Pirates of the Weird and Wonderful

The excitement of 9 new Chad VanGaalen tracks landing in my inbox is a little bit overwhelming, especially when it’s delivered with news of a split 12″ with the ever evolving and extremely weird Xiu Xiu. The 12″ is the second release in a series of amazing collaborations being pedalled by German label The Altin Village & Mine Records. The first release came in March 2010, featuring the primal drone of Oneida and the swooping vocal melodies of Pterodactyl. Chad VanGaalen’s contribution displays the eerie brilliance of a modern musical chameleon, whose work continues to evolve and mature. His songs have a confidence that’s been missing from his past two records, sounding less fragile and more astutely balanced. There’s moments of self-indulgence and reflection, but his storytelling is more defined, revealing and romantic. Opener ‘Your Own Mind Ends’ tells off a bitter dispute between loved ones, before jumping into the Simon & Garfunkel-esque ‘Evening Sun’, full of paisley strings and wooing vocal melodies. ‘I Want You Back’ tries hard to be the record’s highlight; a brash reminder that he is not just a folk musician, thrashing out a lively grunge inspired number similar to ‘Freedom For A Policeman’, off his mesmerising second album Diaper Island. ‘Nothing Is Impossible’ continues the assault in classic Jay Reatard style – a speedy guitar-driven punk song repeating the title lyrics. And then proving nothing is off limits, he gently slides into a beautiful folk ballad titled ‘Weighed Sin’, with harmonica and acoustic guitar folding into one another.

Xiu Xiu, or more specifically Jamie Stewart’s contribution requires it’s own lengthy explanation. His side of the 12″ is a spoken word piece that requires the physical record to properly engage with it’s complex (or simplistic, depending on how you view it) lack of musical formality. The record will come with lift out liner notes containing a set of questions. The listener is required to read a question aloud and then to drop the needle anywhere on the record to hear the answer. Stewart has aptly titled his side of the 12″, ‘Fortune Teller’.

The record label currently has no distributor in New Zealand but with any luck you should be able to pick up a copy via the many world-wide distributors listed on the Soundcloud link. The 12″ is officially on sale from March 17.

Posted by Nick Fulton under Calgary, California, Canada, San Jose, U.S.A
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Vintage Playland

This one has a stinky Neon Indian vibe, thanks to some pulsing vintage synths and snappy electronic beats. Paula is the work of former Silly Kisses member David Carriere, whose solo material is similar in sound but is less polished/more punk. It’s also loaded with pop hooks, again reminding us of the influence Prince is currently having on the current alternative pop market. But the best thing about it is that every song grabs you in the first few seconds – I’ve been searching for this all day. With twists of Roxy Music, T-Rex and Ariel Pink all bundled together, it’s hard to fault Carriere’s avant-garde pop – he even throws in some hip-hop courtesy of Cadence Weapon on ‘Change the Subject’. Arbutus Records just released his debut album Relaxed Fit, and it’s entirely up to you what you want to you pay for it. Click the donate button on their website to download the album.

Paula- Even If It’s True: MP3

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Montreal
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Molten Bicycles

I normally try not to let name-dropping sway me, but when a certain Fab Moretti from The Strokes comes into play, my interest can’t help but be piqued. With high hopes I clicked into Chocolate Robots’ bandcamp, and fortunately they delivered. Sounding somewhere between The Unicorns, The Zookeepers and maybe The Strokes or Fab’s other breezier, beachier project, Little Joy, Chocolate Robots capture that youthful rapture that stole my heart with the former morbid, mythical creature-obsessed Canadians. The Unicorns’ producer Mark Lawson (who also worked with Arcade Fire) lent his deft touches to the album, along with Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver), who worked on three tracks. The pro engineers’ influences are noticeable, from the atmospheric drum sound to the wayward melodies given free reign to wander to the warm near-tape-fuzz vibe.

The guys behind the beautiful pop mess are, charmingly, brothers Mike, Mutt and Marco Giresi, who all work in their parents’ pizza shop. Naturally they decided to call their debut album Pizza Face, though I love the slapstick image-conjuring name so much I think they should switch it to their band name.

