H is for Hello, Blue Roses

I know that Destroyer is not everyone's cup of tea, and that some have called the music Dan Bejar makes 'pretentious.' Certainly with an album title like The Portrait Is Finished And I Have Failed To Capture Your Beauty, Bejar's latest project Hello, Blue Roses (with partner Sydney Vermont) charges of pretentiousness are likely to surround this project as well.
But even if you don't like Destroyer (though really - how can you not like Rubies?) I'd still recommend giving Hello, Blue Roses a listen. Bejar certainly contributes to the album but Vermont is the real creative force here. Her vocals are front-and-centre right from the beginning (the first lines of the album? "Hello blue roses...") and remain there throughout.

Influences cited by the band and comparisons made in reviews I've read so far cite Kate Bush and Vashti Bunyan, and certainly one can hear both these women in Vermont, but I'd like to add Catherine Howe to the comparison list. Listening to Howe's What A Beautiful Place and placing it alongside The Portrait Is Finished... I hear the same wistful phrasing and delicate musical accompaniment.
Bejar meanwhile sings from the shadows, contributing not so much 'backing vocals' as 'vocal embellishments' for much of the record. But when he comes into the light, the material benefits greatly. Consider "Shadow Falls," where Bejar's echoes of the song's title provides the dark counterpoint to Vermont's airy delivery while Bejar's ringing guitar tones turn discordant at the two-minute mark. The song perfectly encapsulates what this duo can accomplish together when their contributions are matched. Which is not to say that when Vermont is having her way it's not still a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

The album was written in sunny Spain and recorded in rainy Vancouver and it bears mentioning because The Portrait Is Finished... balances the cheery with the bleak in tone and lyrics. This is an album where "Heron Song," with its simple acoustic guitar and flute line is followed by "St. Angela," which features the type of vamping organ Garth Hudson was famous for while a mandolin plays out a wonderfully rollicking line.

Here's "Shadow Falls"

And here's the Hello, Blue Roses website and Myspace page.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

G is for The Gorgon

Nearly everyone's heard of Medusa, but folks don't necessarily know that she was a Gorgon - which, according to Greek mythology, were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes.

Alana, Jen and Julia of Winnipeg band The Gorgon aren't vicious monsters, but their debut album Corpse Whale is a real beast. An eight-song record that sticks around long enough to kick your ass without overstaying its welcome, Corpse Whale is dirty, dark and energetic.

The energy captured on disc compares favourably to their live show, but the cover art of the trio dressed as monsters and vikings only hints at the theatrics they bring to the stage. Now that their album is out, they're preparing to hit the road, so be sure to catch them when they play in your town. And pick up a copy of Corpse Whale at the merch table while you're at it. But if you miss them live, you can always get the album from their label, Transistor 66.

Here's The Gorgon's tribute to Winnipeg's famed Royal Albert.

Check out their Myspace page for more audio from the album.

Thanks for reading, now start listening

F is for The Four Mints

Thank god for the fine folks at Numero Group. Whether it's their amazing Eccentric Soul series, the two entries they've delivered in the Cult Cargo series or their collections of rare folk releases, they put together consistently amazing releases. The track-listings are excellent, the production quality is top-notch, the liner notes educational and the packaging is beautiful - if you're a music lover, can you really ask for more?

I would have said 'no' but apparently when the folks at Numero Group asked themselves this question, the answer was instead 'yes' and so now we're treated to a new imprint called Asterisk (*). This 'sub-label' will focus on releasing full-length albums from a variety of artists discovered while researching the minor labels they've excavated. As the news section at Numero Group's website puts it: "While we were busy compiling obscure soul labels and documenting non-genres like gospel funk and kid soul, fantastic little albums got stuck on our turntables. Not long enough to warrant the elaborate Numero treatment, and yet too good to keep secret, we had to start an entirely new label to house these curiosities."

There are four Asterisk titles so far (of which I've heard three - still waiting to check out Johnny Lunchbreak's Appetizer/Soup's On) and while I'm especially impressed with the self-titled album from Chicago's Boscoe, in keeping with my alphabetical postings so far, we're going to talk a bit about The Four Mints' Gently Down Your Stream.

Fans of the Eccentric Soul series will no doubt notice that The Four Mints were included in the very first release, The Capsoul Label, which featured "You're My Desire" and "Row My Boat" (which lead off Gently Down Your Stream).

The Mints - like the Capsoul Label itself - were from Columbus, Ohio and Gently Down Your Stream was their only album. It was recorded in 1973 and served as a ten-track vehicle for the five singles the group recorded. As Numero Group explains, the 1997 pressing of a CD version was terrible due to a faulty turntable drive that slowed the crisp soul harmonies, creating a sonic sludge. The remastered version Asterisk has issued rectifies this problem, and adds three rehearsals and instrumentals to boot. I strongly encourage you to pick up this record if you're a soul fan.

Here's an mp3 of the 45 version of "You're My Desire" that I found on Derek's Daily 45 blog.

And here's a 'video' of "Why Did I Go"


Don't forget to check out the Numero Group website and all their great releases.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

E is for Evening Hymns

I first heard Jonas Bonnetta's music when I clicked on The Acorn's "Top Friends" on Myspace nearly a year-and-a-half ago and I was instantly hooked. Bonnetta has a delicate and endearing voice which he augments with gorgeous layers of instrumentation that embellish without overwhelming. Under his own name, Bonnetta released the album Farewell To Harmony which was recorded at his parents' cottage and home but thanks to his skills as a recording engineer you'd be hard-pressed to call it a home-recording.



