Saturday, July 09, 2005

Tam & The Vampires


Not associated.

If Daniel Johnston was not an overweight and lonely man, but nay, instead a refugee from a Django Reinhardt jazz band, amateur cartoonist, he would be a she, and her name would be Tam, of Tam and the Vampires, who will soon be known to Byron Coley/Thurston Moore fans when some of her music is released by their Ecstatic Peace label. Below are a couple of tracks...

Tam & The Vampires - Incest At Best.mp3

Tam chooses to open the album with a cover of Daddy's Hands Incest At Best, heard on their last release Tutankhamun. Not the first Daddy's Hands cover to reach, that other Victorian Dave, David Barclay managed that feat on the Diskettes' split cassette with the Port City All-Stars. This actually isn't that terrible, even if the production and some of the vocal emoting owes a bit more to a portion of a decade everyone would rather not hear about right now (hey, early 90s!), Tam does have a strong voice, and it's a great song. Hopefully this will tide you over until the newest Daddy's Hands album comes out.

Tam & The Vampires - No Cars Go

There was the Vitaminsforyou remix, an mp3 blogger favourite, and now there's Tam's rendition of The Arcade Fire's No Cars Go... According to a story I heard, Tam presented a tape to Thurston Moore, who spoke enthusiastically of this song, unaware at the time that it was an Arcade Fire song.

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I headed to the Dandi Wind / Gentleman Reg / Final Fantasy show at Sala Rosa a little late tonight, only managing to catch Final Fantasy's set, which was enjoyable enough, though truthfully I liked his stage banter more than the performance. Not feeling it, I suppose. Apparently Dandi Wind wasn't as eagerly received as they deserve to be. The place was, as Szam remarked "full of bearded bloggers." I don't have a beard.

I also missed Gentleman Reg's set, which somebody (no names) told me was music crafted specifically to appear on the soundtrack to teen-dramas. I don't know if that was a crib from Lorraine Carpenter's Mirror article on Owen from Final Fantasy, where a side-project he was involved was described as having similar intentions.

Speaking of which, upstarts S.L.U.M. have told me that the Dandi Wind record's gone out for print, and Duchess Says should be finished their recording for their SLUM debut by the end of next week. Given the amount of time they've been able to put into updating their website, they must be somewhat busy. There's a good chance that there will be a SLUM event later this fall with the aforementioned bands and Vancouver's own DJing dynamo MY!GAY!HUSBAND!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

dandi wind weren't eagerly received cause they were boring. and despite what they might think, insulting toronto doesn't automatically earn a montreal crowd's respect, it just reeks of shameless pandering.

Jay Watts III said...

Just the sort of shameless pandering I love!

Anonymous said...

a crib? i don't read newspapers, let alone columnists. all the teen drama insight came from a conversation with guillaume and i hardly think he peruses anglo weeklies, either.

i think owen's banter is a highlight, too. his prom story was brilliant.

Greg said...

A Vancouver band living in Montreal and insulting Toronto is kinda funny. Didn't like Dandi Wind much when they were west coast... still not a fan. Owen rocks, though. So does Reg.

Andrew Rose said...

Was kinda sad to miss this show, but had to get out of the city. Would have been the 6th time seeing Owen this year, though; I figured I could go without, as great a performer as he is. I'm sure Dounia enjoyed it enough for all of us. I still don't get the Dandi Wind thing...

Jay Watts III said...

...And I don't get Wilco, Andrew, so we're even. It's like, backgrounds, bro!

Jeremy Brendan said...

Personally, I think that this Tam band has ruined one of my favourite songs.

It's like they took all the chutzpah out of it and replaced it with a wooden, monotone mannequin, nothing but a sad imitation.

Just my opinion! Please, no flames! I have a sunburn covering 80 percent of my body right now. (Family Reunion this weekend, lots of beach volleyball)

Cheers,
JB.

Jay Watts III said...

The Daddy's Hands song or the Arcade Fire song? Ain't no chutzpah in Arcade Fire, maybe some WASPish cheek?

Jeremy Brendan said...

Goyim can have chutzpah too!

Seriously, a song can rock (ie. have chutzpah) regardless of the denomination it's progenitor hails from.

Cheers,
JB.

P.S. See you at the Silent Film Soundtrack show?

Natasha, Dissonants, Silent Film Soundtrack @ Missy Bar, July 30th.