[EP Review] Unsparing Sea - "In The Crystal Canyon"

*looks around* What? I'm actually updating in a decent amount of time. And no, the world isn't going to end.

To the point!

If you think far, far back into the annuls of your memory, you may remember a band by the name of Unsparing Sea. Then again, in blog time, it's only two posts back that I reviewed their album A Cloud in the Cathedral, but I assume most people reading this will be too ADD, disinterested, or senile to actually RE-READ anything on here.

Well, your eyes don't deceive you, I am in fact covering their newly (well, a month or so old now) EP. And with good reason, too. While those of you with memories long as a wizard's beard may remember that I definitely liked A Cloud in the Cathedral, the four songs on In the Crystal Canyon prove without a doubt that this is a band ill content to sit around and make the same album over and over again.

Cathedral was aptly named; the melodies were soft and soaring, conjuring images of floating through spaces designed to project words and song up to the heavens. And while there were moments of earthly groundedness, you never quite lose that sensation. Crystal Canyon, on the other hand, begins on a vastly different note; "Wolves At the Wedding" opens the EP in a darker direction, a rumbling baseline and low-pitched cello keep things unnerved and brooding. Those higher, etherial voices are still here, but softer and more atmospheric, giving one the feeling of unease.

"Diamond Caverns" follows hot on the heels of the first track, and while it doesn't conjure images of teeth coming out of the woods to get you, it's still a far cry from the stargazing sound of songs like "God Will protect the Naive" from the previous album. The minor-major shift throughout the song makes it a transitional point between the first and second half of the EP.

"Dear Playwright" is a return to softer territory, but if Cloud was the dream, it's obvious that we've woken up here. Overall the song is crisper and more articulated than it might have been one release ago.

"All I Want" closes the album on the same note; slower than the first half, on a major tone, but even though an organ sounds in between the other melodies it can hardly be mistaken for a call back to drifting through exhalted spaces.

All in all, Crystal Canyon is the sound of a band more experienced as both songwriters and musicians, confident with their sound and willing to begin pushing it in other directions.


"Wolves at the Wedding": mp3

Feature: Stagehands - Broadway Rock, You Say?

*scene: a dark stage. suddenly, a single spotlight flickers to life, illuminating...an empty chair. From somewhere, a familiar voice begins to speak.*

Ju: ...

*sounds of shuffling, and one sharp microphone squeal*

Ju: -this thing on? Hello? Okay, we're good. Sorry everyone. Sheesh...here I was going to be all dramatic...I guess Chad Vangaalen is the only person that can make technical difficulties charming.

*polite cough interrupts*

Ju: Okay, got it...move this thing along. Here's the bit where I apologize for being largely absent from the blogosphere for ages, and give the usual "I'm an illustrator, and a few hours sleep comes before writing anything more involved than a post-it note. BUT! If you want to see what I've been doing...here! A peace offering in the form of illustrations about toilet squids!"

page 1
page 2 - spread

Ju: Now that I've thoroughly managed to confuse and befuddle the issue, I see fit to actually get to the point, being why I've decided to update the blog. Also, why I decided to try something new out with the theatrical setup (whether or not it failed is irrelevant; I guess I've always been better suited to backstage work).

The point here is Stagehands, a self-styled "Broadway rock" band from Toronto with both aspirations of creating something just a little bit different and bringing back that good ole thing called "narrative" that us illustrators are oh-so-fond of (and which has been missing from music in general, with a few exceptions).

I'm not going to lie; I thought long and hard about how to swing this; how do you go about featuring and describing a band that says it's not exactly a band, but also a production that claims influences from sources as diverse as Nightmare Before Christmas and Green Day? I agonized on this point for a bit, until I realized that frankly, the idea speaks for itself. Admittedly, the idea could fall flat on its face if not executed properly; the tough thing about walking the line between several genres is that you run the risk of losing your point.

