Photograph by Dan Stack

August 28, 2010 – Though my day was spent eyeing Lieutenant Commander Worf and Chewbacca from afar, my night was yet again spent at the Horseshoe Tavern, this time to see Wye Oak, who captured my interest when I first heard their cover of the Kinks’ ‘Strangers’ from the AV Club’s Undercover series. Following that I discovered The Knot, an album that would have definitely made my 2009 best of list. Needless to say, I was excited. Female-fronted Toronto band the Caraways opened, providing a genre-hopping start to the evening. What began as a sort of alt-country vibe morphed into something completely different during the set. Still, what captured my eye the most was the drummer’s odd kit setup.

Following a brief interlude, Wye Oak took the stage. For the uninitiated, Wye Oak is a made up of Jenn Wassner and Andy Stack. While Wassner handles vocals and guitars, Stack is on drums AND keyboard bass. This multi-tasking makes them far more complex than your typical duo, and I have to applaud the lack of a backing track. You would think drumming one-handed would bring limitations, but Stack performs ably while Wassner thrashes about. Material was largely drawn from The Knot and this year’s EP My Neighbour/My Creator, along with a pair of songs from their upcoming album. Following Wassner’s plea for a Canadian husband (“I’m available!”), Wye Oak made their exit.

Wye Oak – Take It In

Though I was mostly there for Wye Oak, it was clear from the chants of “Lou!”  who everyone was there to see.  Not knowing much of Lou Barlow, but knowing that he was a member of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, and the Folk Implosion, I felt a certain reverence towards him. As one of the more influential artists I’ve seen, it struck me as odd that he was manning his own merch table, kindly signing anything fans brought. Given his huge back catalogue, I had no idea what to expect from his setlist. I had already ruled out any Dinosaur Jr., but I wasn’t sure if there would be a focus on his recent release with the Minutemen. As soon as he reached the stage, Barlow outlined the plan for the night: an acoustic set by him, followed by an electric set joined by backing band the Minutemen, followed by another acoustic set incorporating his ukulele.

The relative tameness of the acoustic open made the Minutemen’s appearance all the more jarring. Lou Barlow and the Minutemen were probably the loudest band I’ve ever heard, though standing a few steps beyond the Horseshoe’s right speaker likely didn’t help. The band opened with an electrified version of ‘Home’ that I wouldn’t have recognized if I didn’t know the lyrics so well. The banter also picked up; I haven’t seen an artist who loved to talk as much since Dave Grohl, though Barlow wasn’t quite as rambling. Coincidentally, he mentioned that he didn’t appreciate the Foo Fighters until he heard Glen Campbell cover one of their songs. The Minutemen were also a chatty pair. They managed to drag Wye Oak’s Jenn Wassner on stage to perform the Baltimore accent they were making fun of mere moments ago.  Soon enough, the band departed while Barlow remained on stage to begin the encore. It was here a few fan-favourites came out, including ‘The Freed Pig’ and ‘On Fire’. With a set approaching two hours in length, Barlow seemed willing to stay on stage for as long as the audience would have him, and though my shouts for ‘Brand New Love’ went unheeded, I doubt there was anyone complaining about not getting their money’s worth.

Sebadoh – On Fire
Lou Barlow and The Missingmen – Apologize

Arcade Fire on Olympic Island in Toronto effectively closed out this summer concert season. Our first trip to the island saw Beach House, Band of Horses, Broken Social Scene, and Pavement serenade Torontonians as we rushed between shows at NXNE and Island Fest. A few weeks later and for roughly the same ticket price – barring a donation to Partners in Health – the Sadies, Janelle Monáe and Arcade Fire welcomed us. A torrent of whispers in line for the ferry argued the value of Win Butler and company, some chastising Arcade Fire for charging such exorbitant fees while others refuting that the Canadian faces of indie were worth each penny. I believe Arcade Fire had a deeper motivation than aggrandizing their sense of self-worth: to disseminate their latest record, The Suburbs. What better way than to fill an island with well-to-do cosmopolitans and charge a price we could all too easily afford. In terms of gathering a target audience to sing-along to the “emotional hopelessness of being a privileged young person in a developed country,” as Sabrina put it, the band hit the bulls eye. But if your heart is set on seeing Arcade Fire, whether you’re there for the message or the music, it matters little if they charge ten dollars or a hundred; when it comes down to it, the band knows how to put on a fine show.

