Photograph by Chris Frampton

To reiterate a common cliché; the fear with a sophomore release is always the expectations listeners have built-up from the first album. This is especially problematic for the instantly-adored indie sensations, the Bloc Partys and the MSTRKRFTs of the world. For these bands future releases often fall flat just by virtue of the success of the debut. This however is not the case with the second full-length from Toronto-based, dance-rockers Woodhands.

The duo’s debut Heart Attack was not an album that garnered much immediate attention from myself or that internet echo-chamber of the blogosphere. It was an under the radar release, mostly known by CBC3 devotees and other passionate followers of Canadian indie. However, as understated as the band’s publicity may have been, their music and their live act was anything but.

The pair, comprising of synth and keytarist Dan Werb (a west-coaster and originally the band’s only member) and drummer Paul Banwatt of the Rural Alberta Advantage, began packing small venues in university towns across the country in 2008. The shows were an over the top performance of electro-pop energy. It was as though they knew they had to work twice as hard to relay the same kind of energy as your average four person act. This tactic seemed to pay real dividends however, with the act’s stage presence being accurately described as “super-human.”

Super-human strength worked well to deliver Heart Attack’s material to live audiences. The music was emotionally charged, but the object was to sweat out those emotions in a mass of bodies gyrating to the infectious electro offerings. Remorsecapade has not lost any of that raw energy or emotionality, but it fails to capture and record that energy for the at-home listener. The album comes on too strong and a little too unpolished for a recorded effort.

Woodhands – Dissembler
Woodhands – Coolchazine
Woodhands – I Should Have Gone With My Friends

There are highlights, however. ‘Dissembler’ offers a break from Werb’s monotone delivery bringing back Maylee Todd who guests on Heart Attack’s single ‘Dancer’. Todd’s vocals are like aloe on a sunburn in this cheery dream pop number. Where Heart Attack finds Werb hitting his limits delivering punk rock screams, Remorsecapade seems to have found him backing off quite a bit leaving lyrics uninteresting. ‘Coolchazine’ is a return to form in terms of ambition. This is a complete electro-freakout with Werb singing like he’s actually feeling the emotions he’s singing about. Sonically it can be compared to destroying an arcade with a keytar. Metaphor hint: here and throughout the album heartbreak is referred to as “doubling,” I can only assume this is some reference to being doubled over.

To be clear, Woodhands are a talented duo recorded or not. They understand the fundamentals of electro and house as well, if not better, than some of the biggest names in those genres. Plus, they manage to pull them off live, with real instruments rather than hiding behind a laptop. Banwatt’s beats aren’t substantially different than his RAA offerings, save that the rapid-fire high-hats and drum machine precision seem like a more logical juxtaposition in this context. ‘I Should Have Gone With My Friends’ places Woodhands in league with other Canadian dance-rockers Shout Out Out Out Out who have three times the manpower. Though they have managed to find a more consistent sound for their vocal delivery more suited to an electronic act. I’m not sure Werb should be delivering every line through the muffle of a vocoder, but it’s something to think about.

Needless to say, I have mixed feelings about Remorsecapade. But I am sure about one thing: seeing Woodhands live could possibly change your life, or end it prematurely. So why don’t you see them and then decide for yourself whether the album should be added to your collection. They’re coming to a venue near you late February/early March.

2007’s Welcome to the Night Sky was a breakthrough for Wintersleep, a band near and dear to my heart. I never would have imagined that ‘Weighty Ghost’ would be the song to bring them widespread recognition, but it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group. Members of the band have taken part in numerous side projects, including Holy Fuck and Contrived, but lead singer Paul Murphy has largely remained quiet. With its roots in a gift for his mother and helped along with a bottle of scotch, Postdata is performed and written by Paul, while mixed and recorded by his brother Michael.

While Contrived is an extension of the louder aspects of Wintersleep, Postdata is a sombre collection of sparse home recordings, echoing the simple production of Wintersleep’s self-titled album, particularly songs like ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Ambulance’. The focus here is almost entirely on Murphy’s voice and an acoustic guitar. Familiar themes of mental illness and death surface throughout the album. Highlights include the haunting character study of ‘Tobias Grey’ and opening track ‘Lazarus’. Murphy’s lyrics are as strong as ever, shifting from conversational to stream of consciousness, remaining cryptic but with a passion that is all too clear.

Much like Julian Plenti did last year for Interpol, Postdata provides us with some much needed new material as we await the new Wintersleep album, set for release in May. The better side projects produce music that would not be possible in the main band. Wintersleep’s harder edge precludes the possibility of many quiet acoustic songs, but Postdata provides a loving sanctuary for songs that might have otherwise gone unheard.

