i (heart) music

For whatever reason, I haven't yet gotten around to listening to Between The Beautifuls, the most recent album from Hawksley Workman. I'm not sure why this is; after all, I've always been a fan of his work, so any time he comes out with a new album I should be all over it.

Thanks to Radio 2, at least, I have some idea of what I'm missing. As Hawksley demonstrated in concert a few months ago, his new material fits right in with his older stuff. It's theatrical and dramatic, but at the same time has an obvious pop bent, and thanks to his dazzling voice and inventive musicianship, it never fails to be anything less than riveting.

1. We Will Still Need a Song
2. All The Trees Are Hers
3. Prettier Face
4. Piano Blink
5. What Would You Say To Me, Lord?
6. Smoke Baby
7. Oh You Delicate Heart
8. Striptease
9. Jealous of Your Cigarette
10. Ice Age

Enjoy!

Parachute Penguin's downsides, judging by their self-titled debut: 1) their name is kind of iffy, 2) the EP's shortest track, "Death By Train", also happens to feel like the longest, and 3) their influences seem to be U2 and The Killers and, even if in my weakest moments I'd admit to liking bits and pieces of Sam's Town, those are hardly the kind of bands of which we need more.

The responses: 1) Who cares, since it allowed them to have one of the cutest (and most literal) album covers I've seen in a long time; 2) "Death By Train" only feels long because the other four tracks are transcendent, whereas it has to settle for merely good; and 3) if a band can emulate The Killers and U2 and still sound as awesome as Parachute Penguin do...well, that's something that I'm comfortable living with.

In all honesty, Parachute Penguin's debut EP is the kind of album I live for, both as a music blogger and as someone who loves the thrill of finding out about new bands. I stumbled across them when I was searching for new music to write about (on a related note: if you have an album you want reviewed, please get in touch!), and even though I liked what was available on their Myspace, nothing could've prepared me for just how exceptional their album is. Frontman/drummer Steve Virga's vocals straddle the line of confidence and bombast without going over. He's backed by a pair of musicians who know how to provide strong harmonies and tight, unforgettable melodies.

Most importantly, all three of them are creating songs that are anthemic and catchy and just really, really, really good. They're not reinventing the wheel, sure, but whether it's the U2-y anthemry (if that's a word) of "Stray Bullets", or the slithering dance-rock of "We've Been Awake", or the sheer grandiosity of closer "Your Crimes" (which has all the majesty of The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" without any of the ickiness), this is the kind of EP I could listen to again and again and again without getting sick of it for a very long time. It's albums like this that make me really wish that I could submit EPs on my Polaris list, because Parachute Penguin are spectacular enough that I'd have no problem putting them forward. Not that they'll need that kind of push, of course, since with songs this great, it's just a matter of time before they're as famous as any of the bands they bring to mind.

Cadence Weapon, Afterparty Babies (Upper Class)

WHO

The hip-hop pride of Edmonton.

DISCOGRAPHY

Cadence Weapon is the Black Hand (Self-released, 2005)
Breaking Kayfabe (Upper Class, 2005)
Afterparty Babies (Upper Class, 2007)

IN A NUTSHELL

Canada's best rapper returns with another masterpiece.

THE STORY

No matter how much I enjoy Afterparty Babies -- and I do enjoy it quite a bit -- I have to admit that I'm a tiny bit disappointed that Cadence Weapon didn't follow through on the promise that his second album would be called Urban Sprawl in North Texas, and be about urban sprawl and gentrification in Alberta. It'd be a slightly obscure topic, I know, but given that the man otherwise known as Rollie Pemberton's first album came out of nowhere (or, at least, Edmonton) to blow everyone away, an abrupt turn left when superstardom beckoned would've been an appropriately off-kilter choice.

Then again, given how great Cadence's actual sophomore outing is, you'd basically have to be a total douche churl to complain. In the above interview, moments before he said he wanted to make an album about urban sprawl, he said that big, chunky, party-oriented beats were what he was really into, and it's not hard to see the connection between that and Afterparty Babies. Disregarding the subdued first track (which sounds like sampled voices being used as beats, and is spectacular in its own right), every song here is full of dense, heavy beats that are aimed squarely at the dancefloor.

