Archives : all posts by Sean

Carl Spidla - "See See". This song is a recollection I do not have. I never had these chances; I never made these choices. I never met See See - I only imagined her. I never took the pistol in my hand, steel & mother of pearl. And I never shot her, your honour, I swear. [MySpace]

Herman Dune - "Baby Baby You're My Baby". Since André left the band, Herman Dune have lost much of their cigarette smoke; their bittersweet songs have become mostly sweet. And yet if they are slipping toward novelty music it is a reassurance that many of these novelty songs are so damn good. Yes, "Baby Baby You're My Baby" is a goofy old-timey love-song with quirky rhymes, references to rabbis & Portland, OR; yes, the chorus is like a Brill Building out-take; yes, it's got bongos and is dredged in sugar; yes, we've heard this before; but oh golly I still want to give it to my sweetheart with a handwritten note, one that says, succinctly, FOR YOU. [Herman Dune's new Don't Lie About Me EP is out Oct 27 // the band plays Montreal on Sunday October 24, with miss Julie Doiron - more tourdates here]

Devendra Banhart - "Baby". I was at a party. We were nodding, laughing, twisting caps from bottles and making introductions. Then someone lifted up his laptop and tilted the screen so we could see. What did it show? It showed a sad baby. Conversation stopped. Bottlecaps stayed put. Someone said this word: "Aw". The word, written down, does not give credit to the feeling. We felt very bad for this baby. All of us did. It was so sad! // Later, someone had photos - or better yet, videos - of happy babies. Of laughing babies. Of smiling babies. And when we saw the happy babies, the smiling babies, we felt good. There was nothing empathetic or compassionate about it. It was the hardwired mush of our brains. When we saw a sad baby: we felt sad. When we saw a happy baby: we felt happy. // And when I listen to Devendra Banhart's "Baby", my mush also falters, my defenses break down; I swoon. I love it and I can't help it. No, Devendra is not singing about lending people teeth. Yes, he is sometimes on TMZ, arm-in-arm with a starlet. Maybe, his last x releases have sucked. And this is his major-label debut! But yes, no, maybe, oh oh oh: this is as self-evident as a cute kitty-cat sneezing. This is a gentle little cooing :) [MySpace]

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A marvellous (very quiet!) White Hinterland concert in Montreal this weekend, on Canadian thanksgiving. Oh my glory goodness, friends. The jazz has been taken out, simply removed. And what is left is so, so, so much space; so much space in which she and Shawn add dark beats, deep bass, dubstep stuff. And she sings in looped curlecues, ivies and gold rings, sampling and re-sampling. They were all new songs and they were utterly astonishing. Here are some names of things it was & wasn't merely: the dirty projectors, the xx, burial, tune-yards, school of seven bells, the neptunes, thom yorke, arthur russell, giovanni pierluigi da palestrina. Any half-samples so far do it no credit at all. What a rediscovery. The new album can't come soon enough and go go listen listen as they tour the American northeast, south & (a leetle) southwest.

Cocteau Twins - "Ella Megablast Buris 4Ever". On the night of Erik Fforde's fortieth birthday, he looked out onto the silver city and he wondered where she was. Where she was and what she was doing; if she was speaking or if she was silent; if she was already in bed or out on the town, laughing. He wondered, not for the first time, how he would meet this woman. Ella Ilium. Her name had come to him in a dream, 21 years ago, when he was 19 years old. The dream told him that her name would be Ella Ilium, and he would meet her when he was forty years old. She was five foot eight, with hair in curls to her shoulders. She had a wide face, old gray eyes, small wrists; she smelled of roses, and wooden gates. Ella Ilium was an anthropologist, his dream told him, specialising in the Sami people of Finland. She spoke English, French, Swedish, Finnish, and a touch or Portuguese. She liked tea, chocolate and rosemary. Erik Fforde closed his eyes and he heard her voice, heard the way it had sounded 21 years ago. "There you are," she had said in the dream, the rs gilded in breath. She was his true love, in a blue dress. She had a book under her arm. "There you are." Erik Fforde lived in an apartment high above the ravine. He was five foot eleven and collected first editions of Dante's Paradiso. He owned a framing shop. He had been with only one woman since the dream of Ella Ilium. That was a long time ago. Her name had been Catherine. Once, only once, three years ago, Erik Fforde had searched Ella's name on the internet. He had looked for just the scarcest moment at the results. It had seemed like cheating. There was a reference to Erasmus, and for some reason, he didn't understand why, the phrase permian dusk. Then he had closed the window. Now Erik Fforde looked out over the silver city and he wondered whether Ella Ilium knew he was coming. [buy Blue Bell Knoll]

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Elsewhere:

Enjoying Sonny and the Sunsets' "Too Young to Burn" (via Catbirdseat), White Hinterland's cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love" (via Gorilla vs Bear), Vampire Weekend's "Horchata" and Jason Derulo's Imogen Heap-sampling "Whatcha Say".

