Some records

Back in spring I was feeling a bit down in the dumps and wondering if my appetite for new music was beginning to taper with the onset of middle age - now it's six months later and the heap of CDs piling up on the floor beside my computer is imperiling I seem to have acquired a heap of new stuff to tantalize the ol' lugholes.


Acid Mothers Temple, Babylon, April 30, 2007

Some of it was kind of obvious: I filled out my Harvey Milk collection with their riff monster The Pleaser and their super debut My Love is Higher than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be. I bought the new Circle album (like I always do) Katapult; I'm also thrilled to hear the band has regained the rights to their classic Meronia and plan a rerelease in the not-too-distant future. I also got the new Reverend Bizarre, III: So Long Suckers. It doesn't impress me as much as Rectory, but is still pretty cool. Good cover art too. And of course I bought some Acid Mothers Temple stuff - not just their latest CD, but a decent concert DVD, Hardcore Uncle Meat, recorded in Croatia in 2005 during the Cosmic Inferno incarnation. My taste for heavy music has slowly been creeping in a more black metal direction. I picked up Southern Lord's two Velvet Cacoon rereleases and Wolves in The Throne Room's Diadem of 12 Stars. and its followup Two Hunters. I suspect that both of these groups were listening to My Bloody Valentine when they were supposed to be listening to Venom. I've also picked up a pair of Xasthur albums: Subliminal Genocide and To Violate The Oblivious, and hear some of the same influence, although that may just be the bargain-basement recording techniques the folks in the black metal genre seem to favour.


New Pornographers, Bluesfest, July 16, 2006

Mind you, it hasn't all been heavy. I loved Oneida offshoot Oakley Hall's last album, and their new one sounds great too. I'll Follow You has a superbly warm production. I also bought and enjoyed the New Pornographers album (I'm with Matthew Pollesel on this one). I've been entranced by Marissa Nadler since buying a copy of her sophomore album, and am even more impressed by her her third effort, Songs III: Bird on the Water. Such a lovely voice in service of such finely crafted lyrics. I walked past Mountain Home's debut a couple of times, then heard that Nadler provided most of the vocals and snapped it up as well. Another fine effort. The new CD from Six Organs of Admittance on Drag City is also excellent: Ben Chasny is some kind of genius. I haven't heard tell of a new Drive-By Truckers album, but we do have the next best thing in retired Trucker Jason Isbell's new solo album and Bettye Lavette's new soul smasher Scene of the Crime, recorded with loads of help from various DBTers. Then there's Spoon. After buying Ga Ga Ga Ga, I felt compelled to buy their entire back catalogue (barring Girls Can Tell, which I already had a copy of). Also I bought both of Amy Winehouse's albums. I'm quite keen on her music, so I hope she gets herself together.


KTL, Psychic Paramount, Whitehorse, White Lichens

And then there's the whacko noise. I don't want to live in a world without earbleed like White Lichens self-titled album on Holy Mountain, KTL and a newer favourite, Psychic Paramount. I always thought I'd pick up something by their predecessor, Laddio Bolocko ever since Your Flesh raved about them, but never got around to it (story of my life). Now that No Quarter has released a comp of their early work (as well as an exhaustive roundup of Laddio Bolocko as well) I've got no excuse. I started by grabbing the LP rerelease of Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural, which is going to make it into my year-end Top 10 near the top of the list, and have since snared the first of No Quarter's 2CD comps and a live recording appropriately dubbed Live 2002 The Franco-Italian Tour. Another entry in the stuff-I've-been-waiting-to-hear category is Double Leopards' Halve Maen, which is just about the most spooky slab of noise I've lent an ear to. I've also been finding reliable results from the 20 Buck Spin label with releases from Australian sludge lords Whitehorse and the Monarch/Grey Daturas split Dawn of the Catalyst.
Finally, on the retro side of the things I've been getting major kicks from the two-CD comp of Victoria, B.C. punk bands, All Your Ears Can Hear, Culture's reggae masterpiece Two Sevens Clash, John Uzoni's guitar monster Peacepipe and Food's splendid psych pop LP.

• Show reminder: Everlea, Around Tiffany, Cain and Abel, Lifestory:Monologue and Ben Scriver perform at Mavericks.

Quarterly report

I've exhausted my backlog of show photos (unless I start digging through crates, and I don't feel quite up to that at the moment) - so here comes another edition of what I've been listening to of late. Three months into the new year, and a definite theme is beginning to evolve - namely I missed a lot of good stuff last year. Well, better late than never, I guess.


