Carrier, the Dodos’ fifth album, is both a reckoning and fresh start. Singer-songwriter Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber have primarily functioned as a duo since 2005, but for an all-too-brief moment the Dodos were a trio. It’s in this vibrant, sorrowful, powerfully spare new album that we’re afforded a glimpse of what that could have/should have looked like.
After acting as the band’s touring guitarist in 2011, Calgary-based musician Chris Reimer (Women) was invited to become the third member of the Dodos. On Feb. 21, 2012, Reimer, who was just 26, died in his sleep. Carrier is both a celebration and tribute to Reimer’s life and his musical influence, as well as the sound of a band finding its way out of the darkness. Our full interview with Meric Long will be published on Thursday.
We’re streaming Carrier for our Canadian audience a week before its release via Dine Alone Records. The album is available for pre-order on iTunes.
Category Archives: press
The Dodos Carrier streams on CBCmusic.ca
Dodos new track
From Pitchfork.
Following the dissolution of Women and prior to his tragic death in 2012, guitarist Christopher Reimer quietly joined Dodos– which seemed like an odd, if not impossible, fit. Dodos were a known quantity as an acoustic-and-drums (and loops) two-piece, proving effusive, melodic and spirited in a live setting. Conversely, Women’s turbulent post-punk hovered like a cloud bearing acid rain, as Reimer would often stand completely motionless on stage.
Frontman Meric Long claims that Reimer was a huge influence on Dodos’ new LP, Carrier, and lead single “Confidence” is proof enough. Rather than Long’s typical brassy, open-tuned acoustics, “Confidence” is built on the kind of small, wiry guitar curlicues Reimer would lend to Women’s output. It’s still every bit a Dodos song in the ways that matter the most, though; the melodies are warm and pleasantly rumpled, drummer Logan Kroeber forgoes mundane timekeeping to push and prod Long and in the second half, the two ditch the relative minimalism to hurtle through a breakneck jam of harmonized guitar leads that can be heard as a tribute to a man whose short time with Dodos truly moved them.
Listen to the track on SoundCloud. Pre-order Carrier (out 8/27/13 [our late grandfather’s birthday] on PolyVinyl).
I am looking forward to seeing and hearing Meric and Logan at Sled Island next week, though it will be bittersweet for me. Chris asked me to come to Sled with him the first couple of years of the festival; I never did. Thought I was too busy at work and thought I couldn’t afford the plane ticket. This year I’ve bought a Festival Discovery Plus Pass. Gonna cram in as much Sled as I can. With/without him.
–Nikki
Freak Heat Waves – s/t | ARGUE JOB
This was an unexpected gem if ever there was one. From the netherest reaches of our Western boundary–fair Victoria–comes this euphonic patchwork of an album, earnestly quilting together an honest structure from what sounds like different albums of roughly the same genre: a mix tape from a cool older brother who never existed. Like a patchwork quilt, however, the self-titled Freak Heat Waves exists as a single entity, a document that varies from song to song just enough to be deliciously different from itself, but not so much that it doesn’t make sense. There is a distinct voice here–even in the instrumental tracks–that hearkens to everything good about this side of the musical coin they’re mining: noise, post-punk, shoegaze and beyond. The single word song titles bring to mind Joy Division at their darkest, and when those beautiful, sweeping guitar arpeggios kick in, you can’t help but be reminded of the now legendary Women. Indeed, perhaps it’s the silenced voice of the all-too-late Chris Reimer, in the producer’s chair, that we can hear as the thread stitching the album together. Have a listen and be reminded of yourself.
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Elizabeth Bachinsky : Illa Fabulis
Most recently I wrote a book called I don’t Feel So Good which was published again by BookThug in 2012. It was written as a fundraiser for the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund Society. The brother of my good friend Nikki Reimer passed away in 2012 so this fund is to raise money for a scholarship fund for young artists in Calgary, which is where the Reimer family lives. Chris Reimer was an amazing musician and artist.
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CXXI | Podcasts | Cokemachineglow
With thanks to all of the artists involved, CMG Podcast 121—our most RAWK-centric mix in ages, just in time for summer’s long wind-down—is dedicated to the release of Chris Reimer’s The Chad Tape, a gorgeous song from which you’ll hear below. From Chris’ Bandcamp page:
Some time ago Chad VanGaalen approached Chris Reimer of Women offering to reproduce a cassette tape of Chris’ solo work. Chris started work on this but passed away before completing the project. His closest friends have assembled the songs he intended for the tape, laid it out with Chris’s own writing and artwork and now this tape is available here for you.
