3) Landmark - Apollo Ghosts (TOP 20 OF 2012)

Landmark

Apollo Ghosts

You've Changed Records.

Original SCQ Review.

That Apollo Ghosts, after achieving Skeleton Crew Quarterly’s crushing 90% score in the spring, don’t have the numero uno spot on this year-end list says more about the SCQ office than it does about Landmark. Nothing says “black sheep” like a punk-fueled, impossibly catchy rock record surrounded by a growing proclivity for post-classical, ambient, sad-sack, etc-music but Apollo Ghosts made it stick with a ripe grove of riffs for the plucking. “What Are Your Influences?” spearheads an uninterrupted flow of tight guitar-rock and creative bluster without getting caught in ego or self-seriousness.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed but “indie-rock” has gradually become an oxymoron in parlance with popular music’s changing tide. To see that something has been lost amid the Grammy wins and high-profile crossover collaborations isn’t being contrary or snobbish; it’s understanding that embracing the mainstream means leaving the core need for independent music. Apollo Ghosts aren’t penning a new genre or stirring the cultural pot counter-clockwise but with “Weekend Fantasy”, “Why Can’t I Be the Man On Stage?”, “Guitar Brother” and virtually everything on show here, they’re a fresh reminder why real indie-rock cannot be topped. Oh, and you can grab that – for free, even – right here.

Landmark - Apollo Ghosts

Landmark

Apollo Ghosts

You’ve Changed Records / Bandcamp

SCQ Rating: 90%

“What Are Your Influences?” opens almost in mid-riff, its guitar cutting through my speakers and running me down with Apollo Ghosts’ heightened sense of purpose, something that, for one reason or another, hadn’t been very clear on previous encounters. A goofy and raw performance in which Adrian Teacher wore a cape and took the most willing fans on an ‘exercise break’ into the streets outside the venue, 2010’s half-worthwhile Mount Benson; these collect my underwhelmed take on a band loaded with conviction but unsure how to effectively channel it.

In more than a handful of moments, Landmark still showcases the ramshackle, Pavement-adoring trio I watched tear through that sweaty opening slot two years ago, but that’s just to say that Apollo Ghosts still have their humour intact. On the whole, Landmark presents a ferocious change of pace and precision, reaching for (and attaining, no doubt) a diverse offering of smart indie-rock hooks with the authentic feel that champions most You’ve Changed Records releases. And while the band’s “influences” are indeed apparent – touching upon Sonic Youth (“Landmark”) and the Velvet Underground (“I’m In Love With the USA”), among others – they’re commandeered with a playfulness that has quickly become Apollo Ghosts’ calling card.

Landmark’s top highlights, which eventually distinguish themselves from a patchwork of rapid-fire punk-rock motifs, supersede any sway presented by those rock-and-roll titans. Take “Why Can’t I Be the Man On Stage?” which could arguably sound like a great many bands but also sounds explicitly like Apollo Ghosts honing into a ripe mix of 60s jangle and 80s, NYC dissonance. Same goes for “So Much Better When You’re Gone”, a break-up song coated in cloudy ambience, where Teacher’s lyrics and tone – both painfully direct and gentle – shapes it into an ideal song for peacefully pushing everyone away. When these songs are heard amid Landmark’s fluid, riff-based swampiness, it’s difficult to overstep what a massive achievement these thirty-four minutes represent; that, in seemingly no time at all, Apollo Ghosts have graduated to the forefront of Canada’s uncompromising independent scene.

Shit Camera Exposé: Apollo Ghosts / Dog Day (Raw Sugar Café)

Years ago, SCQ decided not to review live shows because watching a band critically and attempting to translate the evening’s mood into a blog-post inevitably distracted me from savoring the moment and socializing.

Going to shows alone is different, though. Sure, you react strangely between sets on instinct, wandering the venue to keep occupied, fidgeting through your bag to avoid doing nothing. But there’s also a freedom when friends aren’t locking you in, shoulder-to-shoulder. Nothing prevents you from moving seats several times during a show, taking nonsense pictures with your shit camera, or viewing the venue and its happenings like an undisturbed fly on the wall. Maybe I want to review live shows after all. Introducing Shit Camera Exposé:

No sooner had I walked into Raw Sugar Café, nestled humbly in Ottawa’s Chinatown, when I was escorted out by a leaping, cape-adorned man and his small tribe of dancing fans. Meet Adrian Teacher, vocalist and guitarist for Apollo Ghosts, the Vancouver-based trio who opened the night's bill. Superhero façade aside, Teacher seemed to possess the energy of a grade-school educator (which he is...?), pointing out show-goers to participate, and after our impromptu jog around a Chinese pavilion out front, I caught how that vigor propelled the band’s performance.

Chugging through a tougher version of ‘To A Friend Who Has Been Through a War’ and dedicating ‘Salmon Capital’, their “prog-rock song if we could do prog-rock”, to Dog Day’s Seth Smith, Apollo Ghosts brought Mount Benson to life with all of that record’s quirky yelps and tight riffs. If you were aching for something brooding or insular, this set would’ve exiled you to the bar. Hell, if you got any closer to the stage, Teacher would’ve made you carry him throughout the band’s throw-down of ‘Things You Go Through’. I should know; I was responsible for his legs.

