We might as well have the ’90s brought back to us right before the end of the decade, and who better than the ladies in Japan’s 28-year-old, yet newly reformed, Shonen Knife? They’ve got the formula down, from the individual instrumentation (great for Rock Band) to the lyrics, as in “Deer Biscuits,” where new vocalist Naoko sings that they smell like soy bean flour, or “BBQ Party,” which encourages a healthy dose of junk food. You can see the kids bopping around in their Hawaiian T-shirts and razor caps covering up iced tips. However, there’s an undertone of grunge, with Naoko grating her voice in “Pyramid Party,” and her electric guitar. But there’s also the friendly driving force of Ritsuko’s bass and Etsuko’s drumming right from the get-go in first song “Super Group.” Finally, it’s worth mentioning that they have a fun, beach-flavoured cover of a Paul McCartney and the Wings song, “Jet.” (Good Charamel)
All right, it has to be said: front-man Benjamin Grubin’s voice sounds as if Justin Timberlake was born some five years later, with one heck of a taste for indie pop. Is that a problem? No, but it makes for some interesting mental images while listening to this band. With that aside, Hockey’s debut album is extremely catchy, coordinated, dance-favoured rock, especially “Work, “Song Away” and “Preacher.” However, this album gives way to the feeling that it might take a bit longer to make a lasting impression, especially with random folk-themed song (where Grubin loses Timberlake and tries to nail down personal hero Bob Dylan) “Four Holy Photos” in the middle. (Capitol)
So Canadian uber-band Broken Social Scene has already announced that they will play a wedding band in the upcoming sob fest The Time Traveler’s Wife. Yesterday they let slide that they covered the always covered Joy Division track “Love Will Tear Us Apart” for the film’s soundtrack. Front man Kevin Drew sounds eerily too similar to Ian Curtis, and it’s unusual to hear a piano this prominent in a BSS song, but it’s well done.
In a soundtrack heavy of Mychael Danna, this track will find itself getting plenty of attention, I’m sure.
Ah, Zooey Deschanel. How we all love you. And how we will all continue to love you.
In a clever marketing move, Zooey and (500) Days of Summer co-star Joseph Gorden-Levitt perform a dance routine as robber & bank teller (with dance moves more like they belong in Grease) to “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” a track from her band with M. Ward, She & Him.
The video was directed by Marc Webb, who also made the film.
On USA Today, the two reveal a fun secret:
“Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt say they hope to team up repeatedly and have aspirations of being a regular screen couple, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
They’re not a real couple, but they’re good at faking it.”
An interesting piece was published on Slate recently, as pointed out by the Canadian Mags blog.
Slate music nerd Jonah Weiner had a few points to say about the music journalism biz (you know, the one that kind of sort of okay not really keeps me going money-wise, yet I still love it). Weiner brings up what he thinks are the top three points as to why the industry is sitting under Death’s ass.
1. There are fewer superstars, and the same musicians show up on every magazine cover. Not even musicians – does anyone remember last year when Obama was featured on Rolling Stone quite a few times? Yea, yea RS might have changed to be a pop culture magazine from its die-hard hard rock past, but still, if you’re not a tabloid, what’s the point? But I do completely agree with Weiner on this one about fewer superstars. Especially in the independent music scene, we all have a different favourite band every other minute – we don’t leave time for someone to get big enough if five others aren’t just as big. When we’re old and wrinkled and we give our album collections to our grandchildren, what are we going to say to them? “Back then ArcadeFire BrokenSocialScene TheShins Beck GirlTalk Japandroids LCDSoundsystem MotherMother were the best band EVER.”
(Sidenote: on the Slate piece, under this headline was an ad for aging with a picture of Madonna. I thought that was worth mentioning.)
2. Music mags have less to offer music lovers, and music lovers need them less than ever anyway. This is why magazines like Chart have unfortunately ceased their printed publication already in Canada. We only have so many sources. When I started my internship at Chart in the beginning of 08, I realized how much more dependant they were on the website, ChartAttack. Every day I produced tons of new news content with the editors, and I realized this is where they were gaining their readers. Their publication was geared more towards popular Canadian music, while the website has always remained a melting pot. And these days as I do my own thing here and write for Exclaim and some other sources including Chart, I always second guess myself. “Why would the obsessives of these artists read this? Don’t they already know more than me?” And this is what makes me better at my job – this is what pushes me. What can I offer to the music lovers?
But the thing is – we’re all music lovers. That’s why the ones remaining still somewhat stand. We do this because we love it, and we know we won’t get paid, but it doesn’t matter. We’re all in the same situation. Our writing really could just be conversation.
3. Music magazines were an early version of social networking. But now there’s this thing called “social networking” …. Too true. I didn’t fully decipher this term until a few weeks ago when I realized what I’m doing right now is exactly that. Twitter. Blogging. Linking to anything, really. I say I like a story like this, there you go. That’s all there is to it. Somebody else knows about it. Remember in Almost Famous when William met just about everyone because he was working on one story? That stuff still happens, but in much lesser doses. But Weiner mentions something I don’t approve of – how it’s been the tradition of music magazines to speak in a critic language that fans will sort of get but not really, so that we can seem like we are at the top. We used to be. Now we’re on par, or at least almost there. (It depends who you’re talking to, I guess.) Anyways, this is why I like writing my reviews in a way that everyone will understand. More of my friends don’t listen to the music I listen to, and that makes me want to write in a more general aspect, so that if maybe you don’t listen to this kind of music often – maybe I can help you find an artist to listen to this way. That little thing would make my day.
I will always love music magazines, and I hope they stay around for a while (not only because I still would like to have some sort of music writing job, but because I still love reading them.) You can read more on my music mag love on an older RoundLetters entry here.
