Def in June

New ground

2011-07-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

After a lengthy hiatus, Alex and I are taking another crack at music blogging. We're fired up and have a swank new site:

http://www.idieyoudie.com/
I Die: You Die Facebook page
I Die: You Die Twitter

Industrial People

2009-04-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

JG Ballard is dead at 78. I think it's fair to say that if there's a single author who was a literary influence on more of the artists in my record collection than any other, Ballard would be it. The range of artists who've been inspired by Ballard is tremendous: Joy Division, Brian Eno, huge swaths of the early punk and new wave landscapes. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to suggest that without Ballard, industrial music as we understand it might never have coalesced. His themes - technology, sex, architecture, psychology - became those of musicians whose opted neither to flee from nor gleefully embrace the emergence of electronic music within the pop world, but instead to engage in a dialectic with it: Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, Orchestral Manouevres In The Dark. We do not wage war against the machine, nor do we ignore it as it seeps into our aesthetics and subtly shifts our expectations. We study it and its history and through it our own as we observe the changes it enacts in us and we in it.

Ballard was as good a navigator as we could've hoped for of the multiplicity of our futures, those we've inherited and those we've forged. Pick up a copy of "High Rise" or "Concret Jungle", put your TG24 boxset on loop and reflect on what we've lost, kiddies. We'll never see his likes again.

Marissa Nadler

2009-04-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

So I know that our posts at DIJ have slacked off in the past couple months, and for that I'm sorry. Without wanting to speak for Alex or Trish, my time of late's been consumed by thesis work, bitching about the bullshit Galactica finale, listening to Carcass, Charles Stross novels, finally giving Lost a shot, and thesis procrastination. But I've also been going to loads of shows.

I'd like to offer not a full review of Marissa Nadler's show at the Media Club last night so much as a brief yet ringing endorsement of her current tour and entire body of work. If Leonard Cohen, Mazzy Star or the short stories of Flannery O'Connor have ever accompanied you and your favourite bottle through a lonely night of quiet reflection on topics like lovers and death, then you should've already been augmenting such revels with any of Marissa's three previous albums (debut "Ballads of Living And Dying" being my harrowing favourite). If not, new album "Little Hells" serves as a great showcase for why Nadler's light years ahead of her supposed peers in the contemporary singer songwriter sweepstakes (Seriously, Joanna Newsom? What is wrong with you people?), and shows her becoming much more proficient with full-band instrumentation.

Speaking of bands, the way Nadler's rearranged her sparser material to suit her touring group is simply ace. Shoegazy gauze augments the plaintive keen of songs like "Heart Paper Lover" without overpowering them, and at the forefront of the live experience remains Nadler's voice. I think I might've dropped the book I was reading the first time I heard it a few years ago. The voice of a woman who knows that this bender will be her last. The voice of the dead woman you wronged beckoning from just outside your window. The voice which dragged you out of your home in the night to ramble along the hills with a bottle of whiskey and try to remember and forget at the same time.

With that slightly purple description out of the way, I humbly implore you to pick up "Little Hells" and to see if Nadler's bringing her songs and her voice to your neck of the woods.

Marissa Nadler, "Rosary"

James, "Say Something (Utah Saints Radio Edit)"

2009-03-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

Fifteen-odd years back I chanced across a track on the radio by James, britpop stalwarts who never cracked the biz this side of the pond. The cut was "Say Anything" from their 1993 "Laid" album, but it wasn't the album version that I found when I nabbed "Laid" on cassette. The remix that I'd heard added some characteristically early 90's techno flourishes that punched the song's melancholia up into the heavens. I never heard that remix again after that chance encounter on All Hit LG730 (yes, I'm old school enough to have grown up with an AM station) until today.

Turns out that the remix I heard was done by Utah Saints, and I can't believe I never sussed that out on my own. The radio-friendly brushes of light acid and disco diva backing vocals have the Leeds stadium house outfit's fingerprints all over. While it sounds dated as all get out, the remix still gives me that same hit of summery pop that made me wish I'd had a blank Maxell rolling in the tape deck that night. Peep it (along with the original if you've never heard it) below.

James, "Say Something"

James, "Say Something (Utah Saints Radio Edit)"

Hip Hop Hooray!

2009-02-26T11:32:00.002-08:00

Oh snap! It was my first hip hop show EVER! I got out my old ADIDAS track jacket, some gold chains and chunky rings, so I felt like the 4th member of RunDMC, and rounded up my homies and I was ready to kick it.

Having never been to a hip hop show before, I was a little surprised that the doors weren’t until 10pm. I must be getting old, since I thought this was some sort of misprint on the tickets. Strange but true. Maestro did not even take the stage until 11:30, so I weasled my way up to the front of the stage so I could get a good view, especially since I only had on my Chuck T’s which meant I didn’t have the height of stiletto heels to my advantage.
Maestro opened up with “Drop the Needle” which got the crowd pumped, and just when you thought the song was over he laid down the “black tuxedo, black tuxedo, black, black, black tuxedo” and everyone lost their shit. He interacted with the crowd on many levels, giving handshakes, love and props to his fellow Canadians, and even holding out the mic so our friend got to sing along. The Maestro is 41 now, and I guess that little person inside me from twenty years ago was thinking he would come out with his crazy slanted Arsenio Hall hairdo and moustache, but times have changed and he was in a ball cap and white dress shirt, jumping around on stage with so much contagious energy. Maestro also dropped his biggest hit “Let Your Backbone Slide” which is the best selling Canadian hip hop single of all time, and “These Eyes” which is one of Alex’s favorites.

After a short intermission and a DJ scratch session, Naughty By Nature took the stage. Treach came out in a fur jacket and hoodie, looking like a mean mofo. I have to admit the white girl in me was a little scared, but as he proceeded with the show and joked around with the crowd; calling us “his family” I realized every little white girl needs a big black brother. I was still at the front of the stage stuck next to a wigger who was the longest, lankiest and the leanest white boy I have ever seen trying to dance to hip hop, he was waving his arms around like he was trying to land a plane, and I can’t believe I didn’t get elbowed. However, I was privy to wigger-boy shouting out lyrics in my face whenever he happened to turn my way like he was free-styling his own tracks, which was absolutely hysterical. NBN mixed up a bunch of what we called “white people’s favorite black songs” such as “California Love, Drop it Like its Hot”, and “Golddigger” and in between those scratched up remixes, they would perform their own tracks. The boys opened up with “O.P.P” which made everybody bounce, and gave us “Jamboree, Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” and ending with “Hop Hop Hooray” where they dragged a bunch of peeps on stage and they all danced.

I was hoping there would be some raw break-dance action happening, but the show was pretty dope as is. Treach and Vin Rock also did a shout out to 2Pac, and Treach actually poured some Hennessy on his tattooed arm which had a picture of 2Pac on it. There was so much love in the room last night and the boys kept yelling at us to all get home safe and not fight cuz we are all family, which is a pretty awesome statement for a hip-hop band to make since Vancouver has become Canada’s gang capital. In any case, if this is any indication of what hop hop shows are like, count me in for the next one!

Depeche Mode, "Wrong"

2009-02-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, you guys like Depeche Mode right? Well, here's the first single from their forthcoming album Sounds of the Universe. Produced by Ben Hillier, who also helmed the delightful return to form that was Playing the Angel way back in 'Ought Five, the track actually makes me think of some of the stuff from Dave Gahan's underrated 2007 solo album Hourglass. It's not knock-me-on-my-ass awesome, but it certainly has that recognizable DM sound and the repetition of the song title throughout actually hearkens back to some of the stuff they were doing circa Some Great Reward. Also, does anyone else really enjoy hearing Martin doing his angelic vocal thing as a counterpoint to Dave's tortured sex lizard wail? I sure do! I'm actually pretty excited for this record now!

Depeche Mode, "Wrong (Radio Edit)"

Laughter and Reception

2009-02-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a performance of Erik Satie's ballet "Relâche", which accented small chamber and ensemble pieces of Satie's with theatre, dance and film he had a hand in crafting as well (you haven't lived until you've seen Satie lamping around an artillery gun in slo-mo, replete with his trademark bowler). The show was both lively and contemplative in trademark Satie fashion (although I still prefer his piano work), but the audience's reaction to some of the material presented struck me as odd...

A series of short ensemble pieces were preceded by a suite of three short chamber songs with vocal accompaniment. These first songs were as "serious" and emotive as Satie gets, and were treated as such by the audience. Later, there was a series of brief comedic pieces ("Sports & Divertissements") which were narrated by an actress performing an exaggerated pantomime: the audience laughed throughout. But it was the audience's reaction to "Mercure", the short pieces between these "serious" and "comedic" pieces, which puzzled me. The pieces are brief, seemingly off the cuff. One might describe most of them as comic in tone, but not comedic. The audience listened "properly" to each song, but when each of them came to a quick and sudden end, laughter broke out.

I'm not sure if what prompted the laughter at the end of the pieces was simple propriety - one doesn't laugh during classical music unless there's a clown onstage, as there was with "Sports & Divertissements" - or the sudden conclusions which punctuated the pieces at there end. Were people laughing at how quickly the pieces resolved? At how short they were? If that's the case, it seems like a stunted manner in which to approach comic music. All of the pieces in "Mercure" were brief and resolved themselves quickly. Those which were explicitly comic were so throughout their duration, not just during their abrupt conclusion. If we laugh at the manner in which an episode of "Seinfeld" ends with multiple storylines crashing together in manic chaos, we've also been laughing during the episode. So why not laugh during a piece of comic music as well as at its end?

I suppose I'm drawing a somewhat arbitrary line in the sand between music with explicitly comedic content (Weird Al, Spike Jones, or, say, Biz Markie) and music with a comic approach to form and structure (Sparks, Wire). I laugh at Weird Al's jokes or Biz's zaniness during their music, but if a Sparks or Wire song is both amusing and taking liberties with pop/rock expectations and structural devices, I tend to have a smile on my face throughout a listen, but that doesn't necessary culminate in a catharsis of laughter once the song's ended. I don't keep a straight face until "Field Day For The Sundays" reaches its quick end then break out laughing - "They ended the song after 29 seconds! How magnificently frivolous!" Music rarely makes "jokes" in the most restrictive sense of the term: setup and punchline (although I'd be keen to hear suggestions or examples). It may have a humourous conclusion, but it plays and japes along the way (especially Satie's): everything does not depend on the punchline.

Bah, I have hundreds of problems and concerns about the way music is received in public, especially art music. I don't expect people to be slapping their knees and hooting throughout performances (that actually sounds quite hellish), I just wish that music which overturns so many formal conventions like Satie's would be able to provoke at least some upset in the conventions of listening.

The art of flail

2009-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

So Alex decided to make this blogging thing into a classic game of one-upsmanship last time out. How should a man respond? Should he synthesize his post and his friend's by directing people towards Celtic Frost's amazing cover of "Mexican Radio"? No, that'd be too calculated (but seriously, check that shit if you haven't). Should he wade through countless HOINH-plagued threads on Side-Line in an effort to find a new cut even goofier than "Run Your Body"? A tall order, indeed. Should he write another twenty-page MLA-styled essay with numerous secondary sources on Why I Refuse To Spend Money On Boyd Rice Projects? No, he's got more than enough stuff distracting him from his thesis as is. Should he stop writing in the third person and just quickly troll through my mp3 drive in another Smuckles-inspired flail, and come up with another "cover in another style" track in the form of Thou Shalt Not's Richard Cheese-influenced rendition of "Headhunter", which I used to spin from time to time? Sure, that'll do. Hell, if I'm gonna respond to a track which jacks "That Total Age", I might as well do so with a track which jacks the only EBM club album more overplayed than that one.

Thou Shalt Not, "Headhunter"

Yeah! What now, Alex? You think you're all that just cuz you can drop the ball while blogging every once in a while? Pft. I once went for a full year without posting anything on LJ apart from "Which member of the Bay City Rollers are you?" survey results. I've been cat-blogging since 2000 and I don't even have a cat.

UCNX, "Run Your Body"

2009-02-06T10:11:00.001-08:00

Did you read B's engaging and informative post about US Black Metal on Tuesday? You find me another fucking blog that drops that kind of science, on the real, on the regular. Go ahead, find me one. I'll just wait here.

All big upping aside, that was some good blog. There are two ways I respond to one of my colleagues spitting game like that. I can either take it as a cue to step my posting game up, come up with some next level shit that deserves to share digital turf with the aforementioned freshness. Or to paraphrase Ray Smuckles (patron saint of DiJ), I can choke with the kind of focus and intensity you usually see in successes and come up with some last minute bullshit just to get a post up before the week is out.

That said, the track I’m posting today is pretty damn great. A medley/mash-up of Nitzer Ebb’s “Let Your Body Learn” and Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” by Jersey-Philly EBM players UCNX, straight out the Side-Line forums. It seems kind of obvious now that I think about it. The CD single also features a bangin' instrumental K-Nitrate remix and a UCNX remix of an Idiot Stare track, holy fuck, mid-nineties US Coldwave stand the fuck up! So yeah, suck on that Bruce!

UCNX, "Run Your Body"

American Black Metal: A Beginner's Guide

2009-02-03T22:18:00.001-08:00

It's been nearly two decades since a rash of church burnings and the murder of Euronymous fanned the flames of black metal's infamy to reaches far beyond the Norwegian woods of its birth. Fifteen years after the influence of progenitors like Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer crystallized in the form of Emperor's genre defining "In The Nightshade Eclipse", Norwegian black metal remains an inimitable source of inspiration and controversy for both metal fans worldwide as well as those more interested in pop culture at large. There can be no denying that mainstream attention has forced Norwegian black metal into a constant state of agitated self-reflection. Not that I can blame it - a coffee table book dedicated to any genre's aesthetic couldn't help but stir the pot. Pity the modern day Norweigian black metal band which, along with more classical problems like ridding Norway of Judeo-Christian influence, now has to deal with its kvlt status being constantly endangered by mp3 blogs.

While no one will ever deny Norway as black metal's permanent ancestral and spiritual home, issues like those outlined above, not to mention the sheer amount of time that's passed since the genre's inception have helped other countries forge their own particular brand of black metal. I keep hearing about the strength of the black metal scene in Pakistan, and I'll be honest: I'm dying to know what that shit sounds like. Oddly enough, though, for my money the black metal that's been springing up closer to my door, just south of the border in the US, is what's been pushing the boundaries of the genre in the most rewarding dimensions. Here's a quick run-down of some USBM that's been weighing heavily on my winter-shrouded, cosmically-damned soul.

Xasthur
One-man outfit Xasthur could be said to be emblematic of USBM, especially its healthy respect for yet distance from its Norwegian ancestry. Taking Burzum as a starting template, Xasthur's Malefic jettisoned both Vikernes' NSBM bullshit (huzzah) along with his folklore obsession. Rather than paganism or racial myths, depression and suicide, those standbys of American youth culture, begin to emerge as dominant themes (although the corpse paint remains). It's a strictly low-fi affair with no frilly guitar or keyboard wankery, making Xasthur a formative influence on the ambient black metal and depressive (no, that's not a typo - it's "ive", not "ing" - don't ask me) black metal sub genres, which have flourished in the US.
Xasthur, "Black Imperial Blood"

Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice
Another solo group, Leviathan's Wrest has a history as a prog metal drummer. While he shares Malefic's love of lo-fi monotone, Wrest's rhythm sections are slightly more dynamic than Xasthur's, even if they're hardly flashy. Leviathan also unleashes a tad more traditional black metal brutality, but Wrest's side project, the puzzlingly named Lurker of Chalice, goes off the reservation in some provocative ways. Shoegaze harmonics and distortion are applied to black metal compositional structures, with the odd hint of melody to boot.
Lurker of Chalice, "Granite"

Velvet Cacoon
A Portland group shrouded in mystery, it still remains unclear if Velvet Cacoon are a "legitimate" band or an elaborate prank upon the black metal scene's insatiable desire for ever more extreme and outlandish band mythologies. Stories of drummers falling off of forest cliffs in drunken stupors, connections with the E.L.F. and the "dieselharp" (a guitar amplified through an aquarium full of wine and blood) have been discredited, but a small clutch of releases (not to mention "fake" demos of other bands' material deliberately released by VC to confuse fans) still exist. Velvet Cacoon embody the paradox of low-fi: by not giving a fig about production quality, they draw the listener ever further into their recordings' textures. Black metal's ambient possibilities become apparent through sheer repetition rather than ever softening itself.
Velvet Cacoon, "Avalon Polo"

Twilight
Ah, the great American tradition of the supergroup. Malefic, Wrest, and a handful of the US' other darkest lights worked on a single LP by correspondence. Who'd have thunk that solo black metal dudes wouldn't play nice with others? In any case, the tracks range from the grey skies of Xasthur and Leviathan to the rawness of Twilight's other members' pedigrees in Nachtmystium, N.I.L. and Isis.
Twilight, "White Fire Under Black Text"

Wolves In The Throne Room
Another environmentally-minded outfit from the Pacific Northwest ("If you listen to Black Metal, but you don't know what phase the moon is in, or what wild flowers are blooming then you have failed.") bereft of Norwegian aesthetic and thematic concerns, Wolves In The Throne Room are poised to become the defining band of USBM. Welding psychedelic and ethereal influences to black metal, Wolves' releases seem effortlessly free of any of the pigeonholing to which black metal is too often subject. They've adopted black metal as a means to an intensely personal end and owe no fealty to anything which doesn't take their music where it needs to go. My personal favourite of all of these bands, Wolves In The Throne Room could do to USBM what Ulver did to Norwegian black metal: completely redefine it by leaving it all behind.
Wolves In The Throne Room, "Cleansing"

Slept On: Lowlife

2009-02-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

In this and further Slept On installments, we'll be shouting out bands past and present (but mostly the former) who never received their due.

