AWmusic

If you’re a fan of psychedelic and shoegaze elements, you will enjoy this album. The album features guitar-driven, drone instrumentation and brooding vocals. I’ve read comparisons to The Doors when it comes to the vocals, but I can’t see the similarities right away. There are definitely some elements of Morrison in Alex Maas’ voice, but in my opinion, I think that both vocalists sing in a way matched for the genre, and this is what makes them different. But again, I won’t deny there aren’t any Morrison elements: “You in Color” features an indistinguishable spoken word a la Morrison, and the overall lyrical feel is as honest and daring as The Doors. A quick look at their influences listed on Myspace is no surprise—Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Raveonettes…this album definitely stands in line with these neo-psych bands.

The lyrics are more political and dark, true to the deeper and hidden thoughts of the American mind and society. This will be no surprise to fans of The Black Angels, as their first album, Passover (2006) was well-received for its lyrical content and trademark “drone n’ roll.” There is one thing about drone music that sometimes gets to me, is that the vocals are almost always at the same volume as the instruments, so that sometimes the vocals are drowned out by the heavy guitar strums or bass riffs. However, this doesn’t really limit the album in itself…it is still superb.

This was a highly anticipated album in the underground community, and it has definitely delivered with exceeded expectations. I believe I just missed their Toronto show, but if they play here again, I’ll be first in line fa sho.

MP3s:
The Black Angels – You on the Run

The Black Angels – Vikings

Purchase at:
Insound

CD Universe

So this week I thought I would change up the pace a bit so I called up good ol’ Sebastian De Villa, gutarist and backup vocalist for Toronto based band this., and sat down to ask him all about this. and their upcoming plans for the future.

Adrian: Hey Ian thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me. I’m sure this will be an eye opener to those who have yet to even taste what this. is all about.

Ian: Sweet.

Adrian: Now for my first question to start things off, how did this. exactly come into existence?

Ian: Paul and Daryl were in a named Glib back in high school while me and my brother Chino were part of a band called Acquired Equation. Chino and I met Paul in high school, and we did a thing in Rising Star in 2003 and after that we got a bass player named Eric who totally screwed us, and then Daryl joined us as our bassist 3 years ago.

Adrian: What do you feel makes this. unique from most bands out there in the world today?

Ian: A combination of both harmonies, 80’s style solos and screaming, melodic screaming and not just you know barking in the mike just like an actual melody. We also have very catchy lyrics which is also a good thing too.

Adrian: What bands would you say have influenced you the most as a whole?

Ian: Foo Fighters a lot and we follow in their footsteps and just grunge basically. I mean each of us do have mixed influences, like a little of this and a little of that, something different in each of us, but basically the Foo Fighters for the most part.

Adrian: Now you just got off tour with Sons of Butcher touring all of Western Canada, what was that whole experience like?

Ian: It was awesome, made a lot of new friends, saw a whole lot of new things, and got to see basically all of Canada for pretty much the first time, had an awesome time, Sons of Butchers are awesome guys, awesome times with them and yeah basically just an awesome time the entire way.

Adrian: Now let’s talk about your new upcoming album, how’s it coming along so far, and does it have a title yet?

Ian: Don’t really have a title yet, 14 tracks and it’s fully recorded, 6 tracks have already been released as an EP, and it’s just pretty much been a fun time. Been working on it over the last 5 years, done independently, with just a bit of help on the side but it’s basically been financed out of our own pockets.

Adrian: Any release date yet on the new album and would you guys consider going on yet another full out tour to promote the new album?

Ian: I don’t know yet. We’re aiming for next year to release the whole 14 tracks. We’re just working on some new album artwork, we also need to get some loose ends tied up and then when we’re ready we may head south and maybe Europe or something sometime next year.

Adrian: Now let’s face it, you guys have a pretty loyal fan base, myself including, you guys seem to take more time out to chill with the fans than most other bands do, you think more bands should do this sort of thing?

