We’ve been so busy making a tasty record for everyone to enjoy. keep updated here.

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check out this video for old time spoken word artist Gil Scott-Herons new song “Me and The Devil”.  Deliciously black and white skeletal skaters take to a dark and contrasted New York streets, set to a strangely infectious beat and the grumblings of Gil. The imagery fits nicely with lyrics like “bury my body, down by the riverside”. (via p4k)

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Besides awkward comedy and tasty green fruit, as far as I know not much comes out of New Zealand. Sure Flight Of The Concords really opened up peoples views of a strange music scene, but if your like me you see New Zealand as Australian silly little brother and pay little attention to it (if your reading this from Auckland, I’m sorry). I’m sure we’re all also terribly mistaken and Surf City is a great example of what isolation and the internet can do. Picking up some great inspiration from modern lo-fi garage rock and blending with some classic surf guitar riffing and sometimes surprising indie sensibilities that will catch you quite off guard while your being pummeled by waves of drums, distortion and sea foam. The Surf City EP was released on August 6th ‘07 (holy shit, this was 2 years ahead of it’s time) on Arch Hill Recordings and besides a few blogs and a Pitchfork nod it was under almost everyones radar. Well, not mine! Surf City jumped from below the horizon to the clouds in a matter of hours for me. Every song on this 6 song EP is incredible indie epics, rarely leaving you more than a second to catch your breath or adjust the star struck grin plastered across your face. I feel that maybe these guys started too soon, and where forgotten before this style was so prevalent. However since they’re still a fully active band playing shows all over New Zealand and Australia, a new album is hopefully in the works.If it was summer right now and I drove, I’d be blasting this from my convertible Camero speakers ripping down the hi-way, probably drunk.

Surf City – Mt. Kill

Surf City – Free The City

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Dan Mcgee cares about three things; the mighty church of the bottle, the distant sent of a lost woman, and the twangy new country sounds of his band Spider Bags. I discussed this band of southern fried troubadours a few months ago and included a few tracks of the album “A Celebration of Hunger”  which was Spider Bags first full length album, and after hours of searching I’ve finally acquired Dan McGee & Spider Bags “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”. All of the classic elements of Spider Bags that I loved are still there, Dan McGee’s crooning raspy voice, laying out stories drenched in beer and whiskey, tales of lovers posed with the affluence of a hillbilly Poet Laureate “the longer than I stick around the more I forget, life is spent between cigarettes and regret”. Like their earlier albums Spider Bags cooks us up quite a few bangers, fast paced bar brawlers, seen and heard through their own personal beer goggles. However on “Goodbye Cruel World..” we see another side of Dan McGee not so present in just Spider Bags releases. We see his life as a Saturday news paper comic strip. Dan McGee falls for a woman, she forgets/leaves/hurts him, he drinks down his sorrows, he writes a song. Luckily for us, no where on this album do things feel hopeless or even worse, cheesy. McGee is able to keep things light enough to keep us up and alter enough to process his napkin scribblings. All in all “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World” is a chuck wagon ride through the dusty some times heart broken hills of Raleigh North Carolina where McGee and Spider Bags call home, and I’ve never been happier.

Spider Bags – Long White Desert Rose

Spider Bags – Que Viva El Rocanrol

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In our advanced society lines have been blurred. There is very little pressure to be a mans man, cream of the crop, all american or jack of all trades. One is able to simply slide through being who you are and it’s a real luxury. Sometimes though, in certain situations one’s masculinity is tested. Usually it comes in the form of being able to  honestly enjoy something that would down play your manhood, maybe a cute puppy, a tear jerker movie, a relaxing bath, listening to a Cat Power album. All of those circumstances could be perfectly framed with the music of Twin Sister, except your half cut on wine and a pack of smokes in. The music is nice and down tempo but not boring, hazy but sweet.  Lead singer Andrea Estella has a voice like milk and honey, and perfection is reached in an almost Nico moan in the song ‘Dry Hump’ (haha). Catching me completely off guard, Twin Sister feels like it must be played through headphones. There are many deeper layers then what comes up straight away, well rehearsed and planned feedback, hums, the clicking of a guitar pick on a string  and so very light drumming and bass that is sure to give you goosebumps. Twin Sister is offering out the EP “Vampires With Dreaming Kids” for free right now and I highly recommend you grab yourself the digital download and dream dream dream. I don’t care what anyone says, manliness aside, I love Twin Sister a lot.

Twin Sister – I Want A House

Twin Sister – Ginger

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“Oh you sleepy hipsters. How can one complain? Your music is so catchy, your demeanor so lame. You play your keyboards through a tin can, your beard is that of a Neanderthal man. On the street I may confuse you with a bum, but god do I love that reverbed hum.” I would say that sums up Small Black to me. A great band with more hype then content, but can you blame them?  Now Small Black is by no means bad, but once you read a little more into them I was left with a bit of an odd taste in my mouth, I’d imagine it tasted like being fed with a silver spoon, but I digress. Small Black uses toy casios, reverb, loops and a bass to get their message across (where have I heard that before) and they do it well. They’ve got a sound mapped out, except they threw out the map and bought a GPS. You cant really go wrong here, so get high put your headphones on and enjoy this little EP they recently released on CassClub.  Check out this video of Small Black as they try so hard to stay awake for their song Despicable Dogs, which can also be heard below.

Small Black – Weird Machines

Small Black – Despicable Dogs

It feels like these days you can describe a band one of two ways, vocal harmonies or no vocal harmonies. Suckers has got the harmonies, boy do they got ‘em. A relatively buzzed band in the late summer of ‘09 Suckers have seemed to fade a bit since the release of their Suckers EP. Granted they had a huge song entitled “It Gets Your Body Movin’ ” and it’s pretty tough to follow up such a hit on a four song EP, but what they’ve done I am really into. In the least corny way possible Suckers blends 1980’s pop and rhythms with some strange and fluttering dissonant guitar and bass patterns, and again, what a voice! When you have a band in which everyone plays everything there is a lot of room for experimenting and this defiantly happens on Suckers EP, synths galore paired with some horns, some yelps and enough bleep bloops to make a believer out of any AnCo fan. Things never get to hectic which is something I’m liking more and more these days, I’m able to sit back and enjoy (see: Am I Old?) but still have a bit of a mind melt. Think of nursing your baby to sleep with Valium cut with acid. Relaxing yet still psychedelic. Here are two tracks by Suckers, one from their new Suckers EP and one from a Daytrotter session that I loved.

Suckers – Easy Chairs

Suckers – Roman Candels (Daytrotter Session)

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Nothing like starting your day by plunging your foot into an ankle deep puddle on your mad dash to get out of the rain. Now I have a soaked sock and a squeaky sneaker.  It looks like tomorrow might be an okay day, so lets keep our fingers crossed and listen to some great tunes.

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Bad News! Vancouver is still evenly covered with depressing grey clouds.  It sucks, but in reality I am sure that 85% of Canada would prefer rain with +8°c rather than ACTUAL winter with ACTUAL snow. But weather is relative and we love to complain about weather, and Vancouverites love to complain about not bike riding and gardening in JANUARY.  In any case, the good news is that I have some tracks to warm you up(or dry you out).

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