Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Independents' Day

A red letter day for my kind of music. The day after the Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Patrick Watson (the man and the band), Stars' In Our Bedroom after the War and The Weakerthans' Reunion Tour sent my musical sensibilities aflutter.

Stars reach a Smiths-sonic level of synth-pop earnestness as male vocalist Torquil managed to channel Morrissey and Beautiful South on a couple occasions. There was a brief second when I thought they were doing a cover of "Bigmouth Strikes Again". It seems that his voice became showcased more than siren Amy Milan's; still, no one does a better lovelorn duet than they.

My dear Antarctic rockers from Winnipeg, met my high expectations on all counts (if you exclude the spoken word tribute to Gump Worsley - thankfully it's only a couple minutes long). Who else but John K. Samson can lead us through the soul searching introspection of a bus driver, while melodically incorporating the lexicon of curling or the feral wondering of a recurring cat?

And such is the state of my aural fixation.

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