Matthew's Finest

This week I'm going against the grain of our usual blog posts and abandoning the actual playlist. The keen observer will note that the playlist wasn't entirely accurate anyway and since Ishmael put the whole thing together, I really don't' feel qualified to pick one of his songs. I do, however, feel qualified to endorse a band, and specifically a song, that I have been listening to ad nauseum lately.

Entire Cities is a band from Toronto that is made up of an ever changing number of members. The membership of the bad is huge, and their instruments and vocal ranges reflect this. They have mandolins, banjos, saxophones, singing saws, gravelly-voiced mountain men and angelic women whom you could absolutely fall in love with. Similarly, the type of songs on the first full length album, Deep River, is diverse and extremely entertaining. Some songs, like The Woods, for example, are so haunting and gorgeous that I usually have to stop what I'm doing when they come on my iPod. Others, like Dancing With My Brother, which we have never been able to play on morning radio due to the prevalence of a certain swear word, cause me to thrash about like a jackass in a fit of spasmodic glee. They are a wonderfully diverse band.

The song, Cop Song, spans the territory of both the ballad and the rock song. Its loose narrative rides seamlessly along the rich vocals of Simon Borer. Also, I'll be posting their song, Dancing With My Brother, because it has bewitched and it will not let me do any less. Check out their myspace and their website for a glance at what the rest of the album sounds like.

 

Entire Cities [myspace] [website]

Deep River [buy it at zunior]

Cop Song [mp3]

Dancing With My Brother [mp3]

SotW for March 25, 2009

The Burning Hell is a band made of 13+ people whose quirky lyrics and playful melodies, featuring lots of ukulele playing, have stolen my heart. (Matthew has previously posted about them.)

Their 2006 album Happy Birthday was a treat to listen to. Singer Mathias Kom's baritone contrasts well with the silly songs, and it would all fall apart if one couldn't be sure that the band has a lot of fun doing it.

The Burning Hell's new album Baby came out in late February. Fittingly, the first song on the album recounts an idealistic baby (fetus?) planning his entry into the world.

"I made all kinds of plans for when I got out
The things that I would do, the things I'd talk about
For when I learned to walk, I planned the places I would go to
Like New Brunswick and the mall, and the Toronto Zoo"

However, when the baby is born, he learns the world isn't all it's cracked up to be, at which point he decides he was much happier in the womb. He sings, "Take us back to the old world..."

The Burning Hell - Old World [mp3]

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We need some help

Hello all. Matthew and I were going to do a show wit a couple theme soon. Basically, if members of a band are dating or married, let us know. Or if different artists from different acts are dating, that works too. Here's a short list we have right now.

Mates of State
Matt + Kim
Feist* and Kevin Drew* (from Broken Social Scene*)
Christine Fellows* and John K. Sampson (from Weakerthans*)
The Arcade Fire *

*We need as many Canadian couples as anyone can think of. CFCR's rules say our show has to be 50% Canadian, which is a good thing usually, but it may be tough to do the couple theme...

SotW for March 11, 2009

Amos the Transparent sounds like a rapper to me. But instead of spitting fresh verse — which is what I think rappers do — Amos the Transparent is a beautiful indie band from Ottawa.

Our nation's capital is home to many good bands such as Hilotrons and The Acorn. Adding to the city's already impressive roster, this four-piece band led by singer Jonathan Chandler creates intricate, soothing pop gems that are perfect to listen to on a chilly afternoon, bundled up in a sweater. That said, Amos the Transparent does have its harder moments, too.

Their new EP My, What Big Teeth You Have... has, so far, received nothing but positive reviews. This week's song is Lemons, aka (BigFishLittlePond) and comes from that EP. Please listen, buy, support.


Amos the Transparent - Lemons, aka (BigFishLittlePond)

Matthew's Finest

It's rare that I get to showcase any local talent on the blog. I think it may only have happened once, and that was mainly by accident, but this time, it's well worth it. Maybe Smith has been playing music in the Saskatoon area, and in many other parts of the world, for the last 6 or 7 years. In that time his music has evolved. From simple beginnings - which I confess I did not entirely enjoy, but in my defense I was sixteen and wore a backwards cap - his music has evolved.

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the new album, Another Murder In The Morning, and I regret to say that it hasn't all been good. Some of my acquaintances have been extremely vocal about their distaste for this album, and oddly enough they were so even before it came out, but I was determined to give it a fair shake.

I've recently become enamoured with some forgotten tracks that had fallen out of my iPod rotation. Maybe Smith's seminal classics, like Bloody Nose (which was lucky enough to be #1 on the CBC Radio 3 R3-30 for a week in '07) or Open War have been looping in my musical wheelhouse for a few weeks now.

