Pledge Drive Reminder and Explanation

Well, as anyone who has went to check out this blog lately can tell, there has not been a whole lot of updating done. My apologies for that, but due to restraints of time, accessibility to the web, and other factors I have simply not been able to produce the weekly updates I had originally promised for this site. Another issue that affected this lack of updating was the seeming lack of interest for the blog, which truth be told, mostly falls on my shoulders for not promoting the blog enough neither on air or by other methods. Rest assured, this will change come the week of October 4-10 when CJAM officially changes its signal from 91.5 to 99.1 FM. The numbers change, but nothing else as the station will continue to provide grassroots alternative music and spoken word radio to the Windsor-Detroit region, and those who stream it online at www.cjam.ca. Not only will the regularity at which this blog is updated will increase, but so will overall promotion of the site and of the Fear of Music program. In the meantime just hold tight, and tune into CJAM this upcoming Tuesday, September 29, where I will be hosting the annual pledge drive show for my own program at 1pm, as well as fill in earlier at 10:30am for Dave at Revolution Rock.

Play List: August 18, 2009

Les Paul – Lover (When You’re Near Me) (Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy)

Bon Iver – For Emma (For Emma Forever Ago)
Mount Eerie – Between Two Mysteries (Wind’s Poem)
Radiohead – These are My Twisted Words

Pissed Jeans – False Jesii, Pt. 2 (King of Jeans)
Pissed Jeans – Spent (King of Jeans)
Jay Reatard – It Ain’t Gonna Save Me (Watch Me Fall)

87 Things for the Future - The Ride (...of the Divine Magician and Actor)
Junior Boys – Caught in a Wave (This is Goodbye)
YACHT – Summer Song (See Mystery Lights)

Mos Def feat. The Ruler - Auditorium (The Ecstatic)
Tanya Morgan – So Damn Down (Brooklynati)
Awol One & Factor – Destination (Owl Hours)

Japandroids - Avant Sleepwalk (All Lies EP)
of Montreal - Computer Blue (Purplish Rain)
Destroyer – Bay of Pigs (Bay of Pigs)

Album of the Week: Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans

No genre of music has managed to both continuously elate and repel me as much as hardcore punk. Within the confides of hardcore seems to exist a dichotomy in which bands are either ground breaking, intense, and exhilarating or completely banal, derivative, and uninspired. What separates the cream from the crap is usually an element of deviation, innovation, or thematic importance. Minor Threat instigated straight-edge philosophy into the genre, Husker Du experimented with classic rock templates, while Flipper slowed down the rhythms of their songs from hardcore’s usual breakneck pace. And while innovation seems almost lost to us within the new millennium, there are still some groups who continue doing service to the genre. I present to you as evidence Allentown, Pennsylvania’s Pissed Jeans. Some fortunate souls may have stumbled upon their 2007 release Hope for Men, probably only due to its release on Subpop records. Those expecting another spirited indie-pop release akin to the Shins or Postal Service would be greatly shocked to instead hear abrasive guitars, a pulverizing rhythm section, and barking/yelped vocals by one Matt Korvette, who lyrical content often dealt with rudimentary and every day subject matter such as eating ice cream or cleaning up the house. Pissed Jeans follow it up with the aptly titled King of Jeans, a release that takes the template of their previous work and manages to increase the volume, tenacity, and humour of their previous material. Korvette is back singing about unconventionally everyday subject matter from wanting a back rub to watching an R-rated movie, but with such gusto and vehemence that he makes the subject seem profound in importance. The songs themselves are a little more constructed this time around with more electronic effects, distorted guitars, and overdubbing than their previous release. It sounds like the type of release the group labored over, one that expands upon what they have done before yet codifies their love of hardcore legends Flipper and Black Flag. King of Jeans is neither bloated nor excessive because of this extra detailing; this record remains, and even surpasses Hope for Men, in its intensity and barrage of noise. Fans of SST’s back catalogue ought to love this, and for any jaded former scenesters who stubbornly declare hardcore a dead genre, this album is a sure “shut the fuck up” just for them.

Listen To: She is Science Fiction, Spent, False Jesii, Pt. 2

RIYL: Black Flag, Flipper, Circle Jerks

Play List: August 11, 2009

Tinariwen – The Tamashek People (Imidiwan: Companions)

The Unicorns – Tuff Ghost (Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?)
Islands – Rough Gem (Return to the Sea)
Extra Happy Ghost!!! – Mash Up: Neither Being nor Nothingness (How the Beach Boys Sound to those with No Feelings)

Tara Watts - In the Backyard (About Love)
Doug Paisley - What About Us? (Doug Paisley)
Lee Harvey Osmond - Queen Bee (A Quiet Evil)

Jon Hassel – Aurora (Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street)
Jon Hassel – Time and Place (Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street)
Fortunately, Everything Dies – Let’s All Worship Ridley Scott (Censored)

Pissed Jeans – She is Science Fiction (King of Jeans)
Future of the Left - The Hope that House Built (Travels with Myself and Another)
High Watt Electrocutions – Ode to Snake Charming (Desert Opuses)

M83 - Graveyard Girl (Saturdays = Youth)
Amon Tobin – The Hunt for Ray Sphere (inFamous)
DJ Food – The Illectrik Hoax feat. Natural Self (One Man’s Weird is Another Man’s World)
Clark – Future Daniel (Totems Flair)


Cymbals Eat Guitars - ...And the Hazy Sea (Why There Are Mountains)

Album of the Week: John Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street

