A Band Apart

Regina doesn't exactly pump out music as consistently as bigger cities in Canada, but the quality of their exports dwarfs the quantity of bands coming out the likes of Montréal and Toronto. Regina seems to be on par with Halifax, building a concentrated community of musicians who all seem to have played in other bands with everyone else. Inbred is such an ugly word.


Despistado are at the root of all music I've heard that comes out of Saskatchewan. I first had a chance to see them when their EP, Emergency Response came out- it was (and still is) one of the most bitingly catchy records I've heard. Tribally structured drums fills and a twisty-turny bassline that jangles between two high-strung guitars that dance on a tightrope. Post-punk loveliness. Shortly after signing to Jade Tree Records in 2005, the band decided to call it quits. Their only full length record, The People and Their Verses is for sale on Jade
Tree's website.

First to rise from the ashes of Despistado was Sylvie, featuring Joel Passmore (Despistado's bass player/ supporting singer) on guitar. Sylvie focuses on a frantic approach to progressive rock- walls of guitar effects and a corset-tight rhythm section. Their video for the song 'Rise and Fall' from their album An Electric Trace is pretty durn wonderful:





Then Geronimo started touring- bringing the guitars of Dagan and Leif to a wound-up climax, harvesting the aggressiveness of Dagan's lyrical politics as an added barb in an already razor-sharp band. Their EP Enlightenment in a Small Town is full of twang, breakneck dance breakdowns and a million notes of fury from the prairies.

Anatta were the last to announce their inception- drawing a large amount of fantasticness from the drum acrobatics of Brenan Schwartz, Anatta build a background of strings and keys for both sets of male and female vocals to wax poetics amidst the frantic percussion, painting pictures of raised fists and unrest.


I fucking loved Despistado, but their parts apart are still pretty damn good. Reunion shows, though? Maybe?Maybe.

Life with jazz hands

I'm not a fan of bands with thematic albums- they're like bling raps for white people. Gaudy, sweet sentiments that almost always seem to turn into epic masturbation sessions (with the exception of Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy)- but when a band can write an epic of a song, enclose and finish it...it feels like a one night stand with an out-of-town babe.



Vancouver's Bend Sinister (Storyboard Records) are one of those bands that can pull off those types of songs with seemingly effortless execution. Their vocals spiral upwards and in between ridiculous guitar progressions so closely that they're on the brink of strangling each other. There isn't a moment on their three song, unnamed EP that doesn't suggest that West Side Story should be remade with real people in real gangs really snapping in unison in dark alleys.


Owen Pallett, better known as Final Fantasy (A million different labels) is another one of those songwriters. Though his first full length record, Has A Good Home is poppy, straightforward and catchy in its own right, his second full length He Poos Clouds won him the 2006 Polaris Prize for good reason. Every song stands well on its own, but each song creates its own operatic sound that carries a weight only summed up when the whole album plays through. Pallett's ability to craft symphonies piece by piece in combination with his nerdy wit and sometimes bizarre lyrics makes He Poos Clouds play out on a stage in your headphones.


I myself never could stomach a play without feeling the need to beat someone up or eat an entire cow or drag race in a minivan while doing to drive-by to regain my masculinity, but the Evil Dead musical just might change the way I feel about watching grown men prance around on stage with makeup on.


It might be the summery weather making me all bubbly inside, but I hope some epic shit comes out this summer- I got me some jazzhands that need some shakin'.

Collecting Diamonds

A few words about the name of this blog:


Q and not U (Dischord, 1998-2005)were a band. They were a great band. Three stellar and diverse studio albums, and a spastic, unpredictable live show made the band into an unmatched creative force. They managed to define a distinct sound that's recognizable but indescribable. Fuck trying to pin the tail on the genre- Q and not U were post-punk with a bit of dance, math and folk rock(s) mixed in on any given track.

And that is why everybody ruins music. You can't write about it. Trying to sum up seven years of fantastic sounds from a keyboard/pen/never represents what a band really sounds like. You have to put those sounds to your ears, or the point of starting a band in the first place is totally lost. It either makes you dance (in one way or another), or you hang it up.

That's it.

Softening tones, punishing blows

So this is it.

I've decided to start a music review/share blog. It's four thirty in the morning, so I'll be brief:

MISSION

To share albums/videos/websites/bands/songwriters with people on the internet who happen across this little blip of a blog. I love music and I'd like to share things with you that I think you'll like.

Not all of the music will be current, it won't all be 'RAAAAAGH', and it won't be all pussy-ass songs, either.

Album reviews will be no more/less than one hundred and nine words.


/END MISSION



So, to start on the right footy-



I hope you enjoy.