BACKTALK ~ Letters to the Editor

From: Sai, (somewhere in Canada)

steve? this is the new york times®. we’re begging you to join our team.

kidding, it’s just me. i’m sure that email will come soon.

huge fan of your site/twitter, man. look forward to reading your newsletters and seeing those inferior opinions in your replies whenever i’m online. as a fellow canadian, you’re someone i’m proud of. bandcamp should offer you a partnership deal or something before i send them a strongly worded email.

anyway, i’m just sending this because i’ve always wanted to get in touch with you and let you know you’re appreciated. music being a unifier or something like that. huge congratulations on the news of your marriage, dude! you’re making me feel hella young. i’m seriously very thrilled for you, and i hope all goes well and that it lasts long.

i figure i should try to plug something here, lest this be boring fanmail where i’m just being nice. so: if you haven’t listened to the god derek ted‘s album “better spirit” yet, GET ON THAT SHIT!!! my man just signed to pure noise records, furthering the folk agenda and bringing prosperity back to valencia street. “slow down” by him (not on the album) is unbelievable. there may not be a more platinum “record label” than $R&$ – don’t @ me. if you want some more gold from that, floral prince (aka field medic) has a secret mixtape that’s up there with his album from earlier this year. freak folk forever baby

stay feckin,
sai
________
Sai,

I’m trying this new thing where I’m a total asshole to everyone so I can get ahead in life. You’re my first victim, so feck yew!

Yeee! Just kidding man! Thanks so much for this lovely and well written letter. Seriously, I thought I was NY Times material but have you read your own writing? You don’t even use capital letters. That takes ballz. Trust me, I’m a highly professional and expert writer myself, so I know what I’m talking about.

I would caution you about reaching out to bandcamp on my behalf. I think they hate me. I’ve been mildly irritating them with emails and comments for a while now, and if I were them, I’d be getting pretty sick of it.

Hey, thanks so much for all the positive feedback and for the congratulations on my wedding. You know marriage is pretty weird if you think about it: Humans have all these ridiculous rituals and most of them are idiotic, but I figure you need a partner in life and you might aswell celebrate that with the people you love. I could do without all the attention though, so I’m glad it’s over.

Thanks for the recommendations too. Field Medic I’ve heard of, but this Derek Ted guy is new to me. Since folk went pop a few years back it’s been hard to find folk that doesn’t suck, but I’m digging both of these. Hopefully there’s more of this stuff on the horizon and less HO HEY. What a stupid fecking song. Jeezis Christ.

Keep on fighting the good fight,
S.D.

From the UNUSUAL SONG TITLES DEPARTMENT – Here are some recent discoveries:

“I’m Fine I’m Just Having An Allergic Reaction To The Universe”

“The Streets Will Be Paved With Golden Retrievers”

“Me And Dead Owls Don’t Give A Hoot”

“Tim Allens Tool Time Tea Time”

“Anthony Bourdain Ate My Dog”

“You Ate Me Out And Now You’re Not Interested”

“My Very Own Sad White People Dreadlocks”

“If Those Aren’t Tears Of Happiness Please Stop Crying”

“Baby Driver The Movie The Song *Potential Spoilers*”

“My Name Is Ian And I’m From Minor Threat”

Doesn’t English (#007) – Juan Cirerol

Hailing from Mexicali Mexico (Home of, umm, hot weather, and right across the border from Calexico USA. Isn’t that cute? You know, in my province, there’s a lake that spans the border between Canada and the US called Lake Koocanusa. It’s a mash up of Kootney/Canada/USA. I’m full of fun geographical facts like this) Juan Cirerol has been hammering out the tunes for a while now. Over 200 of them apparently. I’m willing to bet they’re all as enjoyable as this collection. He’s like all of your favourite old-timey country/folk singers, but en Español and maybe with a bit more attitude. I’m sure Mexico has it’s own storied history of country/folk stuff, but I’m not going to pretend I know anything about that, so yeah.. Just imagine Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan in Spanish. I’ve been listening to this all week at work within earshot of my lovely Peruvian co-worker, so I really hope the lyrics are SFW, cuz I honestly have no idea. Oh god, what if this is Anti-Peruvian music?

Top 5 Albums/EP’s That DONT Suck [OCTOBER 2017]

Strange Ranger – Daymoon [Buy it on Amazon!]
This album made the top 5 before I even heard it. I guess I’m a bit biased. They put out what was, in my opinion, the best album of 2016, Rot Forever. They were called Sioux Falls back then. To me, that was the perfect record. It quickly became one of my all time favos, so predictably, this one doesn’t quite live up to the hype I created within myself. Still, it’s rad as Hell, and Hell is pretty rad,, or so I’m told. I don’t necessarily want to go to Hell per se, unless maybe I had like a fire-suit or something.   Listen on Bandcamp or Spotify

.

Pinky – Mood Swings
The album art is misleading. I expected it to be pop punk or one of those ‘gnar’ bands. Instead it’s shoegazy melodic hardcore in the vein of Title Fight, which I am highly in favor of. Especially when it’s done right. These guys are doing it right and killin’ it. Like multiple-stab-wounds killin’ it. I can’t stress enough how perfectly this was executed. Here’s hoping they have a lot more songs under their belt or in their back pocket or up their sleeve or in whatever other part of their clothing. Maybe in their backpack if they have one. I don’t care, just hand it over.   Listen on Bandcamp

.

Simon Joyner – Step Into The Earthquake [Buy it on Amazon!]
I don’t think anything can be said that isn’t already implied when you say the man’s name. I mean, he is a freakin’ delight to listen to. This guy makes better Bob Dylan albums than Bob Dylan does. Well, better than he has in a very long time anyway. Big, dusty old songs that make today’s mainstream radio-folk seem utterly and completely irrelevant. If Bob Dylan listened to this album he would mumble an entirely incoherent sentence. If Bob Dylan read this review he would start shouting out verbal crazy like that guy on the train people don’t want to sit next to. In conclusion: Bob Dylan was amazing. Simon Joyner still is.   Listen on Spotify

.

Atlas – S/T
Straight out of The Big Diaper, Toronto Ontario. That’s what the locals call it right? As a Canadian who doesn’t live there, I’m actually obliged by law to shit-talk Toronto. I think they really do call it that though. I’m pretty much positive. The weather here in Vancouver is beautiful by the way. Look, I don’t want any trouble. This is an awesome record. They should be in the conversation along with all those other big emo-revival (a term even stupider than ‘emo’ itself) bands, like MoBo and Sorority Noise and the such. An argument could be made that these guys are better than both of those bands. Now I’m not the one starting that argument. I’m just saying it’s absolutely true and if you don’t think so you’re just wrong.   Listen on Bandcamp

.

Poster-iti – Sarı Çizgiyi Geçmeyiniz
Joe Strummer was born in Turkey you know.. That’s up against the point though. I don’t understand the words on this album, but I still find myself singing along to it. It’s super catchy 80’s style punk. A little first-wavy, a little hardcore. It’s actually a re-issue, but I’m including it anyway because it’s totally awesome and it does have some unreleased material on it. The original album was released in 2005 to much acclaim in Turkey. Actually, I made that up. I have no idea how well it did in Turkey, but in my imagination this was an instant classic and the punks went fuckin’ bananas for it.   Listen on Bandcamp