I was stunned when I first heard about Lowlife. It wasn't that I was surprised to learn that there was another excellent, gloomy dream-pop band from Scotland I'd never heard of - it was the fact that this particular band featured none other than Will Heggie, architect of the stark, echoing basslines which dominated the Cocteau Twins' early releases which knocked me on my back. Rather daftly, I'd assumed that Heggie had simply faded into the woodwork after leaving Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser to develop the glorious, chiming mellifluousness that became their signature sound. In actuality, it turns out that Heggie signed on with a rockabilly band to fill in on bass for some tour dates and recording sessions, then afterwards opted to forge onward with them in an entirely different direction, more in keeping with his previous tenure. Ignorance aside, I couldn't help but have high expectations when I snagged Godhead, Lowlife's third full-length from 1989. Undiscovered (by me) Cocteaus-related work? This had better be good.

I needn't have worried. Lowlife's discography quickly rose above my expectations, and became a hypnotic, multi-faceted jewel in my record collection.

After Rain, a solid EP of galloping post-punk (somewhere between U2 and Skeletal Family), shit got darkly dreamy with debut LP Permanent Sleep. The band's similarity with the Cocteaus is, perhaps expectedly, most noticeable on this early work. The swishy rhythms of tracks like "Mother Tongue" quickly call Heggie's earlier work on tracks like "But I'm Not" and "Shallow Then Halo" from the Cocteau's Garlands. Permanent Sleep is a generally dour affair, with very little light ever penetrating the waves of melancholy which roll over the album with a weary tempo. Sophomore full-length "Dimminuendo" brims with confidence, even if that confidence manifests as wistful contemplation. It's here that comparisons with Echo could be made, but singer Craig Lorentson's voice is of an entirely different cast than Ian McCulloch's. A deep baritone, Lorentson's voice was often mixed to the forefront of Lowlife's records, giving just about everything set to tape a magisterial, if mournful feel.

While there's some critical consensus holding up "Dimminuendo" as Lowlife's best work, I opt for their subsequent album, "Godhead". It is an aching, glowing thing of beauty. When I was in my early teens I bought records rather rarely (compared to my current collecting), and those which I did often turned out to foundational life-changers: "Disintegration", "Substance" (both of them), "The Queen Is Dead". Those records demanded to be listened to ad nauseum, no note or detail going unnoticed or unabsorbed, each lyric striking a chord if only for verbalizing sentiments I'd only just discovered. "Godhead" hearkens back to those days, and reminds me of a time when there was much less music around me, but that which there was mattered so much more. It's a strange thing to encounter music like that in the almost curatorial process of mining through the also-rans and never-weres of a genre one's achieved a pedestrian familiarity with. Lowlife make me feel as though I'm hearing this sort of music - sad, expressive dream pop - for the first time again.

A fourth album, "San Antorium", added some brighter sparkles to the formula. A reissue campaign has brought Lowlife's first four LPs, bolstered with "Rain" and plenty of singles, remixes and session tracks back into circulation, along with a nineteen-track "introduction to" CD. Extensive liner notes by Brian Guthrie, the band's manager (and, yes, Robin's brother) add to the reissues' strength. No info on whether the band's final album, "Gush", will be getting the same treatment. There's also an excellent archival website with plenty of info for the newcomer to boot.

This is gorgeous stuff, people. Don't let it pass you by.

Lowlife, "Hollow Gut"

Lowlife, "Bittersweet"

Seabound, "Scorch the Ground (Forma Tadre remix)"

2009-01-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've always quite liked Seabound, their style of synthpop has always seemed more thoughtful and emotive then many of their contemporaries for lack of a better description. They've also always maintained a pretty high degree of quality in their releases. The band has just released a b-sides and rarities comp When Black Beats Blue which is a bit disappointing, coming as it does on the heels of a live record, but does have a few gems for those folks who are waiting on the next album length platter of original music. Of specific note are a version of their club classic "Hooked" with a distinctly different vocal and a nice live version of "Watching Over You" that Reagan Jones of Iris lends his vocals to. The real exciting bit for me though is a Forma Tadre remix of "Scorch the Ground", leveraging as it does DiJ's general FT stannery and specifically my love of his remixes (especially the ones for Assemblage 23's "Document" and haujobb's "Penetration".)

On a side note, I would very much have liked to see Seabound's "Day of the Century" make the cut for the disk, due it being a b-side that is in serious contention for the group's best song. I guess since Metropolis decided to tack it on to their rerelease of No Sleep Demon that it didn't need to appear again. But hey, at least that gives me a reason to mention that that record along with most of Metro's catalogue has been uploaded to eMusic, my own personal favorite digital music retailer.

Seabound, "Scorch the Ground (Forma Tadre remix)"

Zentriert ins Antlitz

2009-01-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

I dashed into the DJ booth, demanded to know what was playing, scribbled the name down and hit up Google as soon as I got home. The cause of this flurry of activity? Zentriert ins Antlitz, a dark electro band heavy on the ambient side.

If "Frames"/"Solutions For A Small Planet" era Haujobb floats yr boat then you need to check this stuff out. Thankfully, they've made that painfully simple by offering up their 2007 full-length, "Diametral", for download under a Creative Commons license, as well as assorted EPs and side project releases. Their actual CD releases often include access to entire discs' worth of remixes and bonus tracks. In short, they're on top of getting the goods to you quickly and with panache.

I haven't become so quickly obsessed with tracking down all of a dark electro band's releases in years. Sometimes it takes hearing true innovation and complexity to make you realise how lacking so much of the other material in a genre is. ZiA's music is a transmission from a wondrous alternate universe in which the 90s expeditions made by Haujobb into the coldest reaches of electro (as well as Forma Tadre's symphonic work, Klinik's dalliances with psy-trance, and Mentallo & The Fixer's sheer sonic overload) were acknowledged as the great leaps forward that they were and embraced, rather than being shunned for the sake of stale arpeggios and safe-as-houses club mixes.

-Zentriert ins Antlitz, "Der Zorn des Lammes"
-Zentriert ins Antlitz, "Jahr Fuer Jahr"

Reductio ad Hitlerum

2009-01-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

Hey there, loyal DIJ reader! Have you, like us, been roundly disappointed by just about everything Apoptygma Berzerk has put out since 2000's "Welcome To Earth" (their Kim Wilde cover being a notable exception)? Would you say that yr disappoinment has been rooted not so much in the band's desire to explore new territory (believe me when I say that I want EBM bands to succeed when they branch out) but by the sheer mediocrity of the limp ballads and uninspired rockers that the outfit churned out on "You And Me Against The World"? Have you ever made those thoughts public? Are you getting tired of me shoving words in yr mouth?

If the answer to the above questions is "yes", then congratulations: Stephen Groth just called you a Nazi. Yep, that's right: in an interview with Side-Line, El Grotho tries to set the record straight on Apop's stylistic shifts, but ends up whinging about how harsh fans of Apop's earlier material have been in their critiques of the band's newer efforts, a hardship which Groth equates with Nazi censorship:

I get this kind of nazi war feeling when reading some of them. It's just like the Nazi's 'Berufsverbot', Jews, artists, thinkers and politicians were not allowed to do what they were doing because they had different opinions on things. The Nazi's decided what was good music, good books and good art, and then burned the rest. They burned everything that they didn't like, remember the Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass in Nazi Germany. If you can not enjoy and accept that people think different and have other views, then thats really sad. Reading some of these comments does gives me that very bad taste in my mouth...

Y'know what leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Steve-o? Punks who wanna play Big Rock Star and then act as though they don't understand the plot of "Ziggy Stardust". I accept that people have different views: you think the last nine years of Apop material are great, I think they're trite pablum - no need to drag Hitler into the debate, dick. If your ego is so big that it can be wounded by a bunch of online rivetheads who call your bid for mainstream success as they see it to the point that you feel the need to not only violate Godwin's Law but compare yourself to victims of the Nazis, then you haven't just failed at Using The Internet 101, you've also failed at being a rock star. The pretty boy guitar hero that you've fancied yrself for some time should be above such petty grievances. Shit like this just goes to show those of us who've slagged you in the past that not only do you lack musical chops, Groth, but that you lack the promotional skills to succeed in the big league you've been striving in vain to make a mark in for nearly ten years now.

Oh yeah: Groth also goes on some weird tangents about how "some" media coverage of the moon landing may have been faked, that while he's not a 9/11 Truther, "the official explanation of 9/11 is bullshit", and may or may not favourably compared Apop to The Beatles. Draw yr own conclusions.

Hot Chip, "Transmission (Joy Division cover)"

2009-01-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

I've personally heard more Joy Division tributes and cover versions than most music bloggers have had hot lunches. It's a crowded field with few standout selections, people tend to either go way faithful (boring!) or single out one element or lyric to hammer away on ad nauseum, like The Killer's enormous flail on "Shadowplay". Aside from my fondness for The Swans' fantastic cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (I like the Gira vocal version a bit better) and Moby's version of "New Dawn Fades" (which might actually just be due to my associations with Heat) I wouldn't give a toss for most reinterpretations of JD's material. I do however quite like Hot Chip, mostly because they're clearly influencd by a lot of bands I like without ever sounding slavish. Indeed, the kind of indie electropop they ply wouldn't have sounded out of place on any number of Factory releases, which is I guess why this cover of "Transmission" works for me so well. Actually, what I keep thinking of when I hear the weird vocal treatment and the piano is the Bowie/Eno Berlin trilogy, which itself was a pretty enormous influence on Curtis and company. It's a pleasant little surprise courtesy of a forthcoming War Child covers compilation which will also feature Franz Ferdinand covering Blondie (!) The Yeah Yeah Yeahs covering the Ramones and TV on the Radio covering David Bowie. It's enough to pique my interest, and I fucking hate covers compilations.

Hot Chip, "Transmission (Joy Division cover)"

Freedom Highway

2009-01-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

You may know that we love The Boss here at DIJ. We also love Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. And on a day like today, goddamn if we don't love America.

Kommando XY, "Genesis Does (What Nintendon't)"

2009-01-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

OH RAD! Old school EBM stylists Kommando XY have a track on their debut album Welcome to Gestrikland that sings the vocoded praises of the Sega Genesis! Named for one of Sega's delighful slogans from the early nineties (pre-dating the release of the SNES I think) the track shouts out numerous beloved Sega franchises like Alex Kidd, Wonderboy and Golden Axe. It's pretty silly, but for the faithful like yours truly it's also a loving tribute to one of the great consoles of yesteryear. The rest of the album is pretty hot, it delivers on the promise of old school DAF style EBM that bands like Spetsnaz have largely squandered.

Kommando XY, "Genesis Does (What Nintendon't)"

Cinematic Rehabilitation

2009-01-19T16:20:00.000-08:00

There are countless songs which become inextricably linked with a moment in film or television they're set to: "In Dreams" in Blue Velvet, "Ride of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now, hell, even "Born Slippy" in Trainspotting. In those and other cases, a bit of music we'd always enjoyed or had never heard was simply given a new context - more reasons to appreciate it. But what happens when the context of a film is so powerful that it alters the way you feel about a song you previously loathed? Here are a few songs which were rehabilitated forever for me via "the magic of pheelm":

"Paper Planes" in Slumdog Millionaire
If you've hung out in as many record stores as I have over the past three or so years, yr probably just as sick of M.I.A. as I am. Her beats are decent but too tinny for non club listening for my taste, and her near-monotone delivery drives me batty. But it's the fact that Arular and Kala are played just about non-stop in just about every sort of record store imaginable, presumably due to her supposed cross-over appeal, which pushed her from an otherwise unremarkable musician I'd have quickly forgotten about into a ubiquitous force of annoyance. How many times have you heard "Boyz" while trying to buy some jeans or renew yr driver's license? (how many, how many?) In any case, I've been content to grimace whenever any of her stuff came on and leave it at that, and "Paper Planes" was simply another Pavlovian stimulus (in all likelihood - I don't remember ever really paying attention to it, apart from possibly being irritated that she was jacking one of my favourite Clash tracks).

I watched Slumdog Millionaire while going through my second run of The Wire, which might've helped open my ears when "Paper Planes" began to lazily slide overtop of a montage of brothers Jamal and Salim hustling on the trains of Mumbai. The similarities between the brothers and the corner kids of Baltimore were obvious, which made me think about "Paper Planes" in relation to the innumerable hip-hop tracks which could score Bodie or Wallace's lives. Suddenly, "Paper Planes" didn't sound like another club track of the month so much as it did an anthem to the camaraderie that arises out of desperate necessity during the hustle, whether it's taking place in India or the US. Hell, you could tie it all back in with Dickens' cockney urchins as well: "Paper Planes" would suit the Artful Dodger just right. The grind may be different, but the game stays the same.

"Lookin' Out My Back Door" in The Big Lebowski
I'd never given much thought to CCR before watching The Big Lebowski. In all honesty, I tend to tar most country/folk tinged rock mega-groups from their period with the same brush: lazy stoner shit which didn't realise how quickly it would become irrelevant. Their political differences and feud aside, Neil Young and Lynard Skynard sound just about the same to me: boring.

It isn't so much the particular scene in which "Lookin' Out My Back Door" is playing that quelled my distaste for CCR, and it's not even about the song itself. More than anything, CCR seemed to fit not just the character of the Dude, but his entire ethos so well that the stunted nature of his taste became part and parcel of what made him such a lovable and memorable film character. At least he hates the fuckin' Eagles, man.

"Don't Stop Believing" in The Sopranos
Let's be honest, to anyone under forty with an iota of taste, Journey are a fucking joke: one to be trotted out at drunken karaoke, a ritual which itself becomes ripe for parody. I don't think I need to stress just how low the cultural capital of this arena rock cheesefest was before the final episode of The Sopranos aired.

David Chase knew all of this when he picked "Don't Stop Believing" (rather than, say, "Thunder Road" or anything else by the patron saint of Jersey): "in the location van, with the crew, I was saying, 'What do you think?' When I said, 'Don't Stop Believin',' people went, 'What? Oh my god!' I said, 'I know, I know, just give a listen,' and little by little, people started coming around."

Chase accomplished a miracle far above and beyond his accomplishments with The Sopranos itself: he forced millions of people to think about the lyrics to a Journey song. Does Tony delusionally imagine himself and Carm to be the hard luck couple in the song? If the movie goes on and on and on, does that mean the stunted, betrayed and warped American dream we breathlessly bore witness to for six seasons will simply repeat, with Tony always forced to look over his shoulder whenever a mook in a Members Only jacket gives him the hairy eyeball?

However you choose to interpret it, David Chase undid decades of associations between "Don't Stop Believing" and unfortunate hair and even more unfortunate decisions made in the back seats of Trans Ams, and replaced them with a fresh batch of far more provocative ones: family, doubt, alienation, and onion rings. Always the onion rings.

"Layla" in Goodfellas
Growing up when I did, Eric Clapton was never the inspired, wild-eyed shredder he was in his youth. He was that old blues man wannabe boomer who desperately sought credibility by leeching off of older, more talented bluesmen (seriously, Clapton, did you have to use both known pictures of Robert Johnson to establish your worship of him?). I'd listened to a couple of my dad's Cream records and liked them enough, but there was no way those records could overpower the AOR juggernaut of "Tears In Heaven", or the blues adaptation of "Layla" from Clapton's "Unplugged" disc, with audience members mewing their approval at Slow Hand the whole way through.

I might've heard the original version of "Layla" at some point previous to watching Goodfellas, but that's besides the point. Eschewing the "main" portion of the song completely, Scorsese jumps straight to the clarion piano chords (which might be playing on the radio of that bullet-ridden pink Caddy). Bittersweet, the refrain repeats and repeats as body after body is found, as Henry realises that his friendship with Jimmy is the only thing keeping him from the dumpster. Years later, it's impossible to hear the song and not imagine Carbone's body in the meat locker.

Hey, whaddaya know? Some quick research indicates that Clapton had nothing to do with the piano coda portion of "Layla", which was actually composed by Derek and The Dominoes' drummer, Jim Gordon. I guess in closing and with a clear conscience I can say: fuck Eric Clapton.

The Prodigy, "Omen"

2009-01-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

Oh my... well, the verdict is in: The Prodigy are trying to be Pendulum. If you thought the first single from the forthcoming album 'Invaders Must Die' sounded like Howlett and company trying to jack the mighty Australian D&B juggernauts' steez (which, I certainly did), peep the new single "Omen". Moreso even!

The Prodigy, "Omen"

Also, sampling horror movie themes? Not a good look in 2009. I expect that sort of rich, smelly gouda from someone like Combichrist, whose new album is also pretty lacklustre by the way.

At the very least The Omen single offers a fun remix of "Invaders Must Die" by UK Dubsteppers Chases & Status.

The Prodigy, "Invaders Must Die (Chase & Status remix)"

Are we Human, or are we Dancers?

2009-01-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

The Killers have released their fourth album titled "Day & Age", which I picked up at London Drugs, since I was there to get my Cold FX for this lovely disease-filled holiday season. I popped the little disc into my computer and dragged my sick ass under the covers to listen to the new CD and close my eyes.

After the first listen, I wasn't overly thrilled about the CD, as it didn't really have anything of substance that jumped out at me. I had been anticipating a disc from them that was reminiscent of their debut album "Hot Fuss", which was filled with stand-out songs that were danceable rock tracks - meaning I could drop them in a DJ set at the club and not fear an empty dance floor, while still providing an alternative track list.

The opening track on the CD "Losing Touch" pretty much sets the tempo and style of the disc. It has a steady beat with an 80's sound to it that each song on the disc adopts in its own way. Even though the only standout is the title track of the CD, "Spaceman" (which totally rocks my world), the CD still has enough songs on it that make you want to listen from start to finish. What I am saying is, just because 99% of the songs that make it onto the charts these days are pop songs with a rock/hip hop/country appeal, doesn't mean songs that don't have an annoying chorus can't be on best selling albums.

Another track I really enjoyed on this CD was "Joyride" - and it wasn't a Roxette cover either! It did bring me back to "Rio" by Duran Duran with its sax solo in the middle of it, and I was hoping that I would open my eyes to a phone being delivered to me in a pool while I lay in the sun, but of course it was just the Vapo rub on my feet mixed with the electric blanket that was giving me the tropical fever. Mix that with the Caribbean drum beat in "I Can't Stay", and maybe if I took a bit more cold medication I really would have thought I was on a deserted island.

