OVERHEAR: Paper Beat Scissors - Tendrils

If there was an award for Halifax's best smile (because there probably should be), Tim Crabtree would be a contender. It's interesting that someone with such a contagious grin could craft powerfully contemplative acoustic heartbreakers, but that's exactly what Crabtree does with his project Paper Beat Scissors. It's been about a year since the debut PBS album was released by the venerable Forward Music Group, and fans of this type of music haven't had a lot else to keep them company in the ensuing dark winter.

Like a ray of cold spring sun comes the announcement that the list of limited releases for Record Store Day (which happens this Saturday, April 20th, wherever you get your quality wax) includes Paper Beat Scissors' first 7". Recorded last summer at Halifax's St. Matthew's Church with contributions from My Brightest Diamond and Clogs, this live recording proves how potent and pure the Paper Beat Scissors sound is. As crisp and pristine as a masterful studio recording, "Tendrils" and b-side "Onwards" are a welcome release. Along with the single comes a digital download which includes 5 other PBS favourites including the very excellent "Rest Your Bones", all recorded in the church's terrific atmosphere. Make sure to line up early at your local record shop to snag this one before it's gone.

If you are in Saskatoon you get the chance to catch Crabtree in all his live glory at this year's MoSoFest. Other live dates are here. Watch the video for "Tendrils" below.

The Song Remains The Same

It can be a weird thing, starting a blog.

Regardless of the subject matter, it's usually started as a personal pursuit. This blog was no different when I decided to disregard any/all impulse against the idea to go ahead and start furiously typing my unimportant thoughts about music and sending them into the cloud to join the rest of the rain storm. I wanted a chance to write regularly, give myself structure, and maybe meet a few cool people.

I did that, for a time.
I wrote semi-regularly, I introduced weekly and monthly features, and I conducted interviews with members of Ohbijou, Miesha and the Spanks, Crocodiles, Ketamines, Bayonets!!!, and Dinosaur Bones (look at all the plural nouns... there's a blog post in that). I had some fun.

It can be a weird thing, continuing a blog after a lengthy lapse.

The online landscape has changed around me, but one thing that hasn't changed much at all is people's reliance on the same handful of websites for their information. It can be tough to get anybody to look at your low-fi efforts in a world of HD, of HTML5, of live-streamed everything. I, for my part, am going to try my best to earn your eyeballs. The rest of this year will bring a new focus: less on the playlists from my radio show, more reportage from the front lines of the crowd; less about the same "blog favourite" artists of the moment, more bandwidth spent on artists and music I truly care about and think is worth sharing.  There might even be an overhaul of the site's design in the near future.

I meant well when I started this thing. I mean better now.
Come with me. It sounds great in here...

(below is an example of what I have done in the same vein as SSH since I fell off the deskchair... Zachary Lucky, Mike Feuerstack and Bry Webb moving musical mountains at MoSoFest last year in Saskatoon... more like this to come)

Green Eggs and Ham: Best of 2012 (Parts 1 and 2)

Another year has gone by.
A year of radical changes in some parts of the world, and a year of mindnumbing sameness in other parts of the world.
A year in which I finally became an independent, grown-up, asparagus-buying person. A year in which I started to have a bit less time for frivolous things like blog entries. I managed to save the playlists for my last two radio instalments, however, and would like to now share them with you.

Every year, I split up my retrospective of the best songs into 2 shows. The first, a straight-ahead playlist with as many songs as I can possibly fit into 2 hours; the second, an early morning dance party of sorts, showcasing the most danceable best-of possible.

Here are the playlists:

PART ONE

PART TWO

Green Eggs and Ham: I'll Be Alright

The last of the late playlists! I don't even know what to say. This show was last week.

Wild Nothing - "Paradise"
Stars - "Backlines"
Evening Hymns - "Asleep In The Pews"
Love Cuts - "Hi Smile Wave"
Peace - "Your Hand In Mine"
The Weakerthans - "Wellington's Wednesdays"
Thee Oh Sees - "Flood's New Light"
The Mouthbreathers - "Quicksand"
Wavves - "Hippies Is Punks"
Ladyhawk - "You Read My Mind"
Drift Dive - "The Antlers"
Echo Lake - "Breathe Deep"
Dirty Beaches - "Elizabeth's Theme"
Passion Pit - "I'll Be Alright"
Hot Chip - "How Do You Do?"
Niki & The Dove - "Somebody"
Diamond Rings - "I'm Just Me"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Kinski Assassin"
Wax Mannequin - "Body Black / Body White"
Fergus & Geronimo - "Roman Nvmerals"
Bad Company - "Bad Company"
Jason Collett - "I Wanna Roba A Bank"
A.C. Newman - "Not Talking"
Moon Duo - "Sleepwalker"
The Black  Lips - "Drugs"
Moon King - "Sleeping In My Car"

Green Eggs and Ham: Woah-lympics!

