What the hell is Guelph?
Guelph, Ontario is a super-suburban town of about 100 thousand people outside of Toronto. It’s coordinates on the map are being staked out by some of the freshest, most innovative and exciting musicians and bands around. Here’s a sampling:
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Jim Guthrie, whose work I’ve posted about before (an older song from the album A Thousand Songs, “Sexy Drummer,” is here, posted 12/20), is one of the best pop song writers working today. Currently he’s stationed in Toronto, but he hails from Guelph, where his early solo work and contributions to the band Royal City (and others on his namesake label Three Gut Records) were born. His album Now More Than Ever is possibly the best release of this decade, featuring the spectacular violin arrangements of Owen Pallett and Jim’s unsurpassed lyricism and vocals. These days, Jim is working on a new solo record, which he’s recording in the Arcade Fire’s now legendary church studio in Quebec. Here are some selections from Now More Than Ever:
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Noah23 is a relentlessly productive rapper who has spent most of his working life 
in Guelph (and stubbornly refuses, apparently, to move). He’s not only the godfather of the Guelph scene (his latest record, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS features about a dozen Guelph proteges and young pop geniuses), but a long-recognized innovator of underground rap. He’s rapped with Kool Keith, Anticon’s (defunked?!) cLOUDDEAD and others, but his solo work with longtime DJ MADADAM is supreme. I can’t find an MP3 of my favorite Noah23 song that I can embed for you here, but head to his myspace page and click on NEBULA in the playlist to hear it.
{{{ And since Tumblr won’t allow me to embed a track within a post (not sure why a track can only go up as its own post; fellow Tumblrers, pls advise!), I’ll have to put up the track from his new album separately. Stay tuned! }}}
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That track, “Elephant March,” is produced by fell
ow Guelph artist Gregory Pepper (formerly of the lukewarm Dymaxions), whose current project bears one of my favorite names: Gregory Pepper & His Problems.
Click that link to hear some of the Problems’ songs, the lyrics of which are as addictively catchy as the instrumental arrangements are delightfully surprising and ecclectic. GP is responsible for that gorgeous and unexpected piano coda at the end of the soon-to-be posted “Elephant March.”
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The Magic are a yet-unsigned and much buzzed-about Guelph group featuring the formindably talented Gordan brothers (Evan and Geordie, sons of Canadian folk legend James Gordon). “Mister Hollywood” is the best track from their self-released debut EP, a wildly danceable and musically refined song reminiscent of the best of the Talking Heads. Click the link above to hear that and a few others at the Magic’s Myspace page.