Postdata – Tobias Grey
Postdata – Lazarus
Postdata – Eclipse

Indie folk darling Basia Bulat’s second album Heart of My Own is out January 26, and it’s every bit as enjoyable as her 2008 Polaris Prize shortlisted debut. Heart of My Own was largely written on the road, taking inspiration from the sights and sounds experienced on tour. The Yukon had a great effect on her, as can be heard on lead single ‘Gold Rush’. The singer took some time to chat with Ca Va Cool before her tour kicked into high gear.

Basia Bulat – Gold Rush
Basia Bulat – Go On
Basia Bulat – In the Night

Kevin: You’re in New York right now?

Basia Bulat: Yeah, we play at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday.

Kevin: Have you toured the US much? I know you’ve covered Europe and Canada quite a bit, but is this new for you?

Basia: No, I’ve been across the US a few times actually, so it’s nice to be back.

Kevin: Just interesting, I went to [The University of] Western [Ontario], I know you went to Western, you were involved with the local music scene, [campus radio station] CHRW, and you were in the first edition of LOLAfest.

Basia: What were you studying at Western?

Kevin: Biochemistry, so probably not your area.

Basia: But now you’re writing about music for a pastime?

Kevin: Yeah, it’s kind of a weird twist.

Basia: You know, I don’t think it’s that weird, to be honest.

Kevin: Anyway, my question is, what does London mean to you?

Basia: Well you know, I did a lot of growing up in London. I wrote a lot of songs there, I made a lot of great friends there; I got to get to know so much good music. Like you said, I had a radio show on CHRW for about 4 years and it was so important to me, and I really think of it very fondly. I’m really excited that I get to play Aeolian Hall actually. That’s a little bit of a dream come true.

Kevin: How do you respond to criticisms that there’s not really a lot going on in the city, in terms of the music scene?

Basia: The difficulty, I suppose, of the music scene in London is that a significant portion of the population is really transient, in terms of the university. I think that’s a challenge people have been trying to find a way around for a long time, but at the same time it’s a great thing because lots of bands come to town. I mean, Call the Office has been there forever and they’ve had such a great history and line-up of amazing bands. I certainly never felt there was nothing going on in London when I was in school, I always thought there was a lot going on actually. [Laughs] But maybe that’s because I sort of immersed myself in that world of CHRW, Funk Night at Call the Office, things like that. I think you kind of have to look for it. I also think you have to be a little bit responsible for your own self, so I think that’s why it was great for me. My friends and I, we were all really interested in doing stuff, to put it in the most basic terms. I mean, even in the English department there was Olenka [of Olenka and the Autumn Lovers], she and I went to school together, we were both in the English department and there were things like coffee houses, there was kind of an active community, and I still kind of see it that way. But eventually people move, it’s difficult. I don’t know if you feel that way.

Kevin: Nah, it’s just coming from a different environment, I didn’t really have an opportunity to get involved in the whole ‘arts’ process.

Basia: It might be the different environment. While I was there, LOLA was just starting and it’s only gotten bigger ever since.

Kevin: It’s a definite step in the right direction.

Basia: Yeah, it’s just a lot of bands come through because we’re in between Detroit and Toronto. I always felt frustrated that more people weren’t coming to shows, because I saw some amazing bands and I couldn’t believe that.

Kevin: I saw the Secret Machines at Call the Office with ten people, so I know what you mean.

Basia: Exactly! I remember seeing the Dirtbombs, and it was the same kind of situation. I knew they were playing two sold out shows at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, and there was such a small amount of people in London, and I’m wondering “What is going on, how do people not know about this?” [Laughs] So it’s not that things aren’t happening, maybe things are better now, with LOLA and with the internet and CHRW, you know. I definitely think it’s pretty strong.

Kevin: How did you pick up the auto-harp? It’s not the most common instrument to pick up and play.

Basia: The auto-harp is actually by definition supposed to be a very easy instrument to pick up and play, so that’s kind of what I like about it. It’s not as common anymore, maybe I can change that, I don’t know. I’ve always been a fan of the auto-harp because I’ve been a fan of the Carter Family for ages, and you hear it in a lot of country and folk music. When my mom found out that a neighbour was selling theirs, she got it for me. The nice thing about the auto-harp is the name means automatic harp, so actually it’s really simple to play basic songs. It’s meant for people who maybe can’t afford, for example, a piano or guitar or maybe just want something to accompany themselves while they are singing. That’s kind of where it started in the 1880s when the instrument was invented. I guess I just like being able to explore what else the instrument can do, it really speaks to me. Just trying to see what other things you can do with it, where else it can belong.

