Our friends over at Kitsilano’s Zulu Records once again present their weekly Scout feature, the Zulu Report. Within, staff from the West 4th music store provide The Track, the song that is on heavy rotation that week; The Playlist, which is pretty self-explanatory; The Gig, the must see show of the week; and The Glance, a view ahead to music on the horizon. From their ears to yours, enjoy…

The Track

WOODEN SHJIPS performing Loose Lips from their recent collection of obscurities and oddities, Vol. 2, released on their own Sick Thirst label.

Here I ask you to bear witness to the Wooden Shjips in all their gnarled, psychedelicatized glory; here they are captured live on Halloween in Brooklyn courtesy of Future Primitive Films. The Shjips are a San Francisco-based psych-garage-stomp-rock outfit that’ve been turning heads for the last couple years, and for good reason. With so much of indie rock crawling into bed with the suits, Wooden Shjips harken back to a time of travelling in a VW, growing vegetables in your back yard, and growing out all your body hair to extreme lengths. Although I’m unsure of their dietary practices, I nevertheless call their music “macrobiotic rock,” because you know these dudes are getting their full does of “greens” everyday (get me?). This stylish video gives a good sense of a live Shjips performance: four bros locked in a groove, heads down, no nonsense space-boogie. Loose Lips is a rager, and Vol. 2 is full of ‘em. God Bless the Wooden Shjips!

The Playlist

Imagine this scene: Lady Gaga waking up in her penthouse loft somewhere in Manhattan, exhausted from the previous day’s photo shoots, interviews, and red carpet shenanigans.  This is the A-list Zulu playlist that helps her start another day.

BROKEN BELLS s/t (Sony)
It’s not all glitz and glamour for Gaga. First thing in the morning is all comfy sweat suits, Earl Grey and James Mercer’s reassuring voice. Broken Bells’ clean-but-dreamy-pop is the perfect segue from dreamland to reality.

JONSI Go (XL)
If Lady Gaga were a gay Icelandic post-rocker then she’d probably sound a lot like Sigur Ros’ Jonsi. Beautiful, epic, spiraling, cinematic pop for the new millennium, which Gaga is super down with.

AUTECHRE Oversteps (Warp)
You wouldn’t think that Lady Gaga would be into glitch superstars Autechre, but the truth is she loves this shit while she does pilates in the morning by the loft window overlooking the Hudson.

HIGH PLACES Vs. Mankind (Thrill Jockey)
Thrill Jockey continues its reign as supreme tastemakers by scooping High Places up. Understanding the kind of intense scrutiny a superstar such as Lady Gaga is forced to contend with, they named their latest album “Vs. Mankind,” which the Lady undoubtedly appreciates.

SHARON JONES AND THE DAP KINGS I Learned The Hard Way (Daptone).
Sharon Jones is the sound of Brooklyn soul circa ’69 – except she’s living in ’10, dig? The woman’s skills negate any discussion of authenticity or nostalgia: she’s got the goods and Gaga likes.

SERENA MANEESH Abyss In B Minor (4AD)
Serena Maneesh have the whole dirty, drugged out, psychedelic rock’n’roll swagger thing down solid. And they look like freaky, leather motorcycle bandits from the future – remind you of anyone?

THE SIGHT BELOW It Falls Apart (Ghostly International)
Sometimes the crowds, the hype, the paparazzi, and the endless brown-nosing can get to be a bit much for Lady Gaga and she needs some moody shoegaze balladry to accompany a little “me time” – and that’s exactly when she turns to the Sight Below.

PAVEMENT Quarantine The Past (Matador)
Lady Gaga is probably about 25 years old? That makes her exactly 13 years old when Malkmus and company dropped their college-rock classic Crooked Rain, which leads me to believe that in high school Gaga was probably gaga for Pavement’s skewed hooks, ambiguous wordplay and their badass devil-may-care attitude.

BILL CALLAHAN Rough Travel For A Rare Thing (Sea Note)
What can I say? Gaga needs to do a little soul searching the same as anybody else. When the poker face gets dropped she’s just human, you know? Callahan’s world-weary traveling tales probably make a lot of sense to a globe-trotting superstar. No wonder she’s such a superfan.

JAWBREAKER Unfun (Shredder)
We were all 13 once. We were all angsty little know-it-alls who thought the adult world should just back off and let us hang out and smoke cigarettes in a 7–11 parking lot. Right before Gaga heads out on another day’s adventures she cues up this pop-pink classic, air guitars a bit in front of the mirror, and then she’s off…

The Gig

The one show we’re really looking forward to checking out…

Sightings with locals Myths and Shearing Pinx (see above) at the Anza Club on Tuesday April 27th.

Weird Vancouver – that’s the tag that’s been applied to our city’s various noise-punk-psych-drone-freak-out bands. When Brooklyn’s Sightings roll into town for their debut performance in this city it’s going to be a real meeting of the minds.  Myths a relatively new electro-freak out punk band that features the Yoko Ono-eqsue vocal stylings of former weird-Van heavy weights Mutators’ (RIP) Leaf. Guaranteed to be aural and visual spectacle. Add to that Shearing Pinx, who are kind of like reigning old-guard of the Weirdo-scene (and incidentally two of the sweetest guys you could ever know) and you’re in for a solid night of freewheeling musical abandon. The Anza’s comfy confines seem like the perfect setting, and really, what else do you have going on Tuesday night? I’ll see you there.

The Glance

These are the better shows to see in the next two weeks…

Fri APR 16

DIRTY SOUTH – CELEBRITIES
FOXY SHAZAM – VENUE
YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE! – RICKSHAW
HORSE FEATHERS + Megafaun – MEDIA CLUB

Sat APR 17

MOONDOGGIES w/ SHILOHS – BILTMORE
AWESOME COLOR – MEDIA CLUB

Sun APR 18

LA ROUX – COMMODORE – WE ARE SOLD OUT
DESIGNER DRUGS – VENUE

Tue APR 20

THE WEDDING PRESENT – BILTMORE

Wed APR 21

YEASAYER – COMMODORE – WE ARE SOLD OUT
HOLLY GOLIGHTLY – MEDIA CLUB
DEER TICK – BILTMORE

Thu APR 22

FINNTROLL – RED ROOM
GRADY – VENUE

Fri APR 23

PACK A.D. w/ Sex With Strangers & Angry Dragons – BILTMORE

Sat APR 24

BAND OF SKULLS – VENUE – WE ARE SOLD OUT

Sun APR 25

SIDNEY SAMSON – VENUE
DANCING BEAR MUSIC FESTIVAL – QUEST UNIVERSITY

Tue APR 27

SIGHTINGS W/ MYTHS & SHEARING PINX – ANZA

Wed APR 28

SHEARWATER – BILTMORE

Thu APR 29

AQUALUNG – BILTMORE
SPENCER & HILL- FORTUNE

Fri APR 30

RED SPAROWS – BILTMORE
MIDI GHETTO TOUR – RICKSHAW
LIARS – VENUE
MORGAN PAGE – CELEBRITIES