Articles posted in March 2010

Local shows, thrift store clothes

March 31, 2010

There’s an inside joke among some of the writers at BeatRoute: I really, really love Apollo Ghosts. I guess that doesn’t sound like a very funny joke. You had to be there!

With the upcoming release of Apollo Ghosts sophomore LP, Mount Benson, my love of the Vancouver trio is reaching new heights. The album is packed with catchy jangle punk gems, none of which are catchier or janglier than the lead single, “Things You Go Through.” With its chiming guitar licks and pulsing rhythm section, it sounds pretty much like any song from R.E.M.’s I.R.S. catalogue played at ten BPMs faster. (WTF is with all the three-letter acronyms? LOL!) It’s the lyrics that make this song great, as frontman Adrian Teacher lists off adolescent memories about water fights, thrift stores and speeding tickets. Like most great pop songs, it all comes back to love, as he reflects, “Yeah, I remember the girl / Yeah, she remembers you too / You’ve gotta remember the things you go through.”

Mount Benson comes out on March 31. Last year’s Hastings Sunrise LP sold out completely, so be sure to buy one before they’re all gone. Seriously, this album fucking kills.

MP3: “Things You Go Through”

Her skin tastes like leather

March 30, 2010

Gigantism, or just a little closer to the camera?

Like so many other DIY artists, Los Angeles four-piece Thieves coat their catchy songs in prickly layers of fuzz and reverb. They aren’t quite so easily pigeonholed as many of their contemporaries, however, with other, more unusual influences appearing alongside the woozy guitar pop. Case in point: “Leather Jenny,” an unsettling tune that’s halfway between a crooning lounge ballad and a scary-ass tango. After three minutes of spiky slow-burn, it finally erupts into the fuzz pop catharsis you were waiting for.

These dudes have an album coming out some time this year. Based on this song, they’re off to a good start.

MP3: “Leather Jenny”

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She’s mumbling in Latin

March 29, 2010

When I was in university, I had a big Holy Fuck sticker on my binder. Pretty badass, right? I wasn’t the kind of university student you took home to meet your mom and dad on reading week. I picked it up for free at a show, although I actually missed the band’s set (on two separate occasions, both opening for Wolf Parade).

Holy Fuck has a new album, Latin, coming out on May 11 via Young Turks. The first single is the kind-of title track “Latin America,” which begins with 8-bit electronics before acoustic drums and piano kick it into overdrive. It’s a bit too creepy to be a genuine dancefloor-filler, but its hypnotic groove means that it would probably make for the best video game soundtrack ever. I feel like playing Gran Turismo, and I don’t even like racing games.

MP3: “Latin America”

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The burden of your blues

March 28, 2010

A few days ago, I was waiting at the bus stop and listening to Basia Bulat’s new album, Heart of My Own. A guy standing next to me was also listening to his iPod and I guess he got a little too into the music, because he started doing a slinky hip-hop dance. He would have looked like an idiot were it not for the fact that his slow-motion dance was strangely perfect for Bulat’s eerie, pastoral folk songs.

“Go On” kicks off the album with simple guitar strumming and a drum-heavy arrangement that rises and falls several times before finally exploding just after the one-minute mark. Mostly, though, it’s all a vehicle for Bulat’s high, warbling vibrato. It’s an acquired taste, but if you got used to Joanna Newsom, you can get used to this.

When you’re listening to it, try imagining a guy doing a campy hip-hop dance to it. Pretty awesome, right?

MP3: “Go On”

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Temporary lovers deserve longer summers

March 27, 2010

I just got back from Prairie Cat’s tour kickoff show, which was a enjoyable night of catchy pop rock from both the headliner and opener Pineapple. Even though I’ve already posted a song from Prairie Cat’s 2009 album It Began/Ended with Sparks, this seemed like a good opportunity to post another.

“Just Cuz” is a melancholic piano pop tune about expiry dating, as singer/songwriter Cary Pratt mourns the end of a summer romance. We’ve all been there, or at the very least watched a movie about other people who have. Had me a blast, Danny Zucko.

I recently interviewed Pratt for the Georgia Straight.

