The Elwins

Last week saw over 650 bands take to the clubs, bars, rooftops and public squares of Toronto for the annual NXNE festival. In the second part of his festival diary, Ro Cemm – the man responsible for our Oh! Canada compilations – tells all.

Friday morning saw Oh! Canada head to The Global Village Backpackers early to set up for ‘East Meats West’, the free Kelp Records/The Line of Best Fit BBQ with performances from Pink Moth, The Elwins, Slow Down, Molasses, Shuyler Jansen and Kite Hill. It was also a celebration of 17 years of Kelp Records, 17 years of NXNE and the launch of the 17th edition of Oh! Canada – and all taking place on 17 June!

With the BBQ starting at 1am, it wasn’t long before people started coming in to catch Pink Moth’s elegant pop set. Next up were Newmarket, Ontario’s The Elwins. Full of youthful exhuberance, and with their own mini-fanclub in tow, the band set about winning over the BBQ munching crowds, and do so easily with their polished Strokes-ian pop-rock chops.

Slow Down, Molasses

Next to cram onto the stage (for “stage” read “gap underneath the fire-escape” were Saskatchewan’s Slow Down, Molasses. Playing as a six piece they ripped through a set drawn from both debut I’m An Old Believer and recent follow up Walk Into The Sea. While the new material certainly follows the rootsy template laid out before, there are deeper textures here, and the imedeate melodies are underpinned by subtle touches- the typewriter-as-percussion on ‘Sometimes We Fall Apart’ being a case in point. It’s a brave band that attempts a My Bloody Valentine cover at the best of times, let alone with a make-shift patio soundsystem, yet they pull it off with aplomb. Is there such a thing as Praries post-rock? If so these guys should be the kings of it.

They handed the baton over to fellow Prarie Dweller Shuyler Jansen, who, backed by Foam Lake, spun his moody and spacious take on alt-country.

Closing the BBQ were Kite Hill, the project headed up by Ohbijou’s Ryan Carley. Joined by original member Mika Posen, just returned from touring with Timber Timbre, the Toronto natives weave an enchanting orchestral spell over the crowd. Soothing and melancholy in the late afternoon sunshine.

Kite Hill

Friday night, however, was never destined to be soothing or melancholy. Oh! Canada relocated to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern ( one of the only venues known to have played host to all three generations of Hank Williams). Since first featuring The Darcys on these pages in early 2010, the band have undergone some fairly major changes, including replacing their singer. However, new line up in place, the band seem energised in the build up to releasing their new album. Despite the early set time, the band draw in the curious with their taught and twitchy sounds and rumbling basslines. While vocals soar and croon, the frontman flits flits between guitar and keys as quickly and easily as the band switch from ethereal twinkling to full on paranoid snarl. Essential to the success in this exercise is the ultra-tight rhythm section, whose propulsive and intricate rhythms provide the twin guitarists space to freak out at the pedal boards.

The Darcys

Continuing the sense of Paranoia were Black Lungs, side project of Wade from Alexisonfire. With that bands frontman Dallas Green busy with his City and Colour project, Wade has been able to return to his hardcore roots, ripping through 12 songs in just over 25 minutes, while simultaneously calling out the phonies and his own boredom like a tattoed Holden Caulfield on the appropriately titled ‘You’re Fake’.

Black Lungs

Ducking out of The Horseshoe for fresh air there was just time to catch Victoria’s Slam Dunk playing a somewhat less than full Hideout. Not that it seemed to bother them mind you, as they set about their take on Rock N Roll ramalama replete with a flamingo-legged saxophonist (who would later launch himself at the stage and “crowdsurf” the room, held aloft by two people). Theirs is the kind of no-brainer punk’n’roll that the likes of King Khan and Mark Sultan do so well, and you suspect that had they played to the larger audience that they deserved it would have been one hell of a party. As it was, the decision of one audience member to perform some kind of elaborate calisthenics routine during the set provide a bizarre element to a no-frills rock show.

Two Man surfing at Slam Dunk

We returned to The Horseshoe just in time to witness the moshpit victims from hardcore supergroup OFF!’s set seeking sanctuary, and in time to get down the front to witness a set from long time Oh! Canada favourites The Pack A.D. The duo are one of the hardest touring bands in Canada at the moment, and their declaration that they never practice may be offset by the fact that, well, when you play a show every night there isn’t much time to. Life on the road has given the band a confident swagger, and a stage banter that can only come from hours upon hours in a van on the open road. “We’re from Vancouver. We’ve Got our Hockey Sticks. Don’t Be Scared,” they declare before launching headlong into the first song.

Later they once again reference the hockey riots in the introduction to ‘B.C. Is On Fire’, while swearing it was written well before the trouble started.. Maya Millers drumming is like a performance art piece, one minute holding aloft a drumstick aloft like excalibur before bringing it crashing down on the snare, windmilling and eyerolling, scattering the drums like a whirling dervish. Meanwhile Becky Black pirhouettes the stage, clambers aboard the drum kit, leaping off, all the while churning out progressively heavier riffs. Two new songs debuted move yet further away from their blues-rock beginings, into a more visceral and urgent punk-rock attack.

Pack AD

The garage rock didn’t stop on Friday night however, as early on Saturday 400 or so people piled on to NXNE’s inaugral Bruise Cruise, a boat trip on Lake Ontario presented by M for Montreal and Brooklyn Vegan, featuring shows from JesusLesFilles, Uncle Bad Touch, Young Guvernor (of Fucked Up), and Ty Segall. As the sun beat down on the deck, many chose to stay and discuss the order of the day (“were OFF! too preachy?”, “How good was the Fucked Up show?”, “Am I seasick or just hungover?”), rather than venturing into the bowels of the boat to witness the bands, where they could have seen event organiser Mikey propped up against Uncle Bad Touch’s drum kit to prevent the drums falling off the stage.

Bruise Cruise

They also missed the saxaphone infused pop sounds of Young Guvernor, although on such a beautiful day it was hard to blame them for not wanting be in another stale humid room. By the time Ty Segall took the stage, however, the room had filled up somewhat, and were rewarded by a set that declared the set “The best thing to ever happen to me in my life,” after being joined by OFF! (and former Redd Kross) bassist Steve McDonald for a riotous cover of Redd Kross’ Annette’s for the Hits. Given that Segall had had his teeth broken when moshing at the previous nights show got out of hand, it was the least he deserved.

Ty Segall

Toronto’s The Rural Alberta Advantage will be returning to UK shores in May for a handful of dates to support the release of their long awaited sophomore album Departing. The eagerly awaited follow up to Hometowns finds the band in fine form, honing the formula that one them so many plaudits first time round. Frontman Nils Edenloff spins songs of small town love and redemption, moving away and moving on. The album hits on May 2nd on Saddle Creek. You can download an MP3 of ‘Stamp’ as part of next week’s Oh! Canada 15 compilation right here at TLOBF.

In the meantime the band have also unveiled a video for Stamp which you can view here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For your chance to decide if it has always been Paul, you can catch the RAA as they spend a week in the UK in May.

May
17 – London Bush Hall
18 – Bristol Cooler
19 – Oxford Jericho
20 – Liverpool Sound City Festival
21 – Glasgow Stag & Dagger Festival
23 – Manchester Deaf Institute
24 – Nottingham Bodega

Kingston, Ontario’s mighty P.S. I Love You will be hitting the UK for a handful of dates in May to support the UK release of their furiously fuzzy debut album Meet Me At The Muster Station (out on April 26).

The album will be followed in May by the Leftovers 7″, a collab with Diamond Rings. You can download a free digital copy of the lead track now at Paper Bag Records

Make sure you don’t miss your chance to catch the band live on the following dates:

May
05 – London, Lexington
06 – Leeds, Cockpit 3
07 – Glasgow, Captains Rest
08 – Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
09 – Manchester, Night and Day
10 – Sheffield, Harley
12 – Brighton, Hectors House (The Great Escape)
13 – Brighton, The Albert (The Great Escape)

To get you in the mood, here’s the video for their Facelove single, directed by Toronto Vid-Kid Colin Medley.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The City Won’t Have Time to Fight because, presumably, the serene acoustic meandering of The Olympic Symphonium‘s third LP will have lulled said city’s population into a happy trance long before they can mount a resistance. This grandly-named Canadian folk act have been doing the rounds since 2005, but this most recent effort documents the results of an experiment in recording on their part; The City was recorded in just a week with engineer Brad Perry in the band’s native Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The Symphonium’s soundworld remains one of quiet, deliberate craftsmanship; what Andrew Dowdall memorably called “homespun beauty” in reference to the band’s previous record More in Sorrow Than in Anger. Tender male voices wavering over delicately picked acoustic guitars and patient, soft drums is the order of the day here once more, with electric instrumentation used largely to add background colour to the arrangements. Their music may sound simple and sparse, but that The Olympic Symphonium have achieved this atmosphere in such a short recording time is testament to their professionalism.

So solemn and quiet is the group’s style that it is initially a little foreboding, like the prospect of entering a dark and unfamiliar room. Without doubt, some will feel compelled to flee back to the brighter and louder world outside, but for those who perservere there are treasures to be found. The most comfortable entry point is ‘Flame’, also the shortest and most accessible song here, possessed of a sweetly realised chorus which might have been better placed even closer to the beginning of the album.

Another highlight to look out for is ‘A Lot to Learn’, which plods peacefully along in waltz time, a song written about songwriting as much as anything else, which observes that “practicing can never make perfect people / ’cause people perfected could only pretend how to feel”. It’s as strong an argument as any for the genuine emotion on display.

Wisely, The Olympic Symphonium leave their best until last. Closer ‘Crowded House’ is an immaculate exercise in cleverly wrought tension, a song of elegant rises and falls which not just invites but demands repeated, rapt listens. Benefiting a great deal from a fuller sound, its only shortcoming is that this larger style of arrangement wasn’t more commonly present on the rest of the record, which sometimes can be said to hide its light under a bushel to some extent. Nevertheless, The City Won’t Have Time to Fight is an accomplished, subtle and emotive album – once again, it is “homespun beauty”.

The brooding, sinister dance pop trio that is the classically trained, Canadian born Katie Stelmanis’ band Austra have announced the release of their debut album. Due out via Domino on May 16, Feel It Break is set to be as haunting and compelling as previously released material ‘Beat and The Pulse’ for which there is a brand new video.

Having announced their reunion last month, the Canadian punk-inspired noise duo Death From Above 1979 have revealed they are set to play their first UK date in over 5 years. The newly reformed pair are set to play London’s HMV Forum on May 5, whilst rumours circulate they are working on new material.

Tickets go on sale at 10am this Friday.

In an age where albums are often recorded in a matter of days or weeks, then promptly uploaded and released into the digital wilds just as quickly, it is refreshing to see a band give themselves the time to develop and craft their releases. TLOBF’s first introduction to Braids came via the track ‘Lemonade’, which featured on the first of our Oh! Canada compilations back in June of 2009, peaking the interest of many with it’s insistent looping motif and multitude of instrumental layers all building and exploding around Raphelle Standell-Preston’s near mantra-like delivery of the songs key hook.

It is a slightly reworked version of ‘Lemonade’ that kicks off the band’s debut album Native Speaker, and the track continues to draw in the listener, the new version a perfect example of the band taking the time to hone their creations. The ideas explored within Lemonade are extrapolated elsewhere in the album, with certain sections and passages echoing what has gone before, and expanding on it, looping ideas back on the listener, much as the band do within the individual songs themselves.

The epic ‘Glass Deer’ begins quietly, looped backwards guitars and passages propping each other up and introducing drones before giving way to a gentle lullaby like guitar and cooing multi-part vocals. So far so heavenly. As she does frequently throughout the record, Standell-Preston uses her voice as a percussive instrument here, repeating the phrase “all fucked-up-de-c-up,de c-up, de c-up” as the rhythm sections minimal drumming, suitably low in the mix, propels the band forward. Although all of Braids four members provide vocals, much of Native Speaker is built around Standell-Preston’s vocal delivery. From gentle coo, to spirited yelp, hers is the integral instrument in all of the bands intricately layered compositions.

While there is a feeling of gentle euphoria at work throughout Native Speaker, the imposing bass thumps of ‘Lammicken’ crackle with electricity as Standell-Preston intones the sinister and slightly disturbing mantra “I can’t stop it”. Set against this dark episode, ‘Same Mum’ positively explodes into life, its delicately swinging guitar lines repeating sing-song passages at each other, chiming and twinkling around the echoing vocals enthusiastically.

Native Speaker is a captivating record whose multi-layered approach seems to reveal more with each listen, a testament to being allowed the time to craft a record.

As a nation, we are often criticised for exhibiting an apparent resistance to acquiring a second language. This attitude is not, in most cases, due to any nationalistic conceit – more so we are just apathetic to the idea, safe in the knowledge that everybody else speaks English anyway. Failing that, a patronising point alongside elongated pronunciation should do it.

With this in mind, you wouldn’t be alone in approaching the bilingual Excerpts with a certain reticence. Music, however, has a way of eroding such language barriers and a certain beauty can indeed be gleamed from the unknown. That is not to say that this album from Montreal songwriter and composer Olivier Alary does not require a good degree of patience. Alary is joined by long-term collaborator Darcy Conroy and together they toy with the somewhat well-examined notion of nostalgia. Alary draws upon the concept of fictional nostalgia – a yearning for times and places that have never actually been experienced, or the feeling that one should be existing in a bygone era rather than that of today.

Such dreamy sentiment emanates throughout the record as lulling orchestration is met with the velvety voices of both Alary and Darcy, who hop between French and English at will. A pensive opening eases you in before ‘Things I Forget’ takes hold. The stabbing pizzicato playing creates a brooding atmosphere before it’s alleviated by a cacophony of string instrumental. It’s a track which is difficult to truly grasp given the level of experimentation, but it marks a bold and ambitious introduction.

Unfortunately the lack of immediacy is a constant throughout. Alary succeeds in extracting an air of accessibility from such lush classical arrangements but often at the expense of some remarkability.  That is not to say Excerpts doesn’t have its moments. ‘Mirages’ is a ballad of real poignancy with the dual vocals swaying together delightfully to make the most of a minimalistic backdrop. The title track and ‘Imprints’ lower the heart rate somewhat and incite contemplation – no bad thing – before ‘Envies D’avalanches’ epitomises the undeniable elegance which Excerpts possesses in abundance. Some credit must also go to Johannes Malfatti whose precise composition brings out an almost filmic quality to the record.

Whilst Excerpts may not be suitable for everyday use, it is perfect for those times when you wish to bathe in reflection; completely oblivious as to what is happening in real time. However, be aware of the nagging sense of regret that may rear its remorseful head from among the expansive soundscapes.

The Local have teamed up with Canadian Blast to present ‘Cape Breton Sound’, a series of 3 FREE City showcases in Manchester, London and Cardiff next week.

The shows will be headlined by The Tom Fun Orchestra, who create an intoxicating brew of strings, horns and a driving folk-punk energy, all built around frontman Ian MacDougal’s gravelly growl intoning tales of mystery, death and more besides.

Cape Breton is renowned for its fiddle players, and The Beaton Sisters are a perfect sample of the traditions of the island with their combination of folk song and traditional step dancing. Colin Grant Band also builds on these traditions, combining them with Celtic rock influences, while Gillian Boucher, who hails from a family steeped in the traditions of Cape Breton Island, combines her roots with the various sounds she has picked up while traveling and touring around Eastern Europe.

Be sure to catch the shows for free in the following cities:

January 31st – Trof Fallowfield, Manchester
February 1st – AAA, Kensington, London
February 2nd – Buffalo Bar, Cardiff

You can download a track from each of the showcasing artist in return for an email address using the form below:

We are delighted to bring you another installment of our Oh! Canada compilations. This month we kick things off with the welcome return for Braids (who featured on the first Oh! Canada back in 2009 and release their debut album Native Speaker this month). This edition also features some of the many bands we discovered while visiting the East of Canada last year, including pop-jangle mastery from John McKiel and Prince Edward Islands’s Paper Lions, ferocious grunge-blues from husband and wife duo Cursed Arrows, classic pop sounds from Laura Key, and Frederick Squire‘s delicate finger picking.

We also bring you some familiar faces in new forms: Chris Reimer and Matt Flegel of Women join forces with James Cullen for his project Church of The Very Bright Lights, while Friendo sees Michael Wallace (also of Women) step out from behind the drumkit and take to the guitar. Memphis is the side project of Torquil Campbell of Stars, while Sister is the new project of the Gillis sisters of Plumtree.

DOWNLOAD
[.zip] Oh! Canada Volume 14
[.zip] Oh! Canada Volume 14 (Alternative download link)
After clicking on the above link, the download will begin automatically

1. Braids: ‘Plath Heart’
2. Church Of The Very Bright Lights: ‘Words’
3. Jon Mckiel: ‘Motion Pictures’
4. Paper Lions: ‘We Lost The War’
5. Parlovr: ‘Hell, Heaven’
6. Memphis: ‘I Want The Lights On After Dark’
7. Cowboy Junkies: ‘Wrong Piano’
8. Cursed Arrows: ‘Death Rattle Blues’
9. DUZHEKNEW: ‘Home Caste’
10. Gamma Gamma Rays: ‘Roam’
11. Wildlife: ‘Sea Dreamer’
12. DVAS: ‘Questions’
13. Silly Kissers: ‘Sweet Adrian’
14. The Luyas: ‘Tiny Head’
15. Friendo: ‘Pass Times’
16. Grimes: ‘Devon’
17. Sister: ‘Feather On The Ocean Floor’
18. Laura Peek: ‘Stay Sharp’
19. The Tom Fun Orchestra: ‘When You Were Mine’
20. Frederick Squire: ‘Pretty Bird’
21. Spring Breakup: ‘The Effect I Have On Women’

The cover art for this edition was again produced by Jon Janes using an image taken by Jasper Baydala.

