Shut the f*ck up 'cuz this is what's up

About five years ago they were saying that indie movies were the new garage bands. All you needed was a digital camera, video editing software, and a dozen of your closest friends. I think recently there's been a return to music as an indie art form (read: a way to hang out with buddies, drink too much, and impress chicks), especially with this '80s new wave electropop revival -- again, because of easy access to computers and other relevant software.

Local Toronto band Ninja High School isn't '80s new wave electropop revival, but I suspect they were formed out of someone's desire to become more popular with girls. Without knowing anything about them, I imagined what the band was like from listening to their music:

• The frontman is a charismatic but slightly obnoxious lout whose forceful personality keeps the band from falling apart. (Likely the founding member.)
  
• The drummer is the only one with any formal musical training.
  
• No one likes the keyboardist, but they keep him around because no one else has a keyboard, and he's also their sound guy.
  
• The rest of the members are assorted backup-shouting and -dancing, tambourine-playing girlfriends, hangers-on, and riff-raff, who are just in it for the great after-show parties.

Of course, this is (probably) all untrue. But that's the impression I got from the 45 minutes of relentless slapdash cheerleading old school dance-rap on Young Adults Against Suicide. I tired of it quickly; there was little variation between tracks. If they ever show up on the bill of any of the concerts I go to, however, I'll be pleased. They at least sound like they're raucous good fun live.

Ninja High School website (I hope their sense of web design is ironic)
Ninja High School on NMC
Ninja High School on MySpace

New York hangover

Sorry, kids -- am still recovering from my sojourn in New York and sadly didn't make it to the D'Urbervilles on Thursday. Didn't check out any gigs while in the Big Apple; it was all about the art museums. I learned, however, that the moniker "the Big Apple" originates from jazz musicians; every city was an apple they had to take a bite out of, and New York was the biggest one of all.

The Golden Dogs play at the Rivoli tonight. Unfortunately I've already made plans to head down to Nathan Phillips Square for the Cavalcade of Lights. And the Joel Plaskett Emergency. Mostly for the Joel Plaskett Emergency.

Speaking of conflicting dates, the Constantines play Lee's Palace the night of my office holiday party. Am tempted to go anyway, just for the novelty of showing up to a rock concert in a party dress and heels.

And on December 2, Les Breastfeeders play at the El Mo -- but I've already got tickets to see Tokyo Police Club at the Horseshoe. I've consoled myself by watching the new video for "Funny Funiculaire", sung by Breastfeeders' guitarist and gamine Susie Mc LeLove. (Don't know what a "funiculaire" is?) Watch the video for "Minijube et Watusi" to see Les Breastfeeders' shirtless backup dancer Johnny Maldoror in action. Mere words cannot describe him.

Later, darlings. Got things to do, people to see.

Start spreading the news

Out of town for the rest of the week, so here's a playlist I put together from my iTunes library to tide you over. My vacation destination is cleverly hidden within the song titles.

Belle & Sebastian - "Piazza, New York Catcher"
Cerys Matthews - "Streets of New York"
Dave Frishberg - "Do You Miss New York?"
David Shire - "Manhattan Skyline"
Frank Sinatra - "Theme From New York New York"
Interpol - "NYC" free Amazon.com download
Jennifer Warnes - "First We Take Manhattan"
Miles Davis - "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York"
R.E.M. - "First We Take Manhattan"
Richard Julian - "Slow New York" MySpace
Sonny Rollins - "Manhattan"
Stacey Kent - "Manhattan"
Tal Farlow - "Autumn in New York"
Tori Amos - "I Can't See New York"
U2 - "New York"

Sorry! These mp3s are no longer available for download.

Hey! Get over it!

So I pop into the Starbucks next to the Edge this morning, and there are these cute, shaggy-haired, nattily dressed fellas at the front of the line. With the radio station next door, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they're guesting musicians. I take my place behind two girls who are eyeing the guys furtively and fumbling in their purses. One has a camera in her hand, and finally they strike up the courage to approach them. I act disinterested, being an aloof celebrity-immune Torontonian.

As I pay for my low-fat cranberry muffin, the cashier chirps up, "You guys played a great show last night!" I don't hear their response, but at her co-worker's inquiry she says that they're in OK Go.

"Hm...OK Go," I think. "I keep meaning to check them out."

So as a reminder to myself:

OK Go website
OK Go on MySpace

...

Meanwhile, nine great punk videos via BoingBoing, most of which are from the year I was born and thus eliminating any credibility I may have when it comes to punk. Damn.

