Torontoist » Nicole Villeneuve

2011 Polaris Prize Goes to Arcade Fire

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:30:49 +0000

Canada's biggest little "indie" band are the prize's first commercially and critically successful winners.

At the end of our Polaris Music Prize summary last year, we predicted that Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs would win or that it would lose to the prize’s first hip-hop winner, resulting in an upset of sorts either way: Arcade Fire made the best Canadian album of the year, but would it be too obvious a choice? In the end the Polaris mandate of artistic merit is the deciding factor, and as such The Suburbs took home the sixth annual prize (though this year the prize got a $10,000 bump up to a grand total of $30,000). The 11 grand jurors who were chosen to fairly represent the 10 shortlisted albums decided that, ultimately, maybe The Suburbs aren’t so bad.

Hosts Grant Lawrence and Damian Abraham got most of their shtick out of the way early on in the show, first taking to the stage dressed as each other. Abraham wore a slick suit, while Lawrence wore his co-host’s usual outfit—an oversized T-shirt, shorts, ball hat, and blood on his face. It seemed an odd intro to the subdued Ron Sexsmith, who kicked off the night’s performances. “I always feel a bit square being here,” Sexsmith said after he performed in his burgundy blazer, a remark punctuated by Toronto’s black-clad, bleached-blonde Austra taking their gothic electro-pop to the stage next.

Only six of the 10 nominees performed this year—Arcade Fire were bound by logistics after headlining the Austin City Limits festival the night before; The Weeknd prefers to keep the mystery that’s no longer a mystery, Colin Stetson was on the road with Bon Iver, and Destroyer’s Dan Bejar was, well, Dan Bejar—and of them, Montreal’s Galaxie seemed the most divisive. Their retro rock-riffing felt dated and a confusing inclusion to most, though to others, volume is king.

Toronto’s Timber Timbre fleshed out their spooky sock-hop sound with help from members of Ohbijou on strings, while Montreal-via-Calgary’s Braids were one of the most revelatory bands for many in attendance, and as critic Carl Wilson noted, they could be stellar in a few more albums. But CBC Radio 3′s Vish Khanna was the real star of that set; as the presenter for their album Native Speaker, he said, “Braids reminds me of why I enjoy having sex with white people,” and that was it. That was all we needed. Polaris vets Hey Rosetta! closed the night’s performances and the room stayed pretty much still immediately after as the announcement of the winner was pending.

And so it was Arcade Fire. The Suburbs‘ release date, at the very beginning of the prize’s qualifying period, was a disadvantage, but no one forgot about it; this year’s perfect Polaris storm was one of critical acclaim and commercial success. “Just because you’ve heard of a band doesn’t mean they suck,” frontman Win Butler said, all smiles and a bit bumbly. “You don’t get anything for not trying as hard as you can.”

Sound Advice: Gravestone Rock by the Skeletones Four

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:30:43 +0000

The Skeletones Four mesh understated psychedelia with classic pop flair and make jam fans of us all on their proper debut.

Every Tuesday, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.

The quick crush you’re going to develop on the Skeletones Four might surprise you. Hailing from Guelph but based in Toronto, the band’s proper debut album, Gravestone Rock, is a modestly produced concoction of prog, post, and psych-pop that weaves thoughtful arrangements through stomp-down performances whose deceivingly airtight and stupidly smart execution belies the overall quirky sound of the record. Still, it feels like a quiet coming-out, making the album a possible sleeper favourite of the year.

As the project of singer/guitarist/songwriter Andrew Collins, the Skeletones Four released AAAAAHHH!!! in 2009, a decade’s worth of songs that Collins played and recorded himself, so it makes sense that this so-called debut would be so well realized. Recorded (again by Collins, but this time with bandmates Evan Gordon, Jordan Howard, and John Merritt) on a farm in Caledon, it’s perhaps the starkness of the production responsible for the tension simmering under the surface of the otherwise laid-back songs such as album standout “Empty Eyes” or the classic sounding opener “Pick Up the Pieces,” a strong indication of the tremendous songwriting at play and a steep learning curve in terms of hearing the gold through what sounds like clean, if not limited, recording. There doesn’t seem to be any tricks here—just the sound of stellar musicians who are intuitive, playful, and, at the same time, incredibly focused.

