SOME WICKED: Dashiell Brown's Blog

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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I am debuting two new shows tonight on CHMR-FM, The Folkin’ Freak Show and Other Frequencies. I have happily agreed to share a pint with myself and discuss the ever-growing popularity of the new folk movement and my two new shows.

ME: Hi, thank you for taking the time to chat with me.

DB: No sweat, but let’s make this snappy. I gotta prepare for my shows tonight.

ME: OK, sure. So, why The Folkin’ Freak Show? Isn’t there enough folkin’ music in this town?

DB: No, you can never have enough folk music. Folk music is the music of the people, the John Doe’s of the world, and when you consider Newfoundland’s own history, it’s no coincidence folk and trad. is so important here. Folk is labor songs, maritime songs, mountain songs, railroad songs…rock n’ roll grew out of it. And look at all the folk festivals going on everywhere, not to mention all the great new folk music popping up in St. John’s. And Tom Power’s Deep Roots on CBC2. You have folk night at The Ship every Wednesday. So why isn’t there a local show about it? It’s about folkin’ time, don’t you think?

ME: But don’t you play folk music on The New Spin?

DB: Well, The New Spin’s focus is really on new music, hot off the press, with lots of punk, post-punk and indie rock—folk fans might not dig that. The New Spin was initially called The Folkin’ Freak Show, but when I saw how much insanely good new music was coming to CHMR, I realized I had to devote an entire show to just playing the new stuff. But I still find I’m gravitating towards the folk-oriented new stuff. It needs its own show.

ME: So will it just be new folk music, then?

DB: No. The New Spin is a showcase of all that is great out there right now, that isn’t getting radio play or much promotion. The Folkin’ Freak Show will be about folk and world music and discuss it’s historical importance and influence to today’s mass movement that has brought us the likes of Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, M. Ward, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, etc. It’ll be a mix of the old and new. There’s a whole slew of new Canadian folk, too, Timbre Timbre, Bruce Peninsula, Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir… It’s a very exciting time for folk music. The Dark Was the Night comp is proof of this.

ME: Yeah, Grizzly Bear just hit the Billboard Charts with the likes of Eminem and Lady Gag. Animal Collective hit the charts at #13 with their latest release. Why do you think folk music is taking off again so suddenly?

DB: Well, it wasn’t suddenly, but Devendra Banhart has a lot to do with it when he released his critically-acclaimed album, Rejoicing in the Hands in 2004. But many other bands were doing the same thing, like Iron and Wine, Joanna Newsom, Coco-Rosie, Animal Collective, M. Ward…I think people were growing tired of shitty, compressed-to-death pop music which represented a growing commercialism and domination of the entire music industry which quickly killed the grunge movement in the 90’s. Folk music quickly moved in to fill the gap, but it took more than ten years for the world to catch on to this growing revolution. Malls are out, folk music is in. And now with the global economy in its fragile state…the new folk movement is going to speak to more people than ever. And it’s about folkin’ time.

ME: And aren’t you doing another new show after that?

DB: Other Frequencies, yes, a showcase of electronica and underground hip hop. What with Loft 709 on the go, Errand Boy, Le Malediction, Aoke, Sports, and Ye-Yeti, the popularity of electronica, dance and hip hop is growing, but there’s no show about it here either, and it needs a voice. New DJ’s are popping up and new electronica acts. Let’s support it.

ME: Do you plan on having guests on your show as you do on The New Spin?

DB: Funny you asked. Ryan Green of Patch is going to be my guest to help me launch Other Frequencies tonight. We’ll be spinning some Patch tunes, plus some of his favorite electronic tracks. Should be pumpin’.

The Folkin’ Freak Show roots through the backwoods to bring the best this folked-up world has to offer. Tuesday nights, 9-10 PM, streaming online on 93.5 CHMR-FM, or Rogers cable 942.

Other Frequencies is the first all-electronic show in St. John’s to get your booty groovin’, all genres of electronic music, from dub and grime to techno and trance. Tuesday nights, 10-11 PM, right after The Folkin’ Freak Show.

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i just discovered this, you gotta check it out. David Lynch, Sparklehorse, and Danger Mouse? Listen to the album here.

