The Daredevil Christopher Wright - "The Animal of Choice". The return of the band behind one of the best gigs - and my 48th-most-favourite song - of 2009. As I said when I stumbled across their debut: Here's something great. With lightness, vigour & appetite, these Wisconsin folkies set themselves apart from all the lonelies and weepies. The Daredevil can sing in three-part harmony but their music isn't posed, over-deliberated. Nor has it been imposed upon some poor back-porch. Like "Clouds", the best track on In Deference To A Broken Back, "The Animal of Choice" is a journey, a romp. It roams from samba to bruised pop, each section like a sideways step. Three minutes after it opens with lyrics about wolves, bears, "sympathetic tragedies", Jon Sunde (?) is singing happily, catchily, about hideous bros. Do you think those dudes were just born plain horrible? / Nah, I don't think so / but then I been wrong before. As a song it's absolutely fucking delicious, a newsletter I would like to subscribe to, a plant I would water every day.

Their new EP, The Longsuffering Song, is available now at Bandcamp. I cannot wait for the new LP. See them on a Canadian tour this fall with the (unfortunately simpering) Dan Mangan. Dates include Toronto! Sackville! Montreal! Vancouver! Do go see them - I will vouch, vouch, fistpump for the quality of their live show.

Chayse - "Walls (ft Jadakiss)". Like building a good raft and setting it in the river and jumping up and down, up and down, happily, proving with every jump that it is a good raft. The song goes like this: If these four walls could talk / they would be like / "Hello! Hello! Hello! " And this: You make my body say, "Hello! Hello!" For Chayse, Hello means love, orgasm, fulfillment. Which casts my everyday greeting in a very different light. [website]

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Elsewhere:

I wrote about Adam & the Amethysts for an Hour cover story.

And this weekend is the fourth annual M60 - the Montreal 60 Second Film Festival. I help run this thing, which results in dozens of of one-minute movies from amateurs and pro filmmakers across the city. (Dan and I both contribute!) There are no submission fees, no judges, no jury, no prizes - just gangs of willing folk and, this weekend, a willing crowd. If you're in Montreal, please do join us. Screenings take place at the magnificent Rialto Theatre on Friday, Sept 16 and Saturday, Sept 17, 7:30pm. Tickets are just $8 - with free popcorn. Read more about the festival in today's Gazette.

(photo source, not photoshopped)