Music, musings and miscellanea

Cartography, the sixth record from Vancouver-based The Buttless Chaps,
balances the sounds developed by the band over its decade-long
existence. Producer Jesse Gander (Ghost House, ex-Operation Makeout)
weaves Ida Nilsen’s vocal and keyboard flourishes into the band’s
alt.country core, though the results are mixed. “Broken Transit, Broken
Soil” and “Coal Grey Sky” are superb songs, and lead singer Dave
Gowans’ deep tenor is reminiscent of Matt Berninger from The National.
But where that band fill out their sonic experiments with hooks that
are infectious without being obvious, several of Cartography‘s tracks
take too long to get anywhere, making what could have been a great
record just pretty good.

This review originally appeared in Eye Weekly.

Day one of NXNE started with a bang down at the Mod Club over on College St. Having grown up hearing Sloan blasting out of radios everywhere and discovering Ted Leo much later on in university, I’d never really made much of a connection between the two bands. But seeing them play back to back really highlighted the pop roots at the core of each band’s songs.

I made it inside in time to catch the opening riff of Leo’s “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone,” what (I assume) was the night’s opening song. This was my fourth time seeing Leo and his revolving group of Pharmacists (drummer Chris Wilson and his massive beard seem to be the only constant), and I have to say it was one of the best. Eternally stuck in high gear, the man seemed to take the 40-minute time limit imposed on the set as a challenge to cram in as many songs in as possible. He ripped through older tracks like his life depended on reaching to the next song, and treated the partially filled venue to about half a dozen new tunes. The band’s sound was greatly improved by the addition of second guitarist James Canty on tour. Leo comes from a DIY punk rock background, but the guy can shred and Canty’s steady rhythm playing gave him the freedom to do so. The best part of the night for me came with hearing the new tunes which, in this humble blogger’s opinion, were all a marked improvement over last year’s tepid album Living With the Living

Sloan hit the stage in high spirits, and they should be. Their recent offerings, including the three-day old Parallel Play, have reinvigorated and re-purposed the Halifax ex-pats, a fact all four members seem to realize; they played nine of the new album’s 13 tracks, including three of drummer Andrew Scott’s contributions. I got the impression that had it not been for guitarist Jay Ferguson’s soar throat, they would have played the whole damn thing. And even though he was audibly ill the few times he stepped up to the mike to speak, he jokingly tried to lead the band into a rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Peppered in between the new tunes were three cuts off Never Hear the End of It and “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” from 1996’s One Chord to Another, the only actual hit they played during the set. On paper this sounds like a wankerish move, but this was actually the most consistent I’ve ever seen them live (they’re usually pretty hit and miss). Their encore ended the show with blazing renditions of “The Good In Everyone,” which Murphy joked was “the most exiting two minutes in music” and “She Says What She Means.” As a testament to they’re dedication to his dedication to his adoptive home and its music scene, Murphy was spotted hours later down at the Horseshoe, chatting with Jim Cuddy and checking out some local bands.

The May 29th Islands show at the Phoenix Theatre was hottly anticipated for several reasons: it would be the first show I’d attend in Toronto, I’d tried and failed to see both Islands, and the Unicorns in the past and I just really loved their last record “Return to the Sea.” So it’s with a heavy heart that I say, the show was a disappointing one.

The departure of founding member J’aime Tambeur between the group’s debut and the recording of their new record “Arm’s Way” has left a void in the group that shows both on their new record and live. Despite being a six piece group, the band definitely felt like it was masterminded by Tambeur’s musical foil Nick Thorburn (which I think it is) with the other five members acting as little more than hired guns.

The band opened strong with new single “The Arm” but failed to really connect with those in attendance, interacting with the audience as little as possible. Thorburn looked awkward onstage, literally in the spotlight while the rest of the band took their cues. The result was a workmanlike set heavy on new material that was relatively unknown to the crowd (the gig was less than two weeks after the new record’s official release). The darker, less quirky tunes off the album (most likely the product of the group’s tumultuous lineup changes) were met with the most lackluster response while the three tracks from “Return to the Sea” that made it onto the set list were greeted with rapturous enthusiasm.

Islands are now signed to Epitaph imprint Anti Records, and the label is likely keen to keep these guys on the road for the next while. Hopefully both the band and it’s audience will become more comfortable with the new material before the next time they roll through Toronto.

Featuring ex-members of Helmet and Don Caballero, skull crushing grooves could be expected to make up a large portion of Battles debut LP. But unexpected were the number of hooks that would ride those grooves and propel Mirrored from just a pretty cool instrumental record to one of the best albums of the year. Unlike their two EPs issued in 2004, vocals are included on many tracks, but they’re consistently manipulated to the point where they effectively become an instrument themselves, a feet best heard on lead single “Atlas.” The words are indistinguishable, but who cares – they’re not the point. This is Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music meets the Beatles.

So yeah, Queens of the Stone Age played down at the Cunard Centre last night, and yeah, they were awesome, but you can read about that all somewhere else on the Internet. What we’re going to talk about today is last night’s opening band Mugison. Mugison (pronounced Moo-gy-son) is the brainchild of  Örn Elías Guðmundsson and isone of Iceland’s top selling artists (that’s where he’s from if you hadn’t caught on yet). Normally he operates as a one-man plus laptop band, but for this tour he’s got a four peice backing band to beef his sound, giving the whole thing a beer-soaked blues on steroids vibe. The band hit the stage with an air of confidence around them and promptly launched into their set. Mugison’s songs run the gamut from Tom Waits’ caterwauling and Hawksley Workman’s falsetto with a little bit of Eels jagged edged blues mixed in for good measure. And ho-boy can these guys swing (Sasha Frere Jones should take note), thanks in no small part to their drummer who was standing up pointing his drum sticks at the crowd about as much as he was actually playing and the crowd ate it all up. If all this weren’t enough, the band played a second set later that night at the Seahorse Tavern. By the time this blogger got their the lineup ran up the stairs and across the front of the Economy Shoe Shop. So while I didn’t get in to see the band, I have no doubt that they had no trouble making new friends.