Of course if you are a Rock Band freak, you will also be excited to know that "Spaceman" is available for download, and I am happy to say it was one of the best $2 I spent this year. Remember, we are only 12 days into this year, and most of the money I have spent has been to keep myself from coughing up everything inside of me.

I voted this as one of my top five albums of 2008, because I do judge my albums on how much of the CD I actually listen to, and in this case, it's the whole thing!

"I caught a glimpse, now it haunts me."

2009-01-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

Fever Ray, self-titled
Immediately after completing a stunning set of live shows, the first they'd ever undertaken (thankfully captured for posterity on the shoddily-titled An Audio-Visual Experience), The Knife announced in 2006 that they were going on a lengthy hiatus, with no activity on the horizon until 2010. It seemed like a rest was well-deserved: Silent Shout wasn't just the record of the year, for me and many others it felt like the event of the year. We'd been treated to something truly special, and waiting until siblings Karin and Olof felt the time was right to return to their decks would give us time to continue to absorb the work they'd already put out. So, the announcement of a single and video from Karin's solo project, Fever Ray, and an almost immediate digital album release thereafter, had the element of surprise well on its side. We'd hardly wrapped our heads around the possibility of more creepy electro from everyone's favourite pitchshift-happy chanteuse, let alone had the chance to have our expectations ramped up with preemptive Silent Shout comparisons, before the record was upon us.

While skin-crawling lead single and track "If I Had A Heart" suggested that we'd be treated to an impenetrably dark and menacing record, beatless tracks shrouded in veils of mist thick enough to make Silent Shout seem like a walk in the park, that's not quite the case. This record is indeed informed by the quantum leap that the siblings made between Deep Cuts and Silent Shout, but it also bears the influence of all three records they made together. The clean synthpop geometry of The Knife's self-titled debut is in effect on "Dry And Dusty" and "Triangle Walks", and there are also hints of mellower moments from the Deep Cuts era, like "She's Having A Baby" and "This Is Now" scattered throughout. While Fever Ray could pass for a Knife album if we were none the wiser, knowing that Olof isn't on board this time does yield some subtle distinctions between this record and Karin's previous work.

Fever Ray is sparser than The Knife's output, and eschews most semblances of dance music for the sake of evocative synth landscapes. I could just be hearing what I want to, but I can almost detect some hints of YMO's electronic exotica. Melodies are understated, but rise through repeat listens with hypnotic certainty. It's nothing if not an atmospheric record, but we shouldn't take that term to simply be shorthand for "the unsettling mood of Silent Shout" or even the funereal gloom which borders on being black metalesque in the case of "If I Had A Heart". The closing track uses a processional rhythm as the basis for a vocal performance by Andersson which can only be described as hymnal, but given that the track's called "Coconut", I'm sure as hell not going to hazard a guess as to what it's a hymn to.

Fever Ray is an album for homes and for forests, but perhaps not the haunted marble houses and chthonian woods which Silent Shout cast us spiraling into. There are hints of nostalgia and warmth to the strangeness, almost as though we're revisiting spaces from childhood at night, seeing them through a glass darkly but rediscovering lost moods and moments, even if full understanding remains occluded.

Bonus tidbits:
-The album art was done by none other than Charles Burns, author of the crap-yr-pants awesome Black Hole comics, which were the inspiration for the hella creepy "Silent Shout" video.
-The contact page of the Fever Ray site has booking contact info, so we might be lucky enough to see Karin take this album on the road.

Fever Ray, "Triangle Walks"

Alex's Fashionably Late Top 10 of 2008 pt. 2

2009-01-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

The home stretch!

5. Cut Copy, "In Ghost Colours"
No better album has come out in this flavor since the groundwork was laid out in the late eighties by New Order and the Happy Mondays. Far from limply replicating the work of those bands, CC expertly incorporate the intervening twenty years of indie rock and the rise, fall and institutionaliation of house music. Which would be impressive enough, if it wasn't easy to just ignore that stuff and get sweaty on the dancefloor or in your bedroom like it's not even a basic thing whenever you hear "Hearts on Fire" or "Lights and Music". Dance music and rock music needn't have ever had an artificial wall erected between them, and listening to these mop topped Australians do their thing, it's kind of hard to imagine there ever was such a division.

4. Portishead, "Third"
"So we haven't put out a record in eleven years or so. I was thinking that instead of what made us massively popular in the nineties, what we might do instead is jettison any traces of trip-hop (which was kind of a made up genre anyway) and reinvent ourselves as a weird, seventies Krautrock band. And instead of our meticulous studio sound, let's dirty things up a lot, have lots of loose ends and oddball choices and generally make a record that sounds like we kinda jammed it out direct to tape. Oh and the first single will be an abrasive sea change on the order of Radiohead's 'Idioteque'*, and will be fucking genius. Does that sound like fun guys? It does? Okay good, you set up the echoplex and the Moog, I'll get Beth on the phone."

* Music writers of previous generations would likely have used Dylan plugging in as their point of reference here. You have permission to stab me to death and bury me in a shallow grave if I ever reference that largely aprocryphal nonsense.

3. Disfear, "Live the Storm"
I would give anything to live in a world where the meeting of Heavy Metal and Punk Fucking Rock sounded like this and not like hardcore, which is largely BORING. This record is a monster, it sounds like the greasy biker album that Lycanthropic Motorhead would make in between burning down your village, pillaging your livestock and drinking all the whiskey available to them regardless of vintage, pick sliding and basement show chanting all the way. Actually, regular Motorhead might do that stuff, but you get the idea. Featuring At the Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg and production work from Converge's Kurt Ballou (him again!), "Live the Storm" can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and it absolutely will not stop. It is the most energizing album I have heard in ages and is the perfect soundtrack to basically any violently anti-social activity imaginable.

2. Fuck Buttons, "Street Horrrsing"
I'm sure somebody must have tried to do a pop noise record before, but chances are it was someone like the Boredoms and kind of sucked. Not so this gem, which happily marries the seemingly disparate worlds of fun catchy loop based music electronic music and hard, unforgiving white noise. Toss in some Portion Control style industrial and the occasional touch of oozy ambience and you have the album that I have returned to most over the past year, the one which demands constantly to be put on in any context, and to be listened to for it's entirety. I have hard time putting a finger on what makes it so compelling, devoid as it is of quaint ideas like songwriting and even "songs" themselves. Maybe it's the idea that pop music needn't be burdened with those concepts or silly qualities like accessibility or approachability. Maybe I just like having some british guy shout at me through a children's toy such that his voice distorts, while his buddy plays a toy piano through a fuzz pedal. Maybe I won't even understand. A number one record any other year if not for....

1. m83, "Saturdays = Youth"
Well would you look at that, Bruce I agree on the number one for the first time ever. I am way too personally invested in this album to EVER be able to be objective about it. I was listening to it at the exact moment my life fell apart in 2008. I was listening to it at the exact moment I finally realized that no matter what I was going to be okay. It has been a companion to me this year, the feelings I have for it are akin to those you might have for a beloved pet. I am incapable of not viewing it through that lens, so I tend to get gushy and sentimental when discussing it. It's hard to think of where to begin given that. It's a big record, open and warm, enveloping without smothering. It's atmosphere is omnipresent, whether you're hearing it loud over a PA or in tinny headphones. It sound like an album you know back to front from the first moment you hear it, I swear I knew the choruses to before getting thirty seconds into any given song. It sparkles like distant stars, soft and immeasurably far away. It's a timeless fantasy of what the eighties were, a platonic representation of what someone who might have never heard Kate Bush, This Mortal Coil and the Cure might imagine them to sound like. It's the sound of the first time you ever thought you were in love. It's the score to the moment when you realized that life is hard and confusing but mostly eventually turns out okay. It's a friend you haven't met yet.

I don't have anything to say about 'Saturdays = Youth' that will convince you of why it's the best album of 2008. I guess a lot of people don't feel the way I do about it. That's okay.

It's something special.

A brief interlude

2009-01-14T10:56:00.001-08:00

Okay, I got like half a dozen half-written posts and still haven't put up the second half of my best of 2008 (12 more hours before the 15th yo!) but seriously, you gotta peep the new single from my personal pick for biggest crossover potential in first quarter 2009:

White Lies, "To Lose My Life"

Their catalogue is only three singles deep, but I effing love everything I've heard and the full length is due next week. Very exciting! I've described them as The Killers from an alternate reality where they ape Echo & the Bunnymen instead of New Order, and I think that's pretty god damn apt personally.

Alex's Fashionably Late Top 10 of 2008 pt. 1

2009-01-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

As always, I am late to the party, holding a bottle of cheap fortified wine and bringing with me uninvited guests of dubious character. In all fairness, I am abiding by my rule that the Top 10 of the previous year can be posted any time up to the middle of January, or the release of the first great album of the following year. And since I haven't heard anything yet so far in 2009, I'm fucking golden.

As always, these opinions overlap somewhat with those of my colleagues, after all if we didn't share a sensibility we likely wouldn't be writing a music blog together. Also, my opinions are clearly always correct and dissenting opinions will be dealt with swiftly and in the most harsh fashion possible.

10. Nine Inch Nails, "Ghosts I-IV"
I remember hating on the noodly instrumental bits on "The Fragile" when it was released some 10 years ago now. As history has gradually shown that record to be flawed but much more substantial then my young brain was willing to accept, I've come to appreciate Trent's skill with short pieces of incidental music, little soundtracks divorced from his still occasionally adolescent lyrical themes. Ghosts is a pretty pure expression of that side of his work, marrying the man's undeniable ear for a catchy riff or synth patch with his studio virtuosity. Of course it's not much of a listen from beginning to end as it lacks continuity or album craft, but there are more than enough gems spread across two disks or one download to make it a memorable and notable release.

9. Genghis Tron, "Board up the House"
A testament to the spirit of experimentation that seems to have sprung up in the traditionally conservative world of metal. The fact that a group consisting of guitar, vocals, keyboards and drum programming can make one of the most blistering and dynamic metal records this year would certainly seem to suggest that the winds of change have not passed over that most brutal of genres without effect. Nominally a post-metal/IDM (that's "Intelligent Dance Music" a term which is almost as meaningless as it is dumb, natch) crossover, 'The Tron' have managed to marry the spastic energy of their previous releases with a newfound sense of structure and songwriting chops I wouldn't have expected from them. Perhaps it's the influence of producer Kurt Ballou of Converge fame, who's track record for 2008 is pretty impressive. Regardless, I don't own any records that sound like "Board up the House" which is notable in and of itself. It's the best and likely only sonic outing of it's kind in 2008.

8. Memmaker, "How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising"
A side project from Iszoloscope mainman Yann, Memmaker is way less complex Ant Zen noise, and way more banging club techno/electro with an ear for a bit of dancefloor distortion. Although there's plenty of DJ candy on the album, it's the breakdowns and less dancey pieces that really highlight the attention to craft that went into making the record. Big leads, more complex then you might expect beats and cute sample work make for a memorable and substantial album for the dancefloor, the headphones and even for a little high energy housework.

7. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!"
For the last couple of years I was starting to suspect that as a fan of Nick Cave I was likely occupy that special hell reserved for fans of once great artists, the circle where you don't actually enjoy any of their latter day output but still buy it and struggle to derive some kind of value from it. That's probably why "Dig Lazarus, Dig" is such a welcome surprise. Allegedly revitalized by the departure of Blixa Bargeld who vehemently opposed the writing or performance of anything lighthearted, fun, or rock n' roll like (or so Cave would have us believe in numerous toss-Blixa-under-a-bus type interviews) DGD is everything I want from a Bad Seeds album. Upbeat and blackly humorous, weird and atmospheric and stuffed with gutter intellective, it offers the strongest songwriting from Nick and company since "Murder Ballads". If he can keep the momentum from this and his Grinderman project rolling, we might have a string of good records from everyone's favorite Evil Elvis.

6. The Presets, "Apocalypso"
I don't have much to offer on this one that my fellow contributors haven't already covered, and better than I would have to boot. So suffice to say that "Apocalypso" is the sound of a band obliterating the softmore slump barrier and delivering on all the potential and expectations promised by their debut. "This Boy's In Love", "My People" and "Talk Like That" are amongst the greatest club bangers of the year in any genre, but the album is listenable and enjoyable in any context.

Numbers 5-10 tomorrow!

The Return of The Return of the Durutti Column

2009-01-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column's never been a showboat, either in his musical style or in the promotion of his craft. Remaining loyal to Factory long after Bernard and the gang had jumped ship, and even returning to the fold for Tony Wilson's brief revival of the brand as Factory Too, Reilly seems to have always taken the path of least resistance, even if it's cost him sales-wise. Durutti Column releases seem to have been directed by a sense of willful obtuseness: low circulation, reissues quickly going out of print. Debut album (cheekily titled "The Return of the Durutti Column") came in a sandpaper sleeve, forcing the buyer to keep it separate from their collection lest other covers get scratched. Obviously a label like Factory attracted those motivated by a desire for unlimited expression, not exposure, but if I'd written the lion's share of an album as well known and loved as "Viva Hate" I'd be reminding people of that constantly while promoting my own material, not to mention putting the smooth on girls in the disco by pointing out that they're dancing to my guitar playing whenever "Suedehead" gets spun.

If I may wax a tad romantic, for me the Durutti Column's music has always been inextricably connected with images of Reilly's face, which has become a favourite subject of Natalie Curtis' photography (yes, that Natalie Curtis). Always gaunt, always topped by an unmanageable mop, Reilly seems the sort who wants nothing more than to be left in peace and to make his music. And his music itself is so free, so expressive, so content to simply explore whatever pastoral soundscapes it comes across (cheap comparison: The Durutti Column sounds like what would've happened if Erik Satie had been born in 1950s Manchester and had picked up a guitar and echo pedal) that it seems a shame that so few have had the chance to hear it, when it's so inviting, unassuming and rewarding.

All of this has been a preamble to reporting that, prompted by the rediscovery of a cache of old master tapes, a box set consisting of the first four Durutti Column albums with two bonus discs to boot will be seeing the light of day sometime this year. This is fantastic news for die-hard Factory heads like yours truly, as well as young'uns just beginning to look beyond the Joy Division/New Order monolith and discover what was so special about that time, that label, that city.

The Durutti Column, "Sketch For Summer"

Ice MC, "Scream"

2009-01-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

When I was about ten a (rather well off) friend of mine went on an exchange trip to Germany. When he came back he played me a few mix tapes he'd made by recording songs off the local pop radio stations. Given the time period and the location, it's no surprise that the majority of the tunes were eurodance, although I certainly had never heard of the term at the time. I remember hours of D&D sessions which used those tapes as a soundtrack, but what sticks in my mind more than anything is a track by a British bloke named Ice MC. While Ice MC never made much impact on this side of the pond until his "Think About The Way" was featured in Trainspotting (it's the BONG-DIGGY-DIGGY-DIGGY-BONG-DIGGY-BONG" cut in case you need a refresher), he won my ten year-old heart with a bit of horror-themed silliness called "Scream". See if you can figure out the reason why:

No idea? Wind it back to 2:46. The man breaks the track full-stop to announce that the terror inspired by simply listing a ream of horror movie characters has been sufficient cause for him to lose control of his bowels. The sheer nerve of this, coupled with the inherent hilarity of the word "plopping" to a ten year-old (plus the cutting of the word immediately afterward), was enough to send my friend and I into unstoppable paroxysms of laughter. That small portion of the mix tape was rewound and replayed ad nauseum. Neither of our parents could get us to stop insisting at the dinner table that we, too, were plopping in our pants.

I hadn't thought about the song for years until just now. Was it still as hysterical as I remembered, I wondered? Was the idea of a eurodance song which prominently featured the word "plopping" still the funniest thing I could ever imagine? Yes. Yes it was.

Slept On: Vampire Rodents

2009-01-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

In this and further Slept On installments, we'll be shouting out bands past and present (but mostly the former) who never received their due.

Vampire Rodents were a sample-based outfit who released five albums over the course of the 90s. A far cry from the quirky synth-gurgles of fellow sample-fiends Severed Heads, core members Daniel Vahnke and Victor Wulf (50 points for not needing stage names to sound industrial as fuck) turned to musique concrete and other abrasive forms of recent classical music for their inspiration, while their DIY ethic (pictured at left: custom notation for sample orchestration) led them to collaborate with Dan Gatto of Babyland infamy on several tracks. Jarring string sections were thickly layered overtop of rackety, Foetus-like percussion, with occasional forays into funk and disco breaks. It's what we wanky critics like to call "difficult" music, and chronic problems with record labels prevented much more than a cult following from ever emerging. I can't help but think that had Nettwerk maintained its initial commitment to legitimately underground music (rather than selling short their foundational artists once Sarah McLachlan broke in the US), they could've helped turn Skinny Puppy's fanbase on to Vampire Rodents.

Items of interest:

-Official MySpace page with unreleased archival pieces.
-An entertaining and caustic interview from 1996 in which Vahnke holds forth on sampling, the record industry and the like.
-The eBay account where Vahnke sells old VR records from time to time, although contacting him through MySpace might be a better gamble.

Vampire Rodents, "Trilobite"

Evilyn's Top 5 albums of '08

2009-01-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

In no particular order, here are a few of my favourite CDs from this year that you should check out.

MSI - “If”
Not only does this band put on an entertaining live show but they also actually make music worth paying for, which I know, has become so passé this decade. This is usually the part of the review where I tell you which songs on the CD to check out and why they rock, however with this particular album ALL OF THE SONGS RULE, so just get this CD and TURN IT THE FUCK UP!

Bloc Party- “Intimacy”
The first track on this CD is going to remind you of the Chemical Brothers “Setting Sun” because of the way the song opens and the drum beats that follow. This is another CD that you can pretty much listen to front to back; it has a great mixture of sound, from slow songs to fast dancey tunes that make you wanna shake yo’ moneymaker.

The Killers- “Day & Age”
It wasn’t quite what I expected from the Killers this time around, a little less dance-floor friendly, but nonetheless an excellent CD filled with a wicked selection of tunes. The track “Spaceman” is so awesome it’s even featured on Rockband 2, so you can pretend you are Brandon Flowers, and who doesn’t dress up like the people they impersonate in Rockband anyway?

