Posts Tagged ‘you say party we say die’
You Say Party! We Say Die!, Think About Life @ Phoenix – Nov. 20, 2009
November 23rd, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
M for Montréal is here!
November 18th, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
M for Montreal
M for Montreal’s fourth edition showcases some of Montréal’s finest acts and still mix brilliantly the anglo and franco music scenes from all around Canada. That’s the beauty of this event, it brings everyone together! The other good thing about M is that you can actually attend all the shows. It’s made for you to see all these bands (unlike Pop Montreal, for instance). Even if on some nights the showcases are at different places, there’s enough time to bike or walk from the Cabaret Juste Pour Rire on Saint-Laurent down to the Metropolis on Sainte-Catherine or the Café Campus. You even have time to grab some Schwartz on the way or enjoy the greatest vegetarian food at Paradis Végétarien on Saint-Denis and Mont-Royal (or, you know, get some poutine at la banquise on Rachel). So I planned your weekend for you:
Tomorrow November 19th catch Final Flash, The Luyas, Miracle Fortress, The Rural Alberta Advantage, You Say Party! We Say Die! and Think About Life at Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, tickets are 17,75$ at the door. It all starts at 8 :30 and you can dance through the night with the Think About Life DJ set and « surprise guests » after the show. I can’t hide how freakin excited I am for this show. If you can only attend one showcase during M for Montréal, that’s the one.
On Friday November 20th, start the day right (if you have the three day pass, that is) with the M pour Martini cocktail with Mark Berube and The Few and Elisapie Isaac. The cocktail doubles as The Dears’ Valérie Jodoin Keaton’s Backstage book launch. Then head to the Cabaret for Two Hours Traffic, Silly Kissers, DD/MM/YYYY, Parlovr, Silver Starling and Le Matos. The M for Mystery afterparty will be a DJ set by Cadence Weapon and « very very special guests ».
On Saturday November 21st, it’s time to put these high school french classes to good use. The sélection franco showcase starts at 3 with Caracol followed by Québec’s Feist, Marie-Pierre Arthur. You can also catch Automelodi, latest hyped band and telus ad singers La Patère Rose, Géraldine (Don’t miss her! You won’t regret it. She’s the next Duchess Says of stage chaos, I swear) and pop duo Orange Orange. Later that night catch the M pour Metropolis show at the Metropolis (duh…) with Malajube, Melissa Auf der Maur, Champion and this year’s Polaris Music Prize winners Fucked Up. If you’re not tired from dancing around yet, there’s the M for Midnight afterparty at the SAT (don’t forget to RSVP to nightlife magazine beforehand).
The three day pass is insanely cheap (60$) and it gives you access to all the showcases, the M pour Martini cocktail, the panels, the afterparties AND M pour Metropolis. Careful though, there are only 150 available. Train and cheap bus tickets are still available for you Toronto people! I checked that for you because The Lamb always has your back. More information about ticket prices and schedules at http://mpourmontreal.com/EN/index.php.
Have a good weekend now!
Zut Alors,
Christine
Review : Les Handclaps, You Say Party! We Say Die! & Think About Life @ Festival de musique indépendante Diapason – November 7, 2009
November 8th, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
Think About Life
The festival de musique indépendante Diapason (lovingly called the FMID) is a brand new music festival daringly mixing french pop artists, hip-hop acts and indie rockers for four days of musical fun. It’s not everyday that Laval hosts an event that stimulating for the music scene, because, well, there’s no music scene in Laval, just a lot of shopping centers (don’t listen to me, there are also beautiful country roads and a nice bicycle path on the south-east part of the island). I have to explain though, when you live in Montréal going to Laval, all the way north on the orange line, seems like the end of the world (and you have to pay to get back on the metro after that? What?). So the few dozens of courageous Montréalers were rewarded by cheap beer and extreme proximity to the stage. Oh, and the show was only 3$.
The venue, called le TRAC, is in the Montmorency CÉGEP. It’s a tiny seated venue with a stage the size of your double bed. It felt like we were all back in high school, waiting for the cool music kids to play a few ska songs on lunch break. The venue seats not more than 150 people and due to the distance and the fact that both headliners are playing a show tonight in Montreal (at Il Motore, with Immaculate Machine), a few hundred people showed up.
