March 3rd, 2010
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Bad Vibrations
Bad Vibrations
(Brotherhood Cassettes)
Halifax, NS
::web/sounds::
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From the not-so-bad vibrations of James Goddard:
Sometimes I imagine a future where everyone has forgotten what a guitar actually sounds like; Children brought up on a steady diet of French pop and Swedish 8-bit. Eventually, current trends like lo-fi would become ailments listed in the DSM VII with prescriptions like: 2 hours of Kumbaya orchestrated by battery-operated MicroKorgs (twice daily, with food). Things would be bad. Luckily former Dog Day drummer KC Spidle has strapped on a six string and stepped to the foreground to ensure such a future will never happen. Bad Vibrations play guitar music. They play the kind of three piece power-pop that begs for adjectives like dark or gloomy; and they play it well. Eschewing any kind of overt studio trickery, the members of Bad Vibrations (KC, Evan and Meg) have put together a crisp sounding record that subtly recalls that classic 90s Halifax sound. Nothing could be further from an all-electro dystopia.
[Levin's Note: James forgot the positive side of an all-electro dystopia: Gino Soccio all day 'ere day.]
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Bad Vibrations – We’re Dead
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Bad Vibrations – Think About Life
File under: dog day // guitar // james goddard // lo-fi // pop // rock
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: compact disc :: nova scotia | 2 Comments »
February 12th, 2010
From the solitary confinement of Aaron Levin:
Digging deep in the recesses of Sydney, Nova Scotia’s musical tar ponds, Mess Folk returns with a trio of serotonin-deprived hymns for the emotionally-challenged. Mess Folk’s HoZac debut will uproot your anchors and rip apart any notion of mental-stability. The aural spectacle sounds like lost recordings of Nirvana live in Hobbiton; a sparsely attended minor-key distortion-fest populated by meth-afflicted hobbits and rejects from Gummo’s casting call. It’s all the more real because of its absurd projection, adding musical meanderings to ideas usually debated by stale academics. It’s uncomfortable, challenging, awful, and speaks to every secret plan you’ve made to escape the reality of being. You will hate it, but best of all: you will hate yourself. A+++.
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Mess Folk – Give Me A Gun
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Mess Folk – If I Don’t Get Out
File under: depressing // grunge // HoZac // lo-fi // punk
Categoria!! 7" :: New Canadiana :: nova scotia | 3 Comments »
February 8th, 2010
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Collapsing Opposites
In Time
(Self Released)
Vancouver, BC
::web/sounds::
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From the bent winds of Paul Lawton:
The latest opus from Collapsing Opposites is a gem of psych-pop (poppy psych?) that sounds alien, but not alienating, quirky, but not annoying, dark but not desperate. Much of my affinity for Collapsing Opposites comes from the band leader Ryan McCormick (formerly of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They), who lends this record his warmth and charisma, and notably his strange vocal styling. Lyrics take the form of stream-of-consciousness monologue/rants that are layered inside of repetitive, swirling backdrops. I could imagine an edition of Acid Archives thirty years from now unearthing this record and freaking out over it as one of the great unheralded private-press oddities of 2010; hopefully the kids get hep to this record before then.
[Levin's Note: This is proudly the first Acid Archives reference on Weird Canada. PS - You can order this lovely LP by visiting Geographing Records!]
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Collapsing Opposites – Diamond Mind
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Collapsing Opposites – No. One
File under: experimental // indie // lo-fi // pop
Categoria!! 12" :: New Canadiana :: british columbia | 1 Comment »
February 2nd, 2010
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Adam Mowery
Port City Burning
(Self Released)
Saint John, NB
::web/sounds::
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From the singed mind of James Goddard:
Adam Mowery began the decade singing songs about being a cat and wearing striped socks in a well-loved acoustic indie-pop trio. Here as we enter a new decade he has re-invented himself as a sort of bizarro world Harry Belafonte. His live shows are swoon inducing rock and roll revivalism at its best. On this CD-R he treats us to 13 bad luck pop songs. The old pop-sensibility that used to dominate Port City Allstars records is now tempered by lo-fi experimentalism. His falsetto voice cuts through all the tape hiss and off-beat percussion making you believe that the rain-soaked, wind-ravaged port city of Saint John, New Brunswick really is a tropical paradise. What could be better than that?
