AWmusic

If you had told me that the three songs from Still Life Still’s Pastel EP were B-sides from Broken Social Scene’s s/t album I definitely would’ve believed you. I mean, its missing that female element, but from the minute the single guitar starts on “Pastel” it just wreaks of BSS. Part of that stench, or more appropriately ’sweet smell’, is their connection to BSS through the Arts & Crafts label, and, of course the other part is that Kevin Drew produced their EP.

That said, it’d be unfair – only 3 songs into what promises to be an excellent career – to label them as some type of BSS knock-off. The band and the label seem to have a better handle on things than to allow them to cast in that kind of light, as flattering as it might be, at least initially.

Their lineage, in conjunction with their reputation for being a wild group on stage, certainly boads well for the band (and the label, I suppose). Luckily for everyone, at least in Southern Ontario, you’re going to get a chance to see SLS before they “expose themselves” to the rest of the world. Upcoming dates include a few shows in Toronto, in-and-around NxNE, including a June 18th show with The Most Serene Republic, Timber Timbre, and Zeus, as well as stops in London, Brantford, and St. Catherines… and the Pastel EP is going to officially be released June 16th, although you may be interested to learn that you can stream the EP via their myspace.

[mp3] Still Life Still – Pastel

I’ll prove some mp3s along the way and you can share your own shuffles.
Invasion by Eisley
The Longest House of My Life by Everybody Else
Lousy Reputation by We Are Scientists
Lost At Sea by Eisley
Lions of the Kalahari by Sam Roberts
Who You’d Kill Know? by Frightened Rabbit
100 Degrees by Shout Out Louds
Hysteria by Muse
Burn The Witch by Queens of The Stone Age
Hello, My Treacherous Friends by Ok Go

Wow I dodged some big bullets. Songs that I will keep a secret but I have quite a bit of guilty pleasure. This list is actually a list I could listen to on occasion.

Allan:How was it doing the interviews for NME? It seemed awkward at times when a few interviewees didn’t seem to get what you guys were doing.
We Are Scientists: “Comedy is rarely comfortable.” Oscar Wilde said that. Just kidding, I made that up a second ago. It’s true enough to be Oscar Wilde, though.

A: What records in 2008 are you digging?
WAS:M83, Mystery Jets, Last Shadow Puppets, Frightened Rabbit. No record has yet approached our new one, of course, in terms of how much money I get if it does well.

(A: I probably should check out these records, I’m a big fan of Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight.)

Are you guys into any sports? Have a favorite team?
Not sports fans, no. I like sports in the sense that I like to play high-energy games, but watching other people play high-energy games is without appeal for me. Exactly like eating: I love to do it, both solo and with others, but would almost never opt to spectate as other people ate. The exception, obviously, in each case, would be if some historic endeavor was being undertaken — a record broken, an entirely new approach demonstrated, etc.

If you guys were not musicians what profession would you see yourselves in? (Other then being scientists of course)
Sick, sick, sick snowboarders.

Do you still read reviews of your records?
Frankly, yes — if not avidly. And it makes me happy when a reviewer likes the record and sad when he doesn’t. Although if a reviewer, in writing about the record, outs himself as illiterate or humorless or stupid, or ugly, I definitely feel much less sad. Less sad than if he argues persuasively and intelligently for the record being a piece of shit.
I can’t defend this, though, reading the reviews — I don’t think it’s constructive.

On to less serious stuff…
What “chemicals” do the We Are Scientists experiment with?
Just alcohol, really. And semen. (I have a beautiful little kid whom I love, so I can totally say that.)

(Allan: I read experimenting with semen the wrong way…..)

