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Canadian Music Week: Two Songs From: Brock Zeman

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Photo by Jamie Kronick

Photo by Jamie Kronick

Brock Zeman, singer/songwriter, is from Ottawa, Ontario, and plays indie rock with country-folk undertones. He recently released his 11th record (!), Pulling Your Sword Out of the Devil’s Back.

The title track is more spoken word poetry with music involved than a song. It’s meta-commentary on the art and science and struggle of songwriting and broken hearts and stories that don’t belong to you don’t belong to you and that won’t go away. You won’t be able to sing along, he says, as he rolls to a crescendo, which is true. Still, if I had a car and oceans of prairie to get across, I think I would start my driving playlist with it, just for the satisfying rhythms and final, thundering stop.

Little Details, on the other hand, is, for lack of a better term, a rollicking break-up song, and you definitely can sing along:

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A Good Read A Good Listen and A Good Drink, Adam Sturgeon, WHOOP-Szo

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

WHOOP-Szo is a fluid musical collective currently operating out of Guelph/London, Ontario, Canada. Previously they were my most favorite purveyor of tone-poems inspired by the Canadian Arctic, but with Mirror North, the a-side of their offering for Record Store Day, things have taken a turn for the sludgy.

The record/song was created by an incarnation of the band that featured Adam Sturgeon, Eric Lourenco, Joe Thorner, and Kirsten Palm and recorded at the Quarantine in Port Greville, Nova Scotia with Colleen Collins and Dave Trenaman (Construction & Destruction) and Tim Glasgow (Metric, Sonic Youth).

It arrived in my inbox described as the sound of “a band in a single room; ocean, old cabin, blueberry hill, bear shit and all​” and, well, I don’t have much to add to that, really.

Well, ok, perhaps a few things: It has a certain hypnotic ebb and flow. I keep going back to it to sway along with the drum and meditate on the Baby I’m scared refrain and then be jarred back into alertness by the jagged roar of a guitar at the end. It sounds like the ocean in the sense that it sounds like the feeling of a great big rolling Atlantic breaker coming in, the choice: jump or dive, and the hard tug of the current that signals you’ll get hauled out to sea if you aren’t careful.

And now I turn the floor over to Adam Sturgeon, who has joined us today to share a favorite book, record and drink.

Whoop szo craven cottage-7941

A Good Read:

Kiss of the Fur Queen – Tomson Highway

This book speaks to me. It’s an emotional journey through one individuals life as affected by Residential School. It does a lot in that it makes me think of my own families history, and while notably different there are striking similarities that bring me close to my father and grandfather; building a greater capacity to understand our relationship. Not for the faint of heart, there is a huge let down as you hold hope that one character is different than the impending results.

A Good Listen:

Construction & Destruction – Mutatis Mutandis

How could we record our album with Colleen and Dave and not mention their albums. This one in particular has a ton of appeal for WHOOP-Szo as a band, our favourite track, The Bear:

A Good Drink:

Chaga [tea], [made from] the fungus that grows on Birch trees, a major influence on this record.

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Canadian Music Week: Canadians at CouchxCouchWest

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For those of you who don’t know, CouchxCouchWest is an annual music festival that is held exclusively on the web, where brave souls flip on their recording devices and sing a song anywhere but a stage. Pants are optional, pets are encouraged, and you always get a front row, er, screen, seat. Canada sent several acts this year; below are some of the highlights.

Modern Day Poets, of Vancouver, British Columbia, with This City:

https://youtu.be/BBYv10gXqZA

Norine Braun, also from Vancouver, B.C. with Drunk, which is about love and day-drinking:

https://youtu.be/4icG2WJ7ioc

The Holy Gasp, of Toronto, Ontario, with a conga-driven song about creepy crawlie nightmares, aka Bedbugs.

