Best of 2013 #3: The Thermals - Desperate Ground (Saddle Creek)

I'm a fairly recent convert to the Church of The Thermals. It wasn't until the last few years I really started to pay attention to this band. I've been aware of them for a while, but they never grabbed me much, outside of a few awesome songs. Then I began sitting down and listening to their albums. Then the brilliance started to emerge.

This band is a trio from Portland, OR who have an abrasive style of pop-punk. The singer, Hutch Harris, has a very unique voice, high pitched and emotive. The band overall reminds me of iconoclastic bands like The Fall and Pere Ubu, a band that is difficult to listen to, but so insistent in their sound that you have to listen. They have a feel to them that their sound is a giant middle finger to the music industry, that they don't care if you like their music, they're gonna keep making it anyway, But, unlike Mark E. Smith and Dave Thomas, this band is personable and charming.

Even more interesting is that most of their albums are concept albums. 2006's The Body, The Blood, The Machine, was a story about what America would look like if the ultra-right Christian politics took it over. Desperate Ground is about a soldier returning from war and trying to find his place in a world that isn't filled with killing. The songs themselves are great, but the way they hang together as a full album is what makes this amazing. I considered this album for my #1, but ultimately put is at #3.

DNTTA Playlist for July 25, 2014

Artist - Song - Album (Label)
* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

Daphni - Yes, I Know* - Jiaolong (Merge)
Michael Brock - Green and Black* - Scorpio (Hybridity)
Rush Midnight - In Your Room - Rush Midnight (Last Gang)
Twin Shadow - Five Seconds - Confess (4AD)
Chvad SB - There Isn't a Day That Goes By - Crickets Were the Compass (Silber Media)
Electric Bird Noise - Seven - Kind of Black (Silber Media)
Feel No Other - Winter is All Over You - Feel No Other (Silber Media)
Beach Season - Situations* - Internet Evening (Independent)
Dixie's Death Pool - Rainbow Bridge* - Twin Galaxies (Leisure Thief)
Mount Sims - How We Do - Electro Kills (Nettwerk)

DNTTA Playlist for July 18, 2014

Artist - Song - Album (Label)
* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
Cygnets - Telepaths* - Bleak Anthems (Independent)
Night Committee - Let's See* - Heaven (Western Famine)
Ought - Pleasant Heart* - More Than Any Other Day (Constellation)
Pop Crimes - The Fly* - Split (7") (Bonzer)
Willower - Occident* - Split (7") (Bonzer)
The Fall - How I Wrote Elastic Man - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong (Beggar's Banquet)
The Mants - I Smell Woman* - The Mants (Shake!)
Sianspheric - The Owl* - The Owl (7") (Noyes)
Owen Pallett - On a Path* - In Conflict (Secret City)
Himalayan Bear - The Lost Love* - Attacks the Brilliant Air (Self-Righteous)
Gary Flanagan - Memories of You* - Another Coin in the Daydream Machine (Independent)

DNTTA Playlist for July 11, 2014

Artist - Song - Album (Label)
* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

Diversions - Shorter Than Me* - American Squalor (Independent)
Obara International - Unloved - Live at Manggha (For-Tune)
Gorzycki and Gruchot - Chaotic Method - Experimental Psychology (For-Tune)
The Intuition Orchestra - Zeriba, Zeriba - To the Inside (For-Tune)
BadBadNotGood - Since You Asked Nicely* - III (Pirates Blend)
Brasstronaut - Same Same* - Mr. Chimara (Unfamiliar)
Sam Davidson - Deep Field* - The Case for Space (Independent)
Skim Millk - Truth and Consequences* - Skim Milk (Independent)
Stanley Schumacher - No Technique (excerpt) - No Technique (Independent)

Best of 2013 #4: Chelsea Light Moving - S/T (Matador)

It's been a bleak couple of years for Sonic Youth fans (like me), with the band on indefinite hiatus. But 2013 was a good year for side projects, with 3 albums coming out. First we had Lee Ranaldo and the Dust's Last Night on Earth, a solid noise/indy rock album. Then we had Kim Gordon's collaboration with Bill Nace, Body/Head, whose album of skronky guitar noise, Coming Apart, made my honourable mentions list (more on this soon). And Thurston Moore put together a new band, Chelsea Light Moving, who put out a great self titled album. Of the three albums, Chelsea Light Moving got closest to the Sonic Youth sound of old, and the sound they were recapturing in their last proper album, The Eternal (coincidentally, my favourite album of 2009). Those needing a Sonic Youth fix, check here first!

DNTTA Playlist for July 4, 2014 - All Canadian Show

Artist - Song - Album (Label)
* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

KC Accidental - Anorexic He-Man* - Anthems for the Could've Been Pills (Arts and Crafts)
Solids - Haze Away* - Blame Confusion (Bonsound)
Ought - Forgiveness* - More Than Any Other Day (Constellation)
Cygnets - Dread City* - Dark Days (Independent)
Numb - Dead Inside* - Christmeister (Metropolis)
Skinny Puppy - Three Blind Mice* - Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse (Nettwerk)
Squid Lid - Wormhole Key* - Tackle Box EP (Independent)
Chad VanGaalen - Frozen Paradise* - Shrink Dust (Flemish Eye)
Bron Halpin - Cold Feet and Hands* - Condition Code Red (Independent)
Jesuslesfilles - Gentil* - Le Grain D'Or (Independent)
Kytami - Kiss n' Tease (Marcus Visionary Remix)* - Remixed (East Van Digital)

DNTTA Playlist for June 27, 2014

Artist - Song - Album (Label)
* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

Foam Lake - Die Fighting* - Force and Matter (Aporia)
Brave Radar - Too Long Weekend* - Message Centre (Fixture)
Tiger Suit - Book About Your Life* - Tourist Attraction (Independent)
The Peptides - Heaven Help Us We're in Love* - Love Question Mark (Independent)
Tune-Yards - Look Around - Nikki Nack (Rough Trade)
The Horrors - So Now You Know - Luminous (XL)
Kenna Burima - The Warning* - Kenna Burima (Independent)
Twin Library - Kick it Apart* - Historical Tumblers (Independent)
Big Audio Dynamite - Green Grass - The Globe (Virgin)
The Extras - Circular Impression* - The Best of Ready Records Vol. 1 (Ready)
Vogue Dots - Mercy* - Toska (Indica)
Jef Barbara - Song for the Loveshy* - Soft to the Touch (Club Roll)
Devo - Uglatto - Hardcore (Superior Viaduct)