Archives : all posts by Sean

Human Highway - "My Beach". [Removed at label request.] Human Highway is a project by Nick Thorburn (Islands/The Unicorns) and Jim Guthrie, an Ontario songwriter we've been following for years. It's coming out now because it's summertime; this is the time of year that things ripen. Moody Motorcycle is like a plum. It's purple. It is easily bruised. No seriously it's like a plum. I'm not sure why. And "My Beach" is a love-song with a plum's colour, darker than rosy, blushed and burned. Something you'll carry all day if you have to, so you can give it to the right person. "Here's a plum," you'll say. "It's for you." Yup. "Here's 'My Beach,'" you'll say. "I saved it for you."

[order now, ahead of August 19!]

The Morning Benders - "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love?". A Ronettes cover redrawn in magic marker, dance-steps chalked onto the floor. Take your sweetie by the hand, lead her to the living-room, and with two sets of headphones (pro-tip) - listen to this song. Side by side, cheek to cheek, slow-dancing 'til your parents come home. "Why don't they let us fall in love?", the Morning Benders ask, and they really want to know the answer. Love's great, it's fantastic, it's good. (And here's the other thing: it's too late.)

[download the entirety of the Morning Benders' covers album (including the Cardigans' "Love Fool" and Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams"!) here]

---

I'm going to be starting a new music column somewhere, something I'm deeply excited about, but it needs a title. Does anyone out there have ideas? The title should be relatively self-explanatory, not something cute/obscure. In other words - "Said the Gramophone" would be bad, "Dispatches on Music from a Writer in Montreal" would be good (but way too ungainly). I'd like it to suggest music, Montreal, and the fact that it's dispatches/thoughts/meditations/comments, not reviews or song writeups. You can leave any suggestions as comments, or email me. (Thank you!)

[photo source]

Pony Up - "A Crutch or a Cradle (unmastered)". Okay imagine you were given a magic compass - not a Golden Compass, but a magic one all the same. And you have this in your hands, ticking and whirring and silverly enchanted, and it's leading you to somewhere. You're on your way! Oh man, you're finally on your way to that somewhere! And then one morning you take out your keys to unlock your bicycle and you realise you lost your magic compass, you left it somewhere or it fell out of your pocket or god know's what. And you feel awful - lost and haggard and disappointed and doomed. And you are full, full of longing. And you realise that you're longing not just for the somewhere you never made it to, but for the compass itself. The thing that told you yes you're going the right way.

This is new music by Pony Up, from Montreal. I hear the Delgados, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and even a little of the Evens. I hear girls who swallow their pomegranate seeds.

[MySpace / older album / see Pony Up on the quebecois in-your-livingroom show Dans ton salon]

Carla Bruni - "Quelqu'un m'a dit". The French newspaper Le Monde is actually scandalised that we have not yet written about Carla Bruni. We apologise. No one from Carla Bruni's label got in touch with us. Nor did anyone from the French president's office telephone us. And believe me, we were waiting. Dan, Jordan and I spent the past five weeks camped out in the Gaspé, in a little cottage made of honey-coloured wood. We sipped summer wines, ate proscuitto-wrapped dates, practised lighting candles - and waited for Sarkozy's call. We slept in a triangle, heads-to-toes, always with our Sony Ericsson phone in the middle. The ringer was (is) set to 7, and also to vibrate. When we played Monopoly we kept the phone on top of Community Chest. We went skinnydipping, sure, but only one at a time. We listened to this one old Carla Bruni song, "Quelqu'un m'a dit," whose maudlin excesses are tempered by - well, - our occasional appetite for maudlin excess. Dan dressed up like a 30s gangster, Jordan like a femme fatale, and I put on my gingery fruit salad costume; we thought these outfits matched the song, that now for sure Bruni's husband would give us a ring. But no dice. We watched the bluejays, watched waves, wondered if cottages can have anthems, like countries do. [buy]

---

Sappyfest Contest

Our Sappyfest contest is now over. What beautiful and sappy stories you shared! I wish I could give prizes to everyone. The winners are Nick and Tessa, and I've sent you emails. Even in an absence of prizes, I hope everyone who can make it to Sackville, NB next weekend does so - I think it'll be one of the best times anywhere in the world, this summer.

[image is of amazing fire-fighters rescuing musical instruments from a fire in Montreal a few weeks ago]

Karl Blau - "Before Telling Dragons". Karl Blau's Nature's Got Away is a weird album, with teeth and feathers and amplifiers. Bits of Harry Nilsson, the Zombies, Spoon, Smog. "Before Telling Dragons" is a forest anthem, recorded in a basement. Girl-group drums buried six feet under. A conversation with an electric guitar, all blurry blues and bird-coos. It's words of wisdom from a man who has eaten seventeen wild, unidentified red berries.

