Rockabilly. It's not just for breakfast anymore. The 1st annual River City Rumble runs August 3-4 at the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre in Winnipeg, and along with a bunch of other events, the following artists will be performing, as well as The Brent Parkin Band, The Fl!p Cats, and King Cabernet.
Man, I feel like I am reeling off RIP posts too much. Oh well, this will be a short one.
George Jones passed away and the first thing I thought about was this amazing tune by The Rowdymen, inspired by a dream about drinking with George. In a perfect world, this song would have been a big hit. You can buy it right here.
Chrissy Amphlett of Divinyls also shuffled off this mortal coil. You've all heard I Touch Myself, but they had a few other spiffy tracks. I'm thinking The Rowdymen will get around to memorializing Chrissy Amphlett and Divinyls at some point, because they love 80's music with a side of cheese.
Out of the blue comes a video from The Rowdymen, Too Little Too Late from the criminally underrated Gas, Liquor and Fireworks. Any excuse for me to post Rode Hard and Ode to Possum again (see bottom of post).
Here's a couple of older ones, as well as my favourite Rowdymen tunes of all time at the bottom on Soundcloud.
Everyone's got a best of the year list. Sorry, not here. But you do get a bunch of music that I loved in the past year (some of which may have been released prior to 2010, I don't care), some of which I've blogged about already, and some of which I didn't get around to sharing with you. So here it is, Part Four (and of course by This Year I mean last year).
One thing I listened to a lot is various stuff from captains dead. The guy who blogs under the psychedelic skull with the vinyl halo doesn't try to dazzle with words, just speaks his mind briefly and lets the music do the talking. And singing, whispering, screaming, humming, crying, and so on. Guided by Voices, Twilight Singers, The Replacements, Matthew Sweet are mixed with newer acts I've come to love like Ox. No hipper-than-thou vibe here, the same tunes and artists hyped on every other blog won't be found here, but oftimes a rock combo you don't expect shows up.
The Dodos'Fables is not a new song, in fact their new album will be out March 15, but it's still rattling around my head.
Gord Downie & the Country of Miracles'The East Wind threw quickly-strummed percussive acoustics at us, added snappy drums, topped it with a tasty twangy guitar line, then layered on some more shimmery, shaky sounds (I know not what, exactly), covered it with a short, sharp chorus that may be the catchiest in Downie's repertoire, and ended up with a shivery, danceable radio hit. Or a drunken sea shanty for landlubbers and pirates alike. Huh.
Adam Franklin and Bolts of Melody gave us the sublime Yesterday Has Gone Forever (from the album I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years), which nods back to his days fronting shoegazers Swervedriver, but also winks at Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque era, too. Get it free by going to his site. Beauty.
'Nother cool blog Herohill put together Herohill and Oates, which ain't Christmasy at all but is all about artists (mostly Canadian?) covering Hall and Oates. Scruffy faves Brian Dunn and Ox contributed tracks.
Saw some lukewarm reviews for the Freedy Johnston single Don't Fall in Love With a Lonely Girl, but it's prime powerpop to me. Get it free by going here.
La Roux might be the artist most unlikely to be suggested by Scruffy, but that chorus is the catchiest thing going, acoustic or not.
Music Ruined My Life is a meticulously-researched, impassioned blog, mostly about artists of yesteryore, but sometimes featuring newer troubadours. More punk than you can shake a stick at, more power-pop than you can eat at once, still managing to unearth hard to find boots or rare treats from Springsteen, Dylan, Strummer, Graham Parker, Billy Bragg, DOA, Jerry Jerry, Jason & the Scorchers, Elvis Costello, and so on. Consistently one of the best blogs out there.
The Soft Pack. C'mon! I still haven't decided if I like the band name The Soft Pack, but I definitely enjoy the hurry-up-and-get-down vibe, and the chorus says it all. Two minutes thirteen seconds of fuzzy energy and crashing cymbals bliss, who needs Red Bull?
Call Superchunk's Digging For Something a comeback if you want, it's even more hooky, well-produced angsty lovable yelps. Dancin' on the propane tank, indeed. Oh oh oh!
So there you have it. Honourable mentions go to Hanson for their cover of Radiohead's Optimistic, Jason & the Scorchers return with Moonshine Guy, The Afterbeat's Unity, Alex Gruenberg's Hey Katy Hey, and Luke Doucet's The Ballad of Ian Curtis. If you didn't like anything Scruffy recommended in this series of four posts, you are in the wrong place. Go print out the yak at the top of the post and get your crayons out, there won't be anything for you here. If there was anything for you, feel free to leave a comment, that's what the comments section is for, and my dogs appreciate it.