Take Visual Kei, for example. A genre I have problems with in general, because I've never been a fan of bands that put fashion above music (grunge school graduate speaking here, of course). I always figured that if a band is good, the music should speak for itself, even if everyone looks like they just got up and threw on whatever was on hand. On the other hand, I've always loved theatre, which the VK bands claim to be influenced by.

Ay, there's the rib.

Or the rub, even.

Point is, looking at what Stagehands does, they succeed where all those VK bands fail, because their music is more about embracing the aspects of theatre and narrative than about using it as a gimmick. It's not about costumes, it's about NARRATIVE. Because theatre (and even music) is storytelling, and stories are always better when visual and auditory and sensory things collide with a decidedly satisfying "clang". What VK bands do is fashion, what stagehands does is theatre (with enough of a rock injection to make it exciting for those who think music + theatre = Gilbert & Sullivan, or worse yet, jazz hands, Mamma Mia! and Stage West for the Calgarian set...*shudder of horror*).

Stagehands's album, "The Silent City", actually has a storyline. A kickaxe one which I would give my eye teeth to illustrate as a graphic novel, actually. It's got the meta-level of being about a songwriter, a fantasy setting, masks, an evil-yet-charming Mayor who controls an entire city, the battle between individuality and fame...this is some serious Tim Burton sh*t right here. In fact, my drawing hand is itching to start on designs for characters as we speak (makes it exceedingly difficult to type, if you must know).

While I know that there's been narrative concept albums before, the difference is, this band actually theatrically inclined enough to perform the thing as a production rather than a concert. (In fact, I'm not-so-patiently checking their touring schedule to see if they might come anywhere close to the lonesome crowded west...>.>)

In this world of endlessly referential acts that "sound like ___" or "are a mix of band x and band y with an injection of genre z", where PR obscures the music with a blizzard of buzzwords and meaningless categorization, it's nice to see someone genuinely try to come up with something a little bit different.

~Ju


Stagehands:
website
on Myspace

publicbroadcasting.ca: Will CBC Axe Radio 3?

publicbroadcasting.ca: Will CBC Axe Radio 3?

As a Canadian, this topic is close to my heart.

As a fan of music in general, this topic is absolutely VITAL.

"Why should I care?" you might wonder, especially if you're the type of person who:

a) Doesn't live in Canada
b) Thinks that all broadcasting is lame, anyway
c) Has never heard of Radio3

Frankly, you should care because Radio3 is the only national support that the numerous stellar indie bands this country can boast about has (of which The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are only two).

Read the post, of course; they articulate a million times better why Radio3 is worth saving. But I'll add my two cents and say that the station is one of the only ways that many people can actually gain exposure to the exciting and original things going here musically; we, who lament of a national identity could very well boast: "Well, I'm not sure exactly what being a Canadian means, but we damn well have some of the best music in the world!"

...well, it could happen. >.> Don't grudge me my hopes and dreams, dammit.

Here's hoping the government pull their heads out of their rears on this one. >.>

Here's the link to the petition:

http://petitionspot.com/petitions/saver3


Thanks for listening

~Ju

Album Review: Unsparing Sea - A Cloud in the Cathedral

This has been a long time coming, for which I apologize a million times over to this wonderful band; it's easy to get lost in the plethora of minutae that seem to make up life at large, and before you know it it's already 2009.

I still have trouble remembering to write an '8' at the end of the date. >.>

I know what you're thinking: "Man, you must be getting senile in your old age, the rambling is worse than usual." However, in this case, you'd be wrong; the preamble ties in, I promise!

What I'm getting at is this: with the frantic pace of modern life, it's sometimes difficult to take time out and enjoy the things that, in reality, are the best parts.

See: The Unsparing Sea

(How's THAT for a smoking gun? *is smug*)

A Cloud in the Cathedral is one of those albums you want to listen to completely and wholly; it's the type of album I'd buy on vinyl, because this would guarantee that I wouldn't be tempted to multitask. I'd just sit back and listen to the beautiful melodies weaving through my head and forget the world for a blessed few minutes of sheer music bliss.

Opener "O! Form O! Place" gets us started; in our minds, we are taken to the musical equivalent of your Happy Place. A place where nothing bad can happen, at least melodically speaking. Easygoing guitar, vocals, percussion, and violin carry us through the passing landscape at a comfortable pace. I'd compare it to an establishing shot in a film, one where the landscape is as important and grandiose as any of the characters.

You feel the passage of time suspended within a seemingly timeless moment; from the melancholy moments ("National Guard") to the happy and energetic ("I Wasn't There, That Didn't Happen") to the waterborne ("On Sinking Ships"...okay, usually road trips aren't seafaring, but I've always wanted them to be in part. I'll allowed >.>); there are moments of breathtaking beauty and moments of regularity, each moment has its place, and none seem rushed or out of place. The transitions are natural, and all in all, we are different people at the end of the journey than we were at the start.

Overall, A Cloud in the Cathedral reminds me of traveling across open spaces; it's the sound that plays in your head on a long drive with no hurry, where you're completely at peace and in a state of contentedness, watching the landscape outside your window as it rolls past. (Usually, in this scenario, I would probably imagine myself as not being the driver >.>) Or, much like their name, you could maybe slow it down and make the connection to a slower, more majestic time and the feeling of traveling across an ocean.

All in all, it's a journey you won't regret taking.

P.S: check out their website; it's actually really nicely designed, and really gives you a feel for their sound in visual terms.


Grade: R, for road trip; an album that goes places and changes in subtle ways.

Notable stops: "National Guard", "God Will Protect the Naive", "A Lion With No Teeth"



music:
"God Will Protect the Naive"
http://www.mediafire.com/?wzyf3rxy3ic

on Myspace:
http://myspace.com/unsparingsea

on the web:
http://www.unsparingsea.com/

~Ju

[Opinion] The Zune Test

Hi all...I know, I know. >.> The disappearing act again. I know that saying the usual words doesn't make it any less disheartening for those of you still waiting on the final installments of our exciting musical adventures this summer, but fact is that real life gets in the way of the pleasures of blogging.

If ACAD took blog posts as tuition credits, rest assured that this would be the most prolific blog on the internet. More so than FilmDrunk, even. O_o As it stands, however, the current rate is all that we can afford (financially) to do. -_-;

This last week before school starts up in earnest, and I turn officially-too-old-to-still-be-hip-and-opinionated (21), I will try to grind out what I can, especially the promised articles mentioned before. (I'm looking at you, Unsparing Sea...never fear, your CD is still sitting in my files, and on heavy rotation, I might add XD. I even listen to it when I should be doing boring music-retail paperwork at work. O_o)

And so it begins...THE ZUNE TRIAL!!!

(Any and everyone who didn't bother to read the "gratuitous product placement/Is WHYH selling out?" blurb will juat have to pretend that they did and nod along with the rest so as to appear less like an illiterate infidel).


Sooo...the zune. The infamous zune...it arrived later than expected due to FedEx failing to do what they apparently do best: deliver things. However, when the little package arrived, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the care taken in designing the overall look of the thing; the quickbook even has these cute little die-cut holes displaying colour through the black sheet, which makes the design geek in me squee with joy, but nevertheless makes everyone else yawn with disinterest.

Moving on. >.>

The player itself is rather sober in design; I personally wouldn't mind a little more flaire, but this might just be the 8 GB version. (A friend of mine has the 60 GB, and I must say, it's a thing of beauty..oh that lovely, lovely screen!)

I'm not a superficial gal, however, and content is really what I'm looking for. In this department, the player is more than solid; from an easy-to-comprehend interface on the computer to an attractive display on the zune screen itself (which, might I add, is customizable), you can tell that a lot of thought and effort was put into trying to make the thing functional, attractive, and interactive. Links make it easy to find out info on the artists you're listening to, while the zune Social online functions a little like last.fm/jango in letting you interact with other users and check out what they're listening to. Transferring files is also uber-easy; just drag and drop artists, songs, or albums, onto the device.

This is where things get just a little dicey; transferring albums vs. artists sometimes results in different listings on the device. Annoying for those of us who organize our record collections down to even the colours of the spines, but easily bypassed if you just do the artist thing...more functional.

Where the zune shines is in the bluetooth connectivity that some brilliant person thought to bestow on the player. This is the DS of digital music payers; you can connect with any other zune in the area and trade songs, files, etc. You can synch it with you laptop, or XBox, for those who think GTA4 requires just ONE more radio station. >.>

Gone are the days where teachers would rail at me for sharing headphones (a pointless argument, I always thought, but that's another debate); instead the song can be sent via bluetooth and checked out at a later date.

These files expire in three plays, but you KNOW that out there, there's bound to be a person working on how to bypass this little obstacle. *grins*


So, all in all, summary:

-nice overall design; finally, a half-intelligently-designed alternative to the fuhrer of DMPs, the iPod

-logical overall design to the product; navigation gets rid of the illogical wheel and replaces it with a straight touch pad. Up and Down, instead of around and around and around...QuickNav lets you skip through the alphabet with fewer strokes, too>.>

-battery life could be better. Having the A/C wall adapter is a lilfesaver here...who wants to boot up their comp every time just to recharge the thing in about two hours?

-OMG music sharing! Outside of the interbutt! Woo!

-...on that note, someone PLEASE get working on the "get rid of play limit on transferred files" thing. >.> Er, I mean, buy the songs on the Zune Marketplace, kids! ^^;;;;;;;;;


~Ju

[Live] Okkervil River

Walking into Central United Church last Thursday, I couldn’t help but be overcome with a sense of pride. For a city that, three years ago didn’t even have one half-decent indie music festival, Calgary has matured quite a bit musically. As we shuffled into a pew near the back of the church, I paused to reflect on how lucky I felt. Okkervil River (THE Okkervil River) was playing this tiny little venue in my almost culturally devoid city. For a moment I considered kneeling and saying a prayer (God bless you Zak Pashak. God bless your children. God bless your children’s children.) but instead I decided to take advantage of my situation and watch The Consonant C play the end of their set. After a couple more opening bands, (all of which Ju has already covered, so I won’t bore you with my impressions) Okkervil took the stage.

A month ago, if you’d asked me whether or not I thought a church was an ideal local for a band like Okkervil River to play, I probably would have said something along the lines of “I’d rather watch them play in a bar.” However, if at any point in my life I’d actually said that, then I would now be forced to devote the next forty years of my life to discovering a way to travel back in time so that I could kick myself in the nads.

Okkervil’s set began with their latest single, “The President’s Dead” and from there on in they played every damn one of their songs that I wanted to hear live. From the epically soaring song “The Latest Toughs” to the introspective suicide tune “John Allyn Smith Sails” and finally finishing with the spaghetti western themed “Westfall”. Will Sheff’s voice rang out across the chapel and perhaps it was just the setting but the band’s performance seemed to take on a hallowed air.

I’ve heard Okkervil River described as a great many things in my time. People have affixed them with the labels of Indie, Folk, Country, Alternative Country, and straight up Rock. At one point I would probably have affixed them with a label myself, but after seeing them play live, I can honestly say that none of the above labels can even begin to describe their sound. Not to mention the fact that Will Sheff’s lyrics are beyond poetic. Their weight live transcends anything that you could hear in a recording, making these Austen, Texas darlings a must-see.

Check them out this fall on their tour for their new album, The Stand-Ins, available September 9th in the USA and Canada and on October 13th in the UK and Europe.
09-12 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
09-13 Omaha, NE - Slowdown
09-14 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theater
09-15 Fargo, ND - Aquarium
09-17 Seattle, WA - The Showbox
09-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richards on Richards
09-19 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
09-21 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Festival
09-23 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
09-24 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
09-26 El Paso, TX - The Blue Iguana
09-26-28 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Music Festival
09-30 New Orleans, LA - The Republic
10-1 Birmingham, AL - Matthew's Bar & Grill
10-2 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10-4 Richmond, VA - The National
10-6 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-7 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-8 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub
10-9 Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre
10-10 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall
10-11 Montreal, QC - Les Saints
10-12 Toronto, ON - Phoenix

