i(heart)music

I went into Hard Drugs' self-titled debut with no small amount of scepticism. After all, it's designed to be a double-album rock opera; based on the genre's track record, that's not exactly a description that fills you with confidence. Not even the presence of some of Vancouver's most prominent musicians was enough to allay my initial fears; I mean, with all due respect to the Black Mountain/Pink Mountaintops/Lightning Dust collective, if the likes of The Who and Pink Floyd had trouble with the concept, I didn't see how they and their friends could pull it off.

It turns out I completely misjudged Hard Drugs' ability to take into account both halves of the "rock opera" equation. Yes, the album rocks -- as much as alt-country is capable of rocking, as songs like "Terminal City" and "No Choice" demonstrate -- but at the same time it actually hews to a narrative that makes sense (as operas tend to do). Hard Drugs follows the story of Vancouver junkies Lloyd and Aline, and even if you can't always tell exactly where they're at in the story, you can still see that the husband-wife songwriting duo of Jeffry Lee and Jenni Lee Nelson (who, I should note, are the main players in Hard Drugs; they just received contributions from the Black Mountain collective) have at least invested time in thinking about the characters and their motivations. It makes for a compellingly deep listen. Hard Drugs may not have single-handedly resuscitated the image of the the double-album rock opera, but they still do a pretty outstanding job of showing that it's a viable art form.

Forest City Lovers, Carriage (Out of This Spark)

WHO
Toronto's Kat Burns, along with an ever-expanding, ever-improving line-up.

DISCOGRAPHY
The Sun and The Wind (Self-released, 2006)

Haunting Moon Sinking (Out of This Spark, 2008)
Carriage (Out of This Spark, 2010)

IN A NUTSHELL
Carriage represents a massive evolution for Forest City Lovers.

THE STORY
I know I've said it before, but one of the real joys of having blogged for nearly five years has been watching artists grow and evolve over that time. Few artists personify this more than Kat Burns. After all, the first time I wrote about her, she was a Julie Doiron-esque folkie -- a very good one, of course, but still ultimately just a girl with a guitar. Jump ahead two albums to Haunting Moon Sinking, and you could see some growth taking place. Burns had picked up a band somewhere along the way, and even though her music was still quiet, there were still plenty of signs she was starting to take more risks and try out new things.

All that said, nothing could've prepared me for the jump that is Carriage. Really, I don't think I can fully convey how far the band has come from Burns' folky roots. Instead, I'll just tell you to download "Minneapolis".

Okay, I'm not just going to do that. But really, that song captures how much Burns and her band have evolved over the last few years. It's kind of dark, it's dance-y, it's got some big, booming drums near the end...I don't think I'd quite say it's dance-rock, but it's closer to that than it is to the folk of For The Birds (Burns' debut EP).

Admittedly, "Minneapolis" is a bit of an extreme case. And to be sure, there are songs that don't venture too far from Haunting Moon Sinking's quiet folk-pop ("Tell Me, Cancer" and "If I Were A Tree" being two obvious examples). But for the most part, the bulk of the album falls a lot closer to "Minneapolis", even if only in energy levels rather than sound. Songs like "Light You Up" and "Believe Me" are enthusiastic romps, while even the folkier moments -- songs like "Pocketful of Rocks" (which features a cameo from Born Ruffian Luke Lalonde) and "Oh The Wolves! (Ou Es Ma Soeur?)" -- find the band inhabiting a very different space than they were even one album ago.

Not that there was anything wrong with that old space, of course. Forest City Lovers' first few albums were outstanding by any measure. But on Carriage, Kat Burns and co. have ramped things up a few notches, and the results are simply spectacular.

Want to win Carriage? Thanks to Out of This Spark, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and mailing address by next Monday, and I'll pick a winner randomly!

