Backlog

I've fallen somewhat behind with my weekly posts. Blame it on FunDrive. Below, you'll find my September 23rd episode, which features new music from the likes of Ty Segall, Delorean, Beck, Neko Case, Monomyth, and Brazilian Money. Towards the end, you'll hear a batch of folk tunes picked out by my friend, Trevor, who dropped by the station during his coffee break. We ended the hour with some aimless speculation about the 2013 Polaris Music Prize and didn't come at all close to predicting the outcome.



"Ode to subterrania" - Hooded Fang
"John the painter" - UBT
"The man man" - Ty Segall
"Animal Games" - Emiliana Torrini
"Ranchero" - Jordan Klassen
"December" - Braids
"Unhold (featuring Caroline Polachek) - Delorean
"Gimme" - Beck
"Bracing for Sunday" - Neko Case
"Coastal" - Monomyth
"Bones, bones, bones" - Brazilian Money
"Man of letters" - Hermetic
"Say darlin' say" - Corinna Rose
"West end sky" - Elliot Brood
"Ungirthed" - Purity Ring

FunDrive Preamble

Tomorrow morning's show will be a bit different than usual. Along with all my "pycks" I'll be plugging our annual FunDrive and asking listeners to donate some of their hard-earned dough to keep the wonderful CJSR afloat for another year.

If you donate ANY amount of money during my show (Monday, 10-11am MDT), you'll automatically be entered to win one of many fabulous prizes donated by local businesses here in Edmonton as well as some hot new LPs.

Donations of $30 or more also automatically receive some great swag from the station (like an exclusive compilation of music by local artists and the Star Card, which get deals all over town--t-shirts and other items are included for donations over $240). Here's the blurb:

As Edmonton's only volunteer-powered, listener-supported, campus based, community radio station, CJSR depends on the financial support of our listeners so that we can continue to broadcast diverse musical and spoken word programming that challenges the status quo. That's where FunDrive comes in; a listener pledge made during this year's FunDrive literally keeps us on the air for the next year. If you'd like to donate to your favourite neighbourhood CJSR, click here or call (780) 492-2577 ext 0.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the 2013 Polaris Music Prize

Congrats to Godspeed You! Black Emperor on winning the 2013 Polaris Music Prize, which was announced at last night's annual gala. I, of course, wasn't there and neither were the members of GY!BE (like everyone else who cared in Western Canada, I followed the event via Twitter).

Although I have misgivings about the award, as well as the mono-culture that has grown around it; and although I wasn't that excited about this year's shortlist, I'm happy to see a veteran band like GY!BE receive more recognition for last year's excellent Alleluja! Don't Bend! Ascend! It's an album that still gives me chills.

The main reason for this post is to direct your attention to the band's statement regarding their prize winnings. In it they express a similar ambivalence and an earnestness that cuts to the heart of our culture. The statement illustrates why this band was and is so important, why they deserved to take home the award, and explains where their prize money ($30 000) is going.

A FEW WORDS REGARDING THIS POLARIS PRIZE THING 

hello kanada.
hello kanadian music-writers. 

thanks for the nomination thanks for the prize- it feels nice to be acknowledged by the Troubled Motherland when we so often feel orphaned here. and much respect for all y’all who write about local bands, who blow that horn loudly- because that trumpeting is crucial and necessary and important. 

and much respect to the freelancers especially, because freelancing is a hard fucking gig, and almost all of us are freelancers now, right? falling and scrambling and hustling through these difficult times? 

so yes, we are grateful, and yes we are humble and we are shy to complain when we’ve been acknowledged thusly- BUT HOLY SHIT AND HOLY COW- we’ve been plowing our field on the margins of weird culture for almost 20 years now, and “this scene is pretty cool but what it really fucking needs is an awards show” is not a thought that’s ever crossed our minds. 

3 quick bullet-points that almost anybody could agree on maybe=
-holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do.
-organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.
-asking the toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS FUCKING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise. 

these are hard times for everybody. and musicians’ blues are pretty low on the list of things in need of urgent correction BUT AND BUT if the point of this prize and party is acknowledging music-labor performed in the name of something other than quick money, well then maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue- it would be truly nice to enjoy that hang, somewhere sometime where the point wasn’t just lazy money patting itself on the back. 

give the money to the kids let ‘em put on their own goddamn parties, give the money to the olds and let them try to write opuses in spite of, but let the muchmusic videostars fight it out in the inconsequential middle, without gov’t. culture-money in their pockets.
us we’re gonna use the money to try to set up a program so that prisoners in quebec have musical instruments if they need them…
amen and amen.


apologies for being such bores,
we love you so much / our country is fucked,
xoxoxox
godspeed you! black emperor

Back in the Badlands

The last time I visited Drumheller, AB and the surrounding region I was about 9 years old. 18 years later and it all seemed new again. This time I was able to wear my 18-year-old dinosaur t-shirt from the Royal Tyrell Museum (which didn't leave my body the entire weekend) and managed to purchase its sequel (this time with a glow-in-the-dark velociraptor). The dinosaur museum was an obvious highlight, perhaps bolstered by my relatively new appreciation for Alberta's history (the first dinosaur bone was discovered by Joseph Tyrell back in 1884). But it was exploring the rugged geography of the badlands that made the trip really exceptional. A lot of the tunes you'll hear on this episode of Dyck's Pycks come from our trip down south. I was joined in the studio by Cynthia Spring, who you'll see roaming the range in the photo above.

Dyck's Pycks is back for the foreseeable future, every Monday from 10-11. I hope you'll tune in.



"In kind" - Braids
"Badlands" - Bruce Springsteen
"Smoke in the Water" - Rae Spoon
"Tiger Tank" - Speedy Ortiz
"Low F" - Superchunk
"It all feels right" - Washed Out
"Wave forms" - Islands
"Don't remind me" - Jay Arner
"Man" - Neko Case
"Adventure in the heart" - Shotgun Jimmie
"Tear it up" - The Backhomes
"The current" - The Dodos
"As I am in Tim Hortons, I realize that I hate Tim Hortons" - B.A. Johnston
"Doin' it right" - Daft Punk

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