Whaddya mean you don't know Fumaça Preta

When boutique record shop owners are allowed to cut their own albums, you get stuff like Fumaça Preta.

Steve Wynn vs. Lou Reed

Hear Steve and Lou tackle Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave is Kept Clean.

Candido records house classic 15 years early

Candido, joining Jane Bunnett at the Jazz Bistro this weekend, cut Thousand Finger Man in 1969.

Midweek Mixdown: Les Sins

The new Les Sins album "Michael" from Chaz Bundick (Toro y Moi) is out now. Les Sins hit the Hoxton Nov. 21.

Les Sins on Tour
11/12 Fortune Sound Club Vancouver, BC
11/13 1015 Folsom San Francisco, CA
11/15 Q Nightclub Seattle, WA
11/20 Verboten Brooklyn, NY
11/21 Hoxton Toronto, ON
11/22 Le Belmont Montreal, QC
12/03 U Street Music Hall Washington, DC
12/04 Bardot Miami Miami, FL
12/05 Smart Bar Chicago, IL
12/06 Vulcan Gas Company Austin, TX

Alex Pangman launches her New Orleans album "New" at Hugh's Room Monday

Alex Pangman felt right at home in the Crescent City with the hard swingin' Cottonmouth Kings.

Although the vivacious Alex Pangman will always be known as Canada's Sweetheart of Swing, the spirited Toronto jazz stylist has consistently resisted the temptation to retrace her steps.

Pangman's latest studio recording New – which she's showcasing Monday at Hugh's Room prior to the album's official release by Justin Time on Tuesday – delivers on the title's promise with a repertoire refreshing  selection of cool cookers cut in the historic Algiers section of New Orleans accompanied by the hard swinging members of the New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings.

"Without completely abandoning the style I've developed," explains Pangman, who continues to perform with her Alley Cats albeit bolstered by the Cottonmouth Kings' violinist Matt Rhody and bass saxophonist Tom Saunders  for the big reveal Monday night, "I wanted to try something different. For me, that meant working in a new studio, in a new town and singing songs I'd never done before with a whole new group of musicians. It's all about New.  "I'd been to New Orleans a number of times over the years and I just loved what heard, especially from the Cottonmouth Kings who are one of the most cohesive unit in town working in a 30s style."

Everything flows together so effortlessly on the New album, you'd think that Pangman had been singing with these characters for years. In fact, the 10 songs they recorded with Canadian ex-pat engineer Andrew "Goat" Gilchrist (Neville Brothers, Maceo Parker) in a converted 1930s wood-frame church called The Living Room is a document of their first musical encounter.

"It was all very exciting. I didn't know them, they didn't know me – it was a bit like going on a first date with the added element of knowing everything was being recorded.  "We had a rehearsal the day before starting to record where we ran through the tunes and discussed the various parts. It all came together very organically over two days with usually just three takes for each song. Of course, if someone hit on a cool riff or had an amazing exchange, we'd try another take or two with that new part added. I'm very pleased with the results – it has a nice sparkle."

Considering how busy they were during those two days recording as an ensemble, the New album sounds remarkably relaxed and spacious. While Pangman steers clear of the tired tropes and corny

Slim Twig's cult classic reissued by DFA

Slim Twig rocks the Silver Dollar on Friday, January 23.

Self-produced by Toronto's own Slim Twig in the fall of 2010, A Hound at the Hem is a suite of songs inspired thematically by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and musically by Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson. Upon completing AHATH, our man Slim found some difficulty getting his record label Paper Bag to release his epic psych-pop masterwork.

Admittedly, Twig's concept album sounded nothing like anything by Paper Bag's other artists. If you think back to what was being done at the time by bands on their roster – Tokyo Police Club, Rock Plaza Central, Winter Gloves, Cities In Dust, Rural Alberta Advantage, Woodhands, The Acorn, etc. – that's not really such a bad thing.

In any case, Twig went back to the studio and recorded a more conventional set of pop songs which Paper Bag happily put out as Sof' Sike in 2012. But rather than let what he considered to be his best work to date go unheard,  Twig issued AHATH in a limited edition of 300 copies on his own Calico Corp imprint via Pleasence Records in November of that year prefaced by the following explanation on his blog site:

"Two years ago I started work on a narrative album with my friend Louis Percival. We stayed on Toronto Island for a month arranging and recording. I spent a further year revising and overdubbing, mixing and re-mixing, conspiring the narrative in my own head. The result is A Hound at the Hem. The work of this album actually precedes Sof' Sike, and will now finally see release next month as a co-release between Calico Corp. & Pleasence Records.

"I consider this work - which fashions itself as the hard psych flipside to Sof' Sike - as my finest (and certainly densest) musical achievement to date. It features work from the very finest in the Toronto scene - (in the world truly, in my not so humble opinion) - including Louis Percival, Carl Didur, Tim Westberg, Meg Remy, Colin Fisher, & Tilman Lewis. It also features wonderful string arrangements by Owen Pallett, performed by the St. Kitts string quartet. I have a range of very intense memories from the work of this album, and truly the completion of it has changed me as a creative being.

"The album owes a sizable cosmic debt to Lolita, and to Histoire de Melody Nelson (Jean-Claude Vannier's visionary arrangements in particular)."

That miniscule initial pressing of 300 copies vanished soon after hitting the street and was well on the way to becoming one of those prized Canuck private-press curios which collectors speak about in hushed tones. But then some hipster doofus in a Neu t-shirt caught wind of the whole sad AHATH saga, loved the album and ruined everything for vinyl speculators sitting on sealed originals by announcing a deluxe reissue on New York's DFA Records.

You'd think that picking up Calico Corp's brilliant Zacht Automaat 2LP retrospective would make more sense for the trend-conscious DFA but hey, who am I to question the judgment of James "Speedking" Murphy.  DFA have manufactured 600 more copies of A Hound at the Hem in a fancy gatefold sleeve with no extra tracks, 100 of which are on pink wax and available here. Check out Meg Remy's video for the track Maintain The Charade below.

Supersuckers rock the Horseshoe Sunday

Preview the Supersuckers'Get The Hell album following the acoustic version of "Empty."