Posts Tagged ‘young galaxy’
NXNE Announces 2010 Line Up!
April 13th, 2010 | By: Melody Lau
IGGY!
It’s the day we’ve been all waiting for – the official announcement of the NXNE line up! NXNE, a seven-day marathon this year, will feature Les Savy Fav, Surfer Blood, De La Soul, Mudhoney, Japandroids…oh, and Iggy and the Stooges. No big deal. Oh, and they’re playing for free at Dundas Square on June 19th. Again, no big deal. I just squealed like a little girl when I saw it; that’s all.
Here’s a list of everyone’s who have been confirmed so far:
A Plot Against Me
AA Bondy
Ali & The Dts
Ally Kerr
Amanda Rheaume
Amos The Transparent
Asteroid # 4
Autumn Owls
Avi Buffalo
Belle Roscoe
Box Elders
Bruce Peninsula
Buffalos
CALLmeKAT
Camera
Cat Malojian
Chasing Pandora
Chris Velan
CoCoComa
Cold Cave
Comanechi
DD/MM/YYYY
De La Soul
De Staat
Demon’s Claws
DM Stith
Drive like Maria
Elliott Brood
Fanshaw
Fugitive Underground
Funeral Suits
Glass Candy
Gold Panda
Grooms
Happy Hollows
HEALTH
Hidden Towers
Icarus Line
Iggy and the Stooges
Imaginary Cities
Indian Jewelry
Inlets
Japandroids
JEFF the Brotherhood
Jess McAvoy
Julianna Barwick
Kate Rogers Band
Kid Sister
Kistehén
Les Savy Fav
Luluc
Man or Astroman
METZ
Mudhoney
New Country Rehab
Nicola Watson
Paul Greene
Praise the Twilight Sparrow
PS I Love You
Queen Kwong
Quintron & Miss Pussycat
RÄUBERHÖHLE
Resplandor
Rudely Interrupted
Ruth Minnikin
Sean Nicholas Savage
Silje Nes
Simone Felice
Sloan
Smile Smile
Spaceships are cool
Surfer Blood
Svavar Knútur
Teengirl Fantasy
Templo Diez
Ten Bears
Terracotta Pigeons
The Adventures Of Loki
The Besnard Lakes
The Black Atlantic
The Craftmen Club
The Gentle Good
The High Dials
The Jack Stafford Foundation
The Moi Non Plus
The New Royales
The North
The Poison Arrows
The Racoon Wedding
The Raveonettes
The Rough Sea
The Setting Son
The Soft Pack
The Strange Boys
The Sunshine Underground
Thee Oh Sees
Twin Stumps
Wavves
We are Enfant Terrible
Will Kevans
WOMEN
Wooden Wand
Wussy
X
Young Galaxy
Zola Jesus
MORE TO COME!
NXNE – Bring it.
Pop Montreal: Day Two – And then suddenly I was Tom Cruise
October 2nd, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
Hey Ocean! @ Pop Montreal (Photo Credit: Ming Wu)
The second day of Pop magic began promisingly enough: a trip to Marché Maisonneuve saw us equipped with the right ingredients for some creativity in the kitchen. Yes, Fall! Yes, pumpkin pie!
Leaving our culinary masterpiece at home to cool, the next stop was CBC headquarters for a free show featuring Think About Life. And here the first real fail of the week: we weren’t among the fortunate few (very few) people to make it into the showcase. Think About Life makes the kind of music that you can’t help but shake your boot-ay to, but we’re still unsure as to what kind of dance party could have gone on with a mere forty bodies. We can all take a look when the show airs on November 8th on Bande à Part.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thinkaboutlife
The silver lining to the evening’s initial disappointment was that there was plenty of time to line up for the rumoured-to-be-sold-out Fever Ray appearance. After scoring some stamps on our wrists at the Metropolis to guarantee later entry, we then scooted over to Club Soda to catch most of Hey Ocean!’s bubbly, sunshine-inspired set. Ashleigh Ball has powerful voice that was well complimented by playful guitar riffs and some groov-ay bass. Definitely catch this power pop quartet live if you’re looking for a warm pick-me-up to stave off those cold weather blahs.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/heyocean
Dashing back across the street to the Metropolis for Fever Ray, we had the fortune of meeting a friend with some awesome connections. The result: VIP seating directly above and to the right of stage. The thunder of “If I Had a Heart” opened the show, antique lanterns flickering in eerie unison with the thumping in our chests. Fever Ray took the stage decked out in an enormous hairy shroud that in the dark seemed akin to a costume from Where the Wild Things Are.
