NO EXPENSIVE DYNAMICS SHIT

Expensive Shit, Captain Easychord and Nunk's fantabolus shimmy-sham has come to an end, going down in memory as
probably the most consistently excellent dance parties in the city. Neither expensive nor shitty, the party represented the rising spirit within Toronto that seeks to invite anyone-and-everyone rather than "anyone-who's-anyone" to the "hey come hear this" party. For many of Toronto's night children, Expensive Shit was their first exposure to discotron remixes, dancehall bumps, grime struts and Baile funk jams all under one roof (or "groove if you wanna get cheesy about it), genres that would otherwise be segregated along scene lines or exclusively spun by touring DJs during rare visits. Though the party will be missed, i'm confident that with the end of Expensive Shit, something similar in spirit but altogether new in content or theme will fill the void. We've come along way from The Dance Cave, so let's keep at it, because we all know that ideas never really do run out so long as there's people to think them up and act upon them.

I ran into Dan from No Dynamics in the parking lot, who broke out his laptop, neither to play minimalist techo nor look at "tentacle porn" as Eugene from Lenin so eloquently put it, but to pass me a copy of the new No Dynamics EP, which I could rave about until well after people stop listening to me.

It's damned incredible how much force they can pack into audio recordings nowadays without really having to get too high tech. Jeff McMurrich, who produced and engineered the session, is no stranger to high wattage, having recorded with acts like the notoriously loud I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can't and the almost unrecordable Martin Tielli side project Nick Buzz. Add to that his more mainstream experience with groups like Rusty, The Monoxides and Danko Jones and you've got the best guy for the job; after all, he's taken Toronto's most explosive live band and gave them a professionally recorded twist without containing or restraining their most intense and boisterous moments.

McMurrich and the band have created not a monster but a deep, heavy record that invites more than it isolates. Vanessa's voice, which usually cannot be mixed properly by most sound dudes on stage, really sticks out with McMurrich at the wheel, while the similarly underheard organ playing by Carl Didur soaks into the sound in a much more prevalent wya than on stage. "I've Got You on My Mind" might just be one of the best Canadian rock tunes on record. Sadly, my record player is broken so I can't enjoy it on vinyl quite yet, but he was nice enough to burn me some digi files. I'd post some, but one: it would prevent you from buying it, and two: it's too good for this blog.

But fortunately for you, he loaded the disc with other tunes from bands like Dungen and Quintron, who will both be in Toronto soon, so look for some of those tunes to pop up on the radio show and on this site over the next few weeks...or how bout now?



QUINTRON ft. Miss Pussy Cat - Place Unknown

When I heard that this guy has only been around for a decade or so, I wondered what cruel fate made it so that this dude wasn't around making music in 1981. He would have been a billionaire under those circumstances.
* Playing Nov. 5 @ The Silver Dollar w/ Miss Pussy Cat and possibly No Dynamics. This might possibly be one of the best shows you might ever see at The Silver Dollar.



DUNGEN - Ta Det Lugnt
I'd say this is some pretty weird shit for rock n' roll. The album is pretty unpredictable, hovering in the Super Furry Animals/Badly Drawn Boy vein at times and then doing completely different things other times. It's also really cool to hear a Swedish rock band sing in Swedish rather than affected British.
* @ Lee's, Oct. 11 w/ Mia Doi Todd

A playlist of today's show will appear tomorrow.

PS - I also 'eard some tings about a forthcoming semi-legal (and by that, i mean totally illegal) underground show in another abandoned building that will most likely be busted up like the last one, but it'll be fun anyway. I won't say anything about it until after I've attended, other than it's not too hard to find info for it.