Apostle of Hustle is the project of Andrew Whiteman. He is one of the core members (guitarist) of Broken Social Scene.
Technically, I've seen him live (as a part of BSS)... But I was supposed to see him at last year's Metronome Celebration. But, as the sob story goes, it started raining that afternoon and my friend backed out no longer wanting to go. Like all of these guys, the level of regret was pretty low seeing as how they all constantly tour.
Pardon me for the lack of recent posting. I've been busying living (rather, working). Regardless, I've also been debating with which band I wanted to post next. Truth is, today's submission is quite a stretch to be considered for "Rock."
But nonetheless, Crystal Castles is in fact "indie" and they are most certainly Canadian (Ontario to be more precise). More importantly, this is my blog - and I want to share the below song.
Crystal Castles' self titled debut (notice their new album has a title of "II") was okay at best. It's a little too epileptic clubby for yours truly but I dug their song "Courtship Dating" and is still in heavy iPod rotation. Although, I have been known to overrate anything involving that word choice, since I personally have a stong affinity for that word.
Last night, while watching the Lost festivities, There was an incredibly short teaser commercial for Crystal Castles (It only aired twice, during the JKL Aloha to Lost special). The commerical worked, for me at least, and I ran over to both their official website (www.crystalcastles.com) and Myspace (www.myspace.com/crystalcastles). As soon as I saw that this duo was Canadian I was dead set on the decision on the topic of my first post in over a week.
The below track has been on near repeat ever since. (In my true fashion of trying to run songs into the ground). Bonus note, this duo will be in Chicago on August 13th playing the Congress Theater. It's very unlikely I will attend, I usually don't even bother asking if anybody music this dancey trippy poppy. This album is priced at just under $8 on Amazon.
October 9, 2008 was a a huge night for me and my love affair with Mountie Rock. It was the first time I saw the band I mentioned in my last post, Broken Social Scene, for the first time live in concert.
The opening band that evening was Land of Talk. A band that actually had a song profiled not too shortly prior on the consistently wonderful NPR's All Songs Considered. This is yet another Canadian band with a woman up front. Lizzy Powell is a treasure.
It's an awesomely great experience to have a band put on a performance that makes you download their album the moment you get home. That's what happened with Land of Talk. Their album, Some are Lakes, was a really nice discovery for yours truly.
By the way, I'm really happy for the few people that have chosen to "follow" me thus far. Seriously, it's making this new effort real easy. So by now you know how I like to end these posts. The following are links to Land of Talk's official MySpace page (www.myspace.com/landoftalk) and website (www.landoftalk.com).
This won't be last time I post a song by Broken Social Scene. They are, by a very large margin, my favorite band in my Mountie Rock genre. I look forward to seeing them live in Milwaukee Sunday October 3, 2010. It's a long story why I'm not seeing them in Chicago in July.
Rumor has it, the below song was intially written to be an instrumental track. But I think even post rock lovers Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning couldn't resist the opportunity to have a song feature the Mountie Rock Female All-Star team of Emily Haines (of Metric), Amy Millan (of Stars) and Leslie Feist (of, well... Broken Social Scene before she got Apple'd and graduated to a solo career).
I really like how Broken Social Scene specifically mentioned everybody, and the part they played, for each track in the album booklet for Forgiveness Rock Record. For example, here is the dissection of "Sentimental X's:"
Emily Haines - vocals Amy Millan - vocals Leslie Feist - vocals Justin Peroff - drums Charles Spearin - bass, trumpet Andrew Whiteman - guitar Sam Goldberg - electric sitar, electric guitar Ohad Benchetrit - electric guitar Kevin Drew - bass synth Brendan Canning - keys Evan Cranley - trombone Leon Kingstone - tenor saxophone Bryden Baird - trumpet
The below video clip remains, in my humble opinion, the best version of Feist's most famous song. Of all the videos I've posted so far in this Mountie Rock blog effort - it's the one I hope you most take the time to watch.
Some people don't like it when small musical acts get exposure, blow up, avail themselves to a larger audience. I am not one of those people. Truth be told, The Reminder, was one of the best front to back albums I've heard in the last five years. It's so much more than the almost corny "1234" to include somber tracks like "So Sorry" and the song that will never make me walk through an airport the same way ever again - "My Moon My Man." The one thing I will say in detraction of Feist's popularity: it made me, for the first time ever, pay above face value to see a concert. I look forward to seeing her perform again and accept the face that it will probably be in a larger venue.
Leslie Feist earned her Mountie Rock credentials from her heavy involvement with, you guessed it, Broken Social Scene... And together with the last two women I've mentioned here (Amy Millan and Emily Haines) appears on Forgiveness Rock Record. In fact, all together on the same song, which I will feature in my next post.
One of the reasons why I like Mountie Rock is due in large part to the women of the genre. We may not have gender equality in this world yet, but I think it exists in the Independent Music coming out of Canada. Shortly after I my last post, in which I called out Amy Millan of Stars, I knew I would have to write about Emily Haines next. Emily Haines is the frontwoman for Metric.
This is a band I want to see live... someday. Sadly, I have a prior obligation on May 20. If you are looking for a show to see that Thursday night, the Vic Theatre amazingly still has tickets available. I'm relatively confident that this Torontinian (yes, I just made up that word) group will come back to Chicago sometime in the next year and a half. Like a true staple of Mountie Rock, this gang lives on the road: They are announced to play some upcoming Lilith Fair shows and will be opening for Muse later this year.
