The short answer is no.  Happily, Steel City Trawler is not Luke Doucet’s generic take on love, loss, and sex.  Using the city of Hamilton Ontario has his backdrop, Doucet’s latest record is a blunt, often confrontational look at life in the rat race.  In comparison, his last record Blood’s Too Rich is a more lyrical affair, poetry set to flowery arrangements.  Steel City Trawler is the friend that pulls no punches, telling it like it is even if that’s the last thing you want to hear.  The change of style is a bit of a jolt if you were looking for the sequel to “The Commandante” but by the time Doucet and wife Melissa McClelland settle into the slow sexy groove of “Hey Now” you’ll willingly go along for the ride through this dirty old town.  First-time producer Andrew “Sloan” Scott brings a wealth of knowledge about the rock and roll songbook to the table, pulling classic elements together to create a musical record that sounds familiar in places and fresh and new in others, often times all in the same verse.  Doucet’s cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” might sound like a bold choice, but he manages to make it sound all his own without tarnishing the song’s musical legacy.  You don’t have to be a musical historian to recognize some of the touchstones that helped shape Steel City Trawler:  The Rolling Stones, 60s folk rock, 80s college rock and British new wave.  It’s not a pastiche album, though.  Doucet is one of the finest guitarists and songwriters working in Canada now, so what you get here is a balance between reverence and reinvention.

I live in a city built on the steel trade that lost its lustre years ago.  I know the streets Doucet’s been walking and driving down since he moved to Hamilton in 2008, because they’re the same as the ones I pass to and from work every day.  The difference between he and I is that he’s been paying attention and observing the people he sees while I have been ignoring them, trying to forget that this place is dying a slow death around me.  You don’t have to know Hamilton or have lived their to appreciate Doucet’s storytelling, as perfectly exemplified on “The Ballad of Ian Curtis”.  Hamilton and Manchester, England, they’re not so different.  Both are places that can suffocate and choke the creativity out of you if you let it.  The tragic story of Joy Division’s lead singer could easily be told on both sides of the Atlantic.  When Doucet sings “I wasn’t thinking I could be the one/to save the soul of this town,” he speaks for a voiceless many who’ve struggled to rise above their situation in life, and found the weight of expectation too much to handle.  It is a pitch-perfect tribute to Joy Division and New Order’s signature sound: bass-driven melody, tight rhythm section, and sparkling guitar lines; like I said before, it’s respects its source material rather than just ripping it off.

Doucet and I are the same age, born a mere 48 days apart, and a quick once-over of the bio that accompanied this CD confirms for me that he and I shared many of the same musical touchstones in our early years (Blue Rodeo’s Diamond Mine, Pixes’ Bossanvova, Violent Femmes’ Why Do Birds Sing?, Rheostatics’ Whale Music).  We’ve also shared a number of defining milestones, some simultaneously, some years apart, but Steel City Trawler reminds me that where we’re different is that instead of being the observer (like Doucet) I have become the observed. Steel City Trawler is a mirror reflecting some aspects of my life right back at me.   “Baby,” he sings on the record’s penultimate track “Dusted”, “I don’t know if I’m here/’cause I don’t know where ‘here’ is”, and all I picture is a colossal illuminated map of my life, like the kind you find in the middle of a shopping mall, and I’m staring at a red dot labeled “You Are Here”, not knowing exactly how I got here.

Thanks for the wake up call, Luke.

Steel City Trawler was released August 31, 2010 on Six Shooter Records.

MP3: Luke Doucet and the White Falcon “The Ballad of Ian Curtis”
Myspace: Luke Doucet
Facebook: Luke Doucet

(For more from the man himself about Steel City Trawler, check out the extensive conversation Herohill has been having with Doucet this past week.)

