Male duets are where it's at

For fans of: The Wooden Sky



OK, so I'm a few months late on this one. But AIdan Knight is worth waiting for.

The Victoria, BC native has proven himself. After dropping his first full-length album in March, he has gone on to win one of this year's CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards, he came fifth in a prestigious BC talent contest and he'll wrap his nationwide tour Dec. 11. Not bad for a 24-year-old.

The kid keeps good company. In 2007, he took a 10-day bike tour with the likes of Said the Whale, Hannah Georgas and Jeremy Fisher -- a motley crew of musicians who have all seen their stars rising since that voyage.

I won't go into details describing his soothing and rhythms and folk sensibilities. I will, however, say his single "Jasper" absolutely makes a tight, warm ball of pride rise within my chest. Glad to see that this year's Bucky Award for "Most Canadian Song" had nothing to do with arbitrary nationalism and everything to do with the visceral experience of our landscape.

He's got a lovely version with female harmonies on the LP, but I can't get enough to the male vocal harmonies in this version with Vancouverite Dan Mangan (winner of Bucky's Best Live Performance -- a must see). Check it above.

Can we all acknowledge that male vocal harmonies are hugely underrated?

La musica que trasciende idiomas

Newly obsessed with an old favourite. I would pay copious amounts of the money that I don't have to see Silvio Rodriguez live in concert. If you don't know, Rodriguez led the "nueva trova" movement that emerged in Cuba post-revolución, combining political lyrics with folk sensibilities.

It's a non-political one, but you can't think of Rodriguez without thinking of 'Ojalá', his #1 hit from 1978. It's a heart breaker. Spanish-language songs seem to get away with extra cheese in a way that only French-language songs can too.

FUN FACT: Did you know Silvio Rodriguez is a national deputy in the Cuban government?

Music festival fails

Like many bands that make mediocre music, the Flaming Lips have built a solid reputation on performance. At the Ottawa Bluesfest this month, the show included twenty-or-so costumed stage dancers, exploding paper missiles and sexy/weird psychedelic videos of naked ladies. And we can't forget lead singer Wayne Coyne's signature entrance: emerging cloaked in a clear plastic mass of material that inflates into a hamster-ball. I've got to hand it to him, Coyne crowdsurfs like no other.

The only problem: I saw the exact same performance three years ago. Right down to the "off-the-cuff" banter. And based on a quick youtube search, it seems as though the Lips haven't reinvented their performance in even longer.

I mean, I get that they hit the nail on the head when they designed this show. But... really? Years and years of the same performance is weaksauce. Even the some of the song introductions were almost identical, making them come off contrived and insincere. No, namedropping Obama didn't make Coyne's usual anti-war speech before 'Do You Realize' much fresher.

I'm not asking for an entire redesign. Coyne can keep his hamsterball of comfort. But I wonder how a band built on gimmicks can maintain a loyal fanbase when they don't at least add some new tricks or update their look from time to time.

IN OTHER FESTIVAL FAIL NEWS, Kings of Leon are total divas. They walked off a St. Louis stage after playing only three songs, because of birds... at an outdoor festival. Read on.

Canada's "blogotheque": A music video renaissance?

Internet killed the video star... Or so television would have you believe. MTV and MuchMusic have been doing their best to distance themselves from their founding content: the music video. Now, they air music videos during the unpopular timeslots of 11pm-6am. In their place, reality shows and teen dramas are throned with prime time. MuchMusic is even in the process of trying to decrease the number of music vids they're required to air from 50% to only 25% of the network's content. Yikes.

But maybe internet just killed the cable star. That's what OKGo believes. They've battled with record labels and ultimately made a break for it -- establishing their own label last month, so they can focus on distributing free videos, with no red-tape worries.

There's also the Takeawayshow phenomenon, initiated by Paris-based Blogotheque.com. As indie acts shuffle through Paris on world tours, the producers at Blogotheque challenge them to a one-take impromptu one-take music video. Unplugged, unsynthesized. It's a test of raw talent and creativity. Andrew Bird whistled his way through Montmartre. St. Vincent crooned from tiny white apartment overlooking the city. Yeasayer tapped and footstomped on the metro.

