From Blown Speakers

Saturday, August 17, 2024
but if you wanna buy around, we might hang out

I made it down the Orpheum to see Katie Crutchfield's Waxhatchee last night.

It's about a 10-fold jump to the nearly 3,000 seater from The Plaza (RIP... I guess) and I was kinda curious how things would feel in a much, much bigger room.

It felt great. Really, really great.

The band kicked things off with "3 Sisters," the opener to this year's fabulous Tiger's Blood, with Katie starting sans guitar, decked out in a pretty sick looking Royals trucker hat that was flung into the crowd as the band crashed in behind her and they didn't let up from there. There was sparse stage banter and only the briefest of pauses between each song as they tore through all of Tiger's Blood, damn near all of 2020's Saint Cloud, three tunes from 2022's Plains' record, and one brand new song.

Maybe it's just me, but when it's an artist I've been following for along time, my brain paints a picture of a certain--usually early--point in time. And in my mind's eye, Katie Crutchfield is still cramped in a dingy bar playing very close, almost claustrophobic sounding songs with very minimal backing.

This was anything but.

Her band, that notably features Jeff Tweedy's son, Spencer, on drums, made Crutchfield's songs sound big and expansive, just like they sound on the most recent two records. They stayed close enough to the album arrangements, but they also coloured outside the lines a bit, in the best way--songs were instantly familiar, but the other band members made their presence felt too.

They also looked like they were having the time of their lives and that kind of energy is infectious. There's a lot of harmonies on Tiger's Blood and Saint Cloud, but it seemed like the entire band was mouthing the words 90% of the time whether it was their turn on backing vocals or not. The lead guitarist, at one point, ran over to one of the two multi-instrumentalists for what I can only describe as a secret handshake, and the two walked off stage with their arms around each other to end the night. They all clearly love playing these songs together.

A brief aside on Spencer Tweedy. I'm not going to get into nepobaby discourse. One, because I don't think it applies here. And two, because it's the most tedious thing I can think of. But growing up around Wilco's Glenn Kotche, certainly seems to have its advantages. Spencer definitely has his own style, but like Kotche, he's melodic without being showy, definitely knows when not to play, and he's like a human metronome back there on the kit.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd heard that this tour didn't dip into anything that came out before Saint Cloud, and honestly, I was a little disappointed at first. I love those songs. I love American Weekend. I really love Cerulean Salt. But Katie Crutchfield's changed so much in the last decade plus and those songs would've sounded out of place last night. While not necessarily "better," she's certainly moved on to bigger things and "Hollow Bedroom" would've sounded like it was from a different planet, butting up against "Witches." Also, in the moment, I didn't think about "Coast to Coast" or "Air" once. I was too caught up in how great all the songs from the last 4-5 years sounded.

The set closer, "Fire," featured Crutchfield with just a microphone again and she really took advantage of the Orpheum's big stage, strolling out to either side to acknowledge the crowd, who were all on their feet at that point. I was struck by how natural it all looked. Sometimes you see bands make the jump from bars to theatres (or even stadiums) and they, unsurprisingly, look a little out of their element.

Katie looked like she was ready for an even bigger stage.

now playing: Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes

posted by Quinn @ 11:38 p.m. Comments:0

Saturday, June 01, 2024
this is my farewell transmission

I already shared this first part on Twitter, but I remember bussing down from Richmond to Zulu Records. I had read somewhere that the guy who produced In Utero had been in a bunch of bands and I wanted to go check them out, because I loved In Utero and before there was even Napster, let alone streaming, you could go to Zulu, grab a stack of CDs and they'd let you listen to them with headphones from one of the small army of discmans at the front counter.

I picked Big Black's Songs About Fucking. I think I picked it because I thought the album title was funny (it still is). But I remember putting the headphones on and this came blaring out and I had my wallet on the counter before the song was even halfway through.

After that, I started checking out anything Steve Albini was involved in. But I also started finding out that so many albums that I already loved had his hands all over them: Surfer Rosa. Rid of Me, Goat, Pod, to name a few.

I started paying attention to what Steve Albini said--and he was a good quote, so even before he became kinda omnipresent on Twitter, you could read what he said. I digested "The Problem With Music" and quoted parts of it like it was the gospel (it still kinda is).

I gravitated towards his brand of nihilism.

There's a sample of a JG Ballard quote on one of my all time favourite albums, the Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible (Albini engineered The Holy Bible's spiritual sequel A Journal for Plague Lovers 15-years later): "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit and force it to look in the mirror." And all the nastiness in, not just his songs, but what he said in a lot of interviews seemed to capture that sentiment. It underscored how I felt as well: there's so much ugliness in the world and it's unfathomable, how can everyone just go about their lives like nothing's wrong?!

There's still something to that. You know, recently, I caught myself lamenting the fact that I was sick and had to skip Pearl Jam, but also there's a fucking genocide happening, so who gives a fuck about not hearing "Black" live for the 10th time? It was the kind of thought that left me angry. At myself. At **gestures wildly**. At everything.

The difference between now and then is that, instead of lashing out everywhere, that kind of realization makes me at least try to lash out in a slightly more focused way.

In one of the many pieces remembering Albini, Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz said this:

He wisely grew out of a lot of the sort of dumb shit that we all do when we’re young. But then he replaced it with really smart shit. He was an extraordinary human being in terms of sheer intelligence and the power of how he would focus that. Everything was quick. And I knew him when it was all brutal. What’s interesting to me is that as he grew older and softer, he didn’t lose any of that edge. It just was put to better use.

And, obviously along with his insanely consistent musical output, that is one of the reasons, I've continued to hold him in such high esteem, long after I'd become wary of having any "heroes" to speak of. I've luckily changed a lot since that afternoon at Zulu and Steve Albini is one of the people I'd admired partially for some wrong reasons that changed along with--or perhaps more accurately ahead of--me.

My favourite character in Ted Lasso is Roy Kent, because I don't think there's a lot of value in being nice, but there's certainly a lot of value in being kind.

I imagine Steve Albini would hate that comparison, but he's one of the people that helped me form that conclusion.

Rest easy, Steve. But stay angry.

now playing: PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me"

posted by Quinn @ 1:27 a.m. Comments:0

Saturday, May 25, 2024
still living so young

Before last year, Bry Webb's last recorded material was released in 2014, the same year the Cons got together for a brief reunion tour, and honestly as the years went by since then, I just kinda figured he'd moved on to other things. Apparently, about 5-years ago, he'd not just quit playing music, but went as far as selling most of his instruments. And then in the Fall of 2023, a couple weeks after Shine a Light's 20th birthday, "Thunder Bay" quietly showed up on streaming services.

It was like he never left.

The Constantines are one of my all time favourite bands and I've seen them or Bry solo more times than I can remember, but I still wasn't sure what to expect. It'd been almost an entire decade since I last saw him. And while the Biltmore--where he played back in 2014--is pretty cozy, LanaLou's is like a really big living room.

I often--and this isn't on purpose--see shows now and think about how things feel now and how things felt "then." I'm not sure where the dividing line for "then" is, but this is the first show in a long time that felt like it did back then.

I love his solo records, and the set featured highlights from all three, but I'd be lying if I said that "Young Lions" and "Time Can Be Overcome" weren't the songs that made the evening feel really special.

The former is one of my favourite songs, but the latter hit hard. Sonically, it was the only song where we got to hear Bry get really get loud with is voice. But after ten years, quitting music, and what sounds like a pretty tumultuous time that eventually pushed him to get back to writing songs again, the refrain really hit home.

Tomorrow's no burden. Time can be overcome.

now playing: The Constantines - Soon Enough

posted by Quinn @ 12:35 a.m. Comments:0

Wednesday, January 10, 2024
i came prepared for absolution, if you'd only ask

Here's some music I loved ~~this~~ last year:

Albums/EPs:

boygenius - The Record/The Rest

The first EP was (what I assumed was going to be) a cool little one off: three friends who managed to find the time to bring a couple of songs each and record them together and then use it as an excuse to tour. The Record sounds like a real band. You can mostly still tell whose songs are whose, but there's a cohesiveness to the whole. But you probably knew all of that, because between 2018 and now Phoebe Bridgers blew up and then Boygenius really blew up. The Rest was technically the leftovers from the LP sessions, but they sound just as good as the main course.

Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun

One of my favourite music writers, Tom Breihan, described this as "Agnostic Front trying to become Guided By Voices," and it turns out that rocks as much as it sounds. Catch them in March at the Rickshaw with Spiritual Cramp (who you could describe the same way as Tom described the Gun).

Earl Sweatshirt and the Alchemist - VOIR DIRE

There's been rumours of an Earl/Alchemist collab for years but also as those years passed Earl's music's got so weird (and wonderful) and abstract, I figured it would just never happen. I definitely didn't think it would sound like this if it ever did happen. The Alchemist at his best and Earl at his most accessible since I Don't Like Shit...

billy woods and Kenny Segal - Maps

I think I've probably said that billy woods "could rap the dictionary and make it sounds fascinating" and this isn't quite that, but the depth and colour he brings to the least glamorous parts of being a touring musician on Maps is about as close as you can get. He's been making incredible records for much longer, but the frequency of releases since Hiding Places combined with an unwavering quality release over release since then is amazing.

Jess Wiliamson - Time Ain't Accidental

Maps is an airplane record. One about jet setting around in a blur and how sharp the sounds and smells of home are after you've been gone. Time Ain't Accidental is a road trip record--an album that captures the American ideal of soaring down the highway. About getting away from where you were to make something new. It feels like that opening riff from "American Girl." It feels free.

Sun June - Bad Dream Jaguar

If Time Ain't Accidental's about new beginnings, Bad Dream Jaguar's about holding old things together. That's true, but also wouldn't it be annoying if I kept doing this for each subsequent album on this list? Catch them with Slaughter Beach, Dog in a couple weeks.

Miya Folick - Roach

I didn't really get the release strategy for this record--lead single "Oh God" came out way back in April of 2022 and by the time the record came out over a year later, ten of the thirteen songs we're out. But also I didn't get sick of any of them.

Wednesday - Rat Saw God

Maybe "diverse" is the wrong word, because it's all indie rock, but it runs the gamut from songs that would fit on a Gillian Welch record to moments that could be plucked off of an 80s Sonic Youth album and everything in between. They didn't grab me when I saw them live this year, but Rat Saw God's been in constant rotation.

Ratboys - The Window

Still disappointed that Rat Tally record came out last year and ruined a shot at a 2023 rat trifecta.

Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

I'm sure I'd seen the signs before, but I never noticed them before this album was announced and I looked it up. And then I noticed them--at least in certain neighbourhoods--in every American city I visited this year: we buy diabetic test strips. A reminder of the truly bleak state of American health care--and that's saying a lot because BC's sucks. Maps found billy woods rapping about the minutiae of his every day life, but his other 2023 release dives headlong into the darkness from the album title down (that's not to say that Maps is particularly easy listening). Elucid and woods always seem to push each other and various times on their latest it sounds like they're going to push themselves into a void. If you passed out and woke up in some kind of Mad Max future, "Trauma Mic" would be the first thing you heard.

Songs:

Olivia Rodrigo - "get him back!"

This could've just as easily been "bad idea right?," but I'm a sucker for gang vocals on a chorus and the gang of Olivia's sound deliriously fun plotting their revenge together.

Chapell Roan - "Red Wine Supernova"

Speaking of deliriously fun, Chapell Roan crams more punchlines into 3-minutes than Donald Glover does on all the Camp songs, except it doesn't sound like she's trying really hard to do it. She fits just as many hooks in as well.

End It - "Familia Finito"

After I read Dan Ozzi's incredible profile on The Armed, I started joking that this was the year I became a "hardcore guy." And while that hasn't happened and that Armed record didn't hit me as hard as I wanted it to, this song sure did.

Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and the Alchemist - "Mancala"

Earl and Vince have been a dynamic duo since the Odd Future days and they blessed us with two collabs on VOIR DIRE. This one's my favourite because of the gospel sample and the little "speak to Vince 'bout it" ally oop at the end of Earl's verse.

