Monday, May 10, 2010
Halifax's The Got to Get Got, High Energy Canadian Indie Pop
Any fan of Pavement, Sebadoh, or especially Superchunk will love this new album by Halifax's The Got to Get Got, one of the most exciting new high energy Canadian acts to hit the indie pop rock circuit, especially over here in Atlantic Canada territory. Just check out their myspace page to see what I'm talking about, and of course I'll be spinning this jangling sucker on The New Spin this Thursday. Their page will clearly tell you can pre-order the album from Noyes Records, which will be released officially on July 14, and trust me, it's worth it. Indie rock fans will go ga-ga over it, from the infectiously fun pop numbers to the lo-fi fuzz and male/female harmonies, not to mention the diverse instrumentation with synths, brass, vibes, what's not to love? Sahalee will be a New Spin favorite for sure.
PDX POP NOW and Made in Iceland 2: Two Incredible New Compilations
The 2009 2 CD Set Sampler of Portland Oregon's PDX POP NOW is amazing, as I just featured it on The New Spin. Actually, I haven't heard any of the 2nd disc, but who cares. I'm sure it's great, too. So many great bands. Go to their website to learn more, and sample the album here. $8 bucks for a 2 disc set, is a steal. Incredible music is coming out of, and always has come out of, Portland. Portland is to new music as Seattle was to grunge.
Another incredible compilation out right now is Made in Iceland 2. Great stuff that gets spin on all three of my shows. Their website has tons of info about the bands on the compilation.
And don't forget Merge's SCORE! of course.
Another incredible compilation out right now is Made in Iceland 2. Great stuff that gets spin on all three of my shows. Their website has tons of info about the bands on the compilation.
And don't forget Merge's SCORE! of course.
mewithoutYou, It's All Crazy! One of The Best Folk-Inspired Storybook Albums of 2009
Like folk songs about vegetables, desserts and animal fables? Varied instrumentation like accordions, banjos and fiddles, tubas and trumpets? Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum's scratchy warble? Then you'll love Philadelphia's mewithoutYou's new album, it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright just released on Tooth and Nail Records. I am crazy for this album, easily one of the best under-the-radar albums of the year so far.
NPR has just posted their list of their listeners' best music so far, and I'm clearly whistling to another dixie as any listener of The New Spin might attest to. Yes, a lot of the artists on the list are great, there's no question, but it's clear that the stars of the indie world are launching further into the limelight of what we call mainstream, and the indie label/sound starts to get obfuscated in a quagmire of pleasing-to-the-ear melody and harmony that speaks so loudly to a common denominator that I have to dig even deeper to root for the "best music you've never heard," which is the mission I have set for myself for The New Spin.
This album is so great, you'll just have to see this video to get a sense of what it has in store for you. For fans of the "ballads" of Neutral Milk Hotel, Okkervil River, The Mountain Goats, and The Decemberists.
Listen to another track from this album tonight on The New Spin, tonight at 9-11 PM, 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific. Streams tonight online here.
And now a few unique details about the album...
Aaron Weiss's lyrics are somewhat inspired by the Sufi mystic, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
Their tour van often runs on vegetable oil.
The Weiss brothers are currently doing a little tour in August, but it's not a mewithoutYou tour. Important to know. It's called The Weiss Family Tour. They're actually playing at The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, my stomping grounds at one point when going to UNC-CH.
They made Paste Magazine's Band of the Week. Just the week?
NPR has just posted their list of their listeners' best music so far, and I'm clearly whistling to another dixie as any listener of The New Spin might attest to. Yes, a lot of the artists on the list are great, there's no question, but it's clear that the stars of the indie world are launching further into the limelight of what we call mainstream, and the indie label/sound starts to get obfuscated in a quagmire of pleasing-to-the-ear melody and harmony that speaks so loudly to a common denominator that I have to dig even deeper to root for the "best music you've never heard," which is the mission I have set for myself for The New Spin.
