It’s Canada’s worst month! And I’m not just talking about the tariffs – hello! Still, it’s not all thundersnow and icestorms here. In fact, there’s been some nice news between the power outages – like ME finally being recognized by the CANADIAN OSCARS and receiving a NOMINATION for SICKEST DOC at the CSAs (the “Canadian Oscars” are actually an unholy amalgamation of film, TV, and “digital media” awards that take place over a full week and absolutely no human being gives a shit about – they even make you buy your own tickets for like $500 so you can catch a glimpse or a cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes or, more likely, a local sportscaster from a city in Alberta you’ve never heard of and never will again). Glamour!
Here’s what we’re listening to this week.
Abdomen “Damage Tool
Sam: Recognizing that METZ did not invent this style of music… this does sound a lot like METZ right. The fact that it sounds specifically like 7 inch-era METZ is really sending me back to a time in my life when I was going out every night, five of those nights would somehow involve seeing METZ, and every one of them would involve people in METZ t-shirts.
Jos: Much like the Canadian Oscars, there are other insular, niche Canadian experiences that make the participants feel like they are at the centre of the universe when they are instead participating in an act of obscurity. I’m talking about eastern Canadian media men, born between 1977 and 1987, who think that the band METZ was some kind of moment in time because they happened to be the loudest band at a CMW showcase one time. This other band is definitely some CMW showcase music, but I shan’t say more. Instead, I’ll borrow a phrase from the aforementioned media men — it’s “not for me.”
Bambara “Letters From Sing Sing”
Sam: I think I’m threatened by the singer’s greasy sensual energy. Very Girls Against Boys, except every song on this album isn’t called something unsettling like “SuperSexyGrooveStyleThing.” Funny how in the 90s labels thought if you tried hard enough you could make Girls Against Boys as big as Nirvana if you spent enough on a music video. Sometimes I wonder if going through that type of ringer would be fun or life-ruining, and I think I’m the exact type of person who would be utterly destroyed by it. Good thing none of my bands have been adequate sexy!
Jos: Haven’t clicked yet but you’re always posting bands with fake ass names and I always assume they’re going to be like Kyuss or Torche metal. But your caption tells another story. Also I fixed one type but I left “adequate sexy” because it has a nice ring to it. That would make a great song title for your Girls Against Boys type band. Love the ambient guitar sound. The singer seems like a total villain. If I wasn’t looking and you told me this was new Iceage I’d believe you.
Miley Cyrus “End of the World”
Jos: I’m fairly neutral on Miley… sometimes I think she’s goated, sometimes I remember her awful Wayne Coyne era, and “Flowers” is neither bad nor good enough for me to understand how anyone even remembered it. But I saw that Molly and Alec from Alvvays are on this song and needed to know what that would be like. It’s funny because it kicks in with some “whoa oh ohs” that sound straight up like worship music. The song is mostly not great but I can still hear a tiny hint of Alvvays in the pre-chorus. Would’ve been better if Dadge was on it.
Sam: It’s just “Mama Mia!” I also want to be on record that I think her more egregious period was the “racial tourism” one, but I’m just a good person like that. Also now I’m thinking about the time she made that video with Laura Jane Grace covering “Androgynous.” She really has done it all! Good for her. Life is for the living! Song just finished.
Sum 41 “Radio Silence”
Jos: In honor of Sam’s upcoming hobnobbing with Brent Butt, this is turning into quite a CanCon newsletter. This final Sum 41 music video is undeniably great, tugging on all the right heart strings with some of that Linkin-esque piano pop and a huge halftime chorus. Deryck is soooo good at writing closing credits music, so it makes sense that they’ve milked their exit so well. As two guys who have done multiple weepy podcast finales, the thrill of saying goodbye forever is understandable. They sure were cruel to Stevo in the edit, though.
Sam: I cannot believe that a band as big as Sum 41 could only get the most French-looking Simple Plan touring member as a drummer. There are five or six famous drummers from the last 20 years of popular music and they replaced with one of the with a guy probably named Guillaume. Watching this guy “rap” Steveo’s parts in “Fat Lip” at the Junos last week (Canada’s Grammys!) was a truly wretched experience that only people living in a country forced to bow at the altar of bilingualism should be subjected to. They brought this man all over the world!!!
Skrillex F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!!
Jos: The new surprise Skrillex album is soooooo much fun. I can’t believe I ever didn’t like this kind of music. Of course it helps that every song on here is like a 1-minute snippet, and he got the Trapaholics voiceover guy to say stuff like “I have severe depression” throughout. It runs the risk of becoming too meme-y, but then you remember that it’s actually Skrillex doing it, so it always stays in that sweet spot. When I first finished this, I just started the whole thing again from the start.
Sam: Recently saw the classic “where is the drop” Skrillex Facebook post again and honestly, it’s still funny. It’s already 4:23pm on Monday so I don’t think I have time to listen to the full album but I skipped ahead because I saw someone in the comments say how cool it is that he shouts out every contributor by name on the last song and yeah, that’s cool. I love how kind time has been to Skrillex. Will it be so kind to me?