Janelle Monáe served as a curious choice for an opener as it was hard to imagine any musician on Bad Boy Records opening for a group of Québécois baroque singers. The audience received Monáe’s mix of afro-punk and hip-hop enthusiastically as her beehive-like hairstyle bobbed in harmony with each strut and shimmy. As her set wrapped up and the sun dipped lower on the city skyline a sea of black and white balloons floated through the crowd and into their untimely demise at the hands of the “Balloon Guy,” who was determined to purge the island of inflatables. Arcade Fire’s intricate set rose from the rubbery remains with a life-size projection of twisting highway serving as a backdrop for an array of floodlights.

A friend jokingly pointed out that the band must be ‘Ready to Start’ by now and just like that, Win and Régine took the hint opening with the song of the same name. The stage glowed brightly underneath projections of the band hysterically beating on cymbals, grappling microphones, and tearing apart any piece of musical equipment they could find. ‘No Cars Go’ turned into a booming anthem as the band grew noisier and more emphatic with the last remnants of daylight disappearing. The hymn-like ending of the song had the audience swaying with Régine Chassagne as a few thousand Torontonians transformed into an amorous choir that night – we even forgave Balloon Guy.

Arcade Fire perform as if they are grasping for their last breath; however there is little peace in their passing – the band refuses to depart quietly – they die fighting heart attacks in overflowing bathtubs while dodging electric toasters. The antics came to climax in the last two songs leading up to the encore as ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ followed up ‘Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)’. The stage lights focused intensely on the crowd as the pulsating madness reached a dizzying speed and the Butler brothers channeled a shouting match of “But every time you close your eyes (lies)” far onto Queens Quay and Harbourfront Centre. The encore was a powerful ‘Wake Up’, yet I wanted nothing more than to keep the dream of Win and Régine alive for just a little longer.

Setlist
Ready to Start
Month of May
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haïti
Modern Man
Rococo
The Suburbs
The Suburbs (continued)
Intervention
Crown of Love
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
We Used to Wait
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)

Encore
Keep the Car Running
Wake Up

If I wasn’t stranded on an island at the time, I would have made every effort to get to Wrongbar to catch Les Savy Fav’s NXNE performance. Of course, being on dry land wouldn’t have increased the odds that much, as the venue was filled instantly. Presumeably, the lucky few who got in were treated to at least a few tracks from Root for Ruin, Les Savy Fav’s latest album. While 2007’s excellent Let’s Stay Friends featured guests spots for everyone from Fred Armisen to Emily Haines, Root for Ruin remains an in-house affair. This back to basics approach lets the band members’ individual talents shine through.

To the uninitiated, Tim Harrington would appear to be a strange, balding, and bearded fat man. To everyone else, he’s one of the more engaging and eccentric frontmen in modern rock. While there is a notable visual component to his madness, his enthusiasm shines through on record, particularly on album standout ‘High and Unhinged’. While songs about gods from a forgotten age are less common here, Root for Ruin continues to deal with aging and altered paradigms, as on ‘Excess Energies’. This world-weary attitude recurs throughout the album.

Root for Ruin rocks. It’s not quite as exuberant or forceful as Let’s Stay Friends was, but it shows that Les Savy Fav has a softer side to their typically hard-edged post-punk leanings, and that they still like to party, even when a little bummed out.

Les Savy Fav – High and Unhinged
Les Savy Fav – Let’s Get Out of Here

Photograph by Caleb Beyers

As the newest New Pornographer, Kathryn Calder faces a special hell of a challenge in dropping her solo debut, Are You My Mother?. It never was going to be easy to stand out among the sea of side project jewels that emerge with welcome regularity from the individual members of that West Coast indie pop institution. A.C. Newman’s The Slow Wonder and Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone, to pick a couple, have earned sales figures and critical fawning that set the bar in the stratosphere for any solo New Pornographer project, but especially so for Calder.

Hired by the New Pornographers to replace Case’s yowling vocals on tour when her exploding solo career often left her otherwise engaged, Calder missed out on some of the band’s most productive years in the first half of the 00s, though she does appear on each album since 2005’s Twin Cinema. What’s more, she’s Mr. Newman’s niece, and you couldn’t fault her for her being a little intimidated at the prospect of having her own project stacked up against those of her uncle and the indie Goddess Queen she was hired to understudy for — not to mention the catalogue of terminally hummable New Pornographer hits that has built up over the last decade largely without her.

It’s probably more fair to compare this project to her own, earlier work than that of her current supergroup mates — to ask how far she’s come and whether she can make it on her own and all those lovely questions. In this she succeeds to a reasonable degree. Are You My Mother? is possessive, intimate, warm and cold by turns. It measures up to the better work she’s done with New Pornographer label/tour mates Immaculate Machine. It offers hope that she’s not doomed to be “the girl in the New Pornographers who isn’t Neko Case”, at least not forever.

