Tuesday, July 28, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for July 24, 2015

Artist - Song - Album (Label)* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Delerium feat. Rykka - Aurora* - Rarities and B-Sides (Nettwerk)
Portishead - Sour Times (live) - Roseland NYC Live (Go! Discs)
Seoul - Real June* - I Became a Shade (Last Gang)
Brendan Philip - Warning* - Brendan Philip EP (Dine Alone)
Paranerd - Hi Hat Sex* - Split EP (Port Vanderlay)
Oxygenfad - King Glitch* - Split EP (Port Vanderlay)
Uaxyacac - The Love You Feel is Something Else* - Homemade Myth (Port Vanderlay)
Squarepusher - Baltang Ort - Damogen Furies (Warp)
Shamir - On the Regular - Ratchet (XL)
Holly Herndon - Unequal - Platform (4AD)
Wolfgang - Every Second - The Wicked Truth About Loving a Man (Hypnote)

Thursday, July 23, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for July 17, 2015

Artist - Song - Album (Label)* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Mecca Normal - Who Shot Elvis?* - Who Shot Elvis? (Matador)
The Backhomes - One More Time* - Tidalwave (Independent)
Infilm - Advent* - Infilm (Independent)
Mocky - Living in the Snow* - Key Change (Independent)
Tanlines - Two Thousand Miles - Highlights (4AD)
Harrison - You're Light* - Colours EP (Last Gang)
Django Django - Shake and Tremble - Born Under Saturn (Because)
Slight - Tasting* - Oh Hi Vol. 1 (Oh Hi)
Gastr del Sol - Black Horse - Camoufleur (Drag City)
The Quiet Room - My Side of the Story - All the Frozen Horses (Independent)
Dolby's Cube - May the Cube Be With You - Aliens Ate My Buick (Manhattan)

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for July 10, 2015

Artist - Song - Album (Label)* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Gypsy Ghosts - Hell Hounds* - Mad Men Only (Independent)
Mauno - Nothing* - Rough Master (Independent)
Mauno - Burn This* - Rough Master (Independent)
Big Audio Dynamite - Dragon Town - Megatop Phoenix (Epic)
Swervedriver - For a Day Like Tomorrow - I Wasn't Born to Lose You (Dine Alone)
Jooj - Jessica* - Jooj (Last Gang)
Slan - Night Crawler* - Electric Blues (Last Gang)
Bob's Your Uncle - Talk to the Birds* - Last Call (Zulu)
Mile Me Deaf - Living in a Shrinking Hell - Eerie Bits of Future Trips (Siluh)
Ceremony - The Pattern - The L-Shaped Man (Matador)
Fountain - Egg Island* - Fountain 2 (Independent)
Eliot Moss - Slip - Highspeeds (Grand Jury)

Monday, July 13, 2015

A (Brief) Review of the Khatsalano Festival

This past weekend, I took some time off of work to check out the Khatsalano Festival in Vancouver. It's a short review, because I only caught the last couple of hours, since I got to Vancouver about 6 PM, and to the festival at 7 PM.

Khatsalano is an free open-air festival, they close of West 4th Avenue from Burrard to MacDonald, put up five stages of music, plus lots of food trucks, business and roving performers. The music was a nice mix of indy rock with a few bigger names to get people to show up. The crowd was quite unique for a music festival, given that this is basically a neighbourhood gathering and not strictly for music fans. There was an even mix of hipsters (beards, trucker hats and skinny jeans are still in fashion here!), bros, hippies and 50 year old guys in khakis.

Showing up at Burrard, I spy the main stage right at the front. The Belle Game are in the middle of their set, but I don't stop, since I've already seen them once at Salmon Arm and they didn't do much for me. I wander down to Zulu Records and turn the corner to find... The Backhomes putting in a set! The Backhomes are a wonderfully spacy, noisy, drony post-punk/psych-rock act from Victoria. They're a duo, a guitar and a bass, with a keyboard and a drum machine. Almost oblivious to the crowd, they drones and barely moved. Excellent ambience. I really should have bought their new album, but I had driven four hours and needed to eat.

Wandered back to eat a vegan sausage on a bun (apparently there are such things as vegan sausages), browsed Zulu and picked up a bunch of disks for $1.50, then wandered back to the main stage to find Yukon Blonde there. They're on the upswing on their career, and the crowd showed it. They were a good 60 feet deep. Getting close to the stage was not an option and my ears hurt from 60 feet away. The band seemed to beginning to act like the swaggering rock stars they were becoming. I turned around and walked the other way, hoping to find the Ballantynes finishing up their set, but they were already done.

Instead I found the PEAK Performance stage, and a band called Little India. This stage was to highlight the 12 bands in this years PEAK Performance contest, unsigned BC bands vying for a cash prize and time in the studio to put out some music. Surprisingly, two local acts played earlier in the day, Vernon's Windmills and Kamloops' own Van Damsel. Little India were the last band on stage that night, and they were a decent but unremarkable alt-rock band.

This festival looks fun and would probably be well worth a full day if you can get out to it. Some of the bands earlier in the day were interesting, including sets from old-timers The Pointed Sticks, No Fun and the legendary Enigmas. The Maple Stage had some really exotic bands, from The Backhomes to Fake Tears to Energy Slime.

The other reason I came down, outside of needing a brief vacation, was to visit some friends and to, of course, record shop, which I did. I shop for as much discount as I can, and rarely buy anything new unless I am really looking for something. And I'm routinely astounded by the music I can find for under $5, often under $3. I bought the new albums from Purity Ring, Viet Cong and METZ new, but the rest was used.

