THE BESNARD LAKES
Are the Roaring Night

Three years was maybe a little too long for one of Montreal’s grandest rock bands to follow up their magnificent Are the Dark Horse, but Are the Roaring Night still has all of the touchstones that made the Besnard Lakes’ last album stand out—dreamy harmonies, My Bloody Valentinesque vocals, catchy choruses, and mind-blowing walls of sound. The core of the band is guitarist Jace Lasek and bassist Olga Goreas, a married couple who supply all of the wonderfully interweaving melodies. They own a recording studio in Montreal, and no doubt they’ve used the studio as integral part of Are the Roaring Night. There’s the constant harmonic feedback in “And This is What we Call Progress;” the soundscapes that are “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent Pt. 1” and “Land of Living Skies Pt. 1;” and the pristine reverb of “Light Up The Night.” Because of its front and centre vocals, and its thundering conclusion, the lead single “Albatross” is a standout track, but only one of few. However, taken as a whole, Are the Roaring Night is a platter of sounds for your ears, because that’s what the Besnard Lakes designed with in mind. (Jagjaguwar, www.jagjaguwar.com) Taylor Benjamin Burgess

After interviewing the two core members of YACHT about fringe religions, the abstract (yet identifiable) meaning of triangles, and the punk rock nature of creating your own symbols, I left the Pyramid to meet up with friends, and came back well in time to catch locals Not Animals play to a mostly-seated crowd.

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She’s the oft-misunderstood, oft-hyperbolized neo-folk darling who defies categorization due to her unconventional instrumentation (harp), more unconventional voice (squeaky) and still more unconventional disregard for standard pop/rock song structure and subject matter. Her first album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was a compendium of short songs about yarn, seashells, devotion, regret, and imagination. Her second album, Ys, was a five-song collection where the shortest track clocked in at 7:17 and the longest at 16:53, each of them reveling in a rich orchestral background produced by Townes Van Zandt, each of them long enough to fully develop Newsom’s poetic ideas, against a landscape of leafless trees, talking circus animals, and astronomy lessons.

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MOLINA AND JOHNSON
Molina and Johnson
Collaborations like this always sound good in theory. Both great artists in their own right—Will Johnson, the largely unsung helmsman of Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, and Jason Molina, the well-seasoned songwriter behind Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.—Molina and Johnson should be an exercise in one-upmanship, a chance to push and be pushed. There are some worthy songs here and it’s hard not be intrigued with such a beautiful album cover. But apart from Johnson’s wistful “All Gone, All Gone” with Sarah Jaffe, the death-rattle duet of “Now, Divide,” and the duo’s most developed effort, “Almost Let You In,” the album is chock full of old fashioned molasses. Especially after the half-way point, it takes real effort to stay interested in the fractured piano/guitar template and the particularly unmemorable solos of  “Lenore’s Lullaby” and “Each Star Marks A Day.” If Molina and Johnson took the time to explore some of the differences and dynamics between their respective approaches, this could have been an interesting record. Instead, echoing Johnson’s words, it sounds like these boys are “just passing through.” (Secretly Canadian, www.secretlycanadian.com) Jonathan Dyck

JETS OVERHEAD
No Nations
Jets Overhead are a band that would have fit in perfectly in the mid-1990s. Their sound, very much influenced by the Verve and Radiohead circa The Bends, was seemingly tailor-made to be included in film and television from around that time. That is not to say that they are a bad band; not by a long shot. Their sophomore album continues in the same direction—guitar-driven alternative rock that has an ethereal, dreamlike quality to it. Each track on the album has something that makes it stand out from the rest of the album. There is not one song on this album that could be classed as filler. Adam Kittredge’s vocals give the album a melancholy vibe. Jets Overhead are able to pay respect to their influences from past decades, while still making an original album that is relevant and enjoyable to today’s crop of listeners. Key tracks include “Heading for Nowhere,” “I Should Be Born” and “It’s a Funny Thing.” (Vapor Records, www.vaporrecords.com) Charles Lefebvre

By Jenny Henkelman

It’s a long way around the world. When indie pop outfit An Horse pulled into Winnipeg in September, 2009, Kate Cooper and Damon Cox were more than a little run-down-looking, a little weary—offstage. Onstage, of course, the guitar-drums duo were impeccable and compelling, both in the UW quad and, I’m told, at the Lo Pub the same evening. Touring solidly this past year in support of their critically acclaimed debut full-length, Rearrange Beds, the pair are about to take a hiatus to write a new record. “We’ve nearly finished the cycle of the record we’re on,” said lead vocalist and guitarist Cooper.

The cycle has taken them from their home of Brisbane, Australia to the bright lights of New York City and The Late Show with David Letterman. It’s taken them to Europe and on tour with Silversun Pickups, Death Cab for Cutie, and Canada’s own Tegan and Sara. “They’re fun, great fun, good friends of ours and very supportive of us,” Cooper said of the Quin sisters. “They’ve worked really hard to be where they are and they’re very authentic.”

Authentic is a word you could use to describe An Horse’s beginnings. Cooper and Cox were co-workers at the last indie record store in Queensland. They were playing in other bands, but as Cooper says, started “mucking around” and found a chemistry between them that worked. “It wasn’t intentional,” Cox said.