Truly some wicked.

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King Khan and The Shrines’ new album, What Is?! is kickin’, you can listen to the whole thing at thenewspin.ca. I’ve also been playing it on my show (which is on tonight, by the way–it will stream online here at 9-11, 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific.) It was released April 21, and they are about to do a tour across Canada.

Here are the dates:

Myspace Presents:
8 May Babylon – Ottawa, Ontario
9 May La Sala Rossa – Montreal, Quebec
12 May Phoenix Theatre – Toronto, Ontario
19 May Calgary, Alberta – The Warehouse
20 May The Starlite Room – Edmonton, Alberta
22 May Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver, British Columbia

 

They will also be performing on MTV Live on Monday, May 11 at 6:00pm & 11:00pm EST.

Listen to the album now at The New Spin! It’s full of classic rockin’ freak funk. For fans of The Arkelles, The Hives, The Strokes, and other “The” bands.

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RN Wagner is St. John’s spoken word aficionado. He came onto my show to do so some of his clever raps and talk about his fundraiser, The Anything Goes April Fools Showcase & Community Project Tour Fundraiser, to create funds for community art projects as well as a play that was put on by the “resilient youth” from For the Love of Learning. (Anecodote: Robin Grant, the Director, is Jenn Grant’s sister–she’s coming here in May, see mightypop for details.) The play was on the same night as the RPM Listening Party, which RN Wagner also did an album for, and we played some cuts from it on the show. (You can listen to my own project Circuit Tree on my site or on this blog.) 

Here’s Part 1. Here’s Part 2.

 

Press Release from facebook:

“These fundraisers are to create funds for Community Arts Projects such as…Publishing Ongoing Arts Books, Permanent Free Jam/Arts Spaces, Free Audio Demo Recordings, Film workshops/projects. 
The money raised in Newfoundland, stays in Newfoundland. I will be going to Ontario for a month doing more fundraisers/projects for out there, and then making my way back with a few others visiting community centres, schools, and other partnering organizations/groups/individuals who wish to contribute to these ongoing projects. 

Any help and guidance will be greatly respected. There will be a review of the updated news as things progress further. So far the places of visit are…

Newfoundland:
For The Love of Learning, St. John’s

Ontario:
Lighthouse Youth Shelter, Niagara Falls
The Raft Shelter, St. Catharines
Welland
Hamilton
Milton
Guelph
London
Toronto
Barrie

April 1st Schedule & Slam:

“Remember the dope jam slam that Neil Conway throwed down last year, this is kinda like that, there is also a format for the closing round, where the others competing get to try and mess yer stuff up without using physical contact or sound, anything goes, like a jar of mold and pictures of relatives young and old.” -RN WAGNER

5-7PM 
Silent auction, Poetry Slam and music Sign Up

So far there will be art auctioned by works from…… Alison Rideout, Robert Keyes, Sakurah Horwood, Joey Pynn, Jamie Michelyn…more TBA

7-8PM (Round 1) Open-Poetry Slam 
Confirmation List of Performers….

- The Wham Bam-a-Lamer Riley Fitzgerald aka ‘THE RIT’
- The Influence and Anonymous Poet
- Nathan Doucette, YoungBlood
- RADAR
- JOHNNY HARDCORE
- CYRUS CLARKE
- BOOGYMAN BRAND
- Stan Nochasak
- Deborah Jackman (Debtress Janewoman)
- Johnny Lewis
- YOUR NAME HERE
-
-
-
-
-

8-9PM Music Showcase

- Dave Knill
- Hot Facets
- Stu Jones
- Patrick Molloy
- Matthew Hornell
- Johnny Hardcore
- Radar
- Liam Fitzgerald
- Sarah Stockley
- DowJonesNow

9pm !!!! (Final ROUND) Anything Goes Poetry SLam

Hosted by: RN WAGNER & 

Soundman: Jonathan Norris ( J FROST )

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make a video for 99 bucks, like this one here, directed by Jack Ferry, using rotoscoping, a camera, and a calculator, keeping the costs down, which is important in today’s economy! the song’s not bad, either. then submit your video to this site. interesting concept, let’s stay tuned to see what happens with this. question: why not just do this yourself and submit it on youtube? why do you need this site?

