Vivian Girls have released a new music video for “I Heard You Say,” the second track off of their new record Share The Joy, set to be released on Polyvinyl Records on April 12.
You can catch Vivian Girls opening for Black Lips at the Phoenix on April 16.
DJ/rupture
You may have heard that last week, Google deleted at least six well-known music blogs without any warning, claiming that they violated copyright laws for posting MP3s. According to an article in the Guardian, these sites which were hosted by Google’s Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the Internet.
And while the futures of Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It’s a Rap and Living Ears are currently up in the air (some are attempting to fight the charges, while Pop Tarts has managed to salvage some of its content and move it to a new platform), the music blog is anything but dead.
Now when somebody tells me that they’ve started a blog or website, my typical response is, “Yeah, why should I care?” (I don’t always say it out loud, but I’m often thinking it) I realize this makes me look like a bit of a hypocrite, as I write for one myself, but the last thing the world needs is several dozen more blogs started by second-year university students as class assignments (except for food blogs – there can never be enough food blogs) that’ll be abandoned the minute they pass the class.
That said, here are five more music blogs started by artists/bands, that are completely worth your time. Enjoy and feel free to share your favourites in the comments below!
Name: Deerhunter The Band
Who: Atlanta’s Deerhunter, and other related side-projects, including Atlas Sound, Lotus Plaza, Old King Cole Younger and Ghetto Cross (most posts are by Bradford Cox, Black Lips’ lead singer Cole Alexander also contributes)
For Fans Of: the aforementioned bands, YouTube videos about Satanic possession, psychedelic drugs, Jean Genet
Sample Post: This fantastic mix, which may or may not have been put together by Cox, featuring songs from Pink Floyd, The Allan Parsons Project, Beach House, El Perro Del Mar, and others. Regardless, somebody would be wise to get these guys some DJing gigs in the near future, because this blog shows that they have great musical taste.
Name: Looking For Gold
Who: Toronto hardcore punk darlings Fucked Up
For Fans Of: hardcore and/or punk, sarcasm, rare 7″ records, Metric (just kidding!)
Sample Post: The band’s lengthy post about attending the upcoming South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in which they joke about reclaiming their IT band status (“…we welcome all challengers; your Pheonix’s, your xx’s and jj’s, bring us all the TuNeYaRdS and Passion Pits you have, we are ready”), make snide pop culture references (“This isn’t Nick and Noras Infinite Playlist”), and shamelessly promote their upcoming showcase (“Call it like the “Fucked Up saves music” showcase or something”).
Name: Look Up To Bicycle
Who: Toronto’s Tokyo Police Club, who are currently recording the follow-up to 2008′s Elephant Shell in Los Angeles
For Fans Of: CBC Radio 3, music studio setups, strawspearblueberrines, general silliness
Sample Post: The video where the band shoot each other with Nerf guns, set to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. Who said Canadian bands don’t know how to have fun?
Name: Mudd Up!
Who: DJ/rupture, New York-based DJ and producer
For Fans Of: Argentinean cumbia, Iranian santur players, New York electronica bands, Mexican architecture (huh?)
Sample Post: When DJ/rupture isn’t crate-digging for unique music across the globe or hosting his own podcast, he uses this blog to share his thoughts on everything from architecture to art, and of course, music. Occasionally, he’ll post exclusive remixes that he’s done, including this nifty remix of Telepathe’s “In Your Line” that he did with Brooklyn’s Matt Shadetek.
Name: Universe
Who: Claire L. Evans, lead singer of Portland band YACHT
For Fans Of: N.A.S.A., alien conspiracy theories, quantum physics, Kanye West (the rapper called Evans “a qualified science writer”)
Sample Post: Okay, so this isn’t technically so much of a music blog as it is a blog by a musician, but if you are even remotely interested in space and science, Universe is worth checking out. One of my favourite recent posts is this one, where Evans talks about skepticism in science (bonus points for embedding a video with Bill Nye in it!).
Black Lips
1. Black Lips feat. GZA – “The Drop I Hold”
On paper, it probably shouldn’t work. In one corner, you have one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, the legendary New York hip-hop outfit who have wrote some of the best ever songs about drug-slinging and kung-fu. In the other corner, you have the Black Lips, the soon-to-be legendary Atlanta garage rock band who have wrote some of this year’s best songs about religious skepticism and um…drugs. But what started as a surprising hookup at this year’s South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, ended up with GZA crossing genres to contribute a few lines to this track off the Lips’ latest album, 200 Million Thousand. Blame my own indecisiveness as the main reason I wasn’t able to come up with a “Best Albums” list this year, but rest assured if there was one, 200 Million Thousand would most certainly be on it. On an album of lyrically dense, soul and blues-infused psychedelic jams, with guitar riffs as dirty as lead singer’s Cole Alexander’s mustache, “The Drop I Hold” was probably the biggest departure. This song features an eerie, almost hip-hop beat with guttural screams and Alexander lazily singing/rapping (dude rhymes “Vietnam”, “atomic bomb” and “blacklips.com”) before GZA comes in with an equally hazy verse. Could garage rock bands with heavy blues influences collaborating with rap artists be the new musical trend in the coming year? The Black Keys recently put out an album as their hip-hop side project BlakRoc, while GZA has announced plans to work with artists including Fucked Up and King Khan. As long as it keeps yielding tracks like this one, then here’s one trend that I can certainly get behind.
