Showing posts with label oso oso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oso oso. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2022
The Killerman is Killin'
I'm deep into yet another writing of my thesis proposal, so all I have to offer is that I've returned to this music video a lot during the pandemic. I'm not sure why, but it's really comforting to watch it, and it's been reliable as something that shoots good feelings into my brain when school and a worldwide illness start to weigh a little bit. Is it creeping up my list of all-time favourite music videos? Yes!
Monday, December 30, 2019
The 2019 I Musical Genius Music Revue
Back again for another year folks. Here is all the stuff that I really enjoyed from this year in music. An insane amount of great stuff came out this year and I think that, more so than any other year in recent memory, it was tough to narrow down what would come on and what wouldn't. It may sound insulting to say that there was a big "middle class" in music this year, stuff that was very good, but not necessarily the best, but I think that speaks to an overall jump in quality across the board, which is a great thing.
As per the last couple of years, I haven't numbered anything. Maybe oso oso would take number 1. I don't know and care and I can't imagine you would.
The Berries - Berryland
Chastity - Home Made Satan
Skatune Network - Pick It the Fuck Up!
Sheer Mag - A Distant Call
Like shoegaze, I think that post-punk is getting to its saturation point and most of the new releases just don't have enough substance to keep me interesting beyond a couple of listens. Woolworm is the exception, as they perfectly balance the effected vocals, big guitars, and mountains of chorus and reverb pedals to produce something that nods to its influences without being a shitty imitation of them.
Wayfarer - Reckless Spring
Ancient Shapes - A Flower That Wouldn't Bloom
Fury - Failed Entertainment
As per the last couple of years, I haven't numbered anything. Maybe oso oso would take number 1. I don't know and care and I can't imagine you would.
oso oso - baking in the glow
This was absolutely my most anticipated release this year, as their last album the yunahon mixtape, quickly became one of my all-time favourites. The more tossed-off approach on this one put me off as first, as yunahon was fussed over, but I eventually came to appreciate that as a different side of the band. Some of their very best songs on this one.
field medic - fade into the dawn
Folk music doesn't normally do it for me, as I find it difficult to not read it as incredibly pretentious. field medic gets around that by having honest lyrics about substance abuse and relationships and putting some added production, like fake drums and lo-fi guitars and bass, in just enough places around the acoustic guitar. Though not included on the album, their 2019 single "I Want You So Bad It Hurts" is also one of the best songs of the year.
Punks all started listening to Neil Young this year and no band did a better job of bringing all the best parts of Crazy Horse into the present than The Berries. Huge vibe on this one. Guitars, guitars, guitars.
Chastity - Home Made Satan
Beautiful shoegaze about killing cops and klansmen? Yeah bro. Most importantly, the album's a tight 10 songs in 26 minutes, getting around the useless vamping that gaze bands sometimes lean on. Tons of hooks and vocals that aren't buried under production.
Skatune Network - Pick It the Fuck Up!
I think a lot about what the future of ska will be like, as a lot of the genre has been stagnating in the sound of the 90s for a long time. This album by Jeremy Hunter, which consists of ska covers of the emo bands on Counter Intuitive Records, is hopefully a sign of interesting and valuable things to come. More genuine earnest stuff like this, less jokey shit in the future.
Sheer Mag - A Distant Call
On their second record, Sheer Mag tightened everything up and went a little heavier. Though less hyped then the debut, this one works better as a full album. The Mag have their sound completely figured out, so it will be interesting if they continue to put out punk/hardcore/arena rock every couple of years, or decide to make a big a change in how they approach their music.
Woolworm - Awe
Like shoegaze, I think that post-punk is getting to its saturation point and most of the new releases just don't have enough substance to keep me interesting beyond a couple of listens. Woolworm is the exception, as they perfectly balance the effected vocals, big guitars, and mountains of chorus and reverb pedals to produce something that nods to its influences without being a shitty imitation of them.
When I heard Wayfarer play "Fifteen" last year, I knew that this album would be good. Kyle lowered himself to write a merely "normal" album instead a concept record and the results are amazing. Another amazing Wayfarer release from a band that will continue to be slept on because everyone is stupid.
Re: the question I asked about Sheer Mag. Ancient Shapes bucked the trend of their earlier '77 style punk pastiches by leaning heavier into power pop and glam influences and the result was my favourite record by them. The songs are exactly what they need to be and there's no wasted space or effort. Romano's best work since Modern Pressure.
Blood Orange - Angel's Pulse
White Reaper - You Deserve Love
I admit that I was much later to the Blood Orange train than others, but this album won me over. Wonderful mix of poppy R&B with occasional forays into other genres. "Gold Teeth" was the song I listened to the most this summer. I'm sucker for Triple 6 features.
White Reaper - You Deserve Love
You Deserve Love doesn't have the same sort of ironic sense of humour that White Reaper's last album did, like piped-in crowd noise to start the album. Instead the album is a cross-section of early 80's rock radio and it works in the best ways. This band's amazing.
Young Thug - So Much Fun
So Much Fun came out while it was still summer in Montreal and it was everything I wanted from a rap record. Perfect to listen to while BBQing on my back deck with a joint.
Fury - Failed Entertainment
The thing that makes this record great is that it balances the newer influences working their way into most rock music (grunge and somehow nu metal) with the exact type of hardcore I love (Snapcase). Fury knows when to hold back with all of that to not make anything corny and then allows it to hit huge when it needs to.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Slow Down, Feels Like You're Rushing Away
This finally comes out this week and brother, I am JONESIN' for it.
Bonus extra cut for you on a warm Sunday night in Montreal.
