When I first heard “Scissors” by Eight and a Half, I thought it was a pretty decent song, but nothing too spectacular given the “supergroup” nature of the band (Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene, and The Stills’ alums Dave Hamelin and Liam O’Neil). It’s really grown on me since then, but “Go Ego” was an instantaneous love affair. Its propulsive beat and shimmering synth washes speak to my inner electro-pop geek. It makes me want to make a mixtape with it at the centre, then get in my car and blast it at full volume with the windows down going 80 in a 60. It makes me want to stop strangers in the street and say, “Have you heard this song yet? It’s fantastic!”
Or I could just post about it on the music blog I’ve been writing for the last five years. That will probably work, too.
The debut, self-titled disc from Eight and a Half doesn’t come out for another nine weeks, but if you’re going gaga for “Go Ego” you’ll be in for a sweet (if not slightly late) Easter treat when it hit shelves on April 10.
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If you’re a frequent visitor here, then you’ll no doubt already be familiar with You’ve Changed Records and their impressive catalogue of releases these past few years. Someone once accused my of only writing about the label’s music because co-founders Daniel Romano and Ian Kehoe are from my hometown of Welland, Ontario. My response: “Get your head outta your ass, and listen to these records and try telling me You’ve Change isn’t putting out some of the best Canadian music in a decade.” Like Arts & Crafts before them, the inter-connectedness of You’ve Changed’s roster has been steadily building a compelling catalogue of albums that, while sharing many of the same musicians among them, casts focus on the different songwriting talents among them.
Afie Jurvanen isn’t going to suffer from high blood pressure any time soon. The connecting thread between Barchords, his new album as Bahamas, and 2009′s debut Pink Strat is the laid back, relaxed and mellow vibe of the music. Jurvanen’s left his days as a player in other people’s band in the past; he’s as comfortable in his role as band leader as he is in a well-worn pair of jeans, and that comes across so effortlessly in Bahamas sound.
Maybe I’m outing myself here, but I’ve never been a Leonard Cohen devotee the way some of my compatriots are (or pretend to be), but I know enough of the man’s work to feel comfortable in discussing Old Ideas, his new LP. Coming a mere eight years after his last album, Old Ideas carries lot of familiarity to it, as if it were an album of music we’ve already heard. Road tested on his recent world tour, some songs already have the patina of time stamped upon them. That’s probably due to the timeless and universal themes of death, dying, love, loss, sex and solitude as much as it is to Cohen’s unmistakable baritone voice and delivery.