Beautiful and terrible

I can't stop raving about My Brightest Diamond and the show at the Drake last week. If anything, I'm impressed at how strong Shara Worden and Pedestrian's performances were, despite the sparse audience. The Drake Underground is already tiny, but they rawked out as if they were playing a stadium of screaming fans.

Luckily aNewCanadian posted a few videos of the show on YouTube. Guess he must've been one of the people roaming about with cameras that night. Sadly he didn't post the bluesy solo covers she did of Nina Simone and Prince, but the sound and video quality is amazingly good for YouTube.

"Something of an End" (my favourite song on Bring Me the Workhorse):


"Freak Out" (which proves that Shara Worden can rawk):


"Golden Star" (when she hit that high note, J. and I just looked at each other in astonishment):

My Brightest Diamond @ the Drake Underground

I kind of overdosed on ethereal, introspective female singer-songwriters in the ‘90s. It’s the reason why I haven’t been able to get into Cat Power or Feist, despite their talent. But once in a while one will come along and pique my interest. The last one was Laura Veirs; the latest is My Brightest Diamond, whom I discovered via Fabulist.

While waiting at the Drake for a friend to show up, I shared the lobby with a gaggle of girls who were happily chatting and squealing like teenagers. Turns out one of them was Katie Stelmanis, the first act of the night. Poking about the internet reveals that Miss Stelmanis is part of local grrrl band Galaxy, who, coincidentally, are playing with the D'urbervilles (yet another band I mean to check out) later this month at Sneaky Dee's.

She looked like she was about 15. It didn't help that she stood alone on the stage with her synth, dwarfed by the other bands' equipment, and often had to stand on tiptoe to reach the microphone. She sounded young, too. She had some original, slightly gothic material that thankfully outweighed the absurdity of a little girl singing and pecking out samples on her keyboard (I couldn't help thinking of Ross from Friends), but she could be so much better with a backing band and a more mature voice.

The next act was Pedestrian, who played solid, epic rock in the Coldplay mold. I thought they were quite good; the frontman had a sensitive, dreamy, Chris Martin-like voice, but the band also knew how to rawk. They were wasted on a sadly sparse audience that seemed to be made up of photographers, Katie Stelmanis's entourage, and typical Torontonian too-cool-for-schoolers who were backed up against the bar as if the stage was radioactive.

Partway through one of their songs, a woman hopped up on stage and started singing backup vocals. It was Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond. The beauty of her voice comes through on the recordings, but when she opened her mouth to sing, I was stunned. Her singing is absolutely phenomenal live.

Pedestrian was her backing band as well the opener, and her set surprised me by how much it rocked. I had expected her to be more ethereal and dreamy; I'd pegged her as a Kate Bush/Beth Orton type. But Pedestrian's presence -- and I guess her own live personality -- pushed her songs in a different direction, and she was much better than I'd imagined. (And I'd imagined her to be pretty good.) She wasn't dreamy or introspective; she was sublime. I hope that she comes back to Toronto and plays a larger venue, because she would be awesome in a club the size of Lee's Palace or Mod Club.

My only complaint was that she did not wear any of the superhero capes, ball gowns or Tudor corsets as promised in her bio. And the horse was a no-show. But I picked up a T-shirt and a CD ($15 and $10, respectively -- a steal!) and I plan to push her on everyone at work today.

Katie Stelmanis website
Pedestrian website
Pedestrian on MySpace
My Brightest Diamond website
My Brightest Diamond on MySpace
"Dragonfly" on YouTube
"Something of an End" (live) on YouTube

It's the nature of the experiment

Without knowing anything about them, I bought tickets to Tokyo Police Club's Dec. 2 show at the Horseshoe because a friend needed to entertain an out-of-town visitor that night. (Bespectacled Montreal electropop duo Hexes & Ohs will be opening. Yay!) What I heard on TPC's MySpace page, however, was enough to make me buy their EP.

For a new, young band out of Suburbville, Ontario (a.k.a. Newmarket), they've already sound like they've been at it for years. And yeah, maybe their NY/Britpop-punk sound isn't so original now that the Strokes have been on the scene for a while, but I'm still impressed by their maturity. And unlike the Strokes, every song on A Lesson in Crime doesn't make me want to dance like I'm singing backup in a '50s girl group.

Tokyo Police Club website
Tokyo Police Club on MySpace

Hot Chip @ the Mod Club

"These guys are neither hot nor chip." - J., as Hot Chip took the stage

The fellas in Hot Chip may look like the unlikeliest electronic Britpop stars (various members taking their fashion cues from Bill Cosby, Weird Al and the Thunderbirds) but they rocked nonetheless last night. I'd compared them to the Postal Service, but the set was closer to Depeche Mode and New Order's dramatic brand of synth-pop.