Our thanks to everyone who helped make this months compilation possible. Be sure to click on the band names to find out more about each artist, and in some cases you will find more music to download (including three full records for free). On the subject of free, be sure to catch Tom Fun Orchestra for free shows at Manchester Trof Fallowfield (31 Jan), London AAA (1 February) and Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar (2 February).

And finally don’t forget you can follow Oh! Canada at www.twitter.com/ohcanada_uk

The only sugar you will find on Miss Quincy’s latest effort Your Mama Don’t Like Me is the kind that ferments malted barley into whisky. In fact, whisky is referenced numerous times on the album and it probably provided the majority of the heat for her makeshift recording studio set in a rustic cabin amongst the rugged mountains of northern British Columbia. Surviving winters in the wild is a testament on its own. Recording an album that brings all the warmth and character of an old time saloon while maintaining good mental health during -40 degree weather in a cabin that lacks indoor plumbing is no doubt a demonstration of resilience and an example of an undeniable spirit; qualities that form the foundation of the album.

As the title of the record and lead track may indicate, Miss Quincy is not necessarily the type of women you want to bring home to meet mama. Firstly, she speaks her mind and what she has to say is usually brutally honest. ‘Your mama, she don’t like me / cause I stay up late and get so drunk / that I can barely see’. These are Miss Quincy’s opening sentiments sung with a powerful, sharp, radiating voice amidst country-folk accompaniment that boasts a great variety of instruments. Beautifully crafted and perfectly arranged, this is a bold opener that really sets the tone for the album. Miss Quincy’s no-nonsense-tell-it-like-it-is demeanour becomes even more apparent with the opening lines of the following track ‘Nobody With You’; “You don’t take nobody with you when you die”, shattering any doubts you may have had of the afterlife. The spirit of Miss Quincy’s honest song writing is prevalent throughout the album. At times she is introspective, on other occasions, she offers a unique brand of boozy-parlour social commentary. ‘Sweet Jesus Cafe’ uses a brothel style saloon offering reprieve from the doldrums of life as a metaphor for religious salvation; “25 cents for a miracle pie // clouds parted the sky // won’t you taste my // my hallelujah delight “. The song ends with a chorus of singers and a fantastic fiddle finish making the whole thing sound like something out of a stage act from a barroom variety show.

Even without the lyrics, the album’s musicianship is enough to grab the listener’s attention. Miss Quincy managed to hold a number of accomplished musicians captive in her mountainous log cabin long enough to complete a very gratifying record. Not only does she have an amazing voice and a knack for good song writing, she is a skilled producer generating that classic one room recording warmness combined with tight musical elements which come together seamlessly. The album crosses many folk genres including pure blues harp music in ‘Bad Luck Women’, Mediterranean folk in ‘Reno’s Song’ and traditional blue-grass in ‘Wild Mountain Flower’. Every song has a unique pedigree and the diversity of the album makes it an easy listen even if you don’t subscribe to a particular genre.

You don’t have to try to hard to get to like Miss Quincy even if she is brash, bold and seemingly constantly drinking. Perhaps she is the perfect person to take home to mama; or, at the very least, her latest album exhibiting exceptional roots music certainly is.

Try as we might, we can’t all be in New York’s Terminal 5 tonight. However, Broken Social Scene have teamed up with Bowery Presents and Youtube to stream their show live. The show starts at 9pm EST, or 2am if you are in the UK. The show will also be re-broadcast at a later date.

Head over to www.youtube.com/bowerypresents to watch the broadcast, and before hand watch the BSS Youtube playlist, which includes videos of Johnny Cash, Here We Go Magic, Stereolab, David Bowie and Geordie Heavy Metal titans Venom amongst others.

Shapeshifting is far from being an arbitrarily chosen title for Young Galaxy’s third album, in fact I would suspect that it was settled on long before the record itself began really taking shape. One of the first things you’ll notice here is the effortlessly lithe metamorphosis which the Canadians have undergone since 2009′s Polaris Prize nominated Invisible Republic. This certainly isn’t to say they’re unrecognisable; the slow burning romanticism which inspired both that album and their self-titled debut is still here in abundance but it’s shielded by a more aloof and strutting tone, quite rarely does their bruised world-weary vulnerability shine through as brightly as it once did. This is largely down to the significant influence of Dan Lissvik, one half of Swedish duo Studio, on production duties. After recording the album the band handed over complete control to Lissvik, e-mailing the tracks to him and then waiting nine months for him to do with them whatever he saw fit.

The final results pair the trademark humid sparsity of Lissvik’s solo work with the band’s protracted lush shoegaze to stunning effect. These more spacious arrangements lend themselves to slow, gesticulating rhythms which expose a sexuality you just wouldn’t have associated with the band before. Suddenly Catherine McCandless’ vocals are svelte rather than sensitive, gliding gently over sun drenched tropical synth lines and squelching bass there’s an air of repressed passion which permeates the record. You might not know it to listen to the lyrical content mind you which is often lackadaisical as ever but still emits a more up-beat attitude than before, whilst McCandless might plead lines like “Oh spare me today / I’ve had enough of the hurry hurry / just let the day rise easy” on ‘We Have Everything’ it’s done so with the backing of sprawling skyward reaching riffs and cascading major key synths. The whole way through there is this sense of positive energy coursing through the songs, that they’re really striving to break out of the shell of melancholy reflection they had cocooned themselves in previously.

In fact it’s clear that the band have been completely enamoured by the whole idea of reinvention, consistently referring to notions of transformation throughout. Even within the record’s eleven tracks, which hang together with effortless cohesion, they try on several different guises. ‘For Dear Life’ is packed with haunting underlying keys and sinister sound effects which causes it to rattle with an uneasiness indicative of their morphing sound. The title track then revels in extended instrumental passages of arid, middle-eastern folk influenced textures almost so much as to end the album on an even more uncharacteristic note; pleading the question of what on earth might be coming next. It’s not all esoteric instrumental passages and minimal arrangements though, there is an unashamedly big eighties sound at various points, perhaps most notably so with the driving synth-pop sound of ‘B.S.E’ or the vocal effects on ‘Shapeshifting’. It is still when they don their pop hats that Young Galaxy are at their most arresting, and ‘Peripheral Visionaries’ probably stands as the highlight with the trading boy-girl vocals allowing Stephen Ramsay’s sombre tone to offer a more grounded counterpoint to the saccharine harmonies and glossy guitars.

Some might have doubted how wise a decision it was for them to part with the fairly influential Arts & Crafts label following their debut but it would seem now to have been a shrewd move which has stoked their creativity. If Invisible Republic was their cautious steadying footsteps away from that nest of youth then this is the sound of their roots beginning to blossom, of a galaxy evolving freely in to it’s own beast. As McCandless states on the penultimate track, “You and I, we mutate and survive”. Far from simply surviving though, Young Galaxy are thriving with their new found dexterity and look poised to continue pushing themselves toward bigger and better things.

Calgary’s Woodpigeon are heading to UK shores this January to embark on a solo tour of Scotland and the North East with long term friend Withered Hand. You can catch both acts on the following dates:

January
16 – Musa Church, Aberdeen
21 – Old Bridge Inn, Aviemor
22 – The Star Inn, Stornoway
23 – Hootenany, Inverness
25 – Stereo, Glasgow
26 – CLUNY 2, Newcastle
27 – Westgarth SC, Middlesbrough
28 – Fishtank, Durham

February
04 – Tollbooth, Stirling

To celebrate the tour Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon and Dan Willson of Withered Hand have recorded a duet of The Velvet Underground’s ‘I’m Set Free’ (which you can download from both Woodpigeon’s and Withered Hand’s homepages).

January 21 will also see the release of a UK / Europe only digital release entitled Fra La Nuvole, which pulls together the Spirehouse and Our Love is as Tall as the Calgary Tower EPs. The songs of Fra le Nuvole were recorded in part at home in Calgary (featuring LoveACT’s Darcy McIntyre), and with Hampus Norén in Stockholm, while the remixes were assembled in Montreal, Quebec and Doha, Qatar. The track-listing is as follows:

01. Spirehouse (From Die Stadt Muzikanten)
02. Our Love is as Tall as the Calgary Tower (From Die Stadt Muzikanten)
03. Music for the Naturally Unhip [w/ Hampus Norén]
04. Don’t Fret, My Pet
05. Toil [w/ Darcy McIntyre]
06. No Cigarettes [Withered Hand cover]
07. Hove Beach
08. Spirehouse (Shipshapen Remix)
09. Empty-Hall Sing-Along (Dead Edits Remix)
10. Our Love is as Tall as the Calgary Tower (Montag Remix)

The follow up to 2010’s Remnin Park, forthcoming Cowboy Junkies album Demons will be released on February 12 via Proper Records. The record is a tribute to the band’s long time friend Vic Chesnutt, and is the second release of the band’s four part ‘Nomad’ Series, recorded to mark the band’s 25th Anniversary, and released over a period of 18 months.

Here’s what the band themselves had to say about the recording:

“We had been discussing with Vic, off and on for the past couple of years, about doing a Chesnutt/Junkies album. During one of the last conversation that I had with Vic, he mentioned that he was working on a series of songs about his childhood that he wanted to bring to the collaboration. So, it only seems fitting that we record an album of Vic’s songs. His catalogue is so deep and for the most part, so overlooked. It will be a labour of love.”

Approaching Chesnutt’s music with their own Northern spin, Cowboy Junkies’ offerings, like the below ‘Wrong Piano’, are compelling, inventive and steeped in an emotionally charged tradition.

All intent on announcing themselves, Suuns have let their determination point them in the wrong direction. Their debut, Zeroes QC, although glowing in a refreshing urge to experiment and transgress genres, comes off as a little naive, expressing too much at one time and giving the listener a royal headache.

Admittedly, that summary is of slight disservice to Suuns’ efforts. They show ambition and colour, an almighty effort to produce something of genuine originality. Their electronically-inclined songs pay homage to an early-day Liars or a more sombre HEALTH; experimenting with the aim of finding one golden nugget. Unfortunately, Zeroes QC, although basking in idea and invention, is bereft of that single gem.

Second-track ‘Gaze’ comes closest. Ironically, as the most simple, streamlined effort on the record, it’s the one that suits the band best. A sore, thumping bassline gives no mercy to your earbuds, relentlessly plugging away, with Ben Shemie’s contrastingly soft vocals giving it a psychotic edge. Similarly effective is ‘Up Past The Nursery’, which sees Shemie’s snarling, spitting lines placed above a sharp, minimal backdrop. But surrounding these rare glimpses of inspiration is a messy bulk of scatterbrained thoughts, they sit side by side like Nick Griffin and Graham Norton on a night bus.

The retrospective closing pair of ‘Fear’ and ‘Organ Blues’, shrouded in melancholy and wooziness they may be, add a much needed dose of cohesiveness to the record. They bring a sense of togetherness after eight rather off-handed, out-of-control efforts. Also notable is their ability to sound like a proper, complete and fully-formed song. The rest of Zeroes QC lacks this. Melodies trail off, the band get too indulged in what they’re doing and forget they’re supposed to be keeping the listener interested. And eventually this begins to grate.

So whilst Suuns have their priorities sorted, they need a refined perspective on how to make their records. You can tell from the off that within them is the ability to produce something special and whilst this whets the appetite, you’re unlikely to persist with it for more than a couple of weeks.

Having released one of Oh! Canada’s favourite albums of 2009 in the form of Spirit Guides, 2010 saw Evening Hymns tour their native Canada as well as releasing the album and touring in France and Germany. During this time on the road frontman Jonas Bonetta has been drawing together songs and ideas to form a follow up record, tentatively titled Spectral Dusk. While Evening Hymns started life as a solo project, the line-up that will head out of the city and up to a log cabin in Northern Ontario later this month to record has expanded to include Sylvie Smith (also of The Magic), Shaun Brodie, several members of The Wooden Sky, and Ohbijou’s James Bunton, who co-produced the band’s first record. The band will be blogging the recording process, and promise audio and video will be posted on their Tumblr site as it progresses.

To mark the return to the studio the band are revealing a new video for ‘Dead Deer’. The video was directed, filmed and edited by Jessie Hayes, Chris Altorf, James Cooper and Mary Gerretsen. Bonetta took some time out to explain how the video came about:

“We worked with these guys on a really cool show called Late Night In The Bedroom. It’s like an arts talk show filmed in Toronto in different locations and it’s really great. They interview different artists and have a musical guest. Evening Hymns was a guest last year and I played a song on a rooftop in Toronto, and it was freezing cold then too. Not sure what’s up with these folks making me work in the bitter cold but alas, they do great work and I’m happy to have met them.

The water scenes were shot in late August on Lake Ontario. It was freezing cold and super windy. Not the most ideal weather conditions to shoot a nude music video. Originally we had “nude” underwear on so that we wouldn’t be completely naked but eventually, well, after a couple beers, the directors convinced us to just get naked so the shots would look better. I remember being pummeled by waves and Shaun and Sylvie both looking at me like “what the fuck are we doing naked in Lake Ontario in late-August?” but I was hit by another wave before I could answer. Eventually we had a lot of fun with it though. The waves were massive and you could kind of bodysurf them in to shore. I think the other parts were shot in Prince Edward County, which is a couple hours east of Toronto. We were actually away on tour when that segment was shot so we had no idea what it was going to look like. We were pretty blown away with the whole thing when they sent us through the first cut.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can keep up with Evening Hymns as they set to work on ” Spectral Dusk” at www.eveninghymns.tumblr.com

Perhaps The Dears are poking a bit of fun at their somewhat uneven recent output and fitful history by titling their new record Degeneration Street. While any band would have a hard time replicating the soaring, majestic heights of No Cities Left, the Montreal sextet have soldiered on, to both good and bad effect, but on their expansive new record they truly sound reinvigorated and inspired. ‘Blood’ is perhaps one of the more abrasive cuts from the new album (not surprising, given the gory title), exploding with a dynamic guitar riff a half-minute in, coinciding fluidly with Murry Lightburn’s contrite admission that “we learned the hard way.”

But the track is in no way an abashed admission that mistakes were made, more like a determined statement that Lightburn and the gang are going to continue to play by their own rules no matter what the result. The volatile, warring nature of the world certainly informs the song as well, with aggressive statements about “bring ‘em to their knees, bring all their heads to me,” and having most of the subjects being soaked in blood by the end of the track. So it’s not a tranquil reintroduction to the band by any means, just a bold, straight ahead rock song from a group that seems determined to keep the music world’s attention focused back on them for the moment, while regaining a portion of the acclaim that was justly bestowed on them so early in their career.

The Dears: ‘Blood’

Looking back it is safe to say 2010 has been a pretty stellar year for Canadian Music. With new releases from big hitters like The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Holy Fuck, Black Mountain, Women, The Besnard Lakes and Caribou leading the assult, the rest of the pack wasn’t far behind…with plenty of surprises along the way. Over the course of the year here at Oh! Canada we have tried to introduce you to just some of the great music coming out of the country. It seemed only logical that to sum up the year we should ask some acts and commentators what they thought were the standout records of the year, what record the felt deserved more attention, what their highlight of the year was and what their tips for 2011 are. Some had more to say than others, while others were more than happy to dish out life advice that might help you make it through the year. So without further ado:

Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes)
The Besnard Lakes made a triumphant return this year with The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night winning critical acclaim and a second consecutive Polaris Prize shortlist nomination. If all this wasn’t enough, Lasek’s production work at his Montreal Breakglass studios saw him get his hands on some of the years finest releases.

Canadian Album(s) of the Year:
Land of Talk Cloak and Cipher, Suuns Zeroes, QC and Women Public Strain. Land of Talk and Suuns because my hearts’ with these records since I helped make them (!), and Women, because it’s such a bold, interesting album.

A Canadian record or act from this year that more people need to hear:
USA Out Of Vietnam from Montreal.

Highlight of the year:
Seeing High on Fire at SXSW in March 2010. Just blew my mind.

Canadian Tips for 2011:
Don’t eat yellow snow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Brian Borcherdt (Holy Fuck)
2010 saw the release of Latin, a record hailed on these very pages as a compelling, beguiling, contempalative and euphoric addition to their already impressive output. The band have spent much of the year out on the road, honing their already stellar live show. Not forgetting the Cat vs Dog car chase video for Red Lights (watch below)…

Canadian Album of the Year
Caribou Swim

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Bishop Morocco

Highlight of the year
Getting married.

Canadian Tip for 2011
Learn to use a compass.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Kathryn Calder (The New Pornographers/ Kathryn Calder)
2010 saw two releases for Kathryn. The New Pornographers Together as well as the release of her debut solo album Are You My Mother.

Canadian Album of the Year
Gigi Maintenant.This is definitely my favourite record of 2010. Based on the style of 60′s girl group Brill Building songs, Maintenant is filled with a rotating cast of amazing musicians and wonderful songs. Find it, it’s worth it!

It also got less attention than it deserved!

Highlight of the year
Listening to Beach House play at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona while sitting on a hillside surrounded by thousands and thousands of people on a warm Barcelona evening with friends.

Also, touring with The Dodos, who I adore.

Canadian tips for 2011
Watch out for the new Himalayan Bear – solo work from the mega talented Ryan Beattie of Chet (Chet is also amazing), possibly a new Dan Mangan record in 2011, and the new No Kids record!

