A Themed Mp3 Trilogy: Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Handsome Furs

Theme: Wolf Parade side projects.


Sunset Rubdown


Photo by David Horvitz

Earlier this week I picked up a copy of Sunset Rubdown‘s 2006 album, Shut Up I Am Dreaming. I had never listened to it before, but now I am totally obsessed with it. Then yesterday the Interwebs surprised me with a ton of Sunset Rubdown news including a tour, a new album called Dragonslayer coming out June 23, and even a single from it got released. From the sounds of it, I think this new album is going to be yet another winner from my favourite Spencer Krug band:

Sunset Rubdown : Idiot Heart

Sunset Rubdown website




Swan Lake

Spencer Krug’s supergroup team-up with Dan Bejar (New Pornographers, Destroyer) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach) seems to have fallen victim to the sophomore slump. Where Beast Moans found their individual talent’s amplifying one another into something greater than the sum of its parts, Enemy Mine feels more like a collection of b-sides. The Bejar songs are particularly off the mark. But that’s not to say that there isn’t still some really great parts on this album, because even a mediocre release from artists of such overwhelming aptitude has its moments. One of which is the jam at the end of this short Krug piece:

Swan Lake : Settle On Your Skin

Buy Enemy Mine

Swan Lake Myspace




Handsome Furs

Handsome Furs is a duo comprised of husband Dan Boeckner and wife Alexei Perry. Their second album, Face Control, is my first entry point into this project and the more I listen to it the more I dig it. Combining indie rock with synthetic dance beats can lead to extremely varied results, but here it seems to work rather nicely. Fellow Wolf Parader Arlen Thompson recorded and mixed the album at Mount Zoomer. Here’s a taste:

Handsome Furs : I’m Confused

Buy Face Control

Handsome Furs myspace

Sugarkane’s Top 50 Albums of 2006

2006 was a great year for me, and the main reasons are mostly related to music. I decided to do this list in December because i wanted to learn about as much music as possible, and what I thought would take a few days ended up taking almost 2 months, but it was extremely educational for me and i feel very good about this list. There were so many albums that I would like to give props to and cutting it down to 50 was hard. On a technical note, I went by U.S. release date with the exception of Laura’s Radio Swan Is Down (It was released in Australia over a year ago and has no U.S. release date). Feel free to blast it:

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