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The Besnard Lakes – Fine Vintage

By Kevan Hannah

Between releasing their third album, The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night, embarking on a worldwide tour, and managing Breakglass Studios at home in Montreal, the Besnard Lakes’ Jace Lacek found some time to sit down with Stylus to talk about their record, vinyl superiority and inspirational fever dreams.

Stylus: Your last album received a lot of critical attention and really catapulted you out of obscurity. Did that impact the way you approached album three?
Jace Lacek: It was kind of daunting for me. With the first two records, nobody knew who we were, we weren’t expecting anybody to ever hear the record. So I kind of wanted to approach it the same way. It took about three or four days in the studio for me to actually close my mind off from that and make a record. I kept thinking, “Is this…what are we making? Is it good?” Before, I was always like, “I don’t care.” After about four days of just writing away at it, I got over that. Let’s just close ourselves off and just make the record.

Continue reading “The Besnard Lakes – Fine Vintage”

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Review: Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be


The great thing about I Will Be is that there isn’t anything wrong with it. Basically, it’s full of Shangri-Las-style harmonies sung at the Ramones’ speed, with band leader Dee Dee singing lyrics almost always including the word “baby.” Perfect. This debut album from the L.A. librarian is another home-recording-project-gone-big, like Little Girls’ Concepts or Wavves’ Wavvves, but whereas those two albums sometimes got too caught up in their own self-importance or post-punk influences (Joy Division and Wipers respectively), I Will Be is just ten tracks of straight-ahead pop, and one ballad cover of Sonny Bono to finish off the disc. The not-so-great thing about I Will Be is that if there are any songs to be called ‘stand-out tracks,’ they only stand out incrementally from the others. “Jail La La” and “Blank Girl” are two of the catchiest in the bunch, but they’ve got the same basic drumbeat and the same chords as every other song. But if you like music like ’70s punk bands and ’60s girl groups is that really going to deter you anyways? (Sub Pop Records, www.subpop.com) Taylor Burgess

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Review: Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame


Dr. Dog’s sixth album in many ways feels like an album of firsts. In addition to it being their first album under the Anti- umbrella, it is also the first album to not be produced by the band themselves, instead relying on an outside producer. While sometimes this can cause problems, it is not the case this time around. The album feels more focused and to the point, removing some of the excesses that bogged down their previous albums. There are no psychedelic soundscapes to distract you as you listen to the album, allowing you to pay attention to the music. And the music that Dr. Dog makes is great. They’ve always sounded like a band from the late 1960s that entered a time machine and started recording today, and they still keep that sound on the album. You still get great harmonies from Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken mixed with songs that feel drawn from real life, and backing music to tie it all together in an enjoyable package. Fans of Brian Wilson, Spoon, and Novillero will find the most enjoyment in this album. (Anti-, www.anti.com) Charles Lefebvre

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Label Profile: War on Music

By Kent Davies

War on Music isn’t just a label or a store. War on Music is a political movement. Much like Organic Planet Worker Co-Op or Mondragón Bookstore and Coffeehouse, the principles guiding the War on Music organization are that of participatory economics. Through a committee structure there are no bosses, no managerial hierarchy and no purveyors of lame-ass corporate music. All members of War on Music maintain an equal share of equity in the business. The worker co-operative is located, as member Charley Justice says, “halfway to hell”—or the basement of 93 Albert St. here in Winnipeg. As a local metal store, WoM also serves local bands, offering high-quality in-house merch for cheap and sometimes even acts as a venue for shows. Aside from row after row of quality, reasonably priced metal and punk albums, top-notch metal merchandise and vintage arcade machines, the most alluring feature of War on Music is their in-house label. War on Music the label is leading the way in Canadian metal releases on vinyl. With over a dozen releases, including re-issues of classic metal and punk albums, 7” singles of Canadian metal and hard-rock acts and the number-one-sellling metal album in the country, WoM is a force to reckoned with. Stylus talked with label rep and co-op member Charley Justice about the label, the store and the future of vinyl-driven metal. Continue reading “Label Profile: War on Music”

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Review: Mose Allison – The Way of the World


With the return of musical legend Mose Allison to recording after a dozen year absence the world can almost be considered a slightly more refined place. With his place in musical history firmly established two generations or more ago he has returned to recording not with a flourish but with his usual skill, aplomb and of course, humour. The Way of the World finds the august piano man working with a rootsy combo that stays out of the way of the architect allowing him just enough able support to make every song take on a distinct personality of it’s own. Opening with the cute “My Brain” replete with its acquired “My Babe” blues arrangement, Allison begins the set with a journeyman’s skill and wit. Is it jazz? Is it blues with a feeling? You will be the judge but with the added credibility of his songs being covered over the years by the Who, the Clash, Leon Russell, Blue Cheer and Van Morrison you know you are heading for the ground zero of cool iconoclasts. A most enjoyable album that commands respect and even reverence, The Way of the World is a poignant yet carefree statement from a master not yet lost to the ages. (Anti-, www.anti.com) Jeff Monk

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Pip Skid – Fake Blood, Real Beats

By Sarah Petz

With a sound that is raw, honest and provocative, you wouldn’t expect that Pip Skid (a.k.a. Patrick Skene) grew up on the mean streets of the small prairie city of Brandon, Manitoba. Skene said growing up in Brandon was, like all small cities, challenging at times, but thinks that he and his other Brandon-raised friends DJ Hunnicutt and mcenroe ended up developing their music simply because of the lack of things to do.

