A Cruel And Brutal Fellow

One of the nice things about having a blog is that you have to make some research on your subject, and sometimes, you learn very interesting related facts, such as the meaning of the word 'ruffian', of which I was totally ignorant a few minutes ago. The band I was researching is called Born Ruffians and my research didn't go much further than the name. I only know that they are a band from Ontario and that last year, they released a very good debut album called 'Red Yellow and Blue'. They make catchy songs, and even though they stay faithful to the basic instruments of rock'n'roll, they are very good to experiment with the way they use them. They play tonight with Akron/Family at Il Motore. I think Akron/Family is headlining, but in my opinion Born Ruffians are better. Here's one of my favorite songs from 'Red Yellow and Blue'.

Mediafire: Born Ruffians - Foxes Mate For Life (168 kbps)

POMO - is it?

Have you ever heard of Radiohead? Uh uh… Before becoming experimental geniuses with Kid A, these guys were really good to take the rock clichés that bands like Nickelback uses all the time and arrange them in a way that makes them work, a little bit like Tarantino does with the clichés of cinema. A perfect example for this would be Fake Plastic Trees, a sentimental rock ballad Bon Jovi-style with violins and organs, but for a reason I can’t explain, when I listen to the song, I really feel something.

There’s a band from Montreal that also does that right. I wouldn’t say everything from them is good. I didn't go crazy on their bigger hits like ‘Montréal – 40’ or ‘Pâte Filo’ and I didn't go crazy on their new album 'Labyrinthes' neither. But when I finally got a hand on Trompe-l’oeil a few weeks ago, I discovered a song called ‘La Monogamie’ that made me go crazy. The song is already good from the beggining – especially the beautiful acoustic guitar riff – and until the half of the song, it's classic indie rock like we like it. Then, at 2:45, the outro begins, with a strummed acoustic guitar and the voice of Julien Mineau, it then evolves into a crescendo that's usually not my kind of thing and it finishes in a crazy chorale with drums and guitars and keyboards, and all this makes me feel something I can’t explain, a little bit like with Fake Plastic Trees. Ok, Malajube are no Radiohead. They’re not even close. But when I hear something like that, I feel proud to be a Québécois.

They are playing tonight at La Tulipe to promote their new album. The Montreal-based Hollerado is the band opening. I’ve seen them open for the Virgins a year ago and I can tell you they're cool. But... the show is sold-out. There’s still the possibility to pickpocket one at the door if you want to danse, danse, danse toute la nuit.

Mediafire: Malajube - La Monogamie (196 kbps) 

How to get girls when you're ugly

What is the cool thing to do when you have to play in a crappy venue in Montreal in front of 15 people who are just disappointed that Voxtrot had canceled their presence at the last minute? Simple, you tell bilingual musical jokes like, ‘You know what the guitarist from The Smiths (Johnny Marr) says when he’s bored of something? He says : ‘J’en ai marre’’ That's funny, isn't? The 14 people who were also there probably know about which band I'm talking cause the show was memorable. For the rest of you, I will satisfy your curiosity, I'm talking about The 1990s.

In addition to being a decade, they are a band from Glasgow, and their debut album was amazing. I don't know why they are still unknown here in America cause their songs are really catchy. I probably listened to ‘See You At The Lights’, ‘You Made Me Like It’ and ‘You’re Supposed To Be My Friend' more than a hundred times each. They are often compared to fellow Glaswegians Franz Ferdinand, the principal reason being that the ancient band of the singer Jack McKeown, The Yummy Fur, counted for a period Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson, respectably singer and drummer of Franz Ferdinand.

And following Franz Ferdinand, who released their third album earlier this year, the 1990s released today the follow-up to Cookies, entitled ‘Kicks’. Second albums are always difficult, but this one, like the title say, kicks... lots of asses. Their sound is still as retro as before and that's for the best in my opinion. They even hired Bernard Butler, ex-guitarist of the really good Britpop band Suede, as producer to make sure they really sound like they were from the 1990s. But, what makes them superior to similar bands who are fond of remaking the musical history? Simple again, they don’t take themselves seriously, and that’s what makes songs like 'The Box' so enjoyable.

