The Great Saskatchewan Mix Tape.

I don't know a single person who hasn't been enjoying the indie music coming out of Canada for the last couple of years. Well... let me rephrase that. People have been enjoying the indie music coming out of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal [myself included]. A real crime has been committed in overlooking the talent in the more sparsely-populated provinces that make up this great nation.

So, my Canadian Mix Tape project has begun: the plan is to pick a province, and dig through it's respective talent pool to showcase the other Canadiana sound that isn't rolling out of that musical clown-car we call Montreal.

First up to plate is Saskatchewan. I may be an Alberta girl now, but that misunderstood prairie province is where I transitioned from a love of the Backstreet Boys to an obsession with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - insane, right? It's where all my magic happened. It only seems right to start this project there.

Library Voices is a Regina band I caught for the first time in February (on one of my frequent jaunts back to Saskatoon). Once I absorbed the fact that LV boasts a 10-member ensemble, I became enamored with their sound: something like the 306's answer to Broken Social Scene... or maybe The Most Serene Republic. And their live show pretty much kicks ass.

Library Voices - Drinking Games

My 22nd birthday treat to myself was an Amigos show featuring Golden Smoke, with openers The Vicious Crystals. They both do a kind of psychedelic rock that reminds me of the more experimental phases of the Stones. That was a gooood birthday.

Golden Smoke - The King of Blindness

The Vicious Crystals - Tidal Wave

Carbon Dating Service will forever remind me of University. The first tracks I ever heard of theirs all revolved around the Synchrotron (which I saw everyday on my hikes to and from campus). Their Shoegaze-pop was part of the soundtrack to my textbook toting years.

Carbon Dating Service - Terraform Mars

Recently reformed, Junior Pantherz are a well-known staple in the SK music scene, and we're so happy they're putting out tunes again. I really dig the vaguely BRMC sound of this track:

Junior Panthers - Ballistics

Fronted by past Canadian Idol contestant Josh Palmer, comes Saskatoon's The Rebellion. These guys can write a catchy fucking pop hook and between the three of them, have a pretty freaking bad-ass backstory.

The Rebellion - One Night Hero

For the times I need some chilled out alt-country with a touch of indie-rock, I'll throw on some Slow Down, Molasses. These guys are pretty much a pillar of the Saskatoon scene. Now you're in the know.

Slow Down, Molasses - I'm an Old Believer

Be ready to switch gears in a hurry, because next is prog-metal band Adolyne. These guys were my very first show at Amigos after moving to S'toon, and subsequently taught me that earplugs at live shows are a great, great investment. Read: play them loud.

Adolyne - Otaku

Quite and unassuming in person, and forces to be reckoned with on stage, is Saskatoon's best kept secret: The Fjords. They also happened to provide the background to a pretty awesome date I went on... I'll keep the music + experience = tied memories rambling to a minimum. Have a listen!

The Fjords - Cool my Desire

You may have heard him before, as the introductory track to Live on CBC Radio 3 with Grant Lawrence. That's SK's Maybe Smith! And we really, really love him. Too bad he's always touring in Japan and stuff. I still haven't had a chance to see this guy live.

Edit: turns out he's playing at the Brixx in Edmonton on July 8th. I love how I ask and then receive, as of late. ^^

Maybe Smith - Hearts Like Bears

Full disclosure: this next band is composed of some friends of mine. Don't let that detract from their awesomeness. Ready to drop their second effort, is Volcanoless in Canada. If you have the chance to see them live, do it: there ain't no party like a ViC party. For reals. I've had the bruises to prove it.

Volcanoless in Canada - We Win

Even though I've talked about them before, they deserve another mention. Deep Dark Woods is kicking ass and taking names lately. Blame it on the recession... their alt country twang is perfect for the dark days.

Deep Dark Woods - By The Light of The Moon

This is just the sampler plate of Saskatchewan's offerings to Canada's amazing music scene... tapas, if you will. Hopefully it has whet your appetite.

