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Broken Social Scene @ Sound Academy
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Four records, a book, Polaris nominations and Juno wins, a couple of side projects, and a movie. It’d be an understatement to say that Broken Social Scene are an accomplished band. They’re much more than that. The Arts & Crafts family band that varies between six and nineteen members have stolen our hearts and are a band we’re proud to call our own. Thursday, December 9th the hometown heroes played the first of their two-night stint at Toronto’s Sound Academy, and the whole gang stopped by to say hi.
The night was a jam-packed mix of songs off all four of their records, with a focus on this year’s release, Forgiveness Rock Record. After opening with World Sick and Texico Bitches, they kicked into 7/4 (Shoreline) as some more Arts & Crafts friends joined in the fun. This included Metric’s Jimmy Shaw joined in the horn section, darling songstress Leslie Feist danced and belted her heart out, and the very preggers Amy Millan of Stars was as stunning ever.
Filled with conversation, BSS chatted to the crowd about G20, Mayor Rob Ford, and their love of Toronto. With a show that reached about two and a half hours, the songs just kept going and going and the fun didn’t stop. The night didn’t end until around 1 am (Kevin Drew crowd surfing included).
Care to see the setlists from both Thursday and Friday? You’re in luck!
Thursday
World Sick
Texico Bitches
7/4 (Shoreline)
Fire Eye’d Boy
Stars and Sons
All to All
Cause=Time
Sweetest Kill
Forced to Love
Art House Director
Guilty Cubicles
Superconnected
Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl
Lover’s Spit
I Feel It All
Almost Crimes
Ungrateful Little Father
KC Accidental
Water In Hell
Meet Me in the Basement
Encore
Looks Just Like The Sun
It’s All Gonna Break
Major Label Debut
Friday
Pacific Theme
KC Accidental
7/4 (Shoreline)
Texico Bitches
Fired Eye’d Boy
Cause = Time
All to All
Sweetest Kill
Forced to Love
Art House Director
Hotel
Guilty Cubicles
Superconnected
World Sick
Water In Hell
I Feel It All
Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl
Sentimental X’s
Ungrateful Little Father
Almost Crimes
Meet Me in the Basement
Encore:
Looks Just Like The Sun
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
Major Label Debut
All photos by Kate Millet.
Tags: broken social scene, Feist, metric, stars
Posted in Concerts, Photos | No Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: Bran Van 3000 - Grace (Love On the Block)
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Song: Grace (Love on the Block)
Artist: Bran Van 3000
Label: Audiogram/Select
Directors: Martin Laporte & Jean-Hervé Désiré
Album: The Garden
Watch the video here!
A snow ice princess, a knight on a horse, woodland nymphs, and a magic sword. These are just a couple of things you’ll see in Bran Van 3000’s music video for “Grace (love on the block). The Montreal electronic collective explain on their website how they got the images for the video from a classic Russian film titled “Ruslan and Ludmila” by Russian filmaker Aleksandr Ptushko released in 1974! Whoa! To quote Bran Van 3000…
“Based on a poem by the great Alexander Pouchkine, the film’s epic fairy tale tells the story of a young bride kidnapped by a villainous dwarf.”
Kinda crazy. Kinda awesome. “Grace (love on the block)” is the first single off of Bran Van 3000’s fourth record The Garden.
Tags: Bran Van 3000, Weekly We
Posted in Video | No Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: HotKid - Yours and Mine
Friday, November 26th, 2010
“Yours and Mine” by HotKid
Director: Alon Isocianu
Label: Independent
It’s Friday and about time for another Weekly Wedge Pick! This week’s video? “Yours and Mine” by the gritty indie rockers HotKid! Just the thing you need to get your weekend started right! The video is spastic, bright, jumpy and a whole lot of kick-ass! Fun fact: this crazy video was actually released in tandem with HotKid’s oh-so-still yet heavy hitting minimalistic music video for “Fake It“. Because they’re that cool. Both tracks are off of their latest EP “Under the Streetlight”.