2. The Dead Weather – “Treat Me Like Your Mother”
Jack White is my favourite male frontman of all-time. The Kills’ Alison Mosshart is my favourite front-woman of all-time. So you don’t need to be a genius to figure out that I was beyond thrilled when I heard that both of them would be starting a new band, with the killer backfield of The Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita from Queens of the Stone Age, to boot. The result was everything that I had hoped for and then some. While “I Cut Like a Buffalo” and “Hang You From The Heavens” are standouts in their own right, “Treat Me Like Your Mother” – with its cacophony of guitars and crashing drums – is a study in glorious excess. The band is clearly going for a “more is more” approach with this song; piling on tempo changes, shrieking vocals, and surprisingly catchy “M-A-N-I-P-U-late” chants, with thrilling results. The chemistry between White and Mosshart is comparable to a wooden box full of lit firecrackers, and on “Treat Me Like Your Mother”, they sound like their going right for each other’s throats (think a more badass version of Brad and Angelina in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but with more leather jackets). With their debut album, Horehound, The Dead Weather have avoided the dreaded “don’t quit your day jobs” jokes side-projects like this often do (my verdict is still out on Them Crooked Vultures), and have created music that stands outside the involved members’ previous bodies of work.
3. Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
Best Canadian album of the year? Maybe. Best new Canadian band of the year? Un-fucking-doubtably. Luckily for us, Japandroids apparently missed the memo about young bands not being supposed to be this good, and this year we got their fantastic debut album, Post-Nothing. Consisting of nine perfectly-crafted garage-rock songs, Post-Nothing proves you don’t need a full band to make a glorious racket – one guy on guitar and one guy on drums will suffice. Earlier this year, I described the duo of Brian King and David Prowse as “No Age hooking up with Death From Above 1979 at a Red Bull and vodka-fueled dance party”, a comparison that now seems pretty ludicrous in retrospective. “Young Hearts” is the album standout; over a fuzz-drenched mess of bass and Prowse’s frenetic drumming, King sings, “I don’t wanna worry about dying, I just wanna worry about those sunshine girls”. The resulting song manages to somehow feel equally cathartic and a youthful call to seize the day at the same time. If there was any justice in the world, this song would be the official anthem of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. For now, we’ll just have to settle with Post-Nothing finding its way onto this year’s Polaris Prize shortlist, and Japandroids finding their way onto playlists everywhere. The only direction for this band to go is up.
4. Joel Plaskett – “Through & Through & Through”
This song has been a recent topic of debate between myself and one of my good friends – whom typically I see eye-to-eye with musically-speaking – but I cannot convince him of Joel Plaskett’s genius as a singer-songwriter. His loss. With Three, Plaskett proved that ambition suited him well and cemented his status as one of the best musicians to ever come out of Atlantic Canada. “Through & Through & Through” casts Plaskett in the role he was born to play; a lovable loser devastated by a beautiful “wrecking ball in a summer dress”, and contains perhaps some of the best lyrics that the Dartmouth guitar balladeer has ever penned. The reference to iconic Canadian rock band April Wine (Wikipedia ‘em or ask your dad who they were) certainly wasn’t lost on any Nova Scotian over 35, but the line that stuck out for me, was Plaskett’s tongue-in-cheek “You be Israel, I’ll be Palestine” metaphor. To make the hours pass quicker (not to mention block out my many bitchy ex-classmates that I had to put up working with) when I worked in the kitchen of a Jewish camp this summer, I would bring in burnt mix CDs, that would then compete for playing time in the kitchen’s crappy stereo. Unfortunately for myself, my coworkers tastes veered more towards the Jonas Brothers than Justice, but I couldn’t help but smile when ever this song managed to creep on. Special mentions go out to the very talented Rose Cousins and Ana Egge, who provide the lovely backup vocals on this song.
5. Matt & Kim – “Daylight”
What a difference a year makes. Before 2009, most people would have been hard-pressed to identify any songs by the Brooklyn couple, with the possible exception of the ubiquitous “Yea Yeah”. This year saw the release of the duo’s sophomore album, Grand, and all of a sudden they were everywhere: in a Bacardi commercial, on the FIFA 2010 soundtrack (alongside the likes of Metric, Wyclef Jean, and others), and rocking out on Jimmy Kimmel. If you need proof that Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino have gained popularity here in Canada, look at the size of the venues they’ve played over the past two years: last November, I caught them playing an all-ages show at the community hall-sized Whippersnapper Gallery. Fast-forward to this year, where they sold-out Wrongbar during NXNE in June, and packed the Kathedral wall-to-wall only two months ago. “Daylight” is a first-rate example of how a song doesn’t need to be complicated to be catchy; Matt plays the keyboard, Kim thumps away on the drums, they throw in a nonsensical (but catchy) call-and-response chorus (“And in the daylight I don’t pick up my phone, ’cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home”), and you have a recipe for DIY pop gold. Bands from New York City come and go, but with Grand, Matt & Kim have proven that they’ve matured without losing their sense of fun.
