Monday, September 29, 2025
purse your lips, let live die/i wanna eat you alive
Sunday, September 21, 2025
all i remember is sitting beside you
Monday, September 15, 2025
if you knew how i felt now/you wouldn't act so adult now
Sunday, September 07, 2025
i'm shaky, cause i'm not quite sure/if i'm your man
purse your lips, let live die/i wanna eat you alive
Album of the week
Sprints - All That is Over
Sprints were all gas and no brakes on their debut (that just came out last year), Letter to Self. Some of the songs came out of the gates with a slow smoulder, but it felt like every one of the eleven tracks eventually exploded.
On All That is Over, there's a little more room to breathe. Opener, "Abandon," builds and swirls, but never escapes into orbit, but that doesn't make it any less compelling. In fact, the formerly uncharacteristic restraint just makes the songs where they really let loose sound that much bigger.
Lead single, "Descartes," is 3-minutes of heavy riffs and front woman Karla Chubb wailing. "Need," "Pieces," and "Coming Alive" bring similar energy, but they really pop, because they come after songs like "Better" and "Beg."
They're still heavy as hell, but it's not just because of the volume anymore.
Song of the week
Ratboys - Last Night Mountains All That
It took me until about my 20th listen of this song to realize it's six fucking minutes long. It makes sense in retrospect, because the band crams all of their best traits in: the big, poppy emo hooks, the deceptively big riffs, Julia Steiner straining against the din. But the tune just flies by like it's Guided by Voices length.
They're at the Biltmore on April 6th. Get tickets and call in sick for work on Tuesday.
Classic of the week
Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea
Happy 30th birthday to Washing Machine and my favourite 20-minute SY banger that devolves (evolves?) into an ambient noise jam.
The 5-year, four album run from Goo to Washing Machine was so damn good and it's wild to think that they'd already done Bad Moon Rising to Daydream and did Murray Street to The Eternal after that (albeit on a slightly longer timeline for the last one).
More heat
Fiery Furnaces - Far Away
The Friedberger's re-released all-timer, Blueberry Boat, for a 500 copy vinyl run (that's already sold out--sorry) and it comes with this "lost" track. It's really just an older version of personal Furnaces fave, "Waiting to Know You," but if you're a fan of the band--and I'm a huge one--it's a fascinating window into what the Bitter Tea stand out would've sounded like if it made their magnum opus.
Parts Work - Trenton
I desperately want a new Hop Along record, but this EP from Frances Quinlan and Kyle Pulley (who engineered Hop Along's last album, Bark Your Head Off, Dog and plays in Thin Lips) will tide me over til then.
Sharp Pins - I Don't Have the Heart
Like Exploding Hearts meets those songs the Fountains of Wayne guy wrote for that movie (complimentary).
Alexa Rose - Anywhere, OH
The last thing we got from Alexa Rose was a Lucinda Williams cover, which made a ton of sense, because this one could've been plucked right off of Car Wheels.
now playing: Neko Case - Wreck
Sunday, September 21, 2025
all i remember is sitting beside you
I flew the red eye to Toronto last month, so I didn't bring my Switch with me. I figured I'd be trying to sleep on the plane on the way there, so it meant I'd be toting a console around for days just for the 5-hour ride back home. But I did want something other than my phone or watching a movie on the tiny seat back screen for the return flight, so I finally picked up a copy of Hanif Abdurraqib's There's Always This Year at a little bookstore on Queen West. I read it a bit when I was waiting to meet friends at various times over the weekend and got through a chunk on the plane, but I finally finished it this week.
On it's surface, it's a book about basketball, but it's really a book about love. And not just love of the game or romantic love, but love in all its forms.
There are so many beautiful moments amongst the 300-odd pages, but near the end, there's a section on game 7s that made me think of all the Canucks game 7s I've witnessed. There are, of course, the two where they lost the Cup. And there was that one where Matt Cooke tied it shorthanded with 5.7 seconds left, just so the Canucks could lose minutes into the overtime.
But the one that's always front and centre is that Burrows overtime goal against Chicago.
Maybe most sports fans feel this way, but being a Canucks fan, it always feels like this team finds a way to let you down. It sure seemed like they were going to find a way to do it again in the 1st round of 2011 after blowing a 3-1 lead in the series and a 1-0 lead in the game. And then it happened. 5-minutes and 22-seconds into overtime: Burrows slays the dragon.
I know the details of the game now, because I've read about it in the years since. And I know the call, but I couldn't tell you if I would've remembered it, had it not been for the fact that I've watched the video about a thousand times. I don't really remember much else about the actual game.
But I remember the feeling. I almost typed "of elation," but it was really a feeling of relief first. For a moment, it felt like all those years of failure were lifted off of Vancouver's collective shoulders.
The other thing I remember is that it was standing room only at my friend Nathan's place, so I was in the kitchen of his tiny Commercial Drive apartment watching the TV from across the counter next to someone I was having a bit of a... I think the term would've been "situationship" if it existed.