(photo source)

The first person I ever heard utter Bear In Heaven's name was the French filmmaker Vincent Moon. He had been in New York recently, and he told me "zey were amazing". Noisy and ripe, he said, or those are the images I took away with me. At the time, Bear In Heaven were supporting their first album, 2007's Red Bloom of the Boom. I listened, I watched Vincent's Take-Away Show with them, but the band's songs were still very diffuse - more noise that ripeness, perhaps. And so I waited for the boom to fully bloom.

Fast forward two years, and Bear In Heaven's new record arrives on my doorstep. Beast Rest Forth Mouth is regal, filthy and magnificent; it is blurred, burred and precise. Songs that sing, that catch & echo, but still submerged in that slick of groan, shatter and pixelbitten heave. Which is to say, it's a subway roar and bright red plum. It's everything Vincent promised.

Earlier this week, I wrote about two songs from Beast Rest Forth Mouth. Go listen, go buy. And now, Adam Wills, the man Wikipedia calls Bear In Heaven's guitarist, has answered my plea to share some songs he loves - to offer them up, and tell them why & how they make his body chime.

Thank you so much to Adam for joining Said the Gramophone as one of our rare guest-posters. Readers! Please read, imbibe, and leave a comment! Oh & buy the album, do.

Lifetones - "Goodside".

Musically, this is the crossroads for us as a band. In the circle of music we share, spin, love, and waste hours yapping about , this track, well, this whole album, has got to be at the epicenter. Bringing in just about every element and every genre that we adore. It's dubby, it's weird, it's catchy as all hell.. It's truly a perfect song. Just totally infectious. Each musical child birthed by This Heat sits high on all of our charts. Flaming Tunes, The Camberwell Now, and This Heat itself, are strong and apparent influences on us. Now, perhaps I'm wrong for speaking for the four of us. But to me, it's always been so romantic and strangely appealing to be cherished long after our lifespan as a band. I've certainly noticed and contributed to overly hyped current bands that just don't exist nor hold my interest 6 months later. This Lifetones record is a wonderful example of unrecognized genius, this song does NOT sound 25 years old. I was extremely tempted to post another song from the album, the title track, "For A Reason".. simply for that classic dub mantra "Live the life you love, love the life you live.".. That's something I try to wake up with everyday. Though, certainly, "If I can learn from you, to learn from me, to learn from you.." is a lesson we should all practice.

R. Stevie Moore - "Why Can't I Write a Hit?".

Now THIS is a question every band must ponder. R. Stevie Moore, is just, hmm, spectacular, and this song in particular, aside from being hilarious, serves as the perfect theme song for our band. Since we first started getting reviews, it sure seems no one knows what exactly we are trying to do, what kinda of band we are, and just where to place us. Albeit positive reviews, most start with some variation of "How do I classify this band?"... Though extremely proud that most can't pin point our influences and inspirations musically, maybe we're the only 4 on the planet that truly "gets" us. Often annoying, yet always encouraging. Now you can reflect back to my rant over Goodside and perhaps 30 years from now, some futuristic reflection of myself will realize how brilliant we really were? That's something that would make us all smile. But for now, I'll take some pleasure in R. Stevie's gurgled vocals slapped on the end of an otherwise perfect pop song "The songs are too weird, the songs are too weird, the songs are toooo weeeeiirrrdddd"

The Walker Brothers - "The Electrician".

Scott Walker. I love you. You make me feel dark, alive, gay, cooler than cool and I can never get enough. I think this record by now is pretty well circulated, but it's from the Walker Brothers very last album. Holy shit. From the minor atonal string drone that sits underneath it all (Same thing I loved from the very first Scott song I was played "It's Raining Today") Scott composed the first 4 songs off this record, and I don't think many make it to the 5th track, these songs are THAT good. Baby it's slow, when lights go low, there's no help, no. You guys can keep your Morrissey, Scott Walker is my God. Hungover morning commutes, late night red-wine fueled "karaoke" sessions, and overheated slow dances, Scott has suited each situation so well.

Bill Fay - "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow".

I'd very much like to dedicate this song to a very dear friend. As I type this, she is struggling with her battle with cancer, and I can't quit thinking about her. Her time here spent on the mortal plane and her role beyond. I wish for her to carry with her, all in this world that makes her happy, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I love you. We all do.

[Adam Wills is one quarter of Bear In Heaven, a band based in New York City. Their second album, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, is due next week on Home Tapes. Listen to their songs at MySpace, join them on Facebook, and see them live this month across parts of the American south and northeast. // Click here to pre-order their terrific new record.]

(Previous guest-blogs: artist Michael Krueger, artist Amber Albrecht, The Whiskers, Silver Jews, artist Ariel Kitch, artist Aaron Sewards, artist Corinne Chaufour, "Jean Baudrillard", artist Danny Zabbal, artist Irina Troitskaya, artist Eleanor Meredith, artist Keith Greiman, artist Matthew Feyld, The Weakerthans, Parenthetical Girls, artist Daria Tessler, Clem Snide, Marcello Carlin, Beirut, Jonathan Lethem, Will Butler (Arcade Fire), Al Kratina, Eugene Mirman, artist Dave Bailey, Agent Simple, artist Keith Andrew Shore, Owen Ashworth (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone), artist Kit Malo with Alden Penner (The Unicorns) 1 2, artist Rachell Sumpter, artist Katy Horan 1 2, David Barclay (The Diskettes), artist Drew Heffron, Carl Wilson, artist Tim Moore, Michael Nau (Page France), Devin Davis, Will Sheff (Okkervil River), Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear), Hello Saferide, Damon Krukowski (Damon & Naomi), Brian Michael Roff, Howard Bilerman (producer: Silver Mt. Zion, Arcade Fire, etc.). There are many more to come.)