Openers Les Handclaps, self described as an electro-pop-yéyé band, warmed up the few attendees, which at this point were still sitting in their wooden chairs and not moving much (I have to admit we weren’t doing much moving either; too busy figuring out what the f was happening on that stage). I’ve been meaning to check them out for a while now, to see what all the hype was about, after hearing their single “Cacti are delicious fruit” (which does not make sense, by the way. Hear for yourself at MySpace) and I was a bit flabbergasted when the first song consisted of a drum beat and someone rapping. The band seemed to counteract the fact that the crowd wasn’t into it at all by having fun as a band on stage. Kudos to the guitarist for his rock star moves. It wasn’t Brendan Canning moves but they were entertaining nonetheless. The singer, Lorraine Muller, did her very best to get people dancing. She made the three people who responded to her attempts sing with her, screamed and danced around. They seemed like they were having a blast on stage, it’s a shame that it just didn’t translate past the monitors. Verdict: Les Handclaps are just another generic pop-rock band that likes cheesy rhymes and French pop. But if you’re into Chocolat, Orange Orange or Creature, you’ll like Les Handclaps. Their music must be nice for easy listening on a summer afternoon; it’s just that I’m sick of generic franco-pop bands.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/leshandclaps
The crowd was still comfortably sat when Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! came on stage (the stage set up included four giant glowing X’s, really nice!). They asked everyone to sit up and dance if they wanted to, which got very little reaction at first but after the first song everyone except the few straight faced hipsters started dancing. “Opportunity” from 2007’s Lose All Time finally got some kind of vibe going as the five members of the band tried dancing and jumping around without bumping in something/someone. Becky Ninkovic’s voice is stronger than before and it was very well displayed during XXXX’s new, slower, more heartfelt songs. They did a slower, more vocally focused version of “Monster” during which Ninkovic started walking through the crowd, looking at each of us in the eyes and smiling. At some point in the last song, she grabbed a drumstick and lightly tapped everyone on the head like it was her magic wand. Very endearing. Despite the horrible sound and awkwardness of the seating situation, the venue was great for actual contact with the bands. We could literally hear everyone breath and swallowed mouthfuls of cheap beer. YSP!’s set seemed too short and some of us started asking for “THE GAP! PLEASE PLAY THE GAP!” to which the singer’s reaction was “No! You guys! Think About life are coming, you should be glad!” Becky, you are adorable (but seriously I really wanted to scream my heart out and dance violently to “The Gap”).
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yousaypartywesaydie
Next up were Montréal’s own Think About Life. Do I even need to praise them for their entertainment abilities anymore? I think it’s a well known fact that a Think About Life show is guaranteed fun. Last night was no exception. Even with huge sound problems and not being able to hear themselves on stage, they turned the place into an all around dance floor. “Paul Cries” was interrupted when Von Pelt just couldn’t follow the beat because of the cacophony. The soundwoman came to the rescue and the song was played again. New drummer Greg successfully entertained the crowd while everyone was busy with monitors, wires and fancy technical words. The stage banter was the best as usual, Martin speaking french the entire time and making conversation with the front row. They performed the whole Family album and came back for one encore with the crowd chanting, in the true Think About Life show spirit, “Think About Life!” over and over. The stage unexpectedly doubled as a dance floor, leaving the band kind of confused. Bassist/Singer/Awesome dancer Caila Thompson-Hannant seemed pleasantly surprised when the bunch of 16-year-olds bumped into her bass to get on stage and dance their ass off. Speaking of Caila, I just want to acknowledge her killer dance move and all around awesomeness. That’s all.
So, Toronto, you definitely can’t miss them November 20th at the Phoenix (with Little Girls).
Contest: You Say Party! We Say Die! @ Phoenix
September 30th, 2009 | By: Melody Lau
Photo Credit: Todd Duym
As we all know, this week’s Tuesday releases included B.C. dance-punk rockers You Say Party! We Say Die! with their follow-up to 2007′s Lose All Time entitled XXXX, and in celebration of this The Singing Lamb has a pair of tickets to giveaway for their upcoming show at the Phoenix on November 20th!
All you have to do is send the Lamb an e-mail (melodylau.620@gmail.com) with your contact info (name + phone number) and we’ll draw a winner November 16th!
Check out XXXX, in stores now! And while you’re at it, please check out the opening acts for that evening’s show – Montreal’s Think About Life and Toronto’s Little Girls! With a lineup like that, you can’t go wrong – it has ‘fun time’ written all over it!
***
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yousaypartywesaydie
Let’s Chat: You Say Party! We Say Die!
July 3rd, 2009 | By: Melody Lau
You Say Party! We Say Die!
