Month: June 2021

Old Fellas New Music Episode 14 Notes

On By paulmcguire2013In MixCloud, Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment
the artists for this weeksome of

Music for Week 14

Quivers- You Are Not Always on My Mind

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To

Coal Porters – The Day the Last Ramone Died

Bleachers – Chinatown 

Goon Sax – A Few Times Too Many

Japanese Breakfast – Paprika

Lambchop – A Chef’s Kiss

Mdou Moctar – Chismiten

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Reel Around the Fountain

Our show on Mixcloud

Episode 14. You can find all our episodes here
And here is our ever-growing Spotify Playlist

Quivers- You Are Not Always on My Mind

The Quivers performing some pop perfection:

Quivers – You’re Not Always On My Mind (Live on KEXP)

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen – Like I Used To

I have to start with another fun quote from the Guardian

“I strongly believe that if Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen teamed up to sing anything up to and including Las Ketchup it would be a moment so emotional we’d all emerge three minutes later with dewy eyes and a strong urge to become better people. So you can imagine what they’ve done with this swirling eddy of a song. Exhaustingly amazing.”

Guardian

Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen – Like I Used To (Official Video)

This is another artist(s) that seem to be really popular in the UK, but I have never heard them here. Not that this is any measure of note. But everything I read about this new single is really positive and the video is pretty good too. Last word goes to Pitchfork:

Their first collaborative single, “Like I Used To,” lives up to its potential, plays to their strengths, and still manages to pack a surprise.

Pitchfork

The Coal Porters

The Coal Porters was a long time Sid Griffin led band.  Sid  in the 80’s was in the band the Long Ryders .  This is a cut from their 1984 debut ep . 

The Long Ryders – 10-5-60

2016 brought the Coal Porters tribute to the Ramones, The Day the Last Ramone Died”   

The Coal Porters – The Day the Last Ramone Died (Official Video)

The “1234” used in the lyrics is of course reference to how many Ramones song began.  

 The “Gabba Gabba Hey”  references  Tod Browing’s 1932  disturbing horror classic, “Freaks” 

Freaks (1932) – Gooba Gabba Gooba Gobble

 Sid is also an accomplished author. 

Bleachers

Bleachers is an American indie pop act based in New York City. It is the official stage name of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, who is also part of the bands Steel Train, Fun, and Red Hearse. Bleachers’ pop music is heavily influenced by the late ’80s, early ’90s and the high school-based films of John Hughes while still using modern production techniques. Their first single, “I Wanna Get Better“, was released February 18, 2014.

Panned on The Guardian with song – Stop Making This Hurt

The world’s premier Springsteen tribute act is back with producer extraordinaire Jack Antonoff channelling the Boss into a skittery break-up song. It feels as if it’s trying to say one thing and do another, with the gang vocals attempting to build to euphoria, but coming off a bit like a bunch of lads worse for wear on the train after a match.

Instead, we featured the song Chinatown  and there are several Youtube videos of this song, all with Bruce Springsteen. This is the one I liked

Bleachers – Chinatown (BLEACHERS ON THE ROOF live at electric lady) ft. Bruce Springsteen

How did Jack Antonoff get Bruce Springsteen to play on this song? You will have to listen to the broadcast to get Bob’s reasoning which makes lots of sense.

Another great song, but outside our timeline is Roller Coaster

Bleachers – Rollercoaster

Their upcoming album including Chinatown and Stop Making This Hurt will be Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night.

Goon Sax

The Goon Sax are indie pop trio from Brisbane, Australia. Formed in 2013, the band consists of Riley Jones, Louis Forster and James Harrison.

The Goon Sax – A few times too many

I think Robert Christgau, (the “ Dean of US Rock criticism “) hits the nail on the head,  

The Goon Sax

  • Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016] A-
  • We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Up for Anything [Chapter Music, 2016]
My brilliant wife heard Go-Betweens in this high school band well before I learned that Robert Forster’s son Louis was a cofounder or that they were “driven” by a female drummer or even that they were Australian. Nah, I told her, though I liked them fine–too crude. And indeed, they’re cruder than even the earliest Go-Betweens, who were a university band after all, and somewhat static at their worst. Usually, however, they’re charming at least. When Louis fantasizes about a “Boyfriend” or James Harrison hates the “Telephone,” it just accentuates the specifically adolescent angst they pin down so much more candidly and affectingly than any other high school band that comes to mind. “If you don’t want to hold my sweaty hands / I completely understand”? Pretty mature, in its way. A-

We’re Not Talking [Wichita Recordings, 2018]
Although Louis Forster takes fewer leads on this young threesomes’s smoother and trickier follow-up, their unpretentious affect, plain guitar, and flat groove still recall the early years of his dad’s Go-Betweens. True, Louis reports that he’s barely heard them. But I doubt de facto frontman James Harrison was so cautious, and can imagine drummer Riley Jones learning that Lindy Morrison never stepped up to the mike and deciding she’d better: “I don’t want distance / When distance always seems to be the thing / That comes and hurts us.” In any case, a university art band they’re not. Instead they’re still reflecting on adolescence with a humility and concentration that hurts. No one’s calling but they’re not picking up the phone. Passing your bus stop hurts even though they know you need time to yourself. Come to think on it, they “never knew what love meant” anyway. Yet already mortality impends in the form of “piles of books I’ll never read / And a list of things I’ll never be.” Twelve songs in half an hour that say more than they pretend and plenty they may only intuit. A-

Robert Christgau

Comparisons to the Go- Betweens are unavoidable.  Here’s a neat little 5 minute bio  with Louis Forster’s dad Robert.  

The Go-Betweens: The 80s band that never conquered the world – BBC Newsnight

Japanese Breakfast – Paprika

This is the second act that Bob and I were both planning to feature for this show. Here are some selected quotes from Exclaim Magazine.

