Quoth Liz Lemon: "What the WHAT?"

Yeeeaaahhh .......... Click here for more images of a cultural trend I don't understand.

Johnny de Courcy - "Andrea's Song"

How great is Johnny de Courcy? "Andrea's Song" pops in predictable places, and the lyrics are pretty standard love when it comes to love, but I just love the way he sings here. So glad JDC lives in Vancouver.

Johnny de Courcy plays with hazy psych-rockers Tough Age and soul/R&B octet the Chantrelles this Friday at the Electric Owl for a measly $5. Early show: doors at 8, ends by 10:30 (so they say).

JDCxCCC

I saw Johnny de Courcy outside the Carnegie Community Centre a few days ago. He was leaning stock-still against a sign post and had the most spaced-out, far-away look in his eyes ever. I wonder where he was and how he got there. The lyrics to "Cherry Lane" never seemed so fitting:

Let me be in the clouds
I just wanna be okay
I know I won’t bother you
So just give me my drugs

The Courtneys Interview with the Grey Estates

The Courtneys give lyrical insight into some of their songs, an update on future plans and, of course, discuss Keanu Reeves. The Courtneys play the Chinatown Night Market on July 27 and this year's Victory Square Block Party (Labour Day Weekend, TBA). Both shows will be FREE! Click here to read the interview.

New White Poppy Track: "Wear Me Away"

White Poppy's new track "Wear Me Away" premiered on SPIN yesterday. The song comes from her self-titled debut album due in September. No word on when writers will stop feeling the need to emphasize that acts are "one-woman shows" and the like, however. 

Check out the song and her new album's track list below:



White Poppy:

1. "Darkness Turns to Light"
2. "Wear Me Away"
3. "Joyride"
4. "Today Tomorrow"
5. "Dead Night"
6. "Emotional Intelligence"
7. "Without Answers"
8. "Dizzy"
9. "Skygaze"
10. "Existential Angst"

"The Simpsons Graffiti in the Downtown Eastside"

Finally, some good graffiti in Vancouver. Vancity Buzz has the story plus a load more photos.

Vancouver Weekly's Best Albums of 2013: Mid-Year Round-up - Run-Offs

Since my pitches for Thee Oh Sees' Floating Coffin and Waxahatchee's Cerulean Salt didn't make Vancouver Weekly's mid-year round-up of the Best Albums of 2013, I'm posting my mini-reviews here. At least my vote for the Courtneys self-titled debut album passed. Click here for the full list, and read on for my blurbs:

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (Castle Face Records, April 16)

San Fran's hyper-prolific garage outfit Thee Oh Sees returned this year with Floating Coffin. It's meaty - a thick, bubbling stew of bloody psychedelia, cavernous claustrophobia and hypnotic, mangled riffs that burst like stressed sutures. Though it's one of the band's rare releases primarily written as a group, it still creeps and crawls the way only Thee Oh Sees can before tearing your flesh from bone.

Stand-out track: "Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster"

Waxahachee - Cerulean Salt (Don Giovanni Records, March 7)

Bedroom pop songs sung with enough obliqueness as to never quite feel confessional. A single guitar is mostly all Katie Crutchfield needs on her doleful second album Cerulean Salt, but bassist Kyle Gilbridge and drummer Keith Spencer make little rock gems like "Coast To Coast" possible, even lifting the album's spirits a bit, at least musically.

Stand-out track: "You're Damaged"