Category Archives: Artist Spotlight

Built By Snow

25 Sunday Oct 2015

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built_by_snow1With robot imagery, old video game sounds, and plenty of synthesizers, Built By Snow conjure up a period in the 1980s when the future really was now. For instance, the keyboard opening of “Invaders” is pure space travel soundtrack. Blogger NobodySeemsToBeAShip decided to mash the song with Patrick Jean’s award winning short film Pixels and, as you can see, the lyrics eerily fit the images almost perfectly.

               Patrick Jean website

The band self-released just one EP and one album before disbanding. The 2007 EP Noise had a punky vibe but the full-length album MEGA in 2008 delivered a more polished pop rock sound for about the half the record, with the rest branching off into more experimental themes. “All the Weird Kids Know” channels early period Cars as if the band had gone 1980s alternative instead of FM commercial while “Something in 3D,” with its whoo hoo’s and staccato drums, would not sound out of place on any playlist today.  While they have reunited for the occasional live show (most recently earlier this year) there does not appear to be any new material forthcoming, though their lead singer has released two albums as Oh Look Out.

Built By Snow webpage, bandcamp and YouTube page.

Welcome to Tally Hall

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

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14Some music takes a little bit more effort to get into. Tally Hall may be that kind of music for a lot of people. Any given song may go off in multiple directions, often with different sections seemingly just stitched together like a musical patchwork quilt. But coming to Tally Hall is worth the effort. Their two albums contain unusual yet infectious material that really defies categorization. Does the within-song style changes featured in “Good Day” remind me of Queen? Sure, sort of. But that doesn’t really do it justice. The closest band I can think of to compare them to is The Residents, but only because they too were quirky in a ‘performance art’ sort of way.

 

You get the picture from the start of “Good Day,” a song from their 2005 debut album Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum: the robot-like harmony vocals float over a propulsive piano hook, only to resolve into a dream-like interlude that is then interrupted by yet another stylistic change, and so on. To their credit, Tally Hall manage to make shifting musical gears not sound abrupt.

Sacred Beast

H8FPo2011’s Good and Evil (now on a major label – Atlantic), features more of the same quirkiness in songs like “&,” “Turn the Lights Off” and “Fate of the Stars,” but also includes a number of more straight-up pop rock songs like “You and Me,” and “Cannibal.” Somewhere in between are two particularly strong tracks, the 1960s-ish “Sacred Beast” and the story song “Misery Fell.” Tally Hall are a bit off the beaten path but worth the trip. They also produced 10 episodes of a hilarious internet show, all available for viewing on the Tally Hall website.

Six months with Daveit Ferris

05 Monday Oct 2015

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11145022_878301928909756_5567766338535809537_oOne of the reasons I was keen to start this blog was to be able to feature immensely talented people like Northern Ireland’s Daveit Ferris. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Ferris set himself the task of releasing a song a day for the entire year of 2015. To put this into perspective, even the highly productive Beatles only penned 250 songs over an eight-year period! The back story to this project is that a few years ago Ferris was struck with a life threatening illness.  Upon recovery he vowed to waste no more time and dedicate himself to his creative arts, which includes music and poetry. His 365 Sparks project – presently up to song 214 – is the result.

This is the Turning PointBlues for Blue EyesCounting Sheep

This post draws from the first six months of the project, focusing on songs that are strong on catchy melody and surprising arrangements. As sole producer, writer and performer, Ferris has to be inventive and he delivers with interesting vocal arrangements, surprising instrument choices, and unconventional song structures. A lot of the songs rely on a strong acoustic guitar backing; indeed, most could survive a solo acoustic treatment with none of their charm diminished. The acoustic guitar anchors “This is the Turning Point” and provides the pock rock swing to “Blues for Blue Eyes,” “Counting Sheep,” and “Your Teeth.” Meanwhile “Don’t” is a beautiful acoustic guitar ballad. “White Lies” channels a 1950s vibe with a toy-sounding piano riff while “Immeasurable” utilizes a magnetic banjo drone in the chorus to completely alter the mood of the song (and the listener).

Your TeethDon’tWhite Lies

The songs are available from iTunes, Bandcamp, and Ferris’s own site (the latter at a great package rate) or Facebook page.  I’ve enjoyed checking in regularly with Ferris’ site this summer to see what his most recent effort is like: Daveit Ferris website.

Immeasurable

The mysterious power of Ezra Furman

21 Monday Sep 2015

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homepage_large.15e7c082I have seen the future of rock and roll and he is a self-described cross-dressing bisexual Jew from Chicago. I’m only just kidding. Rock and roll, though regularly proclaimed to be dead, survives because somebody comes along and recombines its various influences in new ways. Ezra Furman is one of those guys. His music mines 1950s doo wop and sax solos, throws in hefty dose of early 1960s melodic melodrama, oozes 1970s pre-punk, and ties it together with an earnest reedy vocal style. Imagine if Dylan had gone electric but remained political, or Jonathan Richman had stayed the course on reinventing the Velvet Underground – you start to get some sense about what Furman is doing and capable of.

One of the many things I find impressive about Furman is his rock and roll chops. This is not some sloppy DIY punker making a late conversion to hipster indie cool, or an earnest singer-songwriter giving his angst the band treatment. Right from his 2007 debut you can hear how solid his grasp of rock and roll forms is on tracks like “She’s All I’ve Got Left.” 2008’s Inside the Human Body features a very Dylanesque “The World is Alive” and Velvet Underground/early Jonathan Richman-ish “Take Off Your Sunglasses.”

