Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Steve Aoki For Halloween

By default.


Monday, October 29, 2012

Martha Wainwright - "Proserpina"



Incredible. One of the greatest voices today. I would pay a fuckload of money to see Martha Wainwright. Hope she tours Vancouver in support of her new album Come Home To Mama.

Look Who's Coming Back To Town



On January 28, the Walkmen return to Vancouver, this time to a venue that befits them: the Commodore Ballroom. Not too small, like the Venue, and not too large/outdoors, like Deer Lake Park. And yes, they are headlining, with Father John Misty opening. I've had bad luck buying tickets MONTHS in advance lately, but I can't see myself passing up the Walkmen for much - not unless another Krautrock legend comes through town on the same night.

Monday, October 22, 2012

FULL STREAM: Swans - My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope To the Sky (Young God, 2010)

Because trying to pick only one Swans song for a Halloween playlist is absolutely impossible, here's their nightmarishly oppressive album My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope To the Sky in full:


Friday, October 19, 2012

Faust - "Krautrock" (Last.fm Presents)

Still reeling from Faust two nights ago. Full recap of the weirdest, wildest show I've ever seen to come:


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Radiohead - "Separator"

Relaxing on a low-lit rainy morning:

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Documentary Trailer: Tomorrow



Synopsis (via VIFF.org)

Before Pussy Riot, there was Voina (War), an anarchist avant-garde Russian art collective given to acts that frequently and flagrantly break the law. They've been a persistent thorn in Putin's side since the group's formation in 2007, and Andrey Gryazev's immersive documentary on these political provocateurs—as raw cinematically as the group it depicts is socially—more than shows why.

Gryazev (whose documentary Miner's Day was nominated for a Russian National Film Award in 2010) gained round-the-clock access to the leaders of the group, known as "Vor" (Thief), a bearded bear of a man, and "Koza" (Goat), his more delicate partner. They live underground, raise their incredibly game one-year old son Kasper (many might say, "on the edge of disaster") and carry out their "art actions"—which range from tipping over police cars to a final, rather monumental piece that is too funny to ruin by speaking about here—under cover of the night and with the help of their fellow agitators. Gryazev is there in the dilapidated apartment Vor and Koza share with other members, and he is there when Vor is caught and imprisoned. It is said, by the federal prosecutor’s office no less, that Voina has 3,000 followers throughout Russia, all of them harbouring the hope for a better tomorrow…

"An oddly stirring, gripping and thought-provoking piece of work about a group of artists… whose art-actions have exposed them to arrest and beatings, and attracted the support of fellow artists from Brian Eno to Banksy."—Screen


Tomorrow makes its North American premier tonight at Empire Granville at 9:15 P.M.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Another Day, Another New Order Song



Best hooks. Best bass.

Beasts Bellow Or Howling Hell Blues: Six Organs of Admittance with Low Hums and Mirror Lake at the Waldorf Hotel

October 2, 2012
The Waldorf Hotel
Vancouver, British Columbia


Six Organs of Admittance with Low Hums and Mirror Lake was exactly the show I needed to wash out the still-acrid taste of Mode Moderne, Terry Malts and the Fresh & Onlys at the Media Club a couple of weeks earlier. Best of all, Six Organs et al. were all surprisingly better than I had expected.

There are two ways to make interesting music: by having a completely original sound incomparable to anything that has previously existed or by blending pre-existing styles in ways never (or at least seldom) heard before. Though I failed to find a single piece of information on the Vancouver-based Mirror Lake prior to the show (although I had no trouble at all when I searched again afterwards), they immediately intrigued me as a case of the latter. Right away, they captivated me with their brooding Turn on the Bright Lights-era Interpol hooks and similar steady builds and tremolos. Mirror Lake's pounding bass, riddling the audience's ears like rounds from a Gatling gun in tandem with drum-work brimming with fills, could have emanated from Carlos D. and Sam Fogarino themselves, if the audience didn't know better. "All right, so Mirror Lake's a really tight post-punk group. Sweet," I thought. But then, lapping up like agitated waves from below the surface of post-punk rhythms and tempos, came lashes of psychedelic keys and dual guitars. Mirror Lake was the first band I ever heard to blend post-punk and psych or at least to have done so so skilfully that I liked it enough to have noticed.