“When the world divides into two people / Those who have felt pain and those who have yet to,” Michelle Zauner sings during the aching ballad “Posing in Bondage.” It’s clear that she falls into the former camp, but Jubilee, her third album as Japanese Breakfast, dances the pain away. Whether it’s the fashionable funk of “Be Sweet” and “Slide Tackle,” the stately Beirut horns of “Paprika,” or the honeyed pop classicism of “Kokomo, IN” and “Tactics,” Jubilee is always tinged with melancholy but never defeated by it.

I couldn’t find a good version of Paprika on Youtube so instead here is her performance on the Tonight Show with Be Sweet from the same album.

Alex Hudson – Exclaim Magazine

Japanese Breakfast: Be Sweet | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

# 20 0n Exclaim!’s 31 Best Albums of 2021 So Far

Japanese Breakfast is an indie rock band headed by Korean-American musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner (born March 29, 1989). The band released its first studio album Psychopomp (2016) on Yellow K Records, followed by Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021) on Dead Oceans.

Zauner released her debut book, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, via Alfred A. Knopf in 2021. The book is planned to be adapted into a feature film by Orion Pictures, with Zauner providing the soundtrack.

Lambchop –  A Chef’s Kiss

Lambchop – A Chef’s Kiss (Official Lyric Video)

Here is an interview with Lambchop’s head guy Kurt Wagner explaining the lp “Showtunes”

Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner: “I was looking for something less structured, something I hadn’t done before” – Interview by Steven Johnson

On the background to new album Showtunes, converting guitar into piano sounds, continuing to embrace technology and broadening his range of collaboratorsLambchop's Kurt Wagner

Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner (Photo: Angelina Castillo)

As frontman of Lambchop for the best part of the last 30 years, Kurt Wagner has pursued a long, satisfying musical journey where developments within the band’s sound have been gradual and considered. Yet, there have also been discreet nods to different genres along the way, pleasing embellishments and expansions to their core alt-country aesthetic. New album Showtunes provides another stylistic detour of sorts, building on the fresh direction put in place on 2019’s This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) and 2016’s FLOTUS as Wagner takes indirect inspiration from showtunes, American standards from the first half of the 20th century.

These aren’t covers or close appropriations however, but rather typically impressionistic pieces that bring together Wagner’s songwriting strengths and his broader interest in musical experimentation. Given the sense of progression that has defined Lambchop’s recent releases it feels oddly apt that when we catch up with Wagner to talk about the album, the conversation begins on a travel-related note. “I’m out here in Las Vegas visiting my in-laws at the moment. We haven’t seen them in quite a while, so we just drove on out here. It feels weird to actually travel. I haven’t been on an interstate for over a year. It feels like things are transitioning with the pandemic. Having driven across the country, it feels like we’re on the cusp of a lot of people getting out and about.”

more here

Mdou Moctar – Chismiten

I read a few articles about this amazing musician from Niger the first one from Pitchfork. Their new album is listed as on of the top 6 you need to be listening to right now.

Some notes about who he is:

  • Mahamadou Souleymane,[1][2] known professionally as Mdou Moctar (also M.dou Mouktar; born c. 1986[3][1] or 1984[1]) is a Tuareg songwriter and musician based in Agadez, Niger, and is one of the first musicians to perform modern electronic adaptations of Tuareg guitar music.[4][5] He first became famous through a trading network of cellphones and memory cards in West Africa.[6]
  • Mdou Moctar is a popular wedding performer and sings about Islam, education, love, and peace in Tamasheq.[7][8][9] He plays a left-handed Fender Stratocaster guitar in a takamba and assouf style.

A little from the Pitchfork article:

If it were up to Mdou Moctar, the fiery, psychedelic rock music that has made him one of the most respected guitarists working today would be kept far away from professional recording studios. “With all due respect to all engineers,” the Tuareg virtuoso recently confessed to Reverb, “I find it much too square.” Late last year, the Nigerien musician gathered his bandmates outside a friend’s house in Niamey to test out material from Afrique Victime in a more comfortable environment. In the open air, the quartet quickly attracted an audience: adults dancing, children air-drumming, and others just watching in awe as Moctar’s songs ascended and burst in the desert sky like fireworks. As Sam Sodomsky writes in his Best New Music review: “You get the sense that when the lights go down and he looks out at his audience, he doesn’t just see his community: He sees the future.”

6 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Mdou Moctar, CHAI, Erika de Casier, and More

and more from the Guardian

From the Guardian

‘We are modern slaves’: Mdou Moctar, the Hendrix of the Sahara

Kim Willsher

His first guitar was made from wood and bicycle parts and his first songs were shared via Bluetooth in the desert. But the Niger musician has become international – and is taking aim at France

How do you even dream of making music when your family and religious leaders disapprove, when you live at the edge of the Sahara desert, and you cannot afford an instrument?

It helps that the Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar, from Niger, is not easily discouraged. Unable to acquire a guitar, he made one out of a piece of wood with brake wires from an old bicycle for strings, and taught himself to play in secret. “I was from a religious family and music was not welcome, but I would go and listen to local musicians and dream of being like them,” the 32-year-old singer-songwriter says over the phone while on tour in the US.

“My parents didn’t have the means to buy me an instrument and wouldn’t have done so. To them, becoming a musician would mean I was a delinquent, a terrible person drinking beer and taking drugs. I never told them I wanted to play the guitar, I didn’t dare. So I made one.”

The next challenge was reaching an audience. Moctar, born in the village of Abalak in the Azawagh desert of northern Niger, began playing at weddings, singing in Tamasheq, the Tuareg language. His first album Anar – composed for a lost love – was recorded in Nigeria in 2008: it introduced Moctar’s simple, raw guitar sound and haunting lyrics, a style known locally as “assouf”, a word that does not easily translate, but evokes desert blues. Anar wasn’t officially released; instead, it spread across the continent via Bluetooth swaps between mobile phone data cards.

Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Mdou Moctar – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame.