The overall aesthetic of The Skeletones Four means words like “jam” come to mind as descriptors for the intricate instrumental passages in songs like “Rotten to the Core,” but if you can put that awful thing out of your head, those parts are closer to post-punk’s angular breakdowns. Gravestone Rock is spooky and soulful and challenging in the best ways; a bit untouched by current influences or fans, even, which makes it all the more special.

Sound Advice: Ulalume by Tasseomancy

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:30:00 +0000

The album’s darkness and mystery aren’t a surprise, but neither are its whimsical mythologies and imagery

Toronto’s Tasseomancy weren’t always known as Tasseomancy—before, they were Ghost Bees, and though that group was also made up of twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman, at that time they were living in Halifax (where they went to school and started the burrito delivery service they eventually brought home). On the east coast, they were playing a style of folk much more barren and unsophisticated than the subtle and stirring stuff we hear on their full-length debut, Ulalume. Sharing a name with an Edgar Allan Poe poem, the album’s darkness and mystery aren’t a surprise, but neither are its whimsical mythologies and imagery.
Tasseomancy’s many influences and inspirations include Timber Timbre‘s mastermind Taylor Kirk, so it stands to reason that as producer (along with Timber Timbre mate Simon Trottier), he’d bring the most out of very little—the same sparsity for which he’s known gains its intensity through reservation (what are those Lightmans holding back?) and through restrained layers of sound that, much like Timber Timbre, are so perfectly placed or sustained or manipulated that it could be masterful human precision or, as we prefer to think, some kind of magic. Kirk doesn’t turn a flashlight on dark corners so much as he pushes the Lightmans out to find the path with a dim lantern. You can hear him unmistakably on the first single, “Heavy Sleep” (streaming above), in the eerie warble of “Healthy Hands (Will Mourn You),” and on the pretty “Up You Go, Little Smoke,” a more typically folk-lush song that possesses an old soul.
The Lightman sisters also provide vocals alongside Katie Stelmanis in Austra, which is another influence (in sensibility more than on the music on Ulalume), if you’re looking for an easy one. But it’s what’s between the sisters here that makes it all their own: the chilling vocal interplay in “Ashkelon,” the seeming ease in the challenging “Diana.” There’s deep movement running through Ulalume and its connectedness to earth and sea and air. Perhaps it’s a touch of that spooky Kirk spirit, but more than likely it’s true what they say about twins and the strange bond between them. Here, Tasseomancy have shared part of it with us while keeping most of it hidden under dark.

Sound Advice: All Of It Was Mine by the Weather Station

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Two years after local singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman shocked us into feeling with The Line, the stark debut of her project the Weather Station, she returns with an album that isn’t as instantly devastating—but it’s just as moving. It turns out that’s the most immediate thing about this, and so far, all Weather Station releases: Lindeman possesses something special, something never quite tangible, something quite gentle, in fact, and you can hear it in her music loud and clear.
For All Of It Was Mine, out next week, Lindeman started and stopped the songs until eventually taking them to Welland, Ontario, to record with Daniel Romano (Attack in Black, Daniel, Fred & Julie). It’s a fitting pairing, as Romano himself is one of the best modern Canadian folk torchbearers, with his mind set deep in our country’s roots music past and both feet firmly in the present. She would also eventually release the new album on his label, You’ve Changed Records, adding another stellar release to their roster while giving the record a home in which it’ll no doubt thrive. If on the last album Lindeman was wounded, on this one she’s scarred—on “Came So Easy” she sings, “So sure I was needless,” and it’s a little bit pointed and a little bit vulnerable.
Lindeman’s at her best there and on opener “Everything I Saw” (streaming above), if for no other reason than the faster arrangements. Some of the second half of the album does fade a bit, but on “Traveler” and the more fleshed out “Know It To See It,” she’s evoking Joni Mitchell even more than she did the last time out, looping her way around the words with a more forthright confidence. This release offsets her gentler musings and shows once again that the well of her talents runs very deep, and currently, also very full.

