Vancouver music release roundup - spring edition

Howard Bashaw's set of 15 short piano pieces (sensibly entitled 15 for Piano), takes the piano apart bit by bit, but then moves on to deconstruct your powers of critical reasoning as well. His logic is inescapable even if his musical source material is obtuse. No matter. Pianist Roger Admiral tackles the technical challenges Bashaw has set before him with enough ferocity to validate the album's cover photo. -JH

Also, Roger Admiral performs Bashaw's 15 for Piano live in a CD Release Concert Pyatt Hall (next to the Orpheum) Wednesday, May 13 at Wednesday, May 13 at 7:30 PM.

665 isn’t IPO’s IPO. Long-time leader of the local no-fi scene, Trevor McEachran has posted much music to his Bandcamp page over the past four years or so. Something must have happened when he saw that starving pitbull on a short chain watching children play with a hubcap, because the Overcoats have never been so industrial. Only three tracks in length, but by far the most interesting material in his catalogue. Enjoy blasts of noisy synth, progressive drum programming, and frantic vocal work. -NL

If you missed the recent Fox Cabaret kick-off of Rodney DeCroo's cross-Canada tour, you also missed the release of his new album, Campfires on the Moon. Too bad. Decroo is well on his way to becoming a municipal treasure. His music is a marvel in its own right, but what makes this album so wonderful is how DeCroo deadpans his way through all those man-boy angst-ridden lyrics. His melodies are invariably monotone but the unexpected twists and turns he throws in coupled with his gloriously out-of-tune singing make DeCroo unique on many levels…

Perhaps "Young with You" will sum it up nicely enough:

"So please don’t say you’re sorry, 
I don’t need that from you, 
To be young is to be reckless, 
I’m glad I was young with you."

And "I was a stupid boy in an ugly town" is also a fine earworm if ever there were. -JH