(Bandcamp)

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg – Reel Around the Fountain

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg are an instrumental duo who play original compositions and a stunning diverse set of cover songs.  Who would think of covering The Smith’s, “Reel Around the Fountain”?

Reel Around the Fountain – James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg

Here’s the original version juxtaposed to scenes from the film, “Atonement.”  I guess both song and film have fountains?

The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain

Nathan Salsburg is also the Curator of the Alan Lomax Archive at the Association for Cultural Equity. This is the website.  It is definitely worth diving into.

I mentioned Brador in passing.  In celebration of June 24th, here is a stubby of Brador!

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Walking through a Building on Fire

On By paulmcguire2013In InnovationLeave a comment
NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Globe and Mail, Thursday June 17th

On June 17th, two articles were published that really struck me. A third piece, written in the winter of 2019/20 by Dr. Timothy Stanley about the removal of Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue in Victoria in 2018 acts as an important piece that links these two events. They all have to do with belonging – who belongs here and who is honoured and respected. Who feels like the ‘other’ and whose history do we understand.

It seems to me that we are going through a radical transformation right now in Canada. The first article about Mumilaaq Qaqqaq’s decision not to run again in the next election doesn’t seem to have received too much attention, but I think it is really important. She talks about the House of Parliament as being an ‘uneasy place’

It’s a place where they make laws that result in Indigenous death and result in turmoil for a lot of our communities. I feel that.

Globe and Mail June 17, 2021

There is a connection to this very brave declaration by this Inuit lawmaker and the movement to roll back the symbols of racism and genocide from our places of honour and prominence. To me, it is intolerable that a young woman who represents all of Nunavut should be stopped by security guards while in the Parliament Buildings and questioned whether she really belonged.

The statues of John A. MacDonald really do not belong – if there is a lingering spirit of the man circling around the statues and buildings with his name on it, it is this spirit who should feel like it does not belong.

The CBC article – Kingston to move Sir John A. Macdonald statue from City Park is significant because Kingston is seen as the home of Macdonald and many people feel that the removal of the statue offends their sense of community. Plans seem to be in play to move the statue to his gravesite also in Kingston. I have a better idea (not my own), but more about that later.

The article by Dr. Stanley is really important here. This statue removal he writes about took place in 2018 so we have gained a bit of perspective on what the removal means in Victoria, the community where it stood. His article Commemorating John A. Macdonald: Collective Remembering and the Structure of Settler Colonialism in British Columbia ( BC studies, no. 204, Winter 2019/20), available here, it an important read especially now.

There are so many issues circulating around Macdonald and the central role he has played developing the institution of Residential Schools in Canada. You would think that we could all get behind a rethinking of his place in our history, but we are a nation in conflict. We seem unwilling to understand the implications of colonial politicians like Macdonald.

It is not as simple as the removal of the statues of Confederate Generals from sites in the United States – even though this is not all that simple. MacDonald never made war on Canada, but you could easily say he did make war on the different Indigenous and Metis populations his government encountered.

One idea that Dr. Stanley explores is the whole notion that by removing statues of Macdonald we are somehow erasing history. This is usually said by people who really have a really poor notion of what history really is.

What we emphasize and retell changes over time. The history we look to tells us much more about the messages governments want put out there at a particular time. It has little to do with faithfully rendering a clear narrative.

The statue of former Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald is covered by a red sheet in Kingston, Ont. on June 11, 2021. On Wednesday, Kingston’s city council voted to move the monument to Cataraqui Cemetery. The city will also spend $80,000 for the transportation and installation of the statue. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

There are so many interesting ideas in Dr. Stanley’s article I encourage you to take some time to go through this. He does sum up early in the article the idea of ‘settler colonialism’ a label used to describe the opposition to challenging the traditional narrative that Macdonald, Ryerson, Cornwallis or Langevin were simply good public stewards doing the best they could with the resources at hand.

This form of colonialism exists today in Canada and is manifest in all those who are currently opposing the removal of Macdonald’s statues.

While the structure of settler colonialism is all too real for Indigenous peoples, for most settlers it is largely invisible until such time as monuments get taken away or dominant systems of representation get challenged. 

Stanley p. 2

The council debate in Kingston illustrates how far apart Indigenous voices are from those espousing a colonial settler mindset. Delegates against the removal used arguments including ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ and that the removal of the statue was a harsh judgment of a historical figure, and that such a move would constitute “cancel culture.” (Kingston Whig Standard, June 16).

For sure there will be more of this type of talk as the statue is scheduled to come down this Friday ( June 25). It was the same in Victoria as Dr. Stanley quotes from a CBC report:

Matthew Breeden, reported as having travelled from Vancouver to protest, told CBC: “It’s part of our history I feel is being ripped right out and gutted down. I think that’s just terrible.” He continued: “They just pushed it right through – the public wasn’t allowed to have a say.”

John A. Macdonald Statue Removed from Victoria City Hall,” CBC News, 11 August 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/john-a-macdonald-statue-victoria-city-hall-lisa-helps-1.4782065.  

An interesting side note, Doug Ford, then the newly elected Premier of Ontario called on Vistoria to send the statue to Ontario. In their official request they noted:

As a Father of Confederation and our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald holds a significant place in the hearts of many Canadians and should be honoured accordingly

Globe and Mail August 14, 2018

These reactions, especially about not having ‘our say’, really shows the state we are still in as a country. When we talk about ‘our’ we are still talking about colonial settler mentality. When we think again about Mumilaaq Qaqqaq , it becomes clearer how alienated she must feel being at the center of colonial power in Canada. The lack of any noticeable reaction to this story is telling. Our House of Parliament is not inclusive, it does not speak for all; it still speaks, as it did in the days of Macdonald for the colonial settler.

Sir John A. Macdonald’s grave, located in Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, seen here on Thursday. PHOTO BY JULIA MCKAY /The Whig-Standard

The new resting spot for the Kingston statue is supposed to be at his grave site at the Cataraqui Cemetery just outside of Kingston. There was no consultation with Indigenous groups about this, just a last-minute vote of council to move it to another place of honour.