This album is so great, you'll just have to see this video to get a sense of what it has in store for you. For fans of the "ballads" of Neutral Milk Hotel, Okkervil River, The Mountain Goats, and The Decemberists.
Listen to another track from this album tonight on The New Spin, tonight at 9-11 PM, 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific. Streams tonight online here.
And now a few unique details about the album...
Aaron Weiss's lyrics are somewhat inspired by the Sufi mystic, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
Their tour van often runs on vegetable oil.
The Weiss brothers are currently doing a little tour in August, but it's not a mewithoutYou tour. Important to know. It's called The Weiss Family Tour. They're actually playing at The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, my stomping grounds at one point when going to UNC-CH.
They made Paste Magazine's Band of the Week. Just the week?
Yeah I Know: Don't Miss the Indie Lo-fi Fuzzed Out Garage-Rockin' DARLINGS from New York
Yeah I Know seems to invoke the image of some new Sonic Youth-ers, and it's a spot-on way to advertise their fresh, raw sound that'll wake you up like a strong cup o' joe. Also fresh is the format of the cd, which is actually not a jewel case, but a pamphlet, with lots of Wonder Years-inspired retro suburban photos of a bygone era (apparently they are pictures of the band members' parents.) And, thanks to an exciting mix of fuzz-soaked indie lo-fi goodness, their music is as fresh and punchy as the pictures included in their book.
They immediately sound as if they're channeling the rawness of The Strokes and the grit of The Black Lips with a bit of indie-fied Sebadoh, Superchunk and Pavement thrown in for good measure, but for anyone who's been kind of over The Strokes (like me) will want to pick this up for a fresh spin on a now been-there-done-that idea. Yes, they are clearly driven by the best of the garage-rockers. Jogging through the tracks as I usually do when previewing a new album, I dug just about every one, especially since I have a penchant for good quality garage rock outfits (yeah I know...quality garage-rock is perhaps an oxymoron...) Any way you take it, Darlings is an exciting new band fer sure. Out now on Famous Class.
Here's their myspace.
Listen to them this Thursday on The New Spin.
They immediately sound as if they're channeling the rawness of The Strokes and the grit of The Black Lips with a bit of indie-fied Sebadoh, Superchunk and Pavement thrown in for good measure, but for anyone who's been kind of over The Strokes (like me) will want to pick this up for a fresh spin on a now been-there-done-that idea. Yes, they are clearly driven by the best of the garage-rockers. Jogging through the tracks as I usually do when previewing a new album, I dug just about every one, especially since I have a penchant for good quality garage rock outfits (yeah I know...quality garage-rock is perhaps an oxymoron...) Any way you take it, Darlings is an exciting new band fer sure. Out now on Famous Class.
Here's their myspace.
Listen to them this Thursday on The New Spin.
Review: Rep by Pop's Cell Phone Camera
For an average Gen-X guy like me who grew up in the 80’s listening to The Cure, The Thompson Twins, Joy Division and New Order, Bauhaus, Gene Loves Jezebel and other MTV-like Euro New Wave/Post punk acts, Cell Phone Camera, the new album from the Canadian outfit Rep by Pop instantly grabbed my attention and gets regular play on my show The New Spin. Though the album’s punchier first half is stronger than the more U2-like rockin’ second half, Cell Phone Camera is all very fun and upbeat, fusing together everything I loved about the 80’s and then some. For you youg’uns, I’d put them in the Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Cut Copy, Of Montreal, and The Rapture family.
Timothy Kingston’s voice has an uncanny ability to drift from sounding like Robert Smith to Bono to that lead singer dude of Gene Loves Jezebel in “Spray Paint.” A few songs sound like early U2 backed by the early Cure, and “Bisbifren”, “Comfort Me and Comfort You” and “Cell Phone Camera” have immediate hooks with the latter having a wicked wah-wah/flanging guitar patch I salivate over every time I hear it. I love "Unknown" with its transcendent, uplifting quality.
