Until next time . . .

This might be my last show for a while. Come September, Tuesday afternoons will no longer be part of my blissful weekend. Instead, I'll be at my drawing class, studying the human form with a paper and pencil as part of my design studies program -- perhaps you've noticed all of the attractive photographs I've been posting with each blog entry. That's right. All me! But I digress.

Dyck's Pycks will be back, hopefully by early to mid September, at a different time slot.

Unfortunately today's show didn't find me going out with a bang. More like an assortment of background noises and over-annunciated band names. At least I started things out right, with Swervedriver's hypnotizing "Girl on a Motorbike," easily one of my favourite road-themed songs of all time. Hopefully someone out there on the freeway was tuned in. A strange mix of stuff (with questionable quality) followed, but I was quite pleased to play a track from Glasgow's short-lived Life Without Buildings and I thought the spare sounds of Miserere (a new effort from the former members of Sea Snakes) made for a suitable followup.

It should have been smooth sailing from there. I was looking forward to playing some new material from the Dodos and, despite the low quality of their recordings, Weed paired well with 90s indie rock legends, Archers of Loaf. The Courtneys brought a similar level of irony and angst to their contribution, "Insufficient Funds," but the typo on the liner notes threw me for a bit of a loop. Montreal's UBT provided the show's ominous surprise hit ("John the Painter") and Speedy Ortiz seem to keep getting better each time I hear them. The show was on its way to a fine conclusion, and indeed, if you'd heard it live, it would been fine. But for some reason the MP3 recording stopped with 13 minutes to go, and I was saving the best for last!

Not a great way to end. Let's hope I get another chance.



"Girl on a Motorbike" - Swervedriver - Mezcal Head
"Faded Colours" - Yes Nice - Warm Gun
"Come to Admire" - Gold & Youth - Beyond Wilderness
"The Leanover" - Life Without Buildings - Any Other City
"Why Not a House?" - Miserere - Miserere
"The Current" - The Dodos - Carrier
"Ben's Trip" - Weed - Gun Control EP
"Wrong" - Archers of Loaf  - Icky Mettle
"Insufficient Funds" - The Courtneys - The Courtneys
"John the Painter" - UBT - Ego Orientation
"Tiger Tank" - Speedy Ortiz - Major Arcana
"How I Spent My Summer" - Julia Brown - to be close to you
"A Summer Wasting" - Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
"What Is Not But Could Be If" - Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Unsettling the prairies

Today's show featured plenty of Canadian content and most of it came from our beloved prairie provinces. We kicked things off with a batch of songs from Edmonton up-and-comers Renny Wilson, Doug Hoyer, and Jom Comyn; from there, we headed south to Cowtown, the old stomping grounds of Montreal-based artist Rae Spoon. My Prairie Home, Spoon's latest release, departs from the lush electronica of the last year's I Can't Keep All of Our Secrets in favour of a roots/alt-rock sound, which makes for an impressively strong collection of songs.

There were a few tracks from what we might call the prairie fringes (if they were closer to the prairies): we heard a wicked slacker jam from Vancouver three-piece outfit The Courtneys, followed by an even slackier jam courtesy of White Fence; then, without warning, a rousing opener from the Polaris Prize nominated debut album of Ottawa's A Tribe Called Red, which you can download for free (!) right here.

Out of Manitoba, we had some new tunes from Winnipeg warriors, Royal Canoe and their horny bedfellows, Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers. Next, Christine Fellows gave us a vision of the apocalypse with "Not Wanted on the Voyage," a topic familiar to master songwriter Bill Callahan. Finally, Saskatchewan's The Seahags provided us with a rollicking ode to greasy skillets everywhere and Julia Holter took hold the atmosphere and ran with it.



"Could've It Been Me?" - Renny Wilson - Sugarglider
"One Foot" - Doug Hoyer - To Be a River
"Hatchet in Garage" - Jom Comyn - Sunstroke EP
"I Want" - Rae Spoon - My Prairie Home
"Haze" - Absolute Boys - Haze
"Birthday" - Royal Canoe - Today We're Believers
"Diane Young" - Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
"Snake in the Water" - Rae Spoon - My Prairie Home
"Nu Sundae" - The Courtneys - The Courtneys
"Lilian (Won't You Play the Drums)" - White Fence - Is Growing Faith
"Electric PowWow Drum" - A Tribe Called Red - A Tribe Called Red
"Boatmen" - Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers - Fruit and Ash EP
"Not Wanted on the Voyage" - Christine Fellows - Nevertheless
"Baby's Breath" - Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
"Skillet" - The Seahags - Good 'n' Greasy
"Horns Surrounding Me" - Julia Holter - Loud City Song

Actually existing music

Let's just say it's been a busy week and at the last minute things came together as they usually do. It's radio and I can afford to be vague, let the music do the talking, you know. Some surprises today in the studio: a few new discoveries, some old acquaintances about whom I'd forgotten. To start, I fell back on Wye Oak's "Take It In": reliable, cathartic, and long enough in duration for me to get sorted. Then onward to "Saskatoon," a gritty track from a gritty band, from one of last year's more depressing albums.

All tremolo guitar and vocal layering, Warpaint earned a spot on the new True Blood Soundtrack, which has, for some reason, appeared on CJSR's shelves; Surfer Blood's new-ish release also finally arrived and, despite my best hopes for another Astro Coast, it's a bit of a dud. Crosss's Obsidian Spectre still sporadically haunts my dreams and Yo La Tengo's mature jangle-pop makes the prospect of growing older a little less daunting. Moderat's very cool Charles Burns-y album cover was enough to pique my interest in the second collab between Berlin's electronic aficionados, Apparat and Modeselektor.

And, finally, thanks to Guilt Ridden Pop for some all-girl punk abrasion (Kitten Forever) and some very American indie pop. Now that Patrick Stolley's made himself known (he also happens to be a founding member of Daytrotter.com), we haven't heard the last of the Multiple Cat, who will no doubt be coming back.



"Take It In" - Wye Oak - The Knot
"Saskatoon" - PS I Love You - Death Dreams
"Smoke" - Crosss - Obsidian Spectre
"Undertow" - Warpaint - The Fool
"Demons" - Surfer Blood - Pythons
"Black Ice" - Kitten Forever - Pressure
"The Lapping Sea" - Energetic Action - Becoming
"Ruby" - Louise Burns - The Midnight Mass
"Ohm" - Yo La Tengo - Fade
"Versions" - Moderat - II
"Vampire Bats / Mall Rats" - The Multiple Cat - The Return of the Multiple Cat
"Shake Some Evil" - Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Savvy Show Stoppers