Ian: Definitely because the fans are the ones paying to get into the shows, and buying merchandise, and everything like that. They’re like the bosses, that’s how I feel and it’s always a good time to chill with the people who like you.

Adrian: One question that has also been on my mind, rockers such as yourself must end up getting quite the attention from the ladies?

Ian: I wouldn’t say that but there is some attention, just be careful who you’re going out with but I’m sure the ladies mean well , just got to be careful.

Adrian: If you could have any super power in the entire world what would that superpower be and would you use it for good or for evil?

Ian: Mind control because if you have mind control you could pretty much do anything and I would use it for good like if someone’s trying to blow up the world I could just stop them and stuff because it’s my world your messing with, just keep the world from chaos pretty much.

Adrian: Finally where can everyone check out your band for more information on this. ?

Ian: There’s our website www.thismusic.ca which is under construction at the moment but should be back up in the next little while with more content, banners, and much more.

Adrian: Awesome talking to you Ian, look forward to the new album and more amazing rocking concerts, I think this will show everyone out there what this. is all about and more. Oh and by the way Happy Birthday tomorrow.

Ian: Thanks bro, and glad you’re still in one piece from that accident, thanks for the support man and look forward to seeing you again at our shows in the future.

So that wraps it up for the interview but be sure to tune in next week when i review their concert I attended on Saturday the 26th at The Black Swan. Keep on rockin’.

The Brazilian band had some lineup changes and actually decided to change the band’s sound moving from electropop to more of a guitar pop sound on this album. I personally prefer electropop (it’s fresher).

I actually held some prejudice against CSS, suggesting to myself that I’d probably hate this album and if I had done a review on the weekend, you might’ve seen a different tone. Despite the simplicity the lack of *good* singing (Lovefoxxx as hot as she is, is not a great singer) and lyrically poor, they still manage to get me a addicted even in the slightest bit. The album does have its weaknesses though.

Strengths of this album are clear, they continue the momentum they had with fans of the first album and of the 148 million views of the Ipod commercial. The music is not ground breaking whatsoever but it’s not like the first album was either. It’s straight up pop that makes you bust a move. (I even have that “inkling” and I’m healing from a dislocated knee). Otherwise while I don’t have anything great to say, it’s music for the masses that I can accept with some level of musicianship. It’s not like they are acting as if Lovefoxxx is some amazingly skilled musician.

The only problem I have about this album is the lack of balance of guitaring with the electronic keyboard synths. Definitely playing catchy guitar riffs seemed to be what the doctor ordered. Only until towards the end of the album did they bring back the electro sound I was accustomed to.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5
I’ll recommend it to fans of CSS already. A decent album.
Move by Cansei de Ser Sexy

Beautiful Song by Cansei de Ser Sexy

I Wanna Be Your J Lo by Cansei de Ser Sexy

(more…)

I’ve liked Sam Roberts’ work in the past. Generally, I’ve just listened to singles in my radio-friendly days but I figure it was worth a shot blogging about a popular Canadian artist for a change.

I actually had difficulty jumping right in onto the album. I find that many of the intros are very poor ones and sometimes they don’t even match the rest of the track. Isn’t the point of intro to warm you up for the rest of the song and not turn you off? Even for the intros to “Them Kids” is just so unnecessary, it hurts my ears to just hear that extra bit that doesn’t really match the rest of the song. The song is quite excellent and is the first single off the album that has been receiving quite a bit of airplay. It’s strange to find this song on MuchMusic where a song is about a generation gap but it’s directed at kids aged 12-16 with that inclusion. Just seems odd that our generation is ignored (no wonder why you’re here reading this on the internet).

I find myself not really clinging onto any tracks on this album; Them Kids barely does it for me. I find myself wanting to skip the review altogether. Sam Roberts doesn’t stand out anymore as a singer/songwriter when listening to this album. It’s pretty average and bland and with the intros to each song at times this album is mind numbing. Lyrically and musically I’m not enticed.

It definitely fails as an album, there’s some good moments on this album, Words & Fire definitely had a “moment” with me but it quickly lost me as it went on. Musically I liked The Pilgrim but it didn’t do it for me.

