New Music Tuesday - The Catch Up

Life in the T-Dot has been hectic, just as they talk about. Thankfully, I don't have the feeling I am in the centre of the universe. Although, I do sometimes feel like I am being sucked into a Super Massive Black Hole. If you didn't catch the reference it is a Muse song and speaking of Muse they are opening for U2. I am probably going to the show when it rolls through Toronto which would be a great concert experience. But, all of this is not the issue at hand! How can a fine young fellow such as myself keep just a good pace on updating this blog, but then fall off the face of the earth...well moving, life, moving again and work have all prevented such updates. But as always I am back! Some new music to chat about as always, so more stuff from the every evolving story that is the Toronto Subway and a brief catch up on music news. So kids, get out your subway tokens and lets get on the train.

CD Review:

Swan Lake - Enemy Mine:

The Canadian Indie Super group Swan Lake brings together members of Destroyer (Daniel Bejar), Frog Eyes (Carey Mercer) and Wolf Parade (Spencer Krug). There first album was released in 2006 entitled Beast Moans which contains one of my favortie songs of 2006 which was "All Fires". So, for the last three years the members of the ever expansive Canadian indie scene were doing as they do best, making great tunes. Daniel Bejar released a captivating album last year under his band Destroyer, Trouble in Dreams. Carey Mercer released a couple albums under his band Frog Eyes. And of course Spencer Krug released a very very solid album with Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer an absolutely fantastic album from start to finish!

Well with such raw talent, I was expecting big things from Swan Lake. My expectations were mostly met, a few tracks I wasn't sold on and would probably skip as I listen to the album. Seriously, it is difficult to make albums that are great from start to finish and when those ones come along well they become classic. Overall, this album has everything a good indie album has, amazing vocals and raw musical power. With each of the members contributing vocals to a variety of tracks on what is a somewhat disappointingly short album, they each bring their own unique and amazing qualities to the tracks.

The album starts with the powerful "Spanish Gold, 2044", big sound and stunning vocals leads you into a beautiful album. "Settle on Your Skin" showcases Spencer Krug's vocal prowess as he puts such passion behind his lyrics...terrific. The track I really could have done without is "Warlock Psychologist" it just did nothing for me and seemed to carry on forever. Overall, this album puts you into a hurricane of indie goodness. Buy it - If you like any of the bands that these members are from you will enjoy this album!!!

Music News:

It's that time of year where people go on tour, here's the list so far....also if you live in Calgary you won't see many of them, but you're more then welcome at my place in Toronto if you want to come visit and catch a show.

Bands on Tour:
The Doves
TV On The Radio
Jay Reatard
Art Brut
Jenny Lewis
The Shins
Camera Obscura (I am for SURE going to this one!!)
Yo La Tengo

T.I is going to jail...shocker! After being arrested for trying to illegally purchase firearms, he's going to jail for a year and a day which means he will release two albums this year and make millions and millions of dollars.

Wilco is releasing a new album this year and Feist is adding some vocals to the tracks...should be good.

Random Stuff on the T-Dot Subway:

Well....as always the Toronto Subway is an amazing collection of human tapestry. Over the last few weeks I have been told that the end is near! Believe it people because no less then 4 people told me this and one guy spit while he talked to this was not fun....

I sat beside a lovely old lady who talked to her stuffed cat (not like taxidermy, but like a teddy bear) Other then being a little off her rocker she did seem to be having a very pleasant conversation with the cat.

Finally, as I was taking the subway to work Friday morning and we came to a stop at St. George station. I heard a commotion behind me and turned in my seat to look as I saw an arch of coffee flying in the air coming down on a poor soul how had fainted temporarily. After a minute or so they had the person up in a seat and they seemed to be fine and everything resumed back to normal after the TTC staff who were amazing and on the scene immediately came aboard and helped the person out.

Not so sadly, my regular transit trips will be far less frequent as I am moving within walking distance to work. SO! I will bring you interesting stories from the T-Dot, just more city wide.

Till...well, Tuesday hopefully. I hope you are all well and I hope you enjoy the tunes.