Where has HotKid been all your life? The Cambridge, Ontario duo (made up of Shiloh Harrison and Rob Butcher III) have been kicking it for about five years now! And yeah. You heard me. They’re from lil old Cambridge, Ontario. Who’d have thought with edge like that?!
Want more? Follow them on Twitter @iloveHotKid or give them a listen on their Myspace ! They also play Toronto’s Painted Lady on December 1st!
Tags: HotKid, Weekly Wedge Pick
Posted in Video | 4 Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: Wolf Parade - Yulia
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Song: Yulia
Artist: Wolf Parade
Album: Expo 86
Label: Outside/Sub Pop
Astronauts! Space! Ground control to Major Tom! Love? Montreal-Canadian indie rockers Wolf Parade have got it all in their new music video for Yulia! Their third album just came out this summer, and is named Expo 86 after the World’s Fair of that year that took place in Vancouver (that each band member happened to attend)!
Sub Pop has written up a funny and informative explanation of the album and said expo that’s worth the read!
Currently touring North America, Wolf Parade play Toronto’s Sound Academy November 26th! Want more? Check out their Myspace!
Watch the video here!
Tags: Weekly Wedge Pick, Wolf Parade
Posted in Video | No Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: Born Ruffians - Nova Leigh
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Song: Nova Leigh
Artist: Born Ruffians
Album: Say It
Director: Jared Raab
Watch the video here!
This week’s weekly Wedge pick is from Torontonian indie rockers/generally cool nice guys, Born Ruffians! Like the cover art off their second album “Say It”, the video features a similar broken-up (almost Picasso-y) faced guy. Fader talked to director Jared Raab who explained…
“We knew that the footage of the band, shot in studio, couldn’t just be straightforward performance footage if it was going to match the fragmented face narrative, but we also didn’t want to use some sort of cheesy computer generated kaleidoscope effect either. In the end we devised a system of shooting into shattered mirrors that had been reassembled by hand. We spent an entire day just breaking mirrors and gluing them back together, only to smash them again on set.”
Crazy! But all that mirror breaking? I wonder if they’re scared of seven years bad luck?! Let’s hope not! The Born Ruffians are currently touring the UK, Europe, and Australia. You can catch up with their gallivanting by following them on Twitter or checking out their blog.
Tags: Born Ruffians, Weekly Wedge Pick
Posted in Reviews, Video | No Comments »
Two Door Cinema Club @ The Phoenix
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Two Door Cinema Club are an Irish indie-electro-pop band that if you’ve yet to fall in love with, you will soon. Made up of Sam Halliday playing guitar, Kevin Barid playing bass, and Alex Trimble as the ginger front man, these Irish young guns stopped by Toronto on Monday night to have some fun at The Phoenix.
Starting the night off early, the audience warmed up to openers Funeral Party (hard hitting LA indie rockers) and Penguin Parade (chill 80s style and grooves). As soon as Two Door Cinema Club hit the stage, the dance party began. Playing songs off their debut album, Tourist History, which came out earlier this year, the night was go go go go go go and oh so great. The energy filled the room without a moment to pause. The only time the band paused was to thank the audience and tell us of their love for Toronto (and local burger stop “Burger’s Priest”).
The usual three piece was touring with a fourth, a drummer who kept impeccable beats and tore the night up. The night also served as an opportunity to showcase new songs! Crazy!
Check out the setlist…
Cigarettes In The Theatre
Undercover Martyn
Hands Off My Cash
Do You Want It All?
Something Good Can Work
La Nouvelle Chanson
This Is The Life
Kids
You’re Not Stubborn
Costume Party
What You Know
Eat That Up, It’s Good for You
Encore
I Can Talk
Currently touring the States, you should check out their MySpace! Party!
All photos by Kate Millet.
Tags: Concert Review, Two Door Cinema Club
Posted in Concerts | 2 Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
Monday, October 25th, 2010
Song: Barbara Streisand
Artist: Duck Sauce
Album: Greatest Hits
Director: So-Me
Watch the video here!
