I love Canada. I really do. I grew up in Seattle so Vancouver being only a few hours away, it became a haven of chaos for my friends and I in our younger years. Mostly because the drinking age is 19, which I think is a good thing. Kids are gonna drink. Might as well have them drinking comfortably and legally in a bar, rather than in a park where they could be raped and or stabbed by a hobo. Come to think of it the drinking thing isn’t the only forward thinking they have going on up there. The government is moving toward legalizing and taxing pot. They also legalized same sex marriage nationwide in 2005. Sure we here stateside call Canada “America’s Hat” but to me that isn’t an insult. If they are “America’s Hat”, they’re a super fly lid that Don the Magic Juan would wear while he has fine ladies hanging off of him.
Not only are they up with the times socially, but their music lately has been pretty great. No longer is Canada the butt of every alt-rock joke. They’re separating themselves from the Avril Lavine’s and Chad Kroger’s of yesteryear.
SIDE BAR: Don’t send me an email to point out that both Nickleback and Avril Lavigne have sold shit loads of records. In a past article I took a jab at Katy Perry and someone sent me an email pointing out her millions in sales. You think I don’t know she’s sold oodles of albums? My point here is, no one who bought a Nickelback t-shirt back in the day is all that pumped to own it now. No one I know is still jamming This is How You Remind Me, unless they are being “ironic”. He’s a message to those people listening to Nickleback ironically. STOP
Back to the article, this week’s AOTW is one of the many new bands coming out of Canada that not only doesn’t suck, but they’re making rock music that’s interesting and fun. Hopefully these guys become as godlike as their name implies. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Zeus.
Here’s the single How Does It Feel? off of their debut album Say Us.
Normally I’m not that big on music videos, but this one’s inclusion of ninjas won me over. I love ninjas. If you don’t love ninjas…what is your problem? Get on bored with the rest of the ninja lovers like me.
The band formed in 2009 by childhood friends Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson. They had been bouncing around different 
bands in Toronto for years and decided to hook up and make the music they had always wanted to. They enlisted their two buddies Neil Quin and Rob Drake. They came upon the band name when the first venue they played needed a name to put on the marquee. Why not Zeus?
After a while they began releasing EPs. The first of which was titled Sounds Like Zeus from 2009 with Say Yes following soon after. The best way I can describe their sound is if you took elements of Dr. Dog, The Sheepdogs, and Teeth, and gave them a 70’s flare. The vocals are Doobie Brothers-esque and I love it. This next track is called Renegade.
After heavy touring heavily in the Great White North, the U.S. and overseas, they began releasing a series of 7” singles with the label Arts & Crafts. My favorite of which has a title that I find myself asking people everyday; Are You Gonna Waste My Time?
This year they released their second full-length album titled Busting Visions. It’s 21 songs of pure indie-rock gold. The sound is bigger and richer this time around. I can honestly say this might be my favorite album of the year currently. I can’t stop listening to With Eyes Closed.
Check these fellas out. They are up in Canada touring currently, so if any of you are up in those areas, I highly suggest checking them out. These dudes are impressive, artful musicians that are highly skilled. Thanks again Canada. You’ve got my full attention now so please keep the good tunes coming.
Big Hugs,
Kelly
LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/
I’m sitting here writing this on Thursday morning, literally barely able to contain myself. Today is a day that has been 14 years in the making. For tonight, I am going to witness a performance by two of my idols. I will be within a few feet of these dudes! IT’S HAPPENING!!!! Am I getting across that I am fucking pumped? The two men I will be seeing tonight changed my life. To be honest I never thought this moment was going to happen. With the way hip-hop was trending in the 90’s, I figured at least one of them would be dead by this point, or at the very least in jail. But things have fallen in my favor. I will finally see the two rappers that made my love of hip-hop reach epic heights. I love them separately sure, but it is the collaborations between that two that melted my young mind. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: REDMAN & METHOD MAN!!!!
FEEL THAT! Man, I have flashbacks every fucking time I listen to this record. In junior high holding the disc man flat on the bus ride to school, with the anti-skip on. Sure that shit drains the battery, but it’s a must have. Can’t have these tracks jumpin’. No way, no how.
The producer of this movie came to talk at my college way back when. I told her it was one of my favorite movies of all time. Pretty sure she thought I was fucking with her. The harder I stressed the fact that I wasn’t joking at all, the more she was offended. What are you gonna do? Some people just don’t know how to take a damn compliment.
