ARGUE JOB

Galiano – S/T

BurlyLetter — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:42:39 +0000

Another hot summer blooming wild and free, and my days are spent inside, hiding from the heat. How long for the survivors of the Canadian winters to adjust to the hot noons of summer? Spend the tempered heat of the mornings on the beaches, surfing and exuberant. Waste the evenings around the fire, laying lovely on the cool sands. Spend your days with Galiano, sequestered in a west coast log cabin, writing the surf rock soundtrack to your summer.

Tagged: Country, galiano, surf rock, Vancouver

Maria in the Shower – The Hidden Sayings of Maria in the Shower

PinkKiosk — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:00:17 +0000

Shuffling out of the creative space that exists between Eastern Europe, South America, and a 1950′s car radio comes Maria in the Shower – a combination of musical stylings that patches itself together with beauty. “The Hidden Sayings of Maria in the Shower” is filled with enough bold accordion, brassy guitar and harmonica to leave any listener reminiscent of times when our country was more worried about railroads, wheat pools, and if universal health care was a possibility.

Full of surprises, Maria in the Shower is sure to leave you entertained. The strength of the album comes from its cabaret style vocals – raw mismatched harmonies perfect the diverse styles this album puts forth. Prepare yourself for a cross continental tour in your Great Grandpa’s Ford F1.

Butterbones – Walha

arguejob — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:05:26 +0000

Jordan “Butterbones” Soles, Janzen’s collaborator in Wand, is no stranger to blustery folk-pop experimentation, the type that draws a nervous line from spirit to sound. This small migratory cadre of Peace Country / Victoria artists have sculpted a sound more and more their own with each release. Walha marks a new high for Butterbones. It is the first markedly Victoria based effort, as opposed to the Grande Prairie locus of previous recordings. Those listeners convinced that geography imbues music with a particular flavour will be tempted to identify in Walha the muggy damp of Victoria. Territory aside, the songs here are further developed and more ponderous in their texture than past efforts. The result is a record with a honed complexity that begs multiple listens. Wind it up and watch it go!

Tagged: Butterbones, Grande Prairie, Jordan Soles, Victoria, Walha, Wand

Mikey Maybe – Honey+Bread

arguejob — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:42:43 +0000

Fans of Pigeon John take note, Mikey Maybe has arrived. It feels as though a whole fresh manifestation of the self-aware culture-rap variety has dawned over the last several months. Honey+Bread is a watermark of this variety. Observe a complex interplay of standard rap norms inflected through a lattice of anomie, apathy, and yearning. Under closer analysis, the record could just as easily be called Search Party, in that our protagonist, Mikey Maybe, spends the length of the record in hot pursuit of himself, looking to girls and God and society for a faithful mirror. I realize this is a rather sober review for a record as hilarious as Honey+Bread, but I’m confident that upon closer examination, most will recognize the genuine art underlying the comedy, which is a certified mark of a good comedian and a good writer. But don’t call it comedy rap.

Tagged: Edmonton, Honey + Bread, Mikey Maybe, OLD UGLY, Pigeon John

The Weather Station – Duets #1-3

arguejob — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:41:12 +0000

The Weather Station returns! Her 2011 record was one of the best folk efforts of the year. This unique series of duets with other You’ve Changed Records flagships came out on a series of postcards. The fluttery croon and tender communique of Tamara Lindeman is gorgeously augmented by each of her collaborators, their own signatures permeating the production inasmuch as Lindeman does. This is a truly exciting offering from one of Canada’s finest.

Tagged: Baby Eagle, Daniel Romero, Duets, Marine Dreams, The Weather Station, Toronto, welland

Omarandthebear – Some Songs

BurlyLetter — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:38:28 +0000

Here in the prairies, winter fades but is never gone. Snow clouds hang dark and low over these songs, plump and bruised. Even as the summer breaks hot and dry, Oliver Thiessen does not so much look away from the last winter as lament the coming of the next one. The discordant musings of “Winter Hymn” set the tone for a carefully layered record, the parts expertly planned and aligned. A dark reverberation seeps between the cracks in the song, an eerie floor for Thiessen’s voice to tread across. This is bedroom folk of the utmost quality, insinuating a loneliness compounded by the the isolation of the spacious Alberta snows.

Tagged: bear, Calgary, Folk, omar, omarandthebear

Nothern Primitive – Country Homes

BurlyLetter — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:28:54 +0000

There’s something happening in Welland, Ontario, some fountain of youthful talent, diverse and realized. This is frustrated rock and roll, captured straight to tape in a farm close to Niagara Falls: the raw guitar roaring under barely pronounced vocals. There is a resigned anger here, expansive observations of a small town and its dead-end satisfactions. But there is also a vastness to the sound, an outward reaching mobility to the lyrics that suggest an effort to expand. There is a fine line to the lament of “Chariot Drivers.” A close knowledge of the back roads of your home is only a bad thing when they act as prison bars. The intimacy that traps you is the same thing that makes a place familiar, defines it as your home. This is a record that shakes with agitation and grit, walks the line between staying and leaving.

Tagged: country homes, northern primitive, ontario, welland