Grizzly Bear at Barrymore's, Feb. 5, 2007

I seem to be on a bit of a pop kick these days. I grabbed a copy of Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block at End Hits. I also finally got around to picking up a Decemberists album (I came across a used promo copy of Crane Wife). The Robyn Hitchcock comparisons are certainly justified, particularly on the title track. I bought Grizzly Bear's Yellow House at their super show two months ago and am still enjoying it to an unreasonable degree. Another band whose live show encouraged me to pick up their latest is the Besnard Lakes, Besnard Lakes is The Dark Horse really shows off frontman's Jace Lasek's voice, songwriting skills and production talents.
Animal Collective's Panda Bear got a glowing review for his solo album Person Pitch from the usual suspects for his warped take on the Beach Boys sound. It's good. Not 9.4 good, but consistently engaging.
I've also bought a few CDs from old favourites. Royal Trux is one my favourite bands, and I find myself enjoying Jennifer Herrema's new RTX album Western Xterminator as well. It's less experimental than her Trux stuff but still packs an Accelerator-sized kick with its streamlined update of L.A. hair metal. Jay Reatard's Blood Visions doesn't entertain me quite as much as his Bad Times and Reatards stuff (it leans more toward his Lost Times stuff), but has its moments.
Closer to home I got James McKenty and The Spades' new release, Let It Grow, an appealingly lean and rootsy rock album and Casey Comeau and The Centretown Wilderness Club's Taking Routes EP. I'll surprise no one by saying I like it a lot as well.
As usual I'm listening to a bunch of older stuff as well. I bought a copy of The Congos' classic Heart of the Congos at Sounds Unlikely; I'm not a huge reggae fan but Heart undoubtedly deserves all the applause thrown at it. You may recall I was lamenting the difficulty of finding a good Erkin Koray comp a while ago. But who needs a comp when Korea's World Psychedelia label is busy releasing moderately priced copies of his original albums, to wit Elektronik Turkuler, 2, and the self-titled roundup of his early sides from the Istanbul label. All three albums are amazing. Still on Turkey, Fikret Kizilok's self-titled CD is also a corker. From the same folks I also got a copy of the Mops' Psychedelic Sounds of Japan. Swell. Not so successful is San Ul Lim's 3. They wanted to be Korea's AC/DC, but fell short because they lacked the technological know-how to imitate the Australian group's raunchy sounds. It does have its charms, but isn't hugely memorable. I've also started investigating the Numero Group's soul compilations, starting with the Twinight and Bandit label roundups. The former I like a great deal, the latter is enjoyable but not as consistent to my ears.



Also I'll take this opportunity to remind you that I'm now posting the occasional show picture on Flickr, for those who like their photos without my accompanying babble.

• Show reminder: The Fucking Machines and Montreal's Devil Eyes perform at Babylon; Exclaim throws its Spring Fling at the Capital Music Hall with Champion, Malajube, Chromeo and You Say Party! We Say Die! Vancouver's The Manvils perform at Zaphod's.

Damn Yankees

Sigh. Two days to go before I can post live pictures (I'll be seeing Beirut and Animal Hospital on Thursday). Therefore you get more idle chatter about what I'm listening to these days.
Like it says off to the right, I review stuff for pennyblackmusic.com. Among the many labels that grace pennyblackmusic.com with review copies is Detroit stoner rawk label Small Stone. I seem to be one of the few PB writers into the heavy stoner southern sound, so a fair portion of them float my way. Like many specialist labels, Small Stone sometimes puts out stuff that only a genre fanatic could love, but that's most definitely not the case with a trio of new releases.
The first two, despite originating in Boston and New York, dip heavily into the southern rock vein.
Album No. 1 is by The Brought Low. The Queens-based quartet owe a large debt to Lynyrd Skynyrd on Right On Time, their second album.
The Rolling Stones also loom large over the proceedings. The acoustic intro to A Better Life’ smacks of the Stones' Exile years (the thundering chords that follow could find a home on any number of AC/DC albums) while the seedy storyline of Hail Mary (a tribute to a stripper) is reinforced with Sticky Finger-style sonics, including some roadhouse piano.
Meanwhile, Antler also serve up a (raging) slab of southern boogie rock, all slathered in organ on Nothing A Bullet Can't Cure. I also hear touches of Alice in Chains and Cop Shoot Cop in their angst-fuelled southern dirges.
Though I haven't gotten around to typing up a review yet, you can be sure I'll have nothing but nice things to say about Los Natas' El Hombre. The Argentinean trio have set aside both the raga experiments of the Toba Trance and the Kyuss-loving doom of Corsario Negro for fuzzy rock and some acoustic workouts.
Course, not everything I'm listening to came in a padded envelope from Scotland.
I've also been spinning The Gargoyles' Without End. Released on the Sympathy label back in 1992, it's about as solid a slab of Stooges-styled rock as the decade saw.
Of course, you can't live by old style Iggy-philes alone, so I have some new-school Pop-fans as well, in the shape of the debut from Awesome Color. They even come from Ann Arbour.
Finally, I've been digging the thumping drums and triple-guitar attack of Roy and the Devil's Motorcycle. It's on the Voodoo Rhythm label, and therefore is both bad and good for you. They remind me somewhat of Jack Meatbeat and the UGS, the whacked-out predecessor to The Flaming Sideburns.

