i(heart)music

I have no doubt that I'll be talking about Sunparlour Players quite a bit over the next few months. Even though they came out with Hymns For The Happy sometime in 2006, it's getting a re-release (with a few more songs added) on a label this spring, and I have every intention of featuring it as soon as that happens.

More importantly, though, Hymns For The Happy is just really, really good. The duo sounds like Sufjan Stevens after a week-long bender, setting each song up with lovely arrangements only to have frontman Andrew Penner rip into them with his whiskey-soaked vocals. It means that tracks like "Hymns For The Happy" (on the band's Myspace) and "Robbers Lullaby" are like Seven Swans as done by a lonely mountain man, while both "If The Creeks Don't Rise" and "The Detroit River Is Alive" (again, see the Myspace) finds the mountain man getting agitated and making music that wouldn't have been totally out of place on Illinois or Michigan. It's excellent stuff, and it leaves no doubt as to whether Sunparlour Players are a band to watch for over the coming year.

Since tonight's Essex Green/Camera Obscura show at Barrymore's is sold out, there's really not much point to talking about why people should go (most overlooked reason: because Glenn Nuotio is opening, and he's excellent). Instead, I thought I'd post radio sessions by both bands, so all the people who don't get in (and everyone reading this outside Ottawa) still get to enjoy the music.



First up is The Essex Green, whose Cannibal Sea is notable for two features: first, that while the trio play pop music, they do a pretty good job of showing how wide-ranging that term can be; and second, they prove themselves to be pretty good at everything the term encompasses. Each of the songs below, from the band's KEXP session last May, showcases these two points perfectly.

1. Cardinal Points
2. Don't Know Why
3. Penny and Jack
4. Rue de Lis
5. Sin City
6. This Isn't Farmlife



As for Camera Obscura, a friend of mine talked about Let's Get Out Of This Country around the time of its release, so I'm not going into the album again here. Instead, I'll just post the band's KCRW session, and say that it's definitely worth a download.

1. Margaret
2. The False Contender
3. Teenager
4. Let's Get Out Of This Country
5. Tears For Affairs
6. Dory Previn
7. Modern Girl
8. Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

Enjoy!

Heroes and Villains, Air Sea Rescue (Self-released)

WHO

Montreal's best-kept musical secret.

DISCOGRAPHY

Heroes & Villains (Self-released, 2004)

All The Giants Are Buried At Sea (Self-released, 2005)

Air Sea Rescue (Self-released, 2006)

IN A NUTSHELL

With Air Sea Rescue, Heroes and Villains prove that they're one of the best bands in Montreal, bar none.

THE STORY

Heroes and Villains will always hold a special place in my heart; they were the second band ever featured on i(heart)music, and it was their request for a show last August that got the ball rolling on the mini-festival I put together last year. Needless to say, I was eagerly awaiting their first full-length, and this anticipation was heightened even further when I heard they were working at the Hotel2Tango studios with Howard Bilerman.

It would be an extreme understatement to say that the band lived up to these high expectations. A much more accurate assessment would be to say that on Air Sea Rescue, Heroes and Villains have emerged as a force to be reckoned with out of Montreal, their Strokes-meets-Interpol sound having fully developed into something that's uniquely theirs.

In large part, this is due to the fact that the music finally matches frontman Raph Parent's Curtis-esque voice. Where before there was a marked contrast between the music (which leaned towards the rougher, garage rock end of the spectrum) and the vocals -- wherein each was tugging in a different direction -- this time around everything seems to co-exist in wonderful harmony. This is apparent right from the start, with album opener "Victory Line"; the music sounds fuller than it ever has before, while Parent speeds his delivery up a little to match the music's tempo, rather than having it slow down to match what he's doing.

This is something the band does regularly through Air Sea Rescue, and it works every time. Whether it's the buzz-saw guitars kicking off "It Takes A Long Time To Build Your Own Cross" leading into something much more dramatic, or the ominous tones of "Stella Maris" developing into a quasi-anthem, it's plainly apparent that Heroes and Villains have grown as a band since their earlier efforts.

In fact, it's not too much of a stretch to believe that Air Sea Rescue could be the album that launches the band into the broader consciousness. If tracks like "The Phantom Ones" or the title track aren't hits in the omnipresent, mainstream indie sense of the word, then there's something wrong with the world. Heroes and Villains have most definitely arrived, and everyone needs to sit up and take notice.

