What We've Been Listening Too

Music is constantly playing, even in these last days of the Daily Wenzel offices. While we focus mostly on pop music, we've been known to play everything from classical composers, to experimental works by the likes of Conrad, Stephen Reich, and Philip Glass. Heck, even Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music has put in a few appearances and it was in this context that we gave Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez Lopez's Old Money a chance.  Mainly guitar noodling over drum beats, samples and keyboards, it's highly abstract take on twentieth century robber barons is still leaving us scratching our heads.

More easily accessible is Asobi Seksu's Hush, a wonderful and ethereal pop gem, that complements the wierdness of CocoRosie's  The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, another album that's been on fairly constant play. Joining the rotation this week was Beirut's latest offering, The March of the Zapotec/Holland a dual EP masquerading as an album. We're huge fans of Zach Condon, and Zapotec is consistent with the other Beirut releases, given an extra bit of flair by the 19 piece Jimenez Band, but the interesting feature here is the Holland side of the project which features Condon making keyboard music under the moniker Real People

Hills alive with music and sounds!

So much music has passed through our office this month that you'd forgive us for being somewhat reluctant to post about it all, especially if you factor in the amount of music that we brought back from SXSW and still haven't taken out of our festival bags.

But let us begin in those distant days before SXSW and what we were listening was dominated by The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. While some of us were hesitant, fearing that the band might be caught in a sophomore slump, these fears proved deeply unfounded. From the first listen we were entranced with Arcade Fire's ability to evoke the streets of Montreal, capturing that unique blend of modern alienation and despair thoroughly steeped in feelings of Catholic longing and guilt.

We were also quite taken with a little EP from The Bombay Bicycle Club. Four songs blending the Strokes, Sonic Youth, and the Smiths. Jangly, pop-oriented guitar songs. Beirut's Pompeii EP helped to whet our appetites for their SXSW performance, as did repeated listens of Blonde Redhead's Misery is a Butterfly.

We also acquired Julie Doiron's latest offering, Woke Myself Up, and while we are enjoy her return to lo-fi rockdom, we do not feel that we've been able to give the able its full due, and expect to hear more from it in April.

The Return from SXSW featured the introduction of the Great Lake Swimmers' album, Ongiara, but their quiet overtones were quickly overtaken by the surprisingly catchy pop-work of the Tokyo Sex Club, who we passed up seeing at SXSW in order to see the Stooges. A fair trade, but we realize that we would have been just as happy watching Tokyo Sex Club open for Cursive. Their high-energy three song Smith EP (again owing a debt to the Strokes) demonstrates that the band would have been a much better time than Spoon. We also picked up the Pony's Turn the Lights Out which is proving to be an enthralling textbook display of guitar work.

However, the class of the end of March clearly belongs to Modest Mouse and their new release, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. As quirky as ever, but with the extra guitar pop of Johnny Marr, we are perfectly happy sailing off into uncharted waters with the band.

SXSW #2

We left Calgary at seven o'clock Wednesday morning and arrived for our connecting flight in Houston early, at a little before noon. At the airport, while looking for a bite to eat, we heard mention that there had been a tornado sighting a few days earlier, but thought nothing of it, although it soon appeared that our flight was going to be delayed half an hour. A little while later, our flight was delayed another hour, on account of extreme weather at its originating airport. Next, the flight was announced to be overbooked. We began to think of driving straight to Austin and by the time our flight was announced delayed another hour, we were already on our way to the rental agency with our bags when he heard about road closures in southern Houston on account of washouts.

Luckily, we were heading north, and despite the hard rain in Houston, things cleared up about half an hour out of town, and there was just sporadic bursts through to Austin. Once we checked in and picked up our passes at the convention center, it was on to Emo's to catch a double bill of The Early Years, Callas, and Voxtrot in one room, and Beirut, the Mountain Goats, and Blonde Redhead in another.

Highlights here included the crescendo, wall of sound, descent into showgazing reverb madness that was the Early Years, and Voxtrot really made the most of its hometown status, delivering a high energy show. But it was Blonde Redhead in the Main Room that had the audience. Simply taking the stage changed the atmosphere of the club, making things darker, with shrieks of feedback piercing the air like lightning. Playing mostly songs off their upcoming album, things appear to be more muscular and menacing a complete contrast to the innocence and exuberance of Beirut - sweat-drenched, hanging from the rafters, playing their backyard bar mitzah Bowery folk music.

