Overlooked 2014: Carla Bozulich - Boy

 I recently revisited this album, possibly my favorite of last year, and found it to be both stranger and catchier than I remembered. Upon first listen, early last year, I looked up Carla and discovered she has a long history of making music on the threshold. Her early work in Ethyl Meatplow (why do interesting bands have to pick such bad names?) offered warped dance pop and some seriously messed-up (and NSFW) videos. Carla later moved to Montreal and signed to Constellation, enlisting many of the label's alumni for the heavily experimental Evangelista project. This makes Boy her first proper solo record in many years.

The gorgeous artwork, painted by Carla, immediately struck me with the majestic orange-maned horse and the Van Gogh-esque night. It definitely fits the hazy, sprawling, determined and aggressive tone of the album. Boy was recorded during an extended period of travel and I could hear the "veins of railroad tracks" throughout. Opener "Ain't No Grave" sounds like gothic blues that's been blown apart and the remnants mashed together into a new, alien form, an image that came back to me many times during the album. Every song is anchored by a strong melody, preventing the fragmented arrangements from collapsing. Strong juxtapositions appear throughout like the violent, dark lyrics against wistful chimes and a soaring, languid guitar solo on "Gonna Stop Killing". Even the classic country of "What Is It Baby?" pits rootsy authenticity against mischievous guitar feedback.

Who I've Seen

So, I've been thinking about all the bands/musicians I've seen and decided that in lieu of a massive box full of concert tickets I would start compiling a list. While many of them I could remember right away, some took a bit of research and asking around. It was a fun project though because I remembered shows that I hadn't thought about in years. I've been lucky since only a few of these have been terrible. Tv on the Radio being the most heartbreaking example of an amazing band who are awful live. Any band I've seen more than once has a number beside the entry. These are from 1997 to the present and will be updated.

 (Slowdive Danforth Music Hall 2014)

Nine Inch Nails & Soundgarden Concert Report

Nine Inch Nails with Soundgarden at Molson Amphitheatre July 27

This was a reunion of a pairing that occurred 20 years ago at the much-loved Molson Park. At that concert, in 1994, my mum's boyfriend at the time got a concussion from the intense moshing. In the intervening decades, the crowd has mellowed somewhat but the bands are still as powerful as ever. Electronic improviser Oneohtrix Point Never opened with some heavy drones and beats backed by some very impressive abstract visuals. He replaced the habitually unreliable and now dissolved hip-hop/noise duo Death Grips. OPNs music was fairly compelling but was largely ignored by the hard rock-craving masses.

Soundgarden came out strong, sounding entirely undiminished by time, though they are definitely more of a nostalgia act than Nine Inch Nails since their sound is largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Their set was fairly heavy on songs from 1994s Superunknown, an album that is generally considered their best. "Black Hole Sun", their signature hit, was a little disappointing as it was played a bit slow with the vocals in a lower register. Chris Cornell's distinctive high-pitched wail was in full force elsewhere though, especially on the closing song, 1988s "Beyond the Wheel", a song that I was formerly unfamiliar with but that blew me away. They wisely only played one song from their 2012 solid but unremarkable reunion album King Animal, "A Thousand Days Before". The band sounded typically fantastic, with guitarist Kim Thayil playing busy and intricate guitar lines and replacement drummer Matt Chamberlain fitting in seamlessly.

This is my fourth time seeing Nine Inch Nails and considering they're basically my favourite band, it's hard to be too objective but they definitely put on one of the most all-around impressive shows of any band today. As they have a consistently evolving style and often rearrange older tracks, they avoid seeming like a 90s time capsule. Frontman Trent Reznor began the show solo, with just a sequencer on stage for an excellent rendition of "Copy of A" from last year's amazing Hesitation Marks album. The current version of the band gradually joined in for a set that covered all of their albums, save for 1999s The Fragile.

Their set was heavy on the hits but made room for some fully out-there album tracks like "The Great Destroyer", which climaxed with three minutes of abstract electronics. Their use of visuals was stunning, with abstract computerized patterns that reacted to the music. Trent Reznor is still an amazing frontman, though some of their earlier super-angsty lyrics do sound a little silly sung by a  49 year-old man with arms the size of fire hydrants. Their pacing was perfect, finding a balance between rock and electronic, blunt and abstract. Standard closer "Hurt" provided a pleasingly emotional come down after an intense three hours.

Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks Concert Report

Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks with Dustin Wong at Lee's Palace April 19

An evening with Animal Collective's pseudo-frontman was opened by guitar expressionist Dustin Wong. Dustin played forty minutes of solo, looped electric guitar accompanied by occasional wordless singing. Under a bed of intricate, classical-influenced loops, he unleashed furious riffs and cosmic leads. The crowd stood in rapt attention, letting out screams for particularly impressive guitar lines and the occasional times that Wong stood up to sing.