As the next band, Seattle's Low Hums, indicated, the night was only about to become even more psychedelic. On record, Low Hums often hint at Swans-style post-rock; at times, Michael Gira himself even seems to possess lead-singer Jonas Haskins, albeit at Gira's tamest. But although the pastoral psych quartet did not take long to break into a bluegrass-jam with banjo, shaker and lap steel, Low Hums were able to just as quickly turn around and conjure a Judgment Day-ominous riff with as much menacing, slow-brew suspense as any doom-psych band. Their third-last song in particular, with several false disintegrations in the forms of droning Brian Jonestown Massacre-like interludes, could have been dubbed space-rock, as it rocketed me into a different galaxy. Following that cosmic experience was another song that could have fit seamlessly amongst the BJM's oeuvre, this one alongside their catchier, Matt Hollywood-penned hits.

The psychedelic attack peaked with San Francisco's Six Organs of Admittance, the solo project of Comets on Fire guitarist Ben Chasny. Backed by a three-piece band, anyone who had heard Six Organs' latest album Ascent probably knew why Chasny enlisted the extra muscle. I, however, was not one of those people. I had known Six Organs of Admittance for delicate, calculated, introverted neo-folk, so when the first sounds that erupted from the stage with a ferociousness that could have blown the (faux-?)bamboo finish off of the walls, I was more than taken aback. It was difficult to believe that the music with which I was familiar - which I had expected - was borne of the same creature that was attacking every part of his guitar with Palaeolithic savagery right before my eyes. But observe Chasny closely, and one would have seen that his furious attack was merely a veneer - that he was, in fact, dissecting his guitar as precisely as a surgeon manoeuvres its knife.

The only serene moment of Six Organs of Admittance came during their only encore, Chasny's sole unaccompanied performance of the night. I wish I knew the name of the song, because it was the most pleasant way to close the show - aside from my successful acquisition of their set list.

With a surprise as good as Six Organs of Admittance at the Waldorf, it was a good thing I did not remember until at least more than halfway through their set that my friend, with whom I had attended the show, described Ascent some weeks back as very much a hard rock record. She wasn't fucking kidding. The crispness of Chasny's playing was ultimately key in the indelible impression Six Organs left on me, his guitar-work sharp amongst the frenzy of every other instrument. If the Men can learn a lesson from Six Organs of Admittance in this respect, maybe the Brooklyn quartet's recent Waldorf show would have been memorable.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Cat Power - "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley Cover)

Man, I thought the Raconteurs did a great cover of "Crazy" ... Cat Power's version is ineffably good. So distinctly Cat Power, at many times unrecognizable. Amazing how much soul she infuses into the song.


Interpol - "Pioneer To the Falls (Orchestral Remix)"



"Pioneer To the Falls," one of the only songs I like from Interpol's third album Our Love To Admire (Capitol Records, 2007). Former Interpol bassist Carlos Dengler left the band to pursue a more low-key career in composing. If his orchestral remix of "Pioneer To the Falls," which appears on the U.K.-only Mammoth single, is any indication, Carlos' solo work is definitely worth checking out.

FREE STREAM: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (Constellation Records, 2012)

Stream Godspeed You! Black Emperor's new album 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, their first album in a decade, via the Guardian. How topical.

Yes! She's Coming Back!



La Sera returns to Vancouver on Nov. 6, this time at the Waldorf with hometown garage rockers the Courtneys. I missed La Sera when she played the Biltmore in July due to financial constraints, but so far, November looks like a pretty show-barren month. And the Courtneys are great. I may finally get a taste of them live if I decide to go to their show with NΓΌ Sensae at 360 Glen in a couple of weeks. You may recall that the Courtneys were one of the bands I missed at this year's Khatsahlano Music + Arts Festival. Weee, pop-rock!

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas Tickling Kittens

I'm not into the cat-craze, but this is just too good:

Friday, October 5, 2012

Feist - "Undiscovered First"

Undiscovered First by Feist on Grooveshark 

A year and a day already since Feist released Metals (in Canada). "Undiscovered First" is still one of the the most perfectly tempered build-ups to one of the stormiest, most seismic crescendos I've heard. I still get goosebumps every time I listen to it, imagining clouds forming over turbulent waters before howling winds rip trees out of the splitting, lava-spewing ground.

Tegan & Sara - "Closer"

It seems like this band is always doing something: