Gentleman Reg @ Sonic Boom for Record Store Day
“I feel like I’m dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what? I’m a pretty sound sleeper – that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face.”
I didn’t say that. Heck, the guy who did say that – one Stephen Colbert – was talking about getting the chance to speak at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, but I think this statement captures my feelings the last few days as I wrap up my first year of university. I finished my last exam yesterday afternoon, and now I’m beginning to say my goodbyes and getting ready to make the move from downtown TO to the strange wilderness that is North York. Now that school’s done, I’m hoping to be posting twice as often on here and covering even more shows and interviewing even more artists and bands.
International Record Store Day was this past Saturday and I got the chance to check out the festivities at Sonic Boom, which included solid performances from the likes of Gentleman Reg, Green Go and Hooded Fang. But we all know this day was about the free shit, and there was plenty of that; including vinyls from Josh Reichmann and Controller.Controller., a Paper Bag Records sampler and some pretty cool posters and pins. And just because the event has passed, doesn’t mean that you still shouldn’t be out there supporting your local record stores.
Twitter and Pitchfork. If there are any two cultural trends that I shouldn’t be following, it would be the latest social networking craze and the holier-than-thou tastemaking music website. But damn was their staff’s Twitter coverage of last week’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival pretty darn funny (sample Tweets included “there’s a guy next to me with a 4-year old with no earplugs. parental epic fail” and “killers open with “human” and “somebody told me.” they know they’ve still got another hour plus up there, right?”), and the next best thing to actually being in the middle of the Californian desert, dancing and sweating with thousands of complete strangers to everyone from Leonard Cohen to My Bloody Valentine to Paul McCartney. To read more about what you missed and to follow PItchfork on Twitter, click here.
Fleet Foxes are coming to Massey Hall in August! The date has yet to be finalized, but according to Chromewaves, event promoters recently confirmed this announcement.
How can hip-hop be dead when Kanye West and Clipse are still here? Their shit-hot collaboration, “Kinda Like A Big Deal” (which you can listen over at Kanye’s blog here), features some “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”-style boasting, honest-to-goodness rapping from South Park’s most recent target and bodes well for the Virginia duo’s upcoming third album.
While everyone and their mothers have been turning out remixes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Zero” recently (including MSTRKRFT, Animal Collective and N.A.S.A.), I thought I’d share with you a remix of a song from a band a little closer to home. Rio party-starter’s The Twelves turned out this remix of Metric’s “Help, I’m Alive”, which takes the original and turns it into a slab of French disco.
Hope y’all enjoyed, and celebrated accordingly, everyone’s favourite non-statuatory holiday on Monday. I’ll leave you with a few 4/20-related gems; here is Alexisonfire covering Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”, a videofeaturing everyone’s favourite cuddly, family-friendly rapper (and avid cannabis supporter) Snoop Dogg, and some guy named Bob Marley talking about…well, you know where I’m going with this.
Cheers,
Max
