“I usually just have an unamplified electric guitar handy and I write a lot of songs, or at least riffs on the guitar while watching bad movies and TV shows. For some reason, that’s just where the magic happens.”
If you are in a two-piece band, particularly a two-piece band with the standard guitar/drums setup and you happen to occupy the guitar spot in that setup, you had better be concerned about your tone more so than just about anything else. Sloppy sound will ruin your two-piece band immediately; your tone should be immaculate, awesome in the biblical sense. You are ...Read More
I don't know if you've caught on to this by now, but gee-whiz I like video games. I will buy video games for systems I don't even own because I like the cover art. I lose sleep wondering how great a new 7th Guest would be. Well, golly, I love everything about entertainment's most time consuming variant, and I hope you do too. As it has long since past infiltrated our culture, it's seen in movies (poorly) written about (awkwardly) and talked about (hopelessly). But did you know there's entire genres of music that sound like Duck Tales for the ...Read More
When the world sucks we'd like to go to music, even if we leave nothing behind in the process. Music is a healer, a gate into feelings just out of reach. When Florida band Surfer Blood breached the scene, music fans were ensnared by their addictive indie surf and unique echoing aesthetic. The music instills a warm fantasy, but not necessarily an escape from the ordinary. From the beauty of the surf (not a far cry to those along the actual coast) to the sublime of watching David Lynch on the couch with friends. While there are plenty of new ...Read More
London's A Horse and His Boy are a band that I first caught wind of while attending the CD release show of last month's cover band, Krupke. They were the opening band on that bill and I managed to catch some of their set, though for reasons which require far more explanation than I am willing to give at this point, I didn't really receive the brunt of the A Horse and His Boy experience. The following week it's NXNE and I'm at the Gladstone Hotel to see Rock Plaza Central. My friends and I decide to stick around afterward ...Read More
When the guitars first appear at the beginning of Guided by Voices’ Bee Thousand, they sound like a collection of car engines struggling to get started. It’s an alarming sound, albeit a perversely inviting one. Bee Thousand was recorded almost entirely on four-track tape recorders in garages in suburban Ohio. The sound is warm yet harsh, and sloppy but endearing. Bee Thousand falls into the loosely defined sub-genre of lo-fi music in which typically unwelcome low fidelity recording techniques are embraced. There is an inherent degree of irony to lo-fi music as a result of attempting to generate appeal by ...Read More
The festival that can't seem to slow down has come and gone again. In a city that is already congested with great gigs, NXNE still stands out as an astonishing assemblage of talent from around the world. Big acts, small acts, locals and globetrotters, there are few experiences as exhilarating as it is exhausting like a massive music festival and just when you think the roster couldn't get tighter, organizers toss a few Mudhoneys at you. This year our writers and friends took to the city to make memories out of notes, harmony, beers and sweat. So much sweat. So ...Read More
A few months back I got together with the Wilderness of Manitoba to discuss life, the universe and everything surrounding the making of folk music relevant in the 21st century. Now, half a year later, they've made a killer record and are currently touring Canada with slated dates in both Europe and the United States. It's all a crazy business.
Their new album When You Left the Fire was released officially on the 22nd of June, though their party was on the 25th. The Friday marking the commencement of the G20 blunders holds a heavy spot in the minds and heart ...Read More
Songs of the insane. Suicide music. The sort of sounds that can only come from a person at their deepest darkest moments, where the mind becomes unhinged and the music speaks about more than they could ever intentionally write into it.
Many artists are famous because of these kinds of conditions. Nirvana, for one, had an entire legacy built for them based on this kind of aesthetic. There’s nothing new to say about Cobain, so I won’t, but it’s pretty obvious that his music is so popular because of him and not because of the music, despite the fact that it’s ...Read More