Sound Advice: “The Power” by Army Girls

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:45:00 +0000

Carmen Elle is one of those artists whose name you might not know, but as a long-time fixture in the local independent music scene, her resume not only reads familiar, but impressive: having previously spent time with the recent Polaris-shortlisted Austra, as well as The Cliks, Dance Yourself To Death, and Donlands and Mortimer, among others, the early-20s Toronto native is now at the helm of another new project, the two-piece Army Girls. They’ve yet to release more than a couple of tracks here and there, but it’s worth getting on board right now as they build up to the release of their debut EP.
The duo is rounded out by Andy Smith (also from Heartbeat Hotel) on drums, and together they’re both sweet and propulsive. We’re given just a taste of the twosome’s ability in the new seven-inch, one-song single “The Power,” a (please excuse the word) fierce garage-pop send-up that’s part ’60s-radio girl group, part grunge, and all-over irresistible. Elle is a skilled and intuitive guitarist (she got her start at age nine, with lessons and an endless instrument supply from her professional guitar-maker dad), and her voice—clear, powerful, a little ragged when she needs it to be—cuts through to the core. She coos and claws and at every turn—especially when she growls the line “the power you’ll never have on me”—you know she’s something special.
Producer Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv and the Scuzz) perfectly steered the band’s melodies through some terrific overdriven tones and some slight vocal layering on the pre-chorus, both precise and deliberate, but subtle, and key to the single’s sound. “The Power” is easily one of the best and most exciting singles out of Toronto this summer; it’s available for free download from their Bandcamp page, and if you’re left wanting more right away, check out their Soundcloud for a recent live recording.

Sound Tracks: “Breaking Past the Day” by Mantler

Nicole Villeneuve — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Believe it or not, music videos still exist. Sound Tracks trolls the internet to find the best and the worst of local artists’ new singles and the good, bad, or otherwise noteworthy visuals that accompany them.

Mantler, also known as Chris A. Cummings, has been a low-key fixture on the Toronto scene for more than 10 years. What started out as a solo bedroom-recording project blossomed into a full-out, laid-back synth-pop recording party on his 2010 release, Monody, featuring guests such as Sandro Perri, Ohbijou’s Anissa Hart, and Owen Pallett, as well as the Junior Boys‘ Jeremy Greenspan, who not only played on but produced the album at his Pistachio Studio in Hamilton.
“Breaking Past the Day,” the latest single from Monody, was actually shot back in the spring of 2010. It came out of a quiet day in Austin, Texas, while Mantler and director Colin Medley (whose work we’ve been big fans of in the past) were in town separately for the annual SXSW music festival. The footage sat untouched for a while, but Medley tells us its completion was, to him, better late than never. “I’ve been listening to his music for a long time, so it’s a good feeling having this done.”
Though the clip itself was directed and edited by Medley, the VHS footage was transferred by his production partner, Jared Raab. Watching the cable-access inspired video—which features Cummings (rather, Mantler) donning his trademark alter-ego white suit and visiting some interesting Austin sites—feels, as Medley says, almost from another time. “I like to pretend that it’s a lost music video from another era that someone found on a VHS tape. Totally just in its own world.”

Sound Advice: Shirts vs. Skins by Graham Wright

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Graham Wright is better (un?)known as the keyboardist for local indie-rock wunderkinds Tokyo Police Club, but on Shirts Vs. Skins he makes a strong bid for an official solo guy position. In 2008 he released the free-to-download The Lakes of Alberta EP, but its brevity and folksy singer/songwriter-y lean made it feel a little less of a certified side project than an easy uptake for anyone in a band with an acoustic guitar and GarageBand.
Shirts Vs. Skins is an immediate grab with Wright’s full-band power-pop arrangements and confident frontman vocals. It’s apparently the first of three planned releases in a series—this one being the classic heartbreak album, filtered through a ton of defense-mechanism snark such as on “Heavens Just for Moviemakers,” (streaming above), a structurally straightforward but instrumentally diverse track that loosely defines the first half of the album.
There’s some hints of his acoustic days here, too, and in the larger scope of this album they work quite well. “Keys to the Kingdom,” even with its back/throat/side/chest–stabbing, crying in your car imagery, is one of the most sincere two-and-a-half minutes on the album, eventually finding Wright waiting at home for someone that just never came back. It’s a sentiment much more appealing than the condescending tone of songs like “Potassium Blast,” even if the latter itself serves as a perfect mouthpiece for the latter half of the album—turned down in volume so that the horns stand out as some of the most intriguing bits of arrangement heard throughout.
Graham Wright establishes himself as a natural songwriting talent not afraid of exploring music or conceptual themes, and Shirts Vs. Skins is a naturally charming concoction of eccentric pop. It’s at times a little too cheeky, but if ’90s power-pop revivalism á la They Might Be Giants or latter-day Fountains of Wayne is your jam, dig in.

