One more for the road

MP3: Miracle Fortress – Have you seen in your dreams?

I’ve got one more quickie for you.

And we all know how you love quickies. wait… what?

*ahem*

Miracle Fortress is the main recording project of Graham Van Pelt. A native of Montreal. It’s also Graham’s band featuring Jessie Stein, Jordan Robson-Cramer and Adam Waito.

It’s a good mix of ambient drones and progressive post and classic rock. Very very interesting to say the least. There’s allot of texture going on here as well as a lot of building and dropping off.

It works really well for a rainy day. Which might be why I’ve been listening to the album allot lately…. The album in question is called “Five Roses“. Five Roses is the first full-length Miracle Fortress album, available via Secret City and Rough Trade

Yet another artist that has opted out of the typical website idea, and has instead found solace within the digital warmth that is myspace.

Here’s a clip of them playing at the montreal pop festival.

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A man can make dream pop.

MP3: Caribou – Melody Day

What if Blonde Redhead were a band from th 60′s? thats the best way that I can sum up Caribou.

Hailing all the way from Dundas, Ontario Canada this is the project of Daniel Snaith, in the studio, with the help of 3 more musicians in a live setting. They bring to the world, a sound that hasnt been revisted properly in about 40 years. One must wonder how many sheets of LSD these guys go through in one evening. It certainly comes out in the music. and It doesnt sound fake or forced either. they really hit the nail on the head with their exploration of music and sounds from another era.

The great thing about it is… It doesn’t sound stale. even though it has obviously been done before. It still has that modern right now edge, that is necessary in order to get some notice these days.

They have quite a few records out. I’m not exactly sure how many. But I keep finding more and more material here and there on the net.

They have a few pages on the net… Myspace, Youtube, Virb, Flickr . You would do well to check them all out. there’s alot of good material here. I’m going to try and see them at Slims in San Francisco on Oct 27th.

The BBC did a story on the making of the new album “Andora“which can be watched here.

I love the video for Melody Day. Kinda reminds me of something Anton Corbijn (my all time favorite photographer and visual director) would have done…

*UPDATE* I just came across this on pitchfork. The live band rehearsing in the studio. very very cool indeed.

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I get around?

Dragonette – I get around (Van She Remix)

Ok. so this track mysteriously showed up on my desktop last week. I’m trying to remember who sent it to me. If it was you, let me know so that i can polish your shoes or something.

Anyway. Dragonette is a four piece ELECTRO POP band from the great white north. (yea yea I know. I talk about canadian bands alot. but I cant help the fact that the Canucks write totally fresh music.) Anyway. They’ve apparently been in London over the last year recording their debut album, entitled “GALORE” and according to DRAGONETTE.COM they are now heading to the US to play their first shows in support of the album. I’m all about trying to figure out when they are gonna be playing out here in Cali. As of right now they are only booked on the east coast, and Canada. oh well. all things in time.

This track is remixed by the great Australian electro pop act VAN SHE. The original is very good as well. But I really like this remix.

You can check em out at the obvious Dragonette.com as well as thier myspace page for more of their songs and info on when you can buy the album and where.

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Metric Loves You.

Ok so I JUUUUUUUST was notified of this via a bulletin on Metric’s Myspace page. I’m excited. These guys are the best. and the new direction the band is taking… wow. I wont say anymore. Just read it…

There’s lots going on with us right now, and you’ll start reading about our new/old album and recording sessions in Toronto. Here’s something that went up on Spin.com that pretty much sums it up….check out Emily’s page for some news too myspace.com/emilyhaines

xoxoxmetriclovesyou.

As bassist Joshua Winstead previously revealed to Spin.com, Toronto-based indie pop quartet Metric have returned to their hometown to pen material for the follow up to 2005′s critically-acclaimed outing Live It Out. Currently, Metric — frontwoman Emily Haines, guitarist Jimmy Shaw, Winstead, and drummer Joules Scott-Key — are holed up in Toronto’s Giant Studios undergoing pre-production for their highly anticipated fourth album. The new material, initially constructed during a recording session at Bear Creek Studios — located just north of Seattle — has taken a diversion from exclusive Haines/Shaw songwriting dynamic of records past.

“Our approach to composition has been very spontaneous,” Haines said in a press release. “Being isolated in the woods at Bear Creek helped to inspire the vibe for these first songs that we wrote together. We went for a warm sound, using a lot of vintage instruments.” But upon landing in Canada, the band’s creative process took a turn. “We found that in the new sessions here in Toronto, the writing went in a much more electronic, beat-driven direction. One of the major changes was that [bassist Josh Winstead] started writing our bass lines on the synth rather than the on the bass, which completely changed the tone of the new material.”

While the band carves out the new record, which will hopefully be completed by October, Last Gang Records will raise the curtain on Metric’s previously unreleased first album, Grow Up and Blow Away, June 26. Recorded in 1999, Grow Up and Blow Away fell through the cracks when Relentless, the band’s original label, was purchased by Rykodisc in 2001. Featuring Metric in its primitive stage — Haines and Shaw as a two-piece — the album will hit iTunes as an exclusive download June 12, two weeks prior to the conventional release date.

Grow Up and Blow Away tracklisting:

1. “Grow Up”
2. “Hard Wire”
3. “Rock Me Now”
4. “The Twist”
5. “On the Sly”
6. “Soft Rock Star”
7. “Raw Sugar”
8. “White Gold”
9. “London Half Life”
10. “Soft Rock Star” (Jimmy vs. Joe mix)

YAY

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