This is not the right decision on what to do with the Macdonald statue. If we want to develop a holistic historical narrative, one where a young Inuit MP feels like she belongs, we need to do some radical retelling of the story of this land. First, when it comes to honouring people responsible for genocide, Dr. Stanley has a suggestion to pass along:

In this respect, the controversy over Macdonald shows that there is much work to be done in encouraging Canadians to come to terms with their own complicity in settler colonialisms and racisms. Here are two suggestions regarding what to do with Macdonald monuments. One comes from a man from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan who has the unfortunate name of John A. McDonald. He suggests melting the statues down and making medals to give to residential school survivors: “He stole a piece of you, here’s a piece of him … you survived, and he didn’t, and let’s give it to every survivor of residential schools, everybody that survived the cultural genocide that he attempted.”

Stanley p.25

We are a building on fire, but many of the occupants are not smelling the smoke. We need to start with a new idea about what ‘our history’ is and at the same time stop honouring the men of power who have so much to answer for.

Old Fellows with a Twist! Episode 13

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New MusicLeave a comment
some of the musicians for this week.

So, we tried something really fun and different this week. Instead of Bob and I choosing the music, we asked our wonderful grown-up kids to do the selections and then come on to talk about their choices. Almost all of them were able to make it to the show and everyone contributed.

Here is what they came up with

Misterwives – Superbloom

Dvsn – Angela

The Flatliners – Hang My Head 

The Halluci Nation – Land Back 

Andrew Bird – Sisyphus 

Bernice – He’s the Moon 

Belle & Sebastian – The Power of Three 

Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra – Pescador de Aguas Turbias 

The East Pointers – Country Cable 

What a wonderful thing to have them all together on the radio to share their music. It was a great show with lots more variety than Bob and I could have put together.

You can listen to their music and comments here on Mixcloud

Our recording from last Wednesday. Around 1:08 – hope you can listen!

So, fewer notes this week as the young ones speak best off the cuff. I will add here what they suggested plus a video or two.

Dvsn – Angela – by Colleen

This song is Angela by DVSN, who are an R&B duo from Toronto. I like this song because of their incredible vocal range, they can go really high and low which is beautiful. I heard this song on Marvin’s Room, which plays on CBC radio.”

Some of the lyrics

[Verse 1]

Everybody’s got different sides to ’em

She’s no exception to the rule

One day she’s hotter than the sun

Next she’s colder than the moon

They say you want to feel appreciated

So before you come around

Recognize how far it’s come

To be ready for us now

[Chorus]

Always thought she was the prettiest

But she don’t know

So nice to meet you, Angela

[Verse 2]

Now how shit begins, don’t represent the end

It’s not always what it’s about

There’s ups and downs, to the East and the West

Sometimes it’s north and south

I’m praying for her on my knees

And I hope to God, hope that he can hear me

Don’t let her get caught up now

Cause the world out there is less forgiving

Bob also mentioned that they are nominated for a Polaris this year – dvsn – A Muse In Her Feelings as are Lido Pimienta and William Prince who we played last week.

 

The Halluci Nation – Land Back – Liam

The Halluci Nation:

The Halluci Nation – Land Back Ft. Boogey The Beat & Northern Voice (Official Audio)

From the Toronto Star

TORONTO—A Tribe Called Red have released a free song in support of the Indigenous-led protests involving the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The electronic producer duo say their track “Land Back” is a testament to using music as a mechanism to encourage unity and help give others a voice.

The collaboration with Boogey the Beat and Chippewa Travellers is available for free download on A Tribe Called Red’s SoundCloud page.

The performers say the song can be used by anyone working to promote Indigenous land sovereignty and “a true nation-to-nation discussion between the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island and our Canadian settlers.”

The Halluci Nation

Bernice – He’s the Moon – Mairi

They’re a Toronto based band- I haven’t listened to their other stuff but was really drawn to this song because it’s fun and different and draws on a couple different styles

We first heard it on After Dark on CBC. Perfect song to listen to on a cozy, dark evening!

Bernice – He’s the Moon (Official Video)

Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra – Pescador de Aguas Turbias – Liam

Montreal’ GKO is an explosion of music, dance and circus. The orchestra fuses Colombian Caribbean rhythms with musical styles from around the world in a melodic chaos.

Nominated for the prestigious Canadian Juno Awards, GKO is promoting their second album “VelkomBak”. A dozen songs that greatly expand the band’s musical palette and that invite us on a musical journey from the Andes to Quebec, passing through India, Spain and the Balkans.

A unique and tasty Canadian recipe, connecting disparate cultures and traditions through thecommon thread of the rhythmic language of Cumbia, with hints of ska, jazz and funk.

GKO has to its credit more than 300 concerts in Canada and 3 international tours (Colombia in 2014, France in 2015 and the Czech Republic and Austria in 2016). It is a rhythm machine getting ready to invade the world with its madness and magic.

Bob mentioned that he would love to see these folks live. I really agree. Here is a recording of a live performance

GKO Live at Le RIALTO

Here are a few videos of other bands we played this week – all would be great to see live!

This is a really fun video by the Flatliners, suggested by Brendan. You will have to listen to the show to heard about his connection to the band. I want to go!!

This is such a beautiful song. Thanks to Dylan for suggesting this one. I too love the whistling!

Andrew Bird – Sisyphus

I love this song and this great band that Brendan suggested. You really need to listen to what he has to say about the unique ability of this band. I found this, I hope it does justice to this great band.

Old Fellas New Music Episode 12 Notes

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New Music, voicEd RadioLeave a comment

First, I want to thank Doug Peterson for giving us a shoutout on his blog. Thanks Doug, it is great to know you are listening! Here is his write-up.

