The first thing I must say about Town Hall is: thank god for a band that ‘gets’ website design. Maybe I’m just not artistic/musically minded to appreciate the thought and nuance that goes into some bands’ sites, but every time I have to ‘click to enter’ nine times before finding the actual content I’m looking for or come upon a long-outdated ‘next shows’ section I cringe. No wonder some indie bands stay small.

Thankfully, Town Hall has a wonderful site: no clicking to enter, music is up front and center, contact info readily available. Check it out here .

On to the music. The Brooklyn-based band just released its first full-band EP, Sticky Notes and Paper Scraps. For those of you looking for energetic indie, be aware: the first word that comes to mind when listening to the tracks is mellow. Soothing is not far behind. Listen to it while you’re getting ready for bed, not prepping for a night out. The band’s tags include freak and folk, but I would put a far heavier emphasis on the ‘folk’ aspect of the sound. That being said, it’s a 100% enjoyable soothing/mellow/folskie sound. The band reminds me a bit of Nickel Creek with the plucky-string sound and the female-male duets. My favorite track is Mary A. Longdon with its line: “all the women want to know is how she keeps her skin so smooth/what pills does she take, what creams does she use.” For some reason it’s a bit haunting – definitely sticks with you. Don’t believe me? Try it out.

Just Watching My Breath by TownHall

Toronto – I find myself in something of a music rut lately. You know what I mean: it’s the sort of rut that sees you making lacklustre mix CD’s for the car filled with tunes you played to death five years ago and filling your mp3 player with old Nas and Four Tet albums for something a little different, that kind of thing. I could be getting old and nostalgic, ready to make the permanent switch to oldies and “light favourites” stations. Or possibly ten weeks of diaper changes and spit-up has been a little distracting for me. One or the other.

The solution to these doldrums? Quite possibly a new Sunparlour Players album.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, as I’ve gone on emphatically about the Sunparlour Players many times before. One of the best, most intense live acts I’ve seen, Us Little Devils is the band’s third studio album after 2007′s Hymns for the Happy and 2009′s Wave North.

As good as the band is in a live setting, it’s probably fair to say that their studio efforts have been a little hit or miss as far as capturing some of that live energy. So does the new album overcome the limitations of their past recordings and deliver a consistently good album from start to finish? Well…no, not really. It’s only got a couple of the sort of “storytelling” tracks that are one of the band’s big songwriting strengths, like the sample track below, “Green Thumb”. I can appreciate the band is trying a few new things, as they clearly went for a bit more of a mainstream pop/rock kind of feel on a lot of tracks, but this doesn’t always mesh well with their folksy, roots base. By my count, only three tracks out of twelve are really outstanding, with the rest ranging from “decent” to “ok.”

Of course, a Sunparlour Players album is really just something to listen to so you can learn the choruses to the new songs and sing along with them during the live shows. When I listen to this album I find myself mostly looking forward to hearing the live renditions and finding out how the band can pull off some of the harmonies and rich sounds with only the three of them on stage, where they’ll occasionally play five or six instruments at once between them during any given song. In the end, the new album is just ok, and probably not enough to shake me from my music malaise, but a new Sunparlour Players tour with new material to check out is something to look forward to. Check them out if you get the chance on their upcoming Ontario tour and the cross-Canada tour that’s likely to follow, you definitely won’t regret it.

Sunparlour Players Ontario Fall Tour Dates:

11/25 Ottawa, ON – NAC Fourth Stage
11/29 St.Catherines, ON – The Mansion House
12/1 Kingston, ON – Zappa’s Lounge *
12/2 Peterborough, ON – The Red Dog*
12/3 London, ON – Call The Office*
12/4 Guelph, ON – Van Gogh’s *
12/8  Windsor, ON – The Capital Theatre *
12/9 Hamilton, ON – The Casbah *
12/10 Toronto, ON – The Great Hall

*With the Sadies

Sunparlour Players – Green Thumb by Outside-Music

If you’re so inclined, you can listen to the entire album streaming at www.outside-music.com/backstage/sunparlourplayers

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a full eleven years since Chris Martin walked through the rain on the beach and delighted everyone with his simple ode to a women not named Gwyneth. That track of course, was Yellow and started the English band Coldplay on a steady rise to the top of the charts. Arguably one of the biggest bands in the world, Coldplay are now back with their fifth album, Mylo Xyloto. Having not really paid attention to the band since A Rush of Blood to the Head, I decided to have a good listen to see what the 2011 version of Coldplay has to offer.

Mylo Xyloto
Must be the oddest title ever, but I’m not going to bother looking what this song title means. Probably something Gwyneth Paltrow discovered on the way to finding herself. How did some actress go from such a sweetheart to such an annoying figure in a span of ten years?

Hurts Like Heaven
I’m enjoying the quick pacing, soaring guitar and synthesizers on this song. If this song was released by a bunch of kids from Brooklyn (or someone in Toronto/Montreal), I’m pretty sure all the bloggers would be all over it. It’s one of the weird states of blogging today, once a band has been dismissed as a mainstream act, I feel like they have almost a disadvantage on the internet. Rolling in the millions of dollars they have helps I guess.

Paradise
The strings section that starts off this track seems to be directly ripped off from some medieval adventure movie where a bunch of rag tag characters discover either a really attractive princess or a temple. Also, sounds a lot like “pair of dice” instead of “paradise”

Charlie Brown
The opening parts of this track (some high pitch rewind effect first used in Bigmouth Strikes Again) reminds me of a Passion Pit song. Where are they now? The guitars are soaring in this one though, seems tailor made for an epic arena concert moment where Walmart moms are wetting their Lululemon pants as Chris Martin pretends like he’s going to go into a crowd but then runs back on stage just to play the piano for it song’s “tender” closing moments.

Us Against the World
Tender acoustic number that evokes memories of starry nights. The whole ‘us against the world’ theme sounds like something Bono would have written in the 80s.

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard this track before, but it’s pretty catchy in the beginning but descends into your normal Coldplay yearning and long pronounciation of each word choruses.

Major Minus
I listened to this track twice because I wasn’t really paying attention the first time. Not the most memorable track although the line “us against the world” is once again used.

UFO
Nothing to really say here

Princess of China
Not sure what Rihanna has to do with China but I guess when Coldplay comes a’callin, you don’t say no. She doesn’t really add much to it though. The dual vocal part of “you really hurt me” adds a nice bit of drama to an otherwise unmemorable song, I guess. If Coldplay really wanted to go with an edgier track, they probably should have enlisted Nicky Minaj.

Up in Flames
Slow piano falsetto number that is probably quite swoonable to a certain demographic. It’s easy to dismiss this as another Coldplay slow track but fact is most bands would give an arm and a leg to write a song like this, but since it’s Coldplay, let’s dismiss this as another slow Coldplay track for you to hold your smartphone in the air.

Don’t Let it Break Your Heart
The title reminds me of the Backstreet Boys song “I’ll never break your heart” which isn’t the best way to start off a song. In this track, pounding pianos are accomanpied by a rousing guitar riff that given other lyrics could probably pass as a song played by born again Christians in a church or something. It’s quite soaring, the church people would close their eyes, put both their hands in the air and then get down on their knees or something. Some might even faint from all the glory.

Up With the Birds
meh

Overall, it seems pleasant enough. Despite the band claiming this is a concept album with a more industrial rock direction, Coldplay will always just sound like Coldplay. I don’t really think that’s a big problem for them since their sound has made them millions of fans worldwide. Would I listen to this regularly? Probably not. Would I be annoyed if someone I was in a car with decided to play this on a road trip somewhere? Probably not.

I did something stupid this summer. I bought a CD. I know, crazy shit.

I picked up Dan Mangans’, now almost immortalized album, Nice Nice Very Nice (2008) at Backstreet Records in Fredericton. Since my parents’ car didn’t have a USB hub, I had to buy a CD to fill my hour long car trips to my grandparents house. I had heard most of the tracks on NNVN over the past three years and quite liked most of them, so I figured this was a safe way to spend $20.

The thing about CD’s is that they have liner notes and unless you actually buy one, you are missing out on this part of the musical experience that the artist intends you to have. Inside the CD jacket of Dan Mangans’ album, right above the lyrics, is a brief statement about each song. These comments, although short, are very charming and personal statements about the songwriter, the song, or life in general. I enjoyed reading them so much, I feel compelled to share some of them with you, my downloading mp3 friends.

Road Regrets – In March of 2007, driving from El Paso to Austin, I drank 64 ounces of cheap gas-station coffee in a day; it was disgusting.

