Music

Cassius grew out of the 1990s' French touch phenomenon, dwarfed by Daft Punk, equals of Alan Braxe, and adjacent of Air. They were fun and acceptable and probably well loved on Electric Circus.

First things first, I am and always have been a fan. This band came around at exactly the right time in my adolescence to reel me in with catchy hooks and a goofy attitude helping to really relieve some of those angsty moments. All of that is still intact on California. This is a really solid album for a band full of late thirty-somethings who make music about the feelings of a sixteen year-old boy.

One of the Strokes' greatest gifts is that they can make the corniest things they do look like something that is happening to them instead of them making these things happen. Case in point is the newly released video for the track “Threat Of Joy” off of their Future Present Past EP. The video, looking like a lost Gregg Araki film, involves the hunt for some stolen footage that was another Strokes video for the track “Oblivious”.

Those damn Danes and their talent. Perhaps it's because they know how to logically and objectively give out art grants in Denmark, or perhaps it's because they are generally a stoic people living in a Nordic climate, but whatever the reason, they seem to be (along with the Swedes) the best at music, and congruently, music videos. 

 Today we are celebrating another great contribution to the musical ether from artist Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) with an animated video to accompany “Song for The Dead” - the second track on his critically-acclaimed mini album The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam, which came out a year ago today. The video was directed and animated by Australian visual artist RyNo, who reached out to Stephen with the video over Twitter!

There were really two great times in Canadian music (if you don't include the current Weeknd, Bieber, and Carly Rae puppet show, which I do not): the late 70s/early 80s, and the early to mid 1990s. The latter had ballsy acts like Eric's Trip and Thrush Hermit, and various other East Coast guitar dreamers. Vancouver's soon-to-be-defunct Owl Skowl either directly or unintentionally pulled the pin on all that was good out of those acts and clamped on to the explosion for a wild ride to the mother fucking moon.

Remember Shades of Culture? Well, you should. The trio, comprised of Revolution, DShade and DJ Storm, have often been credited as one of the pioneering acts in Montreal hip hop, largely due to their ability to break out of Quebec and gain recognition Canada-wide. They also broke barriers by not aligning themselves solely with other hip hop acts; they did a considerable amount of touring with skate punk bands, and managed to win over audiences who didn't consider themselves receptive to hip hop.

In advance of the August 5th release of Dinosaur Jr’s latest album, Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not (Jagjaguar) the band has released a video for the lead single “Tiny”.  The clip takes place within the dream of lead singer/shredder J Mascis’s bulldog.  This is evidenced in the opening scene. We see the dog asleep, there’s added ADR snoring and then a delightful classic sitcom style dream fade transitions us into the next scene.

The year is 2016 and everything has gone quite well for Patrick Bateman; two kids with his lovely wife, Jean, he's made partner, and best of all he's not in prison. Long gone is Huey Lewis, most of The News are long since broke, and streaming services have dissolved the need to return video tapes. Calm. Calm. Everything zen. Everything...stale. Maybe try a new band? What's this Odonis Odonis? Oh, oh a great sound for a workout. Gotta keep fit after all. But what is this fire raising inside? Not a new row of abs, no.

The music business in 2016 is almost entirely just figuring out when something becomes considered nostalgic, and sending out songs and tours to capitalize on exactly that moment. Oh, Dishwalla just got back together (actually, they never split up, but Dishwalla is a funny reference?). Add them to the list of bands inside your heart you always wanted to see (hint: you didn't actually ever care, but pop music ages better than cellar-kept wine).