Two Brooklyn Bands come to Edmonton and leave with my heart: TVotR and Dirty Projectors

Easily one of the best shows I've had the opportunity to catch this year has been TV on the Radio, with their guests, Dirty projectors. I didn't know what to expect going in: it was at a venue I'd never been to that I'd heard horrible things about (in the West Edmonton mall?), I had no idea who was opening, and I really hadn't listened to much of TVotR's material beforehand.

I'm starting to think that's the best way to walk into a show... because when I'm blown away, it's always been in an epic manner. This show was one of those.

Dirty Projectors started their set with just two band members. My natural assumption at that point was that they were going to be a mellow opener. Just a guy, a girl, and their guitars.Holy crap, was I horribly mistaken. After the blissfully pretty Two Doves, out tumbled the other 4 members of the 6 piece group, ready to melt faces. The rest of their set was mind-bending time signatures, inventive guitar riffs and amazing harmonies. The girls had the latter down so perfectly for the live show that at points I couldn't believe that sound was being created sans-laptop - mind you, there was a laptop... it just wasn't being put to use to tweak their vocal work. Those same three rocked out vocal acrobatics bouncing over ranges so fluidly that it would have made Mariah Carey blush (shut up... I loved her when I was 11). I think I stood for their entire set wide-eyed with my jaw on the floor, poking at my friend every time the group did something else that took my breath away. She may or may not have had horribly bruised arms by the end of the show. Looking out over the crowd, I could see my reaction mirrored in the faces of a handful of other people. Dirty Projectors: You blew my freaking mind. Pretty much an awesome reason to go visit Brooklyn again. After four full-length albums, this might be the one that makes everyone sit up and listen. Even though it's only June, Bitte Orca is seriously contending for a spot on my inevitable "favourites of 2009" list (which you can pick up HERE and HERE, btw).

(See how entranced they are?)

Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move

Dirty Projectors - No Intention

On to the main event: I would be more inclined to call this a religious experience than a rock show. Don't jump all over me for the comparison: rather than "it changed my life, I'm a TVotR die-hard forever and ever now" kind of experience, it was the atmosphere of the whole production. Energetic, euphoric, and overwhelming at points... like something you'd experience in a Southern Baptist church; but with more alcohol and better dressed young people. I really felt like TVotR's live sound is miles away from what you hear on their albums (well, at least what I'd heard on Return to Cookie Mountain). Rather than the mellow(er), trip-hopish sound that I'd grown accustomed to, the live sound was pure, instrument-driven rock. The focus was intense guitars, hammering drums, and my love of all loves: saxophone and clarinet. If they'd left the mix table at home, I wouldn't have even noticed. And dancing! Oh my god, every time Tunde Adebimpe starting hopping, swaying and bouncing all over the stage, I was seriously disinclined to keep my feet planted in one spot (considering the space I had to move in, this may have caused me some issues throughout the night). The last song of the encore, Satellite, brought out members of Dirty Projectors for a climaxing cacophony of glorious sound. Oh, my ears were happy... until the following day, when they wouldn't stop ringing. The intensity of the night left the band with a broken floor tom - from a rendition of Young Liars - and the crowd exhausted and satiated, despite the questionable venue. I really wish my batteries had lasted long enough to get a good video clip, because the words just don't seem to measure up to the experience (apologies for the shaky camera work!)




They're on tour all over the place until the end of August, so for sure check them out if they stop anywhere close to you. You can grab a copy of their newest release Dear Science (or any album, for that matter), from their label Interscope Records, or any decent music store.

TVotR - Wolf Like Me

Just a little reminder...

... only 5 days until the new release from Phoenix drops.

Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy. 

Phoenix - 1901

Mother mother

Rocking the fuck out of Vancouver, British Columbia - as are many bands after my own heart these days - comes Mother Mother. This five piece ensemble does some magical things to the auditory sensory area of my brain. Their second release, O My Heart, is a whirlwind tour of dark, layered pop that's at once creepy and accessible: not a bad combination to master on a sophomore attempt! So like, Kudos. I just can't get enough of the falsetto-ish girl/boy harmonies and crisp annunciation (yeah, sounds like a weird thing to love... but it really makes some of the tracks).

