Archives : all posts by Sean

Starting this Wednesday is Pop Montreal, one of the finest music & arts festivals in all the world, at least if you like the things we do. It is wild and woolly, joyously diverse, deep and wide and rich and poor and set in the heart of this great city. More than 400 bands, plus films, workshops, lectures, art installations, spread across dozens of venues in Quebec's largest city. Carefully curated, with an emphasis on showing you something new (even if that something is old). This is a festival with a who's-who of indie up'n'comers - but that's a side-effect, a symptom. It's not the fever.

You should come. If it's too late for this year, come next year. And for all those who will be here, here are some suggestions of what you should see. I know but a small fraction of what is playing here, know of a larger fraction, but still - there is much I have missed. Take everything with seas of salt.

Last year, I did a similar guide, but I also wrote up my adventures after the fact, telling the tale of my Pop 2008, for McSweeney's. That will give you a flavour of the kind of things I like. The kind of things I do not like, I have left out of this list. (Even acts that many others do like, eg: Butthole Surfers.)

Visitors to the city, two suggestions: (a) accommodation via Pop Hostel; (b) transportation via Bixi.

How to Use This Guide
I suggest you flip between this guide and the official Pop program, for band descriptions (much more convenient than the website). Hit websites/myspace for audio samples. Build yr schedule by making an account on Sched, print it out, pocket it.

Tickets and Passes
To attend a concert at Pop, you can either buy a ticket or use a pass to get in. Only a certain number of pass-holders are allowed into every show. This means that for extremely popular shows, unless you arrive long before the first act, a pass is not likely to get you in. (Whereas buying a ticket always guarantees entry.)

As a result, if you plan to just attend just a few big shows over the course of Pop's five days - buy tickets. On the other hand, if you wish to enjoy the festival as it is meant to be enjoyed, discovering tons of new sounds (rather than just the big names), I highly recommend a pass. There are so many treasures to be uncovered here, and many of the bands that were "small" one or two years ago are the hot tickets today.

Much of Pop is completely free. The terrific craft and record fairs, all weekend, don't charge admission. There's a free barbecue on Saturday, free concerts (by great acts) in the Phonopolis Record Store basement on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. And two of Pop's greatest gifts, ART POP (a series of art installations around the city) and SYMPOSIUM (a conference with fun, scintillating panels/lectures/workshops) are entirely gratis. Symposium's events include a 3-hr jam workshop with Faust, room-sized theremin demos, DJ-ed lectures on world music, even a screening/lecture by one of my favourite filmmakers, Take Away Shows' Vincent Moon. A lot of Pop attendees forego Art Pop and Symposium - but honestly their (free!) programming makes up some of the festival's finest stuff.

Oh and there's FILM POP! Movies about music. Most of these screenings cost money regardless of whether you have a pass.

Recommendations over several days

• All week
  • ART POP at the Notman House: Dominique Sirois's office-turned-nightclub, Jessica Campbell & Bridget Moser's pinata room, Kim Kielhofner's extraordinary video tent, drawings by Jean-Philippe Harvey & Adam Bergeron.
  • ART POP at Espace Reunion: Brendan Reed's curious video, Paul Warne's optical illusions, Lalie Douglas's edible creatures.
• Wed, Sept 30 - Sat, Oct 3
  • ART POP at Articule Gallery: Matt Shane and Jim Holyoak's mesmerising gigantic wall drawings.
  • The Happiness Project at 5202 Hutchison (20h every day). Visual artists bring to life Charles Spearin's wonderful Happiness Project album in this installation project.
• Sat, Oct 3 - Sun, Oct 4 (11h-19h)
  • PUCES POP craft fair at Eglise St-Michel
  • Record sale & gear swap at Ukrainian Federation

Recommendations day by day
Every day, I begin by describing my plans for that evening. But there are gazillions of Pop shows, much more than any one person can do. Next, I break down some suggestions into three categories:

And then a list of the day's highlights, as far as I can tell. I highly recommend everything on these lists, but everything listed in bold is completely CAN'T MISS.

This list has been made using the updated Pop schedule of September 25. All dates/times are as best as I know. [Update September 30 - All Zoobizarre shows have been moved to Playhouse or Saphir, and their Thursday set-times changed.]

