SoundSalvationArmy

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

Call it a homecoming for four guys who never left.

Like the mythical Icarus, Regina’s Despistado flew a little too close to the sun of musical success and name recognition and shit like that. Together for only three years, the band garnered crazy buzz up to and after the release of their EP, the Emergency Response. Cross-Canada tours helped them eventually sign a deal with moderately big-time U.S. indie label Jade Tree Records. One of their songs got used in a T-Mobile commercial down south; they put part of the money into a tour van and talked about using the rest to help out other local bands. A full-length album was recorded with Phil Ek, a moderately recognizable producer who helmed the boards for albums by Built To Spill, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and the Shins. It was good. Van Johnson good. But tensions were high inside the band, so the story goes; they called it quits in the middle of a U.S. tour just months before that album was set to be released.

Greg Beatty over at the Prairie Dog sums up the crushing sadness and disappointment felt by the band’s boosters back home pretty well. It seems odd now to think of Regina’s scene being “put on the map” when, at the time, there were a handful of local bands that seemed to be gaining more and more attention and acclaim with every passing month. Despistado were like the unofficial leaders of a surging musical community and to have them sweep the rug out from under themselves was devastating.

Over the years that followed I never stopped listening to their music. The galloping drums of “Bubbles,” the impossibly catchy and driving instrumentation of “A Stirstick’s Prediction” with its confrontational lyrics, the near-break-up plea of “Test Tube,” the frantic everything of “Burning House” that never fails to get your blood moving. The songs haven’t lost their vitality and they still sound like the guys you see at every local show squeezing every drop of joy they could into their playing.

For whatever reasons the band has decided to give us a taste of nostalgia. Starting tonight they’re playing three reunion gigs: one in Regina tonight, one in Saskatoon tomorrow, and then another in Regina Saturday. Singer/guitarist Dagan Harding is off to grad school in Montreal so this isn’t likely to turn into a full-fledged thing, but you can bet your as there’s going to be a lot of people in Regina who will be taking advantage of the opportunity to sing along with these tracks one more time.

If nothing else, perhaps it will be a chance to properly say goodbye once and for all. Better six years late than never, right?

 

 Despistado - A Stirstick's Prediction [3:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Despistado - Bubbles [4:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Despistado - If Relationship's A Construct Then I'm A Construction Worker [3:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Despistado - Test Tube [3:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Despistado return to the stage tonight at the Lazy Owl at the U of R. Friday night is in Saskatoon, then back to Regina at the Exchange. Grab tickets for the Saturday show at the World of Trout or the Exchange before they’re gone.

Pat entries break-ups, Canadian content, Despistado, indie rock, live music, Regina, reunions

And just like that, they were gone.

I just got home from the Polymaths’ farewell show. It was just like the first time I saw them play at O’Hanlon’s years ago: a similar stage set-up, the same wallflower posture on most of the band, the Polylamp. Probably a lot of the same faces in the same crowd at the same bar, the same smiles calling for the band to “chop chop” until there are no more notes left to play.

Even now, having arrived home and listened to nearly their entire discography (all 90 minutes of it) I can’t tell if the set was short or if it just seemed short. There were songs that didn’t get played, but that’s not really the point is it? Every track that was there deserved to be; this band never wrote a bad song.

There was even a song that never got released, the last song the band’s current iteration wrote, apparently. It was good. It was, completely unsurprisingly, about living in Regina all your life and how that can hold you back. It had, also unsurprisingly, a “la la la”-style refrain that was impossibly catchy. The crowd, I’m certain, would expect nothing less.

After an “encore,” an encore, and The Real Encore The Crowd Wouldn’t Leave Until It Got (”Lumberjack Rock,” duh; I still can’t believe they didn’t even practice it beforehand) it was over. There were hugs, there were handshakes, they packed up their gear.

And that was it.

They were also literally giving away whatever merchandise they had left. And yes, I took that as a tacit approval of what I’m about to do: post the entirety of Home Again for you, dear reader, to download. There is no hyperbole involved when I say that this record is perfect. You must hear it.