We click now, though.  With the release of album number 2, Land Of Talk have upped their game tenfold and produced an album of beautifully embellished indie rock that flows as smooth as silk.  “Goaltime Exposure” has a hint of the Cocteau Twins’ ethereal shimmer, and brings out the similarity between Powell’s voice and that band’s Elizabeth Frazier.  Around the basic guitar-drums-bass building blocks, Land Of Talk have arranged strings, horns, some electronic droning and noise, never overindulging in the extras.  Jace Lasek’s production focuses your attention at what truly sets this record apart from other like-minded outings: Powell’s ardent songs, full of passion and soul.  A deep soul, sometimes obscured by Powell’s occasionally obtuse lyrics (at least they seem obtuse in the absence of a lyric sheet to help me make them out), but soul never-the-less.  I’ve come back to this album a few times in the last few weeks, only ever allowing myself a single listen at a time.  It’s the kind of record I fear overplaying, lest I wear out it’s appeal.  Songs like “Quarry Hymns” keep drawing me back though.  It’s tender, propulsive beat outdoes her pals in Broken Social Scene at their own game and is the crown jewel on this record. In reality, there isn’t a dud in the 11 songs here.  Each composition takes its time to unfold, like origami in reverse.

I keep thinking about the irony of naming this record Cloak and Cipher.  It’s ironic because this record is going to pull back the figurative cloak surrounding Land of Talk, effectively taking Powell from a relative cipher on the world music stage to a known commodity in short order.  This record is going to take Land Of Talk supernova.

MP3: Land of Talk “Quarry Hymns”
MP3: Land of Talk “Swift Coin”
Myspace: Land Of Talk
Facebook: Land Of Talk
Twitter: Land Of Talk

I’ve been a miserable little bastard this week.  I can’t pin it on any one particular event or reason.  It just sort of feels like my mood has been rolling downhill, growing bigger as it picks up litter and debris as it tumbles further and faster down a steep incline.  Maybe that’s more information than you need to know (or actually care about), but when I heard “Day of Our Departing”, the opening track of the new Baby Eagle record Dog Weather, it felt like my rolling ball of muddy moodiness hit a plateau level and slowed down a bit.  It opens with a  bit of screeching feedback, a sound akin to squealing breaks, before erupting into a ramshackle blast of dirty, bluesy rock that stopped me in my tracks.  The pleading phrase “Darling let’s come clean,” in the chorus is a request to just stop beating a dead horse and declare a relationship over, and move on with life.  My egotistical side felt like the song was directed right at me and my self-pity.  “Get over yourself,” it seemed to say, “there’s people worse off than you and they’re not letting it get them down.”  True enough.  Going deeper into the record reveals more hard-done-by stories where the protagonist doesn’t succumb to defeat so much as shrug it off tries to make the best of what’s he’s been given.

Steve Lambke might be better known as a guitarist/keyboardist and vocalist with Constantines, but seeing as how they recently announced an indefinite hiatus, he’ll be focusing on Baby Eagle a lot more.  That’s okay, because Dog Weather is going to keep Lambke busy for a long while to come.  Preferring not to call Baby Eagle a solo project but a collaboration, Daniel Romano (Attack in Black), Shotgun Jimmie, and David Trenaman and Colleen Collins (Construction & Destruction) all came together to work on Lambke’s songs for a few days this past January.  The result is a sometimes messy, often melodic homage to Lambke’s feedback-drenched indie roots and his affinity for classic songwriters like Neil Young.

Lambke and Romano are co-owner/operators of You’ve Changed Records, and Dog Weather is just the latest addition to a stellar catalogue.  The roster on You’ve Changed take their label’s name to heart, as they swap roles and support each other on record.  The only thing that doesn’t change from record to record is the outstanding quality the label produces.

Dog Weather is available now from You’ve Changed Records.