I don’t sleep a whole lot. I think I’ve brought that up here before. I don’t know what the deal is. As soon as the lights go out and I’m alone in the dark, my brain starts running on high. I guess I just don’t have the ability to naturally turn off. Sometimes music helps. The trouble is you gotta find the right tracks or you might find yourself worse off than when you started. Nothing like a drawn out Bob Dylan track to get you thinking on shit you don’t fully understand. Next thing you know it’s 4AM and you are starring at the ceiling trying to figure out “who you are”. You gotta find the sweet spot. Few artists are in that sweet spot. This week’s legend is one of the few that help me out as sleep eludes. This week ARTIST OF THE WEEK: LEGEND is Lead Belly aka Leadbelly. The spelling has been up for debate for some time. I think it’s that analog white noise hiss that gets me. Something about it gets me to slow down. I love that hiss. It’s comforting like nothing else I know. Good Night Irene is in heavy rotation come night night time.
twenty or so years of his life, but then he got squirrelly. Was busted for carrying a pistol in 1915, was sent away again in 1918 for killing a man. He ended up back in jail in 1930 for attempted homicide and then again in 1938 for stabbing a guy. It was during one of these several stints in jail when he was discovered by John and Alan Lomax. They recorded him for the Library of Congress while he s was still incarcerated in 1934. The songs included:
The Lomax boys found Lead Belly to be a great resource for the songs of the South. Not only was his catalogue of southern folk and gospel astounding but the guy could play nearly every instrument he got his hands on. Sure he was noted for the 12-String guitar, but he also had his way with the 6-String, harp, mandolin, and accordion.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, let me be the first to tell you that Daft Punk has a new album called Random Access Memories. It’s pretty damn good. The French dudes/ Robots have gone in a different direction, and it’s fun and funky. The past albums have been raucous electronic furies that have inspired many a drunken dance parties, I’m sure this record will do the same but in a more subtle way. Throw back jam style. I’m not gonna talk about the Punk Robots today though. The blogosphere has been overrun with news on them in the past few weeks. Not to say that I don’t think they deserve the attention. Quiet the contrary. I spent many a sleepless nights with headphones strapped to my head, writing, editing, or playing Halo 3 to these guys. Sure Halo 3 isn’t as productive as the other two options, but damnit if that Robot Rock doesn’t make the multiplayer experience that much crazier. While Daft Punk is the dopest, there are some fellow Frog electro cats that seem to have fallen by the wayside. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Justice.
know why that is. I’ll get countless recommendations from people and ignore them. I ignore them because I find no reason to trust fans of electronic music. Most of them are fried to a point where they have no discernable taste whatsoever. Club drugs will have that effect on people. Justice stood out though. The reason being, they are flat-out rock stars. I realized that after watching their rock-doc A Cross The Universe. The whole damn thing is on Youtube. Watch it here. These guys are fucking crazy. This movie has everything, great tunes, great visuals, drinking, drugs, guns, partying, and sex. It also enlightened me of the fact that you can Fedex handguns to people. Who fucking knew?
The problem is, you can only listen to Lou Reed talk/sing for so long before you start to think about killing yourself. I needed something that had the vibe of The Underground, but didn’t push me to suicidal tendencies. The band I found to take that position just released their first single last month. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Casual Sex (The scottish guys. Not the guys from Finland)
wouldn’t be surprised if this song shows up in the next indie-darling movie that people can’t stop quoting. It’s that type of song.
I bring this up because this week at the top of this section I found a band called Merchandise. Not only is Merchandise not the “worst new music” but they are actually quite good if their sound is your thing. Merchandise is weird, they’re trying something new, and at times they are really damn fun. Here’s a fuck you to the concept of having a WORST NEW MUSIC column. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: MERCHANDISE.
two people suffering from dementia. You really have no idea where things started, where they are going, and what the hell to make of it when it’s over. Songs come out of the gate sounding like ambient experimental rock and then divulge into an endless punk thrash. It’s weird. Their 7’ Es Muerte which came out a few years later shows this same confusion, they lost the experimental elements entirely and went full bore into noise rock. A poor man’s Sonic Youth of sorts.
It took me three years to finally find Rudy’s. There I met Casey. He had the haircut I wanted so I just told him, “give me what you’ve got.” I was in and out in 10 minutes. I left looking fantastic. I had six cuts with the man. Then he left me. He left me for the big city and big dreams of New York. During all of those cuts there were three topics we hit on: baseball, football, and Neutral Milk Hotel. This one’s for you Casey. This Week’s Artist of The Week: Neutral Milk Hotel.
beautiful. Not only do they feature early tracks from a man that would become an icon, but also a varying array of strange experimental soundscapes, as well as :59 second interludes of screaming over muffled music. These demos give an idea of the what was to come from Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel.
together in song, they are powerfully moving. After the release Mangum found the permanent members that would come to make up Neutral Milk Hotel, Scott Spillane, Jeremy Barnes, and Julian Koster. Despite the addition of backing, the band was and always will be Jeff Mangum’s alone.
