A Few Questions
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Orillia Opry - "Lucky Wind"

1. From what little of them I’ve heard, Orillia Opry is a pretty-voiced indie-folk quartet whose long songs are guided by simply strummed acoustic guitar, and complemented by the occasional well placed vocal harmony and solid bass and drums rhythm section. Which is all very well and good, and even your mom would like it, but: you know when you’re sitting at home in a terry cloth robe, watching CSI Miami and eating a fresh angel hair pasta with home-made pesto and you’re like “oh, this is good, man, I’m really enjoying this pasta and this sauce I made and I don’t even think this meal could have been better if it had been prepared by Emeril Lagasse himself,” and then some guy who you’ve never met comes along, and yeah, he’s impeccably dressed, and yeah, he looks a lot like Peter Lorre, and yeah, here he is, uninvited, in your living room with a brick of parmesan and a grater, and he just goes wild on your pasta? I mean, he shows no restraint? And then you just start screaming at him, like “Get out of here! Who are you?!” You know? But then he gets really, really scared because of how loud and aggressive you’re being and he runs away? And now you’re super hungry because of all the adrenaline that’s running through you because of Peter Lorre and probably too because it’s that episode of CSI Miami where Eric Roberts plays the psychopathic nemesis of David Caruso and then kills himself with a pb and j sandwich just so Caruso won’t get to him first, which is really intense, so you take a big bite of your pasta and it is just, wow, it is really a lot better than it was before? In fact, it’s fucking amazing? Do you know what I mean when I say that what was a quotidian snack has now become pure ambrosia?

2. The electric guitar, with its warm, rich tone, affected with tremolo and reverb, is approached in the Motown style of switching easily between a deep groove in the rhythm playing and soulful melodic blues in the lead.

3. Later, when you’re writing your SATs, you encounter the following question:

Your angel hair and pesto was to the parmesan as Orillia Opry is to

a) Prime numbers
b) The historical Jesus
c) That glorious electric guitar

And you think ‘Thank you, Peter Lorre - for the parmesan and the help on my SATs. You sir, blew through my life like a lucky wind.’ [Info]

***

The Soft Disaster - "Nothing Returns"

What is it about Ottawa that breeds music like this? Probably the same thing that breeds perfect little mp3 bloggers (i.e. bureaucrats). The Ottawa indie-rock scene has quietly been developing its own sound for over a decade now, taking as its starting point the tight structures and crisply distorted intertwining guitars of the Wooden Stars. Here the Soft Disaster uses the Ottawa building blocks to make something delicately fuzzed out, with a cleverly drawn-out rising action, a moment’s climax (just enough for a few “ooh”s), and a brief, tender denouement. [Info]

Posted by Jordan at May 18, 2006 6:58 PM
Comments

interview with david barclay of the Diskettes you posted on back in November.
http://greatbodyofwater.blogspot.com/2006/05/interview-with-david-barclay-of.html

Posted by alex poska at May 18, 2006 7:10 PM

Ah, beat me to it- I was just about to put up Orillia Opry's 'Aunt June Angelina' on Monday. Glad you wrote about them though, much better than what I would have said; I've had their album on repeat for the past week...

Posted by Kevin at May 18, 2006 7:45 PM

Ottawa native here. I'm glad to see The Soft Disasters getting some recognition on Said the Gramophone.

Here are some other Ottawa bands of note (you may of mentioned a few here before):

- As the Poets Affirm...
- My Dad vs. Yours (much better than the name would imply)
- The Acorn
- The Hilotrons
- The Kingston Fog
- Flecton
- Andrew Vincent and the Pirates

Keep up the good work.

Posted by Jonathan at May 18, 2006 9:36 PM

'the no shirts' trump all of those bands

Posted by dude looks like a lady at May 19, 2006 11:47 AM

Wonderful selections today. Thank you.

Posted by mv at May 19, 2006 4:32 PM

please accept my props for having written a funny goddamn scenario.

Posted by iamdamosuzuki at May 19, 2006 6:16 PM

Awesome post. I'm totally hungry for angel hair pasta with pesto & parmesan now.

Posted by Karin S. at May 19, 2006 8:09 PM

I always think, 'thank you, Peter Lorre.' If only for that moment in Casablanca when he says, in a way only he could, "I am shocked.. shocked!" But that Orillia song does precisely nothing for me, especially by contrast. For the love of criminy, Lorre was in Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, and German-language triumph M. Orillia sounds like a kind of salad, perhaps made with wilted greens. Healthful, perhaps, but never to inspire a Jazz Butcher song.

That soft disaster song is much better. despite the deep error of naming their band soft [anything] after the soft machine took possession of that convention. I particularly enjoy the way the guitar pick acts as a percussion buzz towards the end of the song. Nice stuff.

Not as good as Lorre either, but I might listen to it a second time.

Posted by wcw at May 19, 2006 8:47 PM

this is absolute genius. all music blogs should read like this.

Posted by shan at May 22, 2006 12:18 AM

You jerks. You beat me to Orillia Opry -- I've been absolutely bonkers about this album for the last few days. I did go ahead and make my own post and threw you a link.

Keep it up.

Rob

Posted by robert at May 22, 2006 6:05 PM

Loving the Soft Disaster... they've got so few MySpace friends!

Posted by Lizz at May 23, 2006 6:49 PM

Orillia Opry is a duo, not a quartet. And all the better for it.

Posted by Lisa at June 13, 2006 1:02 PM

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