| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| fumanbru |
Posted - 08/21/2005 : 08:40:19
GREAT BAND! been listening to them lots for the last month. anyone else dig their stuff or seen em live? they're opening for the arcade fire and i'm seeing them live next month in winnipeg. isaak brock of modest mouse is a big fan and helped them produce some of their tracks. they have an ep out and their new album is coming out in sept- apologies the queen mary. my favorite tracks- shine a light, modern world, grounds for divorce. at this point i would say a combo of talking heads, arcade fire and modest mouse. i think one of the band members of arcade fire plays in this band as well but don't quote me on it.
 "I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
| 23 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 10/03/2005 : 08:14:29
These guys realy kicked ass live.
and you are ill prepared to fight
living in a world of soft and white
in air conditioned battle zones
I pity you!
|
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 10/02/2005 : 13:56:11
thanks fumanbru for the info. unfortunately I was late to AF and I missed them as the opener. I think they are coming back to town soon, so i really hope to catch them. :)
"I ain't goin to be what I ain't" |
| fumanbru |
Posted - 10/02/2005 : 06:05:35
i just saw them live on friday- they were opening for arcade fire. the first few songs they had problems with the sound but overall a really good show.
pitchfork just reviewed their album.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/w/wolf-parade/apologies-to-the-queen-mary.shtml
Wolf Parade
Apologies to the Queen Mary
[Sub Pop; 2005]
Rating: 9.2
Considering the amount of pre-release talk surrounding Apologies to the Queen Mary, it's inevitable that reviews of Wolf Parade's debut will contain bad wolf puns, Modest Mouse references (Isaac Brock recorded much of the album), riffs on Montreal's music scene by those who couldn't locate the city on a map, and namechecks of the quartet's pals, the Arcade Fire and Frog Eyes. Amid the noise, what Apologies might not receive is the close listening it deserves.
There's no question the lonesome crowded sound is here, but when Wolf Parade dig in and dust off their influences, the band rolls like a Ritalin-deprived power-Bowie or 70s Eno flexing piano-based hooks over Pixified rhythms. Component ingredients include electronics, keyboards, guitar, drums, and two spastically surging, forever tuneful vocalists (Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug), but there are also surprises: A theremin cries in the slow-poke "Same Ghost Every Night"-- one of the longer tracks, it grows in pageantry as it swells to the six-minute mark-- and a spot of noise-guitar echoes throughout Krug's windy "Dinner Bells". And unlike most participants in indie rock's million-band march, Wolf Parade makes familiar elements mesh in special ways.
Groups like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Arcade Fire inspire listeners to both feel their music and listen closely to what's being said. Wolf Parade's Boeckner and Krug sing so energetically it can be difficult transcribing, but as lyrics reveal themselves on multiple listens, Apologies is populated by ghosts, crumbled brick, haunted technology, Marcel Dzama animals, fathers and mothers, off-kilter love songs, rusted gold, and endtime/brand new world scenarios that furnish the album's ornate instrumentation and clever arrangements with an inspired if elliptical story arc.
The album's roughly split between Boeckner and Krug, their tracks often alternating to a tee. But there is a non-cut/dry bleed between them, with both showing up on the same song, backing each other, screaming at the same time. I wouldn't want to inspire a quarterback controversy, but I tend to be a Krug man-- to my ear, he's the more intriguing lyricist, a Bowie-inflected guy tackling nonstandard song constructions. On the other hand, Boeckner is more traditionally palatable, which may make him the favorite by consensus: His work is often less unhinged or unpredictable, and this focus allows for some of the album's most immediate standouts.
Apologies starts with Krug's mousy "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son"-- also included on the band's self-titled EP-- and Boeckner's "Modern World", but it really takes off with "Grounds for Divorce". Honing in on one of the album's main themes, the track finds a momentary beauty and romanticism within potentially alienating technology: "You said you hate the sound of the buses on the ground/ You said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town/ I said, 'Pretend it's whales, keeping their voices down.'" Spiraling behind Krug's vocals, Boeckner mingles his guitar splashes with textured keys and a distant shout of affirmation.
