There comes a time in any rock critic’s life when a band that they used to look upon fondly, who had since broken up, moved around but brought two of the members back in a new light. In my case, this comes to The First Joke. (Ironic, no?)
I grew up in Buffalo, New York. Halfway through my high school years I found my place in the local music scene as a reporter for NeXt inthe Buffalo News. I interviewed a ton of bands (and pretty much all of them have since broken up as well, but I’ll occasionally see people when I go back home, everyone’s doing well) but every single band looked up to the slightly older band, This Day & Age. Everyone was so charmed in their presence. I knew a girl that listened to their album every night before falling asleep. I found myself at many of their shows singing along with more oomph than I usually do at live shows. (Once, they played at Media Play-ha!- and they stopped short. I was still singing. Embarrassing.)
This Day & Age broke up a year into my university life, at the cusp of becoming something really big right after the release of their second album, The Bell and the Hammer. I don’t think I saw their last show (although memory is failing me right now, anyone care to fix this?) but I did make it to a show of theirs at Club Infinity in October 2006. It was bittersweet.
In the past few years, three of the members ended up in a band called the Reign of Kindo. I never really followed them. I was so busy learning new Canadian music. I regret such, but I am redeemed in the formation of The First Joke & Other Matters. Made up of the singer and drummer of TDAA, Jeff Martin and Steven Padin, they bring back what we all loved: the low-key late-night coos. What they didn’t bring from TDAA was the gut-wrenching yet still subtle wails, but you know what? That’s perfect. The First Joke shows how they’ve grown in music and their life paths, and those of us who knew TDAA still have those great memories.
The First Joke will be releasing their first album independently on January 19th. All of me wishes that it was just a few weeks earlier, when I’ll be home for the holidays. To have that kind of reunion would be great, and I’m sad I’ll miss out when it finally does happen in Buffalo. Hopefully Jeff and Steve will take this far or at least really put their love into it. These new songs show a lot of promise, like “Runway,” which will encourage your humming reflex to pick it up immediately and “Page in Book” is an example of the sweet harmonies Jeff & Steven have created for years now. It’s good to hear Steven taking more singing leads, such as in “Winston Was Here.”And in “Perelanra,” they’ve got a lil Latin flair.
Jeff revealed this information about the few of the songs on their blog: “a fun little fact about a couple of the songs.. i wrote the song “page in book” about this guy who realizes a bit too late of the damage he has done to his relationship. steve then showed me the music to what is now called “winston was here” and asked me to write lyrics for it.. (i did).. it then became the hopeful outlook of winston (the character from “page in book”) on the day after his wife leaves him, as he begins his new life.”
But hey, I’ll like just about anything these guys do if you couldn’t tell already. Definitely check The First Joke out, and pray they’ll get bigger and come to Canada one day.
The Reign of Kindo are still in formation, even making a new album, and you and I will do well to check them out too.
This review was originally written for Exclaim.ca, but unfortunately was not able to be published. But please do check this Toronto band out! They’ve recently went on a very short hiatus, but hopefully they’ll have new shows lined up soon around the area and an actual EP eventually released.
The Runaway Catholics introduce themselves with sunny soft folk-rock. As they delightfully combine slower and faster tracks between five songs, it’s easy to see that each stands out for their own merits. “Ghosts in Memories” illuminates the sweet melodic vocal partnership of Shawna Sormin and Brodie Dakin to a pop-based tune that would definitely wake you up in the morning. “Melody of June” and “France” flow beautifully into one another with simple, nostalgic beats and chord progressions, quietly highlighted by the piano or xylophone, respectively. “Crazy Sorrows” has the collective at its strongest, while both impressive electric and acoustic guitars work together in a way that should take them back to Woodstock or at least blasting the speakers out at a backyard party. The live recording of “Charmed Life” has them in a dream-like jam session state, with just enough to leave the listener hanging, wishing there was more, or at least that they were at the show clapping along.
