Absynthe Minded
Acquired Taste
Admittedly, it was hard for me not to wince a little bit when I found out I would be reviewing a CD by a band called Absynthe Minded. I mean, this is a terrible name for a band. Call me judgmental if you will, but who among us has not grimaced even a little upon coming across monikers like Ned's Atomic Dustbin or, erm, Cuff the Duke? Nevertheless, I struggled valiantly to achieve a certain level of journalistic integrity. Really I did. Acquired Taste is the debut album from the Belgium quintet, who charter a determined course though psychedelic blues and pop territory, taking with them some folky fiddling, hash-stained Southern Rock flares and a few nods to jazz influences. It sounds as though it might work, but it is significantly hobbled by the band's predictable use of blues scales and penchant for quiet-to-loud transitions. Not that they are completely off course '“ the fiddle at times is a worthy foil to the chunky guitars, and there is a gleefully twee keyboard part on the title track. Still, I think I will pass on the tame throwback sound and awkward poetry. Sorry guys, this really isn't about your name, I swear. - Pras Rajagopalan
File Next To: Books and their covers

Autopilot
The All Divided (Independent, www.autopilottheband.com)
For 5 seconds, this had potential to resemble Broken Social Scene manifested as a synthesized drum orgy. Past that, their sound is beautifully tranquilizing, so much so that Autopilot's political undertones almost get lost in the atmosphere of this EP. Their interpretation, and instrumentation, help to avoid tragedy fatigue and political overload. The tracks blend together in a sonic hybrid haze, successfully helping you forget every single responsibility you have ever put off doing. Listen to it enough, and you might even forget what the album is about in the first place. It's a catchy, under-produced album, waving a big F-U to badly defined indie rock. And, oh yeah, foreign relations.
- Gena Meldazy
File Next To: the pipe you hit too much, the paper you read too little, existentialist pedestrian days

Capital
Clip the Right Wing (independent). Vivacapital.caThese spunky pop-rockers remind me of classic college radio. When you're throwing back a few domestic beers in the campus pub, you don't want none of that mainstream MuchMusic stuff reminding you of your adolescence, but you don't want no weird or downer shit to interfere with your buzz either. And that's no slight against the band. Capital has a great grasp on the pop-rock vocabulary, mixing up their fuzzy guitar twangs with energetic guy-girl singalongs. The lyrics are clever, including standout "UV index overload," a sunny fuck-you to the sun. "Clip the Right Wing" is an energetic debut from this quartet, and in live form, would probably fill out this robust debut in a blast of rock-and-roll pyrotechnics. I hope. '“ Ty Warner
File Next To: Loyalist College radio station CJLX and their pile of dusty CDs.

Crouched Head
Self-titled on Drip Audio (dripaudio.com)
When I tell you that this is an electro-acoustic record by a guy in Montreal, you probably already know what to expect. But "Crouched Head" is different; this is electro-acoustic music with soul. Yes, there is some great atmospheric noise swells and whatnot, and if you are looking for a moody chunk of sound to pass away your cloudy afternoon, this will satisfy your needs; look no further than opener "CH New Year" and "Wake Me." But where the album gets interesting is when Josh Zubot pushes his electro-acoustic craft into the trip-hop playing field, where he busts out some rough drum beats, percussion and even melody. The secret weapon happening here is Zubot's father Orville, who layers the album with some soulful and acid-jazz flavored saxophone. In addition to Zubot's junk-drawer list of noisemakers, including "laptop, mandolin, piano, Korg synth, analog tape, QY70, drum kit, old turntables, minidisk, accordion, sax, violin," it's the expert saxophone playing that makes Crouched Head worth listening to. And that doesn't mean the album is made solely on the saxophone performances, it merely showcases Zubot's skill as a compositionist. Everything is placed so well within the mix that it never turns into a mess, and better yet, it never sounds like an electro-acoustic guy trying to go pop; it just sounds good. '“ Ty Warner
File Next To: Things to play when trying to prove coolness.

