ANDRE ETHIER - Born Of Blue Fog

Released suddenly enough that not many yet know it's out locally (the Canada-wide date is Dec 9), this would be Andre Ethier's second confusingly-titled sequel, the sequel in that sense to Secondathallam and rumoured to be followed by a third and final Blue Fog recording already written. The main noticeable difference between this and its On Blue Fog forebear is the strings, which even join in on "Infant King"'s boogie blues. Most, uh, arresting is second-last track "Cop Killer", a ruffneck bummer of a tune whose subject is "ridden into riots" as Ethier laughs at the letdown, shouting out Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and adding the nod to his own problematic, crooned EZ-unease.

BRIAN BORCHERDT - Coyotes EP

Before Brian Borcherdt formed Holy Fuck (anyone remember Hot Carl?), he was best known for his solo songwriting, and while two CDs as The Remains Of... were released on Dependent in the mid-naughts, the record that's still closest to the hearts of many fans is 2002's Moth EP. Coyotes' intimate tone makes for a more-than-worthy companion piece, strummed and sung in a Hayden-like hush that creates tension through staying restrained, a private, heart-on-sleeve candor that needs the security blanket only headphones can provide to quell the self-consciousness of listening in the presence of others.

FINAL FANTASY - Spectrum 14th Century EP

Stay posted for the 10" release of showtune-transformed Lukashevsky rags, Final Fantasy Plays To Please (pushed back to who knows when), but 'til then, full attention can be gladly paid to these 14th Century fakeways of the lordliest order. Birdcalls and faded-in mathy stabs in fifteen yield to distant swells of orchestration on opener "Oh Spectrum", using a nifty tympani transition to reach "Blue Imelda"'s steel-pan sweetening. "Cockatrice" mixes what might well be sandpaper and sticks as its base, intermittently breaking into thumb-piano pauses. Life on Spectrum ends with "The Ballad Of No-Face", whose pith could even be matched with a dead-end mag meme.

LAURA BARRETT - Victory Garden

The kalimba queen's long-promised longplayer is out at last, presented in a way emblematic of her inclusive reach as she brings into her Garden fold a grounds crew of thirteen contributors (if you include those who assisted with the artwork/typography, and you really should) and never navel-gazes in the least, with odd observational, sassily detached lyrics almost like Joni Mitchell's (stress that almost--musically the two are pretty much planets apart!). Good on Paper Bag for at this point being home to quite a few staunch pop individualists, with Barrett, Slim Twig and The Acorn all clawing at conventions while still staying very accessible in their approaches.

FEMBOTS - Calling Out

With more riff-rock bone exposed than on 2005's The City, this fourth disc from Junkshop main men (and Little Italy neighbours) Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier (an arrangement that's now over a decade in the doing) has head Hylozoist (and fellow engineer) Paul Aucoin arranging horns as on their last, tracking smart vibraphone parts ("The Ballad Of Lucybelle Crater"'s ear-tickling tinkles, "Ship Breaking"'s morse-code crescendo-cueing lullaby paydirt) that, along with Iner Souster's junkstruments and Nathan Lawr's ever-tasteful percussion, complement FemBots' detailed production work.

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS - Forest Of Tears

$100's Simone Schmidt sings tough tales through grit teeth, slipping serious stories into these songs as earthy experience is couched in country music's common concerns.  Sequenced such that the form fully falls away by the time of "Tirade Of A Shitty Mom"'s Moon Pix-ish domestic dirge, Rick White's pristine off-the-floor engineering gives the group a sharper sound that lets Stew Crookes' pedal parts cry out overtop all the clearer. Rapt, packed houses whenever Schmidt and guitarist/co-writer Ian Russell have played cozier haunts like the Tranzac suggest that this six-piece incarnation will win over whatever taverns, roadhouses, and house parties they're bound to play.

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE presents BRENDAN CANNING - Something For All Of Us...

