Only available digitally right now, try Alphapup, this album should make quite a stir for fans of Bibio, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco, Caribou and other artists who are taking electronic music to another level. If it doesn’t, then I don’t know music. (I don’t really, I mean whoever says music can be known just doesn’t get it, right?) But there’s clearly a diverse and exciting electronic movement going on in LA right now as can be seen from the vid below, and Jogger’s brilliant song “Gorilla Meat” seamlessly blends electronic beats with Beach Boys/Fleet Foxes-like harmonies and was made the top tune at KCRW. And it gets lots of play on my show The New Spin as well, of course. But “Gorilla Meat” only scratches the surface of the sonic secrets this album gradually reveals, ranging from grimy drum n’ bass to screamo to 60’s folk and Yo La Tengo lo-fi indie rock sensibilities to techno, all sewed together by an electronic thread for the entire course of the album, much like The Flaming Lips with their sonic exploration on Embryonic. It forces anyone to reconsider the obsolete/tired belief that electronic and computer music is just about four-on-the-floor beats.

Anyone that’s been paying attention knows electronic music can serve as a magical window into exploring unlimited musical possibilities, not a trap at all. Jonathan Larroquette and Amir Yaghmai that is Jogger clearly respect this world by not abusing the freedom, rather they let the sounds breathe and take their space, allowing the sounds to take hold of us and then let go. Quite brilliant stuff, if at times a bit abrasive with the screamo in “Nephecide”, but the compositions are layered and complex, with lots to discover.

Daedelus, no stranger to innovative approaches to electronic music as he plays with it much like jazz musicians explore their modes, (check out his brilliant album Invention) does have a hand in the production of this album (I think), which is the first release on his new label Magical Properties. Based on this album, the future of Magical Properties looks rosy, indeed. Here’s that vid mentioned earlier.

Listen to Jogger on myspace. This is Some Wicked Essential for sure.

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The New Spin’s goal is to expose the great underground musicians of today. But given that 35% of everything The New Spin plays must be Canadian, I have discovered many great Canadian bands from among the piles of crap that’s out there. So here is a list in the order that I discovered them (kind of), the cream-of-the-crop Canadian bands making waves on The New Spin for 2009, some of which I have already written reviews for (they have links included.)

Of course, to listen to any of these artists, you can always tune in to the show every Thursday night on 93.5 CHMR-FM, online here, 9-11 Newftime, 7:30-9:30 EST, 4:30 Pacific. You should be able to find most of them on CBC Radio 3. I have added a few keywords to describe each artist in case you only like certain genres. SL means “sounds like.”

Tonight I will do a special show playing these artists, so tune in and hear the best of the best in Canadian music.

Hear a playlist of most of these artists here.

Timber Timbre (truly unusual folksongs, like Patrick Watson, this guy’s in a class all his own.)

Bruce Peninsula (dark choir/chamber folk, oh yes.)

Geoff Berner (Klezmer punk, what more needs to be said)

The Hylozoists (all instrumental like post-rock, but wow.)

Headache24 (SL Pixies)

Japandroids (SL Fugazi)

Olenka and the Autumn Lovers (if you like Dead Can Dance, etc.)

Weather Station (folk on the laptop loveliness)

Rae Spoon (how many transgendered folksingers do you know who sound like women but are actually men and who trade in their guitars for computers? not many, I’m sure.)

Patrick Watson (one of the best of the year, avant-garde/progressive indie folk)

The Torrent (dark 80’s inspired electro)

Pat Lepoidevin (amazing folk guitarist with an oh-so-sweet Scottish touch)

Eleazer Vs John (like Junior Boys?)

Tiga (play this at any club and watch them feet move)

Rural Alberta Advantage (dark, folky, I like them better than Elliot Brood)

Lovely Feathers (indie rock)

Hidden Cameras (80’s, New Order-ish, I love their new album)

Dan Mangan (folk, songwriter)

Wooden Sky (dark folk, reminds me of 16 Horsepower a bit)

Kids on TV Remixed V.1 from Blocks Recording Club (beats!)

Cousins (I can’t get play “Growling” enough)

Spiral Beach (kick-ass garage rock/punk)

Acres and Acres (lo-fi folksongs with St. John’s guest Amelia Curran)

Brock Geiger (banjo heavy folk songs)

Reverie Sound Revue (SL Stereolab)

Dark Mean (a little EP, but let’s see what they do in the future)

The Got to Get Got (fun fun in the sun indie rock)

Ambisonic (avant-garde-ish)

Jordan Klassen (love this guy from Calgary, oh my. SL Sufjan Stevens, David Pajo)

Gypsophilia (my interview with them is on my site here)

The Diableros (they have a new album, but haven’t heard it yet!)

