Boxer The Horse, The Hoa Hoa's, Sloan, etc...

I've been listening to lots of enjoyable tuneage lately, but I haven't had a lot of time to blog about it. So while I've actually got a Saturday evening at home, why I don't I toss a few words your way about some of the stuff I've been digging lately.

Boxer The Horse are an instantly likeable band from Charlottetown, P.E.I. who released their debut EP The Late Show several months ago. There's something about that East Coast brand of swinging jangle pop that never seems to get old to me. The EP opens with Boneyard, a slice of 60's styled Brit invasion influenced pop with a chorus that is way too catchy to resist. Jeremy Gaudet's vocals scream Ray Davies, while the thump of the rhythm section reminds me of The Turtles or The Lovin' Spoonful. Jackson Leftfield opens with infectious harmonica and a slightly new wavy keyboard and Rocknroll Band has campy sixties sitcom written all over it. The band shows quite a bit of lyrical whimsy and musical depth in Lenny Was A Moonshiner and Snowflake; while Ohio! caps off the ep nicely, delving into a mildly Dylan-esque vibe, before sequeing into a modern day ragtime conclusion. The Late Show bears repeat listenings, as it never grows old and plays like an album by a band more seasoned than Boxer The Horse really should be at this early stage of the game.

Myspace: Boxer The Horse
Download: Jackson Leftfield mp3


Toronto's psych rock scene is exploding like never before, as is evidenced by the greatness of bands like Quest For Fire, The Disraelis, Invasions and Golden Hands Before God ... What's really great about all of those bands is the fact that I think the psychedelic name tag best suits them all, but you would definitely never mistake one for the other. The same can be said for The Hoa Hoa's (pronouced wah-wah's), also from Toronto. The debut CD is entitled Sonic Bloom, and all of the feelings that the album title conjures up is exactly representative of the bands sound. Like The Disraelis, they are signed to the Optical Sounds label, which clearly specializes in linking the worlds of shoegaze and psych-rock together, and doing so extremely successfully too, I might add. An example of the convincing sound that they've created can be illustrated in the fact that I had The List blaring from my stereo, and my wife asked if I was listening to Joy Division. How many bands these days are trying desperately to master that sound? And how many are actually successful? Exactly. The Hoa Hoa's, on the other hand, have nailed it. Their style never comes across forced, but comfortable; and the vocals' near monotone presentation is one of confidence, not schtick. Sonic Bloom offers forth a band that is destined for greatness, although they sound as if they generally don't care. I wish I was that naturally cool.

Myspace: The Hoa Hoa's
Download: The List mp3


Finally, I've been meaning to talk about Sloan's 11the album for several months now but I was really hoping that Parallel Play would grow on me a little bit more than it has. As you can tell by the title of my blog, Sloan is easily one of my favourite artists of all time, and they are definitely my favourite Canadian act. They've never released a bad album, and this one is certainly better than average. However, I feel that it doesn't quite reach the heights of their last release, Never Hear The End Of It. That album had 30 songs, this one has a much more manageable 13, but oddly enough, I would say that this shorter one actually contains more filler than their last epic did. Every member contributes 3 songs each, except for Andrew, who gives us 4. I think that this is great since I feel that his songs are by far the greatest and most interesting. His Dylan-esque Down In The Basement just may be the best song he's ever written, and I also enjoy his reggae-fied album closer Too Many. Also, contrary to the flames on the Sloan message board, I think Emergency 911 is an awesome punk song, most likely a show stopper when played live. None of Patrick's song really inspire me much this time around, but I would say the Dandy Warhol attempt of Burn For It is pretty good. Jay has always been the most consistent one, and his songs are all good, even if they all follow a certain pop pattern that gets a bit predictable. My favourite of his would be Witch's Wand. As far as Chris goes, he's got some hits and some misses, which is unfortunate considering the fact that NHTEOI contained some of his sharpest lyrics to date. I'm Not A Kid Anymore is the best of the Chris penned songs, being the hookiest and most anthemic of the bunch.

Myspace: Sloan
Download: I'm Not A Kid Anymore mp3