Rather than write one of my holier-than-thou (or at least holier-than-Pitchfork) reviews upon immediate download of the leak, replete with fairly obvious observations and criticisms, I have waited until now to write about Brand New’s Daisy. They deserve better than a simple knee-jerk reaction of a write-up.

Here is a brief summary of my initial thoughts upon first listening to the album over a month ago:

• Yes, the album is abound with twangy nods to early 90s grunge
• Yes, it is some of the band’s “hardest” music to date
• Yes, it is an album that begs to be played live
• No, Jesse Lacey does not sound like Isaac Brock
• No, this is not Brand New’s In Utero
• No, Brand New does not sound like The Jesus Lizard, but the influence certainly is there

After reading a few interviews with both Lacey and guitarist Vincent Accardi (who wrote much of the album), I am no closer to solving the mystery of the country-fried vocal chords. What a caper! The album was not recorded in a woodshed emblazoned with the confederate flag, nor did the band listen to bluegrass albums during the writing and recording processes. Rather, Daisy was recorded in long-time collaborator/producer Mike Sappone’s Long Island, NY house and the band listened to an eclectic mix of music (including gospel singer Bertrand Brown, whose hymn “On Life’s Highway” bookends the album) that was available to them in Sappone’s basement. So, I am not quite sure what accounts for Lacey’s country cook-off vocal style throughout the album.

Although Daisy certainly is a hard-hitting album and arguably Brand New’s most aggressive one to date, it also features some of their softest songs. Whereas “Vices,” “Gasoline,” and “Sink” are relentlessly vicious tracks that find Lacey screaming the choruses, tracks like “Bed,” “Daisy,” and “Be Gone” are some of the band’s softest. The more subdued tracks on Daisy avoid the “classic” Brand New formula of building into a climactic, loud, crescendo of an ending and instead stay the course of remaining a more gentle song throughout.

The only typically Brand New track on the album, I suppose, is “You Stole.” Its slow building, palm muted verse is reminiscent of “Okay I believe you but my tommy gun don’t” from Deja Entendu. However, it does not have that deliberate, “this is the climax! Right….NOW!” aspect that the Brand New songs from days of yore posses. Yes, the drums kick in a minute or so into the song and eventually there is a more intense instrumental break, but the song travels along a specific trajectory that does not emphasize any one part too much more than any other.

In regards to the overall grunginess of the album, anyone who has seen Brand New live over the past few years should not be too surprised. The band has always tended to get quite heavy live and Lacey would always scream far more than on record. As I noted upon initially listening to Daisy, this album begs to be played live, especially by a band that puts on an intense live show to begin with. Lacey confirmed in interviews that one of the goals the band had in mind while recording the album was to craft an album that will translate well live.

Both Deja Entendu and The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me are emotionally draining albums, both lyrically and musically. The latter especially deals with dark, solemn subject matter (not to suggest that Daisy does not). Both of these albums are just that, albums—a unified collection of songs that have a cohesive, carefully thought-out order, structure, and flow. I do not find Daisy to be as much of an album as it is a collection of songs. I do not suggest that the track order was not carefully considered, nor do I suggest that it is not in fact a fairly unified collection of songs that are aesthetically and thematically similar. Furthermore, I do not suggest that one should not listen to Daisy in its entirety from start to finish. Finally, I do not suggest that the split apart hymn that bookends the album is irrelevant or not a type of unifying concept. However, Vincent Accardi (who, I remind you, wrote most of the album) is not quite the auteur that Jesse Lacey is. I mean this in both the lyrical and musical sense.

The Devil and God… has a narrative flow both in subject matter and musical arrangement (with the exception of “The Archers Bows Have Broken,” which I find to be oddly out of place). Ditto for Deja Entendu. I find Daisy to lack that narrative and thus lack in terms of its completeness as a true album. It is still a finely crafted collection of songs that is far better than most of the music that receives acclaim and success in the industry, written by a band that challenges itself with each subsequent album. One must appreciate the fact that Brand New aims to reach a different aesthetic with this album even if Lacey’s twangy vocals are not your cup of whiskey-spiked tea.

Daisy

Come have at me, I am strong

Perhaps I have softened in my old age. I still stand by the adage that if you tossed a handful of Joy Division songs and a handful of Interpol songs in a burlap sack, shook it, and listened to said tracks in the random order you remove them, it would be difficult to tell one band from the other (I suppose you could also make a random mix of the two bands on iTunes by utilizing the shuffle option and setting specific parameters). However, the more Pitchfork turns its back on the band it once heralded as "incredibly powerful and affecting," I find myself developing a peculiar (yet still fairly small) fondness for INTRPL, OMG, NYC.

