What’s That Noise?

Michelle da Silva

Library Voices

Library Voices are anything but hush! (Sorry, bad library joke there.) The nine-piece band from Regina only formed in early 2008, but they’ve already recorded a three-song demo and are booking gigs like the extremely popular Sled Island Festival.

The sound of this boy-girl band is a mix of Talking Heads, The Go! Team, and Canadian superstars Arcade Fire. Their songs about displacement, anxiety disorder, and “their favorite Kurt Vonnegut novels” are kitschy and energetic, dissonant and grandiose. Led by the vocal styling of Carl Johnson, whose voice is free-spirited and uplifting, the band also consists of synths, organs, five guitars, glockenspiel, saxophone, and accordion. “Step Off the Map and Float” is a rich gypsy-pop sounding mess of harmonies, while “Kundera on the Dance Floor” displays impressive drumming. “The Lonely Projectionist” is simple and quirky, sounding like something that could be added onto the soundtrack of a Wes Anderson film.

Library Voices will be touring all around Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C., so be sure to catch these young stars on the rise for a night of slightly romantic, slightly disheartening, indie alt-pop. For a complete list of tour dates, visit Library Voices’s MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices.