Halloween Mixtape 09

Halloween. I remember being dressed as the devil at the first, last, and only performance of a band I was in one Halloween; we went down like a lead balloon. We enjoyed ourselves anyhow, and thankfully no one recorded it. Remember when you could do goofy things without fear of someone pulling out their phone and uploading to YouTube? I don't think every mistake you make in public should be immortalized, but we are voyeurs, aren't we? Anyhow, I tripped across one of Steve Chasmar's Halloween photo series, and these pics deserve to be looked at.

Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost (download mp3 here)




Dead Kennedys - Halloween (download mp3 here)



I don't know what a Halloweenhead is - maybe that's them pictured above?

Ryan Adams - Halloweenhead (download mp3 here)



The Ghost of You Lingers - Spoon



This song by WWP is my favourite tune this month, pretty melody and harmonies, restrained chiming guitar, solid drums, funny lyrics. Dress up as a pirate or a wolf, either way is good.

We Were Pirates - The Wolf (download here)




Logan Lynn - Feed Me to the Wolves (download here)





Hoodoo Gurus - Dig it Up (download here)




The verses of this song always seemed spooky to me, as if paranoia, claustrophobia, and naked fear bubbled and percolated in the studio when the track was created. I'm not necessarily in love with the chorus, but I've always loved when Mr. Hine intones "Halloween...without a pumpkin, Halloween" and later "Trick or treat..or lies".

Rupert Hine - Surface Tension (download here)




This tune is not scary or spooky at all, but maybe Ryan Adams collectors will be able to tell us why it is subtitled Sad Dracula demo and why it cuts out after 1 minute 20 secs. But maybe many songs in this world would be better if they cut out at that point, cut out the filler and the fat. Huh?

Ryan Adams - Lost and Found (Sad Dracula demo) (download mp3 here)




Robert Pollard - Supernatural Car Lover (download mp3 here)




Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer (download mp3 here)



Haunted - by the amazing Forbidden Dimension

Free Sloan, Vote Sloan

Starting out with some pretty Warren Zevon-like keyboards, Sloan's new tune is 2 1/2 minutes of pop bliss. Chris Murphy has always been capable of writing ultra-catchy tunes, and this one's up there. Sublime harmonies, straightforward chunky guitar, tambourine, handclaps, walking bassline in the chorus, and an uplifting feel throughout = the perfect little antidote to rainy fall doledrums. Listen below.



If you haven't been paying attention, Sloan have been making great music for longer than most in Canada. Outside of the Hip and Blue Rodeo, there ain't a whole lotta bands that have kept the same line-up and continued to put out new material on a regular basis since the 80s. If you think the boys have just been writing Futureshop ad soundtracks, guess again, there's been a pretty wide range of styles covered. Check out Witch's Wand from Sloan's last full-length, Parallel Play.

Sloan - Witch's Wand from Scott Cudmore on Vimeo.

(If the video above is not playing for you, go here)

Sloan is also one of the artists who are on the list for CBC Radio 2's Great Canadian Song Quest. The boys will get a commission to write a tune commemorating Nova Scotia if they garner enough votes here. Interestingly enough, they're up against hands-down one of the best artist outs of all the 65 listed - Joel Plaskett.

Here's some upcoming tour dates, see 'em before they retire or die.

Nov 28 - Detroit, MI
Nov 29 - Columbus, OH
Nov 30 - Hoboken, NJ
Dec 01 - Vienna, VA
Dec 03 - Cambridge, MA
Dec 04 - Brooklyn, NY
Dec 05 - Philadelphia, PA

Malcolm Burn & Boys Brigade

Recently I was watching a Canadian Bradcasting Corp. (the Corpse) TV show on Canadian 80's music. I was disappointed that interesting Canuck stuff wasn't included. For some reason, Boys Brigade popped into mind.



I know, I know, bad, terribly dated video. Ignore it and listen to the song, understated vocals, tasteful guitar colours and percussion (3, count 'em 3, rhythmic raconteurs), and it's all not overly-produced - a remarkable feat for the 1980s. Incidentally, Rush's Geddy Lee produced it. Considering how far away from the full-palette former proggers Boys Brigade were, it's an intersting marriage - nicely done.



Ok, the video is still dated, but it's maybe not as bad as Melody. I don't like video anyway. The song again is not overblown and cheesy, maybe that's why the band wasn't a huge hitmaking machine.

Singer/songwriter/keyboardist Malcolm Burn want on to release one decent solo album (1988's Redemption). He also went on to become a producer and engineer of renown, working with, among others:

Bruce Springsteen
Peter Gabriel
Brian Eno
Ryan Adams
Jeff Buckley
Neil Young
Tom Verlaine
Lucinda Williams
Steve Earle
Bob Dylan
Daniel Lanois
Emmylou Harris
Iggy Pop
Midnight Oil
Blue Rodeo
Patti Smith
Giant Sand
The Neville Brothers
Chris Whitley

Not bad for a regular fella with dyed yellow hair and a red-and-black checked shirt, huh?