Mysterious Power

By the time Mysterious Power rolls out in 2011 Furman has expanded the melodic range of what he is doing: “Fall in Love with My World” manages to be plaintive without being pathetic, “Hard Time in a Terrible Land” sounds like a punked-up Pete Seeger, while “Mysterious Power” turns a simple guitar part into Furman’s most catchy and solid single to date. Subsequent albums turn out more polished singles, like the double A-side “My Zero/Caroline Jones,” songs that manage to channel the early 1960s vibe by working in whistling and sax solos. And I’m only featuring the stuff I like. Furman has a load of material that would fall into a more straight up alienated punk groove (for people who like that sort of thing).

Take Off Your Sunglasses

This year’s Perpetual Motion People brings all these disparate influences together into a surprisingly coherent and solid package. Again, the range is impressive: from the folksy spiritual quality of “One Day I will Sin No More” to the weirdly melodic and unpredictable “Can I Sleep in Your Brain.” 1950s sax and doo-wop stylings return on “Pot Holes,” a hilarious political commentary on phony civic boosterism with lightening word play and a fade out ‘waa-ooh’ vocal that would make Del Shannon proud. “Ordinary Life” sounds like a great lost John Lennon song.   And the video single for “Restless Year,” while not my favourite song on the record, does capture the frenetic, unpredictable energy that is Ezra Furman.

Restless Year

Furman is booked for a show in Toronto October 10th at the Silver Dollar – this promises to be an ‘I was there when …’ event, not to be missed!

Ezra Furman website

Gregory Pepper is not a problem

14 Monday Sep 2015

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chorus_cover_rgb_sm_1_1_1Gregory Pepper is a hilarious, depraved, acerbic modern vaudevillian, a master of multiple styles, apparently loyal to none. On the four albums and one EP credited to Gregory Pepper and his Problems, he effortlessly shifts from genre to genre, one minute doing seeming novelty songs like “The Price is Wrong,” the next launching into the dementedly necrophilic “Dearly Departed.” On a number of songs Pepper skewers pop culture (e.g. “Smart Phones for Stupid People”) but isn’t afraid to skewer himself from time to time (“At Least I’m Not a Musician,” “Whose Dick Did You Have to Suck”). Our focus is on his poprock contributions and they are impressive.

Featured here is the Bond-esque “Drop the Plot” from 2009’s With Trumpets Flaring, the sunshine poppy “Breathe In” from Escape from Skull Mountain and the disarming “Restless Legs” from his EP, My Bad. From his most recent album, Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!, we hear his Fountains of Wayne-like “Welcome to the Dullhouse.”

 

Pepper appears in Toronto October 1 at the Smiling Buddha.  Gregory Pepper website

Good Old War: Broken Into Better Shape

12 Saturday Sep 2015

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good-old-warI discovered Good Old War via the single “Broken Record,” released in advance of their most recent album Broken Into Better Shape. I loved it! It had a zany, somewhat frantic arrangement and a host of great melodic hooks, punctuated by background vocals right out of a Schoolhouse Rocks segment. Additionally, as someone often accused of being a ‘broken record,’ it was fun to revisit a term that has become increasingly anachronistic with the eclipse of vinyl. But the song left me wondering if the band might be little more than a novelty act. A perusal of their back catalogue suggested not.

Their prior three albums were to various degrees acoustic folk or folk-pop in orientation. Their first album, Only Way to Be Alone, melded harmony vocals, acoustic guitars and some great melodic electric guitar lead lines on tracks like “No Time” and “That’s What’s Wrong.” Their next release, Good Old War, went in a more folk and harmony vocal direction, while album number three, Come Back as Rain, upped the pop dimension, particularly on songs like “Can’t Go Home,” “Better Weather,” and “Over and Over.”

But that didn’t prepare me for Broken Into Better Shape, which in all respects – production, songwriting, performance – is an advance on their previous efforts. It is also their most poprock record. There are so many great songs here but I have featured four that showcase the range of styles. “Broken Record” is fun poprock, “Fly Away” shows what Good Old War can do with layered vocals, “I’m the One” has a great repeated guitar riff that anchors the song, while “Never Going to See Me Cry” has a driving hypnotic quality and some great lyrics.

For those near Toronto, Good Old War will perform at an intimate venue September 28, 2015, with tickets available here.  Good Old War website

Video

Taking stock of The Vaccines

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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IMG_4780The British music press has gone nuts over The Vaccines and for good reason. They have managed to channel about four decades of rock and roll influence into a sound that is both familiar and fresh at the same time. Recently here in Toronto they put on a stellar show, with the mostly young audience singing along to material from all three of their albums (the photos here are from the August 28th show at the Opera House).  Their first album, What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? (2011), has at least four standout tracks: “Blow Up,” “Wetsuit,” “Norgaard,” and “If You Wanna,” the latter with a killer poprock chorus. 2012’s IMG_4813Come of Age is a bit more stark, addressing Britain’s economic and social malaise in “No Hope,” “Weirdo,” “All in Vain,” and “Lonely World.” The album draws creatively from 1950s sources, particularly on the vocals for songs like “Lonely World” and “Teenage Icon”. In 2013 they released an EP, Melody Calling, marking a departure into a more dreamy pop style on the title track. This year’s English Graffiti takes all these previous elements but combines them into a more solid, confident sound, ranging from dreamy pop (“Denial”), to solid singalong fun (“Handsome”), to up front guitar riffing (“20/20”).

Hard to pick out just a few things to highlight from their catalogue but here are two songs, one from What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? and the other from English Graffiti.

The Vaccines website