Library Voices – Hunting Ghosts and Other Collected Shorts

To me, Regina’s Library Voices are everything that’s right about this whole Indie Pop thing. They’re all jangly guitars and guy/girl harmonies and happy gang vocals. Think The Polyphonic Spree minus the obvious use of drugs.

Unlike some other pop bands in this vein, Library Voices don’t seem to be scared to let things ride, as far as the song composition goes. Nothing seems to be drawn out, or extended beyond it’s means, but at the same time they’re ok with letting things “jam out” where need be.

They’re also good at mixing their influences. I hear a lot of radio in this band. Some surf influence near the end, a lot of great melodies and harmonies have you singing along, or at least humming along, very quickly.

With a healthy dose of great wordplay and a generous smattering of “woah’s”, “Hunting Ghosts etc.” it’s a neat little package of pop songs you can be proud to listen to.

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Dear 16-year-old Joe,

I wanted to write to you quickly about something I thought was pretty cool. Remember this video? Remember how cool we thought Gordie Johnson was, wearing that suit, playing that double neck Gibson SG in the middle of a boxing ring? I do. We still think it’s cool.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago we were talking to somebody about Gordie’s new band. We wanted a copy of their new album for our website. (Yeh, we have our own website. No, it’s not on Tripod. Geocities? Oh, they shut that down. I know. The end of an era, really). She sent us a couple of copies of the new record Good as Dead to review, and kindly offered to put us on the guest list for the show. We went with our friend Ryan. We got in without any trouble, said hi to a few of our friends, and settled in to watch the opening act, Les/The Respectables. They were some dudes from Quebec who were Big Sugar fans when we were, too.

I won’t lie to you. When we saw Gordie standing at the back of the bar next to the pizza window, we got giddy. We got even giddier when he walked by. We nearly giggled when he walked back again after singing with Les/The Respectables and we slapped him on the shoulder, as though to say “good game, Gordie.”

Then we watched as the sound guy carried Gordie’s guitars out to the stage. Two at a time, and he made four trips. We gawked in amazement at the wall of speaker cabinets he brought with him to power those guitars. This guy is a legend in the Canadian music scene, a personal hero of ours, and we were about to see him live!

Then it happened. I don’t know if it was because we were out late, or because we weren’t drinking, or whatever the reason. We weren’t wowed. We weren’t blown away by the sheer sexiness and awesomeness that Gordie Johnson once exemplified for us. He lost that somewhere along the way. Maybe there just aren’t any good tailors in Texas. Maybe he doesn’t like suits anymore. He still plays loud, but he wasn’t carrying that same swagger as he did when we saw him in those Big Sugar videos on Much Music. Loud without substance, or so it seemed.

This isn’t to say that he was bad. It was good. It was cool to finally see him play. He doesn’t use a pick. We didn’t know that. Big Ben smiled at us when we sang along with “Annie Lee”, which is pretty much our favorite song on the new record. Hearing “Whatchewdid” was pretty awesome, as well. Their version of “Whiskey River” was still terrible, and their cover of The Hip’s “Boots Or Hearts” wasn’t too hot either, but “Blackass Woman” was pretty cool.

So, I guess what I’m saying, 16-year-old me, is that we had a good time, but we were a bit disappointed. Not so much in Gordie, but at our 21 year old self who could have gone to see Big Sugar, but instead went to Fredericton to visit his girlfriend.

To sum everything up, Gordie was all right, his new record is ok, and our 21-year-old self was a douchebag. Sleep tight, 16-year-old Joe. Get some rest.

I’ve got a shit-ton of record I have to review. I wanted to review the new Grady record in time for the show. The Dudes new album is fantastic, and some dude named Conil has put out one of the best drunk-acoustic records I’ve ever heard. But for the last three days, all I could think about and listen to was Ozomatli’s Embrace the Chaos.

Embrace the Chaos is one of those records I discovered when I was slinging music for a living at the local mall. Every once in a while, when the manager was out, we would search the aisles for something we’d never heard of and put it on. That’s how I found The Polyphonic Spree , and it’s how I found Ozomatli.

Ozomatli takes what I consider to be the best parts of latin music, and the best parts of hip hop and fuses them together so seamlessly it’s ridiculous. It’s the kind of record that makes me wish I was a chef, or that I owned a restaurant. It’s absolute mood music, as in it puts you in a kick-ass mood. This is a starting point. A frame of reference. Ozomatli is a gateway band. Much like how punks my age started with Green Day and the Offspring , and from there discovered everything else, Ozomatli is leading me along. Because of them I found Jurassic 5 . Because of them, I was pointed towards Dizzie Gillespie . Because of them, I have a better understanding and appreciation for the new Alex Cuba disc I just got and need to review.

So this week, I’m a day late. And this is nothing new. But here’s something you’ve probably never heard before.

Click the link to listen to the song “Dos Cosas Ciertas” by Ozomatli from their release “Embrace the Chaos.”

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