BDK Update - New Logo!

I've uploaded a snazzy new logo courtesy of Artist/Drummer Erin Passmore from Regina, Saskatchewan. She plays in an awesome band called Rah Rah who you should probably go see because they are awesome. They stayed at my house and beat Super Mario Galaxy in one day, which is impressive.

For those who read this on facebook and don't bother to go to the actual blog here is what it looks like:



it looks much better on the actual Blog, trust me.

Special thanks to Pineau for the Photoshop skillz.

Q And Not U - No Kill Beep Beep

People still talk about the time Q And Not U played in Halifax (2003 I believe?). There have been many imitations but rarely does a math rock band blend so many musical elements into such catchy memorable parts. John Davis had so much talent as a drummer he could easily find company with guys like Matt Cameron, Brendan Canty or Sebastien Grainger.

Davis does cool triplet time stretching in Fever Sleeves, cool fast disco stuff in Hooray For Humans, touches on So-Cal style drumming on We Heart Our Hive. His rhythms are prominent but not boisterous, and he has an awesome kick drum foot, which he uses to sometimes slip in little doubles before his snare hits, which I like.

I think we get to hear more of his talent on their next release, Different Damage, but he has more energy on No Kill Beep Beep. Math rock is a genre that everyone enjoys playing, but it's hard to transfer it properly to a record and make it sound palatable. Davis has perfected the drumming approach to the genre, he keeps his energy up but his volumes at mid range so that it's not all washy with cymbals. I like that, because as hard as I try, I can't do it.

Audio/Visual Evidence: I couldn't find any live videos of them playing songs from this record, so here is some live footage of other songs.

Laakso - I Miss You, I'm Pregnant

I'll be fairly slack on the posts for the holidays. It's Christmas party season and I work in a restaurant. I'm sure you all come here every day frantically clicking reload in anticipation of an updated post so you can be the coveted first reader of it (like Perez Hilton), but you're going to have to be patient.

Someone suggested Lars Skoglund to me after I posted my blog on one of the message boards I frequent and I've spent the last week or so listening to his catalog. I listened to I Miss You I'm Pregnant, Laakso's debut album first, and it still stands out as my favorite. It's got a cool lo-fi sound but it's extremely dense with stuff like horns and synthesizers and I like it. The first track, Fight The Fight is a great opener, and Skoglund does this cool thing where he plays a straight closed high hat disco beat (buried pretty low in the mix) and comes in full force halfway through along with these huge horns.

Lars, along with the album in general, is much stronger when things are rocking. Songs like Clear and Aussie Girl, which picks up towards the end, have some cool mid tempo patterns. Rock beats, shuffles, 3/4 time, Skoglund keeps it loose but focused and steady most of the time and he keeps things from sounding too messy to be good. He even manages to make the over-used brush/snare train-a-chuggin rhythm sound perfectly in place on Sensation At Five, which is not an easy task.

It's nice to hear a drummer named Lars play in a way that compliments things like structure, melody, songwriting and dynamic and not just caveman pound his way through obvious patterns sped up to cover up his awful time.

Whoa. Where did that come from.

Audio/Visual Evidence* : Aussie Girl, Demon

*It should be noted that the singer in this band looks like an even wussier version of that guy from AFI.**

**After seeing that picture, no. No he doesn't.

Doves - Kingdom of Rust

Andy Williams of Doves is in a dicey position. His band has great arrangements and dynamics, but main vocalist Jimi Goodwin has a tendency to sound like Chris Martin from Coldplay. If the rest of the band followed suit, they would just get lumped in with all those other Coldplay ripoffs (Mobile, Pilate, etc..) and after a flash in the pan they would disappear from everyone's memory. Luckily for them, they have a diverse bunch of songs, and even luckier for them Andy Williams knows what he's doing, and never has to fall back onto the Coldplay beat (you know, DAT de de DAT de de DAT de DAT de de DAT de de).

On The Outsiders Andy keeps things driving and minimal on with a krautrock beat that never strays from the high hat and kick pattern until the very end where he brings in the ride for a big finish. The Great Denier has some cool half time stuff with the kick and snare, but with double time high hats to drive the tempo. His big show comes with the end of 10:03 when he comes out of a snare roll into this dark thunderous tom pattern and then rocks the fuck out on his cymbals while his kick and snare follow the bass. It kind of reminds me of the last track on Sigur Ros's (), but it's about 1/4 the length and way less murky. The drums play a big part in separating Kingdom of Rust from the rest of modern Brit pop and that's a good thing, because we sure as hell don't need another Coldplay.

Audio/Visual Evidence : 10:03, The Outsiders