The audience was pretty pumped to see Avey Tare since the last two Animal Collective shows had been respectively cancelled and performed without his vocals. While this show was dedicated exclusively to the Enter the Slasher House album, there were definitely serious Animal Collective fans in the crowd. The loose b-grade horror-movie concept of the album was visualized with plastic skulls and the occasional rubber mask, both seemingly from the Dollarama Halloween section. Once the lights went out and the projections hit the skulls, the setup created a pleasantly disorienting effect. The band was barely visible for the entirety of the show.

The band's style of performance was far more aggressive but also somewhat more straightforward than Animal Collective. While they stuck mainly to songs on the album, Tare's group extended most of the songs well beyond their recorded limits with the inclusion of spacey keyboard interludes and furious drumming. Tracks like "Duplex Trip" and "That It Won't Grow" drastically surpassed the album versions. While all three of the band members were great, the drummer stood out, playing rhythms both driving and unnatural. Tare's singing, while heavily processed, was as intense as a punk singer, delivering mostly incomprehensible lyrics. By the end of the show, the front of the crowd had become a big, ecstatic mosh pit hanging on every beat and pulsation.

Warpaint Concert Report

Warpaint with Cate Le Bon at Danforth Music Hall March 25

I always enjoy going to the Danforth Music Hall. It's one of the nicest venues in the city with a slightly-inclined floor that affords excellent site lines. Opener Cate Le Bon performed an odd variety of song-oriented psychedelia with a pleasantly Welsh vibe. While the music was fairly simple, the band occasionally veered off into oddball free-jazz jam territory while Cate herself would vocalize what could only be described as aggressive bird calls. Not brilliant but she definitely has potential.

Warpaint's distinctive gothic-psychedelic atmosphere was evident as soon as their lighting came on. They played for the better part of an hour and a half, focusing mainly on the moody electronic grooves of their newly-released, self-titled album. A few tracks from their first album, The Fool, showed off their more rock-oriented sound. They seemed very skillful and comfortable as a band, frequently jamming and locking into extremely tight grooves.

They were very charismatic, with the two singers splitting vocal duties fairly equally as well as regularly interacting with the crowd.. The crowd seemed to love them, especially a group of very drunk people behind us. The highlights were a couple of better known songs: "Love is To Die", a groovy and catchy number from the new record, as well as "Undertow", a melodic rocker from their first record. For the encore, they played the excellent "Elephant" which became a full-on rock epic. Overall, their mix of good songs, beguiling atmosphere, solid musicianship and sonic variety makes them a compelling group.

Between the Buried and Me with Deafheaven Concert Report

Between the Buried and Me with Deafheaven at the Phoenix February 28

Deafheaven

This was only my third proper metal show after seeing Dillinger Escape Plan and later Opeth with Mastodon. I was initially more excited to see Deafheaven since they've gotten tonnes of great reviews and even made the cover of Now magazine in Toronto. Deafheaven play a blend of black metal and shoegaze that is like catnip for music critics. Having extremely long songs, they played only four songs with three brief interludes. I was a bit disappointed because the only song from the awesome Sunbather album that they didn't play was "Vertigo", which is my favorite. They sounded very impressive live though. While their wall of noise was quite similar to the album, the addition of a full band created a bigger, more powerful effect. The song "Sunbather" was particularly stunning. They maintained a solid balance between black metal screaming and melodic, almost sunny guitar lines. The singer had a looming, energetic and vaguely frightening presence that made up for the lack of variety in his vocal delivery. The mixing was successful in that the singing felt like another guitar part, as it should with a band like this. For both bands, the crowd's enthusiasm was hugely invigorating.

Between the Buried and Me

Between the Buried and Me, despite their questionable, Counting Crows-derived name, were definitely the more impressive of the two bands offering a fusion of technical death metal and prog-pop. I recently discovered the distinction between black and death metal. Black metal has higher pitched screaming vocals with fairly steady, consistent rhythms while death metal involves lower-pitched, growling vocals combined with frequent time changes. It was interesting seeing examples of both, with Deafheaven representing the former and Between the Buried and Me the latter. BtBaM (or maybe just BBM?) fairly boldly decided to make their main set consist only of their newest album, The Parallax II: Future Sequence. Luckily, it's a quite good album that represents a wide variety of sounds. As well, this gave the set an amazing flow as the songs segue nicely into one another. The band's technical skill was clearly through the roof, being able to switch from one genre to another at the drop of a hat. The best example of this was "Bloom", which in three minutes captured everything the band is good at. They encored with "Sun of Nothing" from Circles, a triumphant finale and likely their best song.

Bowie in Total 4: The Music is Outside

On to part four (!) of David Bowie's substantial discography where he reunites with some old comrades and tries some new tricks. The 1990s were definitely one of the more interesting periods in Bowie's career as makes more of an effort to follow musical trends while being as iconoclastic as he's ever been. Overall, a good decade where his worst album of the era, 1999's Hours..., is still better than most music put out at the time.

Black Tie, White Noise (1993)

This album serves as a wedding album of sorts for Bowie, who had recently wedded supermodel Iman Abdulmajid, as the first and last songs are "The Wedding" and "The Wedding Song" respectively. Bowie reunited with producer/guitarist Nile Rogers and, as such, I like to imagine this album as the sequel to Let's Dance, with the intervening ten horrible years erased. In fact, I find this record to be much more enjoyable than Let's Dance, and to be a much more successful fusion of Bowie's disparate styles. He dives headfirst into early 90s dance music with greater success than one would expect while contributing an impressive amount of his distinctive saxophone playing. He continues his trend, dating back to Let's Dance, of including cover songs on the album, though of a far superior variety than those on albums previous. A cover of Cream's "I Feel Free" has Bowie reuniting with Ziggy-era guitarist Mick Ronson for a track that fuses dance-funk with a bit of classic rock jamming. His cover of Scott Walker's "Nite Flights" captures the eerie, driving feel of the original while including some Happy Mondays-style production. My favorite tracks are "Jump They Say", a superficially upbeat pop song with unsettling lyrics detailing the disorientation of living with schizophrenia, and "Pallas Athena", a mostly instrumental dance track that foreshadows the material that Bowie would put out later in the decade.

The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)

A soundtrack of sorts to a BBC miniseries of the same name, this album is often ignored but is a surprisingly good low-stakes effort by Bowie. He played most of the instruments himself, making this album the closest to a true solo effort for Bowie. Despite this, the songwriting is very good and the sound of the album, while somewhat dated, is consistently interesting. Many of the tracks are either instrumentals or have minimal, repetitive vocals. The only track I would omit would be the reprise of the title track at the end, featuring a superfluous guitar solo from Lenny Kravitz. My favorite songs are "Sex and the Church", a mostly instrumental mix of dark dance beats and free jazz, as well as "Dead Against It", a poppy track with a backing reminiscent of Neu! and late period Cocteau Twins.

1. Outside (1995)

Easily one of my favorite Bowie albums, this is his longest and strangest. It is a somewhat confusing though detailed concept album about a child murder in a near future of interest drugs and self-mutilation art. This album absolutely must be listened to with the accompanying booklet, which has amazing artwork and detailed narration on the plot and characters. Bowie reunited with Brian Eno, Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels and his 70s keyboardist Mike Garson to make for one of his best bands. The songs were largely formed from extended jams inspired by the various themes and characters of the album. The album fuses elements of jazz, avant-garde and industrial to create a wholly unique sound, exemplified by lead single, "The Heart's Filthy Lesson". There are a number of spoken-word interludes where Bowie portrays the various characters with surprising skill for a terrifying effect. I don't think it would be fair to pick my favorite songs since the album works so much better as a whole. If you're looking for a challenging and engaging listen, check this album out!

Earthling (1997)

Stylistically, somewhat of a continuation from Outside, this album is simpler and more immediate. As one of the major elements of the album is Bowie's interpretation of Drum and Bass, I thought this album would sound very dated but, surprisingly, it feels as fresh and contemporary as when it came out. Using many of the same musicians as Outside, this album is probably Bowie's loudest and heaviest. Somewhat less successful are the lyrics, which were largely composed using a William Burroughs-influenced cut-up technique. Even the songs where the lyrics and melody fall somewhat flat, such as "The Last Thing You Should Do" and "Looking for Satellites", are still enjoyable due to the strong musicianship and general enthusiasm of the process. To me, the best tracks are "Dead Man Walking", which has both the Drum and Bass influence and a strong lyric and melody, as well as "I'm Afraid of Americans", one of Bowie's better, more provocative singles from this era.

Hours (1999)

After a string of excellent albums, this one proved to be a bit of a let down with impressively ugly cover art. Originating as a soundtrack to the video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul, these songs lack the coherence or power of his previous few albums. Hours has a quieter, more contemplative mood that contrasts with the heavy, intense material of previous years. I see this album as a somewhat cynical attempt to cash in on the adult contemporary sound that was popular at the time with TV stations like Much More Music and VH1. Lead single "Thursday's Child" perfectly exemplifies this with a middle-of-the-road beat, wispy strings and soft, generic backing vocals. Despite this, the melodies of most of the songs are still strong, certainly way ahead of his 80s material. Also, Reeves Gabrels contributes some solid guitar playing for what would prove to be his last collaboration with Bowie. My picks for this album are "Something in the Air", a fairly adventurous track that involves a sickly funk groove and unhinged, digitally distorted vocals, as well as "If I'm Dreaming My Life", a classic rock epic with great guitar playing and a solid energy. After this comes the far more interesting Heathen and the beginning of the most recent phase of Bowie's career.