Mediafire: The 1990s - The Box (213 kbps) 

'Smoke Mushrooms' in Norwegian

The new Röyksopp is out today. That’s a pretty important release, but... wait a minute, ‘What the hell is Röyksopp?’ Well, they’re from Bergen in Norway who has seen the Bergen Wave around 2000. They have released in the past two critically and commercially approved albums: ‘Melody A.M.’in 2001 and ‘The Understanding’ in 2005. Their best known singles include ‘Eple’, ‘Remind Me’, ‘Only For This Moment’, ‘What Else Is There’ (featuring Karin Dreijer of The Knife) and the first single from ‘Junior’, ‘Happy Up Here’, which is the major blog sensation since the beggining of the year.

All this looks very good, but if you would ask the critic in me what I think about them, I would answer this: ‘Their style is somewhere between Euro-pop and IDM, and if they appeal to both connoisseurs and large public, good for them. They found a pretty good way to achieve this by disguising their electronic experiments in pop music, but what a real pop amateur like me wonders while listening to their first two albums is: where are the songs?’

I guess they evolved, cause there are actual songs on 'Junior' and pretty good ones too. To name a few: ‘The Girl and The Robot’ (featuring Robyn), 'Vision One’ (featuring Anneli Dreckner) and ‘You Don’t Have a Clue’ (featuring Anneli Dreckner again). This album is mostly good, sometimes great, and it’s probably their best effort so far. Waiting for the follow-up of ‘Junior’, ‘Senior’– I’m not joking -, that’s gonna be released later this year, take a listen to the rythmic use of bass guitar and the child-like voice of Lykke Li on the Air pastiche ‘Miss It So Much’.

Mediafire: Röyksopp - Miss It So Much (192 kbps)

Bruitz de Garçons

Remember the Holy Fuck remix of 'Happy Up There' I posted here a couple of days ago? Well Boys Noize, our favorite German DJ/producer, did one too. Like Holy Fuck, he took all the dreamy side of the original away, but instead of the experimental dance rock approach, he chose the bad-ass German electro approach. Less original I agree, but much more appropriate for getting crazy tonight at Metropolis on the occasion of I Love Neon 10 Year Anniversary. Tickets still available through Paypal for 32$CAN. He's gonna play the songs of his coming album. Expect the best. 

Mediafire: Röyksopp - Happy Up Here (Boys Noize Remix) [208 kbps] 

The Chick From The Knife Releases Album

Let’s be serious : Sweden is heaven on earth. I once asked a Swedish girl if it was true and she laughed at me. But I know, and we know, and she knows: Sweden IS heaven. They study for free in Upsala, they get rich in Stockholm and they make beautiful music in Gothenburg. Look at this list of artists or bands that come from there : Air France, The Embassy, The Honeydrips, Jens Lekman, The Knife, Love Is All, Sally Shapiro, Studio, The Tough Alliance. That’s quite empressing for a town named Gothenburg. Please check them out cause they're all excellent and their music seems to come directly from where they’re from : heaven...

... except The Knife. I don't know where their music comes from, but it's probably a really strange place. We all know them for their breakthrough single ‘Heartbeats’, but they also made two excellent albums: 'Deep Cuts' in 2003 and 'Silent Shout' in 2006, which are filled by excellent dark electro pop songs, like ‘Pass This On’ - don't start jerking off guys , it's a drag queen - ‘You Take My Breath Away’ and ‘Marble House’. When you listen to their music and see them with their bird masks, you imagine cold and weird descendants of Vikings, but they actually look like two very cool brother and sister. Sadly for us, they took a three year break in 2007, in order pursue their own solo projects: DJ Coolof for Olof and Fever Ray for Karin.

And here's the point of this post: Fever Ray released the physical version - it was available digitally since January - of her self-titled album yesterday. There are already two videos: one for the first single 'If I Had a Heart' and one for 'When I Grow Up'. The album is overall very dark and very ambient, but it's great from track 1 to track 10. I've uploaded for you the song that was playing all day on my iTunes and, as a bonus, a happy makeover of 'When I Grow Up' by fellow Gothenburger Dan Lissvik from Studio that you can listen to cheer up afterwards.

Mediafire: Fever Ray - Dry and Dusty (320 kbps) [removed after request]

Mediafire: Fever Ray - When I Grow Up (D. Lissvik remix) [192 kbps] [removed after request]