General update #7.

(When I'm not at a concert or taking photos, I like to unwind at the local junkyard by posing for passers-by. © 2008 Duran Cheung / Benjamin Luk Photography.)

Oops, we did it again. November was more dead than I want to make Fred Phelps and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Heck, we’ve been going at this so ignorantly (almost as bad as Fred Phelps, as a matter of fact) that we haven’t even noticed ThatRockBlog.com rolling right past our first anniversary on December 12th! With the holidays right around the corner, isn’t it about time you clicked that Paypal link and donated some money to your (second) favourite music blog? I guarantee a 5% increase in good karma.

Now as some of you may know, I’ve been busy frolicking with models and Pearce seems to have drank himself into a coma shortly after meeting Lykke Li. But as I sat by his bedside the other day and mumbled something about Lykke coming back to Vancouver in February to play at The Commodore, his hand twitched, an eyelid fluttered open and he told me to bring him Kings of Leon’s Only by the Night. I asked him why, but all he said was, “I need to review something, goddammit!” Pearce has been hard at work ever since. December’s going to be our biggest month yet for album reviews as we try and get our shit together enough to review all the 2008 albums we want to before 2009 rolls around. Any suggestions?

Finally, we also have a little Christmas present for you. The Best Revenge has been in the studio recording for the past few weeks but mixing’s proving to be a bitch. But since we also realized our single “Harlot” hasn’t ever really made it off the MySpace, we’re giving you the chance to download it for free in a very limited time offer. Only good for 7 days or 100 downloads, get it now while you can: Harlot (Demo).mp3

And because we also support local artists, I hereby retract my comment regarding local band The Magician. Upon a second listen, I realize I kinda dig ‘em. Not so for Hermetic though. They still suck.

Here’s another download, by the way. Vancouver band Mojave tweeted the other day with a link to their KSE cover “The End of Heartache”. I’ve never liked KSE, but Mojave makes it listenable and they damn well better, being the side project of leftovers from local hard rock bands Damsel Fly and Black Canvas. Here’s that: 11 The End of Heartache.mp3

Happy Holidays, you crazy bastards. To everyone except Fred Phelps. He can go fuck himself.

LOCAL EXPOSURE: Anyone else out there a sap for these guys?

(Harold Donnelly of The Sappers once stuck his hands in a microwave to keep them warm. He lost two fingers, but gained superpowers. © 2008 Benjamin Luk.)

To be entirely truthful, Vancouver indie music’s lost its flavour to me. The bands that don’t fuck everything up by attempting prog rock out of their depth end up sounding like background music at an Earls, and it’s really only musicians with solid folk roots like Dan Bejar of Destroyer and the dudes of Ladyhawk that manage to keep everything afloat. However, there’s always a hidden gem amongst the turds if you’re willing to go digging, and where else to find it than at CiTR SHiNDiG 2008.

I’m going to skip right over The Magician and Hermetic though. The Magician sounded like The National trying to shit out an Amanda Palmer song, and Hermetic verged on a high school band trying to shit out something that passed for music. I’m wholly convinced that Hermetic won based on band order alone; it’s simply more climactic if whoever plays last takes home the gold. But like I said about digging in the turds, you’ll eventually find something golden and that something golden is The Sappers.

Pearce and I have known Harold Donnelly for years and we’ve seen him transition from band to band since we were all kids. To see him now as the frontman of what I consider his most successful project to date gave me warm fuzzies in a way that usually only vast quantities of rum can. At the risk of oversimplification, take two cups of Fleet Foxes, a light sprinkling of The Sadies, a dash of Okkervil River, cover and simmer on low, and you’ve got what The Sappers are going for. No drummer in sight, but Colin McCune’s country rock banjo and Jeff Fedoruk’s swingin’ stand-up bass pounded the percussion forward for Rob Zurdel to sweep right in with the practiced bravura of an Old West saloon pianist. Their supposed single “Gloria” is a mite too basic for my tastes but “Cold Winter” remains one of the best indie performances I’ve seen this year (though I secretly think it could benefit from some drums). And really, how can you knock any band that can transition seamlessly from one of their bridges to a dead-on Johnny Cash cover? If I were even around in the 60s, I’d have said The Sappers took me right back there. Also, Donnelly’s Dylan-esque harmonica stylings kicked my ass down Seymour Street and back again.

The Sappers play again at The Purple Crab on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008.