MP3: Baby Eagle “Day of Our Departing”
Myspace: Baby Eagle

For his follow-up, Spoon appears to have successfully navigated the psycho-analytical nature of his previous album and emerged on the other end, ready to go out into the world and make person-to-person connections.  You could say that the haunted is now the hunter, for in both title and tone, Love Is a Hunter appears to be all about finding community and connection while forging an identity of one’s own.  Some of the song titles sound like they could have been lifted from the back of a Technotronic LP circa 1990, but Love Is a Hunter is firmly rooted in 2010:  “Dangerdangerdanger” is all about surviving the perils of nightclub hook-ups and trying to see past the “glitter in my eyes” to the true person across the dance floor from you; “You Can Dance” chronicles what I and my university friends called the “wedge technique”, wherein one person throws caution to the wind and inserts themselves into a couple’s relationship, attempting to break one party free.  I can picture the scene in the night club now: two would-be-lovers looking forlornly at each other while Spoon croons “You can dance with the one you came with/or you can come home with me,” overtop of the album’s poppiest sounding beats.  The tempo and atmosphere drops a few gears on tracks like “Lighthouse” and “Death By Elektro” wherein Spoon detours back to his country and folk roots.  The most arresting of these slower moments is “Joan” (a duet with The Cliks’ frontman Lucas Silveira), the story of a trans couple who is being literally hunted through the city streets by ignorant men with shotguns, who “don’t understand/’cuz we’re not obligated/to be a woman or a man.”  Determined not to let fear be their guide, the couple decides to walk home holding hands, ready to take whatever comes their way with only love as their weapon.  It’s worth the price of the disc for this heartbreaking song alone, as it’s Spoon’s finest recorded moment so far.

The shift towards poppier sounds on Love Is a Hunter is not Spoon’s attempt at courting a wider audience (at least I don’t think it is), but a natural progression in his exploration of bending and going beyond the limitations of genre and style.  Spoon is not the kind of person who is easily classified and labeled, so why should his music be?  On album closer “Bethelightbethelightbethelight” Spoon sings “I’m lost without a fight”, and he could just as easily be talking about complex, inner conflicts as external ones with the world around him.  As long as he continues to follow his muse and remain true to himself, it wouldn’t matter if his next record blends ska and polka over hip-hop beats.  Rae Spoon is a fighter, a lover and a hunter; kind of wild, reckless and free.  In my mind there’s no better way for a songwriter to be.

Love Is a Hunter is released today on Saved By Radio.

MP3: Rae Spoon “You Can Dance”
Facebook: Rae Spoon
Myspace: Rae Spoon
Twitter: Rae Spoon

CONTEST DETAILS: Being a long time supporter of Rae Spoon, I really want to get the word about this record out there to the public at large.  You can help me do that, and get yourself a copy of the record, too.  How?  It’s simple really.  Using your preferred social networking site (Facebook, Twitter, Mysapce, whatever), post a link to this post, encouraging others to check out Spoon’s music.  Then email CONTESTS [at] QUICKBEFOREITMELTS [dot] COM with “I’m hunting for some Rae Spoon” in the subject line, your name and mailing address in the body, along with some evidence of your link to the post.  You can send me a link or a screen capture–whatever works for you.  The more links you post back to the review, the more chances you’ll have to be entered in the contest.  Of course if you don’t use any of those sites, you can still enter, as long as you promise to tell all your friends about Spoon when you see them next.  Deal?  Contest will close on Friday, August 20 at 11:59 pm.

UPDATE: Our rivals friends at Herohill.com are just as enamoured with Love Is a Hunter as I am and have an exclusive download of the opening song, “Death By Elektro” available for you.

It feels like this review has been a long time in coming, and a quick trip through the QBiM Archives confirms it.  It was September 2009 that I first mentioned Jon Janes and his music as The Mountains & The Trees.  At the time I said “Janes plays guitar, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, bells, suitcase, whistles, hums, and sings.  He probably does the dishes and the windows, too.  If he keeps house anything like he makes music, then I’m certain he lives in a pristine and exquisitely arranged abode.”  Now, almost a year later, his music has its first proper home of its own, in the form of his debut album, I Made This For You.  The time between the release of the Hop, Skip & A Jump EP and this new record has seen The Mountains & The Trees’ stock rise:  heavy rotation and support from CBC Radio 3, blog love from yours truly and “the others”, and tours of the UK and at home with The Wilderness of Manitoba have pushed expectations for this high.

How high, you ask?  Almost impossibly high.  I Made This For You is an earnest and sincere love letter from the man to the fans who’ve helped make the whole endeavor possible.  From the title onwards, Jon and his cohorts (the ever-present and lovely Jillian Freeman, Andrew McCarthy, Celina Barry, Chris Kirby, Darren Browne, Dave Bridger, Jill Dawe, and Jill Peddle) are playing for the listener,putting on the best show for us possible.  You can’t fault them for the effort.  Songs familiar from the EP get a reworking, like “Goodbye Little Town”, whose added vocal embellishments and detailing give it a whole new sense of life.  “Up & Down”, TM&TT’s signature tune is present in a new version, with only the subtlest of changes (to the point where you know it’s a new recording but you just can’t put your finger on what’s different).  The new songs highlight Janes’ growing ability as a songwriter and storyteller, earning the title of one of Canada’s best new folk songwriters.

