They're new to me...

The December '08/January '09 issue of Stylus hit the stands yesterday (and it's also on the completely revamped website where my interview with past Ear To The Sound subject Azeda Booth can be found) and it features Top Ten lists from a handful of the magazine's contributors, but it doesn't have one from me.
I try to wait as late as possible before assembling my year-end list (say, around year-end...) and the early November deadline for Stylus leaves nearly two full months of potentially overlooked music. Last year, I submitted a list of my Top Ten Reissues of the year because I never include reissues in my 'official' list (nor do I include compilations, best-of's or soundtracks for that matter) and this year I submitted my list of "Top 10 Discoveries of 2008 that aren't from 2008."
The list didn't make the cut however and wasn't included in the issue so I figured I'd post it here, along with a trio of albums that would likely have made my 2008 Best Of list were it not for the fact that I'm a stickler for rules and have disqualified them from eligibility because I've discovered they were released in 2007 (and re-released in 2008).

Number 10: Peter Sarstedt - Where Do You Go To My Lovely?

I owe Wes Anderson a debt for bringing this album to my attention - the short Hotel Chevalier that preceded The Darjeeling Limited featured the title track to this 1969 album from Indian artist Sarstedt (who curiously enough, grew up near Darjeeling). It's a lovely little bit of folk-pop a la Donovan and the rest of the album is as enchanting.

Number 9: Exuma - Exuma

Do you read Wax Poetics? Kudos if you do, but if you don't you should seriously get on that shit. Some of the best writing about jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop to grace the printed page. I found out about this 1970 album in the re:Discovery section of their rock issue and it is a crazy mixture of blues, funk, African rhythms and rock. Frighteningly good.

Number 8: Roy Milton - Instant Groove

I picked up a copy of this record on vinyl for $.99 at Dusty Groove in Chicago this summer and it was a stellar find - blues, r&b and jazz recorded in 1977 (and reissued on CD in 2004) by this in-the-pocket drummer and his combo.


Number 7: Clifford Brown - Study In Brown

I owe jazz artist Elizabeth Shepherd thanks for putting me on to this record. I had asked her in a lengthy interview about her favourite jazz records and she immediately mentioned Study In Brown (she's even written lyrics for some of these tracks with the hopes of eventually "covering" the album). An amazing hard bop record from 1955, it features Max Roach on drums and was one of the last albums Brown recorded before his untimely death at 25 in 1956.

Number 6: Quinteplus - Quinteplus

Released in 1972 on EMI, this Argentinian quintet's soul-jazz session was reissued by the fine folks at Vampisoul last year, with a vinyl reissue early in 2008. If you like Horace Silver or Lou Donaldson, then this album's for you.


Number 5: The Montgomery Express - The Montgomery Movement

"Steal Away" from this 1974 record makes my soul ache every time I hear it. The entire album is a beautiful blend of southern soul and gospel. The album was released on Folkways and it's a fitting home for this, the folk music of the American south.

Number 4: Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band - Present Egyptian Jazz

A compilation of material from 1968-1973 released in 2006 on Art Yard, this is some fantastic stuff. Ragab was a drummer and bandleader who worked with Sun Ra at one point and he incorporates Middle Eastern influences into existing jazz structures to create some pretty compelling and original spiritual jazz material. This is the record I alluded to in my Karl Hector & the Malcouns review in the last issue of Stylus.

Number 3: Margie Joseph - Margie Joseph

Pitchfork are a bunch of haters but I read them begrudgingly. Pop Matters doesn't rock the hate quite so much so I visit that site with less trepidation. Early this spring they rewarded my readership with a fantastic article on a forgotten soul vocalist who was supposed to be the next Aretha Franklin (Atlantic Record's words, not mine). Didn't quite happen but Joseph did put out some amazing records that have been reissued this year. Her self-titled 1973 album featured a cover of "Let's Stay Together" so good that the Reverend Al himself wrote her a congratulatory note.

Number 2: Bowerbirds - Hymns For A Dark Horse

Yeah, I think I've covered this one enough already.





Number 1: Daniel Johnston - Four original Stress-released cassettes.

This is a bit like putting Radiohead in Germany on your Top 5 Shows list - great for you but basically bragging to everyone else. But what can I say - I hit a stoop sale in Brooklyn this summer and found four original Daniel Johnston cassettes, including the fantastic Retired Boxer, and the dude sold me them for $.50 each. For two bucks I've got some great, rare cassettes and a story to brag about. Let the hating begin. So. Either go on eBay to look for these or pick up The Early Recordings issued on DualTone.

That's the list I submitted, with my added embellishments.
What I didn't submit and want to touch on now are the trio of albums I've disqualified from my 2008 Top Ten list that were so good I have to acknowledge them somehow:

Shugo Tokumaru - Exit (Almost Gold)

I was under the impression that Exit was released this year until a good friend informed me that it had been released in Japan last year and was picked up by Almost Gold (home to Peter, Bjorn & John among others). A zany mixture of children's toys, electronic loops and pop hooks so barbed they will stay lodged in your brain for weeks, Exit is a brilliant album. Too bad I didn't hear it last year.