The Takeawayshow has been replicated in other places, as with the Black Cab series in England. But now, proud Canadians, we have one of our own. And there's something special about it. While Take Away Shows and Black Cabs have documented bands passing through on tour, Southern Souls documents the artist in his natural environment. That is, Canadians in Canada. Sometimes in their own homes, or the grocery store they shop in. Maybe in their childhood house, with their parents peeking in. The website, Southernsouls.ca began as a documentary of the Hamilton music scene. But it has burgeoned into, first, a video archive of southern Ontario acts. And now it is expanding outward, with the filmmaker traveling to Montreal and more. Soooo check it out: www.southernsoul.ca

So what do you think? Is the music video really dead or is this a renaissance?

A Retrospective

First year of the MJ program finished two weeks ago and I'm desperate to write again already. So back to my comfort blog. I'm about to start an internship on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Ghomeshi and just bought my Ottawa Bluesfest pass... so music is on the mind.

It's fun looking back on yesteryear's up-and-coming bands/artists and seeing what progress they've made. Especially those featured on Turn It Up, Jane. Some have made it big. Others... not so much. A sampling:

Darling DeMaes

- THEN: had small following in Montreal, awarded grant to make more music

- NOW: produced a new album, got some press, but I haven't heard their name since leaving the Montreal bubble.

Charlotte Cornfield

- THEN: getting some well-deserved hype. Four Ns in Toronto's NOW magazine, called the next Kathleen Edwards.

- NOW: Slow and steady. Playing C'est What in Toronto this week. Still not widely known.

The Tallest Man on Earth

- THEN: virtually unknown. I had to scour the web for information about him.

- NOW: Indie folk god. Touring internationally with sold out shows, new record featured prominently in every independent record store in the city, Pitchfork approved.

Brasstronaut

- THEN: Myspace songs had under 250 hits. British Columbia bubble.

- NOW: More than 30,000 hits, played CBC Radio 3, and booked for the Hillside Festival in Guelph. Promising!

Anyway. Lots of new talent and tunes to talk about! Let's see how long this blogging streak lasts.

Charlotte Cornfield

For fans of: Leslie Feist, Kathleen Edwards
If Charlotte's voice were a food product, it would be a slice of lightly toasted flaxseed loaf, coated in warm honey. Earthy and sweet. Smooth, with just a bit of crunch. This nineteen-year-old Toronto native is truly an old soul and her clever lyrics show it, as they reveal both natural vulnerability and internal strength. Plus, she stylizes with hand-claps. What isn't there to like? Catch her tomorrow night at Mitzi's Sister in Toronto for a midnight show, before she heads back to Montreal.


[FUN FACT: though her acoustic folk shows may not show it, the multitalented Cornfield actually studies jazz percussion at Concordia. Oh, the versatility!]

The Darling DeMaes

For fans of: Belle & Sebastian, Bright Eyes

Chances are, if you haven't heard of Montreal's best-kept secret The Darling DeMaes yet, you will soon. With only one acoustic album under their belt, The Darling DeMaes have managed to draw the attention of some sharp ears in the industry and were just granted an Independent Artists Recording loan from F.A.C.T.O.R. - so you can look forward to their first full-length (and full band) album, due out next month. The soothing girl/boy vocal harmonies and punctual "ooo-wahs" create a deceivingly cheery pop aesthetic that disguises some of the darker themes they deal with in their lyrics. Even their seemingly benign choice title "The Darling Demaes" has an grim underbelly; it's a tribute to Lea DeMae - an olympic diver-turned-pornstar whole tragically died of a brain tumour at the height of her career. Similar to Connor Oberst's trembling vocals, lead Erik Virtanen's bleat is addictive without the whiny downside. The quirky lyrics of songs like "Young Mothers" ("I want to celebrate life, despite what's right/I want to live like a teenage mother") and "A Couple of Schizophrenics" ("We took off our straight jacket/Put on normal clothes and walked out") set The Darling DeMaes apart from other up-and-comers. Download songs from their acoustic album, Winter Keep Us Warm, FOR FREE on their website: www.darlingdemaes.com.