Those Bastards!

The Heartless Bastards' debut was one of my favourite records of 2005; Stairs and Elevators was a raw, vigorous effort. Much of it was recorded without any intent of releasing it (at least on the part of the musicians). The band reminds me of P.J. Harvey (a comparison that's been made by others). If they ever play Ottawa the promoter should get The Banditas to fill the bill. Though the band's sound is growlier and thicker, there's something about the Heartless Bastard's music that puts me in mind of The Replacements. There's some of the same passion, and not an ounce of pretense in the lyrics.
Anyway, on to All This Time, their latest, which I like even more. I grabbed a copy at Birdman Sound a week or so ago. Right from the first track it's plain that the Heartless Bastards have stepped up their game. Into The Open has all the hallmarks that made Stairs excellent, most particularly guitarist and singer Erika Wennerstrom's powerhouse voice, but there's also a potent grip on dynamics in evidence as the band shifts with aplomb between piano-dappled verses to the gritty crescendo of the choruses.
There's also a great production job, courtesy of Brian Niesz. I'd compare his esthetic to Matthew Smith's. Like the Outrageous Cherry frontman and producer, Niesz goes easy on the multitracking and effects, but administers a fair dose of reverb to stop the fuzz and rumble from getting too cloying and muddy. I gather most of his work is in producing live stuff for radio; just the kind of guy you'd want for a stripped down but powerful sound.

No particular place to go

Things are going to be quiet on the photography front for the next little while - the only thing there's a chance I'll make before my next break from work barring a show from Starsailor on Monday is the Field Registry, Poorfolk and The Soiree at Irene's (even then, I'm gonna be late). Thus for the next week prepare to read my brilliant opinions on music and see mouldy old photos from the depths of my back catalogue.

I'm a big fan of freak folk acts like The Dave Redford Trio, Ben Chasny's Six Organs of Admittance, No Neck Blues Band and the older outfits from who they draw inspiration: Ed Askew, Incredible String Band, Simon Finn, Gary "Red Hash" Higgins, Comus and the like. Despite that, I've been late to the party when it comes to The Wooden Wand, a.k.a. James Toth, and his co-conspirators in the Vanishing Voice and Sky High Band. It's a pretty big party - I strolled over to the discography to see how many releases he had. About 46, including CDs, LPs, cassettes and CD-rs. This crew obviously adheres to the Acid Mothers Temple school of music production!
His solo album Harem of The Sundrum & The Witness Figg is his debut album, it's also the first one I picked up. Despite bearing the imprint of the 5RC label - which is also responsible for releasing works by bands like Deerhoof and Amps for Christ - it's fairly straightforward. There's a second guitar (I suspect multi-tracking). There's also a second, female voice for harmony - other than that it's just Mr. Toth sounding a bit like Devendra Banhart at his loneliest.
Another 5RC release, Gypsy Freedom, released earlier this year is a far less lucid affair - not that there's anything wrong with that. Free-jazz saxophonist and flautist Daniel Carter guests, and his tendency to wind along permeates the album. He teams with a female vocalist for a stripped-down sax and voice duet on opener Friend That Just Isn't So. That's a prelude to the No Neck Blues Band style free form folk of Didn't It Rain. Jangling bells, aimless flute, some bassy thumping and a stumbling raga figure will make you wonder if you haven't slipped a Cerberus Shoal album into the player by accident.
My favourite one is his recent Second Attention. A few facts about this album:

• There's an ultra-echoey duel between guitar and organ on Portrait in The Clouds that makes 1960s garage rock sound hi-fi.
• There's Bob Dylan-grade snark on the the spiritual putdown Crucifixion, Pt. II.
• The cover appropriates the artwork from John Martyn's Stormbringer! (Pictured at right)

Apart from the various acts I've already cited, I'd recommend The Wooden Wand to anyone keen on Will Oldham's multiplicity of projects, Leonard Cohen, The Sun City Girls, Alphane Moon, Espers and Current 93. The incorporation of religious themes put me strongly in mind of Current 93's Black Ships Ate The Sky.

Sound on sound

Since I'm still paying off my camera, I've been making an effort to avoid blowing all my cash on music. It has not been a successful effort, but at least I tried. Today I cruised downtown to sell off some CDs I no longer want or need (or in the case of MC Lars, ever did), and picked up a bunch of tickets for upcoming shows (Lovely Feathers, Islands, Pink Mountaintops, Bellrays, Pelican/Mono) then bused over to Organized Sound to unburden the store of some of its vinyl and CDs at the going-out-of-business sale.
I bought Matt Valentine and Erika Elder's Ragas and Blues - Fantastic String Music, at the suggestion of former OS desker and Les Allumettes drummer Andy Cant. For some reason, even though I have one of his CDs and quite like Valentine's associates in P.G. Six and the Tower Recordings I completely blanked on his name - you know you're getting old when you can't dredge up the names of psych-folk obscurantists at will. I also got Charambalides' IN C R EASE - "About time someone bought that album!" someone said. Eclipse released it in 2002, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear it had been sitting in the bin for the last four years. Throw in a copy of Jana Hunter's Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom and that's it for my long and fruitful experience as an Organized Sound customer.
Some may think it silly to feel sentimental about a record store, but who else in town would feel compelled to stock a B.C. Gilbert CD (which I passed on, tempting though it was in its little wooden box)?
I also went next door to grab a Heavy Trash ticket and - speaking of sentiment - I also bought the new Nikki Sudden 7-inch on Munster, Hanoi Jane/Pretty Little Pretty next door at Birdman Sound. It was the first of what was supposed to be an ongoing venture between Sudden and Munster. I hope there are other recordings in the bag, because both sides are cool stuff.
Speaking of Sudden (warning - major diversion ahead), he also appears on the pair of Television Personalities tributes put out by The Beautiful Music. He performed the title track on the first, If I Could Write Poetry came out last year, and now we've been graced with a vinyl only Alternative Television Personalities tribute, Someone To Share My Life With, which features Sudden on a different mix of the tune. With the number of TVP fans out there, I wouldn't be surprised to see an Alternative to the Alternative Television Personalities Tribute either ...
Anyway, back to the here and now. I also got the CD I'm listening to as I type, the debut from heavy psych dealers Mammatus, pictured above. Unfortunately my scan doesn't do the Arik Roper cover justice. Think Comets on Fire meets High on Fire (High on Comets?) . Their bio references early Monster Magnet, and they're on Holy Mountain, so you know they're way out there, man. I also grabbed the new Fucking Machines 7-inch and the Nick Castro CD on Eclipse, but I haven't had a chance to listen to either, since I'm about to take off for dinner. Then I'll run off to see C'mon at The Dominion.
Obviously, not spending money on music is a lost cause where I'm concerned - but isn't it always?

In stereo

It's going to take me a little while to process my latest photos (if I've taken any - I'm actually writing this Monday, on the assumption that I've been to see The Jesus Mullet and Mighty Eagle Band in the meanwhile) so instead you will be subjected to a list of cool stuff I've been listening to lately, ranked in the order I thought of them (which may or may not be significant).

1. Young and Sexy Panic If You Find It. The other pop band on Mint now has three excellent albums of Beach Boys influenced boy-girl duets. I can hardly wait until April 15, when they play Zaphod's.
2. Mott the Hoople Mott. Reissued along with All The Young Dudes, the great lost rock'n'roll band of the 1970s.
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds The Road to God Knows Where/Live at the Paradiso. A more ferocious live set than 2003's God Is In The House, and all the better for it - though the fact they spliced the performance so that Cave's suit jacket keeps appearing and disappearing is a little disconcerting.
4. Residual Echoes Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean. It's on Holy Mountain and it's the offspring of a fellow traveller of Comets on Fire. Needless to say, it is crazy-ass psychedelica.
5. Motorpsycho Black Hole/Blank Canvas. Damn - it looks like banjo-playing drummer Hakon Gebhardt has left the band, leaving core members Bent Saether and Hangus Magnus Ryan to cut back on the International Tussling and returns to the band's harder rocking origins. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
   

And now, a show reminder: Elliot Brood and the Golden Famile play Zaphod's tonight. They were scheduled to play Friday, but the date has been moved up.

The day of stuff

Friday, and so many show possibilities! There's: Gogol Bordello and Panic and the Rebels at Barrymore's; The Flatliners, The Rude Dudes, Finklestein Shit Kids and the marvelously named Captain Skippy and the Space Pirates at Cafe Dekcuf; Hi Lo Trons and As The Poets Affirm at Babylon; Siobhan and Steve Stacey and The Stump Splitters at Zaphod's. Well okay, that's only four possibilities, but still pretty good!



And now, in lieu of doing the actual work of making up a post about last Sunday's Pony Up!/Spiral Beach/Les Allumettes show, I'm going to tell you what's on the stereo.

• The Goslings, Between The Dead - I got this after reading a glowing review at Tiny Mix Tapes. "...[T]hundering batch of psychedelic noise rock ... thick layer of ringing power chord guitar sludge ... enough to make the members of Comets on Fire's mouths water." I figured this was my kind of thing, and obtained a copy from the nice folks at Crucial Blast, who went above and beyond the call of duty to get it to me. It doesn't live up to its billing (really, what could ...) but its still good in an early Melvins way.
  