Rating: 2.1 out of 5
Not a recommended album. He may have his hits on Canadian radio and have his music video played but that rarely matters to me. From a personal enjoyment standpoint, I don’t enjoy it at all. There are a ton of singer songwriters on the internet that have yet to have that “success” and and overall have put out greater efforts.

MP3: Them Kids by Sam Roberts

The biggest thing that these Buffalo natives got right, was their new sound. Not necessarily improved, because it sounds nothing like the original, but Rotation has a very catchy aggressive backbone throughout. There is definitely more emphasis on instrumentals than with their freshman effort, and it’s a much more entertaining listen. While I don’t think it has as much stay-power as The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch, I don’t think the two can be directly compared.

The album begins with Practice Makes Perfect, one of catchiest tracks off the album. With an amazing hook, it’s homage to their older material, but alas right away there are a lot of great new things that they begin to implement. The tone of the music is more serious, and the instrumentals come off really vibrant. With fuller, more aggressive drums, guitars and the like, the music becomes a lot more exciting to listen to. The style of music this go around, is also very passionate, from the overzealous vocals to the more prominent instruments, there is a great emphasis on good sounding music.

Skipping to the third track, Navigate Me, it’s a really mellow song that slows things down a tad. Combining some really sombre melodies, it still is full of overdriven guitars and hard hitting drums. The vocals remain passionate, but everything is extenuated, and therefore has a slower vibe. We begin to see the loss of quality lyrics, and by quality I mean witty. I suppose with more mature themes the lyrics lose a sense of humour, which I loved from their first album.

The next song, Loser, is my favourite off of the album, and it’s an awesome track. From an incredibly catchy hook, to great instrumentals, it epitomizes what Cute is all about this time around. The lyrics are hopeful, and the overall song gives a sense of optimism wrapped in a very passionate tone. With a really nice grungy guitar riff, and excellent production value, it’s a song definitely aimed more for the mainstream, but has won me twice over. Also Shaant’s vocals really impressed me throughout not only this song but the entire album, and many believed him to be solely a great lyricist, but he’s capable of holding his own on the mic.

The album is full of some action packed power pop, and uses a lot of groovy instrumentals. The vocals and themes are much harder hitting this go around and there are a handful of excellent tracks. Other notables along with the ones mentioned are Do What You Do, The Lockdown Denial, and Marriage To Millions, which all have different hooks ranging from meaningful themes to hard hitting nonsense. I really enjoyed the more aggressive approach that Cute used in Rotation, it seemed that they really put an emphasis on the sound of their music. While I miss the fun memorable lyrics of their older work, I think they have done a great job venturing into a slightly different genre. Having two albums that aren’t directly comparable and having them both excel in their particular genre is always a great thing. Rotation is an album to check out, but don’t go in expecting CIWWAF of old, expect some exciting, grungy, powerpop.

Check out their Myspace for official tour dates and album info.

Cute Is What We Aim For – Loser

Cute Is What We Aim For – Do What You Do

The Dark Knight has been a huge critical and financial success, grossing just under $160 million in an opening weekend, critical praise of 95% and becoming the #1 movie on IMDB. So better late then never with my review and playlist?

My playlist tried to involve some key quotes surrounding the movie. Granted the real soundtrack is great but let’s give the movie a good playlist anyway.

1. The Thieves They Are Everywhere by Bridges and Powerlines
2. Pencil Rot by Stephen Malkmus
3. Only Clowns Are Scary by I Love Math
4. Boy With A Coin by Iron & Wine
5. Smile Like You Mean It by The Killers
6. Knights of Cydonia by Muse
7. I’m Your Villain by Franz Ferdinand
8. The Angry Mob by Kaiser Chiefs
9. Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads
10. No Key, No Plan by Okkervil River
11. Black Heroes by Ratatat

Here’s the movie review below (CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!)
(more…)

Kensington Heights, named after the street in Toronto (I think) was released all the way back in April 15th of this year and it has been on my computer for a long time. I’ve had trouble really liking it and I’ve put off reviewing this album for at least 2 months. Today I decided to review this album instead of CSS’s Donkey.

