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November 5, 2008
Take flight through Montreal as a papillon...
A stunningly beautiful song, and equally mesmerizing video, from über talented Montrealer Alexandre Désilets:
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October 26, 2008
Autumn in Montreal is hallucinatory.
Colours burst and flare: all savage reds and giddy, velvet golds. Achingly blue skies pitch overhead; leaves tip and wheel drunkenly to the ground.
The air is so crisp it hollows out a permanent cavity in your diaphragm. You breathe in and breathe in, but it never feels quite enough and the world spins in glorious, dizzying colour around you, causing a vertiginous elation and a corresponding unspeakable desolation.
Which leads me to Philip Glass.
Philip Glass is autumn in Montreal. Or, at least, his piano solos are...
The most melancholy, sublime, perfect accompaniment to la saison d'automn.
[Philip Glass - Website]
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October 5, 2008
You know that whole trend of modern bands mining past decades for their sound (and sometimes even their dress sense) and, as a byproduct, milking the nostalgia factor for all it's worth?
I'm down with that. I am. Milk away, I say.
It's working for me.
Even by saying, "I'm down with that," I'm probably marking myself as aged and decrepit (I'm over 30 for god's sake: utterly irrelevant), but whatever. Holler at your ... girl. And all that.
Because it seems like grunge is working its way back around again, and I'm all for it.
Here is where I need to segue seamlessly into the fact that Noir Désir are one of my all time favourite bands, even though I came to them a decade late, never saw a video until today (thanks YouTube), didn't understand their lyrics at first, and only heard of the tragic story concerning lead singer Bertrand Cantat and his then girlfriend Marie Trintignant fairly recently.
Noir Désir were huge in France in the 90s, but like I said, I caught up with them a decade late.
I guess you could characterise their sound as garage rock (with elements of grunge, or alternative rock), but their oeuvre has a passion, social awareness and immediacy that is rarely as present in the music of their stateside counterparts. (Think: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, et al. When I revisit their albums now, they still pack a visceral punch, but their incessant self-absorption sets my teeth on edge.)
In another stunning segue (or, if you prefer: non sequitur), this is where Zero come in.
Zero are -- according to their MySpace bio -- a Franco-German rock band, formed in Berlin back in 2001.
They have one demo EP, are now based in Paris and played their first live show in April 2008.
They're very green, and relatively unknown, but on the strength of their single "Les Suicidés", alone, I think they are more than worthy of donning the mantle of Lords (and Lady) of rock français, the coveted spot once occupied by Noir Désir.
Zero are picking up that mantle and running with it, like delirious, naughty children.
There are shades of a harder-edged, darker Karwka in their sound. And a definite whiff of Cobain, too.
Are they a decade too late?
Needless to say, I don't think so.
But then again, what do I know? I'm aged and decrepit.
You can download their tunes over at Jamendo. So get on over and check it out.
[Zero - MySpace] [Zero - Jamendo]
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September 29, 2008
It's a funny thing.
If you've ever had anyone close to you die, you may have noticed that in the first year or two after their death it's the anniversaries that can really lay you low. (Their birthday, your birthday, etc.)
But after a few years, (at least, this is what I've found) anniversaries no longer hold quite the same sway over you -- their meaning or significance has ... perhaps faded ever so slightly with time? Your feelings haven't faded, it's just that they'll overtake you at seemingly quite random, surprising moments.
Sometimes there might be a trigger. Like an old song buried deep in a now rarely used playlist.
I have this one song -- it's a very personal, very old favourite. I don't know if anybody else in the whole wide world knows this song, except the extraordinary being who created it, (and perhaps a few of her especially intense fans.)
I've always found this song exquisitely sad. And profoundly hopeful. And very, very, beautiful. (A bit like grief, I suppose: Sorrow and hope (and beauty) intricately intertwined.)
Here we are, then, (and thank you Ms. Hersh):
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F*cking awesome.
That is all.