So, what do you think? I’m tired of spending my days thinking of the gloom and doom of this business or just journalism as a whole. I want to hear what you think. Do you think I have a future? (I mean, the business….)
Recently, there has been news fluttering around two very hyped up soundtracks. There’s the quirky comic-turned-Michael Cera-comedy Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and then there’s the movie series I still refuse to have anything to do with (other than this blog post, pretty much), Twilight, with their upcoming installment New Moon.
But here’s my deal, and this has nothing to do with my prejudice against Twilight (okay, maybe just a little, but I’m here for the music): Scott Pilgrim is getting lucky and Twilight is causing a hail storm in the alternative music communities, but mainly only of confusion.
Photo by Edgar Wright
Scott Pilgrim’s team has announced recently (funnily enough by a later-mentioned band’s producer) the inclusion of Broken Social Scene, Metric and even Beck to their soundtrack and possibly even the movie. The comic featured other noteworthy bands such as Sloan, Joel Plaskett and Neko Case, all bands which any fan would hope to see in the movie as well (although filming wraps sometime next week, so – I call for edits!). Pretty good roster for something that started out small and Canadian, right? Although, with actors like Cera, Jason Schwartzman and Kieran Culkin on the roster, American main stream will slowly pour in soon.
And then we have the reverse affect, something so warped these days that only dogs can hear the teenaged high screams: Twilight. Last week, news stories of rumors about the New Moon soundtrack started to pop up, and this week there was one important one confirmed: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has crossed over to what many would call the dark side to create just one measely song for the new film (rather than oddly lending “15 Step” to the credits. Also confirmed for an original song was Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who in other news will also be performing a Charlie Chaplin film score with collaborator Chris Rosenau. They certainly strayed away from the idea that I had developed of such a movie using bands like the Jonas Brothers.
We aren’t in the days of Garden State or High Fidelity anymore. Movies need to be on top of what is “underground” in order to get the hottest playlist. Where Scott Pilgrim works mainly from its text and Canadian bands totally willing to help out, Twilight obviously can’t do that as there, I assume, aren’t any musical nods in the books. They want to get the big names, and the big names want a paycheck. Or do you think Yorke really does love the story of a young confused girl and her vampire? He must think it’s sweet.
So, what do you support? The Toronto-made Scott Pilgrim or the popular Twilight series? Why? What are some of your favourite soundtracks?
Vancouver band Said the Whale have just announced that they are teaming up with iTricks.com to make a sparkling montage of unknown secrets for their single “Camilo (The Magician)” by asking all aspiring magicians to send in videos of their work.
“Camilo” is a wonderful pat-on-your-back kind of catchy song sure to be paired with an interesting and entertaining video. You can hear the song on their MySpace or buy it on iTunes.
Watch this ridiculous video made by Justin of iTricks all about the project:
MAKE SURE they are short and contain your best VISUAL moments. Amateur or professional, stage, stand-up, street or close-up. If it’s visual it’s got a chance.
SEND the link to Justin@iTricks.com with the subject line “Said The Whale”
DANCE a jig, when we reveal all the videos that made the cut next week. The deadline for final entries is Tuesday!
WIN a free Said The Whale discography and t-shirts if you’re selected!”
Remember when Torremixed and mashed upAesop Rock to Sufjan Stevens? This is sort of similar. But just a pinch more hilarious.
Now, I love me some Grizzly Bear. Especially Veckatimest. And I know a few people that looove them some Lil Wayne. So I guess we’ll have something good to talk about. It only took a matter of time for two of the biggest artists in different categories right now to somehow found their way closer together (even though front man Edward Droste usually is partial to Snoop Dogg).
A group from NYC called The Soundmen have made a 3-song EP, Veckaflyest (okay, I’ll be starting to admit this is awesome soon): “Fine For Pop,” “Hate the Cheerleader,” and “2 Weeks ’til Prom.”
In liu of a new series of Polaris blog entries I’ll be doing (slightly in order to avoid discussing my opinion until I’m good and ready), here’s today’s entry, all about Metric, one of the most talked-about nominees so far.
CBC Radio 3reported yesterday that the Metric gang was on their way back from the Glastonbury Festival when they stopped at Stonehenge. They realized it was closed and forlornly looked through the fence until they recognized ‘rock icons’ Spinal Tap.
“We were all settling in for an uneventful ride when our driver suddenly exploded with excitement. Gesturing madly to the left of the highway and veering dangerously off the main road he shouted “STOOOOONEHEEEEEEENGE”, swerved and made a sharp turn onto a bumpy dirt road full of craters. Showering the camped out hippies in dust, he tore down the road toward that famously perplexing collection of rocks. We screeched to a halt at the entrance and piled out like a bunch of fucked up clowns only to discover that Stonehenge was….CLOSED! We were staring at the stones through the fence and halfheartedly watching various generic families wander toward their cars when Joules said the words we will remember forever: ”Um, guys, that’s…Spinal Tap!”"
And there you have it. Metric has made it clear they all have way more fun than the rest of us do.
BUT I did get to see Stonehenge in January after I moved to London for a few months. So… ha!
Now, I didn’t see any rock stars that I know of, but I did see this guy! He obviously didn’t think I was a rock star either…
Apparently the bigwigs over at NBC are catching on to something, right behind ABC (a la their Pitchfork sessions). Or at least Brian Williams, anchor and resident indie-lover (really?) is. With BriTunes (he says he didn’t make the name) beginning, one of his first stops is newly minted Polaris short listers Great Lake Swimmers, currently Toronto-based.
Watch Wilson’s interview with GLS’s main-man, Tony Dekkerhere.
For any RoundLetters updates that came before May 09, go here.
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