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Gonzales Set To Break World Record
Friday, May 8th, 2009Canadian pianist, producer and songwriter Gonzales will be attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the longest concert by an individual. On Saturday, May 16, he’ll start playing at 11:30pm and hopes to go for 27 hours, until Monday morning. He’s officially allowed to accumulate rest breaks of five minutes each hour. The current record holder is Prasanna Gudi who performed for 26 hours as 12 minutes in India.
Gonzales is best known for his work with Feist, and plans to play around 300 different songs including some from his own catalogue.
“I will break the record without sounding like a broken record,” he said. “I will do this to push my musical and physical stamina. I believe music is part art, part athletics and this 27-hour concert will demonstrate both aspects.”
The concert will take place at the Cine 13 Theatre in Paris, France. A documentary crew will be filming the entire performance and it will stream online in its entirety at gonzpiration.com.
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Doc Celebrates Iconic NYC Club CBGB
Friday, May 1st, 2009Burning Down The House is a new documentary about a dingy New York bar that become “the womb of creativity” according to Joey Ramone. The iconic venue, called Country Bluegrass Blues but better known as CBGB, became an epicentre for punk, new wave and rock-and-roll. The doc was helmed by Mandy Stein and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24. It captures the club’s struggle against the Bowery homeless shelter that tried to shut it down. Burning Down the House also features vintage performances by The Ramones, Talking Heads, Bad Brains and Patti Smith.
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Flaming Lips Song Gets Recognized
Thursday, April 30th, 2009Flaming Lips Song Gets Recognized
The Flaming Lips’ song “Do You Realize??” became the official rock song of Oklahoma on April 28 when Governor Brad Henry signed an executive order. But the honour certainly didn’t come easy for the band.
Frontman Wayne Coyne described the journey as “absurd” to Billboard.com. The song won the honour via an Internet contest with over 21,000 votes cast and this was passed by the Oklahoma state senate. But then the state house of representatives rejected the contest results because member Michael Ivins wore a communist-inspired sickle and hammer t-shirt.
“I don’t think we’re battling against what we feel is like a backwards mentality here,” said Coyne. “It’s really just a few religious wackos that think they can tell everybody what to do. It’s not even to me Democrats versus Republicans. It’s really just a couple of these small-minded guys who are the most popular guys in their church and their little small towns. In some ways it’s so absurd, it can only make us look good and them look stupid.”
The entire ordeal ended when Governor Henry vetoed the house’s decision and chose to move ahead and honour the song. The executive order was signed at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
Tags: flaming lips
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Broken Social Scene Announces Island Performance
Monday, April 13th, 2009
Canadian indie darlings Broken Social Scene have announced they’re headlining an all-day event on Toronto’s Olympic Island on Saturday, July 11. Other performers include Explosions in the Sky, Thunderheist, Beach House, Apostle of Hustle and Rattlesnake Choir. A pre-sale for fans starts today on the Arts & Crafts website with a limited-edition digital sampler that features one song from each performing artist. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday, April 17 at 10am.
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You Need To Watch Her: Trish
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
We’ve been buzzing about a new Canadian artist named Trish here at the MuchMusic for several months now. VJ Sarah Taylor became a fan of her dirty electro-pop/hip-hop/R&B after watching her perform at Honey Jam. Trish’s new music video “Don’t Watch Me” is pure house-party eye candy with a beat so grimy it makes you wanna get a fierce haircut, grab a drink and hit the dancefloor. (And maybe make a semi-naughty home video too.) Watch it here.
(more…)
Tags: interviews, new music, trish
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Fritz Helder and the Phantoms talk Nelly Furtado
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
What’s it like having Nelly Furtado as your boss? The talented guys and gal of Fritz Helder and the Phantoms know, since they’re the first act signed to Nel’s recently launched indie record label Nelstar. The Phantoms’ live shows are notorious for being highly theatrical explosions of dance, fashion and electro-pop, so we’re excited to find out what this partnership will bring.
Group members Fritz and Pastel Supernova spoke to MuchNews to give us the lowdown on what it’s like being on the road with Nelly (they were both dancers on her world tour) and what separates them from their new boss.
What was it actually like being on the road and dancing for Nelly Furtado?
FRITZ: For me, it was a life-changing experience. It was like the education that you just can’t pay for. We got to see the ins and outs of how an international pop star does it.
Musically, what have you learnt from Nelly?
FRITZ: I feel like she’s so creative and she’s so open to other people’s influences.
PASTEL SUPERNOVA: The parties aren’t that fabulous. You really do have to take care of yourself on tour. It catches up real fast.
FRITZ: To warm up your voice.
What are some of these vocal warm-ups you do?