My first glimpse of Another Murder In The Morning was anything but a disappointment, and in the last year I've been disappointed by a lot of follow ups that just fell flat. I was growing concerned that my excitement for this new album was being inflated by the fondness I had for his old hits, but it lived up to my expectations entirely.
More Blood Than Sleep (After B.C.) is an incredible track. It starts out with a rhythmic chanting – one of three things that make a song great – and only gets better from there.

Maybe Smith: A man apart.


Maybe Smith [myspace] [website]
Another Murder In The Morning
More Blood Than Sleep (After B.C.) [mp3]

Playlist for March 11, 2009

On this day, in 1990, Lithuania officially declared itself independent from the Soviet Union. In honour of that moment, here's today's playlist, which is all about destroying totalitarianism... or something.

1st Hour
Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling on a Line [herohill]
Pamela Brennan - Another Lonely Day
Jenn Grant - Dancin' in the Wind
Anni Rossi - Wheelpusher
Peter and the Wolf - Better Days [link]
The Paint Movement - Howl at the Moon
Sonya Kitchell - Every Drop
Lions in the Street - Ruthless [cbcr3]
Amos the Transparent - Lemons
Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want [cbcr3]

2nd Hour
The Darcys - The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
Parachute Penguin - The Things I Should've Known [i♥music]
In Flight Safety - I Could Love You More (live)
Despistado - A Stirstick's Prediction
Duchess Says - Tenen Non Neu
Maybe Smith - More Blood Than Sleep [myspace]
Green GO - Sleep All Day
Faunts - Alarmed Lights [i♥music]
MGMT - Electric Feel
Brazilian Girls - Good Time
Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the 80s [link]

SotW for March 4, 2009

Hello, all. This week's feature is a six-minute opus by Elvis Perkins in Dearland. Perkins comes from a family of performers, his father having played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Named after the King of Rock n' Roll, Perkins took to music at a young age and released his debut Ash Wednesday in 2007. Almost exactly two years later, he and his band released the self-titled followup Elvis Perkins in Dearland from which we get the Song of the Week, "Send My Fond Regards To Lonelyville."

The song is long without being indulgent and steady without being boring. The album comes out March 10 and high hopes are had by all.








Elvis Perkins in Dearland Send My Fond Regards To Lonelyville

Matthew's Finest

I've always been a hip-hop fan. When we were children together, Ishmael and I would often stay up late to watch the television on Friday nights, which everyone knows is the randiest television of all. At about 11:30 in the night time, RapCity would come on MUCH Music and I would settle in for a feast of visual misogyny. In addition to my sexual education, I was also exposed to a new kind of music; a kind that I would not have encountered growing up in Buttfuck, Saskatchewan. I had found Wu-Tang and it was good.

That said, I didn't like Cadence Weapon one bit when I first heard his music. In Search of the Youth Crew was, and still is, one of the most offensive things that has ever touched my ears. This all changed when I saw him play at Amigo's last year with the illustrious Woodhands. He rocked the place, and I finally saw the good in him.

Since then I've been eagerly absorbing everything that I find by him, and I've found that his collaborations have been the best by far. He's worked with Dragon Fli Empire, a hip-hop outfit out of Calgary, and done a remix of the Wet Secrets song Chinball Wizard that completely rocks ass. And this song is a perfect example of Cadence Weapon's ability to mingle with his peers.

Mini TVs was originally a Chad VanGaalen song that CW and Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy recently recorded for an episode of CBC Radio's Fuze. And thanks to the magic of the Internet, it can be yours today, for free.

Cadence Weapon [myspace]

Separation Anxiety

Mini TVs (feat. Final Fantasy) [mp3]

*BONUS TRACK!

The Wet Secrets [myspace]

Rock Fantasy

Chinball Wiz RMX [mp3]

Playlist for March 4th, 2009

It's Vivaldi's Birthday! Were back with another slammin' edition of Green Eggs and Ham. As always you can download all the songs which are linked and please take the time to visit some of the blogs we like. If you like our music, you'll like theirs too; we steal it all from them.

1st Hour
The Antlers - Two [mp3]
Jason Collett - Not Over You
Andre Ethier - Heaven Above You [mp3]
Neko Case - The Tornado Loves You
An Horse - Horizons
Laura Barrett - Bluebird [mp3]
Gentleman Reg - You Can't Get It Back
Dog Day - Rome
Jenn Grant - Sailing By Silverships [mp3]
Ladyhawk - S.T.H.D.

2nd Hour
Malajube - Porté Disparu [mp3]
Malajube - Montreal -40c
Tom Fun Orchestra - Last of the Curious Theives
David Myles - I Don't Want To Know [mp3]
Elvis Perkins In Dearland - Send My Fond Regards To Lonelyville
Lily Allen - The Fear
Psapp - The Monster Song
Company of Theives - Pressure [mp3]
Cadence Weapon - Mini T.V.s (Chad Vangaalen cover feat. Final Fantasy)
K'Naan - Bang Bang (feat. Adam Levine) [mp3]