Bear In Heaven - "Lovesick Teenagers".
Bear In Heaven - "Dust Cloud".

Beast Rest Forth Mouth is an album of bled bytes, vomitted pixels, tears of pure #@&am(p;*xE%. Synths stream like paint from a spraygun, stars from Zeus's cock, the mantra from a monk's mouth. Drums like immutable physical laws; the facts which dictate everything else. Just songs, but when you turn them up loud - from wide speakers, big headphones - these songs occupy space. You can rest your head against them, feel them flutter against your eyes. And in the slew of "Dust Cloud", time unspooling, gravity wronging, you sense the way the Big Bang was a lot like someone taking someone else's hand; like an electron said hey and set her head against that neutron's sloped shoulder.

[Bear In Heaven's magnificent second album is out next week - buy]

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Pop Montreal 2009, highlights of the highlights: Fever Ray, Sister Suvi, Daredevil Christopher Wright, Young Galaxy, Tune-Yards, Vincent Moon, the Oh Sees, Francois Virot and Carl Spidla. My favourite festival ever; the highlights above were wonders and gems. Hope some of you shared them. More later, perhaps.

(photo source)

Slaraffenland - "Postcard". A song as a postcard, with pummeled drums, choral whoop, flute and trombone. I have never managed to include trombones with a postcard. They do not stay fastened. To deliver a fanfare, a wake-up call, I am forced to send a messenger. And it's a funny thing; every time I tried to send you a fanfare, a wake-up call, you were never there. RETURN TO SENDER, the messenger explained. So I have realised something. The people I want to try fanfares to - they're already gone. [buy]

Christopher Smith - "White Knuckle (instrumented)". It's too cold to close the window. It is frozen; it will not close. I stand shivering in the white quadrangle of light and there is no wind, no push of air through the gap. The air is perfectly still. Winter is standing in the room with me. It sees me clearer than I see it. [Christopher Smith has only ever played one show outside Vancouver / Only 100 copies of Keepsake exist / buy]

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Pop Montreal day two! Fever Ray tonight! Follow my v sporadic updates on Twitter.

(photo source)

In 2004, Howard Bilerman, the producer/engineer of albums by Silver Mt. Zion, Arcade Fire, British Sea Power, Basia Bulat and many more, wrote one of Said the Gramophone's first guestposts. In the midst of praising Bob Dylan's "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)", he called "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" "the weakest lead off track to ever grace a masterpiece". More than five years later, he wrote to me with a correction.

Bob Dylan - "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" [buy]

a few years ago, I wrote about blonde on blonde for this blog, and while doing so, I called "rainy day women" some unflattering things. I am currently preparing to interview bob johnston, producer of said song, and after listening again, I would like to say I might have missed the point. I confess, I got caught up in the novelty of the song...the laughter....the inside jokes...the seemingly meaningless title. I also confess, I got hung up on the chorus, taking it literally. not being someone who endorses drug culture, "everybody must get stoned" was not something I could get behind. this was further soldified by going to see Dylan, and having everyone around me chit-chat during "it's all over now baby blue", but leap to their feet in sing-along fashion to the chorus of rainy-day women. but, I realized, this is no drug song. the anthemic chorus exclipsed the verses, but the verses tell us about getting stoned, ie: "cast the first stone". and after listening this weekend, I hear dylan telling a much different story. one about people being judgemental...one about being under scrutiny...one about being misunderstood. and, ironically, in terms of this song, I am guilty as charged on all counts. this song is just as much about small-mindedness and oppression, as it is about getting high. i am loathe to try to get inside dylan's mind, but in the wake of the judas-heckling "dylan goes electric" period, "they'll stone you when you're playing your guitar" takes on a whole new meaning. and so, with this new found perspective, i listened again. and what i hear are a bunch of people in a room...just playing together. it has a "realness" that, despite me still feeling is a bit "nudge nudge, wink wink", is honest in ways you rarely hear on record anymore. to place it as the leadoff track announces the mission statement of the recording. this is what happens when people gather in a studio, and make music. it's about documentation, not magic tricks. I wrote this song off...I was wrong.

Howard Bilerman will be interviewing Bob Johnston (who produced not just Dylan, but Leonard Cohen, Simon & Garfunkel and Johnny Cash) this coming Friday, October 2, as part of Pop Montreal. The presentation is completely free and takes place 4-6pm at McGill's Tanna Schulich Hall, 527 Sherbrooke Street West.

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Pop Montreal 2009 starts today. (My guide here.) See you out there!