Since that full-length was released, Bonnetta has started to record under the name Evening Hymns which follows in the tradition of other 'bands' that are actually one guy who enlists a rotating line-up of other musicians to record, tour and perform.
According to the Myspace page, the rotation includes: Steve Hesselink, Peter Chatterton, Mika Posen, Shaun Brodie, Emily Heather Bennett, and Mike Duguay.

Winnipeg audiences finally got to see Bonnetta perform (along with Chatterton and Bennett) at Mondragon and the LO Pub in December under the Evening Hymns moniker, and I finally got to meet this artist who I had been emailing for over a year. No one was disappointed, and folks at the LO were treated to an especially memorable sing-along finale in front of the fireplace, led by the trio (the source of the picture at the top).

"Western Roads" was written well before the Evening Hymns made their wintry voyage to Winnipeg last December (Bonnetta says the trip was inspired by Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg), but it could have served as the soundtrack to their voyage. It comes from the Let's All Get Happy Together EP they were selling on their little tour. "Western Roads" is up right now on the bands' Myspace page and I recommend checking it out there as I don't know how to link it onto this page. I am however, linking "French Toast" off of Farewell To Harmony, one of the songs that hooked me initially.

French Toast

Evening Hymns Myspace page
Jonas Bonnetta's website

D is for Dragons...

Until very late last year, if you'd asked me who the Dragons were, my automatic (and only) answer would have been the professional baseball team in Nagoya, Japan - the Chunichi Dragons. But thanks to DJ Food and the fine folks at Ninja Tune, the Dragons I think of instantly now are Dennis, Daryl and Doug Dragon (and yes, that is their actual last name - how cool is that?!).

The brothers' album Blue Forces Intelligence (or BFI) was recorded at the close of the sixties and then shopped around to labels who - bewilderingly - passed on it. One track, "Food For My Soul," appeared on the soundtrack to a seventies surf film, which is where it came to the attention of DJ Food, who contacted Dennis Dragon to include it in a mix and casually asked if there was more where it came from. A little bit of searching yielded the master tapes (high school buddy/recording engineer Donn Landee had them kicking around) and when the Ninja Tune 'suits' heard the trippy combination of psych-rock and surf-soul the brothers had recorded, they flipped. Understandably, since I too flipped when I reviewed it for Stylus in the Dec./Jan. issue (which is still, briefly, available in Winnipeg).

The trio came by their talents honestly - their father Carmen was a symphony conductor and Hollywood arranger, and their mother was a singer. On the record the brothers used keyboards, vibes, layered vocals and studio trickery to amazing effect - inspired in part by "The Doors and others [who] were freaking us out with their hypnotic sounds," writes Dennis.

All three played as part of the Beach Boys' backing band in the seventies before they moved on to their individual pursuits - which brings me to the strangest piece of this puzzle: Daryl Dragon is THE CAPTAIN from Captain & Tenille!

Here's Daryl Dragon, a few years after recording BFI, with his and Toni Tenille's version of Muskrat Love, featuring people dressed as muskrats.


And here is
The Dragons' myspace page
Captain & Tenille's website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

C is for Clutchy...

Clutchy Hopkins that is.

And if you're asking who the fuck Clutchy Hopkins is, you're not alone. He seems to have come out of nowhere and there are more fully-formed questions about him than half-baked answers.

While there may be questions about whether Clutchy Hopkins is actually a mystic living in the Mojave desert who fought as a rebel in Nigeria (and that's just the tip of the rumour iceberg), there is no question that the music being released under the "Clutchy Hopkins" moniker is fan-fucking-tastic.

From the rare-groove selections on Sleepers Never Dig and Diggers Never Sleep, to the beat-tastic compositions on The Life of Clutchy Hopkins and People's Market (credited to Clutchy and the Misled Children), his collaboration with MF Doom to the material on a full-length due out February 5/08 on Ubiquity Records called Walking Backwards (featuring guest appearances by Darondo and Shawn Lee!) the marketing-ploy-mystery about the creator is nowhere near as exciting as the creations.

Check out this great video for "3:02" that someone matched up with Steamboat Willie :


And then check out Clutchy Hopkins' official website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

B is for Black Mountain

Confession time.
I've never been a big fan of prog-rock. I've been known to say 'no' to Yes, and when it came time to submit my list for the Top Canadian Albums, Rush was nowhere to be found (though several of their records made the cut, at the expense of personal favourites like this one).

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that the very proggy new record, In The Future, from Vancouver band Black Mountain is kicking my ass six ways to Sunday. While there are some radio-length songs, the backbone of the album is the epics "Tyrant" and "Bright Lights," clocking in at 8 and 16 minutes respectively, during which synths and pan-flutes abound, while Amber Webber's unearthly vocals float above the music. Upon reflection, epic may not be a big enough word to contain or describe these songs. Black Mountain has always displayed a penchant for pushing guitar dynamics to both their quiet and loud extremes (on the Druganaut EP and their self-titled full-length) but with In The Future they somehow manage to eclipse their past work and fold new influences into the fabric of their 'stoner rock.' If this is what the soundtrack to getting stoned is, pass me the pipe.

Black Mountain are about to embark on a gargantuan tour (fitting considering this is a behemoth of a record) that will find them here in Winnipeg on March 27 at the Pyramid, supported by Ladyhawk. I'll be hitting the merch table to buy this puppy on double-LP.

For a limited time, anyone and everyone can listen to a full album stream of the full album on the band's myspace page,.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...