Polaris Shortlist: An Arcade-Sized Prediction and a Sexsmith Surprise

Nicole Villeneuve — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:30:00 +0000

Photo by D. A. Cooper/Torontoist.

This afternoon, another step in the event that’s come to be one of the most exciting (and divisive) in Canadian music: the shortlist for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize was announced. (This coming quite soon after the long-list announcement, which itself was revealed just two short weeks ago.)
Returning host Grant Lawrence was (again) joined by Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham for the shortlist reveal (and for the reveal that Abraham would, blessedly, be replacing MuchMusic’s Sarah Taylor as Lawrence’s co-host for the grand-prize gala this year), and after only a few quick words thanking sponsors and explaining typical procedural stuff, it was onto the ten nominees. Alphabetically, true, but it could have been in order of least surprising to most (okay, at least roughly): Arcade Fire and Austra led the pack, followed by albums by Braids, Destroyer, Galaxie, Hey Rosetta!, Ron Sexsmith, Colin Stetson, Timber Timbre, and the Weeknd. Our biggest surprise was local–career mope Ron Sexsmith (we love you Ron, we just didn’t expect it!), while the overall wildcard shocker was probably another local, the mysterious modern R&B act the Weeknd, marking the first free-download nominee in the prize’s history; or maybe the experimental jazz of Colin Stetson, a true diamond of a discovery among the nominees this year (if you’re not familiar, please go have a listen—oh, and he also played on the nominated Arcade Fire and Timber Timbre’s albums. Good haul, Stetson!).
Some repeat shortlisters include Arcade Fire (2007) and Hey Rosetta! (2009), while three of the records are debuts and have made international web-buzz impressions this year (Austra, Braids, and the Weeknd). And how about that geography! The list spans coast to coast pretty cleanly, with Vancouver’s Destroyer, one-time Calgarians Braids (now Montreal), Toronto’s strong batch (nice show, us!), Montreal’s Galaxie and Stetson and Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta!. Oh, Canada.
Disappointments? Mainly, for us, no Land of Talk. But such is the nature of the overall-wonderful beast. The winner will be chosen by a grand jury of ten pulled from the larger 213-person jury on September 19 at the Masonic Temple. And don’t forget: the winner gets an upped $30,000 this year. Viva the most artistic merit!

Criminal Records to Close Up Shop in July

Nicole Villeneuve — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Photo by Jösé from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

In the same week we learned that the Annex’s musical beacon, Sonic Boom records, would be forced out of its current location to move around the corner into a street-level space in Honest Eds’ sprawling monster location, Toronto just lost another of its independent music retailers—only this time, there’s no happy ending.
Criminal Records (493 Queen Street West) announced today via Twitter and Myspace that they would be closing their doors next month. Their full note:

To our dear friends and customers,
Due to failed negotiations and reasons of a very personal nature, Criminal Records will be canceling our plans to renovate and instead will be closing our doors.
We hope you all understand that this has nothing to do with poor business, as we have enjoyed record sales that have gone up every single year. In our dreams, we could have never anticipated that we would be selling this much music in 2011.
What makes this so hard is losing the relationships we have forged. Many of you have become far more than customers; you have become our friends and family. Toronto is blessed with one of the best music scenes in the world. We hope all of you will continue to record shop in our city’s amazing music stores, and we will no doubt see you as we both flip through the racks in great stores like Soundscapes, Sonic Boom, Rotate This, Hits & Misses, etc…
We intend to close our doors for good by the end of July and will be liquidating our stock until then. We hope you will all come by to say your goodbyes and take part in some amazing record sales. As they say, “everything must go!” and “all good things must come to an end”.
Yours in music,
Criminal Records.

And thanks to you too, Criminal. Your enviable T-shirt displays (and general greatness) will be missed.