Boeckner's best are the anthemic "Shine a Light" and his lovely, ragged closer, "This Heart's on Fire", which induces thoughts of the Boss in full grease-monkey Valentino mode. Krug's key tracks also come toward the album's end: the regal swagger of the Frog-Eyed "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts"-- note its absolutely sublime vocal cadences and group hug-- and "I'll Believe in Anything", one of my favorite tunes of the year. (Diehards can scope out an eviscerated take on Krug's Sunset Rubdown album, but in either hip-shaking form it's unexpectedly moving.) Tangy video-game synth, half-Moon drums, and pretty guitar reps embrace a maniacally charming Krug come-on: "Give me your eyes, I need sunshine/ Your blood, your bones/ Your voice, and your ghost." Boeckner's guitar distorts, the keys trill, Krug somehow finds even more energy in his pocket, and the fucker continues for another two-and-a-half blissful minutes with a shopping list of promises of escape and hope that culminates with: "I'd take you where nobody knows you/ And nobody gives a damn either way."
On paper this all could sound average, but Wolf Parade's true talent is transforming the everyday into the unprecedented. Fittingly, then, the record isn't going to change the direction of modern music, but it will enrich small moments of your life-- lying in bed alone or with a loved one, the morning commute, the dancefloor, a house party.
If you can, block out the baggage of its built-in hype machine and take this stuff for what it is. I still remember the excitement felt when I first heard Modest Mouse more than a decade ago. At the time, my friend and I talked about how it sounded like this or like that or whatever, but beneath the snobbery and geeky influence-detecting, we were excited, and so obviously into what the band was doing. If given the chance, Wolf Parade should engender similar scenarios: In a few years, other folks will still remember where they were when they first heard Apologies to the Queen Mary.
-Brandon Stosuy, September 26, 2005
"I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 08/29/2005 : 09:52:43
I listened to my first Wolf Parade song this weekend at Reading Festival and it was very good. Not sure what it was called though.
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
|
| fumanbru |
Posted - 08/25/2005 : 04:27:41
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Rockabye
In regard to the new album:
On another forum I post on, somebody emailed Wolf Parade about their disappointment with the new album, and recieved this response
"listen.
I'm in Wolf Parade, and I agree completely. We
probably all agree with you. Thanks for the honesty
and all that, and don't worry, it's not being taken
the wrong way. It's a little heartbreaking, yes, for
you have confirmed our own insecurities about the
record, but a little broken heart goes a long when one
is schrelpin' the tunes, bra. So thanks.
That album could be way better, but all this shit
happened and we just needed to get it over and done
with. We made the best mixes we could out of the
tracks we had recorded (we mixed the thing 3 times)
and then all these wheels were already in motion and
money had been spent and blah blah blah. There was no
more time or money. And really, it's just a record, so
buck up you big baby. If we can live with it, so can
you.
Just do what I do: Don't listen to it, ever, and hope
that the next one is better. In fact, just pretend
that this record doesn't even exist and that our next
record is the first full length. We are all really
excited about the next one, which we will do ourselves
and not in a studio. So don't give up on us just yet,
and try to untwist your panties from the bunch that
they are currently in. This record is coming out
whether any of us like it or not.
Thanks for liking the other stuff, though.
Spencer"
You run all kinds of red lights except the ones on the street.
When you run out of exits you can always count sheep.
thanks sir rock for the research. interesting post by spencer. i'd agree that their sound is nothing new but i'm really digging a fair chunk of their songs. pitchfork had a good review of their ep. it got a 7.1. i'm looking forward to seeing review of the new album when it comes out. i posted the start of the review...
