Lissie’s “Little Lovin” managed to win my heart on hype machine late last year, but it hasn’t been until more recently that bloggers and other media folk have really taken notice and made a point to write on her. Maybe it’s the mid-February blues I’m feeling, but her music is the perfect fix for one who is longing for summer and is just the thing that inspired this post. Tying nostalgia and hopefulness together with its classic chord progressions and laidback vocals, Lissie’s music will have you lazing in the sun spot of your apartment. Last year saw the release of a five song EP entitled “Why You Runnin’”. Sunday Times said it best by comparing her to “…Jesca Hoop or Neko Case and the commercially copper-bottomed country-rock lilt of Sheryl Crow and solo Stevie Nicks…”

Lissie recently opened for City and Colour with many fans coming to see her as opposed to Dallas Green, and she did not disappoint. Her sound obviously speaks to a wide audience – having already been picked up by TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Dollhouse, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her music crop up in a whole host of those indie-esque awkward adolescence films starring Michael Cera and Zooey Deschanel. On the other hand, her sound maintains a raw and genuine essence, captured by her ‘influences’ (as posted on her MySpace page) of pie, cigarettes, porches, corn hole and waiting in line.

“Little Lovin” is figuratively and literally a knee-slapping good time (listen to the last thirty seconds of this song and you’ll know what I mean). “Everywhere I Go” features vocals with contrasting sections of longer drawn out sections and then staccato bits on certain lyrics. “Wedding Bells” has a really pretty percussion achieved by echoing finger snapping and complemented by some Camera Obscura type oohs and ahs. Overall, her songs fit together with themes of acoustic guitar strumming, ethereal reverb, and a southern feel hailing from Mississippi. Look for the full album circa April this year.

Lissie – Little Lovin’

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Lissie – Everywhere I Go

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Lissie – Wedding Bells

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I have to say I am terribly embarrassed about the dearth of soundunheard posts over the last many months. Not to delve too much into the nitty gritty… but it has been somewhat of a transitional period for me and some of the other writers. In the mean time I have seen a lot of this country, and very little internet. I have settled, am returning to my regular listening habits and plan to get the site going again, this time from the other side of the country.

In the mean time, here is a review I wrote for another great – more up-to-date and widely read – site, of Toronto-based electro-indie-rock duo Woodhands.

Woodhands – Dissembler

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Woodhands – Coolchazine

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Woodhands – I should have gone with my friends

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Lollapalooza emailed the complete festival schedule to its mailing list subscribers today, and although Perry has once again put together what looks like it will be a great festival, I want to bring your attention to another festival happening the same weekend, August 7th-9th. Now in it’s eleventh year the Wolfe Island Music Festival will once again feature festival favourites and big names like Holy Fuck, and the usual smattering of the local Kingston scene with acts like P.S. I Love You, The Rural Alberta Advantage who we’ve talked about before and a personal favourite of mine Ohbijou.

So if you’re low on funds, don’t want to drive the twelve hours from Toronto, or like me currently don’t have a passport, why not come down and camp on a beutiful rural island where lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence seaway. It’s only a twenty minute free ferry-ride from downtown Kingston. This is the music festival equivalent of giving up the fast pace of the city for some relaxation in the country; you won’t have to rush between the stages (there’s only one), so you won’t miss a beat. Plus I plan to bring lots of wine to share.

Here’s a sampling of the festival’s performers to listen to while you plan your trip to the nation’s first capital:

Ohbijou – Black Ice from the recently released Beacons LP

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Woodhands – I Wasn’t Made for Fighting

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PS I Love You – 2012

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Full lineup after the jump…

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Angus and Julia Stone are a brother/sister group from the sunny northern suburbs of Sydney.  Originally they started out as separate artists who would play back up for each other at open mic nights.  From that humble background Angus and Julia slowly gained momentum and caught the attention of the alternative media in Australia and then the UK.  Using this momentum the recorded the album “A Book Like This” and released it in Australia in September 2007 and then in the UK in March 2008.

One of the things that make this duo unique is they both write songs independently of one another.  Because of this you get a wonderful variety in the album with songs written from different perspectives but with threads of common experiences holding it together.  What you end up with is a very listenable album that neither becomes predictable nor strays far from its roots.  This album plays like a summers day in a hammock with the surf breaking nearby.

The album was only recently released in North America (3rd March 2009) on Nettwerk.  Currently Angus and Julia are touring through the United States before they head back into the studio and I think we all should be holding our collective breaths to see what they release next.

Angus and Julia Stone (MySpace)

Recently I managed to get my hands on Hometowns by The Rural Alberta Advantage and it has been on high rotation ever since.So when I was perusing the interweb and found an article describing a band I had never heard of before as a cross between the RAA and The Postal Service (another one of my all time favorites) I just had to check it out.My efforts were rewarded with a wonderful little jem of an EP called frankencottage by the Dark Mean.

Frankencottage – Dark Mean

Frankencottage – Dark Mean

Dark Mean are a couple of high school friends who initially scored a play for a local artist Rebecca Nada-Rajah and in 2008 “The Constant K Determines the Fate of the Universe” debuted to excellent reviews. This spurred the band into sitting down and recording the following four songs at Vibewrangler in Hamilton.