Robots – My cell phone died and I went for five days without a mobile before a new one arrived in the mail. The first day was terrifying – the other four were glorious.

The Indie Queens Are Waiting – I don’t think I’m the only person who feels that waking at 10AM to the promise of eggs over-easy and a newspaper, good company and a general sense of wellbeing sounds like a good start to the workday.

Sold – I played a gig for an advertisement agency awards gala – they asked me to play some upbeat material, and this was all I had. It was a laugh/cry moment.

Fair Verona – ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about many things, I think. Sure it’s about romance and love, but it’s also about the impending influence of history in the present, reputations, grudges and fear. People who ostracize those who wander outside the status quo often do so because they don’t have the cahones to be so bold.

Tina’s Glorious Comeback – One day, they tore down all the old rain-worn wooden bus shelters that visually defined, for me at least, the way Vancouver felt when I was a kid. It occurred to me that those bus stops, place every two blocks along every thoroughfare in the city, were like strategically scattered reminders of life on the west coast. They replaced them with futuristic looking metal bus stops with handles built into the benches so homeless people couldn’t use them to sleep on.

Et Les Mots Croises – There are many things my friends make fun of me for. One of them was the time I got screwed by Ebay – another is this song.

Set The Sails – Eventually, we’ll all turn off the televisions and hide in the woods.

For a listen to the new Dan Mangan album, Oh Fortune, head over to CBC3 for the podcast where Grant Lawrence talks to Dan about the album and plays it track for track.

Inspirations can come at any time and any place. Sometimes these inspirations lead to great ideas. Most often, they lead to ideas that might seem great at first, but slowly degrades into something else. Welcome to my review of two release of albums from bands that are looking to take the next step in their respective careers.

English band Bombay Bicycle Club has had a rather popular run in England on the strength of their first two albums – Flaws and I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose. Both albums took elements from both folk and rock to create a space that sounded both sincere and raw. Their stateside popularity has been surprisingly meager, but I suspect it is because they came into popularity around the same time as two other “club” bands – Tokyo Police Club and Two Door Cinema Club. Perhaps the indie kids just couldn’t handle all these club bands at the same time. Perhaps it was this lack of recognition that forced the UK band to lean more towards the rock side of things with their new album – A Different Kind of Fix. Released on Monday, the bands third album aims to take the band into a more electric guitar based direction which will hopefully direct them into uncharted popularity territory.

While England’s BBC took a more slower approach to success, The Drums just blasted to the top of the indie band du jour pyramid last year with their self titled debut. Drenched in 80s new wave nostalgia, the album charted extremely well and songs such as Let’s Go Surfing and Me and the Moon made it’s way into the hearts of indie music fans everywhere. The bands second album, Portamento is released a mere 14 months after their self titled debut and hopes to build upon the success of the original and further cement the American band’s status as the go to band for mopey guitar songs.

So why review these two albums together, you ask? Well, they were both in my inbox and both looked interesting. Somehow I decided it would be a good idea to put them into one playlist, press shuffle and guess who sang what. It seemed like it would become a nice unbiased review of the material, but it didn’t work out that way.

Here is what notes I had.

Puts on playlist

Song #1: I know this song is by Bombay Bicycle Club, because I accidently took a peek. It could pass for The Drums too I guess, it’s got those gentle 80s retro Cure-esque guitar riffs. It’s pretty catchy and the chorus has a nice melody. I guess this song is called Book of Revelations

Song #2: This song is definitely by Bombay Bicycle Club, the’s pace is too slow. “Put all your worries off” doesn’t sound like something The Drums would sing. This track is actually quite pleasant and some nice synthesizer sequences to it. The coda for this song has a very trimphant feel to it, although I think it would benefit from some strings. What song wouldn’t benefit from strings though? This is definitely a track that can close out a show. All English bands seem to have one song with a rousing ending, I wonder if it’s a part of the manifest.

Guess: Bombay Bicycle Club
Fact: Bombay Bicycle Club – Favorite Day

Song #3: I guess the lead singer from the two bands have different voices, as Jonathan Pierce has a slightly higher pitched voice than the dude from the other band. Musically, this track is a quintessential Drums song, it has that 80′s romanticized guitar riff, personal lyrics (“I’ll never hate you/but you’re hard to love”) about the singers lover or best friend or spurned love. Say what you will about The Drums coping other people’s sounds, they make really catchy pop tracks and this song is one of them.

