What I learned this week: being sick while maintaining a blog stinks.

It’s incredible how a couple of days with a really bad fever can totally throw you out of any and all loops you have going. People always talk about “the” loop, but I’m of the opinion that there are many loops, loops for all sorts of different realities. Some are easier to jump back into than others. Some are more forgiving than others. Some you just hate more than others.

Just a thought. I may still be delirious from fever, so I’ll just move along and sound off the list of my five favourite songs I wrote about in the past week, in order of appearance:

• Sloan - I’m Not A Kid Anymore
• The Young Sinclairs - Cancelled Flight
• Junior Pantherz - On And Off
• Bart Davenport - Miami Afternoon
• Pomegranates - Thunder Island

Even though fever flowed through my body, wave after chillingly hot wave, over the past couple of days, I could at least count on the natural soothing nature of music to make the erratic flow of my body temperature, and all accompanying symptoms, seem not so bad. It is therefore with a great amount of gratitude that I extend a “thank you” to Junior Pantherz, who helped keep my spirits up.

Listening time and time again to On And Off (from their upcoming LP Rejoice, Remain), I couldn’t help but imagine this Saskatoon-based group on the verge of a national break out, what with such a wonderfully melodious and insidiously dark track. In fact, On And Off song starts off on rather penetrative tones, as a solitary guitar picking off aching notes is joined by bereaved violins and glaucous horns. Its introspective nature is carried on by singer Terry Mattson’s earnest, haunting vocals, echoing thickly, as if resonating from within one’s mind. But however fragile the song may have been at its onset, it slowly builds into a strong, more assertive sound, guided by crisp, determined drums which uproot a fuller overall instrumentation. Even Mattson’s tone becomes more grounded, accompanied by an uplifting chorus of wishful vibrancy, as if the brittle burden of self-doubt could be lifted.

So I salute you, Junior Pantherz, with a crusty-lipped smile and a runny nose, for being there for me, and I can only hope that the rest of Canada’s music lovers will be there for you over the next year as well.

MP3: Junior Pantherz - On And Off

www.juniorpantherz.com
myspace.com/juniorpantherz