March 9th, 2010
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EMILY
Neat and Tidy in Your Mind
(Mo=Da=Mu)
Vancouver, BC
Originally Released: 1985
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From the generally untidy mind of Aaron Levin:
Destructive guitar congruance. Menacing synthetic tones. Echo-to-infinity vox processing. Extirpated TASCAM wreckage. Neat and Tidy in My Mind is the most relentless barrage of left-field maximal synth North American has ever seen. It’s the second cassette by solo, multi-format Vancouver artist Emily Faryna, whose visionary digital mythics have been obscured by Canada’s under-documented vintage cassette scene. Her conical prose hovers darkly over Neat and Tidy’s minor-key delirium, brewing the magnetic urgency coursing through its self-producing ether; a last, desperate attempt to convince the world that the mind’s ailments exist on the outside. It’s a gateway drug into the underbelly of a hyper intimate experimental underground torn from the pages of Neuromancer and, to me, the flagship vehicle for the vanguard of fringe-Canada. Words left to describe Neat and Tidy in Your Mind: ambitious, singular, forward-thinking, powerful, intense, and prodigious. There is a reissue in the works.
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EMILY – Who Cares
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EMILY – Compromise
File under: 1985 // aaron levin // ambient // experimental // maximal synth // minimal synth // mo=da=mu // noise // psych // punk // synth
Categoria!! Departures Revisited :: british columbia :: cassette | 3 Comments »
February 23rd, 2010
From the post-pubescent sludge of Jesse Locke:
From The Cramps (radical) to Mates of State (barf) to the Plastic Ono Band (radical barfing), musical married couples are nothing new. However, what sets thee Grown-Ups’ Sara and Josiah Hughes apart is that they’re cuter than a pair of bulldogs on snowboards that know how to turn up the rock and turn down the suck. Joined by third member/producer Darrell on “dad guitar” (nice Conchords reference, guys), they’ve now teamed with the almighty Bart for tape release number two. Eight songs of angry punk sludge that sound just as pitted as their debut but now with more Crazy Horse guitar solos (see: opener “Meat”) and Art Brut-esque motivational meta-songs (see: “Start A Band!”). This is the soundtrack for the skateboarding video game you invented in your brain. The musical equivalent of a cherry-coke slurpee with a stolen chocolate bar tucked in the cup. The creepy-lovable cover photo rules too, but I really just wish it was a drawing of Odie crossed with Jughead.
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Grown-Ups – Meat
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Grown-Ups – Start A Band!
File under: bart records // jesse locke // punk // sludge // teen angst
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: cassette | No Comments »
February 15th, 2010
From the polyamorous disaster of Michael Deane:
Looking onto the mid-northern thunderous tundra puts me in a perfect place to relate to the Roommates’ “Back to the Sun,” the latest in a flurry of side-projects from Fucked Up guitarist Ben Cook. The breezy, straightforward pop hooks tinged with melancholy and longing speak directly to me. “Back to the Sun” is self-conscious, with sun-yearning lyrics matched by the sweetly sad vocals and tom-heavy thumping we’re used to from Young Governor. The flip of this cassingle is the slightly creepy, slightly goofy anthem that follows two dudes trying to talk their gals into a “Girlfriend Swap”. Infectious hooks and an entertaining story-line make it repeatable power pop magic. “Don’t roll your eyes at me / Let’s do things differently / We’re all just one big family / So let’s give it a try.” I’m not quite convinced by their logic, but you can’t deny these hits.
[Levin's Note: I'm very convinced. Hit me on my beeper.]
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Roommates – Back To The Sun // Girlfriend Swap
File under: ben cooke // pop // power pop // punk // scotch tapes
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: ontario | 2 Comments »
February 12th, 2010
From the laboratory disaster of Jesse Locke:
Not since the glory days of Thomas Dolby has the world been gifted with such catchy songs about science. Following their debut 7” released via the HoZac Records Hookup Klub, Leth/Death/Methbridge’s Myelin Sheaths are back with another Bunsen-burnt four-song platter, this time stamped with the imprint of Bachelor Records from Austria. AUSTRIA! Big ups, guys. A-side opener “Stackticon” is a scrappy, foaming-at-the-mouth cheerleader chant rocker, clocking in at 1:40 and blown the eff out just like Paul Lawton loves it. “SPF70” is a moody instrumental with tasteful guitar wrangling that almost sounds surf-y in places, which, now that I think about it, the suntan lotion song title is assuredly alluding to. On the flip, the head-bashing repetition of “Laboratory Disaster” and garagey girl groupisms of “Fun With Science” will be familiar to anyone who’s caught these cats live or copped their O.G. self-released CD. For all your fuzzy, skuzzy weirdo rock needs, the Mammoth Cave keeps on churning out the goods.
[Levin's Note: Austria! Wild!!]