So the delightful story goes, they recorded their album, they say, “on a bunch of old tube and tape equipment our dad had left over from being an Italian singer songwriter in the ’70s”. Unfortunately the initial mixes “sounded like Michael Bolton”, but then they fatefully “ran into the Fab Moretti from the Strokes”! They continue – “We went bowling and after the game he kindly passed our music on to Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver). Thom started working on the record and the music came together. It sounds better than we ever thought it would! Drunk on confidence, we got Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Unicorns) to mix three songs on the record as well.” So all worked out well in the end. You can download three free tracks from Pizza Face here, or buy the whole album for $10US. The songs are so good, why wouldn’t you? And if the band ever has any doubts about the Chocolate Robots moniker, perhaps they could call themselves Pizza Shop Boys?

Listen to and download Pizza Face

Go to their amazing website (ft. a pizza-faced bikini babe)!

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Canada, Ontario
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I Love The Way You Howl

King Khan recently retired The Shrines and The BBQ Show and started a new project – The King Khan Experience. He’s been getting compared to Jimi Hendrix his whole musical career and this new project finally takes up the challenge. In 9 new tracks released free by Scion Audio Visual Khan aggressively rips through a set of psychedelic garage-rock, forcing all sorts of weird sounds out of his electric guitar. Somewhere between Hendrix and Santana, The Datsuns and The Hives – The King Khan Experience is a fusion of all the best elements of past and present rock ‘n’ roll, but is perhaps not the most experimental work he’s ever done. It’s a little derivative and sloppy but that’s what differentiates this project from his previous ones, which were very unrestrained and wild. ‘Come Levitate With Me’ is the most psychedelic of the new tracks, dominated by a swirling ’70s sounding organ, a jangly guitar riff and a whispering flute. The song sounds like a cross between Santana and The Stooges – a kind-of improvisational punk number. ‘Dr Ruin-Yer-Life’ is more progressive, with a fuzzy-bass and classic rock guitar riff reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Perhaps the weirdest and most eclectic song is a tribute to Jay Reatard; a cover of Reatard’s ‘Hammer I Miss You’ sung in German and featuring a child choir. ‘Keep it Simple Stupid’ is a throwback to Sgt. Peppers-era Beatles, and would perhaps be what The Beatles could have sounded like if the band stayed together long enough for George Harrison to compose ‘All Things Must Pass’. But if there’s one song that gets stuck in your head it’s  ‘I Got Love’, Khan’s finest garage-rock number that’s quite possibly the best garage party anthem since The Hives released ‘Hate To Say To Told You So’ over a decade ago.

 Download The King Khan Experience’s debut EP

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Montreal
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Sugar Me Sweet

Psych-soaked surf-gaze from Toronto, Canada doesn’t come much better than Odonis Odonis. Multi-instrumentalist Dean Tzenos is behind the project – a revolutionary of sorts, who locked himself away for 60 days to record his debut album Hollandaze. His work is a sought-after commodity; with three labels teaming up to release Hollandaze, all in different formats. Buzz Records has the tapes, Daps Records has the CDs and Pleasence Records has the vinyl. 60 songs were recorded during the Hollandaze sessions, all busted out in Tzenos’ own self-built recording space, but only 11 have made the cut. 49 remain locked away, hopefully for a mad boxed-up collection sometime in the future. Inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Thee Oh Sees and A Place To Bury Strangers, Odonis Odonis’ sound is a fusion of not only his influences but also his instrumental capabilities. Tzenos plays surf-guitar like Link Wray but knows exactly when to hit the distortion pedal, and the addition of industrial sounding percussion gives his music a grimy appearance akin to Throbbing Gristle. Similarities can also be drawn to psych rockers Wooden Shjips and New York garage-punk soloist Nice Face.

Hollandaze is set for release on November 7 and pre-orders are being taken over on Odonis Odonis’ bandcamp page. Pre-ordering the album will get you an immediate download of the album so you won’t have to wait for the physical product to arrive in the post. Also set for release, this time via FatCat Records, is Odonis Odinis’ second album Soft Boiled Hard Boiled, recorded with the help of Black Mountain’s Colin Stewart and Kathryn Calder of The New Pornographers.