FRITZ: Just like lip trills and your hot tea and the scarf. Vocally, our range isn’t as crazy as Nelly’s but it’s always good to keep things warm and loose and lubricated.
Is it a little scary signing to a new label that’s just getting feet right now?
FRITZ: It’s incredibly scary. Well, Nelly is known around the world, has a distinct brand, and we don’t want to mess that up, so yeah it’s kinda scary.
PASTEL SUPERNOVA: We are nothing like Nelly Furtado music, just to make that clear though. I think that might be a confusion at first for people, being like: “Yay, more singer/songswriters!” But we’re not like that.
FRITZ: We’re about gyrating and sweating (laughs)
[Photo by Geoffery Knox]
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Meet An Incredible Illustrator: Kagan McLeod
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Way back in 1993, a young illustrator named Kagan McLeod sent a photo he’d drawn of the Wu-Tang Clan to MuchMusic in hopes of getting it shown on air. He waited and waited, but no one ever showed it. Fast forward 16 years and Kagan is now an accomplished artist with his own comic book (Infinite Kung Fu) and illustrates for clients like Nike, Nintendo, Entertainment Weekly, National Post and Wired.
It’s long deserved, but finally Kagan’s work was shown on MuchMusic when Devon interviewed him for MuchNewsWeekly.
Here’s an excerpt of Kagan talking about his amazing History of Rap Poster. It’s a must-have for any fan of hip-hop.
The History of Rap poster, where did that idea come in?
Kagan: It started as a doodle on the phone where I just started drawing a couple faces and lining them up. I thought it’d be cool to make it a bit of a history lesson but also something cool to look at.
How long did it take you?
About six months. There’s 469 individual portraits on the poster, and I would do eight or nine every night. Another big part of the project was coming up with all the people I thought should go on it and putting it in order. I did that by album release date of their first album.
What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received?
Connecting with some of the rappers who are in the History of Rap poster. I got it in the hands of Brand Nubian, Busta Rhymes, Ice-T, and of course MuchMusic’s Nardwuar gave a copy to Jay-Z. I don’t even know how Nardwuar had heard of the poster or who he got it from, but it was cool to find out that he was going to give it to Jay-Z and it was great to see.
How would you describe your style?
I kinda developed this more drawing-based style that’s more brush and ink. I’m inspired by Chinese brush painting and comics.
Check out more of Kagan’s incredible work here.
Tags: History of Rap, Illustrator, Infinite Kung Fu, Kagan McLeod, Wu-Tang Clan
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Kanye and Spike Jonze Make Short Film
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
When you hear someone’s working on a passion project, it’s easy to get excited. Then attach the names Kanye West and Spike Jonze to the venture, and suddenly things get a whole lot more interesting. MTV News is reporting that the two are collaborating on a short film that will be 10-15 minutes in length. The film will feature Kanye’s song “See You In My Nightmares” from his 808s and Heartbreak album, but will not necessarily be a music video for that song. Vincent Landay, Jonze’s producing partner says the film was shot over two days in Los Angeles and no one’s making money on the project.
Kanye and Spike have previously collaborated on the rapper’s “Flashing Lights” video, and are working together for his upcoming European and North American tour this falls. There is no date set for the short film’s release.
Tags: awesome, film, kanye, spike jonze
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Santigold Hits The Road
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Last year, a bunch of us from MuchMusic caught Santogold’s performance in Toronto when she opened for Coldplay. Her set was super minimalistic but fun, and featured two fierce dancers who tore it up. Santo’s self-titled debut album was one of 2008’s best and made fans out of Jay-Z, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. (Little known fact: she’s also co-written for Ashlee Simpson and Lily Allen.)
This year, the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter/producer goes by the name Santigold and we know her show even better. There are currently two Canadian dates, where she’ll be accompanied by a full band and dancers, and openers Trouble Andrew and Amanda Blank.
July 3 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
July 4 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
Tags: Concerts, santigold, santogold, tours
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Stars Frontman Starts New Band
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
With Canadian indie band Stars in the holding pen, frontman Torquil Campbell has started a new band called Dead Child Star. Pitchfork reports that his main collaborator is Apostle of Hustle’s Julian Harris Brown but Torquil has also written songs with Metric’s Jimmy Shaw, Broken Social Scene and Minotaur Shock. The band’s MySpace features 6 songs and the blog describes the music as “dreamy and creamy and quite good, like if David Crosby joined Saint Etienne.”
Torquil’s also upfront on the blog about his current situation and what he’ll rely on his fans for: “I’ve got a record and some good strong friends, i just need a bit of money now…i’m trying the old fashioned way at the moment, but if it doesn’t work i’ll be back in touch to ask for a dollar from each of you.”
Tags: new music, side projects, stars, torquil campbell
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