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Rae Spoon
2010 saw the release of Rae Spoon’s Love is a Hunter, the follow up to his Polaris Prize nominated Superioryouareinferior (2008). Inspired by travels around Europe, the album may have surprised some with its content, but not it’s quality. While previous releases had positioned Spoon as a country crooner, Love is a Hunter saw him mix things up by adding more electro and electronic sounds to the mix, as well as a decidedly more pop edge.

Favourite Canadian Record of the year
Crystal Castles II by Crystal Castles

A Canadian record you feel deserved more attention than it got this year
Emma Mckenna Run For It

Highlight of the Year
Getting to film a music video in the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta with dinosaur fossils all around me.

Canadian tips for 2011
Geoff Berner’s new album Victory Party out in March on Mint Records.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Jake Fairley (Bishop Morocco / Fairmont)
Dreamy melodies, slinky, Factory basslines and big echoey guitars were the order of the day when Bishop Morocco released their debut album earlier this year. The band also remixed Holy Fuck, who returned the favour, remixing the bands single ‘Last Year’s Disco Guitars’.

Canadian Album of the Year
Caribou Swim

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Little Girls

Highlight of the year
Our record release party.  We did it ourselves in a warehouse in Toronto. It was a full blown rave with an insane sound system and visuals that we did ourselves. Lots of fun.

Canadian Tips for 2011
Bad Tits

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Tim Jones – Artistic Director of Dawson City Music Festival
Dawson City Music Festival is a three day music festival in Dawson City in the Yukon. It has been run by voluneers since 1979. The festival takes place in Mid-July, during which time the sun never sets. Tim Jones is the festivals artistic director.

Canadian Album of the Year
Owen Pallett’s Heartland. It’s the kind of achievement that overcomes my reluctance to throw the term “genius” around.  Heartland is overwhelmingly complex but simultaneously a very easy listen.  It shows a singularity of vision and a total compositional mastery that is unparalleled in Canadian music.

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Eric Chenaux with Ryan Driver Warm Weather. This album got under my skin like nothing else in 2010. Something about the pacing and the weird vocal treatments are totally compelling; synth washes, dreamy guitars, and a left-of-centre approach to songwriting that sounds like jazz standards played underwater. I can’t listen to the album while doing something else – I have to either shut it off or give myself over to it completely.  Listening to Eric in the past I’ve always been tempted to do the former 75% of the time. With this one I can’t tear myself away.

Highlight of the year
My highlight of the year was a live performance from tUnE-yArDs at the 2010 Dawson City Music Festival. I was up in the rafters of a gold rush era vaudeville theatre positioned directly over the band. Merrill Garbus’ voice channeled Nina Simone and Odetta, but the songs were about gangsters and sounded like Tropicalia. I hate the word “fusion” even more than I hate the word “genius” but this was both, the best live show I’ve seen in years. Merrill, like Neko Case, is basically an honourary Canadian – the project’s roots are in Montreal – so I feel OK calling it my Canadian highlight of the year.

Canadian Tip for 2011
My Canadian tip for 2011 is no secret, but if you haven’t heard the song ‘Chinatown’ – you need to find it immediately.  This is simultaneously Dan Bejar’s weirdest and best work yet, and if you’re familiar with Destroyer, that’s truly saying something.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Sebastien Grainger (Bad Tits / DFA 1979)
Bad Tits is the new project from Sebastien Grainger, who teams up with ex-Tangiers man Josh Reichmann for a synth heavy, dirty, sweaty, bleeping, garagey beast of a record in the shape of the Garbage Nights EP.

Canadian Album of the Year
Caribou Swim

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Trust

Highlight of the year
Getting drunk in the parking lot then watching my friends’ band play in front of a million people.

Canadian tips for 2011
Quit your band, get a job, go to school, you’re not special.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Mika Posen (Timber Timbre)
Timber Timbre’s self titled album got a UK and Europe release this year, and has seen the band steadily travelling around Europe with their subtle, haunting melodies . Their year ended with a handful of european shows with Jonsi.

Canadian Album of the Year
Heartland by Owen Pallett. A truly epic album!

Canadian record that deserved more attention in 2010
Snowblink’s Long Live. Stunning.

Highlight of the year
Heartland festival in vevey, Switzerland! After doing so much touring overseas it was really nice to join a mini-Canadian music community at this fantastic festival.

Canadian Tips for 2011
Bruce Peninsula! I hear they have something new in the works…

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

James Keast- Editor of Exclaim!
Exclaim is Canada’s only nationally distributed music publication. A free monthly newspaper, you can pick up a copy for at coffee shops, bars and records stores around the country. James Keast is the editor, and is also a Polaris Music Prize Juror.

Canadian Album of the Year
We don’t always have an obvious answer for this question, but this year, it has to be Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Not only did the Montreal crew have the greatest commercial impact of any Canadian album this year, but they are certainly our greatest ambassadors since the emergence of the Broken Social Scene/Arts & Crafts community. But while I feel like BSS had a philosophical/DIY collective impact, Arcade Fire have had a significant sonic one – in the sense that I’m not inundated by bands who sound like them.

A Canadian album from this year people should know about
All my lobbying couldn’t get it enough traction from the magazine or from the Polaris Music Prize, but Brasstronaut’s Mt. Chimaera was my Canadian album of the year. Headed by Edo Van Breemen (who also runs Unfamiliar Records, Canadian home to Japandroids, Paper Cranes, Flowers of Hell, Snailhouse), this Vancouver-based pop band boasts unusual instrumentation (like a clarinet) but their songs are pure pop goodness. ‘Hearts Trompet’ won the Echo Songwriting Prize this year as well.

Highlight of the year
My personal highlight was a summer concert held on Toronto Island (a small island – accessible by ferry – off the southern tip of Canada’s largest city) that featured great country band The Sadies along with soul genius Janelle Monae, and headlined by Arcade Fire. The combination of a beautiful remote setting so close to the city with three of Exclaim!’s favourite acts of the year (all three acts topped Exclaim!’s Year In Review issue in their respective genres: country, soul and pop/rock) made it extremely memorable. The very first time I witnessed the Pied Piper draw of an Arcade Fire show was on this very spot in 2004 when they were playing second on a 10-band bill at 2 in the afternoon; this show brought those memories back full circle.

Canadian Tips for 2011
Early 2011 is already looking like a spectacular year for Canadian music. I’m already excited about new albums from Braids, Destroyer, Buck 65, Young Galaxy, the Dears, Hey Rosetta!, Ron Sexsmith, Rural Alberta Advantage, Christine Fellows, Jenn Grant, Geoff Berner, Ken Mode and a Vic Chesnutt tribute album from Cowboy Junkies. And that’s just up till March…

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

James Mejia (Hand Drawn Dracula/ Youlookdeath.ly)
James is one of the founders of Toronto’s Hand Drawn Dracula records. He also contributes to the youlookdeath.ly blog and has produced artwork for the likes of Ron Sexsmith, Wintersleep, Holy Fuck and The Great Lake Swimmers amongst others.

Canadian Album of the Year
Holy Fuck Latin

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Bishop Morocco, Postdata, Teenanger, Quest for Fire

Highlight of the year
1. Fucked Up Halloween. Fucked Up played 90′s grunge covers and invited amazing openers including The Sadies (dressed up in full mummy costumes) and Fun as Fuck (Holy Fuck mixed their electro dance and Brian Borcherdt’s shoegaze doom into a set they wrote the day before the show).

2. No Age 2am set at Ruins on Queen St. W. After their gig at the Great Hall, No Age crossed the street to Mikey Apples’ and Josh Reichmann’s boutique and played a full hour set.

3. Holy Fuck Secret Show. After opening for Metric at  Toronto’s Ampitheatre, Holy Fuck played a gig in the low ceiling basement of Parts & Labour. Loud and fun!

4. TimMccready.TV / HDD daylong BBQ during NXNE with 300+ guests. Throughout the day bands played in the backyard and living room including  Bad Tits, Rich Aucoin, Brian Borcherdt and Deloro (Constantines, 100$).

5. The last Wolf Parade show at the Sound Academy in Toronto. They announced “indefinite hiatus” the next day but it was pretty well known at the show.

Canadian Tips for 2011
Austra, Actual Water, Tasseomancy, Trust, Josh Reichmann, Rattail, Foxes in Fiction, Cosmetics, Grimes, No Gold, His Clancyness, Treasure Hunt, also some amazing live bands that are either already in or about to go into the studio: Little Girls, Bad Tits, Metz, Handsome Furs, Brian Borcherdt, Julie Fader… lots more I’m forgetting.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

2010 was another stellar year for Shad. The quick fire wordplay, killer beats and flawless rhymes of his album TSOL earned him his second Polaris Prize shortlisting, and marked him as one of hip-hop’s finest wordsmiths. He toured with K’Naan and K-OS in North America and The Herbaliser and even found time to go on a camping trip with fellow Polaris Shortlisters Besnard Lakes as part of the National Parks Project.

Canadian Album of the Year
Caribou Swim… a really cool album. Very different from his last, still great. Danceable, great melodies, and sonically awesome.

A Canadian record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Relic the Oddity… thats my boy right there. He’s made a couple of really solid albums now but he’s still operating under the radar even in the TO scene. Does all the rapping, producing, singing, engineering himself and he does all of it well.

Highlight of the year
Beiber fever… Drake taking over. Arcade fire taking over. K’naan taking over. A lot of Canadian artists had hugely successful years which was great to see.

Canadian Tips for 2011
Watch out for Kamau… brilliant poet/emcee from TO will release an album next year that I’m sure folks will feel. Soulful and heartfelt.

Click here to view the embedded video.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Ro Cemm (TLOBF/ Oh! Canada)
As I said in the intro, it’s been a great year for Canadian music one way or another. While both of last years picks saw (Dan Mangan’s Nice Nice Very Nice and Evening Hymns’ Spirit Guides) saw European releases this year, I’m not going to count them, despite the fact they still get plenty of rotation at my house. Although this list could be very long, there are two records that have really stood out for me, and been in constant rotation since arriving. So….

Canadian Album of the Year
This would be Shad TSOL. Simply some of the best MC-ing I’ve heard for a very very long time. Teamed with great hooks and beats it’s a pretty killer combo. Hopefully he will be back in the UK in 2011.

A very close second was Mount Benson by Apollo Ghosts. Packed full of catchy hooks, whoops and songs that explode into life, I was delighted when it found it’s way to the Polaris Prize longlist. A short sharp shock of a record and undoubtedly one of the years best.

A record or act from this year that more people need to hear
Well, I would probably have Mount Benson here as well….alongside Frederick Squire’s outstanding March 12. I’m also going to say Hooded Fang’s album called Album. It was one of my tips for 2010 last year, and the 7 piece from Toronto didn’t let me down. With Daniel Lee’s low croon, trumpets, straight forward percussion lines and the occasional gang vocals, this is jangle pop done well. Expect to hear more about them here in 2011.

Highlight of the year
This is where I’m lucky that I get to make the rules…the whole year has been full of highlights – Oh! Canada’s road trip in the east of Canada was fantastic, and I would echo Mika from Timber Timbre’s sentiments about Heartland festival in Vevey. A few moments that will stay with me: The Wilderness of Manitoba and Leif Vollebekk playing an unplugged set in the woods in the small hours at End of The Road Festival, and the looks of delight on the faces of the audience and the band, witnessing the power of Do Make Say Think in full flow, without a sound limiter, and Basia Bulat’s decision to play an unplugged and accapella song to bring her show with Nova Scotia Symphony Orchestra to a close at Halifax Pop Explosion

Canadian Tip for 2011
Many of my tips for the coming year seem to be coming out of Montreal: Leif Vollebekk has been recording a new album with Howard Billerman (Arcade Fire. GY!BE) which I am excited to hear. The Suuns record should also turn a few heads in the early part of the year. It feels like an age since I first head Braids, who will finally release Native Speaker in 2011. And of course, we will be bringing you our tips for 2011 all through the year….

Click here to view the embedded video.

Simple ’60s doo-wop hooks, full-band harmonies and unfussy production values? Ten seconds into Shimmering Stars’ new single, the deliciously charming ‘I’m Gonna Try’ (twinned with ‘East Van Girls’ and released this week), and you might think you’ve heard it all before – and recently – but the Vancouver quartet offer something more substantial than many of bands contributing to this year’s surf-pop zeitgeist. They sing about love, not lust, and not through a haze of weed smoke; instead a sense of level-headed yearning and wry self-deprecation provide ballast for their relationship laments. Amidst a musical landscape of neck-turning nostalgia, they are The Wonder Years to Best Coasts’ Saved By the Bell – smarter, more plaintive and, shorn of brash immediacy, ultimately more rewarding.

If there’s any justice, 2011 could be a breakthrough year for the band. We caught up with singer/guitarist Rory McClure to have him introduce Shimmering Stars, and get his views on the tough 20s, time travel, and the band’s plans for 2011. Turns out he’s quite a funny chap…

Give people who haven’t heard you the lowdown on Shimmering Stars in 10 words or less.

Dreamy downer pop. Recommended for the heartbroken and the insane.

I started a band because….

Rock and roll needed to be saved and clearly I was the only man for the job.

What plans do you have for 2011? Can we expect a full length record next year?

2011 is either going to be a huge year for us or a huge, embarrassing failure. But one thing I’m sure of is that we’ll be releasing a full length in 2011. It’s 95% done and I’m really happy with it. We’re very hopeful that we’ll be playing SXSW and doing a European tour as well. We’re also very hopeful that Andrew [Dergousoff – drums] will spontaneously combust on stage, as countless drummers do each year.

I’m told that your influences include “anxiety attacks” and “antisocial behaviour” – please explain.

If my group of friends is any indication, a lot of people in their 20s exist in a weird state of prolonged adolescence where there aren’t any guidelines or expectations as to what we should be doing with our lives. To have this kind of freedom is a mixed blessing. The possibilities are endless, but with all this possibility comes a kind of paralysing anxiety about what to do, who to be, and ‘The Future’. These kinds of themes inform a lot of the lyrics for Shimmering Stars. As for antisocial behaviour – there’s something kind of antisocial about writing music and recording it alone in your parent’s garage, I guess. Also, rather than hiding my antisocial feelings I felt like this project would be a good opportunity to give them full expression, in part because it’s an unlikely context for these kinds of sentiments.

You also play in Bedrooms of the Nation, who sound quite similar to Shimmering Stars. Which came first and which band is your main priority?

Bedrooms of the Nation came first. Andrew and I (along with other friends) have been using this name forever. We were doing shows and kind of making a ‘push’ last Spring. We were quite good, in my opinion, and no one gave a shit about us. Shimmering Stars has become the priority because it’s gotten a bit of attention and that feels really good. But we’ll always come back to Bedrooms.

The blogosphere is a great way to get music heard these days, but how to you feel about people downloading/listening to your music for free?

Straight up, I download obscene amounts of music. That said, people better not download our shit for free! Kidding. You’re right; the blogosphere is a great way to get your music heard. It would be extremely hypocritical for me to tell people not to download our music for free. That said; don’t download our shit for free!

I read that you are training to be a teacher. What are you hoping to teach? Can we expect references to the classroom a la The Police in future Shimmering Stars material?

Ha! Nice. Best question so far. I’m specializing in alternate education – so that’s dealing with kids that, for whatever reason, aren’t quite cutting it in the public education system. I’ll be teaching a broad range of subjects. And definitely, expect a teaching-themed album in the near future.

What have your favourite records of 2010 been?

This year I completely lost myself in older music. However, I do like the last Beach House record. It’s dreamy, the melodies are fantastic, and the arrangements are bigger without sounding overdone. That’s a band that’s evolved in a pretty much flawless fashion. I like the Wild Nothing record for some of the same reasons – dreamy, great melodies, pretty much perfect pop songs. Finally, Wolf Nebula is a band that has re-surfaced after years of total obscurity. I’ve heard only a couple tracks but this is a band that changed music in such a big way and no one even knows it. Amazing. Can’t wait to see what happens next with these guys.

And finally, we can hear plenty of references to the past in your music, so we’ve fired up the Delorean, and you can be dropped in any past year you want – which one and why?

1994, Los Angeles. I’m skateboarding with [professional skateboarder] Guy Mariano, we’re filming for Mouse [skateboarding video produced by Spike Jonze]. Me and Guy are killing it. I switch flip b/s tailslide Hubba Hideout [famous skateboarding spot in San Francisco]. That’s probably the last trick in my part.

Shimmering Stars: ‘I’m Gonna Try’

Stream the ‘I’m Gonna Try’ / ‘East Van Girls’ 7″ in full via Almost Musique’s Soundcloud page.

Pun-named Vancouverites Brasstronaut have been around since 2007, but this year has seen the release of Mount Chimaera, their debut LP. Already having made waves in Canada – it was longlisted for that nation’s prestigious Polaris Prize, which was ultimately awarded to Montreal band Karkwa – the record has recently been released in Europe also. Brasstronaut’s name may be a joke of sorts but Mount Chimaera is quite a serious, mature record which sounds like a labour of love and which does nothing to damage Canada’s reputation for producing interesting and ambitious indie rock.

As that name implies, there’s some brass involved. Indeed, diverse instrumentation is one of Brasstronaut’s strong suits, and one of the things which most helps them to stand out from their peers. Bryan Davies’ trumpet is particularly important to the sound (and is mentioned in one of the songs, in fact). That sound is one of patient, deliberate power – grandeur is not an unreasonable word to hint at the emotional highs and lows Brasstronaut can conjure with their carefully constructed combination of a typical rock setup with brass instruments.