While the similarities between the RAA and TPS may be a bit overplayed, there is little doubt that this band has a certain je ne sais quoi and are worth keeping an eye on.

They will be touring Southern Ontario extensively this summer and if they are in your neck of the woods make sure to check them out. Also their EP is available from their website so check it out.

PS, sorry this post took so long, lets never fight again…

At the tender ages of 18 and 15, sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg (First Aid Kit) are an uber-talent to be reckoned with. Having released their debut EP “Druken Trees” last April (a cause celebre in itself), these Swedish young-uns are planning a full album for this September. Although relatively fresh artists, they already seem to have come into their own with music that really sticks to your gut. A lot of that I believe has to do with the vocals. The Soderberg sisters have a deliciously complex “pinot noir” sound – summer berries, barnyard aromas and a long finish. The lyrics and melodies also have a maturity beyond their years. You’re Not Coming Home Tonight is a ballad in the truest sense with tegan-and-sarah-esque harmonies done better. And their cover of Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song is strikingly honest. In contrast to conjuring images of puffy sleeved musicians playing Greensleeves (sorry Fleet Foxes…it’s just that song), First Aid Kit’s version has an interesting almost mysterious quality with stringier guitar, a multitude of crescendos and live-time layered vocals that give a richer quality than would be expected of two voices. This song makes me want to go camping, and I hate camping.

Enjoy!

First Aid Kit – You’re Not Coming Home Tonight

First Aid Kit – Cover of Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song (YouTube)

I’m on the road till this thing drops. The truth is, no one raps about slinging coke like Clipse, and this has to be one of the most hotly and highly anticipated Hip Hop albums of the year. In a time when you can never be too sure what genre your favourite rapper’s new album is going to be (see: Wayne does Axl-meets-Alien or Kanye does Andre 3k meets Thom Yorke meets WTF), you can always count on the Clipse to continue rapping about cocaine, and street stuffs …

The new record will feature production by Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, The Hitmen, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Dame Grease, DJ Khalil, long time collaborators The Neptunes, and the legen (wait for it) dary, Rick Rubin.

This morning, the first cut from the album, called “Kinda Like a Big Deal” was released on their blog. It’s a very big deal. Featuring Kanye West, getting his College Dropout on (and by that I mean rapping very well), the beat is harder, and more filled-out than anything you would’ve heard the twins rap on in recent history – and while it’s not a gritty throwback to “Trill” or “Keys Open Doors”, it’s a banger which will definitely resonate in the places it’s meant to – bbq cookouts in Philly and basement parties at your baby mamazeses.

Clipse – Kinda Like a Big Deal (feat. Kanye West)

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San Cristobal De Las Casas, Mexico

I’ve been mind-numbingly bored with the mundane nature of working life recently. I’ve also come to the conclusion that countless others reach within months of getting their first ‘big kid job’: the only thing that helps the days pass is planning a vacation…. And so I planned, ferociously, day in and day out, with my two best friends. The plan was to go to Mexico City in search of our friend Luis Carlos Armando Manzanilla Priego Ramos (yes that’s one person). With Luis as a our spiritual (read: Mexican) guide, we would seek escape from our subfusc concrete realities back home.

Thank you Luis, you gave us tacos, jungles, lagoons, villages, ruins and lomas like we could have never dreamed of. Best 10 days of my post-post-academic-life.

As any good trip should have, this one has a soundtrack. So in this spirit, I bring you a mixtape full of happys and sads, mind-fucks and beauty, new and (really)old World Music and North-American trash: a pastiche of my life on April 4th to April 14th, 2k9.

Hope you enjoy. El gusto es mio.

Spring: From Here We Go Subfusc (zSHARE)

Tracklist after the break…

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After months of searching for something that I could play on repeat for hours, I found Brazil’s Copacabana Club. Because they are from Brazil, here comes the CSS comparison: they are like CSS & the Twelves on a Beach with the cool drink of your choice. The other reason why I compare them to CSS is how the lead singer over enunciates ending consonants; being from Toronto, it seems rather unusual. If like you what you hear in below, there is more from where that came from on their MySpace page, where they are nice enough to link their EP (4 tracks and 2 remixes).

Copacabana Club – Just Do It from Banzai Studio on Vimeo.

Copacabana Club – Just Do It

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Copacabana Club – Just Do It (Boss in Drama remix)

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As I’ve previously alluded to, I usually try to avoid lifting news for soundUNheard directly from sites like Pitchfork, but that’s not to say I don’t check up on them frequently (ok, religiously). Also if you’ve been reading for a while, you might have guessed that a band like Pearl Jam (for the uninitiated, they’re those guys up top there) is not our usual cup of tea. But something that Pearl Jam and Pitchfork, albeit to a much lesser degree, have in common is the way people who read this and other blogs might roll their eyes if you try to inject either one into serious musical conversation. The former is either simply too old, or has too recently damaged their credibility. The latter evokes the same response, when mentioned, as discovering some one’s entire wardrobe is actually a combination of Urban Outfitters and American Apparel: they didn’t actually just trans-locate from the streets of Brooklyn.

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