Karl Blau - "2 Becomes 1". This isn't a Spice Girls song. The Spice Girls never sang a line like "All the hardships / sail away". But this ballad, beautiful, organ-lit, distortion-warmed, is nevertheless a song for cinnamon girls, lavender girls, rosemary girls, wise girls and sage girls, lovers and fighters, girlfriends and wives, friends and friends, (and friends, my friends,) and long days that fade into night, and long nights that fade into day. And if you keep staring at a star, keep staring and don't look down, then you'll not lose that star even as the sun comes up and the noon comes hot and the sky's all bright. You'll still be able to see that star hidden in the high.

[stream the whole great album / out in September]

[photo by p boushel]

My People Sleeping - "Seahorse". It shouldn't happen, not knowing. Not knowing if something is perfect, right, good, rising; or if it's flawed, wrong, rotten, collapsing. You should be able to tell. Like you can tell if a jar is empty or full... like you can tell if a lamp is off or if it's on. But I remember (and My People Sleeping remember, I think), that there were times when I couldn't tell. When I didn't know. When I was squinting at the fucking stars and trying to figure out if I recognised them. If I knew what I was doing or who I was standing beside.

[My People Sleeping's debut EP is certain, deft, weird and truly wonderful. (It is also Montréalaise.) Listen to more songs at their MySpace and write them for a copy, do.]

Al Green - "Unchained Melody". (It's because you know this song, "Unchained Melody". The song would not be so good if you did not know the song. But you do know the song and so, so, and so, and so, so, so, so, so. In its opening bars, the song becomes its own promise: yes, it will be thus, this is what it is, what you hope & know it is. And when the chorus arrives, when it gently soars, when at last we feel "your... touch", I'm ready to spend my life with this song. I'm ready to commit myself utterly. It's a song that is everything it promises to be; a true love that's as true as the truest flickering hidden shown hot part of itself oh true.)

[buy]

---

In the previous year, nearly twenty defendants in other Baltimore cases had begun adopting what lawyers in the federal courthouse came to call "the flesh-and-blood defense." The defense, such as it is, boils down to this: As officers of the court, all defense lawyers are really on the government's side, having sworn an oath to uphold a vast, century-old conspiracy ... The defendants also believed that a legal distinction could be drawn between their name as written on their indictment and their true identity as a "flesh and blood man." Judge Davis and his law clerk pored over the case files, which led them to a series of strange Web sites. ... Although Mitchell and his peers didn't know it, they were inheriting the intellectual legacy of white supremacists who believe that America was irrevocably broken when the 14th Amendment provided equal rights to former slaves.

Our Sappyfest Contest is still on.

[photo source]

Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - "Flaming Home". When Mount Eerie played this song at Casa del Popolo last month, the full room felt suddenly like an empty house. It felt terrifyingly empty. Later that night, P asked me how the show had been. "It was great," I said. And then I said, "But Phil Elverum - he seems very unhappy." Phil Elverum is Mount Eerie. For his upcoming album he has recorded with Julie Doiron and her partner Fred Squire. Even though there are two more voices, now, singing this song, the room feels even emptier. You thought you knew me. (Emptiness prevails.) I thought our full house was glowing. (Emptiness in the house.) All I know is that at Casa, Phil sang more than one song about an empty home. About a home raked by fire or wind. All I know is that his new songs were all sad. All I know is that his wife, Genevieve Castrée (aka Woelv), who is from Quebec, was not with him that night. All I know are these small things, and I am not enough of a gossip to make explicit my suspicions. But what I can say is that for Lost Wisdom, Mount Eerie has enlisted one of the saddest voices in song. And as Phil duets with Julie, "Flaming Home" feels like a flower that has lost all its petals, a lantern that has lost all its light, a love-song that has lost all its darlings. It feels like a touch that has lost all its touchness. It's a beautiful, terrible work. [Lost Wisdom is out on October 7]

Julie Doiron - "Tell You Again". One of the saddest voices in song, singing a love-song (and not singing it sadly). "Tell You Again" is blankets and sheets, frost and sunrise, lips and eyelashes, lamps and shadows, fingertips fingertips fingertips and the palm of your hand. [buy Loneliest in the Morning]

---

Wrapping Paper have released a new EP and have resolved to record a custom song for absolutely everyone who buys the EP. In a cheap bit of bribery, they recorded a song about Said the Gramophone. Although it is mostly just what is written on our page over there ------>, it is charming. And so: go and support such enterprising musicians. Two years ago I wrote about the EP's terrific title track.

Amy Z started making a video for our Wonderful Video Contest, but she did not finish in time. Stop-motion stuffed giraffes are more time-consuming than they look. However and hooray, her video is now complete - (months late,) - and it is as sweet as vanilla ice-cream. It is for Christine Fellows's superlative song, "What Makes the Cherry Red", and you can view it here. Thanks, Amy.

SappyFest Contest!