Prianka G. wins a copy of the amazing album from Woodpigeon. Thanks to everyone who entered!

This week's feature, on Heroes and Villains, will be posted in an hour or so. Check back later!

Households just recently released their second album, so I'm a little late in talking about their self-titled debut. But since I 1) haven't heard the new album, and 2) enjoy their debut, I don't think there's any problem with me talking about the self-titled one.

Of course, I'm not sure how to describe Households, so I don't know why I'm so set on talking about their older release. Perhaps it's because they're so difficult to pigeonhole; songs like "Window" and "Red Roots" are kind math-rock, but they're far too jazzy and imprecise to fit neatly into that category. The shouted ending of "Healthy Hearts, Wild Trees" puts them alongside the other Guelph bands in the Burnt Oak/Social Arts Club family, but it's the only song where that kind of shouty camaraderie (that typifies the other bands in those very loose collectives) makes an appearance.

Perhaps it's tracks like "Against Elevator Music" and "Comfort Zones 1 & Guns" that capture the essence of what Households do the best -- unstructured tracks with lots of noodling that don't seem to have firm destinations in mind, but sound really nice making the journey wherever they're going. Hopefully it a sound they've stuck with for their newer music, but it's really pleasant stuff.

Much like I heard Woodpigeon too late for the sake of my 2006 best-of list, last year the band who made me realize my list-making limitations were The Dymaxions. Unfortunately, I heard The Dymaxions a little too late, as they broke up right around the time I was raving about How The Sick May Help Themselves.

Luckily, however, Gregory Pepper, the man behind their excellent tunes, has returned with a new album, And His Problems, and, judging by the quality of the music, it doesn't really make a difference whether he has a band backing him or not. He's still making songs that sound like a crazy mixture of Islands, Neutral Milk Hotel and Amelie, though this time he's thrown in a little bit of cabaret for good measure. It's wonderfully cracked out pop music, and it's a very early contender for best album of 2007.

He's also asked for some help with getting the album out there, so rather than just posting a song or two, I'm making the whole thing available for download.

1. The Eucharist
2. Baron Blood
3. The Imposition Polka
4. Barberosa
5. How To Raise Canaries
6. Child Prodigy
7. The Creeps
8. The Price Is Wrong
9. Motherfucker

Enjoy!

For all the times I've talked about Relief Maps and The Acorn, I have to say that if I were asked to name an Ottawa band who really stood a chance of getting huge -- like, U2/Coldplay-style huge, with the enormo-tours and the anthemic singles and the mainstream, Top 40 success and the whatnot -- Sojourn might just stand a chance.

This isn't to say I'm a huge fan of their debut EP, Trendy Takers. But that's because I'm not a huge fan of arena rock in general. I'm still more than ready to admit when a band have a knack for radio-ready music, though, and songs like "Never Too Late" and "Hopeless Dreaming" would definitely fit right in on any mainstream radio station. They're far from being the most inventive or original band in the city -- for that, go to any of the three above-mentioned bands -- but they're good enough that if they do suddenly take over the world, it wouldn't come as the biggest surprise ever.



Equally radio-ready is Sound Team's Movie Monster. Of course, seeing as I'm at least half a year (if not a full year) late in writing about them, and coupled with the fact I don't listen to the radio for more than a few seconds every morning when my alarm goes off, for all I know, the band may have been all over the radio for a few months last summer.

But the album is good enough that I don't care if I am the last person to write about the band, or if they managed to overcome one stupid review to achieve any level of ubiquity. Songs like "Handful of Billions and "Born To Please" are great, and if you really want to know why...well, just check out what people have been saying for the last year. It's really all true, every nice word of it.



I hate to finish this post off with Books On Books, because they don't tie it together as well as if I'd started with them as a good Ottawa band, followed with Sound Team, and ended with Sojourn as the band that brings together the "Ottawa" and the "catchy" aspects of the post. But I'm this far in, and I don't feel like changing it, so please bear with me.

That's not to say that Books On Books' self-titled EP could never make it on any major, mainstream level. It probably couldn't, of course, because there's really not a huge market for Pavement-influenced slacker rock nowadays, but stranger things have happened. The quartet shows a lot of promise on both "Sethi" and "ATM Angel", though "Viewing Robots" shows that they still have a ways to go before they can even say they've fully captured the bands who influence them, let alone developed a style of their own. There's enough on their EP, however, to believe that Books On Books have the potential to grow into something really interesting.