• Steve Wynn, ...tick ... tick ...tick - The Paisley Underground legend gets a pair of brass knuckles and a bunch of noisy youngsters.
• Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, Starless and Bible Black Sabbath - Kawabata Makoto seems to like to save his heavy stuff for the alien8 label; he rides a killer riff all night long with his newly rejuvenated bandmates.
• Gorillas, Message to the World - A garage rocker with Britain's largest sideburns and a love for Jimi Hendrix cocks his ear to punk and kicks out an album's worth of kickass rock'n'roll.
• Carlangas, The Legend of King Killjoy - Charlie Brooks and Co. kick out album No. 3; it's another stellar slab of funk, psych and folk-tinged rock.
• Kelley Stoltz, The Sun Comes Through - Stoltz is a pop-psych savant, and this is a very sweet taster for his upcoming full length.

A bunch of records

I think 2005 was a great year for music. Narrowing a list down to a Top 10 would be too much of a chore, so I'm going to make you do all the hard work by wading through all this blather about the tidal wave of cool sounds I submerged in this year ...


Black Mountain at Babylon

To start things off, 2005 was definitely one of the best years for music in Canada in a very long time. I liked critical faves Wolf Parade'’s Apologies To The Queen Mary and The New Pornographers'’ Twin Cinema, but my ears were more attuned to another West Coast crew, Black Mountain. They put on a storming show of drugified psyche at Babylon; the band's self-titled debut deserves all the plaudits aimed in its direction.


Martha Wainright at Ottawa Bluesfest 2005

I just noticed my Top 10 list for pennyblackmusic.com leans heavily toward Canadian women in music: Toronto's Jeen O'Brien released a killer album of fuzzy alt-rock, The Sixties. Super melodies, and I find Miss O'Brien's cat-cry singing most appealing. I wish I could have caught her gig at Irene's, but alas it was on the same night as the equally hot Kiss Me Deadly. My favourite discovery of the year was the debut from Vancouver's Blackavar, which I bought purely on a whim due to its release on the Transsiberian label. The self-titled album is only about 23 minutes long and is primarily the work of singer Laura Cartwright. She's been compared to Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and Nico - the music is minimalist narco-folk. Martha Wainwright's self-titled long-player and follow-up EP I Will Internalize also struck me with their visceral emotional punch and 1970s singer-songwriter sonics. Wainwright and Co. also put on a fine live show at Bluesfest.


Parades Against Parades at Club SAW

On a somewhat smaller scale, four lads from Saskatoon, Parades Against Parades, wowed me with their live show; their self-produced CD There's No Riot Like A Tonality Riot is also excellent. Elevator continued its winning ways with August, and if that wasn't enough frontman Rick White released a lovely solo album too. Elliott Brood spread a little goodwill with Ambassador, The High Dials made a major leap on their second album under that name, War of the Wakening Phantoms. Other Canadians rocked me in a major way with their fabulous live shows were The Hot Springs and Malajube at Club SAW; The Maynards at Irene's, White Cowbell Oklahoma at Barrymore's, Bloodshot Bill at The Dom, Whitey Houston, Demon Claws, Magneta Lane, Shikasta (yes, I know pointing out Shikasta put on a good show is like observing that Mt. Everest is a big mountain ...) and The Nymphets. Most of these folks have discs worthy of your attention as well.


Motorhead at Capital Music Hall

There was also some killer heavy music. My favourite metal moment of the year wasn't on disc. After years of idolizing Motorhead from afar, I finally got to see them live when the band crushed all opposition at Capital Music Hall. (Opening act Priestess is no slouch on disc and live, either.) As far as recorded music goes, Sunn 0))) has been scouring my eardreams for a few years now, and their latest, Black One, may be their best yet. If a howling Arctic wasteland could play guitar, it would sound like this album. The original Sunn-y boys Earth came back with Hex, where they twisted their heaviness into strange new forms ... have they been listening to Calexico albums or something? High on Fire's Blessed Black Wings was another high-volume stunner. I think my ears are still ringing from their show with Voivod (RIP Piggy) at Babylon a couple of years back. Reverend Bizarre's In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend is also a real crusher.


