Joanna Newsom live in Toronto, March 13

For many, (present company included) Joanna Newsom's idiosyncratic voice has always been a stumbling block between the listener and her meticulously crafted music. Have One on Me (which I reviewed, by disc, here, here and here) will forever mark the moment that Newsom went from cutesy folk darling to full-blown musical maestro, and despite throwing accolades all over the album, I still underrated it. Have One on Me is Newsom's opus, a brilliant master-stroke that perfectly balances Newsom's knack for arrangement with her Kate Bush/Joni Mitchell folkiness. Her voice is dynamic and stirring, her strict pronunciation of each vocal syllable reflecting the precision with which she plucks her harp.

Newsom's concert last Saturday (March 13) at Toronto's Phoenix Nightclub was over far too soon, and was beyond worth the hour I spent in six-degree, torrential rain. The man beside me had pretty fancy equipment set out all around, so I had an inkling this was coming: high-quality video versions of nearly the entire show. Please watch her encore song "Baby Birch" below from front to back, so as not to miss the stirring ending or the triumphant crash of entering drums at 5:45.



In case you missed it, you might also want to check out Newsom's performance of "Soft as Chalk" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Don't worry, he only talks for ten seconds.

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor... 83/100

Reining in youthful angst and passion can be difficult. Luckily for us, Titus Andronicus’ seem to know this, and thanks to their multi-genred approach and ability to self-edit, their sophomore effort, The Monitor, is a stunning success.

Centred around the theme of the American Civil War, the album is suitably grieving, angry and confused, but like well-trained soldiers, the band never lose the plot: they are out to make an album here, and by ensuring its emotional connection through short, effective snippets of Civil War-related recordings, and its flow by crafting multi-layered, restless epics that cover all the emotional territory one might associate with the Civil War, they’ve done a shockingly good job.

The Monitor is equal parts punk, shoegaze and country, and by infusing these genres with the added shambolic grace of indie rock and the lamenting stumble of the blues, Titus Andronicus evoke a stirring mental portrait of life as a civil war soldier. Album cuts like the harmonica-featuring, group vocals-aided “Four Score and Seven” and the album’s best track, blistering-guitar opener “A More Perfect Union” are lengthy (7-8 minutes apiece), but not excessive, making for an album that takes the listener the full journey without exhausting them.

The only stray shot on the album is fourteen-minute closer “The Battle Of Hampton Roads,” not because it’s not a quality song, but that the album feels complete without it. Its gigantic, bagpipe-laden ending alone makes the track worthy of listening to, but, at nearly fifteen minutes, the track could have, and really should have, been its own EP.

Still, Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor is an overwhelming success that should strike chords with a wide range of independent music listeners without the band sacrificing an ounce of their edginess or commitment to making music that’s as affective as it is adventurous.

Holy Fuck! A New Song!

Toronto psychetronic (not a real word) band Holy Fuck is on the verge of releasing their third LP, titled Latin.

The disc reportedly has quite the line-up of modern producers: Girls Against Boys' Eli Janney, Dave Sardy (Black Mountain, Johnny Cash), Paul "Phones" Epworth (Bloc Party) and Broken Social Scene producer Dave Newfeld are just some of the names. The new single, "Latin America," was released to weird-ass chat site Chatroulette last Friday, but you had to risk seeing guys touching themselves on camera, since the site has no search function and randomly hands you out, via webcam, to strangers.

Now, you can hear the song, sans jerking-hermit, below. It's pretty face-melting, so you might want to wear goggles of something:

Liars - Sisterworld... 73/100

Five albums in, and despite enjoying the occasional foray into their discography, everybody’s favourite New York dance-thrash-art-punk outfit Liars still don’t make me want to scream out loud. What is it about Sisterworld that keeps me from finally falling arse-over-tea-kettle for the band? I sought an answer, and here’s what I found:

1. Liars don’t make particularly good use of their sonic space. They prefer a sparse production sound, and in that kind of spaciousness, one needs to really strongly establish a mood, as they do on album highlights “No Barrier Fun”; otherwise, the song sounds empty. The band are obviously going for an eerie, haunted sound, but cheap production values lend this album (“Drip” and “Drop Dead,” especially) a tinny quality that makes the album listenable where it should be downright captivating.

2. Liars can’t write a memorable melody. I know, I know, this band isn’t supposed to be concerned with melody; they’re all about establishing mood, and expressing anguish and isolation through sonic space. In that case, they should’ve paid more attention to production (see above). Songs like “Here Comes All The People” and “I Still Can See An Outside World” are utterly forgettable.

3. There’s a little too much Radiohead biting going on here. The beginning of “Scissor” (stunning though it is) is just a hint too reminiscent of Hail to the Thief’s “We Suck Young Blood,” layered harmonies, vocal timbre and all. Still not hearing the similarities? At minute 2:53 of “Proud Evolution,” it’s all singer Angus Andrew can do not to sing “This is the Gloaming” by accident.

Don’t get me wrong, Sisterworld is by no means a bad album: at its best, (“No Barrier Fun,” “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant,” “The Overachievers,” and “Goodnight Everything”) Sisterworld is incandescent, especially when Liars get the haunted vibe right. But for every stunner here, there’s a mediocre follow-through, making for an inconsistently great album that leaves the listener just short of satisfied.