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…

Tree By The River from Iron And Wine’s spectacular new full length, “Kiss Each Other Clean” (WEA).

Sam Beam’s Iron And Wine project has come a long, long way from its 2002 debut. Back in those days Beam’s music was much more in line with the outsider folk that hit the early aughties so hard. I’m talking about Will Oldham, Banhart, Six Organs, etc. With 2007′s The Shephard’s Dog Beam consciously moved Iron And Wine away from the loner folk thing and towards a full band sound. Kiss Each Other Clean continues along this road, with rich arrangements and an ace backing band. The results are rich California harmonies, some surprisingly funky playing, and a sound that so many other bands today purposely eschew in favour of ragged laptop recordings. And the album is held together by Beam’s golden pipes and his delicate story songs about rivers, birth, death and wayfaring strangers. We like. Read more

NOMEANSNO Still Ragin’ After All These Years

The first time I saw nomeansno was back in the summer of 1989, mere weeks before the release of Wrong, a “rock against prisons” show (hey why not) at Crab Park. I was there based on a friend lending me a very crappy taped copy of “Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed” (for you youngsters that’s a cassette tape: compact, portable and totally shitty). Upon seeing the band take the stage my initial thought was, these guys are old, but seconds later my concept of what punk rock could or should be was changed forever. Needless to say it was the first of many times over the years that I would play witness to the awesome power of nomeansno. This is not your typical rock band. What they lacked in hair pigment was more than made up for in musical talent, intensity and madness. “Kill everyone now”, Rob Wright would proclaim on their 1993 release, “Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy”; kill everyone now indeed, Rob. Read more