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June 30th, 2011

New Canadiana :: Babysitter – Tape III

From the sibling rivalry of Joni Sadler and Aaron Levin:
Babysitting is a rite of passage for many suburban teens, much like drinking covert beer and jamming the Stooges is for many more a rebellious youth. It’s not a stretch to think that the dudes of Babysitter spent their formative years doing just that – listening to beer-drenched shreddery built from minimal beats, lacerating riffs and howling vocals. Thankfully, they play it all with enough recklessness and discipline to make it seem genuinely wild, permeating your mind with brilliant teenage nostalgia.

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Babysitter – Summer of Luv

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Babysitter – Paralyzer Ponch

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Categoria!! british columbia :: cassette :: New Canadiana | 5 Comments »

June 29th, 2011

New Canadiana :: Andy Boay – Born to Fully

From the sprawling head jams of Joni Sadler:
The sibling super-duo Tonstartssbandht are a certified favourite within the Weird Canadian cosmos. With their prolific writing style and consistently murderous jams, it comes as little surprise that brother Andy’s solo release is such a wild listen. The blistering guitar and echoing vocals may strike a familiar chord with Tonstartssbandht fans, but the lack of driving percussion gives these songs room to sprawl all the way out into full-on psych territory. Grip and bliss out.

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Andy Boay – Born to Fully

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Andy Boay – Own Myn Own

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March 23rd, 2011

New Canadiana :: Lab Coast // Extra Happy Ghost!!! – Lab Coast / Extra Happy Ghost!!!

From the 90s brain damage of Joni Sadler:
There’s always been a certain charm to bedroom recordings. Both Lab Coast and Extra Happy Ghost!!! wear their affinity for this homespun aesthetic on their sleeves, and it’s this shared dedication to lo-fi home recording that makes them an ideal pair for this split from Calgary’s Saved by Vinyl. Lab Coast tears a page straight out of the Guided by Voices handbook with a pair of sundrenched slacker-pop tunes, while Extra Happy Ghost!!! slows things on the flipside with a couple of decidedly more introspective tracks. But even when the songs begin to chill out, the fuzz and jangle remains strong in the mix, reminding us that this is the sound coming from the basements and bedrooms of our own land. Robert Pollard would be proud, and you know what? So should we.

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Lab Coast – For Now

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Extra Happy Ghost!!! – Mechanical 111

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Categoria!! 7" :: alberta :: New Canadiana | 1 Comment »

January 10th, 2011

New Canadiana :: Frog Eyes – Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph

Frog Eyes
Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph
(Dead Oceans)
Victoria, BC
::web/sounds::


From the living thunder of Joni Sadler:
Frog Eyes are veterans at the art of crafting challenging and weird pop music and Paul’s Tomb reaches the pinnacle of their craft, capturing all of their trademark elements: Carey Mercer’s warbling howl, Melanie Campbell’s staccato drumming, and the winding, roller-coaster narratives, boiling all of them down to their most potent state. They don’t waste a second with the daring, nine-minute opener; there is no fat to be trimmed anywhere on this record. Mercer and co. may well be polar opposites to the myriad of nonchalant chill-fi pop bands floating about the blogosphere, and god bless ‘em for it – they’re playing music full of emotion and heart, and never in their history have they sounded better doing it.

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Frog Eyes – A Flower in a Glove

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Frog Eyes – Styled by Dr. Roberts

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December 1st, 2010

New Canadiana :: Shearing Pinx – Live Thunder

Shearing Pinx
Live Thunder
(Bruised Tongue)
Vancouver, BC
::web/sounds::


From the living thunder of Joni Sadler:
After last year’s killer Weaponry LP, Shearing Pinx one-up themselves with this live recording from a gig in Thunder Bay. Anyone who’s been lucky enough to witness these Vancouverites tear up a basement on one of their cross-country ventures knows that their live show is a blistering, noisy affair; this tape is a testament to the sheer distorted force that is Shearing Pinx in their element. Choice cuts from Weaponry take on a whole new sense of urgency when they’re drenched in this much grit and fuzz. Get your hands on the tape or better yet – catch the band next time they hit your town and watch this shit go down in real life.