Wednesday, September 30

Happily for my weeklong endurance, Wednesday will be a quiet night. Carl Spidla is one of the country's most promising singer-songwriters (he still hasn't released an album), and friends in London, ON have highly recommended Olenka & the Autumn Lovers. So I will start with the one, and follow with the other. And then I'll probably close the evening with the garage-pop line-up that's playing Sala all night.

20h00 - My People Sleeping (opening for Amy Millan) @ Ukrainian Federation
22h00 - Carl Spidla @ Cagibi
22h30 - The Youjsh @ Il Motore
23h30 - Bruce Peninsula @ Il Motore
23h30 - Olenka & the Autumn Lovers @ Barfly
23h45 - Box Elders @ Sala Rossa
00h30 - Jay Reatard @ Sala Rossa

Thursday, October 1

Thursday night is a feast. I would be perfectly happy going to see Clues and Micachu - two furious, weird, jubilant pop acts. But alas, I will not be at Cabaret for those sets. No, I will be at Metropolis, seeing Fever Ray. Fever Ray is Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of Swedish haunted house group The Knife. Her show is the second most expensive production Pop Montreal has ever put on - featuring costumes, masks, lasers, smoke and miracles. This will be eerie & possessed, one of Fever Ray's only performances on this continent. The tip from previous shows is that you should stand close to the front. It's apparently kept so dark that it can be hard to see.

After Fever Ray I could try to hoof it and catch Clues, but I'm more likely to catch something smaller. Silver Starling/Young Galaxy at Il Motore, or Hooded Fang at 3 Minots. I will undoubtedly be ending the night with Sister Suvi - one of the city's most exciting and underrated acts - before dropping by Montag's CATALOGUE, a multi-hour jam by musical luminaries playing vintage synths.

13h-14h30 - Symposium talks on canadian music funding @ Espace Reunion
15h-18h - Tune-Yards, Adam & the Amethysts, Brave Radar, Dearling Physique @ Phonopolis [free!]
18h - Diamanda Galas lecture @ Concordia University H-110
19h - Think About Life @ Maison Radio-Canada
19h - Ceska Rapublika (doc on czech rap) @ Cinema du Parc
20h30 - Nutsak (opening for Butthole Surfers) @ Olympia
20h30 - PDF Format @ Casa del Popolo
21h - Construction & Destruction @ Jupiter Room
21h - Cotton Mouth @ Green Room
21h - Drew Danburry @ Quai des Brumes
21h30 - Fever Ray @ Metropolis
21h30 - Mono @ La Tulipe
21h30 - Supr Fossl Powr @ Balattou
22h - Balacade @ Playhouse Saphir Zoobizarre
22h - Yukon Blonde @ Divan Orange
22h30 - Micachu @ Cabaret
23h - Silver Starling @ Il Motore
23h - Mavo @ Jupiter Room
23h - Montag presents: CATALOGUE @ Espace Reunion
23h10 - Brides @ Casa del Popolo [big Blocks session]
23h30 - Clues @ Cabaret Juste Pour Rire
00h - Hooded Fang @ Les 3 Minots
00h - Young Galaxy @ Il Motore
00h - Cousins @ Cagibi
00h - Soul Clap Dance-Off @ Green Room
01h10 - The Intelligence @ Sala Rossa
01h30 - Sister Suvi @ Balattou

Friday, October 2

On paper, Friday is probably Pop 2009's best day. I'm going to start by attending Symposium at 4pm - because I'm speaking on a panel. At 7pm, Tune-Yards' show is likely to be a highlight of the year - one of Gramophone's favourite artists, always stupefying, now tour-practiced, newly lionized in Europe (opening for Dirty Projectors), playing a farewell-to-Montreal show with friends and who-knows-what gallery-budget tricks up her sleeves.

After that, either Adam & the Amethysts, Yo La Tengo, Snailhouse, or Avec Pas D'Casque/Destroyer. And then to wrap up the evening I highly recommend the line-up at Le Milieu, which Said the Gramophone is presenting. I'm so keen to see Daredevil Christopher Wright (whose Bon Iver-produced debut, indie folk & doo-wop & psych-pop, thrilled me) and the Mittenstrings (who play tough, beautiful folk music).

13h-20h - free barbecue @ Notman House
16h - Book This Face (internet music thing panel featuring Sean Gramophone) @ Espace Reunion
17h30 - Roxanne Shante lecture @ Espace Reunion
19h - Tune-Yards - Musée d'art contemporain
20h - Ghost Bees @ Ukrainian Federation
20h - Video Tape @ Jupiter Room
20h - Gobble Gobble @ Saphir Zoobizarre
20h10 - Shapes & Sizes (opening for Sufjan Stevens) @ Cabaret
20h45 - Cryptacize (opening for Sufjan Stevens) @ Cabaret
21h - Adam & the Amethysts @ Green Room
21h - Avec pas d'casque @ Ukrainian Federation
21h - Snailhouse @ Divan Orange
21h - Yo La Tengo @ Club Soda
21h45 - Sufjan Stevens @ Cabaret
21h30 - Duchess Says (opening for Teenage Jesus & the Jerks) @ Le National
22h - An Albatross @ Club Lambi
22h - Destroyer @ Ukrainian Federation
22h - Woodpigeon @ O Patro Vys
22h - Polipe @ Saphir Zoobizarre
23h - Rah Rah @ Bar St Laurent II
23h - Daredevil Christopher Wright @ Le Milieu
00h - Anthony Von Seck & the Exiles (ft. Basia Bulat, Chris Burns, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, members Silver Mt Zion, etc.) @ Espace Reunion
00h - Chain & the Gang @ Club Lambi
00h - the Mittenstrings @ Le Milieu
00h - No Gold @ Divan Orange
00h - Lee Fields and the Expressions @ Sala Rossa
00h - Shapes and Sizes @ O Patro Vys
00h05 - Receivers @ Petit Campus
01h - Sam Shalabi @ Espace Reunion

Saturday, October 3

First thing on Saturday: Puces Pop and the Pop Record Fair. Oh, and brunch. And then I'm going to zip up to Espace Reunion for two fascinating-looking lecutres - one on "indie culture" worldwide, the other "DJed lectures" (meaning lectures with audio samples) on street music from across the globe.

Starting at 10pm, I'm going to bask in Snowblink and Francois Virot at Le Gymnase (another StG-presented show). I heard Snowblink for the first time at this year's Sappyfest, adoring their restrained, indie folk. And though France's Francois Virot is not the name he will yet be, he's an astonishing solo act - like Animal Collective via Jose Gonzalez - and his appearance at Pop is one of my must-sees.

Later I will either check out Black Wire Red Wire, Thee Oh Sees or Greg Macpherson - and finish things off with DJ/Rupture's, Cadence Weapon's, Poirier's or Think About Life's dance parties.

12h-15h - Faust workshop @ Espace Reunion
15h-18h - Clues, Valleys, Ryan Power, Nutbrown @ Phonopolis [free!
15h - Indie Culture from Stockholm to Sao Paolo lecture @ Espace Reunion
15h - The Family Jams (psych-folk doc) @ Cinema du Parc
17h-19h - DJed Lectures: World Street Music (ft. DJ/Rupture, Valeo, Brian Simkovitz)
20h30 - Black Feelings (opening for Faust) @ Ukrainian Federation
19h - Goblin Market short film @ Espace Reunion
19h - Sufjan Stevens' The BQE film @ Espace Reunion
20h30 - Black Feelings (opening for Faust) @ Ukrainian Federation
21h - Jerusalem in My Heart @ Theatre Outremont
21h30 - Faust @ Ukrainian Federation
21h45 - The Hoa Hoas @ Bar St Laurent II
22h - Snowblink @ Gymnase
22h - Diamanda Galas @ Theatre Outremont
22h - Tanlines (opening for Os Mutantes) @ Le National
22h - Rah Rah @ Les 3 Minots
22h30 - Green Go @ Petit Campus
23h - PS I Love You @ Jupiter Room
23h - BRAIDS @ Saphir Zoobizarre
23h - Forest City Lovers @ Casa del Popolo
23h - Golden Triangle @ Sala Rossa
23h - Valleys @ O Patro Vys
23h - Lemonade @ Club Lambi
23h - Zeroes @ Il Motore
23h - Silly Kissers @ Divan Orange
23h45 - Parlovr @ Espace Reunion
00h - Francois Virot @ Gymnase
00h - Witchies - L'Escogriffe
00h - The Fresh & Onlys @ Sala Rossa
00h - The Luyas @ Casa del Popolo
00h30 - Poirier ft. Face-T @ Club Soda
01h - Thee Oh Sees @ Sala Rossa
01h - Mixylodian @ Saphir Zoobizarre
01h - Red Wire Black Wire @ Gymnase
01h - Cadence Weapon @ Divan Orange
01h - DJ/Rupture @ Club Lambi
01h - Greg MacPherson @ Les 3 Minots
01h20 - Think About Life @ Espace Reunion