This band has the potential to blow up huge and “sell out,” though that’s near-impossible to do these days, and as any new spinner might know by now, I don’t like bands that stick to formulas, but nonetheless I wish great success for this band. Though Rep by Pop is clearly inspired by the 80’s sound, thankfully they aren’t trying to copy it so much as use the sounds of the 80s like an artist does with a palette of colors. The challenge for them, for any band really, is to push their familiar sound rather than be swallowed by it. Needless to say, Cell Phone Camera stands out in all the right ways. Here's a vid:
Read other reviews here.
Join The New Spin on Facebook.
Timothy Kingston’s voice has an uncanny ability to drift from sounding like Robert Smith to Bono to that lead singer dude of Gene Loves Jezebel in “Spray Paint.” A few songs sound like early U2 backed by the early Cure, and “Bisbifren”, “Comfort Me and Comfort You” and “Cell Phone Camera” have immediate hooks with the latter having a wicked wah-wah/flanging guitar patch I salivate over every time I hear it. I love "Unknown" with its transcendent, uplifting quality.
This band has the potential to blow up huge and “sell out,” though that’s near-impossible to do these days, and as any new spinner might know by now, I don’t like bands that stick to formulas, but nonetheless I wish great success for this band. Though Rep by Pop is clearly inspired by the 80’s sound, thankfully they aren’t trying to copy it so much as use the sounds of the 80s like an artist does with a palette of colors. The challenge for them, for any band really, is to push their familiar sound rather than be swallowed by it. Needless to say, Cell Phone Camera stands out in all the right ways. Here's a vid:
Read other reviews here.
Join The New Spin on Facebook.
The New Spin's Top Underground Canadian Artists of 2009
The New Spin's goal is to expose the great underground musicians of today. But given that 35% of everything The New Spin plays must be Canadian, I have discovered many great Canadian bands from among the piles of crap that's out there. So here is a list in the order that I discovered them (kind of), the cream-of-the-crop Canadian bands making waves on The New Spin for 2009, some of which I have already written reviews for (they have links included.)
Of course, to listen to any of these artists, you can always tune in to the show every Thursday night on 93.5 CHMR-FM, online here, 9-11 Newftime, 7:30-9:30 EST, 4:30 Pacific. You should be able to find most of them on CBC Radio 3. I have added a few keywords to describe each artist in case you only like certain genres. SL means "sounds like."
Tonight I will do a special show playing these artists, so tune in and hear the best of the best in Canadian music.
Hear a playlist of most of these artists here.
Timber Timbre (truly unusual folksongs, like Patrick Watson, this guy's in a class all his own.)
Bruce Peninsula (dark choir/chamber folk, oh yes.)
Geoff Berner (Klezmer punk, what more needs to be said)
The Hylozoists (all instrumental like post-rock, but wow.)
Headache24 (SL Pixies)
Japandroids (SL Fugazi)
Olenka and the Autumn Lovers (if you like Dead Can Dance, etc.)
Weather Station (folk on the laptop loveliness)
Rae Spoon (how many transgendered folksingers do you know who sound like women but are actually men and who trade in their guitars for computers? not many, I'm sure.)
Patrick Watson (one of the best of the year, avant-garde/progressive indie folk)
The Torrent (dark 80's inspired electro)
Pat Lepoidevin (amazing folk guitarist with an oh-so-sweet Scottish touch)
Eleazer Vs John (like Junior Boys?)
Tiga (play this at any club and watch them feet move)
Rural Alberta Advantage (dark, folky, I like them better than Elliot Brood)
Lovely Feathers (indie rock)
Hidden Cameras (80's, New Order-ish, I love their new album)
Dan Mangan (folk, songwriter)
Wooden Sky (dark folk, reminds me of 16 Horsepower a bit)
Kids on TV Remixed V.1 from Blocks Recording Club (beats!)
