O CANADA! Let me
reintroduce you to a little country I like to call Canada, the place where
draft dodgers used to go and where everybody gets to see a doctor. But
there’s so much more to our neighbor to the north, which has become a hotbed of
experimental rock. Music devotees know the sounds of indie darlings the Arcade Fire and perhaps have
found their way to bands such as the New
Pornographers and Broken Social Scene. If you’re
truly an underground-music devotée, the chances are good that
you’ve just about worn out your copy of Wolf
Parade’s Apologies
to the Queen Mary, because Apologies is a musical gem. But those
crafty Canadians are an industrious bunch; Wolf Parade songsmith Spencer
Krug’s new side project, Sunset Rubdown, has released its first full-length, Shut Up I Am Dreaming, and it’s
golden. Huge in scope, with everything from strong guitars and piano to
tinkling bells, the album is topped off by Krug’s signature yelp,
which resembles David Byrne’s nervous melodies for Talking
Heads. Shut Up’s playfulness frequently channels the fantastical
but can seamlessly transition to a quiet, haunting sound. God bless you,
Canada, and may you continue to let your freak flag fly — you know,
the one with the big leaf on it.
SINGLES ONLY: Who better
to come up with the jam of the summer than three guys hailing from the spot
where it’s sweltering practically all year long? Miami-based wonder
trio Basic Vocab launches the single “Come Get with It,” from debut effort The General Dynamic, which was
released May 23. Like the state of Florida itself, Basic Vocab isn’t
typically Southern; the group’s no cog in the crunk wheel. Basic
Vocab’s work is often likened to A Tribe
Called Quest’s, a fair comparison
because of the organic down-tempo vibe, courtesy of Tony Galvin, and lyrical flow from
the rhyming duo of JL Sorell and Mental Growth. The groove for “Come Get with It” starts out
heavy on the bass, keeping a tempo for when the weather is too hot for
dancing but just right for swaying. An innocuous plea — “Just
trying to get next to you” — comes in from the MC, and in a
world where arrogant songs such as Ying Yang Twins’ “The
Whisper Song” persist on Top 40, the soft coo for attention is damn
near romantic. This is no club jam. Roll the windows and pop the top,
because summer has arrived.
This article appears in May 18-24, 2006.