6. The xx – “Basic Space”
With so many great tracks, picking a standout from the London quartet’s (now a trio) self-titled debut album proved to be both a blessing and a curse for music critics. The band’s brand of melancholic nouvelle pop and a sparingly used drum machine, combined with lyrics about seduction, isolation and despair in the vein of Joy Division and The Cure, and the almost-whispered, haunting vocals of Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft, was so unique, left most unable to pick a standout. One thing everyone could agree on was that the band have made one of the most unique debut albums of the year. When I first listened to it for the first time, my initial favourite was “Crystalised”, an opinion that seemed to be shared by everyone from Rolling Stone (“This hyperstylish London buzz band makes moody bedroom jams with girl-boy vocals – it’s like R. Kelly for kids with giant eyeglasses, an MFA and a heroin addiction”) to EXCLAIM! (“The xx may be the subtlest band you’ll ever hear”). Ever so slowly though, as the album became my soundtrack for late night walks through the city and before falling asleep at night, I began to sway more towards “Basic Space”. It might be the stuttering, skeletal beat, it might be the clarity that Sim and Croft deliver their lyrics with, but every time I hear this song, I get chills down my spine. This song is that good.
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Soft Shock”
Comeback album of the year? While many people were quick to write the Yeah Yeah Yeahs off following 2006′s uneven Show Your Bones; they could never write an another album as epochal as Fever To Tell, they all were too busy with their various side-projects (N.A.S.A.’s “Strange Enough”, which features guest vocals from Karen O, was considered for this list) they all hated each other, etc., etc., It’s Blitz! saw the NYC trio storming back to prove the naysayers wrong. With It’s Blitz, the band managed to reinvent their sound, while challenging the public’s perceptions of what a “typical” Yeah Yeah Yeahs record is supposed to sound like. The album’s first two new wave singles, the synth-heavy and remix-friendly (from the likes of Passion Pit, Animal Collective and MSTRKRFT, among others) “Heads Will Roll” and “Zero”, are probably the most dancefloor-friendly tracks that Karen O, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner have ever written. But no matter how loudly or how softly Karen O is singing, its her emotional vulnerability that she puts on display, that makes these songs get inside your head. On “Soft Shock”, the singer wears her heart on her sleeve, as she gently coos, “Still it’s a shock, shock to your soft side”. To try and compare the song to the band’s still-celebrated tear-jerker ballad “Maps” is unfair – “Soft Shock” is the sound of a older and more experienced band, a band that has dealt with their fair share of fights and make-ups, a band that has been around the world and back (and then some).
8. Dirty Projectors – “Stillness Is The Move”
For those who had forgotten how good this song was – and why it deserves to be on so many year-end lists – all it took was Beyonce’s little sister to remind them. Solange Knowles (who also scored hip points this year for introducing her sister and Jay-Z to Grizzly Bear) recently covered Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is The Move”, and by most accounts, doing a pretty decent job. This year saw a major changing of the guard in NYC’s indie pop/rock music scene; the garage-rock bands of the 2000s (The Strokes, The Bravery, Interpol) are out (with the exception of the YYYs of course), TV On The Radio announced they’d be taking an indefinite hiatus, and everybody tried to incorporate African rhythms (à la Vampire Weekend) or freak psychedelia (à la MGMT) into their music. Yet the Dirty Projectors stood out from the pack, mainly because they refused to sound like anyone else, and tried musical experiments that no one else would. “Stillness Is The Move” is hands-down the most accessible song on the band’s latest album, Bitte Orca, and its still pretty out there. That slinky R&B beat, Angel Deradoorian’s fluttering vocals that received numerous comparisons to Mariah Carey (in fact, Deradoorian probably did more for Carey’s name than Mimi did for herself this year), all carefully guided by the hand of head Projector Dave Longstreth – it’s a sound that is destined to spawn dozens of imitators in the not-so-distant future, but no one will do it as good as the Dirty Projectors themselves.
9. Phoenix – “1901″
I really want to absolutely hate this band. To paraphrase a local Toronto musician, who shall remain unnamed, Phoenix seems like the type of band that were put together by Urban Outfitters. I don’t really understand why every music blog, magazine, radio station and website couldn’t stop drooling over this French quartet, and why every other artist worth their salt couldn’t help but trying to remix them, with pretty mixed results. I’ve listened to their breakout Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – an album that’s appeared at or near the top of pretty much everyone’s year-end best of lists – over half a dozen times, but still can’t get into it. Finally, I find it difficult to believe that these guys sold out the Sound Academy (though they did show good taste by picking Holy Fuck as their openers), with fans ponying up forty bucks per ticket nonetheless. But then you hear the chorus of “1901″ (you know, the one that goes “It’s twenty seconds till the last call, going hey, hey, hey, hey, hey”), and it doesn’t matter where you are; whether it’s on the radio while you’re washing dishes, on your friend’s iTunes while you’re helping her put together an IKEA bookshelf, or the DJ plays it while you’re getting your groove on at Dance Cave, you can’t help but sing along – it’s so goddamn catchy. Years from now, our children and grandchildren will ask us what music we listened to back in 2009 when we were foolish young hipsters, and we will play this song.
