Tegan & Sara – Sainthood

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t like Tegan & Sara. I remember seeing them play on MuchMusic the day Bradford Howe left. I remember seeing the video for Living Room. I remember listening to So Jealous when I sold music at the local big box store at the mall. I completely skipped over The Con. But the release of Sainthood caught my attention.

Sainthood is fucking good. Everything from So Jealous is still here. The great harmonies, they great song structure, but it seems like the girls have managed to “mature as songwriter” whatever the fuck that means. Somebody is going to take this the wrong way, but as great as So Jealous was, the songs on Sainthood seem smarter. More refined. More realized. The use of electronic elements really add to the build of the songs. The layering is immaculate. This is a record that reminds you music sounds better when it surrounds you.

So, seriously. Go buy this record, pop on some headphones and let these songs whollop you like they’re supposed to. Right over the fucking head with an emotional baseball bat.

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living room video

Actually, while I think of it, here’s my absolutely favourite Tegan & Sara memory.

When my son Jakob was super young, like under a year old, he caught a cold. While he was teething. It was a rough scene. He woke up Thursday morning, and went back to sleep Saturday afternoon. While I was driving around that Saturday afternoon trying to get him to fall back to sleep, he finally conked out during So Jealous. Ever since then, he’s been a Tegan & Sara fan. You Wouldn’t Like Me is his favourite song by them. I thought you’d like to know that.

I’ve been thinking that what I’ve been writing for Hump Day Sounds is usually too short, and I’ll spend the next 3 years reviewing the albums I have now instead of getting new stuff. So I’ll try to make Wednesdays a little more exciting with some essay type stuff, and some actual reviews “smattered” about. Now read!

In Junior High, I was a bit of a dork. I got picked on a lot, and spent a lot of time listening to music. Mostly I had old country tapes, and a few old rock n’ roll compilations. Trevor, this guy I used to sit with on the bus obviously felt my pain. One morning, on the way to school he gave me a tape to listen to.

“Listen to this with headphones, cause you’re mother is going to hate it.” he said.

I looked at the cover art, and being the good little religious boy I was, instantly got sick to my stomach. A skin and bones man wrapped in a loin cloth levitating in his jail cell. I remember hating it, but not being able to put it away. Like watching a car crash. Over and over, I stared at the cover, and read through the lyrics until it was finally time to go home.

Honestly, I don’t remember what I thought the first time I heard “Skin’ o my Teeth”, or what went through my mind during “Sweating Bullets”. I hated the strings at the beginning of “Symphony of Destruction” cause I didn’t like classical music, but I do remember laughing pretty hard at the end of “High Speed Dirt.” Not much rings a bell after “Psychotron”, but I still know it to hear it.

All that being said, I can honestly say that “Countdown to Extinction” changed how I listened to music, and changed what I listened to. I replaced Chuck Berry with Megadeth, Elvis with Nirvana, and George Jones with Green Day. As a 13 year old boy, this was amazing.

Nowadays, there’s room in my collection for all of these artists. They all hold a place on my shelf, my hard drive, and in my life soundtrack, and I doubt that will ever change. But when the film of my life is made, and they zoom in on the 13 year old Joe sitting in our bedroom with headphones on, they will call me “Psychotron”.

Every once in a while I remember something I used to listen to. Because I’m used to this album, I can tell a better story about it. I’d like to tell you a bit about Wintersleep.

With the winter months upon us, I thought it fitting to touch on a record that regardless of when I listen to it, reminds me of the dead of winter. Never in a bad way, but in a “I got super drunk last night, today’s my day off, it’s storming out so I’m going to wear off this hangover on my couch watching “Snatch” over and over again” kind of way.

Wintersleep’s first self-titled album does this for me. It’s life cycle ran from about six months before my big break-up to about the winter afterwards. It’s a record that deals with a lot of cold emotion, but still manages to keep you warm. Hopeful. Like the winter, I guess. The bite of the wind. The insulation of the snow. The knowledge that soon it will be over. This too, shall pass.

I’m not sure what Wintersleep sounds like now. I have all their albums, plus a few bootlegs. I haven’t bothered to listen to the newest one. Their live show pulled me in, and I havne’t seen them play in nearly 6 years now. I lost interest in them after their second self-titled album, which was also brilliant. It didn’t have the same effect on me as the first did. It’s a good record, but it doesn’t really remind me of anything.

The right place, the right time, the right songs and you’ve got something to carry with you. Something to remind you what you have. And something to bring where you’re going.

Sore (Video)

If you might or might not remember, a while back I interviewed “Rusted Dawn”. They’re a metal band based out of Sussex, NB. Well, they’ve got some news. I’ll leave it to the press release to explain it;

RUSTED DAWN JOINS DIMINISHED FIFTH RECORDS

(Halifax, NS)
Diminished Fifth Records is pleased to announce the signing of New Brunswick based thrashers RUSTED DAWN. Emerging in 2004, RUSTED DAWN have released two independent EPs and toured throughout Canada, their debut full-length ‘The Black Tides of War’ is scheduled for a March/April release on the Halifax based metal label which was recently nominated for the East Coast Music Award ‘Record Label of the Year’.

“We are incredibly excited to get behind this album and to help expose these killer tunes to the masses” says label owner Josh Hogan, “not only is Rusted Dawn a great addition to the growing and diverse D5R family but there is no doubt that they are one of the hardest working bands out east and anyone who knows D5R knows that hard work is integral to us!”

Jeremy Goddard, who provides vocals and rhythm guitars for the band commented, “We’re super stoked on having our album released under the Diminished Fifth flag. Josh and the D5R crew have been pretty damn supportive of RD since they first caught wind of us, so it’s great to finally be working on this level with people so pumped on all the bands and tunes they represent here in the Maritimes.” His brother in crime Justin who handles the lead guitars duties added “It’s really great to have someone as excited about this release as we are. D5R has been helping to put a lot of east coast talent into the spotlight here, and across Canada and their efforts aren’t going unnoticed.”

The band will be touring next year in support of ‘The Black Tides of War’ but in the meantime you can catch RUSTED DAWN on their following east coast dates:

December 7th, 2009 – The Capital (Fredericton, NB) w/labelmates WE, THE UNDERSIGNED & BLACK MOOR who were both recently nominated for the ‘Loud Recording of Year’ East Coast Music Award.

December 18th, 2009 – House of Rock (Charlottetown, PE)

December 19th, 2009 – Gus’ Pub (Halifax, NS)