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Tyler Butler

Reviews:: Tyler Butler Violence

Nov 6, 2012 By ack in 2012, Canada, Music No Comments Tags: Tyler Butler

Most of us have simple, uniform desires. To love unconditionally. To be a better person. Be in good health. Everything else seems like greed. I want all of those things – and am grateful to have found a few – but I can’t suppress the need for something more traditional. A workmanlike drive to build(…)

Reviews:: Tyler Butler Winter King

May 25, 2011 By ack in 2011, Canada, Music, Reviews 1 Comment Tags: Tyler Butler

This place is a prison. Backed by Jimmy Tamborello’s fragmented, distorted programming, this song is a chance for Ben Gibbard to dissect the scene in which he (like so many of us) is trapped. Caught in an endless loop of drinking and falsified moments that only gain significance in the embellished retelling, Gibbard needs an(…)

Shad + Skratch Bastid – The Spring Up

Unless this is literally your first time on the hill and you’ve ended up here by accident (perhaps looking for this popular classic from yesteryear), I’m going to assume you’re a Canadian music enthusiast, and the mere mention of a collaborative EP from Shad and Skratch Bastid will have you leaving this post behind in(…)
Contest:: Win a copy of Chris Eaton, A Biography

When asked, I often say my favorite piece of writing is a simple passage from Dan Chaon’s book You Remind Me of Me. It’s nothing more than a quick description of a man opening a can of tuna, but the wording is flawless. The gentle sigh of the can opening, god, I’ve read it so(…)
Quick Hitters:: Royal Canoe Bathtubs

You know that guy that pumps the shit out of Souls of Mischief, Fela or Jaco Pastorius the minute the sun comes out? You’ve seen him, driving windows down with his music crushing factory grade speakers. Yeah, that is 100% me. I can’t even pretend it’s not. Summer jams don’t really need anything than a(…)
Polaris Pondering:: Jim Guthrie Takes Time (Instrumentals & Demos)

At my age, it’s probably weird that I care about music so much. Odd that a passion that started as soon as I could afford to buy cassettes persists longer than friendship, employment, love and almost anything else in my life. Odd that I still want to find records that leave a mark, not just(…)
Favorites-of ’13:: Culture Reject Forces EP

It seems like decades since we last heard from Michael O’Connell. His self-titled Culture Reject LP was a refreshing collection of loops and transitions; a musical journey that brought together the influence of countless remote locations and one man’s vision. Forces is a different beast. O’Connell still lets delicate picks and frantic percussion meld into(…)
Listen Up:: Construction & Destruction Dark Lark

Today, empires are built with 1′s and 0′s; rulers amass lines of code instead of lines of men. Lands are acquired through transactions and secrecy, not through blood, sweat and human sacrifice. Construction & Destruction were born of peasant stock. Their songs, much like their Port Greville home, were built through determintation. Hands were blistered,(…)
A.A. Wallace – (disambiguation)

I have no idea why, but I find the songs on A.A. Wallace’s debut full length record (disambiguation) strangely comforting. This is a bit odd because despite how catchy and addictive electronic music can be, it isn’t typically what one gravitates to when seeking a dose of auditory comfort. But it’s even more odd in(…)