Sunday, October 4

On Sunday we will have to measure our hangovers. If mild, perhaps I will take to the Piknic Electronik at Parc Jean Drapeau (I'm always sad to miss Valeo/Khiasma, one of my favourite DJs). If severe, the afternoon offers strange unveilings at Espace Reunion: first an animatronic band built by Max Lawrence, then the long-gestating theremin-as-big-as-a-room. I think I'm also signed up for a "learn how to make a mini-theremin" workshop. Come evening time, I will be at the screening by Vincent Moon - he visited last year and honestly it was one of the best things I saw, these films on a big screen. And then I will skim down to Sala Rossa to see Little Scream and Woven Hand (possibly popping across the street to peep White Pine Waltz).

12h30 - Dan Iglesia's Ghost Jockey 3d art installation @ Espace Reunion
13h45 - Vernissage: Kimberlite and the Pipes (animatronic band by Max Lawrence) @ Espace Reunion
13h45 - How to Build a Home Studio lecture (Wolf Parade's Arlen Thompson) @ Espace Reunion
13h-21h - Valeo @ Piknic Eletronik
15h - Room-size Theremin keynote @ Espace Reunion
15h-18h - Parlovr, Luyas, Vincat, Ryan Power sings karaoke @ Phonopolis [free!]
20h - Katie Moore (opening for Iris Dement) @ L'Astral
20h - Tony Ezzy Gets a Job film @ Green Room
20h - Screening/lecture by Vincent Moon @ Espace Reunion
21h - Iris Dement @ L'Astral
21h30 - Little Scream @ Sala Rossa
22h - White Pine Waltz (Sarah Neufeld, Colin Stetson, Becky Foon & more) @ Casa del Popolo
22h - Ariane Moffatt @ Ukrainian Federation
23h30 - Woven Hand @ Sala Rossa

More updates as the week progresses... (You should follow me on Twitter.)

Vic Chesnutt - "Flirted With You All My Life". Crisp like an apple, smelling of the cellar. Chesnutt has again recruited some of Montreal's finest, members of Silver Mt. Zion who put aside their scowls and furies for at least four minutes and forty-one seconds. "Flirted With You" is such a pretty song, coaxed and caressed; but it's also a song with a twist, an early lyrical pirouette. What seems at first to be a song about, well, a girl - turns out to be a tune about the great oblivion, about the millionfold void, about the thing with a cowl and scythe. Chesnutt is not singing about temptation or infidelity; he is singing the joy of living, of still living, of still still still living, still. [buy/listen to more of At The Cut]

Cousins - "Anxious". Bees that work in a pharmacy, buzzing as they measure and distribute soft white pills. Wasps that work tirelessly at a rollerskate diner, zipping back and forth to the parking lot, bearing malted milks. Hornets at the garage, wiping their black & oily hands with a rag, standing lets apart, watching you drive away. Black and yellow stripes, everywhere. // A blurry beeswax & beautiful song, by Halifax's Cousins. [MySpace/on tour and hitting Pop Montreal]

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Speaking of Pop Montreal - it's in just a week and a half! You should come! One of the finest music & film & art & etc festivals in all the world. Fever Ray and Faust and Clues and Micachu and Sufjan and who-knows-what. The program is out and I will be assembling a guide to the festival, like last year, full of recommendations. But in the meantime: book your tickets! And the festival has even organised a billeting program, aka POP HOSTEL, to help you out-of-towners find a place to stay.

