Manitoba Christmas songs from Rusty and Savannah, Oldfolks Home, and JP Hoe, a strong Cover of the Pogues' Fairytale of New York, a new Christmas song from Mark Kozelek from an album that isn't even released until November NEXT YEAR, Bad Religion throwing a curveball, and a few more.
Cheap Trick's Come On Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas songs ever, even if they did just change the words to one of their own songs.
Gig poster art has been adored by some for years. DIY album art and concert announcements have been collected by some smarty-pants hoarders since punk exploded. But Swissted: Vintage Rock Posters Remixed and Reimagined by Mike Joyce is the first book I have seen that lovingly remakes posters of punk, indie and alternative artist concert posters and turns them into something entirely different. Like covering a song and transforming it so that it is unrecognizable, Joyce turns gig posters into wholly new works of art. Instead of freaky or bizarre art designed to shock, confuse, or generally stop a viewer in his/her tracks, Joyce revisits posters using a Swiss modernist design. No black and white photocopies here, we're talkin' bright, primary colours, clean, lower-case band names, and clarity over colour. No artist pics, no album covers, no extraneous exhortations or slogans, just 200 perforated ready-to-frame posters featuring everyone from Alice in Chains to Bad Brains to Nirvana to Yo La Tengo to The Zeros. Wow.
Bad Religion just released their new album, The Dissent of Man. It's the same melodic punk with better-than-average lyrics the band always puts out, and you know what? I'm cool with that.
Bad Religion, Spin and MySpace are releasing a Bad Religion Tribute entitled Germs of Perfection, which will include Ted Leo among others. One song a day (except weekends) is streaming. October 19th should see the whole album as a free download on both MySpace Music’s homepage and through SPIN.com. You can find out more about the covers album here, below are a couple cover versions from Germs of Perfection. Like Ted Leo, Frank Turner doing Bad Religion isn't a big surprise, but I wouldn't have guessed Tegan & Sara would tackle primal punk tune Suffer. Hope there's some more WTF choices coming.
A is for Albatross, not just an old Monty Python catchword, but a nifty litle tune from the new Besnard Lakes disc, The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night.
I is for Infinite Arms, the new album from Band of Horses. You can also check out thee band's newest video, For Annabelle, here, as well as hearing the whole thing.
J is for Jim Kerr and his new thing, Lostboy. Get a free download here.
K is for Kathryn Calder (New Pornographers, Immaculate Machine), who will be releasing her debut solo record Are You My Mother? on August 3rd. Cool-lookin' cat, huh?
L is for Lefty by Wheat Pool. Walking in high heels in the snow, big white sky, Manitoba mention in the lyrics - that's the prairies.
M is for Martha and the Muffins - Mess. It ain't Echo Beach, or even Danseparc, but it's all right for a comeback single.
N is for New Inheritors, the song Wintersleep want you to stick on a mixtape.
O is for Orono by The Wilderness of Manitoba. Of course, the band's from Toronto, not the keystone province, but The Wilderness of Ontario was not rustic or romantic enough for a nom de plume. I'm guessing.
P is for The Police. The always fine Music Ruined My Life blog has given us a series of posts sharing earlier stuff, and it is good, very good.
Q is for Queensryche. And Dio.
R is for Rome by Dog Day, dreamy indie-pop with a pretty little zombie video. Why are zombies so popular these days? Recently, a couple of kids in my grade 10 English class tried to sneak zombies into every conversation and every assignment. Although I'm not one of those zombie-obssessed fellows, my reading material has taken on a living dead bent lately. John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of Let the Right One In, has written a thankfully unique take on coming back to life, Handling the Undead. I recommend it. I also picked up The Dylan Dog Case Files, which weirdly enough contains a scene in which a stereotypical "punk" band plays Somebody Super Like You from the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack.
S is for San Antone by White Oklahoma Cowbell. Free download here.
T is for Winnipeg's The Telepathic Butterflies. From the new album out June 15, Wow & Flutter!, here's Circle Man, as well as A Scathing Report from 2008's Breakfast in Suburbia.
U is for ukelele and Sanfordandsongs's bluegrass blitz.
W is for When Will This Heartache End from the upcoming (June 1st) reissue of The Blue Shadows record On the Floor of Heaven. You remember Winnipeg's Jeffrey Hatcher, don't you? Billy Cowsill? These guys were both ahead of their time and excellent revivalists, I hope they get noticed this time around.
X is for the Goo Goo Dolls Extended available from the aforementioned Music Ruined My Life blog. Covers of I wanna Destroy You by the Soft Boys, Hit or Miss by The Damned, a couple more good ones and a couple I'm not sure about - tell me what you think.
1. The Apples in Stereo - Atom Bomb 2. Chuck Prophet - Bring On The Love 3. Bell X1 - The Snowman 4. Peggy Sue - Alice In The Kitchen 5. Dave Alvin - Krazy and Ignatz 6. John Doe - The Big Blue House 7. Liam Finn - I Will Explode 8. Drink Up Buttercup - King Day 9. Paul Weller - Rise and Fall 10. Los Straitjackets - Twist and Slide 11. Reckless Kelly - Pickin' Up Cans 12. Robyn Hitchcock - No Way Out of Time 13. The Gourds - Drunk Song
mp3s will be posted for a limited time and are for promotional purposes only. If you like it, buy the albums, go to the shows, buy the t-shirts - support the artist so they can keep on keepin' on. Artists - if you would like an mp3 or video removed, please contact me directly at chrisyakchart@hotmail.com.
If you've got something Scruffy should hear, same email. Snail mail is cool too.
Scruffy the Yak 34 Allenby Cres Winnipeg Mb R2C 3J4
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