Posted in May 2012 …

May 31 2012
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Best New Music

ALL IS NOT LOST

MATTHEW DEAR – HER FANTASY

Electro music guru Matthew Dear has been around for as long as LCD’s James Murphy, but I had never heard Dear’s music before, so of course he is up for comparison to an artist I know, and LCD seems like a shoe-in. Her Fantasy, like LCD’s greatest songs,  takes a six-minute-plus, mid-tempo song, and miraculously makes it chug forward with incredible excitement. Her Fantasy, also like LCD, takes clear influence from Talking Heads and David Bowie, especially in the choice for vocal manipulation. This song would have fit in seamlessly into Murphy’s last album This Is Happening (and would have even added to its awesomeness). There is just something great about how Dear uses those atmospheric synths with the drum machine and vocal loop. The resulting sound hypnotizes you to follow until the very last seconds. Not any moment of the six minutes and thirteen seconds seems superfluous, and I would have been happy to let it continue. It is great to know that since Murphy has retired, there are still geniuses in the genre continuing their art.

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May 30 2012
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Best New Music

EYE OF THE STORM

DOSE – IS THAT YOU?

I put myself in the boat of people who did not find My Bloody Valentine immediately satisfying. I could not appreciate the melody and vocals at the core of the storm of thick white noise. But that was the nineties, when subtlety in music had not yet caught up with Kevin Shields. By 2012, our ears had been trained to find beauty in the indistinct. We are now accustomed to the thick levels of haze, and My Bloody Valentine can be enjoyed by the masses. New single by Ohio based producer Dose, Is That You?, similarly finds vocals buried in swirling strings, as if the singer was separated from the listener by a sandstorm. The result is a song that feels warm and surreal. However, unlike MBV, a trip hop beat offers a tangible backbone to hold on to, guiding your ears through the fog. Songs in Loveless, like Blown a Wish, felt like faded memories of your best dreams. With Is That You?,  it is a dream you can bob your head to.

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May 29 2012
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Best New Music

EL PRODUCTO

EL-P – DRONES OVER BKLYN

Brooklynite Jaime Meline, former member of the nineties rap group Company Flow, masters in thick, abrasive hip hop. It is dense and aggressive, which can lead to a big ol’ Skrillex mess, or  a hard-hitting success. Drones Over Bklyn is definitely the latter. The jaunty piano line and high pitched chorus cut the overly heavy synth line and angry rhymes to make a fun balance.

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May 29 2012
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Best New Music

THIS DUDE MAKES R&B?

D’EON – TRANSPARENCY PT. II

Photo Credit – Xan Shian

Yeppers. This white, French-Canadian, student of Tibetan music is also a soulful rhythm and blues singer. He may make albums with other Quebec oddball Grimes, and he may be the protege of Oneohtrix Point Never, but this track sounds like mainstream pop gold a la The-Dream. Save the volume manipulation, this track could fit into a Bobby Brown or Janet Jackson album. I would have preferred he refrained from the F bombs while singing (I have a strong belief curse words don’t sound good sung, unless they are done in an angry way), but this track is still awesome eighties R&B bliss.

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May 27 2012
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Best New Music

A SWEET SENTIMENT

THE LUMINEERS – HO HEY/SLOW IT DOWN

I’m usually not one to look past cliche, and the lyrics to this Colorado band’s Ho Hey is smothered in cliche. Take the tired and impersonal introductory lines – “I’ve been trying to do it right, I’ve been living a lonely life”, or not a couple lines after  the write-by-numbers line – “I don’t know where I went wrong, but I can write a song”. But there is something so irresistible about the simple and sweet sentiment – “I belong with you, you belong with me, in my sweet home”. It’s comparable to the happy drunk who makes jokes that aren’t funny, but his gut-busting laughter is so infectious that you can’t help but join along. This jolly tune will have you clapping and smiling in no time. However, further exploration of their debut album does show signs of deeper waters. Slow it Down has a greater feeling of genuineness, a more honest expression of the old Americana sound they are seeking. I’m not sure I know what the lyrics are about, but it damn sure feels like it comes from more personal story-telling than Ho Hey. It is reminiscent of Kings Of Leon’s more poetic moments (yes, they had some). All in all, Lumineers show a great deal of potential, and I am looking forward to their sophomore effort.