Download here, for a limited time only.

Below you’ll find one last track streaming, from the band’s equally brilliant EP. It’s a favourite, but it’s not the favourite. It was perhaps the most appropriate song of the night, but it wasn’t the closer. You’ll also hear a song from the full-length, the one that would’ve played over the climactic end sequence, maybe the credits, if the band were a movie.

On a night where it was still 21° celsius at TWO IN THE FUCKING MORNING; where it was so humid and muggy even at 11:00pm people could be seen on the bar’s patio fanning themselves with their hands and holding a cold beer to their forehead; on a night when the stage must’ve been hot enough for a band to consider going on strike against the weather one last time; the Polymaths said goodnight.

 

 Polymaths - Strike!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Polymaths - Burst Into Flames [4:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stay tuned to Urban Planning Records to keep on top of post-Polymaths projects. Some already exist!

Pat entries Canadian content, farewells, indie rock, parting is such sweet sorrow, Polymaths, pop, Regina, rock, sadness

Parting is such sweet sorrow, you guys. It will be even more so this Thursday night at O’Hanlon’s in Regina, however, as the mighty Polymaths take the stage for the last time. Ever. In the world.

The shame of it all is that they only got one full-length CD out in their time together; one completely incredible full-length CD. It should have made my Best of 2009 list — and likely would’ve been somewhere near the top — but since I’m not as plugged in locally as I used to be I totally missed it’s initial late-December release. I picked up Home Again early this year and it’s been a resounding, poignant listen that I just can’t leave alone.

Keeping in line with their own history (on the So Long, Castle Road EP) there’s a lot of Regina in these songs. The presence of our fair city in Craig Fink’s lyrics shows itself in a variety of forms, from the obvious-to-those-that-are-from-here references in “The Longest Bridge Over The Shortest Span Of Water” (see the wiki for historical footnotes) to more subtle references to prairie life as compared to living in “London-town” or at Queen’s University (both in the comparative mecca of Ontario). There’s almost a thematic arc to the album; softly strummed opener “Age Sixteen” sets the stage with Fink intoning a tale of a young person leaving home for good only to plead ninety seconds later, “Go home.” The album ends with the slow, harmony-draped “Letter From Home,” a spiritual sibling that sees Fink insisting that he can’t/won’t go back to where he’s from.

Those songs, along with the half-dozen or so in between that touch on the same topic, hit close to home for nearly every young Saskatchewanian, I think. Our province’s legacy in the last several decades has been that of a feeder community; our young people inevitably go off to more exciting (re: less flat) places to seek their education and/or fortune. The line, “I’d like to remind you that home is where your shit is piling up” rings true to my generation’s experiences; while we go elsewhere we rarely REALLY leave. For one, the cost-of-living shift between places deemed desirable when compared to Saskatchewan is often stark and makes it tough to take your whole life with you. Moreover, it’s a hard place to get away from. People from other places may not realize it, but the prairies never leave your blood. As blog favourite Emmet Matheson recently opined on the always-delightful Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached, you’re always from here whether you like it or not.

Fink expertly captures the love/hate relationship that a lot of young people still have about places like Regina. The latter-half track “Winter At Queen’s” sees him lamenting an intense homesickness while studying away from home; the man who once railed against the prairie weather is now idealizing it after seeing the colour of the grass on the other side. Hearing his insistence that he wants to have “a spot to plant his soul” ready and waiting for him is what truly makes Saskatchewanians Saskatchewanians, the cathartic push/pull of needing to experience more but wanting to hold on to that pastoral quietude that defines us as a region and a people.

That’s not to say that this album is unlistenable for anyone that has never seen the sun rise over five hundred kilometres of flat prairie. The other half of the songs here are laudable critiques of love, working retail, and the fragility of dreams. While the Saskatchewan suite of songs stand out to me lyrically, the remainder of the tracks often rise above even those numbers.