Cut Copy- “In Ghost Colours”
As I mentioned in a previous post on Def In June, this CD pretty much rules, and after seeing them perform a live show at the Commodore it only reassured my love for this band. Get out your keffiyeh and your skin tight tapered pants and dance like a queer to this album, its worth it.

The Raveonettes- “Lust Lust Lust”
The combo of doo-wop and pop rock that this band creates make you want to wear a poodle skirt and a bouffant, only the poodle skirt will be of a skeleton dog and your hair will be pink. A few of my favourite tracks on this CD are “You want the Candy” and “Dead Sound”

"We'll tak a right guid-willie waught"

2008-12-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from all of us at DIJ! Whether yr ringing in the new year with scotch like me, or just want some bile in yr new year cheer, here's the Real McKenzies taking up the Scotch Bard.

The Real McKenzies, "Auld Lang Syne"

Bruce's Best of 2008: Top Ten Records (and then some)

2008-12-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

'sblood! I've actually cobbled my list together before the clock strikes 12 this year. Some minor business to take care of before we get to the main event:

-Notable EPs of '08: Ashbury Heights' "Morningstar In A Black Car" and Rudimentary Peni's "No More Pain."

-Two records I missed upon their release in '07 but which absolutely dominated my playlists in '08: the far-out-and-gone heroin buzz of A Place To Bury Strangers' self-titled disc, and the heavenly sugar rush of Asobi Seksu's dreamy "Citrus".

-Apologies to Sparks, Poni Hoax, Billy Bragg and Motörhead, who released material which I wanted to get to this year but for reasons of time, money, or sheer unavailability was unable to.

√2. Guns N' Roses, "Chinese Democracy"
There's no way to speak about this album and attempt to compare it to any other that was released this year, and it sure as hell can't be ordered into something as flippantly hierarchical as a Top Ten list. In lieu of any attempt at a proper summation, I'll just say that my expectations (which had fallen into the uncanny valley as the probability of the album's release increased) weren't dashed to pieces, and that I found lots to love here. For the record, my love for Gn'R isn't just limited to "Appetite", as seems to be the case with everyone who decided to hold "Chinese Democracy" to that standard - it includes the baroque and extravagant Rose-penned opuses found on "Illusion II" ("Breakdown", "Estranged", "Locomotive"), and if you can't hear the connection between those moments and "CD", then you just can't hear the album for the myth.

10. The Cure, "4:13 Dream"
As I predicted earlier, the casual delivery of this one was its saving grace rather than Achilles heel. Instead of having to wait for the mood to strike to listen to it in its entirety, I found myself cherry-picking from "4:13 Dream" whenever a phrase from a song drifted through my head, something I do with very few Cure albums ("Kiss Me" and "Wild Mood Swings" being the exceptions). Also, a great showcase for the now fantastically tattooed Porl Thompson after his return to the fold.

9. Rome, "Masse Mensch Material"
Luxembourg's Jerome Reuter is on a roll. He's issued three LPs in as many years on Cold Meat Industry which have single-handedly made me sit up and pay attention to neo-folk again, rather than simply dismissing the entire genre as hollow posturing at best, and masturbatory nationalism at worst. While Reuter doesn't break from the genre's military fixation, he filters all manner of pan-European jingoism through the prism of universal suffering (cue token version of "Wir Moorsoldaten"), and inevitably finds all rhetoric wanting in the face of the pain of the individual. What remains? Art. And strangely enough, this manifests in "Masse Mensch Material" in the form of some songs which, with some different window dressing, could pass for torch songs, or at least decidedly poppier fare than neo-folk typically permits. The man's got a keen ear for songcraft, and makes the most of his near-lounge singer croon (I still hear similarities with Gavin Friday) as he guides us through another dark tour of life and love during wartime. Cynical, austere, gorgeous: this is neo-folk to believe in.

8. Heartbreak, "Lies"
An italo-disco revival was one of those things you just joked about in 2008 in the wake of electro-house, not to mention recent flirtations with acid-house by innumerable bands as of late. You never expected it to happen, let alone for a new italo album to sound this fresh and relevant. To be fair, one band doesn't constitute a full revival, but if the respect Heartbreak's record and earnest live show have garnered is any indication, "Lies" might not be the only Moroder-worshipping LP available to lovers of falsetto-laden candy-floss in 2009 - but it'll still probably be the best. Angst-ridden numbers like "Regret" and "Don't Lose My Time" lend some intriguing pathos to a genre that would usually mistake the term for a club in Torremolinos without sacrificing an ounce of dancefloor potential, but it's mission statement cut "We're Back" which raises Heartbreak well above the standard of a retro-novelty act, and sets the bar high for electro in the new year. Who wants a new beat renaissance this time around?

7. Weep, "Never Ever"
Doc Hammer uses his new wave fixation as catharsis and gives us this, 2008's best break-up album. Goth as fuck without ever being over-bearing or pretentious, Weep deftly plots out points held by Mephisto Walz and The Sound, and much territory between. World-weary yet lushly pleasing, this record is the sound of watching a sunset after a long day at the factory. It looks as though Doc's got NY shows and touring plans in the works, so hopefully this marks the beginning of an at least part-time return to music by one of the most canny purveyors of the dark stuff.

6. The Raveonettes, "Lust Lust Lust"
I'll admit this one didn't grab me on the first couple of spins. "Meh, they've gone back to the 'Chain Gang of Love' well, which is better than another overly pictureque album in the style of 'Pretty In Black', but where are the tunes?" Oh, they're there, all right. "You Want The Candy" kicks open the door of your high school gym and subjects you to the most aggressive make-out in prom history, and "Aly, Walk With Me" is compelling evidence that the Raves should've earned the nod for the last James Bond theme instead of Jack Black. What seemed at first like an overreach into unfamiliar territory is actually just the porting over of their golden ear for melody and harmony to smoother textures. The song may change but the "yeah, yeah, yeah" remains the same.

5. The Presets, "Apocalypso"
Feisty Australians avoid sophomore slump and come out pitching pure club heat. While the dark, stabby attacks of "Kicking And Screaming" and "Talk Like That" give the impression of a uniformly stark and merciless album upon initial listens, more soulful undertones begin to emerge later, and not just on show-stopper "This Boy's In Love" (still my choice for club jam of the year). As you snuggle up on the couch with the last couple of tracks, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's "Chill Out" era KLF that's whispering sweet nothings in your ear. Their live show's grown by leaps and bounds, too. While they were certainly no slouches when they toured for "Beams", they were an unassailable fortress of light, noise and love this year.

4. Disfear, "Live The Storm"
Hardcore is one of the few genres I'll own up to flat-out disliking. The aggression is never tempered with fun, innovation, or, heaven forfend, virtuosity. Given that, it seems like nothing short of a miracle that Disfear understand that straddling the metal/punk boundary doesn't just involve yelling louder or playing faster, but actually paying attention to what makes metal great (memo to NYHC kids: put down the Minor Threat bootlegs for a minute and buy "No Remorse"). Sure, they've got an unfair ringer in former At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg, but he can't take credit for the most balls-out guitar work I heard all year. Each song is a perfect maelstrom of blistering speed made up of equal parts riffage and noodling. One could even be forgiven for thinking that the ghost of Cliff Burton was in the room during the recording of epic finale "Phantom". In closing, this record is so hard it made me want to headbutt myself. Eventually deeming that impossible, I had to be content with shouting myself hoarse along with it and shotgunning tallboys.

3. Memmaker, "How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising"
Rarely have I found myself listening to what should by all rights be a wholly club album at home and on the bus with such regularity. These slabs of perfectly executed harsh electro served up by two Montrealers were no-brainers when it came to the dancefloor, but as anyone familiar with Yann Faussurier's primary project Iszoloscope knows, there's precious little that's simple about the man's work. Wave after wave of static crashes around foundations of beats, on tracks like "Insomnia", never rendering anything illegible but instead offering our inner IDM-head plenty of space to roam and chin-scratch while our feet stomped til our feet were raw. Im rhythmus bleiben.

2. Cut Copy, "In Ghost Colours"
2004's "Bright Like Neon Love" was a pleasantly breezy trip through some of your favourite synth-pop motifs of yore. Skimming from one refrain to the next without looking back, it wasn't so much an album of songs ("Going Nowhere" being the notable exception) as it was a sequence of moods and themes. "In Ghost Colours" took a gamble by collating those sources, layering them atop one another like so many colour gels, firing a light through them and hoping to hell that what appeared on the wall held together compositionally. Cut Copy didn't just come together with their second LP, though - they took off into the stratosphere and shone their colours into just about every available corner: clubs, your mom's workout playlist, cel phone ads, frosh keggers. In spite of that massive exposure, "In Ghost Colours" held strong, becoming one of 2008's most durable and rewarding listens.

For starters, who knew Dan Whitford could write such great songs? "Unforgettable Season" could be a B-side from "The Head On The Door" (that's high praise from me, in case you were unsure). The breakthrough that comes when "So Haunted" shifts from its pensive verse to its teenage breakaway chorus is emblematic of the keaning need for release and freedom that marks much of "In Ghost Colours". It's a record about desire, in many ways, but never resorts to tacky come-ons or serenading. Not to saddle it with unfair comparisons, but "In Ghost Colours" does for looks across a dancefloor what "Born To Run" did for the aimless meanderings of Jersey youth: it raises the stakes by adopting the aesthetics of myth. Wherever you were when you were listening to "Lights And Music" or "Hearts On Fire" (possibly even stronger here than it was upon its '07 single release, bolstered by the company of its fellows), you felt the same want, the same need to reach out into the aether of possibility that those dancing to the same songs at clubs around the world were working towards. In that sense, it functions as a network of sorts, much in the same way as "Silent Shout" before it. The lyrics are still vague and slight, but no harm, no foul.

So, here we are: twenty years after it was recorded, the spirit of New Order's failed acid house gambit "Technique" returned in the guise of a bunch of Australian graphic designers to redeem itself and define dance music for 2008. A fine time, indeed.

1. M83, "Saturdays = Youth"
It proved easy to play the 80's match-up game with the tracklist of "Saturdays": "Skin Of The Night" = Cocteau Twins, "Up!" = Kate Bush, etc. I've also read no small amount of complaints about Anthony Gonzalez's moves away from his established ambient-in-a-cathedral sound (although have those people listened to the second half of the record?). But anyone with any love for the sources Gonzalez pays tribute to here will have already heard traces of them in his previous records. This isn't another limp attempt at an 80's revival, people: it's an artist coming full circle to what motivated them to begin to compose in the first place. It's also the most stunning record I had the privilege of hearing this year.

Starting the album with some impressionist piano and high, shimmering vocals, "You, Appearing" fakes you out into thinking you've got another pleasant record of soundtrack pieces to look forward to - "like Air but with more purpose" was always my shorthand description for "Dead Cities" and "Before The Dawn". Instead, you're treated to a clutch of immaculate pop tunes which use Gonzalez's flair for production as an accent, rather than the focal point. And what tunes they are. If you take the album title at its word, they're paeans to youthful indolence, drama, folly and romance. They stretch out to the horizon's vanishing point, as infinite as a weekend reprieve from coldly suffocating high school seems on a Saturday morning. They're also quite varied, ranging from the gossamer waltz of "Skin Of The Night" to "Graveyard Girl", an immolation of every horribly true teen angst cliche at the altar of the JaMC. If the ability to shift between so many styles with such grace and calm is Gonzalez's ace in the hole on this outing, then perhaps the true unspoken patron saint of the 80s guiding this record is actually This Mortal Coil.

Colours shift as twilight approaches on the second half of "Saturdays", and as pop structures give way to the slow burn of Gonzalez's trademark orchestral manoeuvres in the dark like "Highway of Endless Dreams" and "Too Late". Intriguingly, hearing some more conventional M83 compositions after his pop forays lends more credence to his dramatic builds and crescendos. Rather than hearing the score to an unmade film, you're now onstructing your own cinematic narrative based on what's come previously, casting Kim, Jessie and the Graveyard Girl forward into all tomorrow's Saturdays. As the endless drone of "Midnight Souls Still Remain" rings on, the length and depth of Gonzalez's accomplishment begins to sink in. You come out the other end of this record a bit different: cheeks rosy with gusts of wind, heart still quavering from the rise and fall of the tides it was subject to. If nostalgia requires distance and rose-coloured glasses, then "Saturdays = Youth" isn't a nostalgic record at all: there's no distance from the experience here, and for a few astonishing, Blakean moments, everything appears as it truly is.

Alex's Best of 2008: Honourable Mentions

2008-12-30T05:43:00.000-08:00

First off, I'll co-sign Bruce's endorsement of Boris, Ladytron, The GZA and Bison, all good records and all solid listens that might have made top 10 in a weaker year. Here's a few more.

Prodigy, "HNIC pt. 2" Not as compulsively listenable as last year's Return of the Mac "mixtape", this record still benefits from the fire that an impending stint in the bing lit under P's ass. With better production and a bit more focus this would have been great, as it is it's mostly pretty good. It's best moments harness a spooky, weary energy that make the most of Prodigy's pathetic, burnt out hood-soldier routine.

Booka Shade, "The Sun & the Neon Light" Frankfurt's poster boys for tasteful, minimal electrohouse deliver a pleasing little slice of mellow business. No standout dancefloor monsters, mostly just chill head nodding goodness with the occasional twitch. Good for the occasional late night walk or what have you.

Mindless Self Indulgence, "If" Consistently the band that most appeals to my inner 15 year old, MSI serve up another platter of juvenile but appealing nonsense. "Never Wanted to Dance" is the best track they've written since "Faggot", and the rest of the record keeps pace with it's energy. Solid production helps elevate this one from the novelty band territory currently ruled by the likes of The Electric Six.

The Bug, "London Zoo" Dubby electronics with some zesty toasting by various dancehall artists doesn't ever really break out the way I wanted it to, but was still pleasant enough. This one seemed to ride the critical enthusiasm for dubstep that Burial kicked off last year. It ain't that kind of a beast really, but is still a decent listen.

Bruce's Best of 2008: Honourable Mentions

2008-12-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

All in all, a pretty satisfying year for new music. So satisfying in fact, that I felt the need to shout out (in no particular order) some discs that didn't quite nudge their way into my Top Ten, yet still found their way onto the speakers with pleasing regularity.

Gang Gang Dance, "Saint Dymphna"
Never has the schism between the dancefloor and the indie snob's bedroom disc seemed so tantalizingly thin, and yet so tragically apparent. In a perfect world we'd all be dancing to this on Friday night and drinking martinis named after different species of whales. I get the sense that this is the sort of album Bjork wanted "Volta" to be, and maybe if it had been, I'd still be listening to it.

Nine Inch Nails, "The Slip"
After two consecutive LPs of getting his guitar-rock ya-yas out, I was initially wondering if the new, fitter, happier, more productive Trent 2.0 had permanently abandoned his softer side. "Ghosts" quickly put the lie to that, but I couldn't conceive of it as a cohesive single album as such (and hey, neither could Trent, given the need to divide it into quasi-EPs). The seemingly off-the-cuff, "what, another album?" delivery of "The Slip" showed that we could have our cake and eat it, too: an A-side of straight-forward rockers, and a B-side of moody synth-driven pieces. Reznor's Bowie worship continues unabated as he delivers his own take on the structure of "Low", and while it ain't up to that standard, "The Slip" kept the now-furiously productive NIN machine on a steady roll.

GZA, "Pro Tools"
One could argue that a Fiddy diss by an elder statesman like the GZA was both cheap and a grab for attention, but anything that brought extra attention to this solid number was fine by me. It's great to have a disc where the Genius isn't in danger of being eclipsed by his more flamboyant Wu brothers. Even though he's not fighting tooth and limb to stay above the waves of cinematic beats that Muggs threw at him for 2005's "Grandmasters" collab, that's a bit of a plus on "Pro Tools": the spotlight's all on the GZA, and he keeps it both relaxed and masterful.

Boris, "Smile"
Everyone's favourite "Yeah, but have you seen them live? So fuckin' loud, man!" band applied some shoegazey gloss to their two formulas (that would be "depresso-crescendo" and "garage-spazz" for those just catching up) this time out. Hell, they even tried to pen a power ballad in "You Were Holding An Umbrella", but ended up composing something that earns its emotive response honestly. I steered clear of the whole multiple mixes/tracklists debacle, so no comment on that.

Bloc Party, "Intimacy"
I never understood the hype, and in some ways I still don't, but I like this. I'm sure some of their core fanbase are upset at the overproduction, but it's about time that some of these post-punk revival kids realised that their predecessors didn't flee from the mixing desk in terror. The remix disc of an LP which never existed.

Bison, "Quiet Earth"
Fuck, this is heavy. And happening right in my backyard! Hide the good china. Stoner metal's never sounded so fresh. Or so much like thrash, for that matter. The perfect antidote to BC's Wolf Parade/Black Mountain rep.

Earth, "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull"
On the flip side, drone metal never sounded so stoned. Their Cormac McCarthy obsession continues unabated, but here they're looking not so much out the window at barren plains, but rather at the inner landscape While Thinking Very Deeply about the munchies. To quote Benjamin, "Hunger as an oblique axis cutting through the system of the trance."

Ladytron, "Velocifero"
While there's no clear club smash like "Everything You Touch" or "Sugar" to be found, they've admirably maintained the compositional standard they achieved with "Witching Hour", which pushed them so far ahead the rest of the pack desperately trying to flee from the dread shadow of electroclash. "Black Cat" drops serious bass while "Runaway" is smooth n' cute, but the whole affair's slicked with a sheen of glistening black.

Dr. Dooom, "Dr. Dooom 2"
"They wanna sue me! Why? Cuz I'm Doc Dooomy!" Oh, Keith. You so krazy. If there was one thing 2008 was missing before this dropped, it was a Simon Cowell diss track. The slap-happy horrorcore of "Run For Your Life" was the aural equivalent of the Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and KurtMasta Kurt's production is solid from back to front.