Like the album itself, opener ‘Slow Knots’ takes quite a few listens to really unfurl its substantial powers but quickly reveals itself as a masterclass in the slow build, climaxing in a long instrumental section where not only the brass but also elegantly dancing piano are used to demonstrate Brasstronaut’s stately prowess. Across all of these eight songs – which play out during a considered 40 minutes – Brasstronaut display a willingness to search hard for a reliable groove and then to stick to it, relying on their smooth vocals and stirring playing to carry them home. Although it does take a little living with before the true effect of this strategy becomes apparent, ultimately Brasstronaut’s labours have paid off, leaving us with a restrained and subtle but still powerful album which packs a punch.

Simple and elegant in design, Snowblink‘s debut album titled Long Live never strays from the less-is-more approach. The album purposefully slows the immediacy of life down to a meditative state leaving the listener feeling almost tranquilized from the experience; liken to a barbiturate induced sleep. Daniela Gesundheit’s distinct soft soprano blends seamlessly with a dreamy folk soundscape producing a soothing listening experience liable to put anyone at ease

Daniela’s band members, Dan Goldman and Caley Monahon-Ward, along with a host of other contributors demonstrate a predilection towards musical subtlety accomplished by introducing a variety of instrumentation deliberately and discreetly. While the folky guitar is a consistent foundation, the album features the use of various xylophones, mandolins, strings, and a host of percussion instruments, all appearing with the delicacy of freshly fallen snow. The musical arrangement is a poetry of sound often uncomplicated yet beautifully textured. In ‘Membrillo’ and “Divining Rod’, two brief interludes, Daniela’s voice is used as an instrument in itself sampled numerous times with a reverb quality and melted together in polyphonic perfection.

The standout tracks appear back to back to open the album; ‘Rut & Nuzzle’ and ‘Ambergris’ both feature a full complement of unique musical elements and a delicate tune worthy of a hum or two. ‘Green to Gone’ showcases the poetic underpinnings of the lyrics which permeate the rest of the album. A slight deviation form the softness can be found in ‘Heckling the Afterglow’ featuring more of an abrupt  thump which drives the melody. There is somewhat of a disappointing issue related to length of the album. Timed at 34 minutes including an awkward 28 second final track, the album leaves you with a feeling of being incomplete. The track ‘None’ for instance, is a minute in length featuring a beautiful melody with soft guitar play. It has the potential to be a gorgeous epic and perhaps the perfect finisher. Instead, like the album, the song just ends without warning.

Long Live is a soft and sweet folk album blending early elements of Enya with the voice and poetry of Feist. Nothing ever seems rushed on Long Live and every sound is given ample time fully resonate before moving to the next note. It is a stellar debut from the Toronto based dreamy folk-pop outfit, but it plays more like an EP than a long player.

All photographs by Cory Smith

If you have a favourable bias towards male pop stars that look better on radio, are able to make songs about love sound entertaining, and deliver infectious dance tracks ,  you should take The Russian Futurists for a spin. With his fourth release titled The Weight’s on the Wheels, Matthew Adam Hart, the brain child behind the Toronto based project, provides pure white picket fence pop and homogenous happiness; the kind you might find straight out of 1989. The name of the band, The Russian Futurists, is incredibly ironic considering their tone is not at all reflective of the somewhat bleak outlook predicted for the largest country in the world. Rather, the only struggle the listener will find themselves involved with is a desperate attempt at trying to remove the ultra catchy pop goodness out of their head, but why bother?

The album begins with the first single from this alt pop outfit and it becomes immediately apparent that The Russian Futurists have matured since their previous release. ‘Paul Simon’, the lead track off of their last album and their hit single in 2005, pales in comparison to the danceable bass thump and overly contagious melody in ‘Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds’. Skip a song to ‘One Night and One Kiss’ and you will arrive at sugary duet that will attack your subconscious and leave you involuntarily humming the tune the rest of the day. At this point, it also becomes apparent that the songs on The Weight’s on the Wheels are more than just empty pop ditties; Hart’s interesting lyrical compositions shine through with a romantic spirit and witty rhymes.

There are a few caveats, however, ’100 Shopping Days’ has a motif similar to something from the 80s R&B scene (think Bobby Brown), but the softness of the tune becomes especially awkward when Hart drops an ‘F’ bomb. WTF? ‘To Be Honest’ is perhaps a tribute to the boy bands of the 90s sounding a tad too much like something ‘N Sync might produce. It’s a good thing those tracks are back to back so you can easily skip them and get back to the fun the rest of the album provides.

The Weight’s on the Wheels finishes strong with a couple of songs that slow the beat down a tad but maintain perfect pop proportions. ‘Horseshoe Fortune’, the finisher, is a particularly interesting song with an acoustic guitar strumming along side a unique rhythm combined with great lyrical word play and a fantastic crescendo. It is an incredibly deep track and a great way to end an album that has many memorable moments.

This is The Russian Futurists’ finest hour and while some bands put their life’s work into the first album only to have the sequels fall short, Matt Hart’s creation gets better with each subsequent release. The elements of lo-fi drum machines combined with a polished retro pop sound gives The Weight’s on the Wheels a warm feeling right from the opening seconds and ensures that the album is one you can bring home to grandma…minus the ‘F’ bomb, of course.

Quite why The Wooden Sky have yet to make an impact on the imaginations of the UK listening public is hard to fathom. With twang a-plenty and a fine line in the sort of southern-fried tales that the Drive By Truckers or My Morning Jacket would be proud of If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone should be the record that brings the band to a wider audience. With Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed) at the controls and contributions from members of Ohbijou, Forest City Lovers and A Silver Mt Zion amongst others, the album showcases the bands fully realised roots rock with just enough fuzzyness and unexpected elements to lift them above the rest of the Americana pack.

That isn’t to say that the hallmarks of classic Americana aren’t there. Opener ‘Oh My God’ has it in spades: the plaintive harmonica and gospel singalong refrain, the jangling guitar. (Bit Part) tumbles along joyfully, it’s easy melody carried along on the organ swells and upright piano. ‘My Old Ghosts’ seems to fit with the relaxed feeling of the album until the layers of twinkling guitar and spacey keys begin to build underneath frontman Gavin Gardiner’s pledges to make good on his promises before exploding with a hoarse voiced yelp of desperation that brings to mind Conor Oberst’s much overlooked Desparacidos project. The same ragged, desperate quality takes the fingerpicked ‘Call If You Need Me’ into more epic territory. While a fine trick to have up your sleeve, Gardiner and his band are careful not to overuse it, and there are plenty of more subdued tracks here to balance out the outbursts: the gently insistent arpeggios of ‘An Evening Hymn’ or the subtly arranged strings of album closer ‘River Song One’. There’s even a couple of full on singalong stompers thrown in for good measure in the shape of ‘When We Were Young’ and ‘The Late King Henry.’

‘If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’ve Gone” is a fully realised record packed with well crafted tunes, and one that deserves to get the band more recognition, and is proof, if proof were needed, that some of the best Americana being made today is coming out of Canada.

As the nights draw in and the temperatures drop, Oh! Canada has been looking back over 2010. We hope that through this years interviews, mixes and reviews we have introduced you to some of best new music Canada has to offer, and that we have helped you to discover some new favourites. We will be looking back on 2010 and looking forward to 2011 with a handful of Canadian artists and writers in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, to get you in the festive spirit we are proud to present Ho Ho Ho Canada Deux!

A follow up to last years Ho Ho Ho Canada, Ho Ho Canada Deux hopes to provide an antidote to hearing the same old Christmas tunes year after year.

The compilation includes new compositions, covers, traditional songs (including one in Norwegian), the occasional curse word (you have been warned), and sleigh bells and festive cheer aplenty. We’d like to thank all of the artists involved for their time and effort in putting this together-please be sure to click on their names to find out more about them and find out what they are up to in the next few months. The artwork was created by Jon Janes using an image of Clear Creek, Yukon by Michael Edwards.

DOWNLOAD

[.zip] Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada Deux
After clicking on the above link, the download will begin automatically

1. By Divine Right: ‘Mall Santa’*
2. Paper Lions: ‘Jingle Bells’
3. The Mountains and The Trees: ‘My Favourite Sweater (Happy Holidays)’ *
4. Great Lake Swimmers: ‘Gonna Make It Through The Year’
5. Ox: ‘Xmas In the Jailhouse’
6. Baby Eagle: ‘Fearfully and Wonderfully’ *
7. Boxer The Horse: ‘Material Xmas’
8. Sean Nicholas Savage: ‘Snowflake’
9. The Russian Futurists: ’100 Shopping Days Till Christmas’
10. Kashka (Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers): ‘Picture Books In Winter’ *
11. Hooded Fang: ‘Tundra Nights’ *
12. Teen Daze: ‘Medley In D (Holy Holy Holy/ Christmas at Sea/ Goodnight, Sleep Tight)’ *

*= recorded specially for Ho Ho Ho Canada Deux

All of these songs have been given free for your listening pleasure. We hope you enjoy them and have a fantastic festive season. At this time of year especially there are hundreds of good causes all seeking your help-we hope that, in keeping with the spirit of giving, if you enjoy this compilation you might consider giving a donation to one of them. Thank-you.

You can follow Oh Canada on Twitter at @OhCanada_uk for news, links and more.

Brighton label Faux Discx have just announced the release of a Canada/ UK split 7″ for early January 2011. The 7″ will feature a brand new track by Women called “Bullfight” as well as a contribution from Friendo (featuring Michael of Women) in the shape of “Pass Times”. UK touring partners Fair Oh’s and Brighton’s own Cold Pumas round out the release.

You can listen to the release in full and place your pre-order of the record over at Faux Discx’s Bandcamp page. All pre-orders come with an immediate download, and with a limited worldwide edition of only 500 we suggest you get in quickly to avoid any disappointment!

Rounding off a busy 2010, The New Pornographers are heading back to the UK this week for a special show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, as well as an appearance at Bowlie 2 at the weekend. The shows will mark the first time Neko Case has toured the UK with the band. TLOBF caught up with Carl Newman last week to discuss bringing more bombast to The New Pornographers, latest album Together, how Annie Clark is the female Hendrix and how he’d never let Sarah Palin use his music.

Hi Carl, hows it going? How was your trip to Australia?

Australia was very great, yeah. They treat you nice there- it feels very relaxing touring there- which is great because we’ve been touring for almost 6 months, so when you’re getting towards the end it’s nice for it to get comfortable. We were on the beach in Perth in the sun just a couple of days ago.

You’ve been touring with Neko Case again recently. This tour will be the first time you’ve come across to the UK with her. Does having her with you change the live dynamic? In the past you have said you don’t want the band to have a frontperson-although when you’ve toured in the UK you’ve been forced to be the frontman.

Yeah, it’s kind of true. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say – I have no objective opinion on the matter. I’ve got to say I’ve never felt the need to have the spotlight on me – sometimes it’s nice to have somebody to do more of the singing, you know. Maybe it’s just the lazy part of me….”Alright! I have to do less work…Nice…”

When I saw you in Halifax back in October, you played selections from all your records – is that we can expect from these shows?

We’ve never been that band that only plays the new album. I’ve always felt it’s good to play something from all of your records. Because, you know, when I go to see a band I appreciate that. If you go to see REM you’d be annoyed if they didn’t play anything off Murmur. I think the fact that the audience likes the songs gives them a new life. Some of our songs I can’t remember writing them or what headspace I was in. But I love playing them because I know the audience wants to hear them and it makes a difference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So you feed off the audience?

Well, you can’t follow them completely. You try and keep a balance. I feel like if we just play the rock songs then we’re pandering, like court jesters. “You want a fast one, well, alright…” It makes you feel like a wedding band. I try and keep the louder and the quiet stuff mixed up.

Being as it is close to Christmas, will you be playing any of your Christmas songs?

[Laughs] I don’t think we will ever play those… We just did those for what the hell. Sometimes we do covers, but we have too many songs now. We used to do them because we didn’t have enough songs- ‘Send Me A Postcard’ by Shocking Blue, ‘Cruel To Be Kind’ by Nick Lowe and a few years a go we did ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ by ELO. But there are to many other songs. But I’m a massive ELO fan.

Roy Wood or Jeff Lynne?

I love both of them equally. I’m a massive fan of The Move. I think it’s shocking there were two people of such amazing talent in the same band.

Moving on to the new album… The band seems to exist between everyones other projects, which has led to a scattering of the band all across the continent. Does the fact that you don’t get spend much time with each other anymore have an impact on the record, and did it influence the name?

Well, I think the title has a number of levels. There was the honest part….”Holy shit we’re still together!”- so many people over the years have written about how we’re about to split apart because we all do different things. But we’re not. We still like each other as much as we ever did. And then there’s the irony that we don’t live in the same town – I live in Woodstock, Neko lives in Vermont, the others in Vancouver – we don’t see each other so much now.

And there’s also the fact that it’s not just you on this record – there are a lot of guests…

That was more like cameo appearances. They were friends so we called them up and they were around. The only people we didn’t know were the Dap Kings. But then it was like, for ‘My Shepherd’, we needed a guitar solo, and our producer Phil had just finished working with Annie (St. Vincent) and suggested we get her in. And it worked nicely. I like using her as a guitar player because not many people realise how amazing a guitar player she is because she’s known more as a singer. But if you watch her play live she’s like a female Hendrix.

Is there anyone else you would like to work with in the future?

I’ve always talked about working with the Fiery Furnaces – they are one of my favourite bands of the last 10 years. I don’t know if it will happen, but if I was going to collaborate or bring in an outside producer, I think I’d want to bring in Matthew Friedberger.

When you are writing your records, do you write for a voice, or write and see who it works best with, like they used to do for the old Motown records?

I wrote the song ‘My Shepherd’ for Neko. But most of the time we just see what works. After a while you begin to know what key someone sings in. Sometimes I’ll write a song that’s out of my register – and think, “OK thats a Neko song…this is two steps above what I can sing.” And I’m always happy when someone else sings. It’s like a snow day.

Over the years you seem to have said this, that you’re not terribly confident in your own voice. Isn’t that a drawback for someone in your position?
I have no problem with it, it’s just I think everyone else is a better singer than me. Neko and Kathryn have great voices – there’s no way I’m going to start thinking I’m an amazing singer, even within my own band.

Are you a harsh critic of other acts, making you doubly hard on yourself?
I don’t think I am…I’m pretty much on board- name a popular band and I probably think they’re great. I’m like “Yeah… The National are awesome. Animal collective…Yeah, awesome.” I am my harshest critic. But I’m sure there are some critics out there who would be quite happy to challenge that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This record feels “Big” especially the big rock cello intro on ‘Moves’ and the big riff of ‘Your Hands (Together)’ and backwards guitars and spiraling solos on ‘Daughters of Sorrow’. Was that a conscious effort or was it just how things worked out?

It really was a conscious effort – on Challengers we were getting mellow, and I wanted to have something like ‘Moves’ built around a big cello. I’ve always loved bombast, and I wanted to add a little more – if I had my own way it would be even more bombastic.

How do Dan Bejar’s contributions fit in? Does he bring a collection of songs for the band to pick or does he just deliver them as is?
Have I ever said that’s a Destroyer song we can’t do it? There is a song called ‘Painter In Your Pocket’. He presented that as a potential song for us. But I didn’t know what to do with it as a New Pornographers song. But I think that is one of the only times.

And ‘Hey Snow White’ – he did that as a Destroyer song originally but now you’re doing it?
Yeah – we’ve just started playing that live. We never played it before, even though it is on this big record (Dark Was The Night). A lot of people only know that song by us. But it’s fun to play live. It’s nice to be included as one of the ‘cool kids’ to be put on a record like that.

And at your festival (Stanley Park Singing Exhibition) you got to play with them too…
Yeah! If you want to be one of the cool kids you have to have your own festival…

New Pornographers songs have been used in Rock Band, and in TV programmes – with radio play much harder to come by and album sales down in general, do you see this as a new way of getting music heard? People seem to be very down on people letting there songs be used…but surely as long as you don’t have issues with the product it should be fine? I’d rather my favourite band sold a song to an advert and got enough money to carry on making records than not being able to afford to record new music at all.
I’m not at all precious – no one will ever be able to take your art away from you- no matter what I do with that song, no one can change it. If somebody puts meaning in to it, and decides it is important to them, then thinks it’s been tainted by use, I don’t know what to say. If I have no problem with it, that’s the best I can do. I’m concerned not to let just anybody use my music. Like I wouldn’t let Sarah Palin use one of my songs because I’m so offended by her. And I wouldn’t let Walmart use one. But most of the time it’s like sure, whatever. A Jennifer Aniston movie wants to use it? Sure, why not. If people are going to take music for free, can you really blame a band for trying to get paid eventually? It doesn’t work both ways.

What about the reunion tour? Would you ever consider reforming Zumpano for a couple of shows?
I don’t think that would ever happen – not enough people are asking us to do it, and the effort involved is too much. I think about it every now and then. I’m too busy with future things…I’ve got a few projects coming up that I’m really excited about- but I can’t tell you about them just yet…

Click here to view the embedded video.

As the year, and this interview, draws to a close, what has been the highlight of 2010 for you?

It’s all been a blur. I guess this is a lame answer but at the heart of it I’m just happy that I get to play music, that that’s my job. It’s what I like to do so the act of recording and going on tour, it’s the stuff I look back on most fondly.

That’s the most you can ask for really isn’t it? If you love it and you can do it, you’ve won.

That’s how I feel for the most part, even if it’s not a carriage ride the whole time.