Hotline TNT - "If We Keep Hanging Out"

The shoegazey stuff is all well and good, but this lo-fi, mostly acoustic non-album loosey is my shit.

Ratboys - "The Window"

Julia Steiner wrote this song after her grandmother died in June 2020. She didn't die of Covid, but because of Covid, her grandfather couldn't go in person to say goodbye, so he stood outside her open window to do it and a lot of lyrics are direct quotes from what he said to her that day. I can't imagine how painful that must have been, even if it made sense from a scientific perspective. To be with someone--to love someone--for so long and to be present, but not able to be by their side in their last moments is truly heartbreaking. So even though I adore this song, sometimes I have to turn it off, because it makes me want to bawl my eyes out.

Jenny Owens Young - "Knife Went In"

It's probably not healthy, but who hasn't been in a place at some point in their life where they want to be with someone who has the same scars as them? I definitely don't want that now, but this captures that feeling pretty perfectly.

BigXthaPlug - "Texas"

This sounds like it could've come straight off of Who is Mike Jones? and that's about the highest compliment I can think of.

The Menzingers - "Hope is a Dangerous Little Thing"

I can't believe that no one told me to listen to this band, because if I had to describe them, it'd be "music for old guys who love the Hold Steady and the Weakerthans."

Samia - "Honey"

Obligatory do you wanna get emotional and hang out in New York? song. Also, name checking Porches and following that with a cover of "Country" was pretty cute.

billy woods and Kenny Segal - "Soft Landing"

billy woods' ability to absolutely cram a song full of "if you know, you know" references while simultaneously conveying exactly what he needs to even if you don't get any of the in-jokes is fully on display here. You probably loved it, if you caught the Prodigy (the Mobb Deep guy, not the electronica guys) lines, but if you didn't you could still relate to that moment of peace when you're looking out the plane window over flyover country. It's a quiet puzzle.

boygenius - "Cool About It"

This record, err I mean, The Record, has Julien songs and Phoebe songs and Lucy songs and then there's a couple that just sound like boygenius songs and those ones are the best.

FIDLAR - "Centipede"

There was that period where FIDLAR stopped writing songs like this and then all of a sudden a few of years ago they started again. And like, I get thinking you can't do the same thing forever, but also what if you're really really good at it? The boys are back.

Domo Genesis, the Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, and Action Bronson - "Elimination Chamber"

These guys could've really phoned it in and it still probably would've been passable. Instead they all dropped one of their best verses of the year (and at the end of the song you know that they know it). I'm a mark for a pro wrestling sample on a rap song too.

Miya Folick - "Get Out Of My House"

The hookiest song off of one of my favourite records of the year and maybe the best song from her live set too.

Dim Wizard w/Superviolet, Jeff Rosenstock, and Illuminati Hotties - “Ride the Vibe”

David Combs, who also plays in Bad Moves, uses Dim Wizard to put out the occasional tune with a rotating cast of collaborators. Basically, he writes a song and then goes through his indie rock rolodex and invites whoever he thinks fits best to jam (see also: "X-Games Mode" featuring Ratboys and Mike Krol).

This one's about a friend coming into a bar he was working at to share an early recording of Babies' "Breakin' the Law" with him (the Kevy in the chorus is Kevin Morby) and listen I don't now how fucking bad this song would've had to be for me to not make myself love it. Turns out it's excellent on its own merits though.

Fatboi Sharif, Roper Williams, and ELUCID - “Scrabble Board Pieces”

My music taste really runs the gamut, but if I think back to periods where there was one genre I was really into, rap and noise stick out and this one marries the best of both.

Maple Glider - “Don’t Kiss Me”

Here's one that simultaneously bleak (but also probably very familiar to any woman) and beautiful (which anyone can lean into).

Thrash Palace - “Go”

I kinda thought we'd heard the last from EMA, since she hadn't really put any original music out for over half a decade, but then all of a sudden there was this song that answered the question, "what if EMA fronted a 90s Sub Pop band?" that came out as via the Sub Pop Singles Club. 10/10, I'll never doubt you again, Erika.

