Wordless Gunk

It seems that every NXNE unveils a new band or two for me to drool all over. While this was a rather light year of concert-going (relatively speaking), that didn't stop me from stumbling across a few new gems. There's the obvious answer of The Public Animal who I will impatiently await to release anything - mp3s, CDs, vinyls, 8-tracks, a tin cup with a string and someone screaming into the other end - and subsequently give them all of my money.

However, sometimes there's too much ground to cover, too much rock to be rolled and to much love to give. For situations like this, I've got people like my coworker Jayar who introduced me to one of his picks of the festival, Saskatchewan's own Shooting Guns. This instrumental 5-piece generates a massive wall of slow-moving, grimy, distorted stoner metal that feels heavy enough to stop a bull moose in it's tracks. This stuff is kind of like the rock n roll version of molasses, if molasses were as hard as fucking nails and cooler than all of your friends put together.

And yes, to answer your next question, said molasses would make the most badass gingerbread cookies ever.

Their debut 12", Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976, made the Polaris prize long list and is VERY much worth the $5 to pick it up here.

  -Surround yourself in a layer of hope to keep you warm at night

Mixing the Madness

It's been a weird week which means I'm in a weird mood and of course, means I'm listening to some weird music. I'd been digging into a lot of really experimental stuff, almost as though I were searching for the perfect song to define my mind and in doing so, wrap everything into a neat little package. While the intended result fell short, the song existed and gradually found its way to me.

I was playing around with some new sounds with coworker and good friend Paul when we began to have an impromptu listening party for inspiration. Here, he introduced me to Son Lux, aka Ryan Lott - a colleague from Paul's past at Indiana University. While I was blown away by the world that Lott's music spanned, one song in particular stuck out and has been occupying my mind to the point of near obsession.

While the original is already brilliant, it was a remix of the song Weapons done by Nico Muhly that would ultimately grab me by the cortex and drag my mind around. Rapid panning strings chaotically build over jazz-infused break beats, all breaking way to a beautiful, ambient surface on which the song continues to play for nearly 4 glorious minutes.


-The only things I hate about myself are the things I can't see