Friday, March 8, 2019
The Things That Set Us Apart
A big part of what keeps me so invested in music (in my case punk music specifically) is that seeing live performances can seem magical. The performer and their equipment mix together and during that time, they are more than what either contributes. The feeling that I get from watching a performer truly kill it is my equivalent of a religious experience. For that brief time, the world makes sense and I understand why we exist. You could say that this fleeting nature is frustrating, but for me it's part of the appeal. I have to be present because I know it will be done soon. It's special.
Equally special as that type of performance is when you see a band who you've never listened to and they blow you away. The feeling of their music taking you in and you realizing that you've found something new you love is hard to describe. It's joy, but you feel it physically.
I can think of a couple examples of this happening to me. Videos from the actual shows I was at are scarce, but I can find stuff from those eras. Sounds like a good IMU feature, right? Let's rock.
The first example I always think of of being won over is when I saw The Sidekicks open for Bomb the Music Industry! in 2011. I had been at a friend's going-away party the night before and was in a little bit of a rush back into the city on a GO bus so that I could make to the show on time. It wound up being one of the best, if the the best, shows I've seen. I had heard the Sidekicks mentioned on then-venerable punk music site Punknews.org, but their live show was a better introduction than anything else I could have done. They were touring on Weight of Air and were so tight and dance-y and their soul-influenced power-pop was way different than all the 'org stuff from that time and has aged way better than all of it as a result. I've never stopped listening to the band since and have loved all their material (well, Runners in the Nerved World is just okay) since.
Once I went away to university, I almost immediately become interested in hardcore music, which I formerly scorned in the name of my love of ska. The aggression and heaviness of the genre started to make a lot more sense to me and I waded into the genre, as many other Canadians did, by listening to Comeback Kid's Wake the Dead. Comeback Kid then announced a big Canadian tour package with five other bands and I decided that this would be my first hardcore show. Would I throw down? Stagedive? Would there be a fight? I didn't know what to expect. Rather than Comeback Kid though, it Bane who awed me that night. They were hyped and charismatic and exactly what I hoped a live hardcore show would be like. I bought a classic plain shirt from the Bane t-shirt factory after and couldn't have been happier about it.
I was really excited to see The Aquabats in 2006. I had just finished my final exams for the year and the show was the day before my birthday. The Aquabats were amazing and exciting and everything I hoped they would be. A different type of exciting was seeing the Aggrolites play material from their first two records. Before seeing the Aggrolites, I had never seen a good reggae band before. I loved listening to the genre, but my exposure to it in a live setting had been subpar local bands. The Aggrolites showed how dynamic, energetic, and heavy reggae could be. Their Beatles cover was one of the craziest things I've seen.
Just like the Sidekicks, I heard a lot about the Menzingers before I saw them tour on Chamberlain Waits with the Flatliners and Fake Problems in 2010. I expected a lot from the show, since all three bands had recent albums and were on an upward trajectory, and it was a great night. As soon as the band started, I could tell that they would occupy a lot of my listening for the foreseeable future. A lot of my friends kept mentioning that "Time Tables" was their favourite song they had heard in ages and I was convinced of the same when I saw it live. I've fallen off the band recently and haven't been a huge fan of their last two records, but they were such an exciting band in the early teens and it felt special to have all of my friends be captivated by them.
I've been working on a longer feature for the Wordpress on Oso Oso and that is what got me thinking about this specific thing happening. I was introduced to Oso Oso when I saw them open for the Hotelier in the fall of 2015. As the band set up, I asked a friend what they were like and he said "Super poppy. Like Third Eye Blind." It felt like under a minute later the band was into "Track 1, Side 1" and I was all the way in. They were really tight, with a big-time drummer, and I felt like I lived an entire life during song. That performance and Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters made them one of my favourite active bands and me seeing them the next fall and the yunahon mixtape convinced me that they are the best band in the world.
Equally special as that type of performance is when you see a band who you've never listened to and they blow you away. The feeling of their music taking you in and you realizing that you've found something new you love is hard to describe. It's joy, but you feel it physically.
I can think of a couple examples of this happening to me. Videos from the actual shows I was at are scarce, but I can find stuff from those eras. Sounds like a good IMU feature, right? Let's rock.
The first example I always think of of being won over is when I saw The Sidekicks open for Bomb the Music Industry! in 2011. I had been at a friend's going-away party the night before and was in a little bit of a rush back into the city on a GO bus so that I could make to the show on time. It wound up being one of the best, if the the best, shows I've seen. I had heard the Sidekicks mentioned on then-venerable punk music site Punknews.org, but their live show was a better introduction than anything else I could have done. They were touring on Weight of Air and were so tight and dance-y and their soul-influenced power-pop was way different than all the 'org stuff from that time and has aged way better than all of it as a result. I've never stopped listening to the band since and have loved all their material (well, Runners in the Nerved World is just okay) since.
Once I went away to university, I almost immediately become interested in hardcore music, which I formerly scorned in the name of my love of ska. The aggression and heaviness of the genre started to make a lot more sense to me and I waded into the genre, as many other Canadians did, by listening to Comeback Kid's Wake the Dead. Comeback Kid then announced a big Canadian tour package with five other bands and I decided that this would be my first hardcore show. Would I throw down? Stagedive? Would there be a fight? I didn't know what to expect. Rather than Comeback Kid though, it Bane who awed me that night. They were hyped and charismatic and exactly what I hoped a live hardcore show would be like. I bought a classic plain shirt from the Bane t-shirt factory after and couldn't have been happier about it.
I was really excited to see The Aquabats in 2006. I had just finished my final exams for the year and the show was the day before my birthday. The Aquabats were amazing and exciting and everything I hoped they would be. A different type of exciting was seeing the Aggrolites play material from their first two records. Before seeing the Aggrolites, I had never seen a good reggae band before. I loved listening to the genre, but my exposure to it in a live setting had been subpar local bands. The Aggrolites showed how dynamic, energetic, and heavy reggae could be. Their Beatles cover was one of the craziest things I've seen.
