Tag: American indie

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Death Cab For Cutie “Transatlanticism”

(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: Death Cab For Cutie
Album Title: Transatlanticism
Year released: 2003
Year reissued: 2013
Details: Gatefold sleeve, 10th anniversary, 2 x 180 gram, 12-page booklet

The skinny: I finally got around to purchasing a full pass to this year’s Ottawa Bluesfest and I can’t even really explain why I procrastinated so much. The organizer’s typically do a pretty good job of putting together a diverse lineup that tries to please everyone to some extent (and invariably, disappoints many) but this year’s lineup suits my own personal tastes better than it has for many years now. There’s at least one act on each of the festival’s nine days that I really want to see*. And one of the acts I’m most looking forward to is Death Cab for Cutie, who I saw live for the first time more than 15 years ago but haven’t seen since. This performance is part of the tour supporting last year’s “Asphalt meadows” but they are also touring in the fall to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their now iconic 4th album, “Translatlanticism”. I can’t even believe that I purchased the copy of this very same record for my vinyl shelves a decade ago: a 10th anniversary, 180-gram double LP edition, complete with a gatefold sleeve and a lovely 12-page booklet. This was procured back when my collection was still in its infancy and probably just around the time that I finally bought my turntable. “Transatlanticism” was a no-hesitation purchase because it was my introduction to this great band upon its initial release and with all the albums they’ve released since, it’s one I return to time and time again.

Standout track: “The sound of settling”

*But I’ill likely have to miss a night or two in the interest of conserving energy.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #20 Nation Of Language “On Division St.”

<< #21    |    #19 >>

The story goes this way. Ian Richard Devaney’s band The Static Jacks had recently come apart and he was in a car with his father when his father put on a song he hadn’t listened to in many years: “Electricity” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (aka OMD). It evoked a great measure of nostalgia in him and he decided to try to write a song in a similar vein. He never meant it to amount to anything but this playing around with synths eventually brought us a new synth pop act out of Brooklyn. Nation of Language became a trio when Devaney added Aidan Noell for more synths and vocal support and former Static Jacks guitarist Michael Sue-Poi on bass.

They released a string of EPs and singles between 2015 and 2020 but I didn’t get to hear the group until they released their aptly named debut, “Introduction, presence”, in 2020. And even then, I didn’t catch up with this fine album when it was first released in the spring. It took a Spotify playlist, ‘made especially for me’ sometime in the fall, to include a song that made my ears prick up, had me reaching for my iPad to discover what song was playing, and then, had me googling a band name that had previously escaped my attention.

That song was “On Division St.” by Nation of Language.

“A song so sweet
From back when I was born”

Originally released as a single back in 2018, it was re-recorded for our collective “introduction” and it was well met, indeed. It is a lovely and sad thing that feels like I’ve known it all my life, grew up listening to it during my ansgty teen years. It is just over three minutes of romance unrequited, a rain soaked black and white photograph, discarded scarf, and a single dried rose. It is a drum machine set to weep and a flickering and fluttering arpeggio of synths. It is a solo form dancing and singing to him or herself in the middle of a long emptied dancefloor, still waiting and hoping for the appearance of a dream.

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

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Julien Baker [2018]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Julien Baker live in Toronto, 2018

Artist: Julien Baker
When: August 4th, 2018
Where: Fort York Commons, Toronto
Context: It’s hard to believe that only four years have passed since the summer of 2018. Indeed, it feels like a millennia has flown by since those days but I guess the calendar doesn’t lie. That particular summer, I forewent the usual big festival pass at both Ottawa Bluesfest and Montreal’s Osheaga in favour of a couple of smaller lineup shows in Toronto that boasted some pretty great fare. The first was Arts & Crafts’ annual June weekend, Field Trip. And the second was a stacked card headlined by The National at the height of summer, that also included Father John Misty, Jenny Lewis, Julien Baker, and Dan Edmonds. My friend Mark and I spent the afternoon beforehand sampling the wares on the patio of Bellwoods Brewery. After being satisfied that all their beers were good products, we ambled down to the lawn of the Old Fort York historic site just in time to catch the back end of the opening act’s set. Julien Baker was on next and I had definitely wanted to catch the whole of her set given my successful explorations of the two albums she had released to that point. She was only supported by violinist Camille Faulkner but her stage presence and honesty had me (and a boatload of others) rapt on that warm August afternoon. I became a fan in that 30-40 minutes. Of course, Baker has become much bigger since then, partially because of her association with Phoebe Bridger and Lucy Dacus and partially because of her incredible third record, “Little oblivions”, released in 2021 and will now likely be a bigger draw at future festivals.  For this, I am thankful I got to see such an “intimate” performance.
Point of reference song: “Appointments”

Julien Baker
Camille Faulkner on violin
Julien Baker looking cool in shades
Julien and Camille entertaining the early evening crowd