Kevin: Who else do you count among your major influences in writing music?

Basia: I think…

Kevin: Too broad?

Basia: Crazy huge question, there’s a lot of different things that I’ve listened to, read and seen, and taken in over the years, you’re kind of working through it all the time.

Kevin: Were you surprised at the attention that Oh, My Darling got on the national scale, including being nominated for the Polaris Prize?

Basia: Very honoured that all of that happened. It wasn’t something I was expecting or had accounted for, but I don’t think anybody can. I don’t think anybody can expect something like that to happen but I’m very grateful for the fact that it has. It’s something I feel really grateful for, to have that opportunity to play for people and for my music to reach people, it’s really a great thing.

Kevin: I’ve had the chance to listen to Heart of My Own a couple times, it’s really in line with what Oh, My Darling is but more confident and orchestrated. Was there anything that you really wanted to accomplish with Heart of My Own that you couldn’t the last time?

Basia: What’s important to me is to capture the sound of people playing together live, so that’s something that I’ve done with both records, recording to tape as much as possible, recording as many people playing together as much as possible and not overediting, overphotoshopping things, so to speak. I definitely think that this record is a little bit more loud, a little more urgent, I think the songs are a little bit more complex. It’s just really important to me to write songs that I feel I can sing on stage every night, and really believe in. I ended up writing and recording about twenty one songs before actually paring it down to make the whole album, what I really wanted to do was take the songs I felt needed to be together.

Kevin: Who’ve you enjoyed touring with most?

Basia: I’ve had really great experiences on tour. I had a great tour when I was just starting out with Owen Pallett, I really learned a lot from touring with him, he was, is, amazing. I’m actually really excited because I get to play a couple shows with him again in Halifax next month. It’s gonna be really cool. I’ve played some really fun shows with St. Vincent, Great Lakes Swimmers, I’ve been pretty lucky.

Kevin: While I was doing some research before the interview, I found a recording of you singing a Polish song ‘To Nie Ptak’, loosely translated, “It’s Not a Bird.”

Basia: That’s good pronunciation, are you Polish?

Kevin: I am, which is why I know how to pronounce your name, for one.

Basia: Well, I have terrible pronunciation, you’re much better than I am.

Kevin: My mom’s Stasia so it’s not really that much of a jump.

Basia: [Laughs]

Kevin: Do you find it different to sing in Polish, do you see yourself doing more of this?

Basia: I really would like to. That was a big first step for me, in November, that was my first time going back to Poland, in ten years, my second time ever in the country, and my first time ever playing shows there, and it was actually pretty emotional to sing a song in Polish and to not mess it up too badly.

Kevin: It sounded good.

Basia: It was really wonderful to be able to go to Poland and be able to spend some time there afterwards and really explore my roots a bit and be able to delve into that. There were all these great albums by these Polish artists that I didn’t know about before. I’m hoping to, but I have to do a lot more practice to do it justice. I’m glad I was able to pull that off and I’m glad there was a recording of it so I could put it online. That’s the first time I ever sang it live.

Photograph by Autumn De Wilde

In the pirate blogosphere culture of our recently ushered in decade, it can be hard to keep an album under wraps. Just ask Spoon. With whispers of leaks plaguing the unveiling of Transference, they moved up the North American release date of their seventh album to January 19, seven days ahead of schedule, even featuring a stream on NPR’s First Listen to satiate the clamouring internet crowds. The hype is not surprising, given the wait between their latest LP and 2007’s critically acclaimed Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Frontman Britt Daniels has a history of pushing the average pop/rock listener slightly out of their comfort zone through Spoon’s edgy vibes. Transference pushes the boundaries in a different way than expected: not an in your face return album, but with Spoon’s flair for paring the music down.

The album starts off with eerie organs, gradually joined by a variable fidelity track of Daniels’ unique yelped singing and sparsely strummed guitar. When the vocal layering comes in mid-track, I wonder if the album would have been more appropriately titled Transcendence. Shiver inducing. Most of the remaining tracks bounce with uncomplicated but well-executed structures (’Is Love Forever?’, ‘Mystery Zone’), in Spoon’s classic style. To me, the anthemic ‘Got Nuffin’ (previously released as an EP in June 2009) feels the most like a big ticket production number; this album’s answer to ‘The Underdog’. Then comes ‘Who Makes Your Money’, its stripped-down synth and digitized vocals reminiscent of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s ‘The Ghost of You Lingers’.