It's difficult reviewing crumbs when you've already gorged yourself on the main course, but peering into the future offers the benefit of hindsight, which allows me to say now with some degree of confidence that Wolf Parade should have a pretty sick autumn. I'm not just tossing around bold claims: The Montreal-via-Victoria quartet has already received celebratory write-ups in both The New York Times and Time's Canadian edition, been featured on The Believer's highly touted music-issue compilation (covering an unreleased Frog Eyes song), and taken to the stage at NYC's Piano's to celebrate that disc's release. The youngsters even played 2004's All Tomorrow's Parties in a showcase curated by their biggest influence, Modest Mouse, and worked closely with Isaac Brock-- he produced two tracks on this EP and turned knobs for much of their full-length debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, which will be released in late September by Sub Pop.
There's more. Guitarist/vocalist Dan Boeckner and drummer Arlen Thompson have played with the Arcade Fire (those are Arlen's drums you're hearing on Funeral's "Wake Up"), and Arlen is also in a two-piece with ex-Hot Hot Heat guitarist Dante Decaro. My favorite vocalist in the crew, keyboardist Spencer Krug, has played and recorded with Frog Eyes, toured as a pianist with Destroyer, and records solo material as the skeletal, lo-fi, and often stunning Sunset Rubdown. (Check his take on one of Wolf Parade's best songs, "I'll Believe in Anything".) So the question, then, is how to take Wolf Parade's music purely on its own terms, without the excess baggage of peripheral relations, anticipation, and perceived hype.....
Brandon Stosuy, July 8, 2005
"I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 09:58:29
I'm always interested. Thanks for the links Sir!
and you are ill prepared to fight
living in a world of soft and white
in air conditioned battle zones
I pity you!
|
| Sir Rockabye |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 09:45:43
For now Corn Gangg has appeared to exist on the backburner. Nick and Jaime are more concerned with their project Islands. They released two tracks (Abominable Snowman and Flesh) available for download here: http://simplemission.typepad.com/home/2005/06/i_know_youve_be.html
Nick wrote the music for, and played keys on that charity single "Do They Know Its Halloween" (which is really awesome, by the way).
Alden released a 7" called The Ghost of Creaky Crater. Anyone who is interested in giving it a listen, or one of his radio shows, drop me a line. Its good, much more mellow than the route that Nick has taken. Alden also wrote the score for a film called The Hamster Cage (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431799/).
Oh, and I have a couple of awful quality live tracks of Th' Corn Gangg if you're interested.
You run all kinds of red lights except the ones on the street.
When you run out of exits you can always count sheep. |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 08:44:03
So what's up with the Unicorns now? Th' Corn Gang thing still happening?
and you are ill prepared to fight
living in a world of soft and white
in air conditioned battle zones
I pity you!
|
| Sir Rockabye |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 08:43:11
Hip Onion? Sorry, no never heard of it.
Its a Unicorns forum.
You run all kinds of red lights except the ones on the street.
When you run out of exits you can always count sheep. |
| Kirk |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 08:42:37
My judgement of the recommended songs,
modern world: 3/10 rating
shine a light: 7/10 rating
grounds for divorce: 8/10 rating
I can see what the band is attempting to accomplish, yet failing to do. Hopefully by the next album, they'll pull something wonderful off. |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 08/24/2005 : 08:19:30
I heard Brock messed it up, and I've been comparing the two... the EP does sound better. But I need to listen more. (PS, is it the hip onion, sir rock?)
and you are ill prepared to fight
living in a world of soft and white
in air conditioned battle zones
I pity you!
|
| Sir Rockabye |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 22:32:27
In regard to the new album:
On another forum I post on, somebody emailed Wolf Parade about their disappointment with the new album, and recieved this response
"listen.
I'm in Wolf Parade, and I agree completely. We
probably all agree with you. Thanks for the honesty
and all that, and don't worry, it's not being taken
the wrong way. It's a little heartbreaking, yes, for
you have confirmed our own insecurities about the
record, but a little broken heart goes a long when one
is schrelpin' the tunes, bra. So thanks.
