Photograph by Syd Kato
In the late ’90s, Blinker the Star frontman Jordon Zadorozny was writing songs with Courtney Love and released his band’s third album, August Everywhere, back when Dreamworks Records still existed. Growing up, August Everywhere was one of my favourite albums. Filled with twelve tracks of melancholy pop and a guest appearance by Failure’s Ken Andrews, I’ve listened to songs like ‘Below the Sliding Doors’ and ‘All Dreamed Out’ more times than I can count. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the album didn’t extend to widespread worldwide love, and Blinker the Star remained fairly obscure. 2003 saw the release of the lacklustre Still in Rome and Zadorozny retreated back into the production side of the music business. Every now and then I would see his name in connection to people like Sam Roberts, but new material was scarce.
Mere days ago, We Draw Lines, the first Blinker the Star album in ten years, was released on Bandcamp. Somehow this was lost in the shuffle of other ’90s CanCon reunions like I Mother Earth. I owed it to my fifteen year-old self to give it a listen. The verdict? Pretty good!
Shifting closer to the pop of August Everywhere rather than the rock of Still in Rome, the title track of We Draw Lines serves as a great re-introduction to the band, which is more of a Zadorozny solo act at this point, as he’s credited with most of the instruments and vocals. I’m curious how long this album has been in the works, as ‘Subtle Days’ has been floating around for a few years, though it was recorded under the Abbey side-project with vocalist Sofia Silva. Also on the album is a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’. It’s still early, but after a few listens this feels like it recaptures the summery, atmospheric feeling of August Everywhere, and a welcome return for Blinker the Star. If any other band from my teens wants to reform and release another album unexpectedly, please feel free. Is Longwave still together?
Blinker the Star – We Draw Lines
Blinker the Star – Below the Sliding Doors
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I have to confess I was a little relieved the first time I heard ‘Hey Jane’, the initial single from Jason Pierce’s latest offering Sweet Heart Sweet Light. Clocking in at just less than 9 minutes, the song stays true to earlier Spiritualized form, building, swelling and driving forward until the inevitable gospel choir begins. And it only gets better from here.
A lot has been written about this album and the mental state of J. Spaceman during the recording process. A few years after recovering from an almost deadly pneumonia, and recently undergoing chemotherapy for a degenerative liver condition, Pierce is said to be in a good place and to have created his most “happy” album to date. I’m not entirely certain I agree with this initial assessment. Although tracks like ‘Freedom’ and ‘Too Late’ are a little more immediately assessable, with lyrics on ‘Life is a Problem’ like “I won’t get to heaven, I won’t be coming home, I will not see my mother again, cause I’m lost and I’m gone,” I wouldn’t say that this is an album made for a sunny day. Like much of Pierce’s work, sadness and pain is often cloaked in beauty.
This album does bear a very similar structural resemblance to Spiritualized’s masterpiece Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space, and some songs seem very much related. ‘Get What You Deserve’ has a very comparable undertone and flow as the earlier album’s ‘I Think I’m in Love’. And there are even hints of very early influences, with ‘Headin’ for the Top Now’ sounding like it could have been on Pure Phase.
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Photograph by Gemma Harris
Canadian Music Week isn’t quite as big as NXNE, but this year’s edition boasted a few must-see shows each night, even with notable cancellations like Childish Gambino. Though my initial intent was to just see Wintersleep for the first time in a couple years, winning a wristband made me decide to get to Toronto a day early to get some use out of it.
The prime event for Friday night was, of course, the Arts&Crafts showcase at the Horseshoe Tavern, featuring the new ex-Stills/Broken Social Scene project Eight and a Half, The Darcys, Zeus, and others. As good as that line-up looked, it also meant the wristband line-up stretched out to Spadina, so unless you were there early or had a ticket, you were out of luck.
So instead, it was off to Lee’s Palace to catch Cloud Nothings. Attack on Memory is one of the more hyped releases this year, and the band performed it in its entirety. Opening with ‘Stay Useless’, ‘Fall In’, and ‘Cut You’, they quickly got my three favourite songs out of the way, and I was left to absorb the rest of the set. Little to no banter occurred between songs, and the riffs started to blend together towards the end. I was hoping for something more, but the crowd seemed to approve.
Saturday began with catching a bit of Little Foot Long Foot’s in-store set at Sonic Boom’s new location in Honest Ed’s. Not having been in the city since the Dollarama announcement, I was impressed with the new space, as well as the vinyl specialty store in Kensington Market. Sadly, I realized too late that Zeus was doing an in-store performance later in the day, and will have to settle for seeing them in London in a few weeks.
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Photograph by Erin Algiere
When first we heard from Tennis they had an incredible amount of positive buzz attached to their name. With only one single and a story that chronicled a long term romance filled with university life, sailing trips, and marriage, Tennis reached for the top of the blogosphere and generated the kind of hype that a major label’s marketing team can only dream of. But having a hit debut album can be both a blessing and a curse. Although Tennis received a considerable amount of praise for Cape Dory, they needed another well-received record to keep the momentum going.
With Young & Old, Tennis take a step in the right direction for their career. Young & Old is an album sitting on the fence between comfort and foreign territory. The best maturation processes take time and Tennis seem to understand this. Although we still hear their classic sound (‘Robin’ is a great example), compared to its predecessor, Young & Old has a sound that is more developed, and more meticulous in its production.
I chatted with guitarist Patrick Riley in September of last year about the future of Tennis, and it was then that he first commented about a new record in the works. Then December came along, and Tennis performed at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver; this marked the first time Tennis had performed their new material in Vancouver. The addition of an extra touring musician, and a more confident front woman, signified that something was happening to the band as a whole. It was not so much a period of radical change, but rather a period of growth and development; they really couldn’t have named this album any better. Young & Old, nostalgic and new, the album will win the hearts of fans already attached to the surf-rock sounds, and it will also grab the attention of a considerable amount of first-time listeners. Vocalist Alaina Moore exemplifies a front woman who has discovered a new sense of confidence in her voice, ‘Petition’ and ‘Origins’ are the clearest examples of this.
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Photograph by Jon Bergman
Welsh septet Los Campesinos! are currently on the North American leg of their tour in support of their fourth album, Hello Sadness. Intrepid Ca Va Cool correspondent Kevin Kania caught up with guitarist Neil Campesinos! before their show at London Music Hall in London, Ontario to discuss growing up with fans, destination recording, and the pains of making a music video.
Los Campesinos! – By Your Hand
Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
Kevin: You played Letterman last week, was that your network TV debut?
Neil Campesinos!: We played a show in Los Angeles a few years ago and they filmed it for Carson Daly, but that’s not as big a deal, is it? [With Letterman] we were absolutely petrified, it was without a doubt kind of like a highlight, felt like a big deal, we were just so nervous, you load in, rehearse in the morning, go away, and then you come back ten minutes before you’re on, and then all of a sudden, “and here’s Los Campesinos!” you play, and it’s all over in a flash. I was just shaking for the whole thing with no recollection. It was surreal. It just flew by, it was crazy.
Kevin: Gareth made some comment to Dave, I didn’t quite catch it.
Neil: He had a scarf on the stage for a sports team called the Welton Rovers, and David Letterman was like, “Oh, Football!” and Gareth’s like, “Well, soccer.” David said that was a little condescending. It was all in good spirits.
Kevin: Football does seem to be of huge importance in your songs.
Neil: We actually really wanted to get a foam ball for venues like this. They’re amazing to play in.
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