10. Jay-Z feat. Kanye West & Rihanna – “Run This Town”
Stop laughing! Yes, I’m putting a song featuring three of mainstream music’s biggest names on a list of supposed “indie” (or, as one of my housemates has recently taken to pronouncing it whenever I’m in earshot, “in-DIE”) songs. And here’s why: can you name another Top 40 rap song that goes this hard? If “D.O.A.” was The Blueprint III’s manifesto, than “Run This Town” is Shawn Carter’s victory speech. Love him or hate him, its pretty hard to ignore a musical career like Hova’s: eight Grammy Awards, over 30 million records sold in the United States, and 11 No. 1 albums on Billboard, putting him past Elvis. But this song is one of the album’s best, because it sounds like all three are hungry and have something to prove. Jay’s fighting the backlash that he’s run out of things to say now that he’s almost 40, Rihanna needed to prove that she’d moved on from the whole Chris Brown incident, and as for Kanye, the public just needed him to hear him flat-out rap again. Whatever their motivations, it works: Jay displays all the piss and vinegar of a much younger man, Rihanna provides the kind of warbling hook that reminds of us why the public fell in love with her in the first place, and Kanye comes in at the end to school them both with arguably one of the best lines of this year, “What you think I rap for, to push a fucking RAV 4?” (Toyota reps have yet to issue a response). The only unfortunate thing (for my friends anyways) about this song? “99 Problems” is in danger of being replaced as my new favourite song to drunkenly recite off-key at parties.
Honourable Mentions:
The Rural Alberta Advantage - “The Deathbridge In Lethbridge”
Clipse feat. Kanye West – “Kinda Like A Big Deal”
Grizzly Bear -“Two Weeks”
The National - “So Far Around the Bend”
Raekwon feat. Cappadonna & Ghostface Killah -“10 Bricks”
The Black Lips @ Yonge-Dundas Square (Photo Credit: Matthew Braga)
How Danny Viola Played Onstage With the Black Lips
It is Thursday, June 18. Outside, the sky is grey and gloomy; the threat of rain hangs in the clouds. Alas, the weather does not represent my attitude (which is sunny and upbeat), as I am sitting in front of the Black Lips, who I have been an incredible fan of for some time.
The Atlanta, Georgia foursome, whose lo-fi garage rock has played innumerable times from inside my car stereo, are sitting in front of me and are going to be playing as one of the headlining bands of the North By North East music festival here in Toronto. We are just off to the side of the main stage at Yonge and Dundas Square, and the four of them are preparing to play their set.
“Danny, I wish we could have met earlier. I was expecting some 40-year-old guy who knew nothing of us when I heard that we were going to be interviewed. I never thought that it was gonna be some fuckin’ sweet uni student,” says Jared Swilley, one of the guitarists and singers.
“Wow Jared, you’re making me blush. No need for all these compliments,” I chuckle.
“No man, we’re serious. This has been one of the best interviews we’ve had,” says the eccentric Cole Alexander. “Seriously man, we wish we could stay in Toronto for a bit longer and chill.”
“Ah, I know guys me too. But we’ll always have tonight, and if we were meant to be BFFLs, we’ll meet again someday,” I say.
“Danny, we don’t usually do this. But would you want to come up on stage and play tambourine on our last song?”
Holy shit. I can’t believe it. Trying not to vomit from excitement, I tell them yeah, I’d be honoured.
An hour later, I am standing on the side of the stage, waiting for my cue. My legs are shaking, I’m trying not to piss myself, and out of nowhere I am pushed onstage by one of the crew. I look at the band and they all nod and smile. The song starts, and I start playing my tambourine. My nervousness is gone, and I play that instrument like a fucking pro. It is at that very moment when I realise that I can do better than just a tambourine, so I grab a guitar and start playing this killer solo. Suddenly, girls start rushing the stage. I suspect that they were driven to madness by my sheer manliness and musical prowess. Over the screaming of the females, I hear Jared yell out “I JUST KNOW THAT WE ARE GONNA BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER. YOU ARE THE NEW LEADER OF THIS BAND.”
If you couldn’t tell, I love day dreaming. I should have gone into fiction writing over journalism.
***
The “Let’s Chat” that Never Was: Black Lips Edition
While that never REALLY happened, I am pretty sure it WOULD have if the Black Lips had only shown up to the interview. Let me backtrack a bit and tell you why, and how, the Black Lips broke my heart.
A few weeks ago, I was literally giddy with glee when Melody (Editor-in-chief – The Singing Lamb) told me that I would be interviewing the Black Lips for this website. The band was in Europe, so I went out and bought a calling card, and starting counting down the hours for our phone interview.
Finally, the day comes, and I was shaking with anticipation like a kid on Christmas day waiting to open his presents. So I stared at the clock and wait for our 11:30 AM phone interview. Finally, it’s time, and I started dialling. The phone rang for a full minute. I hung up and try again. Same result. I called and I called and I called. No answer. I was crushed. I tried to rationalize it. Maybe they were away from the phone, maybe there was a mix up. Later in the day, Melody tells me that she talked to the label representative, and another interview has been set up for the following day.
The next day, I woke up to a text message from Melody telling me that the interview is cancelled. FML.
But things took a turn for the better later on in the week. Melody messaged me telling me that I now get to interview the band IN PERSON. I love life again. Food tastes better, the grass looks greener. My life is complete.
