This Davenport is not a small desk...

Did you know that tennis player Lindsay Davenport's father was named Wink? This is totally unrelated to the blog, but I think it's crazy/great that someone named their child Wink, though the little one that my wife and I are currently expecting will not be named Wink or Snuffles or Apple or whatever else the kids are naming their kids these days.

I discovered that little tidbit about Wink Davenport when I was google-ing my subject for this blog, Bart Davenport. There were a couple other albums in the Ear To The Sound docket that I was considering for my next post but Palaces forced its way to the top of the pile in short order and with great effusiveness. That's because I am a sucker for quality pop songcraft and succumb readily to horns, handclaps and 'ba-ba-bah's.' There's a reason Acid House Kings' Sing Along With... was my number one album a few years back (and you can bet your back-teeth that when the follow-up to that album drops you'll be reading about it here).

You might recognize Davenport's name from his other project, a pretty sweet amalgam of soul, pop and beats called Honeycut. His solo stuff finds him eschewing the beats and only dabbling in the soul while immersing himself in the pop. Which is alright by me.

Things start slowly with the title track. "Palaces" is a wistful, delicate little tune that manages to be both breezy and wrapped in ennui at the same time. After several listens I've finally placed what it reminds me of: "Swimming Suit" from Tahiti 80's fantastic Puzzle. Both strike the same note (a harmonic minor?); one that is perfect for the expectation and dread that comes with the
turning of the leaves and all the back-to-school-ness it connotes.

The 'ba-ba-bah's' arrive with full-force on "Jon Jon," which, were it not for the spelling I would swear had been written specifically for my friend John Gordon who hosts Pop Infusion and also goes ape-shit for pop goodness. It's an infectious song that has people singing along almost immediately.

"Jon Jon" is followed by "A Young One," a song that sounds like a Motown outtake with its drum and glockenspiel intro, though Davenport's croon is a little more whitebread and tongue in cheek than Smokey Robinson and the like. You can hear it for yourself in the video below Palaces is a bit front-loaded with the best material and starts to lose steam in the middle but there are still some pop gems that merit listening the whole way through.

So here's the video for "A Young One"


Palaces is out on Antenna Farm Records and is also available digitally with vinyl to follow in October.

Be sure to visit Bart's Myspace page (where "Jon Jon" is streaming) and his official website, as well as his 'other' project Honeycut.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Doing The Spectral Boogie...

After about hour ten of driving through middle-America, you might find yourself needing a little sonic pick-me-up. The interstate stretches on, the drive broken only by the intermittent appearance of a rest-stop Star**cks and you find yourself shaking your head and blinking rapidly to snap out of the daze that has set in. The solution? Ann Arbor, MI band Nomo and their latest release, Ghost Rock!

I went back to the well several times on this album during the gazillion mile drive and it never failed to revive me and what's more, the record held up to repeated listens and revealed new textures and elements with each successive listen. Ghost Rock is the follow-up to the equally solid New Tones (Ubiquity, 2006), though this new record finds the group exploring some new sounds and moving beyond the Afro-beat Tones to incorporate Kraut Rock and noise elements into their sound.

Led by Elliott Bergman the band has coalesced over the past few years into an octet and the firming up of the numbers has resulted in an arguably tighter unit augmented by the addition of a ninth individual who on the face of it is a surprising participant: Warn Defever. The His Name Is Alive founder/member produced Ghost Rock and Defever brought a fresh batch of ideas to the studio as Bergman related in my recent interview with him. The funk is still there and the band continues to create some of their own percussive instruments, but the way in which Defever drew out those sounds is the new element that sets Ghost Rock apart from New Tones.

Speaking of New Tones, check out this sweet video before you click on the link to my interview with Elliott Bergman.

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Then head over to Nomo's Myspace page and official website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Posting at a Snail's pace...

Wow. It's been a while, hasn't it?
Well I apologize - I took a lengthy holiday IRL and upon returning I had an anniversary, a birthday and found out I'm going to be a dad so things have been pretty hectic of late. But the upside of my holiday is the fact that my gigantic road-trip (over 5500kms; about 3500mi.) provided me with ample opportunity to listen to new music and several of the albums that fueled my travels are primed for the Ear To The Sound spotlight.

