentacles.) There’s the sweetly simple back and forth of “Cuba/Peru” that highlights the way this group has mastered silly love songs.

In fact, they’ve moved on to hate songs.

Both “F**CK NAFTA” and “The Innocent One” have deceptively soft intros. Both are driving, frustrated anthems for a generation growing up in the wake of corruption, scandal and two huge, unwinnable wars. Going Steady is a near-perfect album filled with soaringly happy songs and bittersweet memories of a fading city. It is made better by its fortuitous release during an era characterized by its unending appetite for destruction of icons held dear by the generation before them. It don’t get much better than the command “Fuck all you stockbrokers in the crowd.”

It gives me heart that this is a band that has not yet had its dreams crushed by a harsh world and is still writing songs about damning the man and saving the empire.

Buy Going Steady from Sonic Unyon, Zunior, and iTunes and more importantly, go see them when they come to a town near you on their It’s Never Too Old To Believe a Dream Tour.

 

 Rah Rah - Tentacles [3:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Rah Rah - Duet For Emmylou and Grievous Angel: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries live music, mp3, Rah Rah, Regina

Their star is rising on the Canadian music scene and Modernboys Moderngirls lead singer Akira Alemany is understandably cautious. Bands come and go and he’s not counting on anything beyond the next gig.

The Toronto group just released their first album, I Might As Well Break It and Alemany is already “pretty close to finished” writing what he hopes will be the group’s second album, but he has no idea if anybody will hear it.

“I’ve got about seven or eight new tunes ready, but I don’t really have any idea if we’ll ever get to make another album. If we don’t… my cat will enjoy them, I guess.”

Yeah, right. Alemany’s cat, you, me and thousands of other people, if their debut is any indication.

Brett Millius, Juan Carlos Rivas, Akira Alemany

Suddenly, it was getting reviewed. It reached No. 8 on the CBCRadio3 charts and the reviews were positive, glowing, even. But Alemany wasn’t done tinkering with I Might As Well Break It.

“I’m not a perfectionist or anything, but it wasn’t done.”

The band took three songs off, put three new songs on, self-produced it and brought in Ryan Mills of Born Ruffians to mix and remaster the album for its official release.

“Ryan was a set of fresh ears. I think things work best when people making an album are bending away from each other a little,” Alemany says. “I liked having somebody come in with another perspective.

“Like, for example, I love Beck, but you listen to his albums and it’s like ‘drums by Beck, guitars by Beck, produced by Beck.’ I wish things would just conflict a little more. There’s too much agreement!”

Alemany compares the process of making the record to premiering a movie at Sundance, getting audience feedback, taking it back to the studio for another edit, then gaining a wider release in theatres. The release date was yesterday, the CD release party is tomorrow and early box office reports are favourable: Two thumbs way, way up.

It’s a fast-paced album filled with songs that manage to wedge themselves between the harshness of the garage and the burning flame of soul in the family room next to the furnace in the basement. It’s like Elvis Costello’s angry young man was recorded with the feverish dynamics of Stax soul.

This merging of genres is not seamless, but that’s part of its charm. Choppy guitars and a driving rhythm section slam up against poppy, repetitive choruses that jangle and shine and it’s all wrapped in a very purposeful cohesiveness that does not sound like a debut album. In that way, it’s similar to the New Pornographers’ debut, Mass Romantic;at first you might think it’s a mess, but it soon becomes apparent that IMAWBI is something special. They play with feedback, bring in some female vocals to bounce along on choruses, and just generally rip through these songs like they’re going to be taken away.

There also seems to be a theme of breakups and endings running through the album, but if there is, Alemany ain’t talkin’.

“There may be a specific narrative about people and relationships,” he said, but: ”I don’t think it matters what the songs mean to me after I’ve written them. I’m much less important at this point and I just want to invite the audience to be part of it.”

Audiences seem willing to come along. Modernboys Moderngirls have developed a solid reputation as a band to see live.

A couple years ago, they played a show at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto as a snowstorm raged outside. The crowd braved the weather and the place was packed with sweaty, dancing bodies. An Edgefest organizer in the audience was impressed enough to offer them a spot at the festival. Things picked up from there.

“We built our reputation on our live shows and that snowstorm was the best thing that ever happened to us.”

Their influences - everything from punk to soul to the straight ahead rockof Springsteen - have inspired them to be better live.

