Long Long Long

Alanis Morrisette.
Nickelback.
Celine Dion.
Bryan Adams.
Avril Lavigne.

The above rogues gallery does not (I hope) make for a particularly impressive musical line up. And sadly, these deplorable excuses for musicians (Nickelback especially. Friggin' hate Nickelback) represent the primary musical output of the Western world's favourite peculiar cousin- Canada.

It's often said, and clearly with good reason, that Canadian's just don't make good music. Apart from Neil Young, The Band and (yes I'm serious) Michael Buble, they've not produced any great evidence to the contrary.*



That's why I was incredibly intrigued when, over the weekend, I logged onto music website The Line of Best Fit and saw an article entitled "Oh! Canada Road Trip Part 4: Halifax Pop Explosion". Huh? Canada on a credible and respected indie music website? This had to be investigated.

So I clicked and began reading and was rewarded almost instantly. First of all, I had no idea that the Halifax Pop Explosion explosion existed. It's a city wide indie music festival lasting 5 days, similar to Texas' SXSW Festival. TLOBF have covered the week on their musical tour of Canada and the first band in their coverage was Long Long Long.

I got drawn to this band a) because the article said that they already had a big local following and that their fans/friends were drunkenly singing along to every word at their Pop Exlosion set and b) there was a picture.

My enquiries have been richly rewarded! If you like upbeat indie guitar music then this has your name written all over it. These guys have definitely got something of the recent US indie surf revival thing going on, a la The Drums (but they're actually very different from The Drums). Their songs are oddly structured and lilt and tilt all over the place, but in a wonderfully catchy way that just sounds so poppy and upbeat! Their guitar lines bounce and leap all over the place, the bass stabs at fantastically exotic rhythmical intervals, the drumming is just downright funky. They really remind of Vampire Weekend musically, though they're reminiscent of bands like Pixies too. It's fantastic guitar music, and though it may sound like it owes a lot to Long Long Long's American cousins, there is something very different between these guys and, let's say, The Drums. These songs just seem a lot more clever and experimental than stuff that The Drums and their wave of imitators produce. More than anyone I'd say they remind me of Los Campesinos!, one of the cleverest and most charming yet energetic British bands of recent years. Now I'm not suggesting that Long Long Long will change your life or spearhead a sudden takeover of new, ingenious Canadian indie bands. Or am I?.......

Click here for their MySpace and if you like that and want to go one better, click here to download their brilliant EP Shorts all for free. My favourite track is "Mandarin Collars With Women". Hope you enjoy, and if you investigate please comment below with your thoughts!



*PS- I humbly confess that I forgot Crystal Castles and Arcade Fire are Canadian. But still. Nickelback may just be THAT bad...