Good news for everyone in Ottawa: in conjunction with the wonderful people over at Revolution Rock, i(heart)music will be presenting Born Ruffians at Zaphod's March 23rd.

More good news: it's with We're Marching On, who are finally touring again now that all their members are in the same country once more.

Best news of all: even if you can't make it out to the show, you can still download the songs from the Ruffians' KEXP session a month ago. They're great, as you'd expect from the band with one of last year's best EPs, and better still there's a Grizzly Bear cover in there. Everyone wins!

1. I'm One Of Those Girls
2. Kurt Vonnegut
3. The Knife
4. This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life

Enjoy! And, if you're in Ottawa, see you at the show!

Our contest involving Woke Myself Up, the latest album from Julie Doiron, may have ended, but given the number of entries I thought it might be nice to post the songs below, from a Radio 3 Session she recorded a few years ago with Radiogram.

1.When I Woke
2.Last Night
3.The Longest Winter
4.Snowfalls In November

Enjoy!

Woodpigeon, Songbook (Rectangle)

WHO...
Calgary's response to the indie-pop supergroup craze.

DISCOGRAPHY

Sketchbook EP (Self-released, 2005)
Pigeonbooth EP (Self-released, 2005)
Death By Ninja 7" (Self-released, 2006)
Redbeard EP (Self-released, 2006)
Snowshovel EP (Self-released, 2006)
Given EP (Self-released, 2006)
Songbook (Rectangle, 2006)

IN A NUTSHELL...

Songbook sounds like the product of some crazy genetic experiment involving Sufjan Stevens and Belle and Sebastien, without any talent being lost in the final result.

THE STORY...

When I made my year-end list for 2006, there were two things of which I was certain: first, that no matter how many albums I'd listened to during the year, I definitely missed out on at least as much excellent music; and second, that I'd hear a 2006 album sometime in 2007 that would make me realize just how lacking my best-of list really was.

One thing I didn't expect, however, was for both of those truths to be illuminated for me so clearly less than a month into the new year; and yet, here we are, just starting the fourth week of January, and Woodpigeon have rendered the aforementioned list obsolete (or, at least, severely lacking) with Songbook.

I'm not sure where to begin singing its praises. Maybe the best place is the end of the album, on "That Was Good But You Can Do Better/Closing Credits", on which every member of the collective takes turns singing and playing lead parts. Calling it the greatest song Sufjan's never written would be a good place to start describing it, since it has all the elements in place -- the quasi-marching band orchestration, the baroque goofiness -- but that doesn't quite capture the song's magnificence in its entirety. There's just something about the way the song starts and stops and goes at its own tempo, the way everyone in the band -- all half-dozen members or so -- seem to have distinct, well-defined roles, the way Woodpigeon throw everything they have into the song and pull it off spectacularly; it's a excellent way to end an album that's defined by the interplay a large group of talented musicians.

Of course, it helps that everything leading up to this final song is pretty enjoyable, too. A song like "Chorus Of Wolves" seems to draw from a very twee, Belle and Sebastien-esque place, while both "A Hymn For 2 Walks in Different Cities" and "A Sad Country Ballad For A Tired Superhero" combines that with a Seven Swans-like style of folk-gospel music. And, of course, "Death By Ninja (A Love Song)" shows that, for all the solemnity that sometimes seems prevalant on Songbook, Woodpigeon are a band that are able to have fun without making it sound forced.

Admittedly, all this praise doesn't get rid of the fact that I overlooked Woodpigeon for far too long, which meant that I deprived myself, for a few months, of hearing one of the best albums of the year, by one of the best new bands in Canada. All I can do to remedy this is to encourage, as strongly as I can, that you search Woodpigeon out right now, and don't do without Songbook any longer.

Jonas B. and Kelly R. win copies of Julie Doiron's newest album. Thanks to everyone who entered!

As for this week's contest, I'll be posting it momentarily. My site's design program is still being finicky, so I have to move everything I've done for the last year and a half into properly-formatted blog posts.

I have to admit that Pawa Up First have me stumped. There's no easy way to describe Introducing New Details. For the most part (as on "Goodbye Pluto"), the band seems to fit into a post-rock template. Everything is mellow, with nice atmospheric guitars and keyboards standing out above everything else.