A significant detractor is the comparative scarcity of Spoon’s standard quirky lyrical play. Daniels’ normally quick-witted one man banter is seemingly replaced with blatant proclamations and undecorated honesty. Take the aptly titled ‘Nobody Gets Me Like You’ for example: “No one gets what I’m doing/Everyone else seems to look through it/Oh, but maybe I never wanted them to/Couldn’t count on it anyway/Nobody gets me/Nobody cuts me like you.” There’s still something ensnaring about Britt’s boldfaced approach, as if he gets to the point of the songs without clouding them with words.

All in all, it sounds like a Spoon album. It stares you directly in the face with blunt lyrics and simple melodies. The songs are tight and the minimalist approach bares this sophisticated take on indie pop. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t surprise me if many listeners lose interest as instruments drift out to a raw rock denominator, instead of reveling in the clever arrangements. Personally, I’ll still be picking up the vinyl when it hits shelves today.

For those in Toronto, check them out at Sound Academy with Deerhunter and The Strange Boys on March 29.

Continuing their relatively quick pace of making albums, Los Campesinos! have released their third album, Romance Is Boring, marking a shift from the teenage exuberance of their earlier albums to early twenties bitterness. Though Aleks Campesinos! left the group late last year to focus on her schooling, her vocals remain on the album. Unlike the newly added brass section, lead singer Gareth’s sister Kim will have to wait until the band begins their European tour next month for her debut as Aleks’ replacement.

I’m worried that the band’s prolificacy may be watering down the final product. This is their first album to feel overlong. There’s definitely some filler here, notably ‘Plan A’, whose shrieking vocals are just off-putting. It’s curious that Aleks left, since she seems to have a substantially reduced presence here in favour of Gareth. Her only lead vocal that I can recall is on ‘We’ve Got Your Back’, which is subsequently one of the album’s highlights. Speaking of Gareth, as main lyricist and singer, his sound is incredibly angry and frustrated on this album, as if his heart was just ripped out and placed in a blender. The darkness was hinted at on We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, but it can really get overwhelming on this record.

On the other hand, ‘Straight in at 101’ gives us the lyrical gem “We need more post-coital and less post-rock” and single ‘There Are Listed Buildings’ harkens back to a more optimistic Los Campesinos!, but it’s a sound that’s all too lacking for most of the album. In an interview with Pitchfork, Gareth claimed that his favourite records were about “shagging and death,” which were subsequently credited as being the themes for the album. Someone should tell him that combining the two is necrophilia, which is frowned upon. The oh-so-clever criticism being bandied about is that this album is boring. It isn’t, there’s always quite a lot happening musically, but the darkness really clashes with what we came to love about the band. Hopefully by their next effort they will have cheered up a tad.

Los Campesinos! – Straight in at 101
Los Campesinos! – There Are Listed Buildings
Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring

Photograph by Bil Zelman

Midlake is a band lost in time. Eschewing the modern age and technology, the band seems more comfortable in a time when frontiers were still new, trees were plentiful and men were men. 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther was filled with images of nature and tales of pioneers. The Courage of Others continues with this setting. If Van Occupanther was Midlake’s fall album, The Courage of Others is their winter. During ‘Small Mountain’ ,Tim Smith sings of “a way of life that will surely be gone.” It’s a bleak time, worlds are colliding; a recurring theme of the album is that of burgeoning industrialism threatening the traditional agricultural lifestyle. In addition, this is the voice of the common people, the farmers and woodsmen. This unique perspective sets Midlake apart from other bands. Thematically, the only thing remotely similar I can think of is Neil Young’s ‘Powderfinger’, if only for the deep investment in the characters.

Musically, The Courage of Others is reminiscent of Van Occupanther with some changes. The compelling folk rock laden with harmonies and the best use of flute since ‘Aqualung’ remains, but the songs are slower and more introspective this time around, fitting the bleak winter theme. Lead single ‘Acts of Man’ stands as a good marker for the tone of much of the album, weary and acoustic. Despite lacking an outright rocker like ‘Roscoe’, the album does have its edgier moments, including ‘Children of the Grounds’ and the epic freakout at the end of ‘Winter Dies’.

I always appreciate when a band follows through on a concept. Rather than simply use their link to the past as a gimmick, history is an intrinsic part of Midlake’s music. Few bands have the ability to warp you to another time and place, with The Courage of Others Midlake has proven themselves one of those bands.