Referring to your myspace, while animals are a great influence and sounding like 50 other animals is wonderful, how come you don’t list the Panda Bear? (not of fan of Noah Lennox?)
We just haven’t, in all honesty, been influenced by Pandas, whereas we definitely have been influenced by the Alligator, the Dove, the Kookaburra, the Ram, the Ant, the Dragon, the Leopard, the Raven, the Antelope, the Dragonfly, the Lion, the Raccoon, the Armadillo, the Ducks, the Lizard, the Road Runner, the Badger, the Eagle, the Llama, the Robin, the Bat, the Egret very much, the Loon, the Rooster, the Bear, the Elephant, the Lynx, the Sea Anemone, the Beaver, the Elk, the Magpie, the Seahorse, the Blackbird, the Falcon, the Margay, the Seal, the Blue Jay, the Fish, the Monkey, the Skunk, the Boar, the Flamingo, the Mockingbird, the Snail, the Buffalo, the Fox, the Moose, the Snake, the Bull, the Frog, the Mouse, the Spider, the Butterfly, the Giraffe in particular, the Ocelot, the Squirrel, the Camel, the Gorilla, the Opossum, in weird ways the Swallow, the Cardinal, the Grackle, the Otter, the Swan, the Cat, the Grasshopper, the Owl, the Tapir in particular, the Catbird, the Griffin, the Panther, the Tarantula, the Chipmunk, the Grouse, the Peacock, the Tiger, the Condor, the Hawk, believe it or not the Pegasus, the Turkey, the Cougar, the Hedgehog, the Penguin, the Turtle, the Coyote especially, the Heron, the Phoenix, the Unicorn, the Cow, the Hippopotamus, the Pigeon, the Vulture, the Crane, the Horse, the Porcupine, the Weasel, the Cricket, the Hummingbird, the Prairie Dog to a lesser extent, the Wolf, the Crocodile, the Hyena, the Quail, the Whale, the Crow, the Jaguar, the Rabbit, the Woodpecker, the Deer, the Kingfisher, the Zebra, the Dog, and of course the Dolphin.

I’m a big fan of your advice column…here are a few questions seeking help:

Query: I’m looking to get a tattoo but I’m not sure what to get and where to get it. Do you have any tattoos and what would you suggest?
I don’t have any tattoos. Keith has a large Fidel Castro on his back, because he hates Castro and wanted to graphically demonstrate that he has “turned his back on Castro.”
Knowing little about you personally, I would suggest you get a squad of Smurfs — eight Smurfs, say — with full Vietnam-era U.S. Army Infantry outfitting (camos, M16s, radio pack, etc.). This is vague enough that it can express your feelings about The Nam regardless of what they are. Get it on your face.

Query #2: I’m looking to lose some weight but I’m having a hard time. How do you guys keep slim? And what would you suggest I do to lose weight?
We barely ever eat. You should eat less. Eating leads to fat, and fat makes you fat. To reduce fat buildup in your body, eat only on special occasions like family get-togethers or a close friend’s birthday party. Drinking milkshakes or big glasses of raw eggs are not effective ways of “not eating”, because if those things were in solid form, you would consider them food (ice cream and scrambled eggs, respectively). Try to drink only things that, when in solid form, don’t count as food: water and vodka.

MP3: Chick Lit by We Are Scientists

Allan: How was your reaction to Michael’s decision to leave the band?
We Are Scientists: It was a decision we came to mutually over the course of many conversations and much thought and several coin tosses. So the element of surprise was sucked out of it. It was more like a retirement than a resignation. Lots of build-up; big party; gold watch; catering by Nathan’s Hot Dogs. The works.

A:With the addition of new members to the band, were there any issues incorporating the new members into your band?
WAS: No “issues”, I don’t think — no behavioral problems or anything like that, no criminal records to get expunged or vicious drug habits begging for aggressive rehab. The biggest creative challenge was figuring out how best to play our songs with four guys. The old songs were all written with three sets of hands and vocal chords in mind, and the songs on Brain Thrust Mastery were all written without regard for how many actual people would be needed for a religious live rendition.
So on the old songs we had the job of figuring out in which direction to aim our new weapon, Max. Do we beef up the guitars by doubling them? Add a subtle bed of key pads? Maybe crow-bar in a Dre-style synth lead? It turns out that you should always crow-bar in a Dre-style synth lead.
And on the new songs we often had to figure out how to either strip down the album versions or just play them altogether differently, but well. Not to have them be shitty — this emerged as one of our guiding principles.

A: Was songwriting for this record any different from what you did for your previous releases?
WAS: Not markedly. The big difference was that we spent a good deal more time thinking about the production, messing around with how the songs would sound. The time was well spent: they sound good (everyone thinks).

