Vancouver all-stars The New Pornographers put their best feet forward with a strong new album of anthems, Together, recently released on Matador Records. (more…)
The Archives
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CD Reviews
Jakob Dylan – Women and Country
04.11.10Elegant and haunting, Women and Country may be the best thing Jakob Dylan has ever released. Though it’s been almost 20 years (!) since The Wallflowers’ debut, Dylan remains something of an enigma, a talented songwriter with multi-platinum records who has yet to have his work recognized on its own merits. (more…)
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CD Reviews
Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs – Medicine County
04.04.10Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs wear honky-tonk like a handsome ironic moustache. Whether this British duo are taking their southern drawls seriously or with a grain of fleur-de-sel, the home-spun country sound they’ve adopted becomes them. A plethora of albums and collaborations under her big belt buckle, Medicine County is Holly’s third album as Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, a duo with long-time colleague Lawyer Dave. (more…)
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Bits & Pieces
Adult Swim Starts a Battle of the Internet Cartoons Featuring Neko Case
03.04.10Adult Swim, repository of the televisually weird and wonderful brings us a new gem. The channel has picked a series of internet cartoons that will compete against each other for the chance of being broadcast on TV. Included is Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge in which Neko Case voices a blonde coke-snorting, thong-wearing pop singer. Also rapper T-Pain makes a hilarious cameo. So if you want to see this thing actually go on air, you should vote for it here.
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Bits & Pieces
King & Mellencamp Add Costello & Case to Musical
01.04.10Stephen King and John Mellencamp’s musical theater collaboration Ghost Brothers of Darkland County now officially boasts Elvis Costello and Neko Case on the roster. What may be the strangest musical team up ever is quickly becoming a production to see. Above and beyond the weighty creators and Costello and Case, the collaboration will include Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Joe Frazier, singer-songwriter Will Dailey, Dave and Phil Alvin of The Blasters fame and Glenn Morshower of 24. Reports state that Costello will play a Satanic character named The Shape and Case will embody a woman named Anna. The production will also be released as a CD/book package that Mellencamp described as “an experience more akin to listening to an old radio show with music”.
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Bits & Pieces
Amazon Proclaims Middle Cyclone Album Of The Year
11.05.09Amazon.com has released their Top 100 album lists for 2009. Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone was named best of the year, beating out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz!, Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s self-titled LP and The Avett Brothers’ I And Love And You, which round out the top five. U2 topped the “Customer Favorites” list with No Line on the Horizon coming in first based solely on sales (rather than reviews). Some surprising omissions include the absence of both Bruce Springsteen’s latest, Working on a Dream and Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown. On the side of interesting inclusions are Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream and Adam Lambert’s For Your Entertainment.
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Concert Reviews
Ottawa Bluesfest 2009 – Festival Wrap-up
07.26.09The Ottawa Bluesfest’s prime quality is undoubtedly the eclectic nature of its list of performers on any given night. Ice Cube opening for Our Lady Peace? Deer Tick and The Dead Weather on the same stage only hours apart? Not many festivals offer such high caliber variety and therein lies the Bluesfest’s success. Follow along as cornershopstudios recaps these amazing 12 days of music.
Legends of the rock world exploded night after night onto the Bank of America Stage, demonstrating great skill and mastery of their respective instruments. Jeff Beck ran fingers on his guitar meticulously controlling each vibration and modulation of the strings. Ben Harper’s hands showed frenzied skill on the slide guitar, with RELENTLESS7 holding up their end of the bargain as melodic support. His hands following along to the beat, Joe Cocker strummed the air as he relived his old melodies and Ice Cube commanded the audience and made them bounce with a raised Westside “W”. Busta Rhymes, who showed up an hour late and played a mere 20 minutes, still managed to squeeze out a response from the audience, hands in the air, bling gleaming in the sunlight…
Also present were acts that were not only legendary but genius back in their hay-day: the 90s. All three carried a big blinking billboard above their heads that read: Can they still pull this off? Well, they all proved that to a certain degree they still can. I’ll be the first one to admit surprise as I expected a monumental meltdown from Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots but instead was treated to a rocking performance. Our Lady Peace on the other hand started off really shaky, specifically on their older repertoire, but they picked it right up dipping into hits from their latest effort Burn Burn. As for Les Claypool, those of you expecting the eccentric and hilarious Primus frontman well, not quite. He now serves more of a niche market; fading into the eerie and downright weird…Still has mad bass skills though!
Some of the most riveting performances however were pulled off by acts with the lowest member count. Japandroids were a total revelation in raw distorted sound, as the guitar and drums twosome tore it up on stage before a quasi non-existent crowd in a rain storm. The few of us in attendance were treated to a duo giving 200%, playing close to an hour before they were plainly kicked off stage. The Black Keys on the other hand were no surprise… in excellence. They brought exactly what we’ve come to expect of them, an emotionally charged and grandiose sound unmatched at this festival.
The Rogers Stage’s 8 o’clock show was a daily feature of some of the hottest artists of the moment. Metric‘s Emily Haines rocked out to tracks off their new album Fantasies but also took some time to chat about love and saving the world. The foursome made quite a connection with the crowd as they pushed out their indie pop/rock up until the last instant. The Sam Roberts Band also bonded with everyone as they used the combined voices of thousands for Brother Down‘s chorus singing “I think my life is passing me by”. Neko Case’s always pitch perfect haunting vocal renderings paired with her brand of alt-country, was the perfect answer to a rainy afternoon. Down under native Xavier Rudd sang to us from the heart, his words translated through the smiles in his eyes. His very obvious joie de vivre was contagious and spread through the crowd at a lightning fast pace. Matt Berninger of The National came dressed for success as he forced his deep voice across the great expanse of land before him. The next night, LIVE was all over the Rogers Stage with everyone present singing along to some of their greatest hits like Lightning Crashes and I Alone. They definitely drew out one of the more enthusiastic bunches of people. In the ‘tough act to follow’ category, Ludacris brought out the largest and rowdiest crowd to attend a Rogers Stage performance. Luda’s fans did not shy away from showing their love either during his tribute to Michael Jackson or his shout out to the 613 before his rendition of Area Codes. Closing off the more than a week long list of extraordinary performances was arguably one of the best shows Ottawa will see all year… Scratch that, decade: The Dead Weather. With a short set of less than an hour, this powerhouse combo of sickly gifted musicians gave rock a rebirth in the form of a raw and dirty sonic explosion… It made even the best of us feel about 1mm tall…
Far and near on Lebreton Flats you could hear a guitar wailing as melancholy filled the warm summer air. The country/folk-rock genres were extremely well represented this year as the likes of Iron and Wine, Steve Earle, The Low Anthem, Deer Tick and Drive-By Truckers all took to the stage where they left a piece of themselves and took a piece of us all with them. Samuel Beam of Iron and Wine bared his musical soul and on the following night, seasoned rocker Steve Earle stomped his feet, scratched his guitar and played his harmonica to the tune of I Ain’t Ever Satisfied. The Low Anthem played a respectable set sprinkled with their eclectic mix of instruments, but unfortunately all the subtleties of their sound was lost in the vastness, being more suited to a small indoor venue. Given their late arrival, relative newcomers Deer Tick managed to piece together a decent hour even without the chance to sound check. Their new single Easy earned them some respect from a crowd who was mostly there awaiting the arrival of the mighty Jack White. The Drive-By Truckers were the most sincere and fervent of the bunch, their performance feeling quite personal. They played mostly to and for themselves, lacking some crowd interaction, but that didn’t take away from the impassioned performance.
Canada’s own were also very well represented. Toronto’s Thunderheist gave a very intimate performance with a casual feel that made the audience feel like a group of 25 packed into a tiny dance club. MC Isis and Grahm Zilla proved that they’re a match made in Canadian indie-dance heaven! From across the country, Vancouver’s Mother Mother brought all the quirky spirited pizzazz found on their latest release Oh My Heart and multiplied its intensity with every cheer from their fans. Montreal also had it covered as two of its electro-rock darling duos held their own on the Bank of America Stage; Beast created quite a buzz while Handsome Furs’ set was all fuzz and no fluff.
The festival also produced some pretty soulful performances. Gym Class Heroes brought a continuous bounce to a sea of hoodies and caps, while K’NANN had us on our feet, grooving to his world inspired beats. Sharon Jones took the crown for dance performance of the festival; sweating it out to every dance style imaginable the 53-year-old had more energy than most of the much younger Bluesfest performers! Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings put on a highly memorable appearance and everyone present had the blisters on their feet to prove it.
The festival’s grand finale was triumphantly executed by New York City’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs. What better way to end an awesome 12 days than with Karen O wearing a pink light mask and singing Heads Will Roll? Top it off with sparkling confetti and a giant inflatable eye bouncing around on the crowd and who could ask for more? For all these reasons and the ones listed above, there’s no question that the Ottawa Bluesfest is the premier destination for music in Canada!
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Bits & Pieces
Neko Case – Last Night @ Ottawa Bluesfest
07.13.09
Folk femme Neko Case set the crowd ablaze with her fiery and passionate performance last night at the Ottawa Bluesfest. All the details to be revealed in the photos and review up in no time.
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Bits & Pieces
Neko Case – Tonight @ Ottawa Bluesfest
07.12.09Don’t miss alt-country singer Neko Case on the Rogers Stage tonight as she explores themes of nature, animals and love at the Ottawa Bluesfest.
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CD Reviews
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
03.07.09