Guess: The Drums
Fact: The Drums – Hard to Love

Song #4: Song 4 starts on almost the exact drum beat and guitar riff as song 3, so this is probably the Drums. I am starting to think that this dual review is going to go nowhere since I now know the two bands have distinctly different voices. I am guessing this song is called “Please Don’t Leave”. This song also has the whole “repeating some words with increasing frequency” trick that they already used on the last song. Less catchy and more whiny than the last track.

Guess: The Drums – Please Don’t Leave
Fact: The Drums – Please Don’t Leave

Song #5: Definitely Bombay Bicycle Club track. Although when they sing in falsetto, it makes me think it is a Drums track. Actually, I’m not sure anymore. This might be a restrained Jonathan Pierce singing. I’m going to say this is Drums song now, based on the lyrics “You came along..I gave you my home”. This guy should write dialogue for Gilmour Girls or something. The lyrics from this album seem to be quite personal and about two minutes in the track has descended into the same guitar riff that the band used in the previous two songs. I wonder if this is a concept album built around two main riffs. Jonathan Pierce’s “Huuuuh Oh Huuuuh Oh uh-huuuuuuuuuh” is the new Brett Anderson “lalalalala” it seems. He has done it almost every song so far.

Guess: Bombay Bicycle Club, then the Drums
Fact: The Drums – What You Were

Song #6: The Drums once again, based once again on Jonathan’s use of “Huuuuh Oh Huuuuh Oh uh-huuuuuuuuuh” only this time he adds “dolululululu” at the end. Can’t trick me, my friend.

Guess: The Drums – Do lu lu lu lu lu lu
Fact: The Drums – If He Likes It Let Him Do it

Song #7: Definitely a Bombay Bicycle Club song, Jack Steadman’s voice is quite different than Jonathan Pierce’s. This track also does not sound like an 80s love song. I like the usage of strings (although it might be synthesizer based).. The track has a serious confessional rock feel to it, but I can’t really make out what he’s saying, despite the crystal clear vocals. I guess I’m just not good at picking up accents. It’s a nice break from hearing three songs in a row with the same chords though.

Guess: BBC
Fact: Bombay Bicycle Club – Bad Thing

At this point, I realized that

a) This article is too long
b) This is kind of lame
c) I need to get back to work

So I put an end to it.

Is this a review? I don’t know. What I do know is that The Drums new record is catchy, but relies on the same tricks as the first record and the new Bombay Bicycle Club record ditches the acoustic songs of the previous album, leans towards louder and harder compositions but retains the same essence that made the band a hit in England.

Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix is in stores now
The Drums – Portamento is in stores September 12

The Drums – Money by WorkItMedia

Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle

In the span of 1 year The Black Keys‘ live shows have become, to quote Austin Powers, “Tight like a Tiger”.  On top of that the release of their sixth album has catapulted them into international stardom.

The Black Keys saw moderate fame up until 2010, with their signature modern blues grit.  However, they got to the point that most artists get to after a decade of almost cracking the popular music nut and enlisted pop wizard producers like Danger Mouse to write a best selling album called Brothers.  Hey, I’m not knocking them at all, Brothers is a bop-your-head crowd pleaser of an album without a doubt! But, with mainstream success a band always seems to lose a bit of their scrappy, gritty charm.

After navigating the maze that was the Honda Indy track, having a stranger assist my boyfriend and I haul our bikes over a fence and subsequently shimmying under said fence…we made it to the Molson Amphitheatre, albeit 2 songs late.

The Black Keys have perfected their live shows.  Other bands take note, they followed the illusive ultimate rock concert formula:

Act One (Songs 1-6): Play some old favourites, get the crowd moving, excite the diehard fans.  Keep it low-key by having only the original band members on stage with minimal stage effects and lighting.

Act Two (Songs 7-16) : Gather more musicians on stage to complete the band and use bright lights and rustic decor for chord emphasis.  Play the new album plus songs featured on the Twilight, Hung, Baseball playoffs and Grand Theft Auto soundtracks while peppering some tunes with extended drum and guitar solos – THE CROWD GOES WILD.

