Drifting off to Sleep Whale...

Coming in at just under a half-hour, Little Brite from Denton, Texas band Sleep Whale is a gorgeous, brief reverie of electroacoustic ambience and lilting melodies on finger-picked guitar with subtle string arrangements. Apparently the band was formerly known as MOM, but I think Sleep Whale is a much more appropriate moniker since it evokes a cozy, warm atmosphere (and let's face it, not everyone's mom brings that to mind). That atmosphere encapsulates their sound as well, which is a deft touch.

No wonder then that they chose to name one of their tracks "Sleep Whale" (a little like Wilco's new album Wilco with a song named "Wilco.")

Sleep Whale from Sleep Whale on Vimeo.

Are whales the new wolves when it comes to band names? Whatevs as long as it sounds as good as this.

You can pre-order their EP from Western Vinyl (who have also released Peter Broderick's work) here, where I found the mp3 for "Josh Likes Me."

Be sure to check out their Myspace page and website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Snow In June!

While it's entirely too hot for the white stuff in Winnipeg right now, my ears have been treated to some snow recently. I've been listening to the self-titled album from Miike Snow quite a bit in the last little while and it has been challenging Mos Def's The Ecstatic for top spot in the rotation.

Miike Snow - despite being named after a person (Takashi Miike) - is a group.
For a while there was some mystery (a la Clutchy Hopkins) about who or what Miike Snow was, but it has now come out that the group is a collaboration amongst Andrew Wyatt, Christian Karlsson, and Pontus Winnberg. The latter two have produced under the name Bloodshy & Avant for the likes of Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but teaming up with Wyatt they elevate the electro-pop-production they've employed in the past to create a crisp record that truly pops.

Rather than simply take someone else's material and spit polish it, on Miike Snow the trio build these shiny tunes from the ground up. Drum tracks pulse while the noise effects that dance around on the beat are crucial to the mix and not mere embellishments. Speaking of the mix, this album rewards a close headphone listen as there is so much going on within it. Engineers and producers-in-training would be wise to study tracks like "Black & Blue" when things take off near the 45-second mark. Out of control.

In addition to recording their own material, Miike Snow have been busy with remixes and collabos with the likes of Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn & John and Vampire Weekend (how's that for a hipster's who's-who?) and others have been returning the remix favour. Check out the Fake Blood remix of lead-off album track "Animal" here.

You can hear the original and more where that came from.
And don't forget to check out the Miike Snow Myspace page.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Sad Songs Say So Much

I hesitate to say this album hit me like a thunderbolt because it's far too quiet an album for comparisons to thunder (though sadness does hang over Life On Earth like ominous thunderclouds). But Jesy Fortino's new album - her third as Tiny Vipers and second released on Sub Pop - did grab my attention on first listen and after several successive listens it has revealed great depths lyrically and the sparse instrumentation has not worn thin.

Fortino's voice is perfectly matched to her love-worn songs - it's tremulous and tender without being fragile. Her heart is broken but her soul is resilient. I can see her being left by a lover and choosing to straighten her shoulders and walk onward alone as she intimates on "Slow Motion":

I see his eyes are fading / a trail of angels / that's gone away / the world is leaving / where's it left you? / the world is leaving me too

I'm tempted to quote the song in its entirety and could easily quote many of the other lyrics on Life On Earth as Fortino's skill as a songwriter is exceptional. Rarely is the heartbreak of another person so heartbreaking to hear. And rarer still is a solo songwriter with a guitar deserving of more than a disinterested coffeehouse audience. My hope is that Tiny Vipers gains a giant audience.

Here's Fortino performing lead-off track "Eyes Like Ours" live at Public Access Media Studios:



Be sure to check out the Tiny Vipers Myspace page and official website.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Not Unlike Turkish Delight...

A while back, I got turned on to Turkish psych-folk band Mogollar - particularly their 1971 album Danses Et Rythmes De La Turquie. It's really brilliant stuff.
One day I was playing it at the station and another host happened to overhear it and we got talking about how great the album was but how brief the songs were. We imagined that catching Mogollar live the songs would likely have been epic jams that were just too brain-meltingly gigantic to fit on an LP back then so they distilled the essence of the songs for release on vinyl. We kinda wished there were 80-minute recordings back then but shrugged our shoulders and went back to enjoying what the band did record.

Then about a month or so ago, the same host mentioned the new Acid Mothers Temple record , Lords Of The Underground: Vishnu and the Magic Elixir and how it basically played like our imaginary Mogollar live show. The album is credited to Acid Mothers Temple with The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. but reading the liner notes it looks like a strictly AMT affair.

Opener "Eleking The Clay" is built atop layers of drone, squelching guitars and all sorts of bells and whistles and it percolates for almost 15 minutes. Forget Tim Horton's Tea - this is the real steeped stuff.

"Sorcerer's Stone Of The Magi" is actually a short piece written by bassist Atsushi Tsuyama so it doesn't melt the brain like the opener, but it's a decent respite before the epic closer, "Vishnu And The Magic Elixir." A 25-minute behemoth, "Elixir" is what would be playing on the spaceport in Kubrick's 2001 if the station had been built by a Turkish contractor working for a German multinational. Maybe. My mind is too liquid to really put together a coherent thought after listening to this record for the umpteenth time.

Don't forget to check out the band's Myspace page and official website.

I couldn't find an mp3 from the new record, or a video either, but here's a live performance worth checking out:


Thanks for reading, now start listening...

These Young Pups Are Impressive

While they've lost the cachet of releasing their album as an import on German label Tomlab (THE mother-flippin' BOOKS!), Haligonians Dog Day are back with the follow-up to their 2007 album Night Group. Coming to you by way of the good folks at Outside Music (who have gone from being solely a distribution force to a label to be reckoned with...) Concentration builds on the strengths of that last record and exceeds even my wildest expectations about what these young'uns were capable of.

