vintage

So I was going to do a feature of a tune from the new Joel Plaskett album, which was released today, but so far I’ve heard a good half of it and haven’t been very excited about anything. The track I was most looking forward to (“Wishful Thinking”) has been turned into a stagnating seven-minute thing with drum machine, so that doesn’t really bode well for the rest of the record. REVIEW SOON WHEN I HEAR IT ALL.

Anyway, so rather than post a track I’m not thrilled about, I’ll tie this post in to a mention of the now-distant Canadian Music Week shows I went to at the Mod Club a couple of weeks ago. Sloan played twice in a row, March 11 and 12, and opening for them both nights were the marvelously poppy and upbeat Will Currie & The Country French. Formed at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, the Country French are a large but surprisingly tight-sounding band who play piano-driven pop tunes with serious punch. They are on Sloan’s recently re-launched label Murderecords and released an EP called A Great Stage on it last year. A full-length is in the works.

This song is from that album, and was also on a four-song demo that they sold at a show I saw pre-Murderecords (opening for another East Coaster Rich Aucoin). It’s called “Surprising Me,” and it’s pretty representative of their great sound. Their live show is just as energetic, or perhaps more; they could benefit from a little variation in their sets, as they seem to drag in the middle for lack of stylistic change-ups, but that’s really the only complaint I have about them.

(Oh yeah, and Sloan played too! Ha. They were also great. The first night almost seemed like a rehearsal for the second, in retrospect — though solid, it was a somewhat run-of-the-mill set and show, although we were treated to “Iggy & Angus” in the encore. Night two was really rock ‘n’ roll, including some old favourites like “Before I Do,” “Deeper Than Beauty” and “Underwhelmed”, and shockingly, “The Marquee & The Moon”! The setlist didn’t quite top last CMW’s show, but it would be pretty hard to. They’re still always fun to see live. I’ve done it thirteen times now, though — frequent flyer card yet?)

Anyway, back to WC: this song was also the iTunes Single of the Week sometime in 2008, which was probably extra exciting for this young band. Look for their name everywhere in coming months! Hope you enjoy.

Tunesday 14: Surprising Me

Or, more appropriately, “sitting on my ass for 84 days” — because that’s how long we were out of school during the mammoth CUPE 3903 strike at York University. The Ontario government passed back-to-work legislation on January 29, ending the strike at twelve weeks; since that day was a Thursday, classes didn’t resume until today, making the total time without class 87 days.

To put it in perspective: the last time I had class, Stéphane Dion was still the leader of the federal Liberals, Barack Obama had been president-elect for a grand total of one day, nobody had heard of the word “prorogue”, and Freddie Hubbard and John Updike were still alive. Your Halloween candy was only a week old, and 2008 still had almost two months to go.

And now here we are.

As a result of the mammoth “academic disruption,” some changes have been made to the calendar; fall semester will end February 19 and winter semester will begin March 4, with the days in between allotted for fall exams (no buffer days). Classes will end May 21 and exams on June 2 (also no buffer days). Considering the year usually ends the first week of April and exams are done before May, this is a serious inconvenience to most, especially those graduating. I’m going to try not to complain too loudly, though — school is back, so the worst is over.

In other news, most of the lineup for Canadian Music Week has been announced. Here are some highlights.

First, the CHART showcases at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern — and believe me, it’s pretty legendary. Thursday night is probably the best lineup, featuring $100, Women, Chad VanGaalen, Gentleman Reg and The Lovely Feathers. Saturday’s is nothing to sneeze at either, with the bill including the Golden Dogs, Hexes and Ohs and Two Hours Traffic. Check out the full showcase details here.

Equally delicious, and arguably the most hard-hitting showcase lineup of the festival, is Saturday night at the also legendary Lee’s Palace. Start to finish, it boasts Jon-Rae Fletcher, Herman Dune, Basia Bulat, Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke. I know where I’ll be that night!

