Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

Jagjaguwar Records

Released: September 14th, 2010

Stoner Rock that "Gets IT" instead of singing about bongs and weed.

Stoner Rock (and it's heavier brother Sludge/Stoner Metal) can either be immensely awesome or fucking stupid. I have no interest any more in listening a bunch of potheads singing about bongs and wizards and shit. No interest in 15 min crunchy guitar jams either. Give me the the riffs, the head bobbing bass and drums, and the trippy vocals. Leave out the bullshit. Black Sabbath did it the best. (Oh wait they sang about weed and wizards. OK but it was the seventies, everyone was high.)

Black Mountain certainly knows how to create fucking rocking licks, keep the rhythm tight, and the dueling vocals of band leader Stephen McBean and Amber Webber* create amazing harmonies that layer nicely over the sludgey guitars. Wilderness Heart is their 3rd full length, and while its good and I like it a lot, it is not nearly as amazing as 2008's In The Future. That album was my personal favorite of that year. This new album is lacking the dramatic impact of the songs that were on their last album.

This is not to say that the album is not worth listening checking out. The songs are varied enough to create a good flow throughout the album. Some of the songs are even a little more upbeat and faster than their previous material (especially "Let Spirits Ride" which almost has a thrash-metal vibe to it. It rules.) Other up beat songs that are rad are "Old Fangs" and the title track "Wilderness Heart". Slower jams (but not too slow or jam-y) worth checking out are "Rollercoaster" and "The Way To Go".

Not their strongest effort but good none-the-less. Check it out.

*I have the biggest crush-on for Amber Webber btw. Any of you Vancouver-ites that can hook me up with her I'll will paint your portrait, cook dinner for you, and high-five you 50,346 times.

Similar: The Black Angels, Pink Mountaintops, Black Sabbath

Rating: 7.5

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Merge Records

Released August 2nd, 2010

What it is: Swirling, operatic, electronic vs. folky, musical indie-rock awesome-ness.

Sounds like: Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, David Bowie

ARCADE FIRE CHANGED MY LIFE!!! Well sort of, 6 years ago. Back then all I listened to was loud metal/punk/hardcore/garage. When I heard 2004's Funeral I really really really loved it. I realized that any type of music could be great as long as you give it a chance. Now I will listen to anything. As long as it doesn't sound like a bag of dicks.

So the Montreal-based group has a little piece of my heart if nothing else. Nothing will ever compare to that album. It was my favorite of the decade in fact. The follow-up, 2007's Neon Bible was good, but a tiny bit of a letdown. But it eventually grew on me. Now Arcade Fire's new double LP, The Suburbs is an awesome album of band really capitalizing on their maturity and success.

I really like this album a lot. There are some really fun catchy songs, some really heartfelt tunes, and some that are truly soaring and awesome. It may be the best album of the year (although I will have to think long and hard about it against Beach House's Teen Dream).

This brings me to the rant that I want to get too: WTF is up with Canadians? I've lived up here for three years and it seems like the people up here seem to have a hate on for any band that gets popular outside of Canada. A lot Canadians's reaction is indifference and downright disdain for this band others that have gotten wide-spread acclaim. Sorry they don't sound like really boring country, sing about the Leafs in a stupid voice (fuck you Tragically Hip), or aren't from your home providence. Its weak and y'all should get over it. (My apologies to my Canadian friends who don't act this way. You rule.)

The album itself is massive and sprawling, yet light and spacious (hmmm much like the the actual suburbs?). The 16 tracks span many moods, tempos, and styles. The songs all sound a bit different and create a great flow across the whole album. The two main highlights of the album are both the second parts of a larger song dialogues: "Half Light II (Celebration)" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". The first has a great electronic mood and beat combined with massive, swirling harmonies. Its epic. The later is a triumphant fun ending to the album. Its super catchy and really awesome. Other highlights are "Month of May" which has a Springsteen vibe and "Ready To Start" the current radio single.

Listen to this album all the way through a few times. Its worth your time because it is really fucking worth it.

Rating: 9.0

Tobacco - Maniac Meat

Anticon Records

Released: May 25th 2010

Trippin' Hoppin' Fuckin' Electronic Stew of Mystery Meat.

Tobacco is a side project of one of the Black Moth Super Rainbow crew's homemade electronic posse. The keys are crude, the synths are psyched, and the tape loops are um loopy? Plus there's vocoders are all over this thing. There is so much going on in this album. It fucking rules. Plus Beck helps out on a few of the tracks, which are a couple of the best tracks.