“We listen to the Stooges, to Television, to the New York Dolls, to the Ikettes and Tina Turner. Brett (Millius), our drummer, is obsessed with Johnny Thunders and the Dead Boys. I think Iggy Pop really brought showmanship and rawness to the stage. And Otis Redding live at the Whiskey A Go-Go is a great punk show! The best punk shows elevate! That’s what we want to do.”

 

 Modernboys Moderngirls - On The Line : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Modernboys Moderngirls - A Hammond Organ Singing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Otis Redding - Satisfaction (I Can't Get No) Live: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Burn Planetarium - Frankenstein Kids: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Will Modernboys Moderngirls elevate YOU? Find out for yourself at Sneaky Dee’s tomorrow when the group OFFICIALLY releases I Might As Well Break It. Doors open at 8:30 and as an added bonus, if you’re there early, you’ll get to see one of my favourite Guelph groups, Burn Planetarium. Neat!

Check out their blog, buy their stuff at their official store, on iTunes, or order it on amazon.ca or hmv.ca. Better yet, check them out live. Maybe they’re coming to a city near you!

Tour Dates:
Sept. 18 - Toronto: Sneaky Dee’s, CD Release w/ Clothes Make the Man, Burn Planetarium, Rikers
Sept. 19 - Kingston: The Toucan w/ Pelt
Sept. 25 - Barrie: Oscar’s w/ The Junction
Sept. 26 - Hamilton: Club Absinthe
Oct. 1 - Waterloo: Maxwell’s Music House w/ Balconies
Oct. 3 - London: Black Shire
Oct. 4 - Windsor: Phog Lounge (FAM Fest)
Oct. 9 - Jamestown, NY: Mojo’s
Oct. 10 - New York City, NY: Arlene’s Grocery
Oct. 12 - Brooklyn, NY: TBD
Nov. 6 - Toronto, Silver Dollar
Nov. 19 - Quebec City, La Ninkasi

Tanis entries Canadian content, interview, Modernboys Moderngirls, mp3

Guess what? No, not chicken butt. No, also not chicken thigh. Look, you are really bad at this game. Tell you what, I will just tell you instead of having you guess. To save time. I’m sure you would’ve gotten it eventually.

Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle are putting out an album together! I KNOW! They’re two of the best country/roots artists in a country that is full of amazing country/roots artists. Also, they employed a lot of amazing country/roots artists to come in and play on the album! It’s set for release Oct. 13 on Mint. Yipee kiyay!

I’ve been listening to the most recent albums by both Ms. Mark and NQ and I’m impressed all over again. Normally, I like my country rootsy and rockin’. The more banjo pickin’ and mandolin-strummin’ and standup basses being slapped around, the better. If I absolutely HAVE to listen to a country ballad, I want it to be mellow, not whiney and twangy. Basically, I want it to sound like it’s been soaking in an oak barrel with a bunch of whisky for at least three years.

Mission accomplished, guys.

I feel quite comfortable saying “The Business End” is easily the best song on Carolyn Mark’s last album, Nothing is Free. It has the kind of slow, torturous burn you get from falling asleep in the sun. You shut your eyes for a few minutes cuz it’s so warm and nice, and when you wake up an hour later, your skin is so hot that if you hold your hand close, you can feel the heat radiate like you’re some kind of fragile, white-flaked coal.

NQ Arbuckle’s “I Liked You Right From The Start” is a drunken serenade from a decent guy who’s downed a few too many. He’s not quite sloppy drunk, but he wants to let you know that he’s had his eye on you all night and he thinks you’re sumpthin’ awright *hic* and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be charmed enough by his drunken honesty to let him take you home. And you’ll think about it. Flattery, even drunken flattery, gets you everywhere, after all. Besides, you had a few yourself. This will be a mistake of epic proportions, but it might be a mistake that results in a meaningful relationship. And when the grandkids come along years down the road and ask how gammy and pop-pop met, you will look into the eyes of your beloved and say “online dating site” because it is less embarrassing than revealing that you drunkenly went home with a dude and ended up cleaning up his puke.

If you live in Guelph, you can see Carolyn Mark live TONIGHT at Van Gogh’s Ear! That’s just down the street from me! (Don’t come over. My apartment is such a mess.) She’s playing with Sunbear and one of my favourite Ontario bands, $100.

You want to talk about heart-breakingly sad country ballads, these guys do that. They do that soooo well. They’re achingly good. Singer Simone Fornow’s voice is not pretty, but it is real and raw. It’s Marianne Faithfull meets Maybelle Carter. Her croaky, haunting cry of “I never come but it don’t matter” on “Careless Love” is the resigned suffering of every woman left unsatisfied (or worse) by a brutal man. You would do well to buy their album, Forest of Tears.