From the get go, I hated the first track “Hard Feelings”. This is a personal thing but I’ll try to explain why I hated the intro. First we get these synths, followed in synchronizing by the a strong brash bass sound that just consumes my mind and I can’t concentrate of anything else. After awhile I just get a headache. So it’s more of a brain thing. I really don’t like the vocals though, they don’t really stand out. Musically it’s decent (after I get my past my brain issue) but before long I’m forced to press the next button so I don’t shoot myself. No hard feelings right? Million Star Hotel is almost like Hard Feelings but without the driving me insane aspect, it’s a decent track.

Trans Canada changed the pace, with a cool bass line throughout the song. Otherwise, it doesn’t do much for me. Shower of Stones has elements of noise rock and the vocals really blend with this song. It’s a cool track, decent again but nothing earth shattering.

Our Age is probably my favorite track, granted it’s the softest and the reason why is that I feel like I’m suffering for some reason (I’m trying to ignore it). I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song turns out to be a decent track but I have to say that it’s such a bad title for a song name. It just gives it away and lyrically it feels weak when I listen to the song play out.

This album has things I like but it’s in bits and pieces and then there’s are things that I dislike. Vocally it doesn’t mesh well with the music and I find myself gravitating to other things which explains why it took me so long to review this album.

I’ve been told the Constantines other albums are much better and that they are awesome live… so I don’t feel quite as bad giving a Canadian band a poor review. Still some stuff worth pursuing but as an album, I really struggled with this one. It’s not crap in the least bit but it’s in the middle where I know it’s decent/talented/creative but I just can’t get myself to like it no matter how hard I try.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

Our Age by The Constantines

I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song by The Constantines

Pitchfork did one of those, “picture” reviews giving them a 3.3 out of 10 for their album. While it was hilarious, the real problem is that Pitchfork was the real reason for the Black Kids’ hype and they couldn’t even justify the 3.3.

I’m going to start by being honest, I hate the album but I’ll at least try to explain why.

The Wizard of Ahhhs EP was and still is a great EP and I still go back to it to listen to the touch of great power pop mixed with great singing. The use of keyboard synthesizers, albeit simple was one strong attraction. The Black Kids used all 4 songs from their EP and while I don’t have a problem with that, I have the problem of changing the songs WAY too much and making them crappy.

Hurricane Jane, I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, Hit The Heartbreaks and I’ve Underestimated My Charm Again were all adjusted to have less keyboards and more guitar strumming. The problem is with this is that the music required the music to rely on back up vocals and lyrics. The back up vocals sound like a child who’s been punched in the throat. A bit of frog voice on Hit The Heartbreaks. The only song that comes close to the original is INGTYBHTDWY as they kept things the same.

The producer Bernard Butler somehow persuaded the Black Kids to ditch their power pop strength into something weaker and diluted. The Black Kids showed off some serious flare self-releasing their EP. When I call the Black Kids “sell outs”, I don’t care if they’re signing to a major label, it’s the fact that they now are sucking musically for a major label.

After I was disappointed in the 4 original tracks, I tried to check out the 6 other tracks. I must admit the song “I’m Making Eyes At You” is a great softer song. The thing with this song, it seems to know its place. Vocals and instruments are quiet together, nothing seems contrived, and that contrast that’s there on so many songs on this album, isn’t present. (It sounds like a Cut Copy song btw).

Otherwise the rest of the album isn’t really special anyway. Some songs sound lame (see: title track) and others didn’t have that “it factor” that made the EP great.

I’m usually not the type to hate a band that goes mainstream, only if they release a lackluster album. It’s really unfortunate but the Black Kids can do better then this. If anything I’ll blame Bernard Butler.

