Posts Tagged ‘hives’

Welcome Back!

November 16th, 2008 | By: Melody Lau

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Singing Lamb

As much as I enjoy the fast-paced, crowded environment of downtown Toronto, nothing felt better than walking down the streets of a quiet suburban neighbourhood in the afternoon, listening to one of my new favourite bands, Hooded Fang…that was last week. Now, I sit in my bed, coughing my lungs out, praying for the flames of hell to burn a whole in my throat. Being sick sucks. What also sucked was that the Singing Lamb had to be down for so long! I’m so sorry! But alas, it is back and better than ever! A lot of hard work was put into it by Tech Nerd, so if you see him walking around, give him props. And then punch him (for me) for the embarrassingly bad video of me.

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of searching and listening lately in light of my search of bands for the upcoming launch party in January. Bands of all sorts were asked, and even though the process was/is quite tedious (and heartbreaking at times – rejection is always painful), the silver lining to it all was that I was able to learn more about some amazing bands in town. But let’s just cut to the important stuff here. Here are the three bands that have been confirmed (so far!) for the official Singing Lamb Launch Party!!

  • Sports: The Band
  • Maylee Todd
  • Green Go

We’re still waiting on a response, but there’s a good chance that we’re getting some folks from Montreal to play at the show as well…you’ll just have to wait and see who that is! Quick hint: the two potential bands are both featured in this month’s issue of Chart.

I know there’s been a whirlwind of news last week, so I’ll just sum it up as quickly as possible!

The Pipettes lose yet another member, moving them down to two. Seriously, just stop it with the Pipette-switcheroo and release a new record! Read more here.

The Hives are teaming up with Cyndi Lauper for a Christmas single…strange, but true.

What’s even stranger is the group of people in this holiday ad for The Gap. Stereogum says “Jingle FAIL” but I say fuck it, that’s my new Christmas anthem. Rainn Wilson said so.

Speaking of commercials, this makes me cry.

Not so into holiday jingles or chocolate commercials? Want to just stick to simple children’s tunes? Well Tilly and the Wall have it covered. Here’s the new way to sing “ABC”, kids.

The Handsome Furs are releasing a new LP on February 3rd, 2009 entitled Face Control. Here’s the tracklisting:

Face Control:

  1. Legal Tender
  2. Evangeline
  3. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues
  4. (Passport Kontrol)
  5. All We Want, Baby, Is Everything
  6. I’m Confused
  7. (White City)
  8. Nyet Spasiba
  9. Officer of Hearts
  10. (It’s Not Me, It’s You)
  11. Thy Will Be Done
  12. Radio Kaliningrad

Does anyone else love the steamy new photo on their MySpace? Forget Face Control, these two need to learn some body control.

Final Fantasy also has a new video out for “Blue Imelda”, off of his Spectrum. 14th Century EP. Great EP; I recommend “The Butcher”, but “Blue Imelda” is also great. According to Owen Pallett, he will not be playing any shows in Toronto in the new year until he releases his upcoming LP (still entitled Heartland?). Let’s hope that it comes out soon then.

Broken Social Scene (Presents Brendan Canning) has a new video out for “Churches Under the Stairs”, arguably one of the best songs from Canning’s album, Something For All of Us…

Some upcoming shows to be aware of:
Casiotone For the Painfully Alone @ 6 Nassau (November 15)
Elliot Brood @ Lee’s Palace (December 31)
*Thunderheist & Shad @ Nathan Philips Square (January 31)
*The Stills @ Nathan Philips Square (February 7)
Cut Copy & Matt and Kim @ Circa (March 20)

*WinterCity Festival shows, FREE

As for the opening acts for the Stars gigs, those are as follow:
Dec. 11 – The Russian Futurists
Dec. 12 – Gentlemen Reg
Dec. 13 – The Done Me Wrongs

Phew, I think that’s all for now! Feel free to send comments to our e-mails or just chat about music; that’s always a joy!

Musically,
Melody

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My Heart Keeps Beating Like a Hammer

October 30th, 2008 | By: Melody Lau

Metric

Metric

I’m not going to lie; I’ve practically given up on Metric.

I haven’t heard much from the band since their 2005 release, Live it Out and I’m pretty sure fans were growing impatient of the new record. Sure, there were plenty of new tracks live (for MP3′s,www.metricforum.com is where you can find it all), most of which are pretty good, but come on guys, give me a release date already.

So I noticed today, the band’s official site had a new page posted up and it at least tells me something, finally. As the video tells, Emily Haines did take off to Buenos Aires for a bit sometime ago and clearly some good came out of it as she returned to the studio with a fresh mind and new songs. The song, “Help, I’m Alive”that plays throughout the video is actually new to me, as I have not heard of it. I actually really liked it, especially as a quieter, piano song, as opposed to the fuller, synth-infused version at the end of the video. This gives me a rejunanated sense of hope for Metric. Maybe 2009 will be the year I fall in love with Metric all over again. We’ll see when the new album drops “early 2009″. God, please let that be true.

Metric, as mentioned in my last post, will be playing at the Sound Academy on December 13th along with a whole slew of amazing acts. Tickets go on sale Saturday; presale’s on now.

Yesterday, Feist posted quite a riddle on her MySpace blog, saying:

In Toron?to,? out came a sign
Of wood,? nails?,? it wasn’?t fine

Last night?,? it said there?’?s been a heist
A stage? was took,? stole?n by Feist?

A crowd? arriv?ed,? a line up made
It might? be time for anoth?er raid

A Queen? still? true,? the King a spous?e
In Came Ron, a real full House

A lady watch?es,? ten times? an ant
If after? eight?:? late,? late,? pant,? pant

And after not only reading this message at 10:00 p.m. but also not understanding it for a while, I finally realized that Feist had played a secret show at the Cameron House on Queen St. last night at 8:00 p.m. This literally brought tears to my eyes. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to wait to see Feist at the more spacious Massey Hall on Saturday. At least I won’t have to have a riddle guide me there. Just a brain to remind me of the directions and to remember to bring my ticket.

Someone please let me know how Lykke Li’s show last week went! Opening act, Friendly Fires recently covered Li’s “I’m Good, I’m Gone“. I’m usually not a fan of many covers (okay, that may be a lie…) but this one is actually really good! Lykke Li still does it better, but Friendly Fires puts quite a fresh spin on it.

Do you religiously follow/read the online blog, B(oot)log? If you do, and you’ve been wondering, like I have, why there have been no updates of late, maybe this will explain.

The Two Koreas will be playing at the Gladstone Hotel on November 3rd.

Some things just look weird at first glance. You know what I mean? Here are some examples that I noticed tonight:

Steven Page Gets Off.

The Gay Blades on Ice Across America.

…maybe it’s just me.

M.I.A. has a new song out (from her How Many Votes Fix Mix EP), “Shells (Slow)”.

Lioness talks to Chart about Controller.Controller. They play at Wrongbar on November 14th.

The Hives are getting sued for plagiarism. Read more here.

In the Halloween spirit, Houston Press has decided to have some fun and pick out 28 “Creepy” album covers. See them all here.

Love is All is also having some Halloween fun. Watch here.

New Beck video for “Gamma Ray” here.

That’ll be it for now! Sorry for the slew of news! Just felt like I needed to tell you some stuff.

Musically,
Melody

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