It’s been a few years since Stereolab dropped a proper LP. In anticipation to what I hope proves to be a worthy successor to 2001’s Sound-Dust (I’ve deliberately left out 2004’s Margerine Eclipse, not their best effort in my opinion), the UK group has released a track for us to taste off their upcoming album ‘Chemical Chords’. And you know what, it tastes like Emperor Tomato Ketchup…chips.
Toronto - I like animals. You like animals. We love Earth. Earth day was last week, so in honor of that, I present to you the Planet Earth Compilation, a compilation of music that is strictly from bands that have animals in their band name.
Go to the link below to listen. Limited time offer.
http://panicmanual.muxtape.com/
1. Super Furry Animals - Golden Retriever
2. The Seahorses - Love is the Law
3. The Bees - Chicken Payback
4. Lamb - What Sound
5. Field Mice - Let’s Kiss and Make Up
6. Dogs - London Bridge
7. Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica
8. Gorillaz - Dare
9. The Wombats - Lets Dance To Joy Division
10. The Owls - Air
11. Doves - Pounding
12. Arctic Monkey - Teddy Picker
Here is the world famous clip of a Golden Eagle throwing a goat off the cliff. Reminds me that I didn’t have any Mountain Goat songs on my comp. Or The Eagles.
Toronto - I will admit, I am extremely late to the My Morning Jacket train, despite having friends professing their love for them for years. I always thought they were just southern hick band. Obviously I was wrong. So when I got a chance to take a sneak peek at the latest MMJ offering - Evil Urges, I put it on without much of a thought.
Boy. This album is good. Really good. It sounds like everything. After doing some reading on the album, I found out that this album was more experimental and that the lead singer Jim James wanted the album to sound more like their live shows. If this is what their live shows sound like - sign me up.
The album has a little bit of everything, yea some songs sound southern (”I’m amazed”,”sec walkin”) but theres some songs that also sound like an 80s ballad (the awesome “Smokin from Shootin”), hell you could argue some sounds sound like Prince (”Touch me..”). The lyrics to the romantic number “The Librarian” even has the word “interweb” in it. How could you go wrong? This album just seems to have it all and even at the longish album time (about one hour) it goes by quite quickly.
Highly recommended: 4.5/5
Toronto - Three words: Made of Stone. What do you associate with this? The Freakin Stone Roses. That is true for 90% of the people who read the blog. The other 10% are people who look at statues and wonder what they are made of, so they look at the label on the black of the statue and read “Made of Stone…. also Made in China”.
So when I found out that Toronto’s own Spiral Beach releasing a single called “Made of Stone“, I was like ..sweet a cover tune. Obviously its not a cover tune, so I was like ‘n***** whaaaaaa’. After recovering from the initial shock, I realize that this tune is pretty decent and features and has a nice “seventies in the midst of a drug haze” vibe to it. Which is weird, because Spiral Beach consists of a bunch of teenagers.
Anyways, Spiral Beach has a new album out called “Ball”. Actually it was released in October last year. .. man I am behind. They’ll be playing the Opera House on May 17.
We were cruising around Burnaby on Friday evening listening to Vancouver’s Easy Rock station when I felt we needed to add a little more funk in our trunk. I decided to switch the station to CITR 101.9, home of UBC’s campus radio - because everyone knows that college radio is where it’s at whilst rolling the mean streets of The BBY*.
Through the static I was able to pick up a groovafied sound that made me pump up the volume from 3 to 5 (out of 10, cos I’m crazy like dat…and my wife was on the phone). At first listen I thought it might have been a new Tahiti 80 or Phoenix track as the vocals are quite similar, but instead it was a group called Sugardaddy. I took note of the name in order to investigate further and it turns out Sugardaddy are Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay and singer-songwriter Tim Hutton. I have yet to locate the rest of this album (for free), but here’s a taste of it with the funkalicious gem ‘Love On The Attack’. Modern soul at its finest people.
*After using this term in conversation with many people from Burnaby who had no idea what I was referring to, I feel I can lay claim to coining this abbreviation.
Toronto - Canadian bands packing Canadian crowds drinking Canadian beer. That was pretty much Saturday nite for the packed house at Lees Palace. I drank Wellington’s SPA, so I don’t know if that is Canadian or not. Someone look it up and post it in the comments please. PLEASE. Saturday night was a kind of a weird vibe, the TTC was on strike, the Raptors and the Blue Jays lost - hell even the Habs lost. All signs pointed to a disappointing night. Wrong.
Despite the fact that there was no public transit available - Lee’s Palace was packed. Not only that, it seemed packed from the get go - enough for me to think that this show was a double bill, rather then Miracle Fortress opening up for Born Ruffians. Some random band had started the show off, but I was watching hockey at the time, so I do not know who they were or how they played. I am sure they were more then alrite though and you should definitely check them out.
Back to Miracle Fortress, obviously getting great buzz from their CBC approved ‘Five Roses’ cd last year, the band quietly came out to an almost full crowd at around 11:00 pm. The threesome consists of Jordan Robson-Cramer on the drums, lead vocal Graham Van Pelt and female guitarist Jessie Stein, wearing something that was a cross of a summer dress and a kitchen apron. Regardless, girl with guitar = Panic Manual Approved. For the next fourty minutes or so, they went thru songs mostly from Five Roses - including some jams and extending outro’s. There was some awkward banter from Jessie Stein mainly and they concluded the set with the hit ‘Maybe Lately’. I thought the vocals were a bit too quiet and the drums were too loud, but man the drummer is pretty good. He would attach all sorts of random materials to his drumset and used that to make sounds. Probably has been doing that since he was a kid. It was a good set, only complaint being the muddled vocals at times.
By the time the roadies had finished up setting up for the Born Ruffians, Lees Palace was really packed. How are these people getting home? Surely they all don’t live within walking distance as I do - maybe they have cars. Rich assholes. As some might know, the Born Ruffians are a Toronto band. Which means lots of friends and family (one of the members said “hi” to their mom) in the crowd. However, by the end of the night - everyone was a friend. The band came on probably around midnight and right off the bat, you can tell this was going to be a good show. The crowd was hyped and from the first chord to the last, people was jumping up and down, hands in the air, dancing, singing to every single note coming out of Luke Lalonde’s mouth. Please note that I was standing in the middle area of the venue, so yea I have no idea how people were behind me. Probably boring.
How was the band themselves? Well, after attending the show, you have to say - the Born Ruffians music are perfect for small type venues. It’s got that college/pub rock sound to it that is way interactive with all the chanting choruses and the ‘whoooos’ and ‘aaaaaaaahhhs’. The band played songs from both albums, and I think ended the set with Hummingbird with a bunch of friends on stage. In the end I think everyone who went to the show as satisfied and for those who couldn’t make it - it looks like they are doing the Europe thing for the summer, and I am sure by the time they get back, it’ll probably be at a bigger venue which might ruin the nice cozy family environment that was Saturday nite’s at Lees
4/5