And I remember celebrating the goal by wrapping my arms around her and--in my mind--kissing her like we were in Casablanca. And I remember feeling like, if only for a moment, everything was going to turn out alright.
Her and I did not. And we all know what happened to the Canucks in June.
I've thought about that Canucks season over the years, usually when the current season's already on the rocks before the playoffs even start. But I haven't thought about that kiss much. When I have, it's been fleeting and it's more, considering the situation we were in, that it would have been more considerate to not have done that.
But I still remembered it pretty vividly and never really put much thought into why.
With sports and romance, sometimes things take a predictable path. But a lot of times things surprise you.
On paper, my beloved Canucks are even worse than last year. They're not contenders. They don't even have a legit 2nd line centre right now.
But also sometimes something wonderful can pop up out of nowhere. Don't expect it and certainly don't bank on it, but hey, you never know what's going to happen.
It's almost time to dust off those hockey jerseys again.
There's always this year.
Album of the week
Wednesday - Bleeds
Even though I complain that it seems like every second new rock band is a shoegaze band these days, I love shoegaze. I love My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive and Loop and I just love the sound the guitars make on so many of those great shoegaze records (and even some of the mediocre ones). I also love country, especially country music that tells a story and also has those one-liners that make you crack a smile out of nowhere. So, of course, I was going to love Wednesday.
On Bleeds, they could've turned in anything short of a stinker and chances are that I'd love that too. Instead, it feels like they've found the perfect balance between their noisy, discordant half and their twangy, nu-Americana half and those arrangements sit behind Karly Hartzman's best songwriting to date.
The songs on Bleeds are buoyed by Hartzman's rich storytelling about the South, brimming with too many clever couplets to count, and the guitars--whether their sliding or drowning in distortion--are always in perfect harmony.
"Elderberry Wine" only has to hold on 90-days or so to easily be my favourite song of the year, but "Townies" might be the song on Bleeds that really captures everything Wednesday. The verse--that borrows a melody from GbV's "Bulldog Skin"--wouldn't sound completely out of place on one of the last two Waxahatchee records, but the chorus explodes with sludgy, overdriven guitars.
Elsewhere, there's a minute long hardcore song (hardcore summer continues, baby), a guitar and vocals only ballad, and lines that compare a Phish concert to watching Human Centipede.
Perfect album.
Song of the week
Anna Von Hausswolff - Facing Atlas
The first two singles for this record were both duets: one with Iggy Pop and one with Ethel Cain. And, listen, I would've led with those too, cause it's got to be good for the ol' press cycle. But this beautiful, slow building number that ends with Von Hausswolff absolutely wailing is the real gem of the bunch.
Classic of the week
Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
This could have been a bunch of songs, but the video for "Dreamlover" is the first Diane Martel video that I saw.
If you had even a passing interest in rap and R&B in the 90s and 2000s, you've seen a bunch of music videos that Diane Martel directed. She did this one (plus seven more Mariah videos), a bunch of Method Man videos, "Mass Appeal," "Most Beautifullest Thing in This World," "4, 3, 2, 1," "Grindin'," "Case of the Ex," "Money, Power, Respect," "Lapdance," and many, many more.
I still kinda "watch" music videos, but most of the time that means I'm just pressing play to hear a new song and the clip ends up in another tab. I used to watch music videos obsessively though, pleading with my dad for control of the TV when certain shows were on Much Music and tuning in to Rap City basically every day after school when it was on a 5-days-a-week schedule in the 90s. And because of that, Diane Martel's creations are synonymous with so many songs that I love, because it was a time when the video and the song felt like two halves of a whole.
More heat
Cardinals - Masquerade
Not the guys that used to have to back Ryan Adams. And also a very good lil' indie rock song.
Agriculture - Dan's Love Song
Dan Meyer is usually screaming on their songs, because Agriculture is a black metal band. This one's got distortion, but it's soft and soothing and atmospheric and not at all what I expected. These guys are experts at what they do, but that just happens to not really be my thing. This sure is though.
Madi Diaz - Heavy Metal
More "Heavy Metal" that doesn't sound like heavy metal, though this one was expected. My favourite of the three advance singles from Fatal Optimist so far.
now playing: Samia - Bovine Excision
Monday, September 15, 2025
if you knew how i felt now/you wouldn't act so adult now
Work zapped my brain last week, but here's some music stuff...
Album of the week
The new Wednesday comes out on Thursday, so I'll actually have something to put here next week.
Song of the week
Home Front - Light Sleeper
Apparently my new favourite genre is "hardcore guys try to make a power pop record" (see also: Militarie Gun, Spiritual Cramp, and honestly kinda the new Turnstile too). Shout out Edmonton.
Classic of the week
The Replacements - Kiss Me on the Bus
Tim turns 40 on Thursday.