Wire, "Object 47"
A pleasant mix of "The Ideal Copy" era overdrive and the dada-pop of the recent Colin Newman fronted Githead side-project. Lead-off track "One Of Us" is both a "Map Ref" quality sing-along and a bitter riposte to now ex-guitarist Bruce Gilbert. I'm still quite peeved about the cancellation of the Vancouver gig, BTW.

"Don't say what you mean, you might spoil your face."

2008-12-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

Perfect As Cats: A Tribute To The Cure
Tribute album. The phrase alone should make your skin crawl and move you to scour your record collection to ensure that a Cleopatra operative hasn't snuck "A Loving Industrial Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber" into it. To paraphrase Ray Smuckles, PLEASE LORD REMOVE TRIBUTE ALBUMS FROM YOUR PLAN FOR US. Tribute albums are among the lowest tricks a record company can play upon the most rabid quotient of a band's fan base. Not only will they be compelled to purchase it for the sake of completion, but they more than anyone will be painfully aware of just how short of the originals so many of the cover versions fall.

The Cure have not been immune to this plague, and like the drooling Cure devotee that I am, I've bought them all: the token Cleo goth tribute, the synthpop bands no one's heard of tribute. Hell, I've even waded through much of the ongoing Pink Pig "we're gonna cover every damn note the band ever committed to tape" Project. So when I caught wind of a Cure tribute primarily made up of young indie-somethings on the horizon, I admit I felt more than a bit like Chuck Yeager: being called back to the front once again to do combat well past my prime with youngsters armed with all manner of new-fangled technological gadgetry. Then I noticed it was a double-disc album. "Christ," I said to myself. "Those are some fast MiGs."

For the most part, "Perfect As Cats" is just as bad as you'd imagine. Someone named Geneva Jacuzzi (c'mon, how could I make that up?) shits the bed while doing a monotone "vampish" take on "The Walk". ("What if I make fun of goth when I cover The Cure? Get it? Because goth is so silly! This'll be great! Wait'll I tell my 'filmmaker' boyfriend!") Kaki King gives Jacuzzi a run for her money in the most ridiculous name contest, and manages to turn the goofy horns and synth gurgles of "Close To Me" into an overly earnest acoustic guitar strum-fest. It's a ploy that could've worked (see Frente!'s cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle"), but King's way-too-breathy delivery makes it sound like a Bright Eyes B-side. Even worse, some bands sound like they just don't care. BlackBlack (who are constituted of Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus' daughters, apparently), Les Bicyclettes Blanches and Katrine Ottosen all sound as though they're doing a pre-gig soundcheck by lackadaisically running through the last song they heard on their tour van's tape deck.

It's not all dreck, and some tracks were able to at least remind me of why I'd bothered to bite into this turd sandwich in the first place - the strength of the original material, even if very few of them take said material into engaging new territory. Astrid Quay offer a cute and honestly straightforward take on "The Caterpillar", and Devastations' version of "The Drowning Man" could be mistaken for the original from a distance. There's nothing new about Mariee Sioux's Joni Mitchell-wannabe plucking of "Lovesong" (and, not to go hog-wild with Achewood references, but no one should get famous simply by covering songs off of "Disintegration"), but her voice kinda reminds me of Marissa Nadler's, so points for that.

It's a testament to the compiler's...mercy, I suppose, that the last handful of tracks on the second disc veer away from what's become a very draining routine by that point. Perhaps anticipating how the listener might feel after umpteen power-pop covers of "Grinding Halt", lo-fi fuck-ups of "Pictures of You" and art-school piss-takes on "Why Can't I Be You?", they've stacked the end of "Perfect With Cats" with some provocative renditions of The Cure's darker material. Corridor take a gamble by shifting the focus of "The Kiss" away from Robert's psych-guitar histrionics and onto Boris Williams' sten-gun drum fills. While the latter disappear almost completely once the former comes to the fore in the original, Corridor keep the drums front and center the whole way through. Tara Busch drives "Let's Go To Bed" well away from the security of its synth-pop playground and into the middle of a broad field of chilling snow designed by Kate Bush where it shivers exquisitely.

And then we've got Jesu's take on "The Funeral Party". Full disclosure: I'm a massive Jesu fan and the promise of hearing Justin Broadrick apply his bowel-quaking waves of symphonic feedback to one of The Cure's most magisterial tracks was motivation enough to fight my way through this whole affair. Expectations were high, but Broadrick never disappoints. At first the production sounded a tad thin, but then I realised I was listening to the track at the same middling volume as the rest of the album. Jesu's sonic aesthetic has always necessitated some extra volume, and with that accomplished a whole new world was revealed. The drums plant massive Roman columns, the synths shear upwards to mottled pink heavens and the vocals are pushed through a fine honeycomb mesh made of silver. Aided by some other worthy highlights (this album blatantly begs to be cherrypicked in emusic or iTunes), Jesu's track redeems much of "Perfect As Cats", and almost makes me forgive it for exposing my brain to the moniker Geneva Jacuzzi. Almost.

Jesu, "The Funeral Party"

Yuletide Greetings

2008-12-25T07:02:00.000-08:00

In the immortal words of Eazy E, Merry Mothafuckin' Christmas. Merry Mothafuckin' Christmas, everyone.

Here's a lovely little tune from the Raveonettes fab "Wishing You a Rave Christmas" EP. As my dad put it, who are these kids ripping off the Everly Brothers? We kid the Raveonettes.

The Raveonettes, "Come On Santa"

Dragonforce @ The Croatian Cultural Centre, Dec. 19

2008-12-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

Trish's Take
I originally bought these tickets as a birthday present for my roommate, who was a far bigger DragonForce fan than myself, but couldn't really send her to the concert alone, so I ended up getting a ticket for me and my boytoy as well. As per usual, we missed the first two opening acts, and got to the Croatian Cultural Centre just in time for the band to take the stage.

Due to the worldwide success of the Guitar Hero games, of which DragonForce had a song on the third edition, the crowd ranged in ages from about 5 years, all the way up to Moms and Dads in their 50's, several of whom waited in the foyer of the venue until the show was over to collect the kids and drive their mini-vans back to the burbs. I found myself sandwiched between awkward teenagers, some who were fat-lipped with big braces and others with bad skin, and toques that they used to cover up the haircuts their Moms gave them before the show. The venue was a sauna of pot smoke and sweat, which only encouraged me to get fresh air, and made me as angsty as the kids I was surrounded by, especially since the show was sold out and crammed full of hormones.

DragonForce was composed of six dudes with long hair and extended guitar solos that made your fingers burn just from watching them play. Each song was like an epic battle that seemed to last long enough for you to slay the last beast in an effort to save the universe while riding your stallion into the sunset with your sword held high. On the stage they had built ramps so the back of the stage was a higher level than the front and you could run up the ramp at the side of the stage to get to the back to rock out with the other band members. This basically turned into a track, in which the guys in the band chased each other around in circles like little kids do when you give them too much sugar. The whole show was a build up to their track "Through the Fire and Flames" which they played as the encore, while ZP Theart (lead vocals) showed us his "snowballs."

The boys in the band were very generous, and Sam (lead and rhythm guitar) was almost too giving with his not-so-subtle invitation to any ladies in the crowd who wanted to "hook up" after the show, which only came across as super slimy and creepy since the girls at the show were either still in training bras or nursing ones. ZP Theart, threw several handfuls of guitar picks into the crowd after the show and thanked the audience multiple times to show his gratitude for this sold out show which was the last show of 2008 in their world tour.
---
Bruce's Take
Unlike my more truant colleague, I managed to catch the second opening act, Finnish folk metal act Turisas. Judging by the number of amped up fifteen year-olds sporting their merch (and face paint), these guys have been hip with the young end of the metal fanbase for at least some period of time, and I guess it's not difficult to see why, even if I can't share their enthusiasm.

Think of it this way: DragonForce had to find touring partners that wouldn't usurp their headliner status by appearing more badass than them. When you have songs influenced by the Pac-Man score, this is no mean feat, but Turisas fit the bill. Despite faux-fur jerkins, black n' red facepaint and repeated insistences that "this is Battle Metal!", Turisas' sound would've almost fit in better at a folk fest than a metal show. Guitars and drums were almost absent from the mix, being overshadowed by taped synthesized horns and other wind instruments, as well as the (wait for it) on-stage fiddle and accordion players. While Turisas are going for a Viking aesthetic, the rhythms of their music owe far more to Irish and Scottish reels than Norse battle hymns. Rounding things off with a cover of Boney M's "Rasputin" confirmed that yes, these guys are about as musically hardcore as Lordi. They seemed to be having fun, but I'm not sure how much of the crowd was in on the joke. Quothorn must be spinning in his grave.

As for DragonForce themselves, they did seem genuinely happy to be rounding off their tour in front of an appreciative Vancouver crowd. When Theart commented that the crowd's initial furor had dampened after the first couple of numbers, he likely didn't know that it was due to the brawl that had broken out in the pit. Note to high school jocks: no matter how proud you are of your recent growth spurt, taking on three Hell's Angels, even if they're smaller than you, is never a successful concert-going strategy.

I'd heard that the 'Force use a fair amount of backing tape, but if that's the case they've masked it impressively. Both Herman Li and Sam Totman were in fine form all night, not only admirably pulling off their own ridiculously wanky solos, but mocking each other's as such. Material from this year's "Ultra Beatdown" was warmly received, even if the excessively decadent intro sections of some pieces were made even more apparent live. It's a rare band that can fire off four or five solos before the first verse begins.

Personal highlights for me were "Soldiers Of The Wasteland" and "Valley Of The Damned", the latter of which was enough to drive me into the pit, and also enough to drive me out of it. My circle skills ain't what they used to be, and I couldn't keep up with the kids who can likely actually complete "Through The Fire And The Flames" on Expert. Also, it's difficult to shout along with the band's irresistibly anthemic choruses whilst taking elbows to the back.

Gang Gang Dance, "House Jam"

2008-12-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

Like most record geeks, trash-talking Pitchfork accounts for a goodly portion of mine and Alex's music jibber-jabber (I'd have thought that the Lil' Wayne's knob gobblin' would've stopped by this point, but no), so it wounds me to have to tip the hat to them. But, as I found out when they directed me to Poni Hoax in '06, their year-end Best 100 Tracks lists are usually good for pointing you to one or two gems which would've otherwise slipped through the cracks, and with a crop of records as good as 2008's, there's plenty I've missed...like the fact that Gang Gang Dance dropped an LP a couple of months ago.

I loved their 2005 release, "God's Money", for it's ability to keep intriguing tonal soundscapes and sheer fucked-upedness in the air simultaneously without ever disappearing up it's own arse. "House Jam", from their new(ish) "Saint Dymphna" LP, manages to do the same while adding some noddable synth-flourishes. I started my day off with a snowy walk set to the first disc of Kate Bush's "Aerial", and "House Jam" was the perfect digestif: cool snares and inviting vocal coos lay the ground for a medium-tempo groover, which even manages to work in some tasteful Low-Life-era New Order style guitar.

Cue this up, and enjoy the snow while it lasts.

Gang Gang Dance, "House Jam"

Edit: There's a slightly tweaked remix as well, but I think I prefer the original.

Current 93 - Black Ships ate the Sky (JG Thirlwell remix)

2008-12-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

If you aren't familiar with Current 93, specifically the solemn and bizarre nature of their apocalyptic folk music I don't know how to convey how weird the idea of someone doing a hot electro remix of one of their tracks is. Of course, who better to take the title track from c93's excellent 2006 album Black Ships ate the Sky and turn it into a hot dancefloor mess then ol' Jim Thirlwell, aka Foetus, aka Foetus Interruptues, aka you've got Foetus on your breath, aka Scraping Foetus off the Wheel, aka about a million other variations of the word "foetus". Not content to be producing his own tunes as well as soundtracking the best show on TV (*pssst* it's The Venture Brothers), apparently ol' JG took some time out of his busy schedule to throw together a Current 93 remix 12" with those wacky kids in Matmos entitled Black Ships Heat the Dancefloor. It's a pretty sweet mix, with nice use of middle eastern instrumentation, a thumpin electro beat and David Tibet's notoriously love 'em or hate 'em vocals vocodered up hella robotical style. Check the video out, interpretive dance and Tibet looking particularly eurotrashy.

Current 93 - Black Ships ate the Sky (JG Thirlwell mix)

And for a standard of comparison, the original track:

Ohgr

2008-12-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

There is nothing quite like going to a goth concert on the Sabbath. Ohgr was performing at the Red Room on Sunday November 23rd, and after patiently waiting for this moment, hundreds of Vancouver's spookiest all made an appearance to pay tribute to some of the former members of Skinny Puppy. I was late, as usual, arriving to the venue amongst a sea of black, sometimes I wonder how I manage to find my circle of friends when we are all camouflaged in the dim lights. To an outsider, it would look like a cult meeting, or a ritualistic sacrifice was about to take place since we were all dressed in a uniform of stompy boots and industrial gear, but really it was just a roomful of anarchists who wanted to tear the place down.

Ogre's live performances remain the high water mark for lead singers in our corner of the pool. As I realised when I was able to see him live for the first time on the "Greater Wrong of The Right" tour, it's one thing to watch the video of "Ain't It Dead Yet", to read about the effect of Ogre's elaborate costuming at shows, to have it pointed out to you that everyone in the business has jacked his style at one time or another - it's another thing entirely to viscerally experience it for yourself. The man is at home on a stage from the moment he steps onto it, and never ceases to be in the midst of some grotesque pantomime from that point onward: part butoh artist, part court jester. On that note, our hometown boy was looking damn lithe and spry for someone pushing fifty.

Ohgr graced the stage in a backwards bodysuit which made us think he was singing through an alien mask, however looking at his hands you could see that they were facing the wrong direction and this mask was on the back of his head. In typical Ohgr-style, he slowly removed layers of this costume throughout the show, turning into a freaky-looking mime, and then removing that mask to reveal a face like Heath Ledger's as the Joker in Batman. What most intrigued me about Ohgr's performance was not the experimental sound to his latest CD, but the grace with which he moved his hands and the crazed look on his face while he did so, it was like watching a freak show clown try to seduce you. And in some sick way, I was completely mesmerized.

Being someone who loves to rip it up on the dance floor on any given night, I was super stoked to hear the last few songs Ohgr played, "Cracker" and "Water". The fans gave so much love to the band as they rocked the venue, I swear I almost saw a tear in Nivek's eyes near the end of the night, because he looked thrilled to be doing a live show after all these years. He made several shoutouts to other local musicians including Bill Leeb from Frontline Assembly, who I spied in the audience.

As mentioned in Rob Kukuchka's guest review of "Devil In My Details", the new ohGr album is both decidedly darker and dirtier than either of its predecessors, or even the two post-reunion Skinny Puppy albums, for that matter. As such, it was a shock to hear just how emotive and even plaintive the songs from "Devil In My Details" could be when presented in a stripped-down live environment, with little in the way of backing tracks.

Now that I have had the opportunity to listen to Ohgr's newest CD at a live venue, I am definitely feeling more encouraged to pick it up even though it sounds more experimental than I usually care for.

Take Me Out!

2008-12-11T10:04:00.001-08:00

The Commodore was sold out on Tuesday night for the return of Franz Ferdinand. The Scottish boys took to the stage and immediately brought the energy making the crowded venue scream. It was a simple show with no extra props, guest appearances, or special stage setup, just a couple of dudes with guitars and a wicked sound system with a few cool lights from the venue thrown into the mix.

The sound was amazing. I don’t know if this was because the last live show I saw was such a huge disappointment, but Alex’s voice sounded exactly like it did on the CD. This actually frightened me at the beginning of their set, only because it sounded good enough to be lip-synched. However, as the show progressed, my assumptions were corrected as the extendo-remixes of a few of the songs and a few off-key notes by the front man proved to me that this was the real deal. Even more exciting though, was Mr. Kapranos’ stage dive during the last song of the night “This Fire” while still playing guitar!

I wasn’t sure if one of the girls near us had her headphones on and was secretly rocking out to something completely different because she was moving in all kinds of strange directions that were off beat and bizarre. I am not sure if it was her interpretation of “Take Me Out” or if perhaps someone slipped a little E into her drink and she didn’t know it yet. Either way, she kept our table quite entertained when we weren’t singing along and clapping our hands.

Franz Ferdinand sang a good mix of their first and second CDs, with a new one due out at the end of next month. I have to admit I was a little surprised when they played “Take Me Out” and “Do You Want To” before the end of the show. I thought for sure they would save one of those for the encore, but instead they gave us big hits like that throughout the show, as well as “Michael” and “The Dark of the Matinee.” The boys from Scotland proved to us that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy stage setup; all you have to do is come out and play your heart out.

In the Temple of Duds.

2008-12-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

I guess you can still call them The Sisters of Mercy even though there are only two original members, and that would be including Doktor Avalanche as one of them. The only remaining "sister" is Andrew Eldritch, who has been the frontman of the band since its conception in 1980.

Now that the band (Eldritch) has refused to release any new CDs, the only income he is getting from the band is from touring. The Sisters surprised us with another tour, which landed in Vancouver on Monday night after their last show here in March of 2006. I swore after the last show I wouldn't bother seeing them live again, but after a few drinks on the weekend and a comp ticket, how could I refuse?

For denying their gothic roots, The Sisters, put on a show that was dark and macarbre, and although Mr. Eldritch would like to prove to his fans that he is a rock star, the sunglasses he sported in the darkness of the nightclub proved otherwise. I was about three people from the front of the stage but due to the low light levels, and the heavy fog being dispensed, I was unable to get a decent photo on my camera because it was far too dark, and the flash only reflected in the fog. Only a goth would wear sunglasses to a live show this dimly lit. Andrew also sported the brightest neon yellow shirt I have ever seen, to again remind us that he is a rock star, not a black-wearing poet who has a voice deeper than the graves his fans dig for their myspace photoshoots.

