Sean Nicholas Savage – She Was The One
Sean Nicholas Savage – Chin Chin

Tonstartssbandht – Sinkhole Storm and Sandwich (Excerpt)

Tonstartssbandht – Hotel For Gods (Excerpt)

Kool Music – Hot House

Count Dracula – UFO

Count Dracula – True Love

Tonstartssbandht – Big Day Today
Tonstartssbandht – Shot To La Parc

Sean Nicholas Savage – Serious Eyes

Sean Nicholas Savage – Getting To Know Myself

PS – I’m back after a short GOBBLE FEST break.

Hearts,

Aaron Levin
Weird Canada / Cantor Records

Grimes Halfaxa (Arbutus Records) Montreal, QC ::web/sounds::

From the distant dancing of Jesse Locke:
DISCO DOESN’T SUCK. As perpetual Weird Canada favourite Sean Savage attests, the d-word doesn’t have to signify the brothers Gibb, a teenaged Travolta, or in the immortal words of Van Dyke Parks, “white boy pepper grinder madness.” Instead, Savage gives us swoon-worthy strings (with arrangements from the Silly Kissers’ David Carriere plus guest vox from singer Jane Penny), glittery synths, beachy bongos, and a soft-rock disco dancehall update to his classic pop romanticism. Turns out the Parisian night suit fits Savage perfectly.
Sean Nicholas Savage – Misery Mountain
Sean Nicholas Savage – Disco Dancing

From the new indie of Aaron Levin:
In the closing tides of 2010 there are few festivals left. And as this little corner of a website gleaned a few weeks ago, Canada’s premiere indie-music festival (Pop Montreal) came through with a succinct and telling slogan: Weird is the New Indie. The obvious correlation is incidental, but the shifting focus to emerging music is a welcomed modulation in agenda. And to further drive the point home, Pop Montreal and Weird Canada will be presenting a showcase from one of Canada’s furthest reaching boutique imprints. Arbutus Records (home to Sean Nicholas Savage, Grimes, Silly Kissers and many more) has become an asylum for many westward ex-pats flourishing within the inexplicable fringe-pop spectrum and has occupied prime real estate within Weird Canada’s own borders. The label has grown from an e-mail address and a cd burner to a veritable force within the diy pop explosion running its course through our collective consciousness. Arbutus’ materials have appeared on Pitchfork, Gorilla VS Bear, Altered Zones, Stereogum, Weird Canada (ha!), etc. and I can say without hyperbole that many within the indie music community are anxiously awaiting to hear their future. So, with much excitement, I’d like to encourage all of our readers in-and-around the Montreal area to attend both Pop Montreal and one of the best showcases during the five-day festival. Sebastian Cowan has worked many magicks; for that we love him dearly. Congratulations!

Pop Montreal & Weird Canada Present
Arbutus Records Showcase
SILLY KISSERS
GRIMES (album release)
POP WINDS
BLUE HAWAII
Date: Thursday September 30th @ 9pm
Location: The Rialto Theatre
Price: Five Dollars (available at Phonopolis & Cheap Thrills)

From the summery low-life of Aaron Levin:
Arbutus Records is at the centre of a monstrous pop vortex. Sean Nicholas Savage, Silly Kissers, Braids, Pop Winds, Grimes, and now Montreal’s Blue Hawaii showcase the breadth of avant-pop nuances circulating in their sphere of electromagnetic influence. Every burnout needs a soundtrack to escape the sun; a reason to ride the swashes of summery circuitry and gluey harmonies that crest upon Blooming Summer‘s self-referential manifesto. With Blooming Summer they will reach a chromatic zenith and swim in a stew of summer evenings and midnight exotica. So can you. GRIP.
Blue Hawaii – Blue Gowns
Blue Hawaii – Dream Electrixra

From the perilous necklace of Aaron Levin:
I want to live Precious Necklace. I want tight sweaters. VIP access to the clurb. Double martinis. False love. Teen soundtracks blasting. I want the whole world in a song and I want to dance; pulsing drum machines, echoey vocals and exaggerated pop-harmonies. Let the music take you back in time. Nintendo, cocaine, plastic people, and radio hits. Sex in bathrooms and parental neglect. Stereotypes. We’ve lost our youth. We can take it back. The Silly Kissers, in a futuristic act of heroism, are our only hope. Their fourth and most realized effort to-date showcases their perfected 80s-pop ventriloquism. Precious Necklace is a re-imagining that only nostalgia can deliver; glossing over the weaknesses of an era we will never truly understand and manipulating the pearls of its bounty to deliver every genre’s saving grace: synthetic pop perfection. Precious Necklace, released as a limited-edition 10″ on Montreal’s Arbutus Records, is a 10/10 major-scale heart-melt. The world has never needed so much. They will deliver. GRIP. IT. NOW.
Silly Kissers – You Could Even Like Me
Silly Kissers – Treat Me Like You Do
Silly Kissers – Precious Necklace