Kathryn Calder – Arrow
Kathryn Calder – If You Only Knew

Calder is a better singer than songwriter, which is evident in songs like ‘Castor and Pollux’ that expose her Immaculate Machine tendencies toward uneven phrasing and forgettable melodies. In turn she’s a better songwriter than a lyricist, though she deserves plenty of credit for writing an album about her mother’s slow, painful death from Lou Gehrig’s disease without approaching maudlin indulgence. There are tracks like opener ‘Slip Away’ that contain little of musical interest other than Calder’s intimate sigh of a voice.

But as with Immaculate Machine’s Fables, where ‘Jarhand’ and ‘C’mon Sea Legs’ rise powerfully out of the colourless remainder of the album, Are You My Mother? hits a sweet spot once in a while. ’Arrow’ and ‘Low’ are both steady, gentle pieces featuring something approaching catchiness, which was at times an Achilles’ heel for Immaculate Machine. ’If You Only Knew’, despite an underwhelming production, is a solid pop tune that opens up the possibility of a prominent songwriting role by Calder with the New Pornographers in the future.

These positive moments are particularly gratifying because you can’t help but root for Calder as the album goes on. Are You My Mother? is a little undercooked, but it’s not possible to hate anything in here, and it leaves us wanting to hear more from a young Canadian artist who certainly doesn’t seem to have hit her peak yet.

Photograph by David Black

There’s something about the summer that makes me moody. For that reason, I’ve been listening to a lot of “deep” music lately, or at least music that attempts to be deep. Eventually, it gets tiresome to hear affected poets grasping at straws to make their longwinded similes function with musical backing. Sometimes, pop music is too complicated for its own good, or capabilities.

In contrast, Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast doesn’t write deep lyrics. She pens one-sided conversations about heartbreak, happiness, and laziness in straightforward American youth prose. A sample from ‘Bratty B’: “I wanna see you, but I know I can’t / ‘cause you’re not home, you’re never home / I can’t remember why you left and why you took back all your stuff.” No extended metaphors, no literary devices, no choruses with more than 20 words in total, no rhymes in this example, even. And that’s what makes it so great.

The feminist in me wants to deride the simplicity of the lyrics; surely, us females think about more complex topics than how boys make us unhappy sometimes and happy at others. Also, there is repetitive use of crazy/lazy and friend/end to rhyme. But on ‘Goodbye’, Cosentino sums up adolescent confusion and dependent love: “My highs are high / my lows are low / and I don’t know which way to go / I don’t love you / and I don’t hate you / I don’t know how I feel.” It may not be cleverly expressed, but her words are so blunt that they are relatable. Her simplistic words speak to the Twitter masses. Maybe that makes her the Mark Twain of Generation Y? That’s certainly taking it too far, but it just goes to show, lyricists: if you don’t have much to say, don’t try to make it flowery. Say it, then go smoke some pot and chill with your cat.

Best Coast – Crazy for You
Best Coast – I Want To

Either way, Best Coast’s debut album Crazy for You feels like a low fidelity production of the ’60s girl group sound. The band weaves dreamy feminine harmonies (all Cosentino’s multi-tracked vocals), simple melodies, and accessible lyrics with a bit of fuzzy guitar. Crazy for You strays slightly from earlier singles (Make You Mine, Where the Boys Are, Something in the Way) with brighter, crisper vocals and a higher fidelity overall. I miss the lo-fi dreaminess of Where the Boys Are, but blissfully maintained is the beach-ready vibe. For example, ‘I Want To’ ends in such a crescendo of fun, it seems like a thematic crossover from a break up to a surf party. So, in the fashion that light and refreshing ales with photos of beaches on the labels are named summer beers, this album is a summer album. There’s something about the summer.

Photograph by Tim Snow

Maybe I’m getting too old for festival concerts. Between slathering myself with SPF60, eating $5 hot dogs, running spastically between stages, cursing the overlapping schedule, being inundated with corporate sponsorship and drinking watery beer, I was caught between disillusionment and laughter toward the predictable pattern of music fests.

The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival is in its fifth year, and has swelled from 25,000 to over 50,000 attendees. Despite my opening tirade, Osheaga has plenty to offer: a grassy hill with convenient stage view, venues of varying size (from cozy small sets to mega concerts), performances for many tastes (from small Quebecois bands to…Snoop Dogg?), the ability to walk freely with your drinks (goodbye, beer tent!) and free underwear to anyone willing to provide American Apparel with their email address.

When surrounded by so much chaos, I seem to morph into a reactionary skeptic. I should subtitle this post “The Festival Concert in which Sabrina Becomes a Huge Indie Music Cynic.” So, I apologize ahead of time if any readers take my grumbling opinion personally. But here it is, Osheaga 2010.

