I am so glad that I don’t have to do job interviews anymore.

It’s not as much the dressing up, the painstaking selling of oneself, and the necessary exuberating affability than the questions. The questions. The endless barrage of self-answering questions which you’re supposed to shift and shape into the perfect “I figure this is what you want to hear” response to make your potential employer believe you’re in for it more than the money, even though he knows damn well you’re just in it for the money.

But the worst, the single most cruel, mind-rending question any interviewer can ever ask anyone is: “Where do you see yourself in ten years?” Holy jam spread on toast overboard a fiberglass canoe, I always felt cornered when that one would pop up. I have trouble seeing myself in in the reflection of a tablespoon, much less in ten bloody years.

But it would appear that the Vanilla Swingers have no trouble seeing into the future, since their upcoming LP tells the story of two people who meet and then bounce around in time, until they meet again in 2015. And we can already get a taste for it with Goodbye Lennon, which sets us squarely in the future (”It’s thirty years since ‘85″ sings Anne Gilpin in the song’s opening) amidst a spacey, synth-driven atmospheric pop ballad. Pads drone in the background with discernible heartache, curling gently around icy piano notes and distant guitars, as if fearful of getting too involved. The immersion into this longing dreamscape of regret and sorrow is wrenchingly successful, as both Gilpin and co-Swinger Miles Jackson’s breathy dialogue on what could have been and what should be aches to overcome its weighty bitter affliction, but can’t, try as they might. Throughout it all, one cannot but acquiesce that it’s a beautiful and sincere song with both music and lyrics serving each other to form a stirring narrative.

And in the end, it seems a little easier to project myself into the future, because I can’t bear to have mine in such a state.

(It’s a pleasure to offer Goodbye, Lennon here on A Limerick Ox, courtesy of Anne and Miles of the Vanilla Swingers)

MP3: Vanilla Swingers - Goodbye, Lennon

www.vanillaswingers.com
myspace.com/vanillaswingers

Old homey week charges on today with Stereolab landing in at the party with its RSVP, swarthy hats, and fresh new material. Witness how they recieve grateful pats on the back, handshakes, and clamourous “good to see you!” salutations. They’ve been missed. People like having them around. They’ve thrust this party up a couple of notches.

As the crew brings its usual deft beat crafting to Three Women, a funked-out bassline sets the stage for a perfect groove, both laid back and playful, set in bright, summer beach house retro ambience. A glockenspiel plunks merrily along, a hammond undulates cheekily, and steady brass honk all smiley-like. With Laetitia Sadier’s perfect franco cooing breezes onto the track, we’re suddenly immersed in twinkling 1960’s French pop decadence and we’re all the better for it. And none of the guests really realise Stereolab has been at this for twenty years. They’re mostly just happy to see them.

MP3: Stereolab - Three Women

www.stereolab.co.uk
myspace.com/stereolab

Is there really enough political drama in the world right now? Is the pot being stirred energetically enough, or could we be doing better? I mean, sure, we have the Conservatives and that Elections Canada mess. And Barack Obama’s former minister is always good for a few kicks. But is it enough politico hubris to quench our thirst for scandal and dissent?

No! That is what I say to you this morning, gentle readers. And we’ll go overseas to get our fix if we need to. Which is why The Radio Dept.’s return with new material is doubly enticing, as they throw down a politically-charged song in Freddie And The Trojan Horse.

Basking in the band’s signature eager dreampop style, Freddie is a song written to criticise Sweden’s current right-wing government, helmed by Prime Minister Fredrik “Freddie” Reinfeldt. As singer Johan Duncanson exhales about how Reinfeldt “Trojan Horse’d” the blue collar electorate into voting for him, his distorted, trebled voice fittingly accompanying a sense of drama instilled by crisp piano work and effected synth pads, like a choral of downtrodden voices.

The glinting melody thrives off itself, maintaining its thirsty, tense atmosphere while shedding sounds and grafting new ones to remain spry and airy. And while the belligerent “You reap what you sow” lyric in the first verse seethes of confrontation, Duncanson ends with a pleading “Just let us go,” allowing the song to bloom into a dense, intricate, elevating conclusion, now that the ultimate call to reason has been made.

Social activism and great music. What more can you want? Sex? Oh. Right.