Compass Bearing - SXSW

Up and at'em early in the morning. The espresso machines on rapid fire as we all prepare for the short jaunt out to the airport to catch our flights to Austin and SXSW. Once there, we'll be making contact with other members of the Calgary media namely Fast Forward, CJSW, and Beatroute Magazine. We are prepared to be overwhelmed by bands, music, and film. We can't imagine what this week is like for the residents of Austin as a small town of music industry types descend on their city. One estimate we saw suggested that 17,000 people will visit the SXSW festival at some point, though by this time SXSW is really three festivals or conferences in one: music, film, and technology with each one drawing a sizable crowd.

Some things on our agenda for SXSW: the 4AD Showcase tonight, featuring (among others) Beirut and Blonde Redhead, both of these bands have been getting heavy rotation in our office speakers. The film Helvetica. Yes, it's about the typeface - hey, we read The Gutenburg Galaxy, it's only natural. People have been telling us to check out Andrew Bird all week. Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad, and the Queen seems like a one-time only deal. Most anticipated pre-SXSW rumour? Arcade Fire to play a secret show. They've got a four day window in their Ireland/UK tour to pull it off. Crazier things have happened.

Check out our SXSW side project: Bands, Blogs, and Buzz.

What we're listening to these days

With the spate of Best of 2006 Albums available these last few weeks, we at The Daily Wenzel have taken the opportunity to catch up on some music that we didn't get a chance to listen to during our hectic regular year-round listening schedule. But you imagine trying to cram twenty albums of so of listening into a ten day period. Regardless, here are some of our more notable:


The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street, granted this doesn't actually belong here on the strength of not being released in 2006, but the Time Top 100 Albums list got us talking and it turns out that none of us had ever listened to the actual album start to finish. Widely considered to be the best Stones album, it is rumoured that the Stones opted not to release any "singles" from it (perhaps to encourage airplay on the emerging non-singles oriented FM dial - Wikipedia disagrees though) and so its' songs are rarely heard on radio.

Snow Patrol's Eyes Open - this record got a lot of people gushing this year. It sounds to us a bit like a cross between James Blunt and Sebadoh. Maybe you had to be there, or perhaps it needs to sit in the record player a little longer.

Beulah's The Coast Is Never Clear, was a direct hit right out of the gate. At times reminescent of the Beach Boys and Wilco, a more Americanized version of Belle & Sebastian's pop sensibilities. We decided we could listen to this one all day long - if only there wasn't so much else to hear (and this really came out in 2001)!

Joanna Newsom - Ys, a critic's darling with some wierd folk overtones. We were a little taken aback at the number of songs surpassing the seven minute mark. Newsom's voice is one of a kind, kind of like Dan Bejar or Danielson on helium - Macy Gray sung folk, but even that doesn't quite capture it. Riveting. We were tempted to turn it off after the first minute, but hung around for the whole album.

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar. Neutral Milk Hotel's 1997 release In the aeroplane over the sea has been one of our favourite albums as it seemed to promise a new direction in sound that their follow-up, On Avery Island, couldn't quite match, and with the band's subsequent break-up we felt was gone for good. However, Jeremy Barnes from Neutral Milk Hotel, is here as a session player on Zach Condon's debut album and making all the same promises. Lon Gislan an EP released a few weeks ago only adds to our expectations.

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and Will Beat Your Ass. Really, this is perhaps the best album title release in a long while. This is the sort of thing normally used as a working title an then the band gets cold feet or some studio exec puts a kybosh on it. No such second thoughts with Yo La Tengo and this adventuresome, muscular outing melding sixties soul with guitar fuzz.

We Are Scientists - Live Sessions EP. We Are Nerds. We have a high school science teacher on staff. We Are Suckers for their sophisticated pop sensibilites, stripped down here. Some of the songs, like "Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt" are slowed down, heightening the emotional tension.

Cat Power - The Greatest. We loved "Nude as the News" back in the day, and her cover of the Stones' "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction" made her heart-ache and yearning speak to us in a way that Mick never could. It seems like a lot of people are having that exprience with this album and "Lived in Bars" in particular. Smoky, sultry . . .

Alright, so not necessarily twenty but the stacks of incoming records is starting to get high again.