A: Do you ever wish to write funny or quirky songs that portrays more of your character rather then seemingly serious stuff?
WAS:Not really. We feel that funny songs suck. Quirky songs are usually bad, too, although they succeed maybe 20% of the time. There’s never been a good funny song, though. A band like Art Brut makes fantastic songs — don’t get me wrong — but they aren’t fundamentally funny songs. They’re rock songs whose lyrics are incisive and witty, and make you laugh. Weird Al Yankovic’s songs are fundamentally funny songs, and yeah, they might make you chuckle sometimes, but they fucking suck.

I think we have no more intention of making songs that portray our funny side than we do of making, say, video shorts that portray our non-funny side. The video short is a medium whose apotheosis is humor. The video short can do drama, too, but have you ever seen a good dramatic video short? Do you email your friends telling them to check out this amazing dramatic video on Youtube? No, you tell them to check out the video of the parrot who took acid and thinks the G.I. Joe action figures are his family.

A: Going forward what are you hoping to achieve?
WAS: I’d like to continue making songs that everyone in every country loves, and I’d like to put LSD inside a parrot and find out if that changes how he thinks about Joes. This latter would be filmed.

A:Are you ever in awe with the amount of success your band has achieved already?
WAS: I don’t think I’ve ever felt self-awe; there’s something inherently delusional about it, I think. You can feel awe toward other people and their achievements because you tend to hear about them in capsule form, and everything — bad or good — is more affecting in capsule form — all the tedious interstitiality gets left out. How could you ever be in awe of yourself? You’ve had so much time to get used to the idea.

Callbacks by We Are Scientists

Lousy Reputation by We Are Scientists

I am going with the Celtics as they are the underdogs (bet on them +160 to take the series) and they have quite a few guys without championships while Bryant, Phil J and Co. have a few rings under the them so fuck ‘em.

Paul Pierce’s dramatic injury and being lifted off and then coming back so soon kind of ticked me off. It’s always like Paul Pierce goes down like he’s shot only to come back feelin’ fine. His entrance while the Celtics were on offense and the crowd cheering also messed up the offense. Funny.

Also, while basketball is always related to hip-hop…this playlist will just be rock because rock and basketball can go to together.

Anyway before I ramble about random, useless things, here’s a playlist:

1. There’s No Home For You Here by The White Stripes (series decided by home court adv.?)
2. Boston by Vampire Weekend
3. California by Facteur
4. Lovely Allen by Holy Fuck (because Ray’s shot is lovely)
5. Rape Me by Nirvana (to Kobe Bryant lol, he doesn’t have a nick name… how about “the Therapist”)
6. Sing Me Spanish Techno by The New Pornographers (for Pau Gasol, Spanish Techno would be an awesome nickname)
7. Altered Beast by We Are Scientists (Initials are lame for a nickname…everyone does it…how about the Genetically Altered Beast for KG?)
8. The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot by Brand New
9. The Comeback by The Shout Out Louds (if you foresaw that the Celtics would be in the finals at the end of the season last year – I’d call you a genius)
10. Faker by Everybody Else (it’s arguable…the dramatics were cheesy, though people were saying that he was instructed not to walk…it seems a little odd nonetheless)
11. I Feel Better by Frightened Rabbit (he’ll be fine)

Here’s a random playlist that I hope seems somehow related: ( I gotta go out)
1. The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance by Vampire Weekend
2. Flyin by Regina Spektor
3. Harder Better Faster Stronger by Daft Punk
4. Ballad of A Comeback Kid by The New Pornographers
5. Inaction by We Are Scientists
6. Attack of the 60 ft Lesbian Octopus by Does It Offend You Yeah?
7. In Search of the Youth Crew by Cadence Weapon
8. Passing the Hat by Cold War Kids
9. Heart and Soul by Joy Division
10. Lucky Ones by Kevin Drew

Filler so I can adjust the below alignment!!!

Anyway Brain Thrust Mastery came out March 17th in Europe and today in North America. However there have been less then stellar reviews and seemingly very little hype at least from the outlets that I use that constitutes as “hype”.

I think among my friends, I’m alone in my liking of We Are Scientists but I usually like things that are much different from my buddies I guess.