Quasimode - The Land of Freedom (Sonar Kollectiv)

Reissued by the good Germans of Sonar Kollectiv this year, this is another record that was originally released in 2007 in Japan. Here's what I wrote in a review that also discussed Jun Miyake's Stolen From Strangers in the last issue of Stylus:
Quasimode ... come from Japan's vibrant club jazz scene (which includes the incredible Soil & "PIMP" Sessions), where the ebullience and energy of Ellington's orchestra, and Basie's bounce come together in modal party music that moves feet on the dance floor. After a brief 'intro-lude' Quasimode hit the ground running with "The Man From Nagpur" – a track that seems like they're setting the bar impossibly high for the rest of the album. Horns scorch like the heat from the rising sun, and Takahiro Matsuoka's channelling of Candido on percussion, with Yusuke Hirado's piano adding to the percussive pulse. Hirado really shines on the next cut, "Object In the Mirror," which features the great Carmen Lundy on vocals. It's no surprise that Quasimode's German label, Sonar Kollektiv chose it as the single. The band understands that audiences can't last on the dance floor forever and so they slow things down on the Latin-infused "Last Nine Days," offering a restrained respite before launching back into the melee with "Time Is Love."


Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)

It broke my heart to disqualify this one - fitting since listening to songs from the album like "Skinny Love" also break my heart. This is on a lot of people's Best of 2008 lists and has even taken the top spot among some people I know. Released on Jagjaguwar (a label that had a phenomenal year in my opinion), For Emma... apparently had a limited life prior to that as an independent. Recorded in a cabin in Wisconsin it's an album perfectly suited to a Winnipeg winter like the one that has arrived recently. I might not be including it on my New Year's countdown on UMFM, but I'll be playing it over the holidays nonetheless.
Here's "Skinny Love" live on Jools Holland to take us out:



Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Mystical chamber folk from Central Canada

Wow. It's been nearly a month since I last posted something. This whole expectant dad thing has apparently been taking up more of my time than I realized. On the upside, l'il Cubby (as we've taken to calling the baby since we discovered it dates back to our time in Chicago...) has a shiny new Baby Bjorn to be carried around in once it's born.

Anyway, enough about the Cub-ster. On to the music.

Winnipeg has produced an overwhelming number of great bands in a variety of genres - I've always contended that this city punches above its' weight when it comes to making good music - but a few years back the 'Peg produced a great band that plays a variety of genres: Mr. Pine. Working pop, folk, chamber music, prog and more into the mix, Mr. Pine's output stands alone.

The follow-up to their debut, The Gift Of Wolves, is called Rewilding and Mr. Pine asked me to write the one-sheet that they included with the album when they sent it out to radio and press. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd post the text from that one-sheet here:

When Winnipeg outfit Mr. Pine released The Gift of Wolves in 2006, that album could be viewed as the result of a project – a whimsical collaboration between Matt McLennan and Kevin Scott that drew several other musicians into their orbit. Since then Mr. Pine has moved from project to band with a filled out roster that has grown to include Leslie Oldham (vocals), Richard Caners (violin), Jason Peters (guitar), and Ken Phillips (bass). The cohesiveness of these players is largely responsible for the great leap forward that Rewilding represents for Mr. Pine.

As with The Gift of Wolves, McLennan and Scott remain the songwriters for all of the material performed by the band but their collaborations have grown with their working familiarity and Rewilding finds them incorporating new sounds – including that other four letter word; prog – into the mix. While the material still nestles comfortably alongside the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Rewilding stakes its own far-ranging territory with pop, baroque and post-rock incorporated as well.

One of the highlights of the album is “Sleep of Ondine,” the recording of which proved notable for Mr. Pine. The song features guest vocals from Alison O’Donnell of Mellow Candle, a band McLennan and Scott share a love of. The pair never expected their homage to Mellow Candle would feature one of its vocalists.

“Streets of York” features another great collaboration, this one much closer to home. The band enlisted the help of Winnipeg indie legend Jay Churko (Chords of Canada, Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.) who somewhat surprisingly contributed banjo. The result is an obvious first single – but Mr. Pine isn’t about singles, and Rewilding should be taken as a richly rewarding whole.

You can hear some of the new material on Mr. Pine's Myspace page and if you have Flash Player there are clips here on the band's website.

That name again is Mr. Pine.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Canada's Treasure; Canada Is A Treasure...

