Pitstop: Wolf Parade

My discovery of Montreal rock quartet Wolf Parade was one of those happy little accidents born of boredom, I was in Barnes & Noble browsing the CDs when their latest release Expo 86 caught my eye. When I actually sat down to listen to the album, it was like an explosion of awesome sound in my ears. The only way I can think to describe Wolf Parade is old school Devo with garage rock-esque guitar. On my first listen, my interest wasn't truly grasped until the album's fourth track "Little Golden Age" probably due to it being the liveliest track at that point of the album but when my interest was grabbed, it was held and not let go until the dying strains of final track "Cave-o-Sapien"

Give Wolf Parade a listen with track "What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)"

EardrumsPop to release free digital releases in the Fall

One of my favorite blogs, Norway based Eardrums Music, and its netlabel EardrumsPop have announced that this fall, around October, they will start releasing free monthly digital releases. The releases will feature all the awesome qualities of their seasonal themed compilations like amazing cover art made by cooperating artists, explanitory booklets, and what's sure to be great original songs. The singles will be comprised of two orignal songs and possibly a cover song from an artist the band thinks deserves more attention. I for one could not be more excited. Is it fall yet?

The Bowerbirds announce Fall tour dates

North Carolina folk duo The Bowerbirds have more or less been quiet since their SXSW show but now the band has announced some brand new tour dates for the fall and I for one couldn't be more excited as it features what I think is the band's first ever visit to the Northeast. Here are the announced dates:

9/10 Hopscotch Music Festival at Pour House Music Hall, North Carolina
9/24 The Mohawk (with Efterklang) in Austin, Texas
9/25 Oysterfest in Frisco, Texas
10/11 Black Cat Backstage in Washington D.C.
10/12 Bowery Ballroom in New York, New York
10/13 Castaways in Ithaca, New York
10/14 Iron House Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts

So if the band's coming to a city near you, mark the date, start clearing your schedule and plan for a night of awesome. I know I am!

Watch: Left With Pictures - "Half Time"

Earlier this week was the last Monday of the month, meaning that British chamber pop band Left With Pictures released the latest song/video in their ongoing In Time project. The video for the song "Half Time" was created by a group of the bands friends: directed by Jake Odgen, produced by Ben Kidd, and featuring Dan Ward, Hannah Ogden, and Chloe Ogden. The video has this sort of stop-motion like filming style which works interestingly considering the premise of the video is the three actors are running a race. The song itself is mellower than last month's anthemic love song "June" and is interesting in its kind of stripped down, psuedo-minimalistic melodies unlike anything I've heard from the band before but at the same time manages to still contain the band's signature sound. In fact, it's the song's simplicity both the melodic accompaniment and the vocals that make the song so memorable and nice to listen. Left With Pictures certainly didn't disappoint this month and its doubtful they will next month. Enjoy the video for July's In Time release "Half Time"

Random Musing: Tomas Kalnoky solo gig videos

So I mentioned earlier that Tomas Kalnoky was playing two solo acoustic shows in NYC and LA under the "Toh Kay" moniker. I wasn't able to attend (curse you 21+ shows) but thanks to the marvels of the internet was able to find these videos where he plays song from Catch 22's Keasbey Nights era to the latest Streetlight original album. Enjoy some Toh Kay aka Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto at his Joe's Pub performance in NYC.

"Heres To Life"


"Sick & Sad"


"Would You Be Impressed?"


"A Better Place, A Better Time" (with explanitory interludes)

The Drums - The Drums (2010)

Brookyln-based surf rockers The Drums hinted at a bleaker sound for their self-titled debut after the release of their Summertime! EP (which two of the album songs are from), and they certainly weren't kidding. Album opener and first single "Best Friend" begins with John Pierce "You were my best friend but then you died". Although the song is still poppy and upbeat despite being so morbid. "Lets Go Surfing" declares the band's love of the surf, how important it is to them, and masterfully incorporates a childhood rhyme into it all-in-one. "Skippin' Town" continues to illustrate the complicated relationship established in "Me and the Moon" and "Book of Stories" with lyrics like "I know you're trying to kiss me/I know you're trying to kill me" and "Do you want me to skip town?/Do you want me to come 'round?" "Down By The Water" marks a total change in mood and is the first truly melancholic sounding track on the album which actually contrasts the lyrical content where reaffirms his eternal love that he first declared in the preceeding"Forever and Ever Amen". "I'll Never Drop My Sword" is another interesting song in that it features the acoustic guitar for the first time on the album (even if just got the intro).