Just like the Sidekicks, I heard a lot about the Menzingers before I saw them tour on Chamberlain Waits with the Flatliners and Fake Problems in 2010. I expected a lot from the show, since all three bands had recent albums and were on an upward trajectory, and it was a great night. As soon as the band started, I could tell that they would occupy a lot of my listening for the foreseeable future. A lot of my friends kept mentioning that "Time Tables" was their favourite song they had heard in ages and I was convinced of the same when I saw it live. I've fallen off the band recently and haven't been a huge fan of their last two records, but they were such an exciting band in the early teens and it felt special to have all of my friends be captivated by them.
I've been working on a longer feature for the Wordpress on Oso Oso and that is what got me thinking about this specific thing happening. I was introduced to Oso Oso when I saw them open for the Hotelier in the fall of 2015. As the band set up, I asked a friend what they were like and he said "Super poppy. Like Third Eye Blind." It felt like under a minute later the band was into "Track 1, Side 1" and I was all the way in. They were really tight, with a big-time drummer, and I felt like I lived an entire life during song. That performance and Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters made them one of my favourite active bands and me seeing them the next fall and the yunahon mixtape convinced me that they are the best band in the world.
Monday, March 4, 2019
Friday, December 14, 2018
The 2018 I, Musical Genius Musical Revue
Even though I've spent a lot of this year focusing on building up my portfolio on my Wordpress site, it's very important to me that I keep my year-end list write up on I, Musical Genius. When I first started writing here, these lists were my first forays into long-form writing and I think they were instrumental in me finding my voice as a writer. Though I may be other places, these lists will only ever belong on I, Musical Genius. Let's rip, these are in no order.
I eagerly anticipated this album after reading a great interview with Damian in the Canadian music magazine Exclaim! It delivered on my expectations and I think that this is their best work since Hidden World and The Chemistry of Common Life. It's a drugged out British version of David Comes to Life that, I think, gives a more interesting and nuanced interpretation of that story. Has a hardcore band ever been on Fucked Up's level? Is Fucked Up the best band to ever come out of Toronto. This album makes me believe so.
Bonus content: Here's the Exclaim! article I mentioned. Also, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham and Mike Haliechuk, who are noted for clashing creatively in the band, did an episode on Damian's podcast Turned Out a Punk and it makes for a great companion piece to the album.
The thing that interests me most about this record is how difficult it is to pigeonhole it. So often now, I find that band are purposefully working through a specific interest, or purposefully using a genre trope or sound. Fiddlehead is kind of hardcore, kind of punk, kind of post-punk, kind of poppy, but the songs never really sit in any of those categories, and I think that's what makes this record really interesting.
Out of all the albums I knew would be released in 2018, Tony Molina's was the one I was most anxious to hear. I would have liked a little more stoner fuzz on it, but I also appreciate that he's pushing himself to write 60's-style folk pop and allowing his vocals to carry the melody, which seems like a strip down to bare parts, but is very hard to pull off. One of my very favourite artists producing music right now.
The first time I listened to Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was while skateboarding to a park to hangout with my brother on a hot night in the summer. It was the perfect soundtrack for that.
Few things disappoint me as much as the fact that I continue going to bat for ska, but so few actually good ska releases are put out anymore. Dan P bucks that trend and makes up for everyone else dropping the ball by writing big band ska songs that still rely on pop song structure.
I'm pretty over shoegaze because I feel like most bands lean to heavily on having the right gear to make their guitar sound huge and atmospheric while forgetting to write a good song first. I don't care that you have a Twin Reverb. I care about your songs. On Dance on the Blacktop Nothing write wonderful Britpop songs and and then blow them up into huge dreamy gaze numbers. That's an important distinction to make and it's also why Nothing is the only shoegaze band I still listen to.
I was very shocked to receive a new Shook Ones album in 2018, as I was pretty certain they had broken up. But they had not! Body Feel builds on the moves the band started to make with The Unquoteable A.M.H,, establishing that they're more than a Kid Dynamite clone and have a depth to their music that most contemporary punk is sorely lacking. I always appreciated the personal/political bent of their stuff and that continues here. Happy to have you back.
Yes, only a two-song single, but Oso Oso is my favourite band currently making music and these both fucking bang like a shotgun. Can't wait for the next release.
Other things I was into:
Buddy - Harlan and Alondra, Joyce Manor - Million Dollars to Kill Me, Lifted Bells - Minor Tantrums, Doe - Grow Into It, Drug Church - Cheer, Lil Wayne - The Carter V
Also, Daniel Romano released three albums this year. While none of them resonated with me the way that Modern Pressure did, you have to respect his insane drive and artistic vision. Three albums! All good! That alone mentions merit here, though it also helps that he's constantly evolving his sound and low-key turning into alternative music's equivalent of the Coen Brothers.
The Sidekicks - Happiness Hours
When I saw The Sidekicks touring Happiness Hours earlier this year, I was convinced that this was the best album of the year while I watching them. I'm not sure about that now, but I also have no idea what the best was anyways. This is up and is a huge return to form for them. Really great power-pop songs with huge bass parts and vocal hooks and it takes you on a wonderful journey from start to finish.
I eagerly anticipated this album after reading a great interview with Damian in the Canadian music magazine Exclaim! It delivered on my expectations and I think that this is their best work since Hidden World and The Chemistry of Common Life. It's a drugged out British version of David Comes to Life that, I think, gives a more interesting and nuanced interpretation of that story. Has a hardcore band ever been on Fucked Up's level? Is Fucked Up the best band to ever come out of Toronto. This album makes me believe so.
