[spotlight] : Wolf Parade

expo 86:

"the name of Wolf Parade’s third LP, out June 29, 2010. And it’s the catchy name of the World’s Fair held in Vancouver, summer of 1986, where five young boys first became friends, just outside the Cars of the Future exhibit, and made a SECRET PACT (whoa!) to meet up in the early 2000s (wha?)—somewhere cool, like Africa or even the moon by then—-to form a rock band! ROCK BAND! With guitars and guitar solos and synthesizers! They would call it Wolf Parade!"  -subpop



They say "it was made QUICKLY" but after a couple of listens, the album is solid. Written in November 2009, and recorded and mixed in Montreal at the Hotel2Tango in the beginning of this year, the album sounds as if they wanted to "LITERALLY just PUKE THE SONGS RIGHT OUT OF OUR HEADS, RIGHT ONTO OUR INSTRUMENTS!” The sense of immediacy and right-now is on every track.. but thats not to say Wolf Parade have lost their classic vibe either, just the opposite.

According to the band "various stoppers-by at the studio, as well as staff, were heard contemplating how the record is, “sort of like INXS, but also, and mostly, not like INXS at all.” Engineer / producer Howard Bilerman says the band was, “well-organized.” Furthermore, one member of the band has talked at length about how the songs remind him of the cartoon musical notes that float playfully from speakers in Archie comics."

When we scratched our heads in confusion, and ask for some kind of clairification, the band provided this completely true anecdote:

 In an effort to realize a “music video for every song” sort of concept, the band sent rough mixes to eleven different video directors, all of whom varied in style, genre, and professional circle. Each director was given just one of the eleven songs on the album. However, upon receiving the various treatments back in response, the band was surprised to discover that, though every director was given a different song, each video contained a similar, if not identical scene. Each filmmaker wanted the bulk of the video to feature a red Ferrari speeding through a dry, sunny desert, creating great billows of dust, with the driver having his/her right hand on the wheel and the other hand jutting out the window giving the “middle finger” to the camera and the surrounding world. Sometimes the treatment would use a Corvette, not a Ferrari, maybe black, maybe red. Sometimes the driver would be a man, sometimes a woman, and sometimes a bottle of whisky would be lying on the passenger seat. But that’s about as far as the variations went. In each and every treatment the same three images dominated the screen: a fast car, the desert, and the middle finger.

When the band asked each director why having such a scene in the video was so important, each one answered pretty much the same: “It’s what the music WANTS.”

You know what, I refuse to try and describe it to you guys any further..just go buy the album and find out for yourself. It is THAT good.

 [watch]




 [listen]

• Wolf Parade - What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way) (MP3)
  
  
  
  tag | digg this!
• Wolf Parade - Ghost Pressure (MP3)

[order]

• CD - $12  —  PRE-ORDER
  
  
  2XLP - $18—  PRE-ORDER

 [on tour]

• Thursday, July 8, 2010 - Le National (QC), Montreal Canada
  w/ The Moools [All Ages!] - www.lenational.ca
• Friday, July 9, 2010 - Le National (QC), Montreal Canada
  w/ The Moools [All Ages!] - www.lenational.ca
• Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - Louis' Pub, Saskatoon Canada
  w/ the Moools [+16 and up!]
• Thursday, July 22, 2010 - Republik, Calgary Canada
  w/ the Moools [+18 and up!]
• Friday, July 23, 2010 - Starlight Room, Edmonton Canada
  w/ the Moools [+18 and up!]
• Sunday, July 25, 2010 - Vogue Theatre (BC), Vancouver Canada
  w/ the Moools [All Ages!]

[web]

• www.subpop.com/artists/wolf_parade
• www.myspace.com/wolfparade