Rating: 1.25 out of 5
MP3: I’m Making Eyes At You by Black Kids

Buy the album at CDUniverse/Insound/Amazon

I have always heard of Dr. Dog on discussion forums with some members being some big fans. I never bothered to listen but when I had the chance to review Fate, it was my first time giving them a shot and I guess I should really listen to my peers more often.

I don’t want to get into why I hate the Pitchfork review so much but calling Dr. Dog viewing their influences more like an museum instead of inspiration is something that is meaningless and doesn’t really have much of a point. My response “Riiiiiight” (using my Dr. Evil voice).

The album starts off with “The Breeze” is a soft song and relaxes me as if I feel that slight breeze on a nice day. “Hang On” starts off with a small little piano riffs. The lyrics “Well, I don’t need no doctor, To tear me all apart, I just need you , To mend my heart” hilarious because of their name. It’s not so much a pop song as there are so many different musical elements but lyrically it’s structured that way. There’s quite a bit of experimentation and it’s more of an icing on the cake.

These tracks while enjoyable are less then stellar but it picks up with “The Old Days”, “The Army of Ancients” and “The Rabbit, The Bat and The Reindeer”. I must say the middle of the album is superb and it’s hard to honestly criticize that fact. Dr. Dog is Beastle-esque…capable of making that pop song with that extra bits on it to elevate it to the top. Tracks 3-11 are all excellent and from listening to album 10 times now, the only thing I would say is that the lyrics are a little rudimentary and don’t quite match up musically.

The vocals are switched on each other song, giving that Beatles feel. Both have quite a bit of range and talent as singers, it really gives it a dynamic a lot of bands don’t have. There is Wolf Parade but unlike WP, Dr. Dog’s singers are closer to styles then the latter.

Still, Fate is a kickass album. I’d definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

MP3: The Old Days by Dr. Dog

MP3: The Rabbit, the Bat and The Reindeer by Dr. Dog (removed by request)

MP3: My Friend by Dr. Dog (removed by request)

Buy this album at: CD Universe/Insound/Amazon

(more…)

My friend who was on ‘assignment’ for Format or more like there for his own enjoyment, was forced to sign this form for “guaranteeing” that he would only take pictures for the fist 3 songs and without flash. They forgot about me but whatever to go through all that for not wanting to take a picture, we said fuck it. I’d love to take a sexy picture of Zooey and show it off but it wasn’t worth it with all the trouble.

Despite security being total dicks, the Opera House is a pretty cool venue. The Opera House is a very nice looking venue and multiple places to hang on, including the balcony. Beer is tremendously expensive as if I was going to buy a beer at a sports venue. Getting rowdy for a band like She & Him would be a little odd.

Despite that, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward were pretty good live. They played around with some songs, especially M. Ward playing around with pauses to fool the crowd a bit or just overall having some fun. Zooey herself is a great singer and spoke to the crowd after every song. At one moment, she seemed to be dancing which seemed to be contradict her introverted appearance throughout the night. I personally would’ve liked to see a jumping and jiving Zooey then the laid back one.

Either way there’s not much to hate about their concert, they were superb musically, on note with everything and not being afraid to play around with songs. They gave the crowd a new song which had M Ward featured a little bit vocally. The crowd was probably the loudest mid-song when M.Ward started singing on “You Really Got A Hold On Me”. Personally I love the mix of male and female vocals. M. Ward has a great voice live and She and Him can really lift off to unseen heights.

A great concert, I’ve been spoiled with some of the best ever but She & Him came in and gave everything expected. One downside was the placement of the piano, which hid Zooey Deschanel a few times, and it made it hard to see her playing/performing. I was just a little bit off centre as well. Dullest moment for me personally was when She & Him played a cover song that I didn’t know of. It was a country song I think and because I didn’t know it and many of the others around me others didn’t either, it was a bit of a downer.

However, despite my nitpicking, it was a great show, short set but definitely worth seeing them again when they record more stuff.

MP3: Sweet Darling by She & Him

Freakwater played to a loud reception as a lot of the concert go-ers seemed enthusiastic for their performance. It wasn’t my cup of tea though.
(more…)