Bonus content: Here's the Exclaim! article I mentioned. Also, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham and Mike Haliechuk, who are noted for clashing creatively in the band, did an episode on Damian's podcast Turned Out a Punk and it makes for a great companion piece to the album.
Turnstile - Time & Space
On the other hand, I love that recently everyone has stopped being afraid to love breakdowns and heavy chug parts in hardcore and I think that Turnstile has been a huge part of that. Heavy and groovy, but also channelling a lot of Give-esque counter culture influence. Great stuff and I love the direction they're taking as a band. Plus they got Atiba Jefferson to shoot a video! Worlds colliding!
The thing that interests me most about this record is how difficult it is to pigeonhole it. So often now, I find that band are purposefully working through a specific interest, or purposefully using a genre trope or sound. Fiddlehead is kind of hardcore, kind of punk, kind of post-punk, kind of poppy, but the songs never really sit in any of those categories, and I think that's what makes this record really interesting.
Culture Abuse - Bay Dream
Culture Abuse did the most difficult thing a band can do on Bay Dream, trimming off all superfluous parts in their sound and making a tight, succinct album that defines their identity as a band. Each song moves naturally through its construction and has great hooky guitars and choruses that gives the pieces character. The band sounds like their recognizing their influences and purposefully nodding to past artists, but do it in a way that seems natural and never hackneyed. On top of that, the lyrics are simple and to the point, but do a wonderful job of world building and drawing you into the life that Culture Abuse lives. As perfect an album as CA will make.
Out of all the albums I knew would be released in 2018, Tony Molina's was the one I was most anxious to hear. I would have liked a little more stoner fuzz on it, but I also appreciate that he's pushing himself to write 60's-style folk pop and allowing his vocals to carry the melody, which seems like a strip down to bare parts, but is very hard to pull off. One of my very favourite artists producing music right now.
The first time I listened to Ordinary Corrupt Human Love was while skateboarding to a park to hangout with my brother on a hot night in the summer. It was the perfect soundtrack for that.
Dan P and the Bricks - When We Were Fearless
Few things disappoint me as much as the fact that I continue going to bat for ska, but so few actually good ska releases are put out anymore. Dan P bucks that trend and makes up for everyone else dropping the ball by writing big band ska songs that still rely on pop song structure.
I'm pretty over shoegaze because I feel like most bands lean to heavily on having the right gear to make their guitar sound huge and atmospheric while forgetting to write a good song first. I don't care that you have a Twin Reverb. I care about your songs. On Dance on the Blacktop Nothing write wonderful Britpop songs and and then blow them up into huge dreamy gaze numbers. That's an important distinction to make and it's also why Nothing is the only shoegaze band I still listen to.
I was very shocked to receive a new Shook Ones album in 2018, as I was pretty certain they had broken up. But they had not! Body Feel builds on the moves the band started to make with The Unquoteable A.M.H,, establishing that they're more than a Kid Dynamite clone and have a depth to their music that most contemporary punk is sorely lacking. I always appreciated the personal/political bent of their stuff and that continues here. Happy to have you back.
Vince Staples - FM!
A downside of punk is that your mind gets used to every album being under 30 minutes and it becomes difficult to remain focused on things with longer run times. Specifically with rap, whose albums often hold 20-ish tracks, I always catch myself wondering why they don't trim the fat and sketches on longer releases. Fortunately for me, Vince Staples is here to deliver exciting and dense rap albums that don't give you time to get bored.
Yes, only a two-song single, but Oso Oso is my favourite band currently making music and these both fucking bang like a shotgun. Can't wait for the next release.
Other things I was into:
Buddy - Harlan and Alondra, Joyce Manor - Million Dollars to Kill Me, Lifted Bells - Minor Tantrums, Doe - Grow Into It, Drug Church - Cheer, Lil Wayne - The Carter V
Also, Daniel Romano released three albums this year. While none of them resonated with me the way that Modern Pressure did, you have to respect his insane drive and artistic vision. Three albums! All good! That alone mentions merit here, though it also helps that he's constantly evolving his sound and low-key turning into alternative music's equivalent of the Coen Brothers.
Friday, June 15, 2018
Sometimes It's Just You and Me, Getting High in Your Car
Allow to begin this post by saying that it's been a year and a half since this album was released and the whole thing (but especially this song) (but also especially all of the songs) manages to transform into a floating smile for as long as it's on. No matter what.
More importantly (SIREN EMOJI, SIREN EMOJI), The Yunahon Mixtape is being re-released by Oso Oso''s new label Triple Crown Records soon and to commemorate the release, the band put out a new single. It's been a while since a band has captured my interest like this, where every move they make induces pure joy and it's nice to return to that state of excitement. Let me tell ya folks, THE SONG BANGS. LORD DOES IT BANG!
That's all! Just really excited about this band and the big stupid smile that spreads across my face as soon as I press play.
More importantly (SIREN EMOJI, SIREN EMOJI), The Yunahon Mixtape is being re-released by Oso Oso''s new label Triple Crown Records soon and to commemorate the release, the band put out a new single. It's been a while since a band has captured my interest like this, where every move they make induces pure joy and it's nice to return to that state of excitement. Let me tell ya folks, THE SONG BANGS. LORD DOES IT BANG!
That's all! Just really excited about this band and the big stupid smile that spreads across my face as soon as I press play.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
We Can Just Lay Here
We're going to partake in a little bit of a Throwback Thursday here and revisit a post style that I haven't used in a while: A link dump with short paragraphs around them to make the post look longer and more thought out than it actually is.
First off, sincere congratulations to the band Oso Oso for signing to Triple Crown Records. The Yunahon Mixtape is one of my favourite records ever and makes me feel a lot of things. They're opening a tour in Toronto next week, but I slept on getting tickets and will be missing them for the first time in a couple of years. What a great band! Happy that they are moving on up! Triple Crown Records put out All I Have to Offer is My Own Confusion by Fireworks, so for that alone they are in my good books.