MP3: “Just Cuz”

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Where it starts and ends

March 25, 2010

Free? Oh man, that’s totally my favourite price! Phoenix agrees: the French pop rock outfit just released the digital-only album Live in Sydney as a free download from its website. For less than the price of a cup of coffee, you could download an infinite amount of Live at Sydneys. Bargain!

The album compiles eight songs from last year’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the highlight of which is an extra-epic take on the sweeping “Love Like a Sunset.” I’ve never been in love, so I’m not sure if it actually is like a sunset. But Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars would know, since he’s got a child with filmmaker/hottie Sofia Coppola. High five, dude.

In related news, I previously wrote a story for Exclaim! about the possibility that Coppola was working on a movie based on “Love Like a Sunset.” I also reviewed Phoenix’s most recent Vancouver performance for BeatRoute.

MP3: “Love Like a Sunset (Live in Sydney)”

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New inheritors of earth

March 24, 2010

Moments after discovering that the name Smashing Pumpkins was already taken

Postdata’s self-titled debut is a intimate set of hushed bedroom folk that has become one of my favourite albums so far in 2010. I’ve written several articles about the disc, most notably an interview with songwriter Paul Murphy over at Exclaim!. I also reviewed his show at the Media Club here in Vancouver and wrote a quick news piece when his band Wintersleep released a new single on Monday. I officially declare March 2010 “Murphypalooza.”

The new Wintersleep single is called “New Inheritors,” and its mid-tempo R&B groove somehow manages to be peppy and sleepy and menacing all at the same time. The song follows the same formula that Motown hitmakers once used: that any decent soul song depends almost entirely on its bass groove. All the horns and keys have to do is hum along and let the rhythm section do all the work. It’s not quite the revelation that “Weighty Ghost” was, but it’s definitely a strong tune from the Halifax outfit. (Hey, do those horns sound familiar?)

MP3: “New Inheritors”

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Make yourself an island

March 23, 2010

Dom might want to think about changing the name. After all, the Worcester, MA band doesn’t want to give DOOM any reason to break out his BFG and kick some ass. (To understand that joke, you need to be familiar with both contemporary underground hip-hop and classic video gaming. Niche!)

Then again, maybe Dom doesn’t give a shit. After after, its new song proudly instructs listeners to “Burn bridges / Make yourself an island” over a dreamscape of starry-eyed synths and steady dance beats. For a song about social isolation, it sure is pleasant-sounding.

MP3: “Burn Bridges”

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Cruisin’ with J.T.

March 21, 2010

There have been a handful of successful adolescent indie rockers over the past few years—Smoosh, Marshall Verdoes of Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band—but they’ve always come across as a bit gimmicky. Without the tunes to backup the hype, their youth tends to become the primary draw, as audiences speculate how much better they will be with a few more years’ experience.

Thankfully, in the case of Pearl Harbor, the fact that guitarist Skylar Kaplan is only 14 is merely incidental to the plot; the real story here is that the group’s infectious jangle pop is as catchy as it is blissfully dreamy. Skylar and her older sister, Piper, sound like seasoned popsmiths on “Luv Goon,” a hazy gem with chiming guitars and sighing harmonies aplenty. Its hard to make out all of the lyrics from behind the pillowy reverb, but I’m pretty sure I just heard “Cruisin’ with J.T. / In a back stretch limousine.” Listen to this one while you’re crisping on the beach in three months time.

MP3: “Luv Goon”

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In the mist and the rain

March 20, 2010

Finally settling the debate over who is taller

Listening to Terror Bird, you’d never guess that the group is made up of the same members as Vancouver fuzz punks Modern Creatures (who I’ve blogged about before). A far cry from the low-end assault of their other band, Nikki Never and Jeremiah Haywood swap up their basses for synthesizers, opting for a slow-burning sound that’s more creepy than it is aggressive.

“Cemetaries” (spell check!) appears on Terror Bird’s self-titled LP, which is due out this spring via Night People/ADAGIO 830. It’s an addictive new wave throwback, with sparse keyboard lines interweaving over a steadily ticking electro beat. Never’s ghostly vocals are soaked in ominous reverb, meaning that lines like “We should be walking together” seem more threatening than romantic.

MP3: “Cemetaries”

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