Sunburned Hand of The Man at the Avant-Garde Bar

This was a pretty good year for psychedelic records, with Gris Gris releasing a solid sophomore album, For The Season; the band's live show at Babylon was one of the year's best (shame they didn't repeat the feat). Dead Meadow smoothly integrateded a new member on Feathers. Italy's Jennifer Gentle mined similar psyche-pop meets Sabbath territory on Valende. The Acid Mothers Temple crew was also revitalized by their transformation into AMT and the Cosmic Inferno. I give Anthem of The Space as being marginally superior to Iao Chant. By now there are probably a bunch of other AMT&TCI releases to peruse ... in a few years I'll stop cursing the day I learned they wouldn't be playing Ottawa due to a tour cancellation. Also from Japan, Marble Sheep are led by Ken Matsutani, who was in White Heaven before Michio Kurihara. Where Michio was listening to Quicksilver Messenger Servie, Ken was mainlining Blue Cheer ... at least that's the impression you get from Gate of the Heavenly Body. I also recently grabbed a copy of the Marble Sheep's collaboration with Circle Triangle Square (that's not actually their name, which is a circle, a triangle and a square, but I can't do symbols, so I'm just calling 'em CTS), a dozen strong band of trance-folkies. Needless to say, Marble Sheep Meets CTS is one mind-expanding work ... it's like a Japanese Savage Resurrection working with The Incredible String Band. Sonic Prayer from psyche heavyweights Earthless didn't do much for me initially, but has proven to be a real grower. Similarly, Devendra Banhart's first album didn't impress me, but Cripple Crow pushed me to take a second listen. Sunburned Hand of The Man put on an amazing show at The Avant-Garde Bar; No Magic Man was my favourite of the three albums I bought from them afterward. Fursaxa put on a tantalizing show at the AvGab; I got her Mandrake in vinyl and have spun it many a time since; her Lepidoptera is on my discs-to-buy list and has received wide praise. The twisted villagers who make up Major Stars produced album No. 4, which they cleverly titled 4. And how 'bout them Finns? I bought three Circle albums this year, Forest, Empire and Tulikoira ... I marginally prefer the first; Lau Nau's Kuutarha is as freaky as freak-folk comes. Six Organs of Admittance's School of the Flower reaffirmed Ben Chasny's wonderful gift for psychedelic folk that travels way off the beaten path. He also released a CD along with Hiroyukui "L" Usui who served in both Fushitsusha and Ghost.


The Banditas at Irene's

Locally, we had a slew of excellent CDs. The Banditas' debut was probably the most eagerly awaited, and props to Last Drag's Neal Johnstone for finally getting the trio to lay down its energetic exhortations onto CD and vinyl. The Double Pumpers followed their fine debut with the even better II. Golden Famile also kicked things up a notch for album No. 3 - Nobody Loves a Growler - by recording at Montreal's Hotel2Tango. Clark the Band made it easy to get lost in The Woods; local expatriate Charlie Brooks released two albums as Carlangas. Both Blues and the Ivory Breast and The Judgment of a Throne are superb. Black Boot Trio returned from a decade layoff as sharp as ever with Eternal Return. The Fiftymen's Balances + Sums looked death in the face and did not blink. The Flaps released their debut - swell as expected; as did The Empiricals, who went to the wall on their own debut. The Hilotrons packed a bunch of good stuff into Bella Simone. The Polytones, As The Poets Affirm and For The Mathematics also grabbed my lugholes.


River City Tanlines at The Dominion Tavern

Let's talk rock, shall we? My second favourite city for music, Memphis, produced its usual high dosage of cool rock this year. After seeing the River City Tanlines at The Dom I had to pick up both that band's All 7 Inches Plus 2 More and frontwoman Alicja Trout's mostly solo album as Black Sunday, Tronic Blanc. The Family Oblivian worked overtime, with Jack-O and The Tearjerkers Don't Throw Your Love Away and Reigning Sound's Home For Orphans once again getting greasy rock all over my CD player. Other charged up rock'n'rollers who wormed their way into my heart despite not being from Memphis were The Heartless Bastards with Stairs and Elevators and The Bassholes' with a self-titled album on Dead Canary. The Hellacopters declared Rock'n'Roll is Dead, then proceed to prove otherwise by getting in touch with their inner Chuck Berry. Speaking of Scandinavia, not only did Motorpsycho make it possible for us po' folk get a copy of The Tussler without auctioning a kidney on eBay, they released one of their finest albums as The International Tussler Society. Dungen records, of which Ta Det Lungt is pre-eminent, keep trickling out in various forms over here, and I for one am glad. The Drones from Australia had two noteworthy releases; the first was their new album, the amazing Wait Long By the River ... and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (on ATP) the second was The Miller's Daughter (on Bang!) an odds'n'ends compilation that rounds up a few single tracks and unused stuff from album studio sessions. The Basques of Bang! obviously dig Australia, because the label also released two Brian Henry Hooper albums. As The Voyeurs he sounds quite a bit like old mate Kim Salmon; on his solo album, Lemon Lime & Bitter, he edges a little closer to Steve Wynn territory. Hooper also shows up on the booze-snorting live reunion document from The Beasts of Bourbon, Low Life.