Frankly, some of these songs are fucking astounding in how completely amazing they are. The band is firing on all cylinders in this recording, expanding their no-nonsense guitar-bass-drums-keyboard 4/4 rock and roll to incorporate genuine moments of soul music with incredible effect. The two stand-out tracks are both slower songs that begin with patient musical build-ups and Fink’s gentle singing (which transitions into near-growling insistence over their running time). “Unreliable” is the first (and possibly only) truly classic soul number written by Regina’s rock and roll underground, a tense, perfectly-arranged track that gives Fink the opportunity to exorcise the demons of a hundred spurned lovers, culminating in a note-perfect guitar solo that adds just the right amount of chaos into the closing. “Burst Into Flames” is a rumination on personal shortcomings and the conflicting nature of reality versus the dreams of our youth, a genuinely affecting number with a mournful tenor that feels like an ending, and not a good one. “I’m laundry hung out on a line,” Fink admits, before insisting with his last breath that geography might once again be playing a part in how he and his character’s lives end up.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, at least half of the band members are leaving Regina for grad school. If the lyrical content of this album is any indication I have every confidence they’ll be back some day. Saskatchewan might be the one place where you can go home again.

I can’t say enough about this album, and this isn’t future-nostalgia or pre-beak-up hysteria. I’ve been spinning this disc non-stop for months and it is worth every revolution. I don’t understand how this record and this band aren’t getting the acclaim and attention that your Library Voices or your Rah Rah are having showered upon them. No, they don’t have 14 people in the band and they don’t give away free candy at shows. They write the balls off some smart, passionate rock music and make no apologies for it.

Come out to O’Hanlon’s on Thursday and let them know that’s still worth something. Send them off to grad school with some fucking smiles on their faces.

 

 Polymaths - Sputnik Sweethearts [4:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Polymaths - Unreliable [4:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Final show is Thursday night at O’Hanlon’s. BE THERE. Click right here for more information.

Get the record from Regina-based Urban Planning Records; it comes in a crazy paper case!

Pat entries Canadian content, indie rock, local music, Regina, rock, soul, Urban Planning Records

Sometimes it just feels like you’re listening to something special.

In the last year or so I’ve written about a number of current/former punk rockers that have made the shift to acoustic singer-songwriters. So many, in fact, that even writing those words kind of makes me want to roll my eyes a little bit. Just sayin’.

But Matt Gaud is something else, people. He’s the genuine article, the real deal, the bee’s knees. If the cat wore them, he would be it’s pajamas.

Gaud is a former member of Means, a Regina-based Christian hardcore/metalcore band (no joke, that’s a thing) that did quite well for themselves, having toured through Canada and the U.S. more times than I have (to be certain). After that band’s dissolution he’s played his rootsier, folksier solo material under a couple of different names, including his own.

I had intended to write about his latest iteration back in February after seeing him open for Library Voices, a show that was recorded for broadcast by our friends at CBC Radio 2 (stream that business at their website; you might as well, you’re paying for it, right?). Seated before a half-full Exchange, Gaud fired up his throaty vocals and got to playing a set of mostly-downtrodden, lovelorn, and longing numbers. His melodies and playing are natural and unforced and he’s an understated performer, his great, bushy beard hiding the face of a poet.

Admittedly, I was at first drawn in more by his insanely-good cover of Hot Water Music’s “Trusty Chords” than the originals, but once I heard the cover my attention was piqued.

Like early Dylan or Iron & Wine or Bon Iver he relies on his acoustic guitar and a harmonica for his live performances, choosing to flush out the recorded tracks subtly with bass drum, bass, some electric guitar, and some phenomenal trumpet work. Seriously people, it isn’t that easy to make trumpets sound this plaintive and downtrodden.

Those horns are one of the focal points on the first track featured here, “Energy.” The trumpet melodies swell in the intro and chorus, setting up Gaud’s pained lyric about a patient potential paramour waiting for a shot at love. The percussion is lower in the mix, but the subtle cymbal work also provides some build and cresendo of it’s own. “Wheels,” the other standout track you’ll find below, makes use of an insistent kick drum that propels the song’s tale of an unexpected wrench being thrown into the minutiae of everyday life. The wailing harmonica recalls Springsteen’s Nebraska, but with the benefit of a proper studio to record it.