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Myelin Sheaths – Stackticon
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Myelin Sheaths – Fun w/ Science
File under: bachelor records // garage // punk // science // weird punk
Categoria!! 7" :: New Canadiana :: alberta | 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 9th, 2010
From the burnt locker of Paul Lawton:
At one point in the second half of Exploding in Time, Nic Hughes (Pompoir’s lead singer and leading member of Shearing Pinx) repeats “Do you feel this?” and to this I say: Yes! I am absolutely feeling this. Pompoir’s grunge has been filtered through an accentuated Vancouver-alienation, giving the songs on Exploding Time a feeling unstuck in time and place while still capturing the sounds of this relativistic-event in Vancouver’s scene. In fact, after the first few listens I had pangs of jealousy that I don’t currently live in Vancouver to hear these bands on any given weekend. I’ll go out on a limb and say, of all the records that have come out of the Vancouver scene in the last five years (and lets face it, there have been a fuck-load of records… SHPX alone have over ten thousand releases!) Pompoir’s Exploding Time lands firmly in the “essential” category. Comes in fantastic silkscreened B-Side and album-covers. The vinyl is limited to 300 copies.
[Levin's Note: The photo used in this review is the rare, test-pressing vagina-cover variant (#15/20). The actual album art is quite similar. This record slays.]
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Pompoir – Going Nowhere
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Pompoir – Krush
File under: 90s // grunge // inw // isolated now waves // punk // shearing pinx
Categoria!! 12" :: New Canadiana :: british columbia | 1 Comment »
January 27th, 2010
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False Face
No Business / One Man Clapping
(Self Released)
Kingston, ON
::web/sounds::
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From the I-assure-you-this-face-is-real face of Aaron Levin:
Literally out-of-nowhere mind-melding rock genre-fuckery of a very high calibre. False Face’s emergency-room resuscitation is thankfully limited to a two-track c10 so as to avoid the annihilation of your audible calibration. Atonal guitar freak-outs, droning doom breakdowns, and No Ageian walls of popular-noise are served beneath the covers of cafe-fresh vocal hooks and crunchy drums that churn your pop-music vocabulary into a beautiful puree of adjective hyperbole. An (almost) unbelievable mixture of sounds with a foot in every scene, deep-fried to perfection. A huge thanks to Garrett from The Famines for foisting this on me. Who are these dudes?
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False Face – No Business
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False Face – One Man Clapping
File under: indie // no age // noise // pop // punk
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: cassette :: ontario | 9 Comments »
January 26th, 2010
From the wish-I-had-a-tough-guy-leather-jacket stylings of Aaron Levin:
Monochromatic Youth, the vanguard of Grand Trine’s Bruised Tongue debut, captured their synthetic sans-wave pedigree at the cusp of their existence, posing the question: where now? Defying all expectations, Grand Trine returned with a barrage of brilliant psychedelic biker-punk transplanted from their phantasmagoric Montreal freak-clinic. Some wastoid time-warp seizure has them sounding like Marty McFly opening for the MC5; face-melting genre-collages, bursting celluloid solos, and decimating saxophone freak-outs; all of it wrapped in layers of frayed leather, busted zippers, and skitched sunglasses. Translation: Sunglasses is not for the faint of heart, mind, spirit, or stomach. All orifices will succumb to their unwholesome mutant hard-rock and I suggest you send all litigations directly to Divorce Records c/o Weird Canada legal services (but make sure to grip the 12″ vinyl (limited to 600 copies) as evidence of their crime). Now, if you don’t mind, I have a large mess near my stereo system to attend to.
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Grand Trine – I Am a Magnet
File under: biker punk // divorce records // punk // punk punk // synth punk // weird punk
Categoria!! 12" :: New Canadiana :: quebec | 1 Comment »
January 22nd, 2010
From the compiled danglings of Jesse Locke:
The Comp of Hope starts off with a serious wallop: the 1-2-3 whirligig of Vancouver’s Damages, Nova Scotia’s Minivan Halen (snagging the prize for Best New Band Name) and Toronto’s Place Hands, three groups with distinct yet equally imposing approaches to the post- / proto- / avant- / eff-it-let’s-just-get-rowdy hardcore continuum. Bart Records founder Kevin Stebner seems to favour the tuff gnarl stuff, with seven of the comp’s 10 acts setting their phasers to beatdown. From the spazzy attack of Abbotsford’s GSTS! to the rastafried “turbo jamz” of Edmonton’s Slates, Missisauga’s Whiskey Priest and unfuckwithable label faves Gift Eaters closing it off, this cassette could provide the perfect aggro soundtrack for any hesher’s backyard mini-ramp sesh. The softer side of weird Canadiana is also represented with the Strokes-meet-a-blown-out-Casio addictiveness of Swwords (the former project of this very site’s founder), Montreal’s math-pop dangereux duo Special Noise and a live jam from the inimitable dd/mm/yyyy. Another top-notch tape release from Bart, with awesome foldout liner art (front & back) from Calgary’s Heather Kai Smith.
[Levin's Note: This has the most links of any review on Weird Canada. Which means you get to virtually travel across Canada, all thanks to Bart Records. Benjoy!]
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Special Noise – Fitness
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Minivan Halen – Epic
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SLATES – blooloend
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swwords – The Hit
File under: bart records // compilation // experimental // hardcore // math-pop // pop // punk // rock
Categoria!! New Canadiana :: alberta :: british columbia :: cassette :: manitoba :: nova scotia :: ontario :: quebec :: saskatchewan | 1 Comment »
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 »
