Ruzan Orkestar – “A Dead Man’s Last Words”

“Holy s#%@, they do sound like Godspeed You!” I’m pretty sure those were the words that spilled out of my mouth when I first listened to the songs of Toronto’s Ruzan Orkestar. This statement was, of course, quickly followed by me posting the link to the band’s MySpace on friends’ Facebook walls, with the excitement-conveying caption, “Hey, I think I found the next…”. While the band – Egin Kongoli, Cydney Clark, Stefan Ho, Patricia Auchterlonie, and Gabriel P – certainly wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to their love of the now-defunct Montreal outfit, their music is a melting pot of sounds. Their songs – which tend to average the nine minute plus mark – effortlessly transition between noisy punk breakdowns and beautiful, quieter instrumental passages, sometimes multiple times in the same song. I have to give full credit for finding out about this band to Daps Duo (Dan and April from Hooded Fang), who recently announced that Ruzan Orkestar would be joining Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija & Jeff, Santa Guerilla, Sean Nicholas Savage and The Miles in the next edition of their all-ages shows on January 16th (Facebook event details here). If you haven’t been able to one of the Daps shows yet, then I’d advise you go – they’re a lot of fun, and offer those who are underage (and those of us who are of age too!), and can’t get into bars and certain music venues, the chance to see really great live music.

Rockets Red Glare – “Backwards Masking”

In case you’ve been living under a musical rock the past week, you’ve no doubt heard about the stellar list of bands scheduled to play the 500th edition of Toronto’s long-running music series Wavelength, which will be spread over four nights in February. That list includes Holy Fuck, Constantines, Diamond Rings, The Russian Futurists, Laura Barrett, Bruce Peninsula, Kids On TV, and a reunion by The Bicycles, among others. Among the names that I didn’t recognize, one reunion stood out as being highly-anticipated by fans that had posted on the event’s Facebook wall: Rockets Red Glare. So I thought I’d give ‘em a listen, and it turns out the fuss is justified. According to Wikipedia, “Rockets Red Glare formed in the winter of 1999 following the demise of hardcore band Blake and instrumental trio Blue Light Blockade. Based in Canada this three piece band toured Canada extensively and also played in North America, gaining critical praise for their powerful and atmospheric live performances. Releasing two full length albums and a two track 7-inch they specialised in playing a dense, meandering and sometimes explosive brand of post punk, taking influences from dirgecore bands such as Cerberus Shoal and Neurosis. Many Canadian and American bands today cite Rockets Red Glare as an influence on their music.” Here’s what I can tell you myself: I’ve been watching YouTube videos of these guys (including this one, shot at Sneaky Dee’s in ’03) recently, and it looks like they put on one hell of a show (drummer David “Gus” Weinkauf is a powerhouse on the kit).

Japandroids – “Racer X (Daytrotter Live Session)”

For those of you clamoring for new material from Vancouver’s Japandroids, the folks over at Daytrotter have you covered. The duo of Brian King and David Prowse recently stopped by Daytrotter’s studio in Little Rock, Illinois, to give a sneak preview off their upcoming 7-inch. “Racer X” is set to be the B-side, and it is a cover of a 1984 tune by American punk band Big Black, which was fronted by Steve Albini. There’s certainly nothing here to suggest that the band is slowing down anytime soon – this song gallops at a breakneck pace, with crashing drums, almost metal-sounding guitar hooks, and some seriously sinister-sounding vocals. It reminds me a lot of the band’s pre-Post-Nothing (their debut album which put them on everyone’s radar) material, especially “Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown” and “Couture Suicide”, both excellent songs. Japandroids already have a pretty busy year lined up. At the end of the month they embark on a pretty extensive European tour, coming back in March to play this year’s SXSW.

The xx – “Islands (Nosaj Thing)”

Finally, a remix of a song by everyone’s favourite ’09 buzz band from London that doesn’t completely suck. Los Angeles-based Nosaj Thing, aka Jason Chung, has remixed everyone from Drake to HEALTH, and his debut full-length Drift was one of the best albums you never heard last year. Listen to his remix, a deep cut from The xx’s debut album, here (via Gorilla vs. Bear).

Modest Mouse – “King Rat”

By now, everybody has pretty much wrapped up their year end and decade end best-of music lists. Permit me to allow one more though: most underrated songs of 2009. These are songs that, in an alternate universe, everyone would know about and they would get massive radio and television airplay. One such song that I think fits into this category, and a song that I’ve been listening to recently, is Modest Mouse’s “King Rat”. Featured on this year’s stellar No One’s First, And You’re Next, the EP collected new songs, B-sides and previously unreleased material from the band, including this little-heard gem. While it briefly got some attention earlier in the year, thanks to a truly bizarre music video directed by the late actor Heath Ledger, the song quickly faded from the public’s conscious afterwards. And here’s why: nowhere nearly as catchy, immediate or radio-friendly as “Float On” or anything on the band’s last full-length effort, We Were Dead Even Before The Ship Sank, “King Rat” has more in common with songs from older Modest Mouse albums. This song feels like it could be a lost outtake from the Isaac Brock & Co.’s gritty The Lonesome Crowded West, or even the more sonically-adventurous The Moon & Antarctica (in my opinion, the band’s best album, and one of the best albums of the decade). It doesn’t follow a typical verse-chorus-verse structure; instead it piles on horns, tempo changes, and Brock’s trademark pessimistic barking. Required listening if you are a fan of the band, or even if you aren’t.

Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – “Empire State Of Mind (Rich Aucoin Remix)”
Rich Aucoin – “Push (Ryan Hemsworth Remix)”

You never know where Nova Scotian experimental-pop mastermind Rich Aucoin might show up next. Opening up for Girl Talk at the Halifax Pop Explosion? Been there, done that. Appearing as a roller skater in fake movie trailers by local Halifax comedy troupes? Yep – watch this if you don’t believe me. Remixing one of the biggest hip-hop singles of the year? Check…wait, what? As Aucoin himself explains it, “I noticed that a new song of mine has the same chord progression as Jay-Z’s brilliant Moments-sampled new track. So I upped the BPM of the original from 86.65BPM to 105BPM and added some more samples; taking Dan Deacon’s “Slow With Horns” and speeding it up considerably and pitching it a few cents and also, for the second verse, I noticed “Empire State” is in F#m which is the same key as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” so I took the otherwise minor sounding bassline from “Billie Jean” and put it under the feel-good majors of “Empire State”. I added bass, organs, vocoder, and my voice and had some friends help with the gang vocals for the chorus and I re-sampled the drums from “Empire” to make a new beat out of its sampled drums.” How’s that for getting technical? The result is a textbook example of a not-so-textbook remix, the kind that I described a few weeks ago, in my roundup of the year’s best remixes. The second track is a remix of Aucoin’s “Push” by Haligonian artist Ryan Hemsworth, that throws in a Goonies sample, so how can you say no to that? (both remixes via Herohill). You can catch Aucoin performing his own material at the Horseshoe on January 30th, appearing alongside Toronto’s Lioness and Everything All The Time, in the first No Shame show of 2010.

K-Os feat. Nelly Furtado & Saukrates – “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman”

Since when did Natalie Portman become the most sought-after actress in Hollywood? First we heard her rapping alongside the guys from The Lonely Island, with hilarious results (“I never said I was a role model”). Next, she (and her dog Whiz) was a guest on this year’s best fake Web talk-show, Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifinakis, hosted by the ever-jovial Galifinakis. This time around, Portman serves as the muse for none other than Canadian rapper K-Os, who gets a little help on this one from songbird Nelly Furtado (where have you been girl?) and Toronto rapper Saukrates. The third single from K-Os’ latest album, Yes!, this track is getting plenty of love from CBC Radio 3 lately. And for good reason too – for a song with such downhearted lyrics (sample line: “I’ve been on the run, this shadow weighs a ton”), “Natalie Portman” is infectiously catchy, thanks largely to a beat that samples from this song, and K-Os’ typically-deft rhymes (“Since the age of seventeen/I’ve been taking apart microphones/You’ve been taking apart men you’ve blown/With glowing skeleton bones”).

Maluca – “El Tigeraso”

When it comes time to pick which artist(s) to draw inspiration from – whether it be musically, stylistically, politically, etc. – you can certainly do worse than M.I.A.. Not entirely all that different from the way Brittney Spears influenced a generation of bleached-blonde, MTV-whoring poptarts, the Sri Lankan-born, London-raised singer can lay claim to having at least a few students of her globetrotting sound. Recently the number of female singers that have listened to Arular and Kala more than their fare share of times have produced mixed results. On one hand, you have singers like like Philadelphia’s sex-crazed Amanda Blank or Baltimore’s Rye Rye, both of whom offer no real substance other than making guilty pleasure club filler. Once in awhile though, we get singers like Brooklyn’s Santigold, who outgrow their teachers (to use the geeky, but apt metaphor, it’s kind of like a Yoda/Luke Skywalker type-deal), and come into their own as artists. It’s hard to say yet what side of that line the 27-year-old, New York City singer (born Natalie Yepez to Dominican parents) will fall on, but suffice to say, “El Tigeraso” is some catchy-ass shit. A delicious slice of Diplo-produced electro-pop with elements of hip-hop, samba and merengue, “El Tigeraso” (and its accompanying video), sees singer flaunting and teasing, leading boys around her bodega like the Pied Piper. One to watch this year for sure.

Mr. Scruff – Keep It Unreal (mix)

Ever since it was formed in 1993, London-based independent record label Ninja Tunes has been a label to watch when it comes to breaking new artists and introducing new musical trends. Everyone from British dubstep hit-makers (The Bug), to American underground rappers (Spank Rock), to some of Montreal’s finest deejays (Kid Koala and Ghislain Poirier), all started out on the label. And Mr. Scruff – whose real name is Andy Carthy – has been with Ninja Tunes pretty much from the beginning as a producer. When he isn’t producing, he’s DJing all around the world, and making mixes like the ones that appear on his MySpace. I don’t recognize any of the tracks, but the British DJ seamlessly transitions between hip-hop, dubstep, jazz, some obscure samples about marine life, among other genres, creating a seemingly effortless twenty-one-minute mix that is soulful and varied. Plus, the man has his own line of tea. How can you say no to that? Mr. Scruff will DJing at Wrongbar on January 15th – tickets are $15 and you can get them at your friendly neighbourhood record shop.

South Rakkas Crew – The Stimulus Package (mix)

Two words: party music. Get this new mix, from the city-trotting South Rakkas Crew, via the Mad Decent website
here.