The title track - O My Heart - starts off with a bass line that gives the initial impression that this is going to be a pretty pop song. That lasts for about ten seconds before the ringing lead guitar picks up the melody in a minor. From this point forward, there's no mistaking the heart-wrenching (pun fully intended) intention of the track. Which I leave for you to discover, dear reader. Despite it all... I could really still dance to this. It's a perfectly-crafted pop song, after all. Just with some seriously dark undertones. And overtones. Mmmm.

The next masterpiece to stumble gracefully off the album is the track Hayloft. The sound is a hybrid of pure Canadian indie-rock and Japanese pop-punk. I absolutely love the aggressive sound and the innocently kinky lyrics, not to mention the drums that sound like tripping iambs. Talk about getting a wave of the horns. There's a really neat fan-made video on YouTube if you've got a few minutes that need killing.

Arms Tonight has a pretty standard love-song construction from the instrumental side of things. Coupled with some mushy lyrics [that eventually turn literal], it gives me warm-fuzzies everytime it comes on. Shit... I haven't said warm-fuzzies since Kindergarten. Whatever, I still love this track and crank it often.

There's a ton of other gems on this album, so the best advice I can give at this point is to get your hands on a copy. This is for sure the kind of album I had to listen to a few times over besides more than a song or two stood out, but it was worth the investment.

If you're in the Ottawa area this summer, they'll be playing the Blues Festival on July 12th!

Pretty, pretty please come do a show in Edmonton soon. :)

Update: Playing at Capital Ex in Edmonton on July 23rd!

An intimate evening with Emily Haines

Metric frontwoman Emily Haines and her partner in [almost] crime[s] Jimmy Shaw, have taken it to the road. And it is so good to hear it. To promote the new Fantasies album, the pair gave a special acoustic performance for Edmontonians who had either pre-ordered the new album, or had been lucky enough to win tickets. My album wasn't pre-ordered, nor am I a lucky person: good thing a friend of mine always wins shit.

The venue was a little theatre on the north end with all the seating removed to accommodate the 300+ hardcores that had run all over the city trying to grab tickets being given away by a local radio station. I loved the anticipation: you knew these were, for the most part, the fans that would know every word to every song on the new album.

Listening to the pair do their hard-rockin' tracks from Fantasies as acoustic numbers was really interesting. It certainly added new dimensions to tracks like Gold Guns Girls and Gimmie Sympathy and the rendition of Front Row was like hearing it whispered from Emily's lips to my ears. It's amazing how personal it got in that space.

Gems of the night, for sure, included the impromptu break-out of Anthem for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl and the cover of Pink Floyd's Nobody's Home, with vocals by Shaw.

On the same stroke, previous Metric shows had me geared up for some really high energy; not only from Emily, but from the crowd as well. It was a little disappointing to look around and see one or two people swaying along to the music. It was calm enough to hear camera flashes going off. I got shushed when I started singing along to the first song. What the Fuck? At least the crowd was singing along by the end of the 10-song set (with some serious urging from Ms. Haines), but still... did all the old Metric fans get married and buy a house and start having babies or something? What happened here?!

Let's move on to the new album. It is Metric through and through: Rock! Guitars! Dancing! Beats! Electronica! Everything we've come to expect... but pared down a little. More simplistic. Live It Out (don't get me wrong, I love that album) got a little heavy at some points, like the band was focusing so hard on making a point that it starting dragging on the music. Fantasies simply doesn't make that mistake. It comes back to the listener playful and [light]-hearted. Not to say that the album ooozes cheery pop licks and pollyanna lyrics; but rather that they took a hard look at themselves and were satisfied with what they saw.

This third (or fourth... depending on how die-hard you are) album really showcases a band comfortable with their trademark sound. Is this a good thing, though? Only the next album will tell. Let's hope this contentment doesn't lead to stagnation.