Are you ready to hear/dance/sing-a-long to your new favourite music video? So-Me (music video maker for Justice and Kanye) directed it. So you know it’s so good. All the cool kids have cameos in this vid. Kanye West, Pharrell, Ezra Koenig (of Vampire Weekend), Santigold, ?uestlove, and Chromeo to name a few. Who’d I miss?
If you’re wondering, Duck Sauce is the combination of DJs Armand Van Helden and A-Trak, based out of - you guessed it - New York.
Now if you don’t mind me, I’m going to go party in New York. How can I not after watching and dancing to this on repeat!? Check out their Myspace for more!
Posted in Video | 1 Comment »
Avi Buffalo @ The Horseshoe Tavern
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
What started off as a solo Myspace project consisting of a guy named Avi (short for Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg) and his guitar has now become a full band, fresh out of high school with a Sub Pop record deal. Based out of Long Beach, California, Avi Buffalo just released their self-titled debut album. Monday night, they came to Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern to play us some songs.
After energetic opener Allie Hughes, Avi took the stage alongside drummer Sheridan Riley and a second guitar player. Avi explained to the crowd that their bass player couldn’t make it due to passport issues. Nonetheless, the set was nothing short of great.
While Pitchfork calls the band “Shins-y”, the set was less acoustic and more electric, with a pinch of experimental improv playing around with guitar pedals. With songs like “Summer Cum” and “Remember Last Time”, it was the single “What’s In It For?” that had the audience singing along.
Currently touring North America, Avi Buffalo will be at Vancouver’s The Biltmore October 29th. Check their website for more info.
All photos by Kate Millet.
Tags: Avi Buffalo
Posted in Concerts | No Comments »
The Drums @ The Mod Club
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
The Drums were quite busy on Saturday night in Toronto. At 7pm they were at Soundscapes for an in-store and by 8:30 The Drums were on stage at The MOD Club.
The Drums, if you’ve yet to fall in love with them, are a Brooklyn-based band that channel the basic pop mentalities of the The Supremes mixed with a pinch of mid-80s new wave. Their songs are catchy with lyrics that you can’t help but sing along to. We posted this quote just last week when we wrote about their music video for “Best Friend”, but it’s worth quoting once more.
“We only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you’re walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever.” - The Drums
With only an hour to play (they had to be off by 9:30pm) they kicked it into full gear straight from the start. With Ian Curtis-like dance moves and dramatic posing, front man Jonathan Pierce’s stage presence was off the charts in the best of ways. Shaking and shimmying along with every song, the crowd couldn’t help but join in on the fun. And what would he do when a slower song was played? Pose, take off his jacket, and pose with said jacket (in many various ways).
There’s no doubt that The Drums don’t want to be taken too seriously. Halfway through the show Jonathan paused to speak, “For those of you that are still confused, it’s just pop music. Don’t try to dissect it.”
Playing songs off their summer release self-titled debut record such as “Forever and Ever, Amen” and “Best Friend”, the set was short but sweet. The crowd went crazy for their whistle-filled, Obama-inspired single “Let’s Go Surfing” and the theatrical encore of “Down by the Water”.
Just finishing up a leg of North American shows, they’re about to embark on a European tour. Check out their Myspace for more!
Have you seen The Drums live? Love their record? Let us know in the comments!
All photos by Kate Millet.
Tags: The Drums
Posted in Concerts | No Comments »
Weekly Wedge Pick: The Drums - Best Friend
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Song: Best Friend
Artist: The Drums
Album: The Drums
Label: Universal Island Def Jam
Because sometimes you just need to crawl through a window, slap on some cool shades, pick up a mic, and sing about your best friend.
Currently based out of Brooklyn, The Drums are the next big British band that aren’t British at all. All of The Smiths (minus Johnny Marr) have shown up to their shows and they spent Thanksgiving with Boy George. How would they describe themselves? “We only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you’re walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever.”
Intrigued? They stop by Toronto this Saturday October 16 for a show at the MOD Club, and Montreal’s Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour Rire on October 17th. Check out their website for more info!
Watch the video for Best Friend by The Drums here!
Tags: The Drums, Weekly Wedge Pick
Posted in Video | No Comments »
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