Topic Of Conversation - April 16, 2010

Tomorrow is Record Store Day! A day to go out and show your love and support to some of the most important people in the music industry. No, I am not talking about the cocaine addicted record execs. I am referring to the long suffering independent record stores.

Tomorrow is there day, and tonight we celebrate that.

Remember kids, you can always listen in at 6:30 every Friday at 100.3 Sound FM.

Here is tonight's setlist.

Buck 65 - Blood Of A Young Wolf (From Secret House Against The World)
The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations (From Boys & Girls In America)
Lucero - Bikeriders (From Nobody's Darlings)
Arlis Nancy - Abacus (From Truckstop Roses)
The Golden Dogs - Birdsong (From Everything In Three Parts)
The Superfriendz - Karate Man (From Mock Up - Scale Down)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Even Heroes Have To Die (From The Brutalist Bricks)
The Thermals - A Stare Like Yours (From Fuckin A)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Ativan Eyes (From The Brutalist Bricks)
The Riptides - Hung Up (From Tales From Planet Earth)
The Hextalls  - My Dad Vs Shania Twain (From Get Smashed)
Hot Water Music - Turnstile (From Fuel For The Hate Game)
Spanish Gamble - It's All Coming Down (From S/T)
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - Hollow Graves (From Goodbye Debris EP)
Latterman - Water Mains At The Block's End (From S/T)
The Loved Ones - 100K (From S/T 10")
Leatherface - Not Superstitious (From Mush)
North Lincoln - Weight Of The World (From Midwestern Blood)
O' Pioneers - The Record Time (From Black Mambas)
Junior Battles - We're Not Coming Down (From Hotel Bibles EP)
Frank Turner - The Real Damage (From The First Four Years)
Paul Westerburg - Runaway Wind (From 14 Songs)
The National - The Geese of Beverly Rd. (From Alligator)
The Raveonettes - Dead Sound (From Lust, Lust, Lust)
Pink Moutaintops - Execution (From Outside Love)
Pavement - Gold Soundz (From Quarantine The Past: The Best of Pavement)
Archers Of Loaf - Greatest Of All Time (From Vee Vee)
... And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Counting Off The Days (From The Secrets of Elena's Tomb)
Tom Waits - Pony (From Mule Variations)

Topic Of Conversation - April 7, 2010

Here is tonight's playlist:

The Weakerthans - Greatest Hits Collection (From Fallow)
A.C Newman - Drink To Me Then, Babe (From The Slow Wonder)
Nada Surf - Happy Kid (From Let Go)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Woke Up Near Chelsea (From The Brutalist Bricks)
Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union (From The Monitor)
Neutral Milk Hotel - Two Headed Boy (From In The Aeroplane Over The Seas)
Okkervil River - Another Radio Song (From Black Sheep Boy Appendix)
Pavement - Here (From Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement)
Pink Mountaintops - Execution (From Outside Love)
Jesus And Mary Chain - Only Happy When It Rains (From Darklands)
My Bloody Valentine - Susisfine (From Isn't Everything)
Sloan - I Am The Cancer (From Smeared)
Dinosaur Jr. - We're Not Alone (From Beyond)
The Replacements - Seen Your Video (From Let It Be)
Husker Du - Sorry Somehow (From Candy Apple Grey)
Jawbreaker - Big (From Biovac)
Fugazi - Cashout (From The Argument)
Sleeter Kinney - You're No Rock N' Roll Fun (From All Hands On The Bad One)
Superchunk - Hyper Enough (From Here's Where The Strings Come In)
Arliss Nancy - Abacus (From Truckstop Roses)
Lucero - Chain Link Fence (From Tennessee)
Nothington - This Time Next Year (From All In)
Ladyhawk - The Dugout (From S/T)
Brian Fallon - Tin Pan Alley (From Ragan/Fallon Split 7")
Hayden - Let's Break Up (From The Place Where We Lived)
Tim Barry - This November (From Manchester)

Cursed Arrows - Review

You can find this originally published here:

Cursed Arrows  Telepathic High Five (Noyes Records)

I am not a minimalist.

I can't look at a plate of food consisting of two crackers, a piece of cheese and a shaving of lettuce and call it a sandwich. It's just not me.

I can't listen to a band that doesn't have a guitarist and not think about what the mix would be like if it was there.

I guess this could be the reason I have always had difficulties really enjoying the ever popular two-person band dynamic. Don't misunderstand, I think it can work well, as is the case with bands like The White Stripes, or The Handsome Furs, but for every one gets it right, there are a dozen bands that just sound flat without the combination of a drum, a bass and a guitar.

