ESB PLAYLIST 9/30/05

Caught a last-minute gig by Tokyo's Zoobombs last night at the Silver Dollar, this being their last of a string of gigs in Toronto this year. It was quite a lot like their first show back in March: fluid, funky and powerfully loud. The opening acts, however, made the wait for the headliners a frustrating, impatient one. It was good to see members of Broken Social Scene play a rare stripped down gig, but they sounded a bit too much like...well, members of Borken Social Scene, playing more for themselves than for the crowd. Jeremy Finklestien from No Dynamics played in the next band, whose name escapes me, and although his robustness on the skins merged well with the sludgy, one-chord dark rock of the rest of the band, it could not save them from their lead singer, who they could easily do without. While the rest of the band came off strong, the singer cast a terribly unforgiving shadow over their hard work with his throaty mess of a voice.

But I will give high kudos to the women involved in the supporting cast. Kat Burns played early to an almost empty room, and was given far too little attention by the audience. Her songs are on the more melancholy side of life but it's no deterrent to her sound and demeanour, which can be quite pretty and soothing at times. With a band to back her up, she'd be dyno-mite! Jill Southern also sang beautifully and picked some almost sythn-like solos on her guitar, but sadly she was there only to back up the Bowie impressions of her lead singer in the band My Project Blue.

"We just got in from Vancouver," said frontman Chad Blue, "there were 40 mile per hour winds and it was scary." I can't imagine anyone would have sympathy for them considering that wind speeds in the Gulf of Mexico have been peaking at a roof-raising 220 kilometers/hr. But I shouldn't be so harsh. They do sound good on record and they seem like nice people.



KAT BURNS - Not Now

And now, this week's playlist...

THE FALL - I Can Hear the Grass Grow
* A cover of the tune by The Move from a new Fall album due out soon. Courtesy of Shake Your Fist.

JACKSON AND HIS COMPUTER BAND - Arpeggio
* Mike Sallot of Yo Seez! tipped us off to this new Warp artist whose album "Smash" just dropped on September 15th. Mike will probably have a showcase on Jackson soon, so you'll be able to download some more tracks. But really, buy the album, because it's one of the best electro releases of the year. Read a review or two.

JOSEPHINE XV - I'm Happy the Sent You Away, Ha Ha
* I know very little about this group, but it's a fucking strange song. I'll do some more research and maybe a showcase in the near future. Brought to you by WFMU'S Beware of the Blog.

MATTHEW HERBERT - Esmie's Waltz
* More from the experimental pop genius' "Plat Du Jour" album from earlier this year. Via Outsider music blog Music for Maniacs.

HYMIE'S BASEMENT - 21st Century Pop Song
* A side project from Fog and WHY?.

KERRI CARRISE - King of BoraBora
KERRI CARISSE - The Cave
* Two demos from a forthcoming release that has yet to be completed. I'd post these tunes for you, but knowing Kerri, she probably wouldn't let me. "No new tunes until the album is done," she told me, so I respect her wishes, but damn, these tunes are killer.

METRIC - Monster Hospital
METRIC - Picture of a Girl
CONSTANTINES - Love in Fear
* New Toronto music that will sell a lot of records worldwide is always a good thing. From Sixeyes and Cat Bird Seat respectively.

The rest of the playlist can be found on yesterday's post...scroll down.

Next week: new music from The Blow, Tom Vek, Fiery Furnaces and more.

*****
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Our beloved record smasher and beat deformer 0=0 will be going on tour through Europe this fall. Go and see him if you're Eiuropean. Dates available here. He's very excited about a venue in Sweden that he's most certainly to rock. It looks like this:



If only we had places like that in Toronto.