Riff Raff

By Bryce Dunn

Big Dick - Jensen

Big Dick - Jensen

Holy hell, another summer been and gone and I feel like I didn’t do enough to enjoy it ‘cause now we are heading for the inevitable change to the colour grey and the rain. While most would agree this is not welcome in our daily planning, one such group will relish in the switch to soggier climates and they are Sex Church. We have extolled the virtues of this combo before in this column and will happily do so again based on two more prime examples of why it’s good to huddle in the basement and make a darn good racket to keep yourself from going crazy knowing that we’ll have a solid six months ahead of dismal weather. Both “209” and “Paralyze” clock in over six minutes of noise-laden drudgery, with riffs heavily on repeat, but with enough flourishes of melody to keep things from going stale. Don’t bother trying to decipher the lyrics, unless you want to be depressed even further. Just enjoy it for what it’s worth: an audio capsule of anger management therapy wrapped in a paper sleeve. Vancouver, this will cure what ails you. Read More »

Textually Active

The England’s Dreaming Tapes: The Essential Companion to England’s Dreaming, The Seminal History of Punk, by Jon Savage

Review By Miné Salkin

Illustration by Lindsey Hampton

Illustration by Lindsey Hampton

Jon Savage’s The England’s Dreaming Tapes is the quintessential literary companion for any punk devotee or music zealot prepared to venture into the filth and fury of this genre’s seminal history. The book contains hundreds of hours of interviews that Savage conducted while researching his 1991 book, England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond—which has been heralded worldwide as the definitive history of the U.K. punk revolution. Read More »

Casiokids

with Light Pollution & Einar Stokka, August 21 @ Media Club

Review By Sally White

I’m not sure what I expected the crowd at a Euro electro-pop show to look like, but it wasn’t what I saw at the Media Club on Saturday night. Opener Einar Stokka, a college friend of the Casiokids and self described “melancholic act,” played his mellow acoustic rock with notable stage presence, despite the crowd of roughly 25 people tightly hugging the walls of the club. He seemed to think he was still in the US, but was forgiven for that slip after offering his CDs for free at the merch table. Up next was Chicago-based band Light Pollution who did their best to get the crowd up on their feet and “fill the void” with their scratchy, bouncy pop rock, managing to get one solo male jumping around front and centre to the song “Good Feelings.” Read More »

DJ Tameil

Redman's neighbour, Baltimore's DJ

By Brad Winter

By Lindsey Hampton

By Lindsey Hampton

DJ Tameil is one of the most highly respected Baltimore Club producers. A prolific producer and active DJ, he performs at the hottest parties in the USA and Europe. Discorder was lucky enough to catch him the first time he was in Canada for an in-depth interview, where he talks about the over 60 member Baltimore-based DJ crew Brick Bandits starting up, dubstep, DJing with cassette decks, Wikipedia, amateur DJs flooding the internet and being Redman’s neighbour growing up.

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Brasstronaut

Brasstronaut @ China Cloud by Steve Louie

Brasstronaut @ China Cloud by Steve Louie

Did you catch Brasstronaut at China Cloud? If you missed it here’s what it looked like. Sounded pretty good, too.
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SSRIs

Effeminate Godzilla-Sized Windchimes (Independent)

Review by Slavko Bucifal

SSRIs - Effeminate Godzilla-Sized Windchimes

SSRIs - Effeminate Godzilla-Sized Windchimes

SSRIs has undergone a transformation since their runner-up status at Shindig 2007. The death of their drummer, Tommy Milburn (whom the album is dedicated to) forced a reconstruction project for Joseph Hirabayashi and crew. The band has added a few new faces and a more complex refinement of unpolished bedlam, which conjures up the theory of chaos, and order from disorder. File Effeminate Godzilla-Sized Windchimes under art-punk, synth-punk, jazz-punk, death-punk and psychedelic avant-garde musings. At first, the record feels random and chaotic, but with listening demonstrates compositional brilliance and lyrical depth.
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The Wheat Pool

Behind the Stars (Shameless Records)

