The must-go show
Skip The Sheepdogs’ appearance at Lee’s Palace tonight and head down Queen Street East to check out New York City-based outfit Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at The Opera House. This band was the hottest thing in the blogosphere a few short years ago when their 2005 debut album drew comparisons to the Talking Heads.
They had a hard time living up to the hype on their follow-up, and many predicted the band would go the way of the dodo, but they stuck around and released a new album, Hysterical, last September. Easily the most introspective of the band’s releases, Hysterical is filled with personal songs about love and loss. It’s a nice change of pace for the band, but their upbeat vibe is still there, and it’s even better live.
Little City dreams big
Toronto band Little City made some noise in 2010 when it released the EP The Going and the Gone to some acclaim. Now, the 12-piece group, featuring members of Ohbijou and The Wooden Sky, is releasing a new 7-inch and digital single, “Sperry,” in addition to announcing a local release show scheduled for Jan. 21. at 918 Bathurst. The band will also be part of Canadian Music Week in Toronto this March. A free download of “Sperry” is available here.
Collett back with basement revue
Toronto singer-songwriter Jason Collett is returning to The Dakota Tavern this month for his fifth-annual Basement Revue Series. Basically, Collett brings together some cool new musicians, writers, artists and friends for something of a hootenanny each Tuesday for the month of December. Past artists include Buck 65, K-OS, Charles Spearin, Dave Bidini, Julie Doiron and many more. Seventy-five tickets priced at $25 go on sale in advance of each night, 25 each at Rotate This, Soundscapes and galleryac.com, plus more at the door.
Canadian Music Week announcement 1.0
Canadian Music Week and its feature event, Slacker Canadian Music Fest, have announced a slew of artists and bands that will take part in the five-day event in more than 60 venues in downtown Toronto. Headlining acts that should garner serious attention include Childish Gambino, The Saw Doctors, Fanfario and The Cat Empire. In addition, the names of a hundred or so lesser-known artists were announced, providing the perfect opportunity to comment on one of the more important decisions a young band can make as their careers begin to grow: choosing a totally awesome band name.
Here are five CMW bands with names that work, and five that need a serious rethink:
Awesome
• Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers: Timeless in sentiment but with a raw edginess that comes with the possibility of inhaling dangerous substances. B+
• Ralf Wiggum: Choosing a character from The Simpsons is a bit bone-headed, unless you choose this character. Totally rock ‘n’ roll! A
• PKEW PKEW PKEW (gunshots): Evokes a childhood innocence that says we are the party band that will transport you to another time. The addition of (gunshots) means they take their wit seriously, so bring your most ironic dance moves. A+
• Brasstronaut: Says it all: we bring the noise, we bring the funk and we explore uncharted territory baby. B
• Great Big Pile of Leaves: There is nothing more fun than piling up some leaves and diving right in. A
The opposite of awesome
• Racoon Bandit: First, the whole misspelling of the word raccoon. Sure, they say it’s on purpose. Whatever. Second, it isn’t memorable, it doesn’t draw in potential listeners. It just sounds like a bad kids TV show, or one of Burt Reynolds’ sidekicks in his Smokey and the Bandit period.
• Recovery Child: Really? So I’m going to go watch you work out your issues on stage? No thanks.
• Tiny Danza: Okay, I get it, right, it’s like Tony Danza tapping his inner Elton John. And that’s just a disturbing image. But do you spend as much time rocking out as you do being too clever for your own good? I don’t think so.
• Winter People: I thought this might be a cool name until I read the band is from Australia. Australia! What do they know about being winter people? It’s a total sham! Come tour here in January, I’ll show you winter people.
• Body Doubles: Sounds like a bad ’80s movie starring Kathleen Turner as the actress who loses her husband to her own body double, then seeks revenge.
Holiday stuff
There are plenty of one-off Christmas and holiday songs floating around the ether as of late, including a cool Bahamas mixed tape, and a compilation from the folks at the music blog Sound Vat. Here’s a snapshot of a few making the rounds:
• Bahamas featuring the likes of Anne Murray and Feist.
• Sound Vat’s holiday compilation, “If Jesus had been Canadian, he would have needed more than swaddling clothes,” features Canadian indie bands such as Toronto’s The Fires Of and is available here.
• Skydiggers have released another song in anticipation of their annual holiday shows at the Horseshoe Tavern. You can listen to their version of the classic Xmas tune “Good King Wenceslas” on Soundcloud here.
• You can listen to Sloan’s “12 Days of Christmas” here, but purchasing requires a tiny donation.
Album of the week: El Camino by The Black Keys
Yes, everybody is going on and on about the new The Black Keys album El Camino, with reviews ranging from the mildly critical to the swooning. Well, buckle up. Here we go again. On El Camino, they’ve sped things up a bit and taken a bit of the messy, blues-fuelled mayhem out of the mix. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have lost some of the swampy groove that’s worked out so brilliantly in the past. It is like that deep, dark, chugging engine at the bottom end has disappeared.
The band seemed, to me, to be at their best on those slow grooves that make you close your eyes a bit and sway from side to side. You know what I’m talking about here. But, what do I know? They are one of the biggest rock bands in the world right now. It is a great album, and I will certainly listen to it for a long time to come.
Standout tracks like “Lonely Boy” and “Little Black Submarine” are killer, with the latter reminiscent of classic Zeppelin. For better or worse, El Camino is more mainstream, more “approachable” and will likely garner the duo even more fans and awards and riches beyond belief. So there is no going back now. But I’ll always have Rubber Factory and Brothers. So I guess that makes it about even.
Rock ‘n’ roll tweet of the week
From @sebby_g:
@zzzzimonwhite: Urgh. Fashion Hippies are the worst. They don’t even know who Levon Helm is” THE BEST