Other highlights include Friday night’s Eye Weekly showcase at the Gladstone Hotel (Castlemusic, Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship, The Week That Was, Slim Twig and the Rural Alberta Advantage); Priestess at Sneaky Dee’s (Friday); Sloan at the Mod Club (Thursday); Malajube at the El Mocambo (Thursday) and, for those who make connections, Laura Borealis at the Central (Saturday).

I’ve applied for a press pass with this blog, but won’t know for another three weeks whether it was deemed worthy or not. Either way, you’ll be seeing some CMW content — there’s no way I can pass up lineups like this! And finally, a chance to see Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke.

If any of you are headed for the festival as well, let me know what you’re looking forward to and where you’ll be! For the curious, check out the CMW site here.

One of the most excellent things about Toronto music festivals is the abundance of in-store performances you can catch, both by local bands and visiting ones, completely for free. I dropped in on a few of them last week – braving the awful snowstorm – and here we are.

The first was at Soundscapes, a little independent record store in Little Italy with a great deal of emphasis on homegrown talent. In between buying the latest and greatest albums to hit the shelves, we witnessed a short but wonderful set by Toronto’s own Laura Barrett, mistress of the kalimba and brand-new signee to Paper Bag Records (staff were playing fellow labelmates The Acorn before her set, but I can’t tell whether that was a coincidence or not).

Since self-releasing her EP Earth Sciences back in 2005, Barrett has seen the recent release of a second EP, Ursula, as well as the reissue of Earth Sciences on Paper Bag late last year, and is at work on a full-length. Her set was, as usual, completely charming and extraordinarily well executed; she’s the newest one-woman band, at one point playing the kazoo, kalimba, and MIDI-controller bass foot pedals at the same time (and, of course, never missing a beat). We were treated to a handful of newer songs from the second EP and the upcoming album, as well as a few old favourites like “Robot Ponies” and “Stop Giving Your Children Standardized Tests”. She’s always sunny and charming, and remarkably good at keeping the audience’s attention, directing lines of the songs at audience members and generally being a great time to watch. It’s always a pleasure to catch one of her sets.

Afterward, I made it to Criminal Records (“legal music and swag”) on Queen West for an East Coast instore showcase. Because of the aforementioned snowstorm, and a late start at Soundscapes, I missed the first band – former Eric’s Trip bassist Julie Doiron’s new outfit Calm Down It’s Monday, formerly Blue Heeler, with Dick Morello – but we did catch her solo set later, which was delectable, featuring some work from her latest album Woke Myself Up (notably “Dark Horse,” which I love). I did, however, arrive in time to see – in the words of the Meligrove Band’s Mike Small – “the cutest band ever”: Halifax duo The Superfantastics. They’ve just come off a mini-tour with Laura Barrett, and they were well matched; self-described as “the Alex P. Keaton of the indie pop scene,” they are absolutely adorable, extremely talented, and make incredibly enjoyable music. Their songwriting is catchy and despite being only two people, their sound is remarkably full and engaging. They are currently touring with Julie Doiron promoting their newest EP Choose Your Destination, a follow-up to their full-length album Pop-Up Book. They’ll be playing in Calgary as part of Junofest at the beginning of April.

Closing band Dog Day, once described by Sloan’s Chris Murphy as “the ABBA of Canada” (referring to the two married couples who make up the band), ended the afternoon with an excellently delivered set of energetic pop-rock, although their stage presence left a little to be desired compared to the bouncy Matt MacDonald of the Superfantastics. Still, their performance was tight, supported by excellent work on the bass by Nancy Urich, and upheld the remarkable reputation that the Halifax-centric East Coast scene has earned for excellent pop and rock bands since the original Pop Explosion. They are touring extensively to support their new full-length, Night Group, which has earned them a great deal of positive press (for good reason; the songs are magnificent).

And all that for free! What’s not to love?