A few other fans who were close enough to heckle the Sisters yelled out comments to turn the music up, and rightfully so, as you could barely hear the vocals that when played on your home stereo were melancholy enough to give you the shivers. However, our dear un-goth friend Andrew is either too old, or just a total jerk when dealing with fans, since he told us that if we wanted it louder we should go stand in front of one of the speakers since we must be deaf. I guess he really must be a rock star with an attitude like that. Mr. Eldritch carried on to play some of their big hits like "Dominion" "Lucretia My Reflection" and "Marion" which kept the crowd happy in any case.

I will give credit to the fact that there were definetley more people at this show than the previous one, however that could be related to the fact that the Ohgr show was the day before, so a alot of people may have come in from out of town for that and just stayed the extra day. This is my theory since I doubt there were that many people raving about the show the last time they came around.

The Prodigy, "Invaders Must Die"

2008-12-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

So, after almost five years of relative silence, The mighty Prodigy have announced that they'll be releasing their new album in March of 2009. And to that end, they're giving away the first single "Invaders Must Die" on their website. And...uhm... it's not very good. At best, the track comes off as a second rate Pendulum rip-off. Pendulum themselves were actually responsible for the most banging Prodigy track since "Smack My Bitch Up" when they remixed "Voodoo People" for the Prodigy's Their Law singles compilation. Of course that remix was four years ago, and Pendulum have since moved on soundwise to doing some less good but at least still fun rock-oriented Drum n' Bass. So yeah, the Prodigy sound doubly out of ideas here, as they jack a sound from another artist who've already moved on from it, and don't even do a particularly convincing job of it. I'll cop the album when it comes out undoubtedly, but this ain't exactly filling me with confidence.

The Prodigy, "Invaders Must Die"

Super Bonus Video: Prodigy - Voodoo People (Pendulum remix)

Black Orchid, "Horizon"

2008-12-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

Ascii.Disko's always been a bit touch n' go for me. Daniel Holc can pitch the odd quirky synthpop screwball, but he can also fall into an electro-by-numbers rut (as was the case when we peeped him at Kinetik) which, while not unpleasant, certainly doesn't reinvent the wheel, or stick trading cards to its spokes for that matter.

So, when I started doing some digging on Black Orchid, the name that was credited with crafting "Horizon", a delightfully dour tune about admiring a loved one's sleeping face in the pale blue cast of dawn that jumped out at me from an otherwise so-so compilation, I was (pleasantly) surprised to learn that Black Orchid is actually Holc's new side-project, which sees him returning to his post-punk roots. Further digging revealed that while a full-length Black Orchid album, "From Airlines To Lifelines", has been recorded, it's been cast into limbo by label drama (said digging also revealed that Holc evidently wasn't loving Final Scratch).

In the meantime, enjoy "Horizon". It's a pretty little thing which calls to mind a more sedate version of The Sound, or perhaps a less overwrought version of The Wake. Best not combine the two and produce a waking sound, lest Holc's dozing muse starts yawning and fumbling for her slippers, ruining the whole picturesque scene. (sorry)

Black Orchid, "Horizon"

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Patriarchy"

2008-12-01T15:34:00.001-08:00

I've generally enjoyed both Dresden Dolls CDs, and was thinking about picking up frontwoman Amanda Palmer's debut solo disc in anticipation of checking out her show when she rolls through Van in about a week's time...

...Until today, when I got word that Amanda's parted ways with label Roadrunner in response to their refusal to promote her (dope) new video. Take a look for yourself and see if you can spot the problem that Roadrunner had with it:

Well? Isn't it obvious? Weren't you roundly disgusted by all of the belly fat that Amanda was showing? I mean, look at the video at 4:11! There's an actual crease in her stomach, for cripes sake! Wouldn't you think it was entirely reasonable to ask Palmer to re-edit the video so that viewers with the sexual maturity of nine year-old glue-eaters could be spared the sight of a woman who doesn't look as though a stiff gust of wind might break her spine?

What's that? You wouldn't? You'd call that a pathetic pile of sexist double-standard bullshit from a label that's had no qualms about promoting material from gentlemen of the more corpulent persuasion like Ian Astbury and Dino Cazares? Well, you wouldn't be alone. Palmer fans have united in forming a Rebellyon which will be forwarding pictures of their own bellies to Roadrunner (pithy messages written in Sharpie 'round said bellies are optional) for the foreseeable future.

I'm holding off buying "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" until I can do so at the show - sure I'll have to wait a bit but there's a better chance of more of my cash going to Amanda's pocket and staying out of Roadrunner's. I've bought plenty of CDs from Roadrunner in the past, and I'm not saying I never will again (although a mea culpa from them at this point couldn't hurt), but let's just say that I can easily find alternate uses for my entertainment dollar in these economically tight times.

Shit like this is why my head feels like exploding when people claim that "sexism is over" or that they "don't get" feminism.

Run To The Lights Of The City

2008-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

Cut Copy’s latest CD, “In Ghost Colours,” is one of the best albums I have heard this year. Not only are the songs filled with bouncy electronic beats, but the flow of the whole CD from track to track is such a smooth transition that after hearing it you will feel like you were just smooth talked into donating your life savings to Unicef. You feel so good about it, but you’re not really sure why?

Some of you will recognize “Feel the Love” from the TV commercial for Virgin Mobile Canada. This song was huge this year and brought Cut Copy to a sold out show on October 9th at the Commodore Ballroom with “The Presets” as the opening band. I bought tickets to this show as soon as they were available because a wicked lineup like that does not come along often enough. It was no surprise that the show fucking rocked, and people were eating it up like they had been fasting for years for something of this caliber to finally come along.

My favourite track on the album is “Strangers in the Wind” which has a reminiscent "Don't Fear The Reaper" feel to it for me, until the electronic chorus comes in and it almost sounds like a completely different song. In any case this track makes me want to put a sweater on, get my ass outside on a crisp Autumn day and score myself one of those fancy lattes sans dairy.

“So Haunted” begins with guitars that remind me of something off the Pixies “Doolittle” album, but as the song progresses the chorus kicks in and you feel like you are caught somewhere between a seventies-era sing along and a new wave pop show, and somehow it all works.

“Hearts on Fire” sounds like a track that was rejected by the producers of “Night at the Roxbury” so you feel less guilty about actually liking the song, especially since it has less head bobbing tendencies to it. This song has a retro early 90’s feel to it, without being overly cheesy, and still keeps the pace and flow of the CD, which seems to subtly encompass many different eras and styles of music.

If you couldn’t make it to the sold out show in October, do yourself one favour before the year is over and pick up this damn CD, if you download it, pay for it, because unlike many one hit wonders, this CD actually pays for itself. You are going to listen to “In Ghost Colours” so many times it’s going to get scratched to shit, and then I will give you permission to download it for free.

Gold-napp at the Commodore Sept 17th 2008

2008-11-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

Miss Goldfrapp took the stage with six other men, and a stage full of musical equipment and instruments, ranging from a key-tar to a harp. She was dressed in a picnic blanket with pom poms on the front to give you the illusion that she was a harlequin clown. The only reason I could make this assumption though was from the backdrop behind her which looked like flags from a circus tent. She marched along to most of her songs and near the end swayed and shimmied up to the mic tossing her hair around and getting more into the electronic songs she breathed out.

For me, the whole show lacked energy. I have danced my ass off in the club to "Train" "Number One" "Oh La La", and "Strict Machine" and I just didn't feel any inclination even to seat dance at this show. The bass line was great in a few of the songs and you could feel your bones vibrate in your body because there was so much depth in the songs, but the power behind the songs just wasn't making me move. So instead of really wanting to get up and tear a strip on the floor with the hundreds of others at this sold out show, I sat back and actually enjoyed the beautiful sound of her voice, which surprisingly I had never done before.

I should have expected her show to be a bit more mellow and vocal, as her latest CD "Seventh Tree" is a lot more acoustic than the previous two. Even though the show was far from what I had expected, it was still a pretty decent. I know a few friends of mine left early as they just couldn't handle the lack of inspiration in her farty electro-tunes she was now swooning to, and don't even get me started on her boring bandmates! The merch table left much to be desired, the shirts were beyond boring, with logos on them that only said Goldfrapp, so you may as well just buy a sticker and stick it on a white shirt and say you were there. They even had tote bags for about $40 bucks that I wouldn't even put my empty beer bottles in! Needless to say, if Goldfrapp comes back to Vancouver I probably won't pay to see them again, when I can go to the bar and shake my booty to the UK queen any given Saturday night.

The Devil's Work

2008-11-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

ohGr, "Devils In My Details"
I would love to say that the first time I listened to "Devils In My Details" I instantly fell in love with the album, and that it became an instant classic. A self-described Skinny Puppy fan boy, I lusted for proper material after the disappointment that was "Mythmaker" and slightly formulaic "The Greater Wrong of the Right". Unfortunately my first listen of "DIMD" was a mixture of confusion and frustration. I found myself quizzically looking at the stereo, and generally felt as though my expectations were constantly disappointed. Where was the follow up to both "Welt" and "Sunnypsop" that I so desperately wanted? For me the ohGr project was a very divergent, and enjoyable change from the apocalyptic sludge that is Skinny Puppy, and I kept waiting for such. I found myself questioning if Ogre had "jumped the shark" and feeling genuinely disappointed. It was at that point that I realized I was bringing too much history into this listen.

Ideally a review of the latest ohGr CD, "Devils in My Details", should come from a vacuum; allowing it to stand on it's own merits and ring out as a unique creation. Realistically though, Nivek Ogre's body of work (Skinny Puppy, ohGr, Rx, numerous guest appearances) and general cult status in the genre make it entirely impossible to do so. I came in to this album fully expecting a continuation of the previous two ohGr releases, and was initially hurt at the complete about face the project seemingly took. Bearing this in mind I re-listened to the album a few more times with a clear palette of expectations and frankly the results were quite surprising.

Oh yes, gone are the multi-layered Nord Lead synthesizer melodies, the auto-tuned Ogre-wanting-to-sound-like-Cher, the glitched up "digital rap", the pop sensibility and structure, and the general accessibility of the project as a whole. Moving beyond that though I found a real diamond in the rough. What Mark Walk and Nivek Ogre have delivered is a finely crafted dark concept album that follows the mantra of "the sum is greater than the individual parts", and a listening longing for some original sounding material can be pleasantly surprised.

Starting us off, the seemingly Ballroom Blitz inspired track "Shhh" maintains a constant shuffle snare pattern punctuated with orchestral hits and a growling Ogre that sounds more like "My Voice Sounds like Shit" era Ogre, than the poppy auto-tuned Ogre from recent releases. Moving forward into "Eyecandy" we've got more sludge, and doom as trilling time stretched samples riding detuned washes set the background for a mixture of spoken word and distorted growling vocals. Sharp staccato barking laughter makes you wonder what ride you just signed up for, and clearly this isn't the "Tim Burton-esque" Ogre we've grown recently accustomed to. Instead we have a decidedly dark and malicious sound that is more reminiscent of the Rx project. Then there's the singly most disturbing track on the CD: "Feelin' Chicken". At this point I'd like all readers who predicted a deliberate ohGr song with a polka back beat to raise their hands. Those same readers I then call "bullshit" on. This is not to say this song is a skip track; on the contrary it fits perfectly into album's bearing, and hearkens back to Ogre singing about the "Crackhead Waltz". From here on, as the ride continues to spiral in a mixture of tension and lack of resolution, the rider feels compelled to continue along yet still clueless as to where it's going.

This is not an album to pick up and bounce to. I walked into it with considerable expectations, and those expectations were disappointed, but more importantly once those expectations were gone I was able to really appreciate a unique album. The sound is all Mark Walk, just not the Walk we've grown used to. While the first 2 releases had a very discrete palette of sounds, "Devils In My Details" instead creates a sonic brick. Still each sound maintains the lo-fi quality that Mark Walk is famous for. Nivek Ogre returns to classic Skinny Puppy era form with his use of vocals and manipulations. I enjoyed the poppy Ogre we've heard recently, but I have to say it too me a while to realize how much I missed the scary Ogre. In short, don't pick up this album and attempt to skip to the first "hit". Instead carefully set aside time to listen to the album in it's entirety, digest it, and listen again. More than likely you'll be glad you did.

-Guest review by Rob Kukuchka

ohGr, "Witness"

Bruce Springsteen - Dream Baby Dream (Live Suicide Cover)

2008-11-22T12:03:00.001-08:00

This beautiful version of Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" exists at the nexus where all the Def in June contributors' tastes intersect. Issued on record to celebrate Alan Vega's 70th (!!!) birthday, apparently the Boss used this to close out his live shows on the 2005 Devils and Dust solo tour. Of course New Jersey's native son (fuck Bon Jovi straight up) has been talking up the New York synth punk legends for years, and has stated that his song "State Trooper" was heavily influenced by them. From a 1984 interview with Kurt Loder from Rolling Stone:

"Bruce Springsteen:...They had that two-piece synthesizer-voice thing. They had one of the most amazing songs I ever heard. It was about a guy that murders...
Rolling Stone: "Frankie Teardrop"?
Bruce Springsteen: Yeah! Oh, my God! That's one of the most amazing records I think I ever heard. I really love that record."

Maybe that's where he got the name for Joe Robert's no-good brother on "Highway Patrolman"?

Bruce Springsteen - Dream Baby Dream

Super Bonus Video: Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia (Live and Hella Emotional)

Cigarettes and Alcohol

2008-11-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

Oasis has released their seventh album called "Dig Out Your Soul" in hopes of resurrecting the fame they once knew. Its not that the album isn't good, sure the tracks are catchy, and you can sing along to them, heck you can even download them onto rockband if you so desire. However, like Green Day, I feel as though I have heard these songs before, as though I should saddle up for the ride on this one trick pony one more time. The Gallaghers can still make a killer rock song, but its still the same old thing, like the turkey leftovers that you haven't finished from Thanksgiving. Do I really have to pretend to enjoy this again?

"The Shock of the Lightning" has been the single from the CD to get radio play, but I much prefer "Bag it Up," even though the chorus leaves you wondering if you didn't just hear Lady Marmalade singing "more, more mooooore..."
Liam Gallagher apparently tried his hand at the song-writing process on this CD, which is probably why it has so many damned Beatles references in it, I mean, didn't John Lennon come back reincarnated as Liam Gallagher? Seriously!
The first five tracks on the CD are reminiscent of the old Oasis we loved, just more weather-beatan from all those drunken nights of passing out in the alley behind the pub. But really, now that Oasis is sober and there are no mind-altering substances used as inspiration for the new CD its no wonder that they haven't had a hit since "What's the Story Morning Glory?" At this time, the boys were dabbling in crystal meth and living a real rock-n-roll lifestyle. Now they are just two burned out english blokes with rotten teeth and caterpillar-thick unibrows, not that they weren't before, but now they just have that arrogant rock-star attitude to boot.

Oasis recently preformed in Vancouver, but I was reluctant to spend the fifty dollars on the show since it was only a mere nine years ago when they caused a fiasco here by storming off stage after a shoe had been thrown at them. I think it is becoming quite evident in the Gallagher brother's career that its possible their fighting and onstage antics have become more entertaining than their music.

"I'm Always Wanting More"

2008-11-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

The Cure, "4:13 Dream"
Being a Cure die-hard (and I'm nothing if not that) has been a taxingly schizoid experience since the band's output slowed to a steady one-LP-every-four-years pace. We get a seamless, majestic album that recalls their ability to create unified thematic pieces like "Faith" and "Pornography" via 2000's "Bloodflowers", but then we have to make do with a slap-dash mess with weak singles (and admittedly a couple of decent deep cuts) that sounds like it was recorded by a session-band backed Robert in a weekend (2004's self-titled disappointment).

From a fan-service point of view, it's been an equally weird ride. One had to buy no less than three different versions of their last LP in order to collect all of the exclusive bonus tracks appended to region-specific editions (I don't think I need to mention how aggravating it is to have to buy a record you aren't that nuts about three times). On the other hand, in anticipation of their new release, four singles were released on CD and 7" at regular monthly intervals: just the sort of sneak peak/collector's material we Cure nerds love. After treating us to a reverent live presentation of three of the band's greatest records via the Trilogy tour and DVD, Robert did his best to squander that legacy by collaborating with a plethora of musicians connected only by their shittiness: Blink 182, Junior Jack and Korn, among others.

So here we are: four years on and a new Cure record again, this one surprisingly arriving without the usual hubbub of rumours that this would be the last one (for those just joining us, Robert's been perpetuating that myth since 1983). The canny promotional release of the singles and their outings at a hella-premature world tour boded well for "4:13 Dream", and the cover art's a damn sight better than the last one. So what've we got? A pretty damn satisfying contemporary Cure record. Not one that instantly buries you in lush arrangements and maintains a uniform mood the way "Bloodflowers" did, and certainly not one that makes you scratch your head and wonder why on earth the majority of the cuts made it past the demo stage (okay, I'll stop dumping on the self-titled record now).

We start off with "Underneath The Stars", which for the life of me can't be described as anything other than a more organic revision of "Plainsong", and right off the bat "4:13 Dream" reminds you that it is the first Cure record to not feature a keyboard player as a band member since 1984. Jason Cooper's characteristically torpid drum fills occupy the space where we'd usually hear Roger O'Donnell's synth washes, and the chiming guitar phrases which made me realise that This Band Was It years back trickle through the mix like liquid crystal.

The band's made up for the lack of keyboards by adding all manner of effects and production-saturation. Some have kvetched about this as a rare reversion to amateurism from a veteran band, but to me it sounds like a simple reclamation of the sheer conceptual quirkiness that marked so much of The Cure's mid-80s material, especially on the B-sides that era produced. I'd argue that "4:13 Dream"'s strength lies in its off-the-cuff delivery. It reminds us of just how easily Smith can toss together candyfloss dream-pop with little concern for conceptual trappings. All too often those tracks have ended up as B-sides over the course of the last three Cure albums ("Spilt Milk", "A Pink Dream"), but here "The Only One" is cavalierly offered as the lead single, gleefully aping 1992's light-as-a-feather "High" - not bad footsteps to be following, considering that song was able to dethrone U2's "One" from the top of the Billboard singles chart.

