The very nature of music blogs is to support and promote music that we love and enjoy ourselves, so it’s very rare to find anything remotely negative in an everyday blog post.  That’s not to say that their aren’t bloggers willing to take a knife to a particular artist, but for the most part, the forefathers of music blogging have been all about building people up rather than taking people down.  Unless of course you’re Peter Gabriel, and after 30-plus odd years in the music business you decide to record an album of covers originally recorded by much younger and more current artists, a decision spurred on perhaps because you were name-checked in a Vampire weekend song.  In that case, you’ll have to deal with one Matthew Perpetua and what is most likely the first documented critical attack in the history of his Fluxblog.  For the record, I totally agree with Matthew: This.  Is.  Hideous.

MP3: Peter Gabriel “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”

A little more in line with the QBiM aesthetic, and someone less likely to draw venom from bloggers is 1986, a project headed by Giorgio Angelini and Cully Symington, two musicians who have been touring with and working for the likes of Bishop Allen, The Rosebuds, The Gutter Twins, Cursive, and Okkervil River.  In between their work for others, the pair have pieced together a slightly corrosive and totally dirty (in a good way) sounding record called Everybody Is Whatever I Think They Are.  The album drops on March 9.

MP3: 1986 “Undertow”
Myspace: 1986

Speaking of brash and loud, so too is the latest from Swedes Bettie Serveert, who are back after a four-year absence with a new album, Pharmacy of Love out a little later in March (23rd to be exact).  Punchy, a little tipsy, and pretty sweet sounding.

MP3: Bettie Serveert “Deny All”
Myspace: Bettie Serveert

Sticking with Sweden for the last of our foursome is The Radio Dept. who are getting ready to take North America with Clinging to a Scheme.  From origins as ramshackle and thrown together as Broken Social Scene’s , the band has evolved over a number of years and personnel changes into one of the crowning jewels of Labrador Records glittering crown. This is certainly a record that I’ve been enjoying this week, and know that you will too; sadly you’ll have to wait until April 21 to hear it yourself.

MP3: The Radio Dept. “Heaven’s On Fire”
Myspace: The Radio Dept.

(artwork: Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz and Neko Case)

It’s been a pretty hectic week ’round these parts, with a lot of non-blog-based activity taking my attention, some of which included sitting on my ass and biting my nails down to the quick watching the Olympics.  I’ve been neglecting my inbox these last few days and had a ton of mail to sort through last night, but there was a little nugget I managed to pull out of the mess earlier in the week that I wanted to be sure to share with you sooner rather than later.  It seems 2010 is hitting its stride, and the rush of new music is coming at us fast and furious!

The New Pornographers have announced that May 2010 will see their new album, Together, hit the shops, and they’ve started the celebrating early by releasing “Your Hands (Together)” now.  Plans are in the works for some touring to strat soon, with these dates already confirmed:  19 May London, UK (Electric Ballroom), 21 May Berlin Germany (Magnet ‘Club NME’), 22 May Hamburg, Germany (Molotow), 23 May Amsterdam, Holland (Melkweg0), 25 May Brussels, Belgium (Orangerie), 26 May Paris, France (La Maroquinerie), 27 May Toulouse, France (Cafe Rex), 28 May Barcelona, Spain (Primavera Sound), and 31 May Quincy, WA (Sasquatch Music Festival).

MP3: The New Pornographers “Hands (Together)”
Myspace: The New Pornographers
Twitter: The New Pornographers

Perseverance is one of those often overlooked qualities, because often time it gets confused with stubbornness.  That saddens me actually, to think that a band who stick with what they like and know best might get labelled pig-headed, as opposed to being self-assured and confident in themselves.  Although I don’t know them personally, Paul Boddum and Andrew McAllister of Soft Copy don’t strike me as the stubborn kind, but they’ve been working away at that 90s DIY post-punk sound while others may have taken a slightly different route.  They began together as part of the band Neck, who later changed their name to Christiana; if those names ring a bell, it’s probably because you recognize them from my post last week about the final Wavelength show in Toronto.,  They were one of the first bands–and now one of the last–to play the legendary series.