[Levin's Note: Saint John is the new Halifax.]
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Adam Mowery – Turn Another Page
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Adam Mowery – The Dragon Boat Festival (Let’s All Go To)
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Adam Mowery – I’m Forever Diggin’ Where the Well Went Dry
File under: indie // lo-fi // pop
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: compact disc :: new brunswick | 5 Comments »
January 19th, 2010
From every fleeting moment of Aaron Levin:
Montreal has effortlessly cultivated an ensemble of pop creators ready to fill any niche, pocket, or corner. Thus, it comes as no surprised that Devon Welsh was nurtured in the same wasteland of Montreal that produced Sean Nicholas Savage, The Pop Winds, Matt Perri, and other spectacular curators I’m forgetting. Juxtaposing his backdrop of distorted, reverberated murmurings with pop-savvy guitar leads and harmonies, Welsh delivers a surprisingly pastoral post-burn-out too-soon-for-whiskey-but-too-late-for-breakfast introduction to the universe. Too full for the abrasive lo-fi popular amongst Da Youth™ and too earnest for the Steely Dans of the world, Welcome exists in the ether between things; invitations to catchy exploration.
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Devon Welsh – Girlfriend
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Devon Welsh – Fun House Mirror
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Devon Welsh – As Far As I’m Aware
File under: lo-fi // pop
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: compact disc :: quebec | 3 Comments »
January 14th, 2010
From the cave-dwelling hive-mind of Paul Lawton:
This xmas I got a Peace for Bombs CDR and a book outlining the history of Wowbam Records label directly from the source, Jeff King, who writes and releases music under a legion of pseudonyms and (fake) band names (though The Square Waves and Favour have been his most well-known, mainly because he has actually assembled musicians to play those songs in a live setting). The Wowbam discography is remarkable – 31 releases over ten years, ranging from noise, to punkrawk, to straightpop; a catalogue that features some astonishing works such as the Folk 6 collection that spans seven discs and 300 songs (!). With the newest Wowbam release, Peace for Bombs, King plays secret hit-maker working within his limitations, six anthemic songs built around that shitty-drum setting you found on every toy-keyboard in the 80’s and layers of synths and guitars that gives this lost classic feel – one that no one has heard, but everyone has heard-about.
[Levin's Note: "Anthemic" is an understatement.]
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Peace For Bombs – Summerstory
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Peace For Bombs – Want 2 Belong
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Peace For Bombs – Peace For Bombs
File under: anthems // lo-fi // pop // wowbam
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: compact disc | No Comments »
December 22nd, 2009
From the burnt-cadillac remains of Aaron Levin:
Gilded Flowers, The Pink Noise’s first on Montreal’s Campaign for Infinity, is their most realized cabaret of drum-machine bustitude (and probably why the cassette is already on its third printing). Subjecting yourself to every burnt guitar solo and car-wrecked bass-line will give you the succinct impression that The Pink Noise’s front-man slammed a lot of doors, hung out in arcades, and owned a leather jacket at the age of 10. Thus, Gilded Flowers becomes an 80s vision of the future: computer screens as gateways into incomprehensible lo-bit realities, nuclear punk the specter of pop music, alleyways brimming with undiscovered societies, and every kid smoking cigarettes and selling ATM-hacking chips; it’s the slow degeneration of our welfare state into psychedelic-fiction. Freejack punk for a new generation of post-modern wastoids. And it’s all yours for $6.99.
