CMJ Magazine and CD: Issue 134

Chad Vangaalen is on the cover of the new issue of CMJ. The headline reads "Canada Can't Keep a Secret". I don't know if that's true -- if they're keeping some juicy secret(s) really well, other countries wouldn't know about it.

Maybe they'd like to try to keep Vangaalen a secret, though, and that's why the interview with Vangaalen arrived with the pages bound together. Actually, a lot of the pages of the latest CMJ were still attached at the top. Insidious plot to deprive (more-or-less) innocent Americans/possibly others of information about Canadian musicians? (and one of the other features I had to rip pages apart to read: "Book Club: What's Carl Newman of The New Pornographers Reading?" Coincidence? I think not! Say, speaking of The New Pornographers, I saw them play a free show tonight. They were great. Review to come... Yes, you should read it even though I already gave away the "they were great" part. It will be fascinating, have pretty pictures, and, uh, you may win something if you read it).

As for this Chad Vangaalen fellow, he's from Montgomery, Alberta. Last year he released Infiniheart, an album that "collects the best of several albums worth of his homemade recordings from the last five years or so." He played all the instruments with the exception of one drum track on the record CMJ calls "chilling and personal". Infiniheart got some attention from critics, Vangaalen opened for the Pixies, and wound up signing with Sub Pop (who are re-releasing the album).

This issue also has an interview with Minus the Bear, which makes me happy, even though it's only a page long (and half of that is a photo). There are also brief interviews with Sufjan Stevens (One question: "So what's up with the goat on the [Illinois] cover?"), Pelican, Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart, Jason Forrest, T. Raumschmiere, and Azure Ray's Orenda Fink (who flew her Voodoo guide to Omaha to perform her marriage ceremony when she married the Faint's Todd Baechle, and who has recorded a solo album called The Invisible Ones. The name is a Voodoo reference. CMJ's headline for this interview is "Voodoo Child". Clever).

Hmm, the ad for the CMJ Music Marathon is mucked-up. The angle is off and part of the left side is cut off. Maybe the printers/someone(s) at CMJ was too busy or excited about the Music Marathon to fully concentrate on the magazine this month. Can't say I blame them.

CMJ Issue 134 Track Listing:

1. mp3:Chad Vangaalen - Echo Train (hear him before Canada tries to stop you? I like this song a lot)
2. mp3:Laura Veirs - Galaxies (she sounds kind of like Kristin Hersh, which is a good thing, but the music sounds different. I like this too. If you like it, check out songs:illinois for more songs from Laura Veirs. Craig was hip to her years ago)
3. Dungen - Panda
4. M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun
5. Michael Franti & Spearhead w/Gift of Gab
6. American Minor - Break
7. Arch Enemy - Nemesis
8. Lawless Element - Rules Pt. 2
9. Herbaliser - Generals
10. Heavenly States - Pretty Life
11. Little Barrie - Free Salute
12. mp3:Grand Buffet - Things That Go Hump in the Night (I'll put on my dancing shoes, but I will not let them reprogram me! There might be some hidden "catch" to that!)
13. mp3:Silversun Pickups - Kissing Families (I'm undecided on this one... I think it might lose its way in the last minute or so but I might need to listen to it again, not at 11 PM)
14. Dizmas - Let This One Stay
15. mp3:Orange Park - Make Up Your Mind (this rock is a bit more kind to my tired ears right now)
16. Gogol Bordello - Not A Crime