SHMAT RECORDS

The History of Shmat Records
... from the Shmat Records website

Once upon a time, there were many, many Peoples in the world. These Peoples would often listen to music coming out of shiny black discs that they would place on top of groovy silver boxes. They would all get together and have a party and drink mashed strained fermented grain and have a general good time.

After awhile, the Peoples invented other ways to listen to music. These involved magnetized particles on plastic tape, funny plastic metal disc sandwiches, and boxes that made streams of numbers into music. They'd put devices on their ears, in their vehicles, in their pockets, and in their houses. The Peoples were all goodly happy, because the interesting music they liked was readily available and there was a huge variety of it. Lots of Peoples Money was being happily traded for the plastic metal sandwiches. And there was still much fermented grain being drunk.

But among the Peoples who created the plastic metal sandwiches, there began movement of some really cragee Peoples who decided that they could get boatloads more Peoples Money by concentrating only on the music that tended to bring them the most of it. So whenever a particular sandwich made a lot of Peoples Money, they'd encourage and promote and create sandwiches that sounded very similar. Eventually, all the sandwiches sounded same. Everyone listened to what everyone else listened to. This was ok for the majority of the Peoples, but quite a few of them were sad that the music had become very boring, very lackluster, and sometimes very, very stupid.

Then came the One Shmat. He brought with him an idea that there should be variety and differences in the styles of music being made. He also noted that if certain Peoples didn't like the types of the music in the mainstream sandwiches, they could make their own and distribute it to other like-minded Peoples. So the One Shmat gathered up a few Peoples and formed a group in a town called Alhambra dedicated to releasing interesting music sandwiches that didn't cost too much. Sometimes the sandwiches had music that wasn't quite as sonically pleasing to certain Peoples, but the One Shmat said that this wasn't as important as providing different types of music.

The One Shmat decided to call his group of Peoples:
SHMAT RECORDS

+ light sleeper *pop song
+ tigerella *tidepool
+ carte blanche *summer's end
+ avoidance theory *neck of the works

The 'FEIST' frost

You may not have heard of Leslie Feist, but you likely have heard her. From punk beginnings in Calgary's 'Placebo', to Toronto's 'By Divine Right', 'Royal City'(Guelph, Ontario), and 'Broken Social Scene' - with sidetrips along the way with Peaches and Chilly Gonzales - she hasn't been 'Haydening' in her room writing songs.
In mid-May she released her second solo album 'Let it Die', (the first being 1999's 'Monarch') under the name Feist. Recorded in Paris at famed Studio Ferber (Nina Simone, Serge Gainsbourg), the album will fall softly against rock friendly ears. There is a sixties feel to the songs a la Dionne Warwicke/Burt Bacharach... but, that voice... even when she is singing in as detached a manner as possible('Jhai' singing - pronounced hay - a term coined by Feist and Gonzales), it's beauty and power cannot be denied. Turning her talent in this direction, you can almost see the frost in the air.


Listen to...

+ Mushaboom + gatekeeper + one evening

Mr. Gilbert of The Big Ticket has an "Apostle of Hustle" track which features Leslie Feist - go here.

Here is a Broken Social Scene song with Feist using her powerful lungs to drive the band...
+Almost Crimes courtesy of betterPROPAGANDA

TED LEO

Ted Leo has always made me think of a cherry bomb, small, compact, capable of making a big noise, of causing some damage. Ready? Put on your helmets...


+ the angel's share
+ me and mia
both tracks from his upcoming CD, "Shake The Sheets", due Oct. 19th.

BTW - *The Homsars* are Ted and the boys.

The White Stripes // Elephant

The White Stripes put forth their best effort with their last album, "ELEPHANT". Haven't had the pleasure?

here you go

.:: the one am radio ::.

"The One AM Radio" makes quiet, dreamy pop, that often rests on a magnetic field of electronic beats - sometimes quivering, sometimes humming, sounding like the dreams of a lonely robot with a human heart.

.::the one am radio::.

The band is a duo, Hrishikesh Hirway and Jan Yakowitz, a violinist whom Hirway met while the two attended Yale. Originally, Hirway was alone in the endeavour and chose the name, "The One Am Radio", to try and stay out of the singer/songwriter category. Now, that is no longer a problem with the addition of Yakowitz, who is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. Together the two have released "The Hum Of Electric Air" in 2002, and "A Name Writ in Water" in 2004.

+ untied from "A Name Writ in Water"
+ flicker from "The Hum Of Electric Air"

the one am radio website

Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith is gone. That can't be changed, but he left so much of himself in the delicate phrases and guitar figures of his songs.

Fans are now awaiting the first posthumous release of Elliott Smith tunes, "From A Basement On The Hill", due on October 19th.

go here for "Either/Or"

elliott smith "either/or"

TOM WAITS live on LETTERMAN

Here is Tom Waits doing "MAKE IT RAIN" on the Letterman Show last week.


+ Make it Rain

"...The nite’s too quiet
Stretched out alone
I need the whip of thunder
And the winds dark moan
I’m not Able, I’m just Cain
Open up the heavens
Make it rain..."

*it sounds great!

Bob Marley // Soul Almighty - The Formative Years + LEGEND

I have always liked reggae, well, since I bought my first Bob Marley album, "Rastaman Vibration", when I was about 14, in London, Ontario. Since then I have only gotten into a couple of other reggae artists, Toots and the Maytals and Peter Tosh.
Saying that, for me no one holds a candle to Bob Marley and if by some freakin' miracle you haven't heard or known you were hearing Marley, here is a great starter, folders offering...

LEGEND and Soul Amighty - The Formative Years