It seems that Vancouver Island has become a breeding ground for great bands lately. A prime example is Colourbook. For the past few months their self-titled album has been in heavy rotation at my house, in my headphones, at my work, and just about anywhere else I could possibly listen to music. I simply cannot say enough good things about this band. Their songs are just so fucking great. Each one a ride that takes you up and then brings you slowly back down again while managing to leave you high. They accomplish so much: great use of many instruments, fantastic tempo changes, beautiful vocal harmonies, and the list could go on and on. There is great depth to the music, so much so that you could listen to the songs over and over again for a long time (like the amount of time it takes to have a shower, cook dinner, eat dinner, and then write a blog post on colourbook) and still want to listen once more.

In case you haven’t noticed, I really like Colourbook.

You will too.

Krakatoa – Colourbook

The Wimbledon Riot – Colourbook

Just this past Monday I had the great fortune of seeing these two wonderful bands play at the Biltmore.  I arrived, much to my dismay, in the middle of the Ruby Suns set. The song “Oh, Mojave” was being played, but it sounded different. It was a more stripped down, much more electronic version of the song. And something was wrong onstage. “There is mischief afoot!”, I thought to myself. After listening to the Ruby Suns studio album, “sea Lion”, I was positive that there had to be at least 6 or 7 people in the band. But up on stage there were only 3. Did my eyes deceive me? Where were the others hiding? Turns out the three onstage had  tiny versions of themselves hidden in sampling machines and keyboards, so they could double their beautiful music out put. The result was an amazing show. It definately had a more stripped down feel compared to the record, with a bigger emphasis on the electronic aspects of the songs. This worked out well though, at some points making me feel as if I were listening for the first time. Varying from soft lullabies to dancy upbeat pop music that had all three members (Ryan McPhun, Amee Robinson, Bevan Smith) doing multiple things onstage at once, the performance was just as engaging to watch as it was to listen to.

Oh, Mojave – Ruby Suns

Adventure Tour – Ruby Suns

Next up were the Dodos.  

They played a wonderful set full of danceable pop and catchy melodies. Lead singer/ guitar player Meric Long displayed a masterful talent with loop machines, looping both his vocals and guitar riffs, sometimes simultaneously, and adding loads of depth usually unheard of for a three piece pop act. Add to this the absolutely fan-fucking-tastic drumming of Logan Kroeber, beautiful rolls on the floor tom with plenty of rim shots and booming beats with sharp snare hits that had me dancing involuntarily, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a great band. But wait, there’s more. A third member, Keaton Snyder, was playing a giant vibraphone and another floor tom! Infusing yet more depth into the songs. Especially during the slower breakdowns. At one point both Long and Snyder were playing the vibraphone with bows from a cello. The result was a haunting, yet very pretty, humming melody. It was something that I have never seen before, so for that reason and so much more, I suggest that you go check out the Dodos. It’s for your own good. And go see them next time they are in town, you won’t be disapointed.

Paint the Rust – The Dodos

The Season – The Dodos

It’s not called the grind for no reason. Every one of us out there has had to work a job they hated, day in day out, until you feel as if your soul has be ground up into a messy pulp. If you haven’t ever experienced this this feeling then I offer you a simultaneous “congratulations” and “fuck off”, you are either so lucky or so filthy rich.

I just finished George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London”.  The book is a chronicle of the time Orwell spent in poverty while living in Paris, working as a dishwasher (plongeur), and in London, living as a tramp. Containing some fine social commentary, the book is an examination of poverty and injustice existing in the midst of metropolis. After leaving Paris, he theorizes on the significance of his work there, which was low paying with long hours, physically demanding, and completely useless:

“It does not matter whether his work is needed or not, because work in itself is good – for slaves at least…The mob (the thought runs) are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think…Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor. But in reality the mass of rich and poor people are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit…Since there is no difference between the mass of rich and poor, there is no question of setting the mob loose. The mob is in fact loose now, and – in the shape of rich men – is using its power to set up enormous treadmills of boredom.”

Word up George. You said it.

Here’s a few songs to help get you through the grind. You’ll like them whether you are rich or poor, promise.

Wake Up – Dr. Dog

007 – Desmond Dekker & The Aces

When a band can write amazing, catchy, and beautiful pop songs, which simultaneously make my feet a bit lighter and my head a bit heavier, then it would be safe to say that I am a fan. If that same band can also write instrumental songs that continuously make me fall in love with music like it was my first time, then it would be it safe to say that I am praying at that band’s altar (now, that may sound like hyperbole, but that is just how much I love music. My deity).

I have been praying at the altar of Electrelane for quite some time now.

Formed in 1998, out of Brighton, England, Electrelane was made up of four female members,Verity Susman, Emma Gaze, Mia Clarke, and Ros Murray. The music really speaks for itself. If you enjoy soft, floating melodies then you will like this band. If you enjoy driving, fast paced songs that sometimes flirt with experimentation then you will like this band. If you enjoy organs then you will like this band. If you enjoy indie music in general, then you will like this band. For those of you still not sold, they also do the most amazing cover of I’m On Fire by Bruce Springstein. One of the best covers I’ve ever heard.

Electrelane released four studio albums and a slew of EP’s before going on indefinite hiatus in 2007. So I continue to pray and pray. I’m slowly losing my faith though… Then again, maybe it’s better this way.

I would highly recommend checking out The Power Out (2004, released by Too Pure), and Singles, B-sides, and Live (2006).

I Want To Be The President – Electrelane

Only One Thing Is Needed – Electrelane

You Make Me Weak At The Knees – Electrelane

Post-Punk is the shit. You know it, I know it. We don’t really need to talk about it. Just imagine, though, if someone were to combine post-punk with funk.

Well, a bunch of people already did. A long time ago.

Do The Du – A Certain Ratio

Get Funky – ESG

African Funk + African Jazz + West African Highlife = Afrobeat.  The very danceable, upbeat style of music was pioneered by Fela Anikulapo Kuti, hailing from Nigeria; son of a anti-colonial activist mother and a father who was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.

This guy has led one of the most bad-ass lives of all the so very many bad-ass lives that exist out there (For the full bio check out his wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti ).   Here are some brief highlights of said life: he spent time in New York with the Black Panthers in 1969; set up his own commune, Kalakuta Republic, which he declared independent from the Nigerian state; he started his own political party and attempted to run for president of Nigeria; and he had more than a million people attend his funeral. All this on top of being an internationally successful composer.

Oh, and at one point he was married to 27 women at one time.

Fela Kuti’s music is entrenched in political activism.  The most charged of the songs has to be the record “Zombie”.  Released in 1977 the song uses the zombie metaphor to criticize the Nigerian military.  The military’s response?  To raid his commune with 1000+ soldiers and burn it to the ground. In the process throwing his elderly mother from a window to her death and beating Kuti within an inch of his life. Fel Kuti’s response? Deliver his mother’s coffin to the main army barracks and write two more hit songs, “Coffin for Head of State” and “Unknown Soldier”.

Bad-Ass.

Zombie – Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa 70