Act Three (Encore Songs 17 & 18):  Bust out an enormous “your name in lights” sign that takes up the entire backdrop and keep alternating from BLACK to KEYS which incites people to chant “BLACK” “KEYS” faster and faster at the top of their liquored up lungs.  Shred two more fan favourites with super-extended guitar solos and then leave in a blaze of glory with fans high on shred-tasticness.  THE F’N END.

This, my friends, was the Black Keys show.

Humour aside, it’s a sad reality that very few other bands come close in musical prowess these days.  You don’t often see finger picking and slide guitar at pop performances, a sure sign of instrument mastery.

These guys have live shows nailed, they are one of the few bands who can go from small underground tavern to Madison Square Garden and still have fans leaving feeling fulfilled.  Do yourself a favour a grab tickets next time The Black Keys are in town.

Toronto – I am djing a friend’s wedding this weekend. Naturally, not everyone in the wedding are britpop-indie rock enthusiasts so in an effort to please everyone, I have decided to listen to Now 78, a compilation of recent hits in the top 40. Here is a play by play of my listening efforts.

Bruno Mars – Grenade
For a song named after a weapon that kills on impact, this song really lacks I dunno, everything. The chorus wasn’t catchy and this Bruno Mars dude songs whiny.

Adele – Rolling In The Deep
Everyone loves this track, and obviously, something you play at a wedding.

Jessie J – Do It Like A Dude
Foul languaged auto tuned track that I guess is suppose to empower young girls everywhere. “I can do it like a brother, do it like a dude” Jessie J sings. This song is not even remotely memorable or good. I think she is trying too hard.

Rihanna – S&M
Rihanna is amazing. That is all.

Ke$ha – We R Who We R
I like Ke$ha’s hit track Tik Tok and this is the first time I’ve heard this track. Heavy on vocal effects, I like Ke$ha’s non-stop dedication to partying. She sings off key and her lyrics aren’t exactly great for the kids to listen to, but she is who she is, and you have to kind of respect that. This track however, could be made by me on a laptop, but is passable for a club track.

The Wanted – Gold Forever
We saw their music video in London and they looked like a low budget version of N’Sync. Typical boy band schtick “butterfly, butterfly, we were meant to fly”. WHO WRITES THAT?? It reminds me of Mark Wahlberg in the criminally underrated movie The Other Guys: “I’m a peacack, you gotta let me fly!” This track has a bit of a decent buildup so it’s not as third rated as I had originally imagined.

Matt Cardle – When We Collide
This guy was on the UK’s version of X factor. I doubt anyone knows about him, which means I can skip this sappy soccer mom baiting track.

Take That – The Flood
Ellie Goulding – Your Song
Two tracks that make you believe in good pop music. While Ellie’s is a lovely version of the famed Elton John song, The Flood is Take That’s come back track and well, it’s ridiculous catchy. It’s been on my ipod for awhile already and I don’t mind admitting that. I also have Back For Good on my ipod, so take that.

JLS Featuring Tinie Tempah – Eye Wide Shut
I swear this song rips off Calvin Harris’s I’m Not Alone a bit with the synth line they are employing. This is a fairly inoffensive club track for a high school dance. I guess they were on X Factor too.

David Guetta featuring Rihanna – Who’s That Chick
Another dance track that relies heavily on voice manipulation, it seems like a huge waste of Rihanna’s talent to have her sing a few lines and then use a computer for the chorus.

Taio Cruz Featuring Kylie Minogue, Travis McCoy – Higher
Taio Cruz has been on a steady climb with the track Dynamite and this track is also pretty damn good even with the inclusion of Gym Class Heroe’s Travie McCoy. I accidently saw that band a few years at SXSW and have only recently finished the recovery process. This track has a nice euro dance beat and the inclusion of Kylie instantly adds respectability to it in terms of dance track-ness.

Chris Brown – Yeah 3X
The only thing I know is that he beats up women. Probably not a good thing to play at a wedding.

Britney Spears – Hold It Against Me
I haven’t heard a Britney tune since Toxic, but this track was actually really good. Sounded like an eighties disco track. Color me impressed.

Alexis Jordan – Happiness
A boring track laid over generic dance beats. Alexis was on America’s Got Talent or something? This track never really rises to the levels it is probably capable of. This track attempts to sound inspiring and I suppose there are thousands of reality tv obsessed people out there who could be brainwashed to take this track to heart and identify with it. I am not that person.