SappyFest is a wonderful, marvellous, terrific, gutsy, friendly, frisky festival that takes place in Sackville, New Brunswick, August 1-3. Man I would love to go. But I can't. Maybe you can! I hope so! We are giving away two yes TWO passes to the festival! If you live anywhere within reach of Sackville you should rent a car or drive your car or fly a plane or ride a yak and just get over there. An entire town taken over by kind musicians and great art and good times. It would be probably the best weekend roadtrip in the history of fun. With performances by Eric's Trip, Julie Doiron, Sandro Perri, the Luyas, Miracle Fortress, Adam & the Amethysts, Chad Van Gaalen, Christine Fellows, Eric Chenaux, Baby Eagle, The Acorn, Jim Bryson, Laura Barrett, Snailhouse, and a million more of the bestest groups around.

Want to win one of our passes? I bet you do! Taking a page from Dan's recent Women contest, all you need to do is leave a comment on this entry, describing the sappiest thing ever. It can be true or fiction. I will pick my favourites um on Thursday, July 24. Go!

(You can also leave a comment on this entry just to say what you thought of the entry. That's always okay.)

[Photo is of a six-year-old Amy Winehouse]

Hurray for the Riff Raff - "Bricks". This band is from New Orleans. And it must be frustrating for Hurray for the Riff Raff, the hook for every review being about the place they call home. But it matters. This is a sweet song, yes, but it is about doom. Look at some of these lyrics: "Well, we stand tall / together like towers. / Well, together like towers / we fall / we fall / we fall." New Orleans knows something about collapses. It knows something about how love & life are not enough to prevent catastrophe. Alynda Lee and her junkyard folk band play a tragic love-song, a doomed one, but they've learned enough about dawns (about recoveries, resurrections, life-goes-ons'es) to set it in a major key.

[MySpace / they seek Europeans to play for]

Nat Baldwin - "Lake Erie". Redraw the maps! Get out the old maps and get out your charcoal pencils and have at it. Lake Superior - gone! Lake Huron - gone! Lakes Ontario and Michigan - gone! And Lake Erie - oh don't get me started on Lake Erie. Lake Erie's where you left me, baby. I am scribbling over that lake 'til the charcoal's gone, 'til my hands are black. Then I'm grabbing my double bass and scribbling some more, scribbling with sound, filling the air with inky deep notes - whole clouds, thunder-clouds or smoke-clouds. And when you come running out of your home, eyes tearing, cough-coughing, I'll be on your front lawn and I still won't have dried off from the moment I drowned.

At the moment my favourite albums of 2008 are by Adam & the Amethysts, The Low Lows, Shearwater, ((Sounder)), Sun Kil Moon, White Hinterland, Vampire Weekend, and, yes, mister Nat Baldwin. Buy this record. (Jordan, previously on StG.)

---

Mike from Nothing But Green Lights did a terrific MP3 sampler for The Morning News.

Did you guys hear that killer of a Tune-Yards song yesterday? Moly holy.

Kit Malo and I are going to be doing a presentation in Montreal this Wednesday as part of the Greasy Goose Salon. I will be telling truths and lies about moths, Swedes, eels, and particle accelerators, among other things. Kit will be accompanying me with pictures. You should come.

[photo source]

Sun in Sound - "Up North". Jordan and his writing partner Joel once made a project called America, where Joel told a long, winding tale about men, pipes, and things I don't remember. (I wasn't there. I saw the film. It was a long time ago.) While Joel talked, Jordan brought him out plate after plate of delicious, rich food. They ate the food with gusto - plate after plate, beef and chicken and cherries and spices. They also drank whole bottles of wine. By the end of the story, both were close to vomiting. America was in its way a comment on something - but it was also simply very funny. "Up North" reminds me of this. Sun in Sound's Norwegian singer, who idolises Roy Orbison, sings in a way that seems at the verge of illness. Heartbreak, maybe, but I think seasickness more likely. The song is beautiful, but the whole track seems vaguely seasick, brine swimming in the mix beneath all those cherries & spices, the longing saw & the festive organ. "Up North" skirts the edge of brilliance by also skirting the edge of too much-ness. It'll either make you feel nauseous, or utterly smitten. [MySpace]

---

Elsewhere:

Danny Zabbal, our friend (and the designer of one of Gramophone's headers), has relaunched his website and also announced the debut of a weekly webcomic. We are delighted. (We also strongly recommend that you scroll down to discover Insomnia Man.)

Lit Pop is a terrific new literary competition launched by Matrix Magazine and the Pop Montreal festival. Emerging Canadian writers can submit poetry and short fiction for the chance to win publication and a trip to Montreal for the festival (including airfare, accommodation, spending money and a VIP pass). It's a great prize and a great opportunity, especially for people who have struggled a bit with the country's sometimes-stodgy lit scene. Hope some of you will enter. (Deadline is July 15)

Montrealers - besides this weekend's shows, I would invite you to explore and participate in the Montreal 60 Minute Film Festival, an event I'm helping to coordinate here. 60 second films by 60 filmmakers, of every level of expertise. It's going to be wonderful.

[photo source unknown]