So, for this week, we have two versions of the show. A 60-minute version that is already up on Mixcloud and an extended version for Saturday night on VoicEd Radio. So to make these easier to find – we will archive the 90-minute version on Spreaker and keep the recording of the live Mixcloud show archived there.

Here is the extended play version

Playing this Saturday at 7:30 PM on VoicEd Radio

Here is the 60-minute version we uploaded to Mixcloud earlier this week.

And here is our Spotify Playlist with all the tracks we have played on our show plus a few extras!

This week’s playlist!

Mother Mother – I Got Love 

The Linda Lindas – Racist Sexist Boy

Lido Pimienta – Eso Que Tu Haces

Mountain Goats – Clemency for the Wizard King

Pokey Lafarge – End of my rope

Plants and Animals – House on Fire

William Prince – The Spark from 2020 Reliever

Holly GoLightly – Satan is His Name

Real Estate – White Light

Mother Mother I Got Love

Mother Mother released two songs in March 2021 – I Got Love and Stay behind. The band has been producing great music on the west Coast of canada for years, but now seem to be best known for having a Tik Tok hit. Canadian Beats Media continues:

Mother Mother, the Vancouver-based alt-rockers have released two new songs; “I Got Love” and “Stay Behind.” The brand new music is Mother Mother’s first offering on the heels of their recent explosion on the platform TikTok. 

After over a decade of releasing music and touring, a new global audience discovered and organically began using the band’s catalogue on the platform, resulting in rapid growth in the millions across all streaming and social platforms, and a Rolling Stone feature on this unique artist development story.

The new music was written during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and was produced by frontman Ryan Guldemond and Howard Redekopp, who produced much of the older music that is connecting with the global audience today. Both “I Got Love” and “Stay Behind” are available now. The release of “I Got Love” and “Stay Behind” also marks the first under the band’s deal with their new label Warner Music Canada.

Canadian Beats March 2021

A little about Mother Mother’s song Hayloft – In November 2020, Hayloft (10 years old) was the most searched set of lyrics in the US and the second most searched in the world. They were even featured in Rolling Stone Magazine!

The Linda Lindas – Racist Sexist Boy

The Linda Lindas are a group of LA youngsters playing punk rock.  In May 2021, the Los Angeles Public Library posted a video of the Linda Lindas playing “Racist, Sexist Boy” at a “TEENtastic Tuesdays” event. In the video, 10 year old Mila explains  the song’s origins. 


The band first came to Bob’s attention in Amy Poehler’s teen comedy Moxie.  Here, they perform a cover of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”

The Linda Lindas Perform REBEL GIRL (Official Video) | Moxie

Lido Pimienta – from Miss Columbia song Eso Que Tu Haces

I have loved her music and her style ever since she started out winning the Polaris for her first album.

From Pitchfork Magazine

“She is still an extreme rarity in Canadian music: an Afro-Colombian queer woman with indigenous Wayuu heritage, a single mother, a Spanish speaker. The great promise of Miss Colombia, and of her new leadership in a predominantly white scene, is that brown girls will hear it and be inspired to surge to the front.”

Pitchfork Magazine

Here is her video from the Emmys.

LIDO PIMIENTA: “ESO QUE TU HACES” | 63rd GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony

Lyrics from the song

Today I understood, sitting in your sand

That it was because of you, that I stopped being me

You are not to blame for being like this

And don’t give me anything if you don’t want

You can read more about this great musician and rebel here

Mountain Goats – Clemency for the Wizard King


The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The song selected was “Clemency for the Wizard King” In this Vanity Fair article, Darnielle gives some background to how Dungeons and Dragons inspired the album.

Anyone who has kept a project going for more than a quarter century has a right to be a little set in his ways. Which is why it might come as a bit of a surprise to hear that John Darnielle, songwriter and front man of the Mountain Goats, was willing to entirely change his attitude in the recording studio when he started to record his 17th album, In League with Dragons, out next month.

Vanity Fair March 2019

Here’s a video of The Mountain Goats performing their ode to reggae great Dennis Brown. 

The Mountain Goats “Song for Dennis Brown”

Pokey Lafarge – End of my rope

Pokey Lafarge is a discovery I made this week while listening to a great show on Mixcloud by David the Worm – his taste in music is amazing and I listen whenever I can. He is usually on at 2;00 PM Monday to Friday plus an extra show with his partner on Sundays.

David the Worm

More about Pokey Lafarge from his Bandcamp page

Pokey LaFarge is a musician, songwriter, bandleader, entertainer, innovator and preservationist, whose well-rounded arsenal of talents has placed him at the forefront of American music. His music transcends the confines of genre, continually challenging the notion that tradition-bearers fail to push musical boundaries.

Bandcamp

Here is a great ‘unplugged’ version on Youtube of this week’s song End of My Rope

POKEY LAFARGE END OF MY ROPE Round Chapel London 14th December 2018

If you want another great song by Pokey Lafarge, you have to listen to Something in the Water

Plants and Animals – House on Fire

Plants and Animals are a 3 piece band from Montreal. This the  video for their latest. “House on Fire”.  As one YouTuber put it, “ LCD Soundsystem meets Talking Heads. Love it.”

Plants and Animals – House on Fire (Official Video)

More on Plants and Animals, another Montreal band here from Under the Radar Magazine

“House on Fire” was inspired by Spicer’s concern for a friend of his. The band collectively further explain in more detail in a press release: “We started working on this a couple of years ago. Warren was afraid for a friend’s health. He thought he was self-medicating too much and not taking care of himself. He couldn’t let go of this image of an overworked dude swallowing too many sleeping pills and falling asleep with the stove on. So it began as the place next door, sometime before Greta Thunberg turned the expression into a rallying cry, where Earth is the house and the people are sleeping. It’s terrifying, and on the whole we’re not unlike this friend, are we?”

Under the Radar June 2020

William Prince – The Spark from 2020 Reliever

My last track is by William Prince who I saw on the underwhelming Juno production last week. His performance of this song was certainly the highlight on a show that could have done so much more.