Cousins (I can't get play "Growling" enough)
Spiral Beach (kick-ass garage rock/punk)
Acres and Acres (lo-fi folksongs with St. John's guest Amelia Curran)
Brock Geiger (banjo heavy folk songs)
Reverie Sound Revue (SL Stereolab)
Dark Mean (a little EP, but let's see what they do in the future)
The Got to Get Got (fun fun in the sun indie rock)
Ambisonic (avant-garde-ish)
Jordan Klassen (love this guy from Calgary, oh my. SL Sufjan Stevens, David Pajo)
Gypsophilia (my interview with them is on my site here)
The Diableros (they have a new album, but haven't heard it yet!)
The Danks (you love da danks if you love da strokes)
Flotilla (harp-based folk stuff from Montreal. SL Sunday All Over the World if you know who the hell that is)
Extra Happy Ghost (I only like one of the songs on this EP, but it's so incredible I have to mention it. That would be "mash up: neither being nor nothingness")
Vincat (Vincat!)
Rival Boys (alt-country, but their EP has grown on me)
Jesse Matheson (this guy's songs are hilarious and oh so fun)
Octoberman (SL Calexico)
hellothisisalex (unusual chill-out chipcore or chipcore chill-out, whichever sounds better)
The Sales Department (electronic)
The Mountains and The Trees (from St. John's, they're making waves!)
Errand Boy (he moved away from St. John's, too too bad, but keep an eye out for this dude)
Islands (not really underground, but whatever)
Language Arts (whoah, spoken word/hip-hop folk, cool...)
Fritz Helder (not really my favorite, but he has a very original electronic style that's hard not to notice and that you may love, who knows)
Gregory Pepper and His Problems (problems? on his eclectic album With Trumpets Flaring I don't see any problems, this guy's uber-talented)
Makita Hack (straight up bluegrass, but awesome bluegrass at that)
Miss Quincy and The Ramblers (less exciting than Makita, but if you're a bluegrass fan, why not?)
Woody Johnson (this guy's a whiz on the acoustic blues front. so is Trevor Caswell, for that matter.)
Let's Go to War (funky, electronic stuff, probably worth mentioning. SL Groove Armada)
We are Wolves (easily one of the best Canadian albums of the year, wow...)
Peace (who is this dude??? dark 80s-like stuff. SL early P.I.L. or Wilderness if you know them)
Minto (don't know the album too well, but it's produced by Steve Albini. yes, Steve Albini!)
The Fugitives (find me, find me! oh god, I'm drooling over them banjo licks.)
Digits (this guy emailed me and showed me his music. I cannot stop playing "Endgame")
Jon and Roy (from BC, "Another Noon" is one of the best songs of the year.)
Vivian Houle (WTF???)
Rep by Pop (one of my favorite Canadian albums of the year, Cell Phone Camera, just wrote the review.)
Devil Eyes (very raucous, loud, but in a good, trashy-garage-rock-kind-of-way)
Sex with Strangers (I just love "We Want the Fire")
Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills (good folky stuff)
You Say Party We Say Die (yep, this is a good album, very punchy and lively)
The Racoon Wedding (like if Arcade Fire came from a bluegrass angle with some brass thrown in for good measure)
Okay, that's it, I hope that's enough to keep you busy for awhile, assuming you read this. I'll post another list of the best underground artists from the rest of the world later. If you're a new spinner, you already know them. If you need more, here is my list of top ten most under-rated records of 2008.
in sound,
Dashiell Brown
www.thenewspin.ca
Of course, to listen to any of these artists, you can always tune in to the show every Thursday night on 93.5 CHMR-FM, online here, 9-11 Newftime, 7:30-9:30 EST, 4:30 Pacific. You should be able to find most of them on CBC Radio 3. I have added a few keywords to describe each artist in case you only like certain genres. SL means "sounds like."
