Going for a dip...

...with the Great Lake Swimmers. This is a great outfit out of Ontario; it's mellow, mid-tempo acoustic music, with great melodies by frontman Tony Dekker. It's got a sparse/spare feeling to the arrangements, but the atmosphere of their music is what a lot of people pick out. Talks of recording in grain solos and ancient castles will do that.

There's great pop sensibility to the tracks, and even some folk (banjo anyone?) creeps its way into the music. Dekker's delivery has a tone of seriousness to it, but it can't help mask the sadness that seems to come from his voice. It's endearing and draws you in in a way.

From their latest release, Lost Channels:

Pulling On A Line - Great Lake Swimmers

And from the earlier Ongiara:

Your Rocky Spine - Great Lake Swimmers

And if you just can't get enough of them, here's the Great Lake Swimmers in a podcast session for CBC's Radio3 (a great source for alternative Canadian music by the way):

CBC Radio 3 Session (mp3 link)

An introduction to Emil & Friends

I'm sorry, but I can't help but think of Emeril Lagasse when I see this band/group/ensemble/outfit's (who really knows? they're a mysterious bunch) name. It's just this mental image of a chef on a guitar and a mixboard in the kitchen - apron, white hat and all.

This is crazy creative music as far as I'm concerned. Emil & Friends just seem to come out of left field on these songs, and it's refreshing, exciting, and out of the ordinary in a good way.

"Fire Flower" is the song that first introduced me to the group (thanks to the blousesydney blog for that one), and it was the heartfelt guitar plucking that caught my attention from the start. Of course the song progressed, and admittedly I felt the sombre mood didn't help my opinion of them much. However, my interest had been piqued.

Fire Flower - Emil & Friends

This was followed many months later by a re-working (more cover than remix) of the effervescent "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit. Though the ever-so-catchy "ahhh-ahh-ahh-ahhhhhh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaah" remained intact, the acoustic take and the sleepy lyrics (Passion Pit's mistake of the year? a song titled "Sleepyhead" from a singer ready to bust the roof off with a voice that would wake a rooster) really helped accentuate an already-great tune for me. It was so laid back, so cool; so sure of itself, yet with the fragile voice of something ready to break down.

Sleepyhead - Emil & Friends

The quintessential piece of the puzzle is Emil & Friends' brilliant remix of Little Boots' "New In Town." I'd already heard and been impressed by the Fred Falke and Drop The Lime remixes, but this one brought something completely new to the table. Heavily Vocoder-ed lyrics, an electro beat ready for the dancefloor, and a jumpy song that had about 4 or 5 distinct sections, that somehow all melded together for one energetic blast of music. Throw in the slashing guitar solo, and it's a sonic buffet of cliches and music styles, all fitting together in a way they really shouldn't. And it works.

New In Town (Emil & Friends Remix) - Little Boots

United States of Canada

Doesn't it have a better ring to it than "...America"? I guess if we lost the war of 1812 we might have a chance at it, but I'm not gonna complain.

And oh yeah...we won that war by the way.

I have so many good Canadian groups and songs to share, but I'll save the majority for a nice little (big) Canada Day post.

Til then, a fun remix by Montreal wunderkind CFCF. Of his genres on myspace, he lists "Regional Mexican." I dunno about that one, but the piano on this remix makes it worthwhile for me:

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (CFCF Remix)

(Just a note: I switched to box.net for my uploads...a little cleaner and hopefully more convenient than zhare, and in the next bit I'll probably upgrade my account so everyone can get direct links to the songs)

Ain't Neva Gotz Originality

I'm only giving the hypem.com link (through PrettyMuchAmazing.com...who in a shameless plug, I designed the banner for) to this song, because I don't even consider it worth a download.

U Ain't Neva Gotzz Ask is Lil Wayne, Kanye, T.I. and Jay-z trying to rekindle that "Swagga Like Us" magic. But rarely is a song by a group of artists as good the second time around if they had a big hit to precipitate the follow-up. And I think that's exactly the sum of this song. The only part I like (other than a few clever rhymes here and there) is the re-take on the George Michaels song for the chorus...something borrowed usually sounds good in rap.

That being said - it's definitely not cool to borrow your own damn lines for a rap. T.I. couldn't think of a line to start his verse off with apart from the one he already had on "I'm A King"? Jay-Z couldn't sum up a killer ending to the song, instead choosing to borrow his own lines from "Mr. President"?

Take a listen if you're morbidly curious:

U Ain't Neva Gotzz Ask (hypem link)

EDIT: Guess what? Turns out the entire thing is just a mash-up made up totally of old verses. In that light...it's a decent song, and makes the sample use for the chorus all that much better - it's words are the only original part of the song now.

Saying so much with nothing at all

You Could Easily Have Me by Metronomy is a song I always come back whenever I've got my mp3 player going in the car, because it makes for such good driving music that you can turn up loud and have no qualms about doing so. It's got a hard-driving (get it? umm, yeah) beat, and I read that Metronomy's opened up at least one show with this one (for all I know, it could be his go-to song), so it's got that kind of feel to it.

Anyways, the most striking thing about the song for me is that there's such a strong of feeling and mood conveyed, but you don't need any words to get the sense of either one. It's presented so well by the music itself - tell me you don't feel a sense of urgency or tepidness listening to this song. Plus, it just shouts "driving song" to me, from the way the beat chortles like an engine running.

Take a listen for yourself:

Metronomy - You Could Easily Have Me

Dinosaur, Jr - They're good...they're coming here

The lineup for the Virgin Festival in Halifax is out for this year, and it looks better than I thought they hinted at:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jXYSuyKd7V0XVpdIkTNHGkjf3UpQ

As that says, there's gonna be more acts announced later, but for now I definitely wanna check out Metric, Plants and Animals, Hey Rosetta!...and these guys:

Dinosaur, Jr - I Want You To Know

click this link (you can preview + download it)

With any hope, they'll have another SummerSonic this year and the amount of good music coming to town over the next few months will easily double.