Fast forward to the present. It is June 18, the big day. I am sitting in Ryerson’s campus pub completing my pre-interview ritual (going over notes while downing a few beers to calm my nerves). I reach the right balance of confidence and not slurring my words, and walk over to the stage to meet the band. Only one problem: they are not there. I wait a few minutes, and still there is no one. I send the tour manager a message and he says that he will be there in 10 minutes. I sigh with relief; at least I know they are not going to bail on the interview like the last couple times…
It is over an hour later and I am watching the band go up onstage to play. The manager never calls or messages me back telling me why they did not show up. I receive no messages after the band finished playing. I am shut down. Ditched. Ignored. I feel like I have been stood up on a date, ignored by those I love the most. The only person who knows what it’s like to get excited about something, show up with the best intentions, only to get blown off is this boy here. He and I are not so different. Stay strong mystery Rose Boy.
Megan Fox… I mean the Black Lips, I LOVE YOU!
While the Black Lips’ performance is okay, I stand by my belief that they would have been much better with me onstage, tambourine in hand. Maybe it was my frustration and loathing which made me not enjoy the show as much as I could have. Who knows? All I do know is that my heart has been ripped out and I will never love again. So if you excuse me, I will go cry into my pillow for the next seven hours.
To leave an angry message on behalf of The Singing Lamb,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theblacklips
* In all honesty, we here at the Singing Lamb do love Vice Records and The Black Lips. This particular incident did affect the love though. We have faith that it will be resolved and patched up one day.
By Danny Viola
No Age @ Whippersnapper Gallery
After learning that the secret headliner for the second night of the Arts & Craft showcase was none other than The Stills, a band that…let’s just say I don’t particularly care for, I decided to forego The Courthouse this NXNE. Unfortunately, this meant passing on Timber Timbre and Still Life Still (sorry guys, hopefully another time), but there were just too many other great bands playing more conveniently-located venues. Ultimately though, this day boiled down to just one show - Black Lips’ first-ever appearance in Toronto.
No Age @ Whippersnapper Gallery
Apparently this was a 19+ show, but the doorman said I looked like I had an “honest face” so he let me in – and I definitely wasn’t going to raise a fuss about catching an early set by Los Angeles’ prodigal noise-punk sons No Age. If there was ever a more perfect venue for the band; who subscribe to a DIY ethic and formed the L.A., The New Yorker-covered, all-ages venue The Smell, it would be the Whippersnapper, which has seen its share of all-ages gigs and local art exhibits. Billed as a “special guest”, the duo definitely were playing to less-than-packed crowd at the Whippersnapper than perhaps their other NXNE appearances would have drawn (after all their set time was overlapping with the Black Lips). After briefly chatting with the duo who had just gotten into town to arrange an interview for the next day; drummer Dean Spunt and more talkative singer and guitarist Randy Randall, they promptly took to the stage at nine. I was only there for a brief half hour, but I think that in that time I managed to do some significant damage to my eardrums. These guys have been around less than five years, and have only two full-lengths to their name, but still have managed to influence a great number of bands. In fact, I was standing next to none other than singer Josh McIntyre of Pirate/Rockand Little Girls – two bands that certainly share No Age’s experimental tendencies. If you’ve never seen or listened to No Age, their formula is as follows: Spunt bashes away at the skins with unhinged ferocity, Randall wails and plays guitar like the bastard child of Black Flag and The Ramones, and together they make beautiful, fuzz-drenched music (check out “Eraser” if you don’t believe me). Its a simple formula, but devastatingly effective (again, just ask my ears).
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nonoage
Website: http://noagela.blogspot.com/
Black Lips @ Yonge-Dundas Square
First off, a note to the Black Lips: I don’t fucking care if you are the goddamn Rolling Stones, promising an interview – even if it is to a little guy you evidently feel you don’t need anymore – and then canceling no less than four times, is a seriously douche move. I’ll let Mr. Viola say more about this (see above), but standing him up left a bad taste in my mouth to start this show. I think Fucked Up’s Pink Eyes, who introduced the show, summed it up best when he jokingly asked, “Does anybody else smell hipsters?” – and its true that there were plenty of checkered flannel shirts, ironic piercings and bad haircuts in the crowd. Despite all this, I couldn’t deny that these guys put on a hell of a show, even if it was a little tame for the reputation that precedes these guys (I guess the authorities might have had an issue with urination and onstage nudity in a place as public as Yonge-Dundas Square). Everyone that I talked to that afternoon and their mothers were planning on attending this show, and Toronto’s busiest square was tightly packed with everyone from diehard fans to those curious to see if the Pitchfork-fuelled hype about this band was justified. In no time at all, there was an inebriated, moshing mass in the front that I couldn’t help diving into, with plenty of drunk girls hoping onstage, dancing and making out. The Atlanta “flower punks” brought out all the hits, including “O…Katrina”, “Fairy Stories” and “Drugs”, but where the bloody heck was the “The Drop I Hold”? Have they gotten so tired of answering questions about the hip-hop-inspired song, that they are refusing to play it out of spite. Still, the band didn’t have to do much to have the crowd eating out of their hands and their good Montreal friend King Khan – who is a legitimate bad ass and chewed up a pink rose that was thrown at him – showed up for good measure. “Bad Kids” was predictably saved until last, and it was every bit as anthemic as I had expected and hoped for. To paraphrase the Lips’ Cole Alexander himself, they came, they saw, and they conquered. The only question remaining: where do these guys go from here?