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     Last night in St. John’s was the latest best show you never saw, unless you were there, and it was packed. I knew it would be a good show after I interviewed Geoff Berner ‘cause he’s quite a character. (Here’s my podcast of our conversation. Here’s my article in Current Magazine, pg 5.) And an incredible performer. Here’s a guy who knows how to interact with his audience, get ‘em dancing, get ‘em drunk (not that locals here have a problem doing that, they never need encouragement) and get ‘em talkin’. That’s what I’m sure lots of people are doing today: talking about last night. Talking about Berner’s dynamism, Davies’ insane fiddle playing, Adams’ smile that was plastered over his face for the whole show, man they had fun and so did we. But why it was a seminal show is because the audience was psyched, excited, chomping at the bit for more. Shit like this doesn’t drift into town too often, and everyone that was there knew it. The highlight was when Allison Corbett and Leila Qashu got up on stage, and the women had a threesome! (of fiddlers, that is.)

     The only reason I even saw the show was because his new release, Klezmer Mongrels, was sitting on the shelf there at CHMR, and I put it in for a new spin, I couldn’t resist the cover with the breastfeeding dog and the tentacles. When I heard the “dirty” klezmer pouring out of the speakers, I was hooked. This guy is one of the most original artists out there, and one of the most fun. I’m also a big fan of Klezmer, which I saw tons of bands while living in New York City and going to the Knitting Factory. I took my date (now my wife) to the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, but I was into Klezmer way before I went to New York. I was a folk dancer for about 20 years in Solvang, the Danish capital of America, getting in the garb with the tassels on the knee-high pants, the lederhosen during Oktoberfest. (Solvang is about 45 min North of Santa Barbara, CA. See the movie Sideways and Solvang is a few minutes from Sideway’s Los Olivos and Santa Ynez Valley, home of the Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch (I went to high school there.) Want to see Solvang? Check out Ethan Turpin’s Youtube channel, Bright Eye Cinema; he was also a member of the Solvang Village Folk Dancers, still in operation today run by my dad. One of the dancers would always bring his accordion to our house and play tunes.) I also played clarinet in high school, so that might be another reason I was attracted to the sound. The majority of the music I danced to as a kid came straight out of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and of course Scandinavia, where Berner is apparently going to visit now that his tour his over. And if you want to hear some great music, check out Scandinavian bands like Garmarna, Hedningarna, and anything else on the Nordic Roots Sampler. The most wicked thing about some of this music is the prominent sound of the nyckelharpa,

put it together with techno and you have some of Garmarna’s best tunes. It’s off the hook. Garmarna is the band that inspired me to do my own blend of electronic folk. (See Circuit Tree.) But since I’ve been dancing in the streets as seen in Turpin’s vids, it’s clear to see why I was so attracted to the Swedish sound, it’s velvet on your tongue. We actually have our own version here in St. John’s called The Dardanelles who are clearly inspired by Scandinavian music. Also, when the throat singers perform here at the Storytelling Festivals, very similar origins, being way up North, there’s some throat singing on the Nordic Roots Sampler by a band called Wimme. Read the book Out of Tuva for more about throat singing and just search it on Amazon. Also check out Sainkho, who’s Tuvan and does some crazy improv throat singing. See? You start writing about Klezmer and you get to Tuva. The joy of writing…it’s the process, not the product. I think that’s why blogs have taken off the way they have. Every single one of us is a writer.

oh, wanna see some crazy stuff, a bunch of women playing tons of accordions and banjos? check out the bonus features on the latest Jazz Singer DVD. there’s all these crazy vaudeville acts, you get to see what people did when there wasn’t the media onslaught of today. for fun, people actually got off their asses and went outside.

and have you heard Bruce Peninsula yet? Arcade Fire meets Nick Cave. check it.