Photograph by Tim Snow

The Walkmen

I missed most of The Walkmen’s woefully short 30-minute performance. The only old favourite I caught was the impressively yelped ‘New Year’s Eve’. However, I did catch rumours of their one-month-old single ‘Stranded’ from their upcoming sixth album, Lisbon (to be released September 14). The song’s echoed horns and slow pace might seem boring in juxtaposition against old high-energy classics (particularly ‘The Rat’), but the album could be a grower.

The Walkmen – Stranded

Photograph by Greg LeBlanc

Owen Pallett

Don’t be deceived by the mischievous smile in this photo: Pallett was not a happy camper. As we squished into the sizable crowd at the Scène Vert, we heard that the snarkiness had already begun. “If you don’t know how to work the monitors, just take out my vocals entirely, I’ll sing it dry,” the 30-year-old Toronto native hissed at the soundcrew.

The audience seemed unfazed by the quality of the tunes from his Final Fantasy past, including fan favourite ‘This Is the Dream of Win and Regine’. After an apology for not being much of a festival band (“We don’t have anything to shout along to”), Pallett seemed to find his groove. His looped violin weaved the delicate harmonies from a handful of tracks from Heartland with a bass guitar accompaniment adding to the acoustic lushness.

When he started the chaotic layering for his finale ‘Lewis Takes Off His Shirt’, the rapt crowd clapped. But merely a minute into the last song, Pallett cracked. “I’m sorry, you can’t do a looped show without monitors. Goodbye.” After this brusque statement, he walked huffily off the stage. Fans clapped, laughed, gaped confusingly and shrugged their shoulders. No one could deny that he hadn’t voiced his concerns throughout the show, and that his particular performance style would be difficult with soundguy ineptitude. But still, what a diva.

Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Off His Shirt

Photograph by Sabrina Diemert

Japandroids

Brian King is a music photojournalist’s wet dream: his head-thrashing guitar solos, hair-tossing forays into frantic singing, his dimples… ahem. That is, when one dares to push their way to the front of the raucous moshpit, which was considerably subdued compared to previous live gigs. King and drummer/singer David Prowse held little back during their 45-minute set, proclaiming it to be their last for 3 weeks while they head back to Vancouver.

Photograph by Sabrina Diemert

Pavement

“We’re Pavement, and it’s 1996 all over again,” Stephen Malkmus proclaimed to the crowd with a saucy sneer before launching into ‘Gold Soundz’. Having just seen the band last month at the Toronto Island Concert, I was settling into the familiar setlist as ‘Stereo’ followed. Then everything came to a sloshing halt when Malkmus was the recipient of a perfectly aimed full cup of beer, which hit him right in his soon to be deflated head.

People pointed and booed in the direction of the projectile’s origin. Malkmus said little about the abuse, except a sing song taunt toward the perpetrator with, “Haha! You’re going home in a Montreal ambulance!”

The show went on. Pavement rocked as usual, with screaming and solos and guitars played with beer cans. But, it seemed that the clinginess of Malkmus’ wet t-shirt whet his sarcastic tendencies. Between songs, he said with a smirk, “I’m so excited for Arcade Fire, I could shit my pants.” He was greeted with the cheers of people who missed the fact that he was being an asshole. Ah, Malkmus. Don’t ever change.

Pavement – Perfume V

Photograph by Tim Snow

The National

I saw The National back at Coachella 2008, and I stand by my assessment at the time: Matt Berninger’s voice doesn’t shine through in live performances. No one seems to agree with me on this opinion, but I maintain that his characteristic throaty baritone seems clipped and forced on stage compared to his studio recordings. It could have been due to intoxication – he did fall over a speaker during the show, after all – but that’s just speculation on my part. Also, why was there so much screaming during ‘Squalor Victoria’?

Photograph by Tim Snow

Arcade Fire

I need to get something off my chest: I don’t love The Suburbs. It’s not a terrible album, but it’s not fantastic. By the end of ‘Modern Man’, my head already hurts from being beaten with “the message” of the album: damnation of our empty society and the emotional hopelessness of being a privileged young person in a developed country. It seems so blatant and literal. Musically, it’s interesting enough. Still, I can’t listen to ‘Ready to Start’ without drawing comparisons to ‘Keep the Car Running’. ‘Month of May’ is emphatically rockable, if not a bit egocentric. I just miss the relative subtlety of Funeral. The lyrics don’t do it for me. Seriously, ‘Rococo’? What the hell is that? At least choose a more smoothly enunciated nonsense word. “Jabberwocky” would sound more fluid. Okay, that’s out of my system now. Edit: I now realize that ‘Rococo’ isn’t a nonsense word. In fact, it’s pretty apt. Sorry, and thus exposes my ignorance of art/tendency not to google things before ranting.