Much like Herohill, I find that I’m more a fan of the stripped back, bare bones Mountains & The Trees sound.  With the limitations of what one man can do with voice and instrument, Janes flourishes.  “The Times” is a perfect example of this, where just he, his guitar and harmonica draw the listener in for the majority of the song, before the rest of the band comes in.  When Janes  sings “…I invite you/to sing along/with this humble little song…”, he’s being serious:  in the winter he asked fans and friends from around the world to download a sample of the song and use their sound editing software to actually sing along with the track and send it to him for inclusion here.  It’s not big studio trickery or a gimmick, it’s all out love and support.  When the “la-da-de-da-de-das” start, I get a little choked up.

Writing and recording your debut album cannot be an easy task, especially when it seems a lot of people are putting a lot of pressure on you.  I Made This For You aims to please all of the fans who’ve been riding Janes’ bandwagon for the last few years, and for that we are grateful.  For album number two, though, I would love to hear Janes write and record an album for himself.  Hell, he can even name it I Made This For Myself for all I care, because by serving his own muse, he will be serving his listeners as well.

I Made This For You is available today, released independently by The Mountains & The Trees.

MP3: The Mountains & The Trees “More & More & More”
Myspace: The Mountains & The Trees
Twitter: The Mountains & The Trees

CONTEST DETAILS: To get yourself a copy of I Made This For You, just send an email to CONTESTS [at] QUICKBEFOREITMELTS [dot] COM with “I wrote this email for you” in the subject line and your your name and mailing address in the body.  Contest closes at 11:59 PM on Friday, August 13.  Thanks to our good friends at Killbeat Music and The Mountains & The Trees for providing the prize.  Good luck!

Like its predecessors Funeral and Neon Bible, The Suburbs is a thematic collection of songs that, in Win Butler’s own words, is “trying to connect where you’re from and where you are, to have that kind of makes sense.”  Where he’s from (for the better part of his adolescent life) is the suburbs of Houston, Texas.  Now he’s in Montreal as the front man for a seven-strong collective of musicians who’ve: a) been celebrated for writing the second best album of the 2000s; b) toured the world over and shared the stage with many of their musical idols; and c) lured the watchful ears of a rabid fan base and army of critics, ready to pounce and deconstruct every recorded sound they make.  Success, responsibility and dislocation would be enough to send anyone’s head spinning, but Butler isn’t just anyone.  He succeeds at “making sense” of the subject matter by approaching it from multiple perspectives.  The themes of modern youth, suburban ennui, and geographic separation tie each song together.  The songs are like chapters in a book about how we’ve been sold a dream and bought the dream, only to find out it’s defective after the warranty expires, so we’re left to make due with what we have.  The concepts are similar, but “The Suburbs” differs from “Suburban War”  which differs from “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” in lyrical content as much as they do in musical composition.

Arcade Fire sound like an unstoppable, musical juggernaut on this record.  The anthems of Funeral and Neon Bible have been replaced by honest-to-goodness rock songs, many of them teetering on the edge of 70s MOR, never going into the abyss of blandness.  “Empty Room” epitomizes the classic Arcade Fire sound: frenzied, euphoric, and able to send shivers down your spine.  The sequencing is impeccable.  Each movement (if you break it down by it’s vinyl sides) is a balanced microcosm of the record as a whole.  Initially, I felt that The Suburbs could probably stand a bit of editing, but in all honesty, I don’t know what constitutes as fat to be trimmed off.  “Wasted Hours” and “Deep Blue” are the closest thing to filler on this record, but because they’re thematically appropriate to the record, you’d almost hate for them not to be there.  After two or three listens all the way through, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing wrong with the record; there’s something wrong with me.  I’ll just have to work it out myself, because in the end, the longer running time just gives the band room to explore the collision of 80s electro-synth pop and classic folk-rock sounds throughout (see the synth-pop sprightliness of “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” and the Springsteen-sounding “Modern Man”).