Sound Advice: Oh, Hell by Little Foot Long Foot

Nicole Villeneuve — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Following the statement that was their 2009 full-length debut, Harsh Words, Toronto duo Little Foot Long Foot toured like crazy, absorbed a third member (Caitlin Dacey on organ and vocals), and returned to the studio with the king of Canrock riffage himself, Sir Ian Blurton. The combination of it all has resulted in a stellar sophomore release, Oh, Hell (out now digitally and physically next week), which keeps any trace of kitsch firmly in check to deliver a set of heavy, catchy, countrified blues rock that keeps them on the upward trajectory they’ve been cruising for some time.
Vocalist/guitarist Joan Smith is the standout here; it takes a hell of a wail to conquer the thick guitars and thundering percussion (courtesy of Isaac Klein), and she does it with ease. A strong sense of structure and a cheeky sense of humour (see: “Neko Case Hate Fucks Kurt Cobain”) make her quite the the southern swamp-rock songstress, able to command both the slow dirge of “Missing the Point” and the stomping, riff-heavy single, “Sell Out” (streaming above—check out the sick organ solo) with equal personality and impressive control.
An easy comparison for Little Foot Long Foot would be the signature alt-blues of everyone’s favourite defunct Detroit duo, the White Stripes (listen to the frantic “She Looks to You” and you’re bound to think of those old Stripes albums). They’ve definitely received that comparison before, but their expansion into a trio ends the numbers game and brings them closer to being something all their own. Blurton’s ear and understanding of the band may well have been the best thing to happen to them, and, by extension, Oh, Hell is the best thing we’ve heard from the band yet.

The 2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List

Nicole Villeneuve — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Polaris 2010 winners Karkwa. Photo by David Topping/Torontoist.

It’s a busy week for music in the city: Luminato has had some great performances and of course NXNE is tearing up the town with approximately one million bands and venues and things to do—and today, the first phase of this year’s Polaris Music Prize got underway with the announcement of the long list from atop the sunny Drake Hotel Sky Yard.
The 40 albums voted into the first stage of consideration for the (newly larger sum!) of $30,000 contained some of the bigger names from the eligibility period of June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011: albums from Arcade Fire, Neil Young, Ron Sexsmith, Sloan, and Stars all made it, as did newcomers/splash-makers Diamond Rings, Hooded Fang, PS I Love You, and Little Scream. A couple of repeat names, of course, made the cut again (Malajube, Miracle Fortress), but as some jurors noted on Twitter, a two-time short-lister, Chad VanGaalen, didn’t even make the first cut this year with his excellent new album (and excellently named new album) Diaper Island.
Geographically, Toronto and eastward (go Montreal!) are most represented, while genre-wise, the standard guitar-based stuff is covered pretty well (though nothing heavier than the psych-prog of Vancouver’s Black Mountain or the thick distortion on top of Kingston’s PS I Love You’s pop jams seem to be much liked). Just a few hip-hop acts (congrats to Torontoist favourite D-Sisive!) and a sprinkling of electronic round it all out, and now, we wait to see which of them carry on to be one of the 10 on the shortlist, which will announced on July 6.
The complete long list of nominees is now online.

Sound Advice: It’s All True by Junior Boys

Nicole Villeneuve — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Every week, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.

Just in time for summer (we think? Come on already), Hamilton’s Junior Boys are back with It’s All True, their fourth studio album and their first since 2009′s Begone Dull Care, a deep dip into high-budget (sounding, at least) production on somewhat smaller songs. They return with a handful of some of their most exuberant tracks and strongest hooks yet, and while everything’s as full of sheen as their trajectory’s predicted, on It’s All True they’ve regained a bit of the intangible energy and unwinding intricacy, if not the recording aesthetics, that made their debut so crushworthy all those years ago.
The hyper opening of “Itchy Fingers” does more to prepare for what’s to come than does second track “Playtime,” an uneasy slowjam more indicative of the past album’s ambiance. The former, though itself sounding at very first like a lower-key number, ramps up to a spastic, plastic-pop gem, vocals more front and centre than ever. It’s also the perfect example of what Junior Boys were, and what they’ve become: predictable, but not in the dull sense. A mix of ’80s dance and commercial industrial sounds is made so effortlessly accessible at the hands of Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus.
The dark churn of “You’ll Improve Me,” the punctuated flight of the gorgeous “The Reservoir” (streaming above), and the meditative bits and beats of real standout “Kick the Can” are all stellar work, rich in subtle complexity and unsuspected beauty. In a sense, you always know what you’re going to get from Junior Boys; on It’s All True, the tried and true just happens to be at its very best.