Sorry to scratch the Ladytron, Poni Hoax and Woodhands review. I am a bag of lies. Or to be more honest, just a bag of laziness. But I’ll tell you this – Woodhands sure made an impression on me. Enough so, that I haven’t been able to stop listening to their album, Heart Attack, in about a week. During a coffee shop discussion I had with a friend, about the recent Polaris shortlist nominees, we both concluded that Woodhands was terribly robbed of a nomination.
The Toronto duo (of Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt) are known for their creativity when it comes to the blips and beats created in their music, both on record and in their live performance. And from the moment that Werb pulled out the keytar on the Harbourfront stage, I knew I was in for a treat. On record, one can really appreciate all of the little intricacies of the instrumentation blended with the sometimes rough, sometimes smooth shared vocals of Werb and Banwatt. The additional female vocals (provided by the amazing Laura Barrett on album closer, “Sailboats” and Maylee Todd on the opener, “Dancer”) creates such a dynamic balance to the beginning and end of the album and the middle consists of some killer tracks that’ll be sure to light up any dance floor in town. All of this on record is the equivalent of a bomb contained in a box – it is meant to blow up and really make a bang live. And that, it does. When I saw them at Harbourfront a couple of weeks ago, I had not listened to the album. In fact, I had never heard a Woodhands song (although I knew of them). When I heard them live though, it was very reminiscent of a Death From Above 1979, but with ten times more electronic music (so, like a tidal wave of MSTRKRFT taking blanketing over the music) and with such energy coming from just two people, that it felt like 18 (which is the equivalent of a Broken Social Scene!) Anyway, my point is that they were just radiating and blasting energy left and right and that definitely caught my attention, not to mention the witty banter in between. AH, I know my thoughts are quite scattered at the moment, but I think I got my points across. Woodhands currently have no plans to play a show in Toronto, but as soon as they do, bring your dancing shoes! I’ll try to keep you posted.
Speaking of Paperbag Records (oh yes, I forgot to mention, but Woodhands are indeed signed to Toronto’s Paperbag Records), another band to look out for from the label are Montreal's The Winter Gloves. I first saw/heard them when I saw them play an in-store with Plants and Animals at Criminal Records during Canadian Music Week and thought they were quite impressive; but was in need of some work. After a little inquiry, I realized that the drummer was very familiar. And not surprisingly, he turned out to be quite the familiar face. Patrick Sayers was the drummer for Young Galaxy, before leaving for The Winter Gloves, presumably. Nice to see though, as this band does possess a lot of potential. Their debut album, About A Girl, will be out on September 9, so watch out for them! The album was produced by Jon Drew, the same one who produced records for Tokyo Police Club (whom they toured with briefly) and Fucked Up, so this should be a really good one. Tours are bound to pop up soon, as they begin to do press for the album in a month or so, so I’ll also keep you posted on that.
The Toronto duo (of Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt) are known for their creativity when it comes to the blips and beats created in their music, both on record and in their live performance. And from the moment that Werb pulled out the keytar on the Harbourfront stage, I knew I was in for a treat. On record, one can really appreciate all of the little intricacies of the instrumentation blended with the sometimes rough, sometimes smooth shared vocals of Werb and Banwatt. The additional female vocals (provided by the amazing Laura Barrett on album closer, “Sailboats” and Maylee Todd on the opener, “Dancer”) creates such a dynamic balance to the beginning and end of the album and the middle consists of some killer tracks that’ll be sure to light up any dance floor in town. All of this on record is the equivalent of a bomb contained in a box – it is meant to blow up and really make a bang live. And that, it does. When I saw them at Harbourfront a couple of weeks ago, I had not listened to the album. In fact, I had never heard a Woodhands song (although I knew of them). When I heard them live though, it was very reminiscent of a Death From Above 1979, but with ten times more electronic music (so, like a tidal wave of MSTRKRFT taking blanketing over the music) and with such energy coming from just two people, that it felt like 18 (which is the equivalent of a Broken Social Scene!) Anyway, my point is that they were just radiating and blasting energy left and right and that definitely caught my attention, not to mention the witty banter in between. AH, I know my thoughts are quite scattered at the moment, but I think I got my points across. Woodhands currently have no plans to play a show in Toronto, but as soon as they do, bring your dancing shoes! I’ll try to keep you posted.
Speaking of Paperbag Records (oh yes, I forgot to mention, but Woodhands are indeed signed to Toronto’s Paperbag Records), another band to look out for from the label are Montreal's The Winter Gloves. I first saw/heard them when I saw them play an in-store with Plants and Animals at Criminal Records during Canadian Music Week and thought they were quite impressive; but was in need of some work. After a little inquiry, I realized that the drummer was very familiar. And not surprisingly, he turned out to be quite the familiar face. Patrick Sayers was the drummer for Young Galaxy, before leaving for The Winter Gloves, presumably. Nice to see though, as this band does possess a lot of potential. Their debut album, About A Girl, will be out on September 9, so watch out for them! The album was produced by Jon Drew, the same one who produced records for Tokyo Police Club (whom they toured with briefly) and Fucked Up, so this should be a really good one. Tours are bound to pop up soon, as they begin to do press for the album in a month or so, so I’ll also keep you posted on that.
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