Wolf Parade - Expo 86

i was considering starting a bunch of threads for this record, but we'll keep it to one this time:

from [Removed Illegal Link]:

Wolf Parade are back. Late last year, the members of the Montreal band took a break from their various other bands (Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs, Swan Lake, Moonface) and reconvened to work on their third album, which is titled Expo 86.

The follow-up to 2008's At Mount Zoomer is due for a late June or early July release on Sub Pop.

P4k links are now illegal, apparently. take two: http://pitchfork.com/news/38371-wolf-parade-announce-third-album-iexpo-86i/

I'm excited. Really loved At Mount Zoomer, not to mention the most recent albums by the first two side projects listed there.

Lol at the illegal link for pitchfork

mount zoomer was awesome. they took the proggy road that a lot of acts have been going down lately, but did it in a way that didn't sound overblown. really interested in hearing what this record sounds like after boeckner's description of it being "a mix of both records."

test

hm, not illegal

link doesn't work

now it works

good job penis breath

TS: Expo '70 vs. Expo '86

Psyched about this. Initial reaction to Apologies was tepid, esp. compared to the saturation of love for these guys in Montreal at the time. That said, I loved the fuck out of At Mount Zoomer which got a bad rap (if not a critical rap, a...popular rap? i dunno. it felt ignored somehow) due to the fact that it wasn't Apologies Redux.

Except Apologies has been totally ruling my spring-time thus far, and I'm looking back at Alex in 2005 going WHAT IS RONG WITH YOU?!?!, so no matter what these guys come up with, I'm bound to be please.

Initial reaction to Apologies was tepid

i don't remember the initial reaction being tepid in the states. i'd say they were way overhyped from the outset here. still, i like wolf parade, and i'm kind of excited about the new disc.

oh i meant. MY initial reaction

like...montreal was going APESHIT for it, and I was underwhelmed.

(since then I've come around, clearly)

they have a great video where the singer has four heads stacked on top of each other. funny!

four heads stacked on top of each other!

montreal hype 2005 otm. i have some friends who still stan for at mount zoomer, and i thought it was good enough but ultimately nowhere near as affecting and exciting as apologies. i spent a solid week listening to amz very regularly and it was a good time and all but nothing resonated in a lasting way, and i haven't been inclined to put it back on since. sunset rubdown keep getting better and better but if this isn't really good wp might miss their chance.

man i do not get sunset rubdown at all.

so much yelping.

TS: Expo '70 vs. Expo '86

― Venus in Fursuit (Future_Perfect), Friday, April 2, 2010 5:00 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

'70 obv

loved apologies, although it kind of makes me embarrassed since I loved it during my "indie rock is the only music worth listening to" phase and I don't know how I'd rate it today. I never really got into at mt. zoomer, just sounded like a lot of crunchy noodling to me.

mt zoomer has some jams -- fine young cannibals is up there with the best stuff on apologies -- language city & kissing the behive are both great too

saw them on the first run of dates after mt zoomer & they ripped, so that was cool too

sunset rubdown keep getting better and better

yeah - it seemed like spencer was responsible for all the best pop moments on apologies

loved apologies, although it kind of makes me embarrassed since I loved it during my "indie rock is the only music worth listening to" phase and I don't know how I'd rate it today. I never really got into at mt. zoomer, just sounded like a lot of crunchy noodling to me.

― ain't no thang but a chicken ㅋ (dyao), Saturday, April 3, 2010 2:38 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^ what he said

i'm pretty sure that apologies still has mega jams

for sure, i just haven't felt the urge to put it on in years. it's weird that i can say "years" and mean it totally literally. was just thinking that i used to sing along to guns n roses "paradise city" "not like when i was a little kid, but when i was 16.....which was 8 years ago."

I remember buying Apologies at Best Buy in 2005 . . .

innocent times & shit

2 new tracks, via pfrk:

http://pitchfork.com/news/38417-listen-two-new-wolf-parade-songs/

pretty underwhelming.