The band went on a yearlong worldwide tour with Aeroplane. That can be grueling on anyone, especially if you tend to have a more fragile personality, which Mangum defiantly has. They played their last show in October of 1998. Maybe it was the fame, maybe it was the touring, perhaps it was the media, whatever it was, Mangum had a break down. Something sent Jeff Mangum into the shadows and he took Neutral Milk Hotel with him. The group disbanded in 1998. For the most part Mangum has stayed out of the limelight returning to the stage sparingly, usually only to promote various charities. Mangum is often asked about making another album, but has given no indication that it will ever happen. Outside of a few bar gigs here and there, his only big appearance in the past 15 years came in 2012 when he appeared at the Coachella Music Festival. It seems odd for a guy who hates big crowds, phony media persona’s, and being in the spot light, to have his first big show at a music festival attended by 150,000 people that are generally some of the biggest ass bags in Southern California. I’m just saying man, baby steps. Plus it’s very hot there.
Generally these articles are pretty fun and silly. I write about my issues with the world and the music I listen to while dealing with said issues. But I’m not in a fun mood these days. I have no reason to be. My personal life is a mess, my career is in a stand still, I’m about to be unemployed, and I can’t remember the last time that laughed for the hell of it. This week was even worse. A day that I hold near and dear was forever tarnished by the monstrous acts of a few. Sure the bombing of the Boston Marathon has saturated the media for the past few days, and sure you’ve heard enough about it, but I’m going to get my fucking say. Boston was my town. For a long time I felt like I didn’t have a home. Seattle had always been the place I grew up, but after the age of 15 I had never lived in a place for more than a year. It took me six years before finally settling down. Six years of the vagabond lifestyle before I finally landed in the city of Boston. It really is unlike any other place in America. It’s a blue-collar town where the people are hardened, but once you enter that inner circle, you are there forever. Boston has a special place in my heart. I was there for five years and I will always look back on those years as some of the happiest of my life. I may never be able to say that I am from Boston, but I will forever be able to say that, at one point, it was my home. This Week is an AOTW tribute to everyone from Allston to Downtown, from Southie to Cambridge, from the North End to Fenway; big ups to Boston and the music about you. We are all hanging with you.
Some mainstream bands are trying to keep the genre alive (Black Keys, Jack White, Mofro). What do they have in common? All white guys. And now, the WHITEST OF WHITE GUYS (Justin Vernon) has a blues album. Vernon is more recognized by his band name Bon Iver. That’s right. The sleepy dude from Bon Iver has a blues album. It doesn’t get much whiter than Bon Iver. Prior to listening to the record I was considering sending my friend a long email about the “bastardization of black music,” but then I played it. Low and behold, it’s good. This week’s ARTIST OF THE WEEK: The Shouting Matches.
aren’t conducive to day drinking. They are best for lulling people to sleep. But that just isn’t my thing.
This isn’t Vernon’s first foray into another genre. Last year he dabbled in a bit of hip hop with rapper POS. It’s good to see the man isn’t afraid to try new stuff. Too many times, guys from the indie scene keep putting out the same songs over and over again. It gets old fast. One trick ponies seem to have a longer lifespan in that genre than any other due to the fact that fans hesitate saying anything negative about it for fear of being mocked for “not getting it”.
When I first moved back to Seattle to finish up my high school career. I would have these long drives back and forth from my grand parents’ house to where all of my friends lived. During those drives I would listen to Seattle’s alternative station 107.7 KNDD ( The End). This was the peak of my happiness I think. I really didn’t are about anything. I had my whole future in front of me. This year was my reward for the time spent in the Midwest hellhole that was Carmel, IN. So I tired to find music, happy music, that matched this new found idealism. That was why I latched on to this week’s AOTW: Legend. It just sounded fucking pretty. It was uplifting. In no time at all I couldn’t get the songs out of my head. Soon I had bought the album and had it on repeat. What the hell had happened to me? I had gone from a kid who liked gutter hip-hop and grunge music to singing love songs in an attempted falsetto. At the time I thought it was kind of sad, but I look back know on the tenth anniversary of Give Up’s release and I think that I really would like to feel that way again, happy and most importantly hopeful. Good music is good music. This Week’s Artist of the Week: Legend is The Postal Service.
Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello (DNTL) AKA The Postal Service. The album is ten songs that are electro pop perfection. The harmonies between Gibbard puts together are unrivaled. He might have the most heartbreaking voice in pop music.
holds up, whereas everything aside from the Method Man scene in Garden State feels like it’s taking itself waaaay to seriously. You was on Scrubs Zach Braff!! Take your money, buy a nice home, and start a family. Quit being so damn sad.
be another. BUT despite saying that for the past ten years……there still is no new album. There is a double disc reissue of Give Up featuring two new tracks and long with a ton of B-sides and remixes. One of these new tracks A Tattered Line of String. It’s a decent song. Not great. Good. To be honest, it’s just good to hear something new from Gibbard before he buries himself in his summer hobby: tweeting about Seattle Mariners baseball.