Parade – Louder
This is a British five piece girl band. I guess England has been spitting these girl bands out like a machine lately, trying to regain the momentum that the Spice Girls had achieved well over a decade ago. Sadly, these girls are not going to be it. I can’t believe they shared the same bill as Pulp at the 2011 Isle of Wight Festival.

Olly Murs – Thinking of Me
This track was all over the television when I was in England, so it is permantly associated with my trip there, which makes this song something I think fondly about.

Avril Lavigne – What the Hell
I don’t think Canada’s pop punk princess has aged in the past ten years – physically or mentally. She is still singing the rebellious teenie empowerment tracks that made her famous in the first place. I guess if it ain’t broken, why fix it? This song is somewhat biographical, she just needs to be a little bit crazy she says. I guess thats why she’s dating Brody Jenner. Still, this track is kinda catchy.

McFly featuring Taio Cruz – Shine A Light
This clearly was not a Constantines cover. I am running low on energy. This has been too much saccharine filled pop music for one afternoon.

Noah & The Whale – L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
I always thought these guys were an indie band, since I get PR emails about them, so either they broke through or I have to re-evaluate my email filters. Poppy track with a ridiculously catchy chorus (nice backing vocals) and a laid back vibe. I can see how this track can appeal to the masses.

Susan Boyle & Gerald McQueen
If you take the letters in Susan Boyle’s name, and re-arrange it, it spells ‘RICKY NO LISTEN’.

That’s only cd 1, but I don’t think I have it in me to put on the other disc.

And as a result, I finished watching all of the new Doctor Who serials that I can get my hands on. Multiple times. All 5-and-1/2-seasons-and-a-dozen-specials-in-no-particular-order later, I hereby declare that I’m completely hooked like a half dozen lab-mates. There might have been some peer-pressure at the start, but honestly, the characters are so lovably portrayed that the interest became self-perpetuating. For those of you who are like me just 2 months ago, Doctor Who is a long-running British TV serial about an alien with a time machine, hellbent on saving the world (which more often than not ends up being ours). Unlike similar sci-fi “cult” phenomena such as Star Trek, however, one thing that Doctor Who (at least the new serials) does not suffer from is stagnation. The characters and their lives are constantly in motion. The “final frontier” is never “out there” – it’s already found, only shattered and sprinkled sparingly into every episode. It give the audience Sherlock Holmes moments to discover clues, and omits the conspicuous character development. Steven Moffat and Matt Smith continues to sculpt the 11th Doctor, a 900 years-old Gallifreyan extraterrestrial with a constant fire on his ass such that he can’t sit still, into an even more mysterious yet innocent protagonist than the 10th Doctor (by David Tennant) ever was. Where Tennant’s rage and anger used to be, Smith substitutes bewilderment, glee, introspection, and random fashion gear (stetson, bowtie, fez, etc). Smith’s Doctor retains the trade-mark lines and the God complex from his predecessor. But he destroys his enemies with much less sense of justice and more utility, it’s actually more unsettling. The moral obligation for every generation of The Doctor, however, seems to be an ability to utilize the English language from every-which direction such that it appears to ooze out of the brain by osmosis. Smith certainly has that, and I’d wager he can do some serious damage as a standup. The screenplay is clever and more convoluted than ever. And the “enemies” have gotten more obscure, subtle, and interesting. That thing, in the picture above, is an alien that “can’t be remembered unless you are looking at one”. As opposed to the straight-forward, technologically advanced colonial aliens, refreshing trajectories like this keeps the series alive and above the information overload. One of these days I will save enough money to get the staring-contest T-shirt, and officially become a nerd. For now, it’s easy enough to recommend the new Doctor Who season to anyone with some “time” on their hands. It resumes in September.

Doctor Who (Seasons 5 and 6, so far):

I mentioned a My Morning Jacket song last month and also got some welcomed resonance from others who enjoy MMJ (specifically Filligar). It’s been more than a week since Circuital was released and I found the new album a treat to the ears… if you don’t have some haute expectations. Some bands find one formula and perfect it (or milk-until-dry… depending on your level of hatred). My Morning Jacket would need to painstakingly introduce me to such stylistic cohesive blob if they had one resting at the center of this album, because I couldn’t find one. I think their philosophy is “bring everything”. It does perfectly echo the style they reputedly said to have wanted:

“… like we’re Cuban or Cambodian kids, and we’re wearing berets and we’re walking through an alley and we stumble upon this band, and it explodes into this crazy sing-along.”