This record has emotional heft, but Gaud presents it in a relatable, everyman kind of way. No frills, no unnecessary wording or calculated metaphors. He lays it bare and relies on the quality of his songs and his raw talent to carry the results to the listener’s ear. “Worry” is perhaps the best example of this, hinging on the plainly-stated admission, “I don’t know where we’re going/but I like where we are.” Simple and direct but poignant nonetheless.

I was spurred to actually write this piece after reading an incredibly lauditory review on another website. While it’s likely a little premature to agree with Frank Turner’s assessment of Gaud as “a fucking legend,” if you’re a fan of this style of music then Borrowed Chords, Tired Eyes is a pretty fucking good start.

 

 Northcote - Energy [4:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Northcote - Wheels [3:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s worth noting that Northcote is on the bill for the massive, amazing, incomparable indie rock wank-fest that will be Sled Island Music Festival in Calgary the week of Canada Day. I’ll be there, cheering Matt on from the front row. Help him get there:

Physical: Maple Music
Digital: iTunes is a thing

Pat entries acoustic, Canadian content, local music, Northcote, Regina, solo material

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

Hey you — if you’re feeling a little flat today, go see the classy and talented gentlemen in the Perms for a pick-me-up. They’re playing in Regina tonight at McNally’s. Don’t forget to check them out if you’re in the mood to have your face politely rocked by tasty power pop.

 

 the Perms - As You Were [4:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

They’ve got a few more dates booked on this tour as well, Albertans. You’re on notice!

Fri 10/02/09 - Calgary, AB (Liberty Lounge)
Fri 10/02/09 - Calgary, AB (That Empty Space)
Sat 10/03/09 - Medicine Hat, AB (The Ottoman)

Pat entries Canadian content, live music, McNally's, Regina, the Perms

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

It’s a cliche to say you should write about what you know, but that age-old maxim is very much true. It also has me simultaneously titillated and terrified as I post this item.

If you aren’t from Regina and don’t know the genealogy Jesse Matheson is the brother of Emmet Matheson, one of my favourite writers, critics, and underpants-puller-offers ever (here’s a link to his credentials; he’s bona fide). Both men have a knack for ingenious allegory, wordplay, and tweaked absurdity. Jesse plays guitars and sings songs while Emmet lives for the printed word (and the occasional subversion of such).

I met Emmet when I was working and volunteering at the University of Regina Carillon, where he spent time as Editor-in-Chief and even more time as the man behind some of the most entertaining and intelligent CD reviews the publication has ever seen. Even then his knowledge of music seemed encyclopaediac and his analysis was practically Ebertian. It was his thoroughly entertaining encapsulations that inspired me to first review music, then to do it better. He’s the reason I once reviewed a particularly awful techno CD by listing nothing but sci-fi sounding onomatopoeia.

So my appreciation for his work after even the briefest of exposure to it resulted in a bit of anxiety when he personally asked me to review his brother’s album for its recent re-release. Of course any pressure I feel about it is completely self-imposed, but its there. And it has only compounded since I first spun the record.

I’m nervous about this review because someone whose work I genuinely appreciate will be watching closely. I’m nervous about this review because there could be a perceived conflict of interest if I write something glowing about it. I’m nervous about this review because I love this record, but I don’t want to write something too hyperbolic about it; I think people tend to back away from something if a reviewer is too enthusiastic.

But this album is deserving of every sliver of praise it will receive, and those will be multitudinous. Jessie Matheson writes and performs songs with a relaxed confidence that belies a wellspring of talent. His album is called Pleasure Pounds, a reference to, “those parts of a woman’s body that are, well, womanly.” The cover is adorned with a symmetric set of serpentine jaws surrounding a slice of cake. The image, combined with the title, says a surprising amount about the lyrical content contained within.

