Tag: Indie rock

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Death Cab For Cutie “Transatlanticism”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date June 4, 2023
4 Comments on 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.

Tags 10th anniversary, 12", 180 gram, 2000s, 2003, Alternative, American indie, Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, Death Cab For Cutie, Indie, Indie rock

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Bedouin Soundclash “Light the horizon”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date May 21, 2023
2 Comments on Vinyl love: Bedouin Soundclash “Light the horizon”

Artist: Bedouin Soundclash
Album Title: Light the horizon
Year released: 2010
Details: Gatefold sleeve, orange translucent vinyl

The skinny: Just over a week ago, I started counting down my favourite albums from 2010, perhaps one of my favourite post-Y2K* years for music, especially in terms of Canadian indie rock. Bedouin Soundclash’s fourth album, “Light the horizon” appeared at the number nine spot on said list and while writing about it for that post, I got the urge to pull the record down off the shelf and give it a spin or three. It’s easily my favourite by the ska/reggae outfit that formed back in 2001 while its members were attending Queen’s university in Kingston, Ontario. They had had a huge radio hit with “When the night feels my song” in 2004 but I really think they found some special magic when they put together the ten solid tracks that made up this album six years later. I managed to procure this original pressing to orange translucent vinyl from Amazon, back before I became disillusioned with their lax attitudes with shipping records, and am grateful that I did. It looks and sounds great on my turntable.

Standout track: “Fools tattoo”

*Is Y2K still a thing?

Tags 12", 2010, 2010s, Alternative, Best albums, Canadian indie, Coloured vinyl, Indie, Indie rock, Reggae, Ska

Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #26 Guards “Ready to go”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date May 17, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2013: #26 Guards “Ready to go”

<< #27 | #25 >>

Back in 2013, I was into my second year of furiously writing about music on my old blog Music Insanity and I found myself, because of this new hobby, discovering all sorts of new music. Seriously, it was coming from all over the place, from unsolicited emails to reading other blogs, and just plain old-fashioned research. I became even more voracious in my musical appetites*. I felt like I was listening to new bands every other day, some of them stuck, some didn’t, and some were exciting at the time but quickly got lost in the excitement of the next big thing.

Guards and their debut album “In Guards we trust” is a prime example of this last.

I checked out the album when I first heard about it because I’d recognized the name of Guards’ frontman, Richie James Follin, and with a bit of digging, confirmed him as sibling to Madeline, who was one half of Cults. Of course, I had been a big fan of that band’s self-titled debut two years earlier, especially the wall of noise single “Go outside”, and that was enough of a link for me. I was rewarded with a twelve track, forty-seven-minute barrage of stadium ready anthems masquerading as indie pop. And I listened to it again and again and again. It became one of my favourite albums of the year and theirs were one of the sets I was really looking forward to catching at that year’s Osheaga. Perhaps the fact that I missed it due to a conflict might have foreshadowed their fading from the top of my music playlist pile, especially since I can’t recall at all now who it was I saw instead of them.

I had to actually go back and listen to the New York-based trio’s debut album** and its single “Ready to go” when I was putting together this list to make sure it belonged and then, again this week when I was writing this post. Each time I did, the answer was a resounding ,“Yes”! I instantly remembered how great it is, a bundle of revved up energy, retro pop hooks, and fun boy-girl vocal melodies. It’s psychedelic and fuzzy and positively joyous.