Over the course of three decades, trumpeter and minimalist composer John Hassell has become a figure difficult to describe. Though his works are often compared to Miles Davis because of his extensive use of editing and electronic treatments in post-production, his reputation stretches far beyond that of just an electric-jazz studio composer. Hassell has studied under the avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, worked with Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, played on the first recording of Terry Riley's seminal composition In C, and has collaborated with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, the Talking Heads, La Monte Young, David Sylvian, and Ry Cooder. He has tread the waters of jazz to avant-garde to New Wave, while his minimalist compositions have always veered towards the ambient, placing the importance of texture and space over melody and rhythm. And then there is the "Fourth World", a term coined by Hassell to describe his unique mix of minimalist techniques and amalgamation of electronics to traditional Asian and African styles of playing. Hassell continues to experiment with primitivist/futurist sounds on his latest full length Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street. Though I’m as sick as the next person of jazz being labeled “easy-listening” music these days, there is something very relaxing and ethereal about this release. Perhaps more indebted to Eno than any other artist, Last Night is filled with the type of atmospheric soundscapes and deep textures that set-apart works like Music for Airports and Apollo. The album opens with the glow of “Aurora”, a crescendoing piece that slowly reveals itself with the growing intensity of Hassell's playing. It’s follow up, the exceptional “Time and Place” is propelled by a snaky-slow funk rhythm, while the sounds of violin, guitar, and organ fade in and out of the backdrop. The eleven minute title track is perhaps the best summary of Hassell’s signature sound, as his trumpet is treated with so much echo that it becomes indistinguishable from its surrounding accompaniment. This is gaseous music that shifts, fluxes, and never limits itself. Thirty years on Jon Hassell continues to make breath-taking and groundbreaking music, reinventing the genre that birthed him, and blurring the line between what is jazz and what is not.

RIYL: Miles Davis, Brian Eno, Stockhausen

Listen To: Aurora, Time and Place, Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes on the Street

Play List: August 04, 2009

Talking Heads – Mind (Fear of Music)

Hide – Run Rabbit Junk (Hide Your Face)
Reynada Hill – Cosmic Dare (Ask DNA)
David Bowie – Quicksand (Hunky Dory)

Japandroids – Wet Hair (Post-Nothing)
Japandroids – The Boys are Leaving Town (Post-Nothing)
Talking Heads – Memories Can’t Wait (Fear of Music)
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)

Stiv Bators – It’s cold outside (L.A L.A.)
The Delgados – I fought the Angels (Universal Audio)
Forgotten Rebels – Elvis is Dead (In Love with the System)
John Foxx - Underpass (Garden)

Desastro – Biophelia (Moondagger)
Shuntaro Okino – Skywriting (Last Exhile OST)
Origa - Rise (Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. OST)
Talking Heads - Air (Fear of Music)

Akino Arai – Voices (Sori No Mori)
Budo Grape – Swimmer (Juice!)

Album of the Week: Japandroids - Post-Nothing

After hearing every new sub-genre, synth-flavoured, elaborately orchestrated release in the indie cannon from the past five years or so, it seems the part that is often left out of the indie-rock equation is the rock. Sure, I may be one of the set to enjoy a genre defying track or meaningful lyric more than a guitar solo, but sometimes it seems as if the genre has forgotten its foundation by noise-makers like Husker Du, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr. At least it did until recently. A trend seems to have come about where groups no longer seem afraid to plug into their amps and hurt some people’s ears: Titus Andronicus, No Age, and Cymbal Eat Guitars are all indebted to this resurgence of volume and intensity into indiedom, but it is Vancouver’s Japandroids that are truly ahead of the pack. The garage noise duo, consisting of Brian King and David Prowse, seem spiritually kindred to punk forefathers the Ramones. Like their New York processors, the Japandroids produce unapologetically fast, loud, and naïve songs about road trips, going to shows, and girls, yet never fall into the pits of machismo indulgence nor stupidity. The music of the duo’s full length debut Post-Nothing is deceptively simple, in that though the music may seem straight foreword it works with themes and ideas more complex than they initially appear. “Wet Hair”, which arguably holds the album’s most over the top lyric about moving to France to French kiss some French girls also holds an admission about futility (“She had wet hair/say what you will/I couldn’t resist it”). The opener “The Boys are Leaving Town” is so ambiguous with its mantra-like repeated lyric “The boys are leaving town/Will we find our way back home?” it doesn’t dispel itself easily as either an escapist anthem or existential query. And then there is “Young Hearts Spark Fire”, not only the group’s most shinning moment to date but also the song that best summarizes the band’s ideology: “I don’t wanna worry about dying/I just wanna worry about sunshine girls.” It’s a return to rock, or perhaps better put, a return to the fun that rock can make a listener feel even when dealing with heavier topics. It’s all utterly catchy, exuberating, and will definitely make you smile.

Listen To: Young Hearts Spark Fire, Wet Hair, The Boys are Leaving Town

RIYL: No Age, Mclusky, Titus Andronicus

Play List: June 28, 2009

The Vaselines –Dying for It (Enter the Vaselines)

Garbage – Hammering in My Head (Garbage)
Hercules and Love Affair – Athene (Hercules and Love Affair)
Elastica – Hold me Now (Elastica)

Gobble Gobble - Meteor Eschew (Neon Graveyard)
Gobble Gobble – Alabaster Bodyworld (Neon Graveyard)
Akino Arai – Ukraine (Natsukashii Mirai )

The Delgados – Is this all that I came for? (The BBC Sessions)
The Felice Brothers – Penn Station (Yonder is the Clock)
Megafaun – The Fade (Gather, Form and Fly)
Animal Names – Frogs in 2010 (Oh Yes You Better Do)

Orange Range – Spiral (Panic Fancy)
No Age – Teen Creeps (Nouns)
Nutsak – You are going to Prison (Failed Musician)

JJ – From Africa to Malaga (JJ no. 2)
Oumou Sangare – Seya (Seya)

