Tag: Canadian indie

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Operators “Blue wave”

(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: Operators
Album Title: Blue wave
Year released: 2016
Details: white

The skinny: Here’s an album that hasn’t seen my turntable in some time. I purchased it from Amazon (back when I was still buying records from Amazon) shortly after its release on the back of seeing the group perform live the previous edition of Ottawa’s Bluesfest. Operators was a short-lived synth rock trio led by Dan Boeckner, formed after the dissolution of Handsome Furs, then the one album collaboration with Spoon’s Britt Daniels (Divine Fits), and just before the reformation of Wolf Parade. The trio also included drummer Sam Brown and keyboardist Devojka and only ever released an EP and two full length albums. Spinning this white vinyl pressing of their debut “Blue wave” and its new wave influenced rock will forever remind me of a certain time and place and feeling, hot and yellow summery nights, crowds of like minded music fans, and joy.

Standout track: “Nobody”

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #12 Elliott Brood “Stay out”

<< #13    |    #11 >>

It was an old high school friend that tipped me off to Elliott Brood close to two decades ago. I haven’t seen Jeff in the flesh for many, many years but we’ve long been friends on the Facebook and at some point in the 2000s, he posted on his page about his cousin Casey’s band. I was mildly curious so I checked out their website. Their self-description as ‘death country’ made me laugh enough to give their debut long player, “Ambassador”, a listen and the rest, as they say, was history.

The trio of Mark Sasso, Stephen Pitkin, and Casey Laforet formed in Toronto in 2002, a few years before that fateful Facebook post. I’ve since found much to like in their alternative folk/country/rock over the years, have seen them live a couple of times, and would jump at the chance to do so again. By my count, they’ve released six studio long players and a bunch of EPs, including 2023’s “Town” and 2024’s “Country”, which were collected together to form one super album last year.

Today’s song, though, comes care of their last full-length album, “Keeper”. Of track two, Casey Laforet fully admitted that it was inspired by an old mandolin that he bought in St John’s, Newfoundland, that he calls ‘Old Smokey’. He hadn’t picked the instrument up in a while but when he finally did, “Stay out” simply burst forth into existence. He says that he doesn’t think the song could have or would have been written on a guitar. It was ‘Old Smokey’s tale to tell. Indeed, the mandolin strum is prominent and alive in the song. But so too are the foot stomps and hand claps* and for that we can only be eternally grateful.

“I got healthy kids and a beautiful wife
But I don’t wanna go home
I’m proud and thankful and terrified
But I don’t wanna go home”

“Stay out” is a joyful sounding number despite its not-so-joyful lyrics. Sometimes everything appears to be going well on the outside but things are not quite right on the inside. Thankfully, we have songs like this that make it all feel alright and we can get up to stomp it all out.

Thanks, Old Smokey. And you too, Elliott Brood.

*Both are sounds that the band went to great lengths to include on “Keeper”.

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

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Organ “Grab that gun”

(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: The Organ
Album Title: Grab that gun
Year released: 2004
Year reissued: 2024
Details: 20th anniversary reissue, 2 x LP, 45 rpm, translucent brown marble, translucent green marble, 2nd disc contains ‘Thieves EP’, gatefold sleeve

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The skinny: You can chalk this one up to one of those records that I had all but given up on adding to my collection. And then, just a month or so ago, I was shocked to see a 20th anniversary reissue announced and I didn’t hesitate for one millisecond before pulling the trigger. The Organ was a short-lived indie pop quintet out of Vancouver, BC. They were part of that 2000s explosion-slash-renaissance of indie rock here in Canada. Most wouldn’t call it a scene because it was happening simultaneously in three urban centres (Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver) but there really was a sense of community and collaboration betwixt them all. The Organ was on the same label as The New Pornographers but they shared similar post-punk space with The Dears and Arcade Fire (both of Montreal). Sadly, “Grab that gun” would be The Organ’s only long player* and they would disband only five years after forming. Still, this album is considered a cult classic of the era and is definitely one of my favourites to come out of that Canadian ‘scene’. This reissue is pressed to two discs of two different translucent colours with marbling, both at 45 rpms, the extra disc with a bonus EP never pressed to vinyl before, and the packaging is just smashing.

Standout track: “Brother”

*To go along with three EPs, one of which, “Thieves”, is included as the second disc for this reissue.