And then to clear your mental palate, Winnipeg, Manitoba radio host Nancy Slater with her interpretation of Heavy by The Glorious Sons:

Heavy-The Glorious Sons Cover CXCW2015

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Canadian Music Week: A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink, Mary Caroline

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

For our second Very Special Presentation of A Good Read . . ., we’re jumping all the way up north to Yellowknife, NorthWest Territories, where singer/songwriter Mary Caroline divides her time between television and making indie-folk music.

As an introduction, here are some songs from her debut studio album, Life on Earth:

Songs of Winter is really about the end of winter, and romance blooming again in the spring:

Full Moon is surprisingly mellow, for a song about flying over thin ice and outrunning wolves:

And finally, the one that is probably my favorite, This Is Home, because it encapsulates the feeling of walking in the door and being able to exhale, and the subtle joy of sleeping in your own bed after a long time on the road.

And with that, I turn the floor over to Mary Caroline, who joins us today to share her favorite book, record, and drink.

Mary Caroline

Mary Caroline

A Good Read:

My favorite book is an easy one. It’s The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. I read the Alchemist about once a year, and am always left inspired by it. Having just been on the road from January- March, and having very little money while on tour, and at times feeling deflated about my decision to pursue music full time, I would often think of the Sheppard in The Alchemist, and remind myself that following a dream isn’t easy, and isn’t always achieved in the way you expected it to be. Sometimes the harder you work at a goal the further you seem to be getting from it, and then all of the sudden you find yourself in an amazing situation that you always dreamed of.

A Good Listen:

I’m a big fan of Florence and the Machine‘s album, Lungs. I just love Florence Welch’s song writing. Its gritty and beautiful and strong. I’m a pretty solitary song writer, but I sometimes fantasize about polishing off a bottle of scotch with Florence Welch and writing songs together.

Florence +The Machine - Drumming Song

A Good Drink:

My recommended drink was introduced to me this past winter by my American friend, Ariel Benarroch. We work together on a TV show that is filmed in Yellowknife, and on our days off the whole crew would play hockey on an outdoor rink on Great Slave Lake. Each game, Ariel would bring out a thermos of hot buttered rum! Playing hockey in the sub-arctic is quite an experience. The guys would have frost encrusted beards and we would bring out the set lights so we could see the puck past 4pm, but it was really the hot buttered rum between periods that turned the weekly event into a utopic winter scene.

[Ed note: Great Slave Lake’s name has First Nations origins, and is derived from the name given to the local Dene by the Cree, who were their enemies.]

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Canadian Music Week: Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, Sterling Road

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Cassie and Maggie MacDonald. Photo credit: Haley Anne MacPhee

Cassie and Maggie MacDonald. Photo credit: Haley Anne MacPhee

Previously on NTSIB’s own personal Canadian Music Week: some rock, some punk, some sweet dirty blues, from the rust belt and the praries. Today we’re jumping out to the Maritimes, to Nova Scotia, and to Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, who have an invigorating sound that draws from Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton traditions.

Here are a few tunes from their new record, Sterling Road:

Jimmie’s, written for an uncle and the family farm, is a charming delight, sweet as sea breeze on a warm summer day:

The Dusty Meadow Variations, a glorious piano and fiddle romp:

And finally, their interpretation of Buain A’ Choirce (Reaping the Oats), a Scots Gaelic milling song, which I like because it is both beautiful and gloomy:

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Canadian Music Week: A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: Luke Bentham, The Dirty Nil

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

A Good Read normally happens on Fridays, but this week we’re having a Very Special Monday Presentation. In the spotlight today are The Dirty Nil, of Hamilton, Ontario, who have some very exciting plans this summer: they’re headed out on their first Warped Tour.

If you have not already had the pleasure of rocking out with them, here’s a brief introduction.

