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Sufjan Stevens :: Us and those we lose

sufjan

By Tim Richardson

Sufjan Stevens is known for high-concept projects. He’s crafted musical anthologies of Illinois and Michigan, made a song for each of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and churned out seemingly endless volumes of Christmas music. With his newest album, Carrie & Lowell, we find him at his least thematically ambitious and most biographically and emotionally exposed. As has been extensively publicized and discussed, Carrie & Lowell is very explicitly about one thing: Sufjan’s response to the 2012 death of his mother Carrie to stomach cancer. Each song copes with the reverberations of this event: witnessing it, burying it, or accepting it, sometimes all at the same time. Continue reading “Sufjan Stevens :: Us and those we lose”

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Retrospectives on May Releases from Manitoba Musicians: Basic Nature, Carly Dow, Raine Hamilton, and Rayannah

womeninwinnipeg

By Selci

Recently I ran into local musicians Raine Hamilton and Rayannah at Thom Bargen and we discussed all the women releasing albums in May. It seemed like a great idea to get everyone together at Munson Park and talk about music and being women in the scene in Winnipeg. Raine, Ray, Carly Dow, Basic Nature, and I spent an afternoon in the sunlight and had a lovely and productive discussion about music and equality. It all began with one question: Continue reading “Retrospectives on May Releases from Manitoba Musicians: Basic Nature, Carly Dow, Raine Hamilton, and Rayannah”

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Odanah :: Post Folk

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By Natalie Bohrn

“We have church,” Mike Fox laughs on a brisk spring afternoon over bagels and beer at the Sherbrook Street Delicatessen. I’ve asked about his band Odanah’s rehearsal rituals. “We’ve got a good little thing going on,” he says. “Instead of jamming on Friday nights with a few beers, we get together on Sundays at 10 in the morning with coffee… It’s become a good way to get stuff done.”

Continue reading “Odanah :: Post Folk”

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Basic Nature :: Circles and Lines

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By Selci

Distorted melancholy, as sweet as rain on pavement. Basic Nature’s new album Circles and Lines, draws out an image that is rustically bright and sweetly twisted. The flow drones and drifts down the paths of hushed delay and through crumbling roads of heavy distortion. Basic Nature suspends us like a falling feather and swiftly arcs, profound as an incoming wind. The album is simultaneously light and heavy in the best possible way. Their instrumental and vocal blends are a highly complimentary sea of sound with haunting harmonies fading in and out unexpectedly.  They’ve got a bit of a Warpaint thing going on, so if you’re into that you’ll definitely be into this. The recordings are quite lo-fi but for the most part match the overall sound and aesthetic.  Their title track “Circles and Lines” is embedded with that mature angst that lives within us all.  This album is shoegaze indie-rock suitable for listening anywhere – parks, basements, beaches, studios, warehouses, and journeys.