Polymaths really should consider spending money on a decent publicist. I mean, when I first wrote about them, I said that I'd been interested in them but completely forgotten about their existence between the time I first heard them and the time I finally heard their debut EP. Now, two years later, I'm going to say something awfully similar about their first full-length, Home Again: as much as I liked them back a few years ago, I'd completely forgotten they existed by the time the album finally reached my mailbox (seven months after it was released, too). And that's not entirely my fault -- after all, their Myspace seems to have last been updated over a year ago, when they wrote they were looking forward to releasing Home Again sooner rather than later.

I know, I know -- it should all be about the music, so stuff like that shouldn't matter. But given the sheer number of albums being released these days, a bit of publicity can go a long way, particularly when the music in question is actually good.

And make no mistake, Polymaths are pretty good. In the years between their EP and Home Again, they seem to have reinvented themselves, trading in Smiths and Dears influences for something a little closer to Counting Crows. Songs like "Winter At Queen's" and "Emma" strike an intriguing balance between rootsy, jangly pop and raggedly punk-tinged rock. It's less epic-sounding than their previous output, but it's also a lot more fun. Whether the change will be enough to get the band the kind of notice they've thus far seemed to avoid remains to be seen (though the seven months between releasing Home Again and sending out press copies), but there's no denying that if you're looking at things on a strict quality basis, Polymaths make a strong argument for being one of the best bands in Saskatchewan.

As far as I'm concerned, this year's Polaris Prize Long List is the deepest one ever...which means that whittling down my Short List ballot has been a harder process than ever before. I mean, Young Galaxy were an easy choice, but after Invisible Republic there are at least a dozen outstanding albums battling for the remaining four spots. Included among those dozen prospects are a few albums that I have to admit I'd never heard before -- like, for example, Golden Bombay, the newest release from Misteur Valaire.

It's not an easy album to classify, since the band draws from all kinds of different genres to create their sound. Hip-hop sits alongside jazz, electronic music blends together with straight-up pop, and, ultimately, you're never quite sure what the band is going to do next. Heck, at one point (on "Lillehammer"), it sounds as if the band is reimagining the Hockey Night In Canada theme song as an electro-pop mash-up.

In lesser hands this could be a problem, but, thankfully, the five guys in Misteur Valaire seem to know what they're doing. Songs like "Monster Donte" and "Brandon Marlow" may not fit neatly into any boxes, but they certainly are fun. It makes for one of the more unique albums I've heard so far this year -- and one that's making this final Polaris decision a whole more difficult than in past years.

(And since I can't find a way to seamlessly put this into the above review, I'll mention it here: the band is practically giving away Golden Bombay, letting site visitors name their price. It's definitely worth checking out, so go chip in a few dollars and hear it for yourself!)

Regardless of what I write about Fixtures, the debut EP Courier News, I don't think anything captures my feelings better than my wife's reaction when she overheard me listening to it. Sometime during the trip-hoppy closing track, "Do I Dare", she called over, "Whatever you're listening to, it sounds very...interesting."

"Interesting" is probably the best description, since Fixtures is one of those EPs that hints at all kinds of possible directions, but doesn't commit to any one of them long enough to give you a firm idea of the band's sound. As such, at various times Courier News sound like a Postal Service-esque electro-pop outfit ("We're On The Horizon"), a downtempo version of Stars ("Roses On The Wall"), a trip-hop band and, on "Lovers", something that's vaguely industrial. All of it's done exceptionally well, which gives plenty of hope for whatever sound Courier News ultimately opt for. For now, though, as long as Fixtures is all there is to go on, all you can really say is that it all sounds very, very interesting.

I'll admit, ego plays a part in my liking Drifts, the new digital-only EP from CFCF. After all, as much as I enjoyed both Continents and Panesian Nights last year, I always worried that maybe my enjoyment stemmed purely from ignorance, that if I knew more about the genre I might actually see a whole bunch of glaring flaws in both albums. So, in a way, having CFCF's songs remixed by artists who (presumably) know a lot more than I do about the genre makes me feel a little more confident in me voicing my love for those albums.

