Plants and Animals make music to roadtrip to on La La Land

Plants and Animals
La La Land (Secret City)

Tim Hortons, affordable healthcare, and Neil Young are all reasons one should be proud to be Canadian. Seriously, who can say the advent of Timbits hasn’t helped them out of a jam at one point or another? Well, you can add one more thing to the list: the Montreal band Plants and Animals.

The band—made up of all-Canadian boys Warren Spicer (guitar, vocals), Matthew Woodley (drums, vocals), and Nicolas Basque (guitar, bass, keys)—is the recipient of the Juno’s 2009 “Best New Band” award and is one to look out for in 2010.

The homegrown three-piece is releasing La La Land, its second full-length album, on April 20 this year. But with slow, surfer-rock type riffs, Plants and Animals sounds more like it came off of a beach in Tofino rather than out of poutine’s birth place.

The kickoff song, “Tom Cruz”, opens up an album full of easy-on-the-ears melodies and a rhythm you’ll be unconsciously bobbing your head to. It’s not hard to deduce that the album’s material is a critique of today’s popular culture with tracks like “Game Shows” and “American Idol”, which features a jazzed-out fanfare that’s reminiscent of David Letterman’s in-house band.

“Kon Tiki” is undoubtedly the single of the album, a tribute to the California hotel, Kon Tiki Inn. Its electric melody has just enough delayed reverb applied to make it sound as if the band is playing underwater. It’s clear that the boys really did “listen to the Gypsy Kings and watch the sun go down” when they wrote this tune.

The rest of La La Land follows with tracks that are both funky and relaxed; it’s an album you’ll listen to on repeat whilst driving through the (warm parts of) Canadian landscape in your car this summer.

Download This: "Kon Tiki"