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Still on the international front, New York's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah received such a mountain of praise from infamous music site Pitchfork, I decided to check them out when they came to town for a sold-out show at Zaphod's to see what could inspire such adulation. They put on a pretty good show (though they were overwhelmed by openers The Hilotrons), and that CD is actually very good. I won a double handful of CDs at The Birdman Sound festive party last week, among them another New York band's latest, Parker and Lily's The Low Lows. It's their breakup album, I hear, and it's a wonderfully hazy slice of dream pop. After Blackavar, my favourite discovery of the year was The Wedding Present - yes, I know they've been around for almost two decades, and I'm sure I heard them back when I was listening to college rock faves like The Smiths and The Trash Can Sinatras, but I managed to avoid actually buying one of their albums until this year when David Gedge and Co. made a comeback with Take Fountain. Another band I looked into when I was in my Britpop phase was The Longpigs, whose Richard Hawley has embarked on a much more interesting solo career. His 2005 release Cole's Corner has that fever dream crooner quality of Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Other Brits catching my ear were long-time faves Supergrass on Road to Rouen and The Clientele with Strange Geometry. I also got around to getting a copy of The Bees' Free The Bees which I like to an improbable degree. Neatly snagging the title of "Niftiest Release of the Year" is Maggi, Pierce and E.J.'s Silver album. It's been divided into three CDs; normally that would be a pretty lame conceit, but Silver actually justifies it by being both very good and separating the CDs according to style. The first, Morgen, is folky; the second, Mittag, is more alternative pop and psyche; the third, Nacht, features more hard rock and country.


The Dirtbombs at Babylon

Lastly, there was a slew of excellent rereleases; some of it was more recent stuff, like the compilation of The Dirtbombs' singles If You Don't Already Have Some Try It, Drive-By Truckers' Gangstabilly and Pizza Deliverance, The Dentists' Some People Are On The Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' B-Sides and Rarities, Orange Juice's The Glasgow School and Mother Juno from Sympathy For The Record Industry's ongoing series of Gun Club reissues. The aforementioned Bang! rereleased the first album by Bored! I presume the exclamation point had something to do with it ... I picked up Kaleidoscope's Tangerine Dream and Fairfield Parlour's From Home to Home. I greatly preferred the latter, which is a bit odd since it's basically the same group under a different name. If godly rockabilly is your thing, then you'll enjoy the Numero Group release of Fern Jones' Singing a Happy Song and a few bonus tracks under the title The Glory Road. The cats at Comet Records have just reissued Johhny Burnette & The Rock'n'Roll Trio's classic album with 16 bonus tunes (the track listing is very quite similar to Hip-O-Select's Coral Recordings comp). Water rereleased Baby Huey's The Living Legend in 2004, I shouldn't have waited to pick it up. Mike & The Ravens' Nevermore is a brilliant snapshot of an archetypical 1960s garage group, complete with contemporary "duck and cover" ads - nothing says Armageddon like cheery radio jingles! Radioactive has been doing a journeyman job of getting obscure psychedelic and garage music from the late 1960s and early '70s out to the masses. Their rerelease of The Flower Travellin' Band's Satori is probably the pinnacle of their catalogue; continuing my longstanding fascination with Japanese psychedelica, I grabbed it the moment I saw it. Morgen's self-titled album is another heavy psyche offering from the same label. Revenant pulled off their usual top-notch reissue work with the second volume in their American Primitive series. Most of it hails from the late 1920s and 30s, but one of the tracks, Old Mourner by Cousins & Demoss, allegedly dates back to 1897. Very little is known about most of the performers, apart from their names. Another interesting collection of little-known performers can be found on Guitars of The Golden Triangle Vol. 2, a collection of various artists from Burma's Shan state assembled by Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls. It's pretty fuzzy stuff, and not just because it's been dubbed off nth-generation bootleg cassettes. In the men-with-beards competition Gary Higgins' Red Hash squared off against Bill Fay's Time of the Last Persecution. I think the winner is Bill, by a whisker. Superlungs, a compilation of Terry Reid material, is a great introduction to the man who wasn't Robert Plant.

Album of the Week

The Dirtbombs
If You Don't Already Have A Look



I love The Dirtbombs, but I'm too lazy and poor to hunt down all their singles, so it's handy to have a two-disc roundup of sundry As, Bs and EP tracks all in one handy package. Now neither I nor you have to search high and low (or on eBay) for such classics as I'm Saving Myself for Nichelle Nichols (No. 3) (from their early All Geeked Up EP) or I'm Never Licking You Again.
It starts with the opening blast of Theme From The Dirtbombs, with those oh-so-thundering double drums, segues to the souls on fuzz croon of The Sharpest Claws and takes a trip through the amphetamine New Wave of Here Comes That Sound Again, the noisy foofaraw of High Octane Salvation and sundry other flawed gems. Twenty-nine originals have their roots probed in 23 covers. Among the songs are Aussie garage rock stompers by Elois and Black Diamonds, soul and funk from Steve Wonder and The Ohio Players, pop from the Bee Gees, and a couple of covers from gutter blues combo The Cheater Slicks.
All of it sounds pure Dirtbombs, and all of it sounds good.