The crowd went crazy for “When I Grow Up” particularly, and looking out over the rolling sea of jiving bodies was enough to make us feel suddenly like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut. Until the very last seat-shaking vibrations of “Coconut” we spent the concert in a state somewhere between terror and awe. It was brilliant.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/feverray
Stumbling out of the Metropolis, we brushed past Win Butler and several Montreal semi-celebrities on our way to the Metro. Shortly thereafter we arrived once again at the lovely Il Motore, in time for Young Galaxy’s set. Why this show wasn’t sold out, we will never understand. The band was outfitted with matching face paint, Catherine McCandless wearing a flowered headdress and the most amazing shiny black pants. The set, made up of mostly songs from their sophomore release Invisible Republic, was gorgeously executed and Il Motore’s sound system once again helped to deliver an excellent musical experience. Despite its tiny size, the audience—including many friends of the band—clapped and cheered heroically and a spirited chant for “one more song” brought out 2/5 of the of the band for a pleasing acoustic performance to calm the end of the night.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/younggalaxy
Day two met its end with and long stroll down Rue St. Laurent for “chow mein” complete with gourmet Kraft peanut butter sauce. Disclaimer: this is a snack that one should never eat in the daylight.
Bagels and fun times,
L and C
CD Review: Young Galaxy – Invisible Republic
September 29th, 2009 | By: Guest Contributor
Invisble Republic
Being a music geek like you, I like to talk about artists and albums in comparison to other artists and albums. For whatever reason(s); probably just because it’s fun to connect musicians to each other (in terms of style) within a wide plateau.
I found myself coming up short on comparisons with Vancouver/Montreal group Young Galaxy. Not because their music is ‘out-there’ – it’s not in the least. Having not heard the band’s self-titled debut album, I sampled a few tracks and found sophomore release Invisible Republic to be a lot less languid, and has much less in common with the slow dream pop acts that you’ll see the band compared to (particularly Slowdive). On the contrary, I’m not even sure this album sounds like ‘dream pop’ at all; the vocals aren’t wispy enough and the guitars sounds more like they’re creating riffs and grooves, instead of gauzy clouds of hazy distortion that their supposed influences rode away on.
But, no matter. Invisible Republic takes its chosen sound (whatever that is) and wears it with pride. The guitars and arrangements are loud but not assaulting – leadoff track “Long Live the Fallen World” sits itself on some simple broken chords and a simple drumbeat, but singer Catherine McCandless makes it a genuinely exciting anthem for desperation.
Young Galaxy have two lead singers (guitarist Stephen Ramsay being the other), and they’re both effective, but McCandless comes out the real winner. She sounds somewhat like Karen O (there, I made a comparison), but you shouldn’t expect to see her with nearly as much energy onstage. Rather, she sounds like she’s lamenting from a high balcony, her voice fluctuating without seeming choppy.
And then there’s the surprises the band throws in to certain songs, like the way “Long Live the Fallen World” doubles its pace in the outro and adds a snappy violin. The cozy French horns in “Pathos” would have been fine enough to carry the track, but then they add some hazy-sounding strings and some lilting vocal harmonies. Sometimes these production flourishes combine badly with the lyrics – the overwrought vocalizing follower by an unnecessary silence near the end of “Light Years” sounds cheesy – but it’s quickly balanced out by better things – in that song’s case, more strings.
The thing that’s most admirable about Invisible Republic, though, is the way it feels busy and yet somehow conducive to relaxation. Young Galaxy rarely get lazy with their arrangements, constantly throwing in melodic violins, synthesizer beeps and piano chords. And even when the songwriting seems to lack, it’s usually a trick – look no further than the wonderful “Dreams”, which gives us a simple musical backing that’s pulled through with a Bowie-by-way-of-Stephin-Merritt vocal performance and comes to a spectacular finale of pizzicato strings and trebly, twilight guitars.
So, yes. The more you listen to Invisible Republic, the more you’ll appreciate its relaxing and yet grand layers. I’m already downloading their previous album right now to see what I’ve been missing.
***
For more Young Galaxy,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/younggalaxy
Let’s Chat: Young Galaxy
July 7th, 2009 | By: Melody Lau
Young Galaxy
“I want fill the city with our music!” exclaimed Steve Ramsay, lead singer of the Montreal-based indie-rock band Young Galaxy. “It’ll drive people crazy, probably.”
Ramsay, leader of the band and notoriously known as one of the nicest men in Canadian rock today, was expressing his interest and curiosity towards playing outdoor festivals, as this year’s NXNE showcase proves to be one of the band’s first summer festivals.
