It is with great trepidation, ladies and gentlemen, that I bring to you the name of the winner of A Limerick Ox’s Cinderpop giveaway. And that person is… Diana Louise! She will now be receiving her very own copy of Cinderpop’s newest album A Lesson In Science in her mailbox very, very soon. The rest of you can go pick up a copy at your local record selling establishment starting tomorrow, May 13. Congratulations to her, and many thanks to all who entered!

This is it, folks! Only a few days left to enter the Cinderpop CD giveaway contest sweepstakes, erm, thingy. Who wouldn’t want to own their very own copy of A Lesson In Science set to hit record stores everywhere May 13? If you’re one of these folks who couldn’t do without it, click here to enter! Even if you’re not, enter anyway!

There are still a few days left to enter the contest to win your very own copy of Cinderpop’s A Lesson In Science CD. It’s on until Sunday night! Come on, get some free stuff! Click here to find out how to do it!

Looks like it’s time for another A Limerick Ox giveaway! Indeed, kind denizens of the Internet, here is your chance to win a copy of Cinderpop’s newest and excellent release, A Lesson In Science.

If you have been itching at the chance to acquaint yourself with this Vancouver-based band and their wondrous pop concoctions, what a perfect opportunity this is to go ahead and do it, courtesy of the gentle-hearted folks at Killbeat Music and Popaganda Records.

Entering the contest is easy: all you have to do is post a comment to this article right here during the course of the week. That’s it. Just drop a comment on this post right here and you are automatically entered into the raffle. If you win, your very own copy of A Lesson In Science will arrive at your doorstep.

Remember when posting your comment to provide a valid email address so we can contact if you win (your email will not be made public) and please do not provide any personal contact information in the post. If you do win, I will contact you to acquire your shipping details.

You have until Sunday May 11 at 11:59 PM EST to enter! So go! Do it! And good luck!

MP3: Cinderpop - Blonder

Ouch. This has been a week of especially high-calibre music finds, and this has been the toughest Rated Ox edition I’ve had to do in the short history of this weekly retrospective featurette. I mean real tough. I listened over and over again to each song I wrote about, then selected these five from an already skimmed down shortlist, after re-listening to each track about a dozen times each.

Don’t agree? Well why couldn’t you tell me what you think? Or better yet, you could try to beat some sense into me…

At any rate, no matter how hard it was, here is the list of my five favourite songs I wrote about in the past week.

• Freddie Stevenson - Easy Now
• Cut Copy - Lights and Music (Radio Edit)
• Wolf Parade - Call It A Ritual
• Cinderpop - Blonder
• No Age - Eraser

So this German kid puts some math together on an asteroid headed for a collision with Earth and essentially disproves NASA’s own math about the event in the process, effectively raising the chances of being hit by it from 1 in 45,000 to 1 in 450. And he just whipped it up as a science fair project. You know, just your vinegar-and-soda volcano type stuff. Put a few numbers together, and voilà: the best scientific minds in the U.S. get served.

I realise there’s more to it than that, but you have to admit, given the context with the 13 year old, it just makes the whole thing look so damn simple. For all I know it is, and that’s just what makes the kid so bloody brilliant: making it look simple.

Making it look simple is the trademark of a good band as well, and Vancouver’s Cinderpop have that vibe going for them with Blonder, a vibrant, charming, and ultimately afflicted song, charged with reverb doting guitar jangles which create an effervescent moment of absolute pop wonder. Indeed, there is a spacey dreaminess which binds the effortless melody into being, channelled through Kevan Ellis’s breathy vocals, but the song is anything but simple, its intricate harmonies sliding into place, propping each other up, with nothing out of place and nothing missing. It’s as pure a pop rock song you’ll hear all year, and that’s the least condescending statement possible.

MP3: Cinderpop - Blonder

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myspace.com/cinderpop