~Phil

[Live] Sled Island: Consonant C, Mother Mother, Chad Vangaalen

How to describe it the atmosphere inside Central United Church, a sandstone building right on the C-train line, where the Consonant C are in the middle of their opening set. The church is smaller, but beautiful, in no way diminished by the sketchier area that the surrounding buildings have become. There is thrumming, a sense of anticipation; coupled with the sound coming from the church itself, it's almost tangible.

We slip into a pew; late, but glad to have made it to the sounds of beautiful harmonies and an intriguing assembly of instruments. The Consonant C only play four more songs before dashing off, but their set is endearing and bright-eyed in the best sense of the words. Their music also makes it clear as to why the venue was chosen: the acoustics are wonderful. We could probably have heard the bands without any amplification at all.

Next is another local band Racoon; containing Dillon Whitfield, of Jane Vain fame (at least locally, anyway ^^;), they are definitely noisier and more rock-oriented than the Consonant C; after a solid set, they call on several friends from the wings (a few of which the savvy Calgarian music fan might recognize from several other excellent local bands) to do an endlessly enjoyable finale that leaves the audience in a state of excitement even after the last hand-claps and percussive beats have faded.

After some delay, the stage is then graced by the wonderful Mother Mother; the band jumps right into things, working up enthusiasm and energy with songs "Dirty Town" and "Touch Up" from their debut album of the same name. Something of a surprise is the number of new songs played; when coupled with their announcement of the forthcoming sophomore album O My Heart, however, the move makes sense. Overall, while some fans might be disappointed at not getting to hear specific favourites played live, the set is energetic, at times funny ("We've never played in a church before," guitarist Ryan Guldemond states matter-of-factly, "we thought it would be more...spiritual somehow. Not that that wasn't criticism...*after the audience chuckle at the sharp comment* Sorry, it was meant positively. Oh well...we're going to hell."), and incredibly enjoyable on the whole.

It was at this point that we faced a terrible decision: Okkervil River were to follow Mother Mother. Yes, the excellent Okkervil River, playing in a small and intimate venue like Central United Church. However, at the same time, Chad Vangaalen, local artist-musician superhero and champion of the home-made drum machine, was slated to play a set at the Telus World of Science, in the big domed theatre on the top floor. For those unfamiliar with the structure of this building, let me describe it as such: the enormous dome is a screen, and Chad would be projecting his animations during his performance.

In the end, two of us opted to see Chad and catch Okkervil at Lollapalooza, while the rest stayed on to watch them. So we hopped on the C-train and made it to the Science Centre in time to catch the tail end of Portico's set, while getting decent seats for Chad's performance.

And what a performance it was. As always, Chad is incredibly funny and charming to watch, infusing his performance with an air of unstudied humanism that is lost to many more staid artists. His offbeat personality is just as much a part of the show as his excellent songs; the instruments and setup are incredibly homemade and precarious, containing a perticular delight that I can only compare with looking at the impossible physics and angles of structures in a Tim Burton film. Chad taks odds and ends- a sound sample taken from under train tracks at a downtown bridge, a strangely uneven beat on his home-constructed, prototype drum machine ("I haven't had time to work on it, so the prototype has sort of become...well, it is what it is, I guess," he apologizes in his easygoing way), a scrap of melody, the pick of a banjo or strum of a mini-guitar - and weaves them into what could almost be described as faery gold. A child-like magic that can't be described or communicated with words or even recording, because it has everything to do with being there, with the moment as it happens.

As to the animations, they seem at first strange and above all, random. Chad even plays it off, saying with some degree of surprise, "I'm really happy that you guys made it out to the show tonight, especially with so many other good bands playing. Instead, you get to watch me and this stoner video..." With a little bit of his usual self-depreciating humour, he even turns minor sound problems into a part of the performance ("Sorry about this...damn, I totally had this all planned out in my basement, and here it's all falling apart. Apparently, I'm half the man I am in my basement onstage.")