--Dave

Hello NMT Readers,

A slight hiatus on NMT. I will be back this weekend with some new tunes and more interesting things from the Toronto Subway....

New Music Tuesday - March 11, 2009

Have you ever experienced a wind so cutting and cold that it seems to suck a little bit of your soul out. No matter what your ambitions are that day, that wind hits you and all you want to do is crawl into bed and do nothing all day. That wind hit me today at a blustery 81kms/hr, it was unpleasant to say the least. 

Saying that, staying inside with a soul sapping wind outside makes for some good writing time and time to listen to some music. So that is what I did, I made myself a cup of tea and put on some music, two new albums and a few more that I felt like listening too. So this week, there will be two CD reviews, some music news and random sights from the Toronto subway system. 

CD Reviews:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Karen O, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner return since their amazing album in 2006 Show Your Bones. Karen O is one of my favorite vocalists of all time, their lead off track "Zero" is exceptional track which showcases the beautiful range that Karen O possesses. Due to the leak of the album the release date was pushed up, with the digital release coming out yesterday and the physical CD coming out on April 6th. 

The album is more subtle and softer than some of their previous albums, it is a beautiful balance in the YYY's discography. The softer sounds exposes Karen O's softer side and the tracks flow together in a near perfect arrangement. This will certainly be very well received by critics and will go down as one of their best albums to date. 

With the now customary production credits to Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio a beautifully crafted album was created with highlight tracks such as "Skeletons", "Dragon Queen" and my favorite track on the album "Little Shadow" which is a great melancholy song which just fit the day so well it was an instant favorite for me, because nothing beats a song that can fit a moment or day perfectly. Buy It! You will want this album in your collection. 

Chris Cornell - Scream

Mr. Cornell has released another solo album which is usually pretty good. This one was a musical experiment for Chris Cornell as he decided to give his buddy Timbaland a call to produce it............................................................................................... that's right Timbaland of Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake fame. I have listened to this album six times since I got it yesterday, there is something about Chris Cornell's voice that connects me with my youth and brings fond memories back. 

I can't decide if I dislike this album and it may grow on me as I listen to it more because it is not difficult to listen to (thanks to Cornell's vocals). But, the pop beats and guest vocals from Justin Timberlake and John Mayer make me wonder if I actually hate this album. HATE it, and I have never deeply hated an album I have review thus far. I have disliked a few of them, but this album is like a accident involving a truck carrying chocolate and another one carrying brussels sprouts, in the aftermath you have chocolate covered brussels sprouts which you might think "Hey, that might be good".... but you only think that because you like chocolate and let me tell you chocolate covered brussels sprouts are in fact not good... they are not good at all. 

DON'T Buy It...

Music News

Really not a lot of crazy news happening. But here are some clippings from the papers...

U2 is going on a world tour in support of their new album....

Miley Cyrus bashes Radiohead for not saying Hi.... (probably a good plan on Radiohead's part)

Billy Corgan some how became the voice of music in the US and spoke before Congress.......

That's really it. Hopefully something interesting happens this week.

Random Stuff on the T-Dot Subway:

Welcome to a new segment in NMT, as life in the big city is always very interesting nothing is more interesting in Toronto then the subway. Every day is better then television the things that can be seen. 

Monday I awoke in a sleepy state not having slept well the night before. Go through the regular morning routine I hopped on the bus and off to the subway I went. As I got on the subway there were no seats so I stood near the doors and was trying not to fall asleep when I looked up at the older gentleman standing beside me as he tore off half of the page in his magazine and popped it in his mouth like candy. He then proceed to chew on said paper for about 10 minutes before swallowing it. 

That folks is the oddest thing on the subway I have seen this week. I will keep you all posted on the ever evolving adventure known as my move to Toronto as the weeks go by...

Till next week

--Dave

New Music Tuesday - March 3, 2009

Hello from Toronto,

I have landed in the middle of Canada's music epicenter, the amount of music I have access to every week is staggering and let me tell you... I haven't seen any of it. Wow! Sorry for the anti-climax there, it will hopefully start to improve with the Canadian Music Fest 2009 taking place in the T-Dot next weekend. $50 gets you a 5-day pass to a Sled Island type festival. Headliner is oddly not Canadian, but they are Awesome! Bloc Party will be headlining playing two nights. Very exciting stuff. You know what else is exciting? New music! And well what a couple weeks of no new posts will naturally lead to some new music, the question is - "Dave, is that new music any food?" Well Kids! Let's find out!

