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Matt Leddy and Rick Reid, who call Montreal home, are the musical duo that make up Eternal Husbands. The two musicians have been creating music together for years under various monikers and, once their former and most recent band City Streets called it quits in the spring of 2013, they came together once again and subsequently released the Eternal Husbands EP in August of the same year.

The EP begins with "16", a track that slowly builds and is comprised mainly of a few sustained synth generated notes. The song creates a beautiful dreamy soundscape. It's a serene painting for the ears clearly influenced by the likes of Sigur Ros. The vocals, which come in late, hint at a kind of haunting undertow that resides in this tranquil opener. 

"ekg" begins with a drumbeat that marches us forward, while Leddy and Reid explore electronic elements filling out the remaining sound. The upbeat pace of the music is nicely juxtaposed to Reid's more reserved and at times hidden vocals, which remain solemn throughout. The track crescendos in the middle before being pulled away in what seems to be its end. However, the music returns to the infectious beat ultimately taking us home. 

"18”" is an interesting track in that it interweaves a king of folksy aesthetic, the plucking electric guitar, all while electronic and synth elements engulf the rest of the space.

This album weaves a thread of melancholy throughout. Adding to this feeling is Reid's scratchy voice, almost hidden, yearning to be heard. You can't help but wonder if its release, roughly two months after the split of City Streets, had a lingering effect on this debut. 

There are many elements at play on this EP. An exciting combination of folk, rock and electronic music fused together to create a haunting and times jumbled sound. However, these ideas only offer a glimpse at the potential for this duo. Eternal Husbands have me waiting patiently to hear what may come. 

Final rating: 3.5/5

--Fredy M. Luni hosts Hiway 1, Sundays at 1:00 pm on CJLO

Hosted by Saturn De Los Angeles

Stories by Sam Obrand + Katrina Laframboise + Milos Kovacevic

Produced by John Toohey

So I'm late to the game here, because by now everyone has already weighed in on the Japanese blip that is BABYMETAL. In case you don't know, Babymetal can be summed up like this: a group of teenage Japanese girls who have metal songs written for them and they act like they are preforming them. 

My initial reaction to Babymetal was, "No." Just a simple straight-forward rejection of what I was seeing and hearing. When asked to elaborate, I really couldn't find a definitive reason, and I've been trying to get one since. A few days ago, along comes this video from my friend Roger, the creator of the Japanese rock/video game site Tainted Reality. Here he talks about his thoughts on the group:

Now, though I agree with many of the sentiments held in this video, especially that of elitism existing in metal (and liking and indulging in guilty pleasures in an unabashed way) ultimately, I think this video cemented what I find so distasteful about this band, and I think it breaks down to three prongs.

At first something didn't feel right, and now I know what it was. Before being in this band, these girls knew nothing about metal. It's not that they didn't like it or had other musical interests and talents; they knew nothing about metal. Now, I know they don't write their own songs or play their own instruments, and I have problems with that in its own right, but what is worth highlighting here is that they are the spokespeople for this group. Not only do they dislike the product they're shilling, they don't know anything about it. 

You know that feeling you get sometimes when you listen to a band and something just isn't right? Well, in this case I think that some of these feelings come from the attitude of the band itself. I once read an interview with The Sword (a band I could not get into) saying how they didn't really like metal, and after reading that article, I understood why I couldn't like their brand of stoner stuff. When you're doing anything in front of people, it's not enough to look the part. You have to believe the part you're playing. This is what distinguishes good actors from great ones, and good performances from spectacular ones, and if you don't have that, why should I listen to you?

Second, does it feel like this is just some kind of elaborate formula that has been written out for what metal fans like?

"Well, we need guitars. And since we want to get the most people, we'll throw in a bunch of different types of metal. And the people in the band could be guys, but you know what the male demographic likes more than other dudes? Chicks. But we need something that makes them stand out... how about teenagers? Where's the first place we can get teenage chicks from? Japan? Perfect! And if this keeps going, we can try to sell it even more later on by banking on some of kind of preconceived sex appeal, which we can vaguely hint at now."