Switchblade Symphony – Dirty Dog (Bread and Jam for Frances)
Assemblage 23 – Document (Document)
Bike For Three! – Lazarus Phenomenon (More Heart Than Brains)

Cymbals Eat Guitars – What Dogs See (Why there are Mountains)

Album of the Week: Gobble Gobble - Neon Graveyard

In an era where file-sharing basically encompasses the whole of how new musical artists are discovered, its refreshing to hear about artists brought to light by more unconventional means. Neon Graveyard, the debut album from Gobble Gobble (musical project of Edmonton's Cecil Frena) achieved circulation through copies of cassettes! The record itself is as unique and characteristic as it means of distribution. Frena's sound collages parallel works by Dan Deacon in that both use crashing cymbals and 8-bit video evoking beeps. However, while Deacon's works have been the musical equivalent of a sugar rush, Gobble Gobble's sounds are much more subdued and low key. The opening track "Meteor Eschat" sets the tone perfectly; minimalist, sweet, with pulsating bass, undulating guitars and tape-hiss abounding while Frena's fuzzed-out falsetto floats along underneath the barrage of noise. Its all surprisingly beautiful and the album is chock full melodies and hooks, but it is the layers of the album that are truly enticing. After a couple of spins you'll notice the cello playing in the background, the caw of bird from field recordings beneath the beats, the type of hidden sounds that only someone truly vested in their craft could pull off. Although the album often focus upon themes of death and decay, but it does so with a sense of humour as if laughing in the face of the inevitable (titles like "O Sacred Dandruff" are evidence enough to this). What Frenca has yielded with Neon Graveyard is a touching, often funny, often intelligent, and ever affecting record. Brilliant stuff.

Listen To: Alabaster Bodyworlds, Meteor Eschat, O Sacred Dandruff

RIYL: Dan Deacon, Xiu Xiu, Black Moth Super Rainbow

Play lists for July 7 and July 14 shows...better late than never, huh?

July 7:
Death from Above 1979 - Sexy Results (You're a Woman, I'm a Man)
Pointed Sticks - Part Of The Noise (Part of the Noise)
Newtown Neurotics - Living With Unemployment (Beggars Can Be Choosers)
The Got To Get Got - War of Letters (Sahalee)
Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue (Ambivalence Avenue)
Bibio - Fire Ant (Ambivalence Avenue)
J Dilla - I Told Y'all (Jay Stay Paid)
Sights & Sounds - Borderlines (Monolith)
Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn - One More tothe Call (Silent Hill Homecoming)
Meat Puppets - Hot pink (demo) (Up on the Sun)
Wilco - Wilco The Song (Wilco the Album)
Todd Snider - America's Favourite Pastime (The Excitement Plan)
R.E.M. - Harborcoat (Reckoning)
Nick Drake - The Thoughts of Mary Jane (Five Leaves Left)
Brock Geiger - Skin (Invitation)
Scatman John - Scatmambo (Take Your Time)
The Junior Boys - Bits and Pieces (Begone Dull Care)
See-Saw - Kikou (Moble Gundam SEED)

July 14:
Godhead - Eleanor Rigby (200 Years of Human Error)
Camera Obscura - Honey In The Sun (My Maudlin Career)
Vampire Weekend - Walcott (Vampire Weekend)
Amadou & Mariam - Africa (Welcome to Mali)
The Crystal Method - Blunts & Robots (Divided by Night)
Love Pink Pony - Men (Vida)
Front Line Assembly - Strategic (Civilization)
Beastie Boys - B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak (Ill Communication)
16 Volt - This (Demography)
Tiga - Turn The Night On (Ciao!)
Beborn Beton - Angel One (Another World)
Ramblin' Jack Elliott - How Long Blues (A Stranger Here)
Pat Lepoidevin - Blue Tornadoes (Blue Tornadoes)
Cass McCombs - Lionkiller Got Married (Catacombs)
Future of the Left - Land of my Formers (Travels with Myself and Another)
North of America - Minus Sign (This is Dance Floor Numerology)
John Foxx - Systems of Romance (The Garden)
Vieux Farka Toure - Souba Souba (Fondo)
Enigma - Incognito (Voyageur)

Album Cover Highlights - July 21, 2009

Before getting to the main body of the post, I would like to mention three albums covers that due to restraints of time and availability were not played on the program today, but should have been:

1) Pixies – Surfer Rosa

This is actually one of my favorite album covers. Though front man Black Francis came up with the idea for the model to appear topless, it was longtime Pixies visual collaborator Simon Larbalestier who came up with the crucifix and torn poster, claiming he wanted to load the picture with Catholic imagery. Inside the album art are other photographs of the flamenco dancer in several other poses.

2) The Durutti Column – The Return of the Durutti Column

This debut album for Manchester guitarist Vini Reily was encased in a sandpaper sleeve, scraping the images off of any other albums it was placed next to. This idea was made by longtime Factory Records art director Peter Saville.

3) Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

Inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End, this infamous image of the weird naked alien children climbing over a rocky mass is actually a collage of image taken across Europe. This art actually holds some controversial history due to accusations of pornographic imagery. This led to Atlantic issuing the album in a paper sleeve to conceal the image from public viewing.

Now since that is out of the way, onto today’s play list:

Roxy Music “All I Want is You” – Country Life

The cover of Roxy Music’s fourth releases features two scantily clad German models Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald. (the former was reportedly the sister of Can's Michael Karoli). The group’s singer Bryan Ferry met the pair in Portugal where he persuaded them to do the photo shoot. The two also are rumored to have helped written lyrics to the German lyrics to the song "Bitter-Sweet".

Joy Division “Interzone” – Unknown Pleasures

The image on the cover is taken from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, and represents exactly 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered. The idea of using this image was suggested by drummer Stephen Morris, and was designed by Peter Saville.