Not to say there is too much going on. Actually Maniac Meat serves as to let Tobacco explore more of a hip-hop, trip-hop, upbeat psychedelic derivative of BMSR's brand musical psilocybin. While BMSR sounds like taking Psilocybe in a gassy meadow on a warm hazy summer day. Tobacco sounds like eating them and walking around the city and ending up a a wicked party at the end of the night, on a warm hazy summer day. With Beck there.

(But it could be all in your mind. I mean really, why the fuck would Beck be at the lame parties you hang out at?)

Anyways the best song (and the longest) is "Creepy Phone Calls" which is probably what you'll end up doing after about 4 hours after eating them. The two songs that Beck collaborates with are tits too: "Fresh Hex" and "Grape Aerosmith" (p.s. what an amazing song title) (p.p.s. I fucking hate Aerosmith. They should of broke up in the seventies).

Awesome shit bro.

Dig It If You Like: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Matmos, Beck

Rating:8.5

The Good, The RAD and the Ugly of 2010 Thus Far

So it's already half way through 2010 and here are my unofficail thoughts on the Good albums (you should give it a try), the RAD albums (you should definitely check it out), and the Bad albums (you get the point) of 2010.

In no particular order:

The Good

The Black Keys - Brothers

Crystal Castles - S/T (2010)

Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

Harlem - Hippies

High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine

Jack Rose - Luck in the Valley

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

Magnetic Fields - Realism

Mi Ami - Steal Your Face

The National - High Violet

Nice Nice - Extra Wow

People of the North - Deep Tissue

Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking it Easy

Pocahaunted - Make it Real

Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil

Sleigh Bells - Treats

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

Team Ghost - You Never Did Anything Wrong to Me

Thee Oh Cees - Weird Slime

These New Puritans - Hidden

Ty Segall - Melted

U.S. Girls - Go Grey

Woods - At Echo Lake

The RAD

Alcest - Ecailles de Lune

Beach House - Teen Dream

Four Tet -There is Love in You

High Places - Vs. Mankind

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Imperium Dekadenz - Procella Vadens

Lair of the Minotaur - Evil Power

Liars - Sisterworld

Midlake - The Courage of Others

Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

Phantogram - Eyelid Movies

Real Estate - Reality EP

The Soft Pack - S/T

Sun Araw - On Patrol

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Kollaps Tradixionales

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Yellow Swans - Going Places

Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP

The Ugly

Awesome Color - Massa Hypnos

Fang Island - S/T

Growing - Pumps!

Jonsi - Go

The Knife - Tomorrow, In A Year

Love Is All - Two Thousand & Ten Injuries

Owen Pallet - Heartland

Sightings - City of Straw

Spoon - Transference

Zs - New Slaves

Toronto Island Show w/ PAVEMENT!!! Sat. June 19th

Ok I want to say this before I go any further. It's been a loooooong time since a saw a big outdoor show. The last one I saw was Sonic Youth at McCarren Pool in Williamsburg a couple years ago and it wasn't even that big. Now remember why I don't like big festivals. Way too many people. It took almost two hours to get a goddamn beer at this show. WEAK. I'm sticking to bands in small venues.

Anyways....

This year's installment of Broken Social Scene/Arts and Crafts' annual summer concert on Toronto's Olympic Island featured BSS along with Beach House, Band of Horses and PAVEMENT. The problem here is that the concert is on a stupid island, so you have to take a stupid ferry, and the wait to get on the dumb ferry took forever. It was hot outside. Whaaaaaa!

So I finally got on the retarded ferry and it took us all along on our magical journey to Toronto Island. I was freaking out a little bit at this point because Beach House started already and I really wanted to see them. The lame-ass ferry finally landed and I scooted all the way to the concert. I ripped right through security and they didn't even check my bag. This point sucks, because I should of smuggled booze in.

Beach House @ Toronto Island

I did manage to check out the last few songs of the Baltimore MD band's set. They were amazing. I love their new record Teen Dream. So much so that I think its the best album that has come out this year so far. I really wished I saw more of the set and didn't have to wait for the failure ferry. Grrrrr... Boats.

Band of Horses @ Toronto Island

Up next was Seattle WA's Band of Horses. Now I had previously seen them only a month or so prior to this at a secret show they did at the Horseshoe Tavern, but that show was sort of last minute and the keyboardist didn't even have his keys with him. This show sounded so much better than that one. But it wasn't at the Horseshoe so the vibe wasn't as good (again the problem with these big fucking shows). They did put on a great set and the lead singer is a really good frontman. Plus I gathered that the ladies really enjoyed his cool, bearded demeanor.