That album could be way better, but all this shit
happened and we just needed to get it over and done
with. We made the best mixes we could out of the
tracks we had recorded (we mixed the thing 3 times)
and then all these wheels were already in motion and
money had been spent and blah blah blah. There was no
more time or money. And really, it's just a record, so
buck up you big baby. If we can live with it, so can
you.
Just do what I do: Don't listen to it, ever, and hope
that the next one is better. In fact, just pretend
that this record doesn't even exist and that our next
record is the first full length. We are all really
excited about the next one, which we will do ourselves
and not in a studio. So don't give up on us just yet,
and try to untwist your panties from the bunch that
they are currently in. This record is coming out
whether any of us like it or not.
Thanks for liking the other stuff, though.
Spencer"
You run all kinds of red lights except the ones on the street.
When you run out of exits you can always count sheep. |
| Sir Rockabye |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 22:26:11
Wolf Parade are okay I guess. I have their 2001 EP, which I find barely listenable.
The Shine A Light EP is certainly a step in the right direction, despite having a sound that doesn't explore. I haven't heard the entire new album, but from discussing with people on another board, I've heard that Brock sort of messed up the quality of the album.
You run all kinds of red lights except the ones on the street.
When you run out of exits you can always count sheep. |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 19:31:14
Hehehehe ... the pics crack me up
Wolves are some of the coolest and smartest animals around...(ok... there are millions of cool animals but wolves are cool)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/bangs.html
NOVA: How did wolves become extinct in America?
EB: Well, we deliberately got rid of them, as a society. A hundred years ago, our society placed very low value on all wildlife. We got rid of all the deer, the elk, the bison, the turkeys, you know, everything, in deference to other social objectives, primarily agriculture and settlement. And you can imagine being a grizzly bear or a black bear or a wolf or a coyote -- when there was nothing else to eat but livestock, that's what you ate. And as a consequence, settlers really hated wolves, grizzly bears, and other predatory animals and they deliberately tried to get rid of them all. The federal government actually sent out trappers who spent years hunting down the last wolf and killing it. The last wolves were actually killed by the U.S. Biological Survey, which is the agency that transformed itself into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that is now responsible for wolf restoration!
NOVA: Weren't biologists concerned about this extermination policy?
EB: Well, some people voiced concern, but they were a tiny minority. If you look at politics in the west -- it was nothing but farmers and ranchers and settlers who had this strong anti-predator attitude and who were just scraping by. With nothing else to eat, predators were taking their livestock. And so really the voices for restraint were overwhelmed by the vast majority of people who wanted to put all the Indians on Indian reservations, cut all the timber, mine all the dirt, and use all the water. The attitude was exploitative. You know, it's not good unless a person's using it immediately.
NOVA: How did the ecosystems of the Rocky Mountains adjust to the loss of wolves? Were there any indications that they were out of whack?
EB: Well, I think the most noticeable thing around Yellowstone Park was, every five or 10 years, you'd have these big winter die-outs. You'd have elk herds with very high numbers that contained a lot of old decrepit sick animals. And they would hang on and hang on. So when you got a bad winter, literally thousands of them would just die from starvation. The vegetation was being used by animals that were no longer reproductively active. Coyotes became more widespread. Coyotes and wolves kind of compete for space. As a consequence, I think foxes kind of took it in the shorts. They ended up being persecuted, so to speak, by coyotes.
NOVA: How were the wolves killed?
EB: Poison, and a lot of them were shot. The dens were found, the pups were hit over the head. And then the adults were shot around the den. But poison is probably what did away with most of the wolves. The old stories go that there wasn't a cowboy in the west worth his salt that wouldn't see a carcass and lace it with strychnine in the attempt to kill everything, I mean the foxes, the coyotes, the eagles, the wolves, the bears, everything. And this poisoning campaign, surprisingly, went on until the '70s. There were poison baits placed throughout the western United States -- even on public lands by federal agencies. I think it was President Nixon that actually did away with the 1080 baits.
NOVA: What shifted the tide?