Interpol vocalist Paul Banks, one of the dreariest sounding men in modern rock, has released, yes, you guessed it, a self-indulgent solo album. What makes it self-indulgent? Well, for a start, it's not too far off musically from anything from Interpol's catalogue. So, why put out a solo album at all? The inclusion of nonsensical foreign-tongued rambling on closing track "H" is an attempt by Banks to disguise a brain fart as avant-garde dabbling and ultimately feels forced and, yes, self-indulgent. Another aspect of this album that points towards self-indulgence is the fact that Banks adopts a somewhat Eurocentric and off-puttingly punny pseudonym under which to release the album: Julian Plenti. Har har har. Despite adopting this pseudonym, Banks has made no effort to conceal the fact that it is an album by the lead singer of Interpol. He is in full view on the cover, all the press regarding the album has been sure to mention that he is the lead singer of Interpol, and, in case I have yet to mention it, the album sounds like Interpol. Or Joy Division. Or both.

What really eats at me about this album is that, gasp!, I kind of like it. With the exception of a few excruciatingly banal tracks, like "Girl On The Sporting News," it is a fine collection of sombre post-punk tracks. A good listen on a Sunday evening as you sip a glass of scotch and bemoan the dampness of your parents' basement. Yes, Banks channels Ian Curtis to the point that sometimes I think he believes he is Ian Curtis, but he does it so damn well.

Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper

Revisionist History

In a misguided attempt to bolster Russian national pride, Prime Minister Vladamir Putin ordered Russian educators to rewrite history textbooks to now refer to former dictator Josef Stalin as "one of the most successful leaders of the USSR." The new history textbooks avoid any mention of the mass killings Stalin was responsible for, the forced labour camps he sent millions to, and justify his non-aggression pact with Hitler and his occupation of Eastern Poland and invasion of Finland as "rational responses to a complex security situation." A false portrait is painted of Stalin that depicts him as a great national leader (not a totalitarian dictator) who defeated the Nazis and thereby saved Europe.

Well, this act of national pride building has got me thinking: why don't more nations enact this type of propagan—I mean, tasteful revision to boost nationalism? The following is my attempt to set the wheels in motion....

Mao Zedong

Great Leader Chairman Mao sent China into the future, making it an industrialized nation. He chased out those pesky Japanese and established a socialist state with a long-winded name, The People's Republic of China. He is said to have preferred to do much of his work while in bed (not unlike Silvio Berlusconi...hey-oh!) and essentially created what is commonly known as "casual friday," as he preferred to work in comfortable slacks.

Mao even listened to the opinions of the opposition, as was demonstrated during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, where citizens were encouraged to suggest how the government should operate (oddly, nearly three months later, 500, 000 of those who criticized the government during this campaign disappeared...but, with a population in the billions, I suppose it is common to lose track of a few citizens). Mao's Great Leap Forward set the groundwork for the American hippie movement (who doesn't love hippies?!) as small farms were merged into people's communes. Sure, a few (million) peasants died during the Great Leap Forward, but at least they died doing what they loved: working endlessly to harvest grain that would be distributed in urban centres and exported overseas, thereby leaving the peasants with nothing.

Beyond his triumphs in politics, Mao has come to be an endearing pop culture figure. Without him we would not have all those stylish graphic tshirts emblazoned with his handsome face, nor would we have the famed Chinese acrobatic trick "Chair, Man, Wow!"

Benito Mussolini

His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of Empire--or, simply Mussolini, is credited with being one of the key figures in creating fascism. Without fascism, the European studies courses at university would be rather bland, so political science majors the world over should be thankful for Il Duce's contributions. Mussolini created the ideal model of a political flip flopper that many politicians strive towards to this day, as he turned a complete 180 from being a determined socialist to the father of fascism.

Mussolini also greatly influenced university studies for years to come as he invoked the works of Plato as the cornerstone of fascism. Like many students, professors and TAs in philosophy programs the world-over, Mussolini misinterpreted The Republic to serve his grand thesis: that Italy was in need of an undemocratic system of governance, run by a core group of elites, whereby citizens were expected to put the militaristic interests of the state above all else.

Finally, Mussolini inspired future generations of bandwagon New York Yankees and Manchester United supporters by joining WWII on the side of the Nazis when in 1939 a German victory appeared to be imminent. Let's be honest, who doesn't like to play the favourites?

Adolf Hitler

If nothing else, Hitler was at least the inspiration for a few hilarious gags in mainstream movies whereby a dark haired male somehow ends up with what appears to be a Hitler mustache and ends up at--get this!--a neo-Nazi convention or a Holocaust survivor gathering-type event (they have "we beat the Holocaust" parties, right?) and the resulting hilarity wins over even those do-gooders who still believe it is insensitive and politically incorrect to make Hitler jokes. The only movie that comes to mind presently that enacts that type of gag is the 2001 Jerry Zucker directed masterpiece Rat Race. With its all-star cast featuring the likes of Dean Cain (the Superman of my heart), Amy Smart (I can still picture what her boobs look like thanks to another cinematic masterpiece, Road Trip), Whoopi Goldberg (I wish I could picture her boobs!), Seth Green (everyone's favourite little pesky Jew...even Hitler would like him), Cuba Gooding Jr. (one day Morgan Freeman will pass the torch), the Mr. Bean guy, the Newman guy, and perhaps the greatest actor of our generation (and any other for that matter), Breckin Meyer. Heck, Rat Race even features an appearance by world-conquering superband Smash Mouth.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain that that (not a typo, two "that"s, you smartass) is Hitler's only contribution to history.

Hogtown Harmonics Volume V

I briefly mentioned Blocks Recording Club in my post about no-wavers Brides, theorizing that the band's upcoming proper LP may be released by the Toronto co-op label. My half-baked conspiracy theory (based entirely on the fact that Brides are set to play Blocks' showcase at Pop Montreal in a few weeks) may have provided some with the misguided notion that Blocks is a record label that signs artists and releases, distributes, and promotes their albums. This is not quite the case. Blocks Recording Club is a co-op. The artists who release albums through Blocks in fact are part owners of Blocks. How does that work? Honestly, I don't really know. How does one get involved with Blocks? Yet again, I don't know. Believe me, I've tried to find out. Regardless of the cloak of magical musical mystery that Blocks is covered in, it is one of the more novel musical collectives in Toronto—not just in terms of organization, but the artists that are involved. Blocks has released albums from such notable Toronto avant-garde artists as Final Fantasy, The Creeping Nobodies, Fucked Up, and Nifty (Nif-D, Nifdee, Puff Dee Dee?) to name a few. To date, 57 albums have been released under the Blocks banner. This post shall focus on a few of those artists.

Ninja High School

I hate to be a standard middle-class caucasian (or do I?), but when it comes to hip-hop, I find myself with a rather limited knowledge and opinion. Sure, I can recognize that most mainstream hip-hop is awful, insincere, and part of a larger viral marketing campaign, but the same goes for mainstream music of all genres. However, even when it comes to more alternative hip-hop, I still cannot get my head around much of it. Upon my first listen to Ninja High School's We Win! EP, I could recognize the sincerity and the uniqueness of it, but dismissed it to an extent as "party music."

Subsequent listens have provided me with a better appreciation and understanding of the aesthetic NHS strove towards (I use past tense as the group broke up in 2007). The delivery of the vocals on We Win! are like a hip-hop version of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum. They are not particularly pleasant simply for what they are, rather they are enjoyable because they are so raw and sloppy.

The EP is quite a contrast to the group's initial release, Young Adults Against Suicide, which incorporates multiple vocalists, more intricate and varied samples, and more of a feel-good "party" vibe. The group chanting gets a little repetitive at times, but it still brings a smile to my face and that is one of the goals NHS had in mind, as they strove to create positive hip-hop music.

Young Adults Against Suicide

We Win!

Katie Stelmanis

At Fucked Up's most recent 4-day stint at Sneaky Dee's (last October), I neglected to pay close attention to the openers of the Thursday night show. I mildly enjoyed Final Fantasy's looped violin dittys, avoided One Hundred Dollars completely, and seem to recall heading downstairs for nachos during Katie Stelmanis' set. Well, after having seen a full Stelmanis set last week, I regret opting to punish my bowels rather than reward my ears last October.

Stelmanis was a member of now-defunct gritty girl group Galaxy and indie-gospel collective Bruce Peninsula. On her own, Stelmanis employs an idiosyncratic, almost conflicting style that pits computer-based instrumentation against operatic vocals. However, rather than battle, the two find a middle ground to work together and complement each other in a quirky and satisfying way.

In a live setting, Stelmanis performs as a three-piece band, with her on vocals and keyboards, and friends Carmen Elle on guitar/backup vocals and Maya Postepski (another fellow Galaxy alum) on drums/xylophone/backup vocals. This live setup allows Stelmanis' songs to possess an intensity that is not present on record, primarily due to the usage of triple vocals and Postepski's impressive multitasking on drums and xylophone (arguably stealing the show as she simultaneously drummed with her left hand and played xylophone with her right).

Stelmanis' debut album Join Us was released on Blocks, but her recent Believe Me EP was put out on, gasp!, Vice Records. Feast your eyes on the charming video for "Believe Me":