Review By Nathaniel Bryce

The Wheat Pool - Behind the Stars

The Wheat Pool - Behind the Stars

Edmonton’s the Wheat Pool are back to whet hungry appetites with a ‘fan friendly’ offering in the form of a five-song EP entitled Behind The Stars, featuring a couple of unreleased tracks as well as two versions of Neil Young’s “Helpless” and an alternate take on a song from last years full-length CD, Hauntario. The unreleased songs, “Woman” and “Edith Cavell” are quite nice, showcasing the band’s delicate alt-country romantic trappings at their best, and “Evangeline” is a pretty, stripped down alternative to the meatier version found on Hauntario. The two versions of “Helpless”, apparently a favorite at live gigs, are faithful and respectful takes on the original. The Wheat Pool’s soft-focused Canadian sound is appealing and easy to digest and they really do know how to write a good song. Offering a little back to the fans for mere pennies shows that they care about who is listening and what they’d like to hear, a sure sign that this band is far from self-serving. If you’re already a fan of what this band does then log onto their website and download this digital only release, because this is all for you. But if you’re looking for a more stylish and substantial introduction to the band, track down some of their earlier, more palatable output and work your way up from there.

RatTail

George Mounsey EP (Unfamiliar Records)

Review By Andrew Reeves

Rattail - George Mounsey EP

Rattail - George Mounsey EP

Jasmyn Burke’s vocals are probably the most alluring part of Toronto three-piece RatTail’s < > George Mounsey EP, which is solidly produced for being, according to their MySpace, “recorded by the band in there [sic] basement .” The album is part of a series of 300-copy limited edition 7” EPs by Unfamiliar Records, which includes releases by Vancouver’s prodigious offspring, Makeout Videotape and Brasstronaut.
Read More »

Pineapple

Pineapple (Independent)

Review By Mark PaulHus

The listener will know exactly what to expect from Pineapple’s debut release just by looking at the artwork. The album cover depicts four indie-nerds and a roaring grizzly bear superimposed against a glowing intergalactic night sky (an obvious choice of graphics for a band named after a popular tropical fruit). Featuring songs with titles like “Snoodle” and “Wahow”, the mishmash of quirky indie-pop contained on the album proves to be just as odd as the cover art.

The project is the brainchild of Cameron Dilworth, formerly of Niens Circa, who brought together some of his friends from Prairie Cat, SSRIs and the Joint Chiefs (along with the recording talents of Caleb Stull of Parlor Steps) to help contain and translate some of the songs that have been bouncing around his head. The resulting eleven tracks center around Dilworth’s strange, whimsical lyrics and his unique Fred Penner meets Lou Reed vocals. For the most part, the poppy tunes are catchy and fun. They are lighthearted and endearingly childish both lyrically and in instrumentation. This, however, proves to be a blessing and a curse, as some songs are clever and well delivered while others end up sounding just plain silly and interrupt the flow of an otherwise good album. On a whole though, it is nice to hear some music by talented musicians who don’t take things too seriously!

JDH

Arms Legs Feet (Beatismurder)

Review By Miné Salkin

JDH - Arms Legs Feet

JDH - Arms Legs Feet

Mixed at Buena Vista Audio in Langley, BC, an unlikely locale to spawn such a promising work of indie-tronica, JDH’s debut album is downright excellent. With his delicate voice and superb computer-music skills, this album should be categorized in the same vein as heavies the Postal Service, Frou Frou and Vampire Weekend. Taking four years to record, Arms Legs Feet is a paragon of technical execution, meticulous editing and soulful lyricism.

While the album is a collage of covers ranging from Sufjan Stevens to Fugazi, it’s not a creative cop out in the least. “Quiet Noise,” a stripped-down, almost vintage-sounding track, is hypnotic, and chronicles the musician’s plight since he started the project. During the time it took to make Arms Legs Feet, JDH survived cancer, had a baby and broke both wrists after a 12-foot fall. With the soft crooning and slightly honeyed tragedy in his voice, “Quiet Noise” is a perfect summation of this artist’s life events. Read More »

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