To go with this news, the band also just released a video for the second track off of Yunahon, "Reindeer Games". It's a great song and I think the video does a good job of capturing the album's vibe. There's a lot of nice tummies in this video.
Also, my friends Nick, James, Scott, and Ben play in a band called Dog Cops. They've been playing shows around the GTA and working on songs for the last year or two and they just put out a single. Great stuff and free to download!
I'm working on the text for a second zine right now, hoping that I can have it finished by the end of February. It's about ska. Have any ideas for the cover art? I would love them.
Lastly, I deeply love independent pro wrestling. Though I started out watching the WWF like most people, I'm happy that my interest in it led me to this much better, more interesting, and weird in the best way subculture. It's strange, but perfect.
First off, sincere congratulations to the band Oso Oso for signing to Triple Crown Records. The Yunahon Mixtape is one of my favourite records ever and makes me feel a lot of things. They're opening a tour in Toronto next week, but I slept on getting tickets and will be missing them for the first time in a couple of years. What a great band! Happy that they are moving on up! Triple Crown Records put out All I Have to Offer is My Own Confusion by Fireworks, so for that alone they are in my good books.
To go with this news, the band also just released a video for the second track off of Yunahon, "Reindeer Games". It's a great song and I think the video does a good job of capturing the album's vibe. There's a lot of nice tummies in this video.
Also, my friends Nick, James, Scott, and Ben play in a band called Dog Cops. They've been playing shows around the GTA and working on songs for the last year or two and they just put out a single. Great stuff and free to download!
I'm working on the text for a second zine right now, hoping that I can have it finished by the end of February. It's about ska. Have any ideas for the cover art? I would love them.
Lastly, I deeply love independent pro wrestling. Though I started out watching the WWF like most people, I'm happy that my interest in it led me to this much better, more interesting, and weird in the best way subculture. It's strange, but perfect.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Don't Think I Ever Mean Goodbye
As I said in my "Best of 2017" post that I put up earlier this week, I've had the idea of a writing a post explaining why I think The Yunahon Mixtape by Oso Oso is so great for a while now. Actually, I've been kicking it around for almost a year, because said album came out on January 13th, 2017.
God, what a bad intro. But we're movin' on!
I discovered Oso Oso through seeing them open for The Hotelier in 2014. I wasn't familiar with them, but from a friend's description of "emo Third Eye Blind", I was pretty sure I would be into it. They put on an amazing set that night and I was instantly sold. After that I dug deep roots into their first full-length Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters (I truly hate typing out that title) and Oso Oso quickly established themselves as one of my favourite active bands.
They toured through the south of Canada in the fall of 2016 and I somehow found out about their Toronto date a day or two before, as it was at a small DIY venue with no bigger bands. An acoustic act opened, whose friends seemed to make up most of the audience, and a bad, albeit very new, American band was providing support. After that second band, there was a huge exodus of the crowd, as they weren't interested in sticking around for the only act on the bill with any sort of serious recorded output. The crowd for Oso Oso ended up being a couple, the promoter, and me.
The band, of course, put on an amazing set featuring an even mix of RSTPWKLLM's biggest jams and a few new songs that I would later come to recognize as being on The Yunahon Mixtape. Playing well as a unit live is so hard and competency is basically only established through touring a lot. One of the best parts of being a music fan is seeing a band when they are at the top of their game live. Even better is when you are watching a band you're all in on kill it and their set is the way you're introduced to a new song.
I was eager to hear what Oso Oso would do next and during the set they slipped in "the cool". I was over the moon because the new stuff sounded just as good, if not better than the old stuff, but also a little bummed because I had no idea when the album was coming out and would have to wait to hear it.
Then the band released it out of the blue on Saturday morning. Being a Bomb the Music Indsutry! stan, I've come to love surprise releases. I think there's something to be said for foregoing the hype machine and letting the songs speak for themselves. Very quickly I realized that I like the album just as much as the old one and found it growing on me more and more each listen, with it far surpassing their first one after not too long.
There are a couple of reasons that I think this album is so special, so I'll try my best to explain them now.
The first thing that jumps out at you is the title and its inclusion of the word "mixtape". While the album isn't a mixtape in the hip-hop sense of the word, it is one in the coming-of-age sense of the word. Yunahon is a concept album about a courtship and the life of the ensuing relationship, with each song representing a different stage and major event in the narrative. At the same time, the album is also supposed to be the mixtape that the protagonist gives to his romantic interest. I haven't run into many meta-albums like this in my life, but I love it.
The lyrics of each song set a specific scene, which makes the story feel lived-in. Especially songs like "shoes (the sneaker song)" and "the slope"; they put me right in the story and also make me immediately associate them with scenes from my own life.
Sidebar: Anything meta is my jam. I soak it up like sponge, baby. I started saying baby a lot. Is it ironic? Do I actually think it's cool? Who knows!
Making an album that is at once a story, the guide to that story, and an element of the story is a pretty big jump concept-wise for any band to make. Oso Oso also mirrored that by subtly changing their sound as well. I loved the lead-heavy emo rock riffing that made up True Stories, but I also must concede that the more nuanced approach the band took on Yunahon works a lot better. They manage to walk the tight rope of easing back and simplifying the chord progressions to make them catchier, while also layering in more guitar tracks to fill out the sound and doing more interesting bass and drum work to distinguish each song. If this was easy, every band would do it.
I saw a lot of reviews of this album that referred to it as a nostalgic throwback to the indie bands that were critical darlings in the early-to-mid 2000's, but I'm not much of an expert on that music, so any comments I could make would be moot. Still feel like I have to mention that though. I think Death Cab for Cutie was popular then? Fuck if I know, The OC sucked.
