"... I Sort of Had a Nervous Breakdown When I Was 19."

"When I was a teenager I would recognise characteristics in people like ego and temper and say, I'm not going to do that. And it got to the point where I became so self-conscious that I sort of had a nervous breakdown when I was 19. I couldn't handle it: I was becoming very paranoid and extremely anti-myself. I wouldn't let myself enjoy anything. And remnants of that are still there. I don't do drugs, I don't get drunk, I don't vote. Girls I don't do. With this whole band [the White Stripes], it's obvious how much we're forcing ourselves and limiting ourselves all the time.”

 - Jack White

Disaffected? Disillusioned?

Excluded? Margin-walker? Here's a song for all you misfits out there: "Get In" by the Hive Dwellers, the latest brain-baby of Beat Happening and K Records founder Calvin Johnson.

Every once in a long while, I hear a song for the first time that is so good, I stop whatever I'm doing and just listen. "Get In" is the latest such track, halting my dishwashing when I noticed what Calvin was singing about and that the song's ramshackle groove, off-kilter cadences and his seemingly endless stream-of-consciousness just kept going on and on and on. I just stood at the sink noticing all of the little changes here and there: the typewriter ticking away and little spurts of guitar and bass noodling that come in like endless false finishes. With just enough variation, by the end of the song, I couldn't believe five-and-a-half minutes had passed.

What will you be stopping in the middle of?

"Rhinestone Cowboy" Super-Post

Since a co-worker mentioned "Rhinestone Cowboy" on Sunday or Monday, I've had Glen Campbell's 1975 mega-hit (penned by Larry Weiss) stuck in my head and constantly on repeat. I've also stayed up two nights in a row well past my bedtime looking up every version I could find. Here, along with the original, are the two best:

I've been walkin' these streets so long
Singin' the same old song
I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway

This would be my song if I ever got sick of Vancouver (I live on Broadway).

 

In a shocking twist, I DON'T prefer Loretta's version. O_O It's still great, of course:

 

 

Finally, I never knew the Hoff could sing, even though he's clearly lip-synching here. This performance makes me want to be a fucking megastar. And have you ever seen a backing band like this so into it? I mean, one of the violinists jumps at 2:42.

No Strokes Tour Plans

Last time the Strokes put out a new album, they skipped Vancouver. This time, they're not even planning a tour. I was really pinning my hopes on Comedown Machine for my chance to finally see them. Damn it. Listen to the "classic Strokes"-sounding but overall meh first single from their new album below:

Lisa Loeb - "Stay (I Miss You)" Live on Conan

Maybe it's Conan's make-up department, but Lisa Loeb still looks 23:

My Least Favourite Cover By the White Stripes

I've always thought Tegan and Sara's "Walking with a Ghost" is the White Stripes' worst cover. It's not bad per se, but everything sounds so flat and dull. The White Stripes' version also falls too close to the original which is disappointing because the White Stripes were so renowned for their ability to create such unique covers, and Tegan and Sara and the White Stripes was such an unexpected combo; I've still never heard the White Stripes mention Tegan and Sara.

The Name and the Meaning: Pregnancy Scares

"I came up with the name because I thought it fit the music well. We wanted to write loud, nasty music that makes you just wish it was over. It’s a name that immediately bums you out, but I see a glimmer of hope at the end. A pregnancy scare implies that it was just that. A scare. It was a momentary fear, a sense of panic, but in the end everything is fine."

 - Emmanuel Sayer, Pregnancy Scares bassist

I dig it. Read the full interview by White Lung singer Mish Way at Vice.com.

Martha Wainwright - "Bleeding All Over You" Plus Interview Live on QTV

I never knew Jian Ghomeshi had a hand in naming Martha Wainwright's second album:

 

Martha Wainwright - "Proserpina" Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (Dec. 2, 2012)

March 9. I'm ready:

TED Talk: Young-Ha Kim: "Be an Artist, Right Now!"

"The reason I make [my students] write like crazy is because when you write slowly and lots of thoughts cross your mind, the artistic devil creeps in. This devil will tell you hundreds of reasons why you can't write: 'People will laugh at you. This is not good writing! What kind of sentence is this? Look at your handwriting!' It will say a lot of things. You have to run fast so the devil can't catch up."

