Toronto’s Bonjay have revealed a brand-new video for ‘Creepin’, which forms half of their double A-side single due out in the UK on June 6. The video draws upon the stark, beautiful arctic wilderness that lies north of their home.

The song’s muted, pulsating synths, ’90s RnB vocal and shuddering bass are set to snippets of Bill Mason’s 1972 documentary ‘Cry of the Wild’.

‘Stumble’/‘Creepin’ will be released on 6 June via One Bird Records following a string of live dates.

May 11 – Relentless Garage, London
May 12 – Notting Hill Arts Club, London
May 14 –  The Great Escape, Brighton (2pm @ Komedia, 7.45pm @ Queen’s Hotel)

Bonjay – Creepin from Bonjay on Vimeo.

Bonjay – Stumble/Creepin by onebirdrecords

We’re launching a brand-new free-entry clubnight called woo. at the Queen of Hoxton in London on Thursday February 18th [Gmap], featuring The Power Trio DJs (ooh, mysterious!) on the decks, playing:

My Bloody Valentine, Air France, Yo La Tengo, Memory Tapes, The Ronettes, Air, New Order, The Shangri-Las, Neon Indian, Vivian Girls, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Summer Camp, Beach House, TV On The Radio, M83, The Knife, Iggy and The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, The Radio Dept, No Age and more.

The PR has this bit of parodial wankery so we’re sticking it in here too:

woo. [wu?]
interj & n & vb
A less sycophantic and more authentic version of its descendent, ‘woo!’.

Do come.

Muso's Guide presents... New Year's Eve!

We’ve had an awesome year here at Muso’s Guide. A quick recap reveals that after celebrating our sixth birthday we were shortlisted in the Record Of The Day awards’ Best Digital Publication and Best Blog categories, appeared on ruddy Sky News and gave you three amazing gigs. Can you believe that? Us neither, almost! And it’s our absolute pleasure to be hosting the Abbey Tavern‘s 09/10 switchover and bringing you some absolutely marvellous tunes. Come to Kentish Town in Londonville and we’ll show you a good time.

What’ve we got for you? Great music, that’s all. No quirks, just our favourite songs for dancing. Celebrate the end of the decade with your favourite music website, your bestest chums and a steady stream of booze – and it’s free entry!!! Yes, that’s right, nada, zero, nothing. What a bargain.

These beauties are what we’ll be DJing:

Annie. Art Brut. The Beatles. Beck. Beyoncé. Blondie. Blur. Camera Obscura. The Cure. Cut Copy. David Bowie. Devo. Fleetwood Mac. The Four Tops. Franz Ferdinand. Freda Payne. Friendly Fires. The Futureheads. Gang Of Four. Hercules and Love Affair. Hot Chip. Interpol. James Brown. Kelis. The Kinks. The Knife. LCD Soundsystem. Le Tigre. The Long Blondes. Los Campesinos! Marvin Gaye. Magazine. Maxïmo Park. Modest Mouse. Mystery Jets. New Order. Of Montreal. Orange Juice. OutKast. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Pavement. Pete & The Pirates. Pet Shop Boys. Pixies. Prince. Pulp. The Rapture. The Replacements. The Smiths. Stevie Wonder. Suede. The Supremes. Talking Heads. TV On The Radio. Vampire Weekend. The Velvelettes. Violent Femmes. XTC. The Walkmen. Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

See you on the dancefloor!

Booker T Jones

Legendary musicians are ten a penny these days. Haven’t you heard it’s an ageing population?

Take Booker T. Jones. Best known for fronting instrumental Booker T. and the MGs, they set dance floors alight in 1962 with the Hammond organ-drenched, bass-driven ‘Green Onions’. Almost 50 years later and ‘Green Onions’ is still the essence of cool, all the cooler when you find out that Booker T. Jones penned the hit while he was still in high school.

So a new record from this gent is really something to write home about.

Kicking off with the organ-led ‘Pound It Out’, Potato Hole embraces the modern era in a way which is quite staggering, the song roughly hewn from rock guitar and sweltering hot. Throughout the ten tracks, Jones’ prodigious talent for the keys is instrumentally augmented by Drive By Truckers, an Athens, Georgia band with roots in country and alternative rock.

The influence of the Truckers’ sound shows throughout, with a heaviness to the guitar sound which sits surprisingly well with Jones’ Hammond B3 noodlings. What’s amazing is the new life that someone like Booker T. Jones can breathe into the music he touches. At the ripe old age of 64, he is taking on tracks like ‘Hey Ya’ by Outkast and making them zing afresh, with the Truckers’ help.

There is a certain person who will purchase Potato Hole – probably a die-hard fan, certainly an experimental listener. Sometimes it does have the impact of a pan pipes moods CD, where the melody is pounded out on an organ instead of in vocals, but it’s still a very interesting musical construction, and one which should be supported.

The album highlight has to be ‘Native New Yorker’, exhibiting grouchy guitars plundering through the intro, before a truly meaty rock track strikes up, underpinned all the while by Jones’ skillful keys.

Legends are everywhere – appreciate them while they’re still around.

Daniel Merriweather - Change

Being hand-picked by Mark Ronson to front the flagship single from your soon-to-be-a-mega-hit album kind of singles you out as a bit special.

Daniel Merriweather, as most of us are aware, owns the spectacularly soulful voice that helped Ronson’s cover of The Smiths’ ‘Stop Me’ to become a major success in 2007. Having colloborated with Ronson and rapper Wiley on ‘Cash In My Pocket’, released last December, Merriweather now releases his own brand of soul-RnB-pop with his debut single, ‘Change’.