Elliot Brood
Ambassador (Six Shooter Records)
When Elliot Brood's first EP, Tin Type, arrived in my stack, it was so distinct from the rest of the pile that I had to open it first. The 3'? mini-CD was hand packaged and once inside my system, it brought forth the gospel of old style roots music with a punk rock delivery. Ambassador is more of the same, self proclaimed 'œDeath Country'?, music with the bite of metal and the passion and soul of country music. The new material has a more glossy feel and the introduction of electric guitar into some of the songs may pave the way for some mainstream exposure. Elliot Brood retain their dusty, timeless feel that makes one feel like they're traveling when they're standing still, the country roads blowing by at a hundred k. - Marinko Jareb aka DJ Machine
File Next To: Country punk

Hexes and Ohs
Hexes and Ohs is the musical offspring of Montreal based duo Edmund Lam and Heidi Donnelly. The two have paid their dues on the Canadian independent music scene, doing time with the pop quartet Jolly Bean and then later in the experimental post-rock combo, A Vertical Mosaic. Their first LP, Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover, fuses elements from both outfits to make, in the words of vocalist Edmund Lam, "something simultaneously very pop and accessible and kind of experimental and sonically interesting." Listening to this record, Hexes and Ohs' musical intentions seem to echo Lam's appraisal of the group's sound. They seem to be going for the type of carefully layered, wispily sung glitch-pop that have made The Postal Service heroes of undergraduate dorm rooms. Where they have missed is in finding the keenly focused hooks that make for instantly danceable and/or singable pop ditties. Instead, the record is plagued by directionless electronic noodling that turns it into a kind of blurry sprawl. And after 61 minutes of Lam's eggshell-thin cooing accompanied by largely uniform skittery beats and blips, I can't help but feeling that I had just taken in something that was neither good nor bad, it was just sorta, um, there. - Pras Rajagopalan
File next to: Errr'¦stuff?

Jon-Rae and the River
Old Songs for a New Town (Permafrost Records, www.permafrostrecords.com)
Here's the deal. Jon-Rae Fletcher and his band, the River are really good. You need to hear their record. You need to see them live. You need to show them some love. Old Songs for a New Town is the first recording from Jon-Rae and the River - Toronto era. It's got a bunch of songs that were previously released in different forms, back when Jon-Rae lived in Vancouver. Those versions are pretty great too, but the band has a much different line-up and sound now. There's more energy than there was before. The songs sound bigger, but they haven't lost their feeling. You know how Will Oldham re-recorded a bunch of Palace songs for that "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Plays Palace's Greatest Hits" album? Well it's sort of like that, but the songs are better represented here. It's not so much about drastic change as it is about improvement. Oh, and the covers! There are covers on this album that blow the originals away. The kind of wickedly weird Shellac song, "A Prayer" is transformed into something that would probably make Steve Albini cry himself into a deep shameful sleep. This album's great.
File next to: Your mom's CDs, because it's been a while since she listened to something good, and because it'll be funny when she buys their next album which is going to be full of songs about fucking.

Kiss Me Deadly
Misty Melody
I'm shoegazing, but my shoes are dancing. What the deuce? My confounding predicament is courtesy of Misty Mountain's blend of layered guitar melodies and brisk new-wave rhythms. Four out of the ten songs are called "Dance", so mission accomplished I guess.
Now I have something to play at grown-up dinner parties where I want people to get down, but not so much that they upset their quiche. I'll skip Adam Poulin's off-key lead vocals on 'œPop'? and 'œDistress Call'? and stick with Sophie Trudeau's sexy gasps and screeches. After everyone's gone I'll put the title track on repeat and dream about making out in space. '“ Evan Dickson
File next to: Stargazing, dream machines, and The Postage Stamps

Minus The Bear
Menos el Oso (Suicide Squeeze Records, www.minusthebear.com)
Who likes sentimental BS? 'œMe Me Me!'? Then this, I can guarantee, will be the climax of your life. So drenched with jadedness, Menos el Oso doesn't even get past a highschool level of cheesy. Somehow, though, the entertaining delivery manages to discount the passive content. It is not at all boring to listen to, and for unexplainable reasons, slightly comforting. If you need mindless self indulgence, hey, this could be fun. - Gena Meldazy
File Next To: '˜Dear diary, today I got a new crush'¦.'

My Last Letter
Sincerely
As a Keith Moon devotee the precision of math-rock leaves me cold. So, "You Want to be a Cadaver", the first song on Sincerely made a technically complex, but unmoving first impression. Fortunately, track two, "Spies & Vampires" restored my interest, not only because the song's called spies and fucking vampires, but because it eschewed the fancy-dancy rhythm complications for more traditional hard rock and metal elements. The rest of the album wavered somewhere in between with guitars chugging and wailing in predictable rock structures with enough variation to avoid being completely derivative. Unfortunately, in the see-saw between overly complicated and overly simplistic, Sincerely fails to assert a memorable identity. '“ Evan Dickson
File next to: In one ear, out the other.