It seems to me that you guys are always having fun on stage too – it’s refreshing and I think it comes out in the crowd.
I think that’s what we wanted to be. We never wanted to be an image based band- we wanted that DIY aesthetic- that anyone could do it. We want people to look and see regular people, not some “Rock Star”. Really, at the heart of it, isn’t that what Punk Rock was supposed to be about? Getting rid of the whole “Rock Star” idea. Even though the Pistols were rock stars they were saying “go out and start your own band”. I’ve always liked the underground- the regular joes getting onstage and making music. Before I started playing I thought the audience to person on stage was a frightening line to cross- but I’ve got used to it now. I remember being a teenager and realising a lot of the bands I liked weren’t popular, like ‘pop music’- if they came to Vancouver there wouldn’t be 2000 people there and that actually that was ok.

The New Pornographers play Shepherd Bush Empire on December 9th and Bowlie 2 Weekender on December 11th. The new album ‘Together’ is out now via Matador.

K.C. Accidental may be familiar to most people as the title of the opening track proper to Broken Social Scene’s breakthrough LP You Forgot It in People; yet the name comes with its own baggage and history, serving as the moniker behind which Kevin Drew and Charles Spearin operated in the late nineties. Curiously reissued by the band’s scene-inspiring label Arts & Crafts at this moment in time, rather than capitalising on the peak of the mid-decade Pitchfork-induced BSS mania, this double-pack of the band’s two self-released mostly-instrumental EPs – 1998′s Captured Anthems for an Empty Bathtub and 2000′s Anthems for the Could’ve Bin Pills – is an intriguing insight into the development of one of the noughties’ most acclaimed groups.

A distant ancestor of this year’s storming ‘Meet Me in the Basement’, ‘Nancy and the Girdle Boy’ kicks Captured Anthems off with a bang, as a pair of Eno-patented swooping Warm Jets guitars pirouette between two HUGE-sounding chords for five minutes. After such a gargantuan intro, the rest of the record seems tame by comparison, in thrall to the band’s formative influences in a big way; scattershot ratatat drums come over like organic reworkings of Autechre’s more human moments, and the spaced-out arrangements and dubby bursts of brass are pure Tortoise. Then again, the languid acoustic ballad ‘Save the Last Breath for Me’ sounds like an offcut from Mogwai’s masterpiece Rock Action, albeit three years before that album’s release, and the injokey ‘Kev’s Message for Charlie’ cleverly updates Sonic Youth’s ansaphone-ambient classic ‘Providence’ by incorporating a crude piano sketch left by Drew as a voicemail message into a gorgeous, fully-fledged song in its own right, all shimmering guitar lines and lightly-brushed cymbals (also, kudos to Spearin circa 1998 for having Pink Floyd’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ as his machine message). Still, the EP’s blissed-out analogue production works like a charm, coating its instruments in a crisp snow of static, but leaving the tracks on just the right side of lo-fi.

Fast forward two years to the arrival of K.C.’s second-and-final record Anthems for the Could’ve Bin Pills, which polishes up the production, expands the band’s musical palate and its lineup, incorporating dreamily floating chord sequences, and flourishes of horns and strings; indeed, both the washed-out pianos of ‘Ruined in 84′ and ’Residential Love Song’ – a longing waltz, awash with fuzzy acoustic guitars and skittering synths- could soundtrack any painfully indie romcom. Most significantly of all, however, is ‘Them (Pop Song #3333)’ – to all intents and purposes, the first embryonic flashes of Broken Social Scene as we know it. The band’s solitary vocal track – a duet between Drew and Emily Haines which comes over like a calmer take on the barnstorming ‘Almost Crimes’ – unassumingly judders out of the speakers, snaking through your head for seven minutes of meditative drums, snatched vocal samples and heart-melting strings. Of all the tracks on these two EPs, it’s on this one that it all falls gently into place, from its deadpan title on down (Forgiveness Rock Record, anyone?), and it’s a genuine thrill to hear a band’s sound practically crystalise right before your ears.

Both albums’ titles point the way to a track like ‘Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl’, which takes this basic template and turns it into something far more accessible – even though its vocals are heavily-vocodered, there’s no arguing with how emotional and personal that song sounds. Hearing these familiar elements in an unfamiliar context will be fascinating for any Broken Social Scene fan and, while you’d never pick Captured Anthems over your battered copy of Broken Social Scene, these two early experiments are definitely worth hearing.

Love is a time-honoured theme that emerges in all facets of artistic expression and, however ironic this may sound, it is often more appealing to listen to the melancholy aspect, probably because we can better relate, rather than hearing someone sing about how good their love life is (Barry White excluded of course). And so it is with a heavy heart that David Vertesi’s debut album Cardiography is brought forth to the masses. Perhaps Vertesi’s lyrics exposing his vulnerabilities coupled with his boyish good looks is an attractive and luring combination. Perhaps the success of Cardiography is owed in part to the array of talented artists in the Vancouver folk-pop music scene who seem to provide the inspiration and spark for the overall feel of the album. Either way, Cardiography is a strong debut, but don’t be fooled by the opening track.

Cardiography starts out with an absolute pop gem complete with a super catchy chorus, a build up of strings and a texture of indie charm, something his other band, Hey Ocean!, is consistently accustomed to producing. ‘Mountainside’ is not indicative of the rest of the album which has a slower more minimal pace, but for 4 minutes the listener is treated to a sticky sweet tune that deserves a few immediate taps of the repeat button. That’s not to suggest this is the only song worthy of the repeat function, quite the opposite really, but rather don’t judge an album by its opening track.

While Cardiography settles down into more of a folk-pop feel sprinkled with the sadness and resiliency of love, one can’t help but wonder if the record was conceived while gazing through the rain soaked windows typical of Vancouver. The remainder of the album can easily be used as a mechanism for personal self reflection drawing connections to past experiences from titles like ‘Heart’s Don’t Break, People Do’. But the softer mood still has opportunities for a sing along as evidenced by slightly more bouncy tracks including ‘All Night, All Night, All Night’ , the title track ‘Cardiography’ and ‘Broadcasting’, all of which have instantly memorable melodies and musical elements that can easily appear on an album from any number of Vancouver artists who sleep in the same musical bed, so to speak. ‘Learn to Run’ starts with vocal musings and a build up of intensity similar in spirit to Adian Knight, who guests on the album and no doubt helped energize the feeling. The listener is graced by the soft and sweet background vocals of Hanna Georgas, an up and coming singer and songwriter, whose voice provides the perfect balance to Vertesi’s low rumblings. Add Tom Dobrzanski to the mix, an accomplished musician from the progressive piano pop band The Zolas, and you have pleasing combination and a wealth of inspiration to work with to say the least.

While the influences on the album are evident, there is an undeniable sound unique to Vertesi which is focused on his baritone voice, catchy melodies and introspective lyrics. The album draws from his friendships with the other bands and forges into new and unique territory narrating his own personal story of love. Cardiographyis an accomplished debut and a further testament to the ever evolving Canadian music scene.

“Snow is falling/ All around me…” as Mr Stevens would have it in his Christmas classic. (That’s Shakin’, by the way, not Sufjan)

As Britain endures a prolonged cold snap, leave it to Vancouver’s Teen Daze to release an EP full of dreamy lo-fi pop tunes that hark back to warmer times. Head over to Teen Daze’s Bandcamp page now to download the Beach Dreams EP on a pay what you like basis.

Teen Daze has this to say about the EP:

“I know that it’s starting to get cold, and that carefree love songs about beach life may seem out of context, but I hope that you guys can look back on your past summer, and let these songs remind you of some of the good experiences you had! ”

Keep your eyes on TLOBF next week for a more seasonal offering from Teen Daze as part of our annual Ho Ho Ho Canada compilation.

Don’t let the opening 4 minutes fool you, $ is a great album. Montreal’s Mark Sultan is definitely no stranger to pushing limits often creating music on the border of many different genres and his involvement with several musical outfits or as a one man band, where he is better known as BBQ or under many different monikers, is a testament to his creativity. His latest effort is almost a spring cleaning of the garage rock he is best known for and if there ever was a punk band in the 50s, surely they would sound like $. The album is full of catchy tunes, jittery guitar solos, and lo-fi recordings. While it is clear that Sultan is capable of playing many different instruments with a sense of mastery, his greatest asset is his voice. It is a shame he uses it sparingly.

The first 4 minutes of the opening track ‘Icicles’ is a saturation of psychedelic garage rock with a guitar purr that rumbles on for what seems like an eternity. When Sultan finally starts singing, the tune is somewhat fuzzed out. ‘Icicles’ is an interesting artful opener with a feel similar to his other projects but completely unlike the rest of the album.

$ takes a distinct u-turn leaving the 60s psychedelics behind. ‘Don’t Look Back’ might better be described as an attempt at a Spanish folk tune with a drum circle and a multitude of other instruments pounding their way to the finale. Moving another decade backwards, the album settles in and produces a predominant sound with the rest of the tracks. Picture a marriage between Buddy Holly, Blue Swede and The Dead Kennedys; 50s rock n roll, memorable melodies, and raw punk elements. ‘Ten of Hearts’ features the four chord classic step guitar pattern used for 50s ballads, a mix of vocals that stretch Sultan’s range, and a rough guitar riff that makes its appearance towards the end during a build up of circus like instrumentation. It is during the next track, ‘Status’, that one can’t help checking the connection of the speakers and bass controls on the EQ as the lo-fi sound becomes apparent. It is like a an old record being played on one of those all in one turntable stereos, yet it is precisely this quality that gives $ its endearing charm. ‘I Get Nothing From My Girl’ cleans the sound up a bit with a bouncy, hook infested tune worthy of a whistle (indeed, there is a whistle part in there). At the halfway point of the album, it is clear that Mark Sultan’s new sound is much less garage and much more bedroom than any of his previous ensembles. ‘I am the End’ and ‘I’ll Be Loving You’ really showcases Sultan’s great vocals when he opens them up a bit. His voice is best described like a muscle car from the 50s; plenty of gusto but you know there’s a lot left under the hood. $ has 13 tracks and, with the exception of the opener, all of them have unique personality. Perhaps no better song typifies the overall feel than ‘Catastrophe’; arguably the best track on the album and placed second to last on the disc order.

If you like the 50s sound, but always felt like it was too clean and glossy, then Sultan’s latest effort definitely hits the $. Raw and edgy yet catchy and modern, this is a memorable album. The only slightly downside is the fact that Sultan does not use his vocal prowess as often as he should, but then again, always leave your fans wanting more.

The Sadies will be bringing there near-legendary live show to UK shores for a handful of dates over the next few weeks in support of their Polaris shortlisted album Darker Circles. To celebrate we are offering tickets to any show on the tour, as well as a free download of Darker Circle’s track Another Year Again.

You can catch the Sadies do what they do best on the following dates:

November
30 – London, The Relentess Garage

December
1 – Cardiff, The Globe
2 – Bristol, St. Bonaventure’s
3 – Somerset, ATP
4 – Somerset, ATP
5 – Somerset, ATP
6 – Gateshead, The Cluny
7 – York, The Duchess
9 – Brighton, Coalition

For your chance to win two tickets to a show of your choice (excluding ATP, sorry!) simply email your choice of show to competitions@thelineofbestfit.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Sadies: ‘Another Year Again’

Jamie Harley wraps up 2010 in the same fashion as he started it; with yet another video for Canadian dream-pop duo Memoryhouse. In the same way that Denise Nouvion and Evan Abeele have spent the year developing their sound — with each release growing deeper in texture and confidence — Harley too, has been busy mastering his art. With videos under his belt for Memory Tapes, How To Dress Well, Prizes, ANR, Museum Of Bellas Artes, Lonely Galaxy – not to mention TLOBF luminaries The Forest & The Trees – each clip has revealed Jamie to be a true magician. Re-imagining long lost video footage (and the occasional porno – see Prizes), creating a romantic bond between the artist and the visual – two strangers that never would have met without the master of ceremonies taking charge and sealing their fate in a haze of rich, pastoral colours.

‘Heirloom’ – the b-side lifted from current Memoryhouse single ‘Caregiver’ is arguably Harley’s finest work to date. An artist heading skywards on a heady brew of insomnia and old fashioned romanticism, he is fast becoming the go to guy for timeless shorts such as this. Don’t just take my word for it, head to his archive here.

Is there any band who has suffered more from the poisoning touch of blog-hype than Wolf Parade? They’ve released three overachieving albums in a row, yet the general public regards their careers post-Apologies To Queen Mary as a mere afterthought. They erupted in popularity in such a way that any chance of existing as a lasting indie-darling was squandered on the first shot. Their legacy finished within one year, their mythology closed after a single record – now in 2010 it seems even Wolf Parade know they’ll never achieve the whirlwind of goodwill that surrounded their inception, regardless of how brilliant they manage to be.

So Wolf Parade entered Austin’s La Zona Rosa for the fans that stuck through the superficial buzz – if the enveloping applause didn’t tip you off, these were the diehards. Dan Boeckner’s beanpole figure was visibly taken aback; “you guys are such sweethearts” he repeated, as the band worked through the stand-outs. Apologies and Zoomer both got solid showings – naturally with Expo material shaping up to be the majority. Boeckner and Krug traded off songs alternatively, mirroring the band’s one-of-a-kind album flow. Krug, who increasingly resembles The IT Crowd’s Douglass Reynholm towered over his electro-complex, foppy hair bouncing up and down, his casual-Friday button up drenched in sweat. Boeckner, always the band’s brow-sweat workman, never left his guitar – banging out staccato blasts of amp-busting chords, lights flickering off the gold chains around his neck. The spotlight shifted between both of the songwriters, happily trying to rock the living hell each other offstage. Boeckner’s songs ended up succeeding, but only because crunchy guitars hit an audience harder than digitized synth. Arlen Thompson and Dante DeCaro might as well have been iTunes backbeats, their presence negligible at best to the eternally dynamic relationship of the band’s anchor pieces.

The kids ate the whole set up, in case there was any doubt, people still love Wolf Parade – all of their records, not just the hip ones. Scarcely would you witness such silence between songs as you did here. The fervor of the press might have crippled the ongoing critical excitement around Wolf Parade and the blown out of proportion Montreal scene in general, but this band still has songs. Songs that can ignite a standing room in central Austin on a weeknight – and as long as they can keep that up, they’ll never need any of that hype they were blessed (and cursed) with ever again.

What do you think of when someone says Switzerland? Cheese? Chocolate? Bankers maybe? Bet the chances are Canadian indie bands wouldn’t be very high on your list. Yet last week the little town of Vevey, situated on Lake Geneva between Lausanne and Montreaux played host to some of the biggest names in indie rock. What started as a dream for local record store owner Pascal Roth and his partner just a few months ago became a reality. Over four nights, the Salle de Castillo played host to the Heartland festival, with headline shows from Owen Pallett, Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think, ably supported by the great and the good of the Canadian music scene.

Whether it was the beauty of the setting, the respect that comes from an audience who are not normally able to see such acts, or the camaraderie induced by seeing familiar faces in strange surrounds, Heartland seemed to bring out the best in all the performers- giving the whole event a relaxed air and the spirit of collaboration. King and Queen of collaboration were Toronto duo Snowblink, who performed selections from their recently released Long Live album, patiently building folk-pop around frontwoman Daniella Gesundheit’s tender and expressive vocals. Having toured with Owen Pallett in their native Canada, it was little surprise that he should appear as a guest on their set. What was more surprising however was the choice of song: “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin (or the Theme from Top Gun as you might know it better). As the audience slowly recognised the song, smiles spread around the room. They were smiles that wouldn’t leave for the rest of the festival.

Following Snowblink was Andre Ethier, the former Deadly Snakes frontman, who belted out his love-lorn melodies, arms outstretched and voice impassioned as he worked through a set that called to mind Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review, mixing folk blues and occasionally moving in to classic soul territory, with swelling organs and the rhythm section from Toronto’s go-to party band Steamboat. Dan Bejar and Destroyer followed Ethier with a nervous energy that fed into his performance. Running through his acclaimed back catalog, guitars jangled as the lyrics tumbled from his mouth, throwing out references in his often near spoken-word delivery style. Bringing to an end the evening’s entertainment, Owen Pallett performed a now rare solo show. In a stripped down setting Pallett’s prodigious talents seemed amplified, the looped passages of “This is the dream of Win and Regine” filling the old hall to the rafters. Often known for live covers, he closed the evening with a pumping rendition of Caribou’s Odessa.

The party atmosphere spilt over into the next days Arts and Crafts showcase. With three multi-instrumentalists in the band there is no one focal point for Zeus, although the mustachioed Carlin Nicholson does seem to take to the spotlight with a twinkle in his eye. Nicholson throws poses that bear a striking resemblance to the nearby statue of Freddie Mercury while the band play their crisp take on 60s and 70s infused hook-heavy pop, all warm organ tones and fuzzy bass lines. Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras was also in the party spirit, and seemed to be delighted to be surrounded by so many familiar faces. Now resident in Berlin, this was the Hidden Cameras (European Edition). With both crowd and artists in good spirits the numbers onstage swelled as the set went on, including guest appearances from Daniella and Dan of Snowblink and the horns of Broken Social Scene. Gibb stalked the stage with aplomb, jousting with his cello player as the band ran through what amounted to a ‘best of’ set.