When the music's playing, however, the bizarre animations seem to fall into place, fitting into the greater performance as flawlessly as the other odds and ends that find a home under the greater mantle of Chad's musical and artistic genius. The fact that several of the songs that he plays can't be found on either of his recorded albums speaks to his endless and awe-inspiring creativity, without question making him one of Calgary's brightest artistic and musical talents.

~Ju


The Consonant C
On Myspace Music
On New Music Canada

Racoon
On Myspace Music

Mother Mother
On Myspace Music
On the Web

Chad Vangaalen
On Myspace Music
On Flemish Eye Records

[Local Feature] Intro: Sled Island

For those who have been following the map thus far, Sled Island isn't news, exactly.

However, we here at WHYH are fully aware of how large the internet is. What is obvious and well-known in one area can be totally unheard of in another; local heroes who get tons of coverage and credit in one city might be virtually unknown or less appreciated in places where people can download a few tracks, but not necessarily witness the magic of said bands live.

So, with this fact in mind, I believe a quick rundown of what, exactly, the Sled Island festival is, is in order. An introduction to the festival (now in it's second year, and growing), before we dive into the thing head-first.

First things first: there is, in fact, no place called Sled Island here in Calgary. The real Sled Island is a small island in Northern Alberta where the Cree used to get the birch trees to create toboggans; no one has actually HEARD of it unless you count Zak Pashak (the Sled Island festival founder)...and even he only heard of it when googling interesting names of places in Alberta.

Despite this, the name does serve its intended purpose: it implies an air of fun and youthful energy, which is exactly what Sled Island has by the bucketful. While other older, more established music festivals may strive for a specific ambience, or follow a similar successful template (see Virginfest and Lollapalooza, to name a few), Sled Island's festival identity is something of a breath of fresh air. Modeled after Austin's SXSW, it borrows the showcase structure, but never feels like it's imitating or trying to be anything but a distinctively "Calgary" event.

Very much, Sled Island is about communicating exactly what that means to a community that often sees the city as a once-a-year rodeo and home of the white cowboy hat. While bringing in international-grade talent (not measured in record sales, but honest-to-god musical ability), the festival also seeks to give exposure to some of our most exciting and vibrant local artists, both visual and musical. Overall, Sled Island is about building a Calgarian identity that is more accurate and less stifling than the outdated one that often leads international sources to patronize or underestimate the city as a whole (witness, for example, the Virginfest lineup sent to town >.>).

With this in mind, I hope I can communicate at least to some extent the indescribable feeling in the air at the performances this weekend. A humming excitement that gets inside your bones.

[Live] Sled Island Kickoff: No Age + guests

So, much like everything in life, personal music politics (yes, even those! Wait, it might just be me that has those, but anyways, I digress) are subject to slight hypocrisy every now and again.

"What does this have to do with No Age?" you might wonder.

See also: "What's this I hear about you guys doing endorsement deals?"

See also: "Is this going to be another long anti-Pitchfork rant? Because then I'm leaving."

The answer to all those points, and more, lies beyond this magical gateway of wonder you see just to your left. The one edged with delicious feedback and vocal layers and sprinkled with a touch of avant-noise dust. No...you missed it. Your other left. A bit more...closer...too far! THERE!

Once the distracting faeries and candy-coloured fog has cleared (magical gateways always seem to have this, though at least this one has no annoying rhyming jingle accompaniment), you see a crowded, dimly-lit rock pub with a small stage set across from the booths. There is a sign reading "No Beatniks" above the bar. You might recognize this place...after all, you've been here before, if only in that Sunset Rubdown live review that WHYH did way back.

The place is Broken City; the DJ sucks, except when someone temporarily distracted him from his 70's/80's songs long enough to throw on Mudhoney's "Suck You Dry" for an all-too-brief reprieve from generic radio rock (this probably didn't happen, but I rather like the idea of some mysterious caped crusader sweeping in to knock out the guy that thinks that the crowd at a No Age show are quite obviously fans of Heart-ripoff bands >.>).