Of course, a bigger part of why I like Drifts is that the songs are just as good now as they were when CFCF made them originally. I mean, even if the likes of Young Galaxy, Memoryhouse and Mathemagic have changed the songs a little ("Snake Charmer", "Letters Sent" and "Big Love", respectively), they were working with some pretty outstanding source material. The remixes may not quite be essential, but they certainly go a long way towards highlighting the fact that CFCF had an amazing year in 2009, and that anyone who hasn't yet heard Continents and Panesian Nights should remedy that as soon as possible (and probably pick up Drifts while they're at it).

The Acorn, No Ghost (Paper Bag)

WHO
Ottawa folk-rock quintet.

DISCOGRAPHY
A Klausener Xmas (Self-released, 2003)
Return To Blackness (Self-released, 2004)
The Pink Ghosts (Kelp, 2004)
Blankets! (Kelp, 2005)
Tin Fist (Kelp, 2006)
Glory Hope Mountain (Paper Bag, 2007)
No Ghost (Paper Bag, 2010)

IN A NUTSHELL
No Ghost is the best album of The Acorn's career.

THE STORY
With one exception, I've never been a huge fan of The Acorn. While I was certainly able to appreciate why others liked them, I could never get past what I perceived as a lack of any really compelling moments.

With No Ghost, however, I'm going to have to change my opinion. For the first time (at least as far as I'm concerned) Rolf Klausener & co. have figured out how to make an album that balances out the quiet, tender moments with louder, more explosive ones. Obviously, both sides have always been represented in the band's music (albeit with a heavy emphasis on the former, as evidenced by Glory Hope Mountain) but here they're combined so well that the result is a revelation, and by far the best album of The Acorn's career-to-date.

The crazy thing is, it didn't take much tweaking for it to take place. No Ghost still has plenty of songs that feature frontman Klausener singing quietly over muted guitars; indeed its final quarter is devoted to three songs ("Slippery When Wet", "Almanac" and "Kindling To Cremation") that practically define The Acorn at their quietest. Similarly, songs like "Bobcat Goldwraith" and "I Made The Law" bear a lot of similarities with some of the band's earlier "rocking out" moments.

The main difference is that there's a dynamism here that wasn't present on their earlier work (which, technically, really just means Glory Hope Mountain, since all the albums before that were EPs, which tend not to have much room for dynamism). At times this means that the loud songs give the album a sense of momentum after Klausener has explored some of his quieter songwriting impulses (see "I Made The Law" after "Misplaced"). At others, it means that the quiet songs act as an understated catharsis after some of the more intensely raucous moments (i.e. the aforementioned closing quarter, after "Bobcat Goldwraith"). Regardless of the reason for the volume changes, however, No Ghost flows together nicely, which each song leading perfectly into the next.

Ultimately, I suspect, a big reason for the change is that this is the first Acorn album in which the entire band took part in the songwriting process (rather than Klausener writing the songs, and then fleshing them out with his bandmates). This new creative dynamic seems to have inspired the band to bring the enthusiasm of their live shows onto disc, which in turn means that No Ghost is the first -- but hopefully not the last -- truly essential Acorn album.

Want to win No Ghost? Thanks to Paper Bag Records, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me by next Monday, and I'll randomly pick a winner!

The Most Serene Republic have always been a hit-or-miss proposition for me, and I mean that in the most extreme sense possible. After all, at their best, they're great enough to compel me to start a music website. On the flipside, however, TMSR at their worst are terrifyingly, almost unlistenably self-indulgent.

This means that I went into their new EP, Fantasick Impossibliss, with both expectations and apprehension. The former because the band has shown they can reign in their talent when they want to; the latter because the EP is being released digitally on the band's vanity label, and I feared that without someone at Arts & Crafts to tell them, "Uh...no", the band's very worst impulses would be given free reign.