I like saying it that way, because it sounds like you're talking about a friend and that's how I feel about this record that's been so important to me for basically my entire adulthood.
Maybe "Bastards of Young" was the first Replacements song I heard? I don't remember, but I remember that for some reason, this ended up being the first Replacements album that I obsessed over.
The Pitchfork review of the Let It Bleed edition of the album talked about how after hearing the new Ed Stasium mix, "it’s now abundantly clear, both in sound and performance, that Tim is really among the best albums ever recorded." And I remember being flabbergasted by that. Like, the production on the original version of the record is garbage, but my guy, are you having a hard time hearing the genius of Bee Thousand too?
Later on in the same review, the author asserts that "it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where you’d prefer to put it on over the Ed Stasium mix now." And I think that really underscores how consuming music in order to review it (something I've done a lot of!) really separates you from the reason that a lot of music really grabs you in the first place: because it's part of your life.
I guess, powering through an album 10-times while your deadline is looming is still part of your life too, but that never felt like a good part of life back when I had to do it. It's definitely not blasting "Dose of Thunder" in your car, arguing about the chorus of "Bastards of Young," drunkenly singing along to "Here Comes a Regular," or putting this song on a mixtape for someone you fancy.
I don't put on the original version of Tim because it sounds better. I put it on because it sounds like some of the best moments of my life. You can't really score that out of 10 (although they did give the reissue a 10, because obviously it's fucking perfect).
More heat
PINS - I'll Be Yours
I've got a PINS t-shirt that's on the verge of ripping, because I wear it so much, but maybe this single means I'll be able to get a replacement at a show soon.
Jeff Tweedy - Lou Reed Was My Babysitter
I was super skeptical when Tweedy announced a triple album. But if the chaff is even half as good as the singles, maybe we do need all 30-songs.
Madison Cunningham - My Full Name
I missed this when it came out, since it wasn't really covered in the usual places I go to, to consume new music. Her newest single features Fleet Foxes, so it got a lot of digital ink and it's pretty good! But this sparse little piano driven number had me after the first line: "I love it when you say my full name and how you always speak your mind."
now playing: Gram Parsons w/Emmylou Harris - Return of the Grievous Angel
Sunday, September 07, 2025
i'm shaky, cause i'm not quite sure/if i'm your man
I made it down to Deer Lake Park last night to see Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts. Shout out to my friend Jon who decided he wanted to get back to Squamish the same night instead of staying overnight in Vancouver for driving us, because getting in and out of that place seems like it would blow otherwise.
When Neil and co hit the stage around 8pm and launched into "Ambulance Blues," I leaned over to Jon and said something about how "his hands (ie. his guitar playing) haven't aged, but his voice sounds a little rough." Turns out he just needed a bit of a warm up, because by the time he got to track two ("Cowgirl in the Sand"), he sounded exactly like your brain remembers him, with that trademark croon that doesn't really sound like anyone else but Neil Young.
I was stoked about the thought of seeing Crazy Horse at last summer's cancelled Neil gig, but the Chrome Hearts did a fantastic job as Young's backing band. It was a treat to see the legendary, Spooner Oldham--who was still playing at 82, despite breaking his pelvis about a week ago(!)--as well.
The setlist was almost all classics, with just a single song from Talking to Trees and that anti-Trump song he debuted live a little while ago. About the latter, obviously his heart is in the right place, but hearing it a couple songs after "Ohio" was a real "tale of two types of protest song."
Also, it turns out boomers love taking unwatchable concert videos even more than millennials, which is really saying something. But speaking of phones, during "Harvest Moon," a young man right in front of me FaceTime'd his partner, who looked like she was in a hotel brushing her teeth, and the two of them swaying along however many miles apart to one of the most beautiful love songs ever written was maybe the cutest thing I've seen in my life.
Album of the week
I tried to get more into that Big Thief record and I like about half of the Shame record, but nothing really grabbed me this week. I was going to force it and then the sane part of my brain was like "why?! You don't have to write about anything." So, no album of the week. Please do better next week, musicians.
Song of the week
My Wonderful Boyfriend - I'm Your Man
What if Weezer listened to the Replacements instead of being Kiss Army dorks and Rivers wasn't an incel when he wrote their two good albums?
Classic of the week
More heat
Guided by Voices - (You Can't Go Back To) Oxford Talawanda
Speaking of "so many hooks," Uncle Bob claims that he's been humming this one to himself since he was a kid, which means he's spent the last five decades writing approximately a million other incredible songs with this in his back pocket the whole time.
Fine - Portal
Real Mazzy Star hours, who's (cranking that reverb) up?
Ransom, Boldy James, and Nicholas Craven feat. Young James - Collection Plates
Sometimes a track sounds exactly like you expect it to and in this case that's a blessing.
Hatchie - Lose It Again
There's one single from every Hatchie album cycle that I end up jamming on repeat.
now playing: Kate Bush - The Saxophone Song
