Review: YSPWSD's XXXX

Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! has been filling the need for two-and-a-half minute dance-pop punk songs since February 9th, when their third LP, XXXX was unleashed on the American public.

The band remains loyal to their new wave sound but XXXX is more mature, slick and tighter than their previous recordings. YSPWSD’s newfound maturity is something not to be ignored. They’ve managed to sound a little less like The B-52s than fans are accustomed to and more like Siouxsie & The Banshees – darker and driven by more emotion.

The first track, ‘There Is XXXX (Within My Heart)’ is one of the album’s danciest - fusing a groovy base line drenched in synth harmonies. This selection also allows the listener to decipher the meaning of XXXX – love. ‘Glory’, the next tune, pays homage to bands like Be Your Own Pet from a few years ago. It’s also one of the LP’s few guitar driven songs.

Other notable tracks include the Devo-esque ‘Cosmic Wanship Avengers’ & ‘Heart Of Gold’ (which undoubtedly exemplifies YSPWSD’s aforementioned emotional fondness). It’s the mellowest but clearly the most epic.

Published by The Music Slut

Review: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' The Brutalist Bricks

On March 9th, Washington DC’s Ted Leo & The Pharmacists will unveil their sixth release entitled The Brutalist Bricks. The album is an interesting fusion of indie and hard rock songs that express a new sense of pop sensibility resembling that of Can-rocker Sam Roberts alongside the swagger of The Boss.

The LP begins with the amped up ‘Mighty Sparrow’ which contains all the necessary hooks and is a definite stand-out track. After a few more similar songs, track five, ‘The Stick’, will hit any listener upside the head and will surely get you on your feet. The tune is a signature Leo number and reminds me of older more palatable Pharmacists selections.

Other notable tracks include ‘Where Was My Brain’ - a more up-tempo song than most of the record and finally a tune with a little muscle/attitude. ‘Bartolomeo And The Buzzing Of Bees’ has an interestingly hooky bass line and the album’s best track, ‘Gimme The Wire’, owes Husker Du a big nod.

The band has been successful in recent years, playing Coachella and the Pitchfork Festival in 2007, but if I had to say all the hype surrounding this release is accurate, I’d declare that the album is full of both hits and misses.

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THE MAGNETIC FIELDS @ QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE: BEAUTIFUL, CLEVER & PECULIAR

Did you know that in the Canadian Governmental hierarchy, the Prime Minister is actually third in line? In fact, it is actually the Queen of England who legitimately sits as top ranked head of state (or province) - she even has her mug on all of the Canadian coins & has an intimate acoustically sound theatre named after her based at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. This seven-dollar-a-beer venue housed an up close & entertaining night with The Magnetic Fields on Monday showcasing their most recent release Realism.

Magnetic Fields shows are an amalgamation of witty banter & depressing tunes spearheaded by the band’s chief singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt’s signature baritone, Calvin Johnston-esque voice and soft strum of the ukulele alongside his musical partner, pianist and second vocalist, Claudia Gonson. Both however, were a tad under the weather, suffering from a cold (laryngitis in Gonson’s case).

Nonetheless, the show went on as The Magnetic Fields opened with ‘Lindy-Lou’, which is actually a 6ths song (one of Merritt’s other projects) and foreshadowing of the peculiarity of the night to come. The second tune, ‘You Must Be Out Of Your Mind’, was the first of many Realism selections. Others included ‘Hootenanny’ & ‘Walk A Lonely Road’.


In the midst of new material, TMF did find the time to play a wide range of their older, Merge-era material. Off of their most recognizable release, 69 Love Songs, TMF performed ‘Acoustic Guitar’ (which Gonson may have struggled with due to her illness) as well as about a half dozen other classics. There were also snippets of The Wayward Bus & another 6ths song, ‘Falling Out Of Love With You’ (one of the best tracks of the night).

Luckily, for the drinkers in the crowd, there was a fifteen minute intermission. The second set ended with ‘Summer Lies’, before an encore consisting of ‘I’m Tongue-Tied’ & ‘100,000 Fireflies’ which Merritt humorously & ironically introduced earlier in the evening as the first song. ‘He’s joking’ Gonson informed us.

In essence, it was a sincere performance by Merritt, Gonson and company. My personal highlights were the quiet seconds it took for the audience to get some of the more clever jokes made by Merritt and the cello solo on ‘Fall In Love With The Wolf Boy’ by Sam Davol.

There are few artists that come across with as much honesty as Merritt. If you’ve seen him and The Magnetic Fields before, then you know how intimate & personal the shows can be. Regardless of how much Merritt hates performing, it is a blessing to witness him in action (even if he hides under that hideous ball cap and/or is sick). ‘We’ve had a bunch of cold medicine’ he proclaimed in between songs - a peculiar night indeed.

Published by The Music Slut

Review: Shearwater's The Golden Archipelago

Later this month, Shearwater will release The Great Archipelago on Matador, their sixth LP since their inception, and the third in a series of theme linked albums (the first two being 2006’s Palo Santo and Rook in 2008). The Great Archipelago is Shearwater’s most accomplished work to date fusing soft melodies with an array of instruments.

Taking in a host of worldly sounds and influences, Archipelago begins with a tribal chant which then melts into a soft acoustic ballad, ‘Meridian’, and so begins a groovy journey along the coastal lines of a far-away paradise. Songs such as ‘Black Eyes’, the first single, and ‘Corridors’ go in a different direction than the album’s beginnings, taking a quicker up-tempo composition, which is almost Flaming Lips esque.

The latter half of the record calms down, intertwining folk structures – blending piano and even a string section such as ‘Runners…’ (a personal favorite) and the slow, almost salsa dance-inspiring, ‘An Insular Life’. After the epic, Pink Floyd influenced ‘Uniforms’, the album ends with the warm aubade, ‘Missing…’, naturally bringing the LP full circle to the soft touch that kicked it all off. It achieves its intentions - taking its listener on a journey of the world, celebrating existence & our linkages to everything within it.

Published by The Music Slut