The Dodos

For fans of: Animal Collective, The Liars

You've got to respect San Fran duo the Dodos. Take a country-blues inspired guitarist and pair him with a progressive metal drummer and, survey says, you're going to have a trainwreck. But against all odds, the Dodos have created something unexpectedly harmonious. The pulsing, rhythm-driven tunes of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber summon a sort of innate memory of the primitive life in all those who hear it, while the crooning, melodic and sometimes warbling voice of Long carries us to more immediately familiar time and turf. They have created something entirely simple and complex all at once. Stripped down instrumentation (there are, after all, only two of them - a guitar and a drum) is in no way limiting to the Dodos, who masterfully layer intricate fingerpicking, powerful strumming, and fierce drum-pounding. Not to mention the tambourine strapped to the bottom of Kroeber's foot, which brings foot-stomping to whole new level. Expect to be sprayed with sweat at their energy-charged live shows. Extinction, smextinction. The dodos live!

I've posted a sample tune below, but you should also check out this video: http://www.wearethemasses.com/musicvideos/dodos_fools.html

Rae Spoon

Not your typical banjo-picker. Rae Spoon is a transgender-identified alt-country musician from Alberta - and he's got somethin' goin' on. Unfortunately, that somethin' isn't as interesting as his personal life. Nice to listen to, but honestly, give me a little more spice, please.

The Tallest Man on Earth

For fans of: Bob Dylan, Jose Gonzalez

Hiding behind the character alias of this lonesome giant is Swede Kristian Matsson, whose folklorish lyrics weave natural imagery with mystical reveries. His latest album "Shallow Graves" traverses the Earth, through blizzards and across desert sands, and is punctuated by encounters with spies hiding in chimneys and angels suffering "with wings of pain." Yet through this fantastical imagery, the Tallest Man on Earth manages to communicate the ultimately mundane human emotions that connect us all - like the fear of being discovered as ordinary by a lover in "The Gardener". Of course, you can't listen to Matsson raw and raspy voice or his jaunty fingerpicking and rhythmic strumming without recognizing the dominating influence of the greatest of the great - Bob Dylan. But Matsson manages to channel the folk master without the ennui of mimicry that others have fallen victim to. It makes sense - no one but the Tallest Man on Earth could fill shoes that big.

Jane, resurrected.

I stopped writing this blog when the idea that only a handful of friends reads it made it seem pointless to me.  That was almost a year ago.  Today, I'm reclaiming the blog.  It is not pointless.  It's a personal music diary.  I recently looked back on it and found that I had completely forgotten about some of my fave tunes from last summer.  Now, we can't have that.

Viva la blog!

Laura Marling

GIRL TUNES!

New super hot obsession: Laura Marling. Only 17 years old... I likes me some young'ns. For the past two days she has surpassed Spiral Beach as my favourite teenage musical act (I cannot say if this will last or not). I keep trying to download the song that I like of hers... but in vain! It just won't work! So I'll have to direct you to her myspace instead: www.myspace.com/lauramarling

"New Romantic" is the bomb. Diggity. I just listened to it about 15 times. And I'm going to again.

PS - I like to speak as though I'm 10 years older than I actually am.

Patrick Watson - The Storm

My favourite of the the two Patrick Ws of the day. And a Montrealer, no less! Download the whole album (Close to Paradise).

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

Okay song. Mostly just wanted to have a Patrick W themed day.

Beirut - Elephant Gun

Pretty much the same sound as last year's Gulag Orkestar - one of my absolute favourite albums of the 2006.

I wish I could play the ukelele. And I wish all music videos were as beautiful as this one. Maybe then I'd watch MuchMusic without wanting to vomit.

I want an elephant nose-mask.

Shark vs Octopus

See last post before playing this. (Thomas Newman).

Thomas Newman - Plastic Bag Theme

Want to feel deep and artsy? Watch the two videos posted on either side of this post (one at a time, friends), but turn the sound off on them and listen to this at the same time instead. OR play the Final Fantasy cover of Star's 'Your Ex-Lover is Dead'. Either works. Although I think the Stars song goes better with the above video, while this song suits the one below. I came home drunk last night and did this and got really upset about the sharks. I'm cool.

Side note: Octopi have officially taken over second place in my list of Things That Scare Me Most. Cannibals are still the scariest.

Rare prehistoric shark appears off the coast of Japan

See next post before playing this.

Willy Mason - Oxygen

For the IDS Major in each of us.

Let's Go Sailing - Sideways

A Grey's Anatomy favourite. I think their songs have been featured on that show at least 3 or 4 times. Usually in dramatic, introspective scenes where one of the characters questions the future of his or her relationship. That doesn't narrow it down much, does it?