You can buy the album HERE

Metric - Gimme Sympathy (can I get a "Fuck-Yeah"? My rock-out track of the year so far!)

Quick Fix Friday - Because Alliteration is Fun.

Okay, everyone is in love with Passion Pit right now and eagerly awaiting the drop of the new album, Manners (If you're not, here's your first head's up).

Sleepyhead has been on my iPod for almost 6 months. It was love at first listen.

However, my love for Sleepyhead has been surpassed by the track Moth's Wings. Have a little listen for yourselves. And another one. And maybe one more.

Pick up your Manners, here.

Happy Friday!

Bare Feet on Wet Griptape; or how I stopped worrying and learned to love my flavour of the week. (Over-used? Absolutely!)

At the behest of a good friend, two weekend's ago I picked up Calgary artist Chad VanGaalen's third release, Soft Airplane. It hasn't left my CD player since. Sure, I feel bad that I will play this album until I can't stand it anymore, put it away for two months and then do it all over again, but it's well-deserving of such obsession.

VanGaalen's amazingly creative DIY sound is a mix of indie [folk-]rock, glitchy electronica and abrasive distortion. The one-man band recorded the tracks in the basement of his Calgary home on an old tape machine and the conversation he starts with listeners covers topics from death and murder to griptape. Not since I listened to Murder Ballads have I heard songs about death that are so pleasing to the ears.

While I usually pick a few tracks to highlight my favourite creations on an album, it's been difficult to refrain from just putting up the entire package: I am absolutely smitten from start to finish. So I'll do my best to keep it down to a couple without starting them all off "My favourite track..."

The opening track, Willow Tree, is a mellow folky piece essentially about the disposal of a body post-mortem. Chad's vocal work on this track is definitely in the higher octaves of his range, which translates into a slightly trembling sound that really emphasizes the emotion a person would feel when taking stock of their mortality. I keep waiting for his voice to crack, but it never does: the difficult subject is approached with enough resolution to keep his vocals relatively stable. The interesting contrast here is the upbeat melody of the track: the cheerful sound mixed with the talk of freedom through death seems contradictory but meshes in an amazing way. Who ever thought a song about death could be so damn pretty? Lesson learned: death can be a beautiful thing.

Bare Feet on Wet Griptape is rock to it's core and easily one of the more dancable tracks of the album. Compared to the rest of the songs, this one is traditionally constructed: rad (yes, rad) guitar riffs, tambourine, drums, et al. But you still have to keep in mind that's relative to the rest of the album; samplers, wavering guitar melodies and Chad's achingly emotive voice keep his indie-cred in check.

So the first day I brought this album to work, one of the women in my department picked it up and was reading the track list on the back. TMNT Mask jumped right out at her, because her kids do ever so much love the Ninja Turtles (a reference that had entirely blown over my head until that point. How embarrassing). This piece is ranked up there in my awesome register because it is so glitchy. The intro sounds like one of the standard beats that came with the early-nineties casio keyboards that my girlfriend's and I used to pretend to play. Combined with the TMNT reference, the track plays like a relic of my childhood. Except, a lot more introspective. And a lot darker too (and time, it aligned, is swirling and swimming/clouds rolling over themselves/twisting and boiling and growing out of nothing).

Then a word about my absolute stand-out love: Molten Light (YouTube). Just a heads up, this video might be considered NSFW, depending on the variying stodginess of your workplace. It's drawn entirely by our protagonist and is creepy as fuck. Therefore, I love it. I won't tell you any more. Just go listen to it!

I cannot wait to catch VanGaalen live at the Flemish Eye Ball in Calgary on May 16th - you can grab some tickets Here. The show is a party celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Flemish Eye record label, and Chad will be performing alongside his label-mates. From what I've seen of the snippets of live shows on Youtube, it looks like it'll be an amazing night. After that, he's embarking on a Europen Tour, so if you happen to be in the area, go out and show some support! You can pick up Soft Airplanes from Flemish Eye (Canada Only) SubPop Records and various other fine music establishments.