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

GUIDED BY VOICES The Unsinkable Fats Domino

The equally unsinkable Bob Pollard has returned to indie music circles with a new release, authored by the ‘classic’ line-up that made GBV a standout on Matador Records during the 1990’s. In the old days, when Pollard’s rogues were as renowned for their boozing skills as they were for their Kinks-esque sharp hooks, it was completely normal for one or two of the members of the group to be on their ass during a song. Thus, when they debuted their new material from Let’s Go Eat The Factory this week on David Letterman, it was only natural that bassist Greg Demos took an unfortunate slip 35 seconds into the bombastic pop ode. Falling on your butt on live national TV sucks, especially since everyone in the entertainment biz knows that the legendary Ed Sullivan Theater has notoriously well waxed floors. Apparently this is due to a masterful buffer and an extra special reserve of Miniwax dating back to 1965. Supreme polish, perfect shine, and sheen to (almost) die for… all qualities that we have come to demand indie rock’s own special reserve Guided By Voices!

THE PLAYLIST

HOWLER Back of Your Neck

Our inbox is full of sales sheets from our suppliers…they want us to order the latest new band that is going to take the world by storm in 2012. Young fresh faces, attitude, messy haircuts, kooky songs…it’s all in a day’s work.

KATHLEEN EDWARDS Change the Sheets

Occasionally I find myself in the great city of Toronto. I usually take its cultural temperature by heading down to Trinity Bellwoods. Grab an Americano at White Squirrel, play a guitar at Capsule Music and suddenly by osmosis you are in a cool band. Listening to Kathleen’s new Voyageur takes you places.

AZEALIA BANKS 212

It looks like we might have to wait a little longer to see who is going to get the rights to Bank’s debut. Our pals at Beggars Banquet had the inside line on this…and look what they did with M.I.A. and Adele! Oh well.

IRON AND WINE Godless Brother in Love

This is a great song but it makes me think of two important things: in the future are we always going to have to sit through 30 seconds about how to be a good casting director before watching our favourite band? And how hard is it to actually cast someone for the part of ‘hipster-prospector’?

LILACS AND CHAMPAGNE Everywhere Everyone

Mexican Summer is a great record label — their early releases from Kurt Vile and Best Coast are now classic. This new title on the roster is a cool side-project from Portland’s pyschedelic dream machine Grails. Cool name too.

THE GIG

MARY MARGRET O’HARA w/ PEGGY LEE – Performance Works Friday January 27th

In 1988, Toronto’s Mary Margret O’Hara released the album Miss America featuring a collection of dark spooky songs that will arguably go down as a Canadian classic alongside legendary listens such as Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations, Cohen’s Songs Of, and Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions. Featuring her distinct vocal style, a flair for lush instrumentation and heady arrangements, this record peaked many ears at its release and not before long Michael Stipe, This Mortal Coil and other luminaries were singing her praises and covering her songs. Then, suddenly, she disappeared from the limelight, becoming a recluse who refused to fly or engage in public life. In fact, all we would hear about the famous arty O’Hara family from Ontario was the comedic exploits of older sister Catherine O’Hara — that is until, slowly, more than a decade later, Mary’s name and voice started appearing as an invited guest on the records of The Tindersticks, Bob Wiseman, Tom Waits and others. The work of Mary Margret O’Hara has become a cult and her adoring fans have patiently waited for next step all these years. We highly recommend this exclusive performance as part of the Push Festival, especially considering that she will be flanked by another National Treasure in Vancouver’s own Peggy Lee on cello!

The GLANCE

Wed Jan 18 DJ LORD (PUBLIC ENEMY) – REPUBLIC
Wed Jan 18 LADYTRON DJ SET – VENUE
Thu Jan 19 FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS – COMMODORE
Thu Jan 19 THE WAILERS – VENUE
Fri Jan 20 WHITEHORSE – RIO
Fri Jan 20 YOUTH LAGOON – BILTMORE
Sat Jan 21 EXCISION – GOSSIP
Sun Jan 22 EXCISION – GOSSIP
Mon Jan 23 HANSON – VOGUE
Tue Jan 24 ATOMIC TOM – MEDIA CLUB
Wed Jan 25 EL TEN ELEVEN – MEDIA
Thu Jan 26 DJ HEDSPIN – REPUBLIC
Thu Jan 26 SEBASTIEN LEGER – FORTUNE
Thu Jan 26 1UP – TUNNEL
Thu Jan 26 CONCRETE BLONDE – RICKSHAW
Sat Jan 28 DOOMTREE – FORTUNE SOUND CLUB
Sat Jan 28 THE PACK AD – RICKSHAW
Sun Jan 29 ALABAMA SHAKES – MEDIA CLUB
Mon Jan 30 EMILE AUTUMN – RICKSHAW

PUSH FESTIVAL

Fri Jan 27 MARY MARGRET O’HARA w/ PEGGY LEE- Performance Works
Sat Jan 28 MARY MARGRET O’HARA w/ PEGGY LEE- Performance Works
Sun Jan 29 DON McGLASHAN – Performance Works
Mon Jan 30 THE SOLO & ENSEMBLE – SFU Woodwards