Boldy James and Nicholas Craven - “Brand New Chanel Kicks”

When I got out of the hospital from a car accident that sounded many magnitudes less bad than the one Boldy was in, all I could do was get ripping high on oxy and watch Archer. Instead of lying around, he recorded some of the best bars of the year from a wheelchair the day he got out.

Shows:

Laura Stevenson plays The Wheel with Completions and Katie Malco @ the Vera Project, Seattle

When I was walking from my hotel to the show it seemed like I was going to the same place as an increasingly larger group of younger women (which would check out) who were dressed vaguely like cowgirls (which doesn't, but what do I know about youth fashion?). Turns out Shania Twain was playing at Climate Pledge Arena which towers over the Vera Project. I wrote about this show here.

The Walkmen @ the Showbox, Seattle

I'd been approaching 00s bands getting back together with increasing trepidation. The shows have all been at least fine, but I think my nostalgia for seeing a lot of these bands was more about what it felt like at the time and--this is on me--it does not feel like that now. The Walkmen really seemed like they were thrilled to be playing together again though and that joy was contagious. Contagious enough that I had to catch myself and remember I was pushing 42, not 24. I wrote about this show here.

boygenius with Carly Rae Jepsen, and Illuminati Hotties @ PNE Amphitheatre, Vancouver

It's still very fun to see a band that the vast majority of the crowd absolutely adores. I wrote about this show here.

Lingua Ignota with Chat Pile @ the Rickshaw, Vancouver

This whole show was dark and loud and weird and wonderful. It's the kind of thing I would've crammed into the Emergency Room or some other quasi-legal venue to see 10 or 15-years ago and it was awesome that they packed a 600 seater instead. Chat Pile put out one of my favourite records of 2022 and managed to translate the dense, heavy vibes of God's Country to a live setting.

There's no other way I can think of to describe Lingua Ignota than powerful. Kristin Hayter's been quoted calling her songs "survivor anthems" and her performance was simultaneously deeply captivating and deeply uncomfortable. Musically, and artistically it was incredible, but it also felt unsettlingly voyeuristic to watch someone express the pain of past abuses on stage with such raw emotion.

It was the last tour for her Lingua Ignota songs with Hayter explaning that "this music has been excruciating to perform, and I know that what is healthiest for me is to stop performing it." It was a privilege to experience her doing it for one of the last times.

Miya Folick @ the Rio, Vancouver

I've fallen in love with a lot of Miya Folick songs over the last decade or so and she played exactly zero of the ones that came out before her most recent LP, but this show still rocked. Folick can really wail when she feels like it. And while there's less of that on Roach, it was still a treat to hear her sing live for the first time.

now playing: most of this stuff up there

posted by Quinn @ 11:45 p.m. Comments:0

Friday, September 29, 2023
maybe you're right/we're gonna have a good time tonight

I went to Seattle last weekend to see the Walkmen.

They occupy a similar space as Spoon for me, in that, for a long time, if you'd asked me who my favourite bands were, they wouldn't have been on the tip of my tongue, but also I own every one of their records, love them all (although I guess I grew to love a few that I didn't love at first), and saw them basically whenever they headlined a Vancouver show. Over a decade after their last show here though, I know what I like. And I like the Walkmen.

That said, all these 00s reunion gigs have been kinda hit or miss and when I bought the tickets, it was with the thought that maybe I'd go or maybe I'd just sell the tix. But I'm sure glad I went.

They would've been there for hours if they played everything I'd wanted to hear, but they played a big chunk of what I wanted to hear and even snuck in a Jonathan Fire*Eater cover (two if you count "Little House of Savages"). The latter came in the encore was dedicated to Fire*Eater bassist, Tom Frank, with Hamilton Leithauser joking that he might have turned in for the night already, but he "could watch it on YouTube with his kids tomorrow." It was a little jab that it seemed like the entire crowd could relate to, as it didn't seem like the band's been discovered by a new audience at all. Everyone there looked like they knew them from the first time around.

That was part of the reason that I wasn't sure how things were going to go. It was a Sunday night on the nostalgia circuit and the crowd and the band--save for Leithauser, who hasn't seemed to have aged--didn't seem like a group that really exerted a lot of energy on Sunday nights, myself included.

