Modern plays

From somewhere in the music world (other than their Nashville, Tennessee home) The Young Republic have come to lay claim to the title of my Favourite New Find of the Year (so far). Imagine Belle & Sebastian having a picnic in the park with Arcade Fire, with lots of wine, and a portable recording studio, and you’ll get the idea of what these guys sound like. They’re melodic, pastoral, and imaginatively epic and widescreen at the same time. You may be tempted to brush them off as another indie cookie cutter band, but you’d do yourself a disservice not to listen to their debut, 12 Tales From Winter City.

I was just over at the band’s website an noted that the band has begun working on a special covers album. For the next year or so, they’ll make a new cover available for download from their record label each month, until eventually the project will be collected into a whole album. the first fruits of their efforts is already available: Bob Dylan’s “Iris.”

4 for the weekend vol. 35

For this week’s 4FtW, I’m going to revisit a review technique I used back at the end of the year for my favourite Canadian albums of 2007, and one I’ve been thinking more about lately: the 6 word review. I got the idea from the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure Writers. You can search the ‘net for all kinds of these brief biographies, but I think it’s kind of fun to apply the philosophy to record review. As always, these 4 CDs are up for grabs, so just drop in on the QBiM Facebook page and stake your claim to the CDs for volume 35, or drop us a line at contests [at] quickbeforeitmelts [dot] com with “4 CDs please!” in the subject line, and your full mailing address in the body. Enjoy the tunes!

Break and enter birthday

I have rather downbeat news for you: Two weeks ago, some people broke into my studio and stole all hard drives (which had – of course – the entire new album on them). I’ve been trying to get them back (via pleading, bribery, extortion, threatened and actual violence), but by now it seems the chances are rather slim. So… I’ll have to say goodbye to that album, I’m afraid.

That’s a freakin‘ bummer if you ask me! I loved The Society Islands’/Boris’ last album, and his work with Stationary Hund earlier this year, and was looking forward to hearing his new work. I think Boris needs some cheering up, so if you want to drop him a line you can do so here; please tell him I sent you. And tell him you like what you’ve heard here at QBiM:

Poor man’s ice cream

Just a quick one here, but a great one none the less. Tilly and the Wall have announced details of their forthcoming album, which we’ll call O, since there is no official title, and there’s a big ‘O’ on the cover. It’s produced by Mike Mogis, and is out on Team Love on June 17th. I was a fan of the band’s last album (Bottom Of Barrels) which was available as a free download from the Team Love website.

Tilly and the Wall meld heavy percussion, harmonies and a whole arsenal of mixed and found sounds to make their raucous pop music. I recently posted a remix CSS did of my favourite track from their last album, “The Freest Man,” and now here’s a sneak look at what’s coming up in June:

Fleet Foxes: Sun Giant EP

Fleet Foxes came to my attention when I wrote the singles review column for Twisted Ear the other week, which I had a blast doing. They were the very last band I reviewed for the article and they blew me away with their baroque indie pop sound. Their Sun Giant EP is just a precursor to their full length debut proper scheduled for release later this year. the five-piece band hail from Seattle, and are signed to Sub Pop here in North America (and Bella Union in Europe, if I’m not mistaken). It may seem like an odd comparison, but while listening to this EP, I was reminded of the first Gomez album, Bring It On, probably because of the organic, low-fi sound. You’ll make your own judgments, I’m sure, but give Fleet Foxes a listen; I think you’ll be glad you did.