The Aussie crooner’s first album, Love and War, is out in April and ‘Change’ gives off some promising signals. Yes, the pastiche Ronson horns and the funky beats rides high but there’s a hint of lyrical prowess here, as well as a timely rap from Wale. Citing Stevie Wonder as an influence is all well and good, but actually going some way to being as good as the man is rather commendable.

‘Change’ has a spring in its step, much like we all would if there was an upturn in the economy or some sunshine instead of snow. A shining light for 2009, with plenty of “la la la”s and “na na na”s.

To close our informative, eye-opening, enlightening series, we’ve got something in non-word form. We reckon if you’ve been following the series on a day-to-day basis, you’ll have learned a fair shot more on what you think soul is – and you may have discovered a few new artists as a result of not only their music but their opinions. How novel.

So here’s our final word on the meaning of soul, coming at you via this here link. It’s a link to download ‘Duk Koo Kim’ from iTunes – a track by Sun Kil Moon which for me, defines soul more than any words ever could.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the columns as much as us! And feel free to drop us a line at musosguide AT googlemail DOT com if you feel you’ve got something to add to the breadth of opinions we’ve thrown at you.

Tomorrow’s final meaning of soul comes at you at 12 pm – in the form of a definitive mp3!

The Welcome To The Welcome Wagon album - by The Welcome Wagon - was famously produced by Sufjan Stevens. It’s arguably the only contemporary liturgical album that the masses got to hear about in 2008. And The Welcome Wagon, equally famously, comprises the Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique; born in Michigan, the former agnostic studied Theology at Princeton and is now senior pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church. Not quite your usual background, then – and to continue, Monique was raised on a farm and has been previously employed as a craftmaker for Martha Stewart.

It’s a different spin then that the Reverend Vito Aiuto offers to our soul series… and here’s what he had to offer:

“The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that “then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.

“In Sacred Scripture the term “soul” often refers to human life or the entire human person. But “soul” also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God’s image: “soul” signifies the spiritual principle in man.

“The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:

“Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honour since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.

- from The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Tomorrow’s meaning of soul comes from Laura Izibor.

We rather like Vessels, go have a listen to them here - their snappy insights on soul proved weightier than imaginable. We hope this inspires you to have a read of our review of White Fields And Open Devices, and then perhaps even go and purchase some of their music. Here’s what they gave us:

Lee Malcolm: “The meaning of soul: listening to ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash and remembering you have one.”

Martin Teff: “”Soul is the where science, philosophy and death all converge.  It is the water between the meals of existence.”

Tomorrow’s meaning of soul comes from Rev. Vito Aiuto of The Welcome Wagon, whose Welcome To The Welcome Wagon album was produced by Sufjan Stevens.

Come on now, who has a list of influences reading anything like this in 2009?

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Rosetta Tharpe, Mel Torme, Guitar Slim, Lee Baby Simms, Bernard Hermann, Leonard Bernstien, Paganini, George Gershwin, The Knack, Murder By Death, Julie London and Billie Holiday.

Tom Allalone, of Tom Allalone and The 78s, that’s who. The music is fun, assured, and sounds like it’s part of the grass roots rock ‘n’ roll era it’s so clearly been influenced by. Here’s Tom’s truthful take on soul:

“The word Soul is often used quite erroneously in my opinion. It’s a word that artists use to give themselves an air of deep rooted one-ness or spiritual connection with their music. Oasis for example, use the term quite a lot. I’d imagine the only soul they’ve known would be a Dover Sole. Their music is so derivative and contrived that it is almost empty of all soul and no amount of Hammond Organs or Beatles’ rip-offs will constitute a soul number.

“Quite often, people take soul to mean ‘Black Music’. Soul does not mean a black man or woman with a microphone. It does not mean a white man or woman with a microphone singing a song that a black man or woman made famous 20 years previously. Barry White and Imagination are prime examples of acts who will have no doubt use that word in their press releases, yet have absolutely no soul in my opinion. Murder by Death have more soul in their little fingers than in the whole of Barry White. It has nothing to do with creed or upbringing or even having things to rebel against. Its all about being disarmed and dropping all inhibitions. Amy Winehouse has got it. So have Arcade Fire. And yet Lionel Richie wouldn’t know it if he cut his face on it.

“Soul, in my opinion, has one meaning. Its honesty between writer/singer and listener. If Etta James can admit that she was ‘Almost Persuaded’ to cheat on her beau with a handsome stranger, she is bearing her soul to the listener. If you can expose your demons in a song, to perhaps thousands of people who think you’re cool, even if you’re admitting that you have been a complete fucker, thats soul. Soul is music that has zero pretension or concern for what’s cool in the perception of others. Soul is therapy for the musician, and the listener finds solace in hearing their ‘heroes’ experiencing and dealing with the same trials as them. Life is a painful existence most of the time, and soul or blues music is the support group.

“Soul is an admission of humanity and all the flaws that go with it.

“Having said this, there is a mysterious band of soul, that even without confessional lyrics, can seem like the most honest and impulsive sound imaginable. ‘Green Onions’ has this. I can’t explain it. If I had worked out what the MGs were doing to create such soul, i’d be a millionaire by now. But I haven’t… and I aint.

“If I ever get some soul, it’ll allow me to write sincerely about how unhappy I am. And on that day, I’ll be a happy man.

Tomorrow’s meaning of soul comes from members of band we love, Vessels.