Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Let’s give a cheer for Canadian pop!
No, not Celine Dion, but the SALTEENS, a winsome foursome that daydreams on cotton-candy clouds and makes some refined sugar of its own. The band’s second album, LET GO OF YOUR BAD DAYS (Drive-In Records), exists in a universe stripped of snarky cynicism and ruled by the benevolent love vibes of Brian Wilson and cult ‘60s producer Curt Boettcher (the Association). Vocalists Scott Walker (not the vet British warbler) and Megan Bradfield sound like sweet, hormone-deprived teens, but their postgrad lyrics (“It’s the last thing we should do/To be cordoned off over you”) lift the Salteens’ twinkly pop above the usual twee-dium. The album slides from flouncy (“You Stood Out From The Crowd”) to the benignly bitchy (“Damn You”) and ends with a plaintive orchestral plea to sunshine in (“Home Again”) that would do Karen Carpenter proud. A- --MW
- Entertainment Weekly
".. Let Go of Your Bad Days, a 28-minuted disc of intelligent summer-perfect pop that will make your head bob, your feet tap and might just have the power to raise the dead. It's that good." - Globe & Mail
"One of Vancouver's best kept secrets, The Salteens have quietly been gaining momentum as one of the brightest power-pop bands to hit Canada." - Chart Magazine
"One of Vacouver's best kept secrets, The Salteens, have avoided the traditional sophomore slump by crafting an album of some of the happiest pop music to stem from north of the border." - Outburn
Discography
Short Term Memories - (endearing records) 2000
Let Go of Your Bad Days - (BOOMPA!) 2003
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
The invitation proposed by the title of The Salteens’ long-awaited second album will prove irresistible to fans of smart, hook-laden guitar pop. And few bands are as capable as this Vancouver quintet of conjuring the feeling of endless summer so colourfully suggested by the cover and contents of Let Go of Your Bad Days. Since the 2000 release of their acclaimed debut CD, Short-Term Memories (endearing Records), The Salteens have become one of the great word-of-mouth success stories in Canadian independent music.
Touring relentlessly for over two years — playing over 200 shows before thousands of people — the band not only accumulated masses of fans in their home country, but gained an equally devoted (and larger!) audience in Australia, Japan and the U.S. Short-Term Memories quickly rose to the top of Canada’s national college radio chart, and was nominated in the category of Best Alternative Album at Canadian Music Week’s 2001 Independent Music Awards. Despite the many and obvious charms of its predecessor, Let Go of Your Bad Days is an enormous leap in terms of melodic and lyrical sophistication — ten songs that, in a mere 28 minutes, exemplify everything great about unashamedly simple and joyful pop.
Produced by West Coast legend Kevin Kane (The Grapes of Wrath) with contributions from Ryan Dahle (Limblifter, Age of Electric) and Pete Bastard (Flash Bastard), it reveals a depth to the songwriting of frontman Scott Walker that was barely hinted at before. The addition of sweeping string and horn arrangements hark back to the halcyon era of late-’60s AM radio, and elevate standout tracks “Time You Have Been Wasting” and the title song to unprecedented heights. Let Go of Your Bad Days has already been rapturously received in Australia, where it was released in December and promoted by a national club and theatre tour opening for down-under indie-pop stars The Lucksmiths and Jebediah. “We promise that when The Salteens hit Perth again, there will be more of a fanfare,” declared that city’s Xpress Magazine. “. . .They may have even eclipsed the headlining act.” Once Canada has wrapped its ears around Let Go of Your Bad Days, fanfare will be greeting The Salteens from coast to coast.
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