Please destroy me this way

One of the most highly anticipated shows this year is Yo La Tengo at the Phoenix on October 2. Me, I’m seeing Liverpudlian electroclash refugees Ladytron at the Guvernment instead because, dammit, sometimes a girl just wants to dance.

I sampled then bought Witching Hour after it was released to good reviews, but was disappointed; the songwriting is a bit too pop for my tastes. Ladytron makes up for it tenfold in coolness, though. I like to think of them as ABBA gone bad -- a European pop group consisting of two men and two women who craft catchy, danceable tunes -- only their tunes have sinister, menacing arrangements. And their futuristic mod/goth/Communist chic trumps feathered hair and satin bellbottoms any day. Not to mention band member Mira Aroyo has a Ph.D in molecular genetics from Oxford. How cool is that?

Ladytron website
Ladytron on MySpace
“Destroy Everything You Touch” on YouTube

You and I are on the outside of almost everything

Tuesday morning a co-worker turns to me and says, “Do you like the Dears?”

“I love the Dears,” I say.

“‘Cuz my friend won tickets from the Edge but can’t go, and I can’t go, and we don’t know anyone else who’d want them.”

Gaaaahhhhhh.

So I had the remarkable good fortune to catch the Dears at an exclusive concert at the Mod Club last night. If you didn't know they were in town, don't worry; they'll be playing Lee’s Palace for two nights in November -- two nights when I’ll be in NYC. Needless to say, I was very, very happy to get these tickets, and happier still to not have to go to Lee’s Palace.

The Dears have such a rich, intense, powerful sound, and live they are a powerhouse. They wisely sandwiched favourites from No Cities Left with new material from Gang of Losers; the audience was less familiar with the latter, being new, but still got into it because compared to the brooding No Cities Left, Gang of Losers is practically gregarious. No Cities Left is the kind of album you listen to alone in a darkened room with a glass of single-malt scotch. Gang of Losers is the same, but this time you want to bring a friend and split the bottle between you. And maybe play air guitar and sing along to the “Doo doo doo” parts of “Ticket to Immortality”.

The rawk-brood ratio of No Cities Left was 30/70; now it’s reversed at 70/30. Depending on what you like best (rawking out or navel-gazing), you will either think Gang of Losers is an evolution, or not as good as its predecessors. Me, I prefer to rawk. But I like Murray Lightburn’s brooding, so I like the Dears’ earlier stuff more even though they’re still a really good band.

The Dears website
The Dears on MySpace
The Dears on NMC (You can hear a lot of No Cities Left here.)
"Ticket to Immortality" on YouTube

She has a heart that will never melt

Final Fantasy a.k.a. Owen Pallett, $20,000 Polaris Prize, ridiculous album title, yada yada yada.

My former manager lent me ...Has a Good Home earlier this year and I never told him how it grew on me in a short time. Who could resist Pallett gently singing, “You can see your house from here, you can see your house from here” in “The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead”? Or screaming, “Please please please!” in the background of the song of the same name?

He Poos Clouds is everything a sophomore album should be: richer sound, fleshed-out arrangements, less whimsy and preciousness, and greater confidence, intensity and expression. Pallett sounds like he didn't set out to write novelty violin-based pop/rock music; he just wrote whatever the heck he felt like. I find it funny that he’s classified as indie pop/rock, because he uses few of the American popular music conventions that other artists cut their teeth on. This is someone who grew up in another country, speaking another language. For instance, his singing makes me think of early 20th century German expressionists such as Schoenberg rather than Iggy Pop. (Now if that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what will.)

Seriously, though, according to his page on New Music Canada, his influences include Bartok's string quartets. When I read that, it all fell into place -- the expressionistic singing, the atonal harmonies, the syncopated rhythms borrowed from folk music -- all techniques that modern 20th-century composers like Bartok, Schoenberg and Stravinsky employed. Betcha Pitchfork never said anything about that.

