Happy Friday the 13th everybody, and welcome back to SilentTalkie.com… this week’s podcast is a rocking collection of songs meant to ring in all the doom and gloom that today signifies for the more superstitious among us. Also, I’ll apologize off the top for the encode of this week’s podcast for being a little low, and I hope I’ll have a better solution in the future. Also, I’ll stop being lazy and cease using the cheapest microphone I have in the apartment, and actually set up something with a pop filter. /podcast nerding. Enjoy!

1. “The Unpredictable Landlord” by Bedhead from “What Fun We Had”

I thought I’d play something a little more obscure to start of this week’s podcast… this song is the opening track from Bedhead’s album, “What Fun We Had,” and is a little more rocking than what most people suspect Bedhead sound like (the band is one of the most notorious proponents of the “Slowcore” movement). Because Bedhead lyrics are impossible to deciefer, the main strain of this song is that their landlord is bad.

2. “Everyone Chooses Sides” by The Wrens from “Meadowlands”

I never really got into this band when they really hit their Pitchfork-approved hype, but then I caught the video for this song on the Muchmusic program, “The Wedge,” and I immediately sought out this song. It has a really melodic chorus, despite the absolutely brutal guitar onslaught… its hard to keep track of just how much guitar business is going on in this song alone.

3. “American Flags” by Dave Bazan

Released last November in the final days before Obama’s historic election, this song is rammed with Bazan’s usual outrage and spite: specifically aimed at George Bush. Of course, this is a Bazan song, so interpretation is fairly easy too. If this song is a good indicator of what the next album will sound like, then it looks like he’s finally reclaimed the former highs that “Control” reached (and that his self-titled EP hinted at).

4. “Holding Out For A Hero” by Doveman from “Footloose”

Here’s the quick rundown of this song: Doveman, an often “National” collaborator (even toured with the band for a while), recorded a track by track recreation of the original 80’s soundtrack “Footloose,” for a friend mourning his sister, who died when he was a teenager. Everything is fairly downbeat, and works way better than you’d expect.

5. “Mistaken For Strangers” by Ian McGlynn from the “Memorial Day Parade EP”

Yes, another National song. No one has complained in the comments yet, so I’m going to include them every damn week. Anyways, I came across this cover and I couldn’t resist including it here. The best thing I like about it, is that it really brings out lyrics that I never really considered, particularly “the unmagnificent lives of adults.”

6. “Benidigmamogo” by Boubacar Traore from “Boubacar Traore”

Traore is a renowed singer-songwriter-guitarist from Mali whose popularity never really took off until a British record producer discovered one of his tapes from a live television program and put out a few recordings in the 90s. I like it not only because of how “exotic” it sounds, but how modern it sounds, and how apart from lyrics, it could have been recorded in any self-respecting lo-fi studio in North America.

7. “Wilds of the North” by Saffron Sect from “Phosphorus Flash EP”

This is a take on a traditional standard by these Toronto psych-folkies, led primarily by Gaven Dianda, who was once best known as Matt Murphy’s sideman in the Flashing Lights. I had a chance to interview Gaven for Wavelength’s monthly zine, and he was such a geniune, interested guy, very interested in talking “art.” This comes from an EP, which is a culmination of many 4 track recordings Dianda completed over the years.

8. “On the Ceiling” by Hamilton Trading Co.

I’ve had the pleasure to see Keith Hamilton and his choir many times (and even join them onstage once), so it’s with great pleasure I include this live track in the podcast. Nicely forboding, it’s a great snapshot of what the HTC can do.

9. “Troubled” by Land of Talk from “Some Are Lakes”

Now approved by Kanye West, Liz Powell’s trio from Montreal got my attention with her “Applause Cheer Boo Hiss” EP. I’m still warming up to the new album, “Some Are Lakes,” but this song, which mixes both French and English, is the biggest sign that Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) had his fingerprints on this album (he was producing).

10. “The Landlord is Dead” by Do Make Say Think from “The Whole Story of Glory”

An answer to the problem that Bedhead was having earlier in the podcast.

11. “Bad Moon Rising” by Thea Gilmore

This cover has been floating around the blogosphere for a while now, but it was too good to not include on this Friday the 13th edition of this podcast. Good luck out there!

myspace.com/tyronewarner
radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Silver-Speakers
http://www.last.fm/music/Silver+Speakers
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Silver-Speakers/17464575870
http://twitter.com/tyronewarner
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striketheset.net

Previously:

Put Your Heart Into It 003
Put Your Heart Into It 002
Put Your Heart Into It 001