I generally have an album, podcast, or TV show on at all times while I'm doing things at home, so Rebecca is forced to put up with my tastes. This album got played (is still getting played) ad nauseum as soon as it came out and I kind of forced it upon them. The album quickly became the soundtrack to our home life and before long, every song was about different stages of my relationship with Becks and the feeling of falling in love and finding somebody who completely turns your heart upside down.The capper was seeing them this past fall together, when them ripping into "shoes (the sneaker song)" got me close to tears.
It's nice that The Yunahon Mixtape can remind me of nights in Guelph when Rebecca and I had just met and were going to see a friend's band play, but also remind me how in love I am at this moment. It's a big reason why this is one of my favourite records that I've ever heard.
God, what a bad intro. But we're movin' on!
I discovered Oso Oso through seeing them open for The Hotelier in 2014. I wasn't familiar with them, but from a friend's description of "emo Third Eye Blind", I was pretty sure I would be into it. They put on an amazing set that night and I was instantly sold. After that I dug deep roots into their first full-length Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters (I truly hate typing out that title) and Oso Oso quickly established themselves as one of my favourite active bands.
They toured through the south of Canada in the fall of 2016 and I somehow found out about their Toronto date a day or two before, as it was at a small DIY venue with no bigger bands. An acoustic act opened, whose friends seemed to make up most of the audience, and a bad, albeit very new, American band was providing support. After that second band, there was a huge exodus of the crowd, as they weren't interested in sticking around for the only act on the bill with any sort of serious recorded output. The crowd for Oso Oso ended up being a couple, the promoter, and me.
The band, of course, put on an amazing set featuring an even mix of RSTPWKLLM's biggest jams and a few new songs that I would later come to recognize as being on The Yunahon Mixtape. Playing well as a unit live is so hard and competency is basically only established through touring a lot. One of the best parts of being a music fan is seeing a band when they are at the top of their game live. Even better is when you are watching a band you're all in on kill it and their set is the way you're introduced to a new song.
I was eager to hear what Oso Oso would do next and during the set they slipped in "the cool". I was over the moon because the new stuff sounded just as good, if not better than the old stuff, but also a little bummed because I had no idea when the album was coming out and would have to wait to hear it.
Then the band released it out of the blue on Saturday morning. Being a Bomb the Music Indsutry! stan, I've come to love surprise releases. I think there's something to be said for foregoing the hype machine and letting the songs speak for themselves. Very quickly I realized that I like the album just as much as the old one and found it growing on me more and more each listen, with it far surpassing their first one after not too long.
There are a couple of reasons that I think this album is so special, so I'll try my best to explain them now.
The first thing that jumps out at you is the title and its inclusion of the word "mixtape". While the album isn't a mixtape in the hip-hop sense of the word, it is one in the coming-of-age sense of the word. Yunahon is a concept album about a courtship and the life of the ensuing relationship, with each song representing a different stage and major event in the narrative. At the same time, the album is also supposed to be the mixtape that the protagonist gives to his romantic interest. I haven't run into many meta-albums like this in my life, but I love it.
The lyrics of each song set a specific scene, which makes the story feel lived-in. Especially songs like "shoes (the sneaker song)" and "the slope"; they put me right in the story and also make me immediately associate them with scenes from my own life.
Sidebar: Anything meta is my jam. I soak it up like sponge, baby. I started saying baby a lot. Is it ironic? Do I actually think it's cool? Who knows!
Making an album that is at once a story, the guide to that story, and an element of the story is a pretty big jump concept-wise for any band to make. Oso Oso also mirrored that by subtly changing their sound as well. I loved the lead-heavy emo rock riffing that made up True Stories, but I also must concede that the more nuanced approach the band took on Yunahon works a lot better. They manage to walk the tight rope of easing back and simplifying the chord progressions to make them catchier, while also layering in more guitar tracks to fill out the sound and doing more interesting bass and drum work to distinguish each song. If this was easy, every band would do it.
I saw a lot of reviews of this album that referred to it as a nostalgic throwback to the indie bands that were critical darlings in the early-to-mid 2000's, but I'm not much of an expert on that music, so any comments I could make would be moot. Still feel like I have to mention that though. I think Death Cab for Cutie was popular then? Fuck if I know, The OC sucked.
I generally have an album, podcast, or TV show on at all times while I'm doing things at home, so Rebecca is forced to put up with my tastes. This album got played (is still getting played) ad nauseum as soon as it came out and I kind of forced it upon them. The album quickly became the soundtrack to our home life and before long, every song was about different stages of my relationship with Becks and the feeling of falling in love and finding somebody who completely turns your heart upside down.The capper was seeing them this past fall together, when them ripping into "shoes (the sneaker song)" got me close to tears.
It's nice that The Yunahon Mixtape can remind me of nights in Guelph when Rebecca and I had just met and were going to see a friend's band play, but also remind me how in love I am at this moment. It's a big reason why this is one of my favourite records that I've ever heard.
Monday, December 18, 2017
The 2017 I, Musical Genius Music Revue Show
The yearly tradition continues. The order is un-numbered and doesn't really matter except for my #1 spot, which is obvious. Let's go:
Oso Oso - The Yunahon Mixtape
A no-doubt slam dunk #1 album of the year. I eagerly waited for Oso Oso's follow-up to Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters and they rewarded me with something that was unexpected in the best way possible. I've been planning a separate post that mentions everything I love about this record because putting everything here would be too much, so I'll write that next week sometime. Not only is this my favourite thing that came out this year by a wide margin, but it's up there as one of my favouirte albums I've ever heard.
Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
When your approach to music is making an even mix of Exodus and the Cro-Mags, you make it really easy for me to like your band. Their best stuff for sure.