Sing-alongs are always good. But from the hollow and expansive “bah-bah-la” in The Day is Come, the recurring (yes I resisted using the pun) guitar in the title track Circuital, to the more intimate Moving Away and Wonderful, and the dumb-kid (and muppets) inspired Outta My System, you could not be blamed to detest this new album on the basis that it’s too cosmopolitan (in the facile, work-hard-play-hard shallow sense) and diluted in character (see here for Exhibit A: one disgusted reviewer). I doubt that’s a problem with fans of their music, however. Evil Urges (their last album in 2008) was itself very diverse – Sec Walkin’ and Librarian are as foreign to Highly Suspicious as an Asian dude in capri standing on the streets of East Baltimore. But what I can imagine (because I’ve never seen them in concert), is that more and more, a random selection from their discography during a live session becomes representative. So you might, also randomly, imagine walking down an alley, into MMJ, and randomly aggregate into a singing flash mob with random strangers. If you’re like me, however, you would stop comparing apples to oranges, where the prototype for each song can be found, or whether there are stylistic loci. On an individual basis, I would say Circuital becomes a lot more enjoyable. And catchy, too. Jim James’ voice is more restrained here, coinciding with a (only slightly) shorter hairstyle. But the quality of his vocal still surprises me. There is a sizable difference between trying and achieving different things. I believe you can hear the band transformed into each archetype they attempt, and that’s something to applaud. In that sense I don’t agree with the press touting that this new album is a “return to form” – it’s not really the same band that plays One Big Holiday ten-times-over on different major/minor. That they’ve returned to the studio (or a gym in a church in Kentucky), is closer to the truth.

Circuital:

Until next month kids. Play safe.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, PAPERMAPS, the Toronto band, drop their debut album on Tuesday. Lead singer Dean Marino, accompanied by his friends Todd Harrison (bass and synthesizer), Wendy Leung (keyboards, vocals) and Bobby Lee (drums) have provided us with a pop album that has something for everyone. Stand out tracks include the acoustic, stripped down Wishful Thinker, catchy sing-a-long Reunion, anthum-isk mood setting You Are My Gallows and the self reflective, best played extremely loud pop song Can’t Make A Living. I have a special hankering for songs named after women. Papermaps satisfies this craving with the opening track Angela, which boasts a catchy piano and chorus that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Sometimes when I listen to the song Reunion, I like to change the chorus to “I promised you a cheese cake”.

The band is on tour now, working their way back to Toronto for an April 29th release party at Sneaky Dees. (with Cheap Speakers and Ketch Harobur Wolves)

Unofficial Contest: The first person to identify the 10 artists who perform the following “women” songs in the comments for this article will receive a +1 to Papermaps April 29th show at Sneeky Dees. I haven’t approved this contest with the band, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be on board with it.

Sarah
Amanda
Jolene
Polly
Rio
Lucille
Lola
Maggie Mae
Roxanne
Allison

Really, Pearl Jam?  Another live album?  Was this really necessary given the fact that you’ve released roughly 3 billion live albums already?  An exaggeration, of course, but the reality is you actually have put out seven live albums plus a total of 72 albums as part of that “Official Bootleg” thing you did back in 2000.  That’s a hell of a lot of live albums, and while I won’t dispute that you’re a formidable live presence (i’ve never seen you live … nor have I heard most of your live albums, but I’ve heard good things from people) and that it would be cool for a fan to own a document of a show they may have seen, I just don’t get why you need so many live albums, let alone another one.  Are you making a case for yourselves as the next Grateful Dead?  Don’t Phish already have that market cornered?  If by some chance you’re reading this Pearl Jam, please explain yourselves.  It will help me sleep better at night.

OK, here’s the part where I ditch the pretense of this being an open letter to Pearl Jam and actually judge this on it’s merits as a recorded collection of songs.  I have to admit, it’s pretty good.  As far as sound quality goes, it’s a clear, decent recording and the song selection is good, avoiding obvious hits for the most part (because really ,those have probably already been covered on all those many, many other live albums) as well as paying tribute to their influences by covering Joe Strummer and Public Image Ltd. songs.  So is this an essential live album?  Well, no.  There are no grand revelations here, no side of the band that hasn’t been seen before.  But will it tide fans over until the inevitable next live album?  Yeah, probably.