Wednesday, November 22, 2006

A Frog-Eyed Pornographer's Rubdown

Canadian artists are such affable folks... the indie rock scene from up North reads like a parade of collaborations. The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Stars, The Dears, Apostle of Hustle, and whatever band Spencer Krug is playing in.

The latest has Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) with longtime friend Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer,) in the supergroup Swan Lake. While touring Europe to promote Destroyer's 2004 album Your Blues, Bejar employed Mercer and Krug as his backing band, which gave them the idea for what they first just simply called "The Songwriters Project."

Album: Beast Moans - Swan Lake

Beast Moans is an interesting amalgamation of the the contributors' other works. The twisting herky-jerky of Frog Eyes, with some attention to pop structure ala Wolf Parade, and the grand...scratch that... the bombast of Destroyer... it really is an incredible sum of it's parts. "The Freedom" is the killer Destroyer number, "All Fires" is Krug's latest scribed gem ala Wolf Parade, and while "City Calls" starts out all Frog Eyes, it ends up weaving it's way through it's creators idioms and ending up as something all itself.

Speaking of creators, Krug has been one busy dude, playing and singing on a lot of great albums in the past couple years. Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, and even a guest appearance on Islands excellent debut Return to the Sea makes for a nice playlist.

Playlist: Spencer Krug gets around

Previously:
As the wealthy American Underground wept (Destroyer's Rubies)

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4 comments:

Shawn Anderson said...

Swan Lake - Beast Moans

1. Widow's Walk
2. Nubile Days
3. City Calls
4. A Venue Called Rubella
5. All Fires
6. The Partisan But He's Got To Know
7. The Freedom
8. Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914
9. The Pollenated Girls
10. Bluebird
11. Pleasure Vessels
12. Are You Swimming In Her Pools?
13. Shooting Rockets

Shawn Anderson said...

Spencer Krug gets around:

1. All Fires - Swan Lake
2. I'll Believe in Anything - Wolf Parade
3. Swans (Life After Death) - Islands
4. Stadiums And Shrines II - Sunset Rubdown
5. Miasma Gardens - Frog Eyes

Anonymous said...

In response to the link on my blog: You are the first person who has done one of those things who is WAY better looking than all of the celebs it came up with. I don't even get 90% of the look a likes it came up with for you.

Shawn Anderson said...

uh...
{{{{blush}}}}
...thank you

(background on this thread)

but... um... Prince William? Richard Gere? My wife sort of agrees with you, but she's sort of biased ;) Seeing Shalom Harlow and Kristen Davis in there reinforces a few folks' belief that I'd make a decent drag queen.

I have to say that yours was spot on, as far as celebrities go. It's garbage in garbage out om reverse... put in a smoking hot pic, you get some smoking hot lookalikes.