Daniel Romano - Modern Pressure
As with last year's Mosey, I figured that Daniel Romano had already produced his best solo effort. Yet again I was floored by a distinctive, intelligent, and fully-realized exercise in making a "genre" album. A master-stroke in 60's pop. This was an early favourite this year and I can't wait for his next one.
A common trend this year was albums surpassing my humble expectations. I deeply loved Pet Hounds, so I tried to be measured in my first listens of this one, but found it to be fresh and different from their first album, but still with plenty of hooks and riffs. Great bass playing on this one too!
Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare
I would love it if more bands would combine beatdown NYHC riffs with socially conscious lyrics. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE PRODUCT IS, THE PRODUCT IS YOU.
White Reaper - Greatest American Band
Between Sheer Mag's effort this year, Crying's album last year, and this album, I am more than here for the growing influence of arena rock in punk. Great riffs and great vocal melodies on this one.
Sheer Mag - Need to Feel Your Love
Alvvays - Antisocialites
If you don't think a lo-fi punk band playing poppy Thin Lizzy songs is right up my alley, then you don't really know me at all.
Alvvays - Antisocialites
A fantastic follow-up to their celebrated self-titled debut. They try out some new styles on this one and I love it. Put out catchy, dreamy pop forever, please.
Vince Staples- Big Fish Theory
OTHER THINGS:
TELL THE GOVERNMENT TO SUCK A DICK BECAUSE WE ON NOW.
OTHER THINGS:
Some movies I enjoyed: The Big Sick, The Disaster Artist, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Get Out, Personal Shopper, The Fate of the Furious, Landline, and Ingrid Goes West.
Some TV I really enjoyed this year: Master of None, Fargo, Twin Peaks, Nirvanna the Band the Show, Love, Easy, Bojack Horseman, Vice Principals, Crashing, Rick and Morty, and Epicly Later'd.
See you soon folks.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Sorry, That Was Out of the Blue
Sometimes, I find that a low-effort post is the first step towards more output. Working lots of overtime and being preoccupied with writing PhD grants for next year has neutered my drive to write, so I offer this post as a step towards something with a little more substance.
As part of The Project, I've been working on a couple of songs throughout the year, with the hope that they will eventually turn into a demo. This part has actually going reasonably well, as I've found that writing guitar parts takes much less mental labour than writing short stories and lyrics. Here is a collection of songs that I think define the type of sound that I am going for with these songs:
Algernon Cadwallader "Spit Fountain"
Big Star "In the Street"
Dead to Me "Ran That Scam"
Van Halen "Dance the Night Away"
Oso Oso "Out of the Blue"
As part of The Project, I've been working on a couple of songs throughout the year, with the hope that they will eventually turn into a demo. This part has actually going reasonably well, as I've found that writing guitar parts takes much less mental labour than writing short stories and lyrics. Here is a collection of songs that I think define the type of sound that I am going for with these songs:
Algernon Cadwallader "Spit Fountain"
Big Star "In the Street"
Dead to Me "Ran That Scam"
Van Halen "Dance the Night Away"
Oso Oso "Out of the Blue"
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Cool
Once more, I've fallen out of practice of writing in my free time. The 40-hour week will do that to you. 9-5 in front of a computer every day has a way of melting your brain and spending more time on a computer is generally the last thing that I want to do when I get home.
This all being said, it has afforded me to listen to a lot of music, so I'll you this post to talk about a few things I'm really into.
During my golden years of Ontario punk, !ATTENTION! quickly became my favourite of all the bands I was seeing at every show. They moved from "Hey, that band was pretty good." to "I can't wait to see !ATTENTION!" to "!ATTENTION! is THE BEST." I placed a lot of importance on collecting everything they put out and listened to Another Year constantly while living on Dublin St. in Guelph. Towards of when they were still playing shows regularly in Southern Ontario, they had started putting new songs into their set that were going to be on their upcoming full-length. I couldn't wait for it. I would listen to Four or Five Ways to Play These Chords, the demo, Another Year, and their blink-182 cover all in row to pretend it was a full-length. Time started to pass and I figured that it was never going to come out.
Then, apropos of nothing, they announced in 2016 and put it out in October. Though I didn't listen to it tonnes when it came out, for some reason, it is absolutely great. I love the band and am so so proud that they are a product of the scene that I'm a part of. Please support this band however you can, because if there was ever a band that deserves it, it's !ATTENTION!
Oso Oso put out an album called Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters in 2015 that was one of my favourites from that year. It's really good!
When I saw them play in October, they played a few "joints" and it was that perfect type of live experience where it makes you so eager to listen to their stuff as soon as you get home. The new songs sounded really good and I was really excited to hear them when they came out.
In a nice turn of events, they announced on twitter that were going to do a surprise release of their album the next morning, so I made sure to download it as soon as I woke up. The album, The Yunahon Mixtape, proved to be AMAZING and has stayed in constant rotation since then. It's a great progression in their sound that subtly adds complexity to the compositions while retaining everything that made them awesome in the first place (re: extremely catchy hooks and riffs). Oso Oso has now put out two very strong albums and that is something rare and is much harder to do than it sounds. The band seems to be on an upward trajectory and is getting more attention. I'm really happy for them, as their music deserves any and all attention it gets. I may expand on why I think this album is really special in the near future, but for now, all I can do is recommend jamming this.
YO:
This all being said, it has afforded me to listen to a lot of music, so I'll you this post to talk about a few things I'm really into.