Answer: anywhere they damn well want.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theblacklips
Website: http://www.black-lips.com/
You Say Party! We Say Die! @ El Mocambo
According to the NOW Toronto city guide that we media-types received in our complimentary NXNE swag bags, El Mocambo “used to be a sticky-floored dive bar where the likes of the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello recorded live albums back in the day”. Scuzzy, but in a delightfully endearing sense, was the most common response when I asked friends to describe Toronto’s iconic tavern to me. Either way, both sources (coupled with local paper listings) seemed to agree that it was a pretty swell place to see pretty above-average bands. And I couldn’t have picked a better night to lose my “El Mo virginity” (giggle, giggle) than at a show featuring the pride of Abbotsford, British Columbia, dance-punk outfit You Say Party! We Say Die!. Watching the youthful exuberance of this band onstage, its not hard to see why they were courted by Canadian indie label Paper Bag Records in the first place. At first it seems like five different individuals coming together to form one band; you have the Kurt Cobain look-alike (guitarist Derek Adams, who snapped his strings within the opening songs, and got a laugh when a new one “mysteriously” appeared from behind the curtain), the sexy librarian (keyboardist Krista Loewen), the art student grad (bassist Stephen O’Shea), the guy whose always down for a good time (drummer Devon Clifford) and lead singer Becky Ninkovic, a firecracker in gymnast tights who clearly thrived off the audience participation (including getting one fan to hold her hand while she precariously balanced on the speakers). While it wasn’t unfortunate that they played mostly new songs off their upcoming album this fall, it was difficult for the crowd to get into the performance when the songs were largely unfamiliar. Notable exceptions of course were “Downtown Mayors Goodnight, Alley Kids Rule” and “Like I Give a Care”, the latter which had the crowd chanting “shut out the world, shut it out, shut it out” while Ninkovic covered her eyes with her hand and marched in place. I had mixed feelings overall about this show, but combined with meeting up with some old friends, it did give me a welcome second (or would it have been third?) wind to an increasingly late night. These guys are a talented band, so I have no doubt that they’ll be back once they, not to mention their fans, have these new batch of songs tightened down and familiarized.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yousaypartywesaydie
Website: http://www.yousaypartywesaydie.ca/
Green Go @ El Mocambo
By the time Green Go hit the stage it was almost two in the morning, and the crowd that had packed the downstairs of the El Mo for Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head and YSP! WSD! earlier in the evening was definitely starting to dwindle down. Their loss, as the five-piece from Guelph played a tight, if slightly short, set of their synth-heavy, electro-pop tunes that have made a lot of people recently sit up straight and take notice. We’ve praised Green Go on the Lamb ever since they played our launch party back in January, but it bears repeating: this band is going to be huge soon. Just look at their resume of late, if you need further proof. Getting the highly coveted opening slot for New York’s Fischerspooner at the Phoenix? Check. Playing with bands including Edmonton’s Shout Out Out Out Out and Halifax’s Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees? Yep. A tour across Canada and back? Been there, done that, got the postcards to prove it. This is the third time I’ve seen them live since I arrived in Toronto, and they just keep getting better. Vocalist and keyboardist Jessica Tollefsen is beginning to discover her inner frontwoman, and her boys (Ferenc Stenton, Kyle Squance, Mark Andrade and Adam Scott, respectively), are honing their musicianship while not sacrificing a drop of their showmanship. These guys dare you to photograph them – an almost impossible task, given that they are usually in a constant state of movement. Above all though, Green Go is about getting you off your ass and dancing. Even my weary feet starting tapping when the band kicked into their best known song “You Know You Want It”, and they succeeded in inspiring some incredibly awful (or amazing, depending on who you asked), mostly white boy, dancing.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/greengomusic
Just five more days till NXNE! Here’s some news!
“On the cover of the…NOW magazine?” Okay doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but you get the idea. This week’s cover stars are Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and his recent Arts & Crafts signees, East York’s Still Life Still. Does anyone else get the sense from reading this article that Drew is getting ready to pass the torch onto younger blood? I think if you were to compare the A&C family to another infamous family, the Coreleones (immortalized in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather trilogy and the subsequent movies), Kevin Drew would be the “I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse” patriarch Don Vito Corleone (played by the iconic Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro), Feist would be the daughter Connie, and Stars’ Torquil Campbell would be the godson and famous crooner slash movie star Johnny Fontane (hey, I didn’t say that it was going to be a good analogy). Does that mean as a potential future heir to the throne, Still Life Still’s lead singer Josh Romaniuk is Michael Corleone? While they might not be putting any horse heads in the beds of their enemies, the band certainly has a busy schedule coming up. They’ll play the Fred Perry store (964 Queen Street West) on June 17th, are part of the second night A&C showcase, and will take the side-stage at Edgefest on the 20th.
Quick, make a list of things that geeks get really excited. Star Trek premieres? Yes. Meghan Fox in a movie about giant transforming robots? Well, they might be right about the lovely Ms. Fox anyways. But as far as big events for video game and computer nerds, the annual Los Angeles’ Electronic Entertainment Expo (which goes by the time-saving acronym E3) trade show for the computer and video games industry, ranks pretty highly. This year’s E3, which took place June 1-4, however had one important unveiling that got video andmusic geeks alike excited: the first previews of a little game called The Beatles: Rock Band. You heard right, a Rock Band based on the music of the Fab Four. Awesome, right? If you can ignore the fact that somewhere John Lennon (bless his soul) is probably spinning in his grave, this is a pretty cool concept. I mean, who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to sing off-key renditions of songs like “Hey Jude” and “I Am The Walrus” with your drunken mates? The game comes out September 9th, and you can watch some trailers over at the official site.
