Rating: NNN
Bless CBC Radio 3 for trying to be Canada’s answer to John Peel’s legendary BBC sessions. This comp features a bunch of Canuck artists who’re hyped but still left-field enough to be under the radar of mainstream radio. It’s not a headphone rekkid – the mixing and mastering are a tad wobbly, and some of the vocals are annoyingly distorted and fade from speaker to speaker. While Sloan and Tricky Woo sound like they feel silly rocking out in a radio booth, some of the recordings capture an intimacy you rarely find on real studio recordings. John K. Samson’s solo strumming on Utilities is broken and beautiful, and epics from both the Hidden Cameras and the Dears rein in the meandering bombast of their live shows but maintain the electric energy. But the Constantines’ Blind Luck, taped live during NXNE 2003, is the real gem here.