You are there, very much because of the force in indie music who you have sworn to revile and loathe for all eternity (especially after that shameful and pathetically shallow-minded review of the new Wolf Parade album...more on that later >.>).

Yes, I owe Pitchfork for my own personal discovery of No Age; I'll give credit where credit is due. This is where the hypocrisy comes in: though I think their outlook towards music, their elitist posturing, and the crippling nature of said outlook on the state of indie music today is somewhat as ridiculous as the gargantuan influence of dinosaur Rolling Stone was back in the day, I generally don't disagree with them when they say something is pretty good. The exception to this is when they gave Justin Timberlake's Futuresex album an 8+ score, whereupon I decided that the blog's fancy touring budget was obviously funded by nefarious means. Apparently, they do endorsement deals too (once again, more on that later >.>).

Anyways, this is ruining the mood, so ignore it as a long, Shakespearean Aside.

The opening acts are perfect warm-ups; excellent local band The Dirty Dirty North (ex. Pants Situation, with the same hooks, more percussion, and more moxie) bring the rock like only they know how, getting the crowd energized and pumped, while Toronto-based progressive no-wavers dd/mm/yyyy (pronounced Day Month Year) clearly remind everyone that anyone expecting traditional verse/chorus/verse song structures devoid of layered effects had better go home. The pummeling of soundscapes immersing an at-capacity bar in sonic texture until you feel it like a solid presence in the air around you is also a good lead-in to the sensory attack of No Age.

Between the arresting energy and passion of the two men onstage, the fever-dream of montage images projected over the scene with lo-fi pixelation and fragmentation, and the kick-to-the-chest of tightly interwoven effects, feedback, vocals, thrashing guitar, percussion, and sheer volume , one doesn't know where to focus, where to look, or listen...it's let go and be taken over by the experience, or perish trying to fight it.

And truthfully, it's a hell of a lot more fun to give in and, to borrow drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt's expression, "lose your shit".

An hour and a half later, partially deaf, disheveled, and feeling almost as if you've been hit with a wave of sound before nearly drowning in it, you leave the tiny bar, a big stupid grin slapped across your face. There's no way you could regret it.

And this is only day one of a four-day multivenue sprawling festival curated by none other than Pavement's Scott Kannberg (i.e. Spiral Stairs) featuring some of the brightest local and not-so-local talents around (Chad Vangaalen to Mother Mother to Wire to Mogwai).

I can safely say I've never been quite so happy that I live in Calgary.


~Ju

P.S: the endorsement deals aren't true. Not a word. Well...unless you count being offered a free Zune in order to market-test the thing. However, in my defense, I state that any and all opinion stated on here in relation to the product will be completely honest. I'm quite neutral when it comes to mp3 players, being a vinyl-junkie and all. XD

Dirty Dirty North
http://myspace.com/thedirtydirtynorth

dd/mm/yyyy
http://myspace.com/ddmmyyyy

No Age
http://www.myspace.com/nonoage

[Opinion] The Fr0k is Full of Failure

So.

It HAS been a while. >.>

I know, I know...aren't we all getting tired of every post starting the same way? "Can't you ever think of some new and refreshing way to say it?" you ask. Or, better yet, "Why don't you just update WHYH regularly and avoid this whole song-and-dance altogether?"

To which I answer: "No. Writing is a pleasure, and thus is denied me during the school year. Now sit down and read the damn post."

Well, we'll leave the last part optional. See, this is a different sort of article for WHYH...sure, we've touched on these topics before, but never in a full, limelight sense.

So no, there are no new Calgary bands being highlighted in this particular post. You'll have to wait for our coverage of the phenomenal Sled Island Festival 2008 for that stuff.

No, young ducklings...here is entirely a rant.

A rant against Pitchfork, nonetheless.