EB: I would like to believe information and education. Scientific research on wolves didn't start until the '50s, and '60s, but people began to learn that these predators have a very important place in the ecosystem and that deer and elk are the magnificent creatures we admire because of the honing effect of predators over many thousands of years. I think there's a poem by Walt Whitman that says, "What whittle the antelope so swift but the wolf's tooth." And if you think about it, you know, elk are wily and strong and alert because of bears and mountain lions and wolves. So as people learned about that and thought about ecosystems and the environment in different ways and, as more and more people began to work in areas that weren't directly tied with livestock, people began to have a different viewpoint on predators.
EB: How closely related is the dog to the wolf?
NOVA: Basically if you drop your beagle in a blender and look at the DNA it's pretty indistinguishable from a wild wolf. All dogs came from wolves. And just through intensive breeding we made them look as different as they do -- all the different breeds. But your dog is a wolf. Many of the behaviors are exactly the same, just with slight modifications. You know when you scold your dog, how it just curls up and makes itself really small? When a wolf is threatened, it tries to make itself appear as meek as possible to keep other wolves from beating up on it. You know when you take a bone away from a dog, how it growls at you and its hackles go up? Wolves who want to appear threatening also try make themselves appear larger. The hair goes up. They stand more erect. You know when you teach your dog to not go out of the yard or not go in the flower bed -- and your dog learns that for the rest of its life? It's just something it won't do? That's the same reason that wolves never attack people. Behaviorally, they just don't recognize people as anything they want to screw with. And they live their entire lives without ever trying it.
NOVA: How are the new wolves doing?
EB: They're doing great. The wolves bred right away in Yellowstone, we had two litters born. There were no livestock depredations in '95. It went better than we ever expected it to. And the most amazing thing to me, and I'm still just kind of in awe of this, is that people were seeing wolves in the park. Thousands of people were getting to see and hear wolves howl, which I didn't think would happen. We had predicted that we would have to reintroduce wolves for four years. But after two years, the wolves have adapted so well that we don't have to do any more reintroductions. We're done. This year in the park there were 13 litters born to nine breeding groups. We actually had some breeding groups produce two litters, which is very unusual. In Idaho this year we had at least seven litters born and we think we may even have one or two more. The wolves are staying pretty much in wilderness areas, or on national forest lands, public lands. In Northwest Montana, which is our third recovery area, wolves started coming back naturally from Canada. A few dispersors showed up. The first den was 1986. And today we think we may have as many as 10 breeding pairs in Northwest Montana that are a result of just natural dispersal.
NOVA: You've lost some wolves.
EB: Yes.
NOVA: How?
EB: Well, there's a variety of causes. In Idaho we've only lost four wolves. One was killed by a mountain lion. One was illegally shot. One died accidentally. And then another one died of unknown causes -- suspected starvation, but we don't know for sure. In Yellowstone, we've had, I think, three wolves hit by cars on the road. We've had, I believe, four wolves illegally shot.
NOVA: Have you found out who shot the wolves and why?
EB: Two of the cases were solved in Yellowstone and two are still under investigation. One of them was a guy who shot accidentally. He turned himself in, received a small fine and that was the end of that. The other one, the guy skinned the wolf and tried to conceal what he did. He was convicted by a local jury, given six months incarceration and a $10,000 fine plus court costs, plus probation. So it was pretty severe.
NOVA: He just did it for fun?
EB: Yeah, he was one of those people that had a lot of trouble in their lives and just liked to shoot things for the fun of it. We've had several wolves killed by other wolves. Wolves do kill trespassing wolves in their territory. And we had to kill a wolf because it attacked livestock. Our plan right now is that if a wolf attacks livestock, it is moved one time. If it attacks livestock again, it's killed.
NOVA: Who has opposed the reintroduction of wolves and why?