Odonis Odonis on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Toronto
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Beeeeeeeeee-lieve in Noise

Over the past few months AIDS Wolf’s wonderful publicist (Foot Village and Deathbombarc‘s Brian Miller) has been drip feeding me information, videos and MP3s regarding the band’s forthcoming release Ma vie banale avant-garde. The album will be the band’s fourth full-length and their first double album, out October 4 via Lovepump United. So far all indications suggest that Ma vie banale avant-garde is a leap back to the more brutal days of Cities of Glass (2008) and Pas Rapport (2009), before the band adopted a more melodic sound on March to the Sea (2010). First single ‘Please Hold The Line’ is a noisy, distorted catastrophe, creating a relentless wall of high pitched squawks, smashing drum rolls and shattering guitars. And as well a move back to a more lo-fi sound, their influences have apparently become more psychedelic, which is more evident during new song ‘Like PHSTS of Aerosol’ and it’s accompanying video. Here the band’s chaotic energy swirls like a diseased whirlwind, aggressively circling like a swarm of bees. Front-women Chloe Lum shouts like a snotty hysterical teenager, looking a lot like Katy Perry’s devilish twin from the ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) video. The video is awash with bright, flickering colours, juxtaposed with images of the band thrashing their instruments.

Like a lot of indie labels nowadays, Lovepump United is trying something different with the release of Ma vie banale avant-garde. The label is offering a free poster and a digital download of the album to anyone who sends a stamp and self-addressed envelop to the label’s headquarters. You can find more information about this offer over on the label’s website.

AIDS Wolf on Facebook

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Montreal
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Joe DiMaggio Shopping For 7 Up

From the echoing wolf howls of a struggling guitar on the opening track off Siskiyou’s self-titled debut album, it’s apparent that this is a much stronger project than Colin Huebert and Erik Arnesen’s previous effort with Great Lake Swimmers. The Canadian duo released their debut album in September last year and it’s a striking reminder of the country’s folk legacy. Huebert’s voice is fragile and oddly pitched much like Neil Young or Chad VanGaalen and his ability to mix classic lyricism with garbage can instrumentation gives the music a timeless rustic sound. A range of instruments support and drive the album, from a starry banjo on ‘Hold It In’ to a rusty saw on ‘Never Ever Ever Ever Again’ – each song has it’s own fragility and depth of yearning. There’s even a grunginess to the guitars on ‘Useless Anymore’ and their cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘El Condor Pasa’ (released as a single in April 2010) is a morbid take on a piece classic song writing.  If I’d heard this album in time it would have been among my personal favourites of 2010.

You can download and/or stream Siskiyou’s debut album on their website.

Siskiyou- Never Ever Ever Ever Again: MP3

Siskiyou- El Condor Pasa: MP3

Siskiyou- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Vancouver
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Sea Salt Stampede

Like drifting along a winding coastline as sand blows in your face and sea salt sticks in your hair, Dirty Beaches’ songs are unforgiving in their sparse and quiet crisp guitar melodies that sound like they’re plucked from an ancient tomb. The dry production on songs like ‘Window Rail Seats’ have another-time feel to them, they sound distant and excavated. While only holding onto the bare bones of sound and relying on the simplest of structure, the songs form a hypnotic thread that carries you along the mind strands of creator Alex Zhang Hungtai. Originally from Taiwan, Alex now bases himself in Vancouver, having previously spent time in Montreal. At times rollicking rockabilly style guitar and swift percussion forms the basis of songs like ‘Black Horses Take 1′ (released this year on a split with Omon Ra II) and ‘Like Dreamers Do’, while other songs sound more skeletal and shrouded in dark cobwebs of distant echo. Alex’s songs have a really moving, coastal feel and with titles like ‘White Sand’, ‘Sea Drift’ and ‘Coast To Coast’ (a particularly persistent and captivating track) it’s easy to see why. ‘West Coast Bird’ (from Bird EP) incorporates a brilliant, shuffling jazz style to the mix, appearing as if out of a languid black and white film. It may sound strange at first, but with its weird otherworldly presence, Dirty Beaches really lured me into its contemplative and hypnotic music. There are a bunch of releases out via Fixture Records and Night People, and Alex plans to release the ghost-themed album Badlands on Zoo Music in March.