Midlake – Small Mountain
Midlake – Acts of Man
Midlake – Winter Dies

Photograph by Norman Wong

The Most Serene Republic serve as a reminder to embrace eccentricity wherever you may find it. The Milton, Ontario septet wash out jubilant layers of symphonic pop to capture the delicate grief in growing up. With their third full length release …And the Ever Expanding Universe, released on Arts&Crafts early last year, the band reveals the strange serenity of an archaic soundscape.

Their visit to the Canadian East Coast late last year started with a sound check occasionally punctuated by the communal donair passed around onstage and the inspired vocal ballads chanted while warping levels. In a starlit back alley dominated by a foggy Atlantic panorama, I spoke with keyboardist Ryan Lenssen and indulged in a romanticized intimacy shared amidst the splatter of raindrops and sting of Halifax cold. The conversation held a note of disheartened idealism found in the group’s records as we spoke about the pain of passivity, the finicky superiority of compact cassettes, and plans for the next album.

The Most Serene Republic – Where Cedar Nouns and Adverbs Walk
The Most Serene Republic – Heavens to Purgatory
The Most Serene Republic – (Oh) God

Jan: What band have you enjoyed touring with most?

Ryan Lenssen: Five years ago we really enjoyed playing with Wintersleep a lot. That was before they became massive. They still remain friends of ours. Loel Campbell is one of my favourite people, I love Wintersleep! Touring Canada, no matter where you go, you’re going to get good people that don’t want to step on any toes – it’s because we’re all passive.

Jan: That could be it.

Ryan: No it is. There’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of hate that people have, but we keep it to ourselves because we don’t know how to deal with it in Canada, because we didn’t grow up with an American sentimentality.

Jan: It’s interesting how each of your albums has had an emotion tied to it. You describe Population as anger, how much of that is based on your sentimentality?

Ryan: All of it.

Jan: Do you come up with the theme before the album starts or does the story piece together through the writing process and it dawns at the end?

Ryan: We go in writing from the emotions that are spewing out at the time we are in, and all the lyrics are written in the same perspective. Then we look back, reread what we were doing and realize what was on our minds at the time. We had a lot to prove and get off our chest with Phages, a lot of misconceptions that needed to be exposed to ourselves. The same thing happened with Underwater Cinematographer and our last album. It’s all been a process, we were so angry during Population perhaps we had so many self-righteous ideals that we had to go through during that time to get to where we are now. When I look back on it, I love the music but I may not agree with it anymore. With this recent album we could stay angry or we could try to move out of it. If we were to stay angry we all would have been dead by now.

Jan: So how much of it do you see as a healing process?

Ryan: The process itself is healing, but it’s never permanent. The EP that we’re about to put out, it’s not anger anymore nor is it acceptance. We’re just lost now, we don’t even know what we need to come to terms with. Maybe that’s the idea, that we need to come to terms with acceptance of just living and the exposure of our own faults through our learning process. But I don’t know – it’s not done yet, that’s how I feel right now. We’re just dealing with our own problems and insecurities. Maybe this EP is asking for forgiveness?

Jan: Where is all the anger coming from? What upsets you?

Ryan: Ourselves more than anything. Population wasn’t about ourselves, it was about feeling like we were trapped by our surroundings and our environment, like we didn’t have a choice and everything was being pushed on us. We felt as though we needed some kind of serious traumatizing thing to happen to us to feel the pain of the artist to make epic music, to do all this sort of shit. In a way we asked for our own pain. I mean we lived in Canada, it’s a G8 country – we’re all sedated. There’s no strife, there’s no anything. It’s like ‘Stephen Harper wants to cut the arts, that sucks – but who cares?’ It’s not as if we’re shipping all the homeless to a refugee center and grounding them up or having genocide, or any of that kind of shit. We were pissed that we had nothing to be true men about.

Jan: Because you just take it in stride?

Ryan: Yeah, it just doesn’t matter, who cares about Canadian politics when American politics are the ones that matter and they are the ones dealing with all this kind of crap. The list goes on to how little is going on in this country, and how all the rebellions have already occurred. In a way I think our population was complaining that there was nothing to complain about.

Jan: So does that fact upset you about being Canadian?

Photograph by Nick Greaves

Ryan: No, that’s not really the point. We went on and found that life brings pain no matter what is going on, whether you’re in the middle of World War II, you’re trying to bring down the Berlin Wall or if nothing is going on. Life will bring you pain no matter what, your decisions in life will bring you pain, the way you deal with others will bring you pain. Through these couple of years we’ve gone through so much more of it that we were pissed at ourselves for being so ignorant for asking for it in the first place. And so now we got tons of it, we don’t even know what to do with it anymore. Does that make for better records? I sure as hell hope so. Will it? I have no idea. I guarantee you that there’s a million people out there going through a million hard times, and they’re not making amazing records. They’re trying, but it’s not working. Just because we romanticize the greats that made massive records and sold millions, none of that really matters when it comes down to just living a life. Yeah, you can make art for everybody, but at the end of the day they’re just going to listen to it at a party one time. Or maybe they’ll have a really cool experience with it, but it’s not worth your own life.

