Last week I wrote about my pick for the 2012 Polaris Prize, a prize awarded to the best Canadian album of the past year based solely on artistic merit. My pick was YT//ST from art-punk-Japanese opera-and more-inspired duo/group YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN. Like that panel that chose the short list, I find their work often surprising and original. But while I heard they put on a great show at the gala, they were not the eventual winners. Continue reading “Feistodon and the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration”
Author: mcshanahan
Science education researcher and writer
Yamantaka//Sonic Titan and the Polaris Prize vs the Nobel Prizes
Tonight in Toronto, musicians, music writers and just about everyone else whose world revolves around Canadian music are getting ready to celebrate the soon-to-be-crowned winners of the 2012 Polaris Prize. Modeled after the UK’s Mercury Prize and founded in 2006, The Polaris Prize is awarded each year to the best Canadian full length album “without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history.” Continue reading “Yamantaka//Sonic Titan and the Polaris Prize vs the Nobel Prizes”
Stars: The Theory of Relativity and science as culture
The Theory of Relativity, the opening track and first single from Stars latest, The North, features many things that the band is known for: dreamy lyrics, the seamless back and forth between vocalists Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell, and a rising and falling soundscape feel. My husband commented when we put the album on for the first time that you would know it was a Stars song immediately, even if you’d never heard it before. And that is in no way a bad thing. It takes the band forward with a much more synth-heavy approach and rhythm that’s more electronica than indie rock, and does it in a way that doesn’t lose any of the charm of being a Stars recording. (See for reference a past favourite of mine: Take me to the Riot.) Continue reading “Stars: The Theory of Relativity and science as culture”
Whitehorse’s Achilles’ Desire
Husband and wife duo Whitehorse pack an emotional punch with the first single from their new album The Fate of the World Depends on this Kiss. (I promise I’m not wallowing in clichés here, the punch is literal. Watch the video.) Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, major talents in their own right, have continued their musical partnership that began last year with the release of their self-titled debut. Continue reading “Whitehorse’s Achilles’ Desire”
Borrowed Time: Parquet Courts and aging academics
Simple songs (and most songs of the punk variety are pretty simple) are at their best when a single strong feeling or thought pervades. Along with some driving chords and a solid backbeat, a meaningful turn of phrase can be the chain that that makes the whole gear system work. Duffy and the Doubters hit it perfectly in Spider Baby Jesus, and New York’s Parquet Courts do it with Borrowed Time, from their 2012 release Light Up Gold. Continue reading “Borrowed Time: Parquet Courts and aging academics”
The Finch and Pea 