Ok, it's a week late. Or two. Ok, it's two weeks late. I've been busy, I guess?
Two weeks ago, I did the closest thing to recognizing the quadrennial Olympiad on the show: playing songs as loosely associated with sport as USA Today is with journalism.  See if you "get" how each song fits! It's like a game! The Rah Rah song "Arrows" is pretty straightforward, as Archery is an Olympic sport, but there might be a few stumpers. Here's the playlist:

Silkken Laumann - "On The Mend"
Tokyo Police Club - "Breakneck Speed" (Andy Rourke Remix)
Vampire Weekend - "Run"
Echo Lake - "Swimmers"
Patrick Watson - "Swimming Pools"
Real Estate - "Pool Swimmers"
Rah Rah - "Arrows"
Bidiniband - "Big Men Go Fast On The Water"
Hollerado - "What's Everybody Running For (Part II)"
Austra - "Darken Her Horse"
Zulu Winter - "We Should Be Swimming"
The Ruby Suns - "Olympics On Pot"
Fuck Buttons - "Olympians"
Broken Social Scene - "Meet Me In The Basement"
Miike Snow - "Paddling Out"
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Bicycle"
Giorgio Moroder Project - "To Be Number One"
Wolf Parade - "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son"
Winter Gloves - "Jump"
The Super Friendz - "Karate Man"
The Meters - "Funky Miracle"
Javelin - "Doug Flutey"
Kurt Vile - "Runner Ups"

         - this week's Slice of Cheese

Green Eggs and Ham: It Ain't Over

Sure. Life gets in the way. I've somehow gone from posting plenty of "interesting" and varying types of things here, to just posting playlists, to doing even that super late. Sorry. Whoah. Rest assured that I'm going to shape it up, though it's summer so that rest is bound to be difficult to achieve what with sweat, heat and all that stuff. But try and get some sleep. Do it for me, will ya? I don't like it when you're all irritable and whatnot.
Here's LAST week's playlist:

Born Gold - "Alabaster Bodyworlds"
Maserati - "The Eliminator"
Deerhoof - "The Trouble With Candyhands"
Lou Wreath - "Mother / Daughter"
The Tallest Man On Earth - "Revelation Blues"
Fine Times - "High Brow Low Times"
Halls - "White Chalk"
Patrick Watson - "Fall"
Fiona Apple - "Werewolf"
Miesha & The Spanks - "She Wolf"
Ringo Deathstarr - "Rip"
Seapony - "Prove To Me"
Brazilian Money - "Can't Make Up Your Mind"
Mister Lies - "Dionysian"
Sepalcure - "Me"
The Presets - "Youth In Trouble" (Green Velvet Remix)"
Moon King - "Only Child"
Parlovr - "4000"
Slates - "New Beginnings"
The Cars - "Hello Again"     the slice of cheese   
Shad - "It Ain't Over"
Laika - "Pangaean Drift" ft. AWOL One
Slim Twig - "Still The Same"
Animal Collective - "Honeycomb"
The Luyas - "Fifty Fifty"

Green Eggs and Ham: We Never Sleep

The new stuff peppers this week's show, but songs like "Ritual" by Blood Diamonds and "Art and a Wife" from Regina's Rah Rah are so much more than mere seasoning. Here's the playlist:

The High Dials - "My Heart Is Pinned To Your Sleeve"
Superchunk - "Cursed Mirror"
Sloan - "People of the Sky"
Honheehonhee - "We Never Sleep"
Mode Moderne - "Foul Weather Fare"
Stars - "Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It"
Chad VanGaalen - "No Panic / No Heat"
Bat For Lashes - "Laura"
Lord Huron - "Time To Run"
Teenage Kicks - "Shook Our Bones"
The Undertones - "Teenage Kicks"
Blood Diamonds - "Ritual"
Lorn - "Weigh Me Down"
Crystal Castles - "Plague"
Purity Ring - "Ungirthed"
Gillian Welch - "The Way It Goes"
Drive-By Truckers - "Guitar Man Upstairs"
Beachwood Sparks - "Sparks Fly Again"
Elton John - "Tower of Babel"
No Joy - "Shame Cave"
Nu Sensae - "100 Shades"
Shooting Guns - "Sky High and Blind"
Fergus & Geronimo - "No Parties"
The Mountain Goats - "Cry For Judas"
Rah Rah - "Art and a Wife"