But at the same time, songs like "Big Breeze" and "Mixed Blessings" come out of nowhere and force you to re-evaluate that opinion. Featuring rappers Belle and D-Shade, respectively, both songs are electro-tinged hip-hop, their semi-dissonant noises and energy levels totally at odds with the rest of the album. They're jarring, but in a good way; they ensure that you won't fall into the trap of just letting the songs wash over you, and instead of passively enjoying the album you have to stay ready for the album to break into something totally unexpected at any moment. It makes it really difficult to describe Introducing New Details if you haven't heard it, but it also means that if you do hear it, it's not likely to slip out of your memory.

As much as I love Camp Radio's self-titled album, I feel as if praising it by the standards of a debut album is unfair, if not a little deceitful. After all, while this technically is their first outing as a group, collectively the trio have been in more bands than you can shake a stick at (if you're in the practice of shaking sticks at bands), and one of their members, Dave Draves, is probably the most well-known producer in Ottawa for his work with bands like Howe Gelb, Kathleen Edwards and Gentleman Reg at his Little Bullhorn Studios. So even if they have only been playing together formally since 2005, the truth is that they're all seasoned veterans, and there's no mistaking that maturity when you listen to their first album.

Then again, this is a band who are doing their CD release show tomorrow night at Babylon, nearly eight full months after the album was released (not to mention a month after it was named #74 on Grant Lawrence's Top 94 of 2006). With that kind of slow, measured pace, who knows? Maybe the band consider all those earlier memberships brief blips of experience, and Camp Radio is where it's all coming together.

Listening to their debut, it'd be easy to see why they'd think that this is where it's all coming together. Of the ten tracks here, there's not a single one that's not great power-pop. Every song is powered by an wonderfully catchy riff, with just the slightest bit of an edge to make sure things aren't too sugary or sweet (see "Beat Me To The Medics" for the best example, though any song would do). It's not groundbreaking stuff, but really, who cares? This is a talented band with a wealth of experience to draw from, and on Camp Radio they put every bit of that experience and talent to good use.

It's really unfortunate that Wincing The Night Away comes with such heavy expectations attached to it. After all, no matter how great it is, coming up with something that will either a) change your life, or b) redeem The Shins for you if you were offended by the fact they were described as a band that will change someone else's life is a pretty huge task. As much as I love the band (and for the record, I fall into neither camp), theirs isn't the kind of grandiose music that fits the role of life-changer particularly well, nor is it so dramatic that it will represent a huge departure from their earlier work (and, presumably certain snobs hope, make the band shed all its newfound fans in the process).

What The Shins do, and what they do extremely well on Wincing..., is make nice, neat pop songs that work themselves into your head slowly and, once there, refuse to dislodge themselves. They're rarely instantly accessible, and that's true of most songs here: first single "Phantom Limb" takes its time in getting to the really catchy part, and the same could be said for tracks like "Sea Legs" and album opener "Sleeping Lessons". One of the few exceptions to this is "Australia"*, a fun song that's best described as "jaunty".

Will all that be enough to live up to whatever hype and meaning people are attaching to Wincing The Night Away? Almost definitely not. But it's more than enough to show that The Shins were able to ignore their newfound fame, and come up with another excellent album.

And as a bonus, here's a session the band did for KEXP back in 2004, when they were just another critically-adored band on Sub Pop.

1. Caring Is Creepy
2. Kissing The Lipless
3. Pressed In A Book
4. Saint Simon
5. So Says I

Enjoy!

*Track taken down at request of someone purporting to represent the artist claiming that downloading hurts album sales, even though independent studies have found that downloading hurts album sales at a level "statistically indistinguishable from zero".

Geeky as it sounds, I've always wished that, somehow, Hawksley Workman and Rufus Wainwright would collaborate on something. Anything. It doesn't matter what. Maybe a nice rock opera, with one of them playing the impossibly louche villain and the other being a suave hero; both of them certainly have the pipes for something like that, after all.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, the closest they've come to realizing this musical fantasy was an episode of Radio 3 from a few years ago, years before CBC ever even pondered doing away with that radio show altogether. For two magical weeks, both of them had sessions featured on the program...



Workman in support of his new-at-the-time album, Lover / Fighter:

1. Autumn's Here
2. Wonderful and Sad
3. No Reason To Cry Your Eyes Out
4. A House or a Boat



...and Wainwright in support of his Want One.

1. Beauty Mark
2. Pretty Things
3. Vibrate
4. Dinner At Eight

Enjoy! And, if you're so inclined, write them a script!