Good afternoon world, and welcome to another week of Looks Like Coffee, Tastes Like Juice. This week is sweltering and boiling, made even more irritating by the constant threat of rain above us. Anyways, today's post promises to be a good one, and it'll include some, a) new Portastatic, b) new Chad VanGaalen and c) older Kevin Drew. So, enjoy today's post.
Kevin Drew Covers New Order
Earlier this morning, as I was searching through my iTunes, I rediscovered a track that, although it seemed to be long forgotten, has always sort of been in the back of my mind. Certain times during the day, most which happen to be very inappropriate (science class, for example), I find myself either humming, or full out belting, the words to New Order's classic "Age of Consent". Needless to say, I'm very fond of this song. On a completely different note, I'm also very found, in a heterosexual way, of Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew. Now, what're the odds that these two objects of my affection should somehow collide? Not very good odds. Alas though, around November 27th, 2007, this very thing happened. This track has been on my computer for quite a while, but I only listened to it for the second time yesterday, and I can honestly say I've fallen in love AGAIN. Give it a listen.
Age of Consent (New Order Cover) - Kevin Drew
Portastatic's Some Small History
On Tuesday, September 9th, Portastatic (the clever alias of Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan) will release their 2 disc, 44 song rarities and b-sides compilation, entitled Some Small History. Now, being a ridiculously devout Portastatic fan, I was very excited upon hearing this news. I was even more excited when I learned that Mr.McCaughan has been streaming the entire album for free on the Merge website. Here's the link:
Some Small History Stream
Some Small History - Portastatic
Portastatic - I Wanna Know Girls
Portastatic will be playing only 2 shows in the immediate future, and they are as follows;
Thursday September 18
The Soapbox Laundro Lounge
Wilmington NC
with Bibis Ellison & I Was Totally Destroying It
Saturday October 18
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh NC
opening for Magnetic Fields
Mr.VanGaalen, perhaps this blog's favorite Calgarian, is definitely worth calling a musical genius. His music is inventive, interesting, and undoubtably catchy and beautiful. What's that? You've never heard of Chad? Well, then, hide your shame my friend, because I'm about to inform you!
Chad VanGaalen is a Canadian musician and artist from Calgary, Alberta. Following a few scattered independent releases, done mostly on homemade CDs with hand-drawn art, VanGaalen released Infiniheart (2004) on Canadian independent label Flemish Eye. Infiniheart, a collection of songs selected from recordings made in his bedroom/makeshift studio, was picked up in 2005 by indie label Sub Pop. In late 2005, the album was re-released with a bonus six-song EP entitled Green Beans. On August 22, 2006, VanGaalen's second album, Skelliconnection, was released in the U.S. on Sub Pop and in Canada on Flemish Eye. The album is comprised of new songs as well as tracks previously released on his earlier independent recordings and features exclusive artwork and videos made by VanGaalen. On January 17, 2007, ChartAttack reported that Skelliconnection was #31 and had been on the chart for 19 weeks.
On July 10, 2007, Skelliconnection was revealed as being on the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. The winner was announced at a gala ceremony on September 24, 2007, with the prize going to the band Patrick Watson.
VanGaalen is also an illustrator and animator, and has made his own album artwork and animated music videos to accompany several of his songs, including "Clinicly Dead", "Flower Gardens", and "Red Hot Drops", as well as the Love as Laughter song "Dirty Lives".
Oh, Wikipedia, how you put my descriptive skills to shame.
Anyways, I have personally listened to the entire record and I can express to you how much I love it. How will I do that? Like this.
Tracklisting & Tourdates
01 Willow Tree
02 Bones of Man
03 Cries of the Dead
04 Inside the Molecules
05 Bare Feet on Wet Griptape
06 Phantom Anthills
07 Poisonous Heads
08 TMNT Mask
09 Molten Light
10 Old Man + the Sea
11 City of Electric Light
12 Rabid Bits of Time
13 Frozen Energon
14 LTD Edition Vehicles *
15 Eyes Like a House on Fire *
* vinyl-only bonus tracks
09-21 New York, NY – Blender Theater *
10-01 Quebec City, Quebec - Antenne-A !
10-02 Ottawa, Ontario – Zaphod Beeblebrox !
10-03 Montreal, Quebec – Ukranian Federation !^
10-04 Toronto, Ontario – The Mod Club !
10-09 Vancouver, British Columbia – Richard's on Richards
10-10 Victoria, British Columbia – Sugar Nightclub
10-11 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge *
10-12 Seattle, WA – Triple Door *
10-17 Edmonton, Alberta - McDougall United Church
10-25 Calgary, Alberta - The Uptown Stage
11-20 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
11-21 Den Haag, Netherlands - Crossing Border Festival
11-22 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
11-25 London, England - Borderline
11-26 Manchester, England - Deaf Institute
11-27 Glasgow, Scotland - Captain's Rest
11-28 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Limelight
11-29 Dublin, Ireland - Crawdaddy
11-29 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
12-04 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser
Have a wonderful week.
Til' Next Week