Tonight I will do a special show playing these artists, so tune in and hear the best of the best in Canadian music.
Hear a playlist of most of these artists here.
Timber Timbre (truly unusual folksongs, like Patrick Watson, this guy's in a class all his own.)
Bruce Peninsula (dark choir/chamber folk, oh yes.)
Geoff Berner (Klezmer punk, what more needs to be said)
The Hylozoists (all instrumental like post-rock, but wow.)
Headache24 (SL Pixies)
Japandroids (SL Fugazi)
Olenka and the Autumn Lovers (if you like Dead Can Dance, etc.)
Weather Station (folk on the laptop loveliness)
Rae Spoon (how many transgendered folksingers do you know who sound like women but are actually men and who trade in their guitars for computers? not many, I'm sure.)
Patrick Watson (one of the best of the year, avant-garde/progressive indie folk)
The Torrent (dark 80's inspired electro)
Pat Lepoidevin (amazing folk guitarist with an oh-so-sweet Scottish touch)
Eleazer Vs John (like Junior Boys?)
Tiga (play this at any club and watch them feet move)
Rural Alberta Advantage (dark, folky, I like them better than Elliot Brood)
Lovely Feathers (indie rock)
Hidden Cameras (80's, New Order-ish, I love their new album)
Dan Mangan (folk, songwriter)
Wooden Sky (dark folk, reminds me of 16 Horsepower a bit)
Kids on TV Remixed V.1 from Blocks Recording Club (beats!)
Cousins (I can't get play "Growling" enough)
Spiral Beach (kick-ass garage rock/punk)
Acres and Acres (lo-fi folksongs with St. John's guest Amelia Curran)
Brock Geiger (banjo heavy folk songs)
Reverie Sound Revue (SL Stereolab)
Dark Mean (a little EP, but let's see what they do in the future)
The Got to Get Got (fun fun in the sun indie rock)
Ambisonic (avant-garde-ish)
Jordan Klassen (love this guy from Calgary, oh my. SL Sufjan Stevens, David Pajo)
Gypsophilia (my interview with them is on my site here)
The Diableros (they have a new album, but haven't heard it yet!)
The Danks (you love da danks if you love da strokes)
Flotilla (harp-based folk stuff from Montreal. SL Sunday All Over the World if you know who the hell that is)
Extra Happy Ghost (I only like one of the songs on this EP, but it's so incredible I have to mention it. That would be "mash up: neither being nor nothingness")
Vincat (Vincat!)
Rival Boys (alt-country, but their EP has grown on me)
Jesse Matheson (this guy's songs are hilarious and oh so fun)
Octoberman (SL Calexico)
hellothisisalex (unusual chill-out chipcore or chipcore chill-out, whichever sounds better)
The Sales Department (electronic)
The Mountains and The Trees (from St. John's, they're making waves!)
Errand Boy (he moved away from St. John's, too too bad, but keep an eye out for this dude)
Islands (not really underground, but whatever)
Language Arts (whoah, spoken word/hip-hop folk, cool...)
Fritz Helder (not really my favorite, but he has a very original electronic style that's hard not to notice and that you may love, who knows)
Gregory Pepper and His Problems (problems? on his eclectic album With Trumpets Flaring I don't see any problems, this guy's uber-talented)
Makita Hack (straight up bluegrass, but awesome bluegrass at that)
Miss Quincy and The Ramblers (less exciting than Makita, but if you're a bluegrass fan, why not?)
Woody Johnson (this guy's a whiz on the acoustic blues front. so is Trevor Caswell, for that matter.)
Let's Go to War (funky, electronic stuff, probably worth mentioning. SL Groove Armada)
We are Wolves (easily one of the best Canadian albums of the year, wow...)
Peace (who is this dude??? dark 80s-like stuff. SL early P.I.L. or Wilderness if you know them)
Minto (don't know the album too well, but it's produced by Steve Albini. yes, Steve Albini!)
