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CMW Night number three ended up with me spending most of my time at Rancho— even more than usual. Word spread pretty quickly that no one was going to get into Handsome Furs because they were only accepting tickets by 1am, which is one of the reasons why this happened. The other reasons was the great bill they had going on.
I started with Gypsophilia at Rancho for their brand of gypsy-lounge-jazz.
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Another night out for CMW and another five sets of music to report back on. After a good start with night #1, I headed out last night and caught a ton of great sets. I don’t know about the people who seem to be claiming they “aren’t into CMW this year” or that there “isn’t much they want to see”, because so far this year has been as good as any. So there.
My evening started at Sneaky Dee’s for two sets, the first of which was Language Arts.
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It’s hard to believe that CMW night number one has already come and gone! It feels like the whole festival creeped up on me this year. Last night my week got off to a nice start, spending a lot of time at Rancho as usual, but I did end up at the El Mo (more on that later!).
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Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) is set to release his brand new album There Is Love In You on Monday, January 25. Until then, the entire album is being streamed via SoundCloud. Click on the cover art above to head over and listen, or check out the fancy embedded version below!
I’m a huge fan of everything Kieran has done to date, so I can’t wait to check this one out.
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The thing I love about EP’s is that they’re the perfect length to introduce an audience to your music. You can get in and get out in only a few songs, without overstaying your welcome. With that in mind, when I heard that I was going to review the new Peter Project Fresh Soap EP, I got pretty jazzed. With an LP and countless remixes— including Woodhands and The Meligrove Band— already under his belt, Peter has solidified himself as one of Canada’s best producers.
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Cursed Arrows
“Telepathic High Five”
available now through Noyes Records.
Anticipation can be a bitch. I don’t know how many times I’ve over hyped an album in my head, only to be disappointed in the end. “Telepathic High Five” — the new album from Waterloo, Ontario duo Cursed Arrows (formerly Arrows) — was surely not going to live up to the unbelievably high pedestal I had built for it. Having practically worn out their fantastic debut “Knives Are Falling From the Sky”, and after catching them live more than any other band this year, there was no way it would fulfill my expectations…right?
Wrong. Like many other Canadian bands this year (Schomberg Fair comes to mind), Cursed Arrows have released what I truly believe to be a “Next Step” record. They sound more confident than ever, and the songwriting shows it. From the six-plus-minute opener “Run Forever”, Cursed Arrows prove themselves to be masters of rocking the listener in interesting and awesome ways at every turn. Guitarist Ryan Stanley crams multiple riffs and tempos into each track but still manages never to create a disjointed feeling. Ryan and his drummer/wife Jackie sound — ahem — telepathically linked to each other. When “Gate Crasher” takes a 180-degree turn and kicks into high gear only to double-back, you’re never thinking “Why are they taking the song this way?” but rather “Holy shit this rocks!”
When “Knives…” came out Ryan and Jackie were compared to the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, The Pixies and other similarly top-shelf indie-rock bands. Cursed Arrows definitely balance their at times crushingly-heavy guitar assault with great vocal melodies in a similar manner as the aforementioned bands. One listen to the title track and I’m sure you’ll be chanting “Telepathic! High five!!” to yourself later.
“Telepathic High Five” may not sound as varied as “Knives…” upon first listen, but this is the sound of a band streamlining their style towards exactly what they do best. Cursed Arrows play a near-perfect blend of heavy, melodic indie-rock that any fan of the genre needs to check out. Recommended.
Click the image above to check out Cursed Arrows on Myspace!
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Just a quick post from me, a video I found roaming the internet on this fine Saturday. Some pretty funky electronic music with a very cool stop motion LED-lit video.
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via oldworldvulture.ca:
“In advance of releasing their forthcoming debut EP, Old World Vulture is offering free, digital singles to whet your eardrums. The three singles - each being released in succession over the course of three months - will be available for a limited time only.”
Very cool band distributing their singles online in a very cool way. What’s not to like?
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The Job (of Hi-Hat Records) are playing tonight at the El Mo as part of a stacked bill including People You know. I’m a big fan of both these bands, People You Know especially wow-ed me with their energetic NXNE set at the Silver Dollar and The Job are in my opinion one of the best bands playing the Toronto scene right now…
Don’t have anything exciting to do tonight? I’d suggest checking these bands out.
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World Premiere Listening Party: Listen to the new AIR disc “LOVE 2” Online Now! (starts at 12.00 CET on monday 28th, for 24 hours). Click the picture above to start listening!
I loved me some Moon Safari but thought their last album Pocket Symphony was a bit of a snoozer— even by Air standards. Check the new one out now, and chat with fans while you do it. Me, I’m sitting at work without sound so I guess I’ll have to wait and hear what the duo have in store later.
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