Various Artists
Double Agent 001 7" vinyl
Double Agent. DA 001.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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Rose Melberg and Dustin Reske singing and composing a song
together--is that a musical match made in heaven or what? At the very
least, it's a record label's dream. Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be DGC's
dream or Warner Bros. dream--they might be thinking more on the line
of Eddie Vedder/Courtney Love, or Michael Bolton/Whitney Houston. But
since we're talking about indie-pop, something which the major labels
probably think is a cola not unlike Pepsi that's popular with Bombay
teenagers, we can just dismiss their dreams as irrelevant. So, as for
this indie-pop musical dream, Double Agent lives it on its very first
release! The song is "The Love We Could Have Had," a fuzzy, catchy,
totally lo-fi offering with (of course) brilliant vocals. However, the
must hear song that it is, I had higher expectations that it might end up
being the best song ever written in the history of all music. But it's
not. Oh well. It's still awazingly good though.
And the three songs by the other three artists on this EP are a treat, too. Papas Fritas contributes "Here She Comes." And if the Dustin Reske/Rose Melberg duet was a pop dream, this is a pop miracle! I really need to pick up their album soon.
Zaius, which is an alias for Peter of the Double Agent label, starts up the B-Side, with "29th Scroll, 6th Verse," the most mellow track on the EP. It's a bizarre crossing of soft folky guitar pop with samplings from the movie Planet of the Apes!
And with "Cult Here, Come Home," My Favorite bring the EP to a close, with an upbeat, yet nostalgically sad male/female vocaled guitar pop tune, the kind you just know you'll still love years from now.
Various Artists
Educacion Y Descanso - Una Fantasia Musical Ambientada En El Balneario De Siesta CD
Siesta. siesta 120.
by Keith Mclachlan.
March 5, 2001.
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Listening to this cd I feel like I should now spend
most of my Saturdays at home watching PBS re-run old
episodes of the Lawrence Welk show due to the amount
of enjoyment I seem receive from the sounds on
display. To say it is somewhat studied and
dispassionate would be, I imagine, a far bit too
cruel. The producers behind this record seem to be
precise archivists of a certain time and place, that
that particular foci was one pre-occupied with cute
foreign singers singing cutely over all too smart (for
the lyrical innards) musical backdrops. It is a bit
like learning (via Behind the Music) that the
Partridge
Family soundtrack was created by professional old
session players including a drummer pretending to be
some dumb 6 year old kid. Must be something similar
here, but also the same in that of course the
Partridge
Family songs were almost bona-fide classics. Here,
too, it is likely that these players are far too old
and know far too well their illegitimacy and their
distance from the sort of emotions and senses
applied to this music. Yet, still, their dedication
to
craft and art makes this an accomplished and earnest
work beyond its influences. It is the second in a
series, the length of which is unknown so far (at
least to me), and the set is categorized as a
musical comedy, but as most of the music and all of
the
liner notes are in Spanish I can't say I am yet able
to pick up on the humour allegedly contained within.
However, I am able to witness the moving and whimsical
moments and, yes, the earnest and frivolous moments (a
cheeky
cover of 'To Sir With Love'). The great thing about
these records (this and the previous Sol Y Sombra) is
the idea that they will expose a certain brand of
music to people that might not otherwise (had it not
been on Siesta) have had desire to endure. This is
the
definition of lovely, of course, but again I wonder
about the packaging because surely the designers base
their colour schemes on the vibes transmitted to them
from the recording but this colour, if I remember my
colour swatches for the 1993 model line Dodge
Intrepid, is something close to champagne which is
nice if you are old and dull, which as earlier stated
at least partly describes the men here, but this
record should be shocking pink and lemon yellow or
maybe bongo blue and trendy turquoise because the
music is lively and edutaining. Oh well, the girl on
the cover is beautiful and very stylish and really
kind of groovy and what would she be doing on this
album cover were it not hip. So then, maybe I am
just unable to see sound in the same colours as
everyone else. No big deal.
Various Artists
Family Album CD
Shyboy. 001.
by Keith Mclachlan.
February 2, 1997.
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You know, usually you get a box of chocolates and like Forrest says
"you never know what you're gonna get," but what Forrest forgot to say
is that most of the time you get the shaft after your relatives have
picked over the good stuff and you find yourself stuck with something
vile like nouget, and the same is usually true for compilation cds
especially those serving as first serves for rookie labels. But this
compilation cd from ShyBoy records is something of a revelation. For
years I believed the rule for Australian bands was INXS and the
exception was the Cannanes, but here is a generous portion of music
from Oz along with some US flavor and holy moly it is pretty darn
great, in fact the weakest tracks are from well known yank lamos like
Nothing Painted Blue and Butterglory. The treats are "Land of the
Long Weekend" from the Cannanes, Simon Joyner's "Hold Onto Your
Breath," Thermos Candy, Kickstand and the truly wonderful track from
Sulk. Eye-opening stuff, fer sure.