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(photo source unknown - tea break on the set of Metropolis)

The Ukeladies - "Sleep Today". They started the band as a kind of joke. Three girls who played ukulele - haha! The Ukeladies! Yes! They would play a few nights at Stu's, cover-songs mostly, then maybe get booked for Thunder Bay's big Victoria Day show. That was the plan. Nora, Vicky and Kate practiced covers of Beirut, the Shangri-Las, a Sufjan Stevens tune. Eventually they decided the Ukeladies needed a drummer. They asked on Facebook: Vicky Nestruck is looking for a drummer for THUNDER BAY'S GREATEST ALL-GIRL UKULELE GROUP-O! Alas, Thunder Bay is a small community. Northern Ontario did not offer up many female drummers. They ended up inviting Louis Ford, a gangly library nerd who was more into Vampire Weekend than Beirut, but that was okay. He could even sing while he played the toms. After that, it got easier - "Wouldn't 'Tunnels' sound better with a bassline?" They called Ricky Frauman, who Vicky's crush since sophomore year. Later they got Mo Radcliffe and his synths. And then before they knew it, the Ukeladies were half boys, half not-ukuleles. But they didn't mind. Everyone was still having fun, "Elephant Gun" sounded great, the girls had bought matching dresses. They were getting ready for their first show, at Stu's, opening for Timber Timbre.

The Ukeladies shrugged it off at first. They let Mo be his weird, looming self. But one night, Ricky drove him home from practice and when they all met up later that week, Ricky had gone weird too. He had sunken eyes, twitchy lips. Vicky went back to his place that night, so excited to be going - but she was changed at the next practice. She creeped in the back door, wearing torn clothes, unlaced sneakers. Nora tried to lead a jam on Regina Spektor but the three of them, Ricky and Mo and Vicky, started murmuring under their breaths. They murmured complicated words that seemed bent-backward, spidery, confusing. They made Nora's head hurt. Nora quit the band. She sent an email to everyone: I'm really sorry, she wrote, I'm just not feeling it right now. Then Kate quit too. Only Louis was left, Louis and the dead-eyed trio. He had written a new song.

Vicky licked her lips with a worm-coloured tongue. Mo changed the pre-sets on his keyboard. Ricky said a word in a language older than space.

[MySpace / thanks, Adam!]

El Perro del Mar - "Change of Heart". She is in the pillow section and he is in the picture-frame section. He is at the end of an aisle, taking a matte silver frame from a hook. His arms are raised and he looks particularly bear-like, strong and bearded. She thinks of how he will put the frame around his shoulder and come over to where she is standing; he will stroke the arc where her neck meets her shoulder; they will go hand in hand to the warehouse at the end of this vast store. The frame will glint in the fluorescents, and he will choose a trolley from the row of trolleys and wheel the trolley through the tall steel shelves. They will find the melamine desk they liked, identifying it by its ümlauted label; he will balance the long, flat cardboard box on the trolley he chose. In the parking-lot they will bump into one of his old friends from university. Everyone will shake hands. And much later, at home, he will put the lithograph into the frame and hang it above their bed. They will make love like two traincars passing in a dark tunnel.

She stands and looks across the aisles to where he is taking a picture-frame from a hook. She wonders how many geese went into these pillows.

[buy]

Labani Kalunga & Fikshala Band - "By Air". His name is Peter Parker and he is a mathematician. The other lecturers like to make jokes: "The Spider-Man of MATHS 120A!" Students put references to Mary-Jane and the Green Goblin in the titles of their papers. Once, someone left a box in his mailslot that contained a small spider. This is particularly funny because Peter Parker is a small, gentle man who recedes quietly into his little brown suits. He is 52 years old. He has probably never read a Spider-Man comic in his life, they think. He has probably never raised his voice, or danced, or laughed at a fart joke. They imagine him sitting in silence with pages of mathematical notation, a pencil in his fingers, the symbols passing into his mind with the dry sound of graphite scrape. What they do not know about Peter Parker is that when this little man looks at G(n) ∼ (lnn)², what he sees is dancing fireworks. When he gazes at the twist and leap and dive of an equation, at the cresting hope of a proof, he hears a filligree of joyful electric guitar. He heard a dance of gold and silver, a riff as beautiful as the most beautiful girl. [from Awesome Tapes from Africa/buy]

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My friend Abby McDonald (once of the Poptext music blog) is about to release her second novel, a book called The Popularity Rules. She has launched a website and video-thingy to promote it. Go look.

