Where is our "Freebird"?

Where are our killer solos? Do we need them anymore? Have they disappeared? If so, when? and why?

Were they not a cathartic experience? Don’t we need that in our lives? If they’re gone, what have we replaced them with? Is our catharsis now being provided by the drop of a dubstep bassline? By a howling Chris Martin chorus? By the drone of My Bloody Valentine guitars? By heavy metal riffs? By a man in a large mouse-head, on his laptop? By a particular dude in a headband, on his laptop?  

Where are the minutes-long meanderings? Where’s the artistry inherent in taking a song to a whole other plane? Where is our divergence from the expected? Is it with Animal Collective’s fire-side yelps and shouts? Even when they showcase it, aren’t they using a Grateful Dead sample? Where is our 21^st century staple?

Are we past the days of guitar solos? Have we evolved past them? Have all the good ones been done already? Would we only be rehashing the past? Is “Freebird” maybe best experienced through the lens of a high-school cover band? What about the other great guitar solos? What about any seminal solo, of any kind? Doesn’t everyone want to play air drums when “In The Air Tonight” is on? Didn’t Mike Tyson?

Don’t you wonder sometimes?

Halifax Pop Explosion in Haikus!

tough to see, but No Joy's Jasamine White-Glutz is the second-hottest girl in Canadian indie

I've never really been one to limit myself, but in the spirits of expediency and experimentation, I gave this a try:

Tuesday @ Reflections:

Ohbijou:

Beautiful singing

Orchestral sound, very good strings

Horrible venue

Braids:

Spell-binding voices

Off-kilter drum beats resound

Bought split 7”

Wednesday @ Olympic Community Hall:

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart:

They’re from NYC

Last stop on tour, happy bunch

Exceeded my hopes

Thursday @ The Seahorse:

Jenocide:

Cute girl, toned it down

Show consisted of beat loops

Had people dancing

We Were Lovers:

Pretty non-descript

Fleshed out their live act nicely

I had a few beer

Bonjay:

Kind of reggae sound

Didn’t stick around too long

Roommate liked them lots

Thursday @ The Khyber:

Something Good:

My friend’s band, at Khyber

Small, living-room-sized venue

Loud, but diverse sounds

Friday @ The Seahorse:

Honheehonee:

Saw half, stood outside

Seahorse bouncers suck a lot

Real neat sounding band 

Graham Wright:

Tokyo Police Club

Their keyboardist, was good show

He liked Halifax

Library Voices:

My favourite show

Packed so much energy in

Eight people on stage

Friday @ The Palace:

Juan MacLean:

DJ just stood there

Few people at the Palace

Left early to eat

Saturday @ The Palace:

No Joy:

Love this band so much

Hardest rocking girls I’ve seen

Weren’t really “there”

PS I Love You:

Love this band so much

Fattest rocker I have seen

There was too much there

Fucked Up:

Great show to end on

Ears rang for two days after

Pink Eyes is nutso

What I've Been Listening To

I'll just cut to the chase here: in ascending order of how much I liked them, the albums I've listened to since about January, with a little blurb about each one, and song recommendations.

19 | Decemberists | The King Is Dead

Meh. I deleted all but two songs. Definitely not my kind of thing.

Listen to: "This Is Why We Fight", "Down By The Water"

18 | Radiohead | King Of Limbs

Radiohead is pretty hit or miss for me I have to admit. I can't say I even listen to this any more. Disappointing effort from Radiohead, and definitely not as engaging as In Rainbows.

Listen to: "Give Up The Ghost"

17 | Malajube | La Caverne

It's a fun album, but it sounds pretty much the same throughout...and it's in French, which is cool if you're Coeur Du Pirate, but otherwise...

Listen to: "Synesthesie"

16 | Lykke Li | Wounded Rhymes

Another disappointing follow-up from a favorite artist of mine. "Wounded" is right, because there's a lot of pain behind this album it seems, and the "sexy" Lykke seems to have largely disappeared, other than on the track "Get Some". She's still got the chops, just doesn't seem like she has the same attitude.