For my first of the 'road-trip soundtrack' posts I'd like to spotlight an album that came up late in the journey but the timing was perfectly suited to driving along Lake Superior on my way from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. The rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield has a hard beauty that isn't necessarily as imposing as the Rockies but the juxtaposition of exposed rock, pine trees and sunlight dancing off the lake is breathtaking in its own way and Lies on the Prize struck me as the perfect soundtrack to the sights.



Over nearly a decade and a half (dating back to 1994's Fine), Mike Feuerstack has been creating music under the Snailhouse moniker and I've been a fan since I first saw him play the Academy several years ago (back when it was actually on Academy). I was looking forward to Lies on the Prize, but any expectations I may have had about the album were blown away by the textured instrumentation and nuanced lyrics Feuerstack has recorded with the assistance of Jeremy Gara. [*In addition to recording and mixing the album, Gara also played drums, keyboards, percussion, guitar and bass! And if his name sounds familiar, chances are you've heard a little band Gara plays in.]

The natural world weaves its way into many Snailhouse songs and the topic of travel insinuates itself as well (though in the world weary way one expects from an independent musician who has logged a lot of miles criss-crossing a country as large as Canada). That Feuerstack chose to close the album with "Homesick" seemed especially fitting as I mentally calculated the hours left until I could sleep in my own bed. Road trips are great, but a significant part of their allure resides in heading home, renewed in your appreciation for your own space in this world. To (mis)quote the song, home "echos and murmurs" in the head of each traveler.

As fitting as I found "Homesick" the songs that I kept hitting repeat for were "Tone Deaf Birds" and "They Won't Believe You." The former is a brief and delicate song that has a peculiar message of resilience in noting that "tone deaf, tone deaf birds sing anyway." The song also features the first appearance of Pietro Amato's mellifluous French horn. It's this instrument that also makes "They Won't Believe You" one of the best songs I've heard this year. When the horn comes in at the 1:25 and 2:51 marks, the hairs on my arms stand straight up - each and every time I play the song. Gara's rolling toms add an ominous pulse to the track and Feuerstack's echo-effected guitar work is spooky as all get out. Sadly I can't find either of these two tracks to post here, but that just means you should get the album to hear them for yourself. The album is available from Unfamiliar Records and digitally at Zunior.

There are a couple Snailhouse songs available for download on Feuerstack's Myspace page, but unfortunately on his official web page, the MP3s have been removed recently. I'd still encourage you to visit both.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...
(and stay tuned for Nomo's Ghost Rock!!)

Stop by the Azeda Booth at the music fair...

Props for this entry go to my friend Myke, the Music Director at CJSW (Calgary's finest radio station) as he's the one who first tipped me off on Azeda Booth. Considering his own taste, and the fact that he used to be in the band, I knew I had to check out their EP Mysterious Body when it arrived at the station last year. I enjoyed it, but that effort pales in comparison to what the group achieve on their full-length, In Flesh Tones, due out July 22nd on Absolutely Kosher. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about when I say 'pales,' let's say this is Mysterious Body. In Flesh Tones, in contrast, would be this. It's an immense leap forward.

The fact that In Flesh Tones is their debut full-length is a jaw-dropper as it's just so fully thought out and finds the band having thoroughly developed its own sound. There are musical signposts, certainly, but these only hint at what Azeda Booth have developed as a 'sound.' Her Space Holiday is the first that comes to mind, with the hushed vocals and dreamy, atmospheric electro-pop arrangements. All Music Guide go with Boards of Canada and The Octopus Project in their influences as well and certainly there are some ambient points that give a nod to BoC most noticeably (the opening notes of "Big Fists" for one).

But just listen to opener "Ran" (streaming on Myspace) and you'll hear how these comparisons only scratch the surface where Azeda Booth's songs are concerned. It starts with ten seconds of atmospheric keys but then the toms kick in, propelling the song with a manic energy that dispels the dreamy vibe, setting the listener up for the plaintive (and eerily panicked) opening vocals "keep me/awake/i'll stay," and later, "how can/you bring/yourself to love me."
There's a majestic desperation to these opening minutes and things only get better from there as the band experiments with claustrophobic textures and rich soundscapes, building a singular record. If this album doesn't make my Year-End "Best Of" list, I'll eat my copy.

I couldn't find a download of any of the new material, but the band has made both "Dead Girls" and "Aislinn Bos, Y" available as mp3s.

Be sure to check out the band's website, Myspace page and Facebook group, and don't forget to mark your calendars for In Flesh Tones' release date: JULY 22, 2008!