The Drums' debut manages to stick with their characteristic surf pop sound while also branching away from strickly beach blanket pop songs about surfing. Instead they prove that not all is sunshine and summer fun although its hard to tell that from the tempo and mood of the songs alone, instead when you listen to the lyrics you get a sense of what the songs are really about. The album progresses much like an on-again/off-again relationship would with tracks like "Me And The Moon", "Book of Stories", "Skippin' Town" and "It Will All End in Tears" serving as conflict/break up songs; "Lets Go Surfing", "Forever and Ever Amen" and "Down By The Water" as reconciliation songs; "We Tried" "I Need Fun In My Life" and "I'll Never Drop My Sword" are post-break up songs. "Best Friend" serves as kind of an reflection/explanation, albeit a vague good one, on the events that are elaborated on in the following songs while "The Future" can be seen as prediction or actual realization of the couple getting back together despite not being right for each other.

Enjoy the video for the first single off The Drums "Best Friend":

Plants and Animals - La La Land (2010)

Before the release of their sophomore album La La Land, I had never heard of Montreal rock trio Plants and Animals. It wasn't until after seeing them on a list on Stereogum of anticipated releases then reading a feature on them in the latest issue of Filter Magazine that I decided to give the album a listen. Lead track "Tom Cruz" has driving bass lines and a bit of a soft-rock vibe with a little hard rock edge that keeps it from being merely background music. "Swinging Bells" begins with these floaty dreamlike chords and open quality, getting a bit more involved with drum fills, adding these shout vocals that somehow don't manage to disrupt the dreamy quality of the track, before fading out accompanied by a whistling solo. The sudden plunge into the energetic "American Idol" might be a bit jarring after the two calmer tracks but makes the track no less enjoyable. Six-minute "Undone Melody" slows the album down, continuing with its inclusion of more than the standard guitar/bass/drum set up by adding in piano and tiny smidges of sweeping strings. The track starts off simple and slowly unravels into something complex and lyrical. "Kon Tiki" follows with this kind of energetic mellow first achieved in lead track "Tom Cruz" and the instrumental breaks have these cool melodic lines that I found to be far too short. "Game Shows" continues the album's calm mood with guitar and barely there piano accompanying the vocals. The track picks up slightly about midway through with the addition of strings, bass, and drums. There's also a piano solo that moves the track towards a more upbeat sound and is taken up by the rest of the instruments before the track fades out. Just like "American Idol" was kind of surprising after the slow tracks, "The Mama Papa" does the same. It features the most prominent guitar heard on the album and is probably the most poppy track in the sense that you could clap or dance to it if you felt so inclined. "Fake It" brings the tempo down a bit but not in a sudden manner, if fact it seems like a natural progression from the previous track. With a title like "Celebration" you expect the track to be uptempo but instead it's the opposite with a lilting, entrancing quality aided by the background sounds. "Future From The 80s" is slow and soft and with occasional robot voice effects with strings and muted brass. Album closer "Jeans Jeans Jeans" brings the tempo up again but not shockingly so. There's about a minute before the vocals enter, and when they do, it's not for very long. The track has some guitar effects and possible waterphone that create these fleeting almost imagined moments of ethereality.

Plants and Animals employ alot of interesting tricks and such on La La Land like saxophone solos on "American Idol" and whistling solos on "Swinging Bells" but what really struck me was the melodic content and guitar work as opposed to the lyrics, which I will admit I couldn't always make out/make sense of. Each track has these little music moments that really catch your attention like the various mood shifts in "Tom Cruz" and this guitar riff that happens right before the track returns to the original. The album has a general cohesiveness only broken by the more uptempo tracks. I literally jumped when "American Idol" and "The Mama Papa" started due to the fact that the tracks before them were so soft. The album has an overall dream-like sense that makes it seem like its could be the soundtrack for a dream with the upbeat tracks representing the more action-packed parts. I don't know quite how to explain it for there's this little things in the guitar parts that create this airy, unreal nature. It's not one of those albums that'll catch your attention if you listen to samples of it (which I foolishly did at first) but rather one where you notice more and more happening with each subsequent listen like a complex movie. That's not to say that the album is unnecessarily complex but that there's these little gems that happen, that you might not notice on the first or even second listen.

Get a taste of Plants and Animals and the new album with the video of first single "The Mama Papa" here.