I have been listening to Dan Mangan’s Oh Fortune for about a week now, so it was a timely opportunity for Dan to show up on the podcast in this format. With the huge success of his last album here in the Canadian scene, Dan had a lot to live up to. His song “Robots“ (you should really follow that link) was a huge succes and I think it left everyone wanting to hear a similar repeat on this album.  On the first few listens, nothing popped out the way “Robots” did when I first heard it. While I was a little disappointed at that, I still found myself putting the album on again and again. I would hear my wife playing it in the bedroom and find my self starting the album on my laptop.

The album sounds very Owen Pallett, Final Fantasyish on it’s opening track, “About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All.” It really sounds nothing like what I have come to expect from Dan Mangan, and that’s not a bad thing, It is refreshing to hear artists use orchestration in their music. Listening to the podcast today helped me to gain a relationship with this album as all the songs were familiar. When that familiarity was combined with Dan’s commentary it really helped certain songs to pop out at me. Most significantly was his song, “Post War Blues.” See the video below to enjoy this song. The song sounds a bit poppy, but when you listen to the lyrics you will find it is quite a heavy song. “Starts With Them, Ends With Us” is a great example of a song really taking life after hearing the artists story behind it. I will let you listen to the podcast to get hear Dan’s story, but before you do I recommend heading over to Dan’s Radio 3 page and giving the song a preliminary listen.

As promised, here is the video for “Post War Blues.” I hope you do yourself a favor and listen to Oh Fortune. It is definitely on my list of favorite albums this year.

When I searched and downloaded Shadow Seasons on emusic.com I found it amusing that emusic categorizes them along with Suicidal Tendencies. Couldn’t be further from the mark. I would classify them a simple indie pop/rock with a surf buzz.  Catchy without a ton of post production. Their song Jack The Ripper has to be the catchiest little ditty about a serial killer I have heard.

These guys are truly independent music. No labels here, not even a proper website. I get the feeling this is just a bunch of friends recording great music in their basement. I like it.

You can stream their album via bandcamp.

Jack the Ripper

One of the newer albums that has really caught my ear is Lindi Ortega from Toronto. While this album was actually released in the spring I only discovered it last week. Lindi’s country act with an oldies vibe has had the power to easily rise above all the other great new music I have heard in the past few weeks. I think of her as Dolly Parton reformed into a sleek young brunette with normal proportions. Ok, maybe the voice is the only similarity, but it is good one. A few songs on her Little Red Boots album sound a little overproduced and leave me wondering if she is going to explode on the Top 40 country stations. I am not a big fan of the few songs that have the slightly overproduced diva voice but songs like “Little Red Boots” are gritty and have it going on. The guitar intro has a certain swagger to it that perfectly sets the tone for the rest fo the song.

As I couldn’t find a video I liked for that song I will post just the audio and then a video for Angels.
Little Red Boots – Lindi Ortega

Little Red Boots

I mentioned a few posts back that I had tix to see the Pixies again this week. I wasn’t sure what to expect, this being the third time I have had the opportunity to see them. The first time I saw them I was just in a state of unbelief. Actually seeing the band that I had been listening to for so many years but were all but dead and gone. Then seeing them later that summer at Bumbershoot in Seattle was no less thrilling. I can honestly say that my craving for them was satisfied at that point. Still, I was looking forward to the show this week.

As the Pixies came out on stage Wednesday night they began by playing a couple of b-sides from the Doolittle album. They had a big screen behind them that was playing movies while they played their instruments. After a couple of said b-sides the word doolittle flashed on the screen and the band played Debaser (the first song from Doolittle). The crowd went wild and I wondered, ‘are they going to play all of Doolittle?’ Well it turns out that yes, this was the Doolittle tour and I hadn’t been paying attention enough to know what was going on. It was a nice surprise. If there is only one album of theirs I would like to have seen played live, Doolittle is it. I don’t necessarily think it was their best, but it holds the most nostalgia.

For their opening band the Pixies chose Imaginary Cities from Winnepeg. I can’t say I was amazed by their show, but that may have been due to our poor seats and the thin air up there (we were at a higher elevation than the lights). There were a few songs that stood out as pretty good though. It’s funny though, the band didn’t seem to make a huge impression on me at the show, but I have been listening to their stuff quite a bit since then. The song Hummingbird has been stuck in my head ever since.

If you aren’t into rowdy punk rock, or if your idea of punk rock is Blink 182 (or one of their clones), I wouldn’t waste your time on this post.

I just finished listening to the breakfast club with nomeansno podcast on radio 3. Talk about a trip down the memory lane of mispent youth. These classics of Canadian punk rock have been doing it for 30 years, they are old enough to be your dad (or grandpa) and put more energy into their shows than bands a third of their age.

The first time I saw them live I took my 11 year old brother because we were watching him while my parents were out of town and had already gotten in trouble for leaving him home alone (sorry mom). Both times I have seen nomeansno I have had one word to describe the shows. Rowdy.

I chose this image to mash up with my own ideas because after reading the artists comments on it I felt like this picture exemplifies my frustrations with many people’s over simplified view of the world. I don’t believe for a moment that the world can be broken down into definitive such as Right = Good, Left = Bad, Christian = Good, Non-Christian = Bad. The Guantanamo prisoner mixed in with the good guys is meant to illustrate this idea.

As a soundtrack for this post I have chosen Bad Religion’s song American Jesus.

Listen

Maybe I am a bit of a hypocrite especially if you read my last post about how we don’t have to dwell in the musical past. Anyway I do celebrate new music and this month is starting off pretty big. We are 3 days in and I am still digesting the new Raveonettes album, Raven in The Grave. I just downloaded Fleet Foxes‘ Helplessness Blues and the upcoming (May 10th) Okkervil River release is streaming on NPR. This is 3 heavy hitting albums in a couple weeks. It is times like this that I am so happy to be able to listen to music all day while I work.

I have really been enjoying Lisa Christianson’s Extended Play podcast from CBC Radio 3. As with most Radio 3 programming it is well done. This week she was talking about music and the generational gap. One thing that resonated with me was the idea that as we grow older we are expected to give up on new music, yet somehow it is normal to keep following sports as we age.

It hit me that at 34, I am definitely on the older side of those who search out new music. I went through a phase in my early to mid 20′s where I wasn’t seeking new music and became satisfied with all my old tunes. I am not sure what happened, but at around age 25 the bug bit me again. There is so much good stuff being released every year that I really enjoy sifting through and getting excited about new albums.

In light of the hiatus this blog has had over the past year, one might assume that I had given up on the search. I am happy to say that I have not. I still have an emusic.com account that helps me search out new music every month for a small price. The truth is that life has been turned upside down this past year with a move out to the West Coast and the opportunity to set up my own freelance business. Life may have been busy, but I have not given up. In fact since I have moved I have been pleasantly surprised at a couple of Calgary musicians that I wasn’t aware of while living there. It is ironic that I find them after I move away. I will include the Braids song Plath Heart at the end of my ramblings.

Although I am still consumed by music I see this blog heading in a new direction. The focus may be a little more broad going forward, but I will try to include music with each post. As with before it will mostly be Canadian stuff but you may end up reading the occasional thing about bikes, home and work. Bear with me, that is if anyone is still checking this after my recent posting lapse.

Braids Plath Heart

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
listen

“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?