What’s the point in writing for a blog if you can’t include a little shameless self-promotion now and again? Not much, that’s what I say. So allow me to take a minute of your time and bring your attention to my Facebook petition, “Bring The Yeah Yeah Yeahs To Toronto”. I mean, its really more of a public service announcement than anything else. If you like the YYYs or know someone who does or you just like joining Facebook groups, please join here and invite your friends. Please and thank you.
Garage rock beef! Black Lips’ singer and bassist Jared Swilley recently had some less-than-kind words for Nathan Williams, in regards to the Wavves frontman’s recent onstage meltdown during the band’s set at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival, during a radio interview. Some of his choice words included “cowardly”, “baby” and “dick”. Read the full story on Pitchfork here.
Speaking of the Lips, The Almighty Defenders’ (which includes members of the Lips and King Khan and the BBQ Show) debut show will be held at the Amsterdam Brewery (21 Bathurst Street) on June 18th. Sponsored by VICE Canada and Zune, this show goes from 9:00 pm till 1:00 am, and should be a dependably solid good time. RSVP at to@viceland.com. Please watch this and this to get an idea of the craziness that may ensue from this one-off (?) gig.
Just when you think this song is dead, another band attempts to put their own stamp on it. Those that attended the Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction show in Toronto were treated to a special surprise: Street Sweeper Social Club (Boots Riley and Tom Morello) doing a heavy rockin’ cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” (thanks to BlogTO for this one).
As much as it pains me to watch this – as I passed on going to this show last minute – this is a gorgeous rendition of an amazing song. Grizzly Bear getting some assistance from everyone’s favourite Canadian songbird, Feist, last Friday at the Phoenix on “Two Weeks”. Thanks to our photographer Steph L. for this one.
Afraid that you aren’t going to be able to squeeze seeing Health into your busy NXNE schedule? Well never fear, as the LA noise-rockers will be returning to Toronto on September 19th at Wrongbar. This time it’ll be in support of their second full-length album, Get Color, which will be released on September 8th. I’ve read that these guys put on an insane live performance and they are definitely among my top twenty must-see-live bands. Listen to first single “Die Slow” over at the band’s MySpace.
Unfortunately for myself, not living at home this summer, and having to pay grocery, phone and Metro Pass bills has really brought me down-to-earth on my grim economic situation. As a result, I will be heading home to Nova Scotia the end of the month, and not returning to Toronto until the beginning of August. But never fear, I shall be still providing news updates and album reviews, even if there is a lack of shows to attend in my fair province (And did I mention we have an NDP government now?). I will however be covering the Virgin Mobile Festival in Halifax, and may be potentially (fingers crossed) heading on a road trip with two cousins to Montreal for the second day of Osheaga, to catch Beastie Boys, The Decemberists, Crystal Castles, The Ting Tings, Beast and Rufus Wainwright, among others.
Cheers,
Max
“Summertime and the living is easy…” Well there’s no doubt that summer is finally upon us, and so far I’m finding it pretty easy to settle into a routine of getting up around noon, spending lazy afternoons downtown, and attending shows late into the night. Last night I caught a solid double bill of Scottish noise rockersMogwai and The Twilight Sad at the Phoenix, after interviewing The Twilight Sad’s lead singer James Graham. Saturday night, one of my friends came downtown for her 19th birthday, so on a whim I ended up catching a high-energy USS show (including backup dancers and a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!”) at the Sound Academy. Since I’m living in Toronto this summer until at least the beginning of July – and possibly longer – I’ve made it my personal mission to discover all that this city has to offer. And while eventually I’ll have to pick up more shifts at my restaurant (hey, those $6.50 drinks at the Phoenix don’t pay for themselves), in the meantime I’ve been conducting interviews and checking out concerts, so keep checking the Lamb daily for new stuff. Here’s some news!
For the past week I haven’t been able to stop listening to the new Black Lips album, and I couldn’t be more excited for their not one, but two appearances at NXNE this June. One of those appearances will be a free show at Dundas Square on June 18th, with Burning Brides and Melissa Auf Der Maur. And as much as I dislike the Atlanta quartet’s self-referential “flower punk” tag, their latest album 200 Million Thousand, definitely draws on influences as diverse as 60s pop, R&B and soul. The standout track for me is the slow-burning, drugged-out “The Drop I Hold” with lead singer Cole Alexander delivering drawling lines like “Ain’t got no money, but the gods make it fuckin’ rain”. The band recently got together in Austin with Wu-Tang’s GZA for a performance at SXSW, which resulted in the rapper contributing some bars to make a great song even better. Listen to the collaboration via the Vice Records website here.
Bloc Party have a new video for the Armand Van Helden “Signs” remix. Myself, I’m personally not a huge fan of the song, and the remix itself isn’t that special, but damn if this video sure isn’t a mind fuck.
Speaking of bizarre music videos, here’s one that’s strangely artistic and non-cliche for a hip-hop video, from New York’s Christian Rich. The song is called “Famous Girl” and the masks in this video remind me of that band The Sound Of Animals Fighting. Unfortunately, the song still sucks.