The Fugitives (find me, find me! oh god, I'm drooling over them banjo licks.)
Digits (this guy emailed me and showed me his music. I cannot stop playing "Endgame")
Jon and Roy (from BC, "Another Noon" is one of the best songs of the year.)
Vivian Houle (WTF???)
Rep by Pop (one of my favorite Canadian albums of the year, Cell Phone Camera, just wrote the review.)
Devil Eyes (very raucous, loud, but in a good, trashy-garage-rock-kind-of-way)
Sex with Strangers (I just love "We Want the Fire")
Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills (good folky stuff)
You Say Party We Say Die (yep, this is a good album, very punchy and lively)
The Racoon Wedding (like if Arcade Fire came from a bluegrass angle with some brass thrown in for good measure)
Okay, that's it, I hope that's enough to keep you busy for awhile, assuming you read this. I'll post another list of the best underground artists from the rest of the world later. If you're a new spinner, you already know them. If you need more, here is my list of top ten most under-rated records of 2008.
in sound,
Dashiell Brown
www.thenewspin.ca
Review: Patrick Molloy and The Manifest, Who Will Listen?
On his latest album with his latest band, Patrick Molloy and The Manifest’s Who Will Listen? is bold, italicized, and even underlined. He is clearly shooting for the moon on this one, channeling the progressive power rock of Rush a la Vapor Trails, with an Ozzie Osbourne-like wail that sounds surprisingly fresh against today’s trendy pop-oriented music industry and—daring.
Whether his aim was true will actually depend on who will listen but I’m sure radio stations here in Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada will eat it up. From what I understand, they already are. “Who Will Listen?” was already featured as the Producers Pick on The East Coast Countdown and won the Regional Radio Star National Songwriting Competition for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Patrick Molloy will be representing Newfoundland in Toronto from March 10-14th during Canadian Music Week for the National Prize of the Radio Star competition. It's apt because his album manages to reflect the smorgasbord of the tastes and styles you’ll hear from so many of the local bands here in St. John’s, from the progressive hard rock of The Pathological Lovers to the more punchy new-wave of The Subtitles.
Though a few songs may feel incomplete or less developed, there are a number of hits here, in particular "Darkness Glows" and "Peace, Now, Today" which I still have in my head. Produced right here in St. John’s by gold and platinum award-winning producer Krisjan Leslie, Who Will Listen? serves up a heaping dish of all that’s fresh and happening here in the St. John’s music scene, and Patrick Molloy must have felt it his duty to deliver such a showcase. For that alone, you can thank him.
(The New Spin airs every Thursday night, 9-10 PM Newftime, 7:30 Eastern on 93.5 CHMR-FM.)
Whether his aim was true will actually depend on who will listen but I’m sure radio stations here in Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada will eat it up. From what I understand, they already are. “Who Will Listen?” was already featured as the Producers Pick on The East Coast Countdown and won the Regional Radio Star National Songwriting Competition for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Patrick Molloy will be representing Newfoundland in Toronto from March 10-14th during Canadian Music Week for the National Prize of the Radio Star competition. It's apt because his album manages to reflect the smorgasbord of the tastes and styles you’ll hear from so many of the local bands here in St. John’s, from the progressive hard rock of The Pathological Lovers to the more punchy new-wave of The Subtitles.
Though a few songs may feel incomplete or less developed, there are a number of hits here, in particular "Darkness Glows" and "Peace, Now, Today" which I still have in my head. Produced right here in St. John’s by gold and platinum award-winning producer Krisjan Leslie, Who Will Listen? serves up a heaping dish of all that’s fresh and happening here in the St. John’s music scene, and Patrick Molloy must have felt it his duty to deliver such a showcase. For that alone, you can thank him.
(The New Spin airs every Thursday night, 9-10 PM Newftime, 7:30 Eastern on 93.5 CHMR-FM.)
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