Drag that so much of the audience seemed oblivious to the material, though, as I typically had to prompt clapping after each song cause nobody knew how short these tracks are independently. No kidding, I kinda felt sorry for a lot of these onlookers, who were unable to mentally stitch Apollo Ghosts’ minute-long jams into the greater sequencing of Mount Benson's weirdo-majesty. Those in the know caught their contagious buoyancy straightaway and I was pleased to catch a few people carrying Mount Benson vinyl after the set.

No matter what show I attend, there’s always a chick wearing a red dress so tight she can hardly stand, yet dancing anyway. Raw Sugar Café had one of those, as well as several aside-worthy curios that seemed out-of-place for a rock venue. About the size of my apartment and scattered with peculiar chairs and retro vinyl couches, the setting appeased an intimate, albeit sweating, crowd. Having last seen Dog Day play a raucous gig at the expansive Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, I couldn’t imagine how they’d finesse their songs for such quaint quarters.

It ended up being a non-issue since Dog Day are touring as the paired-down duo of Smith and Nancy Urich. Explaining early to the crowd that they’ve moved into the woods outside Halifax and abandoned mankind, Dog Day (Smith on guitar, Urich on drums, and occasionally trading places) launched into a mob of new tracks that sounded as urgent as their Concentration material, if more groove-oriented. And although I’d scored what was easily the most embarrassing chair on site (leopard-print with metallic armrests, yes), I couldn’t remain seated when fresh songs like ‘Final Fight’ (available to stream on their Myspace) and ‘Living In the Woods’ (working title, maybe) pounded so savagely, yet so vulnerably.

Smith rocked some wonderfully discordant solos while Urich stared excitedly forward during each song, nearly frothing over her drum-kit. Ending the set with an outstanding trilogy of tracks – a new one sung by Urich, ‘Stray’ off Concentration, and an extended ‘Warm Regards’ from New Problems – Dog Day gave a thoroughly promising glimpse of their future as a duo. Promising because, from all accounts, nothing crucial has changed. Smith’s songwriting, his and Urich’s subdued vocal exchanges; that’s what Dog Day has always been, and thankfully what unflinchingly remains.

I’ll miss their on-stage axe-battles, but who knows what future tours will look like. Smith openly admits that they had barely a month to prep for this current excursion westward from SappyFest, and that Urich learned the drums in that tight span of time. For something born under such pressure, Dog Day has never looked so natural.

Mount Benson - Apollo Ghosts

Mount Benson

Apollo Ghosts
Independent.

SCQ Rating: 73%

Around this time of year, when mild breezes beckon our windows open and sunny days convince us to wander the outdoors underdressed, an album will usually arrive bearing extroverted tunes with a classic-rock veneer. At first its arrival may seem commonplace, its chugging electric guitars merely conventional, but this annual occurrence of an album awakens the side of me summer left behind and, in every song, I hear its buoyant chords from the Muskoka chair in my mind. Mount Benson, the sophomore full-length by B.C. natives Apollo Ghosts, earns my bid for 2010’s Cottage Get-away Record.

With that imaginary award now on the table, I feel the need to make clear that beneath Apollo Ghosts’ indie-rock tones of warm guitar, nothing about Mount Benson is conventional. Littering thirteen songs over the course of twenty-five minutes and having most undergo sudden structural upheavals, the trio of Adrian Teacher, Amanda Panda and Jay Oliver would seem intent on sabotaging themselves if these songs weren’t so damn addictive! ‘Hub City’ and ‘Charms of Cars’ feature Pavement’s spindly-wired guitar bits and slacker pacing, not to mention Teacher’s vocals which range from a ponderous Stephen Malkmus to an unleashed, DIY holler. These fun-loving exercises in off-kilter rock are tempered by the Belle & Sebastian-esque ‘To a Friend Who Has Been Through a War’ and ‘Brown To Grey’, a disarmingly succinct boy/girl duet. Both are poignant reminders that Apollo Ghosts get by just fine without the electric juice. All of these stylistic departures would get tiresome if it sounded as though Apollo Ghosts put effort into them, but every swing of the compass needle occurs at such an organic level, you hardly double-take when ‘Things You Go Through’ delivers a straight-forward anthem anyone can relate to.

In fact, of the many pools cannonballed throughout Mount Benson, Teacher & Co. never sound out of their element or against the current of better judgement. Some listeners will commend such versatility while others will wish Apollo Ghosts had committed themselves to fleshing out some of their many flash-in-the-pan moments of genius. As someone stuck between these two opinions, I still insist that Mount Benson benefits from its relentless, if haphazard, idea-plucking. Being blindsided by a swift assault of clever lyrics and burrowed emotion will always supersede getting what you expect and, if you feel the same way, Mount Benson might just be your new favourite album. Cottage or no cottage.