Jun 30, 2007

New Album From Stars; Plus All Things Canadian

"In Our Bedroom After The War" is the name of Toronto pop wonders Stars' new album which will be released on September 25 on Arts and Crafts. This is their first album since 2004's excellent release "Set Yourself On Fire". Of course the wonderful Amy Millan used her voice to great effect on her solo album last year, but it is nice to know that we can hear her voice again soon on this new album. The new song made available "The Night Starts Here" has a more electronic feel, but it still features the delicious dichotomy of vocals from Amy and Torquil Campbell.
MP3: The Night Starts Here
Track Listing
01 The Beginning After the End
02 The Night Starts Here
03 Take Me to the Riot
04 My Favourite Book
05 Midnight Coward
06 The Ghost of Genova Heights
07 Personal
08 Barricade
09 Window Bird
10 Life 2: the Unhappy Ending
11 Bitches in Tokyo
12 Today Will Be Better, I Swear!
13 In Our Bedroom After the War

If you like The New Pornographers (who doesn't) then you might like to check out Immaculate Machine. They are led by the superb voice of Kathryn Calder, who now seems to be a permanent member of the New Porno's. This Victoria, BC 3 piece mine the same power pop field as Carl Newman's outfit and they recently released their third album "Fables" on Mint Records. It is a concise and entertaining collection of pop gems. Definitely worth checking out.
MP3: Dear Confessor
You can purchase "Fables" along with other Canadian goodies at Maple Music.

If you saw The Dears when they stopped by Australia back in March then you know that you witnessed some special shows. It was a case of passion overload. Well you might like to know that their guitarist Patrick Krief has a self released EP entitled "Take It Or Leave" that can be purchased from Maple Music. Comprising 7 songs it is like a more understated version of The Dears, although still containing all the heartfelt emotion you associate with that band.
MP3: Worries Are Over

Fact: Wolf Parade are great. Fact: Handsome Furs are great. Fact: Sunset Rubdown are great.
So what about Johnny and the Moon? This is the creation of WP's Dante DeCaro. However they sound nothing like any of the afore mentioned bands. For one, the banjo features heavily here as Dante takes us on a journey of Bluegrass/Folk/Country with an Indie Rock feel. Their self titled album was released in Canada in 2006 but it is only seeing the light of day in the rest of the world in 2007. It is a very varied listen and is one album I am getting a lot of listening pleasure from. You can purchase the album from Killdevilhills Records.
MP3: Green Rocky Road

"Tears of the Valedictorian" by Frog Eyes is definitely one of the high points of 2007. A monster of a record it intrigues and astounds in countless ways. Well recently on Coke Machine Glow there was a review and an interview with singer Carey Mercer.

Here is a quote from the interview which can read in full here-
"I think it’s our best record; I think it’s accessible in a way, though, that runs contrary to what we perceive as accessible in terms of modern records. I think the things that make it kind of a cool record to my ears are like…the approach that we took was trying to make it maybe less fixed in this particular time. Our hope was that in five years you could listen to it and not know that it was made exactly in 2006. When I listen to our other records, or lots of peoples’ records, you really know when it was made. It’s funny, there’s this weird narrative of fidelity that runs through a lot of peoples’ work, and through the Collective Underground Music for the past ten or fifteen years, for as long as I’ve been paying attention..."

This review is quite possibly the best review I have read in a very long time-
"And I haven’t gotten as moving an experience out of any Frog Eyes music as I have had during the last two minutes of ‘Bushels.’ There’s nothing loose or unaccounted for. Just a series of segments repeatedly hitting the right sympathetic mark; like all the arrogance and bombast and yelping and blissed out aqueous guitars or pianos of their whole career was building to that very climax."

1 Comments:

  • At July 01, 2007 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Oh thank god for a new Stars album! And yes, Immaculate Machine is wonderful; Kathryn is awesome. You gotta love those crazy Canadians.

     

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