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

Tweet This Post 

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.

Tweet This Post 

Winner of the Polaris Prize in 2007 for Close to Paradise, Patrick Watson’s new album on Secret City Records, Wooden Arms, will truly leave you spellbound, especially if you’re a fan of progressive/experimental (and even classical) music that utilises the whole gamut of the musical spectrum for pure sonic ear candy. Any instrument you can think of, it’s probably on here, with just about every style, save perhaps Latin American. Though originally from CA, like me, he lives in Montreal and this album could be easily classified under the new weird America tag that you might’ve seen on last.fm.

With a tenor-like/falsetto voice similar to M. Ward, Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, Nick Drake, and Bon Iver, Patrick Watson serenades with you sweet nothings and lullabies, but these songs are anything but simple, rather they are meticulously layered and composed with complex arrangements like Animal Collective, Yeasayer, and The Microphones, leaving you with unlimited opportunites to explore this album’s exciting depths like an undiscovered gold mine. Every song on this incredible album will take you far on a journey somewhere that you never knew you could go to or even wanted to. Whether it is the stunning barrage of Kodo drums thundering in your ears on “Beijing” taking you to fog drenched hidden mountains in the farthest depths of Asia, the Cabaret-like Tom Waitsian numbers,  the beautiful classical arrangment of “Hommage”,  the exquisite alt-country/folk harmonies of “Big Bird in a Small Cage” against a backdrop of quiet guitar fingerpicking and banjo, or the utterly exciting track, “Where the Wild Things Are,” this is easily my favorite album of the year, one I will play constantly on The New Spin.

Having also released last year’s Polaris Prize-nominated Plants and Animals to well-deserved critical acclaim, Secret City Records are clearly a label that wants, deserves, your attention, and Patrick Watson’s Wooden Arms is their latest secret weapon, one that will shoot you straight in the heart and leave you begging for more.

–Dashiell Brown, host of The New Spin, “the best music you’ve never heard.”

Tweet This Post 

 My latest review: Transgendered Canadian alt-country/folk with an electronic twist!

Tweet This Post 

I have just uploaded my podcast from Oct. 30, great list of songs, and here they are.

for Oct. 30, 2008

Jenn Grant’s Orchestra for the Moon, Dreamer

Hayden, Worthy of Your Esteem, In Field and Town

Whispertown 2000, Swim, “Lock and Key”

Laura Marling, Alas I cannot Swim, “Captain and the Hourglass”

Corb Lund, Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier, “Horse Soldier”

Herman Dune, Next Year in Zion, “My Home is Nowhere Without You”

Castanets, City of Refuge, “Refuge 2”

Blitzen Trapper, Furr, “Furr”

Robyn Hitchcock, Spooked, “Television”

Cuff the Duke, Sidelines of the City, “Long Road”

Mt. Eerie and Julie Doiron, Lost Wisdom, “Voice in Headphones”

Sebastian Grainger and the Mountains, “Who Do We Care For?”

Beck, Modern Guilt, “Walls”

Les Claypool, Of Whales and Woe, “Nothin’ Ventured”

The Stolen Minks, High Kicks, “Reflexes”

Sprial Beach, Bonus, “Made of Stone”

Fembots, Calling Out, “Hand in Wet Cement”

Nick Hudson, The Elegy, “Under the Mill”

Tweet This Post 

 

I play this song all the time on The New Spin, so check out this video. Herman Dune are brothers of Jewish descent from Stockholm and were propelled into the limelight by John Peel. His latest album, Next Year in Zion, is fantastically orginal and has the homegrown anti-folk sound that sprung from New York in the early 80’s. When Lach got kicked out of Folk City, he started a place for folkies that were “too punk,” the Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village–this began a rebellion against the commercialization of the mainstream folk-scene that dominted in Greenwhich Village. Read more about it here in NY Times. I actually played there ten years ago, and Lach was still the MC there for open-mic night. It turns out that Lach’s new album The Calm Before is nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Contemporary Folk/Americana” category. In celebration of this, he has the entire album streaming here. It’s not my favorite, but certainly worth a listen–there are some gems on it.

Herman Dune is currently on tour with Arcade Fire and The Kooks. The John Natchez Bourbon Horn Players give a wonderfully full sound on the album, who also lend a hand to Arcade Fire and Beirut.  For fans of Johnny Cash, Calexico, and anywhere in between, this is my Track O’ the Week for sure.

Tweet This Post