Apollo Ghosts

with B-Lines, Watermelon and Diane.
May 10th @ The Rickshaw.

by Fraser Dobbs

Death is a hard subject to prepare for, even when you know it’s a long way away. When Apollo Ghosts frontman Adrian Teacher announced in December that the band weren’t going to be around forever, it never really sunk in that the day when the band wouldn’t play sold-out shows for grinning pop junkies might come. And, even though their final show at the Rickshaw was more wake than funeral, it was still tough to see one of Vancouver’s brightest call it quits.

Diane | | photo by Steve Louie

Diane | | photo by Steve Louie

  Diane played a strong collection of post-punk goodness to start the night. Discordant guitar licks and some startlingly crunchy bass tones backed up alternating vocal duties. Drummer Ben Goldberg’s habit of reassuring his band mates between songs was endearing, and the trio found their confidence again towards the end of their set.

Watermelon | | photo by Steve Louie

Watermelon | | photo by Steve Louie

  Watermelon were a more cohesive ensemble than I remember, and a lot more fun as a result. Songs definitely leaned on the pop side of rock ‘n’ roll, but unique influences and interesting sound choices made for a surprise hit. A little bit shoegaze guitar waves, a little bit ’80s stadium rock, their songs clicked just right on the Rickshaw’s stage.
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La Chinga

"Yeah, someone came up to me in Kelowna and said, ‘Your name is so wonderful! It means, naked lady!’ Great."

by Josefa Cameron

lettering and illustration by Moses Magee

lettering and illustration by Moses Magee


 
Vancouver’s musical landscape is painted with everything from shoegaze to hip-hop. Its rock ‘n’ roll culture isn’t always quite as visible though. Discorder sat down at Perch with La Chinga, one of the West Coast’s loudest rock bands, to talk about their self-produced, self-titled debut album [released April 19] with a big party at the Rickshaw. Carl Spackler (bass/vocals), Jay Solyom (drums), and Ben Yardley (guitar/vocals) make up the three-piece, who lace together a sound so rooted in the ‘70s that visions of motorcycles and desert leather are evoked the second you press play.

Discorder: A lot of your reviews and press compare you to metal, but personally I would not consider it metal. How do you classify your music?

Ben Yardley: Rock! We play 70’s-inspired hard rock.

Discorder: Your album release was last Friday [April 19]. How did that go? Did people receive it the way you were expecting?

All: It was great! Went really well.

Carl Spackler: Yeah, it was awesome!

Yardley: It was the biggest room we ever had to play on our own, so I thought it was going to be pretty lonely, but we had a great turnout.
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Zine Counterculture

featuring Vancouver's Dunk and John

by Alex de Boer

lettering and illustration by Aaron Read

lettering and illustration by Aaron Read

Art morphs in a tumble, more rapid every year. Its formats fall with technology’s forward lean. Amidst iTunes, eBooks, and Netflix, preserving the tangible what-was, is a run against the wind. Yet demand for mediums with shape and texture still stands, shrouded by Apple-spangled standards. In fact, if there exists a counterculture insignia today, the desire to hold art as physical might be that badge.

  In Vancouver, print culture is a poster child for this peaceful backlash. Two indie arts and culture publications worth pocketing have emerged in the last six months. Implicitly, these papers challenge how we want to receive arts and information.

  Available in black and white since October 2012, Will Anderson’s free newspaper Dunk, was originally imagined as a sort of newsletter for Lucky’s Comics, his place of employment. With one thousand copies printed monthly, Dunk is crammed with music- and comic-focused content. The articles range, “from historical fiction, to food columns and weird short stories,” Anderson explains.  

  Of course for readers to hold something in their hands, somebody has to pay for it.
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Ulrich Schnauss

A Long Way to Fall   (PIAS)

by Tristan Koster

Print

 
It’s unfortunately easy to write stuff off as: “You’d like it, if you’re into that.” The bad news is that A Long Way to Fall is exactly that. The good news is that you might still like it. It’s a change in direction from other works that Schnauss has released under his own name (the last was an EP entitled Stars in 2008), but the German artist has been busy in the meantime with his litany of remixes, collaborations, and things produced. So Schnauss’ work is constantly changing anyway, and the number of genres he’s been assigned to is astounding: synth-pop ambient, and shoegaze, to name a few.
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Various Artists

Vancouver Pop Alliance Compilation - Volume 3
(CiTR and Mint Records)

by Josefa Cameron

CiTR and Mint Records - Vancouver Pop Alliance Vol 3

 
If you missed the release of the third volume of Mint Records/CiTR’s Pop Alliance and the Fundrive finale at Chapel Arts on March 8, you missed out on one good night. Masterfully compiled by Duncan McHugh and Shena Yoshida, the album has 14 fresh Vancouver- and Victoria-based bands, featuring a colourful array of nuovo disco, stoner rock, gypsy pop, and garage fuzz.