Big Black “The Model” – Songs About Fucking

An album cover as grotesque, unattractive, and uncompromising as the name of the album would suggest. A perfect parallel to the extreme post-hardcore sounds found on the record. This album features a cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” which is found off of a record with another brilliant sleeve design, 1978’s The Man-Machine.

Can “I’m So Green” – Ege Bamyasi

A pun on the German group’s name, the cover to their fourth LP indeed depicts a can of ege bamyasi (translated from Turkish as “Ageon okra”). Mmm…looks tasty, don’t it?

Iggy & the Stooges “Shake Appeal” – Raw Power

The album that perhaps best exhibited the animalist nihilism of the godfather of punk was sports a portrait of Iggy in his most iconic state. The lone figures cast against a black background appears threatening, sexual, confident, intelligent, and dangerous all at once.

Bob Marley “Concrete Jungle” – Catch a Fire

Perhaps Marley’s most famous album art, the original 20,000 pressings of the album replicated a zippo lighter, complete with a side hinge that made the package open like the real deal.

Miles Davis “Black Satin” – On the Corner

Miles Davis was never one to shy away from controversy. Perhaps one of Davis’ most foreword looking records (with sounds predating hip-hop, post-punk, and various forms of electronic music), On the Corner also featured a pastiche of black racial stereotypes to play on the preconceived images of black culture associated with funk and jazz music at the time. Many called it borderline racist, but Miles shone a light on the exploitative ideas within his own genres.

Sonic Youth “Mildred Pierce” – Goo

"I stole my sister's boyfriend. It was all whirlwind, heat, and flash. Within a week we killed my parents and hit the road." The text and image (a Raymond Pettibon illustration based on an existing photo of witnesses of the infamous "Moors Murders") encapsulate the range of danger, ugliness, beauty, and fetish of teenage rebel found in Sonic Youth’s music.

Fucked Up “Looking for God” - The Chemistry of Common Life

The Toronto post-hardcore group’s second full-length release features a shot of a Manhattanhenge or Manhattan Solstice. This biannual occurrence happens when the sun sets in alignment with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s street grid, producing a spectacular natural phenomenon.

Feuermusik “Full of Grace” – No Contest

The Toronto duo’s avant-jazz sophomore release. Heh, ever notice Feurermusik kind of sounds like “Fear of Music?” Just wondering.

Public Image Ltd. “Socialist” – Metal Box

True to its name, the legendary post-punk outfit originally released their second album in a metal canister. Though the record would be reissued the following year as Second Edition feature more standard paper packaging, this release marked not only an innovative highpoint for P.I.L. but also their record company Virgin, who fully complied with the band’s creative intentions.

P.O.S. “Drumroll” – Never Better

CD packaging that allows the owner to customize their own album cover. Demonstrated in this cool video.

DJ Shadow “Organ Donor” – Endtroducing...

A beautiful shot of inside California music store Village Records, where Joshua Davis (aka DJ Shadow) reportedly attained most of the albums he sampled for this milestone record. The two figures in the photo are actually Solesides members Chief Xcel and Lyrics Born.

Sigur Ros “Intro” - Aegetis Byrjun

The weird baby-angel-alien figure was drawn by Gotti Bernhöft, who apparently based the sketch off of legendary Icelandic spirits called “Huldenfulk” (roughly translated as “the hidden people”). Listening to this lush atmospheric release with sounds of alien beauty, its not hard to see where he drew the parallel from.

Jimi Hendrix “And the Gods Made Love/Have You Ever Been” – Electric Ladyland

The original cover was soon banned due to controversy over the presence of naked females photographed for the artwork. Too bad really, because the subsequent releases feature a rather generic image of Hendrix’s face on the cover. Some people just don’t have taste I guess.

The New Pornographers “The Fake Headlines” – Mass Romantic

Reportedly discovered at a yard sale during the album’s recording process the image depicts two lovers embraced as a mountain goat (yes, a mountain goat) watches on menacingly. Though not technically good art, it sure is amusing to look at.

Neutral Milk Hotel “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

This album cover was designed in collaboration between Neutral Milk Hotel mainman Jeff Mangum and Chris Bilheimer, whose previous work included fellow Athens, Georgia band R.E.M.. The surrealist imagery perfectly reflects the abstraction of Magnum’s lyrics, and reflected the album’s motifs of fascism, spirituality, and youth. The design was actually based off of a postcard found by Magnum of a bathing resort.

Radiohead “Faust Arp” – In Rainbows

Designed by longtime visual collaborator Stanley Donwood, the cover to Radiohead’s seventh release was the unique result of putting prints into acid baths. The packaging itself includes stickers that can be placed onto a standard jewel case in order to make your own In Rainbows album art.

Buzzcocks “Orgasm Addict” – Orgasm Addict

The infamous iron-headed woman who adorns the Manchester group’s debut single is one of the freakiest image I have come across by far. Designed by visual artist Linda Sterling, she described the piece as commentary on the comodification of sexuality, a theme the groups would often turn to in their music. Freaky, just really freaky.

Thrush Hermit “1991” – Rock and Roll Detective

I had never heard of the group until Dave from Revolution Rock pulled out this single. A beaver in a wood paneled living room. Yes, you can bet they are Canadian.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor “Sleep” – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

The themes of political exploitation and social unrest often tackled by Godspeed are superimposed by imagery of dismembered hands, skeletal masked figures, and scissors. As a bonus, the vinyl edition features a diagram that illustrates the song names and lengths.

Talking Heads “Stay Hungry” – More Songs About Buildings and Food

Showing that art-school pays off, Heads front man David Byrne conceived and executed the design for the front cover, a photo mosaic of the group composed of 529 close-up Polaroid pictures.