Broken Social Scene @ Toronto Island (and my vantage point from the stupid, long beer garden line)

At this point I went on a beer hunt. Fuck it took forever. It was during Broken Social Scene's set so it didn't really matter that it took forever. I'm not a huge fan of them, but it was good background music while I waited for my beer. All the usual Arts and Crafts characters joined them on stage including BLAH BLAH BLAH WHO CARES. Seriously whats up with the 50 million people on stage? That was so 2002.

PAVEMENT @ Toronto Island (squeeeeeeeeal!)

Finally after waiting 17 days for three beers, I demolished them in 13.7 seconds and ran back for the start of Pavement. They were so good live. So much better than on record. The records have a certain sloppy quality which suits them well, but live you realize just how great they actually are as musicians. The reverb and the distortion were mixed perfectly. They started off the set with "Cut Your Hair" and proceeded through all their goodies. A great band. I was very happy I got to see them. It was (almost) worth all the bullshit and money I paid for the show.

But alas I was stuck on a fucking island on Lake Ontario, so I decided to cut out a bit early so that I wouldn't have to wait forever for the drooling inbred hillbilly of a ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry I managed to catch at a few more Pavement songs before the fugly boat departed. Plus there was a scary spider above my head and I got freaked out in front of a bunch of cute girls. Manliness-fail.

I returned to civilization finally, and I tried to do some of last night of NXNE shit, but Wrongbar was at capacity and my friend didn't have a badge, so we just got tanked at a couple bars in Parkdale. All and all it was good day/night.

THE END.

NXNE - Day Two (Part 2)

Sooooooo...

After an awesome afternoon/early evening at the BBQ house show at 159 Manning, my evening then shifted to the official NXNE venues.

Zola Jesus @ The Garrison

Kicking it off I went to The Garrison to properly see Madison WI's Zola Jesus. I only caught the last three songs the night before at Sneaky Dee's and I was balls-ass-sweaty from biking to retrieve my ID at my apartment, so I really wanted to see the whole set and without the said hygienic condition. The set was great. Nika Rosa Danilova, the singer is simply amazing. She is able to use her voice as a true instrument, taking the mic and changing the distance from her voice to change the volume as she belted it out. Her training as an opera singer showed. She was also a great performer, jumping into the crowd a few times to sing. The music was a perfect accompaniment: dark, brooding synth. One of the highlights of the festival.

After the show I bought the new Stridulum EP on vinyl from the merch table, which Nika was looking after. I try to actually buy every record that I really really like that comes out, and since the EP is one of my favorites of 2010 so far I had to pick it up. Plus I flirted with her and she seemed to enjoy the attention.

Best Coast @ The Garrison

Up next was Best Coast from sunny California. The music was certainly sunny for sure. Sunny garage pop and the singer had a bit of a Loretta Lynn/Neko Case thing going on and it was good times all around. But I did think the set was a little boring all-in-all. They could of spiced up the music a little, or the singer should of tried to give-er and really try to sound like the above singers. Maybe this observation was due to just witnessing an amazing singer in the previous set.

The Soft Pack @ The Garrison

So this the point of the night where I started to live dangerously. I absolutely had to see Mudhoney at the Horseshoe Tavern at 1 AM, so I was a little concerned about not getting in. I also absolutely had to see The Soft Pack, and they were playing at 12 AM at The Garrison as well as 11 PM the next night at Lee's Palace. But I was not sure I would be able to get off Toronto Island in time the next day to make it for the show. So I decided to stay for The Soft Pack and chance it.

And I was glad I did.

They were sooooo much fun. Their sound is slightly poppy, slightly garage rock, and very California sounding punk rock. They hail from San Diego, and remind me a bunch of The Replacements, or this year's version of Obits. I got down and dirty in the small but fun pit. The set was great and I had fun singing along and dancing. GOOD TIMES.

Man or Astroman? @ The Horseshoe Tavern

So I booked it over the the Horseshoe for Mudhoney and I totally lucked out. A power outage at Queen and Spadina pushed all the bands back so I was able to actually catch the end of Man Or Astroman?'s set. Boy I'm glad I did. It fucking ruled! They sound like The Repo Man Soundtrack. Punkrock surf-rock. So amazing. Plus they're supposedly from "space" so all their songs, stage banter and stage props are space-themed. Gimmicky but AWESOME. Plus they lit shit on fire, the singer came out in a space suit for the last song and they had this tower thing on stage which shot sparks of purple electricity out. FAR OUT.