CD REVIEW:

K'Naan - Troubadour

When I first heard K'Naan is was a refreshing voice in rap music, he wasn't so much a rapper as he was a very skilled storyteller. On his debut disc, he told us the story of how he grew up in Mogadishu, Somalia, he entrance into rap music and well as all rappers do why he is so much better then other rappers infamously calling out 50 Cent - "If I rapped about home and got descriptive, I'd make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit". His live performances are truly skillful as he flows flawlessly into talking to the crowd to beginning his songs seamlessly. 

Troubadour came out after a lengthy delay, working with the Marley's and having guest vocals by Mos Def (white people love him...or so they say) and Adam Levine (Thanks K'Naan I feel like I am back in 2005 when anyone actually cared about this guy). This album doesn't flow the same way Dusty Foot Philosopher did. I like this album in a very different way, it still tells a story, naturally there is a progression to having main stream tracks. The storytelling is still done in a slightly different matter and other then a few tracks it is a wonderful sophomore release.  

Let's begin with the tracks you can avoid. "Bang Bang" is the track with Adam Levine, I don't think I have to go into this one too much should be pretty obvious what makes this song passable. Next is Kirk Hammett's guest appearance on the rock version of "If Rap Gets Jealous" this was one of the best tracks on K'Naan's debut, however this is the worst track on the album. 

Now let's finish with the positive. This album has amazing tracks that far out shadow the ones that should never have been put on this album. My highlight tracks are "Fatima" a gripping story of his days in Somalia. "Take a Minute" is by far my favorite track, it has a steady flow and amazing lyrics. The shocker for me is "15 Minutes" a song about getting money transfers from Western Union, more so getting support when you strike out on your own and the difficulties that are there, I can't help but cycling back to this song a least once a day. 

Buy It - It's a solid purchase for your music collection. 

Various Artists - Dark Was The Night

Red Hot Organization raises funds for HIV and AIDS through pop culture such as a bad-ass compilation. 31 Tracks from indie heavyweights such as Stuart Murdoch, Yo La Tengo, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear & Feist, David Sitek and Sharon Jones. I could keep going, the line up would be a fairly amazing festival line up. The album starts off pretty typically indie with the Dirty Projectors and David Bryne with a great track "Knotty Pine". This album is fool proof, with the collection of talent on board it would be near impossible to not have a great album. The one downside to the album is that it doesn't have much up tempo and is mainly chill out music. 

There are some wonderful tracks laid down my bands that I haven't listen to much and other's that surprised me with their contribution such as "Feeling Good" by My Brightest Diamond, a wonderful jazz vocals, a tremendous song to relax with. I have a confession to tell my NMT readers....I am not a big Arcade Fire fan, they are alright but they never blew me away like they did to many others. Well, one of my other favorite tracks on this album is "Lenin" by...well Arcade Fire (that should have been pretty obvious I did after all set it up). 

This is a pretty big no-brainer when it comes a compilation disc, put all the biggest names in indie music on one disc, get them to perform some kick ass tracks and raise money for a charity, and...AND there is even the standard Death Cab track, well it's only Ben Gibbard (otherwise known as Mr. Zooey Deschanel.....) but still they are on almost every charity disc. 

For more information on the Red Hot Organization visit www.redhot.org

Buy It - It would be ridiculous not to, and don't illegally download this one as it's for charity and karma is bound to catch up with you and kick your ass for this one!

MUSIC NEWS

I know everyone has been waiting for this news for a long long time. Yes! Tom Jones still rocks!! Check out his small desk concert at www.npr.org.

That is really all I have. I haven't been able to keep as up to date as I normally am, but as I get settled I will be able to catch up. 

Hope those in Calgary are doing well and I miss you guys!

Till next time.

-- Dave