Dan Mangan

Those of you who have been loitering around the security doors here at TLOBF Towers for a while now you have probably noticed the frankly phenomenal amount of great new music coming from Canada over the last few years. From the classics (Joni, Neil and Laughing Lenny), the big hitters (Arcade Fire/ BSS/ Feist) to the up and coming (The Acorn, Woodpigeon, Ohbijou) TLOBF has been committed to bring you the best of what the Great White North has to offer. So we figured it made sense to start a new column dedicated to uncovering the latest new talent emerging from Canada, to showcase some of the lesser sung acts, labels, and events that may not have shown up on the collective radar over here in the UK. So from The Acorn to Zumpano TLOBF brings you: Oh! Canada.

And what better way to start off our new column than a review of the Canadian Blast! showcase from this years recent Great Escape festival. Continue Reading

Patrick Watson has, in many interviews and press jaunts, had to explain that he is the frontman of a band, also called Patrick Watson. He had even more explaining to do when the Montreal based four piece that share his name were nominated for a Canadian Juno award for best newcomer in 2007. More praise came later that year, when the bands sophomore record Close to Paradise bagged the Polaris Music Prize (Canada’s less tokenistic version of the Mercury’s). With a sound that flits between mainstream singer songwriter and the slightly more leftfield it would have been easy, with their new found notoriety, for Patrick Watson (the band) to turn in a mainstream “singer songwriter” record with an “indie” edge that would position them somewhere between Damien Rice and James Blunt. A cursory listen to ‘Man Like You’ with it’s delicate fingerpicked melody and descending bassline, and you might think that they had taken that option. With Watson (the singer’s) Jeff Buckley falsetto and Nick Drake like lilt, it sounds like it could well be the romantic theme to some forthcoming movie, but with an edge. Continue Reading

Wooden Arms is Patrick Watson’s highly anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed Close to Paradise, which vaulted the man and his band to international stardom in 2007. Close To Paradise won the prestigious Polaris Prize, Canada’s answer to the Mercury Music Prize.

It’s release on 11th May, as a download or good ole fashioned CD.

Tracklisting:
Fireweed
Tracy’s Waters
Beijing
Wooden Arms
Hommage
Traveling Salesman
Big Bird in a Small Cage
Down at the Beach
Man Like You
Where the Wild Things Are
Machinery of the Heavens

Catch Watson live at the rather wonderful Union Chapel in London on Thur June 4th.

Valerio Berdini braved the woeful transport system between Cambridge and London on a cold, dark night to witness the anarchic live show of Cold War Kids supported by recent music prize winner, Patrick Watson.

Continue Reading