 

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My latest article on Geoff Berner can be read online in Current Magazine. 

album cover of Klezmer Mongrels

 

Geoff Berner has a new album, the third in a trilogy, called Klezmer Mongrels, and he’s coming to The Ship here in St. John’s with his band on Feb. 21! Also check out my podcast of our conversation. We discuss statistically improbable words/phrases such as starving artists, mongrels, accordion revolution, dog breast-feed dog world, and bisexuals and Hitler, to name a few. I’ve been playing this album quite a bit on The New Spin. This podcast has been digitally edited to appeal to those with short attention spans (including myself), but I tried to include the most interesting talking points. Listen to the podcast.

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After reading the current issue of Exclaim, these are the things I learned and want to share:

1. First off, I’m listening to Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula on myspace, and I’m blown away. This band fucking rules. The guy’s voice, Mat Cully? and stylings remind me of M. Ward’s stuff like in their cool song, “2nd 4th World War.” What kind of cool title is that? Slick. Their harmonizing style rings of Arcade Fire but then is crossed with a Tom Waits/Fred Eaglesmith/Nick Cave/16 Horsepower-now-Wooden Hand spiritual campfire feel, but as Whibbs says in the article, “don’t go pigeonholing them as having a throwback sound,” and he’s right. They don’t. This is completely new in the same way that Animal Collective is new. If David Cronenberg did a remake of O Brother Where Art Thou, I’d pick these guys to do the soundtrack. In other words, this is dark Americana interpreted by Canadians. Cool stuff, and I plan on playing it on The New Spin. Canada’s gettin’ way too cool for it’s own good, eh? Here’s another link to their CBC3 stuff.

2. Jenn Grant has a new album, and since my interview with her, we still don’t have it at the station. Hopefully, Six Shooter will send it over someday?

3. Timber Timbre’s new album is mos def some wicked. Again, obviously Taylor Kirk is digging his inspiration from the past in the roots genre, but he is taking a new spin on it. The quote that really stuck out for me, though, is when he says, “It’s kind of gross to me that I’d finish a recording and be responsible for every single sound.” Ha, welcome to my world, dude. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing in my cold-ass basement with my latest album, Circuit Tree.  ”I’m a loner, I’m a sorry entertainer.” (Two points if you know who sings that.) Point is, I’m in my 30’s and I’m broke. So I just make music in my cold-ass basement and do everything myself. Costs a lot less. Apparently, this is the way Chad VanGaalen mostly works too, though I don’t know if his basement is cold or not. Most basements are.

4. I was really impressed with Antony’s debut album I am a Bird Now. I love the track “For Today I am a Boy.” I feel like a boy all the time, if you must know. Probably why I get into so much trouble. I’m a fucking punk ass bitch, i tell you. I’m not into his new stuff, though, i don’t know, too slow? I like slow music, but this new stuff he’s doing just isn’t doing it for me. But I was excited to learn that he actually wrote five of the songs on the Hercules and Love Affair album, and that shit is great. I hope he does another one with ol’ Hercules. Anyway, cool stuff to learn about, Butoh.

What is Butoh? Barclay tells us that it was “informed by the writings of Jean Genet, expressionism, and apocalyptic imagery from post-Hiroshima Japan.” Cool. This reminds me of the little feature on The Animatrix where we learn that Japan is the only country in the world that have truly lived the apocalypse (not to mention living to tell about it.) And it comes out in a lot of their art, the end of the world. So, Antony has studied Butoh and he uses it in his art on stage and in his performances. So, I now have to re-assess my opinions about Antony. I mean, Butoh, dudes. How cool is that? Let this be a pleasant reminder that though we get our music as easily as picking up a piece of trash at the park, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t really take the time and study that piece of garbage. In that garbage is an entire world. Don’t be so quick to throw it away…unless of course you’ve been eyeing that other piece of garbage sitting right next to it. Yep, you better pick that one up too. 

Speaking of garbage, I don’t see why people are going ga ga over lady ga ga. Yuck, she doesn’t make me ga, she makes me gag.

That’s enough for now. Thanks Exclaim! for the education.

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Looking for more playlists of underground music? Besides listening to The New Spin, BreakThru Radio should be just what you need to discover new artists. And since the SXSW festival in Austin is fast approaching (March 18th-22nd) some of the dj’s are featuring some of the bands that will be playing there. One band I particularly liked was La Snacks, which you can hear on the podcast called River Runs Red. It’s a great website, and I just discovered it today!

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