Malajubilation

Montreal's hottest pop quartet, Malajube and The Hot Springs are playing a gig tomorrow night (Tuesday, when it's at home) at Club SAW. As I mentioned earlier, I was tipped to these guys by Gourmet Delice of Le Nombre. He arranged to have their record company, Dare to Care, send me their new CD. It arrived too late for Album of the Week consideration, so with their show imminent, I'll sings its praises right now!

Malajube
Le Compte Complet



Clocking in at a half hour - including a few seconds of dead space before the hidden track kicks in - Malajube's debut is short but tasty. Chirping keyboard opener and tinkling scree comes from the Animal Collective school of twisted pop. I'm not sure I buy the comparisons to Franz Ferdinand and XTC that have been bandied about in its wake. Some juvenile whoops on Le Metronome and songs about Teeth and Lemon Juice (not at the same time), along with its generally bouncy and buoyant feel and fuzzy guitars make me thing of Australia's Sekiden. A sweet confection in any language.

Album of the Week

Sunburned Hand of The Man
No Magic Man



Like so many of Sunburned Hand of The Man's discs, this has a hand-made feel to it because, well, it's hand made (the hand-lettered title in green felt pen on the spine is kind of a giveaway) and is numbered (once again, as far as I can tell) Manhand 14, though it was allegedly released on the Bastet label. It was recorded in Spring of 2004 in the band's loft and at WMBR, a Pennsylvania radio station. It's what passes for hi-fi among SHOTM CDs.
Normally one gets this disc to subscribing to Arthur magazine (Bastet is their music imprint), but I grabbed this CD, (along with CD-Rs of their classic Jaybird and a new set of recordings entitled, as far as I can tell Zample One) at their recent show at the Avante Gard bar (pictures and a writeup for that show will be up in five or six days).
No Magic Man ups the ritz factor a bit - it has three stickers, a gatefold cardboard cover- but the music is the same zoned-out rhythm section, weirdo chants and occasional Comets On Fire-style guitar freakout (particularly on the penultimate track, Twin Gates). Mind-expanding vocal snippets and some oddly funky jams open the album. From there on in it's one long, strange 54-minute trip. Get it from the band itself, via an Arthur subscription or Eclipse Records and allow your brain to be bent.

Album of the Week

Long Timers Dead End



I promised a new "Album of the Week" - here's No. 1. The band used some of the pictures I took of them at various gigs, so to avoid any suggestion of conflict of interest with a review in The Ottawa Sun (not that any money was involved), I'm singing its praises here.
Rock'n'roll veterans Long Timers have done hard rock time in a number of Ottawa outfits (Dead City Rebels and Phantom Shifters, among others) and can currently be seen in other local combos like The Fortunate Sons, Sleeping Pilot and South of 78. Their debut EP is the product of several sessions with Double Pumpers/Ukrainia/Yogi and The Hill People drummer-singer-guitarist Paul "Yogi" Granger. The original foursome - Greg Kerr, guitar; Justin, guitar and vocals; J.P. Sadek, drums; Rene LeClair, bass - has just been joined by Johhny Nash on guitar and vocals; he added his stuff after the musical tracks had been laid down. I e-mailed guitarist Greg to ask who did what when. His reply:

The sessions were done separate for this EP after two other attempts with Yogi at his studio.We put down the bass and drums first one Saturday at the end of February. Justin took a night for guitars and I did the same in March - all mostly in one or two takes. The goal was to get a "cleaner" recording so the bass and drum beds have no guitars bleeding in. And the guitars were kept to a minimum (unlike the Shifters or our previous recordings, where two rhythm guitar tracks are mixed hard left and right and the lead guitar is one track in the middle of the stereo spectrum). I was dead set against that for this recording so we used one of Justin's guitars hard left or right and one of mine hard left or right - to minimize the noise and give it a more vintage "MC5" feel -the exception is Solid Roger where my part differed from Justin's so much we actually mixed it the original way with three tracks and mine in the middle. The music was finished before Johnny joined up and Justin did vocals on (in E Major) and Old 96er - which were kept. After Johnny was comfortable with his parts he added back-up vocals to those two Justin songs and did all the lead and backing vocals on the other three.
Yogi did all the recording, mixing and mastering.
We'd recorded Working Man's Woman but had mostly dropped it from the set and it wasn't going to be on the EP, Justin never had any finished lyrics for it - we'd never even shown the song to Johnny, when he did his vocals, he heard the track and we remembered we liked the song, so he whipped up some lyrics and recorded the song before he'd even practiced it once (or even heard it from us play it). I think it's my favourite song on the EP too!

The resulting EP is a mix of early 70s heavy rock (a la Mountain, who they regularly cover in their live show), Stooges style and protopunk and Southern Rock - more of the latter live, thanks to Johnny's caterwaul and third guitar. Pick it up and check them out live (in any order you like) if you haven't already.