EB: Well the livestock industry, particularly the sheep industry, has been the most outspoken opponent of wolf restoration. And the reason for that is obvious. I mean, sheep get killed by golden eagles, by mountain lions, by grizzly bears, black bears, feral dogs, coyote, you know, everything kills sheep. And so, of course, they don't want another predator feeding on their livestock. Cattle really don't get killed by much of anything -- maybe a grizzly bear now and then. But wolves occasionally will kill livestock. The studies that we've done and that other people have done indicate that wolves normally kill less than one-tenth of one percent of the livestock available to them. To date, in the past 15 years in the northern Rocky Mountains, we've lost an average of about five cattle and five sheep per year to wolf depredations. And there is a private program that compensates producers for their losses. But still livestock producers have the potential to be the most directly impacted in a negative way by wolves. And so they've been the main opponent to wolf restoration. The supporters, of course, are people that own businesses around Yellowstone or Central Idaho who are selling wolf t-shirts and other tourists services. We did an economic analysis and it indicated that wolves in the Yellowstone system would generate up to about $19 million dollars a year in extra economic activity. So economically it's a big winner, but not for livestock producers.
NOVA: Are livestock producers still fighting the reintroduction?
EB: Well, I think everybody has accepted the fact that wolves are here to stay. The reintroductions are over and done with. The wolves are doing great. There's been almost no problems with livestock, and when there have been livestock problems, we efficiently take care of the problem including killing the wolves, and they receive their money from the Defenders of Wildlife, a group that established a private compensation program within just a matter of weeks. So it's pretty hard to complain, really.
NOVA: What changes have you seen in the ecosystem since the wolves arrived?
EB: Wolves are a top-line predator. They have a major influence. It used to be that grizzly bears fed on elk carcasses only in the spring, when they became available. Now there's going to be a year-round supply of carcasses. So bears will have a more constant food supply throughout the year. Scavengers such as wolverines and bald eagles and golden eagles and magpies will also have carcasses throughout the year. And that's going to have an effect on the whole scavenger community. I predict that wolverines will become more common. One of the most interesting things to me is how, in the Lamarr Valley area of Yellowstone, the coyotes hang around the road now -- the idea being that they need to get next to people, where the wolves spend less time. And we've actually had several coyotes killed by wolves. So I think wolves are impacting coyotes. And I would predict that within a few short years you're going to see a lot more of the animals that coyotes preyed upon, such as the smaller weasels, foxes, those kind of things. It will take time for the whole system to readjust, but already you can see the signs of it starting to change
"I ain't goin to be what I ain't" |
| Kirk |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 17:44:27
I reckon you're right. I mean some people may turn into something that looks threatening, but deep down inside, they just want to make the most of their High School experience.
|
| kathryn |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 17:23:33
I cannot sit by and let this thread take an anti-wolf turn.
Exhibits A thru C:
Sweet little wolfie pup!
Anybody else just fall in love?
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
|
| Kirk |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 17:15:55
Totally. Don't trust wolves. They'll eat yo' face off
|
| fumanbru |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 15:43:43
wolves are cool. but they are psycho. remember little red riding hood. i'm sure they like monkeys too.
"I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 08/23/2005 : 10:22:06
Daisy, start a topic about wolves. Wolves are cool. I want one.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
|
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 08/22/2005 : 18:51:56
Hehehe I thought this post was about Wolves which are cool. Thanks for the tip about the band!
"I ain't goin to be what I ain't" |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 08/22/2005 : 08:08:05
I'm liking a few tracks off the new record, but the whole thing isn't coming together for me yet. Looking forward to seeing them October though.
and you are ill prepared to fight
living in a world of soft and white
in air conditioned battle zones
I pity you!
|
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 08/22/2005 : 06:03:11
My mate has been going on about various bands with animal related names recently. This was one fo them. I haven't gotten past laughing at him to actually bother to listen to them yet, but I will now that you have added your recommendation.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
|
| Kirk |
Posted - 08/21/2005 : 12:57:24
sounds pretty neat. It's got that retro-80s sound in which I haven't quite gotten into yet. |
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