John Pippus – This City - SOCAN
http://johnpippus.com/
John Pippus is a Vancouver born singer and guitarist who has put out an album entitled “This City,” he’ll also be appearing at this years Victoria Fringe Festival. According to his website, he’s been playing and singing since age of twelve and is finally putting out his first CD. It should be known that he was twelve when the Beatles were finally striking it big in America. So John is about the same age as my dad, who recently celebrated his 56th birthday at the end of July. This gives you the kind of idea of what I was expecting when I picked up his album.
Surprisingly on the first track “Some Days,” John’s age does not come through the headphones. He sounds like he could be fit amongst many of the boys with guitars like Damien Rice or Conor Oberst. But in later tracks you can start to hear his age catching up with him, almost whispering on tracks like “Little Things” and “Don’t Want To Think About That.” While listening to the gentle CD, the track “Yes We Can (Dreams)” comes out of left field and hits you upside the head. John starts rapping. This is definitely not something expected from listening to the previous tracks, and needless to say, my roommate can think up better rhymes than “We have WMD’s and ToysRUs/Endless strip malls and kids named Gus.”
Overall this is CD is well put together, but it’s lacking a few components. John’s vocals stay in the same range through all thirteen tracks and “Yes We Can” seems better suited for someone else. I was left waiting the entire CD for something new and astounding to happen. Maybe I can give it to my dad for a birthday present; he’d probably like it.
Five Star Trailer Park – The Fight That Broke Your Heart
www.fivestartrailerpark.com
The sextet from Toronto, Five Star Trailer Park delivers a record full of different stylistic and musical content. If Matthew Good and Gord Downie had a love child, this is what he would sound like. Nick Spence’s vocals are so strikingly similar to much of the rock music of today, but there is something that makes them distinctively different.
Each one of the twelve tracks on “The Fight That Broke Your Heart” gives a unique point of view of the band. The record really starts to kick off on the fourth track, “Goodbye Caroline” that had me singing along with the chorus while listening for just the first time. Right after that, the high-energy track “Aviator” is very reminiscent of Sloan or The Trews. The peaks and valleys of this CD reach it’s lowest point on “Last Train to Montreal,” a slow piano based track. This reflective piece has you swaying back in forth, imaginary lighter in hand. Directly afterwards Five Star Trailer Park picks it up again with “Leave The Light On.” “Station Girl” hits you with a hard guitar riff, which could be mistaken for something from the late 70’s.
All in all, Five Star Trailer Park put out a rock CD that can hold it’s own in the music world of today. They’ve incorporated bits and pieces each of their varying influences, and it comes through loud and clear on the record. I would love to see what they could do with a live show. “The Fight That Broke Your Heart” has tracks that you could listen to in any mood, and it will be the perfect companion to the highs and lows you go through.
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