As festival organiser Pascal Roth pointed out before the band began, for Broken Social Scene to be playing a friday night in Vevey is quite a coup for the little Swiss town. Yet, from the moment the multi-limbed touring machine clamber on to the stage it is clear that they are the ones who feel privileged. Kevin Drew thanks the audience and the crowd for making the show a genuine “moment”. While the band has a reputation for delivering quasi-religious celebrations, tonight feels like a genuine moment, from the rampaging horns of “Meet Me In The Basement”, the hook heavy “Fire Eye’d Boy” to a sultry run through “Anthem For A Seventeen Year Old Girl”, which saw Snowblink’s Danielle Gesundheit take the stage once again to provide the harmony parts.

The final evenings show saw the most eclectic line up of the festival. Kicking things off early with an emotional performance were The Acorn, whose frontman Rolf Klausener quickly won over the crowd by revealing that his family were in fact Swiss and that there were several members in the audience. As the smoke billowed around them, the band tore through a dynamic set that drew heavily on this years No Ghost album, their two-drummer attack providing extra rhythmic muscle that drove the set forward. Montreal’s Timber Timbre followed, flooding the stage with red light and smoke for their haunting take on the blues, slide guitar and violin adding to frontman Taylor Kirk’s sinister and hypnotic croon. Once again, the collaborative urge took hold, and various members of other bands join the band on stage to add percussion and keys for “Lay Down In The Tall Grass”.

Taking a night off from supporting fellow Canadians Holy Fuck on their current Euro tour, Nova Scotian hip-hop hero Buck 65 (Rich Terfry) brought his twitchy dance moves to the stage, spitting his hyperactive mile-a-minute word flow over a broad range of samples that took in Electralane, The theme from Twin Peaks and far more besides. Jumping between scratching at the decks, and clowning and body popping at the mic, Terfry is a true performer, and the audience found it hard to take their eyes off him thought the frenetic show.

“I’m not one for big speeches, but you are about to see one of the best live bands in the world.” A bold claim on behalf of the organisers, but one that Do Make Say Think spend the two hours following this proclamation proving to be accurate. A one off show, and their only European date of the year, the band set about their powerhouse post-rock with a unique singularity of vision, negotiating shifting rhythms and surging instrumentals, and combining to create a wall of sound that seems to shake the very foundations of the building. As the band stand, exhausted but beaming at the front of the stage at the end of the show, guitarist Justin Small embraces the organisers and declares Heartland to be the best Canadian Festival that Canada will never see. He may well be right, at least until next year.

Montreal’s Suuns will bring their heady mixture of psych-rock and motorik beats to UK shores in early February to support the release of their debut album Zeroes QC. The album was co-produced by Jace Lasek (of recent touring partners The Besnard Lakes) in his Breakglass studios, and will get a physical release through Secretley Canadian on January 10th 2011. Combining hushed vocals, layers of burbling and decaying synths, insistent guitar-lines and punctuated by the occasional free noise outburst, the band have created a sound that is simultaneously ominously chilling and darkly appealing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As well as releasing the above video for “Up Past The Nursery”, those good folk at Secretly Canadian are offering up two tracks as a teaser for the album:

Download:: Up Past The Nursery
Download:: Arena

In addition you can stream the whole of Zeroes QC over at the band’s myspace . The record is also availably digitally from Itunes now.

You can catch the band on tour on the following dates:

February
20 Brighton, Hope
21 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
22 Manchester, Deaf Institute
23 London, CAMP Basement

There is a darkness about the Cowboy Junkies that has presided over their song writing since their early beginnings 15 years ago. Their latest effort, Renmin Park, certainly continues this tradition. However, the band deviates slightly from their formula as they flirt with sinister bass lines layered over urban city loops and infectious rhythms. File it under alt-country folk with a side of trip hop. Renmin Park is volume 1 of 4 in The Nomad Series of which the remaining 3 are scheduled to be released over the next 18 months. The album is perhaps a foreshadowing of the direction the band is travelling.

The title and opening track (after the intro) is a bit misleading as it sounds like the Junkies of old complete with dark and slow acoustic guitar played mostly in minor tones and accompanied by Margo Timmins’ soft and intensive vocals. ‘Renmin Park’ is in reference to public gathering spaces and memorial sites throughout China, and towards the end of the tune, an Asian inspired violin forecasts the ideological change of musical scenery. ‘Sir Francis Bacon at the Net’ catches the listener off guard with looped Asian ramblings that become a patterned rhythm for the dark bass lines (I can’t say enough about the bass lines) and slow pulsating drums.

‘A Stranger Here’ once again returns to more of a familiar territory as the bluesy guitar riff and absence of any trip-hop elements make it feel like a good ol’ Canadian rock tune. ‘I Cannot Sit Sadly by Your Side’ brings back a great bass hook and introduces a deliberate meandering piano; a perfect song to enjoy the last few drips of that bottle of bourbon you have been holding on to. ‘A Good Heart’ is perhaps a highlight of the album with a funky feel to the drums, more of that gorgeous piano and an interesting ending with plenty of ambient debris to keep you warm.

One thing the Junkies do not offer is easy pop motifs. They have stayed true to writing songs with deeper meanings and even deeper moods. Conversely, for 4 minutes of the fifty minute album, the Junkies introduce a light string section and an almost catchy chorus in the track ‘My Fall’. The song is a tad out of place when compared to the other mood monsters, but is a pleasant piece in its own right. ‘Cicadas’ masters the ideal of the dark motif as it relies on a slow and cerebral monophonic guitar riff that will stick in your head for hours. The song has the potential to build into a crescendo of epic proportions, but instead settles on a minimalistic climax making the track all that more appealing.

Renmin Park mixes some of that classic Junkies sound with a newer twist on their roots. It is a record full of Asian inspired soundscapes and dark imagery. The album is sure to lead the band and their fans to new heights and different directions.

“Do you remember // how you used to sing like a child?” These are the opening sentiments from the latest offering from Po’ Girl, a bluegrass-country-jazz-folk quartet that have long been a comfortable staple in the world of roots music. Follow Your Bliss awakens and nourishes the inner soul with its accessible blend of folk highlighting the band’s ability to combine meaningful yet modest song lyrics with elegant vocals and rich instrumentation.

Allison Russell, Awna Teixeira, Benny Sidelinger, and Mikey August comprise the four piece and their  combined musicianship provide the listener with an immediate state of comfortableness. It is not the kind of music one uses for mere background pleasure. Rather, this is a listening experience guided by a multitude of masterfully executed instruments which sound simple in their design but intricate in their delivery. Follow your Bliss combines  accordions, banjos, electric guitars, dobros, organs, and glockenspiels (to name a few) and offers many different ranges from a gradual country slide guitar to a polka-esque accordion sounding like something from a travelling caravan.

‘Kathy’ opens the record with a reminiscent story about Alison’s mother who seems to have surrendered her inspirational touch. It is an intimate song leaving the listener feeling like they are part of the Po’ Girl family while simultaneously achieving a sense of calmness and reflection.  The organic nature of the themes continue with  ‘Go Easy’, one of the soft hidden gems on the album. “Don’t be reluctant to stop and admire / stop and admire love fill up inspire love / this is the moment you have arrived / honey go easy when it gets hard.” This is such a graceful song about appreciating the small and simple things in life; an ideal that typifies the feel of this record. There are so many great moments but perhaps, none better than than the title track which features a very catchy chorus and horn section that glues all of the pieces together including an interlude destined to become an outdoor festival sing along point. More than that, the song (and title of the album) is a reference to Joseph Campbell, an American philosopher whose works focus on connecting systems of faith into a singular understanding and are often summed up with the phrase “Follow Your Bliss”. My only regret is that the song ends just shy of the the 3 ½ minute mark when it could have lasted twice that long.

There is an undeniable spirit in the way Po’ Girl delivers it’s brand of conglomerate folk. Organic, wholesome and nourishing are the paradigms brought forth in the latest effort from this Canadian four piece. This is simple, beautiful, stripped down music.

TLOBF and Oh! Canada have teamed up with those good folk at Arts and Crafts to offer an exclusive preview stream of Zeus‘ debut album Say Us in honour of the bands UK tour. We are also giving away a pair of tickets for the bands London show Upstairs at the Relentless Garage on November 22.

While Say Us may be the debut release for Zeus, they are no strangers to the Canadian scene, having acted as Jason Collett’s touring band, as well as contributing to albums by Hayden and Jamie Lidell. Having built a reputation as studio perfectionists (the band remastered Say Us three times in order to ensure they were 100% happy with the sound of the record), they’ve also opened up their East Toronto studio, Ill Eagle, to take on production duties for the likes of Bahamas, Jason Collett and The Golden Dogs.

But what of Say Us itself? The album is a collection of fuzzy gems that hark back to a time when pop wasn’t a dirty word, packed full of dual guitars, fuzzy organs and buzzing basslines and coo-ing harmonies. As Jason Collett said on these very pages last year:

“Just one of the three singers/multi-instrumentalists from this band would be a force to reckon with, but when you combine the savvy talents of all three on one record you have a triune god lobbing thunderbolts from on high.”

You can catch Zeus live this month as they play a handful of UK dates:

November
18 – The Frog and Fiddle, Cheltenham
19 – The Tin Angel, Coventry
20 – Labour Club, Northampton
21 – The Kazimier, Liverpool
22 – Relentless Garage (upstairs), London
23 – Buffalo Bar, Cardiff
24 – The Croft, Music Southwest Conference, Bristol
25 – Queen of Hoxton, London

For your chance to win tickets to see Zeus, The Wooden Sky and The Mohawk Lodge (plus Oh! Canada DJs) at the Relentless Garage on November 22nd email competition@thelineofbestfit.com with the subject line HEY ZEUS! – Please remember to include your name and a contact telephone number.

The latest long player from Dan Mangan made the esteemed Polaris Music Prize shortlist. It’s also a lock on my own personal playlists. Simply put, Nice, Nice, Very Nice is Very Good. The honest emotional appeals found on its 12 songs run the spectrum of the human experience and Mangan’s exceptional melodic constructs beautifully highlight some of the most fantastic lyrical turns I’ve heard in quite some time.

After years of playing to a dedicated fan base in bars across Canada, the British Columbia native is finally breaking out to the masses. Mangan says he questions his artistic integrity in the face of the newfound success, a sign of the authentic artist making the music in the first place.

I want to start with the Polaris Music Prize nomination. How much did being placed on that shortlist affect what you’re doing?

Finding ourselves on that shortlist certainly was nice. I mean, the press is inevitably going to talk about whoever ends up on those lists. That’s the whole sphere. So it was a real surprise that I was put on the shortlist. I did not see that coming. It was really thrilling to be on that and also with the timing of having the record come out in the States right after that. It was pretty cool. And it’s kind of been another feather in the cap and it’s really helped to get some media attention our way.

How much do you aim for something like that or at least hope it comes around?

Of course, I certainly knew of the award and had an incredible respect for it. I remember when we first made Nice, Nice, Very Nice thinking it would be cool if we ended up on the Polaris long list or something like that. I don’t know if it was necessarily something I was aiming for. I think at the heart of it, we were just trying to make something that sounded as interesting as possible. I think what we came up with is still a straightforward record, especially compared to the other records on that list — some of which are very sonically chaotic. Compared to those records, we have one of the more straight-ahead records on the list.

That’s definitely the world that I live in, the world that cares about the type of prize that the Polaris Award is. Up in Canada, we have three magazines that are our hip print magazines. I read those things. I read those journals. I read those online blogs. So finding myself among the people getting the attention in those blogs and newspapers was quite exciting. It’s been a fairly cool ride since the album first came out a year ago in Canada. Now that it’s just getting it’s release in the States, it’s been a really incredible year. It’s also been a life-changing year with the opportunities that have come to us.

At what point did you realize that Nice, Nice, Very Nice was going to be the album that set you in those places?

[Laughs] I don’t know. I mean, I remember finishing it and it didn’t come out for six months after that. But I remember finishing it and not being able to listen to it at all for two months. We spent so many hours toiling away on it that by the time I was done, I didn’t even want to hear it. Then we started getting the reviews back and all of the reviews were really, really great. Then I had to relearn how to listen to the disc.

Not that I even play it to myself, but just in general. When you’re engaged in promoting an album, you inevitably end up hearing parts of it on websites or wherever, so it’s been an interesting process. I guess I don’t even know if it is the album, you know? It’s done very well on a small scale. It’s been very well received among a very small niche audience. That is cool. That’s amazing. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I think if I’d aimed for a smash hit at commercial radio, then it would have come out as a very bad album.

You just try to make the best album that you can. At the time, I don’t even remember thinking about radio. I don’t think we ever thought about whether it would be playable on college radio or commercial radio or whatever. I try not to focus on making things sound cool. Fortunately, the way things all played out, we ended up getting a lot of radio support. It was really unexpected. I think that’s a really good place to put my head in. I really expected nothing, so every small victory that came our way was a great thing to celebrate.

That small niche audience, is that what you want the most? That small dedicated audience?

Yeah, I do. I mean, I don’t want to limit the music. If someone wants to listen to the music, that’s great. But more than anything, I think it’s about playing for the crowd that really appreciates what you’re doing. I think in an ideal world, I’d be able to play to large audiences, but to have them be the audiences that listen to the bands that I like. [Laughs]

Unexpected is a great word, even for the listener as well. At least it was for me. The first time I heard ‘Road Regrets,’ I found myself having to go back and replay it to give it my full attention just because I didn’t expect it to be so arresting from the beginning. Was that an obvious first placement?

That song is really interesting. When I brought it into the studio, it was this quiet little folk ditty about being on the road.

Really?

Yeah, basically everything you hear on the track is one take. The vocals are one take. The only thing that is overdubbed is the organ. Pretty much everything else on that song is on the floor. Well, I overdubbed a couple of layers of acoustic guitar and dulcimer sound in the beginning. But we just pushed and worked on that song and punished it from all angles. It got progressively more and more raw and more fast. It was a really organic thing as well as far as how it all worked out.

In terms of sequencing, for a while I was really having trouble with ‘Road Regrets.’ I wasn’t sure what to really do with it. It was almost the thing where we knew we needed to lead out the album with it as the first track or we needed to not include it at all. I think sonically it stands out from the rest of the record. It sounds different than everything else, so it needs to either be this foray into the album to introduce people to it, or it needs to be a b-side to be released some other time.

So we ended up putting it on there, of course. What we found despite our trying to make it sound raw and unpolished, it ended up getting added to a whole bunch of playlists. I’d never had that experience before of suddenly being on the radio. It was absolutely brand new to me. I’d been toiling it out in bars playing to 30 or 40 people for a long time and slowly building this kind of small but very loyal fan base. So all of a sudden, you broadcast it to the masses. It’s almost this strange thing that you ask yourself, ‘How do I feel about this? Is this okay? Am I giving something up of myself? Am I different kind of artist by being on the radio?’

In the end, I think as long as you believe in the music that you’re making and you maintain your focus on keeping things honest on whatever level of exposure you end up getting, it won’t influence your decisions in the end when it comes to your creativity. There’s lots of bands that I love that are huge, massive, multi-platinum selling bands like Radiohead or Wilco or something. But you still feel that their creative intention still comes from a very unique and honest place. At the heart of it all, that’s where it should be.

Around a month ago now, Memoryhouse revealed their new single ‘Caregiver’ – without doubt their finest and most assured moment so far in their short career, it was naturally featured as Song Of The Day. Here, we’re thrilled to be able to reveal the flip-side – ‘Heirloom’. Another example as to why the groups as yet untitled debut album will be one of next years most eagerly awaited releases, ‘Heirloom’ steps forward as the groups most uptempo moment to date. Setting aside the usual sombre tone of previous work in favour of something more akin to an ‘anthem’.

‘Caregiver’ is released via Suicide Squeeze on 7″ white vinyl (and digitally) on 7 December. Head over here to pre-order.

With over 130 bands over 5 days in venues spread all over town, Halifax Pop Explosion is quickly becoming one of the most respected festivals in Canada. Under the guidance of new artistic director Jonny Stevens, the festival has grown, and this year includes the Music Matters conference, a handful of label showcases, a mix-tape swap and plenty of extra curricular activities to keep even the most demanding festival goer satisfied. Kicking things off on Tuesday evening are Long Long Long. Having already garnered a strong local following with their former act York Redoubt, the band take the stage, teasing out waspish guitar lines from their guitars while drummer Rob Shedden holds things together with snare hits that boom out as loud as the noon-day gun for which Halifax Citadel is famous. The rougher edges of York Redoubt have been replaced with a more surfy feel, although the infectious rush of energy the band, and their impressively inebriated fanclub, who sing along to every word, puts the ‘pop’ into Pop Explosion. You can, and should, download all their releases here for free.

Long Long Long

After Long Long Long it was time for a trip to the North End of town to Gus’ Pub, a dimly lit bar with a punk spirit that is more a rite of passage than a gig venue. If the tired and torn ‘woodland scene’ wallpaper behind the stage could talk, the tales it could tell would almost certainly be the stuff of legend. Directly opposite the stage lies what resembles a giant aquarium-a room inside a room dedicated to gambling machines whose lights blink in near-synchopation with the clattering drums of Montreal two-piece The Nymphetes, whose frontman strains every sinue as the band tear through their male/female vocal onslaught that harks back to the glory days of the early 90s Pacific coast garage punk scene. Then it was on to the main attraction. Despite suffering from the after-effects of a bad Donair, Mark Sultan still managed to turn in a raucous display of rock n’ soul. Slipping off his shoes to play kick and snare drums with his feet, the man they sometimes call BBQ rampaged through a blistering set of self proclaimed “Rock n’ roll type music”, letting his soulful croon ring out acapella before tumbling in to another riff, speak-snorting like a man possessed,  Before long the floor of Gus’ had turned in to a sweaty mass of bodies. While for the most part this was good natured, Sultan repeatedly had to break off mid-song to calm the audience down, and to get them away from the monitor holding his kit together. By the end of the set the overindulgence added a sour edge to what had been a triumphant dirty garage-soul party.