The store where they worked has now closed, largely because, Cooper says, “People don’t buy CDs anymore.” An Horse aren’t digital haters; “Digital music’s cool, if people buy it,” she said. But there’s a dark flip side to that. “More people have stolen our record than bought it,” she said, and Cox had the anecdote to illustrate. “Someone had registered a website with Kate’s name, put up our photos and our record to download for free. It was one of those websites where you have to do a survey or something. So someone was getting money somehow. It was really shit and disappointing. We fucking worked really hard on that record,” he said. And the insults don’t stop there. “We’ve had people at shows come up to us and say, ‘You guys are fucking great! Hmm, this is your album. I’m not going to buy it, I’m going to go home and download it for free.’”

Disheartening words for people trying to make a living playing music, but An Horse seems less angry and more frustrated when it comes to piracy. “They don’t realize it’s not cool,” Cooper said.

An Horse might be a bit down, but they’ll be back in the saddle soon—they’re currently on tour with Tegan and Sara (including a January stop in Winnipeg). Their songs have appeared on TV shows like Friday Night Lights and One Tree Hill. Big things are ahead for these two individuals who are passionate about music and making it, in the basement of a record store or on an arena stage. As for the name? Cooper said it originated with a grammatical inside-joke sweater, about the usage rules for words that start with “H” and the indefinite article. Could “An horse” really be correct? “It’s a grey area,” she said, with a shrug.

One of the most indie/electro-tastic artists coming to Winnipeg in the next couple months has to be Portland’s Yacht. Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans normally prance around in front of a screen energetically, but for this tour, they’ve recruited a touring band, to look just a little less ridiculous. But all of the seriousness goes out the window when the band’s name is “the Straight Gaze.” I lol’d at that one for a while.

The band is made up of Portlanders Rob Kieswetter of Bobby Birdman (who is opening it up when Yacht plays here), Jeff Brodsky of Jeffrey Jerusalem, D. Reuben Snyder of Rob Walmart. Check out this crazy tour video they made, just to get us all psyched up!

WHERE: Pyramid Cabaret
WHEN: February 25
TICKETS: $12 advance at Ticketmaster and Music Trader

Hey Winnipeggers, has this warm weather got you riled up? Nowhere to take yr aggression out on a Tuesday? Well don’t forget that the unparalleled cultural experience that is Tel Aviv’s  Monotonix will be playing at the Pyramid Cabaret tonight. The three-piece have been banned from most venues in their home country of Israel so they took to the road a couple years ago so us hedonistic North Americans can partake in their rampage.
Eh, whatever, just check out this video of them playing the Pyramid last year:

Winnipeg duo War Elephant will be opening up the early show (no srsly, the poster says doors at 8 p.m.) with their merciless crunch of bass/drum noise rock. Here’s a video of them jamming in Wigtads‘ space.

WHERE: Pyramid Cabaret
WHEN: TONIGHTTTTTTTT
TICKETS: $18 ahead at Soul Survivors and $20 at the door

Visit the West End Cultural Centre on Friday, January 22nd for a collaboration between a rocker (John K. Samson) a folker (Christine Fellows), a composer (Robert Honstein), a violinist (Cristina Zacharias), a percussionist (Ed Reifel) and a mastermind (Leanne Zacharias).

L. Zacharias, a cellist, curator and music prof (you might recall she appeared on C. Fellows’ brilliant latest album, Nevertheless), has spearheaded this event, called Arc: Six Musicians Map the Current, which is described as:

a musical conversation between these diverse musicians from different genres and backgrounds—a baroque violinist, a symphony percussionist, a contemporary composer, a cross-disciplinary classical cellist, and two popular songwriters—performing onstage as one ensemble.

The evening promises new repertoire from Honstein and new arrangements of songs by Samson and Fellows.

WHERE: West End Cultural Centre
WHEN: Friday, Jan. 22, doors 7:15, show 8
TICKETS: $15 ahead at Ticketmaster and the WECC

www.christinefellows.com
www.wecc.ca

Based on this album’s title, it’s clear that the man behind Pedro the Lion wants to make a break from his past. He carved a niche for himself writing thought-provoking songs that tried to come to terms with the pitfalls of the Bush era by turning to theology. With discs like Winners Never Quit and Control, Bazan articulated a rethinking of what it meant to be a person of faith living in America. They were records that provided the listener with hope for a cure. With Curse Your Branches, the cure is the target. Apparently, Bazan has lost his faith, and wants the world to know it. But in writing about this, he comes off as trite and downright unconvincing. Take the lead-off track, “Hard to Be,” where he challenges the story of the garden of Eden (shocker!) and the fall of humanity, asking, “Wait just a minute / you expect me to believe / that all this misbehaving grew from one enchanted tree?”  Or the closing track, “In Stiches,” where Bazan follows the story of Job to paint a picture of a God completely out of touch with humanity, singing, “You sound defensive like you had not thought it through enough to have the answer / Like you might have bit off more than you could chew.” The problem here is not that he’s lost his faith in God, or his faith in humanity for that matter. Rather, it’s that he apparently has lost his ability to articulate this turn to atheism (if that is what this is) in creative and engaging ways, turning instead to clichés and questions that aren’t really that interesting. It really is disappointing, considering recent examples of artists who have used Christian language in thought-provoking and engaging ways (e.g. the Mountain Goats), that Bazan, as a person of faith, has failed to do the same. (Barsuk, www.barsuk.com) Jeff Friesen