King Khan and the Shrines will be performing live at the MTV studios on May 11. For free tickets to the taping call 1-888-491-6888, or email liveaudiemce@mtv.ca.
Back in October, I got a chance to interview former Ryerson student Gavin Gardiner, who is the lead vocalist of a Toronto folk-rock band called The Wooden Sky. After opening for the likes of The D’Urbervilles, Mother Mother and Wintersleep, the band will finally be back in Toronto on May 22 for a show at The Music Gallery.
That Fleet Foxes show at Massey Hall that I reported on a week ago now has a date. If you’re a fan of the Fleet Foxes, or Swedish psychedelic-rockers Dungen who will be opening for the band, mark August 4th on your calendars.
Don’t look now, but there is a new Toronto music scene poised to make waves in the upcoming months. The defining characteristics of this scene? Noise, noise and more noise. Noise rock bands from the United States such as No Age and Times New Viking have gotten increasingly popular over the last few years, but now there are bands north of the border making this lo-fi, feedback and distortion-heavy music. Two new Toronto bands that are leading purveyors of this sound are Pirate/Rock and Little Girls. Pirate/Rock are an unsigned duo, but thanks to love from EXCLAIM! and their recent sold out EP Desert Eagle, they might not stay that way for much longer. Little Girls is actually a side-project of Pirate/Rock’s Josh McIntyre and I recently got the chance to check them out at Sonic Boom. I have to say that I was quite impressed by the band’s energy and McIntrye’s droning voice, which reminds me of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis (who isn’t a bad person to be compared to vocally, right?), and I’d advise you to check these guys out especially if you are fans of Austin’sThe Black Angels. Both bands have upcoming shows in Toronto, check their MySpaces for all the details.
Finally, if you are looking for a great show this weekend, The Kills will be playing at the Phoenix this Thursday. These guys are one of my favourite bands and they are supposed to put on a great live show – tickets are still available for $18.50 at the usual record stores, or $20 at the door. Also, on Saturday, rapper k-os will be bringing his “pay-what-you-can” show (as a poor university student, I’m a strong advocate of this concept) to the Kool Haus – be sure to get there early, because this show will get crowded quickly. Check one, or both shows out – myself, I’ll probably be at the Kool Haus with some friends.
Cheers,
Max
It’s summer time. And of course, with wonderful weather comes the wonderful music festivals. Toronto doesn’t host Lollapalooza or anything (hell, we’re apparently not even hosting the Virgin Festival anymore), but we do have Summerworks and NXNE. Here’s a quick update.
Although the full NXNE lineup won’t be announced until mid-May, a brief teaser was recently released. The following have been confirmed so far by the organizers:
Aids Wolf
Angela Desveaux
Arizona
Awkward I
Benny Crespo’s Gang
Black Lips
Burning Brides
Experimental Dental School
Fake Blood
Film Noir
Health
Kill Krinkle Klub
King Khan & BBQ Show
Little Girls
Little Teeth
Matt and Kim
Midnight Peacocks
Mika Miko
Ninjasonik
No Age
Pink Noise
Svjata Vatra
The Coathangers
The Homosexuals
These are Powers
United Steelworkers of Montreal
Woodpigeon
NOW also reports that NXNE and Luminato will co-present Do Make Say Think, Final Fantasy, and Berlin’sRobert Lippok at Yonge-Dundas Square, performing a collaboration of a soundtrack to the 1919 silent film, “Tales of The Uncanny” on June 11. This event is free and all-ages.
Though no specific venues and dates are confirmed by NXNE, I was able to dig up that Fake Blood will be at Wrongbar on June 20th (via The Windish Agency).
Also, thanks to ‘For the Records’ for pointing out that The Black Lips, Burning Brides and Melissa Auf Der Maur will be playing a free show at Yonge-Dundas Square on June 18th; brought to you by MySpace Canada.
IHeartMusic will be holding a showcase at the Drake Hotel on June 18th, featuring Amos the Transparent, The Balconies, Black Hat Brigade, and Oh No Forest Fires.
Dan Burke’s NeXT-at-NXNE showcase will include Red Mass, The Zoobombs, Catl, The Golden Triangle, The Two Koreas, The Sedatives, “Pizza Party” DJs, Teen Anger, Hexes & Ohs, Revolvers, and the Mark Inside.
Other acts confirmed through various sources are: Ruby Jean and the Thoghtful Bees, Bass Lions, Dinosaur Bones, Megan Hamilton and Volunteer Canola, The Paint Movement, Alphabot! and Parlour Steps.
That is all I can rummage up for now. We’ll keep you posted!
Summerworks is also back this year and via Gracing the Stage, there will be a launch party on May 3rd at the Theatre Centre featuring Bob Wiseman, Nils Edenloff (of The Rural Alberta Advantage), and Foxfire. For more information, click here!
And last but not least, as mentioned at the beginning of my post, this year’s Virgin Festival appears to have moved to Orillia, Ontario. Someone tell me this is a joke. It’s also rumoured to be taking place on August 29-30, but with other festivals such as the Outside Lands Fest and Reading Festival, who the hell is left for V-Fest? Again…this has to be a joke, right? Let’s hope so. Read more about this mystery here.
Musically,
Melody