“We like it because we’re really new to it. Young Galaxy has never played a Hillside or Osheaga or Virgin Fest…we’re still new to everything,” said Ramsay. “I love it though. I love seeing a lot of bands; I like the ability to connect to a community of musicians. You see a lot of diverse, creative expressions here which is fantastic. I don’t want to live in a bubble, musically. I’m a fan of music, I want to be around it, and I want to feel it.”
Since the 2007 release of Young Galaxy’s self-titled record of epically lush, indie-pop tunes, the band has been through a whirlwind two years of touring, writing and recording a new record and most significantly, leaving their record label, Arts & Crafts. Do not fear though, the band has everything under control since their departure, figuratively and literally.
“We’re working with a distribution company, Fontana North – they’re a distribution company that put out Radiohead’s album in Canada and they just put out Howie Beck’s album and The Rural Alberta Advatage; great bands. Also, we’re working with Chad Wiseman who has his management company from within the distribution company,” revealed Ramsay. “So it’s sort of a new style of the record company thing that we’re doing.”
With this “new model” intact, the record finished and the band more ecstatic than ever, they will be releasing their follow-up, Invisible Republic on August 25th with their single “Destroyer” being released today via iTunes.
The new album is “less slow and sleepy,” as Ramsay explained. Filled with more danceable, upbeat tracks mixed in with their signature, grand and epic anthems, Invisible Republic is “a very different record from the first but still building on the strengths of the first.”
“We were amateurs back then, quite frankly. We were new to recording and Catherine and I were faking a band; we were just trying to make the sound of a band because it was just the two of us” said Ramsay, in regards to the band’s first record. “And then we got signed to Arts & Crafts after we made the record but before we even played a show so everything was very backwards and we ended up looking back at the record in a very different way. It was like a crazy mathematical equation where we’re trying to put these songs together because everything was so layered on that record and there was just no way we could recreate that live. This time around, we worked it out live first before we went into the studio.”
Live, Ramsay is correct; there was no way they could recreate the same atmospheric layers that one hears on record. Young Galaxy, the epically layered band is just Young Galaxy, the straight-up rock band when you see them play live – in a good way.
“It’s easy to be the punk-rock guys, just high-kicking, doing shit and being really over the top. You can make people react to that viscerally; but to have a genuinely emotional response? That takes a lot of work,” said Ramsay. “We’re getting there; we’re not perfect by any stretch. We’re just in the beginning phases of hopefully perfecting our ability to make the audience feel everything we’re doing.”
A live experience that Ramsay likes to recall though, involves a Pablo Honey-era Thom Yorke and “bellbottoms, tie-dye t-shirts and weird, bleach-blond hair.”
“They played ‘Creep’ and someone got lifted over the crowd and everyone was going nuts and Thom Yorke stopped the concert and said, ‘Stop! Stop!’ and everyone in the band stopped and it was dead silence,” recalled Ramsay, of course infusing in his own British accent to imitate Yorke. “He went on and said, ‘I won’t tolerate people crowd surfing, moshing, and acting like general idiots and animals! If you want to act like animals, go to the zoo! But I’m not a zookeeper. Now this is for those who want to listen!’ and everyone was just like, ‘what was that!?’”
“At my shows, I want people to be in an orgasmic state at all times. I want their hands over their heads, sweating, making out with each other,” says Ramsay jokingly (but not really). “But mosh pits and crowd-surfing? Bring it on. I want chaos. Bring a beach ball! Bring your balls. We’re gunning for Radiohead, Thom Yorke. I’m coming for you! But I’m no zookeeper, so don’t act like a monkey!”
Regardless of how this battle between Ramsay and Yorke will end, Young Galaxy does mean business and are truly prepared to put their all into the next couple of months, leading up to the release of Invisible Republic.
“We will live and die by the record,” said Ramsay. “If it fails, it’s because we failed. If it goes off, it’ll be because we made it go off. It’s going to feel good to have tried one way or another because we felt responsible for it.”
***
The following conversation, about Steve Ramsay being a singing animal has to be shown in it’s entirety because it is simply the best answer the Singing Lamb has heard. Ever.
The Singing Lamb: Okay last question. If you were a singing animal, what would you be?
Steve Ramsay: I would be a shark, riding an elephant’s back. But the shark has lazers for eyes because even if I was the shittiest singer in the world, nobody would fuck with me.
Are you the shark or the elephant?
It’s all one animal! You can’t tell where the shark with the lazers for eyes begins and the elephant ends.
I feel that the elephant should have a gun as an arm.
Probably! Like in Grindhouse?
Yes!