Interestingly enough, Lars is in town and will be playing a show with Ghost Trees in my backyard this Saturday!! Our backyard is tiny and intimate and the combination of these two talents will make this amazing. I’ll be bringing you exclusive content after, but why not come? Let me know if you would like to see the show – email me!
Anywas, back to Ghost Trees. She makes incredibly psychedelic yet soothing tunes and tones to fill up jars upon jars of colourful spirits. Her voice is calm and beautiful in a way of a female voice you don’t often hear in 10 other singers. Her songs are slow but upbeat; they are like light clouds rolling in, just when the sun is setting and you see all of the rays from the sun peaking through in every direction. “Books in Your Hands” is a perfect example of this.
The electric guitar sounds like she’s just playing around sitting on her bed, tapping her feet and shaking her hair. No hairbrushes or any type of fake microphones in sight, because this girl is serious business. Her music isn’t just the regular bedroom work some might stumble upon.
“Sound of the Old City” is a tale of the uniqueness of Karlstad, Sweden, and I think she captured the town quite nicely. The people always seem to be reflecting or just moving, moving, moving.
The two previous songs mentioned are on her MySpace for listen as well as two more – please check it out! Jamie’s got an EP called Feathers coming out soon – I don’t know the details yet but if you’d like a copy, leave a comment!
And again, let me know if you want to come to the show! But if you miss it, you will have another chance to catch them at The Only Cafe sometime next weekend, details to come.
There is a new side project super group in the midst, coming from the ever-evolving Montreal music scene.
Out of Arcade Fire, Young Galaxy, Stars, Zeroes, Parkside Jones, Marathon and more comes this pop rock band called Silver Starling.
Their self-titled debut, which was mixed by Peter Katis (who has worked with The National and Interpol) and Marcus Paquin will be released in the fall by Last Gang Records.
Four tracks are available on their MySpace. “Something Over Nothing” is a slow, dreamy sad ballad. “Caught in Your Glow” is another ballad, but much more upbeat, with a great string arrangement, building the song up in tempo. “Ghosts” is clearly the stand out track in terms of catchy, with cute banjo plucking and xylophones with frontman Pacquin’s whisper. “Closer” is also quite catchy and has a great bass line.
I don’t want to spend much time comparing them to Arcade Fire, but it’s undeniable Pacquin has a tiny bit of Butler’s vocals in him. However, he takes it in a more casual and fun direction. Other than that, Silver Starling are progressive and charming, and I’m excited to hear more from them in the future.
If you go to their MySpace, you can catch an acoustic video performance of “Ghosts” which really showcases their harmonies, coordination and ability to sing in the wind.
The band has tour dates lined up in Oro-Medonte, Montreal and Ottawa at the moment for Aug 30 – Sept 24.
Fueling my latest obsession with all bands East Coast, here comes another one out into the light that’s in Canadian eyes (as well as rolling off the their tongues as a great band name) — Milks and Rectangles.
A four-piece from Charlottetown, PEI (the humble home of Two Hours Traffic and tour partners The Danks), these guys are about to release their first EP on August 11, called Civic Virtues.
Milks and Rectangles (Justin Uyterlinde, Mike Carver, Christian Ledwell and Brandon Williams) are built up from passions for history, jokes, landscape and indie rock. They’re poetic and wistful, calm and organized. They’re catchy and relaxing at the same time. Comparisons off the top of my head include Beck’s guitar work on a track or two, Franz Ferdinand’s back and forth tempo (especially in “Heart’s the Target”) and a little of the soft charm similar to that of Malajube.
You can read a great interview with the band over on NxEW.
Suggested tracks: “Motel Fire Drill” and “Tilting at Windmills.” They can be found, along with a few other songs, on the band’s MySpace.
Are you a big fan of the emerging Edinburgh or Glasgow scene that follows in the footsteps of Franz Ferdinand? We’re talking Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad and now We Were Promised Jetpacks.
Photo by Neil Thomas Douglas
A lot seems to be riding on this young four-piece who formed in Edinburgh but now reside in Glasgow, Scotland. They’ve been together and performing around the UK since they won a high school Battle of the Bands contest in 2003, but it isn’t until now that they’re releasing the heavily-anticipated full-length debut. Since their inception, they’ve been riding under the wing of another recently popular Frightened Rabbit, as well as gaining radio play.