As little as I love the new album, I still love Arcade Fire. They throw everything into their live shows. They thrive with a larger crowd; while many bands seem more distant on a big stage, the Montreal group seem less pretentious and more sincere. A somber Owen Pallett could be seen among the ensemble, presumably making up for lost time. Their instrument swapping is dizzying! Their banter is bilingual! There were fireworks and fake snow! The background visual display brought the show to a multimedia orgasm: ominous shots of women wading through water, psychedelic patterns, upward angles of Win’s chin. Although, again, I groaned occasionally. During ‘Empty Room’, they displayed an image empty room. For ‘We Used to Wait’, in which Win expresses with chagrin his lack of letter-writing, the screens displayed – you guessed it - letters.

In the end, I wondered whether the crowd got the bludgeoning, repeated message after all. Regine prefaced the debut performance of ‘Sprawl II’ with an explanation about the song’s origin. Boulevard Taschereau, with its vast strip malls, provided inspiration for the tune and an ironic landmark for many concertgoers to pass by on their return to their suburban homes. Maybe that made their closing song more of a rally cry to the massive crowd than a throwback to their indie kingdom days: ‘Wake Up’.

Arcade Fire – Wake Up

Photograph by Sabrina Diemert

Hannah Georgas

I had an uncanny feeling that many of my Osheaga concert choices contained male-dominated crowds. Why don’t more girls go to Japandroids shows? And how do so many bros know Arcade Fire lyrics so well? Anyway, Georgas’ performance and the surrounding dance party offered a break with a largely female representation. Her sprightly summer-like tunes were catchy, and she makes an endearing, shyly confident lead lady. And few could avoid grinning at the hand clapping session that accompanied ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’, well, everyone except her backing band. C’mon guys, smile. You’re in Montreal!

Hannah Georgas – Bang Bang You’re Dead

Photograph by Sabrina Diemert

We Are Wolves

I used to listen to We Are Wolves back during their Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux days, so I thought I would check out the local band in their element. They emerged wearing bizarre black kite contraptions strapped to their backs, concealed by black capes. This must have brought their internal body temperatures up to feverish points in the midday heat. Aside from the costumes, there’s nothing too complicated about the band. Fun but simple rock songs.

We Are Wolves – Paloma

Photograph by Sabrina Diemert

Sonic Youth

There was a lot of confusion surrounding these ’90s legends’ set. Deadmau5 – one of the weekend’s headliners – cancelled last minute (he was hospitalized after suffering from exhaustion and vomiting in Washington, D.C.). This prompted a poorly announced series of stage switches: Metric to Deadmau5’s slot, and Sonic Youth to Metric’s former time. Most of the people gathered near the stage were unaware of the rescheduling, abandoning their posts after discovering the news and wondering who Sonic Youth were. Evidently, not everyone figured it out in time: as Kim Gordon reached for her guitar, I overheard someone exclaim, “Whoa, Emily Haines got old!” Sigh.

I caught the band play last year at Primavera Sound, and they’re still pretty awesome. Thurston Moore still goes through several carefully-mistuned guitars during a short show. They still play from the no-wave archetype Daydream Nation (although unsubtly avoiding ‘Teenage Riot’). But looking around at the skeptical crowd, some visibly disgruntled with the set-ending drones, I wondered: do we deserve Sonic Youth? What do you think, CVC readers?

Sonic Youth – Hey Joni

Photograph by Tim Snow

Metric

Emily Haines was strung out and clad in shiny clothes, as usual. I begrudgingly admitted during her frenetic singing that Fantasies has grown on me. But in a pop album way, not in the daring rock way that Metric used to resonate.

Photograph by Tim Snow

Weezer

Finally, a band named Weezer played. You say you’ve never heard of them? How cool is that?! Cuomo hammed it up, both on and off stage. He jogged wildly through the press pit and perched on the fence, reaching out and touching the hands of fans. Fans who were largely born in the nineties: the same decade in which Weezer’s prime material became legendary. As I watched the mass of teens screaming along to ‘The Sweater Song’ and headed toward the exit, I contemplated the start of my quarter-life crisis, or facing the fact that I’m hardly old enough to feel truly nostalgic about Weezer material anyway.