Dirty Beaches- Black Horses Take 1: MP3

Dirty Beaches- Coast To Coast: MP3

Dirty Beaches- West Coast Bird: MP3

Dirty Beaches- Myspace

Photo by Caley Jones

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Canada, Vancouver
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Shine A Light In A New Direction

Toronto band The Guest Bedroom first came to my attention in 2007 when they released their excellent sophomore EP Movement. Back then they described themselves as “anti-chorus and pro triumph”, making a raucous dance-punk racket with shouty vocals and an inbred Canadian punk philosophy. At the time bands like You Say Party! We Say Die!, Adjective and The Creeping Nobodies were all riding a similar buzz. In 2008 they released Treading Water/Blowing Smoke, their third EP, moving in a punk cabaret direction, while distancing themselves from their dance roots that drove comparisons to YSP!WSD!. Now, with their debut album A Year’s Supply Of Rabbit’s Feet due out on November 19, they’ve shifted things again, losing the “anti-chorus” attitude in favour of a more disciplined sound, ricocheting between jagged guitar riffs, new-wave organ slides and informed lyrical choruses. There’s hints of Deerhoof in the flip-floppy nature of the guitar riffs, which on previous Guest Bedroom EPs have been overshadowed by loud driving organ dubs, and there’s more nous to Sandi Falconer’s vocals, which sound less pronounced among the band’s noisier instrumental crusade. It’s a more mature, grown-up record from The Guest Bedroom, looking forward into the future rather than back into the past. A Year’s Supply Of Rabbit’s Feet is an alternative punk record, without question the dance-punk label has been firmly left behind; proof’s in ‘Tough Luck’, ‘Ugly Thoughts’ and ‘Wanderlust’.

A Year’s Supply Of Rabbit’s Feet will be released on November 19 via Popstick Records. The Guest Bedroom has kindly allowed us to share a track from the new album, listen to ‘Kingdom’ below.

The Guest Bedroom- Kingdom: MP3

The Guest Bedroom- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Canada, Toronto
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Making phantom creeps sigh

The Pink Noise’s sound is inhabited by a swarm of ill-feeling mega drone guitar and shitty drum machine, topped with warped vocals. Distortion reigns king, and Mark (guitar, electronics and vocals), Shub (bass and synth) and Brett (drums)’s sound is definitely one of the scuzziest around. But the friends of fellow Canadians Aids Wolf have an inherent pop sensibility buried beneath all the fuzz, and sometimes even an ’80s naiveté splattered across their psychedelic punk.

‘Pure Candy’ has a weird juxtaposition of quasi-industrial guitars and sludgy drums with triumphant synth lines plodding upwards. Everything’s seething with hot filth, a junkyard of assorted sounds dragged through a sewer. Single ‘Oh Caroline’ has long been a favourite of mine, and was a staple song in the old EMJ radio show. It’s the kind of slacker pop anthem for these times, where you can revel in the pure shitty joy of anti-production. Now Sacred Bones have released it (and ‘Pure Candy’) on the album Birdland (originally available on cassette through Bennifer Editions) on deluxe remastered vinyl.

The Pink Noise is prolific, and has released a bunch of stuff on Kill Shaman, Almost Ready Records and more, including Alpha and Graffiti Youth. Last year’s Gilded Flowers cassette album is available for free mp3 download from the Free Music Archive. It’s somewhat lighter than Birdland; disjointed, fractured jams ‘Gross Gun Bullets’ and ‘Toad’ writhe with more poppy odes like ‘Shy Guy Beach’ and ‘Anna Baby’.

The Pink Noise- Oh Caroline: MP3

The Pink Noise- Pure Candy: MP3

The Pink Noise- Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Canada, Montreal
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