William Prince The Spark

Holly GoLightly – Satan is His Name

Holly Golightly (born Holly Golightly Smith  is a British singer-songwriter. Her mother christened her after the main character of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  She’s been performing her brand of garage rock for years.Perhaps she is best known for contributing the song “There is an End” to the movie Broken Flowers starring Bill Murray.

Holly Golightly & The Greenhornes – There Is An End

We featured the tempting little number “Satan is His Name” from 2018’s “Do the Get Along”

Satan is His Name

It’s a cover of an obscure  1962 single by Steve King

Steve King – Satan Is Her Name

If you like Holly,  this is the album to grab if you can find it.

here is the link

Real Estate – White Light

We closed with a great indie band from New Jersey, “Real Estate”  

Real Estate – White Light (In Mind 2017)

A moment of reckoning in Canada

On By paulmcguire2013In Historical Thinking, Hope, Speaking Truth to Power1 Comment

Parliament Hill Monday, June 7th, 2021

There are times in our collective story when something really stops people in their tracks. The story of the 215 unmarked graves beside a residential school in Kamloops is one of these instances. Even though the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report has been out since 2015, it seems to take the pictures of 215 little pairs of shoes on Parliament Hill to bring all this home to us.

We have known about the appalling death count in residential schools since at least 1907. That year, Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce produced a report on the state of health in Canada’s residential schools. The conclusions of the report were astounding:

“It suffices for us to know, however, that of a total of 1,537 pupils reported upon nearly 25 per cent are dead, of one school with an absolutely accurate statement, 69 per cent of ex-pupils are dead, and that everywhere the almost invariable cause of death given is tuberculosis.”

The Bryce Report, 1907 p.18
One of the tables from the report. What is striking is that many schools did not report at all or said their records were incomplete, records that Archbishop Collins now says are available to all. The Bryce Report p. 18-19

Bryce focused on one particular school where the results were particularly heart wrenching:

Thus, of a total of 31 discharged from the File Hills school, 9 died at the school, of 6 others there is no record of condition on discharge, but all are reported to be dead, 7 others died from within a few months to three years after discharge and 9 are reported as in good health,

The Bryce Report, 1907 p. 18

The reason for this very high death rate was well understood. Scientific medicine had made great strides in the past 40 years and the health effects of good and proper ventilation were well understood. In many of the schools however, there was a criminal inattention to what was needed to keep kids well and protected. Bryce continues:

in the absence of regular and sufficient ventilation, extremely inadequate; that for at least 7 months in the long winter of the west, double sashes are on the windows in order to save fuel and maintain warmth and that for some 10 continuous hours children are confined in dormitories, the air of which, if pure to start with, has within 15 minutes become polluted, so as to be capable of detection by ordinary chemical tests. It is apparent that general ill health from the continued inspiration of an air of increasing foulness is inevitable; but when sometimes consumptive pupils and, very frequently, others with discharging scrofulous glands, are present to add an infective quality to the atmosphere, we have created a situation so dangerous to health that I was often surprised that the results were not even worse than they have been shown statistically to be.

The Bryce Report p. 19

The report goes on to talk about a general inadequate level of physical activity provided for the students and the absolute disregard for daily health and sanitation in the schools.

Such a report could have been a clarion call for action. These children were the responsibility of the state and it was clearly the state’s responsibility along with the various churches to make amends and vastly improve every aspect of the residential learning environment.

But here is where the story get sinister. Dr. Bryce reported to Duncan Campbell Scott, federal Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs and Scott suppressed the report. It was leaked to the media causing a public outcry, but very little was done to follow through on Bryce’s recommendations that included “the handing over of the school system to the Chief Medical Officer and be made in its first essentials a sanitorium system rather than an educational one: That each child must be primarily considered an “individual case of probably tuberculosis.”
That improvements be made in the buildings so that open air work-rooms and dormitories shall be provided.
That increased expenditure for extra clothing be provided for, also a special dietary. Also improved water
supply for bathing &.” Indian Residential Schools & Reconciliation

In fact, the report was seen as an irritation:

It will be obvious at once that Dr. Boyce’s recommendations while they may be scientific are quite inapplicable

to the system under which these schools are conducted. Even were the Department prepared to take the schools

over from the Churches, it is self evident that the Churches would not be willing to give up their share of the

joint control. These preliminary examinations by Dr. Lafferty and Dr. Bryce have already caused considerable

irritation and brought protests from the Roman Catholic authorities who have the larger number of pupils under

their charge

Department of Indian Affairs File 140,754-1 “Correspondence relating to tuberculous among the Indians in the various agencies across Canada 1908-1910” (c10167)

Daily Colonist November 16, 1907

Scott continued to block Bryce at every turn. In 1913, he denied him the funding he needed to continue his work. Bryce was not allowed to present his findings at conferences. He was denied positions in the Federal Public Service that he was certainly qualified and by 1921 he was forced into retirement (First Nations Child and Family Caring Society). All techniques used by large institutions that have no need for the truth.

But we still don’t seem to get it. Decades after the suppression of The Bryce Report by Duncan Campbell Scott and the Canadian Government, there is still no willingness to call the acts of our churches and governments genocide.

The interview with Rosemary Barton and Cardinal Collins is just a rehashing of past wrongs. Would Scott have said anything really different than the platitudes Collins offered this past Sunday?

Collins is a smooth operator and he brushed aside any thought that there are records that have yet to be disclosed, even as the head of the Oblate order, Rev. Ken Thorson, is in the process of digitizing the records from their Kamloops school (CBC, June 6, 2021).

It is the smug arrogance of church leaders like Collins that will really make the struggle for reconciliation so much harder. No need for apologies, no grand gestures, just a little bit of work here and there.