The Velvet Underground “There She Goes” – The Velvet Underground and Nico

Sometimes referred to as the "banana album" due to its print of a banana on the cover as provided by one Andy Warhol. Initial pressings of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see"; peeling off the banana skin revealed a flesh-colored phallus underneath. Warhol claimed it to represent the monkey-on-the-back which was drug addiction that the Velvets so freely sung about.

The Tranzmitors “Teen Man” – Tranzmitors

Looking all blue and science-fictiony, this Vancouver based power-pop quartet know how to strike a pose. A little generic but neat looking.

The Rolling Stones “You Gotta Move” – Sticky Fingers

The album featured a zipper that opened on the jeans to reveal a man in his undies (YIKES!). Conceived by Andy Warhol, photographed by Billy Name and designed by John Pasche. Aside from being both provocative and unique, this album cover also comes with a little bit of a mystery. Though Joe Dallesandro is credited as the model whose crotch was depicted, many involved at the time of the photo shoot claim that Warhol had several different men photographed and never revealed which shots he used. The possibilities range from Warhol’s lover at the time Jed Johnson to Factory artist Corey Tippin. Also noteworthy is an alternative cover for the album in which a can of beans is opened to reveal a set of dismembered digits floating about.

Update: Two Daves and a lot of album covers

An unexpected increase of general shenanigans going on in life right now are keeping me rather busy and not able to devote the time I wish I could to the blog. The last few weeks of play lists will eventually be posted (promise!). In the mean time some news: CJAM is officially changing over to 99.1 in the near future so stay tuned for that. In conjunction with the station’s frequency change, expect a major overhaul around this blog. Also you may have noticed a new voice on the air with me for the past little while: that would be David Foot, a co-host to previous CJAM programming and now full-time co-host of Fear of Music.

Check out next week’s program for a very special edition of Fear of Music where I will be counting down my 20 all-time favorite albums covers. Wanna see if oen of your favorites make the cut, tune in this Tuesday at 1pm to CJAM 91.5 or stream it at www.cjam.ca. this show will also feature Dave of Revolution Rock whose own program I will be co-hosting earlier in the day. It is sure to be a good time.

Album of the Week: Cass McCombs - Catacombs

I unfortunately don’t have the time to write a full review for my album pick of the week, Cass McCombs’ Catacombs. Let me just say that this is a beautifully sprawling dedication to McComb’s wife that weaves between the folk sounds of Dylan and Cohen, and is comparable to Bill Callahan or the mellower moments of the Velvet Underground. My thoughts on this records are neatly compatible to this review supplied by the NME’s Martin Robinson: "You’re led into ‘Catacombs’ by the primitive lure of guitar, percussion and a seductively pure voice. But once in the darkness, hypnotized by the country swagger of ‘Dreams-Come-True-Girl’, McCombs then shines a light on some unexpected corners. ‘You Saved My Life’ sounds almost like The Human League; an atmospheric, deeply romantic pop gem. ‘My Sister, My Spouse’ is a midnight howl that’s like Lou Reed at his most grimly fearless, and perfectly melodic, while ‘Lionkiller Got Married’ sounds like late Joy Division. This is an album of long, mysterious love songs to get lost in for days – seek it out."

Listen To: Dreams Come True Girl, You Saved My Life, Lionkiller Got Married

RIYL: Bill Callahan, Leonard Cohen, acoustic Velvet Underground

Album of the Week: Bibio - Ambivanlence Avenue

As his first release for Warp Records after a five year stint with Mush, Ambivalence Avenue sees Bibio, aka Stephen Wilkinson, raising the bar on his distinct style of experimental electronica. Drawing from fellow comtemporaries such as Flying Lotus and Boards of Canada, Wilkinson utilizes sampled found sounds and field recordings, while expanding his pallet to include electronically treated guitars and etheral synthes. The result of this is an album that is difficult to classify. Dream-pop guitars chime over ghostly vocals while down-tempo trip-hop beats mesh with psychedelic sound collages. The album takes as much from DJ Shadow as it does Galaxie 500, with enough beats to appeal to hip-hop heads, but the melodies and song structures that ought to attract indie-kids. Perhaps the most surprising thing about it all is just how pastoral Ambivalence Avenue sounds; the feelings of open space and fluidity the album evokes is enough to nearly fall into ambiance, but those guitars keep it sounding like some Arcadian landscape. Yet its not exactly folktronica either, for all one needs to do is listen to the searing synthes of "S’vive" or the beat-brakes of "Dwrcan" to remind of how urban Bibio’s roots are. I’m not certain what to call it, but I do know Bibio has created a work sure to appeal to many and leave even more in sheer awe.

Listen To: Ambivalence Avenue, Jealious of Roses, Fire Ant

RIYL: Boards of Canada, Flying Lotus, Galaxie 500

Michael Jackson RIP

Weird day. I miss getting up for my alarm, a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions hits the city, and while buying records, I notice a girl buying a stack of Michael Jackson CDs and books, near tears at the register. When I go to pay the girl behind the counter asks me if I heard about Michael Jackson yet. I think he's done some outlandish stunt again, but instead find out that MJ died. Yep, the legendary musician, at one time delegated with the title of the King of Pop passed away at the age of 50 after going into cardiac arrest. I cannot say I am particularly sad or shocked about his death, and considering the past 15 to 20 years of his career its not exactly a loss the contemporary musical landscape. Yet there is still something odd about hearing someone so famous and influential passed away. Perhaps underground rapper DOOM said it best: "A little bit of everyone died today, I can tell you a piece of me just did. Let's just say this is the first time I've watched MTV in a long time." Word is born.