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May 25 2012
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Best New Music

A HEAVENLY BEAT

HEAVENLY BEAT – MESSIAH

John Pena, member of the band Beach Fossils, has released another single from his upcoming album Talent. Messiah is a deep rooted earworm that sounds like the offspring of proud parents Junior Boys and The Rapture after taking a heavy dose of ecstasy. Too convoluted of a description? Well you’ll have to listen to get a better understanding. You’ll enjoy those excellent looped strings and sunny classical guitar strumming, it’s a perfect pairing. This Brooklynite really has created a heavenly beat. 

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May 24 2012
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Best New Music

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE STAVES

THE STAVES – TONGUE BEHIND MY TEETH

I went to see Bon Iver in concert yesterday, and of course him and his band were amazing. But there aren’t any new Bon Iver songs to post, or any Bon Iver hidden gems you may not have heard, so instead I will talk about the opening act. The Staves are three sisters from Watford, England who master in sleepy folk with beautiful vocal harmonies. All three ladies sing together, and seem to weave each others voices in and out with such skill and ease you wonder if they had been doing it since they were toddlers. The sound is gentle and melancholy – book reading-music, but with more depth than your average Starbucks soundtrack. One of the sisters laughed after performing Tongue Behind my Teeth, admitting that it is as close as the sisters get to “rocking out”. It is far from rocking out, but the slightly louder acoustic guitar, and the slightly greater sense of urgency add a certain something to take the band out of the realm of book-reading music to great singer/song-writer material.

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May 22 2012
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Best New Music

A GOOD OL’ FASHIONED FOOT STOMPER

ADRIAN GLYNN – MOTHER MARY

What is it about a good ol’ fashioned foot stomper that makes for such an exciting listen? Maybe it’s linked to our tendencies towards group mentality. The rhythmic pulsing like a hundred hearts echoes through the air when multiple percussions all play together. Like Native American battle drums, it gives an animalistic sense of great strength in numbers. And all heroic suburbanites like me get to embrace their inner-warrior when listening to raw powerhouse songs that charge forward like Modest Mouse’s Parting of the Sensory or Dropkick Murphys’ I’m Shipping Up to Boston. It’s enough to make me bang my fist on my Ikea coffee table… well maybe if I didn’t have to Windex the smudges right after. Adrian Glynn’s Mother Mary has that exact marching soldier quality with what sounds like actual foot stomping and hand clapping. The western twang in the guitars only works to enhance the wild nature of the track. You can actually imagine a group of musicians in an old cabin pounding the wooden floor boards with their boots causing the dust to fly up with each beat. The highlight is the fast forward in the last seconds, which makes for the perfect ending to this Vancouverite’s thumping tune. I’ll have to get the Windex before the girlfriend sees the smudges.

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May 18 2012
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Best New Music

WE’RE ALL GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL

PULLED APART BY HORSES – WOLF HAND

Photo Credit – Kristian Yeomans http://www.kristianyeomans.com/

These brit boys are kicking some ass with Alt Rock gems. Like fellow UK natives Mclusky, Pulled Apart by Horses excels at liberated, balls to the wall, maniacal music. I haven’t heard an American band (with the exception of Cloud Nothings) bring back the spirit of Nirvana as well as these gents from across the pond. In fact, one of the guys is wearing a Nirvana t-shirt in the video. Wolf Hand is full of teen angst and power chords, and a line that will be an anthem for teens rocking out this summer – “When I was a kid I was a dick. But nothing changes!!” This is hell-raising grunge gold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0vYLlqwuuc

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May 18 2012
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Hidden Gems

i <3 ICEBERG RADIO

OHBIJOU – NIAGRA

Photo credit – Jess Baumung

I purchased a new vehicle a couple months back, and as perk, one year of Sirius Satellite Radio was provided. I know it is all a ploy to get you hooked on it, but it is cool nonetheless. And without it, I would have never discovered channel 151, Iceberg Radio, the official greatest radio station ever. It is the be-all end-all for great Canadian indie music (at least from my ignorant point of view). From Arcade Fire to Plants and Animals to Woodpigeon to City & Colour to The Tragically Hip, Iceberg has the best new music that Canucks have to offer. It feels like every day I find a new song I have never heard and completely love. Favourite of these so far is Ohbijou’s Niagra. This Toronto band (of which I had never heard of) has created a devastatingly beautiful track in Niagra. Sometimes a song just has the perfect pace, perfect feel to pull you in close. Whether it is Casey Mecija’s soft and yearning voice (reminiscent of Joanna Newsom and China’s Hopscotch), or the dropping notes at the end of each measure which seem to take the listener falling freely with them (especially the simple but stellar strings after every line of the chorus), each component sounds right. I’ll definitely be spending this long weekend exploring more of their catalogue. Thanks Iceberg and Ohbijou, you guys have made my spring.

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