Coming up: reviews of School of Language,  the I Spies, Jason Collett, and the Mountain Goats! Stay tuned!

Sloan. If you’re Canadian, you’ve likely heard the clichés; pioneers of Canadian independent music, quintessential Can-rock, etc. But after surveying their previous work associated with the murderecords label, and checking out the new stuff they’ve signed, there’s no denying there’s some truth to them. Clichés kick around for a reason, and Sloan’s still doing what they do over fifteen years into it all.

Toronto is smack in the middle of Canadian Music Week, and as part of it, the aforementioned label put on a showcase at a little bar in Kensington Market to display some recently-signed talent (as well as their venerable, at least in rock & roll years, owners). Murder is expanding again to include bands other than Sloan, which can only mean good things. And, in almost every case, it did.

I missed the first two bands at the actual showcase, but I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing the first, Will Currie & the Country French, before. As many would attest, they are an excellent match for the label. They’re incredibly young, but have great musicianship; their music is full of breezy pop melodies and tight hooks, and the piano work is really well done. I have the demo they sold at that show for the remarkable price of $1, and it’s tighter and better produced than some recent full-length albums. Their EP will be out on murderecords sometime this year, and rest assured, there will be a review here!

The second band, Pony Da Look, is one I’ve yet to experience live; from what I understand, though, “experience” is a fairly appropriate word. Their music is very 80s influenced and awash in synthesizer and strange vocals. I’ll reserve full judgment, but I’ll say here that missing their set was not the disappointment of a lifetime.

I arrived in time to catch the slimmed-down Meligrove Band, now playing as a three-piece after the departure of guitarist/synth player Andrew Scott (yes, he’s heard the Sloan jokes!) of The Bicycles. The last time I saw them was coming off of Planets Conspire, so it’s been a while, and there was a fair amount of material in their short set that I hadn’t heard before. They did add some Planets favourites, including the explosive single “Our Love Will Make the World Go Round”; the arrangements are remarkably different live, and especially without Andrew, but they are an excellent trio of musicians and put on a great show. And they even added a Local Rabbits cover as a tribute to murderecords. Nice work, lads.

Finally came Sloan. There had been some talk that they were going to pull out some “old favourites,” but we hadn’t realised to what extent; boy, were we surprised. Right off the top, their first two songs were both sides of a 7″ from the One Chord to Another era (“Stood Up” and “Same Old Flame”), and the third, “Take Good Care of the Poor Boy” – one of Jay Ferguson’s best! – from Between the Bridges. Truthfully, they could have ended there and I’d have been happy.

They didn’t, of course, and other surprises showed up as well (namely “Before I Do,” somewhat shortened from its album version and sounding great). Each of the four did one of their new songs, as well, from their upcoming record tentatively titled Parallel Play. Unfortunately, bassist Chris Murphy – now finding himself in a comfortable and secure familial situation – seems to have lost the ability to write playful, meaningful lyrics like he used to (see “Autobiography,” “The Marquee and the Moon”); new song “I’m Not a Kid Anymore”, while musically solid, featured lyrics far too much like “Will I Belong?” or similar to be completely great.

However, newly bearded guitarist Patrick Pentland and drummer Andrew Scott – the other one – pulled off a couple of solid ones (“Believe in Me” and “911″, respectively), both rocking rather admirably, and the former conjuring shades of a more driving and uptempo sequel to “I Understand”. Guitarist Ferguson regaled us with a curious number titled “Witch’s Wand,” written in a surprisingly low vocal range, and complete with expected catchy chorus. Certainly all four were a welcome glimpse into the content of what will be their ninth (!) studio album, likely a fair bit shorter than their last effort – Never Hear the End of It was thirty tracks long, plus two bonus!

When all is said and done, Sloan definitely still knows how to put on a tight show, most of the time – and judging by the new murderecords lineup, they know how to find other bands who can do the same. If this is the new face of the label, I’ll be driving the bandwagon.