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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Walrus - Feels* - Goodbye Something EP (Madic)
Wishkicker - Mainline* - Wider Vision EP (Independent)
Solids - Blank Stare* - Else EP (Independent)
Beauts - Covers* - Waves/Wash EP (Independent)
MoonMuseum - Manta Ray* - Eternal Return EP (Independent)
Villas - Lifejacket* - Medicine EP (Independent)
Kalan Wi with Ridley Wallace - Love Light* - Listen to Our Heartbeat (WAVS)
Girl Meets Bear - Lit Up* - Flight Path EP (Independent)
Air - Moon Fever - Twentyears (Polydor)
Dri Hiev - Last Gen* - Place to Live EP (Craft Singles)
Death Kart - Love Like Lobotomy* - 16 for 16 (Baffled Octopi)
The Forbidden Dimension - 13 Bloody Graves* - Every Twisted Tree Watches as You Pass (Sounds Escaping)
Red Arms - In Frauds We Trust* - Let Every Nation Know (Yeah Right!)
Owlface - Triceratops* - Spiral Sleep EP (Independent)
Aiwass - Dominate* - Demo (Independent)
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Best of 2016 #7: Merchandise - A Corpse Wired for Sound (4AD Records)
This is another album I was very slow on the uptake with. I had heard a couple of decent tracks from A Corpse Wired For Sound on KEXP, and I was also familiar with the band's earlier work, mainly 2014's After the End, which I quite liked. It was during a late 2016 trip to Vancouver, I found the album sitting in the used bin for $6, along with Glass Animals' new one, so I bought both.
Glass Animals was a bust, but Merchandise was a steal for $6.
As with a lot of bands I like, Merchandise are hard to categorize. There's a bit of a punk swagger to their work, less from the music but more from the attitude. Their name alone screams making fun of crass commercialism, and a self-referential nod to themselves being merchandise of a sort. There's a melodic pop feel to their work, along with a disorienting psychedelic murk. There's a goth/electronic vibe going along there too. There's post punk. There's dance.
The band also tend to reinvent their sound after each album. Whereas After the End was an enjoyable and slightly skewed take on indy pop, their previous album, Totale Nite, was a sprawling experimental rock gem. This album is much darker, murky and difficult than After the End, but well worth digging into.
Glass Animals was a bust, but Merchandise was a steal for $6.
As with a lot of bands I like, Merchandise are hard to categorize. There's a bit of a punk swagger to their work, less from the music but more from the attitude. Their name alone screams making fun of crass commercialism, and a self-referential nod to themselves being merchandise of a sort. There's a melodic pop feel to their work, along with a disorienting psychedelic murk. There's a goth/electronic vibe going along there too. There's post punk. There's dance.
The band also tend to reinvent their sound after each album. Whereas After the End was an enjoyable and slightly skewed take on indy pop, their previous album, Totale Nite, was a sprawling experimental rock gem. This album is much darker, murky and difficult than After the End, but well worth digging into.
Monday, February 20, 2017
DNTTA Playlist for January 13, 2017 - Best of 2016 Part 1
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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Liima - Roger Waters - ii (4AD)
Bear Mountain - Always Been You* - Badu (Last Gang)
Weaves - Candy* - Weaves (Buzz)
Merchandise - Right Back to the Start - A Corpse Wired for Sound (4AD)
David Bowie - Girl Loves Me - Blackstar (Columbia)
Savages - Slowing Down the World - Adore Life (Matador)
Duchess Says - Poubelle* - Sciences Nouvelles (Bonsound)
White Lung - Narcoleptic* - Paradise (Domino)
Factory Floor - Slow Listen - 25 25 (DFA)
Minor Victories - A Hundred Ropes - Minor Victories (Fat Possum)
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
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Liima - Roger Waters - ii (4AD)
Bear Mountain - Always Been You* - Badu (Last Gang)
Weaves - Candy* - Weaves (Buzz)
Merchandise - Right Back to the Start - A Corpse Wired for Sound (4AD)
David Bowie - Girl Loves Me - Blackstar (Columbia)
Savages - Slowing Down the World - Adore Life (Matador)
Duchess Says - Poubelle* - Sciences Nouvelles (Bonsound)
White Lung - Narcoleptic* - Paradise (Domino)
Factory Floor - Slow Listen - 25 25 (DFA)
Minor Victories - A Hundred Ropes - Minor Victories (Fat Possum)
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Best of 2016 #8: Weaves - Weaves (Buzz Records)
Weaves were a band I was vaguely familiar with. In the past, I played their first EP on my radio show and I liked it, but didn't give it much attention. After hearing their first full length this past year, I heard a band come into their own, a full fledged swaggering punk/noise mess.
Weaves are a weird band. They've got the obtuse weirdness of a band like Deerhoof or Devo, the post punk chops of a band like Sleater-Kinney or White Lung, and the soulful warble and sloppy, sexy wetness of Future Islands or the late Sharon Jones. Their sound is a real mess. It's got muscles, real rock/punk muscles, but it also meanders and shrieks like experimental rock. They are very hard to pin down or categorize.
A few years ago, I heard a band called Algiers, a soul/punk band from the States. While their sound tended to sprawl over a 5-6 minute track, Weaves takes that sound and crunches it down to 2-3 minute punches.
This is a band to watch.
Weaves are a weird band. They've got the obtuse weirdness of a band like Deerhoof or Devo, the post punk chops of a band like Sleater-Kinney or White Lung, and the soulful warble and sloppy, sexy wetness of Future Islands or the late Sharon Jones. Their sound is a real mess. It's got muscles, real rock/punk muscles, but it also meanders and shrieks like experimental rock. They are very hard to pin down or categorize.
A few years ago, I heard a band called Algiers, a soul/punk band from the States. While their sound tended to sprawl over a 5-6 minute track, Weaves takes that sound and crunches it down to 2-3 minute punches.
This is a band to watch.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Best of 2016 #9: Bear Mountain - Badu (Last Gang)
To be honest, I added Bear Mountain to my Top 10 list as almost an afterthought. After my first review of my favourite albums, I had Phantogram's Three in my Top 10. After many listens to Phantogram, the album started to sour on me. Then I picked up Bear Mountain and things became clear. This is the album that Three was trying to be, but falling a bit short of the mark.
Vancouver's Bear Mountain started as a solo project in 2012, but quickly became a full band. Their debut EP, XO, was very solid, a nice mix of melodic, upbeat electro-pop. The full length album Badu continues upon the path they laid down, with a bubbly, soulful take on electro-pop. What Bear Mountain has over Phantogram (who did put out a good album) is a lack of cynicism.
XO was more on the electronic end, but Badu adds some soulful, poppy vocals to the mix, making them sound like a more electronic version of Future Islands. It's a sunny, fun and uplifting listen. This is a band to watch and they can only go up from here.
Vancouver's Bear Mountain started as a solo project in 2012, but quickly became a full band. Their debut EP, XO, was very solid, a nice mix of melodic, upbeat electro-pop. The full length album Badu continues upon the path they laid down, with a bubbly, soulful take on electro-pop. What Bear Mountain has over Phantogram (who did put out a good album) is a lack of cynicism.
XO was more on the electronic end, but Badu adds some soulful, poppy vocals to the mix, making them sound like a more electronic version of Future Islands. It's a sunny, fun and uplifting listen. This is a band to watch and they can only go up from here.
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