As it turns out, Fantasick Impossibliss goes both ways. At times -- say, on "Pink Noise" -- TMSR are in fine form, striking a perfect balance between their proggy tendencies and their poppy impulses. At others, though -- particularly on the title track -- the band forgets that there are people trying to listen who may not have the patience for post-rock free-jazz, and things go completely off the rails. Consequently, this EP makes for an odd entry into the TMSR canon; it's them being both hit and miss, all within the span of about half an hour. I'm not sure whether that makes Fantasick Impossibliss essential or a disappointment, but you really only need to find out if you're an obsessive or a completist.

8 pm: Volcano Playground @ Neutral Lounge (with The Craft Economy, 1977 and Not Animals)

Volcano Playground's touchstones may be obvious, but that doesn't make their (free!) debut EP, Waiting, any less good. The band makes shoegazing pop that doesn't skimp on the "pop" half of that equation, and I'm interested to see whether they're able to pull it off live as well.

Download ""

Alternate 8 pm suggestion: Valleys @ The Drake Hotel


9 pm: My People Sleeping @ Rear View Mirror (with The Jing bang Show, Mad June, Nolan Natasha and The Rough Sea)

I have to admit, I haven't yet heard My People Sleeping's newest album, Feye. That said, if it's anywhere near as good as their last one, then it's bound to be worth hearing...and, by extension, seeing performed live.

Download "Yes No No"

Alternate 9 pm suggestion: The Library Voices @ The Horseshoe Tavern


10 pm: Hannah Georgas @ (with Attack in Black, Bruce Peninsula, Huron, The Library Voices and The Stanfields)

I've got to be honest: there's not a whole lot going on at 10 pm tonight. That said, even if there was, it's hard to imagine there being many bands more worth seeing than Hannah Georgas. Her recent Polaris Long List nomination is undoubtedly the first of many, many accolades, and it won't be long until she's playing even bigger venues than the (already sizable) Horseshoe.

Download "Dancefloor"

Alternate 10 pm suggestion: The Hoof & The Heel @ The Drake Hotel


11 pm: The Magic @ Sneaky Dee's (with The Peelies, Ruby Coast, Rudely Interrupted, Savoir Adore, Uncut and Violent Soho)

Having seen The Magic at last year's NxNE, I can vouch for the fact that there are few more interesting or engaging frontmen than the band's lead singer Geordie Gordon. Couple that with members of The D'Urbervilles, Barmitzvah Brothers and Constantines, and you've got one heck of a show.

Download "Harder Way"

Alternate 11 pm suggestion: Jane Vain @ The Drake Hotel


12 am: The D'Urbervilles @ The Drake Hotel (with The Hoof & The Heel, Jane Vain, Sean Nicholas Savage and Valleys)

I probably should've mentioned this earlier, but if you're just looking for one show where you can go and park yourself, the Pop Montreal showcase at the Drake is probably your best bet. The D'Urbs are obviously the best known of the bunch, but from top to bottom, this is easily the class of the whole night.

Download "Spin The Bottle"

Alternate 12 am and beyond suggestions: The Schomberg Fair @ Dakota Tavern (midnight), The Rough Sea @ Rear View Mirror (1 am), Amos the Transparent @ Rivoli

Obviously, as far as I'm concerned, there's only one place to be if you're in Toronto for NxNE tonight: at the Drake Hotel, for the i(heart)music showcase:



At 8 pm, you've got Giant Hand (download "The Beast"), who'll be showcasing songs from his soon to be released, as yet untitled new EP.

Alternate 8 pm suggestion: Dark Mean @ Sneaky Dee's

At 9 pm, Old Crowns (download "Two Birds") will show off why I called their self-titled debut "a stoner-country-rock masterpiece".

Alternate 9 pm suggestion: Ghost Bees @ The Gladstone Hotel

At 10 pm, La Strada (download "Mean That Much") will bring their orchestral, Arcade Fire-tinged rock up from Brooklyn, and in the process show why they're the first ever American band to play an i(heart)music show.