Jan: Then what really feels like safety with the notion that life brings you pain so passively – where do you get away?

Ryan: At this particular stage in my life, I don’t think I have that.

Jan: Do you think you’ve lost it, or didn’t have it to begin with?

Ryan: I think I threw it away for the sake of youthful arrogance and stupidity. I’m talking about just me now, not everybody. A lot of what’s happening to me I’ve asked for, and that hurts a lot, more than anything, knowing that you brought it on yourself.

Jan: So what makes you happy?

Ryan: Work does make me happy, making music, playing shows – as long as they are good ones. Knowing that I’ve been able to leave more good in people than bad makes me happy. The reverse of that breaks my heart.

Jan: What makes for a good show?

Ryan: When there is a connection, when there stops being a divide between the band and the audience, when the people there get as sweaty as we do, when they’re not afraid to let themselves go. There are places around the world where it seems to be the culture there to disconnect – or maybe we’re just playing super bad, I don’t know. There seems to be a pattern in certain places, I won’t say where, when people don’t want to connect – it’s almost a culture of fear on their own part of becoming at all impressed with what you’re doing. Or not even impressed, but even present enough to be sharing an experience with everyone else that’s there. You have to break that level of individuality where everyone walks in with their own agenda to a show. You know, am I there to get the girl, am I there with a girl and don’t want the guys to look at her, am I there because this is my favourite band and want everyone else to see me? Then there are just the genuine people that are there for their own sake who just want to be there. What really needs to happen is a breaking down of all that psychological bullshit, and forming just for an hour or so, a unified presence where everyone shares the emotional output. We only play well when the crowd is playing well. Depending on how interactive we can make the experience – I mean I’m an atheist – but it’s as close to spirituality as I get. There’s some level of connected unconscious.

Jan: Have you ever felt that when you were at a show?

Ryan: Absolutely, it’s the reason why I got into music. It was a Radiohead show about seven years ago in Barrie, they were touring Kid A at the time. I was pretty young, and that was the show that got me into music. There was about ten thousand or so people there for the hour and a half they played, at the time I didn’t feel like a sixteen-year-old, I didn’t have anything to prove, had no self-esteem issues, and we were all sharing in this amazing experience. And that’s something I want to share with other people, because there are people that go through our more peculiar emotions and we really need to connect with those people or else we feel alone.

Jan: So how does the Most Serene Republic work as a group, is everyone there as friend to lean on?

Ryan: Most of the time yes, but we’re a lot of people and we’re in a cramped space and there are days when we want to rip each other’s heads off. It’s not often, but it does happen. As we are a family, we’ve gone through so much shit together, just like any family, and the real trick at this point is to make sure the good outweighs the bad. It’s something we’ve grown better at.

Jan: If you weren’t doing music, is there anything else you see yourself doing?

Ryan: Not at this point, but life takes a bunch of different paths. I mean I was supposed to be a psychologist when I was in school, but I picked up music instead. I think music is just as much psychological as full-on psychology is. In that way I don’t feel I strayed that much from what was expected from me. I would still be in music, it’s one of those things you become addicted to – it’s really hard to kick. Like heroin. [Laughs]

Photograph by Nick Greaves

Jan: The EP that is coming out, do you have a planned release date or title?

Ryan: I’m hoping early 2010, we have a few ideas for a title but I don’t want to ruin it.

Jan: What about a theme like the past albums, or is that something you’ll find out after the fact?

Ryan: No, this one actually has a well thought out direction.

Jan: When speaking to Kevin Drew about …And The Ever Expanding Universe and creating a record with a broader scope, larger than just an album for Torontonians did you feel your perspectives changed as you were writing?

Ryan: You know what, I don’t think we ever tried to make a record for Toronto. We weren’t trying to make a record for anybody at all. I’ve always really enjoyed working, playing, and listening to what we’ve accomplished. In a lot of ways I feel we make our records for ourselves. Literally, as we want something to listen to from us. We love other bands, getting a new record is fantastic, but one of my favourite things to do is to make a record for us, by us. I get excited to listen to our own stuff. I think all bands have that, at least they should. If you don’t like listening to your records then why is anyone else going to?

Jan: On that note has there been anything you’ve been listening to lately or supporting?