The machine gun leg. That is the most dangerous animal in the world. The shark with lazers for eyes, riding the elephant’s back and the elephant’s legs are machine guns. And the elephant walks on its hind legs and it makes a really high pitch squeal, that only dogs can hear so all the dogs come running, and they go crazy so even if you wanted to stop the elephant, you’d have to go through the dogs that are just losing their minds first. How’s that for a singing animal? Was that your best singing animal response ever?
YES.
***
Exclusive tracklisting for Invisible Republic (out August 25th):
Long Live the Fallen World
Oh Sister
Destroyer (single)
Pathos
Light years
Disposable Times
Dreams
Queen Drum
Smoke and Mirror Show
Firestruck
For more Young Galaxy,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/younggalaxy
Lamb-cation!
March 3rd, 2009 | By: Melody Lau
Young Galaxy
Lame phrase, but I like it.
As you can guess, The Singing Lamb is going to take a tiny, miniscule break from the site! Lambs have school work to catch up on too, you know! And don’t worry, by “Singing Lamb”, I just mean me (Melody). The rest of the staff should still be around, posting exciting news and features for everyone! And by “break”, I mean I’ll only be gone for 2 week, max! I’ll still send news updates over to others to post up so don’t worry, the News Updates will still be around!
May as well leave you with some fantastic news updates though!
Breaking news: Death Cab For Cutie will be at the Sound Academy on Sunday April 5th. This is an all-ages show and it’s a pricy one too – $40.50. But as a good side note, Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids will be opening.
The Vivian Girls are back, with Crystal Antlers, at the Horseshoe on May 8th.
The Dirty Projectors are opening for TV on the Radio on June 2nd at the Sound Academy. All-ages, $22.50, doors at 8:00 pm.
Lady Sovereign will be at Lee’s Palace on May 1st. 19+, $20.00, doors at 9:00 pm.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart return to Toronto on April 28th at Lee’s Palace. 19+, $10.00, doors at 8:00 pm.
Opening for Passion Pit on their rescheduled show at Lee’s Palace on April 3rd will be Cale Parks and Paper Route. 19+, $10.00, doors at 9:00 pm.
Murder By Death will play the Horseshoe on April 16th. 19+, $13.50, doors at 8:30 pm.
Hollywood Undead and Madina Lake will be at the Phoenix on April 23rd. All-ages, $18.50, doors at 7:30 pm.
Spinal Tap will be at Massey Hall on May 21st – but “Unwigged and Unplugged”. Read more here.
Lonely Dear will be at the Rivoli on May 8th.
Ohbijou’s April 18th show at the Opera House has been postponed as well as its release date. Further details TBA.
And last but not least, Montreal’s Young Galaxy have finally announced a new album! A release date has not been decided on yet but we do know that the new album is called Invisible Republic and the band has a new single out called “Long Live the Fallen World”. The song is fantastic; a slight departure from their debut self-titled album, but still possesses dreamy pop elements, fused with danceable beats and beautiful vocals from Catherine McCandless. To download the track right now, go to their website! The band will preview their new material on tour so I recommend you check out their set at the Horseshoe during CMW (March 14th, as part of Chartattack’s showcase)! Also, look out for a follow-up interview with lead singer, Stephen Ramsay soon!
See you soon and don’t forget – happy listening!
Musically,
Melody
Let’s Chat: Young Galaxy
October 11th, 2008 | By: Melody Lau
Young Galaxy
So part II of my interviews-that-have-never-seen-the-light-of-day series! This Young Galaxy interview was in fact, my first interview ever. Scary stuff, I know. So please disregard any awkwardness that you may get while reading this. On the bright side, front man Steve Ramsay was really kind and we had a very delightful conversation. The only problem is that the interview, itself, lasted almost an hour, so cutting this down was hell. What is basically sitting here now in front of you are just some of my favourite snippets. Enjoy!
Singing Lamb: You wear a lot of parkas.
Steve Ramsay: Yes.
Why is that?
Because they look great; I think they look great!
Even during the summer?
I wish I could do that. I wish I could find a summer parka to wear. Honestly, it’s because I once saw a video by My Bloody Valentine where the guitarist is wearing a parka while he’s playing this really noisy song and I thought, “Man that looks really cool. He looks so cool with that parka”; with the big hood and the fur and his hair was in his face, and I realized that ever since, that’s all I’ve been trying to recreate.
Haha, I see!
[Laughs] I like a good parka, what can I say.
Oh, I realized!
And where I live, you need one.
Montreal?
Yeah. You know how it is; same in Toronto.
Yeah.
You need a good parka.
Mmhm!
Anyways, it’s just a stylistic thing. I think.
