http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:37:40 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/01/03/173740.php Mocking MusicSome day an article will be written about Joel Plaskett that doesn't reference his previous band, the late Thrush Hermit. But this isn't that article. Still, his post-Hermit success and the relative obscurity of most Canadian indie-rock bands before the explosion of the Montreal indie scene in 2004 means Plaskett may be poised to eclipse the fame of Thrush Hermit, at least outside Canada.Back in 1993, the East Coast Canadian city Halifax was hailed as the "new Seattle" in reference to the scene that spawned Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and a thousand other major-label signings of grunge bands. The "new Seattle" was also sometimes referred to as the "Halifax Pop-Explosion," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the largest pre-atomic explosion. I guess you had to be there. Many groups were associated with the scene yet there was no definitive sound. At best, the halifax "Cod-Rockers" were tied together by a shared love of pop and thrashing guitar's, but mostly they shared geography and the interest of desperate major labels.Out of the many, only four groups remain well-known today: Eric's Trip, Super Friendz, Sloan (who instigated the hype and are the only ones still together), and Thrush Hermit. The latter formed in 1992 fronted by Joel Plaskett and Rob Benvie, a sort of Lennon-McCartney split with songs being credited to one vocalist or the other. Plaskett and Benvie were then joined by Ian McGettigan on bass and a rotating cast of drummers. After signing to Sloan's Murderecord label, Thrush Hermit released their first EP, Smart Bomb. It was well-received, with one Plaskett-penned song, "Hated it" even making it into the less-than-good Kevin Smith movie, Mallrats. Still, many faulted the band's low production 60's garage sound for being little more than Sloan Part 2.Says Benvie, I think in the beginning we had a bit of a chip on our shoulders because everywhere we went it was like, 'Hey! Sloan Junior! You guys sound like Sloan. You guys look like Sloan. You guys are just like Sloan except you're smaller.' And to a certain extent that was probably true, but we were also pretty young and pretty impressionable and still finding our direction. Two more EPs and Thrush Hermit finally cashed in on the major label interest, signing with Elektra in 1996 and releasing their first full-length, Sweet Homewrecker. The album marked more songwriting input of McGettigan and positive critical reviews. It also touted an air of 70's rock nostalgia, helping separate the band from Sloan whose sound recalled music more of lighter 60's acts.Despite this, Sweet Homewrecker did not fair well in Elektra's eyes and although they didn't drop the band, they did stop promoting the album.Benvie explained, When you're at a big label like that it all comes down to whether you're a priority, or whether there's some sort of push behind you, I mean, we saw memos saying, 'We are not working the Thrush Hermit album anymore. We are moving on to this.' It was very discouraging. Disillusioned with being a major-label band, Thrush Hermit opted out of their contract (Elektra happily bought them out), releasing their fourth and final album, Clayton Park, independently via Sonic Unyon in 1999. It was a critical and commercial success, getting the band nominal radio and MuchMusic (Canada's MTV equivalent) play, topping Canadian college radio charts, earning them a Juno (Canadian Grammy equivalent) nomination, and garnering general critical adoration. Basically, it did everything Thrush Hermit had already done, only better. It was the album that every good live band strives for, finally capturing the raw energy (cliche alert) they were known for at shows.It was also the first album that fully embraced the band's collective love of harder 70's rock. In fact, at one of their largest concerts earlier that year in Toronto they played an entire show of Steve Miller covers to a somewhat bewildered but generally receptive crowd. Not to say that Thrush Hermit were entirely derivative of what had already come before them. They did ape the 70's sound but with that they artfully mixed late 80's indie aesthetic. The mix of Led Zeppelin-Uriah Heep type 70's rock with disparate unabashed indie pop actually resulted in a frenetic almost punk-like sound. Both Benvie and Plaskett were proving to be engaging song writers, the latter tending to provide the heavier songs, while Plaskett offered some of the few low key offerings, foreshadowing his solo career.So what's a band to do when they achieve that sort of success? Break-up of course. There wasn't any big personal disagreements or "creative