Full interview with Cardinal Collins

When the mighty fall, they fall hard. Trite statements and interviews by complacent, comfortable men do not help. Yesterday Egerton Ryerson’s statue in Toronto came tumbling down and it has been announced it will not be reinstated.

A photo of the Egerton Ryerson statue at Ryerson University in Toronto after being pulled to the ground. Credit: Global News. Global News

Ryerson was responsible for the early design of the residential school model in Canada. He believed that white and indigenous students should not be taught in the same schools due to their different cultural backgrounds. He was also responsible for developing the separate school system in Ontario – another outmoded idea that might also soon face the chopping block.

As we reexamine our history, who do we still honour? Who do we now comdemn?

All history is relative and the judgement of current times will have to be meted out on people like Scott, MacDonald and Ryerson. These are Canadian icons no more and they must all be toppled from their ridiculous pedestals so we can move on.

Old fellas New Music Episode 11 Show Notes

On By paulmcguire2013In Old Fellas New Music1 Comment

Rumor has it these Angelas are our two most faithful listeners.

tracklist for this week

Bob:

Oodoo – Canopee  

Monowhales – RYLD

Mo Kenney – Slowdeath 

Sunfields – Got Some ( But It Ain’t Enough) 

Paul

Teke:Teke – Yori Ni 

Boston Levi – Thief

Jaffa Road – Until When

A Place to Bury Strangers – End of the Night

Melanie Durrant – Where I’m At

Our Spotify Playlist updates to this week’s songs

Here is the best place to find all our shows, on Mixcloud. We like followers so please go there and follow our shows!!

Our show notes for this week!

Teke:Teke album Shirushi 2021 Yori Ni 

’Yoru Ni (which translates from Japanese to ‘At night’) was literally written in the middle of the night, guitarist Nakauchi-Pelletier explains, ‘’I woke up suddenly at night and had this melody in my head, as if it had come to me from another world. After letting it simmer a little longer, I decided to actually get up and grab my guitar. It really felt like I was following some kind of spirit or ghost, it was taking my hand and wanted to take me somewhere. So it did, and it gave me the idea for the song lyrics which Maya took further and romanticized, while the music was basically ‘pushed’ into my brain by some strange unknown forces.’’

This part of my research was really interesting, but I don’t think this has anything to do with the band.

One of the many depictions available about this urban ghost story

From Wikipedia

Teke Teke (テケテケ),[1] also spelled Teke-Teke,[2] Teketeke,[3] or Teke teke,[1] is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a schoolgirl who is said to have been tied by her bullies onto a railway line, where her body was cut in half by a train. She is an onryō, or a vengeful spirit, who lurks in urban areas and around train stations at night. Since she no longer has a lower body, she travels on either her hands or elbows, dragging her upper torso and making a scratching or “teke teke“-like sound. If she encounters an individual, she will chase them and slice them in half at the torso, killing them in such a way that mimics her own disfigurement.[4]

TEKE TEKE – Full Performance (Live on KEXP at Home)

Oodoo – Canopee  

By Patrick Baillargeon

Formed from ex Vulvets, the new group Oodooo presents a very promising first EP. The Montreal group, in which we find some warriors from the local scene, offers in five tracks (three songs in French and two that they cover in instrumental version) a small glimpse of their universe. Combo mainly focused on studio work rather than the stage, Oodooo evolves in spheres that fans of vaporous 60’s tones, psyches and fuzzies will undoubtedly recognize and appreciate. If the references of the four musicians are obvious, they are nevertheless very well assimilated and skillfully mastered. Liminanas, Juniore, Gainsbourg de Vannier or de Colombier come first as much for the French-speaking fact as for the music and the subtle arrangements,just like the Allah-Las or La Luz on the American side. This nifty little album, impeccably produced and with a very pretty cover, has only one big flaw: it is much too short! We are waiting for the rest ..

Canopée

Boston Levi – Thief Album Prophecies

As I said on the show, this is one of those stories that leads to the song. Mike McNamee, former Carleton Ravens Captain is moving into music with this first release. Managed by Jay Emmons of The Glorious Sons, this is all still very new to him.

“The response has been a lot bigger than I thought it would be,” said McNamee, whose first song will officially be introduced on Apple Music and Spotify Friday at midnight. “I’m learning along the way. I’m not giving up everything. I’m a down to earth guy, but I think about it a lot. Four months ago, I didn’t know much about how to write a song or record a song. It has been wild.”

Article – Former Carleton captain Mike McNamee skates towards a music career
Ottawa Sun Jan 7 Ken Warren

He has a unique playing style that you can see on this video – not the song we played on the show.

Feel It All (Live at Sydenham Street Church) – Boston Levi

Monowhales – RYLD

As soon as it is safe, we will be back out on the road to play in your town. We are definitely ready to go! We feel the future is bright; it doesn’t really benefit us to think it’s going to be grim. In difficult times we humans find great innovation, especially in art. I look forward to that.

Some information on Monowhales – Canada’s most played unsigned artists on Canadian Alternative radio. From a recent article

Toronto’s Monowhales is set to roar back on March 5 with the new album, Daytona Bleach, but they’ve been building anticipation over the past year with the singles RWLYD (Really Wanna Let You Down) and All Or Nothing, which demonstrate the hard-hitting sonic diversity that marks the album as a whole.

The latest single from Daytona Bleach, Out With The Old, is the group’s most powerful statement so far, with its message of generational change delivered in a taut, modern hard rock package. Indeed, Monowhales has been leading its own indie-rock revolution, having earned the distinction of being 2020s’ most played unsigned artist on Canadian alternative radio.

Five Questions With… Monowhales’ Sally Shaar

MONOWHALES perform their session at Tweedside apart of the Live Series with RWLYD (Really Wanna Let You Down)

Jaffa Road – Until When (single)

I really love this band. This is their first single in awhile and I am really looking forward to the album release later this year.

Jaffa Road is from Toronto and they mix ancient and modern Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and English poetry into their work.