Fucking Mudhoney @ The Horseshoe Tavern

Fucking MUDHONEY played next. M-U-D-H-O-N-E-Y. They fucking owned it. For real. Best band of the whole weekend. I was right up front in the amazing pit, singing along and getting fucking sweaty. They played all my favorites and when they played "Hate the Police" singer Mark Arm dedicated it to all the G20 security bullshit we here in Toronto have to put up with next weekend. I lost my shit. I couldn't "WOOOOO!" after a while and had to resort to just yelling out "FUCKING MUDHONEY!!!" It was the best. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Grooms @ 64 Augusta

After that incredible set I was still fiending for some more music, so I stopped by my man Felix's house on Augusta for an after-hours basement show. When I showed up, the cops had come just before, so the show was on hold. Everyone was waiting around, trying not to be too loud. Eventually the show went on. I missed Grasshopper which I figured would happen, being that it was around 3:30 AM. But I did see the Toronto band Grooms. They put on a great set of rhythmic post-hardcore. It was rocking and heavy at times. Great set. Very impressed.

Brides @ 64 Augusta (This photo accurately describes both my inebriated state and the band's)

After a looooong set up due to A) a lack of a bass guitar B) ridiculous technical difficulties and C) the band being completely fucked up (other than the drummer who was really fucking good) Toronto's Brides was able to get a few songs off (which sounded great) before the wheels fell off again. The rhythm guitarist seemed particularly wasted. So was I at this time and I decided to leave. Hopefully I'll get to see them again when both parties are clear headed.

I decided walking my bike home at the point was wise. I listened to the birds chirp as the sun came up. It was all very peaceful after a shit show of a day in which I saw 13 bands. Damn son.

NXNE - Day Two (Part 1)

Holy shit that was an epic day. I managed to see 13 bands play. I think it might be a new personal best. Plus I wore my Decendents' Milo Goes To College T-Shirt out thinking "I haven't worn this shirt out in a while. Why not?" I got so many comments. It really surprised me. But it makes sense cause it might be one of the best punkrock albums of all time.

Now to the marathon that was my Friday:

This here author took all the shitty, poorly exposed, blurry photos. SORRY.

I started off at a BBQ on Manning Street. It was sponsored my buddy Ryder's label White Whale Records and a few other music related cats. The vibe was amazing. This party fucking ruled. So many great people and bands (for the most part). And free burgers and veggie burgers plus it was BYOB, which really helped my wallet from taking a huge hit.

Eamon McGrath @ 159 Manning

I was a little late due to the fact that I took a three hour nap which really saved my ass. I got there in time to catch the last few songs from Calgary's Eamon McGrath. The dude certainly brings it hard. Think Neil Young meets Darby Crash. It definitely has a "Canadian heartland" vibe which normally would annoy the fuck out of me. But truth be told this dude sure writes some rocking songs, and is an amazing performer. A great way to kick off the day.

BAD TITS @ 159 Manning

Next up were the "surprise guests" BAD TITS featuring Sabastian Grainger from Death From Above 1979 and Josh Riechmann from Tangiers. The music was fun, dancey electronic/synth. It was nice to see Sabastian get back behind the kit to play drums. I think his solo indie rock stuff is boring. This was a lot of fun. Plus it was in the house's living room/library. Not the most ideal set up but it made it interesting.

Violent Soho @ 159 Manning

All the way from Australia was Violent Soho. Their name sucks, but this bands was fucking incredible. They brought it so hard. All four of these dudes have long fucking hair and didn't give two shits. Their sounds harkens back to early Nirvana, Mudhoney (who I saw later on in the night) and rawer side of The Pixies. A punkrock and early grunge kind of sound. Plus they're on Elastic Peace, Thurston Moore's record label, which tells you something about how good they really were.

Deloro @ 159 Manning

Deloro. Boring. Next.

Fields of Fur @ 159 Manning

Fields of Fur with one of the dudes from Holy Fuck. Don't quit your day job dude. Boring. Next.

Mohawk Lodge @ 159 Manning

Mohawk Lodge was up next, as the sun was setting. This is my buddy Ryder Havdale's band originally from Vancouver, but based out of Toronto. They just got back from a European tour, and all the hard work really showed. They brought a great energy to the set and were totally rocking the fuck out. When I saw them before they definitely didn't have this level of intensity. Great set.

Part 2 soon...