EPISODE 20 - What'd You Say To Me, Montreal?
10 more! Hope y'all enjoyed this season's 'Best of the Year List in the making' - We're hitting the road to close out the season by throwing down in the manner to which we've become accustomed - a musical crime spree in the Nation's music capital with the Besnard Lakes and producees and finale-featured doom-poppers Suuns! The unoffical Snob Cast Season 2 Finale Party at Cabaret du Mile End in Montreal goes live on Saturday the 15th - see you there! And on the way - Pump Yo Brakes On THIS!
Song: Stay Close
Artist: Delorean
Album: Subiza
Label:True Panther Sounds (2010)
Coming from one of my favourite cities on this planet (Barcelona) and naming themselves after the Back to the Future series ranked this band very high in my books right off the bat. With their latest offering 'Subiza', Delorean bring that fantastic balearic pop sound that had been reintroduced by bands like jj and The Tough Alliance, (both of whom they have actually toured with in the past year and a bit). Subiza is an intersection where indie rockers and dance enthusiasts can meet and agree on the same thing: that this album brings it.
Coming from one of my favourite cities on this planet (Barcelona) and naming themselves after the Back to the Future series ranked this band very high in my books right off the bat. With their latest offering 'Subiza', Delorean bring that fantastic balearic pop sound that had been reintroduced by bands like jj and The Tough Alliance, (both of whom they have actually toured with in the past year and a bit). Subiza is an intersection where indie rockers and dance enthusiasts can meet and agree on the same thing: that this album brings it.
Song: Crime Pays
Artist: Bear Hands
Album: Burning Bush Supper Club
Label: Cantora (2010)
Bear Hands is to MGMT as Ra Ra Riot is to Vampire Weekend: the somehow completely (thankfully) underhyped sister band from school with the winning debut. Front to back, this is a fantastic album, and absolutely what ‘Congratulations’ should have been. Bear Hands will convince you that the Neon Age is still burning. Highly recommended, and a lot of fun.
Song:Cinco de Mayo
Artist: Marnie Stern
Album: (Self Titled)
Label: Kill Rock Stars (2010)
Label: Kill Rock Stars (2010)
Of course this immediately hits me as part of that thing Fang Island and (I hear) Andrew W.K. are doing – rainbow bright hair guitar riffin’, drumsticks a-twirlin’ yell-along power ballads, etc. She’s having a good ride – every album getting a little more popular, a little more critically loved. I skipped her last one, but just want to take the opportunity to repeat the name: “This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That”. There are a lot of female-led bands that fail because the vocals are too safe, or ‘special enough just cause I’m a girl’. Marnie actually knows how to rock.
Song: Stockton to Malone
Artist: The YMD
Album: Escuse Me, This is the Yah Mos Def
Label: My Pal God (2008)
An original Snob Nite sessions staple, the Yah Mos Def (portmanteau of hardcore Yah Mos and Hollyrapper Mos Def, then forced to change to the acronym) is a rough, ugly, white, Beastie Boys rip off, and we LOVE it. This is exactly what the Beastie Boys were (are?) all about – doin’ it quick, dirty, cheap, and doin’ it well. Till Hot Sauce Committee arrives, allow the YMD to remind you of your right to party.
Song:Armed for Peace
Artist: Suuns
Album: Zeroes QC
Label: Secretly Canadian (2010)
What a fitting label to be signed to seeing as these cats are hailing from one of the favourite stomping Snob Cast stomping grounds Montreal, and were even discovered (and subsequently produced) by Besnard Lakes frontman Jace Lasek. (On a side note, shortly after this cast is released, Afrika & myself will be in Montreal for the finale to see these guys open for the Besnard Lakes!)
These guys have sculpted an album that combines elements of some of the best music from the past decade. An album that strikes me as the type of haunting electro-pop-rock record Robert Smith would listen to, (and I mean that in a good way).
Song: New Violence
Artist: White Williams
Album: Smoke
Label: Tigerbeat 6 (2007)
Straight outta Cleveland, White sounds like a Krauty-er hot chip, plays nicely alongside any electroclash of the era, and made this record after a couple of years on the road with Girl Talk. Just thought you should be aware.
Straight outta Cleveland, White sounds like a Krauty-er hot chip, plays nicely alongside any electroclash of the era, and made this record after a couple of years on the road with Girl Talk. Just thought you should be aware.
Artist: White Denim
Album: Last Day of Summer
Label: (Self Released) (2010)
A band that epitomizes the SxSW / Austin City Limits sound released their most recent LP for FREE at their website, and it is fantastic. Definitely check this out. Psychadellic, mathy, acid, neon, proggy folk rock. For fans of yer Brooklyn art rock and yer Black Keys (but especially for fans of both).
Label: (Self Released) (2010)
A band that epitomizes the SxSW / Austin City Limits sound released their most recent LP for FREE at their website, and it is fantastic. Definitely check this out. Psychadellic, mathy, acid, neon, proggy folk rock. For fans of yer Brooklyn art rock and yer Black Keys (but especially for fans of both).
Song: Full Collision
Artist: Violens
Album: Amoral
Label: Friendly Fire (2010)
Go Violens, Go! We’re happy to report that the Violens full length is a very decent record, and worth hearing. The whole thing straddles the line between New Order and Wham! (sometimes veering toward the extremes). Slappy guitars, violet pads, and the dilettante vocals to match perfectly. Rare for such a dialed-in UK band to mostly escape the hype machine. Loving it, loving them.