The arrangements were all different from the album -- only slightly different, mind you, and richer, unlike Fiery Furnaces' impenetrable 30-minute medley last week -- and kept the sold-out audience guessing. I liked how everyone, except the drummer, was aligned in a row at the front of the stage so that there wasn't a frontman despite one band member filling most of the lead vocal duties. There was singing, goofy dancing, and the playing of synths, guitars, cowbells, congas and maracas. It was all good.

Opening (and local) band Born Ruffians must have been called in at the last minute, because their forgettable guitar-driven indie rock was mismatched with Hot Chip's electropop. (Huh. I just checked their website and they're opening for Hot Chip for the entire US tour.)

The Born Ruffians -- well, they didn't look like ruffians. They looked like they were barely old enough to shave. The trio performed well and with a lot of enthusiasm, but I think they need a few more years to grow and find their sound. We amused ourselves during their set by imagining the boys practicing in the basement, only to be interrupted by someone's mother bringing down Sunny Delight and freshly baked cookies. "Moooomm... rock stars don't drink Sunny D. Rock stars drink beer!"

Born Ruffians website
Born Ruffians on MySpace
Hot Chip website
Hot Chip on MySpace
"Over and Over" on YouTube

There’s nothing too advanced about the grooves

I’ve just discovered BBC Radio’s podcasts. (If you use iTunes, search the Podcasts section of the store for “BBC”.) The Beeb’s already pretty good at making content available over the internet, but this makes it much easier. It’s like getting magazines delivered to your door as opposed to browsing for them at the library.

BBC Radio 1 is the popular (i.e. not jazz or classical) music channel. I subscribed to the Best of Unsigned, listened to the "Electric Proms special" from October 27, and was intrigued by the last song of the podcast: "Found Can Move", by Edinburgh lads Found. It sounded as if Lou Barlow was experimenting with trip-hop.

How can you not like a band that holds a colouring contest for its CD cover? That and their laid-back combination of lo-fi indie and equally lo-fi electronica won me over. I was also impressed that an overseas listener like me could buy their music easily; I feared that the band was so new (and Scottish) I wouldn't be able to find their CD in stores, and I'd have to spend too much at Amazon.co.uk.

Thankfully their record label has an online store where, for 6 pounds sterling, you have 24 hours to download all the songs from Found Can Move in either mp3, ogg and/or flac format. You can also listen to all the tracks. The whole transaction was brief, painless, and a great example of how the music industry can make the internet work for them.

Found website
Found on MySpace
Found Can Move at the Surface Pressure Records shop

I've been trying to show you over and over

I heart PJ Harvey.

As a teenager learning how to sing, Sarah McLachlan taught me how to sigh, and Tori Amos taught me how to squeal -- but PJ taught me how to wail. She’s been my favourite artist for the past 12 years, ever since I bought Rid of Me in 1994. Whereas other favourites have fallen to the wayside (e.g. Sarah McLachlan), PJ has persisted. I love absolutely everything she does, so of course I ran out and got The Peel Sessions as soon as it was released this week. I even had the date marked down on my calendar.

The tracklist is interesting: out of 12 tracks, four are from her first album, Dry, four are B-sides, and the remaining four represent all her albums save for To Bring You My Love, which was probably her most commercially successful (or at least well-promoted to the masses) album. In fact, none of the tracks are particularly well-known, save for "Sheela-Na-Gig".

I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed by this album. I was expecting slightly different renditions of her songs, but it isn’t until halfway through that we hit unfamiliar territory. (One-third of the way, if you’re unfamiliar with B-sides “Naked Cousin” and “Wang Dang Doodle”.)

Some poking about the internet, however, revealed the significance of the first four tracks being off of Dry: they were recorded in 1991, during PJ’s first session with John Peel at the BBC, when she was just emerging as an artist. That would certainly explain why they sound so close, if not identical, to the album recordings. Her first album was so stripped down anyway that the minimal arrangements afforded by the BBC studio made no difference.

But then we get to “Losing Ground” (a B-side from the “That Was My Veil” single), and it’s a different arrangement. And “This Wicked Tongue” was only ever available on the UK and Japan releases of Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. So a few surprises for those of us who are too lazy to search for clandestine mp3s.

The Peel Session treatment works best with the last two songs, though: “Beautiful Feeling” and “You Come Through” are much more powerful than their studio release versions in the semi-impromptu setting. Reason enough to buy the album if you’re a fervent PJ fan.

PJ Harvey website
Peel Sessions on Wikipedia
The top 125 Peel Sessions (He discovered Camera Obscura 5 years before I did. Damn, he was good.)