Tag: Indie

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Inspiral Carpets “Revenge of the goldfish”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date August 20, 2022
No Comments on Vinyl love: Inspiral Carpets “Revenge of the goldfish”

(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: Inspiral Carpets
Album Title: Revenge of the goldfish
Year released: 1992
Year reissued: 2022
Details: 30th anniversary, Limited edition, transparent orange

The skinny: So here’s yet another album from the “man, I feel old” files. Inspiral Carpets’ third album, “Revenge of the goldfish”, was my true introduction to the Manchester-based, baggy quintet. I dubbed a copy of it to cassette after I borrowed the CD from my friend Andrew Rodriguez back in high school. I had recognized a song or two when I first listened to it and then, suddenly, I was hearing a handful of its songs all the time on Toronto’s alternative radio station, CFNY. To my young ears, Clint Boon’s crazy organ work, Craig Gill’s rapid fire drumming, and Tom Hingley’s pronounced and jaunty vocals were unlike anything else out there. For me, this album is a classic – so many great tunes! It’s a vinyl reissue I’d been waiting for for years and so when they announced this 30th anniversary (!) limited edition pressing in orange (of course), there was no way I was resisting. And I won’t lie, it’s hit my turntable more than a few times since it arrived earlier this year.

Standout track: “Dragging me down”

Tags 12", 1990s, 30th anniversary, Alternative, British rock, Indie, Indie rock, Limited edition, Madchester, Manchester, Orange transparent, Reissue, Retro

Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #24 5 Billion In Diamonds “Weight of the world”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date August 16, 2022
5 Comments on Best tunes of 2020: #24 5 Billion In Diamonds “Weight of the world”

<< #25 | #23>>

Back last month, I was standing in a crowd at Ottawa Bluesfest, watching 90s alt-rockers, Garbage, take the stage and smiling in spite of myself. And just as they were kicking into their first track, my friend Josh leaned in towards me and yelled over the ensuing ruckus, “That’s Butch Vig on drums, right? The guy that produced “Nevermind” and a bunch of other classic alternative albums?” I nodded, and yelled back, “That’s him.” Then, still smiling, I eased myself into the nostalgia and sang along with Shirley Manson for the next hour or so.

Vig has always been a busy guy in the music biz. He started off in a parade of bands, local to where he went to university in Madison, Wisconsin. He shifted gears and went into music production full time in the early nineties, working on seminal albums by Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, L7, Crash Vegas, and of course, Nirvana. Then, he decided to get back into making music again, forming the aforementioned Garbage in the mid-90s and with them, released a number of hit singles on three massive records. Between this band* and continuing to produce other artists throughout the new century, you’d think that’d be enough for Vig. But not so.

He formed 5 Billion In Diamonds in 2017 with another producer in Andy Jenks, UK DJ James Grillo, and a host of other friends and collaborators. The idea was to create music as soundtracks to films that didn’t exist. The self-titled debut was a nod to the psych-rock of the 60s and 70s and they returned in 2020 with a sophomore album called “Divine accidents” that mined the indie rock of the 1980s. It doesn’t feel at all like anything Vig has had his fingers in thus far.

“Weight of the world” features The Soundtrack of our Lives’ Ebbot Lundberg on lead vocals. The heavy and pounding synths early on give way to jangly pop and a mid-eighties paisley underground aesthetic and the way Lundberg plays it on the mike, this almost could be a Bernard Sumner led side project. It is vibrations and ripples, concentric circles spreading out into the vastness of the open air and expansive water. It is cool and breezy and feels great all around.

*And another one-off album band back in the early 2010s.

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

Tags 2020, 2020s, 5 Billion In Diamonds, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, Butch Vig, Collaboration, Ebbot Lundberg, Indie, Indie rock, Psychedelic, Supergroup

Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The New Pornographers [2022]

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date August 11, 2022
3 Comments on Live music galleries: The New Pornographers [2022]

(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.)

The New Pornographers live at Ottawa Bluesfest 2022

Artist: The New Pornographers
When: July 8th, 2022
Where: River stage, Ottawa Bluesfest, Lebreton Flats Park
Context: The second night of Ottawa Bluesfest 2022 offered me a second opportunity to see Canadian indie rock collective, The New Pornographers. I had previously seen them in October 2017 at the Bronson Music Theatre on their Ottawa stop in support of their seventh album, “Whiteout conditions”. What with the nature of the group and the various members’ busy schedules, you never know which version of the band* you’ll get to see on any given night. As it turned out, the lineup this time was very much similar to the previous show, except of course, with the subtraction of founding member/keyboard player Blaine Thurier, who had departed the band the previous year, and the addition of touring vocalist/percussionist, Nora O’Connor. They started off with “Falling down the stairs of your smile” (below) off their most recent record and roared through the rest of the one-hour set touching all of their eight albums at least once. Crowd pleasing and fun, this group really does do their shows right. I would never hesitate to the see them again given the chance.
Point of reference song: “Falling down the stairs of your smile”