Anyway, along with the casual production of "4:13 Dream" come abrupt shifts in tone and mood: we careen through a manic psych-rocker like "Freakshow" (somehow recalling both "Never Enough" and "A Man Inside My Mouth') and an acoustic slow-burner like "Sirensong" (think "Jupiter Crash" from "Wild Mood Swings") in the space of five minutes.

With all of these callbacks to previous Cure songs and eras, one might think that there isn't much terribly original to be found on "4:13 Dream". That might be true as far as the actual songwriting structures go, but given how surprisingly bland Robert's attempt to write new types of Cure songs proved on the band's last outing (okay, one more dig), I don't think there's much wrong with letting the Cure formula stay as is for at least one full album this late in the game.

So what is new? Well, lyrically, Robert's in a much more listless and playful space than he's been for years. "The Perfect Boy" goofs on how awesome the imaginary child he and his wife have is in much the same way that Patton Oswalt once did. There are no songs about growing older or feeling uninspired (thank Christ). Robert's batting about classic Cure themes (love, happiness, self-deception) as though they were lively sparring partners, valid reasons to pick up the guitar and wail about rather than monotonous cliches beneath which he suffers. Furthermore, the stimulation of having another certified guitar wizard back in the fold through the return of the erstwhile Porl Thompson has kicked the latent psychadelic side of the band back into full gear, with generally positive results.

The album's not without its duds. "Sleep When I'm Dead", a resurrected "Head On The Door" demo certainly bears all of the structural characteristics of a Cure tune circa 1985, but also shows that it's slightly ridiculous to try to apply the current sonic palette of a band to twenty year-old material. "The Scream" tries to build the sort of menace tracks like "The Kiss" or "Bloodflowers" but falls flat.

"4:13 Dream" won't do much to change your opinion of The Cure, whatever that might be. The casual fan who picks the disc up on a whim will find no small number of singles that compare favorably with whichever best-ofs they happen to be familiar with, while committed aficionados like myself will have fun debating the merits of the tracks hidden between the singles (I'll opt for "Sirensong" and "The Hungry Ghost"), and those who find the idea of a man pushing fifty playing dress-up for alienated teens to be patently silly will likely have their (incorrect) suspicions proved. That said, the liberty and sense of play which surrounds the whole outing gives some hope that we might be seeing the end of four year waits between records, and the beginning of a new phase in the band's career.

The Cure, "Underneath The Stars"

Fan Death are from Vancouver?

2008-11-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

So, this summer I came across this mp3 of a track by an unsigned group called Fan Death. "Veronica's Veil" is exactly the sort of thing that piques me, a bit of electro bounce behind some dark disco-esque strings and some sultry, wounded vocals. I've seen comparisons to Hercules & Love Affair, but they made me think of the Junior Boys' darker moments. So, I kept tabs on them, downloaded their 12" from Beatport and occasionally check in to see if anything new has surfaced. And today during a cursory glance around the web I find pictures of them playing a gig. At local Vancouver shithole Pub 340. Naturally curious, I look around a little more and what do I find, but that despite claiming to be from a fictional city named Grey Gardens on their myspace, the group is actually based out of Van City. This is just like Lynx & Ram all over again.

At any rate, I'm still totally smitten with them, especially after hearing a recent remix of they did for australian chanteuse Ladyhawke. No word on when a full length might be out, but they're playing a gig at Storyeum on December 5th with another great local act who couldn't possibly be more different, Bison BC. I will unfortunately be out of town seeing Nine Inch Nails, but everyone else should go, seriously.

Fan Death - Veronica's Veil

The Rundown: Power, Corruption & Lies

2008-11-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

The Rundown is a semi-regular feature on Def in June where we assess old and new albums on a track by track basis. Not to be taken strictly as a review of the record in question, it is intended to serve as an assessment of album craft, songwriting quirks and the album's overall place in the artist's discography. Yes, it's quite nerdy. This is what we do.

Arguably the album that most typifies New Order's coming of age as a band in their own right, Power, Corruption & Lies was born from the band's desire to create a record that mixed the tight sequencing and synthetic texture of their monster single "Blue Monday" with their origins as a rock band. Although the attempt might have yielded awkward transitions between bouncy synthpop and guitar, bass and drum driven songs, the uniformity of production and spirit of studio based experimentation insures that it holds together as a consistent long player.

The Rundown: New Order Power, Corruption & Lies (Factory Records)
Released: May 2nd, 1983
Personnel: Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Morris
Producer: New Order

AGE OF CONSENT

A propulsive blast of Stephen Morris' frenetic drumming anchored by an insistent bass riff. Notable for a hundred different reasons, including it's inclusion of several soon to be familiar vocal tics and Bernard Sumner's attempts to emulate the guitar sound of disco legends Chic (no really). A stone classic, and possibly the group's most notable side one track one.

WE ALL STAND

Calm and reflective, a meandering melody over a snaking bassline with a wide variety of synth noises and drum reverb leftover from the movement era. Not especially fantastic but fittingly melancholic and not at all out of place.

THE VILLAGE

Borrowing some electro bounce from Arthur Baker (who they would later work with to produce "Confusion") and featuring some of Bernard's careless but genuine lyrics. Upbeat and charming in it's naivete.

586

After a solid minute and 45 seconds of drum machine and synth fuckery, it breaks into a nascent version of Blue Monday. Legend has it it was partially written as part of the group's desire to have a song that was based on computer sequencing so they could leave the stage during shows to get a start on drinking before the gig was officially over. Hence there exists a version that is 20 minutes long and was released as a single under the name "Video 5 8 6".

YOUR SILENT FACE

Not hard to tell why the working title of this piece was TK1 (an abbreviation of "The Kraftwerk One"). Reminiscent of the German robot's seminal The Man Machine for it's cool, measured synthetic blips and textures and immaculately programmed drum machine. Also it's out of the blue final lyric where Bernard encourages an unnamed muse to "piss off", a sentiment so out of touch with the song it stands out as a profoundly anti-intuitive and characteristically New Order-like.

ULTRAVIOLENCE

Mostly notable for Stephen's drumming mixing fluidly with chirping synthetic percussion. Not violent really, but somehow kind of Ultra.

ECSTASY

A nice workout for various bits of sampling and processing gear. Evidence of the time Stephen and Bernard allegedly spent in the band's studio playing with then cutting edge equipment from E-Mu and Oberheim.

LEAVE ME ALONE

A perfect bookend for the album, revisiting the elements and sentiment of "Age of Consent" with a much more elegiac and downbeat feel. One of the most heartfelt vocal performances of the band's career, and one of the few where they let themselves to be unremittingly pensive without self-sabotaging in some way.

REISSUE BONUS MATERIAL

Well, it has "Blue Monday" which is essential but also kind of unnecessary for a package like this really. The instrumental takes on "Thieves Like Us" and "Confusion" are both nice to have.

New Order - Your Silent Face

How Much Are You Willing To Pay?

2008-11-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

I am starting to notice a trend in Vancouver; not only due to lack of venue capacity but lack of venues available, live shows seem to sell out the day the tickets go on sale. Now, I am sure that some of the bands actually do have legit fans buying up all their tickets, I for example, purchased four tickets to see Franz Ferdinand on November 9th, because there seems to be a pattern in which Isaac and I are usually on the ball when tickets go on sale, however our friends usually seem to miss the boat. This sucks for us, since we obviously want to go out to a live show with our friends. I picked up two extra tickets that I was going to offer to our friends, that I was not going to scalp on craigslist which seems to be what the majority of people are doing with concert tickets these days, making it even more unaffordable for the average low-income Vanouverite. I would only ask my friends to pay me the same cost of the ticket (including all of those horrible service charges) because I want them to have the opportunity to go, without patiently waiting by their computer at 10am on a Saturday morning to buy tickets online. Whatever happened to the days of camping out at B.C Place the night before the tickets went on sale where no one could budge in line and take what was rightly deserved of the true fans?

Not only has scalping become common practice on Craigslist, but it seems as though Ticketbastard, who already makes us pay through the nose for service charges, also seems to be holding back tickets to auction them off after the concerts have been sold out. After letting you know that "no exact matches (to your request) have been found" you can click on the link that takes you to www.ticketsnow.ticketmaster.com, where you can buy tickets that were originally $35 for $85 or more, where you are also charged a convenience fee of $6.60 per ticket. So for one ticket I originally purchased for $47.09 including service charges, I am paying $108.68 for. That is over double the regular ticket price and is fucking ridiculous!!

I am asking you fellow Vancouverites to please only buy tickets that you or your friends will actually be using to go to conert events. I understand that at times there will always be events that come up for which you have a ticket but can't actually make it to, however when there are over thirty ads on Craigslist for tickets just after they go on sale, its obvious that some people are just making a living on selling tickets to sold out shows because we don't have enough venues with large capacities for live bands to play in! And why is it that all other provinces in Canada except B.C, scalping is illegal?
Food for thought my friends.

Growing (Smaller)

2008-11-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

Via SideLine, we've caught word of the departure of vocalist Yasmine "Yaz" Uhlin from Ashbury Heights. Initial reports of the band splitting up permanently proved to be premature (ignore the SideLine headline indicating otherwise), as remaining member Anders Hagström has swiftly recruited new vocalist, Kari Berg. For those of you who were as in the dark as us regarding the division of labour within AH, the spate of emotion-soaked posts on their MySpace blog indicates that Hagström was the primary composer within the initial duo. As far as what this means for a change in Ashbury Heights' sound, Hagström's being cheekily optimistic:

"Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode and that turned out alright; Gini left Blutengel and Chris Pohl is still the master of nocturnal cheesiness; Human league once recruited not one, but two new female singers and that was sort of their defining moment."

Touche.

On a personal note, we at DIJ fucking love Ashbury Heights. They're one of a very short list of recent synthpop bands who aren't a flagrant embarrassment to their predecessors, and just about the one one which has been able to weld the contemporary dancefloor demands for oontz with classic pop songwriting. Take "Derrick Is A Strange Machine" as an example: dunno about you, but I'm much more up for a "Your new boyfriend's a creep but I'm not just saying that because we used to fuck" song than I am another round of vague metaphysical wankery from Ronan. Just about every track from AH's "Three Cheers For The Newlydeads" is perfect for both club and home enjoyment, and Alex and I have been dropping new cut "Morningstar In A Black Car" like mad in anticipation of their forthcoming sophomore LP "Take Cair Paramour". Here's hoping that Yaz's new project, Javelynn Fate, gives her the opportunity to explore new avenues, and that Ashbury Heights continues to flourish in its new incarnation.

Ashbury Heights, "Morningstar In A Black Car"

GWAR!

2008-11-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

I walked into the Commodore as a Gwar virgin, and left the building surprisingly unscathed. I laid low at the back of the venue by the bar, but not because I wanted to devour my weekly earnings in a liquid dinner, but because I feared the mayhem this mosh pit would unleash. I was surrounded by metal heads, longhairs and scary bald guys with goatees who were probably still on parole. You could recognize someone who had seen Gwar before since they were decked out in white shirts that were previously stained from one of the past tours, and the rookies like us, were in blinding white t-shirts that were fresh for the carnage. There was a group or guys who showed up in painter’s jumpsuits with a Gwar logo on the back, a guy in fisherman’s hip waders, and a girl who adorned leather shoulder pads with large spikes on them. One guy accidently spilled some beer on me before the show and profusely apologized, to which I could only respond, “dude, we’re at a Gwar show, it’s expected, and there are going to be worse things spilled on me tonight.” In true rock fashion, there was even a fight that broke out before the show had begun, where the bouncers had to step in and remove someone from the venue.

I cannot honestly name you one Gwar song, and I highly doubt I am the only person at the show who couldn’t, people don’t go see Gwar for their amazing thrash metal songs, they go see them for their live performance. With fewer hits even than KISS, but just as much stage presence, Gwar took the stage after their “countdown to death” ended, turning this rock show into a wrestling arena, complete with rings on the stage. We were greeted by Steve Wilcos, who got beheaded on stage much like the nurse from the movie “Dead Alive” in which blood gushed out of his neck. Steve still had his head attached by a string to his body, and it dangled on his back like a knapsack. We also got to see the real fight between Barrack Obama and John McCain over the American presidency. McCain got his guts ripped out and he was beaten with them, while Obama was beheaded with a five foot sword and blood sprayed at all the fans in the audience. Hilary Clinton also joined the wrestling ring, but had her breasts ripped off, which shot even more blood into the mosh pit.

The members of Gwar were rocking out in their crazy outfits, one which looked like a mix between a Trojan warrior and a stegosaurus. They brought a giant gun on stage, which looked like the kind of immobile gun you would find positioned in a water park, only as in pure Gwar style, this one sprayed blood. The venue had actually put carpeting on the floor so that attendees would not slip due to the floor being covered with fluid, and they had also covered the ceiling in plastic, so that the thousands of dollars in lighting equipment would not get damaged from the spray. They taped up the pillars with plastic as well, all the way back to the bar, which made me wonder if their sound check included a shooting test to see how far they could go.

The show ended with the Reaganator, which was a giant robotic Ronald Reagan, who had his chest slashed open to reveal a baby inside which was sacrificed by the five foot sword. The baby was taken out of the Reaganator and cut in half and used to beat the giant robot with, before they finally ripped Reagan’s arms off and the grand finale of blood poured over the audience. With such elaborate costumes, body paint and blood, would anyone even recognize these guys if they ran into them on the street? “How did you recognize me without my thirty inch cock spraying blood and jizz in your face?” Not to mention the fact that only Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) is the only original member of the band, so even if you did recognize one of the members, you’d have to figure out if they were a current or former one. The show wasn’t as loud as I had thought it was going to be, however it could be attributed to my old age and consistent rock show attendance, but it definitely wasn’t a text-message-the-person-next-to-you show because you couldn’t possibly yell loud enough. That being said, I would recommend earplugs for when you do see Gwar play, because after you see them once, you’re going to want to get jizzed on again and again.

The Pleasure Seekers, "What A Way To Die"

2008-11-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

The Pleasure Seekers were an all-girl Detroit garage band who recorded two singles in the mid-60s. They're mostly remembered (if at all) for being the first musical project of a pre-"Happy Days" Suzi Quatro. Their first single, 1965's "Never Thought You'd Leave Me" is no slouch of a song - it's a nice bit of piano-driven go-go. But it's the B-side, a track called "What A Way To Die" that leaps out of the speakers with its classic garage groove and banshee shrieks.

The lyrics have to be heard to be believed. A paean to teenage boozing and groping that's equal parts slinky come-on and proto-riot grrrl flip-off, the song's sentiment could perhaps be reduced to "Fuck off, boyfriend, I'm drinking. And drinking is AWESOME."

When I start my drinking
my baby throws a fit
So I just blitz him outta my mind
with seventeen bottles of Schlitz

(read the rest of the lyrics here)

Before Bikini Kill, before the Go-Go's backstage tape, before Girlschool, there were The Pleasure Seekers. Enjoy.

The Pleasure Seekers, "What A Way To Die"

The Rundown: Movement

2008-11-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

The Rundown is a semi-regular feature on Def in June where we assess old and new albums on a track by track basis. Not to be taken strictly as a review of the record in question, it is intended to serve as an assessment of album craft, an artist's songwriting quirks and overall place in their discography. Yes, it's quite nerdy. This is what we do. Our inaugural series will look at Rhino's recent reissues of New Order's five albums for Factory Records.

It's important to keep in mind that New Order has always really had two stories, two parallel but not always intersecting histories. The first (and most well known) is New Order: The Singles Band. The second, and our focus this week is New Order: The Albums Band. Any assesment of Movement as an album must keep in mind that during it's writing and recording process the band was releasing such classic 12" records as "Ceremony" and "Everything's Gone Green". Standing in the shadow of those records and the almost monolithic legend of Ian Curtis and Joy Division it becomes somewhat clear why Movement is frequently cited as one of the weakest albums in the New Order discography. It isn't a bad record, it simply can't help be outshined by what was proceeded it. It's also not entirely unwarranted to say that the band had not yet crystallized as a unit in it's own right, despite Gillian Gilbert's addition to the lineup. In fact, the band had not actually settled on a vocalist when they entered the studio with JD producer Martin Hannet in 1980. With that in mind, it holds a great deal of interest as a document of the group's evolution, the finding of feet and exorcism of a few notable demons.

The Rundown: New Order Movement (Factory Records)
Released: March 13th, 1981
Personnel: Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Morris
Producer: Martin Hannet

DREAMS NEVER END

A sister song to "Ceremony" featuring the same propulsive bounce and energy and the same melancholic sentiment. Listening to the bassline lends some credence to Peter Hook's claims that Cure bassist Simon Gallup copied his style. One of the two tracks that Peter Hook sings lead on.

TRUTH

Not overly remarkable in any way other than it's not inconsiderable debt to Joy Division's Closer era songwriting. The guitar has more of a distorted wall-of-noise sound then is typical of Bernard Sumner.

SENSES

Deep synth sweeps and a distinctly Peter Hook style lead with a pretty forgettable vocal, seems more like an instrumental really. Really starts to cook in the last minute with some fantastic interplay between the drums, bass and keyboards.

CHOSEN TIME

Once again reminiscent of the latter Joy Division era, and once again suffering from Bernard's lack of an identity as a vocalist. Still pretty good, and the added percussion at the end sort of presages "Blue Monday".

ICB

Fantastic song, Bernard is actually starting to sound like Bernard, and the laser beam synth blips (a la Insight) are an excellent production touch. The band claims that Martin Hannet didn't do much other than smoke and drink during these sessions, but his fingerprints are all over tracks like this one.

THE HIM

Almost a straight Joy Division number from it's "Atrocity Exhibition" drums on up. Pretty good for being that though and probably the best of the songs like it that appear on the album. The lyrics especially have a Curtisian bent, "Small boy kneels, wandering in a great hall/He pays pennance to the air above him".

DOUBTS EVEN HERE

The second Peter Hook vocal on the album (and his last in their discography). Long on keyboard driven atmosphere, and some spoken contributions from Gillian. One of the songs that I always remember as standing out on the album but I couldn't say why.

DENIAL

Gillian's keyboards really sell this one. Ominous and propulsive, and kind of counterintuitive in it's placement as last song, it feels like it would fit more cleanly mid album. It's abrupt ending caps off the album's identity crisis, emerging from one incarnation, unsure of where it would go.