MP3: The Radio Dept. - Freddie And The Trojan Horse

myspace.com/officialradiodept

Earlier this week, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) called for Stéphane Dion and the opposition Liberals to join them in their campaign to support net neutrality legislation which will protect the privacy and rights of all Canadians using the Internet. No word about their participation yet.

In fact, no word on where they stand, period. It turns out the Liberals are just as nebulous as the Conservative government is on the issue. A quick search on the party’s official website turns up zero results for “net neutrality.”

Along the same lines, a search for “copyright” on liberal.ca produces a 2007 press release about the government’s under-funding of museums, without ever really talking about how projected copyright reform could seriously harm such institutions.

Then again, the Liberal position on copyright reform is becoming distressingly clearer if one takes Liberal Party’s Consumer Affairs critic Dan McTeague’s recent behaviour as a barometer. McTeague, who has a reputation for championing consumer-related causes, has been hobnobbing with DMCA-style legislation advocates, like CRIA and ACTRA, and pushing for tougher copyright legislation.

Moreover, McTeague’s apparently been swimming in their Kool-Aid, as he’s started adopting their skewed rhetoric, demanding that WIPO treaties be ratified, demonstration support for property rights of IP holders with claims of theft being theft, and promoting the risible assumption that Canada’s international reputation has been tarnished due to inappropriate legislation.

The NDP has spoken out clearly on both these issues, calling out Industry Minister Jim Prentice on different occasions to clarify the government’s intentions and how it would affect Canadians. The Greens are in there too. Where are the Liberals? Why haven’t they challenged the Conservatives on this issue? With a majority of Canadians clearly supportive of fair copyright legislation and net neutrality advocacy, their restraint is truly puzzling, although the most cynical of us will state that big business has the ear of the Liberals on this one as well; their silence telling of the unpopular position they are about to prop themselves onto.

Can the Liberals be trusted to do the right thing? Within the next six weeks, the Conservatives plan on dropping a new copyright bill. While it’s too early to know what the bill’s provisions are, the Liberals will be soon forced to position themselves. We’ll then see who’s looking out for who.

There’s precious very little that can shoot down my typically weather-influenced mood from “peachfully good” to “soppingly grumpy” today. Nope, the grey-as-carbuncles sky which looms above me and the 70mm+ of rain which is pouring down has some serious competition up against it if it wants to get me into a state of gloom typically associated with such climate conditions.

Strike one against it was the call from my accountant announcing the generous return I would be getting from filing my taxes this year, which is, of course, pipingly delicious news. Strike two is the concept of a new iMac metamorphosing into the realm of reality; a big, big joymaker right there. And strike three, the clincher, the event that blows depressing, oppressive weather into oblivion is the release of a new CSS song for us all to download, listen, and love.

Yes, folks, the Brazilians have decided to go organic, ditching all things electronic for Rat Is Dead, a witting guitar-heavy cruncher which slips in-and-out of ecstatic moments of melodious chant-alongs, toned outbursts, and frenzied sonic scrambles. Did I say “guitar heavy?” Because I can’t emphasise enough how precious the guitarwork is to the song, managing hooky guitar choruses to create its appeal, which then mutate into moments of careful picking, only to shift into to fits of frantic strumming which delve into wails of feedback, yet without drowning out the song’s affable, perky nature. A perkyness which compels you to chant “rat is dead” real loud with the lot of ‘em.

This song, this great song, it’s more than just a taste of their upcoming Donkey LP in July. It’s a nail of sunshine sealing the murky coffin of any mood swings today.

MP3: CSS - Rat Is Dead

www.csshurts.com
myspace.com/canseidesersexy

In other news, the arrival of new iMacs from our friends at Apple mean that this dude is ready to drop his G5 PowerPC machine for one of those new aluminum Intel-powered joyboxes. I’ve been due for an upgrade for about six to seven months, but I wanted to wait for a new product cycle to start and take advantage of the new upgrade. That time is now upon us and my giddyness can best be described by listening to the Baskervilles excellent Caught In A Crosswalk.

Originally a song created for their one-song-a-month project last year (now re-mastered for their upcoming LP), Crosswalks is a delightful, uptempo, glamorous pop song. Led by winsome guitar chords which chime sprightly across the track, they accompany Stephanie Finucane’s feather light lyrics with lustrous accuracy, giving the song a gleaming, polished feeling of sophistication and wonder. Matter of fact, there’s no denying the band has a thing for 1960s orchestral pop, what with the AM-era brass adding that extra layer of sheen, the occasional timpani rumble, and the string-loving synths which account for that final, glossy clincher making us all feel we should be having a cocktail, were we not bouncing around to the poppy, catching rhythm.