Waterloo, ON band Cursed Arrows is a two piece band and I will be honest, upon opening up the envelope containing their second release Telepathic High Five I was a little let down. The only two pieces I like are either extremely well produced blues or contain a drum machine to pick up the slack. Reading their bio names like Nirvana, The Pixies, Pavement and The Melvins were name dropped. Quite the list to include in your bio, and while they themselves did not draw these connections, the comparisons were made never-the-less. By the time I had reached out and pressed play, I am not sure what I had built this band up to sound like. I was certain that I would not like them. I had built the two member's up to a couple of pretentious, minimalist rock-snobs with a Cobain fetish.

My brain likes to play tricks like this all the time. It just loves to independently form opinions on things, without any basis or merit. Logic would dictate that I would listen to a band before dismissing them totally, but some days, I just can't.

It was around this point that I started the lead-off track "Run Forever". The drums kicked in and I suddenly realized how wrong I was. The music was good. Really good actually. It didn't feel like a chore listening to it at all.

I really, really wanted to find a fault. It is always so easy to do with a two-piece band. Most of the time the songs are lacking something, and more often then not, it is the lack of a bass guitar. Bass drums can only do so much. Cused Arrows have made up for that with a really interesting drum mix. Tons or high hat and snare to push up the treble, and god, do I love treble.

Some of the songs tended to get a little too jammy for my taste. I think songs like "Earthlings" and "Chop You Up" were more enjoyable due to their brevity, but I also think that The Ramones perfected rock & roll and that Phish should have been battered and deep-fried, so clearly, I am biased.

In the end, they had won me over.  Telepathic High Fiveisn't going to go down as the next Repeater, but on its own merits, it is a great little record.

Daniel, Fred & Julie - The Interview

I spoke with Daniel Romano, of Attack In Black, about his recent side gig in the folk band Daniel, Fred and Julie. If you would like to see the article in its original glory, check it out here, otherwise:

It all started with a song book and a train trip to New Brunswick.

From there, musicians Daniel Romano, Julie Doiron and Fred Squire gathered together in a garage, pressed record, and let the songs happen.

At least that’s the vibe Romano gives about the recording of the self-titled release by their group, aptly titled Daniel, Fred and Julie.

Romano took a train out to Squire’s house in Sackville, NB, and was met their by Doiron and her kids. Romano brought with him a book of traditional folk songs that he had gotten from his parents, and the record grew from there.

While lyrically, a lot of the songs on the self-titled release are the same as they were when they were written, most of the music was rewritten by the either Romano or Squire.

Instead of modernizing the songs like Billy Bragg and Wilco did on the Mermaid Avenue sessions, the band opted for a much more “traditional” approach.“A few of them I knew a little bit. I picked out the ones that worked, at first glance, as a song.” He said. “I wouldn’t have to stuff too many words into a verse.”

When asked why they didn’t take the updated approach,Romano said “I think that is what we didn’t want to do. We wanted to make it in the most traditional style possible.”

“‘Clementine’ is pretty much the only one that is a staple.” he said. “That one is pretty much the same (as it was originally written). I knew “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum”. My Grandfather used to play that song, but I don’t remember how it went so I guessed. The melody, Fred had an old finger picking  riff he could play and that just came together like that.”

“You can hear trucks driving by. You can hear Julie’s kids moving lawn chairs around.”Recorded in Squire’s garage surrounded by the sounds of the street, the band laid down the record in one week. As their bio sheet says “there were no overdubs or edits.” What was recorded was what you hear on the record.

Talking with Romano, you get the sense that none of this was planned much in advance. He says the idea “was just to do some recording. We thought ‘we will be recording, but maybe nothing will come of it.”

“I wanted to hang out with Fred and play guitar and stuff.” he said. “I went out there to see what would happen, and thats (the album) what happened!”

The album went on to chart on !earshot, and got positive reviews nearly across the board. Romanosays the response has been “a surprise. Bigtime”

“I wasn’t expecting that at all” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be publicized at all, but then I guess you have to do that in order for people to know about it.”

The band did a brief European tour for the record, and is in the middle of a cross Canada tour.

As for his other band, Welland, On Attack In Black, he said that a new record should be in stores in the fall.

When asked to describe the sound of the band now, which has undergone a noticeable change since the release of their 2007 debut record Marriage, he said “The new record is going to sound likeCrazyhorse.”

“Punk had run its course really.” Romano said. “There was nowhere to go.”

Besides a new record, he addressed a few internet rumours about the re-release of that debut record.

“That’s probably more my brother’s project.” Romano said. “I know he has mentioned something like that before. Getting the tapes from the original session and trying to do something with them. I don’t know if he will ever follow through on that but I would be interested to hear it.”

“I don’t even know what that would sound like anymore.”

Much like the rerelease of Marriage, he says he is unsure of the future of Daniel, Fred and Julie.

“I felt like it would be weird if we did something again. I don’t know why I felt that way, but I talked to Fred and he said he would be into the idea. I feel like I could be into the idea, if he is.”

Perhaps Romano will need another summer vacation one day.

Find out more about Daniel, Fred and Julie at http://www.myspace.com/danielfredandjulie