First up: Guided by Vices, half of the single they released last summer, and an explosion of punk rock joy:

Nicotine, from Smite (2014): a little bit of a slow burner, live, but still raw and propulsive:

And in conclusion, Little Metal Baby Fist, from their 2012 record of the same name. I think it was the first The Dirty Nil song I heard. My reaction was This is where the pit goes off like a rocket, right? which is still how I feel about it today. Hang on to your hats and sunglasses, Warped Tour, it’s going to be a wild moshy ride:

And with that I turn the floor over to lead singer/guitar Luke Bentham, who joins us today to share a favorite book, record and drink.

The Dirty Nil - Luke Bentham is center, in star shirt.

The Dirty Nil – Luke Bentham is center, in star shirt.

A Good Read:

In my lifelong pursuit for the shittiest, trashiest cheese-rock biography, Ace Frehley’s No Regrets currently stands as my holy grail. Of pure fucking cheese. Poorly written and wandering in focus, Ace recounts his booze and coke fueled journey from being an unknown fuck-up to being a world famous multi-millionaire fuck up. He talks about his “well documented” encounters with extra-terrestrials and makes repeated cringe-worthy references to his new CD. Truly a work of questionable quality in every way, No Regrets is a terrible fucking book and definitely one of my favorites.

A Good Listen:

Metallic K.O. by the Stooges is technically a live album, but to me it’s the sound of everything breaking. Recorded in front of a hometown Detroit crowd in ’74, it was the Raw Power-era Stooges’ final stand. Its about 2 hours in length and mostly consists of Iggy Pop taunting the audience as they pelt the band with lighters and bottles. Musically, its rough at best, though James Williamson’s guitar playing is just as fucking thunderous as ever. My favourite part of the entire record is when Iggy leads the band into playing Louie, Louie for like 20 fucking minutes, JUST to piss of the already feverishly aggravated audience. “Missed me FUCKER!! Gonna have to try harder than THAT!” he taunts as you can clearly hear a beer bottle smashing into the stage. Now THAT’S a fucking live album.

https://youtu.be/GhXrQ_eNwuQ

A Good Drink:

Gas station coffee. This is what it’s all about folks. The further from the highway, the better. Its gotta be that black sludge that eats sunshine. Mmmmmm who knows what they’re putting in this stuff? I sure don’t. But it makes me feel like a structural fire, ready to get stuff done.

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Canadian Music Week: Two Songs from: The New Wild

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thenewwild2

The New Wild are Sean and Daniel Guezen of Winnipeg, Manitoba. They play heavy, bluesy garage rock, the kind of thing that will rattle your bones and pin your ears back if you’re standing in the front row.

This is Dallas, the first song from their self-titled EP, which causes me to sway along in my chair, grinning, every time I listen to it:

And this is Play It By Fear, from the same EP, which is . . . something of a cautionary tale, complete with guitars that burst out like the sharp end of a buzz-saw:

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Canadian Music Week: Steak and Eggs, Flamingo Bay

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flamingobayse

Steak and Eggs is the latest record from Flamingo Bay, of Hamilton, Ontario. Like it’s diner-staple namesake, this record is solid, filling, and comfortingly familiar without being tedious.

Here are some of the highlights:

Culprit of the Tahiti Pearl, is seven minutes long, and is really two, perhaps three songs in one. It is also the first song, and sets the swamp-garage tone for the record:

Checkout Line is the second song, and brings some stompy bluesy swagger to the proceedings:

And finally, Righteousness, the closest thing they have to a slow jam:

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Canadian Music Week: Heart Static, YouYourself&i

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So, as some of you may know, Canadian Music Week kicks off today in Toronto. I am not there, but, in honor of the occasion, I’ll be shining my light on some Canadian bands and musicians that I love.

First up: YouYourself&i (Daniel Gélinas), of Montréal, Québec, with a new EP Heart Static which I like because a) he does actually use static as an instrument! and b) the songs are like sonic puzzles, full of unusual shapes and complicated connections. The tone is gloomy, in places, but yet also shot through with bright shimmery tones.

As an example, here is Mummies, the first song on the EP:

And also Blubber, which I could perhaps describe as “a heartbroken computer muttering to itself:”