Saturday 18 February 2012
QUiCK HiT: The Darcys “Don’t Bleed Me” video
The Darcys – Don’t Bleed Me by Arts & Crafts
Facebook: The Darcys
Twitter: The Darcys
by J. Di Gioia | No Comments »
Friday 17 February 2012
Evolution of heartbreak
It’s Friday, friends, and the weekend (a long weekend for some of us) is just about here, and I am in desperate need of a battery recharge. I wasn’t planning on posting anything at all today, but after seeing the new video from Daniel Romano, well I just couldn’t not post it. “Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)” is the opening track on last year’s brilliant Sleep Beneath the Willow album, and the video treatment is anything but sleepy. Directed by Ken Galloway, the clip takes an evolutionary look at the timelessness of heartbreak, and will be sure to go down as a video for the ages. This is a gas.
MP3: Daniel Romano “Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)”
Facebook: Daniel Romano
Twitter: The Trilliums
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Wednesday 15 February 2012
Tiger talks
It’s weird, this thing between Yukon Blonde and me. I’ve gone on record as saying that they’re very good at what they do, but they’ve never really compelled me to follow them closely, or become a super fan. I have nothing negative to say about them, but I didn’t feel the need to fall all over myself gushing about how good they are.
This fall, the released the Fire//Water EP, which I called “more stepping-stone than stop-gap” between albums 1 and 2, which was an astute prediction on my part, it turns out. Yukon Blonde will release their sophomore album, Tiger Talk, March 20th on Dine Alone Records, and recently premiered the first single, “Stairway” to all their fans. The track barrels head first into poppier, punkier musical terrain, and marks a clear shift in Yukon Blonde’s sound. Inspired by the short, sharp songs that frontman Jeff Innes had been writing, the band let their love of vintage rock and roll move ahead a few decades, and crafted a tight album awash in synth sounds, and laid down on digital tape instead of their preferred analog.
So now, here I am, and here Yukon Blonde are, about to release a new record, and I am finding myself moving ever closer to the “falling all over myself gushing” side to the spectrum. I’m waiting to hear the whole record before I fully commit, but if “Stairway” is anything to go by, I’m going to need a bib for all the drooling I’ll be doing.
MP3:Yukon Blonde “Stairway”
Facebook: Yukon Blonde
Twitter: Yukon Blonde
by J. Di Gioia | 1 Comment »
Tuesday 14 February 2012
No crying
A new Islands album usually comes with its fair share of tongue in cheek, but rarely has a Nick Thorburn record had as much heart on sleeve as A Sleep & A Forgetting does. He’s clear that the genesis of the album’s 11 songs is a breakup that sent him from one side of the continent to the other. The flight across the physical states to the U.S. is mirrored in his shift of emotional states; while featuring some of Islands most soulful music, A Sleep & A Forgetting in centred around Thorburn’s saddest lyrics yet.
On “This Is Not a Song”, Thorburn rhetorically asks “If this is just a song/Then why do I find it’s so hard to move on?”, knowing the answer full well. He’s in the deep down in depths and knows/hopes that brighter days are coming, but like anyone who’s gone through an emotional upheaval like the end of a relationship knows, the hardest part is getting yourself to that morning when you wake up and the pain isn’t so powerful as to overwhelm you the second you open your eyes.
There’s allusions throughout the album to whether the pain is real or fictionalized for the sake of art, which is about as lyrically playful as Islands get this record. Islands’ music is often called avant-pop, but on A Sleep & A Forgetting, the pop is less advanced and more expanded. Musically, the references point to classic soul, seen through the eyes of a self-described “white kid from Canada”, but Thorburn’s keen pop sensibilities can’t be ignored on shimmering beauties like “Can’t Feel My Face” (echoing another organ-fueled heartbreaker, Question Mark and The Mysterians’ “96 Tears”). “Cold Again” ventures into sentimental music soundtrack territory in its Randy Newman-esque simplicity, a place that Thorburn seems at home and comfortable in, hinting that he can do restrained and straightforward as easily as liberated and ornate.
In a bizarre act of meta-listening, Throburn echoed my own thoughts at the start of “No Crying” when he wonders, “If I don’t feel bad, is there something wrong?” while listening to “the saddest song”. I was wondering the same thing as I listened to A Sleep & A Forgetting. I feel his pain–really I do!–but these songs are just so lovely, so warm and enveloping, that I’m more inclined to grin than grimace. No crying then, but a heck of a lot of cheering.
There couldn’t be a more appropriate release day for A Sleep & A Forgetting; it’s out today, February 14 (aka valentine’s Day), on Anti- Records.
Islands “This Is Not A Song”
Facebook: Islands
Twitter: Nick Thorburn/Islands
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Monday 13 February 2012
Heartbreaking bravery
One of my favourite albums of last year that didn’t end up on my year-end list was Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped, the first album proper released by Spencer Krug under the Moonface name. It’s early in 2012 yet, but judging by “Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips”, the first glimpse of his sophomore disc, With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery, this one has a pretty good chance of making the cut. Recorded with Finland’s Siinai (once touring partners with Krug’s old band, Wolf Parade), the album is scheduled for an April 17th release on Jagjaguwar. My happiness about a new Moonface album comes at the expense of Krug’s (and others) discontent; …Heartbreaking Bravery is littered with stories of failed relationships, broken dreams, and dark moments (you can preview the albums’ lyrics here). Sadness has never sounded as good as it does on the buzzsaw, new wave attack of “Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips”.
MP3: Moonface “Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips”
by J. Di Gioia | No Comments »
Sunday 12 February 2012
QUiCK HiT: Dan Mangan’s Juno-nomintaed “Rows of Houses” video
Rows Of Houses by Arts & Crafts
Facebook: Dan Mangan
Twitter: Dan Mangan
by J. Di Gioia | No Comments »