The Danks (you love da danks if you love da strokes)

Flotilla (harp-based folk stuff from Montreal. SL Sunday All Over the World if you know who the hell that is)

Extra Happy Ghost (I only like one of the songs on this EP, but it’s so incredible I have to mention it. That would be “mash up: neither being nor nothingness”)

Vincat (Vincat!)

Rival Boys (alt-country, but their EP has grown on me)

Jesse Matheson (this guy’s songs are hilarious and oh so fun)

Octoberman (SL Calexico)

hellothisisalex (unusual chill-out chipcore or chipcore chill-out, whichever sounds better)

The Sales Department (electronic)

The Mountains and The Trees (from St. John’s, they’re making waves!)

Errand Boy (he moved away from St. John’s, too too bad, but keep an eye out for this dude)

Islands (not really underground, but whatever)

Language Arts (whoah, spoken word/hip-hop folk, cool…)

Fritz Helder (not really my favorite, but he has a very original electronic style that’s hard not to notice and that you may love, who knows)

Gregory Pepper and His Problems (problems? on his eclectic album With Trumpets Flaring I don’t see any problems, this guy’s uber-talented)

Makita Hack (straight up bluegrass, but awesome bluegrass at that)

Miss Quincy and The Ramblers (less exciting than Makita, but if you’re a bluegrass fan, why not?)

Woody Johnson (this guy’s a whiz on the acoustic blues front. so is Trevor Caswell, for that matter.)

Let’s Go to War (funky, electronic stuff, probably worth mentioning. SL Groove Armada)

We are Wolves (easily one of the best Canadian albums of the year, wow…)

Peace (who is this dude??? dark 80s-like stuff. SL early P.I.L. or Wilderness if you know them)

Minto (don’t know the album too well, but it’s produced by Steve Albini. yes, Steve Albini!)

The Fugitives (find me, find me! oh god, I’m drooling over them banjo licks.)

Digits (this guy emailed me and showed me his music. I cannot stop playing “Endgame”)

Jon and Roy (from BC, “Another Noon” is one of the best songs of the year.)

Vivian Houle (WTF???)

Rep by Pop (one of my favorite Canadian albums of the year, Cell Phone Camera, just wrote the review.)

Devil Eyes (very raucous, loud, but in a good, trashy-garage-rock-kind-of-way)

Sex with Strangers (I just love “We Want the Fire”)

Richard Laviolette and The Oil Spills (good folky stuff)

You Say Party We Say Die (yep, this is a good album, very punchy and lively)

The Racoon Wedding (like if Arcade Fire came from a bluegrass angle with some brass thrown in for good measure)

Okay, that’s it, I hope that’s enough to keep you busy for awhile, assuming you read this. I’ll post another list of the best underground artists from the rest of the world later. If you’re a new spinner, you already know them. If you need more, here is my list of top ten most under-rated records of 2008.

in sound,

Dashiell Brown

www.thenewspin.ca

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For an average Gen-X guy like me who grew up in the 80’s listening to The Cure, The Thompson Twins, Joy Division and New Order, Bauhaus, Gene Loves Jezebel and other MTV-like Euro New Wave/Post punk acts, Cell Phone Camera, the new album from the Canadian outfit Rep by Pop instantly grabbed my attention and gets regular play on my show The New Spin. Though the album’s punchier first half is stronger than the more U2-like rockin’ second half, Cell Phone Camera is all very fun and upbeat, fusing together everything I loved about the 80’s and then some. For you youg’uns, I’d put them in the Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Cut Copy, Of Montreal, and The Rapture family.

Timothy Kingston’s voice has an uncanny ability to drift from sounding like Robert Smith to Bono to that lead singer dude of Gene Loves Jezebel in “Spray Paint.” A few songs sound like early U2 backed by the early Cure, and “Bisbifren”, “Comfort Me and Comfort You” and “Cell Phone Camera” have immediate hooks with the latter having a wicked wah-wah/flanging guitar patch I salivate over every time I hear it. I love “Unknown” with its transcendent, uplifting quality.

This band has the potential to blow up huge and “sell out,” though that’s near-impossible to do these days, and as any new spinner might know by now, I don’t like bands that stick to formulas, but nonetheless I wish great success for this band. Though Rep by Pop is clearly inspired by the 80’s sound, thankfully they aren’t trying to copy it so much as use the sounds of the 80s like an artist does with a palette of colors. The challenge for them, for any band really, is to push their familiar sound rather than be swallowed by it. Needless to say, Cell Phone Camera stands out in all the right ways. Here’s a vid:

Read other reviews here.

Join The New Spin on Facebook.

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The 2009 2 CD Set Sampler of Portland Oregon’s PDX POP NOW is amazing, as I just featured it on The New Spin. Actually, I haven’t heard any of the 2nd disc, but who cares. I’m sure it’s great, too. So many great bands. Go to their website to learn more, and sample the album here. $8 bucks for a 2 disc set, is a steal. Incredible music is coming out of, and always has come out of, Portland. Portland is to new music as Seattle was to grunge.