I saw them earlier this summer at Wally’s with Deep Dark Woods. That was an amazing show and tonight’s do at Van Gogh’s sounds like it’s also going to be a hot time in the ol’ town as well! So go see it and don’t be dumb like I was last time: Buy your merch early or $100 will disappear into the night and take their albums with them.

Carolyn Mark’s music can be found on Mint Records, NQ Arbuckle calls Six Shooter Records home. You can get $100 stuff at Sonic Unyon and check out all three at Zunior and yes, iTunes.

 

 Carolyn Mark - The Business End: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 NQ Arbuckle - I Liked You Right From The Start: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 $100 - Careless Love: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries $100, Canadian content, Carolyn Mark, country, live music, Mint Records, mp3, NQ Arbuckle, roots, Six Shooter Records, Sunbear

Another year, another Hillside over and done. My clothing is soooooooo muddy. As usual, it was a weekend filled with inclement weather (why so angry, sky?), environmentalism, epic performances and spirited company.

Final Fantasy performed tonight and holy frijole! Owen Pallett played a song or two, thanked us for coming out in the bad weather and added he hoped the rain wasn’t the last straw for us. “Oh, Owen doesn’t have a band, he’s playing old songs. AND IT’S RAINING!” And then it REALLY started to rain. And thunder. And lightning. And yet… he continued to play.

Even as a Hillside organizer clomped onstage to ask him to wrap it up for a minute until the rain died down a little, he continued to play. Even as the organizer came back a second later and made the “cut it” motion to the soundboard, Pallett called “Just one more minute!” He played to the end of the song and the lights went out. He basically invoked a thunderstorm and played through blinding wind and rain under constant threat of electrocution.  It was the best performance of the night for sure, maybe even the best performance of this Hillside!

But there were some other highlights:

There seemed to be a theme running through many of the side stage performances. Bahamas performed a cover of “Purple Rain.” Rural Alberta Advantage played “Eye of the Tiger.” And Woodhands rocked out to “Electric Avenue.”

Speaking of Woodhands, their show Saturday night was great (except for the douchey frat boy who insisted on crowd surfing like it was 1994) and they deservingly got an encore. This doesn’t happen often at Hillside. Bands generally get on and off when they’re supposed to. They ended with Be Back Soon.

Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long were the surprise of the festival for me and many others, judging from audience reaction. The talk rockers from Pentiction, B.C. were part of the crowd onstage during the Sunday Morning Gospel Hour and a Half (now two hours) and they blew the roof off the tent after just one song. People. Went. NUTS. Nobody seemed more surprised about this than the players themselves. After their first song, a man sitting beside us cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled “WHO ARE YOU!?” These old hippies couldn’t get enough! Introductions during gospel hour can be harried and the program doesn’t list everybody who performs, so they appeared to have come out of nowhere to testify in a combination of blues, spoken word and folk. Flustered, the bearded Koyczan (but I won’t hold the beard against him) called out the group’s name and directed people to head over to the Sun Stage where the spoken word artists were holding court later in the day. Then, they launched into a cover of “Sexual Healing.” A woman danced topless through the entire gospel hour and two women slow danced. We all went crazy again. Hamilton’s Melissa McClelland was up next and she joked “How do you follow ‘Sexual Healing?’ ” Somebody from the audience called up “With a cigarette.” Zing! Line of the weekend.

If you missed Hillside for whatever reason or you were there and didn’t get to see these the Short Story Long, they’re playing at the Drake tomorrow at 8 p.m.

 

 Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Woodhands - Be Back Soon: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long - Apology: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Buy Final Fantasy and Woodhands albums from Zunior. Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long don’t have albums available on their website yet. In the meantime, check them out on iTunes.

*****

Thanks for coming out and we at Sound Salvation Army hope you enjoyed our coverage of Hillside this year. As the lone atendee (I’m trying to convince Pat to come out to Ontariariario in 2010), I was extremely pleased to find out that Pat played a bunch of bands who were live at Hillside this weekend for our corresponding radio show on CJTR. Hooray for synergy! So, think I left something out? Feel like I am wrong and stupid and want to tell me what I missed? Send me an email at tanisfowler@gmail.com or go right ahead and click the little comment button. Feedback is our friend!

Tanis entries Canadian content, Final Fantasy, Guelph, Hillside Festival, live music, mp3, shane koyczan and the short story long, Woodhands