 

Six Barrel Romance

Death from Above 1979 should cover Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Six Barrel Shotgun." DFA could make it hella danceable. The tempo, the drumming style and the fact that I can hear Sebastien Grainger sing it - it's all basically "Romantic Rights" anyway:

Elizabeth Cotten - "Spanish Flang Dang" and "A Jig" Live on Guitar, Guitar (1969)

Sometimes, I just want to listen to roots blues for the rest of my life and get rid of the rest of my music:

Additional 2013 Grammys Thoughts

How cool were Frank Ocean's podium and backdrop?:



I don't know what Wiz Khalifa does or is supposed to be, but Miguel is great:



Finally, they had Jack White and the Black Keys under the same roof, and they didn't join each other onstage? #missedopportunity #duelingguitars

Favourite Releases of 2012: The Intelligence - Everybody’s Got It Easy But Me (In the Red)

Although a familiar t-t-tat-ty drum machine beat opens quirky San Fran punk rockers the Intelligence's eighth album Everybody's Got It Easy But Me, after a few minutes, the first track "I Like L.A." suddenly halts. Singer and guitarist Lars Finberg announces: "Ladies and gentlemen: the band," and, like flipping a switch, suddenly, "I Like L.A." changes gears into a more colourful hi-fi performance complete with live drumming.

From the moment Lars introduces the band, EGIEBM never looks back to its trinkety beginning. Nor does the album ever falter. Anxious, jittery, hip-shaker/breath-takers "Hippy Provider" and "Evil Is Easy" shoot forth like jolts of electricity from the ends of cut wire. Even when the Intelligence slow down on the lightly strummed "Techno Tuesday," one of their rare songs with acoustic guitar and their only song I can remember that features horns, their respite is short-lived as more clamorous songs come in such quick succession that it feels like the band never slows.

Sometimes, a band's switch to high-fidelity can detract from their music, polishing the band's snare unremarkably slick and the production itself becoming a point of attention. But the opposite can occur, too: the high-fidelity of EGIEBM does nothing but favours in letting the Intelligence's off-kilter riffs and sharp, note-picked guitars, amplified by forceful, though not exactly tight, drumming, punch and stab more tactually than ever. EGIEBM even manages to sound cleaner than their previous album, 2010's Males, perhaps because even though EGIE sounds equally clean, it literally has more details to hear: its instrumentation is more varied and includes many similar sound effects as their earlier, sometimes seemingly far-out-for-the-sake-of-being-far-out albums. Thus, I listen to EGIE more attentively and take greater notice of its production rather than let the songs bowl over me as I do when listening to the comparatively simple Males.

Although not as streamlined as Males or as eccentric as their early albums, instead falling refreshingly in the middle, Everybody's Got It Easy But Me still features some firsts for the Intelligence in addition to "Techno Tuesday"'s horns, however few. The surfy "Little Town Flirt" is pure acoustic pop, a complete anomaly for the band. "Little Town Flirt" is also their first female-led song, and Lars sings in a key high enough that at first, it's difficult to believe (or at least tell) it's him.

"Little Town Flirt" should be about the only truly unfamiliar moment on Everybody's Got It Easy But Me for Intelligence fans. That the album otherwise combines the best elements of one of my favourite bands and somehow makes forty-four minutes seem brisk, lending to its endless re-playability, makes Everybody's Got It Easy But Me not only one of my favourite albums by the Intelligence but one of my favourite albums of the year as well.

Jack White - "Love Interruption" and "Freedom at 21" Live at the 2013 Grammys

Jack White - Love Interruption & Freedom At 21... by IdolxMuzic

The three best things in this performance in order: 3) Jack's sparkly outfit. 2) Dominic Davis' stand-up bass. 1) The way Jack simultaneously plays his final chord and whips his guitar away without giving a fuck.

Favourite Releases of 2012: Group Rhoda - Out of Time, Out of Touch (Night School)

"Out of time, out of touch." That's exactly how I feel when I listen to the debut album of Group Rhoda, the solo project of San Francisco's Mara Barenbaum. Like fever dreaming, unsure if one is waking up back into reality or if the dream is just beginning, there's a disorienting sensation of having been dropped into the middle of an exotic, unplaceable, detached nowhere realm. Synthesizers hiss and rise like steam before tracelessly vapourizing into the night sky ("Virtual Dancer"). Jungly percussion melts and drips out of the humid atmosphere ("Hi Rise"). I can't help but envision sultry, Surrealist dreamscapes painted in glowing neons that fade to soft pastels, like Henri Rousseau's jungle scenes doused in Dali's runny aesthetic.

On first impression, Out of Time, Out of Touch may seem thinly layered with very little to conceal. But listen closer, and you'll discover a bounty of life: warm beats patter like paws on the leafy, overgrown forest floor. Electronics blink in and out of sight like fireflies. Shakers rattle like creatures rustling in the bushes. You may feel an out-of-body lightness in this mirage-like environment, but the tender crackles of branches and bug-eaten logs beneath you remind you in your delirium of your weight. It's curiosity and intrigue over this microcosmic world of mystery - at the time when all of the unseen creatures of the night come to life and thrive (and feast) - that pulls listeners into Group Rhoda's fantastic world.