But it sure didn't feel like I was in my 40s on a Sunday.

"What's in it for Me" got things started with a slow simmer, but once they tore into "Wake Up" for song two, we were off to the races.

I'd forgotten how much I love how Paul Maroon's guitar sounds live, like it's ping ponging all over the place, sounding totally wild, but somehow like he's in control at the same time. And maybe it's kinda stupid to say "I love 'The Rat'." But I'd forgotten how much I really love "The Rat" when it's turned up loud--louder than I ever manage in headphones these days and much, much louder than I'll ever play over speakers in our sedate apartment.

It seemed like they'd forgotten a couple of things since they called it quits too, most notably, how much fun it is to play in a band with your some of your favourite people in the world. Maybe near the first ending it wasn't anymore. But on Sunday, they looked like they remembered again and were having the times of their lives. And Leithauser made sure he let everyone know just how happy he was to be there again. Up there on stage, but most importantly, up there with his best friends.

now playing: Wilco - "Ten Dead"

posted by Quinn @ 12:21 a.m. Comments:0

Wednesday, August 30, 2023
and if they try to slow you down, tell 'em all to go to hell

I started a podcast. It's going to be monthly and each episode will be about one Vancouver band and one of their songs. It's called Slang of the City and the first episode's about "The House That Heaven Built." Thanks to my friend Graham for joining me. You can find links to listen to it here.

now playing: Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built

posted by Quinn @ 1:36 a.m. Comments:0

Sunday, July 30, 2023
i'll give everything i've got/please take what i can give

Last time boygenius came through town way back in November of 2018 things were a little different. And, like, that's putting aside the myriad of stuff that's not directly related to the band.

They played the Commodore--capacity 1,000--and the show was billed as "Julien Baker and Pheobe Bridgers with Lucy Dacus," because I'm not sure enough people would've known what was happening if they were just billed under the shared band name. But also, with just a self-titled EP to their shared credit, the bulk of the show really was the three individual sets (although the combined mini-set to close things out did highlight the night).

This time around, they played the PNE Ampitheatre, a venue that can hold about seven times what the Commodore can. That show poster just said "boygenius" at the top and that's all they needed to sell the whole place out weeks in advance. The set featured just a single song each from each individual artist. That EP, as good as it is, seemed like a fun excuse for three friends to tour together, but now they're supporting a critically acclaimed full length. Also, their opener has a Billboard Hot 100 #1 on her resume.

Illuminati Hotties started things off at the very un-rock and roll hour of 5:50pm, although Sarah Tudzin did her best to rock out anyways. We were still making our way in when they kicked things off with their (really great) latest single, "Truck." The energy amped up from there, with "Pool Hopping" from 2021's Let Me Do One More highlighting a very brief set.

I think we were standing by Carly Rae Jepsen's family, some of whom were very cute in their CRJ garb. Maybe it's because I haven't been to an outdoor show in awhile, but the sun beating down on a glorified parking lot didn't exactly feel like the best venue for songs like "All That" and "Run Away With Me." Still, at this point, the pride of Mission's a veteran pro, and she showed it, tearing through a 15-song set that confidently plunked "Call Me Maybe" dead centre.

I'm too old to really have an idea of how popular bands are with young people. I know the band's core audience is much younger than me and obviously they're getting pretty huge in general if they're playing MSG on this tour. But man, people fucking love boygenius.

Don't get me wrong, if you asked me, I would say that I love boygenius, but I don't really fall in love with new bands the same way I did when I was 15 or 25 or even 30. Last night, the PNE was full of people who are young enough to have a new favourite band though, and it sure seemed like for many of them, boygenius is it. It was awesome to see and based on how good the Record is and how good the band sounded performing it (and they performed all of it plus all of the EP, plus an unreleased the Record outtake), it's easy to understand why their popularity is exploding.

There's this infectious joy just radiating from that stage too. They look like they're having the best time up there and the crowd was more than happy to give all that energy back to them. All in all, it was one of those shows that felt pretty special.

now playing: Jenny Owen Youngs - Knife Went In

posted by Quinn @ 1:58 a.m. Comments:0