Some of you might gasp. "Blasphemy!" Or you might yawn, because our dislike has always been...well, at least rather obvious. Also, a few might think that we're ganking this sh*t from Hipster Runoff, but rest assured, you doubters; we disliked them first, and I can't stand reading a blog full of chatspeak, even if it is for the sake of irony. >.>

So, why now? Why the full post instead of merely snidely making remarks in the margins of our show reviews and band features, like usual?

The answer might seem a little innocuous at first:

Kensington Heights.

(For the uninitiated and, on the whole, asinine group that might have question marks over their heads, Kensington Heights is the name of the rather good, nay, fricking awesome new Constantines album. Ju would also like to add that you should all go buy it, or die in a fire)

Truthfully, Kensington Heights isn't the first album I've disagreed with Pitchfork's rating of. Usually, I can even concede the points they make, though whether or not said points are enough to break the album for me is a different matter. Hell, they're even right a lot of the time, like on the last Trail of Dead album. >.>

However, this might be the first time that I've felt so strongly. Possibly due to the fact that the review did not, in actuality, list any real points in justification of the poor rating the album received. Possibly because I hate the "build them up and knock them down" attitude that seems to purvey the blog's reviewing on the whole. Also, quite possibly, because I'm a rabid believer in the Second Coming that the Constantines and their music represent. ^^;

I've realized, though, that the issue seems to go deeper. For a while now, I've felt slight frustration with the overall jaded mentality of the review staff; the enthusiastic ones are kept entirely to news reporting, it seems. Above all, I begin to see that blog as damaging to the fledgling nature of a lot of indie music.

When was the last time you saw an album rated above a 9.0 on that site? Okay...now, when was the last time you saw a perfect 10?

I can understand the attitude of hyper-criticality that seems to grow and permeate the spaces of the "educated" in any subject, mainly because I'm in a very similar environment at school. Critique is an important and valuable tool to any artist. However, the fact remains that Pitchfork has vastly grown in both size and influence; now, the review your album receives DIRECTLY influences the amount of attention you, as an artist, receive...and sometimes your very reputation. Thus, this hyper-elitist critical sense no longer works as a balancing force, but an overwhelming one.

What I'm saying is this; while it makes sense that jaded critics might never give out a perfect album score these days, it perpetuates the belief that good/influential, nay, perfect music is something that could only happen ten-plus years ago. That good, influential, and classic albums aren't being made anymore; in turn, this stagnates the creation of music, because it keeps artists turning to the same old references, the same old albums, and the same old sounds.

See, this wouldn't be such a problem if the Fr0k wasn't so damn HUGE. But it IS huge; anyone can see that the place has expanded massively over the last few years, especially to become a powerhouse media force; since the digital realm is essentially the place where indies and majors compete on almost level playing ground, it's not a far stretch to compare Pitchfork to what MTV used to be back in the 80's; a venue for bringing music that doesn't get exposure through regular means to a larger audience.

And much like that media mogul, it's only a matter of time before the force that used to be an "in" for the little guy begins to act much like the forces that provoked its inception in the first place.

Anyways, I've taken the ball and run with it...if we focus this back down to a personal level, I'll leave it at this: Pitchfork is, above all, just one opinion. Too often, readers tend to hearken that opinion to some omniscient and all-powerful god of indie, but the truth really is that it's still run by average people. People who may get the news first, due to media connections and budget; people who are actually right many a time about positive reviews for bands; and people who generally have been around the circuit for a while...but still people.

As such, they can only suggest to you what to check out and what to ignore, but the final decision in terms of taste comes down to the individual; what we, as indie listeners often pride ourselves on is the fact that we've got a personal opinion on music that hasn't been force-fed to us via a glossy marketing campaign and sheer repetition. We've discovered these bands through personal effort and discerning taste, and decided ON OUR OWN that it's good. Why would you want to hand over that power to someone else all over again?

~Ju


P.S: Really. Everyone should check out Kensington Heights. At least in MY opinion, it's a great album; probably my favourite next to Shine a Light. ^^