Spencer Krug: "The question I asked of most of the songs was whether or not I would dance to them."

thats the main problem i guess.

dear wolf parade,

if you want people to enjoy listening to your records please write catchy hooks and melodies into the songs. sunset rubdown do it, handsome furs do it, yet you insist on saving the most hookless groaning boring shit for the wolf parade lps. whats up with that?

yours,

-sam

oh my there's like, palm muted metal guitars on two songs

somebody else listen to the leak and convince me not to hate this

Um. Little Golden Age has a nice groove to it? Ghost Pressure kicks decently hard as well.

I've been enjoying it a lot, but can't quite put my finger on why. Part of me feels as though it's not a lack of hooks but something to do with the production aesthetic. Apologies, even in its mellow moments, has an immediacy and a presence in the foreground that really makes you pay attention.

Even my favourite songs on At Mount Zoomer don't pop as much as they should/could.

But I'm not sure why I'm underselling this - for a record I've only heard three times, it's already grown on me significantly from first listen.

having the same feeling toward the album. i like it, but i don't know why exactly. it sounds like wolf parade, but it doesn't sound like wolf parade repeating themselves. i want to see them play these songs live, because now that the keyboardist is out, they're swapping instruments a lot more. sounds like he pushed them out of their comfort zone a bit.

like the new new pornos record, the guitars have much more of a presence production-wise. the result isn't crunchy so much as it is just riffy and good.

i really loved, and still love, zoomer. i don't feel as though there's a boring moment on it. some songs are better than others, but i would still rank it as one of the best records from '08.

I heard all these dudes are originally from BC and are relocating back there.

I used to play in a band with Spencer Krug when he was 15. He'd hitchhike up to Kelowna from Penticton for rehearsals. It was good times.

Looking forward to this record. I feel like even though I don't wholeheartedly love any of their records, I need to pay attention. And I don't feel like that about Sunset Rubdown or Handsome Furs.

I used to play in a band with Spencer Krug when he was 15.

Really? That's awesome!

samosa otm upthread. although i haven't heard expo, zoomer was really really dull (from what i can remember of it, which was very little), yet sunset rubdown is amazing stuff. i did like apologies, so i'm hoping this album will be a goodun.

this album is significantly more boring than the already kind of boring at mount zoomer

sam you are right, last SR album was amazing, so i was really anticipating this. maybe they are just going through the motions to deliver an album to sub pop under the wolf parade name.

I think this is really good, actually.

You guys are mad, Zoomer was awesome.

zoomer was pretty sweet tbh -- it got underrated -- also killer live show on that tour

All of their albums are best appreciated after 3-5 listens.

ok but like, i could barely get through listening to this once. literally nothing, not at any one moment did anything grab me or make me feel good

indie rock, what a disappointment

i'm basically hoping that ilx consensus will crush me and make me feel like an idiot for not giving this a chance so i can muster up the patience to listen to this album again

there are probably four ppl total here who care enough to listen even once

So then don't listen to it and shut up.

no thanks

there's a bit too much bitching going on in here. i generally don't mind bitching but no one is even explaining what they find boring, or why those things are boring to them.

i think the songs are sharp. they're a good mix between the adventurousness/experimentation from zoomer and the tightly wound pop jams from apologies. i think what's perhaps most disappointing about the album is that there's a general lack of weirdness going on. even krug seems rather together, which is unusual. but that's not to say that the album doesn't still have that unpredictability to it. it just sounds like they're a bit more certain of what they're doing now.

ksh - piss off yeah?

for the rec - loved apologies - lots of memorable bits, especially the "wolfy" backing vocals. Zoomer just didn't grab me in any way.

haha shouldn't people be upset at me? xp

nah dude, that's my job

sorry ksh, drunk btw

no prob dude

borntohula, maybe i didn't express it well, but i do have a pretty big actual criticism of this album; it's got no immediate, catchy hooks or memorable moments at first blush. i love wolf parade and i hope this album grows on me, but so far it feels like all it's doing is making a show out of testing my patience. i never found they were too interesting instrumentally, solid but not great, and without strong vocal parts it just sounds like they're wasting time. like, i can't believe this is the same band that started an album with "i am a runner."

krug always wrote the better songs

my two best moments of wp are the "lalalalalalaaaa" bits on sons and daughters of hungry ghosts and the similarly cool "ooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh" bits on modern world.

i generally don't mind bitching but no one is even explaining what they find boring, or why those things are boring to them.

