Mix Tape
For me, this year in music really took-off with Neon Bible. I was never really into the Arcade Fire – not for any critical reasons – but you know those bands you keep hearing about, people tell you to buy, or steal, etc. Of course I heard that ice storm song, and it was good, but it was still “yeah, sure, I’ll check it out”; when I really meant “just because you study the stand-up bass doesn’t make you the Oprah of indie pop.” But Neon Bible just hit me at the right place, right time. And every morning on the way to rehearsal we would fill Shira’s dinky little car with “Intervention.” That behemoth organ sound, and the big-emptiness of the Fire’s converted-cathedral studio made for an epic ride to the studio every morning… but why shouldn’t a morning be epic?
This summer was a long string of “Holy shit! Is that new? When did this come out?” See ‘cause I’m a bad fan. I don’t visit band websites, or fanzines. I had a Rolling Stone subscription but these days I’m too busy reading agit-prop to really track the bands I’m into. So I was in HMV looking for T Rex – way too expensive, so I’ll just have to pirate that shit – when I see the new Bright Eyes album. I guess Cassadaga had been out for awhile because when I asked the prick at the till about it he just gave me one of those scenester sneers.
Shortly after killing an HMV employee, I was walking past Sonic Boom when I see this huge display for Gogol Bordello’s Super Taranta. I creamed my jeans, and went inside to buy it but the guy at the till said it wouldn’t be out for another week. So, having killed a Sonic Boom employee, I had to wallow in guilt for a week until I could get my hands on it – under an assumed alias and affecting an accent. It is in memory of those two dearly-departed retail specialists that I here include “Soul Singer in a Session Band” and “Your Country.”
I knew about Icky Thump because my roommate couldn’t stop talking about it for months before the release. He’s not dead, but he has a limp in the winter. I threw the Stripes’ cover of “Conquest” on here to remind him: I decide who gets to speak and when… and that’s me, and whenever the fuck I want.
The rest of the year I was mainly occupied with Two Way Monologues music. Either by coincidence or the twisted design of a bearded editor, I was assigned a lot of roots music. There was The Kent Boys (now The Stables) chaotic resurrection of bluegrass music; Alistair Christl, The Castanets, and The Kill Devil Hills were all rocking steel-pedals and nasally crooning country/rock; and perhaps my favourite was Geoff Berner’s amped-up klezmer music. Toward the end of the year, however, I was given the chance to review a band that’s near and dear to me. I am still listening to Most Serene Republic’s Population, and I hope you do too. In the way a close personal friend hopes I see somebody about my compulsion to murder clerks, and dance in their blood… to “Neurasthenia” by MSR.
Happy Shopping.
- by Glyn Bowerman