Sunday, March 16, 2008

boris: smile

Boris latest album, Smile is a fascinating exploration into a loud, melodic, and mysterious world. It features eight ambitious genre blending songs. The variety is really limitless here: there is the rhythm driven opening track "Messeeji", the ultra noisy and distorted "Hanate!", a gentle and melodic "Hana, Taiyou, Ame", and the shoegaze sounding lullaby in "Tonari No Sataan". Certainly, this record will leave many listeners frightened and confused; but in the end, the band’s experimentation with sampling, noise, punk, and metal make Smile a wonderfully unique experience.

Messeeji [wicked-cool song]
Buzz-In [wicked-cool song]
Hana, Taiyou, Ame [wicked-cool song]
***all files expire in 7 days or until bandwidth reaches its limit

Smile comes out on April 29th, you can pre-order it here

Friday, March 14, 2008

the superfantastics: choose your destination

I have been very lucky with my band choices during Canadian Music Week. In the past years, I fell in love with bands like Great Lake Swimmers and The Nymphets; this year, I discovered a wonderful duo from Halifax, Nova Scotia called The Superfantastics. Being very impressed by their set at Criminal Records last Saturday, I bought Choose Your Destination, a five songs 7" EP from the band. Much like their performance that night, the EP is full of the duo’s charming vibes; in addition, it is full of catchy indie pop songs with cheesy but very adorable lyrics. Take "Van Gogh", my favourite song from the EP, it opens with "you are art, I want to hang you from my wall. You make a perfect addition to my living room and kitchen, not hanging alone in some gallery hall..." sure, it is cheesy, but something about it makes the song an absolute delight to listen to. Even if you are not completely satisfy with the songs I posted below, I think every music love should buy Choose Your Destination because it has one of the coolest packaging ever: it comes with a pair of old-school blue and red cardboard glasses so you can look at the cover as well as the booklet in 3-D ...total awesomeness to the max!

Van Gogh [wicked-cool song]
The Astronomer [wicked-cool song]
***all files expire in 7 days or until bandwidth reaches its limit

visit The Superfantastics MySpace here
buy Choose Your Destination EP here

"my vessel brave......."

New Patrick Wolf MySpace blog:

Hello my dears

Well, Ive been deep in my introverted, investigative mode recently searching for a resonance within myself, wandering through museums and through libraries, finding the next communication to give to the world.
Although I have years of songs all heavy on my hands begging to be heard, released....
I am still very cautious of releasing songs when they are not fully formed or in context of a current climate, personally and public.
I trust I have enough time on this earth that I will be able to get all of these songs heard before i’m gone

I always feel at the beginning stages of making my albums that I have to almost select the twelve strongest stories and connect them via bloodtype, make a family out of them, make a home for them, connect the dots to create a whole, a possession for you to own... its a tricky proccess. The writing of the songs is easy, the putting together is the puzzle game.

After the magic position, I have decided to leave the circus behind, those days are done, It is time to embrace a new age, a stronger, darker, battlefield, warrior, tyburn tree, internal investigations, operations of broken and fragmented heart, to analyse the open endless roads I have travelled in the last six years years...

I wish I could just invite you all over for a long night of stories, log fires and vats of mulled cider or strong hot tea and talk this all over but in my game I have to condense these stories and songs into a record... I will have to edit myself...

anyways.. i am going back to my roots now. after travelling travelling travelling from continent to contintent I find I am happiest and most productive when close to my birthplace. yes.. i am south londoner again and it feels fantastic.

when i was fifteen or so I worked in a sandwich shop, making very bad sandwiches for busy people in wansdsworth that was managed by a lady who used to play me and my sister, who also worked at the shop for a while, heavy 2-step garage and what I guess would go on to be grime on cassette tapes she had recorded from last nights local pirate radio broadcasts... thats when I first started getting obsessed with pushing the limit of beat programming and time signatures, so solid crew were the first stars that came from sw london, after ultimate kaos, who i saw open the new virgin megastore in wimbledon by doing backflips around a ghetto blaster, happy days ... anyway, i guess i am suggesting I am reconnecting to my roots, when you find your roots, you become stronger and can grow into new dimensions and I am finding mine again... im researching gaelic folk songs, all kinds of gaelic, back to my west cork irish roots, the migrations of my ancestors, in my youth the clonakilty buskers festival did so much positive damage to my 8 year old brain that I spent the first five years of my teenage-dom hungering for an accordion, then using all my violin practise time to make up my own reels and turn the violin to a fiddle..

And too, I just want to say hello, and keep you a little informed of the journey I will take as I make this next album, like my mother said with a paintbrush in her hand, the future without the past is barren wasteland.....

I must sleep now... ive had a mad day of moving a harspichord, a virginal, clavichord, a piano, a dolls house and too many outfits from one side of london to another, from my new home, now is time to rest and digest... good things are coming our way... bloody chamber music will be starting up very soon too, after slow teething problems, its on its way, in its new south of the river home ready to cross those bridges to you...

goodnight brothers and sisters, sleep well, or wake well

sail away, sail away my vessel brave
sail away, sail away my vessel brave...

x pw

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sunday, March 09, 2008

you are art

Calm Down, It's Monday, The Superfantastics, Julie Doiron, and Dog Day — March 8 @ Criminal Records

Calm Down, It's Monday



The Superfantastics



Julie Doiron



Dog Day


Thank you Criminal Records for hosting all the fantastic shows during this year's CMW!

Friday, March 07, 2008

got woken up by birds and bees

Plants and Animals — March 7 @ Criminal Records

cmw recommendations for march 7, 8 and 9 (all free shows!)

March 7
Winter Gloves at Criminal Records, show's at 6pm
visit Winter Gloves's MySpace here

Plants and Animals at Criminal Records, show's at 7pm
visit Plants and Animals's MySpace here

March 8
Laura Barrett at Soundscape, show's at 4pm
Robot Ponies [wicked-cool song]
visit Laura Barrett's MySpace here

Calm Down It's Monday at Criminal Records, show's at 5pm

Julie Doiron at Criminal Records, show's at 5:30pm
visit Julie Doiron's MySpace here

March 9
Forest City Lovers at Soundscape, show's at 4pm
visit Forest City's MySpace here

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

cmw recommendations for march 5 and 6

March 5... Tonight!
NO AGE at The Phoenix! They are on at 11pm!

March 6
Jenny Omnichord at Criminal Records, show's at 6pm and it’s FREE!
visit Jenny Omnichord's MySpace here

Julie Doiron at Rivoli, show's at 9pm
from Woke Myself Up, 2007
Swan Pond
No More [wicked-cool song]
visit Julie Doiron's MySpace here

Jenn Grant at Rivoli, show's at 10pm
from Orchestra for the Moon, 2007
White Horses
visit Jenn Grant's MySpace here

The Paper Cranes at Wrongbar, show's at 1am
visit Paper Cranes' MySpace here

sigur rós take over youtube

Sigur Rós had this to say in a Myspace bulletin sent today: "Sigur Ros and YouTube make a little bit of history this Friday (Mar 7) with the band taking over the entire front page of the site around the world for a whole day, becoming the first group to ever have a feature-length music DVD streamed on the channel, with their acclaimed 'Heima' documentary shown in its complete 97-minute glory."