Songs for Thursday
Ghost Twin – Strobe Light
The Bright Light Social Hour – Harder Out Here
Packs – Silvertongue
Gospel Machine -That Ring
Russell Louder – Vow
White Denim – Mirrored in Reverse
Los Pinguos – Debajo del Pelo
exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye
Laura Stevenson – Don’t Think About Me
Ghost Twin – Strobe Light
This was a big week for me picking up songs on CBC Radio 3. This is one of three great ones I listened to during the week. All are pretty obscure, all are worth a listen!
Album – Love Songs for End Times
Ghost Twin is a dark synthpop duo – Jaimz & Karen Asmundson from Winnipeg, that combine roaring synthlines, dirty pulsing bass, dreamy guitar, and a haunting vocal dichotomy where Baroque meets Industrial, with live video percussion that feeds cinema through a cut-up technique imbued with occult aesthetics.
Here is a sampling of some of their music:
GHOST TWIN: “Blue Sunshine” LYRIC VIDEO #ARTOFFACT
from a 2017 CBC article:
They are getting ready to release their first full-length album, three years after the couple decided to bring their own brand of dark, brooding electronic music to Winnipeg stages.
On Plastic Heart, fans will get more of the sound they love from the band’s first EP, but this time, with cranked production values.
Jaimz and Karen Asmundson started writing the album in 2015, and after two failed attempts at securing funding to make it, finally got somewhere.
“On the third try, [Michael P. Falk], who is the co-producer and engineer, said, ‘What songs are you submitting?’ and it turned out we were submitting the weirdest songs, that nobody was getting, so we submitted all the really pop-y stuff and then we got the money [from FACTOR and Manitoba Film and Music],” said Jaimz.
The album was produced by Maya Postepski, who has worked with two major sources of inspiration for Ghost Twin: Austra and Tr/st.
The pair have more than a decade of filmmaking experience, including a short film in 2009 that got so much attention it took them to Cannes.
“We made one really silly film together called Goths on the Bus. That was stupidly successful,” said Jaimz. “I still kind of feel ashamed that that’s the most successful film I’ve ever made.”
But for fans of the “really silly” Goths on the Bus, there’s a bit of a callback in their upcoming music video. It’s set in a gym for goths.
Shot in sequence and in one take, for the One Take Super 8 Event at the WNDX Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Film and Music by Karen & Jaimz Asmundson
* Winner of the Audience Favourite Award @ $100 Film Festival, Calgary
* Winner of the Audience Favourite Award (3rd Place) @ Weiterstadt Film Festival, Germany
* Winner of the Best Music Video Award @ Chicago International Movies & Music Festival
from CBC Goth synth-pop duo Ghost Twin readies for first full-length album release
All of Bob’s selections this week came from the Amazon Prime TV show Sneaky Pete. You can find which songs are on any movie or Television show using the website TuneFind
The Bright Light Social Hour – Harder Out Here
The Bright Light Social Hour is an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. The band performs its song, “Harder Out Here’’” over the opening credits of the show. Here is a version of the song live.
Packs – Silvertongue
Another CBC Radio 3 find.
Album – Take the Cake 2021
Initially a solo songwriting project of Link’s (Madeline Link)that she pursued between gigs as a set dresser for commercials, the band blossomed into a four piece, composed of Shane Hooper (drums), Noah O’Neil (bass), and Dexter Nash (lead guitar). Anchored by Link’s voice, which brings such an easy charm to her songs that it’s easy to miss her keen ear for acrobatic vocal lines, together they turn Link’s melodically adventurous and introspective songs into the purest and brightest kind of indie rock. The band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wide-eyed wonder of the first Shins LP. It will be released in partnership with buzzy Brooklyn label Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mamalarky), and Toronto mainstays Royal Mountain (Alvvays, Wild Pink, Mac Demarco).
Just a note, Bob didn’t hear Pavement in this song. Or I would say the Shins either. Still, a good song.
PACKS – Silvertongue (Official Music Video)
To celebrate the announcement, the band have shared new single “Silvertongue” and an accompanying video. The fuzzed-out tune merges Pavement’s laconic flair with Sonic Youth’s simmering menace, while the video finds vocalist Link strutting, staggering and flailing across the Toronto harbourfront, looking effortlessly cool as she rocks a series of stylish jackets.
Of the song, Link said: “It’s easy to be lured into the comforts of past relationships. What’s harder is dealing with years of exhaustion, mistrust, and always hoping. Ditch the whiplash of manipulation and decide what YOU want out of love!”
