If you’ve never been to Osheaga, you don’t know what you’re missing. Heat, dehydration, screaming crowds, exhaustion and, most notably, a lineup of more than fifty amazing musicians playing at Jean-Drapeau Park for three long days. Despite the less-than-stellar conditions, Osheaga is the most anticipated summer event for any music-savvy Montrealer. This year between Aug. 3 to 5, twenty talented artists—along with many more—will flood our city and play for tens of thousands of people. With big names like Snoop Dogg, Feist, Florence and the Machine and Brand New, Osheaga is bound to be the best three days of your life. Festival passes are now on sale. Let this mixtape be your precursor to Montreal’s most anticipated summer weekend of 2012.
SIDE A: Homegrown, Canadiana
1. “Help, I’m Alive” – Metric – Fantasies
2. “My Moon My Man” – Feist – The Reminder
3. “Grind” – Down With Webster – Time to Win, Vol. 1
4. “We Found Each Other in the Dark” – City and Colour – Little Hell
5. “A Song About California” – Hey Ocean! – It’s Easier to be Someone Else
6. “I Don’t Know” – The Sheepdogs – Learn & Burn
7. “Tom Cruz” – Plants and Animals – La La Land
8. “Cover Your Tracks” – Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting
9. “Journey of a Lifetime” – Zeds Dead – Single
10. “High for This” – The Weeknd – House of Balloons
SIDE B: Come from afar
11. “Mind Eraser” – The Black Keys – El Camino
12. “Drop it Like it’s Hot” – Snoop Dogg – R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece
13. “Howl” – Florence and the Machine – Lungs
14. “Kissing the Lipless” – The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
15. “Electric Feel” – MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
16. “Helicopter” – Bloc Party – Little Thoughts (EP)
17. “Cough Syrup” – Young the Giant – Young the Giant
18. “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows” – Brand New – Deja Entendu
19. “Jacqueline” – Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
20. “Only Happy When it Rains” – Garbage – Garbage
Plants and Animals play and sound like a band that has lived through decades together. But there is a good reason why a band with only three full-length albums, the first of which was released as recently as 2008, sounds so mature.
Bandmates Warren Spicer and Matthew ‘Woody’ Woodley first met as 12-year-olds in Halifax, N.S., but they found their missing piece, Quebec native Nic Basque, over 10 years ago in the depths of Concordia’s music department.
Combined, they bring a tight, red-hot gospel/soul sound that escaped rock somewhere between the ‘80s and today.
Woodley’s skittering, feet-flicking drum beat and Basque’s classic-rock-country trilling guitar provides the canvas for Spicer’s gargling, soulful voice and easy-to-relate-to tales of ecstasy, disappointment and growing older.
Since their debut album Parc Avenue got shortlisted for the 2008 Polaris Prize, Plants and Animals have toured Europe and North America extensively, played the summer music festival circuit, and opened for Grizzly Bear, Gnarls Barkley and The National—to name a few.
Despite hobnobbing with industry elites and dealing with the distractions of rock ‘n’ roll life on the road, Woodley claims that his bond with Spicer and Basque has only strengthened.
“The one thing that’s changed the most is we’re more comfortable being open with each other,” revealed Woodley. “We’re not afraid to say what we think to each other, not too shy and don’t take things too personally.”
Fresh off the shelves, The End of That has already garnered significant commercial attention. The album was featured as CBC Music’s Album of the Week, its first single, “Lightshow,” was Amazon MP3’s Song of the Day on Feb. 29, and the band stole the cover of several Montreal publications in February alone.
While Parc Avenue was Plants and Animals’ love letter to Mile End, and La La Land (2010) revealed the gritty truth of touring around Los Angeles, The End of That is a therapeutic return home.
Vocalist Spicer dealt with some life issues through the lyrics. In “Crisis!” he returns home to find “everyone is getting married or breaking up / And the stroller situation on the sidewalk / is way out of control,” while on “The End of That” he reflects on his foray into cocaine.
“I don’t think that we wanted to be happy-go-lucky,” said Woodley, “but we wanted to put something out that hit people in the heart a little more quickly, not such a slow burn.”
Woodley and Basque often have their music charted out before Spicer brings the lyrics into the studio, which Woodley admits completely changes the way it plays out.