differences," the band members were simply ready to move on."It's nice that people are upset that we're breaking up," Plaskett said at the time, "But I'd rather have them remember us as a great band that made good records as opposed to a band that lost interest and whose music suffered as a result."Will Thrush Hermit ever play together again? Will Plaskett survive on his own? Was the hermit portion of the band's name prosthetic? Is there anything more satisfying than peanut butter Smarties? Check back for the Second half of Plaskett's Saga. For other band profiles and mp3s of profiled bands, go to Mocking Music Music41771@blogcritics.org Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:37:40 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/01/015308.php Mocking MusicC-86, the latest controversial Canadian legislation bill? No, that's C-38.C86 is a genre of music. That and a famous NME (New Musical Express) cassette. The genre is indie. More precisely, it refers to mid to late 80s and early 90s British indie pop that was generally"twee" (think Scottish group Belle & Sebastian for definitive twee). Although most tweepop groups grow from c86, the c86 genre is arguably identified as jangle pop. This was a British movement, but there were many American and Canadian bands that were also c86 like Velocity Girl (Which takes its name from an original C86 track) or Jale. The original movement is now almost as old as a lot of the people reading this, yet it still holds a place of importance in contemporary music beyond being mere reference fodder for indie elitists. Its pop-culture relevance has only become more apparent in the last year. Look for the influences of all those bands you or your little brother is rocking out to on the OC, and you'll invariably find yourself back at C86.But wait, didn't I say something about a tape? You got me. C86 is a literal abbreviation for Cassette 86, which refers to a tape given away with the then 34- year-old NME magazine in, unsurprisingly, 1986. NME was perhaps beginning to feel old and listless but, rather than focusing only on the biggest possible bands and celebrity gossip as with its (then 24 year old) cousin, Rolling Stone, NME decided to try something new."We [tried] to invent an alternative scene - our own version of punk you could say - by forcing a coterie of new bands onto a cassette called C86. It's not entirely convincing and you should get out more if you remember The Shop Assistants - but it nails our colours to the mast. We, it said, for better or worse, are indie."The Cassette featured exclusively independent artists, most of whom were not hugely popular at the time. While C86 came to be a genre rather than a literal tape, some of the bands on the original compilation were neither janglepop nor twee (ie. not all the bands on C86 were C86). Examples being Primal Scream's Velocity Girl or Stump's "Buffalo". Regardless, C86 was the cassette that launched a genre (rather than just recognizing one).Says the freakishly well-informed uao of Freeway Jam, "C-86 was an extraordinary release; most of the bands had been unknown prior to its issuance, but taken together they resembled a scene. Almost every one of the groups that appeared on C-86 were short-lived, but in their wake, newer indie bands on both sides of the Atlantic began experimenting with this airy, tuneful style."Tom of Indie-mp3 whose tag-line is "Keeping the c86 alive" points out another distinction between the current twee pop and indie music scene and the c86 scene: politics. Unlike many of the C86 groups, indie music right now is rarely political. Personally, I prefer my music sans politik. Politics and music make for sloganeering, good protest chants, and propaganda, but not intelligent debate. That said, music remains the perfect visceral outlet for frustration, anger, or apathy born of perceived political disenfranchisement. "At this time, the NME was a socialist music paper in all but name," Tom explains in his C86 overview. He goes on to further link the politicization to Thatcherism, but I'd argue that there is as many, if not more, reasons for a band to be political today. Though that's likely every generation's claim.In writing this, I've relied on more than a few quoted references. Hopefully this makes me look credible and journalistic, and not confused and lazy. I've also avoided actually describing the music. This was intentional. I'm no good at it. This sometimes makes having a blog with a primary purpose of music description a bit tricky. I've never claimed it was a useful blog.Essentially, c86 is poppy but underproduced. Doesn't that describe all indie pop? Well, yes, but.. um . . . this stuff is, uh, jangly too. And old. ED:TAS Music33059@blogcritics.org Mon, 1 Aug 2005 01:53:08 EDT