DNTTA Playlist for March 20, 2015

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

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

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Black Mold - Memes* - Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz (Flemish Eye)
TL0741 - Accelerant - Before Waking (HC3)
TL0741 - Called Down - Circulation (HC3)
Accolade - Bleeding Cry - Catharsis of Rhetorik (Independent)
Vire - Mirroring* - Human Contact (Independent)
Laggards - So Sad* - So Feels (Cloudsounds)
Uaxaycac - Stars Stars* - Homemade Myth (Independent)
A.P. Laurenson - Everywhere - Lisle Skyline (Independent)
Laika - Let Me Sleep - Silver Apples of the Moon (Too Pure)
Vikings - Open Up Your Eyes* - Vikings (Independent)
Bizarr Sex Trio - Your Pregnancy Begins Now - The Improper Use of Knives (Invisible)

Best of 2014 #2: Lower - Seek Warmer Climes (Matador)

Now we get to brass tacks. I seriously considered this album for my #1 of the year. Lower hail from Denmark. Scandanavia recently seems to have become a hotbed for interesting post-punk. Like their country-mates Iceage (who also put out a great album in 2014, Plowing Into the Fields of Love), Lower play blistering and obtuse post-punk. Iceage are much louder and confronational, Lower take a much more melodic take on post-punk. Seek Warmer Climes is their debut and they already show deep maturity with their sound, which evokes a more guitar-heavy Joy Division. Their future looks bright and hopefully we'll see more of the same for their sophomore effort.

DNTTA Playlist for March 13, 2015

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

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

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Humans - Over Again* - Noontide (Hybridity)
The Cluttertones - Lion and Ant* - Ordinary Joy (Healing Power)
Kurvi Tasch - Test Your Will* - On Firm Ground (Independent)
Christian Wallumrod - Second Fahrkunst - Pianokammer (Hubko)
The Sugarcubes - Coldsweat - Life's Too Good (Elektra)
John Grant - Black Belt - Pale Green Ghosts (Partisan)
Lower - Soft Option - Seek Warmer Climes (Matador)
Iceage - Let it Vanish - Plowing Into the Fields of Love (Matador)
Rhye - The Fall* - Woman (Polydor)
Whale - Kickin' - We Care (Virgin)
Pan sonic - Johdin - Aaltopiiri (Mute)

DNTTA Playlist for March 6, 2015

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

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

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PlatEAU - Creeper* - Spacecake (Metropolis)
Mudhoney - Hallowe'en - Superfuzz Bigmuff (Sub Pop)
F.P. Tranquilizer - Meet Me at the Forks* - Split LP (Sundowning)
Shooting Guns - Wolfcop* - Wolfcop (Sundowning)
Siskiyou - Wasted Genius* - Nervous (Constellation)
Mellowkotzen - Jon's Tea* - UnderWaterMelon (Independent)
Sama Dams - Cold Snap - Comfort in Doubt (Independent)
OK Vancouver OK - In Lieu of the Moon* - Influences (Kingfisher Bluez)
The Royal Iguana Fur - 25 Children* - Horse Therapy (Independent)
Lint - Hunting for Rest* - We Surrender! (Independent)
The Ketamines - Patients* - You Can't Serve Two Masters (Mammoth Cave)

DNTTA Playist for February 27, 2015 - All Covers 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 

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Parallels - Moonlight Desires (Gowan)* - XII (Marigold)
Apoptygma Berzerk - Fade to Black (Metallica) - Welcome to Earth (Metropolis)
Moby - James Bond Theme - I Like to Score (Mute)
Crystal Castles - Not in Love (Platinum Blonde)* - Crystal Castles (Last Gang)
Tough Age - My Chinchilla (cub)* - Hot Heroes (Mint)
cub - She's Like a Rainbow (Rolling Stones)* - Mauler (Au Go Go)
She and Him - Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers) - Classics (Columbia)
Fastball - Busy Bodies (Elvis Costello) - Almost You: The Songs of Elvis Costello (Glurp)
Nick Lowe - Indoor Fireworks (Elvis Costello) - The Rose of England (Warner)
Bill Frisell - Surfer Girl (Beach Boys) - Guitar in the Space Age (Okeh)
Overwhelming Colorfast - She Said, She Said (The Beatles) - Overwhelming Colorfast (Relativity)
Rollins Band - Ghostrider (Suicide) - The Crow OST (Elektra)
Leonard Nimoy - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth - Mr. Spock's Music from Space (Dot)

Best of 2014 #3: High Tension - Death Beat (Cooking Vinyl)

When I first heard this album, it was a revelation. Everyone has that moment when music gives you a visceral reaction. This album put a rock inside my stomach, then made my head swim. I'm a fan of mixing genres. Hardcore punk hasn't interested me since my early college days. I find it sloppy, directionless and full of pathos. It's pure emotion. High Tension take that pathos and the energy and mix it with razor precise post-punk guitar. The result is something that grows with the combination of parts, something that reveals more depth on each listen.

When this album came out in the spring of 2014, I thought I was hearing the album of the year. Even after the first cursory listen, I knew I was hearing something special. High Tensions music section is direct, pointed and loud. They insist you listen to what they have to play, and they tell you with every note. Their singer is a Malaysian screamer named Karima Utomo, who is just as good at screams as she is at death metal growls. Someone, these two styles work together, and work together extremely well.

Watch this band. They might very well disappear into the sludge and obscurity they came out of, but they'll still be there somewhere.