Ryan: I’ve been going way back, I’ve been trying to listen to stuff that I missed on my way here. I grew up on classical music and jazz, so I don’t know much about the last sixty years of  music – I’m way more familiar with what happened before that. So I’ve been playing catch-up. The other day I went through the Boards of Canada catalogue, the Grizzly Bear discography, I’ve always been a massive Radiohead fan. The new Phoenix record is great.

Jan: Are you still attached to vinyl, CDs or do you get most of your music digitally now?

Ryan: I love CDs and I love vinyl. I miss cassette a lot because it was such a finicky medium but it was awesome.

Jan: So if you could bring one thing back, you’d bring back cassette?

Ryan: Yeah, because I thought they sounded awesome. Tape sounds amazing, though vinyl has its charm and sounds great most of the time. But if there was something I would want to crank it would be cassette. Digital sucks because you just don’t have the fidelity, whenever you’re hearing ambient stuff you’re never hearing what actually is there. The way I get music now more than anything is when I go anywhere I ask people to tell me what their favourite records are, I ask bands that I’m on tour with what are the records that made their life and then I work off that list.

Jan: Is there a place where you particularly enjoy the music scene?

Ryan: I don’t really follow geography and music like that. I know that Canada has had a massive boom in the past while. I think that might be slowing down right now.

Jan: Why do you think the Canadian music industry is slowing down now?

Ryan: Because if you’re a young kid and you just moved to the city for the first time and you have Indian food and you’re blown away and suddenly want to have Indian food all the time – but you can’t, you have to discover sushi. You have to try new things. The States were kicking ass for so long, then the United Kingdom came along, the States brought it back and Canada had their time. Now there’s a bit of a Scandinavian influence coming along.

Jan: So what are you doing when you’re not involved with music or on tour, do you spend much time with friends or family?

Ryan: There’s a small handful of people outside of the band that I would consider family but realistically the band are my friends. I would be pretty distraught without them. Sean [Woolven] is a big video game player, Adrian [Jewett] has recently been trying to conquer all the Mario’s. I haven’t had much of chance, but most of them really enjoy gaming. For me personally, I don’t have any leisure time. It’s not a matter of not having it as much as it is not knowing what to do with it, so I choose not to have it – I just keep working.

Jan: Do you ever feel worn out?

Ryan: I always feel spent. Leisure time makes you think about things that you would rather not think about.

Jan: How has your interaction with fans been, any marriage proposals yet?

Ryan: [Laughs] No. Well, yeah I guess actually. It happened to me once, but you don’t take it seriously. Last night a really awesome guy came up and said that our record helped him avert some really painful times in his life. That was really nice, it was one of those reaffirming moments. Whether they mean it or not, if they come up and tell you your record stopped them from hurting themselves or at least diverted their attention for long enough – it’s nice to hear and it’s enough to make you want to keep going. We try to keep a checklist of that stuff to remind you. There’s a lovely family in New York City that comes to our shows, and they have a daughter now that’s growing up on our music and knows the words. Having a positive impact on the lives of others is amazing. So whenever you make the mistake of not being a positive influence it hurts that much more.

Jan: Is there a band that you would like to tour or work with?

Ryan: Yeah, I would love to tour or work with Radiohead or the Flaming Lips. We’ve been so lucky, Broken Social Scene would have been one of those bands but we already did. Stars and the Strokes were a dream come true. There’s a ton of people I would love to work with, at this point I wouldn’t turn down much of anything.

Jan: Who has the best dance moves in The Most Serene Republic?

Ryan: Adrian, of course. When we first started I remember people telling him to calm down. I’m glad he didn’t. I used to be able to stand up but then I got carpal tunnel in my right wrist so I have to sit down now. I’m still a young guy, but it’s been five years. You start to feel old – everyone older than me thinks I’m being ridiculous. [Laughs]

Photograph by Ryan Pfluger

Owen Pallett, the former Final Fantasy, previously relied on just a violin and loop pedal. His third LP, Heartland, has the distinction of being his first fully orchestral album. Does the music’s newfound complexity retain the charm of his previous releases? For the most part, yes. On record, Final Fantasy has always been very layered; so the expanded instrumentation feels organic and serves as a natural extension to his previous work. I miss the simple setup of yesteryear, but I imagine that the live show will go on as it always has, and I look forward to hearing the different arrangements.