Alternate 10 pm suggestion: These Electric Lives @ El Mocambo (Upstairs)

At 11 pm, Boxer The Horse (download "Peace On Earth") will show off songs from their new album, Would You Please (which also happens to be the subject of this week's feature).

Alternate 11 pm suggestion: Wildlife @ Sneaky Dee's

Finally, at midnight, Burn Planetarium (download "Death Death Death") will wrap things up with their brand of spastic dance-punk.

Alternate 12 am suggestion: The John Punch Band @ NOW Lounge

If you're not exhausted from that back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back dose of great bands, then I'd encourage you to run over to Bread & Circus, where Gramercy Riffs will be playing, and undoubtedly bringing every other Newfie in Toronto with them.

8 pm: Young Galaxy @ Mod Club (with Imaginary Cities and The Besnard Lakes)

Really? Do I really need to explain why you need to go see Young Galaxy? I don't think so.

Download "Flux"

Alternate 8 pm suggestion: Volcanoless in Canada @ The Gladstone Hotel


9 pm: Krupke @ The Boat (with Modernboys Moderngirls, Sleepy Vikings, Autumn Owls and Ex-Po)

I have a sneaking suspicion that as good as Krupke's musical theatre-tinged pop is on record, it's probably even better live.

Download "Monday"

Alternate 9 pm suggestion: Pop Winds @ Whippersnapper Gallery


10 pm: The Racoon Wedding @ The Garrison (with Burning Love, DD/MM/YYYY, METZ, Iroquois Falls and Neon Windbreaker)

Given that the raucously ragged rock of Gather Gather Bones Rattle Rattle Truth seems tailor-made for a live setting, it should come as no surprise that The Racoon Wedding are, in fact, an astonishingly great band in concert. Yet, somehow, even their debut full-length doesn't quite capture what a force of nature they can be.

Download "Basement Or The Attic"

Alternate 10 pm suggestion: Olenka & The Autumn Lovers @ The Gladstone Hotel


11 pm: Ghostkeeper @ The Dakota Tavern (with The Sheepdogs, First Rate People, The Pack A.D. and Young Empires)

As I wrote just yesterday, Ghostkeeper's self-titled debut is one of the more exciting albums to come out so far this year. It only stands to reason (I hope) that at least a good chunk of that excitement gets transferred onto the stage.

Download "Metis Running"

Alternate 11 pm suggestion: Beekeepers Society @ Neutral


12 am: Elliott Brood @ Horseshoe Tavern (with Dinosaur Bones, Free Energy, Warpaint, The Junction and The Ghost is Dancing)

If you're in the mood for something even more raucous and ragged than The Racoon Wedding, Elliott Brood should do the trick.

Download Miss You Now"

Alternate midnight and beyond suggestion: The Bats Pajamas @ The Piston (1 am), Amos the Transparent @ The Gladstone Hotel (2 am)

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Springlizard - Docks Of The Okinoh
Two guys with acoustic guitars, ancestral melodies and lyrics, and Dreams Of The Wolf, a record with a limited edition of just 297 hand-made copies (you can get a digital version for free, just check their MySpace). Oh, and to Blogpartei readers: Springlizard will be touring Germany next August, so you better check them out!

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
World's End Press - Golden Child
Not the easiest band name to roll off the tongue, but World’s End Press have done very well with their disco jams meets the Stone Roses sound. The live show is a full-on party set, selling out parties in their hometown, Melbourne. Also check out their previous track, Only The Brave, on their myspace. Their debut album is being produced by fellow Melbournian electronic whiz Qua.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Superguidis - Nao Fosse O Bom Humor
Nao Fosse O Bom Humor is the main song of the 3rd album of southern Brazilian band Superguidis, released a few months ago. Its heavy riff and melodic lines remembers some of the best times of Foo Fighters, impression that, live, gets even stronger.


CANADA: I(Heart)Music
Ghostkeeper - Don't Come Knocking
If The Libertines had grown up somewhere in the Canadian Prairies, Ghostkeeper is probably how they would've sounded. The band's self-titled debut is one of the most creative and exciting things to come out so far this year, and this song has ample evidence of why that is.