Anyway when first picking up “Brain Thrust Mastery”, I quickly liked their first single After Hours. It’s usually by coincidence but it was ultimately their best pop track. The next track I really dug was “Spoken For” kind of a soft-ballad, a very soft song with simplicity but it works.

After awhile though, the album gets very tiresome and it stays away from being punk with those cool guitar riffs. They try to add to some other elements and it ends up sounding lame or cheesy. I feel like the songs are trying to be too dancey. Take for example the last track “That’s What Counts” it comes off like a cheesy song that would be placed on soap opera rather then a teen drama (not that either is good…).

They come off as being really soft and it’s an big disappointment from their previous record With Love and Squalor. The We Are Scientists need to go back their old formula which focus of remaining rough, loud and riff heavy. Their music takes a huge step back while focusing on being too poppy. It feels like they tried to play it safe and crashed in the process.

There are some elements that are acceptable and they do strut some of their old sound but when more then half the album is rather mediocre, it’s tough to support a band you do like. Not a We Are Scientists record to remember.

It’s just sooo bad in comparison to their other work. I’ll still refrain from giving it below a failing score as they were probably close to perfecting some of these songs but there was always something missing…maybe the loss of their drummer and forcing out a release BEFORE they found a new member wasn’t a good idea.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

These tracks are pretty good:

After Hours by We Are Scientists

Spoken For by We Are Scientists

Buy this album from Insound/CD Universe/Amazon

I saw the film today with a few friends…more along the lines of doing something as I am admittedly never much of an Iron Man fan in my childhood. With the good reviews, I obviously did not protest seeing the movie at all. The movie itself was good but not great in my opinion. There are some funny moments and it the best part of the movie is the creation of Iron Man itself it follows the difficulties of Jason Stark to actually make a superhero. The graphic and special fxs are really cool and seeing the Iron Man itself is probably one of the cooler super hero moments. Robert Downey Jr. is a believable superhero unlike other superhero’s who are always looking to “serve and protect” and are stuck up bitches…Iron Man has much more personality. The problem that lies in this movie from making this “great” is that the plot is quite non-existant…nothing really happens in the movie. I can sum it all in a few sentences and there are certain points that take away from the movie like the sex with the reporter. An addition problem which my friends pointed out was that there wasn’t really a villian to make Iron Man that “super hero”. I secretly love villians and heels (in wrestling). The problem is that he had an enemy and was more against the destruction caused by war. By villian I mean someone you can feel for and can understand why he/she is evil…that duality is a key aspect I look for.

This movie seems to be more prepared for a sequel and like I said, it’s a good movie but not great. It’ll produce a few laughs and some cool action scenes but if you’re expecting “the great fucking thing ever” you’ll be disappointed.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I was not that keen on the soundtrack so like last week, I’ll make my own. (You can find the actual soundtrack here)

1. Iron Man by Black Sabbath (I have to put this up)
2. MX Missiles by Andrew Bird
3. Start A War by The National
4. Killing Armies by Wolf Parade
5. Put Us Back Together Right by Headlights
6. The Great Escape by We Are Scientists
7. Fire It Up by Modest Mouse
8. You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine by Death Above 1979
9. Know You’re Enemy by Rage Against The Machine
10. One Man Army by Our Lady Peace
11. Air War by Crystal Castles

I’m pretty excited and I hope MMA finally gets approved in the province of Ontario so we can get a event here in Toronto. Either way, I hope UFC comes back soon. I’ll be making picks in addition to having a tribute mp3 to the main card fighters.

Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra

1. Midnight Surprise by Lightspeed Champion
-Can Matt Serra pull off the 2nd upset?
2. Frenchy’s By Holy Fuck
-Calling GSP Frenchy insulted him big time
3. Home Field Advantage by Drive-by Truckers
4. If I Faltered Slightly Twice by Of Montreal
-Georges is too good, everyone or almost everyone has St. Pierre taking this one easily. When the pressure is on GSP performs.

Winner: Georges St. Pierre in 5 round round war. I love Matt Serra as well to be honest and he has world class skill and will frustrate St. Pierre at times. It may be boring….

Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy
5. Sing! Captain by The Handsome Furs
- For Charles “Captain Miserable” McCarthy
6.Everything is Average Nowadays by the Kaiser Chiefs
-For Michael Bisping getting mad that McCarthy called him average, such a huge insult.

Winner: Bisping by 2nd round TKO. Rooting for McCarthy though.

Rich Franklin vs Travis Lutter
7. Don’t Weigh Me Down by Broadcast 2000
- Lutter better make weight, he didn’t against Anderson Silva when he had a title shot on the line.
8. Can’t Lose by We Are Scientists
Franklin’s career can probably take only one more loss.

Winner: Travis Lutter by Armbar in Round 3. Picking an upset here.

A pretty weak card but I’m going to see this one anyway because it’s in Canada. The Montreal crowd should make this an event to watch (I envy their atmosphere).

Okay here’s are my goals for Allan’s World Music in 2008:

1. Find at least one more writer (definitely from Toronto) who tastes are a little bit different but still indie. I’ve been asking some friends and I will continue to do so but I may find an “outsider”. If you’re interested feel free to contact me .
Another Step Away by A Place To Bury Strangers

2. Build Up Traffic and Readership. I guess you could say I’m pretty satisfied with the traffic levels and subscribed readers. I think my new short term goal for subscribers would be trying to get it up to the 100 mark. Traffic wise I’ve seen 4 straight days (up until today) of great levels where we were close or above the 1000 mark. That has me totally stoked. Granted the traffic was from being lucky (Hype Machine didn’t update leaving some of my posts for prolonged periods on the first page), from lists (like this one) and doing a post on panda bear .
More Than This by Division Day

3. Start conducting interviews. Whether by e-mail/in person I think I would say I’m pretty shy about doing interviews. I’ve had a few opportunities to do some but reluctantly passed because I feel like I would make a complete idiot out of myself. I’ve been chatting with some friends about interviewing and having what ideas to talk through.
Questions by Jack Johnson

4. See more concerts. If I at least beat 5 (Arcade Fire, White Stripes, Muse, IllScarlett, The Stills) I would be happy. I did get to turn 19 in July so the amount of concerts I was able to go to opened up. Though admittedly I never saw any concerts before ‘07. I probably could’ve seen a lot more shows provided I had more friends who liked the same things. This year I want to see a lot more smaller bands (easy on the pockets) and just go to more venues that I haven’t been to before. I regret not seeing Rilo Kiley and Vampire Weekend. School fucking sucks since the concerts I always want to see fall on a test date it seems. I also want to volunteer at NXNE. I’d probably recommend all writers do so as I want to really establish a really good Toronto blog despite the title name.
If We Cannot See by The Devics

5. Invest in a good camera. If you’ve seen some of the shots I’ve taken at concerts, it’s a sub par quality due to the camera. With only 300 bucks to invest (on cds + upgrading the server) as long as the site is a drag financially, the camera is being put on the backburner. Granted if money does come in, I will definitely get a good one to get some great pics.
Click Click Click Click by Bishop Allen

6. Upgrade the servers (and Wordpress too). I am going to hate upgrading the server. It will probably come out directly out of my pockets unless we somehow can make some money. Space usage is close to 40% and this month (5 gigs isn’t a lot but w/e) we will probably have 80% of our bandwidth used (250 gb bandwidth!). I hate the Wordpress upgrades, a lot of people haven’t recommended it to me but it’s usually for security purposes. I guess this might be something I do today. But either way I hate doing all the work when these things may be way over my head (I’m still a noob, I just wing it when it comes to coding and all these things).
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk

7. Get into better ad programs. You may not like the ads I’ve thrown onto the site but they are here to stay for obvious financial reasons. I do however don’t like a lot of the ads being displayed as it doesn’t sell on my site. I did try to apply to Indieclick but they probably want a more trafficketed site but who knows. I doubt many care about it as it’s really about the content but money is becoming a concern and I don’t want to sell out this blog like I did to my sports blog ($4000 is quite successful though).
Cash Cow by We Are Scientists

8. Have this blog alive and running so I can do the same list for 2009! Have a good new year everyone!
Staying Alive by The Bee Gees