Correatown - "Valparaiso". "For the six years before the bankruptcy, your father had a trick. He would bring home a dish from the factory, something simple with a lid, unwrap its newspaper on the dining-room table. I would say, 'That's nice,' just like that, nothing fancy. They made simple things. Simple but nice. We would use the dish for sugar, or herbs, or apricot pits. Two weeks would pass. And then one day I would be putting an apricot pit in the dish and your father would say, 'Do you know where you just put that pit?' And I would say, 'In a dish'. And he would say, 'You put it in the stuff of Manawaka beach'. We'd have been at Manawaka beach two, maybe three months before; lying under the sun on holiday. And your father would have secretly taken a handful of sand, taken it all the way back home, taken it to the factory, thrown it into the vats. That was his trick. Made glass with it. His partner, Ralph, always rolled his eyes. The sand from those beaches - Manawaka, Lake Andy, Huron, San Marguerite, from Porto once - was impure. 'Not glass-grade,' Ralph would always say. But your father didn't care. 'The stuff of our sweet times,' he would say. 'Do you remember?'" [MySpace]

Speech Debelle - "Spinnin'". In my to-post folder for weeks, but then Speech goes along and wins the Mercury Prize and I'm just a bandwagon-jumper, trying to nick some gleam from her trophy. And yet on tracks like this, Speech Debelle shows she has enough gleam to go around; she's gleaming so hard that her running shoes, her chewing gum, the creases between her knuckles gleam. Optimism that's a little banal, sure, but ratatat drumstick whoop, yes yes, just the thing for here & today. (A lovely record.) [MySpace/buy]

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Please do leave a comment for Michael Krueger, yesterday's guest-blogger.

You will love Michael Krueger. He is an artist from Lawrence, Kansas whose work pricked my heart like the sharp tip of a coloured pencil. Discovering his drawings was like discovering a forgotten album of photographs - shots from when I was growing up (like I am now). Oh yes, I remember this time. And also this time, banded & prismed. And when this happened. Only then when you go back to the first page to go through these memories again you realize no, they did not happen; these are souvenirs from dream. From when you decided with all your soul to climb that bluff and you packed your pack full of apples and you got up there but there was the woman in the calfskin and the milkmaid looking at that man with eyes full of lust, and the sun was setting, and there was the tree, and earth, and blues.

Michael Krueger has a solo exhibition open now at Boston's Steven Zevitas Gallery. It runs through October 17. If I were there, I would be there. I have been working on the drawings for this show for the past year, he says. You can read an interview with Michael at Fecal Face.

Michael has done two drawings especially for us, for Said the Gramophone, giving image to two songs he loves. Please look, listen, look again; and please do leave some comments in the comments. (Thank you so much, Michael.)

[Michael Krueger is a father, an artist and a teacher. He was born on January 5, 1967 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He now lives in Lawrence, KS where he teaches at the University of Kansas. He has given lectures and workshops at over 80 venues including City College in NYC and the Edinburgh College of Art, and one of his images of Thomas Jefferson hangs at Monticello. Michael's new solo exhibition, Endless Colony, is currently on at Boston's Steven Zevitas Gallery.]

(Previous guest-blogs: 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.)

Fulton Lights - "Monsters We've Built". A sea-change, a vaulting forward in the songwriting of Andrew Spencer Goldman. He has been a master of sound for as long as I have been listening, but on Healing Waters the songs-as-songs have more substance. These are not in any way "soundscapes" - they are tunes. In places they recall the Flaming Lips' basement anthems, or Stars' bedroom warnings. But these are just touchstones; "Monsters We've Built" is so much noisier than that. There's the crash of demolition, the shriek of tearing metal, an apocalyptic roar. The sound of something ripping through its old skin and taking a deep, deep breath. (Also, he covers David Byrne's "Glass, Concrete and Stone"!)

[buy for a ridiculous $6 (or less!) from Catbird Records]

(painting by Jennie Taylor)