Gospel Machine -That Ring
Gospel Machine is garage gospel band out of Northeast Minneapolis resurrecting the soul and R&B styles of the 1960’s. Gospel Machine formed in 2011 when leader Kyle Burdine wrote a soul/gospel liturgy for a church in Minneapolis. Lutheran Church.
The band perform the featured track, ‘That Ring”
Russell Louder – Vow
My last CBC Radio 3 tune for this week.
Russell Louder is a trans Performance Artist and musician from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, now based in Montreal, Québec.
Borrowing inspiration from the Eurythmics, Florence and the Machine with a hint of Fleetwood Mac for good measure, the Charlottetown-born, Montreal-based Louder says the single “is the introduction. It is the wandering protagonist who sets the tone for the entire album. The idea of finding “home” is now a question, not an answer. Elements of preparation, the romanticizing of arrival, deep, deep uncertainty, pain, lack of belonging – yet bursting with hope.”
Louder’s upcoming album, Humor, is set to explore themes of liberation through an exploration of memory, grief, and identity, with each song representing different characters with some overlapping.
Louder says “some (of the songs) are written in the first person and some are witnessing other characters so it’s like the listener can be a character and also on a journey with other characters in the songs. The characters can be developed and formed in the listener’s mind from the feelings described in the songs and the questions being asked in the lyrics.”
White Denim – Mirrored in Reverse
White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, United States. Even after 14 album releases, they still managed to remain active during the pandemic.
Here is a great article about the band and how they dealt with the pandemic
The Pandemic Separated These Band Members. It Didn’t Stop Them From Creating an Album. – Texas Monthly
White Denim playing “Mirrored and Reversed” in Colorado
Los Pinguos – Debajo del Pelo
Debajo del Pelo | Los Pinguos | Playing For Change
Album – Hummingbird 2021
“Debajo del Pelo,” meaning “Under the Hair,” is a beautiful metaphorical song that speaks about life’s experiences and the many lessons learned throughout. Featured on Los Pinguos’ latest album, ‘Hummingbird,’ this video brings together a few of Los Pinguos’ friends across the globe in PFC style. Enjoy!
I am adding a note here about Playing for Change because they always offer such wonderful music and I think they are trying to do some pretty important things right now.
Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. The primary focus of PFC is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos called Songs Around The World. Creating these videos motivated PFC to form the Playing For Change Band—a tangible, traveling representation of its mission, featuring musicians met along their journey; and establish the Playing For Change Foundation—a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting music programs for children around the world. Through these efforts, Playing For Change aims to create hope and inspiration for the future of our planet.
and about the band
Los Pinguos came to the United States from Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a mixture of Latin rhythms, reggae, rumba flamenca and rock. The sound of the band has claimed fans worldwide. The story began in 1999 when Adrián Buono, Enzo Buono, José Agote, Juan Manzur and Juan Manuel Leguizamón (later joined by bassist Santiago Lee) formed the band. In early 2001, Los Pinguos arrived in the City of Los Angeles and began playing on the street (3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica) and local bars.
exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye
exmagician is Belfast duo Danny Todd and James Smith. The track Kiss the Wealth Goodbye’ was taken from their debut album, “ I Scan the Blue”
BELFAST BAND HAVE PLENTY OF TRICKS UP THEIR SLEEVES.
While it was a sad day when Cashier No. 9 fizzled out a few years ago, fans of their sterling album To The Death Of Fun can turn their frowns upside down now, as the Belfast band’s song-writing nucleus have returned in the form of Exmagician. Featuring childhood friends Danny Todd and James Smith (and not to be confused with the latter’s initial foray under that moniker a decade ago), their debut is a dazzling collection of songs that dispenses with the sunny West Coast vibes of their previous incarnation and delves deeper down the rabbit hole to explore darker, grittier themes and soundscapes.
Laura Stevenson
Don’t Think About Me
If her day job as one of America’s best if most underrated songwriters doesn’t work out for Laura Stevenson, her surreal lyrics could make for a poetry bestseller. But it would be criminal to miss out on the air-punching power pop showcased in her latest single, a tackling of heartbreak that’s as knotty and sticky as spaghetti chucked at the wall.
Don’t Think About Me – lyrics
Lyrics
It’s all the same, “the kettle cools,”
that’s just the thing that we repeat when we can’t sleep cuz we hope it’s true.
But then there’s you, then I think of you,
and I’m run through so I beg of you,
please don’t think, like I think,
like I think of you.
For a minute, I watch the scenery unfold, I think of you.
For a minute, I watch the clock and when it stops I think of you.
I think of you.
Whole-Hearted 