Sloan’s new album, Parallel Play, drops next Tuesday, June 10th. They are supporting it with a short tour and will be hitting Cambridge, MA on June 18th (yes, I will be there), returning to TT the Bear’s. I saw them the last time they were there – as well as being enormously fun live, they […]
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Threesome: Defending CanCon (sort of)
June 25, 2009Last week, CBC Radio 3‘s online radio broadcast and their Sirius Satellite radio station merged their playlists and schedules as a cost-saving measure. As part of the merger, they solicited input on whether the joint entity should play 100% Canadian music (as the online radio did) or 85% Canadian music, as was the case for […]
Cruisin’ with the Mountain Goats
December 31, 2008Go on a cruise with the Mountain Goats, the Weakerthans, Sloan, and many more. The Barenaked Ladies have organized a six-day trip, Ships & Dip V, on the Norwegian Jewel [pictured], with you and whole slew of artists. It’s the first week of February, starting from Miami and going to Cozumel and the Grand Stirrup […]
Listen local, Indiana edition: Whisper Down
July 28, 2008A special ‘Listen local’ post from the road, as I’ll be passing through Indiana tomorrow. Whisper Down is a Terre Haute-based folk/alternative band (they cite influences from The Smiths through Death Cab for Cutie through Tracy Chapman). Like Sloan, they share songwriting and vocal duties. Check them out if you’re in the area. More Whisper […]
Great bands with multiple lead singers
June 9, 2008Speaking of Sloan, they made The Onion AV Club‘s recent list of ‘bands with more than one prominent lead singer,’ which also includes z=z favourites Mission of Burma (pictured above) and The New Pornographers. I’m not sure that I totally buy the pop-psych explanation of Sloan’s lack of success in the US, though: It’s possible […]
Threesome: Language matters
May 18, 2008Threesome is a new feature on this blog. As its name suggests, it’s a trio of songs that are related by a common theme (okay, wait, I know that’s not what its name suggests to most of you…). Today’s theme is language, and this post features songs about the Oxford comma, the word ‘underwhelmed’ (which […]
The logical outcome of OCD ticket purchasing
May 16, 2008I’ll freely admit to my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and their manifestation in my ticket purchasing habits are only further enabled by Tourfilter and my proximity to music venues in Central Square, Cambridge, like TT the Bear’s Place and the Middle East. But I seem to have taken them to their logical extreme when I went to […]
Neophile: The Box Social
April 15, 2008While barely old enough to drink (and the photo above seems designed to suggest that they are making the most of their new privileges), The Box Social nevertheless have a tight, appealing indie-rock sound – think Sloan, or maybe a hybrid of their fellow Midwesterners The Hold Steady and Green Day (especially the opening of […]
Wrap-up: guest DJing on WMBR
March 6, 2008Well, I had a terrific time guest-DJ’ing on WMBR this morning. Emphasis on the ‘guest’ – I got to do all the fun parts, like choosing all the songs and talking. Keith handled the control panel with gracious professionalism, and made me feel very welcome and less like the total newbie I am. I decided […]
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