Tuesday, November 24, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for November 13, 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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Eric's Trip* - Kiss Me on the Head - Long Days Ride 'til Tomorrow (Sub Pop)
Woolworm* - Evil Until I Die - Everything Seems Obvious (Hockey Dad)
Snake Legs* - I Quit - Snake Legs EP (Independent)
Dilly Dally* - The Touch - Sore (Buzz)
Flat Duo Jets - Crazy Hazy Kisses - Athens, GA Inside/Out (IRS)
Fine Mist* - Stop or Start - CiTR's S.U.B. Pop (Independent)
David and the Woods* - Helianthe - De la Poussiere Orange a la Neige Opalescente (Independent)
Foals - What Went Down - What Went Down (Transgressive)
Hexagrams - Ghost - Analog (Shake!)
Twin Crystals* - Attraction - Child Life (Shake!)
Fist City* - Queen of the Slugs - Greatest Splits (Shake!)
Snake River* - I Saw You - Songs from the Adjacent Room (Independent)
The Spores* - Holy Cow - News, Weather and Spores (Sudden Death)

Monday, November 23, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for November 4, 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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Peggy Lee Band* - Path of a Smile - Invitation (Drip Audio)
Angelika Niescier/Hilmar Jenssen/Scott McLemore - 3 for 1 - Broken Cycle (Sunny Sky)
Glen Hall and Bernie Koenig* - Time for a Stiff Drink - Overheard Conversations (Slam)
Nina Simone - Plain Gold Ring (Fab Samperi remix) - Little Girl Blue Remixed (Naxos)
Ray Anger - Celebration of Life Suite - Supreme Sonacy Vol. 1 (Impulse!)
The Grassy Knoll - Down in the Happy Zone - III (Nettwerk)
Alicia Hansen and Ben Brown* - Rods and Cones - Companion (Independent)
John Scofield - Hangover - Past Present (Impulse!)
Ratchet Orchestra* - Yield - Hemlock (Drip Audio)
Combustible Edison - One Eyed Monkey - Schizophonic! (Sub Pop)

Thursday, November 19, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for October 30, 2015 - The Spooky Muhahahaha Annual Hallowe'en Show

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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Skinny Puppy* - Tin Omen - Rabies (Nettwerk)
Ministry - Every Day is Hallowe'en - 12 Inch Collection (Wax Trax!)
Death Industry - Like the Plague - Scavengers in the Matrix (If It Moves)
Mussolini Headkick - Jesus Collects - Themes for Violent Retribution (Wax Trax!)
Alien Sex Fiend - I Walk the Line - I Walk the Line (12")
Glenn Love* - Landscape of Ruin - Delusion of Reprieve (Sonic-X)
Love and Rockets - No New Tale to Tale - Sorted! The Best of Love and Rockets (Beggar's Banquet)
The Wake - Nazarene - Gothspotting (Cleopatra)
Lindemann - Children of the Sun - Skills in Pills (Atlantic)
Bleed* - Murder Baby - Hatred Inside (Independent)
GWAR - Sick of You - Scumdogs of the Universe (Metal Blade)
Gang Signs* - Antidote - Geist (File Under: Music)

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

DNTTA Playlist for October 23, 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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Intervene* - Sneaks - Plus One (Independent)
Seed of Dorzon* - Part II - Seed of Dorzon (Fundog)
Terrian* - Oblivion - Terrian EP (Independent)
Clock DVA - Sound Mirror - Sound Mirror (12") (Wax Trax!)
Parallels* - The Kids Will Save Detroit - Civilization EP (Marigold)
Young Truck* - Contraindications - Maximum Average (Not Unlike)
Mr. Flash - Over the Top - Ed Rec Vol. III (Ed Banger)
Electrohome* - Where Bears Are Sleeping - The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of (Independent)
Black Mold* - Tetra Pack Heads - Blindness iz Crystal Antz (Flemish Eye)

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Concert review: Daydreams/Pink Eraser/Woolworm at Zack's

I've been making good on my commitment to take in more live music and continue writing about the local scene. I've been concerned lately about the turnout at local shows, but it seems the younger crowd is still coming out in droves for shows. Zack's hosted two local bands, Daydreams and Pink Eraser, plus Vancouver's Woolworm on Saturday, November 14th.

I got to the concert just as Daydreams were finishing up. I heard about two songs from them, so I can't really make an honest opinion about how they were.

