Tag: Alternative

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #10 The Exbats “Hey hey hey”

<< #11    |    #9 >>

I couldn’t imagine being in a band with my father, whether at 10 years old, 20, or any age really. But that’s the relationship between the two primary members of The Exbats, the band behind our song at number 10 from my list of favourite tunes from 2020.

Originally called The Numbats, the band began over a decade ago when Kenny McLain, who had recently picked up the guitar, decided that his 10 year old daughter Inez needed to learn to play an instrument. He gave her the option of learning to play the piano or to pick up the drums and play in a band with him. She chose the latter and they never turned back, though they both freely admit that it took them quite some time to get to where they are today. Inez also provides vocals on most of the songs and they have in the past employed a bass player* to bring their band complement to three. They’ve released five full-length albums and a handful of EPs, most of which have come in the last five or six years.

I couldn’t tell you now exactly how I came across this DIY indie group based in Arizona. It was early days in the pandemic and I had a lot more time on my hands, as all of us did. I didn’t really pick up a new hobby as I’ve heard others might have done, I just spent more time doing the things I was already doing. I probably discovered a lot of artists that I mightn’t have otherwise done under normal circumstances, looking under proverbial stones in corners of the internet that I didn’t often have time to reach. I probably came across The Exbats’ third album “Kicks, hits and fits”, just over a month after its release while mindlessly scrolling late into the night and quickly fell for its retro leaning, jangly pop rock. Admittedly, I haven’t to this day heard any of their other material but this album is rooted deep in 2020 for me, having brought some sunshine in an era of darkness and confusion.

“I wrote a stupid song today. (Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.)
And I threw it all away. (Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.)”

Perhaps fittingly, the penultimate and my favourite track on the album, “Hey hey hey”, is apparently all about the feeling of isolation in this world that’s heavily influenced by social media. It’s a bouncing and haunting number, very retro sounding, layered vocal harmonies, some rough hewn and some clean, a bopping bass line, clipping drums, all succumbing to a reverb drenched negative space, reminiscent of Phil Spector production. Beautiful stuff.

*When I came across them, Bobby Carlson Jr was filling that role.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #9 Belle & Sebastian “Dear catastrophe waitress”

<< #10    |    #8 >>

“Dear. Catastrophe. Waitress.”

Back when I first moved to Ottawa, I was employed at a call center taking calls for a utility company that I will not name here. It was unionized and pretty good pay and I was often able to pick up extra shifts to pay down my student debt. And if they hadn’t closed up shop in 2006, I might even still be working there today.

My coworkers were good people and management understood that taking calls was a tough job so they were often looking for ways to improve office morale. They held plenty of social events, encouraged fun, theme days in the office, and offered prizes for keeping call times low, call quality high, and for perfect attendance. While I was rarely in the top for call times and my quality was middling at best, I never missed work days, which meant collecting a hundred dollar gift card at the store of my choice for perfect attendance once a year. Of course, my store of choice back then tended to be HMV Canada, which allowed me to score a handful of CDs. The second year I got my gift card, my trove of purchases included the newly released sixth album by Belle and Sebastian, “Dear Catastrophe Waitress”.

I had been a fan of the Glaswegian twee pop collective for a few years by then, having been introduced to them by a friend in my final year of university. I had taken quickly to their first three albums, all of which had been released in just as quick a succession in the last few years of the 90s. And it was really on the backs of those that I bought the compact disc. I hadn’t taken as hastily to their fourth record, “Fold your hands child, you walk like a peasant”, though I’ve since grown to appreciate it, and the same went for 2002’s “Storytelling”, which was sort of the soundtrack to the 2001 Todd Solondz film of the same name*. Happily, I found “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” a complete shift in gears and a revitalization of Belle and Sebastian’s sound. There was tons to like and pick through and I spent a lot of time doing so**.

“I’m sorry that you seem to have the weight of the world over you
I cherish your smile
There’s a word of peace on your lips
Say it, and with tenderness I’ll cherish”

“Dear Catastrophe Waitress” is now one of my favourite albums by Belle and Sebastian and the title track is easily my favourite on the album. Track two is just over two minutes in length but it’s a frenetic two minutes. Like an ill run, short-staffed restaurant at lunch time, slammed by ornery and ignorant tourists. After two repetitions of the title, frontman Stuart Murdoch launches hard into an ode to the under-appreciated waitress. Meanwhile, the drums are non-stop and the symphony of horns and strings are all ramped up in keeping up, a cacophony of cartoon sounds, the coyote and roadrunner conspiring together.

By the end, we are all left breathless and sad. But ready to start it all over again.

*Which I also didn’t really like and unlike the previous album, I still don’t really like this one.

**I even picked up a novel from the library by Brendan Halpin, an author I had never heard of, a few years after the album’s release, simply because it borrowed the album’s title for its own. (It was an enjoyable read.)

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Oasis “Time flies… 1994-2009”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Oasis
Album Title: Time flies… 1994-2009
Year released: 2010
Year reissued: 2025
Details: 4 x LP, orange, green, pink, blue, 15th anniversary, RSD limited edition, 5363/15000

The skinny: In a parallel universe, I would be attending the first of two Oasis gigs at the newly constructed Rogers Stadium in Toronto with a handful of old friends tonight. The risk in procuring tickets over a year in advance of a gig is that there’s always a possibility that your circumstances could change. In this case, they did change and I needed to give up my ticket. But no fear, I take small comfort in two things. First, that I have seen them already once before*. And second, that I managed to procure this special Record Store Day, coloured vinyl, 4 disc box set reissue of their 2006 ‘best of’ compilation “Stop the clocks” from an online indie shop earlier this year. I’m not always convinced that compilations are the way to go, especially when I already have the best of the artist in question’s albums in my record collection. However, I made the exception for this one given how pretty it looked and that it included a couple of great tracks that I was still missing on vinyl, most importantly, the amazing non-album single featured below. And I’ve listened to set this a few times since it arrived and with all these great tracks, back to back, there’s been no regrets. For those attending tonight, I bet it’s going to be a great show, no matter their setlist, so please enjoy for me.

Standout track: “Whatever”

*That infamous gig at Virgin festival 2008 where a ‘fan’ ridiculously hid under the stage the whole day only to leap out while Oasis were playing and push Noel Gallagher from behind.