Tag: rock

New Canadiana :: Wicked Witches // Silver Skeleton Band – Split EP

Wicked Witches // Silver Skeleton Band - Split EP

Toronto’s Wicked Witches sing swamp hymns for a sock hop at Arthur Machen Junior High. Tally the garage pop gematria of “666 Cigarettes” and you may find yourself burning your soul at both ends; fast-forward to “Cold Blooded” for a Cadillac cruise into the Abyss. Meanwhile, Vancouver’s Silver Skeleton Band surf waves of aural decay and throw a post-spill beach party for the city’s restless dead; as “Jangle Bell Blues” rides hashishin smoke rings and lite-doom riffs to the top of the Holy Mountain, the cadavers start necking. Welcome to the gnostic front.

Les Wicked Witches de Toronto entonnent leurs hymnes marécageux lors d’une soirée dansante au Collège Arthur Machen. Osez déchiffrer la gématrie pop garage de « 666 Cigarettes » et peut-être vous retrouverez-vous à vous brûler l’âme par les deux bouts. Puis, sautez jusqu’à « Cold Blooded » pour une ballade en Cadillac jusqu’au fond de l’Abysse. Pendant ce temps, le Silver Skeleton Band de Vancouver surfe les vagues de décadence sonore et organise un party de plage post-marée noire en mémoire des morts incapables de reposer en paix. Et tandis qu’au sommet de la Montagne sacrée s’élève « Jangle Bell Blues » parmi les ronds de fumée des Hashishins et les riffs doom allégés, les cadavres se mettent à s’embrasser à pleine bouche. Bienvenue sur le front gnostique.

Silver Skeleton Band – Jangle Bell Blues

Wicked Witches – Cold Blooded

New Canadiana :: Roberta Bondar – Roberta Bondar EP

Roberta Bondar - Roberta Bondar EP
Man, space is cool. The sheer limitlessness and expanse makes it rife for uninhibited interpretation and dissection. I’m sure you’ve at least heard the name Roberta Bondar before – probably stuck somewhere in your elementary subconscious. Part of a historical menagerie of noteworthy Canucks, Bondar now shares a moniker with four young Ottawa weirdos. Their debut EP, a cassette released on heavy-feeling Bruised Tongue, is a hyper-modern swig of what Canadian indie may be decades in the future. With a couple tracks eclipsing the seven-minute mark, Roberta Bondar (the band) is retracing the steps of Canada’s original femi-naut. While most of these songs venture deep into blackness (“Tongue Rings”, “Crave You”), there certainly are some more solarized tunes. “Mistakes” stretches over fragments of vogue 90s slackerism while the oretic, half-time happiness of “Wrecked” seems right in the gimbals of satellite-spinning no-wavers. Remember: we’re not alone, so let’s keep twirling, twirling, twirling into oblivion.

New Canadiana :: J Riley Hill – J Riley Hill

J Riley Hill - J Riley Hill (cover)
After releasing eight albums in eight weeks, J Riley Hill took a full year to record this whacked-out studio pop — heaping on synthesizers, banjos and trombones and wrapping the full-length up with a guitar solo finale worthy of sending you soaring over rainbows. Hill’s deft wordplay jumps around from losing the game to the impossibility of you experiencing his dreams to tearing off your skin and jumping in the fire cuz it feels so good. Serious WTF stuff that feels great bouncing around your intestines.

(rec. traxx: 4, 8)

New Canadiana :: Dog Day – Deformer

Dog Day - Deformer
Adding salience, excitement and nuance to pop is like having a couple-based band that isn’t nauseating; it’s a tough thing to do, and if you ever need some tips on how to do it, look no further than Dog Day. On Deformer, interesting melodies are always on the cusp of sweetness, but they never go full-on, instead they take the infectious side of college rock and marry it to interesting textures and unexpected directions, then propel it with earnest energy. Not that you need to feel guilty about listening to pop music, but this has enough substance, roughness and ingenuity that you don’t have to justify it to anyone.

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Dog Day – Scratches

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Dog Day – Part Girl

New Canadiana :: Cannon Bros – Firecracker/Cloudglow

Cannon Bros - Firecracker/Cloudglow
This album’s ambiguous and visceral title pops like some insta-nostalgic mixture of The Zit Remedy, a nearly forgotten Eric’s Trip video and your overwrought LiveJournal entries from high school (which, upon second glance, are much more heartfelt and less embarrassing than you remember). Alannah W. and Cole W. have been making these one-, two-, and three-chorders for a few years now, apparently writing songs tallying into the hundreds, but have pared the laundry list down to 12 for this release. Switching between cymbals, skins and strings, they take turns singing about soft-shoeing through their lives and dealing with, y’know, the shitty stuff, but glossing it over. It all sounds peachy keen, albeit sometimes frantic.