About the song we chose, Until When

This traditional melody from the Maghreb is traditionally sung in either Hebrew or Darija (Moroccan dialect of Arabic). The Hebrew version ( Eli Shema Koli אֵלִי שְמַע קוֹלִי) is a liturgical poem where the protagonist cries out to God in the hope of redemption. The Darija version (Sidi Habibi سيدي حبيبي) is a secular love song about unrequited love between the protagonist singer and the imagined lover. We call our mash up of the two versions UNTIL WHEN named after the first line of the first Hebrew stanza – עַד מַתָי אֲקַוֶה לִרְאוֹת גְאוּלָתְךָ –Until when shall I wait to see your redemption?

from Bandcamp

UNTIL WHEN אֵלִי שְמַע קוֹלִי / سيدي حبيبي – Eli Shema Koli – Sidi Habibi

More about Until When

It has previously been recorded by many Jewish Algerian and Moroccan musicians in both Morocco and Israel as well as many Arab musicians from the Maghreb. As far as we know, this is the first recorded version to alternate complete verses of the Hebrew and Arabic versions of the song.

also from Bandcamp

Mo Kenney – Slowdeath 

Mo Kenney is an East Coast singer songwriter.  Her new lp; however, is a set of great cover versions.

Kenney has a new album coming out next year that will be all covers, performed with just the basics – her clear, rich voice and a guitar. 

“I was in the studio and recorded this right before the pandemic started,” Kenney said. She was thinking about doing an acoustic record of her own songs, but ultimately decided it would be more interesting to do an album of covers. “A lot of these songs are songs that I put in my live sets.” 

Kenney says she grew up listening to old country standards that played on the radio in her grandparents’ kitchen. “I don’t think I really fully appreciated it back then, but I have a real love for those old country songs now.” Her favourite Patsy Cline tune is You Belong To Me – Bill played Mo’s own cover on the show. “That song was written in the 50s and it still holds up,” she says. 

From A Tale of Two Mo Kenneys – CBC

Here is her cover of fellow Nova Scotian Dog Day’s Seth Smith’s song Slow Death

Slow Death

End of the Night – A Place to Bury Strangers

This is a really interesting band that has been around in some form since 2002. The song is jarring and really great and I found out about it through an online music magazine out of Toronto – Spill Magazine. It was their single of the week and you need to watch the video and listen to this great track.

A Place To Bury Strangers – End Of The Night (Official Video)

More from Spill Magazine

In 2003, Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers emerged on the scene out of Oliver Ackermann’s psychotropic vision. Often cited as “the loudest band in New York,” APTBS is known for their vicious live performances overloaded with all-consuming visuals, experimental sonic warfare, and treacherous stage antics.

2021 welcomes a lineup change for A Place To Bury Strangers. New members John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) of Ceremony East Coast cement the most sensational version of the band to date. John and Oliver were childhood friends who had played in the legendary underground shoegaze band Skywave, crafting futuristic punk music together. This next phase is a sonic return to APTBS’s most raw and unhinged endeavors, pushed even further into a new chaotically apocalyptic incarnation.

During the ongoing global pandemic, Ackermann spent his time building this new band, raising money and awareness for those in need, establishing the record label Dedstrange, designing futuristic space synthesizers for his company Death By Audio, and producing this brand new A Place To Bury Strangers EP. The Hologram EP will be released July 16th on Dedstrange.

Spill Magazine Track of the Week

Sunfields – Got Some ( But It Ain’t Enough) 

Culture Addicts offers a nice little assessment of this Montreal Band’s latest effort.

SUNFIELDS shares new track Got Some (But It Ain’t Enough), which is lifted from their upcoming album ‘Late Bloomers’. It’s all too easy to feel defeated in life. This song pokes fun at that notion. Not everything in life needs to be taken so seriously; it’s okay to laugh at yourself sometimes.  

Got Some (But It Ain’t Enough) toys a lot with the notion of the bigger picture, the thing most of us fear and dread, the one thing lots of us avoid… the void. It’s got a toe-tapping, uplifting, anti-downer feel to it, with the lyrics taking a piss out of things. 

Culture Adicts, February 2021

Listen to Got Some (But It Ain’t Enough) via SoundCloud below.

Melanie Durrant – Where I’m At 2021

This was a great piece to finish off with from a young artist who has changed a great deal over the past few years.

From Hip Hop Canada

Canadian legacy artist Melanie Durrant drops her third studio album, Where I’m At. This album follows the release of her latest single “Listen,” and the song’s accompanying music video.

With the release of “Listen” and the drop of her new album, Ms. Durrant is flooded with support from notable American and Canadian talent. Many notable people, including Ray Robinson, Grammy-nominated artist Glenn Lewis, Grammy-Award winning artist Jill Scott, award winner and Walk of Fame inductee Tanya Mullings, JUNO-Award winner Dru Grange, and Grammy-nominated multi-platinum music producer Allstar (produced SWV) have shown their support and champion the new album release on Durrant’s Instagram page.

Where I’m At is fused with vintage 90s R&B, boom-bap, soul and encompasses faint sounds of latin and reggae. Written by Durrant, each track encompasses raw heartfelt emotion drawing upon personal experiences of the award-winner and her closest friends. Since 2013, Durrant has received three JUNO Award nominations. In 2013, “Made For Love” was nominated for Reggae Single of the Year, in 2014 her second single, “Gone,” was nominated for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, and in 2015 Durrant picked up another nod in the R&B/Soul category with her single “Four Seasons.” She was also nominated for Soul/R&B Artist or Group of the Year at the 2015 SiriusXM Indie Awards.

This album encompasses themes of narcissistic abuse, personality disorders and the way it affects the mind. Every track on Where I’m At has different mindsets, but keeps true to the album’s overall theme.

Melanie Durrant – Listen (Official Video)

Next week, another 9 songs this upcoming week we will be on Mixcloud at 7:00 PM EDT. Come see us LIVE!!