Beatroute Magazine BC Print Edition - July 2017
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.
Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo. BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute (BC) #202 – 2405 E Hastings Vancouver, BC V5K 1Y8 P. 778-888-1120
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88 Fingers Louie - Thank You For Beig a Friend<br />
Boris - Dear<br />
Cashmere Cat - 9<br />
Ex Eye - Ex Eye<br />
88 FINGERS LOUIE<br />
Thank You for Being a Friend<br />
Bird Attack Records<br />
It’s been 19 years since Chicago-based punk rockers,<br />
88 Fingers Louie have released a new album,<br />
but the wait is finally over and our begging and<br />
pleading has paid off.<br />
While 88 Fingers' early career may have been short<br />
lived, they quickly became a staple in the 90’s hardcore-punk<br />
scene. Forming in 1993, they released a<br />
couple full-length records during their quick stint.<br />
Their last, Back on the Streets, was released on<br />
Hopeless Records in 1998.<br />
Fast forward 19 years and Thank You for Being a<br />
Friend fits seamlessly into 88 Fingers’ small, but<br />
stellar discography. Slightly more polished than<br />
previous albums, Thank You showcases the band's<br />
growth - something which is expected after 19<br />
years - but it also refines the band's signature style<br />
that fans adore. Hard-hitting bass lines, progressive,<br />
catchy and up-tempo riffs and drums, and of<br />
course, the heavy, melodic vocals of Denis Buckley.<br />
“Meds,” the first track on Thank You, displays these<br />
characteristics flawlessly. Songs like “Advice Column”<br />
and “2810” will remind listeners of past 88 albums,<br />
while “Our Tired Voices” and “Knock It Off”<br />
are great examples of what the band has become.<br />
Thank You for Being a Friend will not disappoint<br />
fans or first-time listeners and will surely become<br />
an album in your regular rotation. We might have<br />
waited 19 years, but it was worth it.<br />
•Sarah Mac<br />
Boris<br />
Dear<br />
Sargent House<br />
Dear was supposed to be, if not the end of Atsuo,<br />
Takeshi and Wata’s 25-year career, then at least<br />
the end of an era - a Dear John letter firing their<br />
audience. Then, at some point in the recording<br />
process, they changed their tripartite mind, reaffirmed<br />
their commitment to all-caps ROCK and<br />
made… a Boris record. Not as good as their breakthrough<br />
Pink, maybe a little better than Noise; not<br />
a self-conscious (or maybe not) pop pastiche like<br />
New Album and Attention Please and also not a<br />
four-part drone saga like The Thing Which Solomon<br />
Overlooked. It is at times ethereal, at other<br />
times like the final strung-out moments of The<br />
Stooges’ “L.A Blues.” It’s post-everything all of the<br />
time, but not totally inaccessible, and if you want<br />
to jump onboard with one of the consistently least<br />
annoying experimental rock bands then start here<br />
and circle back to Pink.<br />
•Gareth Watkins<br />
Cashmere Cat<br />
9<br />
Interscope Records<br />
Cashmere Cat (née Magnus Høiberg) is a Norwegian<br />
producer who has specialized in weird sounds<br />
in pop music. On his debut album, 9, Høiberg recruits<br />
all his big name friends and collaborators<br />
(MØ, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd). Only one track<br />
is instrumental. Unlike most producer-billed output<br />
though, 9 is not a curated showcase of pop<br />
stars over the producer’s music. Instead, Cashmere<br />
Cat succeeds in turning these Billboard Top 40<br />
mainstays into instruments and extensions of his<br />
own wonky soundscapes.<br />
This is not the only he breaks away from the mold<br />
with 9. He frequently baits his listener with tense<br />
builds, of rapid fire beats and increasing key shifts,<br />
leading the listener to expect a clichéd "drop". Instead,<br />
he forgoes it and builds towards a soft cloud<br />
of blissful melody and strange percussive sounds<br />
you can rest your head on.<br />
That relaxed atmosphere runs through the whole<br />
record, and the few exceptions are abrasive rather<br />
than poppy pandering.<br />
9 is not an EDM album because you can’t dance to<br />
it. It isn’t a pop album, its song structure, sounds<br />
and style are too off kilter for that. It’s also not<br />
experimental, as these are the same sounds Cashmere<br />
Cat and his imitators have been playing<br />
with since his Mirror Maru EP in 2012, just refined<br />
through experience and the star quality of his collaborators.<br />
What 9 is, is an excellent debut from a<br />
producer who will continue to be at the centre of<br />
pop and mainstream electronic’s future.<br />
•Cole Parker<br />
EX EYE<br />
EX EYE<br />
Relapse Records<br />
I’m calling it: saxophones do not belong in metal<br />
music. I know that somebody is going to jump right<br />
into the comments section to defend John Zorn or<br />
Candiria, but c’mon. Maybe a dozen musicians (all<br />
of whom are now dead) can turn them into fonts<br />
of transcendent brilliance, but mostly they’re shiny<br />
tubes that make fart sounds.<br />
EX EYE, are Colin Stetson, low-key indie rock’s<br />
go-to guy for some sax; a guy from forgettable experimental<br />
rock concern Secret Chiefs 3 and the<br />
drummer from perennial hipster-metal punchline<br />
Liturgy. If you’ve heard post-rock and post-metal<br />
recently then you’ve heard this, but better or, in<br />
Liturgy’s case, pretty much the same but with vocals<br />
instead of an overgrown and overcomplicated<br />
kazoo. Yes, Greg Fox is a skilled drummer, but skill<br />
is not soul, and if you’re fucking with the sax, even<br />
in the context of blackened post-metal you’re inviting<br />
comparisons to John Coltrane, who had both.<br />
•Gareth Watkins<br />
The Guaranteed<br />
The Guaranteed EP<br />
Independent<br />
As a fixture in the Edmonton roots scene for two<br />
decades, Darrek Anderson of The Guaranteed has<br />
been the pedal steel player of choice for some of<br />
the city’s most influential underground acts. Having<br />
spent time with Old Reliable, The Swiftys, The<br />
City Streets, and Eamon McGrath, Anderson’s<br />
steel playing has featured on countless releases and<br />
tours. Now a member of The Dungarees, Anderson<br />
has put together an excellent EP of alt-country<br />
songs, his first release since 2007’s Places You Used<br />
To Go.<br />
The Guaranteed forgoes the currently common<br />
expressive masculinity of modern country for a<br />
more laid back feel, trekking to the higher emotional<br />
ground of acts like Jason Isbell, expressively<br />
honest in Anderson’s softly sung tenor with a<br />
plaintive Jeff Tweedy feel. “Rest Easy” leads off with<br />
a classic roadhouse guitar riff from Nathan Mc-<br />
Murdo over a Waylon-phased rhythm guitar, and<br />
rather than aim for explosive choruses, Anderson<br />
and the band settle into an easy groove driven by<br />
the chill touch of drummer Bradford Tebble that<br />
suggests wizened confidence; more content to<br />
sit back and play together than to show you any<br />
or all of their cards at once. The steel and electric<br />
guitar interplay on “Hear From You” is classy in its<br />
understatement, and the harmony vocal on the<br />
32 REVIEWS<br />
<strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong>