Month: February 2019

Working Men’s Club Bad Blood (Single) Melodic I don’t usually bother to review singles because, well, one track.  To be fair, ‘Bad Blood’ is backed with ‘Suburban Heights.’  Formed in Manchester, they are fronted by 17-year old Sydney Minskey-Sargeant, who also play guitar (one of them obviously plays bass, too).  The trio is rounded out with Giulia Bonometti, who also plays guitar and sings, and drummer Jake Bogacki.  Bogacki is all of 18, Bonometti is 23.  The met in 2017 and formed the band towards the end of that year.  And here they are with a record deal, on indie label Melodic, and ‘Bad Blood’ is their first single. They claim to take their inspiration from Talking Heads, Television, Gang of Four, Parquet Courts, and the Strokes. To that you could add Franz Ferdinand and The Smiths. As I listen to the guitars in ‘Bad Blood,’ I can hear all of those bands.  And yet, the angular post-punk guitars sound fresh here.  This is not an easy thing to do.  Elvis Costello was doing this in the 1970s.  So was David Byrne.  And, of course, Keith Levene of PiL, who perfected the post-punk guitar sound.  And yet, this is fresh, danceable, and bouncy. ‘Both tracks are cut from the same formula, one that has been well-used over the past 40 years.  And yet, I find myself turning back to...

Broken Social Scene Let’s Try the After, Vol. 1 (ep) Arts & Crafts Broken Social Scene burst onto the, ahem, scene away back in 2001 with their astonishing début, Feel Good Lost.  But it was their follow-up, 2002’s You Forgot It In People that established their street cred.  Arising out of Toronto’s indie scene, BSS centres around Kevin Drew and Brandon Canning and has included stalwarts of the indie scene of Canada as a whole, and even some Americans.  At various times, BSS has included Leslie Feist; Stars’ Torquil Campbell, Evan Cranley and Amy Millan; Metric’s Emily Haines and James Shaw; Do Make Say Think’s Ohad Benchetrit and Charles Spearin; Tortoist/Sea and Cake’s John McEntire, amongst others.   There is no real way to describe BSS’s music, though their music is unmistakeable.  I read a review of a live show once that called them ‘baroque.’  I don’t think I would disagree.  They have become legends and darlings of the indie scene. This is not, however, to say, that they’re always great.  What they are is always creative, messy, and complicated.  The last song on their 2005 masterpiece, Broken Social Scene, ‘It’s All Gonna Break,’ is an epic tale of betrayal, sex between exes and friends, and the like.  Really, I have no idea if it has anything to do with the band, but, given this was their last album until 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record, plus...