“If love was grilled cheese, that would be our album, I think.” Lead singer of Abbottsford, B.C.’s You Say Party! We Say Die! Becky Ninkovic was referring to a bumper sticker bassist Stephen O’Shea saw recently. “All those cliches you hear in the world that ‘love is all’ and ‘love is the answer’ – those are the truths. They are cheesy but nobody is going to argue with that, unless they’re haters.”
All this love Ninkovic speaks of is in regards to the new album (yet to be titled) that will be released on September 29th via Paperbag Records. “Since the last tour, we’ve finished writing and mostly recording our new album,” reveals guitarist Derek Clifford. “We’ve done a few shows here and there but we’ve just been finishing up in the studio. We’ve been trying a lot of new things and we’ve been trying to let the music breathe a little more. It’s just something we’ve never really done before; a lot of our older stuff feels relentless. We kind of strangled every drop of music we could get out of it; we strangled that shit!”
That breath was definitely apparent as two days later, the dance-punk band took the stage at midnight at Toronto’s El Mocambo, as part of Musebox’s showcase at this year’s NXNE Festivities. With a packed venue, filled with a mix of curious bystanders and long-time fans, YSP!YSD! played a set filled with new tracks, fleshed out with a couple of Lose All Time favourites (“Downtown Mayors Goodnight, Alley Kids Rule!” and “Like I Give A Care”). The newer material did in fact prove to have a lot more breathing room, as Clifford said, unravelling a much more refined and toned down sound, still reminiscent of classic YSP!YSD! traits but definitely a new chapter in the band’s life.
“We’re five years old now!” exclaimed O’Shea. “It’s been a long process, these five years growing, but it’s been a really good five years. We’ve got to go to some cool places and see some pretty cool things.”
Reflecting back to the first time the band rehearsed, O’Shea recalls Ninkovic attempting to play the guitar. “She’s like ‘I’ve got this song!’ and she picked up the guitar and she had this little song that she had written and it didn’t sound like dance-punk at all, but that song actually ended up becoming ‘Teenage Hit Wonder’ on Lose All Time!” Ninkovic takes a few minutes to jog her memory and laughs at this, while pretending to air guitar the riff to “Teenage Hit Wonder”.
“We’re somewhere a little more comfortable than we were before, I think,” says Clifford. “I think we’ve gone through the worst of the learning pains.”
Between 2007′s Lose All Time and the recording of this upcoming album, the band also released a remix album entitled Remik’s Cube; a kiss of death to some bands today. “It’s actually one of our favourite things that we’ve ever put together though,” says O’Shea. “It’s the one I enjoy the most!”
“It’s the most stress-free,” adds Clifford. “A lot of remix albums are just the same. They take the vocal samples and then just throw a beat behind it; a lot of the ones on the remix album are true to the originals. Also, we released this album to keep the ball rolling I guess. We knew we were going to take our time writing a new album so it seemed like a good opportunity to work with some new people and see what happens.”
The compiling of Remik’s Cube ultimately helped the band with the writing of their new record, as the remixes provided a “new perspective in songwriting.”
“You just start thinking of songs differently when you hear them put together in so many different ways by different people,” says Ninkovic. “There was something kind of subconscious that shifted after Remik’s Cubewith the way we wrote and I think it had something to do with that. I don’t know what, exactly.”
Whatever it was, political themes still seem to be apparent in the new material but in a “different kind of way,” as O’Shea assures. “The old songs were overtly political and in-your-face. We punched you in the face with the words ‘the gap’ and ‘the poor’ over and over and over again, but that’s not going to happen anymore because those were lyrics I wrote early on and now I don’t write the lyrics, it’s Becky’s job. I think what we continue to write about is political but you have to search for it on a much deeper level; we’re not just going to sing about every catchphrase chapter in a political science textbook you can buy from any colleges or universities.”
The next couple of months will see You Say Party! We Say Die! completing the new album and potentially playing a few more shows around their hometown. But rest assured, they will be back on the road this fall with a potentially new live aesthetic as well. “We’ve never done anything fancy before but we’re now actually beginning a new era in You Say Party and we’d like to incorporate a little more of a light show maybe and dynamics like projections or something,” previews O’Shea.
“We’re just starting to play with options now,” says O’Shea. “We’ve got plans. That’s the bottom line.”
(Also, in Singing Lamb tradition, when asked what singing animals they would be O’Shea replied with “the yawn of a sloth”, Clifford said “a screeching owl or weasel” and after a few minutes of thinking, Ninkovic decided to go with a “love bird”)
For more You Say Party! We Say Die!,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yousaypartywesaydie
Website: http://www.yousaypartywesaydie.ca/
Max’s NXNE Review: Thursday June 18, 2009
June 25th, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
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