The 2006 Polaris Music Prize winner He Poos Clouds was loosely about the eight schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons. Heartland has a similarly high concept, the short version being that it’s about a fictional farmer named Lewis that Pallett is enamored with. It’s fitting then that the album’s two best tracks refer to Lewis directly. ‘Lewis Takes Off His Shirt’ stands out as one of Pallett’s best songs ever written, right up there with ‘This Is the Dream of Win and Regine’. The gradual build up and lush textures allow the orchestra to shine. Preceding track ‘Oh Heartland, Up Yours’ also makes great use of the newly available soundscapes, straying away from the string section and leaning toward the strings and woodwinds. ‘Flare Gun’, which has been played live for years now, appears here making it clear that Heartland was long in the making.

Pallett’s first foray under his own name is ultimately a successful one. It’s slow to start, but once ‘Lewis Takes Action’ kicks in, we’re treated to the usual magic. The only sad thing is that I can no longer make any forced video game references, and that’s worse than when Kefka poisoned Doma’s water supply.

Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Action
Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Off His Shirt

When the harrowing title and cover art for End Times were revealed, which features an illustration of an aged and white-bearded Mark Oliver Everett (also known as E), I was worried I would be writing a eulogy rather than an album review. Given E’s well-documented family history, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise; the man has been through a lot. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Part of Eels’ appeal is that E has endured tragedy and speaks so candidly about it, and he continues this on his eighth album.

End Times arrives a mere six months after Hombre Lobo, marking the quickest turnaround between Eels albums yet. I wasn’t immediately enamored with Hombre Lobo and its frequent bouts of howling, though after returning to it months later, it has aged well. While the previous album was a character study recorded as a three-piece, End Times is instead a deeply personal affair which E largely recorded on his own. Upon hearing the simple, heart-wrenching refrain of “Goddamn, I miss that girl” from first single ‘Little Bird’, I had a feeling I was in for something special. E is at his best when he is at his most personal, and those five words signified the inspiration for these songs: End Times is E’s divorce album.

It’s a bold statement to make, but this is E’s best album since Electro-Shock Blues. While this is a man in his mid-40s grieving over his lost love, a failed relationship is something anyone can relate to. The subject was glossed over in his 2007 autobiography Things the Grandchildren Should Know, but the rage, bitterness, confusion, depression, and loneliness are all here, often within the same track. The arrangements are mostly simple, though still making use of all the instruments E has collected over the years. Given the subject matter, the majority of songs are acoustic and introspective.

Eels – Little Bird
Eels – In My Younger Days

Never one to dance around an issue, tracks like ‘A Line in the Dirt’ document specific incidents, in this case one in a series of fights. The title track finds our hero at a low point. You would never expect the line “Shut up cat, leave me alone” to be as moving as it is, echoing ‘Spunky’ from Beautiful Freak. Perhaps the most poignant moment on the album is on ‘Apple Trees’, which isn’t a song at all, instead, a spoken word segment featuring E recounting a memory.

“We were on this car trip and I was looking at these rows and rows of trees all along the highway. I don’t know what kind of trees, apples or something. There were just like, thousands and thousands of rows of a thousand trees each, and I picked one tree that I could see about eight trees back in this one row in the middle, just one in a billion. And that’s how I felt.”

As a parallel to ‘PS: You Rock My World’, ‘In My Younger Days’ and closing track ‘On My Feet’ retain the message of carrying on regardless of what life throws at you, which is really why E is so admirable. He has struggled through the death of his entire family and lived to tell about it; comparatively, a divorce is a bump in the road. E may be slightly older and a little more beaten down, but one gets the feeling he will pull through just fine.

Photograph by Yuula Benivolski

The twenty albums included in our Best Albums of 2009 list can only cover so much of the music we’ve enjoyed, so to share some more of our favourites from the past year, we present the Ca Va Cool Mixtape for 2009, just in time to close off the year. As always, we thank you for reading and hope you stick around in the new decade. Happy new year.

Download | The Ca Va Cool Mixtape 2009

01. A.C. Newman – Submarines of Stockholm
02. Yeasayer – Tightrope
03. Dog Day – Happiness
04. The Very Best  – Warm Heart of Africa feat. Ezra Koenig
05. Think About Life – Havin’ My Baby
06. Beirut – My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille
07. Tegan and Sara – Someday
08. The Thermals – Now We Can See
09. Timber Timbre – Demon Host
10. Engineers – Song for Andy
11. You Say Party! We Say Die! – Laura Palmer’s Prom
12. The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing
13. Fanfarlo – Luna
14. Julie Doiron – Nice to Come Home
15. Kurt Vile – Freeway
16. Freelance Whales – Ghosting
17. Japandroids – Young Hearts Spark Fire
18. The Raveonettes – Last Dance