Okay, so I just discovered Ten Kens. I know I know, there are a million people that caught on to this before I did (inlcuding Fat Cat Records in the UK, home to Animal Collective, Mum, Sigur Ros, and the awesomely named We Were Promised Jet Packs). I missed their opening set at the Eye Weekly/CMW/Deerhoof show at the Phoenix, and the reviews I heard of it were terrible. (Although word around town is that the Phoenix sometimes slacks on giving the opening bands a proper mix.) As a result, I remembered the name but never sought them out.

I'm lucky enough to have a satellite radio at work, so I listen to CBC Radio 3 a lot. It's like a Top 40 of mostly Canadian "Indie Rock", and they do a pretty good job of pimpin' underground talent. One of the beneficial/frustrating things about it is their tendency to play certain songs over and over. Sometimes liking a song and being really familiar with it can feel like the same thing. I've accidentally bought a few albums that barely passed a couple listens as a result, but a few others I probably wouldn't have checked out otherwise.

This is how I became addicted to Ten Kens. CBC3 has been playing "Refined" from their debut self-titled disc a lot recently. After passively listening to it a number of times I realized, wait a second, this is really fucking good! So I picked up the album and, as often happens, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. My first impression was that I wanted something harder, something more viceral. But the more I listened the more I liked it, and now I'm totally hooked.

Once I'd formed my own opinion, I started checking some reviews to see what's been said about the band, and I want to offer some counterpoints.

First, I think the Animal Collective comparisons are way off. If you want a local band that recalls Animal Collective you should check the amazing Gregory Pepper and His Problems (playing Wavelength on January 11th). It used to be that if something was layered and reverby it'd be compared to My Bloody Valentine. Oh how times have changed.

Second, why do so many reviews say "Refined" and "Bearfight" are the top tracks? You will never find a sludge rock song that will make you say FUCK YEAH louder than "Spanish Fly".  This song makes me want to invite friends over to trash my apartment in a blur of drunken righteousness.

Lastly, this 3-star review by Stuart Berman over at Eye struck me, mostly because he seems to identify with the album in a similar way that I do.

"Few guitar tones can match twang for evocative effect, and on Ten Kens' debut, that sound instantly drops you in the middle of a late night in the middle of nowhere. ... Their raucous honky-grunge rave-ups speak more to a small-town experience spent hanging out in empty convenience-store parking lots."

Which is a reasonably apt description of my teens. I thought a lot about my small-town high school years while listening to this album and I couldn't put a finger on why at first.  But then it suddenly dawned on me; Ten Kens are basically a pared down version 2.0 of a mid-90's psych-grunge band I listened to a lot in high school, the underrated Kula Shaker, who had one big hit on Edge 102 with "Mystical Machine Gun" (they were much more popular in the UK, hitting number one with their second album K). Just compare it to Ten Kens' "Y'all Come Back Now".

Some of their promo shots have the band sitting at Vesta Lunch, which seems entirely appropriate.  It's dirty but satisfying, nothing too new or different, and a little bit lonely.  Listen to this while walking down Dupont during a late-night snowfall.

By the way, the cover of their album (at the top of the post) is surprisingly similar to a logo used by a now-defunct Waterloo band called The Approachables.

posted by Ryan