I see. On a completely different topic though, I realized on your debut album for Young Galaxy, Patrick Watson played keyboards on “Lazy Religion”
Sure did.
So how do you feel about his winning the Polaris Prize?
I’m thrilled for him. He’s a great, great guy.
Yeah, how was it like working with him?
Amazing. He’s hilarious. He’s kind of… he’s talks a mile a minute and he’s totally crazy, for starters. He’s completely insane – in a good way though. He just talks a lot and he’s always screaming and just like “Argh ahhhh!!” Kind of staggers around, smoking cigarettes and talking to himself. He came into the studio when we were playing and I’ve known him for a while, but had never really played with him. And he was in the process of mixing this record; the record that just won the Polaris and he comes in and he’s like “Ahhhh, I’m having a terrible time! I’m bogged down by this! You mind if I come by and hang out for a bit?” So he came into the studio because the guy who made the record was Jace Lasek – he made his record too so he came in and we’re in the middle of this song and he was immediately went over and started jamming on the piano. He was saying, “Ah, it’s good for me, it’s good for me… I need to clear my head, clear my head.” He goes over and he’s humming to himself and he’s making all this crazy noise and he just ended up throwing down these beautiful piano parts. And he also wrote electric piano parts and did it so fast and he’s like a Tasmanian devil. Like a whirlwind, he just comes in and it’s a big hurricane and he leaves as quickly as he comes.
Haha, whoa!
So he’s like “Ok guys, I’ve got to go. Thanks man, I had a great time. Thanks! Thanks!” And he just walked out the studio. [Laughs]
Strange!
So it was like 2 hours of intense Patrick Watson time…
And then he just leaves?!
Yeah, he was gone! And we were like, “What did we just get?” And we went back through and he did some really weird vocal stuff and he has this weird instrument that he bought off of a guy who makes them in Vancouver. It’s this weird; stringed instrument that’s made of parts of old cars or something. It’s really weird and homemade. He bought one and he had it at the studio and he insisted on putting it on one of the songs and what actually ended up happening is at the very beginning of our record, there’s a bit of this instrument noise right before “Swing Your Heartache” And there’s this weird squeaky sound; and that’s this weird instrument that he brought. So he did all this crazy stuff.
Is there a name for this instrument?
I don’t think so. I never got to ask him.
You should’ve!
I’ve got to find out! You’d look at it and you wouldn’t even know what it was. You’d think it was some really ugly lamp with strings that kind of hang off of it. It’s really weird.
I see.
Mmhm.
And another, unrelated question I would like to ask. I was reading this really random fact on you on SPIN when you were band of the day…
About “Wheels”?
[Side note: Ramsay used to act and for quite some time, seriously considered acting for a career as opposed to music. He was even offered the role of "Wheels" on the show, Degrassi Junior High, when he was just 12 years old, but his parents turned it down.]
Yes! Do you ever consider acting now?
No.
No?
No. I wanted to be an actor for years. I remember when I was six or something, I decided it was going to be music or acting and for many years, it was acting because I wanted to act. And it was actually this thing that got me thinking I wanted to be an actor, was this whole “Wheels” thing, which was totally random.
Yeah.
I’d actually went to a theatre school for a year in my hometown (in Nanaimo) It’s a community college and that’s actually where I met Torquil Campbell’s wife, Moya. That’s my connection to Stars, so theatre school, in a roundabout way, led me to being able to join Stars and do what I’m doing now. So that’s kind of interesting. But she’s now at Stratford, she’s an actress in Stratford, which is the biggest theatre company in Canada. So it was great for her. But I learned, like a year into it that it wasn’t for me. [Laughs]
[Side note: For those who don't know, yes, Steve Ramsay was the former touring guitarist for Stars during the Set Yourself on Fire tour. If he looks familiar, he was featured along with Stars in a 2005 Muchmusic special where they, and countless other Canadian acts travelled to Japan for a slew of special performances. Quite possibly the best thing to air on Muchmusic – ever.]
So we’re not going to see a J.Lo-triple-threat from Steve Ramsay anytime soon?
If someone asked me, I’d love to do it. But I’d have to lose some weight. I’d probably have to lose like twenty pounds just to get into shape! If I wanted to be one of those types – the J.Lo-triple-threat.
You can also design your own line of parkas!
There! Thank you. I’ve always wanted to actually design my own clothes. But I’m just a bit lazy that way and a bit busy with music when I’m old, I’ll design my own parkas.
Young Galaxy is currently in the midst of finishing their follow-up to 2007′s self-titled release (on Arts & Crafts Records). But do not fear, as a tour will surely accompany the release of the album, which will hopefully be released sometime next year.