Various Artists
Hood/Carmine split 7" vinyl
Orange.
by Scott Zimmerman.
December 31, 1995.
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At first you think this is a nice little record to
mellow out to with the peaceful guitar/singing, but
then, assuming you play the Hood side first, wham!--sonic
guitar explosion! Maybe there should've been a warning on this
record like they put on the 1812 Overture because of
its speaker blowing canon blasts! But after "Clues to Our
Past and Future Existence" finishes, the rest of the
Hood a-side does revert to a lovely calm.
And of course Carmine, on the aa-side, always keep the peace throughout their songs. Once again, they present a couple of nice French jazz-pop creations--"Green Girl" and "Cat Bird." A delight!
Various Artists
I Tried A Thousand Times, A Thousand Times To Change Your Mind CD
Firestation Tower. FST 027.
by Keith Mclachlan.
August 4, 2001.
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All of these Canadian bands on a German compilation
eh? I think I've said it before but I used to be
Canadian, up until I was 19 actually and I think this
affords me some sort of exclusive insight into the
thing we, in the know, like to label the 'canadian
psyche'. The sort of complex which allows them to
accept things, with dignity, like the injustice of
having to register in hospital under their family
pet's name in order to get a CT Scan sometime while
they are still alive which i guess might be described
as fiercely passive and yet at the same time not take
great pride in the fact that their prime minister hid
behind his wife as some deranged looney (ha! pun) ran
through his hallways. It seems then that you can't
get a Canadian upset about anything. Well, yes you
can, you can say they are just Americans with poor
television and then they have their hackles barbed and
pricked enough to make them almost consider demanding
a government commission to discuss this matter more
thouroughly. Speaking of Pets, as I was, they are on
this cd and actually represent the nation quite
proudly but Salteens and Novillero must still be
bitter about the Rita Macneil show being cancelled
cause their songs are wretched and they keep the crap
to goodness quotient karmically balanced in favor of
the good ole' USA. Oh and those are the only 3
Canadian bands but seeing as how you can count the
number of great bands from Canada on one hand and have
four fingers left it seems that is all too excessive.
Which is the one? Triumph? Glass Tiger? Jeff
Healey? I won't say. The rest of the CD has some
numbers from international acts and some have some
clever names which try to make up for less clever
tunes like Little Band What Now who promise to make a
lovely song for the first two minutes of intro but
never find the time to deliver the goods. There is a
Tompaulin song and they are the new Belle and
Sebastian for good reason cause their song is
memorably precious. The rest sorta slides by
unimpressively. Firestation Tower might be wise to
stick to reissues because their contemporary tastes
run a little too limp dish rag.
Various Artists
Informacion Y Turismo CD
Siesta. siesta 140.
by Keith Mclachlan.
August 4, 2001.
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It certainly would be more helpful if the liner notes
were in English rather than Spanish. I might then be
able to understand the joke, because this is
installment three in a human comedie, allegedly.
There is little to laugh at in the music. It is
perfectly mannered and exquisitely arranged and
romantically crooned by a variety of performers of
whom I know nothing about because they have the
unfortunate affliction of not being native English
speakers. The songs are samba or mamba or something
latin-derivative, acoustic bouncey guitars, sing-song
vocals and clever titles arranged some sort of theme
known only to those lucky dogs who can speak Spanish.
Isn't English great? Do you think it is the best
language in the history of the world? Don't you find
it silly that officially the french language has
50,000 words while english says 'give me your tired,
your useless'(sic) and tips the scales at a rather
rotund 3 million or so. I've spoken english since I
was a child, I took some courses in High School trying
to learn Latin and German and French but they all
seemed so inferior so my heart was not really into the
pursuit and those weaker forms of communication have
since drifted away from the crevices of my cortex
where they don't seem recoverable by even the deepest
thought slavage and exploration operations. More
people speak English than any other language (not
certainly as a first language but semantics are not
important) and air traffic controllers the world over
are required to speak it and the internet is basically
an English first operation. So it's the best. So why
didn't Siesta include a translation? It's ok. I
forgive them. The music is gorgeous and special and
flighty in the sense that imagination seems to be the
fuel of the moment. The cover is, again, very pretty
and thus this marks the end of another lovely chapter
in Siesta's musical history. Fantastic.