REISSUE BONUS DISK MATERIAL

The complete a and b sides for the "Ceremony", "Everything's Gone Green" and "Procession" singles, as well as the 7" and 12" versions of "Temptation". Kind of jarring to listen to after Movement, despite much of it being recorded and released concurrently with the album this material feels distinctly more assured and New Order-like.

Special Bonus Video: New Order performing "The Him" live at Glastonbury, 1981.

Historical Revisionism: Killing Joke

2008-11-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

This marks the first of hopefully many installments of Historical Revisionism on DIJ. Historical Revisionism aims to reexamine previously ignored or dismissed music, either by situating it within a broader historical context which wasn't apparent at the time of the music's release, or by ignoring the expectations and circumstances surrounding the music at that time. Historical Revisionism will thus be historical and ahistorical in its approach as it suits our whims. We may also set our sights on the odd sacred cow or two in the process.

Killing Joke, "Hosannas From The Basement of Hell
Killing Joke's 2003 outing, their second self-titled LP, garnered more praise and attention than any of the veteran post-punk outfit's releases had in well over a decade. With its shift away from the techno-influenced rhythms of their 90s albums, the drumming of hired gun Dave Grohl and the return of erstwhile bassist Paul Raven, the album was hailed as the sort of return to form that music journalists (who love to champion a commercial underdog like The Joke) are always crowing about.

Arriving three years later, "Hosannas From The Basement of Hell" (named after the stygian underground studio in Prague where it was recorded) didn't attract nearly as much attention. After the return to form, it was considered business as usual, with a much shorter, Europe-only tour. In the aftermath of Raven's sudden death in 2007, the band announced that its original line-up would be reuniting for an extensive tour, focussed on it's earliest records, which were duly given the deluxe reissue treatment. Bookended by Killing Joke's return to the limelight on one side, and the revisiting of the canonical early work which has become de rigeur for post-punkers of Killing Joke's generation on the other, "Hosannas" may end up as little more than a footnote in the history of one of rock's most obstinate, noisy, and underappreciated bands.

If it does, it'll be a crime. This record is a fucking monster. Orange in tooth and claw, this beast screams upward from the Czech underworld in which it was conceived to run riot in blinding sunlight. Paleo-industrial riffs churn up overtop of punishing rhythms and almost seem to wrestle with each other before finding a shared sense of propulsion which drives the listener through futurist landscapes with unparalleled ferocity.

The best tracks on the disc pile chiming harmonies and melodies on top of the already thick mix that lend grandeur and passion to the storm. Combined with Jaz Coleman's plaintive, gutter-scratched bark, cuts like "Implosion" and "Walking With Gods" rank with the best of the band's material.

Songs (or more specifically, riffs) are dragged on to nearly interminable length, which one could either deem annoying or in keeping with Coleman's dedication to hypnotic and altered states of mind: I'm content to rage along with them 'til the cows come home, but your mileage may vary. "Hosannas" bears no small resemblance in this sense to Ministry's "Animositisomina", another slept-on record from a group of industrial-rock legends, which also fell between the cracks of two distinct periods in its creators' oeuvre.

Here's the video for the title track, featuring a plethora of archetypal Killing Joke imagery: warpaint, alchemy, meat, the underclass, Jaz being generally weird and 'mystic'.

The Road to Kinetik: Marching Dynamics

2008-11-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's not exactly a crowded field, but Montreal's Festival Kinetik is fast becoming the premiere Industrial, EBM, Technoid and Rhythmic Noise festival. Only on it's second year, the fest had gathered a pretty amazing line-up of acts from across North America, South America and Europe spread across four days and comparable to some of the more well-known, larger euro-festivals like Wave Gottik Treffen and M'era Luna. Logistically speaking, something like this has to be an enormous undertaking, taking into account the fact that many of the acts will be flying in from other continents with all of the visa issues related to that it's not hard to guess how much work goes into setting something like this up. And although the bar was set high by the first outing (which included performances from Nitzer Ebb, Funker Vogt, Feindflug, This Morn Omina and The Horrorist) the second year seems poised to deliver on an even larger scale.

Although it's not 'til May of 2009, all three DIJ contributors are planning on attending, along with as many of our Van City peoples as can be convinced/coerced. So by way of spreading some news on the event and possibly convincing a few more folks to spend their hard earned sheckles to attend, we're gonna be semi-regularly doing profiles on some of the acts who will be performing in Montreal. Kicking it off, we'll be having a look at the act billed as the first actual performance of the festival, Hymen records signee Marching Dynamics.

A solo project from S. Talada, Marching Dynamics avoids the harsh, beat driven noise fo his other project The Operative in favor of a more melodic technoid sound. Their debut album (preceeded only by a CDr release for Talada's own Mechanismz label) Nailsleeper is the kind of music that initially informed the sound of the Hymen label, informed by harsh industrial and noise music but drawing influence from the abstract techno and IDM scenes. Although certainly not derivative, numerous tracks call to mind the atmospherics and the complex rhythms of Black Lung and Xingu Hill. Especially notable are the tracks which display an electro influence, "Stoic" specifically has the funky, rhythmic energy and classic drum machine sound that kids used to pop and lock to back in the proverbial day. The band's myspace currently has some promising sounding demos for the forthcoming second album, the obscurely titled The Workers Party of Haiti, due sometime in early 2009.

Marching Dynamics - Stoic

Where's the Party?

2008-11-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

On Thursday October 30, Vancouver had its first concert from the Material Girl, Madonna, at BC Place Stadium. Personally, I have been waiting my whole life for this show to happen, so I was up at the ass-crack of dawn the day tickets were on sale to ensure I had a seat for the show. To my surprise, not only did I get two seats, they were floor seats in Section B!

As I patiently awaited for the day of the show to arrive, thoughts ran through my head, including what I was going to wear. Madonna is not only a musical and gay icon, she is also a fashionista, who has graced us with her different styles and looks over the years which we have all adopted into our own wardrobes. Needless to say the concert was filled with girls in crinoline skirts and lace gloves, boy toy belts, pink Marilyn Monroe dresses, and men in blonde wigs with cone bras. I think my favourite outfit of the night, by a fellow concert-goer was a replica of the white and black polka dot “Holiday” outfit. This girl had it down to a T, dingle-balls and the “I Dream Of Genie” ponytail. I think at that moment I peed a little.

The stage was decorated with two giant 8-story tall M’s on each side, which looked as though they were made of pink rhinestones, and there was a cube box on center stage. There were also two giant live TV screens on either side of the stage for those less fortunate than I, who were too far away from the stage or didn’t have a clear view of it. As the show started however, and the shorter people jumped on the chairs to see, I found myself watching the screens during part of the performance as well.

The box on center stage opened into smaller pieces and Madge appeared donning her white top hat, like a glamorous Willy Wonka, surrounded by visuals of candies and sweets, which only made sense since this was the “Sticky & Sweet World Tour.” She wasted no time in raising her energy levels to sing her hottest dance tunes; she came on the stage and belted out to “Candy Shop” followed by “Beat Goes On” where she had a Rolls Royce car on stage with her that she was dancing around. I can only hope that I am in as great shape as the former Mrs. Ritchie, when I hit fifty, because I doubt anyone else in the world at that age, could have as much stage presence and energy as she did on that night.

The hits continued with “Human Nature", "Vogue", and "Die Another Day”, which I was a bit surprised to hear, since so many people thought it was the worst James Bond song in history. Madge followed that up with “Get Into The Groove” which had her in little red Richard Simmons shorts and heart-shaped sunglasses, and her dancers in 80’s garb, bouncing around with jump ropes doing the double dutch. They used the movable TV screens on stage to make it look like they had just stepped off the subway which was all covered in graffiti and had a DJ mashing up the song with “Jump” from her “Confessions On A Dancefloor” album. I have to admit I usually don’t like when DJ’s mash songs up together, but this DJ had a really good flow to his transitions between the songs and the way he mixed them together.

“Heartbeat” was the next song Madonna roared out on stage, and after that came “Borderline” which had the older lady in front of me dancing along as though she was Madonna, throwing her auburn curls into my face and gyrating her body. Luckily for me, most of the other people who had floor seats had moved forward as soon as the show started and security had moved aside, so I was able to grab my partner’s hand and make our way closer to the front so I didn’t have to stare at the giant TV screens anymore, and have hair in my drink. Now I could stare at five Madonnas on stage! “She’s Not Me”, had Madonna bring four other girls on stage dressed to impersonate her, one as her during her “Like a Virgin” stage in a wedding dress with teased hair and crinoline, one from her “Open Your Heart” era, another from her “Material Girl” days in a slinky pink dress with a big pink bow on it, and the other in her “Like A Prayer” ensemble. As the song progressed she tore the wigs off the impersonators and threw them to the ground.

Madonna continued with “Music” and even though I was hoping for “Don’t Tell Me To Stop” I didn’t get it, instead she did a medley of the Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again” which everyone thought would ease into “Rain” as we heard the first few notes from the song echoing through the stadium, but instead she greeted us a top a piano center stage for “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You”. This was no lounge singer performance - this was a gothic rendition of a song that reminded me of her “Frozen” video where she danced in the desert and mysteriously changed into a panther.

After the dramatic song ended, Madge ripped off her black cloak to reveal her next costume change and set the stage for a fiesta with “Spanish Lesson” followed by “Miles Away”, and “La Isla Bonita” which gave you the sense that Madonna has recently been inspired by Gogol Bordello, as her Spanish songs took on even more of a European flow of winding up and down and starting over again midway through them.

I was surprised to hear “You Must Love Me” from Evita, but I guess Madonna wanted to cover all her bases, career-wise and politically, as she continued into a reprise of “Beat Goes On” but used it as a message to us that we have the power of choice, and that we should do something, and we are in control of our futures. During this message, she showed pictures of everything from famine, beautiful landscapes, and figureheads. It was a pretty simple statement which was not backed by any sort of beliefs or theories, only that she encouraged us to do something now. In my opinion it seemed a little more watered-down than the usual rise Madonna likes to give her fans with her political statements. This continued into “4 Minutes” with four small screens about 6 feet tall displaying a dancing Justin Timberlake, who virtually sang along to the song with Madonna.

The rest of her set featured “Like a Prayer” and “Ray of Light” before she asked us what we wanted to hear. Some jerk in the front yelled “Like a Virgin” probably because it was her biggest hit single, but I wanted to hear a B side of “Keep People Together” or something really old that would knock everyone’s socks off like “Where’s The Party?” Needless to say Madge obliged and sang one verse and let us sing the other verse of “Like a Virgin” before giving us what she called an “oldie but goody” and gave us “Hung Up”. I wasn’t really sure how that was an oldie, but I am not about to scrap with a lady that is worth over $500 million. Madonna ended the show with “Give It To Me” in a huge dance party of all her performers, but sadly there was no encore. The show lasted about two hours, and was action packed for all of it, and I imagine it was quite the workout for everyone involved, but since Madonna has had so many hits over the last thirty years it was hard to not expect more. The song I had been waiting for all night finally came on with the houselights, as the box at centre stage folded back up displaying the words “game over”. The show was so great that we headed over to Celebrities, our local Vancouver gay bar, to watch a drag queen perform it all over again. I can now die happily.

Mirror feat. Dave Gahan - Nostalgia

2008-11-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

Just to whet your appetite for the new Mode record coming in 2009, peep this track by Mirror, featuring Dave Gahan. Mirror is a project of Tom Anselmi, ex-vocalist of legendary Expo '86-ruining Vancouver punkers Slow and ex-Grapes of Wrath(!?) and session keyboardist Vincent Jones. It doesn't matter how many times I read that last sentence back, I can't quite get my head around the idea of Dave collaborating on a record with such a weird can-rock pedigree. At any rate, it's the sort of torchy piano number that Martin always seems to end up singing on the Depeche Mode records (shades of Somebody, yo). Between this and the goodwill Dave earned with his excellent solo album last year I daresay I'm a touch excited to hear some new music from DM.

A tip of the hat to my homegirl Skepticle, always a font of science on the synthpop tip.

When The Machines Pop And Lock

2008-11-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

When Basement Jaxx copped the riff from a 1979 deep cut named "M.E." for their bouncier-than-a-SuperBall and just as irritating 2001 club-smash "Where's Your Head At?", mainstream clubgoers were exposed to a truism that electro nerds and hip hop heads had been meditating on for decades: Gary Numan delivers fat beats.

The Numan renaissance is a much discussed phenomenon that's been addressed from several angles: his return from critical and commercial exile, the use of his beats in records like "Where's Your Head At?" and Armand Van Helden's slightly less ubiquitous, but just as gratingly cloying "Koochy" in 2000, how he's borrowed motifs from the generation of artists who were inspired by his absolutely crucial first four albums in order to forge a set of modern and moody industrial rock outings.

But the impact Numan's had on hip hop has gone largely unmentioned, perhaps owing to the lack of crossover between hip hop and vintage synth-pop fans. But savvy hip hop producers have lent a keen ear to Numan's discography and have found a plethora of beats ripe for sampling. The spacey, often nervous ambiance that Numan's synths create are buffered around simple but often hypnotically compelling rhythm parts, making for head-nodding loops that can't help but draw the listener in. Here's a sampling of tracks from the past decade:

Underdog, "Films"
A 2-CD Numan tribute album, "Random", was peppered with all manner of Brit-pop stars and alt-rock also-rans (a second tribute, "Random 2", anticipated the success of "Koochy" and "Where's Your Head At?" by offering up house interpretations of Numan's work), and closed with a grimy and snarling Bristol-influenced take on "Films".

Afrika Bambaataa, "Metal"
Bambaataa's never made any secret of the influence of Kraftwerk on foundational hip-hop jams like "Planet Rock", so it was no surprise to see him turn to "Metal" on his 2004 release, "Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light".

GZA, "Life Is A Movie"
The RZA's selection of the beat from "Films" to finish off his cousin the GZA's excellent "Pro Tools" disc was one of the more pleasant surprises I got from this year's crop of records, although after RZA rehabilitated Zamfir by deftly dropping "The Lonely Shepherd" into "Kill Bill", I suppose I shouldn't have ever underestimated Bob Digi's crate-digging skills. The icy synth sheens are perfectly suited to the rain which is perpetually falling in the RZA and GZA's contemplative verses.

Esoteric, "General Zod"
Boston's Esoteric takes some time off of waging war in some of underground hip hop's most legendary battles to wax hella nerdy overtop of "We Have A Technical", one of a clutch of fantastic B-sides from Numan's "Replicas" album.

Gogol Bordello

2008-11-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

I was in a Hot Topic of all places, where I picked up the new Gogol Bordello album Super Taranta and popped it into the car stereo for the drive back to Canada. This is the band’s fifth CD, and a strong follow up to their previous Gypsy Punks CD from 2005.

Accompanying the new album, Gogol Bordello staged with an across-the-globe tour which brought them from their home in the U.S. all the way to Moscow and even further to places like Japan. I had the pleasure of seeing their first of two sold out shows at the Commodore in Vancouver B.C, where hundreds of punks sporting their mowhawks, gypsies with their coloured bedlahs shimmying to the music, and a huge range of ethnicities, ages and attitudes all had one thing in common. Gogol Bordello.

Frontman Eugene took the stage wielding a bottle of red wine, with his moustache curled around his mouth. The band looked purely European, as though they would be playing a halftime show at a soccer game. GB was ready to rock in their Adidas running shoes and track pants, and after the first song they had given us so much energy that they were dripping sweat already.

From the new album they gave us hits like Wonderlust King (which I just ntocied has also been featured in a PS3 commercial for Motorstorm, and had all of us at the front of the stage bouncing around signing “dadadadada, dadadadada, dadadadada, hey!” Later, one member of the audience proposed to his girlfriend on stage, making a great lead into American Wedding which was sang as “Canadian Wedding.” If this song doesn’t make you dance and sing it will certainly make you laugh as it pokes fun at how boring and dry our wedding ceremonies are in comparison to the giant weeklong festivals of celebration in other cultures.

From the Gypsy Punk CD Gogol Bordello gave us my personal favourite, Mishto! which is a song that spirals up and down slowly building up force and then kicking you in the pants, like someone just corked a bottle of champagne in your face at 3am at an after party, and you're dancing with some Russian guy who looks like he was the strong man at the circus in 1930.

I knew as soon as I heard the opening notes for Start Wearing Purple that the venue was going to explode, and I was right, some girl behind me that smelled like McDonalds was jumping for joy, or perhaps I should say humping for joy cuz that’s what it felt like from my being in front of her. Lucky for me, I used my bootylischiousness to my advantage and she was quick to jump somewhere else. Sergey, the violinist was constantly playing with so much force that he was breaking strings on his violin and grabbing another violin as he didn’t have time to fix the strings. At one point he went through three bows in a single song.

When they performed I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again Eugene pretended to strangle the two girls, Pamela and Elizabeth while they shrieked blood curdling screams to the song. The girls also donned a giant marching band drum while the band played on, which was mildly amusing since the drum was bigger than the girl who was wearing it, but it only added to the spectacle. GB also preformed hits like Think Locally Fuck Globally and for the encore they gave us Alcohol with the chorus of “I’ll go home” sounding like an end of the night slightly slurred melody where Eugene opened the bottle of red he had brought out at the beginning of the night and took a swig.

If you haven’t seen Gogol Bordello live, I highly recommend checking them out and picking up their new CD Super Taranta, if not for the songs they sang live for the other tracks on the CD which include the mesmerizing violins of Super Taranta and the drunken sing-along of Tribal Connection which will get everyone singing “No can’t do this, no can’t do that…” and toasting their glasses of red to the sky. Gogol Bordello is an energetic and powerful band that gives every performance on stage like it is their last.

Def In June

2008-11-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to our new blog, where Bruce, Alex and I will be posting our reviews to some of our favourite, and not so favourite CDs, live shows and movies. Feel free to post comments on your feelings towards the items we are reviewing, or any inquiries you may have about pop culture related articles we have written about.

Def In June is offically born Nov.6 2008.