VARIOUS – CANADIAN BLAST (NME)
What kind of shit is the NME trying to foist upon us now? Apparently the new rock new music movement is now North of the border and by that they do not mean Scotland.
I very much doubt whether this is a true and fair reflection of what the Canadian music scene is really like (please ask my friend Allen Zuk of The Blitters for a real breakdown) as I suspect many Canadian dollars were exchanged by record labels, management and press officers with view to getting “their bands” on this cover mounted CD. Cynicism aside, let me now judge the music on its merits.
The CD tastily opens with Metric, a band I was once invited to go and see a year ago but had to decline as to me the name was a no-mark. On the contrary today they sound to me like one of those excellent female fronted grunge-lite indie/alternative bands that Big Cat used to happily and regularly churn out a few years ago (the main example I am thinking of here is Crowsdell).
Tokyo Police Club pop up with another energetic and lively track looking to further confuse my waiting opinion of them. Are they the real deal or just second rate Strokes-esqe chancers?
With his/its slacker whine Wintersleep heavily remind me of Sebadoh in a positive way, which is always a optimistic expression while the crassly christened Holy Fuck are a hybrid of crazed carney/clown/circus sounds that mutate into electronic abandonment combined with what may be Canada’s own version of Lightning Bolt maybe.
Surely with a name that was created with the intention of being confused and mistaken with the Barenaked Ladies, the Besnard Lakes deliver a sound very Pink Floyd-esqe in its execution, perhaps cashing in on the recent soundtrack leanings to the Floyd in such movies as The Squid And The Whale and The Departed.
Land Of Talk come over as agonised female indie rock, too heavy to be Cat Power and more reminiscent of Liz Phair, falling just short of being out and out lairy Riot Grrrl (probably to its credit). I just bet she is French Canadian with a tone such as that.
Finally with his echoed delivery, Patrick Watson stands out with the offering of “Drifters”. It is a pleasant work out with being necessarily revolutionary as Mr Watson appears to be more inspired by Jeff Buckley the longer the track transpires.
As expected it is a pretty staid selection of tracks from acts not a million miles away from their American counterparts, some good some bad but all very very familiar sounding.
Thesaurus moment: replicant.
Besnard Lakes
Holy Fuck
Land Of Talk
Metric
Tokyo Police Club
Patrick Watson
Wintersleep
NME
What kind of shit is the NME trying to foist upon us now? Apparently the new rock new music movement is now North of the border and by that they do not mean Scotland.
I very much doubt whether this is a true and fair reflection of what the Canadian music scene is really like (please ask my friend Allen Zuk of The Blitters for a real breakdown) as I suspect many Canadian dollars were exchanged by record labels, management and press officers with view to getting “their bands” on this cover mounted CD. Cynicism aside, let me now judge the music on its merits.
The CD tastily opens with Metric, a band I was once invited to go and see a year ago but had to decline as to me the name was a no-mark. On the contrary today they sound to me like one of those excellent female fronted grunge-lite indie/alternative bands that Big Cat used to happily and regularly churn out a few years ago (the main example I am thinking of here is Crowsdell).
Tokyo Police Club pop up with another energetic and lively track looking to further confuse my waiting opinion of them. Are they the real deal or just second rate Strokes-esqe chancers?
With his/its slacker whine Wintersleep heavily remind me of Sebadoh in a positive way, which is always a optimistic expression while the crassly christened Holy Fuck are a hybrid of crazed carney/clown/circus sounds that mutate into electronic abandonment combined with what may be Canada’s own version of Lightning Bolt maybe.
Surely with a name that was created with the intention of being confused and mistaken with the Barenaked Ladies, the Besnard Lakes deliver a sound very Pink Floyd-esqe in its execution, perhaps cashing in on the recent soundtrack leanings to the Floyd in such movies as The Squid And The Whale and The Departed.
Land Of Talk come over as agonised female indie rock, too heavy to be Cat Power and more reminiscent of Liz Phair, falling just short of being out and out lairy Riot Grrrl (probably to its credit). I just bet she is French Canadian with a tone such as that.
Finally with his echoed delivery, Patrick Watson stands out with the offering of “Drifters”. It is a pleasant work out with being necessarily revolutionary as Mr Watson appears to be more inspired by Jeff Buckley the longer the track transpires.
As expected it is a pretty staid selection of tracks from acts not a million miles away from their American counterparts, some good some bad but all very very familiar sounding.
Thesaurus moment: replicant.
Besnard Lakes
Holy Fuck
Land Of Talk
Metric
Tokyo Police Club
Patrick Watson
Wintersleep
NME
No comments:
Post a Comment