Listen to: "Get Some", "I Follow Rivers"

15 | Cut Copy | Zonoscope

A pleasant mix of sounds, and the whole thing goes down like an iced tea. It's all pretty much the same, and it's refreshing amidst other tastes, but all on its own? It's a bit boring, if not unoffensive.

Listen to: "Need You Now", "Hanging On To Every Heartbeat"

14 | James Blake | Echoes

As soft as Blake can make his voice, his production skills balance a fine line between enjoyably listenable and downright annoyingly repetitive and vocally scathing. The chipmunky voice has its place, and it's not on a proper album. There's a handful of standout tracks though, like "Wilhelm's Scream", "Lindsfarne" (Parts I and II), and the Feist cover, "Limit To Your Love". Otherwise, there's some low lows.

Listen to: "Wilhelm's Scream", "Lindsfarne Pts. I & II", "Limit To Your Love"

13 | Salem | King Night

Just a really weird album that hits me the right way. It's everything you would expect from a bunch of white kids from Texas who make dark, pseudo-rap music that sounds like what everything would if you were tripping on sizzurp.

Listen to: "King Night", "Trapdoor"

12 | The Rural Alberta Advantage | Departing

Already gave a rundown of this album here, but overall, it's in the lower half of what I've listened to recently. There's just more upbeat, interesting things that I've come across in the last six months or so.

Listen to: "Stamp", "Under The Knife"

11 | Explosions In The Sky | Take Care, Take Care

I really wish I'd gotten into these guys years ago. Awesome instrumental music that makes me think of Do Make Say Think. Only six tracks long, it's short on quality, but at eight minutes long on average, there's a lot of quality.

Listen to: the whole thing

10 | CFCF | The River

Along the same lines as the album above, as well as Salem's. I'm a big fan of instrumental music that simultaneously keeps you engaged, while freeing your mind to do other things like essay-writing or reading. CFCF is my favorite artist for that right now, and I'm proud to say he's homegrown talent from Montreal.

Listen to: "Upon The Hill"

09 | The Strokes | Angles

Why do people seem to be shitting on this album? I don't even hear the single on the radio any more. Sure, it's no Is This It, The Strokes' otherworldly-great debut album...but what the hell is? It's fun, it's pure Julian Casablancas, and as far as I can tell, it's what the future of The Strokes is gonna sound like anyways. It may not have the same staying power as their previous albums, but it's got the sugary immediacy of cotton candy. Also, in a totally abstract way, every song is a Simpson's episode. You know how every show starts off in a completely different and unrelated way from the ending? That's the deal with this album; 90% of the songs start off kind of weird, then move in a different, noticeably catchier direction. I feel like maybe people who hate this album really only listened to the first 20 seconds of each song or something.

Listen to: "Under Cover Of Darkness"

08 | Cults | Cults

Just listened to this one all the way through today. Multiple times. Each song is just an earworm. If you thought all the catchy hooks and melodies had already been written and done to death, think again. This stuff is damn good, like the even-beachier version of last year's Sleigh Bells.

Listen to: "Go Outside", "Abducted"

07 | Hey Rosetta! | Seeds

The album Hey Rosetta! was meant to make. For me, it's through-and-through their most consistent effort, and the songs are complex, with lots of build and layers. Can't wait to hear them play most of these ones live this summer.

Listen to: "Welcome", "New Sum (Nous Sommes)"

06 | The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart | Belong

I like that they went in a different direction from their debut, and still pulled it off fine, getting rid of a good part of the noisy fuzz that defined their first album. Their name conveys the very twee sentiments of their music, and "Heart In Your Heartbreak" is a track I keep going back to. Their name also gives them tons of bonus points. But like Whose Line Is It Anyway?, those are technically worthless.

Listen to: "Heart In Your Hearbreak", "The Body"

05 | Future Islands | Wave Like Home

I love Future Islands. They're super weird vocally and sonically (which, I guess, is the whole make-up of music...soo...yeah), and I'm pretty sure I've written about them before (ah yes, I have). This is their older album, but it has lots of treats for anyone who might like their unexplainable style.

