I just can’t get enough: For their new compilation, Saint Etienne: Songs For Mario’s Café (Sanctuary Records Group), Brits Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs (Saint Etienne) have selected mostly unfamiliar yet comfy cozy “songs for cafés and café folk.” It’s a great introduction to an eclectic mix of songs from 1954 to 1975. An album of folky surf, soul pop, reggae, dub and doo-wop. A perfect cathartic soundtrack for that end of summer/ beginning of autumn state of mind. It’s all incense and cinnamon sticks.
“I Do” by The Moments is an R&B screamfest of love with strings attached. Try not to weep (or laugh) through Tammy St John’s “Dark Shadows And Empty Halls.” When she sings “Since he’s gone/ Life is so lonely,” she sings “lonely” in a delicate drippy falsetto. Ruth Copeland shows her up on “The Music Box.” It’s basically fluffy pop about a music box “playing our favourite songs.” As the beat becomes more pronounced, Copeland starts her uncontrollable fake blubbering. She sounds exactly like Warhol’s drugged-out suicide superstar Andrea Feldman.
I was spellbound by the sunlit Spinnersesque production of The Chairmen Of The Board’s “I’m On My Way To A Better Place.” “I’m leaving hate and prejudice behind,” declares the lead singer as the percussion tickles him forward. A lovely find. Other killer tracks: “Man Alive” by Tony Hatch, “Can’t See For Looking” by The Bobcats, “I Love You For All Seasons” by The Fuzz and “Umbopo” by Doctor Father.
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Go see: Stockholm’s pop beautanians, The Concretes play music from their intoxicating self-titled debut. And it’s their first time in Canada. Mon, Oct 11 at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor St W).
Detroit’s unisex foursome, The Von Bondies perform their riotous, hard drivin’ tunes. Wed, Oct 6 at The Mod Club Theatre (722 College St).
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Yikes!!! That soprano cockerspaniel they call Sarah Brightman comes to town for her Harem World Tour. Mon, Nov 1 at The Air Canada Centre (40 Bay St).
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