Coldplay names The Strokes’ “Is This It” the best album of the last 15 years
Watch this. It’s……just perfect.
http://www.nme.com/nme-video/coldplay—-why-we-love-the-strokes-is-this-it/1227861206001
Polaris in pictures
So since I’m certainly not a writer but feel like something should go up, here are some pictures I took at this weeks Polaris gala. Some have already appeared for the Grid, and Line of Best Fit.
Austra front-woman Katie Stelmanis rocking the stage during The Beat and The Pulse.
Damien Abraham and Grant Lawrence hosting the crap out of the gala.
Galaxie being the over the top rock stars that they are.
Dan Mangan oh so adorable.
Timber Timbre wooing us with his eerie folk.
Camera
Cuddlin Braids.
The drummer from Braids (I’ll find his name later) looking on in awe.
Hey Rosetta: The best looking band at the gala.
Taking flight.
Winners Gagnon.
Polaris founder Steve Jordan looking dapper at the press conference.
Win after the win.
The obligatory cheque pose.
That said, Owen Pallett’s “Hard to Explain” cover is perfection
In his last post, Kristian eloquently discussed how tough it is to remix Owen Pallett, and he also mentioned the Final Fantasy man’s enviable skill with reinventing the work of others. It was a nice consideration of one aspect of what made Pallett so famous, and I totally agreed (not very adversarial, I know).
With that in mind, what greater proof could I provide to back Kristian up than Pallett’s incredibly moving cover of My Favourite Band’s classic single “Hard to Explain”?
I must admit that when I first heard about Stereogum’s tribute to the Best Album of the 00s, I wasn’t down with it. I didn’t feel Is This It needed any kind of updating, any more reconsidering, or any general fucking with, whatsoever.
And then a wise friend of mine sent me a link to Pallett’s cover of what’s probably my consensus favourite track on the album, a song that I actually once sang over and over in my head for an entire month. (I think that month was September 2003.)
Knowing that Pallett is a Strokes fan, and being an admirer of all his other work, I broke down and tried it out.
And I was thrilled. It’s positively goosebump-inducing the way those hyper-precise guitars can be transferred so breezily into a dreamy arrangement of strings that sound like they’re weeping. My favourite thing about the song is the way Pallett breathes the lyrics, with his barely enunciated tones hiding under a similar layer of lo-fi, kind of like Julian himself.
All in all, it’s just another glorious piece of work from Canada’s greatest musician, and I’m glad it exists. (Even if I still haven’t listened to any of the other covers. Fuck that noise.)
Listen to this modern masterpiece right here:
Could it be? The first ever good Owen Pallett remix.
Remixes aren’t a two way street.
My day lights up when I hear news of Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy) remixes songs. He was the only musician able to not completely ruin a Stars song, and his remix of Grizzly Bear’s don’t ask is beyond beautiful, and easily surpasses the original.
Sadly, I have yet to find a remix of his own work that has done him a similar justice.
A month or so ago I ventured out to see him open up for Beirut at the second Toronto date, and for once my obsessive need to have a full discography has paid off. I went against my better judgement and picked up the Lewis Takes off his Shirt remix LP.
Most of the tracks are forgettable, mostly because most feel obligation to work around the strings. The last track; Max Tundra’s remix of Midnight Directives abandoned that notion and came out with a winner. Instead, he slowed down the main melody and built a soundscape of synths to back.
He still uses the same song structure and progressions that the original song did, but the result is so fresh that I will keep coming back to this probably as often as the original.
OK, enough of my trying to be a journalist. Listen to it here:
0 Battlehip Breaking Bands: Javelin
For the record, I’m not a fan of the way Odd Future appear to glorify things like raping and killing and using homophobic slurs. Those are things I don’t do or approve of in any way. There’s a debate raging somewhere in there about the concept of creative license, and simply using those things as a form of shock value to turn people onto the deeper reasons why that kind of horrible stuff might ever go through your mind in the first place, but it’s past 3am and I’m very tired and I saw James Blake tonight with Kristian and I’m still in a state of “Look I found her / Red Coat” placidness.
So I will simply avoid that whole debate and post this song that I got from a skate video Odd Future posted to their Tumblr. It’s by a Rhode Island band called Javelin and I feel it should be the race music to Mario Kart 64 Part 2, a video game that never existed, but really really really should have. Big up to the Golfwang. Cheers for this.
Sounds like Sloan Saturdays! Yuck.
For the past few years indie rock musicians have been using minimal equipment to try and recreate the sounds of yore. First it was four track surf rock, followed by lo-fi 80’s pop. At long last, someone is finally creating college radio rock!
Yuck has hit the ground running this past year with a string of seven inches and are about to embark on a tour of the United States to support their upcoming full length. Although they already came and went in Toronto, you can still catch them on the west coast and at Pitchfork’s annual music festival.
Granted they may not be doing anything fresh, but the music is solid and it’s nice to hear something self recorded with some fidelity for once.
Battlehip field trip: James Blake
Tonight the boys from Battlehip will be heading out for a night out on the town. The Destination? James Blake at Lees Palace.
Since Rob is a legitimate journalist he will be doing a review for The Grid, Toronto’s newest arts weekly. My review will most certainly be much less professional and on this very blog.
Sitting at my day job today, the goal is to immerse myself in James Blake live videos to try and get ready for what’s in store. James Blake seems like the type of artist that may be hit or miss live, but after seeing a few videos my expectations are now higher than preferred.
Here is the best one I’ve found, shot at the Central Presbyterian in Austin, Texas during South By Southwest.
Heartbeat Hotel and Istoica make a music video!
The boys from Heartbeat Hotel have teamed up with the visual art duo Istoica to create their very first music video. The video had its debut at the final week of Heartbeat Hotel’s month-long residency at The Magpie. Check out the video below, or find out more details on the official Heartbeat Hotel website, or at Istoica’s blog.
Peter Bjorn and John - Gimme Some
Let’s face it: “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John was one of the most emblematic songs of the 2000s, that amazing decade when we all came of age. Not saying it was one of the best songs of the decade, but looking back, it’s one of those songs that you’ll never be able to forget if you were there. Proof of its power: I think I heard it at every indie dance night I attended for about 18 consecutive months.
365 #20: Tokyo Police Club - Champ
Tokyo Police Club and I have known each other for quite a while, but at very best we’ve only been fair-weather friends. I was with them when times were good, but when they went through that Elephant Shell phase I wouldn’t give them the time of day.
Now that my good friend Rob is the proud owner of a driver’s license, I found myself hearing them more and more. Instead of just pretending we never liked each other, I decided to give Mr. Police Club another chance.
Enter their answer to sophomore slump: Champ.
Champ marks a definite improvement in their sound. Reverting back to something a little more akin to “The Nature of The Experiment,” with some added help from father time. Songs like “Favourite Food” and my new BFF “Bambi” show a much more flushed out electronic sound, while still keeping their charming brand of jangly rock and roll.
That said: if anyone asks, I’ll deny this tooth and nail.
Standout songs: Bambi, Wait Up, Frankenstein.
I’ll never make claims to being a fashionable man, but I feel this needs to be said. Death Cab for Cutie has the worst hair in rock and roll.
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Two guys in Toronto who listen to a lot of music.
Our tastes overlap, like a Venn diagram.
We just can't figure out where.
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