A quick chat with Broken City’s exceedingly friendly bartender, Adam, reveals that Brasstronaut is short one guitar player and missed out on a full soundcheck — not necessarily a good sign for a band with two wind instruments to mic. Sure enough, the first song — “Lo Hi Hopes,” from the band’s debut full-length, Mt. Chimaera — is a false start, derailed by feedback.
A quick bit of adjustment and things are back on track. They opt instead for “Six Toes,” Chimaera’s standout track, and it certainly seems to be the right choice. The roiling piano and Dixieland clarinet catch the audience’s ears, and the brief snippets of falsetto soul sets the hook. The absent guitar player isn’t really missed, with the bassist pulling double duty (I can’t see whether … Read More

It looks like the fine folks at Kill Rock Stars are in a generous mood right now. The label is celebrating its first two releases of 2010 by streaming them for free over at soundcloud.com.

So, if you want to check out the latest from hard-rocking, melodically dense Portland trio Quasi or emotionally dour weirdness from Xiu Xiu, just follow the links or click the streams below (which hopefully will work):

Quasi - American Gong by killrockstars

XIU XIU Dear God, I Hate Myself by killrockstars

Turns out the end of Sundae Sound isn't the only hit the local music scene is taking this month. After 26 years, the Warehouse is closing its doors. I've copied the full statement from the venue's Facebook page below, but the short of it seems to be a perfect storm of liquor license, zoning and building issues, which have been in the works since the crackdown on the Warehouse's "private club" status.

It's pretty much impossible to pin a single sound or clientelle on the Warehouse and Underground, but the two venues have served as a hub for any number of scenes around the city, from metal to goth and industrial to dance and punk. They were always adventurous with their programming (highlights from the last couple years have included … Read More

Dear CJSW,

Please turn 25 every year from now on and throw a big music party.

Love,

Drew

Photos by Charles Gunn

Last night, I had the chance to have a quick chat with the guys from Attack in Black before they took to the stage at Broken City, warming up the crowd for Julie Doiron and Fred Squire a guy who looked sort of like Fred Squire (more on this later). This band has always struck me as one with tons of potential but not a lot to show for it. Sure, I can listen to their shows and make it through their records, but it always seemed like too much of a mixed bag of middle-of-the-road folk and rock for me to get into.

Then again, the continue to crop up on my radar and every time I feel like I must be missing something. Most recently, this came in the form of the Daniel, Fred, & Julie record, featuring Attack in Black front-man Dan Romano … Read More

Local singer-songwriter Lorrie Matheson has posted the second installment in his 52-part 2010 covers project, a cover of the late Vic Chesnutt's "The Gravity of the Situation," and along with the cover, he's posted a great anecdote about Chesnutt's set at the Marquee Room last October. It was a hell of a show (one of the best I saw last year, easily), and as Matheson's the booker at the Marquee Room, he's got an interesting perspective on it.

Just a quick note that local label Flemish Eye will be donating 100% of their mail order sales for January to relief efforts in Haiti — as if you needed another reason to love these guys. So go pick up Pale Air Singers's self-titled debut (which has been totally slept on for some reason) or some delicious Chad VanGaalen vinyl, and do your part to make the world a better place.

UPDATE:

Also on a Haitian note, this clip of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann indulging in some well-placed indignation must be seen to be believed (via Paul Lawton of Myelin Sheaths/Endangered Ape):

Final Fantasy Owen Pallett at Sled Island 2009 (photo by Charles Gunn)

Dearest readers,

In this week's issue, I wrote a review of the new Owen Pallett record, Heartland. If music editor Peter had let me, I would have written another 1000 words about this record. Here are a few nuggets:

1. This is Owen's first record on Domino, a much bigger label than his previous home (Toronto's Blocks Recording Club.) This might have something to do with the name change. However, the promo copy that I reviewed (it still says "Final Fantasy"--collectibles 4tw) was stamped with "FOR GREAT JUSTICE" and the liner notes included a link to this site.

Do you recognize the style? For those of you who aren't as well-versed in Early 00s … Read More

The Phoenix takeaway show on La Blogotheque is way too good to be missed. When this showed up in my RSS reader this morning, the flywheels on my brain's blog post machine started whirring, let me tell ya.

So, in case you hadn't heard, La Blogotheque is a Paris-based music blog that records videos of "Concerts à Emporter": bands playing impromptu live sets in the many, many cheeky public venues offered by the city of lights. Previous highlights have included Caribou (watch how they "fade in" the drums around the 2 minute mark,) Man Man, and Volcano!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention Charles Gunn's excellent piece from April 2008, in which he summoned all the strength of his Franco-Albertan ancestry to interview Blogotheque founder Chryde.

But the  … Read More

Hi y'all, it has been a while.

I bombed into Vancouver this Tuesday evening for the Fiery Furnaces. This was my third time seeing them (1: early-era at Coachella 05, they played so fast that their set ended 10 minutes early and they played 1917 as an "encore"; 2: Rehearsing My Choir tour in Toronto, Eleanor was sick and had lost her voice) and it was undoubtedly the best. Even though brother Matt opted to rock lead guitars throughout the show, eschewing organs altogether, it was a tight and energetic set. Mind-blowing, you guys.

But what I really wanted to mention was that I took a trip to Richards Street's venerable Scratch Records, which has as of yet managed to elude destruction by the ana-condo-saurus that recently claimed another YVR … Read More