Hey Operators! Big Fun!

Remember that Coney Hatch song Hey Operator? No? It was brilliant. "Make the telephone talk to me," belted Carl Dixon. Anyway, I hope someone does a synthy version of it of it called Hey Operators in honour of synth-pop purveyors Operators, who are coming to town as part of the Big Fun Festival Thursday January 29th 2015 @ The West End Cultural Centre with Hana Lu Lu and Will to Power. Operators is the new band from Dan Boeckner, who has also created heavenly sounds in Divine Fits, Handsome Furs, and Wolf Parade. Four great bands already? Boeckner must be some kind of genius. With Devojka and Sam Brown, Boeckner is whipping up more aural joy.  


You can purchase Operators stuff here.


Start Again

True

Cruel


Cold Light


Live at KEXP
Tour
1/6 - Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Future Islands
1/7 - Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Future Islands
1/8 - New York, NY @ Terminal 5 w/ Future Islands
1/9 - New York, NY @ Terminal 5 w/ Future Islands
1/10 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Future Islands
1/11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Future Islands
1/14 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba's - Tomorrow Never Knows Festival
1/29 - Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
1/30 - Vancouver, BC @ The Fox
1/31 - Vancouver, BC @ The Fox
2/4 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ The New Pornographers
2/5 - Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall w/ The New Pornographers
2/6 - London, ON @ London Music Hall w/ The New Pornographers
2/7 - Guelph, ON @ Hillside Inside w/ The New Pornographers
2/8 - Hamilton, ON @ Molson Canadian Studio w/ The New Pornographers

Divine Fits - Would That Not Be Nice

The second song from the upcoming Divine Fits album we are being allowed to hear is Would That Not Be Nice. It ups the energy from the previous release My Love is Real (listen here), which sounded a bit like awesome new wavey Handsome Furs to me. Would That Not Be Nice focuses on snappy percussion, ethereal keyboards, and the always-brilliant Britt Daniel vocals. The album will be called A Thing Called Divine Fits and is out in Europe/the UK on August 27 and in the US and Canada on August 28.

Tracklisting:
My Love Is Real
Flaggin A RIde
What Gets You Alone
Would That Not Be Nice
The Salton Sea
Baby Get Worse
Civilian Stripes
For Your Heart
Shivers
Like Ice Cream
Neo-politans

A limited-edition 7-inch single of My Love Is Real will be released July 31 and will feature the non-LP B-side cover of Camper Van Beethoven's "I Was Born in a Laundromat."

Divine Fits - My Love is Real

Divine Fits is the band comprised of Britt Daniel (Spoon), Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) and Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks), and the trio will release their debut single “My Love Is Real” July 31. If the new record (no release date yet) is anything like the first single, my faith in modern rock music will be restored. Here's to hoping. Side A: My Love Is Real Side B: I Was Born In A Laundromat Comments make the world go 'round, please leave one below.

The Name Game Vol.3: Sea Wolf, Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, We Are Wolves

Photo by bobster 855 from here.

Has every possible band name based on the English language been used already? Probably not yet, but the tipping point may be coming soon. This series of posts is being created to ensure you can tell the which from the what when that catastrophe finally occurs.

I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts that the amount of bands with "wolf" in their moniker or song title or album title was getting outrageous. It's finally time to delve into a few of those lycanthropes.



Sea Wolf seems to be a fellow based in Los Angeles named Alex Brown Church and whomever he gets to play along. He takes the cake, because he's got this ultra-catchy ditty called You're a Wolf.



New album White Water, white Bloom is out September 22nd. You can get a free mp3 of bonus track Stanislaus here.

Wolfmother is a band from Australia that embraces 70s rock icons like Deep Purple, Sabbath, etc. Here's lead Wolfie to explain the band himself; I think he loves Spinal Tap.



This one sounds a bit like White Stripes, though, don't it?



For some reason Wolfmother always make me think of Danzig's Mother - remember that one? It went a bit like this:



Wolf Parade is a Montreal-based band featuring Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs), Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake), Dante DeCaro (Hot Hot Heat, Johnny and the Moon), Hadji Bakara, and Arlen Thompson. I am immensely enjoying Handsome Furs lately, so Wolf Parade is like a bonus because I missed out on them previously. Free mp3s are available for you here.



Wolf Parade should not be confused with another Montreal wolf band, We Are Wolves. Ultra-small drum-kit (or non-existent and replaced with electro-drums), squelchy, distorted synths, squalling guitar, fuzzy bass, rock vocals that might fit on a Turbonegro record instead of cold robot voices - compelling oddities, these chaps. And judging from the video below, bandmembers seems to have a sense of humour, which could probably serve Bono & Co./Coldplay/etc well. Imagine a world where artists couldn't play their music until audience members hit the target with a baseball to drop them into the watertanks, and even then they had to play underwater. These guys are dedicated! Plus they give info on their website in both French and English, which is cool and pretty damn Canadian (the lyrics are sometimes in French, too, which is all right with me).

We Are Wolves Fight & Kiss from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

Also, the band clearly does some wild shows -check out these photos by Patrick Cormier taken from www.pcormier.com. That's the band playing on a platform hanging from a crane way up in the air.





Caution: the following should contain a nude mammal/general weirdness warning. Sounds a bit like a more tuneful Pere Ubu.

We Are Wolves Coconut Night from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

Eels new thing - Fresh Blood

Sterogum is now sharing the Eels' eerie/silly new video for "Fresh Blood". Here's part of the introduction:

"[T]he name of the new album Hombre Lobro means "werewolf." Continuing directly along that dark, creepy, and hairy course, the video for "Fresh Blood"'s shot at night with a red haze that looks bloody in the Carrie sense. The clip features an extremely bearded, lycanthropic E -- nice wolf walking stick...".

I like the song, it's menacing but tuneful. The video's fine too if you like watching music (not Scruffy's preferred ingestion mode). But wolves and werewolves seem to be everywhere these days. Blitzen Trapper's Furr is often playing in my vehicle or mp3 player, and somehow Wolf Parade and Sea Wolf have invaded my ears in the last week- I can't even keep track of all the other bands with wolf in their name or album title. What gives?