Australia’s Dirty Three combine eerie country western film scores and post rock glory into a bonafide musical experience. The members have also appeared in Nick Caves band The Bad Seeds. Check it out!

 Red

 Last Horse On The Sand

It’s no secret I am a huge fan of the band Fucked Up. The Toronto experimental hard core 6 piece hold a huge place in my heart. From my somewhat late introduction with 2008′s The Chemistry Of Common Life, to the various singles they’ve released of the past few years, to winning a FUCKING POLARIS PRIZE…Fucked Up embody true passion for music, creativity and punk rock. Their music is so raw, edgy and simply brilliant I don’t think they’ve done a song I haven’t liked. So what do they do now to follow such a outstanding track record? Well first of all in 2011 Fucked Up will release the album David Comes To Life. An 18 song rock opera with a plot revolving around a small English town in the late 70′s. Wow, okay that sounds great, and here’s the first single from the album:

Fucked Up – The Other Shoe

How sweet does that sound? Dynamic gritty and pounding. So great, so so great!

And now for the twist. On April 16th (Record Store Day) Fucked Up plans to release the fictional compilation David’s Town, feature songs from 11 fake bands from the fake town of Bydresdale Spa, UK! Okay, now wrap your mind around that. 11 songs preformed by various guests and members of Fucked Up to make an early 80′s punk I-don’t-even-know-what. It’s like hardcore music went to drama school and got a sense of humour. The only single released so far is Animal Man’s “Do You Feed”. Early 80′s brit-punk at it’s best, sloppy and shaggy in all the right ways. No sure who sings vocals on this track but it certainly is a far cry from the normal Fucked Up front man Damian Abraham. I hope I can wake up early enough on April 16th to snag a copy of this gem.

Animal Man – Do You Feed

-lionsteeth

The band The 80th Action may be the most underground band around. I guarantee unless your in the tiny Vancouver Island scene already, these guys are truly unknown to you. I grew up with these dudes, played in bands with everyone of them, smuggled wine out of our parents basements together, skipped school together, took up, quit and took up smoking many times together, growing up in a western hick ‘Stand By Me’-esque town setting, hopping for excitement, getting little but trying to make our own. We loved the same music, went to all the same shows, we where nothing short of brothers. So now we’re older and we’ve seemed to mature our musical tastes at the same speed. We where a group of kids raised on radio rock, thrown into the world of late 90′s Skate/Pop Punk and then forced into the genres of what we called experimental, screamo, grind, ambient, tech, blah blah blah. So this is exactly what I would expect to hear. Melodic pop sensibilities, technical execution, constant riffing…  again, blah blah blah. There is a genre coming, I’m dubbing it Evolved-Pop Punk and I believe these bros are at the forefront.

This being true my opinion of The 80th Action is defiantly bias. There is however an old Yiddish saying “shtick naches” which translates to ‘sharing in a joyful moment’ and that’s how I feel with The 80th Action. They symbolize the process of coming to terms with adulthood and as I’ve watched this band blossom from it’s infancy the members have matured in both song and lyric writing. The first demos I heard where insturmental and raw. On the surface one could easily the potential these four guys had together and in the past year it is proven on their album Mega Problems released today. The songs are dense yet playful. Flailing violently from back and forth guitar shredding, piano driven drivers, and of course the smile inducing gang vocal. I managed to ask a few questions to members Maarten and Chris quite a few months back.

Hey, please introduce yourself and describe the role you play in The 80th Action:

C: Chrid Living for the rhythm section, smooth peanut butter bass

M: i’m maarten bayliss. i play the cute one.

You’ve played in many of bands throughout the years, would you consider The 80th Action to be your masterpiece:

C: We were formed by fate, somewhat vicariously, and I can admit that the 80th Action is one of the most enjoyable groups i have ever been part of. We’ve incorporated nearly everything that I am currently excited about musically, this is exactly the type of music I want to be creating right now. Though it never hurts to have a theremin.

M: well if you do then i do.

What where you able to take from your other bands and bring to this new project:

C: Signature busy major/blues scale fusions as i love to do. Transbalc inspired enthusiasm, Los tycoons inspired insanity, Bikes Mine inspired gang vocals, Hollywood Noise’s Eric Brunning.

M: mmmmprobably being true to the way you play

What is it like trying to promote and book yourself in such a small town, which seems to cater solely to Alt-Emo and Metalcore:

C: I hardly have an idea, we just rock out and if people seem to enjoy it, that’s their problem. Its not hard to tell the difference between good music and that “alt-emo” everyone is raving about.

Who’s the hardest member of The 80th Action to deal with:

C: Eric to keep up with, Maarten with his special effects and Nolan who just picks on Maarten but is often mistaken as an englishman, but he’s not.

M: Nolan James Bayliss

Describe The 80th Action in 2 words:

C: graduation day

Whats your tone like:

C: I like to think of it as if there was a fight between kids with scissors, but they were, like, really loud, and then some really big elementary school principal who thought of himself to be more of a friend than a principal with a low, soothing voice that comes and breaks it up, whilst losing his “cool” a little.