Boddum and McAllister, along with Wes Hodgson on bass have just released Soft Copy’s second album, Vicious Modernism, a record that reminds me of Sugar, Bob Mould’s 90s power-punk trio.  While Soft Copy are a bit more angular and rough around the edges, they still know how to construct a good pop song and make it work in a setting that’s not so pop-friendly.  A track like “Bad Wiring” teeters on the edge of sounding dated and being a classic post-punk anthem (more the latter than the former), while a song like “First Date” brings the noise and them tempo down a bit and show that Soft Copy have got all corners covered:  they do subtle as well as they do sneering.

Vicious Modernism is another one of those albums that I wouldn’t usually gravitate to, but it’s a refreshing listen and one I thoroughly suggest you look into.  It’s available to buy through Amazon and on iTunes.

MP3: Soft Copy “First Date”
MP3: Soft Copy “Hot Cakes”
Video: Soft Copy “Hot Cakes”
Myspace: Soft Copy

(photo: James Mejia)

There’s a collision of sound and emotions on Hot Lips, the debut EP from Toronto’s Off The International Radar that make for an intriguing listen.  Take the musical experimentation of Holy Fuck and Fuck Buttons (my that’s an expletive filled fragment!) and melt it down with the more emotive moments of The Acorn or the like, and stir vigorously and what you’ll get is is the strange brew of opening track  “Hello and Wave”.  It’s all a bit more avant garde than I would normally gravitate too, but for fans of Holy Fuck, you’ll be interested in their collaboration with Off The International Radar on the track “Holy Radar”.  Holy Fuck sped up OTIR’s track “E Bowl of Iris” on a record player in studio, and then played along and added their own layers, effectively giving the vinyl version of the song two unique incarnations:  play it at 45 RPM in the spirit of the remix or play it at 33 1/3 RPM in the spirit of the original recording, you decide.  Of course, you can’t change the speed of a digital file (or can you?) but I’ll take “Holy Radar” just as it is, my favourite of the tracks on Hot Lips.

MP3: Off The International Radar vs. Holy Fuck “Holy Radar”
Myspace: Off The International Radar

(photo: Chris Marshall)

Anticipation is a slippery slope to try and traverse.  Like mountains rising above the fog, that illicit moment seems untouchable; the distance measured in time rather than kilometers or miles makes getting to the end point slow and arduous, because though we can run a mile in 5 minutes, we can’t move through time at will (yet).  Oddly enough, the much-anticipated debut long player by Zeus, called Say Us, seems to do just that: move through time and space.

This could be due to the fact that “How Does it Feel?”, “I Know” and “Marching Through Your Head” are familiar to anyone who’s been following the band over the last year or so and who already owns the Sounds Like Zeus EP.  The album opens “How Does it Feel?” and my initial response to the titular question is “It kind of feels like I’ve been here before.”  The album’s second track, “Fever of the Time” is also oddly familiar, and I had to do a little digging to find out why:  it’s already in my music library thanks to an Arts & Crafts sampler CD released last year.  So if you’re keeping score, that’s 4 out of 12 tracks we’ve (i.e. me)  already heard before.

Is this such a bad thing?  Not really.  In context of the LP, the songs don’t stick out like sore thumbs; “Kindergarten” easily betters the previously released material and makes the purchase of the record worth it on it’s own.  It sounds like classic Sloan without the nerdy, whiny vocals (you know what I mean, don’t pretend you don’t!).  “The Renegade” showcases the tricks and style they’ve honed as Jason Collett’s backing band all these years, to the point where it’s musical arrangement could easily mistake it for a Collett track.  The playfulness of Zeus’ tinkling toy piano makes sure all these songs stay in that “fun and good times vibe” zone,  but it’s certainly not gimmicky or disposable.

Zeus have kept us waiting for Say Us for a very long time, and anticipation certainly grew in proportion to expectation during that time.  Is it what I expected?  Yeah, but truth be told, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting beyond a solid, strong LP.  They’ve confidently delivered a record that a) satisfies all those waiting breathlessly; and b) delivers on the promises of the earlier EP by providing more of the same great songwriting and playing, simultaneously sounding like something from days gone by and very much of today.

MP3: Zeus “Marching Through Your Head”
Myspace: Zeus