One of my fondest memories of last summer was reading Black Postcards, the memoirs of Galaxie 500 and Luna founder Dean Wareham. His engaging writing style and unique perspective on the tediousness of the tour-record-tour cycle was totally engrossing, and his recollections of the writing and recording some of the seminal American indie albums of [...]
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When will you come home
“Got Nuffin” for the weekend
There’s not much to say, but what I have to say is more than enough get the weekend going. Spoon are back with a brand new EP, Got Nuffin. Okay, it’s really only a three-track single, but hey, whose splitting hairs?This marks the band’s first new music since 2007’s supremely enjoyable Ga Ga Ga Ga [...]
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Born and raised
I’m not going to say that I’m totally into Alexisonfire, but I’m enough of a fan of Dallas Green’s work as City And Colour to give his harder, heavier other project a chance. You know me, nothing if not an equal opportunist.Part of the fascination is of course that Alexisonfire started in St. Catharines, Ontario, [...]
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A Mari usque ad Mare
Happy Canada Day, country people! I have no idea what I’ll be doing to celebrate Confederation today, but judging by the forecast, it’s most likely going to be an indoor activity. If you’re stuck inside today, too, I have just the cure for your Holiday Wednesday blues: a cross-Canada blog tour!Yeah I could have put [...]
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Wilco (the review)
It feels odd to be putting up a review of Wilco (The Album) now, even though today is the album’s official physical release day. Back on May 15, I wrote about Wilco making the album available in high- and low-res streams on their site to thwart the album’s leak. Still, unless you found yourself a [...]
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Free download: Arts & Crafts Sampler vol. 6
The kiddies are out of school for the summer, and the weather this past weekend was picture postcard perfect. I spent as much of it outdoors as possible, and have the sunstroke to show for it. The soundtrack for my fun in the sun was the excellent Arts & Crafts Sampler Volume 6, from venerable [...]
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We’ll drive home backwards
I’m a sucker for anything tha remotely sounds like, or reminds me of New Order, and, though I hate to introduce any new artists by way of comparison with an already established act, the opening moments of “Charlotte’s On Fire” by French-English group Cocosuma could very well be a lost Peter Hook bass track looking [...]
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Michael Jackson 1958-2009
At the time of writing this post, I’m just arriving home from a work function, where I first heard news about the death of Michael Jackson. In the middle of this gathering, I pulled out my iPhone and Googled the self-proclaimed King of Pop’s name only to confirm the news that was spreading through the [...]
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Short list short shrift?
At 11:59 P.M. EST tonight, my last official act as a member of this year’s Polaris Music Prize Jury will be executed, and my top five choices from this year’s long list will go towards narrowing the field down to 10 albums for the short list. Discussions between judges in our online group have [...]
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Kestrels prepare to paint us with Primary Colours
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Primary Colours, the debut album from Truro/Halifax natives Kestrels, and won’t have much longer to wait for it. Slated for a July 14 release date, this fantastic band is sure to please anyone who digs The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Moscow Olympics and any of the [...]
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The Most Serene Republic: “Heavens To Purgatory”
While I may be short on word count today, I’ll make up for it in sonic pleasure, for I have the first fruits from The Most Serene Republic’s latest album, …And The Ever Expanding Universe. The album is scheduled for a July 14 release date on Arts & Crafts, has 11 songs, and based on [...]
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Bells are ringing
I knew very little about Mexican-American folk artist Lhasa de Sela, who records under the name Lhasa, before she appeared on the Polaris Music Prize long list last week, and in many ways, I feel that now I know even less. She has amassed accolades the world over for her globally-inspired music, appeared on Tindersticks [...]
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More than you’ll ever know
There are some very specific periods of my life where I’ve experienced “musical rebirth”; a time where I discover a new style or scene that reaffirms my love for recorded sound and makes me genuinely excited about music again after going through and extended period where things are boring and repetitive. Most (if not all) [...]
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This time things will be different
And so they are. On Thursday, Bloc Party debuted a new single aimed squarely at the dance floor. Their flirtations with dance music have never been this overt; “One More Chance” is, not surprisingly, a pretty infectious, yet innocuous offering from one of the UK’s most challenging acts of the 2000s. The evolution of Bloc [...]
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Shyness is nice but shyness can stop you…
… from getting the attention of a fickle blogger like me. Now, you know me well enough to know that I have a thing for sexy-voiced, female-fronted Euro-disco outfits that lay down sweet beats and sugary studio trickery. So you may have been wondering to yourself, “hey why is it that Jim has never blogged [...]
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As seen through windows
If, like me, you find it difficult to get into instrumental music, then I highly suggest you give As Seen Through Windows, the sophomore album by Bell Orchestre (featuring Richard Parry and Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire), a thorough listen. I pretty much all but wrote the band off after listening to their debut album, [...]
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Cœur de Pirate: stealing hearts
Love is a language that needs no translation. French is another matter all together. Still, while listening to the crystalline voice of Béatrice Martin on her debut album under the name Cœur de Pirate, I don’t get wrapped up in the fact that my rudimentary understanding of French can’t keep up with her; instead I [...]
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Because it’s my blog and I can wirte about whatever I want.
You know that feeling you get when your mind is moving in 40 directions at once and you can’t make heads or tails of what it is you need to do, want to do, or very well should do, so you just end up spinning around in circles waiting for the fuel to run out [...]
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2009 Polaris Prize Long List revealed
Last week I was going to post about my predictions for what will end up on the Polaris Music Prize Long List this year, and I’m glad I didn’t. With hindsight, after seeing the long list, I realized that there’s a lot I couldn’t possibly account for when 190 judges are having their say, [...]
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Parallel-o-gram
There’s an endearing charm to the music Randolph Chabot makes under the name Deastro. It reminds me of M38 in that stylistically and sonically it’s inspired by the music of my own youth, so there’s a sense of nostalgia for the listener (in this case, me) but not for the musician, seeing as he’s only [...]
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