Matheson isn’t interested in writing protest songs or politically-charged anthems railing against the system; his concerns are far more immediate. Take, for example, the first four songs. “Make Out,” “Moan,” “New Booty,” and the marvellous “She Does It In Graveyards” all discuss exactly what you think they do. The upbeat lead-off track is a paean to lip-mashing, just one of the intimate activities that apparently consumes Matheson’s brain on a non-stop basis. “Moan” takes things into the bedroom, as he lustily intones his desire to drive his paramour wild. “New Booty” celebrates the impact home-cooking has on a lady’s backside. “She Does It In Graveyards” is pretty self-explanatory.

In the hands of lesser songwriters this could come off as painfully sophomoric, but Matheson is just writing what he knows. He’s up-front about his desires and not the least bit lecherous; instead he comes across as that goofy friend who knows a sense of humour is what really wins over the ladies. Witness “Nothing At All,” a highlight of the album’s back end in which he imagines some increasingly entertaining and absurd situations wherein his lady has no clothes on. Simple concept, cleverly written, playfully performed. Its extremely endearing.

Matheson’s cause is helped by his refusal to over-complicate the music and his willingness to let his influences show. On nearly every track he subtly strums an acoustic guitar and sings like the horny ghost of Jonathan Richman (yes, I know he isn’t dead). That is probably the most obvious comparison to this material, as Matheson wears his Richman influences on the sleeve of his Velvet Underground t-shirt. Unpretentious arrangements see handclaps, some smooth bass, spare synths, reverb-laden electric guitar, some wonderful female harmonies, even lap percussion and a slapdash choir (presumably naked, if one suspends disbelief while listening to the marvelous “Orgy In Portland”) thrown into the mix. Given that his other love is food, I’m not surprised to see that he knows full well the hazards of having too many cooks in his kitchen. The songs succeed because of his charisma.

Of course not ever song centers around lyrics like, “Let’s make my loveseat into a love seat.” Matheson quite admirably addresses the dire situation Regina’s downtown has been facing for the last number of years in “I Walk Downtown,” lamenting the too-often deserted streets in what should be a bustling sector. The album also closes with one of the most beautiful and sincere love songs I’ve ever heard, the touching and intimate “We Don’t Have To Go Home.” On an album full of uncomplicated songs, this is the purest one: nothing more than two people sitting in a room and singing into an open microphone while the tape rolls. Allison Russel (of Po’ Girl) provides the other half of this duet, both singing gently but purposefully, enunciating loving intent along with every syllable. You can hear them smiling the whole way through and it is downright infectious.

That sentiment carries through every song on Pleasure Pounds. This is happy music, but not overly sentimental or vapid. Its funny, but not jokey or parodic. Its sexual, but coyly so, not in a modern R n’ B or dirrrty pop way. Matheson’s songs acknowledge the base desires we all share and celebrates them with understated hooks and a refreshing ability to avoid taking himself too seriously. This is an album that should be celebrated in kind.

 

 Jesse Matheson - She Does It In Graveyards [2:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Jesse Matheson - Nothing At All [3:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Jesse Matheson - We Don't Have To Go Home [2:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pleasure Pounds is easily found via the internets at the Copperspine Records site. Also, on iTunes, should that be your game. Good old physical copies still exist; they’re at CDBaby as well. Jesse’s myspace is located here for those that would seek it.

Pat entries acoustic, Copperspine Records, Emmet Matheson, Jesse Matheson, Regina, writing

Our site is back up! Sorry about the downtime, world!

As I mentioned yesterday on our twitter, Ghosts of Modern Man are doing their last show ever in Regina tonight. Their last show ever, mind you, not just the last one in this city.

They’re really awesome, as you can attest if you’ve listened to the songs below. They’ve had a long (like 14 year) career arc that has seen plenty of ups and downs, and its a shame we only got one (two) records out of them. They really have done some incredible things and have been very inspirational to the locals here.

Even better, the opening band slays. Half of Passenger Action has very close ties to GOMM, so there should be some heavy emotions flowing all night long.

Do them a favour, Regina: pack the Distrikt tonight or else I’m coming after you.

 

 Standard Podcast [3:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Ghosts of Modern Man - Mauvaise Foi [4:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Passenger Action - Tonight We Resonate: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pat entries Canadian content, live music, punk rock, Regina, rock