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

P.S. If you image search Azeda Booth on Google, one of the results is this. Awesome.

Other irons in the fire...

This isn't a regular entry (though I am working on another new one, which should be up in a couple days), but just a little update to tell you about some other developments you might be interested in.


ONE

UMFM's working with the fine folks at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, producing a series of podcasts featuring interviews and selections from featured performers. While most of the time I'm behind the production board, I did interview Artistic Director Chris Frayer for the first episode, which can be found here. These podcasts will be updated regularly and one of the subsequent episodes is my interview with Mark Berube (who's a great solo artist I've talked to before for the Killbeat podcast) as his spoken-word/folk group The Fugitives will be playing the FF.

TWO

Jose Gonzalez is coming to Winnipeg, playing two shows - the first on Canada Day and the second the next night, both at the Park Theatre. I managed to catch Jose by phone today and there will be a feature on him and his live show in the next Stylus.

THREE

For those of you in the 'Peg, you're likely familiar with Uptown, the weekly magazine/newspaper. Well, I've just yesterday submitted my first batch of reviews (a couple positive, one very negative) as I will be taking over reviewing electronic releases for them. Should be on newsstands soon all throughout the city, and if you live elsewhere, you'll be able to peep it here.

Sadako and Victoria's Paper Cranes

Now I don't know if they're named after the famous story of Sadako and the thousand Paper Cranes, but I do know that Halcyon Days provides a good follow-up to my last entry about the Airfields' Up All Night. Though where that record was a wash of shoegazey pop-rock, this one is power-pop through and through. The rollicking piano that propels some of the Paper Cranes sugary sweet tracks would have a hard time being heard over the Airfields' wash of guitar work. (Interestingly, The Airfields are fourth among The Paper Cranes top friends and the two bands played an Unfamiliar Records/Musebox showcase together in March).

One other thing I don't know is just how new Halcyon Days actually is. The band mentions in an entry dated May 10, 2007 on their Myspace blog that they're planning their full length release for the first week of August, and a later entry dated February 26, 2008 indicates the CD is "available now," yet the album arrived just a couple weeks ago at the station. I can only presume that it was released locally and via the net in February and is only now being serviced to radio. Thank heavens they finally got around to sending it though as it's a fantastic listen and a great addition to the UMFM playlists.

Here's a live performance of "laughing sickness" from their CD Release Party, dated August 07, 2007, which leads me to believe this album's been out for a dog's age but is only now being serviced to radio. About time!



Victoria! Have you been keeping your treasures secret from the rest of the country? Take the ferry and come join the rest of Canada - we love your Chet, your Himalayan Bear, your Aaargh! Records, and now your Paper Cranes.

Don't forget to check out The Paper Cranes' Myspace page, where my favourite cut, "applecore manticore" is streaming. There are also a few tracks available on their New Music Canada artist page as well.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Flying High in the Toronto Sky...

While the Platinum Pied Pipers may have laid claim to the use of the phrase "Triple-P" or "PPP," the material on new record Up All Night makes a strong case for Toronto band The Airfields meriting a "PPP" of their own:
Pure Pop Perfection.
The band cite the Sarah and Creation Record labels as influences on their Myspace page and this is evident from the first notes of opener "Prisoners Of Our Love," which is one of the most blissful songs I've heard this year. I'm certain "Prisoners..." would make Robert Wratten jealous.

The Airfields follow up the bliss of "Prisoners..." with "Never See You Smile" at which point it becomes obvious that as influential as the twee-pop of Sarah Records was on the genesis of Up All Night, shoegaze was equally important, with the band building on My Bloody Valentine's legacy.

"Yr So Wonderful" is another one of the tracks that demonstrates the debt The Airfields owe to My Bloody Valentine, with the melodically squalling guitars that threaten to overtake the vocals of lead singer David Lush (and how's that for a descriptive last name?), without ever quite doing so. Part of that effect is achieved by the mix that keeps the guitars front-and-centre while Lush's voice dances around. Close attention to the lyrics being sung reveal a take on love that's as blissful as the music - this album is as much about swooning as it is swoon-inducing.

A complete stream of Up All Night is available at CD Baby - if I haven't convinced you to check the album out, a full listen definitely will.

Don't forget to check out The Airfields website and Myspace pages, as well as the Humblebee Recordings website as well.



Thanks for reading, now start listening...