Album of the Week: Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

Call it art rock or experimental pop, but Dragonslayer certainly has weirdness to it. Sunset Rubdown have created an album that tenses and flexes as if about to strike, yet then recedes into placidity. This may seem like an odd description, but a listen to the album relays a series of these push and pull moments in which the bombastic melts into the calm, where anxiety churns into puppy-eyed affection. All of this can be heard in the album’s opener, “Silver Moons”, in which a baroque pop orchestration builds upon itself, ending up as a glam-rock anthem. The rest of the album plays a similar game and push-and-pull, though jumping amongst jittery new wave (“Idiot Heart”), the indie-pop of fellow Montréal groups Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade (“Paper Lace”), and complex punk-prog arrangements (“Dragon’s Lair”). If one tried to pin a mood down on the whole affair, one could see the album as mournful. Though Sunset Rubdown main songwriter Spencer Kurg has never shied away from the themes of death and loss, these have never formulated their selves so principally in the group’s previous catalog. The lyrics read like suicide poetry as Kurg belts out about empty rooms, departed(deceased?) lovers, and confetti floating away “like dead leaves”. Thankfully the album does not lose itself to any maudlin tendencies, and the record’s heavy subject matter is counter-balanced by buoyant choruses and Kurg’s bombastic vocals, which sound eerily more like Bowie than ever before. Much like Bowie’s Berlin trilogy of albums, the Arcade Fire, or the recent Dirty Projectors, Dragonslayer revels in the oppressive and darker aspects of life in such a celebratory fashion its as if Kurg and co. recorded the sounds of fending off the demons of human doubt and desperation. Always walking a fine line between indulgence and opacity, Sunset Rubdown have got the balance completely right, and in the process have created their first real masterpiece.

Listen To: Paper Lace, Idiot Heart, Silver Moons

RIYL: David Bowie, Wolf Parade, the Dirty Projectors

Play List: June 23, 2009

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
The Peace Leaches – Surfin in the Soil (ROYGBIV)
The Dirty Projectors – Useful Chamber (Bitte Orca)
David Bowie – Aladin Sane (1913-1938-197?) (Aladin Sane)

Sunset Rubdown – Paper Lace (Dragonslayer)
Sunset Rubdown – Silver Moons (Dragon Slayer)

Vieux Farka Toure – Fafa (Fondo)
Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada – Tu Fin, Mi Gomienze (Coconut Rock)
Johnny West – Croutons of Your Mind (If I Had a Quarter…)
Fever Ray – Seven (Fever Ray)
Bonnie Pope and Micah – Sometimes Words (My Name is Caleb and I Like to Dance)

Mastodon – Ghost of Karelia (Crack the Skye)
sunn 0))) – Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia) (Monoliths & Dimensions)
Dinosaur Jr. – Your Weather (Farm)

Mos Def - Supermagic (The Ecstatic)

Play List: June 16, 2009

30th Anniversary of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division - Disorder
The Cure - A Short Term Affect
OMD - Gravity Never Failed
Shihoko Hirata - Heaven
Joy Division - Day of the Lords
Joy Division - Candidate
Joy Division - Insight
U2 - A Day Without Me
New Order - This Time of Night
Joy Division - New Dawn Fades
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Joy Division - Wilderness
Joy Division - Interzone
The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls
Joy Division - I Remember Nothing

Unknown Pleasure's Tribute Show on June 16

June 16 will feature a special edition of Fear of Music in which the 30th anniversary of Joy Division's seminal 1979 album Unknown Pleasures will be commemorated.

This debut album for the Manchester quartet utilized a distinct angular and atmospheric sound that many claim to have catalysed the genre known as 'Goth-rock' and crystallized the sound of post-punk music for years to come. This program will examine the history of the album's origin, highlight its influence on a number of musicians, and explore its contemporary legacy in music, film, and other media. Tune in this Tuesday from 1-2:30pm to celebrate the release of this important work, and to listen to the classic album in its entirety.

Play List: June 09, 2009

"In Dave's absence I will continue his hatred of the Mac"

Nomo – Bumbo (Invisible Cities)

Japandroids – Sovereignty (Post-Nothing)
Sonic Youth – No Way (The Eternal)
Thee Oh Seas – Ruby Go Home (Help)
Tortoise – Prepare Your Coffin (Beacons of Ancestorship)

The Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move (Bitte Orca)

Bike for Three! – All There is to Say About Love (More Heart Than Brains)

Nosaj Thing - IOIO (Drift)
Busdriver – Least Favourite Rapper (Jhelli Beam)
The New Law – Hell’s Gates (High Noon)

The Prince Brothers - Dorothy (From this Place)
Lee Harvey Osmond – Cuckoo’s Nest (A Quiet Evil)
Luxury Pond – Boulders (Luxury Pond)
Grizzly Bear – Foreground (Veckatmest)

Jeff Hanson - The Last Thing I’ll Do (Madame Owl)
Iggy Pop – Spanish Coast (Preliminaires)
Lou Reed – Last Great American Whale (New York)
Field Assemby - Alkali (Broadsides & Ephemera)

Tiga – Shoes (Ciao!)

