Demo - The Hart House Music Magazine Blog

Friday, October 28, 2011

Part 13

Lou Doyon , 1^st Year, Anthropology

Artist: Telekinesis

Album: Telekinesis!

My summer job included a 30-minute commute along on of the most beautiful highways, with the slowest speed limit--Trans-Canada in Banff National Park. To get me from home to work, and from work to home, I was in desperate need of some solid tunes, and Telekinesis was there to help. With the mountains in the background, the lakes in the foreground, and the beginning of a new life in Toronto ahead of me, I found comfort and happiness in this song right from June until September.

Part 12

Ervin Cheah, 1st Year, Commerce

Song: Yea Yeahs

Artist: Matt & Kim

Album: Grand

A great upbeat song that uplifted one of my more gloomy days. One of those forgotten tracks that creeps up in your shuffling iPod and just hits the right spot. It took some intense will power to not bust out a crazy move while strolling down the sidewalk in the breezy summer. Yea yeah, yea yeah, yea yeah!

Part 11

Sydney Riemschneider, 2nd year, History

Song: (I Don’t Want To Lose) Your Love

Band: Outfield

Album: Play Deep

This summer was one of discoveries for me. I did not get to experience the kind of summer only told in teeny bopper novels, as I was working for “the Man” day in and day out at Canada’s Wonderland. To go along with the manual labour, was a wonderful 80s soundtrack playing every single day.

Thankfully being an 80s music fan, the fact that Wonderland has not updated their music collection since ’97 did not bother me. It was actually difficult picking out one song that fit perfectly. As emotional and physical turmoil developed in my life, only a song involving mullets and hot pants--“(I Don’t Want To Lose) Your Love” by Outfield--could be the obvious choice to describe my summer.

And if you are not a fan of the original, check out Katy Perry’s cover and the extraordinary acoustic version by Bon Iver.

Theme Songs of Summer: Just Before Winter Creeps In--Part 10

Fan Wu, 2nd year, Literary Studies

Song Title: Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie

Artist: Joanna Newsom

Album: The Milk-Eyed Mender

Joanna Newsom has made two albums after The Milk-Eyed Mender that surpass it in scope, both musically and lyrically. But this summer I came back to her debut album after first having heard it four years ago with new perspectives on women, folk songwriters and eccentricity. There is no doubt that Newsom is all three of those, but she is much more: she is, and has been, one of the strongest, most literary lyric writers on the indie scene. With aching, ambiguous lines like: "I do as I please / Now I'm on my knees / Your skin is something that I stir into my tea"--Newsom evokes both the pleasure and submissiveness we learn from love. I spent my summer with her, and it could not have been any other way.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Born Gold at The Drake Underground

October 1st`s annual all-night art celebration Nuit Blanche is always packed with creativity, invention, and fun times. Add music into the mix and you get this year`s Born Gold show at the Drake Underground. Previously known as Gobble Gobble, this Edmonton-based band has been releasing exuberant noise-pop singles for over a year now. Their forward-thinking approach to electronic music culminated in the release of their debut album Bodysongs, and Nuit Blanche served as the perfect backdrop to celebrate this.

Born Gold`s live shows are visually stunning. Think bright coloured lights, stilts, and outfits involving tin foil and very short shorts. They are definitely not afraid to get the audience involved, letting those in the front hit drums and giving people high-fives. At one point band member Calvin McElroy even walked into the crowd, on stilts playing a giant shovel as an instrument. Frontman Cecil Frena encouraged dancing to keep the enthusiastic energy up and sang out anthemic lines like “I don’t want to live without it”.

This is really a band that knows how to get people moving. Mixing both previously released singles such as Lawn Knives and Boring Horror with some new songs, the live show didn’t stop for breath. A forty-minute show to support a twenty-nine minute album definitely leaves the audience wanting more, though the mood in the room after the last notes of Wrinklecarver was euphoric. Surely, Born Gold made some new fans that night, thanks to their frantic energy and exciting live presentation. You know what happens when you dance in your bedroom to your favourite songs? No inhibitions, completely caught up in the moment? Born Gold has the power to make you do that in public.

-By Elena Gritzan