While the washes of guitar and keyboards mask it sometimes, the vocals are the heart of Dog Day and Seth Smith and Nancy Urich are both captivating singers. Smith starts opener "Happiness" with a classic indie-rock monotone delivery before some switching up to some soaring "woo-ooo's" and then he and Urich start chanting "this is the life" and the energy sells the sentiment. Urich takes center stage on "Neighbour" though it's not exactly in the center of the mix - instead her voice is like a disembodied presence floating away from the rooted rhythm section. Curiously, Smith's "I won't turn on you / I'm not like that" near the three-minute mark is front-and-center. It's an interesting choice.

"Wait It Out" is a particular favourite, with a catchy melody and hand claps (the hand claps get me every time) supported by a driving four/four beat, but it's a disservice to the strength of the record to single out favourites. Concentration works from front to back with nary a filler cut amongst the bunch.

The band is on tour with Julie Doiron (and others), and will be playing the historic Royal Albert on June 5th if you live in Winnipeg. Full tour date info is available by clicking on this link.

Concentration is available as a digital download here on Zunior.

Here's the video for "Happiness" from the new album:


Don't forget to check out Dog Day's Myspace page, Facebook page and website.

I'll leave you with "Rome" via the fine folks at Herohill.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

The Sure Shots Of Soul

While I was confirmed in the United Church when I was younger, me and organized religion have since parted ways and I count myself among the agnostics of the world now. But I still get a dose of spirituality thanks to one part of my personal holy trinity (music of course; the other two being literature and film). Today's entry is all about feeling the spirit with a new gospel album out on the ever-reliable Daptone Records and a fantastic soul record from the folks at Truth and Soul.


The first of these is What Have You Done, My Brother from Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. I heard about this one recently thanks to Justin - the MD at CFUV - who ducked out of official CMJ partying to take in a live show and raved about it. He's already calling What Have You Done... the album of the year. While my personal opinion is to award that accolade to Veckatimest (so far it's the one to beat in my books), I've been spinning this album a fair bit of late and with repeat listens it hasn't lost its luster. In fact it only gets better. An Alabama native who now calls New York her home (she plays a weekly Friday-night gig at the Fat Cat if you happen to be in the NYC...), Shelton has a wonderfully rich voice that is perfectly suited to the soul/gospel she sings. For proof, take a listen to "What Have You Done" and the b-side "I'll Take The Long Road" from the 7" available now (the full-length comes out May 26th but you can pre-order it here).


The second album that's been speaking to my soul is My World from Lee Fields & The Expressions, an album that's due out on June 2, 2009 on Truth & Soul Records. Mark your calendars now and remember to head down to your favourite local record shop a couple weeks from now to pick it up because as soon as you check out the mp3 of "Ladies" you're going to want this record. Fields released several 7" singles and an LP in the 70's but My World isn't some unearthed gem from yesteryear. It was in fact recorded over the past four years and features some stellar material you'd swear was classic soul. "Love Comes And Goes" could have come from that Four Mints record I wrote about last year, and the rhythm guitar on "Honey Dove" is so smooth it could out-seduce The Stylistics. With this and the El Michaels Affair albums, Truth and Soul are on a roll - I can hardly wait to hear what they come up with on the forthcoming Aloe Blacc record (Blacc actually appears on the My World bonus track "Truth, Deception & Lies")

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Live And In Person...

Generally I like to stick to writing about albums and leave the Upcoming Shows listings to the blogs that do a really thorough job of it - like Painting Over Silence. But a few artists that I've featured on Ear To The Sound are coming to town and it bears a brief mention and a hearty "GO CHECK THEM OUT" for all my Winnipeg peeps.

First off - mark your calendar for May 27 and 28, 2009. That's when Timber Timbre rolls through town playing a show at the LO on the first night and an in-store at Music Trader and a show at the Graffiti Gallery on the second. Three opportunities to see 'em play so you have no excuse for missing this fantastic act (who just signed to Arts & Crafts, it should be added).

Come to think of it, that's the only artist featured so far on this blog but there are a few others that I feel are worth mentioning.

The self-titled record from CLUES (on Constellation) has been getting A LOT of spins amongst a few of us at UMFM. The band features former members of Arcade Fire and Unicorns and if the live experience is anything like the record it should be a hella good show at the Pyramid on May 25th. Clues is in serious consideration as an upcoming post album-wise.

Speaking of the Pyramid, there's a clutch of great shows coming up at the downtown landmark worth checking out including Israeli punks Monotonix (May 21st), Grand Analog & Nestor Wynrush (May 27th - Grand Analog will be releasing their new record Metropolis Is Burning), and The Stills and Gentleman Reg will be playing on the 16th (if you aren't headed to the lake this May long weekend).

Indie-darling Julie Doiron is touring on the strength of her great new record I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (umpteen consecutive weeks at #1 on Earshot) and she'll be in Winnipeg June 5th at the Albert with Halifax's Dog Day and local act Les Jupes.

The Winnipeg Jazz Festival line-up has been announced and if you slept on Alice Russell last year ask someone who didn't why you should catch her at the Pyramid on June 29th. This year's sleeper artist (i.e. the one everyone doesn't know about but will be talking about)is definitely Quantic (playing at the Pyramid on July 2nd), but I'm also excited to introduce my new son Archer to his namesake when The Sea & Cake play the Pyramid on June 30th.

Finally, one act that I never got around to writing about but who I heartily recommend checking out is New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands. They released a great record on Frenchkiss called You & I that caught my ear earlier this year. They'll be playing the Albert on June 27th so I have time to find a babysitter.