A Canadian Hottness Returns: Clues
Photo by Yannick Grandmont
Lately I had been pondering about where the best music this decade, and especially recently, had been coming from internationally. For most of the history of pop music, the UK has been the dominant country in producing the new hits. But around the time Nirvana and Seattle blew up in the ’90s, the tide began to turn, although even that decade still saw plenty of great acts spring up from the UK (i.e. Radiohead) to compete. Now as this decade begins to close, it is hard not to agree that while the US’s dominance may be waning in terms of economic power and such, we have become the empire of new quality music. There is still plenty of good new music coming from the UK worth checking out, but I wouldn’t even put them in the #2 spot anymore. America’s hegemonic musical dominance is now being challenged right across the border to our north, as Canada has become second in the world now when it comes to producing stellar tunes.
Certainly The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene are owed a lot to helping give Canada the cred they needed to become our partners in this indie music revolution, but a little, now defunct band named The Unicorns may be the most important band in Canada’s ascension to indie greatness. Unfortunately, the flash of brilliance that was The Unicorns didn’t last very long and the band broke up shortly after releasing their instant classic Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? Nick Thorburn and Jamie Thompson (briefly) went on to start Islands and Thorburn has enjoyed success from that as well as plenty of other side projects, but there was another genius in that band that I hadn’t heard anything from until a few weeks ago. The new self-titled debut album from Clues sees Alden Penner return from obscurity again, and this time he is joined by a new cast including Brendan Reed, who happened leave his older band, The Arcade Fire, just in time to miss their meteoric rise to fame and glory with Funeral.
Whether you were a Unicorns fan or not, there is a lot to love on this new Clues album. I put it up there on the same level as the new releases from veterans like Grizzly Bear, Sonic Youth, Dirty Projectors, and St. Vincent as far as being one of the best records to come out in this Spring/Summer release season. Certainly those familiar with Penner’s previous work are going to hear obvious connections, but Clues is much more than Unicorns 2.0. It seems he has been able to mature as a songwriter without completely growing up and abandoning the magic that made him a superstar in the first place.
So I urge you to jump on the bandwagon with me now, and don’t forget that Clues will be at the Drunken Unicorn June 12th.
Video for “Haarp”:
“Remember Severed Head”:
“Perfect Fit”:
Bonus, here is some Unicorns jams:
“I Was Born (A Unicorn)”:
“Jellybones”:
“Les On”:
- Posted by Davy Minor on May 25, 2009 at 5:18 pm
