So - I have a love hate relationship with "Indie Rock." I love that people are out there and doing it on their own and making it work. Or that people are recording on small labels and producing what can be such incredible pieces of work. I hate that the sound that has become associated with it is things like Tokyo Police Club and Foster the People and what I would more often term as Whiny College Rock(tm) (I fully blame groups like Weezer for starting this).
There is a group that has caught my attention in a big way - July Talk. I came across them on the CBC afternoon radio show with Allan Neil - and Allan sadly has a fondness for many of the Whiny College Rock groups - often I have to end up changing the station - not this time however. This time I was so wrapped up in it that I came home and bought the album immediately. This was the song that grabbed me:
I have spun this disk just about every day since I bought it. I have yet to see them live, but I have heard very good things about the performance - need to make it happen. There is a little of everything in July Talk - gravelly Tom Waits-like male vocals (King of Saturday Night Tom Waits, not the later gruffer version) - there are boppy Metric-like electronic riffs, straight up rock-n-roll, heartbreak, happiness, longing and some other somewhat disturbing themes, but all in all, this is a brilliant album.
I guess many local acts (wherever that local may be) would be considered indie just because they are doing things like crowd-sourcing to fund the album, or are putting together local compilations via fundraisers etc, or indeed, just putting out their own music on their own blood sweat and tears. If they get lucky, their production gets noticed and they may or may not get signed by a major label - this can be a kiss of death, or the launch of a major career. Sometimes, there has to be a compromise to meet certain label standards, sometimes there is a loss of intellectual property. Sometimes there is a piece of magic that happens and you see a group go from underground and obscure to the major mainstream (Nirvana anyone?) which can bring about its own major difficulties.
Acts that I hope will make it big because I love them and I wish success for them would fall into the folk dynamo trio from Newfoundland called The Once. They started out small and have garnered some incredible success through the past few years. They had a right place, right time moment with current folk superstar, Passenger who invited them to be the backing band on his most recent album, as well as taken them on a round the world tour as his opening act. The cut several successful videos of covers as they toured the US, the best of which is:
Passenger, Stu Larsen and The Once, all provide magic on this track. One of those moments where I think the cover is by far greater than the original was. As brilliant as their series of cover tunes were, their own music is quite spectacular. Their Christmas album is just about as magical as a Christmas album can be. The latest release from The Once is called Departures and is a beautiful piece of work. The single, and video called "We Are All Running" (Video uploader does seem to want to find the official video - but the link will take you there).
I am going throw in one more of their covers - which is again in conjunction with Passenger and Stu Larsen. It is one of Stu Larsen's songs, entitled San Francisco
After hearing this - I went and purchased the album it came from, Vagabond, and I was not even a little bit disappointed. Check it out, you won't be sorry.
I am going to wrap this one up with one of my current favorites and one long-time favorite. The first is Ben Caplan and the Occasional Smokers. Ben mixes, folk, rock, and klezmer to a wonderful degree that brings out something fantastic. The track Beautiful is what first sold me on him, but it was quickly followed by Seed of Love.
The second is a long time favorite - sadly they only managed one album before they went in separate directions. I first (and only) time I saw Sunfish, they were the opening act for Change of Heart at the Loft in St. John's. They instantly became one of my favorite bands (everyone was a little taken aback that I didn't care much for the headline band, but definitely loved the curtain warmer!). They released one album - Mola Mola that was full of incredible track after incredible track. Starting with "Difference" (again - issues with the video uploader - link will get you there), carrying through "You, Me and MaryJane"
onto my favorite track on the album - "Angels Get the Blues" (video uploader is for shit!) and "Whiskey Don't Go Bad"
and many more, I love this album from start to finish. I wish there had been more - I got very excited when I started to write this piece, because I found what I thought was another album - however it was a metal band - not bad, but not what I was looking for.
As always - if you have suggestions, comments, etc. I would be happy to entertain them. If you enjoyed what you read, please share it out...
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