  A precious “1-2-3-4 Get Fucked” by Movieland kickstarts the solid track list. The surf-y girl group mimics a less intricate Bleached, with calm vocals and driving fuzz. And during Peace’s “Your Hand In Mine,” it’s easy to imagine a heartbroken teenage boy, styling a Bowie lightning bolt across his moonlit face.
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Rec Centre

Times A Billion   (Independent)

by Max Wainwright

Rec Centre - Times A Billion

 
The bedroom recording project medium has been around long enough that it deserves its own genre, one often typified by hushed vocals, digital reverbs, electro flourishes, drum machines, and pensive lyrics. It could be yet another example of form influencing content. The process of composing, arranging, and performing in near solitude at a computer is conducive to these brooding and textural sounds.

  Enter the Vancouver-based Rec Center, featuring Alex Hudson at the helm. Rec Center’s full-length debut, Times A Billion, is easily categorized as bedroom-pop (all the songs are worked around electronic drum samples from a Roland TR-707). However, at every other turn, it fights against this and aims towards anthemic pop. Times A Billion is a fitting title for the resulting expansive and ambitious tone of these songs.
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Joyce Island

Joyce Island EP   (Independent)

by Robert Catherall

 
On her debut, Joyce Island, songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Lisa Joyce assumes the confident swagger of Tom Petty-styled Americana before drenching it in blossoming female vocals that triumphantly stand their ground against a series of troubled experiences. Backed by the driving guitar of Mikey Manville (of the Manvils) and rhythmic confidence of Chris Jaggers and Flavio Cirillo, Joyce leads the quartet from heavy blues psychedelia to modern traditionals.
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Hooves

Dear Nevada EP   (Independent)

by Penny Clark

Hooves - Dear Nevada

 
Hooves’ first EP, Dear Nevada, is required listening for the edgier kids in high school. The ones whose younger siblings might overhear Hooves playing in the bedroom next door and dip-dye their Barbies in glitter glue along to it. If bands were people, Hooves would be Madonna and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ youngest sister.
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Gal Gracen

Blue Hearts in Exile   (Green Burrito)

by Matthew Budden

Gal Gracen - Blue Hearts In Exile

 
While it’s not totally out of sync with Patrick Geraghty’s other outfit, Role Mach, Gal Gracen feels like a bit of an anomaly on the local scene. Instrumentals alternate with songs on this seven track release, the common thread being shimmering guitars and simple beats very reminiscent of Vini Reilly‘s The Return of the Durutti Column.
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Capitol 6 & B-Lines

Singles Club 7”s   (Kingfisher Bluez)

by Tristan Koster

Over the past eight months, the Kingfisher Bluez Recording Company has been releasing a delightful string of singles highlighting Vancouver’s D.I.Y. musical lifestyle. Just about everything they put out is a treasure; run by Tim Clapp a.k.a Tim the Mute, it’s one of those impossible dream projects that’s dedicated itself to releasing the weird, the experimental, the warm and the fuzzy.

  This year Clapp started running a twelve part single collection bringing us a wealth of new material from the best like-minded D.I.Ys in Van. For February and March, respectively, we have the release of Capitol 6’s “No One Came” and two songs from the B-Lines, “Tell me” and “You Are Here.”
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C. Diab

Interludes   (Independent)

by Fraser Dobbs

C Diab - Interludes

 
Using a cello bow on a guitar isn’t a new concept. Creation‘s Eddie Phillips did it in 1966, and since then its uses have run the gamut from psych- to post-rock, but few artists have gotten away with using the technique exclusively. Interludes, then, is a fascinating examination of the instrument’s potential. Focusing on droning, sparse chord arrangements and soaring, cavernous melodies, Nam Shub member Caton Diab’s first solo record explores the sonic space behind empty shorelines and starless nights.
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Colin Stetson

New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light   (Constellation)

by Fraser Dobbs

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol 3

 
“And In Truth” is one of the cheekiest opening tracks on any record in decades. There’s no better setup for the practical joke Colin Stetson plays on the legions of casual Arcade Fire and Bon Iver fans out there who have probably sought out his solo albums based on the bands he’s in. The bass saxophonist, whose remarkable jazz-inspired experimental composing borders on the insane, opens the conclusion to his New History Warfare trilogy: To See More Light, with a beautifully organic piece accompanied by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. While Vernon contributes vocals to a number of tracks on New History Warfare Vol. 3, “And In Truth” features his most recognizable, replete with the waves of multi-tracked harmonies that Bon Iver is so well known for. It’s a genuinely stunning track.
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