Flipping on the fuzz for some incidental album-opening effects checks, Canning and co. reliably fall into Dino-inspired step on Something...'s title track, continuing to write songs tuned to their collective '90s indie roots while mining the malleability of '00s production potential. As artsy as Brendan and Broken's micing/mixing techniques, quieter confessionals or instrumental interludes may get (even experimenting with full-blown disco on "Love Is New"), BSS still know how to temper those obtuse inclinations with big-hearted modern-rock moments that almost anyone can enjoy.

QUEST FOR FIRE - S/T

With a note-perfect name and pedigree to match (two ex-Deadly Snakes, the drummer from recently-disbanded hardcore heroes Cursed, and a member of prickly punks No No Zero on bass), Quest For Fire has already amassed a fair amount of infamy in the past year, impressing much of this town's psych-savvy with a loud, extended and immersory live sound. On record, though, a broody sense of nuance balances out the rock-outs, suggesting a kinship with fellow vets The Unintended as much as with such stoned-age contemporaries as Comets On Fire, Dead Meadow, Black Mountain and Wooden Shjips.

JAYME STONE & MANSA SISSOKO - Africa To Appalachia

In the midst of being supported by a three-month festival circuit tour that's already set world-music circles abuzz, this collaboration between the Boulder (via Toronto) banjo wiz and Malian kora griot sees the two men meeting halfway, splitting writing credits between Stone's adaptations of traditional West African melodies and Sissoko's own songs. Light and breezy but expertly played (with calabash and kit accompaniment from the always-attuned Nick Fraser of T.O.'s own Drumheller and Deep Dark United), fans of the likes of Toumani Diabate should enjoy this session of vibrant, pander-free fusion.

CASTLEMUSIC - You Can't Take Anyone

Setting off what seems to be a full summer schedule for Blue Fog (with new discs from $100 and Andre Ethier to come), Jennifer Castle follows 2006's self-released Live At The Music Gallery with more sparse, beguiling beauty. Castle's guitar playing is as wonkily gentle as in her celebrated live shows, punctuating pauses with bluesy pull-offs. Folk-fiddling fellows Ryan Driver and Doug Tielli cameo, as You Can't Take Anyone ably introduces parts beyond our city limits to the range and power of one of this town's true balladeers, singing a secret language about to be made not-so-secret.

RON SEXSMITH - Exit Strategy For The Soul

Bookended by wordless piano-led pieces, any other changes to that ever-consistent Sexsmith songcraft on Exit Strategy are subtle, such as the Cuban horns betraying the sessions' Havana locale and helping to lighten the mood on his response to Feist's Reminder recording of co-write "Brandy Alexander", taking a more carefree view of the trouble he's in (don't know about the late-Cohenesque female backup vocal, though!). "Poor Helpless Dreams" casts Sexsmith in the same fine-fitting near-R&B cloak once worn on Retriever's "Whatever It Takes", this time picking the pace up to disco-lite tempo.

FEUERMUSIK - No Contest

Jeremy Strachan and Gus Weinkauf surely burn in mere duo format (the configuration they mainly use live for practicality's sake, although arrangements have been charted for guest horns on special occasions), but the heft at hand on record, thanks mainly to the magic of overdubbing and Strachan's schooled ear, transforms the work of this erstwhile Rockets Red Glare rhythm section into something closer to the big-band buoyancy of Moondog at his most swingingly symphonic. Check out their live in-store set on Wed. Jun 25 at 6pm. 

JESSIE KUSSIN - Cry Rumble/MUSKOX - Gallantries

Two short, sweet Torontonian CD-Rs with handmade packaging and crack production jobs by our own Mike Smith. Cry Rumble charms with Kussin's squeaky drawl and sturdy country songwriting--if there are any $100 fans out there who haven't heard Jessie's tunes, make room for another local favourite. Gallantries, on the other hand, is the third 3" EP from Smith's jazzy, twangy, meter-shifting through-composed mongrel.

