Illinoize: a remixtape imagining a hip hop world where Sufjan Stevens is the sought-out producer. Where he has the magic formula to let Brother Ali talk his shit funkier and make the dress look nice on Gift of Gab. Yet Montreal-based producer Tor is the true Socrates behind Illinoize, marrying Sufjan with the kings of hip hop to create a rich and surprisingly natural mix, and available for free download at Illinoize, we’re all richer for it.

1. Star of Wonder/None Shall Pass (ft. Aesop Rock)
2. Dumb I Sound/ATLiens (ft. Outkast)
3. John Wayne Gacy Jr./Specialize (ft. Pete Rock & C L Smooth)
4. The Tallest Man/I Like It (ft. Grand Puba)
5. Kill/Any Type of Way (ft. Big Daddy Kane & DJ Premier) 
6. Night Zombies/Talking My Shit (ft. Brother Ali)
7. The Dress Looks Nice On You/Make You Feel That Way (ft. Gift of Gab)

Even though the Apple Crisp Music Fest is a ways away (March 18th), if you were at the Grad Club on Friday night, you were one lucky enough to experience some premature crispiness straight out of the chilly Niagara region. Performing just before David Martel (MySpace) and The Wooden Sky, Matt Sajn set an evening precedent of lush musical prettiness, prettiness that reminds us that music is most universal when it’s downright specific. And Matt makes no excuses: he’s operatically in love with Fenwick, Ontario. Experience more of this haggard love affair here, or drop by ENGL386 every other Thursday – he’s the one copying off my quiz while I pretend not to notice. There’ll be a song about it someday. -Robyn

I first saw The Wooden Sky last semster opening for The Acorn at The Grad Club, along with a Toronto favourite of mine, Ohbijou. Even as an opener The Wooden Sky, formerly Friday Morning’s Regret, easily outshone my favourite Ohbijou numbers and supposed heavy-hitters, The Acorn. But they didn’t do it by out-muscling them, after all the latter rock a lot harder and the former pack some breathtaking string arrangements. The Wooden Sky simply commanded you to listen closely, with stripped down ballads where down-tempo melodies were perfectly matched to the tragedy of lead singer Gavin Gardener’s lyrics and the power of his voice. Now months later in March, headlining the show, they drew a larger, and more attentive crowd than their former tour-mates. It seems that their following is finally picking up, perhaps not with a lot of speed, but with a kind of unstoppable momentum reminiscent of the force of the material on When Lost at Sea. These guys might not ever be Indie starlets, but with the quality of their songwriting they are sure to at least become a Canadian favourite. -Justin

From the album When Lost at Sea: The Wooden Sky – The Wooden Sky

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The Wooden Sky – This Bird Has Flown

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Photos courtesy of Jess Swift and Robyn:

Today marks a significant moment in the rapid decay of my childhood. My first crush, the man responsible for my long-term lusting for the chubby and the sweaty, who compelled me to make my first online purchase a t-shirt with a pair of dweeby glasses and the phrase Got Steve? printed on the front – Steven Page – is leaving Barenaked Ladies to pursue a solo career and theatrical opportunities. I realize that lamenting this break-up does not establish me as anything resembling cool or competent as a music critic, but I can’t resist. I am posting the classic ‘Be My Yoko Ono’ as an elegy, hoping to remind all of better days, when Steven Page intended his Yoko Ono to be a fine and intelligent woman, not crack cocaine and minors.

Barenaked Ladies – Be My Yoko Ono

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UPDATE: If you’re like me and didn’t get Robyn’s obscure reference to a play from the 70s, now being screened on Broadway with a certain notable wizard, here is something you can relate to: Blonde Redhead. (after the jump…) -justin

If you consult the Farmer’s Almanac, you know that today was a most auspicious day to castrate an animal. And you know what that means … we need MORE cowbell! Recently I was privy to a rather ex post facto debate over Blue Oyster Cult’s heavy use of cowbell, and whether or not it had an unfavourable correlation with cowbell usage in subsequent music production. Such an uncertainty inevitably led to my own investigation and although I found no answer to this question, I did learn that some very personally relevant and excellent songs employ cowbell and I didn’t even know it. Here are some such discoveries:

Apparently, a young Portland resident named Austin Giles owns the world’s largest cowbell, and was unsurprisingly evicted last year for multiple cowbell-related noise violations. This might happen to you if you choose Phish’s 46 Days for your nightly cacophonic cowbell fix, or are madly preparing yourself for the band’s TWO shows at Bonnaroo this year. Math says that 2 Phish shows = 2 x the face-melting, and math don’t lie.

Of course, Deee-Lite’s ‘Groove is in the Heart’ is not my own great discovery, but I had never realized that the song’s enduring sass was so heavily indebted to cowbell. Groove is clearly not in the heart, nor Deeelite’s seizure-inducing onesie; nay, groove is in the cowbell, and when accented with slide-whistle, groove is out of control!

Deee-Lite – Groove is in the Heart

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I have also noticed that cowbell frequently thinks itself important enough to replace intelligible lyrics, though perhaps The Rapture’s ‘House of Jealous Lovers’ is not the best example, The Rapture being a band that regularly fills album holes with onomatopoeic dither.

The Rapture – House of Jealous Lovers

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Finally, if you’re like me and own a pair of East Coast lobster mittens purchased from Jennifer’s of Nova Scotia, you’ve definitely rocked out to the B-52’s ‘Rock Lobster’ while snap-snapping along with some awesome cowbell. Celebrating lobster with cowbell – that’s some fine animal fusion.

B52s – Rock Lobster

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