Music

Being a fan of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart is not unlike being a Belle & Sebastian or Smiths fan. It's a twee obsession, where you want to take every song and melody and lyric and stuff them in a rose-scented box that you hide under your bed, avoiding any of the cultish cliches that come along with being a fancier of acts like the Grateful Dead or Steely Dan. It's a personal obsession that isn't inward-looking in any sort of naval gazing way, or shameful, but rather often a peg in your past, your growing up, and your relationships. 

Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces have been putting out consistently interesting and challenging hip hop records since their debut Black Up back in 2011. The veteran rappers just recently released a pair of albums, Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star and Quazarz Vs. The Jealous Machines this past month on Sub Pop records -- two albums that defy the wonderfully compelling and thought-provoking expectations the group had previously established with their past work.

When your band’s meteoric rise to fame leaves your fragile teenage identity feeling used up and rattled, what are three lanky Australians to do? Why, embrace their inner freak, of course! Released hot on the heels of their hit debut Frogstomp, 1997’s Freak Show offered a major comedown from Silverchair. It’s a dark record steeped in frontman Daniel Johns’ contemplations on suicide and sickness. It’s also not very good.

CGI doesn't hold up, at all. Have you seen Independence Day recently? It looks worse than a rotoscoped episode of Night Gallery. However, watch any body horror films from the 1980s, and what was quickly considered cheap looking a few years after it was made, now creates a real sense of unease in us in 2017.

Minneapolis's Real Numbers released their debut album, Wordless Wonder, last fall through the mighty Slumberland Records, and yesterday, in advance of their upcoming American west coast tour, the poppy five-piece have just put out their new single, "Frank Infatuation". A big part of the Real Numbers charm is that they are able to take the best parts of DIY pop music from over the years and distill it into some really wonderfully constructed songs.

Tomorrow Glasgow's Belle & Sebastian kick off their North American tour at New York's Panorama Festival and today they've released their first new single since 2015. "We Were Beautiful" is everything that fans of the band would clamour for and something that will most definitely pique the interest of newbies. Kicking off with a muted break beat and a melodic bass line before Stuart Murdoch leads off the first verse in his world weary tone. When the chorus kicks in though is when the song really takes off.

There's just over a month's wait before the new Pains Of Being Pure At Heart record, The Echo Of Pleasure, drops and today the band has shared the video for the first single "When I Dance With You". Since their debut, The Pains have had this refreshingly unpretentious vibe about them that has always been a big part of their charm. This charm comes through winningly with this clip. Directed by visual artist Ralph Fuller, "When I Dance With You" seems to be a lost relic of the 80s.

Bad Religion are one of those punk rock bands that insist on painting the genre with the ugly brush, releasing tired records that tread water and pander to their pea-brained audience of suburban nitwits and self-imposed social outcasts. For most diehard Bad Religion fans, 1983’s Into the Unknown, the band’s sophomore effort, was a regrettable misstep best left forgotten, but for all the true punks out there this album represented a lost opportunity to push the group in a new direction.

Ah, summer in the city. Everyone is at maximum chill, soaking up the sun for the few months that we are able to enjoy it. The only thing that makes it all better is your soundtrack and, as if on cue, local Vancouver phemons, Leisure Club, have just released the latest single, “Still Young” off of their long awaited debut album. Made up of players from such Vancouver notables as Bestie, Jo Passed, Tough Lovers and Maiwah, Leisure Club have a significant amount of musicianship to back up their brand of summer music, which isn’t just one-dimensional pop.