My Brightest Diamond

Day two of Pop saw an early visit to the lobby of CKDU, the local student radio station for a live radio session from newly returned Haligonians Cursed Arrows, a husband and wife duo who riffed their way through a short set packed full of attitude and swagger, with the occasional sash of righteous fury thrown in for good measure. With the main action really starting on Thursday, Wednesday’s choices were fairly straightforward: The Metal show, The Pop show, The Punk show, the Electro show and the Scumdogs of the Universe show. To the disappointment of my thirteen-year old self, I turned down the chance to get covered in blood at Gwar (although watching the roadies unloading the 18-wheeler full of props before the show was impressive enough), in favour of the Pop show: The New Pornographers (with Neko Case), making the first trip to Halifax of their 13 year career. I arrived just in time to witness My Brightest Diamond working her magic over the air-craft hangar like venue. Switching from swirling round gleefully while playing the kalimba, to indulging in a full foot on the monitor rock out, Shara Worden commended the attention of every eye in the room. Seemingly making up for lost time, Carl Newman and his cohorts hit the ground running with a sparky rendition of ‘Sing Me Spanish Techno’. Pausing just enough to joke about local-boy band member Todd Fancey, the set amounted to a power-pop masterclass, chock full of huge pop-hooks and three way harmonies shared between Newman, Calder and Case.

Neko Case of The New Pornographers

Although The New Pornographers may not have played Halifax before, fellow power-pop merchants Sloan are the local boys who did good. Returning to the city in which they launched their career, the band are one of the big draws of the festival, with a noticeably older crowd lined up to see the band perform seminal album “Twice Removed” in it’s entirety. While openers Amos The Transparent were full of an exuberant energy, Toronto’s Dinosaur Bones seemed a little daunted by the task of opening for Sloan. Beset with technical difficulties, and trying to placate an excitable crowd, the bands brooding songs didn’t quite fit the mood. Surprisingly, they were not the only ones seemingly struggling with the occasion. Although turning in an accomplished performance, Sloan ran through the whole of the ‘Twice Removed’ set without addressing the audience. Returning on stage for the encore, the band seemed relieved to have got the album out of the way, and, laughing and joking with the crowd, ran through other back-catalog hits to the delight of the heaving and sweaty audience.

Sloan

After spending the weekday mornings investigating the historic citadel, the beautiful but freezing Peggy’s Cove lighthouse and learning about the explosion from which the festival takes its name, Friday night was time for one of the most anticipated shows of the whole Oh! Canada road trip. For the last three years Halifax Pop Explosion have teamed up with Symphony Nova Scotia for a special show with a ‘pop’ artist. This year it was the turn of Basia Bulat, who had arrangements produced by last years guest artist Owen Pallett. Starting with a new classical piece by Toronto composer Jordan Pal, the symphony was then joined by Bulat and her bandmate Holly Coish and brother Bobby Bulat. While Bulat is often cited as having an orchestral-pop sound, the success of much of her work relies on the simplicity of the structures of her songs. For the most part Pallett’s undulating scores served to emphasize and heighten the emotions conveyed in Bulat’s songs, weaving in and out of the pieces, adding colour here and there, without attempting to over embellish the sound. While the work with the symphony worked perfectly well, it was with the impromptu encore that Bulat truly made the show her own. Clearly reveling in the experience, she returned to the stage for a second encore of ‘Death Come Creeping’, delivered off-microphone using only her voice and the acoustics of the building as amplification, and a stomping foot as accompaniment. After the lush and beautiful symphonic sound, the sparse simplicity of this unscripted action was a fantastic way to end the evening. Despite plenty of shows going on into the early hours, to attend another show afterwards would have been to the detriment of both Bulat and whoever else was performing.

Basia Bulat and Symphony Nova Scotia

The final day of the festival began early, as I had been invited to take part in a panel discussion alongside Frank Yang of Chromewaves, Matt Jordan of You Ain’t No Picasso and Bryan Acker of Herohill about the power (or otherwise) of the blogosphere. After a spirited and interesting session it was a quick dash across the street for a ‘secret’ show from the Great Lake Swimmers. More used to playing soft seater venues and churches these days, the show saw the band play the decidedly darker Seahorse Tavern. Seemingly refreshed by the change of scene, the band turned in a decidedly rockier set than usual, the chiming guitars of ‘Pulling On A Line’ and ‘Palmistry’ providing the perfect soundtrack for a crisp autumnal afternoon in the Nova Scotian sunshine.


Handsome Furs

If Great Lake Swimmers were more used to churches than sweaty clubs, then the opposite might be said of Handsome Furs, who found themselves in the beautiful surroundings of St. Matthew’s Church. Trying their best (and failing) not to swear, Dan Boeckner and Alexi Perri stalked the stage swathed in smoke and coloured lights, strutting, high kicking and frequently falling over throughout their crazed dance party of a show. Also intent on ending the festival with a party were Polaris prize nominees Radio Radio, whose good time Acadian hip hop filled the tiny Tribeca venue. Be it bouncing across the stage or singing upside down, it was clear that nothing was going to get between the band, or their crowd and a good time. With the question of what to chose between a penny loafer or a deck shoe ringing in my ears, it was time to head home for the final time, and to bring Oh! Canada’s road trip to an end. With a finely crafted blend between established names and up and coming talent Halifax Pop Explosion was a great place to witness the rude health of the Canadian music scene, and the perfect way to end the trip. The only complaint? That it wasn’t physically possible to be at two or more shows at once.

Leaving Montreal behind us, our journey continues through the Quebec countryside, along the edge of Lake Ontario to Toronto. Although for the most part a journey filled with conversation rather than music, it was a trip which served to reveal a lot about much of the music coming out of Canada. With Fall in full affect the countryside is rich with yellows, reds and golds there is a sense of romance and possibility about the place. Viewing houses and barns whizz buy the car window there is a sense of remoteness yet at the same time a connection to the outside world- after all these are places that can be seen from a major road, yet are miles away from any social contact. This sense of remoteness yet connection is something that seems to lie under the surface of the Canadian music scene- While there is enough space to plow your own furrow, there is also a tight support network and enough connection to the outside world to allow those influences to creep in to the music being produced. Although a geographically huge area there are a limited number of routes to traverse Canada- and the chances are, at 3am on some road in the middle of Manitoba, those weary-looking souls in the van passing you by are another band on their way to the next venue.

With various ‘scenes’ emerging in the past few years there is a real sense of support for fellow artists. Bands have grown up on the road together, and the strength of independent record labels has allowed for them to musically develop, rather than forcing artists to produce a hit first time off as often happens in other markets. There is a real feeling that music is a way of life rather than a living- you sense that, label or no label, a lot of these acts will be playing music with each other, to each other or for each other until their dying day. Oh, and that whole ‘Canadian niceness’ thing? Being stuck in a van with the same 5 people for 8 hours a day every day for a month when it’s minus 10 outside with nothing but each others conversation and the occasional cardboard cup of Tim Horton’s coffee to get you through makes ‘being nice’ a vital survival tool, not just a character trait.

On the subject of coffee, from the moment Oh! Canada arrives in Toronto it becmoes abundantly clear that the city is a caffeinated kingdom- teeming with independent coffee houses both staffed and frequented by artists and musicians. As Alan Davey pointed out on these very pages just a few weeks ago, simply stroll in any park or up any street between Queen West and Bloor and the chances are you will bump in to a musician, most likely sipping on a coffee. In fact it may well be this highly caffeinated way of life that leads to record stores opening tll 11 or 12 at night, providing the perfect venue for impromptu hanging out before late night shows which finish in the small hours almost every night of the week. Indeed often these coffee houses or record stores will double as venues themselves: Sonic Boom, Criminal Records and Soundscapes all playing host to a wide variety of in stores for both local and touring artists. The Holy Oak on Bloor also hosts intimate shows around it’s old upright piano and played host to a ‘pass the jar around” show from The Weather Station, Lisa Bozikovic and Daniel Romano and Mischa Bower, who, as in Montreal a few days before, produced an enchanting set, Romano’s skilled picking and storytelling complemented perfectly by Bowers vocals.

It isn’t just coffee shops that get in on the whole live music act either- during the visit Diamond Rings performed a free show in a library as part of a scheme to take music to a wider audience, while Woodpigeon, just returned from a European tour played a free set of his pretty pastoral pop in Younge-Dundas Square to a small but appreciative crowd of damp on-lookers on a wet Wednesday afternoon. The scene was somewhat different a week later however, when the square was transformed to mark the start of the NHL Hockey Season-an event celebrated with a concert from Hey Rosetta! as well as skinny-jeaned stadium pop-rock hearthrobs Hedley, a pierced and tattooed boy-band for the Twilight Generation that had the teenage hordes screaming in delight.

Woodpigeon among the pigeons

Then of course there are the venues themselves, most of whom seem to run live music seven days a week into the wee small hours. The volunteer run Tranzac club, a member-owned not for profit venue that was a home to Blocks Blocks Blocks recording club, who put out early records and hosted shows by Final Fantasy, Fucked Up and more, and now plays host to Toronto’s Zine Library, hosts shows in both it’s Main Hall and smaller room. A chance visit finds the main hall shrouded in darkness and thick with incense smoke for the single launch/ birthday party of Tasseomancy. With a captive audience, their often macabre folk-tales captivate the room from start to finish. Reinforcing the impression that musicians are everywhere in this city, D’Urberville/ Diamond Ring John O does the merch duties, doing a roaring trade on singles (which, in fairness, are released on his Hypelighter label), while simultaneously dishing out pieces of birthday cake.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tasseomancy perform Soft Feet live at The Tranzac (via Hypelighter. Filmed by Colin Medley)

Across town lies The Dakota Tavern, an underground lair done up like a scene from the midwest replete with cattleheads and, er fairy lights. Here we witness Steamboat, kicking up a storm with their good time blend of Canadian heroes the Band and 100 lost organ-driven soul sides. While it may not be the most original sound around it certainly brings the party. Later in the trip the Dakota also plays host to a residency from Peter Elkas, showcasing and working up some material for his forthcoming record of slick, Springsteen infused soul pop in a low key setting. Elkas is quite the performer, and it is clear that he has the respect of everyone in the room. The Dakota is a musicians venue, and there are always members of other bands watching on, and often accepting the invitation to join bands on stage. Steamboat manage to haul Jordan Howard of Skeletones 4/The Acorn up to guest with them, while Elkas recruits a member of Zeus to come up and play extra guitars for a couple of songs (a member of Zeus who just two hours before had been opening for Belle and Sebastian at a packed out Massey Hall, one of the city’s grandest venues), all as Ron Sexsmith watched on. Seriously. Another unexpected guest appearance came in the shape of Alanna Stuart of local dancehall duo Bonjay, who stepped up between Elkas and openers Colleen and Paul to try out some solo material. Far removed from her ‘day-job’, the accapela, multi-looped vocal performance captivated a restless audience, whose reaction ranged from standing open mouthed to hooting and hollering by the end of the set, more than making up for what, by her own admission, had been a frustrating first live performance the week before.

Jordan Howard at the Dakota Tavern

With Oh! Canada’s first Tranna (as the locals would have it) trip coming to a close, it seemed only fitting to end a visit that had been full of music (including the chance to co-host a show on CBC Radio 3, the Canadian equivalent of 6music, but with a remit to play and support independent Canadian artists), with one final show. With this in mind we headed to visit to The Garrison for the launch of Olenka and The Autumn Lovers latest record ‘And Now We Sing”. Having witnessed a solo performance by The Weather Station earlier in the trip, it was good to see Tamara Linderman augmented by her other band members, the extra instrumentation adding another dimension to her already minimal songs. The extra vocal harmonies and bowed banjo lifting the source material and serving as a reminder of the quality of last years record The Line. Next up were Kite Hill, led by Ryan Carley (also of Ohbijou). It would be hard to call a band who numbered so many a ‘side-project’, Kite Hill is more a creative outlet for Carley’s own songwriting and arranging skills. With Carley leading on piano, the band ran through their pretty, melancholy chamber-pop songs with aplomb, despite being short a couple of members (Steve Lappano on tour with The Acorn and Mika Posen on tour with Timber Timbre). Carley’s dynamic and playful arrangements propell the songs along in a restrained manner that always compliments rather than overwhelms the melodies on offer. Closing the evening, Olenka and The Autumn Lovers, from nearby London, ON showcase their Balkan infused sounds, waltzing away into the chill October evening.

Ryan Carley of Kite Hill

An early morning train ride to Ottawa for a listening party of the excellent Jim Bryson and the Weakerthans album at Raw Sugar Cafe and a visit to Kelp Records hq bought the Ontario segment of the Oh! Canada road trip to an end in a blur of vinyl and strong coffee. Clutching said beverage, the next road would lead me to Ottawa airport…and then back to the East Coast and Halifax for the fourth and final stage of the journey.

NB. Due to a combination of financial factors, including a huge property tax rise, The Tranzac Club is being asked to provide $40,000 dollars by 2011 in order to remain open. The Tranzac is one of the few not-for profit venues left in Toronto and has played a key part in the careers of many Toronto acts that have gone on to wider acclaim. A series of concerts is being held to save money, including Oh! Canada favourites Rock Plaza Central, Ohbijou, $100 and Doug Paisley. You can find out more about the plight of The Tranzac, and how you can help over at their website www.tranzac.org

With his star continuing to rise on the back of crowd pleasing performances at CMJ, Pop Montreal and Iceland Airwaves amongst others, Diamond Rings (AKA John O’Reagan) brings his sparkling, yet emotionally upfront take on electro-pop to the UK for a series of shows in support of his single ‘Something Else’ released on Secret City Records on November 15th. You can check out the video, directed by Colin Medley, after the tour dates.

Diamond Rings plays:

Nov 4th Mojo, Liverpool
Nov 5th Inside Out, Darlington
Nov 6th Undertone, Cardiff
Nov 8th Forum, Sheffield
Nov 9th Roadmender, Northampton
Nov 10th The Lexington, London
Nov 11th The Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Nov 12th Adelphi, Hull
Nov 13th The Cockpit, Leeds
Nov 15th The Albert, Brighton

Click here to view the embedded video.

Holy Fuck have announced a contest which involves cats. YOUR cats.

To win, you need to take a photo of your cat watching Holy Fuck’s cats in the ‘Red Lights’ video, then send it to kittyvid@gmail.com

The photos will be available for the world to see and vote on on a Facebook group here.

And the winning picture, voted by the public wins:

* A one-of-a-kind Cowboy Cat tshirt with a colour scheme of your choosing
* ‘Latin’ on vinyl and cd
* ‘+Ghost’ limited edition bonus cd
* ‘Latin America’ 7″
* ‘Red Lights’ 7″

More info on the, erm, special site here…

If you haven’t seen the video, and you really must, have a look below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As Oh! Canada arrived in Montreal, the city was in the process of experiencing a rainstorm that, by it’s end, would pour down almost a months worth of rain in just under 24 hours. Yet a little (or a lot) of inclement weather wasn’t enough to bring down the spirits of the plaid shirted hordes that decended upon the city for the annual Pop Montreal Festival. Similar in spirit and approach to the UK’s Great Escape festival, Pop Montreal combines daytime events, lectures and workshops followed by late night shows in a variety of shops, theatres and rooftops around the Plateau area of the city. With most venues just stumbling distance from one another, the festival provided an opportunity to catch both established and new talent from Canada and beyond, all under the glowing cross of Mont Royal itself.

Despite the deluge on Thursday the Metropolis theatre was packed to the ornate rafters for hometown heroes Karkwa, fresh from their Polaris prize triumph. Faced with the unenviable task of opening the show was Leif Vollebekk. While Vollebekk recently toured the UK solo, the full band sound provided the perfect backdrop to allow his songs and vocals to take flight. Unfortunately much of this seemed to be lost on the crowd, who were clearly their for one reason and one reason only. Karkwa. Launching in to a set heavy on tracks from Les Chemins De Verre, the crowed erupted, singing every word back to clearly ecstatic frontman Louis-Jean Cormier. Performing in front of a dazzling wall of lights, the show made for a celebratory spectacle that more than made up for the dampness of the crowd. It remains to be seen if the band can translate their fusion of pastoral folk rock (a la Van Occupanther), sweet guitar hooks and more proggy leanings to a non-Francophone audience, but on the night Karkwa play the role of returning champions to a tee.

Leif Vollebekk

Stepping out into the still pouring rain, a taxi ride takes us to the other end of the Plateau to Cagibi, one of the many Montreal venues operating under the “no food=no beer” system. One grilled cheese sandwich later and it’s in to the Sappyfest showcase featuring Snailhouse (the longtime project of Mike Feurstack of Wooden Stars/ Bell Orchestre), Baby Eagle and Daniel Romano with Misha Bower. Playing in a chilly backroom they may be, but with delicate fingerpicking and a wry sense of humour all three acts turn the room in to a special place. Montreal has many such seemingly secret rooms where musicians perform, almost hidden away. Casa Del Popolo is another venue with such a feeling, and it is there that, the following night Leif Vollebekk and his band (who he announces are yet to be named) turn in an understated yet masterful performance. Unlike the cavernous Metropolis the previous evening, the audience listen in wrapped attention as Vollebekk teases phrases out of his guitar and violin, looping them before delivering heartbreaking vocals that touch on Buckley, Baker and Bird without resorting to cliche or pastiche.

Hollerado’s Van

With a festival with so many acts and venues, part of the pleasure is in stumbling in to a venue and catching a few tracks by lots of different artists: The Golden Dogs, Black Feelings, Bear in Heaven, Baby Eagle (again) and the frantic pop onslaught of Hollerado were all great surprises-the later filling Le Divan Orange with confetti, streamers which got caught in the ceiling fans and an audience of devotees. They also took the party to the streets afterwards, inviting fans to paint on their van outside the venue. Perhaps not the wisest idea should they ever wish to pass through US customs, but certainly memorable, as the band literally left their (paint-smeared) mark on the streets of Montreal. On a more sombre note, Timber Timbre played the Ukrainian Hall. Bathed only in a faint red light, the band turned in a moving and occasionally unsettling performance. Frontman Taylor Kirk’s howls and yelps sounded like those of a wounded animal, and the audience sat in hushed reverence as the band reworked selections from their recently released (in the UK at least) self titled album. Only the sound of bar-goers tripping over bins in the pitch-black venue momentarily broke the spell.

The next days musical entertainment begins with a visit to the rooftop of local software firm Ubisoft, where local boys Malajube play an acoustic set that floats over the rooftops of Montreal as the sun sets behind them. Although the semi-acoustic nature of the set meant the more proggy elements were toned down, the band still managed to demonstrate why their forthcoming album is being so eagerly awaited by many in Canada, Francophone or not.

Evening Hymns

Inhabiting a similar otherworldly realm to Timber Timbre were Tasseomancy (formerly Ghost Bees). Hushed and haunting, it comes as little surprise to learn after the show that the bands latest release is produced by Taylor Kirk. Further proof of the closeness of the Canadian scene comes on the Saturday evening at the Out of This Spark showcase, which features Light Fires, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns and The D’Urbervilles. Like a Canadian Wilkommen Collective many of the band members seem to be part of numerous projects, popping up to add different parts to songs, add an instrument here or there. There is a real sense of support for fellow artists at the show, and a clear love of making music. Despite having just flown in from London the day before, Evening Hymns put in a rousing set, frontman Jonas Bonnetta crafting harmonies with himself, hopping around stage in an almost tribal manner. Be it stripped to just Bonetta and his loopstation or with a full band and harmonies from Sylvie Smith (also of The Magic) it is evident that there are many layers that go into Evening Hymns’ finely crafted songsmithery, and tonight they seem to find just the right balance of delicate pastoral folk with surging passages, much to the delight of the assembled crowd.

Kat Burns (Forest City Lovers)

Fresh from covering Green Day at the Mint Records BBQ earlier in the day, Forest City Lovers showcase material from latest release Carriage with a set of playful folk infused indie-pop full of arch lyrics that has the front few rows frugging their hearts out. Lucky then, that Light Fires (the new collaboration of Gentleman Reg (from, er, Gentleman Reg) and James Bunton (of Ohbijou) are next to take the stage. “Do you wanna dance?” asks Reg, knowing full well that the minute the electro-pop starts that is exactly what the crowd will do. “We don’t have anything you can buy, or anything online to steal. All I can give you is my sweat” Reg adds as he and Bunton turn the venue into a heaving, sweaty mass all the way to the merch desk.

Light Fires

Closing the show are the D’Urbervilles, who number a couple of Forest City Lovers (one, of whom, Tim Bruton, is also an Evening Hymn) in their ranks, and who’s frontman John O is perhaps better known in the UK for his Diamond Rings project. Where that project revels in flamboyance and electro-pop, The D’Urbs present a much darker, guitar heavy outlook. Here the synths menace, and the guitars growl as John O intones he delivers his tales of love and loss to the assembled throng. Quite what will become of the D’Urbs as their frontman’s star continues to rise remains to be seen, but on tonight performance we can only hope he can use his success to bring The D’Urbs to the attention of a wider audience.

John O of The D’Urbervilles

With so much going on from night to night, there are any number of parallel festivals that could have been attended-reports of triumphant sets from Van Dyke Parks, Mary Margaret O’Hara and Deerhoof amongst others fill the streets as people pour out of venues up and down the city. As Sunday saw the festival begin to wind down, it was time for the the Oh! Canada road trip to continue.

Next point of call? Toronto.

To tie in with part one of Oh! Canada’s Road Trip we are pleased to present the video for Paper Lions‘ ‘Lost The War’. The Flick-book heavy vid has just seen the PEI based band longlisted for CBC Radio 3′s Bucky Awards. ‘Lost the War’ is taken from the recently released ‘Trophies’ EP.

Over a year and a half ago I was stood on a rooftop in Austin, drink in hand, watching Marnie Stern. The sun was shining and I was pretty damn happy. And then I looked at the time and realised I was completely missing DD/MM/YYYY. I ran like a frenzied idiot across two streets, through traffic, up an escalator, and into the middle of their set to find five bodies convulsing on stage, a million times more frantic than my sweaty little jog.

Despite the grey wire carpet and strip lighting of the conference room stage, they completely blew me away. So I was gutted to miss them last time they played the UK, especially after loving new record Black Square. The good news is they’re back this week. The bad news is I’m probably going to miss them again, but here’s some words with Matt King, their synth player/drummer/saxophonist to convince you they’re an awesome live prospect worth catching if you’re lucky enough…

Tell me what you’re doing at this exact moment.

I’m actually cleaning out a silk screen, for some t-shirts, for DD/MM/YYYY.

Ah, because you design all your own artwork and t-shirts and stuff, don’t you?

For the most part. Thomas, the guitar player/drummer/singer in the band also does some. He’s more like an illustrator, but I actually make all the shirts and do a lot of the design. Yeah, we try and do as much stuff like that as we can.

Is there someone at your door?

Oh no! I’m just cleaning out the screen, just so it doesn’t get… It’s a busy shop here.

Can you just tell me a bit about the band? Sort of the boring, basic story you have to tell every journalist you speak to.

Yeah, well basically we just came together in 2003, so that’s like, almost seven years ago. Two different bands that formed into one and started to really work at things and challenge ourselves and then people started asking us to play shows outside of our city, and outside of our country. And then people started asking us to play in the UK and all over Europe and we’ve just been making music together, and travelling and challenging ourselves, you know; physically and mentally.

Because you’ve played SXSW like 2008, 2009 and 2010, is it going to be four years in a row?

I don’t know if we’re going to because we had plans for our album to come out in Japan and Australia so that might still happen, which, as much as I love Austin, I think I would also really love Japan and Australia.

We’ll take whatever opportunity is given to us. So if the opportunity is in Austin then we’ll definitely go. We’ve always been a band that as long as it’s possible for us to do and it seems logical, might as well do it because it’ll be fun, it’ll be another experience.

I saw you play at SXSW, I think it was in 2009 in the conference centre in one of those horrible rooms with grey carpet and Formica divides.

Yeah, where people pick up their wrist passes and stuff like that?

Yeah!

Yeah, that was really funny. We just got asked to play at the conference centre and I forget… They offered us like, free hamburgers or something and we were like, yeah we could do that. We don’t have any plans that morning!

It’s kind of the most sterile place to watch a band ever. There’s just loads of old dudes sitting there cross legged on chairs…

Yeah! Bunch of Japanese guys taking photos of us at the front and it’s super well lit. Yeah, it’s really awkward but whatever, it’s a funny situation to be in so might as well put yourself into that situation and see how it goes.

Some old guy came up to us after and was like ‘Do you guys have management? Do you guys have representation? I’d like to work with you.’

Just like, some guy who, who knows; we just like, melted his brain or something. He didn’t know what to expect and we came out and tore into him.

Well, I was going to say, it was really hard on and energetic. I just remember you guys running about on stage hitting everything you could possibly hit and there was so much movement. That’s what I was expecting from the new record, but there does seem to be a progression where there’s quieter more thought through moments too.

Yeah, definitely. It seems like the more and more we write, the more methodical we get.  It’s like ‘No, no. That part’s not right. Let’s try it six times. No, no, no. That’s not right. Seven. OK, how about six times and then I hit this thing two times and then you go UH, and then we’ll go into the next part.’ You know?

As much as we do stick to many traditional rock or popular music forms, we also try not to limit ourselves too much to play this four times, or eight times and then you go into the chorus three times and then we’ll do the bridge. We’re writing some new songs for this split we’re putting out with this band called BEAK >

What? As in the guy from Portishead?

Yeah, Geoff. We’re actually recording with Geoff and we’re writing these songs and we’re being a lot more visual about it. It’s like, oh, OK, this is like in Mario where you go into the tunnel level and there’s all that lava and then you get out of that part and then you’re back into the cloud. You know?

That’s kind of how we’ve been writing music now. It’s still really methodical but it’s also like, getting more and more visual and creating stories within songs and stuff like that.

That’s like taking Nintendo-core to the next level.

Yeah, totally. It’s literally the next level.

The new record is just out in the UK, but didn’t it come out in Canada in 2009?

Yeah, it came out last year in Canada and then we had a friend put it out in the United States on cassette tape. Then when we were on tour last year, that’s when we met BEAK > actually, and we nerded out about synthesisers with Geoff, and we gave him our record at the end of the night and he loved and he was like, ‘Man, people in the UK have to hear this!’

So I guess, he heard something in it that he thought was pretty cool. So he works with this label Invada and they were the ones who ended up putting it out. And now we’re gonna be playing there on Monday, and I’m making some t-shirts that hopefully one of your readers will want to purchase.

So you must have recorded that album ages ago?

Well, we’ve definitely learnt how to play those songs live. I think last year we played one hundred and forty shows, and I think at the end of this year we’re gonna have a hundred and fifty something. So it’s definitely getting to the end of the Black Square era! I read somewhere that somebody called Black Square a future tense classic, which I thought was very flattering.

Do you read a lot of your reviews online then?

Oh yeah! Come on – it’s the Internet, anybody can look at it. I mean you want to see what people think of what you’re doing. If you’re doing it for yourself then you’re doing it for yourself, but if you’re doing it and releasing it and going on tour then you want people to like it and you want people to engage with it and you want people to get what you’re going for.

Like, do they get these references? Some people like how it’s eclectic, some are just like ‘Ugh, it’s all over the place.’ It’s just really neat to see. I’m sure everybody Googles their own name.

When was the last time you Googled yourself?

My own name? Actually, me and a friend went to mattking.com which is like, this urban country artist who used to wear a cowboy hat and then he went to a trucker hat and now he wears these weird bowler hats.

Do people ever mispronounce your name? Because it’s actually really easy to figure out, but do you ever…

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The funniest thing ever, related to searching for us is people are always like, ‘You’re the hardest band to Google. What’s the problem? You’ve got a crappy name.’

It’s like, if you search Day Month Year or DD/MM/YYYY, we’re the first thing that comes up. It’s such a half assed thing.

Half the reason we choice this name is that it isn’t pronounceable, but at the same time it is totally recognisable and you can say it whatever way you want to say it. Like in America we always get billed as MM/DD/YYYY which I think is amazing, because that’s their system, that’s how they write it. So who knows; maybe in Burma they do year, month, day, so that’s what we’ll be called there. It’s universal.

That’s pretty cool, but you’re coming to the UK and we do it the right way in the UK.

Oh, UK always does it the right way.

DD/MM/YY are playing the following dates:

4 Nov – BRISTOL Start The Bus
5 Nov – BELFAST Auntie Annies
7 Nov – DUBLIN Crawdaddy
9 Nov – CARDIFF Undertone
10 Nov – MANCHESTER Night And Day
11 Nov – HULL The Adelphi
12 Nov – LONDON Old Blue Last

October has been a busy month for Oh! Canada. A month that saw a logical and long planned trip. To Canada. As a result of my travels there will be no Oh! Canada compilation this month, while we take time to prepare the second edition of Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada for your festive delight in early December. In the meantime, I will be sharing tracks and bands of interest via twitter. Follow @ohcanada_uk for more updates.

Oh! Canada does…..Prince Edward Island

Having flown in to Halifax, NS the night before it was up early to meet driver Mort who would drive the Charlottetown Shuttle (read van) to Canada’s smallest province PEI. With a population of just over 135,000, this predominantly pastoral island has quietly been putting together something of a music scene in the last few years, under the watchful gaze of Music PEI, a non profit organisation dedicated to promoting the careers of the island’s musicians. For the last three years Music PEI have held a two day showcase to present some of the islands leading lights. This year, Oh! Canada was invited to attend.

Before the music started however, a conversation with a local Lobster fisherman gave a little insight in to why music plays such a part in the community. Due to a tight quotas for fishing lobster and crab, and weather conditions that make fishery and agriculture nigh on impossible in the winter months, a culture of music and storytelling helps to pass the cold nights. Throw in the Acadian influence as well and there are outstanding cultural reasons for the vibrancy of the music. Indeed, it is a duo from this Acadian tradition that kick proceedings off, fusing physical comedy with more traditional Acadian dancing and folk song they got to the evening off to an unexpected but enjoyable start. While not to everyone’s tastes, what shines through with Chuck and Albert is their desire to engage the audience with Acadian culture and history in an entertaining way. As Chuck observes while Albert taps while standing on his shoulders “You don’t see this a lot in New Jersey.” Also representing the Acadian tradition, Vishten provide a more ‘straight’ presentation of Acadian roots music. With members from PEI and the neighbouring Magdalen Islands, Vishten fuse traditional folk reels and Acadian fiddling with modern day influences drawn from various other Celtic traditions as well as formative years playing in rock bands. In their brief showcase they demonstrated why they have become a force on the Celtic scene in recent years.

Haunted Hearts

Haunted Hearts wear their hearts (haunted or otherwise), and their influences, on their sleeves. The sound of a lonely bar-room with a battered old piano and assorted down on their luck lovers. Mixing The Band with occasional honky-tonk breakdowns, it is a sound that continues to endure. You can almost hear the clink of the empty whiskey glass on the hard bartop. Another act unafraid of wearing their influences on their sleeves are Nudie and The Turks, who, I am assured, have developed a somewhat legendary status on the island for their trad country chops. A little J. Cash here, a little Hank over there, a whole lot of Willie up front. Indeed the band once followed Nelson’s Maritimes tour, playing shows busking for the audience outside. The band made such an impression that later in the tour various members of Nelson’s band joined them, with the band eventually being invited to play the end of tour party. Those seeking the old school Nashville twang, rather than the big budget sheen that has blighted mainstream country music in recent years could do a lot worse than give Nudie a try.

Where Nudie and the Turks provided straight up country, The Grass Mountain Hobos have a different schtick going on. Decked out in suspender-braces, the band swing into action with their six-piece bluegrass harmonies, fingers plucking at the mandolin and banjo, bows sweeping across the fiddles and generally carousing around the stage in the name of good fun. With their tales of a ‘Coyote on the Farm’ it’s easy to see why they won over audiences at the likes of Warwick Folk Festival and Larmer Tree Festival earlier this year, as well as recording a Bob Harris session. Proving that it isn’t just about folk and roots in PEI Paper Lions take to the stage with plenty of bluster and choppy guitars. Playing selections from their 6 song ‘Trophies’ EP, which clocks in at just under 20 minutes, this is the ideal soundtrack for dancing with your friends in backrooms on autumnal evenings. There is still a charming rough around the edges feel to Paper Lions, but on the evidence of ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’ and ‘We Lost The War’ (whose melody remained stuck in my head for at least two weeks) there are plenty more exciting things to come from the band.

Paper Lions

A more established band on the national Canadian scene are Two Hours Traffic, whose stock has seen a significant rise thanks to the appearance of some of their songs on US series Gossip Girl and The OC and a Polaris Prize shortlisted album in the shape of Little Jabs in 2008. As with Paper Lions, they come to the stage with an armload of hooks, but they have perhaps a little more polish to their act, belying their experience. You can see why their songs have been picked up by TV programmers- theirs is an easy-going guitar pop sound that you imagine soundtracking a thousand high-school romances and pouring over the airwaves of college radio stations all over the country. It’s a particularly North American sound, and one that has frequently had difficulties crossing over to the UK for a variety of reasons- the tight play listing of UK radio stations being a significant one of them.

English Words

With a toy raccoon attached to the mic stand Raccoon Bandit turn in a charmingly ramshackle set, with enough insistent melodies on tracks like ‘Hat’ and ‘Train Song’ to warrant further investigation as their indie folk-rock songwriting skills continue to develop. If Raccoon Bandit provide a friendly, easy going stage presence then English Words are the polar opposite, their frontman staring menacingly in to the middle distance as he twitches his way through a set of taught new-wave influenced pop. There’s an aggressive, confrontational energy to their performance, and extra credit has to go to any band who plays a song about nobody liking their video as part of a twenty minute industry showcase. While they may not have the songs to back up the attitude 100% just yet, the tumbling pianos of “Cold Mercenaries” suggests that they are certainly headed in the right direction. Closing the evening, The Danks bought the scuzzy sound of Brooklyn to downtown Charlottetown. Frontman Brohan Moore plays the part perfectly, his raspy voice equal parts studied boredom and youthful exuberance. The Danks blast through an energetic set, with no song overstaying it’s welcome (or indeed lasting past the three minute mark). It might not be the most original sound around, but its immediate and when the songs are as catchy as “Treaty Connector” and “Die Young” it doesn’t really matter.

The Danks

The fact that neither Boxer The Horse or Milks & Rectangles (whose Dirty Gold EP is yours to download for free over at bandcamp and comes highly recommended) played as part of the showcase just goes to show that there is more to Canada’s smallest province than Lobster, Potatoes and Anne of Green Gables. It is with a heavy heart (and a bottle of moonshine under my arm) that I leave Prince Edward Island.

Next stop… Montreal.