Music

Thrift Store Music: Volume 4: A Collection of Reviews

2013-05-17T07:00:16Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Welcome back to Thrift Store Music, where I discuss some of the music that I come across in the CD section of thrift stores, when I visit them, which these days is fairly often. Usually these are albums of the past, back when the compact disc was one of the best ways for a musician or record company to make money off of their output. A lot has changed and people's tastes evolve and what they discard to their neighbourhood thrift store reflects the change of public opinion. But I'm a nostalgic sort of person and I enjoy revisiting some of these albums or even hearing some of them for the first time.

Marbin - Last Chapter of Dreaming

2013-05-17T07:00:16Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - A number of months ago I did a small review on Marbin's first album, and they were pleased enough with it that they offered me a chance to listen to their newest release for free. I like that as a reviewer. I imagine that if I were a musician, reviews would be kinda scary. People who claim to be professionals sit and analyze and criticize the music that you've put so much of yourself into. I don't know what it means really to be a professional in this field... I just give my opinion really, but I have lambasted a couple of albums in my time as a writer. I suppose Marbin is confident enough in this album, especially since I showed great affection toward their first release, that they were willing to put Last Chapter of Dreaming in the line of fire to see if it meets or surpasses my expectations.

Doug's Indie Picks for May 2013

2013-05-03T07:00:00Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - I'm sorry I took a couple of months off of the indie picks, I just felt that I needed to focus my writing elsewhere, but I'm back with a new batch of great albums by independent artists. I am starting to feel that this series needs a break though because I'm not feeling the creative excitement for it like I used to. I will probably revisit it when I feel inspired to do so, but for music articles, I have a couple of other exciting projects that I've been working on for some time. Next month will mark the anniversary and I will do a special one and leave it at that for a little while.

Hannah Georgas: Live in Concert - Vancouver - April 26, 2013

2013-05-03T07:00:00Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - “Can’t wait to see Miss Legs on Friday,” my wife remarked to me in passing while on a drive earlier this week. Because much of our attention was focused on her school program, and the semester wrapping up, I thought she was talking about seeing a professor in the department for some reason around the time of her last exam. But I was a little stumped – who was this poor woman, whom Jess was now referring to, and was this a positive or negative comment.

Rob Dougan – Furious Angels

2013-04-05T07:01:03Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - I remember when I first heard Rob Dougan's music, it was a song in The Matrix where Morpheus takes Neo into the program to teach him about agents and there is a sexy woman in a red dress. I wanted to find out what the song was and at the time I wasn't nearly as web savvy as I am now so I wound up not figuring it out. I was clearly not very resourceful because it wasn't top secret information by any stretch of the imagination, I just didn't know how to research things. But that song reappeared a few times in my travels, at one point someone mislead me into thinking it was a song by Moby. It wasn't until 2003 when The Matrix: Reloaded came out and my younger brother picked up the soundtrack. There were two songs by Rob Dougan on there, one was “Furious Angels” and the other was a track called “Chateau” from the scene where Neo takes on a whole group of program minions with every medieval weapon imaginable. That inspired me to check out more of Rob Dougan's work and I found his website that was promoting his full album Furious Angels, which contained the title track, but sadly not “Chateau” as that one was made specifically for the film. But also, it had a song called “Clubbed to Death,” which was the song from the first Matrix film that I had been looking for years earlier. I listened to the album and instantly knew that I would love it so I picked up a copy and years later, it is still as beautiful, dark, and poignant as ever.

Remy Shand - The Way I Feel

2013-03-29T07:00:46Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Lately, this is an album that has been on my mind quite a bit. As we've just passed the tenth anniversary of its release, it still resonates with me and has remained a favourite of my collection through the years. I remember listening to the hit single, “Take a Message,” while walking through the snow one winter and being enraptured by it. This was probably one of the first albums that introduced me to Rhythm and Blues music proper. You see, when I heard that The Way I Feel was an R&B album, I thought it was mislabelled because it sounded much more like jazz music to me rather than what was commonly thought of as R&B. But if you look at Remy Shand's inspirations, such as Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Herbie Hancock, it seems that he was much more of a Rhythm and Blues artist than his pop R&B counterparts. Another thing that stood out about this album was that he played all of the instruments, with the exception of a baritone saxophone in one of the songs. Clearly he was a talent not to be overlooked.

No Doubt - Push and Shove

2013-03-22T07:00:38Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - I don't know if the darn kids these days will remember, but back in the mid-1990s right into the early 2000s, there was a ska/rock outfit called No Doubt that was quite popular. When their album Tragic Kingdom became a hit and sold millions of copies in 1995, they became a household name and major players on the pop charts. That success continued somewhat with their follow-up Return of Saturn, but they exploded even more with their 2001 album Rock Steady. No Doubt was at the top of their game and proved that they were no one trick pony. And then... they disappeared. Of course there were two pop heavy solo albums from singer Gwen Stefani that were successful, but not satisfying to most No Doubt fans.

The History of the Crimson King (Part Twelve): The ConstruKction of Light

2013-03-15T07:00:22Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Touring for THRAK was complete. Though there was only a single studio album to promote, there was an exceptional amount of live material recorded making a healthy amount of bonus material for hungry completest fans. But by 1997, the six-piece King Crimson was starting to feel worn out and unsure of where to take their sound at this point. And, as usual, there was a fair amount of tension between a number of band members, particularly between long time band mates Bill Bruford and Robert Fripp. Bruford would say that him and Fripp “couldn't even agree where to have dinner. And if you can't agree that, you sure as heck can't play together." That along with the six members not sharing coherent ideas and it looked like this line up would see another infamous King Crimson end.

Pogo and the New Media Remix Community

2013-03-08T08:00:00Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - I remember when I first heard Pogo several years ago after a friend of mine put onto my Facebook wall the song “Bangarang,” which consisted entirely of clips of dialogue and sound effects from the Steven Spielberg movie Hook. That movie is very dear to me as I grew up with it as a kid and was possibly the first movie I remember seeing the theatres... but my memory of that portion of my life is a little vague. But “Bangarang” and its video took me right back to my childhood and refreshed my memory. I got to relive the movie. But what was also compelling was that there was a brilliant musicality to the song that I had never heard with a movie mashup before. There was a verse chorus sort of structure, complimented by other movements to avoid redundancy, and it progressed and swelled and was all in all a very well composed song. Pogo was clearly a man who knew how to make good sounding music and used organized sampled clips as the instruments. Brilliant.

Bravestation - Giants & Dreamers

2013-02-22T08:00:00Z

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Although Toronto apparently isn't actually the centre of the universe as many of its occupants believe, one thing can't be denied; the music scene there is unbelievable. The alternative rock scene that has emerged from there can boast bands such as Broken Social Scene, Metric, and Stars. Who have come out of Vancouver? Chad Kroeger keeps trying to pick up our women, but I'm blaming Alberta for Nickelback. I digress. The new generation of internetting indie rockers needs some solid Canadian representation and I have a nominee. I present to you Toronto's very own Bravestation, a quartet of young and talented musicians with a clear and confident vision.