Photograph by Giulia Mazza

Hailing from the burgeoning music scene in Calgary, Alberta, Women’s 2008 self-titled debut impressively harmonized tunes the likes of the Velvet Underground, Pavement, and the Zombies on a boombox like outback wilderness to deliver a well-received album. Recorded with fellow Calgary native Chad VanGaalen, its lo-fi quality was in part cultivated by an interesting blend of recording spaces, apparently ranging from a crawlspace to a culvert. Patrick Flegel, Matt Flegel, Chris Reimer, and Michael Wallace have returned with much of the same bravado to hammer out their second album, Public Strain, out September 28 on Flemish Eye. While their first album smashed nostalgic good vibrations with a ravaging brashness, Public Strain takes a few steps away from this juxtaposition, focusing on a heavier, darker sound.

Women often shift tempo to create dynamic highs and lows within individual songs. ‘China Steps’ opens with urgency then mellows into a gentle close. ‘Drag Open’ delivers similarly; a crash of guitars burst out of the gate and trot to the finish. Contrasting these more aggressive moments are the softer ‘Penal Colony’ and the minimalist ‘Bells’, which blends an electronic sea with distant operatic church bells. The Beach Boys vibe from the debut is not lost on Public Strain, as evidenced by ‘Eyesore’, a smooth tapestry of 1960s Venice Beach with a Canadian roughness, a trend appearing in several young bands.

Those unfamiliar with Women’s style may have to listen with patience as the harsher guitars often overpower the vocals, requiring several replays to catch the lyrics. While Public Strain is more cohesive than Women, the album as a whole will still be difficult for the average radio listener to appreciate. Nevertheless, it is a solid round two for the group and will be perking a few ears very soon.

Women – China Steps
Women – Eyesore

For many, MySpace has become nothing more than the Detroit of social networks—a slum of profiles with tacky animated GIFs sparkling across your screen, and a communication format veering toward the third world. For me, it’s a jungle of great music, obscene genres and hidden talent. I find myself scouring the once great empire of the web in the early hours of the morning, seeking out interesting acts without having to leave my house. Little does Rupert Murdoch know that he is helping to fuel this intense desire for amazing but mostly unheard music.

With that I give you Tune Diving—like a homeless vagrant looking for a scrap of something to eat, I dive and navigate through a maze of the terrible and the really good, to find you something to take away and add to your mixtapes, to impress that girl, to cry to, to laugh to, or to just simply rock out.

Atlanta-based lo-fi garage band, The Gaye Blades, are an act that jumped out at me a few months ago in another one of my late night MySpace travels. They’re jangly, they’re rough around the edges and they’re classic. Sadly, lead singer and “garage rock mascot of sorts” to the Atlanta music scene, Bobby Ubangi, died of cancer on July 1, 2009. The unfortunate loss has led this ferocious beast of a band to lay dormant, but their music sits there waiting to be heard by you. Seriously.

The Gaye Blades – Keep Your Hands (Off of My Baby)
The Gaye Blades – Whore Hunt

‘Keep Your Hands (Off of My Baby)’ is, in my mind, a great homage to the ’50s dancehall style of “love rock ‘n’ roll”. It’s overprotective, it’s endearing and it’s just so manly that it hurts. The song has a nice little slow dance shuffle going on there, and it’s probably the good, beer drunk slow dance where you get in really close with the girl, but not too close so she notices your boner. You know?

‘Whore Hunt’ is energetic—frantic, youthful spurts of energy that needs an outlet. It’s a sweaty club with kids jumping and the dance floor trying its best to hold the weight of all that excitement. You want to get up close to the stage and yell back the lyrics with the band.

The Gaye Blades are a throwback to that Indian summer, and if it’s alright with you, it’s also the summer you threw around “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” a lot. If you enjoy The Gaye Blades as much I have in the past little while, then I hope you’ll agree that this Atlanta act is a band you can twist to.

August 3, 2010 – Toronto does not like Molson Canadian. However, we do like Blitzen Trapper. That was the consensus drawn by a fairly full Opera House on Tuesday night. When guitarist Marty Marquis raised his tall boy of Molson Canadian and proclaimed it as the best beer Canada had to offer, he was met with a series of boos. But they were friendly boos, and he was only saying what the ad had told him. That said, the rest of the night was all cheers.

Blitzen Trapper took the stage and kicked off with ‘Fire and Fast Bullets’, an appropriate opener to an evening that felt like it could have happened just the same back in 1970. Part of Blitzen Trapper’s appeal has always been that good old fashioned rock and roll feeling you get when you listen to Bob Dylan and The Band, but they don’t get close enough to it to feel unoriginal. Lead singer Eric Earley has his own unique writing style, which was showcased throughout the night.