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The Pink Noise – Shy Guy Beach
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The Pink Noise – Toad
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The Pink Noise – Cop Cars
File under: campaign for infinity // lo-fi // weird punk
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: quebec | 2 Comments »
December 18th, 2009
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Brazilian Money
Friendly Neighbor EP
(Self Released)
Edmonton, AB
::web/sounds::
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From the flat-broke pockets of Aaron Levin:
The immense planning that entailed Wyrd Fest resulted in a deep, sexual relationship between myself and Wicked Awesomes! guitar-player Tyler. During one of our many Magic-ticket-making missives, he looked in my eyes and whispered: “Aaron, have you heard our bass player’s solo project?” That was my first foray into the wildly contagious world of Brazilian Money. Fast-forward a month and I finally have some “official” recordings. It was sudden impact: vocalist-and-everything-else-as-well Garret’s grizzled nasal, his omnifarious pop-filtrations, and the swampy sensations ensnaring every ear-movement. I was knocked-out, surprised and excited by the EP’s stranglehold. Thankfully, with every listen came newly rewarding energies. A recommended soundtrack for the shower (replacing my current shower favorite: Mobb Deep’s Tha Infamous). Sing along and get clean, mayne.
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Brazilian Money – We Could Just Stay (In The Dead Of Night)
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Brazilian Money – Ghetto Lungs, GET ALONG NOW
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Brazilian Money – Why Am I Still Standing Here
File under: garage // indie // lo-fi // pop // wicked awesomes
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: compact disc | 9 Comments »
December 11th, 2009
From the vaguely fluorescent Aaron Levin:
File-under: cassettes blaring from Master Blaster’s tape-deck while executing a ‘64 impala drive-by. So get your leather chaps, crawl on the hood of your mom’s minivan and run drive. Mess Folk has grown into a fierce teenager fighting against Canada’s industrial wasteland (read: Sydney) and unleashing their terrifying Salmagundi of adjective-garbage in the process. It’s scary, chaotic, brutal, and extremely poppy. Every song an anthem for derelict dogs, chimney sweepers, knitting factory women, P.O.Ws, Trotskyists, and any victim of industrial pillaging. This is Mess Folk is the ugly side of capitalism; the underbelly of mutant-punk; the smegmatic 9mm pocket-protecting vomit gun. It’s nine songs of unfuckwittable pain and anguish; an anthemic veneration for the depressed and lonely; the product of a forgotten city, time, and existence. On the East coast everything is missing. But we have this tape. Twelve songs. Every one of them a winner. I told my friend Jazzowita the other day: “the new Mess Folk cassette is good.” He agreed.
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Mess Folk- You’re Too Pretty (I Wanna Kill You)
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Mess Folk- I Shit Blood
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Mess Folk- Modern Man
File under: amazing // garage // lo-fi // loner // punk // weird punk
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: nova scotia | 3 Comments »
November 25th, 2009
After witnessing a devastating croonappelic version of Mr. Savage’s hit Kisses Like a Girl, I opted out of waiting for the 12″ vinyl version of Spread Free Like a Butterfly (December 2009 on Arbutus Records) and copped the CDR for hasty highway blastery. And sure enough, within moments Savage’s Orbisinian vibrato and fetching harmonies had me rolling the windows and screaming all the lyrics; pop drive-byes delivered to unsuspecting underage women Edmonton-wide. Sean’s writing has never been better, with his charismatic strangeness texturizing the relationships around him; awkward memories hidden beneath sun-bleached family photos and obscure grad quotes (or at least that’s what it conjures in my mind). It’s a landmark album refusing to languish in any genre; basement lonertude, campfire balladry, dreamy soft-psych, and, most importantly, hit-making. There is a reason I chose Sean Nicholas Savage as the first Weird Canada review.
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Sean Nicholas Savage – Heart Wish
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Sean Nicholas Savage – Kisses Like A Girl
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Sean Nicholas Savage – Grandson
File under: arbutus // crooner // folk // lo-fi // pop
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: compact disc :: quebec | 8 Comments »
