In early May we are all in for another treat as the Canadian independent rock supergroup from Vancouver, known as The New Pornographers will be releasing another album. From the first time I gave them a listen I have been enamored by their sound. I don’t think that any group containing both Neko Case and Carl Newman could do any wrong. I am really looking forward to hearing Together.

They have released one song from the album already. You can download it free from their site.

Your Hands (Together) – The New Pornographers
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“Having said that, I want to make it clear that the motivation of the group is not the love of pickles. I must confess, I personally dislike pickles and the one pictured on the page is no exception. The thing is, I dislike your band much, much more, so when faced with a choice, I had to go with the pickle.”

Ouch, sorry Nickleback. Oh wait isn’t it you that should be apologizing to us for sullying the Canadian music reputation?

I have some mixed feelings on the Olympics. While I appreciate the opportunity for athletes to compete at such a high level, I find the governing body and the politics to be somewhat absurd and filled with paranoia.

One thing that I have found interesting with this years Olympics is the large number of Canadian indie acts that are getting a chance to perform. The list includes Stars, Hey Rosetta!, Nathan, The Rural Alberta Advantage, K’naan, Kid Koala, YSP!WSD! and the list goes on. What a great time to be in the Vancouver area. Today I came across an interesting article by Swan Lake’s Carey Mercer citing the censorship contracts that the artists had to sign in order to play. Talk about becoming part of the states propaganda machine. He definitely give us something to think about.

“When artists are not allowed to critique their government, or the governing agency that endows them with grants and funding, then what they are asking for is nothing more than propaganda. Propaganda, for some reason, rankles that sensitivity towards freedom of expression that seems to be hard-wired into our culture. It’s kind of immaterial though: neither propaganda, nor deeply subversive art won’t stop us from, in the foreseeable future, cracking a can of cola/Pabst while loading up our cool, individualized playlists that reflect our life-style identification. Sorry: I just ralphed in my mouth again.”

What you see above is the artwork for Remorsecapade, the new Woodhands album. I know it may still be too early in the year to say this, but I think this is the best album art of the year. I am comfortable with that statement.

I have given the album a once over and it isn’t really my cup of tea. I wasn’t familiar with Woodhands prior to this and my initial thought was that it sounds like Dan Deacon mixin it up with Les Savy Fav. While I don’t have a problem with either of these, the fusion of sounds and their combined energy is a bit too much for me. Maybe I am just old and it was a quick listen, so don’t put too much value in my judgment of the album, I just really liked the artwork.

I also really like how Paper Bag Records describes them:

a synth and drums duo that’s intent on injecting electro pop with a dose of emotional intensity and a generous portion of glam rock swagger.

The Magic – No Sound
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Unfortunately these albums are all hosted at various free file hosting sites and sometimes  you have to wait, fill out a survey or sometimes the account has exceeded bandwidth. Not the ideal setup for these files, but it is still cool to find some of the old Calgary classics living on.

Young Galaxy – Destroyer
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You Say Party! We Say Die! – Laura Palmer’ s Prom
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The Pink Mountaintops – Execution
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Dan Mangan – Robots
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Elephant Stone – How Long
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Islands – No You Don’t
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Knaan – Wavin’ Flag
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Metric – Gimme Sympathy
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Wilco (with Feist) – You and I
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Lightning Dust – Wondering What Everyone Knows
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Paper Bag Records out of Toronto is celebrating it’s Seven Year Anniversary by giving away an album of cover songs. Initially I downloaded it because I just love free music, and as a bonus I happened to really enjoyed it. Sometimes I am taken back by the songs bands choose to cover. Really? You chose to cover Eddy Grant and OMC on this album? But I guess there is a lot of nostalgia behind Electric Avenue and I have to admit the cover of How Bizzarre makes me think that this time it was just done properly.

I think my favorite song on the album is Ottawa’s The Acorn covering Gowan’s Strange Animal. I am sure this is nostalgic move on my part, but in hopes that you will enjoy it as well I will post it below.

The Acorn – Strange Animal
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In addition to these free streamed songs, they do have a free download of Tobias Grey on their media page that you can trade your email address for.