During my golden years of Ontario punk, !ATTENTION! quickly became my favourite of all the bands I was seeing at every show. They moved from "Hey, that band was pretty good." to "I can't wait to see !ATTENTION!" to "!ATTENTION! is THE BEST." I placed a lot of importance on collecting everything they put out and listened to Another Year constantly while living on Dublin St. in Guelph. Towards of when they were still playing shows regularly in Southern Ontario, they had started putting new songs into their set that were going to be on their upcoming full-length. I couldn't wait for it. I would listen to Four or Five Ways to Play These Chords, the demo, Another Year, and their blink-182 cover all in row to pretend it was a full-length. Time started to pass and I figured that it was never going to come out.
Then, apropos of nothing, they announced in 2016 and put it out in October. Though I didn't listen to it tonnes when it came out, for some reason, it is absolutely great. I love the band and am so so proud that they are a product of the scene that I'm a part of. Please support this band however you can, because if there was ever a band that deserves it, it's !ATTENTION!
Oso Oso put out an album called Real Stories of True People Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters in 2015 that was one of my favourites from that year. It's really good!
When I saw them play in October, they played a few "joints" and it was that perfect type of live experience where it makes you so eager to listen to their stuff as soon as you get home. The new songs sounded really good and I was really excited to hear them when they came out.
In a nice turn of events, they announced on twitter that were going to do a surprise release of their album the next morning, so I made sure to download it as soon as I woke up. The album, The Yunahon Mixtape, proved to be AMAZING and has stayed in constant rotation since then. It's a great progression in their sound that subtly adds complexity to the compositions while retaining everything that made them awesome in the first place (re: extremely catchy hooks and riffs). Oso Oso has now put out two very strong albums and that is something rare and is much harder to do than it sounds. The band seems to be on an upward trajectory and is getting more attention. I'm really happy for them, as their music deserves any and all attention it gets. I may expand on why I think this album is really special in the near future, but for now, all I can do is recommend jamming this.
YO:
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Can We Just Lie Here and Find a Way to Kill Some Time Here
This Friday marks the opening of the new fall exhibitions at my work and that means an influx of work to go along with it. That means longer hours and less time to write. I'm sort of short on ideas right now, but do have a backlog of topics in my drafts, so my current plan is to knock one of those out to get myself back on track and resume my life as a content mule.
In the meantime, I thought I would talk about some music I've been into lately because that is easy for me to do and it's also something I used to do a lot and I kind of wish I did more.
Oso Oso played Toronto last night and I made a point to go. I find it's easy to let shows fall by the wayside while I'm busy with work and I hate that that has become a habit. The last time I saw Oso Oso, they were opening for The Hotelier and they blew me away. They sit at a halfway point between current "emo revival" bands like The World is a Beautiful Place and The Hotelier et al. and Third Eye Blind's Self-Titled, which happens to be one of my favourite albums. They pull off this mixture perfectly and are big-time on melody, guitar riffs, and vocal harmonies. This time they were on a smaller headlining tour and were just as good. The band is tight as hell and great at what they do. I was ready to sing along to my favourite bangers from the most excellent Real Stories of True People, Who Kind of Looked Like Monsters... (DISCLAIMER: LISTEN TO THAT RECORD), but was instead greeted by a set that was like half new songs that were just as good, if not better, than what I had already heard.
I can't say enough great things about that band. They're going to be big shit soon and if they aren't, they deserve to be. Support them.
Since last Friday I've also been going hard on the new Joyce Manor album, Cody. Every time Joyce Manor puts out something new, it also causes to revisit everything else they've put out. This time was no different and I've been in full Joyce Manor Mode since Cody came out. I really appreciate and love when band's try to do something new for each record and Joyce Manor is a great example of that. They started with a wonderful debut album that was equal parts emo, hardcore, and pop-punk, but in a way that was completely different from the awful, whiney, breakdown-heavy version that most losers were into. Instead of building on that sound and cashing in on hype, they put out an abrasive 9-song, 14-minute follow up that weirded a ton of people out. Of the 9 songs, two are short acoustic songs, one's a (phenomenal) cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star", and one uses a lo-fi synth as its base. While I initially wasn't huge on the record, but loved the idea, I now find myself coming back to it a lot. THEN, they hit everyone with a polished 3rd album of pop-punk hits that remain short, to-the-point, and idiosyncratic.
I lovelovelovelove bands who aren't afraid to write short songs and albums. "Keep it simple stupid."
With all of this said, I've been thinking that Cody may be my favourite of their's yet and also probably my favourite thing released this year. The band has started to show a huge power-pop influence (a direct path to my heart) and Cody sees the band taking healthy doses of Blue and #1 Record, in addition to their usual influences. It's mature and a great take on a sound that I daydream about using myself a lot. A link to the album is at the start of the preceding paragraph.
Joyce Manor is a band whose sound and influences have grown along with me, which has really endeared them to me. Their music has stuck around with me and now, like 7 years later, they are all of a sudden near the top of my favourite bands and definitely one of the current bands that matters the most, IMO. An odd reason that I feel really attached to them is that if I were still really serious about writing songs, and I had continued writing and working them after I just sort of stopped a few years ago, then I think Barry and I would have very similar writing styles. It's cool to see the style I sort of worked within be taken and done extremely well and much better than I ever came close to doing.
Good record. You should listen!
Another record that has been in regular rotation during my work hours is the most recent full-length by LVL UP, Return to Love. I love me some poppy, fuzzy indie rock and this album delivers that in spades. The songs kind of sound like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea to me, albeit without the acoustic instruments and the distinctive lyrics. Does that make sense? Listen, and you'll get it. Good. A good record that will no doubt be on my end of the year list of favs.
Lastly, I've been hanging out a lot with Thin Lizzy's Fighting, which is the record before the one that everyone knows. I love Thin Lizzy and feel like they are unjustly overlooked in the revered pantheon of 70's rock band. They got riffs. Fuck do they ever have riffs. This record probably deserves as much attention as anything from the decade.
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