In this album, WWPJ create an emotional, bass-laden atmosphere that’s like a night’s swirling soul-search to life. It’s catchy, exciting and lonely at the same time, but they stop short of emo. “Roll Up Your Sleeves” is an endearing and modest tune during which vocalist Adam Thompson sings in a back-and-forth of calm and eagerly driven. “Quiet Little Voices” will wake you up from your longing day dream and coax you to live it out. This album is strong for its down-to-earth ‘we know how you feel’ mentality, anxious riffs and suspicious plots. WWPJ’s jumpy rhythms call to mind other UK hotshots Arctic Monkeys and the Wombats such as in “Moving Clocks Run Slow.”
No wonder they make beautiful music, they come from such a beautiful place. I had the chance to visit Edinburgh in March, and it was a fantastic trip.
I’ve got more Scotland (and other European) pictures from my trip updated on my Flickr!
I saw My Sad Captains a few months ago when I covered the show for SPINEarth. They opened for Hefner ex-front man Darren Hayman, but in my opinion these guys totally stole the show out from Hayman’s snooty feet.
Things have progressed since I saw them at the Lexington in London in January. Their album Here and Elsewhere is out, they have more tour dates around England and they’re getting play on the BBC. Great news for a little British band that sound a lot like a band that belongs in Canada.
They’ve played with Frightened Rabbit, Michachu, Loney Dear, Broken Family Band and more.
They seem to like playing at the Lexington. It’s a whiskey bar in Islington with the bar on the bottom half and the concert hall on top with a very narrow staircase leading to it. It usually turns into a club after the show is over. I remember when I saw them there I had a very teengirl moment when I noticed Lily Loveless in the crowd looking somber. She’s from the new series of Skins. It was like when I see Degrassi characters around Toronto. Hilarity.
Anyways, My Sad Captains has a song called “Great Expectations” which sounds sooo smack on to Dog Day. No wonder why I like them. Go listen on their MySpace. It’s still strange – there’s something in the recipe of their music that makes them sound so Canadian. I can’t figure it out yet but I love it. I hope they come over soon, as this country needs to witness them!
Watch “All Hat and No Plans” from the Lexington in London.
There’s a little back story to this. One of my roommates has been on exchange over in Sweden. She went to a show one day and saw this guy. Thought he was good. Forgot about it for a while, until she went to a festival and he was there. They bonded. She tells me this. She sends me his MySpace profile.
I can see why she is fond of him. His blog is really sweet, where he mentions that fans at his show in Vanersborg could speak with Canadians. Also, I’m not sure if it was auto-translated or he did it himself, but I like that he “baptizes” songs.
Lofgren sings in English and plays in that usual modern hippy-poppy way. The most obvious comparison I can think of at the moment is Sam Roberts. We’re fans of Sam and now we’re fans of Lars. Lofgren’s songs are hopeful and dreamy, but it has that underlying sense of reality to it. That little voice saying “oh, I wish for this good time/ I’m nostalgic for that time, but… let’s be true.” His blog does the trick: “Soul is something that you feel from within, and you do it spontaneously. It’s not something that you learn to do, and it’s not something that you read and you do it. You have to have a natural feeling for it.”
Karlstad, Sweden in March
It’s good to see music like this coming out of a place like Karlstad. I visited in March – it’s a tiny town where nobody works but nobody does much else. They ride their bikes around and wait for the sunny weather. I assume that right now it must be beautiful there.
Listen to “Opportunity Knocks,” “Candy Rome,” and “Round Your Heart” all found on his MySpace.
Like Lars Ludvig Lofgren? Know of any other good Svedes? Let me know!
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There comes a time in any rock critic’s life when a band that they used to look upon fondly, who had since broken up, moved around but brought two of the members back in a new light. In my case, this comes to The First Joke. (Ironic, no?)
(P.S. Is that the Buffalo News in the picture?!)