Of course, this wouldn't be Cadence Weapon if the beats weren't at least a little bit strange. While Afterpart Babies definitely isn't as harsh as Breaking Kayfabe, there's still not much here that sounds like it was created with airplay in mind. On "Messages Matter", for example, it sounds like Pemberton recorded himself turning the dial on a radio and made that into a beat, while "Juliann Wilding" sounds sort of like a Nintendo malfunctioning. Even on the album's most melodically straightforward tracks -- like "Real Estate", wherein CW does his best Kanye-gone-bizarro impersonation, or anti-stupidity anthem "Getting Dumb" -- there's still the mixture of intensity and weirdness that make him so special.

I realize that I haven't talked about his lyrics anywhere. But the truth is that the beats are just so good, I haven't been able to listen to Afterparty Babies and not get totally caught up in them. I'll go out on a limb, though, and suggest that given how words have always been Cadence's strong suit, there's no reason to believe that he's suddenly regressed here -- particularly when, musically, Afterparty Babies is such a huge step forward.

The last year has definitely seen Cadence Weapon get some competition for the title of Canada's best rapper. Shad, for example, has come on strong with his newest album, Buck 65 returned with one of the best albums of his career, and Abdominal's Escape From The Pigeon Hole suggested he's someone to watch as well. To that list I'd add D-Sisive and Red Ants, neither of whom I've heard, but about whom I've heard very good things. Nonetheless, with Afterparty Babies, Cadence has done more than enough to ensure that he holds on to that crown.

Want to win Afterparty Babies? Thanks to Upper Class, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and address, and I'll pick a winner randomly!

Colin M. and Mike G. both win copies of The Whitsundays' self-titled debut. Thanks to all who entered!

I've always been a proponent of the idea that the only thing better than a really good album is a really good free album, so when it comes to The Coloured Lights' debut, Twelve Steps To Space...well, I'm all over it. The vocals are generally strong, the melodies are catchy and there's not a weak song in the bunch. For the price, you can't possibly go wrong.

Admittedly, if Twelve Steps... were an album you had to pay for, I'm not sure I'd have the same opinion. After all, there are a few moments where the vocals let up a little and things veer a little too close to emo for my taste (see "Post-Chronological Blues" for the best example). On top of that, towards the end the album seems to run out of steam a little, with every track sounding more or less the same.

Nonetheless, it is free, and when The Coloured Lights are on, it's a sight to behold. "Robot Cowboy" recalls the early '90s without venturing into post-grunge territory, while "The Twelfth Step" is as anthemic as you can get without having any vocals. Under normal circumstances I'd probably say that Twelve Steps To Space is a very good EP padded out to a slightly above average full-length, but given that you can get it right here for free, I'd encourage everyone reading this to grab a copy and decide for themselves.

People In Planes are playing Ottawa this Tuesday, May 13th, at Live Lounge.

Now, normally I wouldn't mention this. Even though I was fan of their EP, I wasn't too big on their debut full-length, and the songs on their Myspace don't really give any hint as to which way their upcoming second album will go (though I do like "Know By Now).

The main reason I'll be front and centre at the show, though, is the opener: Ottawa's own Amos The Transparent. I've made my love of them pretty apparent, and even though they've revamped their line-up a little from Everything I've Forgotten To Forget, the stuff I've heard from their next album sounds just as amazing. Moreover, their live show is simply outstanding: just check out their cover of "You Oughta Know" for a small taste of what they can do.

i(heart)music has a pair of tickets (or, at least, guest list spots) to give away for Tuesday's People In Planes/Amos The Transparent show on Tuesday, courtesy of Wind-Up Records. To win them, just e-mail me your name by Monday evening, and I'll pick a winner randomly!

When I saw that Barenaked Ladies were doing a children's album, I feared for the worst. After all, for a good chunk of the last two decades, their career has been an exercise in trying waaaay too hard to be lovable. Consequently, it's harder to think of something that could go more horribly wrong -- in a maudlin, overly sentimental, disgustingly saccharine kind of way -- than a BNL kids' album.

