Hooray! We managed to update our Song of the Week two weeks in a row! Well, we’re on a roll.

Speaking of this week’s SotW, I knew that it was gonna be Louise Burns‘ “Drop Names Not Bombs” as far a back as last Tuesday. How did I know? Because as soon as I heard it I compulsively played it about 10 times in a row and then at least a couple of times every day since then! There’s a little checklist of things that all of my favourite songs have at least one of; whether it be great back-up singing, bells / glockenspiel, catchy piano, fun and interesting vocal arrangements, a rhythm that you can clap to… Oh, and any band that throws an organ into the mix will earn my love and support forever. So imagine how my brain just friggin’ DETONATED when I first heard “Drop Names Not Bombs”! It’s almost as though Burns’ & Co. found my secret mental list and hit every possible item in the same track. This song has everything! It is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the most perfect pop songs ever. Have a listen and see if you agree!

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We sure have been messing up when it comes to the Song of the Week lately, so let’s throw down a late one to say goodbye to July! Well, we’ve been spending a lot of time checking out some new bands and the other day we came across an amazing little quintet called Thee AHs and their wicked little cover of Patsy Ann Noble‘s “Sour Grapes”. Judging by the views they’re currently racking up on their MySpace page, we might actually be the last people in the world to have heard these ladies (and their fella)! But if you’re slow to the party like we were and you want to check out some pure pop goodness, head on over and hear a bunch more!

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Holy crackers! Remember the Aural Kinetic Song of the Week column? It’s kinda been a while huh? Well let’s do one for old time’s sake!

This week’s Song of the Week is called Buried in the Sun and was written and recorded by a local band called Spoon River. A newly transplanted group of fellas originally hailing from Montreal, they ruled the country in their former incarnation The Royal Mountain Band. There’s no shortage of things that can be said about the astounding Spoon River, but we’ll save it for the full album review later this week. So check it out! We’ve even got a fancy-pants media player for your clickin’ goodness.

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Okay this is going to be the fastest Song of the Week ever! This week’s Song of the Week is Dryer Fire by B-Lines! How come? Because once you hear it, you’ll never be able to do your laundry without getting it stuck in your head and that’s AWESOME.

Check it out!

Speaking of forgetting, I forgot to post a Song of the Week for last week! Gosh! Well here goes better late than never.

The song of the week for December 27th to January 2nd is…Community Affair by Greenbelt Collective. From the opening bells to the world’s most lovable lyrics (“Cancel all your plans and come with us, you know you’re always welcome to come and volunteer! I’ll make a reservation in my heart for you this year!”) this song is what happens when a group of talented and devoted folks get together with their instruments. For those who don’t already know, Greenbelt Collective are Vancouver’s version of Broken Social Scene with the exception that Greenbelt are infinitely better at crafting pop songs that make people feel good. Everyone knows that January and February are the gloomiest months around here, and it’s songs like these ones that’ll get you through it.

The song can be found on the Community Affair EP, although it maybe be a little tricky to track down these days. If you’d like to hear the song you can head over to our MySpace page, or better yet theirs.

No posts all week? What the Jesus?! Well that’s it exactly! Everyone’s favourite imaginary friend had another birthday and to celebrate the occasion, the A-K kids spent our time eating icing-covered treats. Long story short, it’s SONG OF THE WEEK TIME! YES!

I’m just gonna skip the pre-amble and tell you what for! Our Song of the Week is Carolina by local four-piece The Shilohs and we picked it because the song, like the band, is balls-out amazing. How so? Well in less than a year The Shilohs got together, wrote a pile of great songs, played a bunch of shows, recorded an incredible full-length demo LP that may never officially see the light of day* and are now hard at work on their first 7″.

Featured on the upcoming release is our Song of the Week and if you’re like me and desperately need something to wash out the cacophony of Christmas carols you’ve been subjected to, you couldn’t ask for a better little rocker than this one. Everything about Carolina is great, but what I really love is the vocal pauses in lines like “Lost my way to Georgia / Flew into Atlanta / Tryin’ to make the bu-us on time! / She’s on my mi-iii-ind!”

Check it out on our MySpace page!

* We got one! Check back for a full review this week!

Last weekend I was going through a bunch of local MySpace pages and came across an artist that I’d heard a lot about but had never checked out before. In a sea of stuff that ranged from not-great to pretty-good, the songs of one performer in particular really stood out. So now we’ve come around to Sunday again and, after a considerable number of listens, Oh, Tonight by Ryan Walter Wagner is our pick for Song of the Week.

Maybe it’s because I’m on a big fat alt-country kick right now, but it’s awfully hard to not like such a prolific writer, photographer and singer/songwriter. CBC Radio 3 has lauded his collection of “plain old-fashioned good songs, completely void of any pretense” and listening to Oh Tonight I can see why. Similar in sound to some of Tom Petty’s better efforts, Wagner has produced a slow-burner filled with simple but outstanding instrumentation and back-up singing. In fact, “finding out sings the backup” has officially made my to-do list. It’s a great track and if I can find out any more information about it, I’ll be sure to update the post.

Until next week!

Hey! It’s Sunday morning! That means it’s time for church the Song of the Week!

Well I gotta say, dear readers, that I was one Gloomy Gus this week. I don’t know why, the weather improved and things generally went my way, but still I was a little blue. So what do we do when these things happen? Most of us turn to music, which is exactly what I did. The song that got me through – and made me feel a whole lot better – was a great little acoustic track called Heart of the Battle by Adrian Teacher (from Apollo Ghosts). It’s a sweet Simon & Garfunkel-esque song that can be found on his solo album Twenty-Five Years of Tape. I can’t heap enough praise on this one and I honestly feel that there’s no better example of Teacher’s exceptional talent when it comes to singing and songwriting in general.

“Nobody laughs and nobody seems to know
The places I hide and the placed I’d like to go.
The words in my heart and the heart of the battle seems
Okay Johnny but you gotta know what I mean…”

See? I don’t know if copies of this LP are (or ever were) available in stores because I managed to get a copy via a download coupon found in the Apollo Ghosts record Hastings Sunrise. Hopefully I can upload Heart of the Battle to our MySpace page in the next little while. We’ll see!

UPDATE: Thanks to Adrian, you can hear Heart of the Battle on our MySpace page! Hooray!

New column! Yes! We’re usually scrambling for things to write on boring ol’ Sunday, so a new column has been devised! Song of the Week will be a new Sunday feature where we’ll pick the local track we liked the best and listened to the most during the previous week. I guess that part was self-explanatory… Anyway, onward!

Our first ever SotW goes to…drumroll please…So Far Gone by Vapid from their brand new LP Practically Dead (Nominal Records)! The release took six months longer than originally anticipated but the finished product is well worth the wait. Why do we like So Far Gone so much? Because you hear the same basic song structure as the songs on the Do the Earthquake 7″ and Emergency Room Compilation but Jesus Christ do Katie and Carrie ever come out the gate swinging! They sound absolutely amazing! And there’s something about the way Ben, Carrie and Steven are playing on this track that just sounds a lot tighter than anything we’ve heard in previous releases.

You know, we love older songs like Die and Sex Stain because of the ferocity of the words and vocals. Similarly So Far Gone, with lyrics like “Touch me I’ll KILL YOU! Fuck me? No fuck YOU!” is right up our alley. This track in particular is a super strong effort that shows this band has even more innovation, spirit and talent than even I was expecting. And not to put too fine a point on it, but I was definitely expecting a LOT.

Check out So Far Gone on their MySpace while it’s still up.