Final Fantasy website (incomplete)
Final Fantasy on NMC
“He Poos Clouds” on YouTube

Welcome to the working week

I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you. Four songs for a Monday morning:

Elvis Costello - “Welcome to the Working Week”
PJ Harvey - “Working for the Man”
Constantines - “Working Fulltime”
BTO - “Takin’ Care of Business”

You gotta do it till you’re through it so you better get to it.

Sorry! The mp3s are no longer available for download.

Some motherf*ckers think they're born to dance

I've been pushing the Grates on everyone in the office. (Well, everyone being the three people I talk to about music.) "They're like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs," I say. "But happy."

That pretty much sums it up: a singer, a guitarist, and a drummer, and perky pop-punk that somehow (and thankfully) retains a little musical rawness despite its sense of fun. Gravity Won't Get You High is their first full-length CD, following up last year's EP The Ouch. The Touch. And yes, they look like they're 18, except for the drummer, who looks like she's 15.

But the real reason why you should like the Grates is that they're awesome live. I first saw them about a year ago when they opened for the Go!Team. After the initial moment of disbelief when singer Patience Hodgson started bouncing happily about the stage, the friend I was with turned to me and said, "She's a prancing pony!" From that moment on we were both won over. I was also charmed by the fact that she kept holding her skirt down; most frontwomen these days favour little skirts and don't care if the audience sees their knickers (I'm talking to you, Emily Haines). Miss Hodgson has since taken to wearing tights or leggings. Good girl.

The Grates website
The Grates on MySpace
"Science is Golden" on YouTube

If the Grates don't make you happy, then I feel sorry for you.

---

The first time I heard Aberdeen City (courtesy of Fabulist!), I thought, "Not another catchy '80s-style Killers-like rock band." But after listening to some of the tracks off of The Freezing Atlantic, I was compelled enough to buy it.

I've never warmed to the Killers; I'd be sold if they were only a bit more introspective, or more tongue-in-cheek. I think Aberdeen City fills my need for the former.

Sadly I just missed them; they were at Lee's Palace a week ago, touring with Electric Six. A co-worker had even told me about the show because a friend wanted to drag him to see Electric Six. (He never made it, though.) The members of Electric Six, btw, do not form a giant robot and fight crime, as their name suggests to my imagination. Which is too bad, because I'd pay to see that instead of the pompous prog rock they seem to play.

Aberdeen City website
Aberdeen City on MySpace

I want this album

...but I can't find any information on a North American release.

Cerys Matthews was the frontwoman for one of my favourite bands ever, Catatonia, which broke up in 2001 shortly after the release of their fourth album, Paper Scissors Stone. (It was probably for the best; I think they hit a pinnacle with Paper Scissors Stone and if they were still around today, they'd be burned out or ridiculously excessive.)

Matthews has a distinct voice -- girly and raspy -- and I love how over the course of Catatonia's four albums it becomes increasingly demented and affected. Bjork is the closest comparison I can think of, but whereas Bjork's voice is a little girl that swings upsidedown from the monkey bars and doesn't care that her underpants are showing, Matthews' voice sits in the sandbox and plays with matches.

The story is that after Catatonia split up Matthews went into rehab, moved to Nashville, got married and had a baby. She also put out an excellent solo debut, Cockahoop. Now she's back in the UK and this sophomore effort, Never Said Goodbye, is only available on Amazon.ca as an import. Boo.

Official Cerys Matthews website
Cerys Matthews on MySpace
Cerys Matthews on Wikipedia

Why?

Because whenever I stumble upon cool or interesting music, I can count on one hand the number of people I know who would be interested. And I accumulate so much music these days, I might as well blog about it.

But that's beside the point. Zoe's Radio Show is up and running again. Despite being only 16, she knows far more about the indie scene than I do. And she plays Motown and Joni Mitchell, too. Trust her.

On iTunes: "Sixty Lives", Aberdeen City. More on them later.