“It’s kind of an obtuse feeling when a song hits, and when you put words on top, they can really change the message of the music,” explained Woodley. “Sometimes I find it’s an adjustment, playing it, coming to grips with it.”
The band recorded the album at La Frette, a manor just outside Paris where they ate, slept and played while touring in France.
“We got there after playing a show at two in the morning, turned on the lights, and realized, ‘Oh man, we have to work here again, we’ve got to settle down and do it here,’” recounted Woodley.
“It isn’t the fact that it’s in France, the city close by, or even the river down the street. It’s the space itself and what it felt like that made it so special.”
With roots in improvisation, Plants and Animals are known for seducing crowds to the dance floor with their loud, jam-rocking live shows. They take their albums’ work to the stage on an entirely different level.
“There’s nothing like [playing] live,” professed Woodley. “It’s in the moment, it’s about the people.”
This time around, the Mile Enders wanted to produce an album that already reflected as much of their live material as possible.
“I think you might find the live show as close to the album as we have ever gotten,” said Woodley. “It’s still louder, and still rockier, but it’s closer in character.”
Plants and Animals play Le Cabaret du Mile End (5240 Parc Ave.) on March 10. Tickets are $17 in advance or $20 at the door.
Plants and Animals – The End of That (Secret City Records; 2012)
Montreal rockers Plants and Animals return with a more stripped-down sound on their third full-length album The End of That. Unlike their previous records, this album leaves behind the realm of orchestral psychedelia for a more mellowed out sound with hints of early 1970’s rock ‘n’ roll. Lyrically, the record finds the band dwelling on times past, loves lost and the difficulties of adulthood. From his Lou Reed-esque cadence in “The End of That,” to the no holds barred wail of “Lightshow,” vocalist Warren Spicer demonstrates his ability to use his voice as an extra instrument, greatly adding to the overall effect. Even so, while still featuring some solid tunes, it gets lost somewhere around the halfway mark with the last four tracks melding into one big rock anthem.
Rating: 6.0/10
Trial track: “The End of That”
– Cora Ballou
Field Music – Plumb (Memphis Industries; 2012)
I feel it is my duty to warn you that Plumb may possibly be too wacky for public consumption.
The fourth studio effort from Sunderland natives Peter and David Brewis is a progressive pop-rock frenzy. With 15 tracks crammed into 35 minutes, there is an indelible sense that these songs were constructed by someone with a seriously short attention span. Best described as a collection of half-congealed ideas piled on top of each other, with hooks that rise but then are quickly discarded, this album is nothing more than an unmemorable mess.
It’s a shame, because the Brewis brothers seem to have a real knack for writing quirky, hooky little numbers. There were moments when I decided that Field Music may, in fact, be Queen’s long-lost hipster nephew. With a little Ritalin and some production assistance, there may still be hope for these boys to become more than just a silly novelty.
Rating: 4.0/10
Trial track: “A New Town”
– Paul Traunero
Farewell Republic – Burn the Boats (Unsigned; 2012)
Farewell Republic’s debut brings a new addition to the post-punk scene. Hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y., the group has put out their 11-track record, Burn the Boats, available on Bandcamp.
Sivan Jacobovitz and Brian Trahan make up the permanent members, while a rotating cast of live and session musicians aid in creating the musical landscape that is illustrated on the album.
The music has an almost film-soundtrack quality in its composition. However, the sheer chaos, which would make an excellent backdrop to an art-house film, becomes quickly draining, almost numbing the senses. The listener’s ears bleed at times from the sound generated from the noise of layered guitar feedback. Even the dissonance is reflected in the album cover’s imagery.
However, there is still hope for the band, that once they mature, their narrative voice and artistic vision will no longer be lost in the white noise. Hopefully then it will enjoyable.
Rating: 3.0/10
Trial track: “Wake”
– A.J. Cordeiro
U2 – The Joshua Tree (Island Records; 1987)
When I think of the best rock album, I think of The Joshua Tree, U2’s fifth album that has earned itself a spot among the best albums ever made in the history of music, up there with Abbey Road and The Wall. The Joshua Tree was released in 1987 and was immediately acclaimed as the album that transformed U2 from great to superstars. Just naming the classics on this CD makes me shiver: “With or Without You,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and there are so many more. The songs on this album are what make thousands of people wait days to see U2. The Joshua Tree encompasses so many real emotions and it has touched many around the world.