[Amanda Palmer - MySpace] [Dresden Dolls - MySpace] [Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Amazon]
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September 26, 2008
Hailing from Paris, France, Etyl is (to all intents and purposes) chanteuse Eglantine Hermand.
Hermand has two albums under her belt so far -- La Tortue from 2005 and Les Souris, which was released in March of this year. (And which, unfortunately, stinky old iTunes Canada does not carry.)
Ranging in influence from pop, to electronic, to jazz, Ms. Hermand has a thoroughly distinctive voice and style and I, for one, am hooked.
I guess maybe I'll have to go hunt for her album the old fashioned way? Like in a store? Where they sell you a little box with a shiny disc inside? Crikey...
You can always go and check out her MySpace page, and I would, if I were you. It's well worth it.
Meantime, here's "J'me Fais Mal" from Les Souris:
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September 24, 2008
Midnight Juggernauts started out as a couple of blokes from Melbourne, Australia.
They first made a blip on my musical radar with their awestastic remix of Dragonette's "I get around".
Then they went and put out a gleefully bombastic blast of awesomeness called Dystopia. And now they tour with the likes of Justice, Crystal Castles, Klaxons, Holy Fuck, etc, etc.
Anyway.
They have that dirty, woozy, spiraling sound* that always makes me feel slightly drunk and stupidly ecstatic. (Or ecstatically stupid?)
Either way, it's good times. Here's "Tombstone" (the Popular Computer Remix):
*First honed to perfection by Vitalic (<-- And you follow that link at your own peril. You have been warned.)
[Midnight Juggernauts - MySpace] [Band website]
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September 16, 2008
So from buchata to tango we go...
May I introduce Bajofondo, a music collective from -- respectively -- Argentina, Uruguay and North America.
They've been compared to the Gotan Project (which, in my humble opinion, is a marvellous compliment) and, indeed, Bajofondo's modus operandi is their deep and abiding love of tango.
They take this cherished musical genre from Argentina and Uruguay and perform a kind of cross-pollination -- fusing elements of electronica, house music and hip hop with the more traditional forms and instruments of tango.
The result is a most heady and savoury brew.
Such is their cachet, in fact, that all kinds of indie royalty (including Elvis Costello) signed on to their recent album Mar Dulce.
Two of my favourite tracks from the album are "Pa' Bailar" (featuring Ryōta Komatsu), and the hip hop-inflected and incredibly catchy "El Andén", with Mala Rodríguez on guest vocals:
[Bajofondo - MySpace] [Ryōta Komatsu - Website] [Mala Rodríguez - MySpace]
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September 6, 2008
In keeping with our recent vacation, I've decided to haul out an old, old favourite of mine.
And no matter how many times I hear it, it has a most curious and embarrassing effect on me: I am unable to restrain myself from singing along loudly, passionately and wholeheartedly -- in tortured, mangled Spanish.
Dubious, yes. But an unabashed pleasure nevertheless.
It's a laid back summer-with-the-car-windows-rolled-all-the-way-down,
radio-turned-all-the-way-up, sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-voice kind of song.
And while, technically, it's from the wrong country (the singer is from the Dominican Republic), it's a sound we heard again and again while in Mexico.
So, here it is -- "Tranquila" by Luis Vargas:
[More on Luis Vargas] [Putumayo - Republica Dominicana]
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August 7, 2008
I've played this song about -- oh I don't know -- five thousand billion gazillion times now? And it still has the ability to make my extremities tingle.
That's right: Extremities.
Tingling.
I know that sounds sort of rude, but have you heard this song? If you've heard this song, then you'll know exactly what I mean.
Yes, it's kind of dorky. Yes, it's all gangling, awkward angles and blatant 80s influences.
But it's sexy -- as -- hell.
Listen to the way the song appears to fade out around the 3:04 mark ... and then the way it kicks back in with that bass line?
Go on, just try and tell me that it doesn't bring on all kinds of tingling of the extremities.
You can try. I might believe you. Thousands wouldn't.
[Azzido Da Bass - MySpace]