ERIC CHENAUX - Sloppy Ground

Anyone who's ever witnessed Eric Chenaux's playing (whether jazz guitar in Drumheller, free improvisation in The Draperies, Guayaveras and countless other permutations, 'standards' old and modern in The Reveries, or his own singing songs) is aware of his ability to floor without fanfare, letting his music speak for itself with soul and dignity, fusing forms with a tender, studied ease. Chenaux's second set for Constellation finds the de facto Rat-drifting ambassador digging deeper into his Scots-style reels in particular, aided by, among many others, David Prentice's violin and Nick Fraser's tattoo rolls.

RYAN DRIVER - Feeler Of Pure Joy

Timed for release alongside Eric Chenaux's Sloppy Ground is frequent collaborator (in The Guayaveras, Draperies, and Reveries) Ryan Driver's first solo set, recorded last fall and produced with fellow Reverie Jean Martin. Touching on the kind of woozy country Driver sings with The silt, yet ranging out with falsetto yodellers "Time And Trouble" and "Spinning Towers" (both already live staples at this point), assists from Martin, Chenaux, Andrew Downing, Jennifer Castle and Martin Arnold flesh out another dreamy nethergenre missive from Planet Rat-drifting.

PONY DA LOOK - Shattered Dimensions

Local synthpop oddballs Pony Da Look (named after an ex-roommate of theirs and ex-employee of ours, if you're so curious) resurface to find themselves now signed (along with Will Currie & The Country French) to longtime friends and supporters Sloan's revived Murderecords imprint. Number-one-fan Chris Murphy goes so far as to call the ladies' songs "witch music", and he's not far off, with the rest of the coven often chiming in to chant along with or against Amy Bowles' high-camp, bug-eyed brogue.

SLIM TWIG - Derelict Dialect

Although we've had Slim's 2007 EPs Whiite Fantaseee and Dissonant Folk here in the shop since December, this earlier one, recorded with Dale Morningstar in '06, is news to us, so we're not quite sure if this was ever self-released in limited number, or just a matter of waiting for the right time (and label). With more and more local showgoers catching word of and getting wooed by the man live in both solo band and duo form as Tropics (even doing double-duty with both projects recently at CMW), Paper Bag were wise to sign Twig and his personal, wordplay-wise, goofy/aloof brand of dark dandy mantras.

CURSED - III: Architects Of Troubled Sleep

Intro-ed with ominous soundbites that take the listener twenty years back to the days of Ministry and Public Enemy albums that actually struck fear and excitement in many a youth using similiar strategies, Cursed forces backs up against the wall like few others in metal-aligned hardcore. Any fans of Converge's crisply redlined recording style (accomplished in its own right on III by a team of engineers, mixers and masterers including Paul Aucoin, Donny Cooper, Dave Mackinnon and Alan Douches) and ability to switch gears from punk to sludge tempos with ease who haven't yet heard Cursed, get familiar.

JUNIOR BOYS - Body Language Six

Junior Boys' contribution to the Body Language series is mainly a tech-house affair, as briefly as it may flirt with current cosmic/balearic rumblings from Sorcerer and Studio. Chelonis R. Jones' Prince-liness lends the first signs of life to the mix with a standout track on par with Kelley Polar's synth arpeggiations; a sympathetic squelch follows from Steadycam, and you can imagine a crowd finally letting loose. More of a vocal/new wave bent follows, as recent Stereo Image and Matthew Dear bleed into vintage Pushe and Visage, making way for the Boys' own exclusive "No Kinda Man", edging things into a moody finish.   

BORN RUFFIANS - Red Yellow & Blue

In a world where Modest Mouse's spunk has staled with the inevitabilities of age and Built To Spill's guitar heroics increasingly cancel out pure pop pleasures, the pieces are in place for Born Ruffians to persuade the legions, young and old(er), in need of a good bratty yelpalong. Lead singer Luke Lalonde's register-pushing pipes, often abetted by gang vocals from rhythm section Mitch DeRosier and Steve Hamelin, help set the Ruffians apart, along with the bold bareness of Rusty Santos' production, a refreshing change from the ProTooled maximalism so prevalent in recent indie-rock.