I'm going to keep this lady leaf string running with my next post as well. My next post will be the woman Steve Jobs helped explode into the mainstream.
This latest album is available over at Amazon for a very good price of $5.99, however bigger fans of this group than myself will insist you start with their earlier recordings. Go ahead and click over to either Metric's MySpace page (www.myspace.com/metricband) or official webiste (www.ilovemetric.com) for more.
I have seen Stars live. They are coming back to my neck of the woods in June, but I waited too long and didn't buy myself a ticket before the show sold out. (Kind of upsetting given the fact I told a friend in Nashville about the Chicago show and she bought her ticket well ahead of me - maybe I should have taken my own advice.) Nonetheless, these guys are Mountie Rock certified - the band formed in Toronto and are intermingled with the band that made me create the "Mountie Rock" genre label: Broken Social Scene.
What made me hesitate on buying the concert ticket? Well, the band announced that their new tour would be a front to back playing of their upcoming album: The Five Ghosts. The two or three song encore would be pre-voted on by local fans. This new album drops June 22. The concert I wanted to see is June 9. If you have Stars in your top 5 bands (like my Nashville friend), it's an easy decision. Yours truly needed to hear more of the album.
The only song I've heard so far off the new album is "Fixed." It's probably important to mention that my Nashville friend has not seen them live - which further established her desire to see the upcoming show stronger than mine.
More music from them is available at the MySpace (www.myspace.com/stars) and official (www.youarestars.com) websites. Spoiler alert: this won't be the last time you see a Stars song posted here on Mountie Rock... I'm looking in your direction lead female vocal Amy Millan!
Friends and I were playing video games last night while listening to NPR's All Songs Considered Podcast. To be exact - we were listening to this episode, which featured the song "Odessa" by Caribu.
Just moments earlier, one of my friends was attempting to convince me that I needed to start a "Mountie Rock" blog. I was putting up medium opposition. It was not the first time this particular friend had made the suggestion. But minutes later I heard the below, YouTube official music video embedded, song.
The timing was perfect. Not to mention these guys have a near perfect band name for my "Mountie Rock" genre. The man behind this music is Daniel Snaith, who's previous music effort was called Manitoba (Canadian, eh?). You can hear more of their music on their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/cariboumanitoba) or their official website (www.caribou.fm).
Do you want to know more about Canadian Independent Rock Music? A genre I lovingly call "Mountie Rock." Allow me to make a few suggestions. Follow the musical path I am about to lay out, if you so choose.
If you are a man, I suggest you start listening to this album first: "You Forgot It In People" by Broken Social Scene"
If you are a lady, I suggest you start here instead: "The Reminder" by Feist
After sampling these, ask yourself if you like the faster paced beats- -or the slower paced grooves.
If you're a dude, and want to move stop here next: "Folkloric Feel" by Apostle of Hustle
If you've got matching pairs of X chromosomes, and you don't stop 'til you get enough: "Some Are Lakes" by Land of Talk
Now on the flip side, if you're a fella' and want to lay back with the brim o'your cap over your eyes: "Population" by The Most Serene Republic
Similarly, if you are the fairer sex looking for introspection in music: "In Our Bedroom After The War" by Stars
At this time let me disclose that I enjoy all above mentioned music. By some accounts, there may not be much of a difference in the above voyages. And, I surely did not come to all these acts in such a logical manner. I may be depriving you of the fun of traversing the Northern Ally's landscape looking for cool note imports.
If you're still with me, and have enticed your Canadian appetite (not talking about venison here), it's time to take a seriously close look at Broken Social Scene.
Listen to the recently released "Forgiveness Rock Record" by Broken Social Scene:
Feel free to play this performance in the background when I give a brief history of Broken Social Scene:
Broken Social Scene, at it's core, is Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning.
Kevin Drew:
Brendan Canning:
When they tour, which is often, they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 11 musicians:
The whole group was bascially a "side project." It is comprised of solo acts who are either between tours/albums or quite possibly bored/broke. All the above mentioned bands have shared a stage with Broken Social Scene. The "side project" became the Main Attraction.
However, although I believe the group is more than the sum of their interchanging parts - it does have one large glowing success story in Leslie Feist. Feist is the breakout star and no longer tours as a part of Broken Social Scene (however, you can't take her voice off some of my favorite B.S.S. tracks).
Leading me to the next step in this path to Mountie Rock fandom. The two "Broken Social Scene Presents:" albums:
Kevin Drew's "Spirit If..."
Brendan Canning's "Something For All of Us"
These two efforts from the Broken Social Scene machine are a reversing of the tide. These two founding mounties invested all of themselves into B.S.S... They have no other vessel to spin off their own solo efforts. Some of the more, for lack of a better term, "Fundamentalist" lovers of Independent Canadian Music see these efforts as an inferior attempt to capitalize on the successful bandwagon of B.S.S.
I strongly disagree. Not only do I enjoy both of these albums, but Drew and Canning deserve to have their own name on the marquee after helping along such a long line of acts for us to enjoy.
To listen to this much music is asking too much. I have no delusions of grandeur that someone will read this, dive in head first and end up calling me in a few months asking if I'm going to see New Buffalo in concert.
Basically, I kinda fell into this deep, deep well of sonic talent. For me, it started in the most random of places.
A NetFlix rental of Half Nelson, in which I heard a song in the background of this scene:
That song is "Shampoo Suicide" by Broken Social Scene... It remains my favorite song in the "Mountie Rock" genre.
Apostle of Hustle is the project of Andrew Whiteman.
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