Aggregate! Aggregate! Aggregate!

I don't know how the whole writer-publisher-property relationship works yet, but I assume publications don't like their articles being posted in full elsewhere even if it's on one of their own writers' personal blogs. So every once in a while, I'm just going to post the links to my reviews for Vancouver Weekly. This batch includes my reviews of Martha Wainwright with AroarA at the Rio, Crystal Swells with Juvenile Hall, Hole in My Head and Ornament & Crime at LanaLou's, the Strokes' Comedown Machine and Kurt Vile's Wakin on a Pretty Daze.

Go with Guts! + Blog Status Update

A week-and-a-half ago, I started writing music reviews for the online magazine Vancouver Weekly. I'm writing as much as I can for them on top of working a full-time job, so the blogging has become less substantial. I've covered a couple of shows for them already, have an album review coming in a week and will have interview opportunities when I feel ready for the entirely new challenge of conjuring my inner-Nardwuar. My upcoming album review brings me to the other point of this post.

For my first Van Weekly album review, I narrowed down my choices from a provided list to the Strokes' new album Comedown Machine (RCA) and Wax Idols' Discipline and Desire (Slumberland Records), both due March 26. I really wanted to review DaD for a few reasons: Wax Idols' previous/debut album No Future was one of my favourite albums I heard last year (though it came out in 2011 on Hozac Records); they're from Oakland, CA and newer, so they're more relevant and present than the Strokes in both a regional and contemporary sense; and because Wax Idols are new and great, I want them to receive as much exposure as possible. Most enticingly of all, reviewing DaD would have required research, something I've never really done when it comes to music-writing because I usually write about topics/musicians/etc. I already know about. But DaD was largely inspired by lead Idol Heather Fortune's 24/7 lifestyle as a fetishist and dominatrix and thus, as she described to VICE, delves into "satirical social commentary ... a lot of references to fetish and sexuality and death—you know, the good stuff."

In the past few years, I've gotten pretty good at forcing myself out of my comfort zone - to take risks and to try new things, especially when it comes to things I'm passionate about, like music and writing. But I've also gotten pretty good at forcing myself to go with my gut. And though DaD's fetishist angle flashes glaringly like a big, red beacon, and I'd really like to tackle a subject so taboo and for the large part misunderstood, my gut feeling overrode my desire to seek a larger challenge. It told me to write my first published album review about one of the most important bands of one the most musically formative periods of my life. So for mainly sentimental reasons, I've chosen to review the Strokes' Comedown Machine over what I'm sure would have also been an exciting album to review, Wax Idols' Discipline and Desire. Plus, I'm sure as an obvious talking point, everyone who reviews DaD will be talking about BDSM. And it's not like Comedown Machine doesn't have its own daunting challenge, having been hyped to hell and back like all Strokes albums.

So to Wax Idols, I say maybe next time. And to the Strokes, I say just bring it.

Azealia Banks - "Barely Legal" (The Strokes Cover)

Brutal:

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:

The Strokes Announce New Album Comedown Machine

The Strokes have announced their new album due March 26, and it's called Comedown Machine. I dig the mechanical cover art - I haven't seen a label name displayed so prominently on the cover since New Order's similarly monochrome and industrially sparse Movement issued through the appropriately named Factory Records. I don't, however, dig the bubbly but sloppy "One Way Trigger," the second song from Comedown Machine. I can't imagine coming down to that. In fact, I'd probably be more desperate to get high in order to try to enjoy it. I still haven't heard "All the Time," the first official single from Comedown Machine which the Seattle radio station 107.7 The End debuted last week but I can't find on the Net. The song's been described as "packing a classic Strokes sound," but I'll have to hear for myself.

Listen to "One Way Trigger" below:



Random aside: While filling out the tags, I realized this is my first Strokes post. How is that possible? They've been one of my favourite bands since they came onto the scene.