MP3: Baskervilles - Caught In A Crosswalk

www.baskervilles.net
myspace.com/baskervillesnyc

Dan Friel’s Ghost Town Pt. 1 is like a M. Night Shyamalan film. No, not because it has drawn-out sycophantic crane shots, but rather because it has a great twist. See, even though the song starts out with disembodied yips and fluttering tones swerving into each other announcing the arrival of an electro-noise rampage, we actually end up in the midst of a head-bopping, albeit fractured, mindmeld of a pop tune.

The Parts & Labor member seems to have concocted Ghost Town Pt. 1 as if it were performed by a parade of broken toy robots. It starts off sputtering and clunky, sounds eagerly coming together, as if the the little tin men were arduously piecing themselves together to quickly fall into marching sequence and compel all onlookers to join in their surprisingly merry and electric party. In fact, Friel’s song is auspiciously fun, and he’s chief jester of it all, testing out sonic possibilities in this beat-driven composition, bending and twisting blips and bloops into skewered, wavering melodies, washed in a crispy, distorted static coating. You’ll be surprised at just how engrossing this song becomes, listen after listen. Kind of like Unbreakable but unlike Lady In The Water.

MP3: Dan Friel - Ghost Town Pt. 1

www.danfriel.com
myspace.com/danfrieldanfriel

• Wonderful song by South entitled Better Things.
• Spaced-out new waveyness can be found in All Remote And No Control by Eric Avery.
• Enjoy these two songs from the Flashing Red Lights: The Big Idea and Strings & Bass.
• 100 Year Picnic invite us to the ambient sounds of Greener Than The Trees.
• Get with Lousy Robot and their songs It’s Getting To Me and Welcome All To My Weird Awakening.

I get emails:

Hey,

- yo mama

I found it odd that my mother would write me something like that, especially since she usually favours the writing of full words instead of using letters which phonetically sound as words in order to replace actual words in a bid to look cool. Because my mom is anything but cool. That utter lack of coolness also totally prevents my mom from reading my blog. I therefore deduced that the person who wrote me that email was an impostor, someone trying to pass him- or herself off as my mother. Which, I feel, starts this correspondence off on a very bad note.

But to answer your question, “yo mama,” no, I am not “gay.” Totally and completely not gay. If you feel that someone writing about electronic (aka “club”) music is gay, well, I’m just going to have to remedy that by writing about music which is totally and completely not gay. Like I am. And like Triclops!

These San Fransiscans churn out the heavy with a combination of progressive rock arrangements infused with a potent dose of punk energy, which equates to a loud, galloping monster of a song in Freedom Tickler. As singer John Mink tears into mass consumerism with choleric vocals, steady, militaristic drums hold the course for the on-the-brink guitars to flare up in conflagrations of pounding riffs, thumping mercilessly into an apex of epic grit and ire, at times making us feel we’re in metal territory. This song is out to shake the foundations of your world, so if it feels a little cataclysmic, you need to give yourself a once-over.

So, “yo mama,” I hope we can put that one to rest. Totally and completely.

MP3: Triclops! - Freedom Tickler

www.triclopsband.com
myspace.com/triclopsband

Yeah, we’ve been hearing a lot about these guys who just put out their first studio album in about a decade. That’s interesting and all, but do you know who else is putting out their first full-length recording in over ten years? Free Kitten! Yes, the same noise-rock superband (if there was ever such a thing possible) made up of Kim Gordon, Yoshimi P-We, and Julie Cafritz (sans Mark Ibold this time; gee, wonder why…) are returning with a new helping of gritty fun.

Yet while those other guys stuck to teasers and streams, Free Kitten has spread the joy of their imminent return with a downloadable mp3 entitled Seasick, a percolator of great off-kilter, discordant, grungy guitar work, squealing at times, completely fuzzed out at others, and poised-on-the-edge-of-dementia vocals. Listen close and you’ll feel this struggle for composure which permeates the voicework, which swells dangerously, with unmitigated restraint, to an angry breakdown, but stops short, refusing to go further, as if afraid of what would be found.

So yeah, bring on the noise girls! It feels so much like the 90s right now, I almost wrote “grrls.”

MP3: Free Kitten - Seasick

myspace.com/freekittennyc