Thankfully, Snacktime finds the band showing an impressive amount of restraint. In fact, it turns out that when you apply the Barenaked Ladies' usual shtick to kid-oriented topics like snacks, words, fears and the ABCs, they're a lot more palatable. The band alternates between surprisingly touching (on songs like "The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy I: Snacktime", "Things" and "Bad Day") and fun and upbeat (with "I Don't Like", "Crazy ABCs" and "7-8-9"), and they generally don't fall into the trap of pummelling you into whimsical submission. There are certainly times where they come close (I can imagine people disliking the faux-ragga of "Pollywog In A Bog", even if I like it myself), and I should probably admit right now that I have no idea what works for kids and what doesn't...but you know what? If I were to ever find myself in the position of needing to buy an album for a young one, I think Snacktime would be right at the top of my list.

I'd say I don't know how I haven't written about Attack In Black before now, but that would be a lie. I can tell you exactly why I haven't written about Marriage before now: no matter how many times I was assured it was on its way, it never managed to arrive at my door.

Thankfully, as so often tends to be the case, Radio 3 has remedied my Attack In Black-free life, by posting the band's set from Vancouver's Transmission Festival, back in December. As others have noted, in a live setting the band bears a striking resemblance to The Constantines, though to simply write them off as clones would be doing them a disservice. There's a surprising amount of twang in there, along with -- unsurprisingly -- a few moments where you totally understand why their labelmates include City & Colour. Overall, it's a pretty fun listen (though it has me thinking maybe I should just go out and buy a copy of Marriage).

1. Rope
2. Inches and Ages
3. Young Leaves
4. Only Child
5. Moon of Day
6. I'm Gonna Forget
7. The Love Between You and I
8. Marriage
9. Chimes and Churchbells

Enjoy!

Even though I did a show with The City Above back in February, I have to admit that I'd never heard their most recent album, Mongrel Comets, until earlier today. And now that I have...well, I have to say that I'm really excited to be seeing them again in a few weeks.

The reason for my excitement is that the album shows them to have a pretty impressive grasp of a wide range of genres. Their Myspace describes them as "Psychedelic/Shoegaze/Garage", but that doesn't fully capture it. All those elements -- particularly the psychedelic and shoegaze parts -- are very obviously present in their sound, but they go beyond them, too. The easiest comparison I can think of would be to The Diableros, but only if -- as songs like "Sounds In Space" and "Bastardy Proceedings" show -- they had less of the post-punk and substantially more of the shoegaze and psychedelia, with a handful of Death Cab For Cutie's poppiness thrown in for good measure.

If there's a flaw with Mongrel Comets, it would be its length: at 73 minutes, it seems a bit long. But in this case, it's definitely a case of showing that it's not bad to have too much of a very good thing.

And, as mentioned above...



Wednesday, May 21st at Café Dekcuf, i(heart)music is very proud to present The City Above, along with Bass Lions (download "Ransom The Sunset") and ZingZing (download "Fireworks"). It's just $5, and, as mentioned above, it's a great chance to see one of Ottawa's must unjustly overlooked bands.

The Whitsundays, The Whitsundays (Pop Echo)

WHO

Edmonton retro-poppers.

DISCOGRAPHY

The Whitsundays (Pop Echo, 2008)

IN A NUTSHELL

The Whitsundays' self-titled debut would be a classic whether it was released in 2008, 1968, or any year in between.

THE STORY

It's not often that I go back and revisit albums, but in the case of The Whitsundays' self-titled debut, I'm going to make an exception.

It's not that I've changed my opinion on the album in any substantive way. I said back in early February that they were '60s pop revivalists who made the genre sound fresh and exciting, and I stand by that assessment completely.

What's changed, though, is that now I've had three months to really digest the album, and over that time I've fallen in love with it. I've come to relish the vocal harmonies of songs like "I Want It All" and "It Must Be Me", wherein The Whitsundays give The Beach Boys a run for their money. I've come to really adore the instantly unforgettable melodies of songs like "Loralee", that have a way of wedging themselves into your brain.

Above all else, though, I've really come to appreciate the way the band can be called '60s revivalists, but are good enough that they don't just stick to one sound. Amidst the nods to The Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Zombies, there are elements of surf music, and French pop, and organ-driven instrumental R&B, and garage rock. Heck, on a song like "Antisocial", they go beyond the Who influences of "Sorry James" to fully incorporate proto-punk (if it's even possible for a band to be proto-punk three decades after it was invented).

The Whitsundays debut, then, is basically a testament to the fact that great songwriting transcends genres and decades, and can make old styles sound new again. Give the album half a chance, and you'll find that you won't be turning it off any time soon.