Album of the Week: The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

What springs to mind immediately when discussing Bitte Orca, the newest release from Brooklyn indie rock group the Dirty Projectors? Goddamn hipsters! Arg! Critically adored, cult like adoration, and have you seen those haircuts? I bet they recorded Bitte Orca on a Mac! I bet group founder/ songwriter Dave Longstreth edited it on his Mac while sitting in a Starbucks. I bet singers Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian went into the studio (which is probably Longstreth’s house outfitted to record on his Mac) after coming back from shopping for over priced t-shirts at American Eagle. Even scenester taste setters Pitchfork.com and Tinymixtapes gave the thing rave reviews, the ultimate recognition of hipster-aimed music! Gah, I really want to hate this album…so why do I love it so much?
Ever since I first heard “Stillness is the Move” I haven’t been able to get its chiming synth lines and slinking rhythm out of my head. It perfectly melds Remain in Light era Talking Heads and Dirty Mind era Prince into a futurist stomp, it’s robotic chilliness imbuing the love spoken of in the song with more than a tinge of irony. No doubt about it, this catchy thing is one of the best tracks of the year. The remainder of the album fares incredibly well too. The deconstructionist elements of the compositions no longer seem tacky or like showing off as they had on previous Dirty Projectors releases, but somehow integral to the works (such as the repetitious guitar line in “Remade Horizon” and the fractured chords of “Two Doves”). Though I still find Longstreth’s vocals somewhat annoying and pompous, he has made vast improvements in his vocal delivery since 2007’s Black Flag tribute Rise Above, and incidentally made has allowed for some emotional residence and vulnerability this time around. Perhaps the greatest addition to the Dirty Projectors’ sound is the subtle evocations of African music in the poly-rhythmic arrangements of both percussion and string instruments and the off-kilter vocal harmonies. This is sure to delight fans of the aforementioned Talking Heads as well as those who enjoy Vampire Weekend, Graceland, or Peter Gabriel’s early solo material. I would not quite nail this as a perfect release, but hopefully my hate-love relationship with the group will pass and I’ll end up enjoying Bitte Orca more than I already do…even if it was recorded by a bunch a Mac using hipsters.

Listen To: Stillness is the Move, Remade Horizon, Useful Chamber
RIYL: Talking Heads, Bjork, Prince

Play List: June 02, 2009

"If it doesn't destroy the ozone, then its not working."

The Kinks – The Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society)

Ofo & the Black Company – Allah Wakbarr (Nigeria 70: Definitive Story)
Demon Fuzz – Disillusioned Man (Afreaka)
Branford Marsalis Quartet – Jabberwocky (Metamorphosen)

Sunn O))) – Big Church (Monoliths & Dimensions)

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise (Eating Us)
Field Assembly – Old Spell (Broadsides & Ephemera)
Pony Up! – Charles (Stay Gold)
Quiet Parade – Only Bones (Labour Day)

(wh)y.m.e.(??) – All That Remains (AEIOU)
Passion Pit – Folds in Your Hands (Manners)
Patrick Wolf – Oblivion (The Bachelor)
High Contrast – Remember When (True Colors)

T. Nile – Reverie (The Cabin Song EP)
Buddy & Julie Miller – Gasoline and Matches (Written in Chalk)

Manic Street Preachers – Me and Stephen Hawking (Journal for Plague Lovers)
Au Revoir Simone – All or Nothing (Still Night, Still Light)

Def3& Factor – Leaders vs. Followers (Drumbo)

Album Pick of the Week: Sunn 0))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

In a decade where so much of the musical climate has consisted of revisionist plagiarism and rehashing past sounds, it’s a godsend to be able to hear something truly new and unprecedented. This godsend comes from the revered drone doom duo sunn 0))) who have finally released their seventh and mightiest studio album, Monoliths & Dimensions. This four track, 53 minute album sees the group moving their farthest away from their “drone metal” critic-pigeonhole to something closer to the avant-garde compositions of John Cage or Arvo Part. The epic choral arrangements of “Big Church” and the jazz-laden ballad “Alice” are evidence enough of this growth, while the surging opener “Aghartha” and the near battle anthem of “Hunting & Gathering” should appeal to fans of the group’s previous experiments with tone and time. This record also features the largest number of guests on a sunn 0))) release yet: Hungarian singer Attila Csihar, Earth’s Dylan Carlson, Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi, violinist Eyvind Kang, and even a Viennese choir are featured. Nothing the band has done before sounds as neither captivating nor as original as Monoliths & Dimensions. Perhaps the band best summed up this album in their own words: “the most musical piece we’ve done, and also the heaviest, powerful and most abstract set of chords we’ve laid to tape.” It is also their best.

Listen To: Big Church, Aghartha, Alice

RIYL: Earth, Catacombs, Arvo Part

Playlist: May 26, 2009

"Wilco's Jay Walter Bennett R.I.P. 1963-2009"

Mocky – Birds of a Feather (Saskamodie)

Phoenix – Lisztomania (Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix)
Flower-Corsano Duo – The Drifter’s Miracle (The Four Aims)
Uochi Toki – Il Ballerino (Libro Audio)
Slakah the Beat Child – Crate Love feat. Divine Brown and Ray Robinson (Soul Movement Vol. 1)

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks (Veckatimest)
Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others (Veckatimest)

Staff Benda Bilili – Je T’aime (Tres Tres Fort)
Nomo – Waiting (Invisible Cities)
Joshua Redman – Just Like You (Compass)
Elfin - Saddle Running Sheep (Ringing Them From the Begin Again)

Okkervil River – Pop Lie (The Stand-Ins)
Weird Weather – You and Me (Surface of the Moon)
Lucinda Williams – Passionate Kisses (Lucinda Williams)
John Doe & the Sadies – Husbands & Wives (Country Club)

Wilco – Poor Places (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
Flowers of Hell – The Strength of String (Come Hell Or High Water)
Woods – To Clean (Songs of Shame)

