Braintoy - Sheep

(I'm having a hard time uploading pictures, sorry for the poor quality)

Braintoy, the progressive rock four piece, released their debut LP in April of this year. They also released this bomb cover of Pink Floyd's epic prog jam, Sheep (which is free to download in high quality mp3/mp4 format from this page). 

Let me just say that there's no bigger turn off with a band then watching them suck the big one in a live setting. I remember watching Mudvayne (in my defense, L.D. 50 had it's moments ok?) play live on the Conan O'Brien show. I turned it off 1 minute into their performance of 'Happy?' and have not touched a Mudvayne CD since. You want to know the musicians can actually play their instruments (or at least I do), otherwise, what's the point? Maybe its just a personal gripe I have, but its soured me on Mudvayne, probably unfairly, and probably for the rest of my life. 

Such is not the case with this tasty vid, recorded live in the Braintoy jam space. The moment Devin Gasteiger comes in with the ethereal keys, you know that its ON! These guys definitely have chops and other live videos are testament to this. Covering Pink Floyd is no easy task, with all the staunch purists of prog to wow, but with Tristans voice, sometimes haunting, always beautiful at the forefront of this more intense remake, its easy to convert even the most devout Floyd fan. Christian Anderson manipulates the sounds coming out of his guitar to great effect, creating an eery atmosphere to the piece, and doubling up on the bass lines, all the while pounding David Gilmour's original riff (and solo) in your face with added zeal and flair. And let's not forget the fancy skin work (provided by Riley O'Connor) that helps this rocking rendition barrel along. 

Check it: Braintoy - Sheep

Canada Rules!

It really does, and I think all the anti-canuck sentiments we have flying around are really just jealous attempts to counteract the awesomeness that is Northern America. Case in point - Braintoy (you thought I was going to say something cliched like Arcade Fire or maple syrup or Tim Hortons, weren't you?! Ha!)

Braintoy is not some new Nintendo DS game, but a 4 piece hailing from Toronto, Canada. Vehicles, a strong contender for a slot in my top 20 releases of 2008 is a great prog rock record - accessible due in part to its energetic and soaring vocals and solid instrumentation (which you would expect from any prog band worth their pretentious song titles and epic(ly long) songs. The title track is an excellent introduction to the band, one that is sure to keep you interested and get you excited to see what else these Canadians are capable of. 

Listing influences like Porcupine Tree and Tool, one can trace the bands idols to their brand of post rock - the atmospheric stylings of Steven Wilson and the simple yet effective guitar lines of Adam Jones seem to be channeled, but in a way that is uniquely Braintoy - there's no blatant plagiarism here, just a familiarity that will comfort listeners and solidify Braintoy's place among the contemporaries they so revere. 

Check out the title track, Vehicles, on their myspace and check out the next big Canadian export. (a whole post on a Canadian

 band without any jokes about the Canadian accent!) Sounds you'll hear: Tristan Green's awesome vocals, keyboards, some electronics, punchy distorted guitar, a calm number named Banyan Tree and just proggy goodness (but not in the 'Camel' sense mind you - I'd say its more along the lines of a Coheed and Cambria sans the mighty Claudio Sanchez's vocals and sci fi concept story.) Either way, I'm having a hard time describing them, so do me and yourself a favor and check them out!