About halfway through the show they got into a mainly acoustic set. Eric Earley’s songwriting was demonstrated on songs like, ‘Lady on the Water’ and ‘The Man Who Would Speak True’. Though they could have used a more attentive audience, Earley’s voice shined loud and clear in the Opera House, eyes wide open to those paying attention. The highlight of the night was when they finally got around to ‘Furr’. That song is already a classic that will be around forever, and everyone there knew it. It was a full on foot stomping sing along, and drew the biggest ovation of the night.

By the end of the show Marty had learned of Moosehead Lager, the option of the flask, and that we have much more to offer than Molson Canadian. And those in the Opera House learned that classic rock is still happening in 2010, and it’s just as good as it ever was.

Blitzen Trapper – Dragon’s Song
Blitzen Trapper – Lady on the Water

Most mixtapes are tied together with a cohesive theme, some on the topic of love for a special someone, others with fury for that bad day. Some mixtapes are lush with clever wordplay and focus on connections in the lyrics, titles, and hooks of songs. We make mixtapes to wake us up, to bang our head to at parties, to celebrate a change in season, to commemorate a break-up, or dance to while cleaning our house. I considered all these options while piecing together complex lists of tracks and sifting through records searching for songs that would convey a sought after message. Finally, while speaking to a friend about my dilemma, he offered a simple solution “People just want to listen to awesome music,” he said, “put together a mixtape with new jams you enjoy and don’t worry about the concept.” So this mixtape is to you friends, treasure these thirteen tracks knowing that I’ve spent the past few weeks dancing in front of the air conditioner, lip-syncing on the bus to work, and vacuuming the house wearing only underpants to.

To those personal friends I share music with regularly and are away for the summer, I miss your presence and your concert update text messaging is appreciated, I look forward to many future iPod swaps, coffee house exchanges, and shout-out-loud new release celebrations. To those readers I haven’t been fortunate enough to meet yet, if you enjoy Ca Va Cool and find yourself twisting and shouting to this bunch of tracks know that we’ve already made the first step to a super-best-friendship. So whether it’s a bad day, a blossoming romance, or just a picnic in the sun, remember to spread the love and share, because sharing is caring. Without further ado, Ca Va Cool says cheers to friends, summertime, and awesome music.

Download | Dear Friends Mixtape

Delorean – Stay Close

Last Summer Delorean gave us their Ayrton Senna EP, this summer the Spaniards have composed another gem with Subiza. The Barcelona-based quartet strikes a fine balance between carefree dance music and Back to the Future sentimentality. Subiza is categorized as a combination of “beach rave” and “the sound of Ibiza”, call it what you will as the upbeat melodies and mixed vocals of Delorean will have you running to the coast in high spirits.

Baths – Maximalist

The aptly named ‘Maximalist’ is a beautiful abstract of breaks, snares, and glitch. The single comes from bedroom producer Will Wiesenfeld’s record Cerulean. The busy dynamics of ‘Maximalist’ blend flawlessly with the sonic elements of Cerulean employing walls of layered vocals to hold you captive as you’re bombarded with hard-hitting drums. The stylistic elements of ‘Maximalist’ are a vibrant mash of contemporary washed out beats with textured piano shepherding you to collapse through apocalyptic drops.

LCD Soundsystem – You Wanted a Hit

Sometimes I think James Murphy does what he wants just so he can revel with what he gets away with. He’s brought back disco, shamed drunk girls, and rocked a salt-and-pepper beard – just because. ‘You Wanted a Hit’ comes from the wrecking ball of sound that is This Is Happening, as Murphy goes on singing, “Yeah you wanted it smart / But honestly, I’m not smart / No, honestly, we’re never smart / We fake it, fake it all the time.” If you haven’t had this track on heavy rotation yet your life is a sham – and James Murphy is very disappointed.

Future Islands – Long Flight

When I listen to ‘Long Flight’ or anything on the Future Island’s record In Evening Air,I imagine that this is what singing wizards sound like. The vocals are incredibly particular as J. Gerrit Welmers sounds like a bellowing Dan Deacon shooting rainbows from his haggard cane as he rides into a sunset upon the back of a unicorn. ‘Long Flight’ doesn’t trifle with inconveniences such as using a chorus, but opts to loop disjointed refrains instead. The result is a memorable track with a dense rhythm section, lo-fi guitars, and quirky storytelling that’ll have you coming back to the Future Islands like magic.

Mountain Man – Animal Tracks

Amelia Meath, Alex Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarle were most likely hexed and reincarnated as a beardless version of Fleet Foxes – possibly by the Future Islands. The three ladies string together delicate harmonies made the more beautiful by their own frailty. ‘Animal Tracks’ was originally released on Mountain Man’s self-titled EP in 2009 but has since been re-released on the bands full-length Made the Harbor. If you’re looking for a record to escape to this summer and your ideal refuge is amidst sun, trees, and water look no further.

