Shove It In Your Ears pt. 4

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I haven't written a music blog since January and I've been feeling mega guilty about it. Work is all too consuming and on my days off I'd rather spend my time making music, disconnecting myself from the general madness that is life, and learning to enjoy my time alone, away from social media and focusing on being present with myself (and my cat).

BUT, here I am on my day off, about to share the music that I've been obsessing over for the past few months. Some of these bands are ones that I've recently revisited, and may have posted about before, but I just haaaaave to share with you again to emphasize their stellarness (not a word...i know).

1. Bully

I recently discovered this band when a co-worker put on their record at work. The first song didn't do anything for me, almost annoyed me, but as the album played on I was hooked and grew to love her voice and the music. Favourite song on Feels Like would have to be 'Milkman' or 'Six'.

2. Pointed Sticks

I recently visited my dad to celebrate both of our birthdays and he gifted me a handful of seminal Canadian punk records for my birthday, Perfect Youth by Pointed Sticks being one of them. These guys hail from Vancouver and were the first Canadian band to be signed to Stiff Records, which is pretty neat!

3. The 1975

Admittedly, I always brushed The 1975 off for some weird reason but I now regret doing so for so long. Their new record is absolutely fantastic and feeds my 80's pop rock hunger.

4. Yazoo

These 80s jams give me a new, fresh feeling in my guts. I actually discovered them while watching an episode of Once Upon A Time.....which is super weird.

5. The Cola Heads

THESE DUDES THO!!!! They hail from my lovely city of Toronto and I came across them when they opened up for the Queers a few months back. I had seen these dudes on some other bills but never really gave them a chance because their name just didn't do anything for me (yeah...I'm one of those people). Full of poppy and grungy punk rock, and some vague 50s pop inspiration, these dudes bring the energy 100%.

6. Ray Rocket

First off, I just want to say how proud I am of Ray for seeing this solo project through and producing an amazing record. His originals on this record are so perfectly heart-melting and his acoustic versions of Teenage Bottlerocket songs are ones that I didn't even know that I needed in my life....I almost prefer them to the plugged in versions! I can say the same for his cover of Pet Sematary by the Ramones.

VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
jackbrown:
that Ray record gets better and better with each listen. I was expecting something along the lines of Chuck Ragan or Tim Barry (whom I love more than anything)'s solo records and thinking that he might lean towards country-ish stuff but I was super stoked to see he went more of the Kepi route, and brought Kody along to boot!
dashwood_one:
Yazoo were Vince Clarke and Alison 'Alf' Moyet. Clarke had left Depeche Mode in the early part of 1982, as he was not keen on playing live. After a few months of doing mainly studio work for other people, he put an ad in a music paper, requesting a 'Rootsy Blues singer' to collaborate on a project. One person who answered was Alison Moyet, from Basildon, Essex, which was where Clarke was from. He had seen her before, singing locally, and liked her style. She also played Saxophone and Piano. She auditioned, and got the gig. Their first single, released in 1982, was 'Only You'/'Situation' 'Situation' was a dance track, which was released in America as a single in it's own right, extended and remixed by Francois Kevorkian. It was released under the band name of 'Yaz', so as not to be confused with the output of the American Yazoo record label. Yazoo were a success from the start, but not very prolific - four singles, and two albums. Then, when they had got really big - they split, the cause being basically, the introvert Clarke, and the extrovert Moyet drifting apart. No real animosity, but Moyet rather liked Clarke, but Clarke would rather be working in his studio, alone. Moyet once said that she would have "liked to have known Clarke better... maybe a lot better".

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