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

Wolf Parade performing Ghost Pressure, from their new album Expo 86, live in Budapest.

As much as it’s pointless to talk about indie rock as a genre of music (this term is too amorphous and meaningless to really qualify as a genre), I’ll still go ahead and say that Wolf Parade have captured the zeitgeist of indie rock circa the ’00s. I’m sure they never set out with this as the intention of their music. Theirs is an unlikely blend of sounds: earnest Springsteen working man rock, 80’s synth pop, some proggy left turns here and there to keep it interesting, and yelpy, tense vocals. This formula hasn’t wavered too much since their debut, and so on Expo 86 we find them doing what they do and doing it well. Expo 86 has a breezier feel than its predecessor, and altogether more of a “live band playing together” vibe. And that’s good, because Wolf Parade is a killer live band (as this Budapest clip attests!). Expo 86 sounds like a band having a good time playing their music and being pretty much the best at what they do. What more could we ask for?

The Playlist

BLANK DOGS Phrases (Captured Tracks)
Mike Sniper, aka Blank Dogs, gives us what must be his 6th release of 2010, Phrases, an album that sits as nicely beside Disintegration on this list as it does in my home music collection.

THE CURE Disintegration 2LP Reissue (WEA)
In the hottest weeks of the summer nothing beats gothing-out with Robert Smith et al on what is rightly considered their masterpiece. Customers regularly scour our bins looking for an old vinyl copy of this fine album; now that it’s been reissued I can happily sell it to them.

DANIEL JOHNSTON Story Of An Artist (Munster)
The warbled, loopy boy-man Johnston has his earliest and best material collected for all of those who somehow missed out on his childlike genius.

KURT VILE Square Shells EP (Matador)
To me Vile is kind like the ’00’s answer to those ’90’s masters of home recorded slackery: Malkmus, Barlow, and of course a little bit of prime era Springsteen. His Matador debut left some people a little cold, but Square Shells should remedy. Gold sounds for now.

MELVINS The Bride Screamed Murder (Ipecac)
King Buzzo and Dale Clover continue to shred their way through the sludge of every known permutation of Sabbath. This is black art wizardry via Marshall stack and double kick drum.

TEENAGE FANCLUB Shadows (Merge)
Shadows fine the ‘Fanclub a little older and wiser than their Bandwagonesque glory days, which is fitting considering that almost two decades have passed.  What remains the same is the quality of their badass power pop songwriting.

M.I.A. Maya (XL)
New York Times be damned!  M.I.A. doesn’t care about the haters, the fakers, or the military-industrial undertakers.  Her self titled third outing is a banging slammer in search of a dance-fuelled revolution.  Are you game?

THE SADIES Darker Circles (Outside)
The Sadies are old hands at rock, hillbilly, country-waltz and creeping psychedelia, and Darker Circles finds them shunning the sun in favour of the lonesome midnight hour song morphs into a dream tapestry.

REFUSED The Shape Of Punk To Come LP Reissue (Burning Heart)
This Svenonius-rip of a post hardcore album has aged surprisingly well and gained enough posthumous acclaim that a deluxe LP reissue with bonus DVD doc included seems like the most reasonable thing to do.  Get with the party program.

ARIEL PINK Before Today (4AD)
The wigged out denmaster of the chillwave generation walks out into the sunshine and bestows us pearl after pearl of kooky jams!  This is your summer to shine Ariel, so please don’t disappoint by freaking out and pulling a Brian Wilson on us.

The Gig

MGMT play The Commodore | Saturday July 24th

Yes, MGMT are bringing their bad selves to The Commodore for what will surely be a stunner of a show. Anyone who has caught their various TV appearances in the last several months will know that the duo are now a 5 piece that specialize in tight, catchy, sun dabbled jangle pop. The band turned a corner on their second release, Congratulations, and now is the time to catch them in their prime.

The Glance

July

Fri JUL 23
NIC FANCIULLI – CELEBRITIES
BISON BC – BILTMORE – SHOW WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR DEC.10th

Fri JUL 23-Sun 25
BONFIRE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2010 – THE MOON FARM

Sat JUL 24
MGMT – COMMODORE – SOLD OUT
BEAR IN HEAVEN – BILTMORE
RON REY’S 50TH – RICKSHAW

Sun JUL 25
THE OBITS + NIGHT MARCHERS – MEDIA CLUB – VENUE CHANGE
HERE WE GO MAGIC – MEDIA CLUB – CANCELED REFUNDS AT P.O.P.
NERO + LA RIOTS – VENUE

Mon JUL 26
KINKY FRIEDMAN – BILTMORE
MARK FARINA – GINGER

Tue JUL 27
WE ARE SCIENTISTS w/ Rewards, Supercassette – BILTMORE

Thu JUL 29
ALEX CHILTON TRIBUTE SHOW: Magnetic West, Wilderness Years, Vancouver Nights – WISE HALL
DJ NU-MARK – SHINE
GANGA GIRI – BILTMORE

Fri JUL 30
100 MONKEYS – VENUE

JUL 30-AUG 1
KOMASKET MUSIC FESTIVAL w/The Wailers, Delhi 2 Dublin, Alex Cuba & more – WELLS + BAKERVILLE

JUL 30-AUG 2
ARTS WELL FESTIVAL – WELLS + BAKERVILLE

AUGUST

Sun AUG 01
12th PLANET + BREAKAGE – VENUE

Tue AUG 3
HOLLY SPRINGS DISASTER + ARCHITECTS w/ Structures, Baptists – MEDIA CLUB

Wed AUG 4
NATHANIEL RATECLIFF w/ Pearly Gate Music – MEDIA CLUB

Thu AUG 5
REV. HORTON HEAT – COMMODORE
CANCER BATS w/ congress, bogus tokus – BILTMORE

Fri AUG 6
SEU JORGE – VOGUE
WOODHANDS – BILTMORE
JOHN DAHLBACK – CELEBRITIES
JUCIFER – FUNKY WINKERBEANS

Sat AUG 7
THIRD WORLD – COMMODORE

Sun AUG 08
BENGA – VENUE

Mon AUG 09
VIEUX FARKA TOURE – BILTMORE

Tue AUG 10
PARSON RED HEADS w/ Cotton Jones, Minto – MEDIA
HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR – VENUE

Wed AUG 11
CHROMEO w/ HOLY GHOST, Telephoned – COMMODORE
OHBIJOU – BILTMORE
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY + THE CAIRO GANG w/ Sir Richard Bishop – VOGUE

Thu AUG 12
GROUPA FANTASMA & MISHKA – VENUE
AIRBOURNE – COMMODORE

Fri AUG 13
VITAMINSFORYOU – SHARK CLUB