Highlights:

The Floor - Doll EP
Redd Kross - Born Innocent
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Shearing Pinx - Poison Hands
Bob Mould - S/T
Weed - Running Back
Secret Mommy - Very Rec
Magnetic Fields - i
Low - Drums and Guns

Because I had some time, I stopped in Port Coquitlam because I remembered a shop I was at years ago where I found some interesting albums. I'm glad I did, since I found some really rare stuff. If you're in Port Coquitlam, just turn off of Highway 7 onto Shaughnessy and Mostly Music is right on the first corner after you come under the bridge. They have a good selection, but their prices are a bit high, and the place is cramped and needs to be tidied up. I found Elvis Costello's Girls Girls Girls collection, only available as an import in Canada, and the Producers for Bob album released on DOVentertaiment, which is super rare and very hard to find in the wild!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for July 3, 2015 - All Canadian special

Artist - Song - Album (Label)* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Alvvays - Adult Diversion* - Alvvays (Polyvinyl)
Rabs and Mooves - Let's Get Numb* - Huevos EP (Independent)
Braids - Miniskirt* - Deep in the Iris (Flemish Eye)
Noia - Crayola Party* - Noia (L'Oeil du Tigre)
Moev - Crucity Me* - Yeah Whatever (Nettwerk)
Purveyors of Free Will - A Sigh, a Squall* - The Folded World (Baffled Octopi)
Etiquette - Brown and Blue* - Reminisce (Hand Drawn Dracula)
Ferlo - Not to Blame* - Out of Place (Independent)
METZ - The Swimmer* - II (Sub Pop)
Oromocto Diamond - Ouroborous* - Oponoi (P572)
Astronauts - Soul Seeker* - Astronauts EP (Independent)
Holzkopf - Botfly* - Sober Materials (Attenuation Circuit)

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Concert Review: Mauno, Gianna Lauren, Abby and Cloe

This summer, I've been making more of a concerted (ha, a pun) effort to get out and see live shows. And, I've also been putting more effort into writing about music more regularly. Two weeks ago, I saw Hildegard's Ghost at The Art We Are (great band, oddball jazz with a harp player). On July 8th, I saw Halifax musician Gianna Lauren at Zack's.

Zack's downtown is quickly becoming a hotbed for local music, thanks to new owners. Lately, there's been a lot of punk and metal going on there, and a huge amount of local concerts. It was unusual to see an artist as decidedly non-metal as Gianna Lauren playing there. I also had just completed an interview with Gianna on Saturday (watch the blog for the audio of the interview, coming soon...)

The openers for the show were locals Abby and Cloe, two cute-as-buttons teenagers playing acoustic guitars. Half of the crowd was clearly there to see them, probably family members and friends. This was their debut as a live act, they did three covers and two originals, mostly on the folk-pop end. They were decent for a first try at live performance. Half the crowd left after they finished their set.

Gianna Lauren was up next. She's touring in support of her upcoming fourth album, Moon Through Window. Gianna was using the headliners, Mauno, as her backing band. Gianna's voice is wispy with a bit of a throaty edge. She started with a couple of lighter tunes, her music a bit like the work of Kate Bush, but without the string section, and with Beat Happening as her back up band. After she played her latest single, “Mistakes”, she seemed to find her inner rock-goddess and started drenching her guitar with reverb. She did about an 8 song set and really had the crowd listening by the end of it.

Halifax's Mauno were the last band. I feared that most of the crowd would leave before they hit the stage. There were only three of us left in the crowd while they set up, but about a dozen people came back to listen to their set. Mauno's music is really hard to pin down. The band is a trio, Nick Everett on guitar and lead vocals, Eliza Neimi on bass and Evan Matthews on drums. Mauno have a noisy post-punk feel to it, with the start-stop tempo changes of a math-rock band. The closest band comparison I could make is Archers of Loaf, pretty heady company for a young band. Nick's guitar was front and centre, using no less than eight effects pedals, alternating shredding riffs with intricate strumming and picking. Interestingly, Nick and Eliza shared a microphone, bringing a striking intimacy to their music, having their faces inches from each other when they sang. The vocals were subtle, light singing with no screaming or posturing, almost mumbling at times. Evan Matthews jazz like drum playing added to the math-rock stylings of the band. For their last song, Eliza and Nick swapped instruments and vocal parts. I picked up their album, Rough Master, after the set, I was so impressed with this band. Their live show is more incendiary than their work on album, but both are very satisfying.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for June 25, 2015

Artist - Song - Album (Label)* indicates Canadian Content 

Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca 

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Nubile G and Spurious Whiz - Your Jolly Giant* - Death of Vinyl (DOVentertainment)
Cut From the Team - Kickz - See U (Urbnet)
Auxx - Harmonics - Harmonics Contrast (Urbnet)
OPOPO - Exorcism* - Extracts (Urbnet)
Crystal Precious - Apple Pie* - The Striphop EP (East Van Digital)
Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tall - Homework (XL)
Times Neue Roman - Come Find Me* - Versions (Independent)
Ghislain Poirier -Go Ballistic* - No Ground Under (Ninjatune)
Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless - Remain in Light (Sire)
Socalled - Extra Ordinary* - Peoplewatching (Dare to Care)
The Qemists - Drop Audio - You Don't Know (Ninjatune)
Consolitated feat. Paris - Guerillas in the Mist - Play More Music (Nettwerk)