Album of the Week: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Like a Brooklynite art-rock cousin to the California sunny pop of Pet Sounds, Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is a finely crafted record composed with meticulous attention to detail. Every guitar strum, piano chord, and sweet vocal harmony seems as if it has been obsessively considered. A far cry from the lo-fi bedroom pop of 2004’s Horn of Plenty or 2006’s Pitchfork approved Yellow House, this album (named after an island in Massachusetts) is the next step in Grizzly Bear’s sonic evolution, one of the most promising progressions in pop music this side of Radiohead. Sure, the amount of attention Veckatimest has received pre-release may seem a bit like hyperbole (the album has been continuously voted on uber-music geek site rateyourmusic.com in the top five albums of the year since March!), but the attention may also be warranted considering the quality of the record. The songs mix up psychedelic sound experimentation (sure to appeal to fans of Animal Collective), rustic alt-country guitars, and aforementioned Beach Boys harmonies. Perhaps the closest comparison point though may be to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as both records tread that fine line between experimentation and roots rock conventions. However, unlike Wilco’s tendency to delve into safe “dad-rock”, the boys of Grizzly Bear produce music a bit too eerie, may I even say edgier, to be cast off to dad’s record collection. The opener “Southern Point” sees the group engaging with psychedelic jazz arrangements while the chamber pop suites of “I Live with You” show how far reaching the band’s ambitions were in recording this album. However, the record truly shines during its moment of pop simplicity, with “While You Wait Here for the Others”, “Cheerleader”, and the bouncy “Two Weeks” standing apart as the album’s highlights. Though the heft of such an ambitious construction may at first come across as a daunting listen, Veckatimest easily becomes one of the most incredible and addictive albums released this year. As the band say themselves, “I can’t get out of what I’m into with you.” I’m sure many more will share these very same sentiments about this album in the weeks to follow.

Listen To: Two Weeks, While You Wait for the Others, Cheerleader

RIYL: Radiohead, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Pet Sounds,

Playlist: May 19, 2009

"Hey look, I'm married now."

The Hold Steady – You Can Make Him Like You (Boys and Girls in America)

Jarvis Cocker – Homewrecker! (Further Complications)
Jarvis Cocker – Hold Still (Further Complications)

Seun Kuti and Fela’s Egypt 80 – African Problems (Many Things)
The Burning Hell – I Love the Things that People Make (wewerk is 6!)
Johnny West – Abandoned House Burning Down (If I Had a Quarter…)
Beck – Nitemare Hippy Girl

Zu – Soulympics (Carboniferous)
Bastard Noise – Tyranny Before Earth Epilogue (Rogue Astronaut)
The Field – The More That I Do (Yesterday and Today)

Bradleyboy – Not Today (The Farm)
Tagaq – Want (Auk/Blood)

Two Fingers – Not Perfect (Two Fingers)

Album of the Week: Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

Further Complications is a pure pleasure. The combination of Jarvis Cocker’s usual witty, sarcastic, and perverse narratives of modern metropolitan life mixed with Steve Albini’s “in the room” production results in an album that is arresting both sonically and lyrically. Though the former Pulp frontman does not devate too much from his usual themes of unrequited lust ("Angela"), heartbreak ("Homewrecker!"), requited lust ("You’re in My Eyes"), slice of life observation ("Caucasian Blues"), and lust ("Fuckingsong") there is an intensity propelling these songs that was sorely missing from his first solo effort, Jarvis. There are even some surprises too, such as the Spiders from Mars era Bowie evocation of of "Homewrecker!" and the Stooges style hardrock of "Fuckingsong". Proof that there truly is life after Pulp.

Listen To: Fuckingsong, Homewrecker!, Angela

RIYL: Pulp, Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars, Japandroids

Play List: May 12, 2009

The Kooks – Victoria (War Child Presents: Heroes)

Isis - 20 Minutes/40 Years (Wavering Radiant)
KMFDM – Virus (Naive)
Pawa Up First – The Outcome (The Outcome)

Staff Benda Bilili – Avramandole (Tres Tres Fort)
Staff Benda Bilili - Polio (Tres Tres Fort)
Hotcha! – My Walking Stick (Dust Bowl Roots: Songs for the New Depression)
Great Bloomers – Speak of Trouble (Speak of Trouble)

D-Sisive - Riot I Caused feat. Classified (Let the Children Die)
Random – Splash Woman (Megan Ran 9)

Pulp – Have You Seen Her Lately? (His ‘n’ Hers)
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (Wuthering Heights)
Scatman John – Have You Seen Her Lately? (Scatman Sings)

Red Animal War – Violet (Best of...)
After Forever – Who I Am (After Forever)
Kero – Franklinfranklin (Shitkatapult)
Montag – Nord I (Hibernation)

Absu – Night Fire Canonization (Absu)

Album of the Week: Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort

The thing about a band like Staff Benda Bilili is that they could be easily written off as a novelty. The group of Congolese street performers consists primarily of paraplegic singer/guitarists who make their way around in specially designed tricycles. The perform in slums and outside the Kinshasa Zoo, and the group’s shining star in a 18 year old musical prodigy who plays his own makeshift single-stringed electric lute that he constructed out of a tin can. Yeah, that’s the type of shit that gets P.R. people salivating. Yet this amazing back story would mean nothing if the music on Tres Tres Fort were not any good. Thankfully, it’s good. Staff Benda Bilili’s unique mixture of rumba, reggae, and traditional rhythm and blues does not quite sound like anything else out there. Some affinities could be made to other bands produced by Tres Tres Fort producer Vincent Kenis (Konono No.1, Kasai Allstars, the the Congotronics compilations) and those who enjoyed Welcome to Mali, last’s years incredible release by Mariam & Amadou, are bound to like this release. Yet these comparison points pale. The album sounds forward thinking while reverting away from the wave of electronics and digital editing that has plagued contemporary Western music this past decade. Tres Tres Fort is one of the sweetest sounding and most inspiration albums of the year by far.

Listen To: Je T’aime, Polio, Avramandole

RIYL: Kasai Allstars, Mariam & Amadou, the Congotronics series