Some of your biggest musical influences:

C: Mostly punk rock

M: other musicians, thoughts, doing shit, not doing shit, and radiohead

Tacos or Pizza:

C: Ideally, I would like a double layer pizza taco, (pizza folded onto an existing taco) but If I had to choose I’d probably go with taco pizza

Are you working on any other projects right now:

C: avro arrow stays close to me. nothing like acoustic folk punk with splashes of electric jams, splashes of splash cymbals

What IS The 80th Action:

C: trampolines, bocce ball, granny smith apple ball, maple trees, Ghost dogs, picklebrau, and midnight a cappella!

Title of your next album:

M: hopefully ‘Mega Problems’

Any last Words:

C: I would always prefer soup, regardless of weather

M: dakota fanning looks hella old now

Please take the time to check out Mega Problems here, it’s a free download and certainly worth your time.

The 80th Action – Big A

The 80th Action – Spin turn Mega turn

lionsteeth

Hypnotic, psychedelic beats. Blues head nodding mixed with 70′s fuzz and a polite tip of the hat to early funk.  The kind of music you would hear if you were a square, young protagonist in a coming-of-age film, you just ate a blotter of acid in your parents living room and now you’re sailing the corduroy arm chair on an ocean of shag carpet.

Silver Bullets – Monday Morning in Ragusa
Silver Bullets – Free Radical
Silver Bullets – Flight from Babylon

We all love you Andrew Cedermark. Since his work with Titus Andronicus the few tracks I’d heard of his knocked me straight to the floor. His adaptable folk-indie songwriting usually erupts in to furious blue-collar punk rock just like you always wish guys like this would. With his new album Moon Deluxe recently released to pretty wide spread calaim I’m sure more people than me are waiting on baited to breath to see what comes next. First up here’s an amazing track from the previously mentioned album:

Andrew Cedermark – Gloria ’85

Luckily Andrew was featured in the CMJ showcase for his label Underwater Peoples. Will Not Compete see’s Cedermark at his off kilter jangeling best. The beat is light yet driving and the guitar tone a warm and comforting hug of distortion, and of course it picks up perfectly by the end, your head knocking against a wall.

Andrew Cedermark – Will Not Compete

For the twice yearly art’s magazine Esopus, Cedermark has written a down tempo M*A*S*H themed folk tune I really sunk my teeth into. You can almost here the television show in the background if you listen hard enough…out wit you can.

Andrew Cedermark – Still Life With Sour Mash

Totally awesome A.C! Keep it up man!

-lionsteeth

Run Chico Run have been making music together since 1997,  a Victoria mainstay.  Heavy keyboard action, baroque pop nausea, nuage psychedelia.  R. C. R. consists of 2 Dudes  (Thomas Shields and Matt Skillings) The two also play in   The Pale Air Singers with The Cape May and work producing and mixing records for a number of local acts. Check them out!

RUNCHICORUN-Jacques and Madeline

RUNCHICORUN-Broadcaster

RUNCHICORUN MYSPACE

- dirty

Sometimes you come across something that just makes you happy to be wherever you may happen to be. My Friend Wallis is from Vancouver. They make beautiful, gorgeous, relaxed music. Like that feeling you get when you go on vacation somewhere warm and you are sitting outside in the sun for the first time. The ice in your drink is melting and the condensation is building on the glass. It is keeping your hands cool, it feels nice. A slight breeze is winding through the air, gently blowing your hair across your forehead and you are thinking to yourself, “Ahhh…this is nice.”

I posted a couple of songs, but you can get the whole album for free on their bandcamp.

Running – My Friend Wallis

Free Day – My Friend Wallis

-slobby

Forestry is a pretty low key affair, four friends from Victoria, B.C.  Pretty melodies, nice sounds.

Forestry-Over Judged

Forestry -The Loneliest Man

Forestry Myspace

On another note another kind of forestry is destroying our most valuable, natural resource world wide. Support sustainable logging efforts and local groups like The Ancient Forest Alliance!

- dirty

Cosmic Sound is Stephen Farris, a young man living in Houston, Texas. He weaves electronic beats, found sounds and dirty cassettes into soundscapes that could be soundtracks to forgotten nature documentaries, not unlike some of my favourite Boards of Canada tracks. Some of the songs have lyrics, some do not. Great for evenings when you don’t know what to listen to. The whole EP can be downloaded from his Myspace

Cosmic Sound – Bear Auras
Cosmic Sound – Backyard Woods
Cosmic Sound – Weird Trees

Three bros. from Victoria BC whipping up a fury like a race horse in a running rink.  Impenetrable dust cloud, bass heavy in the loud speaker.  Skate punk in the vein of The Meat Puppets or Minutemen.

BYKX-Barking Dagger

BYKX-Douglas and Yates

BYKX MYSPACE

-dirty