MuchMore.ca

The 5th annual record store day is getting close, it goes down April 21st. So to get you ready, the first 3 Matt Tracks this week are by artists who will have exclusive releases this year to help support independent record stores.

fun. ft Janelle Monae – We are Young (2012)

The Format was a rock band formed in Arizona in the early 2000’s. They started out strong but eventually got lost in the shuffle when their label, Electra Records, was absorbed by Atlantic Records, and the band broke up after just two albums. Not all was lost however because out of the ashes of The Format came a new band called fun. who scored a big hit this year with this song.

Record Store Day info:

Format: 10″ GEAR-SHAPED gold picture disc

Tracks:
1) We Are Young with Janelle Monae (Acoustic)
2) Carry On (Acoustic)
3) Why Am I The One (Acoustic)

Public Image Ltd. – Rise (1986)

After the Sex Pistols ended in the late 70’s, John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten) started a band called Public Image Ltd. The music sort of began as borderline noise rock, very heavy bass, with a new wave vibe. By 1986 the sound had become a little bit more accessible which was heard best on their 1986 hit Rise.

Record Store Day info:

Public Image Ltd confirm their first new material in 20 years will begin with the EP ‘One Drop’ released for ‘Record Store Day’ on April 21st. John Lydon describes the track as – “One Drop is a reflection of where I grew up in Finsbury Park, London. The area that shaped me, and influenced me culturally and musically, a place I will forever feel connected to.”

Regina Spektor – Samson (2006)

Anytime something emerges from the underground and is embraced by the masses, there is always a major backlash. It happened with punk, grunge, and it happened with folk music. The Greenwich Village folk scene in NYC at one time was a secret boiling pot of music that eventually became super commercialized, which resulted in something known as the anti-folk scene, and people like Billy Bragg, Beck, and Regina Spektor are products of it.

Record Store Day info:

Format: 7″ 45

Tracks:
1)”The Prayer of Francois Villon(Moltiva)”
2)”Old Jacket (Stariy Pedjak)”
Two unreleased tracks recorded in Regina’s native Russian.

The Bloody Five – (I Wanna go to) New York City (2012)

The Bloody Five are a band from Toronto who formed in High School (sort of). Now I know that doesn’t seem very extraordinary. Bands form in high school all the time, but The Bloody Five are different. They were born out of a talent show where students and teachers form a band and play some tunes together, but this band took that idea a little further because they kept making music after the talent show. They are a mix of teachers and former students and their first video is a cover of a tune by The Demics. The Demics were a punk band formed in London, Ontario around 1977 and this is widely considered one of the great Canadian songs of all time

Peter Katz – Posters (2009)

Peter Katz is a Canadian singer/songwriter who has collaborated with Glen Hansard of the Swell Season Fame and this year was nominated for a Juno. His nomination came in the music DVD category against artists like Rush, Feist and Tegan and Sarah who had very large budgets and huge productions, but Peter’s DVD was a budget of favours. It was never actually supposed to be a DVD. It was his CD release show and a film maker friend decided to film it the day before! Peter didn’t win the Juno, Feist did, but it says a lot about his music and how it was captured on film that they got the nomination and most importantly, a lot of new people found out about his music.