Another incredible compilation out right now is Made in Iceland 2. Great stuff that gets spin on all three of my shows. Their website has tons of info about the bands on the compilation.

And don’t forget Merge’s SCORE! of course.

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Easily one of the most exciting releases of the year, Toronto’s The Torrent are Cameron Groves and ex Hidden Camera’s Mike Barry who left his band because it “felt like more of a job.” A fuse of early post punk and new wave (supposedly this might be considered “No Wave,”) The Torrent are not so much about rehashing old sounds, as blending the old with the new giving birth to a whole new post-millenial baby, what with minimal drum machines, atonal singing, scales and modes outside of conventional Western ones, not to mention the droning and Krautrock styles suggestive of the uberprolific Stereolab, and you have an idea of why this album should be on the top of your playlist. Cameron Groves also adds some intense violin to create the droning effect that I love with so much Scandinavian music, Swedish bands like Garmarna and Hedningarna. Other bands that come to mind are Early Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, Bauhaus, B52’s, Beat Happening, Magnetic Fields, Public Image Ltd., etc. This is crazy good. Crazy good you can dance to, or drug out to, either way, you’d be a fool to overlook it. 

Hear it on The New Spin this Thursday night, 9-11 P.M. on 93.5 CHMR-FM, 7:30 EST.

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 I just finished my new folktronica album, Of A Time. Influenced by Eastern European sounds, folk music, blues, indie rock, and electronica.

There’s a little interview from The Scope below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can listen to the album here.

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I just finished my album for the 2009 RPM Challenge, and here are a couple of  tracks as a sneak preview, part electronic, part folk. enjoy!

Suzie and Fred.mp3

Happy Little Song.mp3

 

here’s an article about where my inspiration comes from

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Errand Boy, Laptop Wizardy, and the End of America as We Know It

When I first heard about Errand Boy (a friend of mine became a fan of Errand Boy on Facebook), I had some idea of what to expect because I found him on Facebook and Myspace, listened to his tracks, which then led to my utter intrigue about this fellow from St. John’s who clearly marches to his own drummer, unlike so many of the jaded, apathetic youth that you’ll find lurking here in St. John’s, shrouded in black, moody apparel bemoaning their beliefs in lost freedoms and the entrapment that is downtown St. John’s, but after his incredible show last night, with about twenty of the aforementioned, jaded individuals standing around and staring at the vintage films that were meandering on by, I was simply blown away and left speechless as I, too, just stupidly stared at the images passing before me, so exquisitely accompanied by the rare duo that is Errand Boy.

Born and Raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with a brief stint over in Toronto taking a course in audio engineering, Bryan Melanson is one of the small handful of laptop musicians taking sprout downtown, though Errand Boy is the only live laptop act I’ve seen, which is a bit of a misnomer because I never actually saw the laptop. Bryan, with his shaggy hair and plaid shirt, was standing quietly in the corner, alternating between electric guitar and then drums, as Mike Myatt was also playing guitar on the opposite side, but I’ll tell you, a lot more sounds were deliciously pouring out of the speakers (at ridiculous levels, I might add–not the fault of Errand Boy, either) and all sorts of bands I love sprung to my mind: The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, Valley of the Giants, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You Black Emperor, or any of the other Canadian post-rock outfits out there on the Constellation record label–and then–Mogwai. I told the sound guy there’s no reason the volume has to be as high as it was, but he ignored me, though he did answer my question about where the other sounds were coming from: they were plugged into an audio/midi interface that acted as a trigger, which then fed into the laptop and back out to the speakers (so I understand, at least.) 

As if this wasn’t enough, and I still looked around me, wondering what the hell these kids must be thinking of this unprecedented scene unraveling so smoothly before them like a snake slinking out of satin sheets, Errand Boy also had this huge white sheet suspended behind them, displaying arhived footage from the creative commons: there’s a neon sign advertising “Miss America of 1939″ and there’s a weathered film showing open fields and crops, biplanes, there’s one with a city transit system colored in sepia tones, there’s the Cyclone at Coney Island (where Woody Guthrie lived on Mermaid Avenue), there’s a black and white film from the 30’s of slickly-dressed folks out for a whirl on the big-band dance floor, and as you’re watching all these films, the Mogwai-meets-Microphones wall of sound is slamming your ears like a beautiful wave of sonic splendor, and I’m like, what the hell is this, this is incredible and no one’s here to see it!

Ah well, maybe you’ll take notice and try to catch them next time. You’re missing out if you don’t: big time. Errand Boy is the band in St. John’s you need to watch. 

Errand Boy’s myspace

Hi-leeHi-lo.mp3

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