by Miné Salkin | Feb 19, 2010 | albums, news
another seeming classic, complete with their collage-pastiche artwork aesthetic.
Arts & Crafts baroque rock legends Broken Social Scene unveiled a new single from their upcoming album Forgiveness Rock Record available here. It’s an epic, seven-minute montage of their greatest musical talents, and it foreshadows an even more epic album.
The band, a musical collective of some 19-members, has ties to Eastern Canadian bands such as Metric, Feist, Stars and Do Make Say Think to name a few. Their collaborative spirit embiggens every noble man and woman.
The full studio album will be released on May 4, which has been greatly awaited since their last, self-titled work from 2005.
Check out this video for “7/4 Shoreline,” a catchy tune from their third eponymous work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uev2J_cBHjQ&feature=related]
by Miné Salkin | Jan 26, 2010 | albums, news
In the wake of a devastating earthquake that hit Haiti nearly two weeks ago, iTunes is pre-releasing a compilation in order to raise relief funds.
Among a stellar list of talents including Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Sting and Bono, the album is beautiful, tragic yet hopeful — just what we need. The telethon already raised $58 mil and the CD is topping iTunes currently.
Canadian guitar legend Neil Young and Dave Matthews teamed up to record “Alone and Foresaken,” a Hank Williams original. Also, a riveting performance by Emeline Michel is on the album — a native of Gonaïves who’s been dubbed the “Joni Mitchell of Haiti.”
Come look at highlights from the telethon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFSe2ALUNU]
by Miné Salkin | Jan 20, 2010 | albums, news
Spoon, photo courtesy from an emo blog
They’re starry eyed, attractively geeky and downright infectious. Let’s forgive them for being featured on the O.C.’s soundtrack in 2004 because I’ve tried my hardest to forget that.
The Texas-based alternative rock group has released their seventh studio album Transference, a follow-up from their acclaimed 2007 album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. While their trademark sound is typically pared down, simple beats and catchy guitar-heavy riffs, Transference points to something a little more complex — the introjection of a misdirected feeling at someone or something. Maybe the boys are growing up.
Here’s a taste of the new record, released by Merge Records. Enjoi.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHYi-CpzhBU]
by Miné Salkin | Oct 17, 2009 | albums
for Discorder Magazine
Other Truths
Do Make Say Think
(Constellation)
These, and other truths...
Ambient post-rock veterans return to the basics with their sixth album Other Truths, an homage to their tradition of continuous instrumental wall of sound leading to psychic oblivion. Along with musicians from Akron/Family and Lullabye Arkestra, the album sounds much like a live exploration of humanity’s deepest commonality: the process between thought and action.
“Do” starts up optimistically, with catchy distorted guitar riffs, building up to a montage of almost cataclysmic orchestral proportions. The second song “Make” follows the same structure, but is far more emotive and thoughtful, as if it was reaching for authenticity. Not a stranger to brass instruments, the trumpet and saxophone add tremendous sensual texture to “Say.” Like their other albums, Other Truths is nearly entirely instrumental, which gives a sensation of dialogue between the passages and the instrument groups themselves.
The end trails off contemplatively with their fourth track “Think,” a slow meticulous exploration of this other and final truth — the fourth facet of the human condition.
by Miné Salkin | Oct 2, 2009 | albums, news
It’s official. Legendary Seattle grunge rockers have hit No. 1 with their latest album Backspacer, released September 20th.
While the quintet has acquired a following of die-hard fans across the globe, their newest work has reinstated themselves to their former glory through musical innovation, business-mindedness, and a willingness to grow up.
Pearl Jam in 2006
They’ve had their share of difficulties, problems and compromises. Originally named Mother Love Bone, the band lost their frontman Andrew Wood to an overdose just a few days before their debut album Apple was scheduled to hit the market. In 1991, the group was criticized by Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain for riding the successes of the grunge revolution, one that was started by social outcast which eventually became the centre of popular culture through increasing commercialization.
Throughout the mid to late 1990s, Pearl Jam got heavy censure for their anti-corporate tendencies and stubborn refusal to adhere to industry standard. They boycotted companies like TicketMaster and dismissed the notion of a music video — during the decade almost typifed by the music video — garnering harsh disapproval from many. In 1996, a writer from Rolling Stone claimed that Pearl Jam dropped off the face of the earth entirely for non-fans, because of “the fact that they spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame.”
I’ve always loved the husky voice of Eddie Vedder, the angsty shredded talents of guitarist Mike McCready, but haven’t always been impressed with them. Ten, Vitalogy and Binaural stand out as some of the greatest albums of their time, but their attempts to diversify their sound sometimes came off as strange, anarchistic experiments in preachiness. They had to learn how to walk gracefully between the lines of music and activistm.
In the eleventh grade, I saw them play at GM Place during their Riot Act tour, an album that has been described as “Anti-Bush” in a die-hard-punk kind of way. The show was terrible. Vedder wore a hat obscuring his face the entire time, and there was no energy whatsoever. The band did not stray two feet in either direction, and there I was with expectations of Vedder climbing all over the place like he did in all those concert videos I watched.
Backspacer lets us forget all about that. The first track, ironically called “The End” recaptures the beauty of Vedder’s voice, as he muses over the idea of suicide without getting pedantic. “Johnny Guitar” is catchy as hell, definitely bringing back the much-missed nostalgia of the sounds of the 1990s.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioS4YVWkWkE]
by Miné Salkin | Mar 20, 2009 | albums
Barzin
Notes to an Absent Lover
Monotreme Records
it'll break your heart
It would seem that Beck’s 2002 album Sea Change can step down as the reigning break-up album. Barzin’s much anticipated third full-length album is analgesic, narcoleptic, and offers the warmest kind of apathy for those with broken hearts and tattered emotions. Filled with mellow, downtempo folk-pop with a hint of country, Notes to an Absent Lover is essential listening. While Barzin keeps the overall sound simple and minimalist, the album has many textures as he diffuses vibraphone, cello and viola throughout the work. Caught somewhere between the poetic sensitivity of Lou Reed and the downtrodden voice of Wilco, Barzin sings about what love looks like “when it falls apart.” While most of the lyrics and themes are tied to the vulnerability of an individual who has failed in love, it gets a little aggressive and doubtful in “Look What Love Has Turned Us Into,” where he painfully howls “we’re strangers/ and we’re ugly/ ’cause we’ve lost so very much.” Barzin compares love to a dream song, music in Queen’s street, and words “tangled in blue,” showing the complexity of raw emotion mingling with regret, loss, and everlasting frustration.