For 2011, Scruffy's looking forward to (or hoping for) new R.E.M., Sons of York, The Cars, Scott Nolan, Urge Overkill, Apex Manor, Crooked Fingers, Buffalo Tom, Quinzy, Robyn Hitchcock, Rupert Hine, Wilco, Matt Epp, Ox, JP Hoe, Pixies, and The Watchmen. Okay, so we'll probably never see the last two, but I can still hope.
2009 produced the usual batch of excellent sounds from Winnipeg artists. I got some suggestions for some kind of best of list, but there's enough of those out there already. Nevertheless, I don't mind briefly running down notable local artists, some of whom I've touched on before and some I haven't. For some strange reason, the upper half of the alphabet has been ruling the roost lately as far as beginning letters for band names, at least as far as the ones Scruffy's been digging. As a matter of fact, what's with all the brilliant bands begining with the letter P?
Paper Moon gets my vote as the band most likely to be ridiculously successful beyond Manitoba borders. Consistently good songwriting, sweet vocals, and exceptional production choices make PM one to watch.
On the much heavier and much more political end of the spectrum, Propagandhi ended up on top of Exclaim! magazine's best o' the year heap and rocked the magazine cover. The band's album, Supporting Caste, was named punk rock album of the year. Propagandhi's blend of punk rock ideology and metallic instrumentation put 'em on the rails to...even greater popularity? Critical acclaim? (Gasp!) Financial success?!? An anti-corporate band in every way, they've still managed to sell tons of cds in corporate record stores and make fans of those who aren't neither punk devotees, metal experts, or politically brilliant, and may have actually worked in one of those evil villain chain record stores (like me).
The Perms kept up their record of launching modern rock missiles on an unsuspecting world with Keeps You Up When You're Down. The guys and director Jeff Bromley manage to get in shots of the back of the Zoo, the front of the Albert, prudent Wpg fashion, inexplicable sucking-on-a-Slurpee-in-winter behaviour, and goofy band behaviour in this vid.
Enough with the "P" bands. my favourite release of the year was The Rowdymen's Gas, Liquor, and Fireworks. The band have been digging deep into the roots of rock 'n' roll for a long time (hey, Eddie Cochrane!), but this time they dug deeper into the country artists that were badasses before Sid Vicious was a t-shirt, Cobain was a martyr, and Marilyn Manson was a tired attempt at controversy. If you thought The Rowdymen was "just" a rockabilly band, you haven't listened to Jason Allen's songs that took the group out into dustbowl territory like a drunk astronaut with a serious roots music jones. Hint: who was given the nickname "Possum"?
The Rowdymen - Ode to Possum
The Rowdymen - Rode Hard
The Western States bucked the whole Autotune trend and trekked down to Texas just to record live to tape, no digital effects or computer tomfoolery allowed. If rock and roll never happened, Neil Young and Gram Parsons were on all the cool teen clothing shops' badges, t-shirts and patches, and subtlety and restraint were commended in our plastic world, the Western States would be sittin' pretty. The following tune starts as bare bones as can be, but grows into a different animal altogether - listen closely to that sparking guitar near the end, it sends me to the moon.
The Western States - The Road is Dark as the Night
Sights & Sounds is a band that pulls in so many different flavours they're hard to describe. Total hardcore assault, fragile piano bits and intimate in-your-ear-vocals, some ambient sounds, beautiful layered harmonies - they don't fit a genre. Post-hardcore?
Grand Analog I've mentioned before, but again, this is a band that doesn't readily fit any genre. The band has had one song used on TV show 90210, and there are so many points of reference in the tunes on Metropolis is Burning, I wouldn't be surprised to see more popping up all over the place.
The Rowdymen are finally releasing their third album with a release party this Saturday, December 5th at Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club. I've been waiting for this one for years, but it's worth the wait. The band's delivered straightahead rockin' in Johnny Rumble, the Elvis-meets-the-Honeydrippers Too Little Too Late, the soulful, alt-country brilliance of Ode to Possum, and the infectious shit-kickin' country lament Rode Hard. Head Rowdyguy J. Allen's songwriting has grown in leaps and bounds, original finger-picker Robert L. Pachol is back in the fold, and the amazing Joanne Rodriguez lends a hand on some backing vocals. I'm jumpin' up and down right now.
You can stream the whole album and pick up the free mp3 for Johnny Rumble here or download here.
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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