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the pickups are sweet

the pickups are sweet

by | Feb 22, 2008 | albums


Country Houses, City Street
The Pickups
Beautifully Misguided Records

Finally! A band so incredibly emo, but not a single pretentious member with that awful, downward bent head gesture and shaggy hair covering one eye. Described as “flaneur-pop,” The Pickups are lovely in a minimalist, micro-pop, fuzzy soft drink sort of way. Touching on ideas like random childhood memories, first loves, and nostalgic neighborhoods, songs such as “Augusta” and “Country Houses” truly capture those fleeting memories that bring up the sentimentality of youthful idealism.

The track “Compromise” immediately brings to mind a casual walk in a park, or a moment of unbridled honesty – the modest sound of Country Houses, City Streets seems to invoke a feeling of unguarded lightheartedness. In particular, “Country Houses” brings the whole introspective sentimentality to the forefront, not unlike a marriage between Belle and Sebastian and Apples in Stereo, discussing notions of lost loves and regret. 

The lyrical component to The Pickups adds to their appeal tremendously. Lines such as “There are those hard to love hard to leave/ and the people I love keep on loving me back” spur this overwhelming sympathy and universal understanding that living in a city isn’t easy. 

Ultimately, The Pickups illustrate the most common human interactions, but in a modest, poetically minimalist way; it’s their honesty and non-reactionary apathy that will make its way into your heart.

house of doc

house of doc

by | Feb 21, 2008 | albums


East of West
House of Doc
Pacific Music

Hailing from Winnipeg, House of Doc’s third album East of West celebrates love, life, and Canadian sensibilities in a light, amusing way. 

Upbeat, folksy, and altogether jovial, this album provokes the lighter side of everything mundane and shifts the emphasis to family life, escaping the plight of urban noise and reverting to a frugal, simple sound. This is furthered by the altogether familial relation between the members – the group is made up of Matthew Harder, his wife Rebecca and her brother Dan Wiebe. At the first listen, one cannot help but draw parallels to the score of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” but a version more preoccupied by the Canadian landscape.

Tracks such as “Summerstone” and “Milk and Cookies” are brimming with an optimism that can only be fully backed up by harmonicas and banjos. However, the album as a whole is more profound; in particular, “Simple Times” is a song recorded by one single and immaculate take. Flanked by stripped down, harmonic tunes, East of West has that honest, human quality about it that is only truly appreciated by the humble.

Rebecca Harder croons hypnotically in “Lullaby,” giving it a soulful and melodic contrast to some of their more upbeat, bluegrass tracks. Also, the final track brings the album full circle with a secret song – when was the last time anybody did that?

cool disco, but lyrical no-go

cool disco, but lyrical no-go

by | Nov 18, 2007 | albums


mood swings
small sins
boompa records

The Small Sins recently released their second album, Mood Swings as a follow-up from their debut eponymous work from 2006. Based out of Toronto, the quintet rocks out with groovy, contemplative electro-typical songs not unlike a marriage between Death Cab and Grandaddy. In fact, several tracks such as “I Need a Friend” and “On the Run” sound something fresh off a Postally-Serviced musical venture into popular synth mash-ups. This whole album seems to capture that trend, blending together the unlikely wishy-washy complaints of unrequited love and catchy, upbeat synth-pop. In fact, Mood Swings seems to unravel the cool veneer of the aloof, dance-mystique, with lyrics such as “I’m thirsty like a diabetic,” showing that altogether draining feeling of ineptitude and personal emotional incompetence. At the same time though, the lyrical component is certainly lacking in Mood Swings – peaking at “On a Mission,” the tunes deliver that plurality of emotions in being feeling utterly rejected, but the lyrics don’t back it up at with the same integrity. On the whole, this album moves in one direction only – a euphonic but mindless expression of the broken hearted. But maybe that’s the point; love reduces the rejected into a droning, monotonous verbal plane. Indeed, just like how frontman Thomas D’arcy lethargically relates, “we’re all tired all the time.” 

notes on a scandal

by | Nov 18, 2007 | film stripped

In a nutshell, Richard Eyre’s new film is a disturbing glimpse into the lives of two devastatingly lonely women. Judi Dench plays an embittered school teacher, an authoritarian whose depressingly vacant social life drives her to manipulate the deadly secret of the new art teacher. Sheeba Hart (Cate Blanchett) stars as the sexy, bohemian teacher who seduces the likes of a fifteen year-old student as a reaction to her fading youth and failed life aspirations. This film represents the worst taboos known to the cinematic tradition: as the cataclysmic intentions become revealed, Judi Dench’s portrayal of a desperate ageing lesbian surfaces to a longing obsession. “To be so chronically untouched that the slightest brush of the bus conductor’s hand sends a jolt of longing – straight to your groin…” Could this be any more titilating?

you, you’re a history in rust…

you, you’re a history in rust…

by | Oct 29, 2007 | live action

The album

 

do make say think

monday october 29
commodore ballroom 

By hearing their ambient music, this seemingly nonsensical phrase can only be fully illuminated. 

Despite shiny discoballs and incessant smoke machines perforating their otherwise introspective sound, Do Make Say Think delivered some of the most beautiful and transcendental sounds over the hollowed out venue. 

Maybe it was the haze from the smoke generator, or perhaps it was the atmospheric red lighting that coated the walls and surfaces, but honestly this was the unlikiest spiritual experience in the middle of Vancouver downtown.

Despite their downtown Toronto urban origins, Do Make Say Think can reduce everything down to a gorgeous organic texture that makes you believe that music is a naturally occuring substance. Although their live shows have evolved into more calculated, tight arrangements and sets, Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit entreated us to godlike euphonic improvisation between classic songs such as “The Landlord is Dead,” and “Auberge the Mouton Noir.” Indeed, with a concept so abstract, this group defies almost all typical musical conventions by seeming natural and uncalculated, but perfect in all the ways of beauty that are too incomprehensible to articulate. (Even their name reduces all of life in four words…)2908464786_46e5885e50

Well, I dunno. Maybe I’m just a sucker for vintage Gretsch guitars and strings and saxophones, but when you hear them all in perfect relation and proportion to another like that you’ve got to appreciate the fact that something far more significant is going on.

I didn’t take acid before doing this show, but in all honesty it felt like it. I still don’t really know what happened that night, but the new album creates synesthetic euphoria. Tracks like “The Universe!” and “Executionary Blues” point to that unusual, yet mundane beauty in the minute details of life that is often overlooked.