Want to win The Whitsundays? Thanks to Pop Echo, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and address, and I'll pick a winner randomly!

Evan W. wins a copy of the full-length debut from Will Currie & The Country French. Thanks to all who entered!

I first learned about Oldfolks Home when I saw on Facebook that they were opening for Woodhands in Winnipeg. Consequently, when talking about their debut, We Are The Feeding Line, I'm tempted to somehow relate it to Heart Attack.

It's a comparison that works to the extent that both Oldfolks Home and Woodhands rely on electronic noises, but once you get beyond that basic similarity, there's really not much to it. Oldfolks Home do have dance-y moments on We Are The Feeding Line, and they do enjoy the odd bit of vocoderized shouts (see "Let's Go Out To Vegas" for evidence of both), but on the whole they have a much more low-key approach. The beats are softer, the vocals are quieter, and basically they sound like a band that's fully appreciated on headphones, rather than on a sweaty dancefloor. It all makes for a pleasantly mellow listening experience, and hopefully We Are The Feeding Line will get Oldfolks Home noticed outside of the Prairies.

One of the biggest criticisms of Ottawa's music scene is that...well, that it's not really a scene. There's a fair number of bands, to be sure, but as far as the kind of cross-pollination and collaboration -- in other words, the sense of community -- that you see in other, more vibrant cities, forget it.

In the spirit of trying to change things, tomorrow night at Babylon there's Ottawa's first ever Rock Lottery. Organized by Luca from Ennuie, the event is bringing together 25 musicians from a host of different bands, and assigning them to new configurations based on a random draw the evening before. The five groups will then have a day to work together writing songs, and tomorrow night each band will have half-hour sets to perform their new songs. There's definitely huge potential for disaster, but at the same time, there's an equally good chance that some fun new music could come out of it. Among the bands contributing members to the evening are The Love Machine (download "We Are Squirrels And This Is Nuts"), Relief Maps (download "Stamp Out Fatigue"), Fucked Corpse (download "Megaheart"), Fire Heats Water (download "We Are On A Shore"), Ennuie (download Soca Republic") and a whole bunch of other bands, all of which means that the assembled talent is formidable, at the very least.

Best of all, it's for a good cause, with all proceeds going to the Ottawa Chapter of the Growing Up Organic Project. It's only $7, and it's sure to be an extremely fun event, so if you're in Ottawa, check it out!

I honestly have no idea how to even begin describing Derelict Dialect, the recently reissued-by-Paper Bag debut EP from Slim Twig. Without any hyperbole whatsoever, it's definitely the strangest album I've heard in an extremely long time. Maybe this just says something about the general sameness of the music I listen to, but when someone else calls them "no-wave rockabilly", I get the feeling it's not just me.

I suppose no-wave rockabilly is a pretty appropriate term, too, given 1) Slim's style of dress (not to mention his pompadour) and 2) the fact most of Derelict Dialect is tuneless droning, with the odd riff thrown in out of nowhere. It's certainly more descriptive than what I would've used to write about him -- which, for the record, would've compared Slim Twig to some zombified greaser, back from the dead to shake brains out of skulls with his sludgy riffs. In fact, listening to "The Replica and Martyr", I may just stick with that description, since the song -- and the rest of the EP, for that matter -- sounds sort of like the soundtrack to a particularly eerie horror film.

I should note that none of these are complaints against the album. In fact, I've listened to it about a dozen times now in the last day, and each time it's grown on me a little bit more. Direlict Dialect still sounds weirder than anything I could possibly describe, but it's worth checking out if you want to hear a true original.

Even if Tokyo Police Club's recent stab at maturity on Elephant Shell has left me feeling a little cold about the band, all it takes for me to be reminded of why I liked them in the first place is to think about how good they are in concert. Take their performance at last year's Bumbershoot festival, available on KEXP: much like A Lesson In Crime, it's all punky and shouty and ragged. It's also full of the energy that -- to me, at least -- is noticeably absent on Elephant Shell (though, oddly enough, the band's version of "Sixties Remake" here is substantially better than louder than the one that appears on the album). While for some people, their recent album is a step in the right direction, I can't help but look back and think about how great the band used to be.

1. Box
2. Your English Is Good
3. If It Works
4. SixtiesRemake
5. Cut Cut Paste
6. Shoulders & Arms
7. Nature of the Experiment
8. Be Good

Enjoy!