Listen to: "Old Friend", "Seize A Shark"

04 | Yuck | Yuck 

Yuck. Sorry, good things come in threes. Or from the 90's, which is where these guys' music is rooted. Just good old fashioned rock; Britain's version of Japandroids.

Listen to: "Georgia", "Operation"

03 | Shad | TSOL

The only hip-hop album I really have in rotation, Kanye West's MBDTF included. Shad's wordplay is intelligent, hilarious, and layered like an onion. The beats are great, giving him room to work. His flow is well-defined and distinctive. And he's great live to boot.

Listen to: "Rose Garden", "Telephone", "Yaa I Get It", "We, Myself, And I"

02 | Fucked Up | David Comes To Life

I know you want to listen to the greatest hardcore group ever. There's nothing more you like than driving down the street with Pink Eyes' cheese-grater voice yelling out, blaring from your speakers. You wouldn't be caught dead without this CD in your car. Oh, that's just me? Yeah, it's kinda awkward listening to this stuff, let alone in the summer with the windows rolled down, but for this album to be enjoyed, it has to be turned waaay up. Sure, no one will want to sit in the car with you while you're listening to it, but that's unavoidable if the group is named "Fucked Up". Anyways, the real gems here lie in the backing vocals, lyrics, and amazing guitar tracks that make these songs so multi-layered and enjoyable. It's seriously not even music - it's a work of art, right down to the album being structured as a four-part play. I'm not joking.

Listen to: "The Other Shoe", "Ship Of Fools", "A Little Death"

01 | No Joy | Ghost Blonde

On reeepeat. It's a shame this album's dropped down on my list in iTunes, because it's definitely my favorite thing from this year so far. It's like My Bloody Valentine updated their sound just a tad, became two Canadian girls, and still ripped it up when they had to. I've spent many a night listening to this album; as a way to wind down, as something to read to, as something to write papers to...I love versatile music like that, whether it's the instrumental albums mentioned above, or one like this where you can just crank it and let the waves of guitar wash right over you. I feel like No Joy's kind of music (shoegaze, to generalize) is like a force of nature: it has to be experienced to be fully understood. You may not always like it, but at least you'll know what it's like.

Listen to: "Hawai'i", "Still", "You Girls Smoke Cigarettes?"

Polaris Music Prize 2011 Predictions

a simple logo for a not-so-simple prize

In two weeks, the short-list for Canada's most prestigious music prize will be announced, paring down the current grouping of 40 "long-listers" to a more-manageable, more-acclaimed list of 10 albums, representing the best of Canadian music over the last 12 months. You can check out the many details of the prize, how it's awarded, and who gets to choose it right here...but my own, educated-guess/partially-informed take on who ends up making that short-list is below, in no particular order:

- Neil Young

- Diamond Rings

- Land Of Talk

- Arcade Fire

- Malajube

- Timber Timbre

- Imaginary Cities

- Destroyer

- Braids

- Austra

Now, my list is by no means scientific or particularly well-informed, especially compared to last year, when I'd had much stronger connections to the Top 40 and Top 10. So it's kind of like when you pick your brackets for NCAA's March Madness: who's looked good, who seems good, who you've heard is good, and what surprise upset might just happen. However, I can say with certainty that I've heard tracks from everyone's album on the list other than Neil Young, including the entirety of Arcade Fire, Land Of Talk, Diamond Rings, and Malajube's albums. 

Although the prize is touted as simply recognizing the best of Canadian albums on musical merit alone (evidenced by awarding Fucked Up the 2009 prize over the likes of Joel Plaskett and Metric...and giving the inaugural prize to an album named He Poos Clouds), I went for balance on my list, because the jury inevitably gets roasted if they lean too heavily one particular style of music, or region of Canada. 