Regardless of influence, The Suburbs sounds undeniably like Arcade Fire.  There’s nothing half-assed, or half-cocked about it.  I liken it to walking through your childhood neighbourhood late at night during a power failure (where have we heard that before?), not knowing if you’re really there or if it’s all a dream.  The atmosphere, the music, the lyrics… it’s all just so right.  As a reviewer, I’m leery of this review coming off as a stream of hyperboles, not so much for fear of being wrong about it or appearing to jump the bandwagon, but out of fear that I’ll somehow diminish the band’s accomplishments.  Nothing I say or write here can convince you of it’s greatness.  You’ll have to get out of the city and go to The Suburbs and experience it for yourself.

The Suburbs is released today on Merge Records.

MP3: Arcade Fire “Month of May”
Myspace: Arcade Fire
Facebook: Arcade Fire
Twitter: Aracde Fire

I feel for guys like Daniel Romano.  The music industry is fickle, and talent like his is seen as both a commodity and a casualty: the record companies can see the financial potential in the artist’s work (“commodity”) but recognize that an artistic temperament can lead to disagreements about integrity and vision (“casualty”).  Romano’s band Attack In Black have already had to appease the money men by re-recording their debut album (2007′s Marriage).  They were left to their own devices when they wrote and recorded The Curve of the Earth (2007) on their own in band member Spencer Burton’s sunroom, and then followed it with the studio-produced third LP Years (By One Thousand Fingertips) (2009), but a bad taste in your mouth isn’t that easy to get rid of.  In late 2008 Romano help found You’ve Changed Records, a small upstart label that released Daniel, Fred & Julie last year, a collaboration between Romano, Fred Squire and Julie Doiron.  Free of record company pressure, and untethered by any kind of deadlines or expectations, the record was a a refreshing change from what the trio usually did on their own.  For Romano, it seemed like just the thing to re-connect with his muse and remember why he became a musician in the first place.

And that reason, quite frankly, is to write and record records as beautiful and impassioned as Workin’ for the Music Man.  The industry may have broken his heart, but it cannot break his spirit, so even while Romano sings about music becoming a job instead of a joy, he’s keeping his sense of humour and fun.  As dark and depressing as the subject matter may seem, Workin’ for the Music Man is full of bright spots (see “My Greatest Mistake” or sing along with “Joseph Arthur” and tell me the storm clouds don’t disperse).  Attack In Black’s punk rock origins are still there in the LPs “middle-finger-to-the-man” spirit, but these songs are borne from the traditional folk songs Romano recorded with Daniel, Fred & Julie.  It’s the best country album by a punk rocker I’ve ever heard.

When I first reviewed Marriage back in 2007, I said that my favourite part of the record was the anticipation it created for what Attack In Black will do next.  Back then I said “what really excites me about Attack In Black is ‘what comes next’,” and true to form, with each subsequent release, I’ve been increasingly impressed.  As a solo artist, Romano has done the same.  Workin’ for the Music Man is the kind of record that reaffirms your faith in the record-making world.  It’s a reminder that there’s people out there who still work for the music, and not the man.

Workin’ for the Music Man is available now on You’ve Changed Records.

MP3: Daniel Romano “A Losing Song”
Myspace: Daniel Romano

(photo: outofthisspak.com)

Toronto’s Forest City Lovers have returned with their new LP, Carriage to woo and serenade us with their sweet indie folk sensibilities.  It wasn’t too long ago that I first fell under their spell, and in the short time I’ve been spending listening to Carriage I’d go so far as to say they’ve seduced me fully.

After the initial offering of “Phodilus & Tyto” as a 7″ single with “If I Were a tree” on the flip side (Carriage’s opening and closing songs, respectively, both new recordings), Forest City Lovers have made good on the promise their earlier work hinted at.  Originally the solo vehicle for singer-songwriter Kat Burns, Forest City Lovers have evolved into a full band of players who have mastered the art of making expansive, intricate music that never fails to surprise.  “Keep The Kids Inside” has an unexpected military marching band beat underneath vocals that sound like they’ve been recorded over a telephone and is isn’t at all the kind of song you’d have expected at the start of the disc.  But that’s the charm of Carriage: it goes against expectations right from the very beginning.  Everything you think this kind of indie folk, orchestral music should be (from bands like Camera Obscura and fellow Torontonians Ohbijou) is thrown out the window.  Quietly, subtly, and without fanfare, forest City Lovers have changed the way we’ll look at this sub-genre from here on in.  “Pocket Full of Rocks” is a lost doo-wop classic done over with cheesy electric organ; “Minneapolis” will have you bopping up and down to one of the year’s most gorgeous choruses on record.

