The story of this electro-pop duo begins with a pair of high school sweethearts and arrives now at their debut release, Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover, which reached number two on the Canadian campus radio charts. We got the inside word from them on the music that inspires them. They started with the Delorean song, Grow [listen below]: ‘We first heard of Delorean while on tour in Spain. They were all over the Spanish music press. Then we finally heard them on the indie radio station playing in the van. Mucho bueno’. [Read the rest of Hexes and Ohs' Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/zzdnzmzifi4/04%20Grow.mp3]

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Canadian band Dragonette recently released their debut single, Fixin To Thrill, from the album of the same name and it’s the kind of music Britney wishes she wrote, internet bloggers hyperbolize over, and people lose their minds over. They do. We checked in with Joel Stouffer from the band and asked him to give us a rundown on his favourite music right now. He started with the Grizzly Bear track, Two Weeks [listen below]: ‘I loved this tune when I first heard it. And loved it even more when I saw the video! It sounds like a more haunting Pet Sounds’. Read the rest of Dragonette’s Secret Playlist.
[audio:http://www.minneapolisfuckingrocks.com/ontheroad7/grizzlybear_twoweeks.mp3]

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Red hot Montreal band Land of Talk feature Elizabeth Powell, a former punk who got her start playing her own anti-rock anthems on the local scene of Guelph, Ontario, during her mid-teens. We got the inside word from her on the tunes that inspire Land of Talk’s own high energy frock and roll. The first track she propped was, drum roll please, Bon Iver’s hauntingly evocative, Re:Stacks: ‘This song changed my course, emotionally. I can’t tell you how, but it levelled me. Everyone I’ve played it for, or who has heard it, has had the same or similar reactions. This is a song I will listen to well into my twilight years’. Read the rest of Land Of Talk’s Secret Playlist.
[audio:http://ear4music.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/09-re_-stacks-1.mp3]

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Canada seems to be the land of amazing ambient metal duos. Montreal has Menace Ruine, and Toronto has Nadja, a formidable couple that churns out huge-sounding, bass and electronics-driven doom that draws your gaze up towards the stars just as old cathedral ceilings humble the faithful and make them think of the Almighty.
[audio:http://www.wordthecat.com/images/nadja%20-%20Radiance%20Of%20Shadows.mp3]

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Pink Mountaintops — a wry Canadian duo — are getting some pretty steady exposure on my stereo at the moment, and lots of others judging by their steady rise up the rock echelons. They’ve got that skaggy swagger and well-worked male/female vocal arrangements, particularly on Tourist in my Town, that drew so many people to Velvet Undergound and the other psych-stoner rock bands of that era, and the production is similarly lo-fi. Their 2004 eponymous debut album barely sold until frontman Stephen McBean released the debut album of his other band, Black Mountain, and news filtered out of this little gem. Listen to the song, Rock and Roll Fantasy.
[audio:http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/rocknrollfantasy.mp3]

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It’s only fitting a band of Canadian rootsters like this would tap a mythical figure of folklore for their namesake. Indeed, Ottawa’s The John Henrys understand the power of the familiar. But while the mighty Henry keeled over after his big challenge, vocalist-guitarist Rey Sabatin Jr. and company are going strong after theirs, a rollicking alt country salvo called Sweet As The Grain. Released on their own label 9LB Records, distributed through Universal Music in Canada and True North Records in the US, Grain is a record that carves its own path while casting reverent glances toward The Flying Burrito Brothers, Uncle Tupelo, The Band, and a host of others.

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The incendiary energy of Canadian quartet, Tokyo Police Club is electric. We caught up with keyboardist, Graham Wright. Your previous band never quite hit the same heights that Tokyo Police Club already have in a comparatively short period of time. What are the fundamental differences between the two bands? ‘Our last band was a five-piece. Our buddy Will was the lead singer and Dave played bass. The other band was more of an alt-rock kind of band’. There’s a frenetic energy to the TPC sound. Like you guys are always rushing to the next song before the last one barely had a chance to get going. Are attention spans really that short these days? ‘They are. We like to get in and get out!’ What are your enduring memories of recording the debut album, Elephant Shell — was it a fun experience or was business as usual, get in and get it done? ‘It was fun. A bit stressful at times. When we made the EP, we had only three days to record and mix. This time around we had a few months to get it right. We are thrilled with how it came out!’ Has living and playing in Ontario shapes the Tokyo Police Club sound, or could you have sprung from anywhere and still gelled in the same way and played with the same energy? ‘We never thought of ourselves as a Ontario band, like Broken Social Scene, Stars, Metric, and so on. They are all a lot older than us. People actually mistake us for a Brooklyn band a lot of times’.

Listen to the Tokyo Police Club song. In A Cave.
[audio:http://auralstates.com/Music/Tokyo%20Police%20Club%20-%20In%20A%20Cave.mp3]

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I stumbled across the Hello, Blue Roses track, My Shadow Falls, the other week and it set my ears alight, this subtle but beautiful song and its cascading melodic line which will at once ingrain yourself in your inner-ear iPod and then disappear out the other end, leaving only the sweetest of memories. I spoke with Sidney, one half of the group: You’re called Sydney and I’m from Sydney. Have you been yet? It would seem to be destiny to do so.
‘Nice to meet you. I have never been to your Sydney, maybe one day. My dad went once, and my cousin was born there. My dad brought back some Sydney paraphernalia like a giant pencil and an “I love Sydney” sticker, because there was a real dearth of that, as you may imagine, growing up in Canada — very few Sydney stickers and giant Sydney pencils. I was also obsessed with the Sydney Opera House and had a postcard of it up in my room forever. When the Sydney Summer Olympics happened, I had my own Sydney Summer Games at my apartment. It was a way to meet people because I had just moved to Montreal. But we played this terribly uncomfortable game called psychiatrist first and ninety percent of the new not quite never to be friends left. I have hats, and knapsacks, and t-shirts from that event’.
You dabble in art and music. Where’s the connection between your two creative pursuits?
‘I think it’s normal for creative people to move between modes of expression, or fields. I think maybe artists are more omnivorous in that respect, which is why almost everyone I know who makes art has also made or makes music, or writes plays or has some latent desire to. Some people are super focused or unilateral about their field, but I bet if you scratch a little into any musician’s life, they at one point had an affinity or aptitude for another art, like drawing or photography or film. Creative people tend to be more open to trying shit out. I think there would be a lot more overlap if artists and musicians weren’t constantly busting their balls trying to make ends meet, trying to make a go of it. They are forced to choose where to spend the time and energy. Those other paths don’t necessarily go away though, I think they tend to linger and follow, and once in awhile you take off in another direction. I don’t have any heroes or heroines who do both, I just kind of assume that the artists and musicians I like have other secret creative lives, or other creative potential’

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My summer officially ended on August 29 this year when Feist came to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to perform at McCarren Pool. It was a perfect evening — the weather was fine, the sky was clear, everyone was in good spirits, and the music was easy. There were no pretenses about the show; no spectacular lights or pyrotechnics; no outward professions of love from Feist to the crowd. It was more conversational, more intimate, as if each of us (I think there were just under 6000 audience members) individually met up with her at some coffee shop to hang out. [read more about Feist and watch a clip of her performing at McCarren Pool]

Listen to the Van She remix of 1, 2, 3, 4.

[audio:http://chriscary.free.fr/ESC/Feist%20-%201234%20(VanShe%20Technologic%20Remix).mp3]

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