What We're Listening To Right Now
As music writers, we are increasingly conditioned to focus the subject and delivery of our labour on chart-topping success, industry buzz, fast-approaching release dates, and search engine optimization. Goal posts at once as abstract as they are arbitrary, these also bend enthusiasm toward capital and away from projects that complicate its flows and genuinely resonate with an ever-withering present, simultaneously limiting our engagement with the culture itself.
In this feature, a panel of writers from our editorial team was invited to engage with undersung works that have stuck with them in their recent personal listening, regardless of industry influence or market caché. They responded with a series of reflections on works that connect: Tom Beedham parses the fragmentary perspective of Griffin Poetry Prize winner Kaie Kellough and experimental bass saxophonist Jason Sharp’s “wordsound” project; Sarah Chodos reflects on the sense of place imparted on a live album recorded at Toronto’s Tranzac Club; Leslie Ken Chu ponders the grind of late capitalism with the debut EP from Vancouver punks BEEBOMB; Michael Rancic cracks open a pseudo-split from Veneer and their alter-ego Cavity; and Laura Stanley is transported down country roads by Farser’s Vision Rd.
BEEBOMB – What Do People Do All Day
Placeholder Records
Standout Track: "Heat Death"
BEEBOMB
“What do people do all day?” I frequently ask myself this on weeknights, when I’m drained from work, or weekends, when I’m trying to resist working — like a normal nine-to-fiver with healthy boundaries. Everything feels pointless on a global and personal scale, with an open genocide unfolding before our eyes and seemingly zero chance of me ever owning a home or having a sustainable career I’m passionate about because tech and venture capitalism are devouring the arts.
Enter BEEBOMB, who’ve landed as the feel-good sprint I need to carry me from one day to the next. They boast the cutest band name in Vancouver, one that perfectly encapsulates their darting, riotous punk for the twee at heart. Capping off their 13-minute debut EP with “Sittin’ Around,” though, the only leisurely song in the batch, BEEBOMB squash my restless anxiety, reassuring me that sometimes it is nice, even necessary, to sit with the enveloping stillness of indecision. Even when vocalist/synth-player Rachel Cabot sings about failure, negative self-talk, or being content in a relationship the narrator insists hasn’t lost its spark, BEEBOMB’s music is a bright spot in my life. Call that low-hanging fruit, but hey, some bees are ground-nesters.
Who's Listening: Leslie Ken Chu
Farser – Vision Rd
Independent
Standout Track: “Back To My Memories”
Kyle
On his debut album as Farser, Fez Gielen cruises down Vision Road in a truck with the windows down. In the flatbed sit some friends: Thom Gill (Bernice), Bram Gielen (Joseph Shabason; Jeremy Dutcher), Caylie Runciman (Boyhood), and fellow MAYBEL member Lauren Spear aka Le Ren. If you’re already familiar with these artists, it will come as no surprise to you that the vibes they conjure up together on Vision Rd are immaculate. Mixed by Joseph Shabason, Vision Rd is a country album insofar as you’ll hear, amongst other instrumentation, a banjo and lap steel, and Farser’s hazy songs about what happens under wide open skies unfurl like campfire smoke. But with songs like the psychedelic “Country Code” or folk-rocking “Harm’s Way,” Vision Rd can’t be pinned down by a single genre. On “Back to My Memories,” a grooving tune influenced by soft-rock balladry, Fraser asks: “My mind, is it lost or free?” On Vision Rd, he lets both be true.
Who's Listening: Laura Stanley
FYEAR – FYEAR
Constellation
Standout track: "Pt IV Degrees"
Chaddyboy
Having previously encountered Kaie Kellough and Jason Sharp’s wordsound collaborations in a multi-media work scrutinizing the interrogative nature of post-9/11 border crossing at the Music Gallery’s X Avant festival seven years ago, my eyes lit up when I learned of this latest project from the pair. Now operating under the bandonym FYEAR (pronounced fear), on their self-titled debut, Kellough’s fragmentary poetry and Sharp’s bass saxophone lead an avant-garde ensemble through the collective conditions of contemporary (counter-)capitalism and its potential trajectories. While Kellough spouts questions that now feel as intrinsic to the human experience as the microplastics in our lungs and guts (Who owns our wealth? How can I think about the future if I can’t imagine one? How can I retire?), Sharp conducts violins, pedal steel, and dueling drums to match the tension with a 45-minute anti-epic landscape of psychic alienation that’s out of time and out of patience, but never out of pocket.
Who's Listening: Tom Beedham
Veneer - Drifting
Independent
Standout Track: “Nice Try”
Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 16, 2020
The record I keep coming back to the most lately is Veneer's Drifting. The Winnipeg-based indie rock trio caught my attention with their self-titled debut in 2019, but Drifting demonstrates that in the intervening years, Veneer have really come into their own. The notes on their Bandcamp share that the record is split between them and their alter ego Cavity and that it’s up to the listener to figure out which songs belong to which band. If I had to hazard a guess based on my experience with the record, the four closing tracks veer into much wilder territory, full of experimental squalls of feedback that make the songs come apart at the seams. That pummelling, unrestrained end to the record stands in stark contrast to the tidy, heartfelt songs brimming with Big Feelings and gorgeously woven vocal harmonies (as on “Nice Try”) that make up the majority of Drifting’s track listing. The real accomplishment here though is just how well it all fits together — I love a good narrative, and there’s certainly something to take away from how the album’s current flows from songs where the tension lies beneath the surface to ones where the emotional content overwhelms any composure into noisy, intense obsession.
Who's Listening: Michael Rancic
Westelaken - At Tranzac
Independent
Standout Track: “Pear Tree”
Westelaken
From the late 1990s until the pandemic broke out, I lived and/or worked in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto. The question of what to do with a night to myself in the city was easy to answer: drop by the Tranzac Club. It was a comfortable and welcoming community hub with a magnetic force attracting some of the most interesting and innovative musical acts in the city. Laura Barrett, Sarah Greene, Petra Glynt, Rebecca Hennessy, Dave Clark, and Friendly Rich all put on memorable shows that I saw there.
At Tranzac by Westelaken fills this hole in my existence since moving out of Toronto. It is a mishmash of songs, mostly from 2023’s I Am Steaming Mushrooms, and long interludes featuring their friends. Rachel Bellone sings “Grace,” as she does on Westelaken’s 2020 disc, The Golden Days are Hard, and she stays on for a comical encore song. Meandering through warm lightheartedness, sublime beauty, and disconcerting twists, Westelaken manages to bring its recorded music to life while also capturing the experimental conviviality of the Tranzac and sending the package afloat for all to experience.
Who's Listening: Sarah Chodos
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