Free Energy – Bang Pop

Bouncy riffs and sunshine melodies fit Free Energy to a tee. The band is a mix of seventies glam rock, Strokes-esque indie sensibilities, monster guitar solos, and acapella hand-clap sections. If you’ve been through high school, enjoy bubble gum, or have spent a day at the beach you’ll probably find some joy with Free Energy this summer. ‘Bang Pop’ begs for hefty air guitars, bad dancing, unkempt hippie hair, and youthful rebellion.

Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill

Sleigh Bells deliver shoegaze distortions and catchy pop on their record Treats. The Brooklyn duo need just under four minutes on ‘Rill Rill’ to prove that they’ve mastered melancholy trips for lazy summer afternoons. The track uses dreamy melodies and revolving acoustic samples to form a booming anthem while flying through distort pedals and shooting straight for your heart. So have a heart and dance to Sleigh Bells this summer.

Mount Kimbie – Field

Mount Kimbie is two friends from Brighton that have named themselves after “a place inside all of us where buses arrive on time.” Their debut LP Crooks and Lovers sounds like a clever sampling of Boards of Canada bathed in funk. ‘Field’ begins with a reserved shuffling beat that burns slowly until exploding into a glorious fireworks showing of snares, cowbell, vocal distortion, snaps, and oracular bass. The barrage washes over you in just under a minute but the swell of sounds at the peak dazzles for days.

Heartbeat Hotel – Fins of a Shark

Heartbeat Hotel makes clouds of sonic noise that balloon high into the troposphere and rain down in a fine mist of patch pedals, guitars, organs, and reverb vocals. ‘Fins of a Shark’ comes from their free album Fetus Dreams – which you can grab from their bandcamp – and the dizzying euphoria that accompanies the record comes at an equally favourable cost. The well-crafted waves, rhythms, and harmonies on ‘Fins of a Shark’ are akin to the experimental nature of Bradford Cox or Avey Tare. Considering the band has under a hundred listeners on Last.fm and the quality of music they’re producing – for free at that – you can tell your friends with confidence that you liked them when they were indie, because they very well deserve to be playing alongside the preceding influences, and at this rate it wont take them long.

Wild Nothing – Summer Holiday

Based on title alone this track has earned its spot on this playlist. Jangly guitars and pop harmonies blanket ‘Summer Holiday’ as Jack Tatum reveals a nostalgic yearning for youthful innocence. I’d imagine this song could be visually encapsulated by M83′s video for ‘We Own the Sky’ if it was shot circa-1976 and avoided an invasion of geometric shapes. Wild Nothing draws catchy melodies and creates a type of dreamy twee Pains of Being Radio Dept. vibe. In short, you’ll most likely hear this track again on our Favourites List in December.

Suckers – It Gets Your Body Movin’

I can’t come to terms with the brilliance that is Suckers. The seemingly endless chain of beautifully strung together influences are scattered throughout their recently released Wild Smile letting the record play like a best of highlight reel as it flickers through a whirlwind of sounds from baroque and experimental to orchestral and folky. ‘It Gets Your Body Movin’’ is a euphoric swell of noise that matures with melancholy horns, clamours with discordant piano keys, and erupts into an anthemic sing-along that’s bound to get your body movin’.

Tokyo Police Club – Breakneck Speed

What has felt like ages since Elephant Shell our friends from Newmarket have brought us Champ. Tokyo Police Club has a knack for crafting light-hearted and contagious indie. ‘Breakneck Speed’ is no exception. Punchy refrains, synth to the ceiling, and fiery percussion capture the magic in a way only a band from Newmarket can. Dave Monks sings, “but the big bad years are gone / yeah, the big bad years are done and gone away / I remember when our voices used to sound the exact same / now we just translate.” Yes, Tokyo Police Club have matured, but they come through with an instant familiarity, one that’ll have you dancing away with vacuum in hand as you realize the neighbours are watching you and you’re not wearing pants. And that’s worth celebrating.

S. Carey – In the Dirt

S. Carey is an offshoot from the school of Bon Iverism. But the Wisconsin woods and dense facial hair aren’t what make his album All We Grow appealing. As a band member of Bon Iver from its roots and a student of classical percussion from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Carey’s musical tendencies are vividly evident as ‘In the Dirt’ flowers. The dynamic textures, looming drums, and subtle piano show patience in progression as they merge into an ambitious symphony with layers of sound bouncing from every corner.

Download | Dear Friends Mixtape