I’ve been listening to an early copy of Logan Lynn‘s new album, From Pillar to Post, for a few weeks now, and it’s been gradually infiltrating itself into my brain. The Portland-based Lynn describes his music as ‘electro-pop’, but that carries connotations that are a little too saccharine. The gentle tenor vocals over a background […]
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Neophile: The Craft Economy
March 26, 2009I first came across The Craft Economy last year, through a post at Boing Boing. They attracted attention by stapling their CDs to telephone poles in Kensington Market in Toronto, their hometown (and mine). The CDs, released under a Creative Commons license, were part of a protest against Bill C-61, the Canadian analog to the […]
Neophile: Ten Minute Turns
March 18, 2009One of the most intriguing bands on the MPress Records sampler CD is Ten Minute Turns, out of Brooklyn. Following in the long tradition of rock bands birthed at art schools, principals Roger Mason and Alan Foreman met while at RISD. Their sound occupies the middle ground between guitar-driven indie pop and the electro sounds […]
Neophile: MPress Records New Arrivals 3
March 13, 2009There’s been a number of high profile compilation CDs for charity recently, including Dark Was the Night and the new Heroes CD to benefit War Child. Brooklyn’s MPress Records approach is the polar opposite of lining up big names for your charity CD, although its genesis was somewhat accidental. The first of their New Arrivals […]
Neophile: The Rest, Everyone All At Once
March 3, 2009Hamilton, Ontario’s The Rest are set to release their sophomore album, Everyone All At Once, in April. It’s an appropriate title for an intensely-collaborative effort from the seven-member group (large groups seem to in the zeitgeist these days). Nearly two years in the making, the album was a two-stage process. First, they left the distractions […]
Neophile: The Gaslight Anthem
December 16, 2008I am not working-class. I’ve been tenure-track practically since I learned to read, and instead of wisely spending my youth drinking in the woods, hanging out with the ‘bad boys,’ and learning to play pool, I wasted it in libraries, doing calculus problems, and starting college early. I suspect that my fondness for bands with […]
Neophile: The Waking Eyes
December 4, 2008[embedded YouTube video; if you can’t watch it, click here] Some music from above the 49th parallel as a soundtrack to the currently-unfolding constitutional crisis. The video is of Winnipeg-based The Waking Eyes—paying homage to their fellow Manitobans The Weakerthans—busking for charity in front of the El Mo in Toronto, ON, filmed earlier this year. […]
Neophile: The Bloodsugars
November 19, 2008Along with Good Night, States, Brooklyn-based The Bloodsugars will be playing at the All-Asia in Cambridge, MA on Friday, November 21st. Their songs are best described as ‘sweetly catchy,’ like a more dance-y Belle and Sebastian. And like Belle and Sebastian, who come across as all twee on their records and totally rock out on […]
Neophile: Good Night, States
November 14, 2008One of the bands that’s on constant repeat in my media player right now is Pittsburgh’s Good Night, States. They sound like a stripped-down version of Arcade Fire – a little bit more catchy, and a little less bombastic. While they’ve been getting some good press (like this Spin article), I’m more impressed that I […]
Neophile: Fergus Brown, “Nerds in Love”
November 6, 2008I stumbled upon this sweet, geeky love song by Australian singer-songwriter Fergus Brown. It has an amusing backstory; apparently Brown wrote it about a particular girl that he had silently admired from afar. One of his friends told her about it, and gave her a copy of the song. In a perfect world, they would […]
Neophile: Hollerado
October 6, 2008[embedded YouTube link; if you can’t see it, click here] Hailing from the small Ontario town of Manotick, but now based in Montreal, Hollerado have just released a great single, “Americanarama” (from their Demo in a Bag 5 EP). Its video is a hilarious spoof of American Apparel, complete with Dave Foley doing a spot-on […]
Neophile: Mother Mother, O My Heart
September 21, 2008Hurrah! Vancouver’s Mother Mother just released their second album, O My Heart, and it sounds just as awesome as their first. They have a distinctive, eccentric sound – playful pop, enriched with imaginative lyrics and vocal harmonies. They are just starting a tour of Canada and the US – they’ll be at the Middle East […]
Neophile: Kristoffer Ragnstam
September 17, 2008Swedish indie-pop artist Kristoffer Ragnstam’s sophomore album, Wrong Side of the Room, was just released in the US a few weeks ago. I have an insatiable appetite for infectiously catchy and happy songwriting, and Ragnstam doesn’t disappoint. I’m hoping that this album breaks him out into the US. Ragnstam was kind enough to respond to […]
Neophile: The Airborne Toxic Event
September 16, 2008[embedded YouTube video; if you can’t see it, click here] Rounding out our posts about bands with literature-inspired band names is Los Angeles-based The Airborne Toxic Event (from Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise). I first heard the track “Somewhere Around Midnight” on KEXP and immediately clicked to their playlist page to identify the artist. The […]
Neophile: Blue Mary Jane
August 25, 2008Speaking of growing up in a pre-Internet world…I still find it kind of amazing that I can hear about a band like Blue Mary Jane. As far as I can tell, they don’t have a record deal, and they probably still live with their families in Spalding, Lincolnshire. I’m not actually sure how I came […]
Neophile: Max and the Marginalized
August 17, 2008Continuing with what I promise to be a short-lived political theme…I’m a little late coming to this, in several senses. I was introduced to Max and the Marginalized by frequent guest blogger Scott, who sent me an MP3 of “It’s Awkward When Bad People Die,” a song written in response to Jesse Helm‘s death. Max […]
Neophile: We Are Scientists, “Impatience”
August 11, 2008The video for the second single, “Impatience,” from We Are Scientists’ sophomore album, Brain Thrust Mastery, was just released. And it features one of the band members as a werewolf. Like pretty much everything else WAS do, it’s an entertaining mix of funny, geeky and strange (check out the ‘Advice‘ section of their blog for […]
Neophile: The Loyalty
June 13, 2008[embedded YouTube video above; if you can’t see it, click here] With the arrival of warm, sunny days – finally! – I start thinking about songs I want to hear in my car, with my sunroof open and the windows down. Power-pop group The Loyalty, from upstate New York, have found themselves a spot in […]
Neophile: The First Time
May 24, 2008Toronto-based The First Time are making a splash with their cover of “Sundown,” a mega-hit by iconic Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. This song, released in 1974, hit number one on the Billboard charts and cemented Lightfoot’s status as a major musician. I grew up listening to it, but it was always in the background – […]
Neophile: I Am Kloot
May 10, 2008[embedded YouTube video; if you can’t see it, click here] How to listen to the new I Am Kloot album, I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge: Wait for a rainy afternoon, so the sky is grey and the drops are pattering against your windows. Pour yourself a glass of whisky. Put the CD (or your […]
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