Author: Mary Mulholland

Neumo’s
Seattle, WA
March 7, 2007

A stalwart of Montreal’s rock ferment, Do Make Say Think consistently crafts elegant, meandering rock songs. Stripping song structures down to core elements, DMST take these strands—a guitar melody, the cool blow of a trumpet—and layer them with sounds to create universal, musical moods.

Rating:  6.0

I wouldn’t have predicted Explosions in the Sky to be such a popular band. They appeared on Conan O’Brian on February 20th, and an upcoming show at New York’s 1,500 capacity Webster Hall sold out a solid month in advance. Other successes have been easier to predict—the Smashing Pumpkins-influenced Silversun Pickups, the Led Zeppelin incarnate of Wolfmother—but the method behind Explosions in the Sky’s appeal remains more challenging. With shimmering, orchestral grandeur, their latest LP All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone is a provocative album of moody instrumental soundscapes. If you’re a fan of Sigur Ros or Mogwai, you’ll like Explosions in the Sky’s version as well.

Neumo’s
Seattle, WA
February 28, 2007

Montreal pop quintet Malajube takes risks. Their hugely operatic sophomore album Trompe L’Oeil veers into melodrama with drunken abandonment: like a friend made in a Parisian hostel, they’re loads of fun, mysterious and a little reckless—but in a way that only our less-jaded, foreign counterparts can be, they’re also somehow innocent and refreshingly free of self-consciousness.