I've been mulling an entry about the latest from Calgary's Woodpigeon for a while but it pushed itself to the front of my thoughts this week after I sat down for an interview with John Ralston Saul about his latest book, A Fair Country. So what's the connection with Woodpigeon's Treasury Library Canada? On the face of it, there's the strange similarity in the cover art:

On the Treasury Library Canada cover, there's a cute little village on top of a fox (or is it a fox? I'm not even sure - zoology's not my strong suit)


And on the cover of A Fair Country, Canada's parliament sits atop a turtle (which represents the aboriginal concept of Turtle Island)

I find it interesting how we (Canada, people, etc.) are supported or held aloft by the natural world in both these images and yet we may be unaware of this fact because the turtle is below the waterline and the 'fox' is hidden by the fold of the cover.

The connection between the two runs deeper than the cover art though. Saul's book is a wake-up call to Canadians to recognize that the organizational origin of our country is not Western Democratic, nor is "Order" a foundational tenet in Canada. He insists that Canada is instead a Metis nation, and that a nation of "Peace, WELFARE, and Good Government" was envisioned in our early years. But we've turned our backs on these facts and attemtped to emulate Britain and the United States out of an inferiority complex that has hampered our ability to succeed on our own terms - we need to wake up to this and embrace our true selves.

Coincidentally, Treasury Library Canada begins with a wake-up call in "Knock Knock." "Knock knock, is anyone there?" sings Mark Hamilton as the song concludes, before "Piano Pieces For Adult Beginners" touches on the topic of being true to who you really are ("Don't try to be / Something you ain't") and not settling for/succumbing to simplistic motivations ("Don't do pride, don't do fate"). For this alone I think Mr. Saul may have found a suitable soundtrack to his public lectures on the book.

Putting the links between Treasury Library Canada and A Fair Country aside, Woodpigeon's latest album is a worthy follow-up to the lovely Songbook from 2006. There is more of the fantastic layering of instrumentation used to build little walls of sound. To take my recurrent example; "Knock Knock" starts simply with guitar, then drums and voice but ultimately builds to a quiet cacaphony that includes strings, banjo and a chorus of voices.

There are also clever song titles ("In the Battle of Sun vs. Curtains, Sun Loses and We Sleep Until Noon") and superbly sketched vignettes (the aforementioned song, for one: "And on those dark days when the sun won’t shine on me / I don’t want to have to quantify the ones I love"), that are held aloft (like the town on the cover?) by the whimsical and wistful music made by the eight members of Woodpigeon. Plus "pre-requisite special guests" as the band pithily notes on Myspace.

Unfortunately [not for the band, but for people looking for a copy] Treasury Library Canada sold out in its run of 1000 copies, but if you mark your Google Calendar for February 2009, Woodpigeon will be releasing a version of the album with a bonus disc in the UK and Europe if you absolutely-positively-must have a hard copy. AND it is available as a pay-what-you-want mp3 here.

Speaking of mp3's I was fortunate enough to participate in a recording session at UMFM with Mark Hamilton last winter and he recorded a lovely, reverberating version of "I Want To See You Again."

Don't forget to visit Woodpigeon's website, Myspace page, and the CBC3 site.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Bowerbird much?

Bowerbird much? That's the question posed to me yesterday by a friend and the answer of late is 'indubitably.' Hymns For A Dark Horse was a slow-burner for me - requiring several listens to digest the material, but over the last month it has absolutely caught fire. I can't stop returning to this record and I can't help but believe that when the group sings "you're in our talons now / and we're never letting go," they're speaking directly to listeners.

This trio from Raleigh, North Carolina is comprised of Phil Moore (guitar, hi hat, lead vocals), Beth Tacular (accordion, autoharp, percussion, vocals) and Mark Paulson (violin, foot synth, percussion, vocals), and while it's Moore's vocals that will stand out on first listen, repeat plays reveal the complex relationship between the three that makes their material so compelling. One example: Paulson's violin echoes Moore's voice on "The Marbled Godwit" - neither possesses a traditional beauty, but the aching attempt to transcend their limits is my kind of gorgeous.

Hymns For A Dark Horse was originally released in the spring of 2007, but the fine folks at Dead Oceans came to the same conclusion John Darnielle from The Mountain Goats did: "It is beyond stunning. This band is the complete package." And if props from friggin' John Darnielle isn't enough - the band is opening for Calexico throughout November (and seriously, if you live in one of the cities this bill is playing, why don't you have tickets yet?!).

If you can get past the beautiful music this trio makes - and believe me, it may take several listens with a song like "Bur Oak" and the way their voices interplay on the chorus with Paulson and Tacular coming in above and just behind Moore to get beyond the song - close attention to the lyrics reveal some marvelous vignettes and address timely and timeless themes alike.

I'll leave you with not one, but two fantastic videos that were filmed as part of La Blogotheque's "concert a importer" series (which is FANTASTIC - check out the Bon Iver stuff if you can - but I digress). The first is "In Our Talons," the lyrics of which I quoted in that first paragraph. The latter is the indescribably beautiful "Bur Oak." It'll be lodged in your head for days and I'm not sorry for that.





Don't forget to visit their Myspace page and website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

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!!)