Song: Desire Lines
Artist: Deerhunter
Album: Halcyon Digest
Label: 4AD (2010)
Being honest, there are a short list of bands / albums / new music cultural phenomena that I fear I may not ‘get’. These are not the same bands / albums / new music cultural phenomena that I understand and don’t like. There’s a sort of subtle hint that to discard them outright without trying harder would be to risk missing out on something great. This is also not the same thing as pretending to like a band just because of the hipster buzz. Perish the thought. No, they live in a sort of limbo, under probation, earning more of my curiosity the more heads they turn. Deerhunter has been one of those bands since the Flourescent Grey EP earned them buzz like ‘most important band to watch’ and ‘The Next Radiohead’. Later I’d learn more about Bradford Cox, their apparently prodigious leader who was often described as a notable lover and student of modern music, creating what critics would describe as homemade recordings which faithfully captured and referenced the history of underground pop, and regularly gave albums of it away free via his blog. Well, he was weird looking like Thom Yorke, anyway. I heard the Deerhunter stuff, liked his solo stuff a little better (as ‘Atlas Sound’), but it wasn’t until this year’s Halcyon Digest that I would ever go on record as recommending a Cox project, and having an idea of why. After all the focus on Cox, this track is sung by the band’s other writer and singer Lockett Pundt. Listening to it, I get an idea of what the critics have been talking about. There’s something so ‘already heard, but never like this’ about it. Something so essential about the 8-track approach. The clarity of the innocent lyrical line of thought, the way the ‘whoa-ohs’ in the chorus are sung in the same breath rather than dubbed in, the Coxian inhalation sounds – these things all float above what amounts to one of the greatest rock songs I heard all year. Whether the hype machine bought Cox and co. an undue probationary period or not, there are several beautiful, important tracks on this new record, and I’m keen as ever to watch what happens next.
Song: Dogwalkers of the New Age
Artist: Breathe Owl Breathe
Album: Magic Central
Label: Hometapes (2010)
Look, don’t get me started on the Ann Arbor music scene. If there’s ever been an area that’s contributed more pretension-over-substance than the labels that seem to immediately sign the undergrad theses of the Wayne State music program, then I have yet to release music through it. But Magic Central was actually pretty decent. Hearing it for the first time I thought I was listening to Smog / Bill Callahan, but there’s no apparent connection besides the baritone. Real nice stuff with a real tenderness to it (a little sweet sometimes – but a lot lighter on the cringe than most Ann Arbor bullshit). This track has a well trodden theme of late night cityscape discovery, but cleverly paints a pretty deep and spacious musical landscape of its own to explore. ‘Swimming’ is also very catchy.
Look, don’t get me started on the Ann Arbor music scene. If there’s ever been an area that’s contributed more pretension-over-substance than the labels that seem to immediately sign the undergrad theses of the Wayne State music program, then I have yet to release music through it. But Magic Central was actually pretty decent. Hearing it for the first time I thought I was listening to Smog / Bill Callahan, but there’s no apparent connection besides the baritone. Real nice stuff with a real tenderness to it (a little sweet sometimes – but a lot lighter on the cringe than most Ann Arbor bullshit). This track has a well trodden theme of late night cityscape discovery, but cleverly paints a pretty deep and spacious musical landscape of its own to explore. ‘Swimming’ is also very catchy.
Song: Ambition
Artist: Donkeyboy
Album: Caught in a Life
Label: Warner Music Norway (2009)
I passed this up last year while researching 'Empire of the Sun'. At the time, there was an overabundance of 80’s pastiche bands throwing their hats into the ring. This generally being a sign that the ‘formula’ was going to start being misunderstood and misapplied by the majors, when I heard Donkeyboy’s crystal clear production and pitch corrected harmonies, it was enough to earn them a skip. Second time around, whether ‘real enough’ or not, I had at least 4 of their early Madonna riffing tunes fully stuck in my head, and fully enjoyed the experience. Worth a listen.
I passed this up last year while researching 'Empire of the Sun'. At the time, there was an overabundance of 80’s pastiche bands throwing their hats into the ring. This generally being a sign that the ‘formula’ was going to start being misunderstood and misapplied by the majors, when I heard Donkeyboy’s crystal clear production and pitch corrected harmonies, it was enough to earn them a skip. Second time around, whether ‘real enough’ or not, I had at least 4 of their early Madonna riffing tunes fully stuck in my head, and fully enjoyed the experience. Worth a listen.
Song: Photojournalist
Artist: Small Black
Album: New Chain
Label:Jagjaguar (2010)
A late but worthy entry to the chillwave… thing… The self titled ep was cool, the record is cool. Lots of hissy tape recorded synths and shout along vocal samples on bigger, more driving beats than most. Fans of Big Pink’ll prolly dig it.
A late but worthy entry to the chillwave… thing… The self titled ep was cool, the record is cool. Lots of hissy tape recorded synths and shout along vocal samples on bigger, more driving beats than most. Fans of Big Pink’ll prolly dig it.
Damn that was HOT! Aight, yalls, the hiatus is back on for now - but keep an eye out. We got something a little different in store for Season 3, and with everything set for release in the next couple of months, the premiere can't be far away! Snobs Out! [BWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo...]