Nothing about this is natural and I guess, sadly, I must acknowledge is most of the media industry as a whole. But all of this adds up to the ultimate problem with Babymetal for me. I like metal.

I know that in this world, everything is clamouring for my attention and more precisely, my money. But here's the thing, I don't like to be reminded of this fact. I don't like to feel like I'm a "target audience" that needs to be sold to. I don't want to feel like a dollar sign ready to hand over my money, even if that's the sum total of my existence. The problem with Babymetal and every other interchangeable blatantly obvious attempt to take money from people is just that: they are blatantly obvious attempts to take money from people. And usually metal is pretty good at seeing through this and rejecting what is false. 

One thing that keeps getting spoken of in metal is if something is "true". Is this authentic? Sure, we all get to laugh when we talk about the "boy band formula", one dreamy guy, one dark broody guy, one smart one, one just not of the race of the others to stand out as being exotic, and so on; and we laugh when we see gullible teen-aged girls flock to it (and of course take their parents' money and throw said money at it as fast as they can). Or when a new teen movie comes out with the "Twilight formula" wherein a dreamy but dark and deeply-flawed guy with an edge falls for the generic every-girl, and teenage girls wait in line for hours to see it premiere. 

But now it's happening here, and not as a gradual "sell out" type of move, but from the beginning, laying bare all of its formulas and designs, and frankly I don't like it. 

Now, I do see positives here. This will be people's first exposure to metal in some way, and maybe it will bring more people in. They can be someone's Marilyn Manson, a gateway into all that metal has to offer. And maybe, some these fans will actually be female and the under-represented group of female metal heads will get a surge and finally people won't be shocked when they see a (gasp) girl at a metal show. Maybe this will help to break down the elitism in metal (I'm looking in your direction black metal). Even in some way, I respect the balls to do an interview and say, "Oh, I didn't even know what I was doing before I was cast into this." 

But don't be crass: I know these tricks. I've seen them work before on other groups. If you're going to blatantly try to sell something as a formula to me, at least try to cover it up. Make the attempt to deceive me. Or better yet, if you want to make money off me, maybe rather than sell me a gimmick, try and sell me an actual decent band. One that has progressed on its own music and merits to obtain fans, and is writing catchy, fun, brutal, technical, or some other descriptor songs that people can like. I know this is a novel concept, but if you really want our dollars, stop treating us like that's all we are.

On a Saturday evening in late March, Basia Bulat played to a sold out crowd at the Corona Theatre in Little Burgundy. Her performance was incredibly pleasurable both audibly and visually. The packed audience was quite a mixed demographic of both older and younger folks. She performed on stage with a bass player and drummer, while she played keyboards. For a three piece they presented an astonishingly powerful, unanticipated sound. They played really well together, kicking out tight grooves, playful rhythms alongside Basia Bulat's almost lofty cloud-like vocals. One could compare her voice with other notable performers like Joni Mitchell, however I think her sound is unique enough to hold its own.

Her interaction with the audience was quite wonderful, it could almost be described simply as "cute", but it was clear that she had captivated every audience member with every note in every barre throughout her entire set. Her keyboard was decorated with what seemed like hula-dress material and lights that were very visually appealing. She did venture from behind her keyboards during a couple of her songs, and presented a playful but also very natural tone. I think what most people get from her music is an organic and natural feeling, which is an aesthetic that she always strives for. I would say she has accomplished that goal quite well, even with her latest album Tall Tall Shadow being more "electric". 

The Head and the Heart seemed to cater more to a teeny-bob girl crowd more than anything else. The two front men presented a stage presence of the crooning kind that felt pretty faked and staged. Their set didn't seem very well planned out in accordance to audience moods or feelings. All together I did not enjoy their set that much if only for the played-up stage presence abd their songs sounding very similar to one another. I do have to say, however, that their rhythm section rocked out so hard that it was fun to watch the bass player and drummer. The drummer played so hard his floor monitor almost fell off his riser. The bassists melodic lines were nice to hear among so many other predictable indie bass players. They would probably sound good in any other band.