Carriage came at me from left-field, mostly because I’ve not been a big follower of the band, but for those who’ve been fans for awhile now, I get the sense that it’s the album they’ve always felt the band had in them.  No matter from which direction you’re coming from, you’re gonna fall in love with Carriage, too.  It’s an unexpected treat.

Carriage is available now from Out Of This Spark records.

MP3: Forest City Lovers “Light You Up”
Video: Forest City Lovers “If I Were A Tree”
Myspace: Forest City Lovers
Twitter: Forest City Lovers

The four all come together in a glorious symphony of sound on Expo 86, an album that moves them light-years on from their last record, 2008′s At Mount Zoomer. Album opener “Cloud Shadow on the Mountain” kicks the doors wide open, rushing in to fill the void with thundering drums and bass, pulsing synths, and shredding guitar work.  Everything is pushed to its limits, sounding as if it’s about to tumble into a mess of feedback and distortion.  “Little Golden Age”, “What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)” rank as some of their best songs ever, while the album as a whole (here it comes) coalesces into their finest collection yet.  Together or alone, Boeckner and Krug haven’t written and recorded a finer set of songs.

J.D. Considine noted in The Globe & Mail this week that lyrically, Expo 86 doesn’t seem to be about very much at all, but not that it matters: “Instead, it’s about sound, about the way Wolf Parade mixes guitars and synths, riffs and rhythms.”  I couldn’t agree more.  You’re not going to gain anything by reading the lyric sheet while listening.  Krug spoke to Pitchfork a while back and said that when considering songs for the record, he questioned whether he would dance to the songs or not.  Dance if it suits you, but I prefer just immersing myself in the record.  I’d suggest putting on your best swim suit, grab a pair of goggles and just let yourself drown in the sound of Wolf Parade.

MP3: Wolf Parade “What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)”
MP3: Wolf Parade “Ghost Pressure”
Myspace: Wolf Parade

When You Left The Fire

The minor stir they created last year with the release of the Hymns of Love & Spirits EP drew a lot of attention (and some pointed criticism) to The Wilderness of Manitoba.  Their silky harmonies were lauded by some (like me) and loathed by others for being a rip-off of last year’s (over-) hyped band, Fleet Foxes.  The comparison is understandable, given their similarity, but the criticism for being any kind of copy cat is ridiculous: even on that early EP, you could hear the trajectory of The Wilderness of Manitoba’s musical evolution from traditional folk-inspired camp fire songs to more complex, layered ballads of love and longing.

The aforementioned EP was written before Stefan Banjevic and Melissa Dalton joined Will Whitham and Scott Bouwmeester, so even though all four played on the EP, they hadn’t actually all collaborated on the writing of the music.   With When You Left The Fire, the entire band has provided input and ideas to the music, and the new colours and shades provided by Dalton and Banjevic (as well as Sean Lancaric) has expanded The Wilderness of Manitoba’s palette considerably.  From the somewhat mournful dirge “St. Petersburg” to the crackling beauty of “Hermit”, The Wilderness of Manitoba are an arresting collective.  There’s musical nooks and crannies to go exploring in their fuller sound, like secret compartments that hold all kinds of added treasures.  I can listen to album opener “Orono Park” over and over for that exact reason: every listen reveals something new and different that wasn’t there before.

In very short order, The Wilderness of Manitoba have come out of the, uh, “wilderness” of Canada’s indie music scene.  When You Left The Fire is the kind of album that doesn’t leave you the same way you were before you listened to it.  If anything, you’ll carry its warm glow and mellow beauty with you for hours–if not days–on end.

MP3: The Wilderness of Manitoba “Summer Fires” (QBiM EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD!)
Facebook: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Myspace: The Wilderness of Manitoba