A Look at the Polaris Long List: 11. Dirty Beaches – Badland

I’m not gonna lie: I didn’t really get or dig this one at all. An Asian dude doing some kind of Elvis pastiche over lo-fi, 50’s-era rock n roll and surf rock type beats. Seeing him live during NXNE (something like the video below) didn’t really help clarify things for me either. Fans of this, please explain it to me becuase I was at a loss…..

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 10. Diamond Rings – Special Affections

This dude has been feted by the local press here in the T.dot for a minute. I couldn’t wait to savage him ‘cos he looks type ridiculous to me – it’s been a minute since there were flamboyant men winning in pop music, Cee-Lo Green, Brandon Flowers and OG Elton John notwithstanding – but I had to concede his album was actually pretty good in the end. Speaking of Flowers, this album was giving me a bit of a Killers vibes. In fact, I think with a top producer behind the boards, this kid could end being a David Bowie for the 21st Century, the songs are pretty much there, he just needs someone to help him make them sound even bigger and better than they are now. I know that’s a huge statement but I got a feeling about this dude (pause) Now who says I only judge books by their covers…

Download Diamond Rings Something Else [MP3]

Download Diamond Rings All Yr Songs [MP3]

Download Diamond Rings Its Not My Party [MP3]

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 9. Destroyer – Kaputt

Someone on the Polaris jury described this album as a “Pet Shop Boys in Avalon” parody record. Not sure I really agree with that description as funny as it it but while Kaputt wasn’t bad, it all started to sound the same to me after a while….

Download Destroyer Suicide Demo for Kara Walker [MP3]

Download Destroyer Chinatown [MP3]

Bonus:

Not on the Kaputt album but hit the for \Hood Internet mashup of Destroyer with Raekwon.

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A Look at the Long List: 8. The Dears – Degeneration Street

Our continuing series looking at all forty albums nominated for the Canadian Polaris Music Prize long list (CLICK HERE to see the full list once it’s complete….)

I gotta respect the sheer ambition and audacity of Montreal’s The Dears. They were definitely swinging for the rafter with this record which literally dripped epic-ness and the sweat of their effort to make a record that felt ‘important.’ The Brtipop/rock influence on their sound seems obvious too: musically, the album put me in the mind of Bends-era Radiohead (as did a couple other bands on the Polaris long list but we’ll get to that in time….) or The Manic Street Preachers and the lead singer at times sounded like Paul Weller but f-ck me if I didn’t get the shock of my life when I came to find out after the fact that he’s actually black! Well weller always did have a very soulful (or at least blue-eyed soulful) voice. You know, interpolating ‘Lady Marmalade’ on ‘Tiny Man’ should’ve been my first clue though. Seriously, which white dude would really do that in general but especially on the kind of records The Dears make??!

Anyway, these aren’t the tracks I would’ve highlighted from the album (probably would’ve gone for ‘Lamentation’ or ‘Galactic Tides’ instead), but these were the ones I could swipe from soundowl and with thirty-two other albums to do posts on still before July 6 (the date the short list is officially announced), I don’t really have a lot of time time to be f-cking around uploading tracks so enjoy…

‘Omega Dog’ (Live in Mexico City):

‘Blood’ (Live in Mexico City):

And some mp3’s…

Download The Dears Omega Dog [MP3]

Download The Dears Blood [MP3]

A Look at the Long List: 7. D-sisive – Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye

I’ve supported the kid before. Derrick aka D-Sisive seems to be a love it or hate it proposition for many with his laconic almost spoken word rhyme style and song subject matter heavy on the pop culture references, but he puts a lot of himself in these records too and I gotta respect that. As a matter of fact, I guested on my dude Paul’s ‘What I Call Music’ podcast, the first part of which should be dropping my end of the week (aka Canada Day for my US bred’ren) and I actually ended the show with the track, “If….” so read into that what you want!