After a short break, Pink Eraser played. They've been playing for a couple of years around Kamloops. I liked what they had to offer. It was in the Dinosaur Jr./Buffalo Tom style of grunge, the melodic "wall-of-sludgy-guitar noise" style. The vocals were way down in the mix though, they were impossible to hear, so it felt more like an instrumental band than anything. They got a good groove going though. Total shoegazers though, aside from a few vocals, the band members rarely looked up from their instruments.

Woolworm finished up the show. These guys sounded great on record. Their latest EP, Everything Seems Obvious, is a solid 4 track album of grimy but melodic post-punk. They call their sound "blanket rock", whatever that means. The lead singer was a wide-eyed spastic, grinding out melodic guitar and howling into the mike, whirling himself around in the instrumental parts. Their sound is very reminiscent of early Sonic Youth, sudden, experimental and a bit nihilistic. The band also had a penchant for dropping into bursts of thrashy punk in the middle of a song, and then finishing a song abruptly. Solid, melodic post-punk, a bit unpredictable and very loud.

Zach's, lately, has been doing 2-3 shows a month, sometimes more, with a great variety, from acoustic acts to indy rock to punk and metal. Thanks to Zach's, there's more than a few great venues downtown for music

.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

RIP Allen Toussaint

One of the giants of New Orleans jazz has left us. Allen Toussaint passed away early in the morning today (November 10th). While others more well informed on jazz will write a lot more on his legacy, I wanted to shed a bit of my own experience with his music.

Allen Toussaint grew up around music in a shotgun shack in New Orleans and is one of the most celebrated and successful musicians from the always vibrant New Orleans music scene. He was a musician, mainly on piano and vocals, a producer, a mentor, a composer, a song-writer and an arranger. The people he's worked with could fill a book. He's written music for Al Hirt, The Neville Brothers, Lee Dorsey, The Rolling Stones, Irma Thomas, The O'Jays and more. His greatest successes came as a producer in the 60s and 70s, for artists like the Nevilles and Lee Dorsey. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Allen Toussaint was in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005 and he was among the musicians feared killed by the storm, but he survived. He left New Orleans for New York. He was instrumental in raising money and rebuilding the city, along with other big names from the New Orleans scene. His 2009 album, The Bright Mississippi, ended up on many critics best of lists that year,

From my own experience, I know Allen Toussaint's music for three reasons. The first is fairly obscure, for Devo's cover of "Working in a Coalmine" from New Traditionalists. Devo's version of the song morphs it from a sad, soulful ode to the hard work and toil of a coalminer into a quirky, staccato new wave track about working robotically and enjoying it. I also found that Warren Zevon's "A Certain Girl" was a Toussaint song, a song that I enjoyed from Zevon and seems a bit out of place in his catalogue of songs, having a whimsical and playful tone that Zevon's usual somber and biting songwriting lacks. In 2006, Toussaint was tracked down by Elvis Costello, who helped him raise money for New Orleans relief and they collaborated on a wonderful album called The River in Reverse.

Released soon after Hurricane Katrina and while the tragedy was still fresh in everyone's mind, Toussaint and Costello's mutual and considerable gifts came together to make an album startling in it's emotion and beauty. Toussaint's piano playing deftly dances between sorrow and grief to hope and triumph. The River in Reverse celebrates the power of the human spirit, the joy of music and the soulful humanity of New Orleans. I'm not ashamed that the album moved me to tears several times upon listening to it that year, and I listened to it a lot. I chose it as one of my favourite albums that year.

Allen Toussaint was in Madrid for a concert when he passed away. He was 77.


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Video Playlist #2: None More Black

November's video playlist is called None More Black, all bands with the word Black in their name. Difficulty: No metal bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2K_1qvIsFo&list=PL0QOmyo1JgZf9o4EO1gwjST0KfjvF1TQS

Black - Wonderful Life
The Black Angels - Evil Things
Black Mountain* - Old Fangs
Black Rice - Falling Down
Black Milk - What It's Worth
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Forever Heavy
Big Black - Kerosene
Blk Sonshine - Building
Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown
Black 47 - Bobby Sands, MP
Black Lab - Wash it Away
Black Lips - Funny
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Hate the Taste
Black Star Liner - Low BMW
Black Strobe - Blood Shot Eye