All boring albums are alike; each exciting album is exciting in its own way.

wouldn't it be the other way around?

or, i guess unhappy families could make exciting albums

borntohula, maybe i didn't express it well, but i do have a pretty big actual criticism of this album; it's got no immediate, catchy hooks or memorable moments at first blush. i love wolf parade and i hope this album grows on me, but so far it feels like all it's doing is making a show out of testing my patience. i never found they were too interesting instrumentally, solid but not great, and without strong vocal parts it just sounds like they're wasting time. like, i can't believe this is the same band that started an album with "i am a runner."

haha there we go, that's all i was asking for. i totally get what you're saying about them not being too interesting instrumentally.

happy families make boring records.

reviews seem weirdly muted and conflicted. the p4k one basically mirrors the gist of this thread. Not sure I'll make the effort then

Just picked this up today and haven't had a chance to listen to chime in with my thoughts yet, but I gotta say that I LOVE the artwork. The pull out sleeve that holds the disc has the 'EXPO 86' in big letters matching the title font on the front. But then the disc itself is designed exactly like CDs were back in the second half of the eighties - the really big 'Compact DISC' logo prominent and the old-school tracklisting. I'm a sucker for little details like that, and part of why I can't completely give up on physical media.

haha sweet - wonder how the LP looks like

Saw them tonight. Say what you will about the new album (which I can't really comment on because I haven't heard much of it) but they still put on an amazing show.

1st listen - loving it. Zoomer-ish in that it's not a pop record by any stretch. But there's a really great post-punk-prog thing going on here, just big jams. I love the interlocking instrument parts - keys meshing with guitars, guitars meshing with guitars, and the vocals acting nearly as padding. Something in this reminds me of Television, and something of Big Country is tugging at my sleeve (tho I'll have to go back to the BC albums, which I haven't played in years, to figure out what that might be). Helps playing it really loud. Another beer should help auditory appreciation circa Disc 2 as well. *rockin' devil horns*

Disc two?

On vinyl it's a double album. Am vindicated, too - end of Side 2 there's a Big Country rip so obvious it has to be conscious! Also, beer is awesome.

Haha, okay. I was wondering if I missed out on some special edition or something. Love this band so much.

New single on iTunes. One from Spencer, one from Dan. Both new. Both excellent, actually.

this disc just arrived on emusic. but this thread's making me wonder if it's worth the effort.

There's no thread on Moonface anywhere? Too bad. Spencer's new stuff is getting underrated. Took a long while for it to click, with me, but now...

Thought I'd leave this here, bc I'm pretty proud of it - a <a href="http://hour.ca/2011/08/04/moonface-spencer-alone/";>Moonface profile</a> for a montreal paper.

i consider myself a Krug superfan, but this record has not yet clicked for me. great piece, though. love the part about montreal winters.

moonface is a nice enough iteration while i wait for the next Sunset Rubdown. Loved the first two WP albums, couldn't get into Expo 86 (will try again - thanx thread). weirdly the best expo 86 track isn't even on the album (semi-precioius stone). Krug knocked it out of the park with Dragonslayer and I basically just want more of that.

ya dragonslayer fuckin ruled

You know what's great? California Dreamer from the second WP album. That and everythign by Sunset Rubdown. Love it!

You know what's great? California Dreamer from the second WP album.

― Why'd You Wanna Tweet Me So Bad? (dog latin), Friday, August 5, 2011 7:22 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Words of truth. Underrated classic.

i dont think either of them have come close to writing songs as good as anything off apologies but the sunset rubdown albums are definitely closest. i have almost no memory of listening to either of the other wp albums even tho i listened to them quite a bit at the time ¯\(O_o)/¯