“We also never had other rap groups to look up to in a close sense,” says Skene, “The only place we could see or hear rap was from rare little moments when it would get played on TV or the radio.” With only punk, jazz and metal bands around them, the group played any show they could get, even if it meant playing a 12-year-old’s birthday party.

“I do believe that coming from a place like Manitoba does effect your art. Our winters change your life which in turn influences the music,” says Skene. His latest album, Skid Row, is the first time he’s worked with DJ Kutdown on an entire project. Also collaborating with Magnum K.I., Skene is proud of the record they’ve produced. Continue reading “Pip Skid – Fake Blood, Real Beats”

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Review: Archie Bronson Outfit – Coconut


Instead of boring you with the standard-issue disc review usually presented here, and since this new, long-awaited Archie Bronson Outfit album is just so darn entertaining, I have chosen to break down my thoughts into easily digestible chunks. Let us know your thoughts in the usual fashion. This will give allow you to get back to texting quicker.
• The grinding sonic plunge of opening track “Magnetic Warrior” is just that.
• Classic Echo and the Bunnymen pop meet Jesus and Mary Chain danger-fuzz.
• Interesting, clank arrangements that marry a somewhat jarring intensity with nervous beats and hazy vocals yelping rather preposterous lyrics.
• “Wild Strawberries” = echoed menace roiling… high note bass smacks!
• A dissonance of sound that skirts the danger zone between pop and distorted, angry indie-rock.
• “Chuck” is Echo and the B’men for a new generation, chock full of single note guitar and blind bass pulsation designed to stick in your memory.
• Fans of the older school will cherish the herky twitch of the ABO’ style
• The only quasi-ballad in the set is called “Hunt You Down.” Love as an attack.
(Domino, www.dominorecordco.com) Jeff Monk

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Review: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – I Speak Fula

With I Speak Fula, the Malian Ngoni lute player Bassekou Kouyate has put together a confident and precise collection of songs that ought to be heard by both those familiar and unfamiliar with the West African sound. This is evangelical music at its best, as Kouyate, backed by his band Ngoni Ba, do well in bringing traditional West African motifs and typical western sounds into conversation with one another, such that his music is ripe for the masses. The songs found throughout the record are equal parts African Highlife and American dessert blues, resulting in a fascinating fusion of sound that avoids doing violence to the genres at play. Kouyate clearly has the utmost respect for the genres he’s working with, and the performances throughout the record excel as a result. Highlights would include the trance-like “Jamana Be Diya” featuring Kasse Mady and Toumani Diabete and the wah-wah driven “Musow,” which at moments sounds like straight-up rock and roll. Considering the increased interest in the “African sound” among recent Western rock and pop bands (Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors et al.). I Speak Fula proves to be both a beautiful and timely record, tapping into the Western musical conscious, simply by paying due tribute to the traditional forms of West Africa. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com) Jeff Friesen

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Review: Alternative TV – Black and White: Live


I’ve been told that a live album is usually the wrongest way possible to get introduced to a band (the Who’s Live at Leeds perhaps being the exception). So this band, this bunch of old, English punkers, release this platter I’m holding and hearing, and I like it a lot. Very much the jam-style rock plus the Fall’s repetition and abrasiveness (plus sung by a guy who can keep a solid tone). They’ve got their three chorders like “Viva la Rock ’n’ Roll” (which sounds more evil than pop) and “Urban Kids” and a whole whack of others that wouldn’t be outta place among the Buzzcocks and banks of their kind. Y’know, snotty and fun. Their run-throughs of the Ramones’ “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and their piss on “Louie Louie,” titled “Plastic People,” is spit out and played with that middle-finger-up barre chord sass that punk used to be about. There are some longer songs that show another side of the band, a noisier, experimental, avant garde band that played how they wanted to play. “Release the Natives” is  bleak, Glenn Branca-style guitar noise. “Splitting in Two,” this one too surpassing the six-minute mark, builds for a few minutes before exploding into a Mission of Burma-like rock assault. This live album, full of tape hiss and audible audience chatter, captures a band lighting fires on whatever stage they play. Shit, man, if this is how these geezers sound now, I’m gonna step into the wayback machine and hear how they sounded before I was born. If anyone ever tells you that the live album intro is the wrong way to go, slap ’em across the head with this one. (Bongobeat, www.bongobeat.com) Patrick Michalishyn

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Review: Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday


Snotty, lo-fi rock and roll styled after the British invasion of the ’60s  may not seem as refreshing as it did a decade ago, and with bands like Girls currently enjoying massive success, the self-titled debut from Vermont’s Happy Birthday is unlikely to evoke many strong reactions from critics. It’s really too bad, because Happy Birthday have made one hell of a summer record. Taking his cue from Apples in Stereo, frontman Kyle Thomas has crafted a seemingly endless supply of tight pop hooks that borrow from pretty much everyone. “I Want to Stay (I Run Away)” is a perfect mash of late-’80s goth-rock and California surf-pop. Thomas has the perfect voice for this sort of reckless abandon: immature, obnoxious and whiney. Opener “Girls FM” is a carefree jingle that perfectly parodies radio schlock, while the oddly affecting “Fun” ends the album by breaking through all the irony, and sees Thomas admitting “all I really need is love/ And I won’t fade away.” Let’s hope he finds it. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com) Jonathan Dyck