Read what the rest of the world is listening to after the jump!

Boxer The Horse, Would You Please (Self-released)

WHO
Bouncy, upbeat Charlottetown quartet.

DISCOGRAPHY
The Late Show (Self-released, 2008)
Would You Please (Self-released, 2010)

IN A NUTSHELL
Would You Please finds Boxer The Horse fulfilling the potential they demonstrated on their debut EP.

THE STORY
Saying I was excited for Boxer The Horse's first full-length would be a bit of an understatement. After all, I was a huge fan of their debut EP; in fact, one of its tracks, "Jackson Leftfield", is easily one of my all-time favourite songs. As such, I was eager to see whether the band would be able to not just capture everything that made it so special, but sustain that level of poppy energy over twice as many songs.

First, the bad news: there's nothing as good as "Jackson Leftfield". Of course, as far as I'm concerned, that's one of the best songs ever written, so if Boxer The Horse couldn't quite come up with a second all-time great song just two years later...well, I think that's forgivable, particularly when you consider that the rest of Would You Please is better than everything else that was on The Late Show.

And that really is outstanding news, because behind "Jackson Leftfield", The Late Show was a pretty outstanding EP. The band demonstrated then that they were capable of finding some previously unsuspected middle ground between Franza Ferdinand and rootsy jangle-pop; here they show that not only does that middle ground exist, it's actually a pretty fertile creative area. Songs like "Everything's Better In Europe" and "Sketch Me A Glove" alternate between FF's slinky brand of dance-rock and, bouncy, Two Hours Traffic-esque pop, with the band consistently showing that it's possible to simultaneously be a little sleazy and extremely sunny. A big chunk of that, of course, comes down to the fact that frontman Jeremy Gaudet has a voice that's both of those things at once, but he and his bandmates deserve a lot of credit for the way they're able make wholesome, upbeat pop that has doesn't sound totally sexless.

Ultimately, that's what helps Would You Please survive the fact it's lacking a single, all time great song -- it's got eleven tracks that could still measure up to the output of pretty much any other band out there. It's a recipe for a great full-length, and it's enough to make me believe that Boxer The Horse have the talent to go from one-song wonders to one of Canada's best pop acts.

Want to win Would You Please? Thanks to Boxer The Horse, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and mailing address by next Monday, and I'll randomly pick a winner!

Ben J. wins a copy of Radio Radio's great new album. Thanks to all who entered!

A few nights ago, while watching Rah Rah put on a mind-blowingly great show, someone came over to me to rave about how they couldn't believe how good the band was. Their reason? Because Rah Rah are from Saskatchewan.

I can certainly understand that point of view; after all, I held it once, too. The thing is -- as I've said more times than I can count -- it's also a belief that disappears once you get beyond your initial scepticism that the province is actually a hotbed for outstanding music, and has been for a few years now.

The problem may be that none of the bands that have thus far emerged from the province have sounds that are geared for more mainstream success. Rah Rah, Library Voices, The Polymaths, Ultimate Power Duo -- all are great bands, but none play music that could easily fit in on the playlists of any mainstream channels, save for perhaps CBC Radio 3.

I think Sexy Mathematics could be the band that changes this. After all, their debut EP, Integration, shows the band to be much closer in sound to The Killers than to any of their province-mates. The electro-synth-rock of tracks like "Who Knows" would fit in comfortably on pretty much any mainstream radio station in the country (to say nothing of MuchMusic), and it's not hard to imagine the band gaining the kind of popular traction that has thus far eluded the current crop of Saskatchewanians.

Are Sexy Mathematics as good as Rah Rah or Library Voices? To be blunt, not really. But that's an extremely high bar to have to measure up against. If you just compare Integration to the other music in its field, it stands up well, and it should be enough to get Sexy Mathematics -- and, by extension, their province -- the sort of attention they deserve.