Ninja High School
Young Adults Against Suicide (Blocks Recording Club, www.blocksblocksblocks.com)
'œEveryone's got all kinds of demands/everything that they want from this band/I can't say it's out of my hands/this is the hottest band in the land.'? Matt Collins hits the nail on the head with that in 'œBy Purpose Not By Plan'?. You can nit pick some of the samples, or the production, or the noodling (which makes a track like 'œNap'? completely disposable) but overall this album is still the most interesting thing I've heard all year. You can tell that NHS is still playing around with their sound. The result is that some songs, like 'œFeverish Dream'? and 'œInvasion Party'?, end up feeling uncoordinated, but then others, like 'œFilm/Video'? and 'œJam Band Death Cult'? actually make you stop in your tracks and say 'œwoah, that right there, that, is genius.'? And easily the best part of this album is the lyrics. When you hear Matt Collins scream 'œRepresentatives run for cover/get your party on now '˜cause it is over/no more entertainment reporters!'? you'll get excited and say to yourself 'œFuck yeah, why don't more people sing about this kind of thing?'? Most tracks don't live up to the incredible 7'? released earlier this year, but this is a smart and addictive album. I want more. - Ryan McLaren
File Next To: If I was in the band, you know what I would've done'¦

SIANSpheric RGB DVD
The pitfall of having arts-minded friends is their love of drugs, hearing themselves talk, and the culmination of the two into supposed 'œvideo art." Get a couple taps into these Linklater assholes and they've shoved a camcorder into your hands to commit the spouting of poetic mindfucks about houseparty politics to cinematic memory. Which is how this DVD starts: a bunch of stoned assholes revel in the butchering of a musical performance, much to the chagrin of their mortified audience. Twelve minutes in, however, the transition from embarrassing spectacle to a decade of mindblowing spacerock came and went without its expected transcendent effect, so I opted to turn it off. To put it lightly, bands I adored from ten years ago can barely survive my scathing reassessments, so don't get me started on some Cancon shoegazer shit that couldn't generate mild interest to begin with. This band needs a DVD like Laura Palmer needs syphilis, and SIANspheric has truly infected me with its award-winning mediocrity. - Sebastian Von Claptrap
File next to: a VHS dub of my friend and I stumbling around in a forest for seven hours recounting childhood stories.

Township Expansion
{love, and not in love} (Independent)
While Township Expansion is now a full live band, all the songs on this LP were written, performed and recorded by one guy, Niall Fynes, on an 8-track in his bedroom. And for a solo album, this is incredibly well-realized. It's pussy music, there's no doubting that, but it's good pussy music. Think along the lines of Snailhouse or Red House Painters or The Winter Blanket. It's perfect hangover music. It makes you feel warm all over. The poppier songs resonate a little more, like 'œThings Are Tough All Over'? and 'œ42 Cents Cheaper'?. Some, like 'œSt. Andrew Station'? can get a little too sleepy, but when Fynes himself yawns while singing one of the lines, you can't help but give him respect. - Ryan McLaren
File Next To: the morning after an awesome party

Various Artists
Dimension Mix '“ Eenie Meenie Records (www.eeniemeenie.com)
The Canadian dynamic duo of Esther Nelson and Bruce Haack created some of the most outrageous and exploratory children's recordings over a 20 year period through their label, Dimension 5. Esther, a specialist in children's education and Bruce, an electronic music pioneer who concentrated on making portable synthesizers that could be brought into the classroom, explored such far-out concepts in their music as mind/body integration, meditation and astral projection, world cultures and robotics. Their music
was also very focused on experience and participatory songs were their forte, inviting children of all ages to get up off their seats and move to the sounds. Dimension Mix is a tribute to the work of Nelson and Haack, featuring covers of their songs done by, among
others, Beck, Money Mark, The Stones Throw Singers, Stereolab and Fantastic Plastic Machine; all this to benefit autism charities. This is an interesting project and a highly enjoyable album and fully recommended, but for the real deal it's advisable to find the original material! - Marinko Jareb aka DJ Machine
File Next To: Music for Kids / Super Cute