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Shearing Pinx – Live Thunder Side A

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Shearing Pinx – Live Thunder Side B

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September 30th, 2010

New Canadiana :: Slam Dunk – Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk
Slam Dunk
(Fan Club Music Club)
Victoria, BC
::web/sounds::


From the bear cub of Joni Sadler:
Slam Dunk may still be fairly young as far as bands go, but this gang of scrappy Victorians has certainly lost no time in recording some killer jams and taking the road by storm. With gang-shouted choruses, twisting fuzz guitar melodies, and seemingly endless energy, these dudes are proving seriously hard not to love. Viva Slam Dunk, indeed.

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Slam Dunk – Only Fun

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Slam Dunk – Feral Child

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August 24th, 2010

New Canadiana :: Mark Alexander McIntyre – Situs Inversus Totalis

Mark Alexander McIntyre
Situs Inversus Totalis
(Seductive Sounds)
Ottawa, ON
::web/sounds::


From the seductive text of Joni Sadler:
After playing in numerous Ottawa bands over the past decade, Mark Alexander McIntyre has finally gone and released a solo record. As it turns out, Situs Inversus Totalis was worth the wait: McIntyre’s slow-burn acid folk possesses a unique and eerie sense of timelessness that is rare in so much of the music being produced today. Waves of queasy feedback stand in nice contrast to simple acoustic guitar and sparse vocals, and the whole record – right down to its plain cardboard sleeve and Xeroxed liner notes – remains nicely minimal in style. Ultimately, McIntyre channels the influences of sonic bros like Greg Ashley and Sir Richard Bishop through a haze of druggy sadness so damn well that all we’re left wondering is why it took him so bloody long to make a solo album in the first place.

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Mark Alexander McIntyre – My April

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Mark Alexander McIntyre – Reflections

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Categoria!! 12" :: New Canadiana :: ontario | 7 Comments »

November 27th, 2009

Review :: Nü Sensae – Nü Sensae

Nü Sensae - Nü Sensae Nü Sensae
Nü Sensae
(Isolated Now Waves (INW #127))
Vancouver, BC
::web/sounds::


From the stressed-graduate-student existence of Joni Sadler:
Eschewing the cheeky sloppiness that often accompanies the ‘weird punk‘ aesthetic, Vancouver’s Nü Sensae lets loose with a visceral attack of noisy jams that are over much too quick for their own good. The eight songs crammed onto this one-sided 12″ are short bursts of frantic drumming, dirty fuzzed-out bass riffs, and Andrea Luki?’s snarled vocals, all packaged together into a wholly ear-blistering listen. When they turn up the rage and Luki? unleashes that scream of hers, she sounds like the single most badass frontwoman of any band, ever. This is punk rock that isn’t afraid to be abrasive; the duo takes pride in the rough edges and lo-fi grit of their songs, and rightfully so. If only more bands had as much guts as these kids do and the sense of recklessness that actually lets them pull it all off without sounding forced. This record leaves little doubt that Nü Sensae means business.
[Levin's Note: Every time I listen to this 12" I feel like I'm getting punched in the face. Very limited pressing. GRIP OR REGRET.]

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Nü Sensae – Raven Tussle

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Nü Sensae – Peter Tripp

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September 23rd, 2009

Review :: Nervous System – Burning White Light

Nervous System - Burning White Light Nervous System
Burning White Light
(Bruised Tongue)
Ottawa, ON
::web/sounds::

From the musical cabinet of soon-to-be-Dr. Joni Sadler:
It seems fitting to write a review of Nervous System’s latest cassette at an altitude of 36,000 feet. At this moment it is still godawful early and I’m on an airplane high above the prairies. The turbulence is just rough enough to verge on unsettling and I am feeling way burnt out. In a way, “Burning White Light” is the perfect music for this scenario: careening psych freakouts equally capable of leaving you really excited or feeling a tad on edge and queasy. The fact that most of the tracks on the cassette were improvised during the recording sessions is impressive, and there’s a certain recklessness that has (perhaps unsurprisingly) found its way into these songs. Pounding repetitive drums lay down a solid backbone for swaths of wailing fuzz and occasional shouts from singer/guitarist Mat Oxley. It’s all coated with a heavy layer of distortion for good measure. The centerpiece of the album is the nine-minute epic “Freak Construction” – it’s a serious stoner jam fleshed out around a burning guitar lick and given the final touch with some echoey vocal loops. This is serious mind-trip music, best experienced with your head way up in the clouds. [Levin's notes: I am so into this kind of modern-psych that is so strange and poppy at the same time. Bruised Tongue is really killing it these days!]

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Nervous System – Freak Construction

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Nervous System – Burning White Light

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