Though Group Rhoda presents an inviting scene into her tropical world on her Magritte-like album cover (a more specific, difficult-to-find 1945 version of his painting The Human Condition also depicts a bedroom and an open door), Out of Time, Out of Touch is not as innocuous as she leads one to believe. The open door and added allure of a comfortable bed are like the vivid spots and stripes on a frog: one can't help but be cautious of the poisonous dangers that lay in wait in her brightly coloured world. "Can you hear me call?" she asks no one in particular on "At the Dark," seemingly reading your mind. "'I'm looking at you / But you're not looking back," comes her reply on "Silence."

Though you still can't see or hear what's lurking in the dark, invisible to the naked eye, "Nightlight" seems to depict the moment you realize without a doubt you're being stalked. By then, it's almost too late: your pulse rises. Panic intensifies. Desperation sets in. With no escape in sight, album closer "Fire" best illustrates the frantic last dash for a way out after shaking free from whatever mystical force has tried to wrap its seductive, predatory spell over you. You stumble and trip - become entangled in vines as the unseen prowls - and all you can hear is the siren's call ringing behind you: "There is a light / You can stay, if you want to / Stay if you want to / Stay if you want to." But if you've found yourself this deep in the bush, you don't have a choice; Group Rhoda already has you where she wants you.

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

There are two primary 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 had never heard of the Vancouver-based Mirror Lake prior to the show, they immediately impressed me as a case of the latter.

Right away, Mirror Lake 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 that blended post-punk and psych or at least the first to have done so with so much skill that I actually 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, 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 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 more performers can learn a lesson from Six Organs of Admittance in this respect, I would remember far more shows for the music itself rather than merely their volume and muddled sloppiness.

Nelly Furtado - "Parking Lot"

I hadn't liked a Nelly Furtado song since Whoa, Nelly!, until now:

"The Kids Are Alright?"

"What is the difference with someone going to The Vogue and pre-drinking. Or before their prom? Or drinking outside Rogers Arena before a hockey game… I've been to Canucks games and there are always abusive comments and I've seen scuffles, and so, do you just shut everything off? No alcohol sold at hockey games?" ...

If the city decided to make all hockey games 19+ or if they banned all alcohol from Rogers Arena the backlash from Vancouverites would be swift and intense. Why can a 16-year-old go to a hockey game where alcohol is served in public, but can't see a band at a venue where alcohol is in a sectioned off area, or not even in the venue at all?

...

"I've been involved with or been a patron of very unsafe, illegal venues, and it has made me realize that when that is the only option for underage kids to see live local music, its kind of setting them up for situations they might not be able to handle, such as drugs, drinking, and indoor smoking," says a concerned [Sarah] Cordingley. "Kids are going to find a way see bands, and if these illegal and unsafe venues are the only option, these shows will keep happening," she says.

Full article at BeatRoute.

Icona Pop Feat. Charli XCX - "I Love It"

I can't get enough!!! Yes, I heard it on Girls. The show's quality may bounce all over the place, but it's music choice is still pretty consistently good:

Three New Diane Birch Tracks

Diane Birch has released three new tracks from her upcoming reportedly eponymous second album. Two of the tracks even have videos. She's already played a couple of shows in New York City, as well as a living room performance streamed from her Williamsburg apartment. It's safe to say we're on the cusp of a new album. Check out the videos for "Unfucked" and "Superstar" as well as the track "Speak a Little Louder" on her media page.

With a new backing band in tow, "Unfucked," "Superstar" and "Speak a Little Louder" all find Diane Birch expanding her intimate Carol King piano pop into more sublime balladry, experimenting with grandiose harmonies, vocal reverb and minor delay and generally more complex arrangements. Birch channeled her classic influences almost without a filter on Bible Belt (her deeply personal lyrics aside), and The Velveteen Age EP consisted exclusively of her putting her own spin on her favourite Goth bands, covering songs by Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and Souxsie and the Banshees among others. Her new album is shaping up to sound like the logical next step: while some of her 80s power ballad influences still naturally trickle through, Birch is really beginning to find her own sound.

Successful second albums are tricky to pull off, especially when following up a debut as flawless and graceful as Bible Belt. But by the sound of Birch's new songs, she's smartly avoiding the mistake of trying to recreate her success, instead opting to make a record that will be equally strong but that will ultimately stand alone from the rest of her work.

Back To the Media Club

Angel Olsen's debut album Half Way Home was one of my favourites releases of 2012, and even though I'm 0-2 for good experiences at the Media Club, I'll be going back when she comes to Vancouver on April 21. Here's "The Waiting," the least doomy song on the album: