Zulu Report: Everything That You Should Listen To This Week

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Down By The Water by The Decemberists from their new album The King Is Dead (EMI).

Ditching the prog-goth of their last outing, the epic Hazards of Love, The Decemberists lighten up a bit on The King Is Dead and the result is like a breath of fresh air. The album was recorded in a barn, and there’s a definite back country, Americana vibe permeating the album. Featuring Peter Buck (R.E.M) and Gilliam Welch on some tracks, The King Is Dead is full of tasteful twang and mellow acoustic strums and represents a nice change of pace for this most literate of indie rock bands. Read more

Zulu Report: On New Destroyer & Old Songs From East Africa…

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Kaputt from Destroyer’s Epic Ninth Album, “Kaputt” (Merge).

I have no idea what is going on in this Destroyer video, but I’m sure that the nerdy-boy protagonist holed up on his computer, the floating whales, and the teengirl-dancers all add up to something significant! Fans of Destroyer have come to expect the unexpected, and in that respect Kaputt delivers. This time out, Bejar and band drop the Dylan/Van Morrison/Al Stewart moves for a smoother, Jazz and Ambient-inspired set. But really, as much as Kaputt might seem like a complete left turn upon first listen, the fact is that all that we love about classic Bejar is here. Expect tales of mysterious women figures, Vancouver references, and scathing criticism of American indie rock culture, all enmeshed in a dense and rewarding sonic structure. Awesome. Read more

Zulu Report: Loving British Sea Power & Digging Dead Ghosts…

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

“That Old Feeling” by Dead Ghosts from their self-titled debut (Florida’s Dying).

These local sloppy garagers describe themselves as the laziest band on the planet. Lucky for us they finally crawled off the couch and recorded this sloppy, swampy 13 song collection. Sounding somewhat like one of Kim Fowley’s many failed outfits, these guys nail the delinquent attitude that currently defines the vast world of underground garage rock. Like their heroes The Black Lips, No Bunny, and BBQ, the Dead Ghosts’ songs drunkenly stumble along towards the ultimate trainwreck shambles that can only come from a true, hard-won I don’t give a shit attitude. Read more

Zulu Report: Yay For Sebadoh & The Doors Playing Vancouver…

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

The Doors playing Vancouver in 1970, from the new album Live In Vancouver 1970 (WEA).

This is a treat: from the vaults comes a live recording of The Doors playing the Pacific Coliseum in 1970. In 1970, Morrison was fully into his slobbering, bearded, drunken roadhouse hustler phase, and the band had become less psychedelic wanderers of the collective unconscious and more of a shit hot whiskey blues rock band. The band are in fine form playing this set, and having the great Albert King lend his guitar skills to a few tracks doesn’t hurt either. All said, this is a great snapshot of the last phase of the Doors’ storied career and reminder of how deadly a live act The Doors could be when they wanted. (ed. note: pretty sure my Mom was at this show!) Read more

Zulu Report: Loving The Sounds Of Siam & Going To Sex Church…

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Faults from Seefeel’s brilliant new 10 inch, “Faults” (Warp).

None of us here at the shop would’ve predicted a reformation from one of our favourite UK 90s post rock bands – Seefeel – but we’re delighted with the fruits of their recent labours. Faults is a 4 song primer for their upcoming Warp LP due out in February. These songs build on the same sonic foundation that made us love Seefeel’s dubby, druggy, space jam masterpiece Quique way back in ’93. Its rare for a band that’s so tied to a specific era of music, in this case UK Post Rock, to be able to mature and develop as tastefully as what’s on display on Faults. Needless to say, we’re psyched to hear what comes next. Read more

Zulu Report: The 10 Albums That Are Making Us Smile This Week…

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Dreamscaper from Ye Olde Maids’ “God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us” (Heartworm Press).

We at the store are big fans of Cold Cave’s moody, synth-rock Depeche Mode-isms, so when we heard that main man Cold Caver Wes Eisold was putting out a selection of solo home recordings we were duly excited. Coming off as something more charming and home spun that his more slick primary musical guise, God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us is a fun and fried-out set of junky recordings that resemble something like The Vaselines jamming with New Order in some deserted Northern England bunker. If this all sounds terribly obscure let me just say that Ye Olde Maids should please fans of the amateurish pop that’s played just for the hell of it! Read more

Zulu Report: An Audible List Of Our Favourite Records In 2010

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Destroyer performing Chinatown live, solo, in Dallas.

A lot of people were shocked when Destroyer dropped the Archer On The Beach ep a few weeks back, but really they shouldn’t have been. Dan Bejar, the captain of the Destroyer ship, likes to keep things interesting, and if that means ditching the Van Morrison and Dylan-isms of the past several releases and instead pairing up with Tim Hecker and Loscil for some electro-crooning then so be it. Archer On the Beach is a stunning new vision from a guy who’s never shy to try on a new pair of pants. If a few people get seriously freaked out, so be it. This live clip is a great snapshot of Bejar on his own, but when Kaputt drops in January, don’t say I didn’t try to prepare you. Read more

Zulu Report: A Cockle Warming Santa Sack Of Awesome Records

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Matt And Kim performing Silver Tiles from their new album Sidewalks (Fader Label).

As this shaky camera attests, Matt and Kim excel at getting the party started. Sidewalks, a sorta-concept album about their hometown city, New York, is their third full length of party inducing dance-rock riffs and rhythms, a hybrid of punk-pop energy with electronic dance band synth sounds. It may not be the most groundbreaking formula but as this video shows, and as Sidewalks displays across its ten tracks, Matt and Kim are know how to kick out the jams. In particular, Sidewalks makes full use of studio production for maximum whoomph! effect. Read more

Zulu Report: Dubstep On Wax & The Dukes Of The Stratosphere

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

SKREAM doing it live in Vancity, circa 2009. Come check out his killer new collection Outside The Box (Tempa), four 12”s of skull rattling dubstep.

Skream (Brit Ollie Jones) is one of the leading lights of UK Dubstep, an umbrella genre-term that gets thrown around so willy-nilly lately it seems tough to say what new music doesn’t qualify as dubstep. Needless to say, Skream – along with Kevin Martin (Bug), Burial, and Kode9 – have all produced thrilling music over the last several years, all of it contributing in different ways to this thing called “dubstep.” On Outside The Box, as it’s title suggests, we find Skream peeling back the layers of spacey black atmosphere that typified his earlier work and embrace the pop element at the core of his ass-banging sound. What you get is slamming, bass-heavy midnight séance jams that sit comfortably alongside R&B party stompers. It’s a heavy mix that manages to please the purists and the partiers, as well as extend the genre forward. No better way to absorb these jams than as 4 12”s, for ultimate fidelity. Read more

Zulu Report: “Black Mountain” Plays & “Quest For Fire” Rules

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Anyone who’s been digging the kind of riff-heavy, deep psych-seances put forth by Black Mountain and the Black Angels in recent years will no doubt adore the skull-rattling riffery of Toronto’s Quest For Fire. These guys deal interstellar sonic explorations on every track of Light From Paradise (listen to “The Greatest Hits By God” above). Sure, it recalls Hawkwind in it’s epic scope, but since when was that a bad thing? Throw this album your stereo on and let your brain be warped across the chasms of time and space. I will see you on the astral plane, the gentle play-space where children and gods frolic. Read more

Zulu Report: On Re-Issued Bowie & What’s Up With “Down There”

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Watch Avey Tare sort of discuss his new solo debut Down There (Paw Tracks), but primarily just creep us the hell out…

Avey Tare (aka Dave Portner) steps out from the shadow of main gig, Animal Collective, for his debut release under his (sort of) own name, Down There. Although Down There definitely shares the kind of dub-heavy, technicolor-psychedelic trance loops of Merriweather, this is nonetheless ‘nother beast. Gone is the sort of naïve, manic-positive vibe that permeates so much AC’s music; in its place is a dark sense of discomfort and foreboding yearning. Tare seems to be staring down the Big Questions on this album: fatherhood, mortality, and creeping paranoia all seem to be part of the sonic picture inscribed across the nine tracks of this album. It’s not a wholly bummer trip. More, it just feels like a mature and welcome step forward from a figure who casts a loooong shadow across the last decade of music. Down There is Tare stepping out on his own, working out some heavy issues in a way that’s fascinating to be a party to. Enjoy. Read more

Zulu Report: Waiting For “Thee Oh Sees” & Digging “Stornoway”

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Neil Young performs “Walk With Me” from his new album Le Noise (WEA).

Good old Neil has gone through many transformations through the years, sometimes being a mellow folky and other times raging like the badass grunge forefather that he is. Le Noise finds Neil teaming up with ambient texturist Daniel Lanois to produce a visceral, spooky album, with the guitars mostly cranked to maximal distortion. Mostly unaccompanied by any other voices or instrumentation, here Neil explores the textures and frequencies of his electric while he reflects his life, his loves, his regrets. Walk With Me kicks off the album in fine form, with Neil meditating on the spirituality of walking with a loved one. But who is it Neil – wife Peggy? Jesus? Or is it Bruce Berry, smiling from the shadows of the grand room that Neil fills with waves of electric meditation. We don’t know. Read more

Zulu Report: Bootlegging Bob Dylan & Digging “Die Antwoord”

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

currently on heavy rotation in the store…

Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol 9: The Witmark Demos -1962-1964 (Columbia).

Dylan’s been unrolling various previously unheard, archival goodies via his Bootleg Series, the quality of which has been extremely good. This latest installment, The Witmark Demos, consists of his earliest demos recorded to secure a publishing deal. Early Dylan classics like I’ll Keep It With Mine, Don’t Think Twice, Hard Rain and others sit alongside blues and boxcar standards that paint a portrait of a different era of music and American culture. As with other installments, Witmark features a hefty book of killer liner notes and unseen photos of Dylan doing his thing, being the ragamuffin street troubadour weirdo that he was in his early 60s Village phase.

As much you might get irritated by the hero-worship, legend-building that has erupted around Dylan in years since his criticial resurgence with Time Out Of Mind, the bootleg series reaffirms how shockingly great the man’s work truly is. Read more

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