Neil Young's simply a legend. Diamond Rings burst onto the scene this year, drag make-up and all. Land Of Talk put out a really solid effort that worked well for me as a whole album. Arcade Fire's already won a Grammy. Malajube provides the French content. Timber Timbre is a huge favorite with the types who sit on the jury, even though his brand of downer-jazz doesn't resonate so well with me. Destroyer is a literary-type staple of intelligent indie. Imaginary Cities are great from what I hear. Braids are extremely interesting and innovative. Austra is super-compelling (yes, I just said that) and impresses all the more for someone with a background in opera.

Now, again, I stress the amateurishness of these selections -- just me making some picks to see how well I do against the actual list once it comes out in 14 days. Can't wait.

The Rural Alberta (Songwriting) Advantage

get it? it's winter!

It's been foreverrr since I've put anything up here, but that doesn't mean I've stopped listening to music or thinking about it. I uh, just haven't had all that much time to write those thoughts down. But once in a while, I finish my undergrad, work 9-5 in the summers, come home, have supper...and have nothing to do but sit down, watch baseball, and listen to all the new music I've amassed.

So it's under these circumstances that I post something I wrote back in May, about The Rural Alberta Advantage's (then-new) album Departing, best described by Pitchfork calling it the "winter counterpart" to their summery-sounding debut Hometowns (profiled on this very blog right here). Now, I wouldn't say it's any better than that album, due in part to the more sombre feeling the whole thing evokes, but on its own, it's certainly a nice piece of work, worthy of many listens. What it lacks in peppiness, great-to-amazing drumming, and backing vocals (the sneaky-good elements that made Hometowns so great overall) make replays an exercise in tediousness though.

Either way, what I wrote back then had nothing to do with the music itself - I like The RAA and will listen to all their new stuff regardless. Instead, the first impression I got from the record -- listening to it on the drive to and from surfing in Lawrencetown -- was that lead singer Nils Edenloff either has an ironically self-conscious sense of humour when it comes to song-writing, or he's managed to become completely unoriginal at it.

Behold -- quite literally, if Nils would have his way -- all the different uses of the verb "hold", or the simple idea of "holding" itself, by The RAA on Departing. Hearing the first few instances of it, I chuckled. The next few, I smirked at the songwriting. The subsequent ones? I started laughing at the absurdity. At that point I decided that the band was either pulling our collective legs, or had run out of words to put into songs. Those were the only two options. Read on and see for yourself, while keeping in mind that most of these lines were repeated in the respective songs:

--- --- --- --- ---

"Two Lovers":

-          “and if I ever hold you again/I hold you tight enough to crush your veins”

"The Breakup":

-          “and I held you tight/we were waiting for the break-up”

"Under The Knife":

-          “never gonna hold us/tear us apart when you/tear us apart tonight”

-          “the devil’s gonna tear us apart/the fight is gonna tear us apart/my love is gonna hold you tight”

-          “we’ll hold the mistakes for time/never wanna grow/never wanna grow old when I’m holding you close tonight”

"Muscle Relaxants":

-          “I know and I know when I’m holding you/but you wouldn’t try to find…”

-          “our hearts will slow and I know you’ll hold me tight”

"North Star":

-          Nothing...surprisingly.

"Stamp":

-          “hold me close while you can”

-          “hold on lover/you’ll find another”

"Tornado ’87":

-          “oh Lord I lost you/I held you tight, oh I/hold on to your love in the night”

-          “oh Lord I found you/I held you tight”

-          “I let you go/I let you go/I let you know that I hold you”

-          “black sky comes and I hold you”

"Barnes’ Yard":

-          “oh let’s lie down for another night/I’ll hold you close under these skies”

-          “we struggle to tear ourselves apart in the night”

-          “I was holding on to you/and you were holding me tight”

"Coldest Days":

-          “Lord, Lord, it’s tearing us apart/the way the love is holding on to your heart”

-          “I held you in the coldest days/I held you in the coldest ways”

-          “I would never be the one to hold/your creaky chest is holding an empty stone/our love was holding on/through the frost-bitten dawn”

"Good Night":

-          Nothing...because I think they ran out of ways to say "hold" and "held"