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Cannon Bros – Take

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Cannon Bros – Out of Here

New Canadiana :: Bad Vibrations // Bloodhouse – Bad Blood

D’un côté, Bad Vibrations délaisse quelque peu le power-pop-punk tordu qui caractérisait son premier maxi pour s’exposer la flanelle sur un sentier cagneux de fuzz mélancolique, de tambours itératifs et de voix éthérées et dit « allo » au grunge c88-90 d’un air à la fois triste et fâché, parce que le grunge c’est compliqué. De l’autre, Bloodhouse se magne le punk, amincit son mur du son pour laisser passer plus de fun dans son psych-garage et incite sérieusement au tapage de pied jusqu’à ce que ça saigne, entre un John Dwyer d’avant et un de maintenant. Halifax l’a, l’affaire.

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Bloodhouse – Endless Vacation

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Bad Vibrations – Waking Up

New Canadiana :: Bruised Knees – Badwater & Holy See’s Horror

Yet another face-melting insertion within the Scotch Tapes and Young Guv lathe series. Two slabs of soylent plastic were necessary to capture the wikked vibrations emerging from Toronto’s Bruised Knees. Eerie, synthetic mellowtones are sandwiched between cultic clamor and shattering shimmer, spinning psychedelic sinusoids around our sonic horizon. The Huckleberry influence runs deep within the wincing metal and triplic drummery; thud, thud, thud, thud, burn burn burn burn. What else lay dorment in Guv’s lair? Grip before the patina groweth.

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Bruised Knees – Holy See’s Horror

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Bruised Knees – Badwater

New Canadiana :: Construction & Destruction – Mutatis Mutandis

Construction & Destruction
Mutatis Mutandis
(The Quarantine)
Port Greville, NS
::web/sounds::


From the mutant mutandis of James Goddard:
Rural art-rockers radiating traces from a secluded homestead hanging over the Atlantic Ocean. Fresh like the crunch of first steps in burnt snow. Mutatis Mutandis is Construction & Destruction’s fourth bass-led caravan of hyper-text lyrics, dense guitar riffs, detached drumming and Kohakian meditations. It takes a moment to reach the place they’re coming from. Venture forth and see for yourself.

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Construction & Destruction – The Oracle

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Construction & Destruction – Bear

New Canadiana :: Grown-Ups – Not Friends

Grown-Ups
Not Friends
(Self Released)
Calgary, AB
::web/sounds::


From the grunge-core of Jesse Locke:
Funded by the sales of a surprise success goof, Calgary’s hurly-burly Grown-Ups self-released this four-song 7” ripper. For those paying attention, it’s business as usual: fast, catchy songs (this time they’re calling it ‘grunge core’), angry dad vocals and wise-ass lyrics with topics ranging from pyramid schemes to insomnia to real talk between grown-ass men (plus nods to Neil Young and Dr. Steve Brule!). The only thing likely to be more of a no-brainer is the Dude Ranch cover set they’ve announced for Halloween. 500 copies, red or clear vinyl.

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Grown-Ups – We’re Not Friends

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Grown-Ups – The Mess

New Canadiana :: Stalwart Sons – Burn Daylights Like Torches

Stalwart Sons
Burn Daylights Like Torches
(Revolution Winter)
Calgary, AB
::web/sounds::


From the burnt prairedom of Aaron Levin:
Strange currents of prairie hard-rock percolate this hooking jaunt through hardcore’s progressive pastures. Don’t let them convince you otherwise: Burn Daylights Like Torches is a phenomenal rock record fit for turntables of all dimensions. They maintain their uncanny can-rock hookery through bails of crushing guitar riffs and agropop vocals, readying your inner 90s-teen for summer streams of melodic bass and jazz drummery. It’s the perfect answer to Halifax and Montreal’s wave of mathrock tompoppery and the only reverberations in this context imbued with Alberta’s pastoral identity. GRIPORBEGRIPPED.

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Stalwart Sons – In Dust

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Stalwart Sons – Canadian Railroad Epitaph