All proceeds from The Chad Tape will go to the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund, an organization run by Chris’ family and friends that is dedicated to providing scholarships for children in music and dance education. You can read more about the Legacy Fund, and Chris, here: christopherjohnjosephreimer.com
It’s well worth your ten bucks, especially for those of us who recognize Reimer’s contributions as a major reason why Women will stand as one of Canada’s all-time greatest bands. It also serves as a terrific late-night companion to this definitely more aggressive (Ty Segall, the Men, a Thee Oh Sees track that kinda sounds like old Dandy Warhols except not shitty, somehow), melodic (new Chad VanGaalen, Each Other, Micachu, Deerhoof), and Books-y (five cuts from their Oddities collection, because…well, because the Books are fucking awesome) podcast. One which also features a closer from the Swans that, with the right candles and incantations, will summon Michael Gira to devour you whole. Maybe I should’ve kept that part a surprise; enjoy anyway, I guess:
Download mp3 (192kbps)
Cover jpeg
[44:59]
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A guide through the world of new music | Radio | TANK Magazine
CHRIS REIMER
THE CHAD TAPE
The sad and untimely death of Chris Reimer last year heralded the dissolution of the band, Women, he formed with his lifelong friends Matt and Pat Flegel. The loss of a life will always overshadow that of a band, but the absence of Women’s anxiety-laden and claustrophobic post-punk has left our end times short of a fitting soundtrack. Pieced together posthumously by collaborator Chad VanGaalen from a series of ongoing projects, The Chad Tape doesn’t exactly pick up from where Women left off, but it does show that Reimer was intuitively plugged into the spirit of the times. There is slow heat, there is black clang and drone and, in the airless instrumentals, the same sense of burgeoning disaster that was a feature of Women’s best songs.
via A guide through the world of new music | Radio | TANK Magazine.
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Field Tracker – Episode 45
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“The Chad Tape” leaks…
The Chad Tape was slated to be officially announced via a release from Flemish Eye on August 13, however, the internet had other plans!
Some time ago Chad VanGaalen approached Chris Reimer of Women offering to reproduce a casette tape of Chris’ solo work. Chris started work on this but passed away before completing the project. His closest friends have assembled the songs he intended for the tape, laid it out with Chris’s own writing and artwork and now this tape is available here for you.
***All proceeds from this release will benefit the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund, an organization dedicated to providing scholarships for children in music and dance education.***
You can still pre-order cassettes from the Chris Reimer Bandcamp site, and you can also download the digital album.
The project has already been mentioned by Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Chart Attack, CBC Music, Exclaim!, Pitchfork, CMU and elsewhere. We sure do hate that word “posthumous,” but we’re thrilled at the response to this work. Continue reading
Filed under legacy fund, press, recordings
FFWD: Calgary art-rockers Women burn through a year’s worth of buzz | 2009
(Cross-posted from FFWD Weekly)
Hot shit
Calgary art-rockers Women burn through a year’s worth of buzz
Published January 15, 2009 by Patrick Boyle in Music Previews
A year ago, the members of a long-dormant spaz-thrash band called Veritas were gearing up for a new project, a brash, ramshackle pastiche of melodic psych-rock and cacophonous noise. It would be called Women. The band’s self-titled debut was handled in Canada by Flemish Eye records, home to Chad VanGaalen, and soon afterwards the band was picked up internationally by Jagjaguwar. The album was released to a litany of praise from all the right places.
With their band-du-jour status, they have garnered reviews across the entire media spectrum, most praising the band. The sheer volume of media comes as a bit of a shock for four cynical, self-deprecating dudes who, not long ago, were jamming in their parents’ basements.
This week, Women return to their hometown stage as savvy veterans, having played over 100 shows across Europe and North America. As a welcome home gift, Fast Forwardscoured the music press for a range of comments on Women. We then sat the band down for breakfast and had them read the quotes at random, without knowing who wrote them, to see what has been said about their year in the sun. It seems pretty clear that success hasn’t gone to their heads.
“Calgary shoots and scores with the self-titled debut album from Women” — Pop Matters
Matthew Flegel (bass, vocals): Iginla wrote this, actually.
Christopher Reimer (guitar, samples, vocals): A hockey analogy is a good analogy, always.
Fast Forward: If you could make a better hockey analogy about Women, what would it be?
Patrick Flegel (guitar, vox): It’s like we’re on a breakaway, but there’s no net.
So how do you score?
CR: Exactly. Think about that. Continue reading
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Pygmalion Music Festival 2011
In September of last year, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Chris Reimer during Pygmalion Music Festival. He was kind and patient — despite the fact that he wasn’t thrilled about having his photo taken. When we finished, he shook my hand and gave me a huge thanks. Later that night, I returned to watch their performance and it was stellar.
I learned this morning that he passed away in his sleep yesterday. My deepest condolences go out to his family and friends. He was an extraordinary musician and he will be missed by many. It is a shame when the music world loses someone so humble, young, and talented.
christopher john joseph reimer 