Up to my ears in Indie music Pt. 2

While BSS was (arguably) the greatest Canadian band of 2001-2003, 2004 is the year of Arcade Fire. Their 2004 release "Funeral" has been universally acclaimed as the most asskicking record of the year by all and sundry, the Arcade Fire have helped put Montreal on the map as the home of all things good and great in music today, including a February 6th, 2005 article in the New York Times declaring Montreal the new Seattle/Athens/Austin/(insert other hot and happening scene here) and, as I just saw today, they got the front cover of Time Magazine (Canadian edition, at least). As Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content so aptly puts it, the "Bombastic, anthemic, fiercely emotional (and yet not emo in the slightest), this is a seriously intense and ecstatic record celebrating the joys and sorrows of life and death." So there you have it. Go out and give this album a listen so you can say, 'I was into them long before they won the Juno' (which I will tomorrow - be seriously dumbfounded if they don't, even though AC Newman, Stars and Feist [see below] and other great bands are also nominated).

My next two purchases can both be described sultry and just a touch sassy. I have just begun digesting these albums so I don't have a great deal to say about them at the moment but I will give you a quick glimpse. First, on the Arts and Crafts label, along with Stars and BSS (she sang and collaborated on BSS's 'You Forgot it in People") is Feist, with her album "Let it Die". As I said, I am pretty new to the album so I will leave it up to the Toronto Star to describe it. They state that on the album, "convention is skewered in a collection of songs that brew elements of disco, jazz, hip hop, torch singing and pop into a seamless whole." An interesting note about Leslie Feist is that she has boycotted McDonald's for the past 15 years and recently turned down their offer to pay her for the rights to use the song "Mushaboom" in a marketing campaign.