Watch Vitaminsforyou’s cover of The xx’s song Shelter. It’s pretty great. Vitaminsforyou are playing their (his) last Toronto date of the year November 13th at The SuperMarket. The xx play Phoenix with Friendly Fires December 2nd. Tickets on sale now here.
Girls have released a new video for their single Lust for Life (not an Iggy Pop cover). Love the song so much. Video has a ton of nudity and is pretty XXX, not safe for work or when children are in the room. Girls play the El Mocambo on November 10th. Tickets are $12 and on sale at Rotate This.
Fever Ray have released another video, this time for a live favourite (and Nick Cave cover) Stranger Thank Kindness. The cover is featured on the new 2CD re-release of their debut.
Check out Little Boots video for Remedy. Okay, so the video is a bit crap, but I can’t get this song out of my freakin’ head. It’s burnt in. Soooo catchy and poppy.
Mew play Mod Club on Sunday December 5th. Tickets on sale this morning here.
Devendra Banhart plays Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday November 27th. Tickets on sale now.
Imogen Heap plays the same venue on night earlier. Tickets are also on sale now.
Junior Boys and Woodhands are at Lee’s on Friday November 6th. Quite a small venue for Junior Boys, should be pretty wicked. Tickets available here.
The Very Best play Wrongbar on Friday October 30th. Tickets, $10 on sale ate Rotate.
Ryan Gosling’s band Dead Man’s Bones (stop laughing, they are really good! I’m as surprised as you are) have moved their show from the Music Gallery to Opera House. More tickets have been released for the show, which happens on Tuesday October 20th.
Girls play El Mocambo Tuesday November 10th. Tickets are $12 and are available at Rotate.
Hidden Cameras and Gentlemen Reg play Opera House on December 5th. Tickets here.
The same night Handsome Furs are at Lee’s Palace. Tickets here.
Finally, after Kanye cancelled the joint North American tour, Lady Gaga is going out on here own and has announced The Monster Ball tour. The tour hits Toronto on November 28th. No ticket details as of yet.
Check out Duck Sauce’s new video for aNYway, which is A-Trak and Armand Van Helden’s new project. Big beat disco greatness. And I LOVE the Ghost paraody. Their debut is slated for an October release.
Vampire Weekend/The Postelles
The Horseshoe Tavern
Thursday October 8, 2009
I almost wet my pants when this show was announced. I know its probably no longer cool or hip to love this band, but I do, and I will scream it from the rooftops. Their debut is perfect in every sense of the word, poppy, upbeat, summery and fun. And I was dying to see them in a small venue (last time I saw them was at Rogers Picnic, in the pouring rain with 4000 other fans).
As mentioned earlier, Vampire Weekend have confirmed details for their second album titled Contra, slated for release on January 12th in North America. The band are doing a string of dates as warm up gigs for the release of the record. Toronto and Montreal were lucky enough to be included as their only Canadian stops.
Got to the venue mega early , met up with Mark, Raj and Kathy for dinner at Fresh prior to. The venue was empty and stayed that way through most of the opening band’s set. Said band was NYC’s The Postelles. I find that quite often I’m not a fan of opening bands (unless I know who they are). I was pleasantly surprised how amazing these guys were, think Vampire Weekend merged with the early 00′s Strokes-like garage rock with a little 50′s pop thrown into the mix. Their set was really great. Their debut album should be out in the next 6 months or so (according to on-stage banter).
By about 10pm, the venue was packed, although I thought there would be more people there, I guess they didn’t oversell the venue. Vampire Weekend began their set with two new songs, the wonderful White Sky (which has been kicking around since the last tour) and Holiday. The new stuff is similar to their existing recorded material but has a looser, California pop feel to it. They played a string of old songs which the crowd ate up and sang along to then went into more new material. Highlight in the new material was definitely California English. The Campus/Oxford Comma set closer was also quite great, the two songs merged was really fun. The band encored with their new single Horchatta (listen to it below) and Walcott (another crowd favourite). Set list below:
White Sky
Holiday
Cape Cod Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
M79
Cousins
California English
One (Blake’s)
A-Punk
Run
Campus/Oxford Comma
————
Mansard Roof
Horchatta
Walcott
It’s great to see a young band on the verge of releasing their second album having so much fun. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves and it’s nice that they treated their Toronto fans to such an intimate gig. I’m sure they’ll be back in the new year to play a much larger venue.
Listen to their new single Horchata below.
Photo via there are no words. Check out the site for some great video also.
Now has a small article on the band here.
Fever Ray/Vuk
Kool Haus
Friday October 2, 2009
I think I still have dry ice and laser dust in my lungs. Fever Ray’s first and maybe only North American tour ever, (see OMG Blog’s interview here) has been highly anticipated by fans and critics. Their debut dates in NYC have been covered by almost every good online music site (Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Pitchfork), and now its my turn to weigh in.
Got to the venue at 9pm, Katie was tied up longer than anticipated at the dress rehearsal of her Nuit Blanche project. Vuk began her set, I listened from the lobby, not terribly my thing but sounded okay. Katie arrived, grabbed a drink and headed into the thick of the crowd to get a good front/centre standing spot. It really surprised me how empty the venue was, maybe 65% sold out tops (photo). They had even made the venue smaller by putting up a curtain blocking off the right hand side of the venue (when looking at the stage).
Fever Ray began their set shortly after 10pm, and from moment 1, I knew we were in for something really special. The venue was pumped full of dry ice, more dry ice than I have ever seen used in a concert setting. It was so thick I could taste it. As the house lights went down, the most beautiful lazer light show began, as did a thunderous eerie heartbeat-like bass line began, the opening to If I Had A Heart. Antique lamps scattered across the stage pulsed to the beat, while a heavily costumed Karin Dreijer Andersson crept out of the bowls of the darkness to the mic. She looked like a cross between a Jim Henson character and something from Labyrinth. Her entire band were also in costume, one was dressed as a werewolf, another wore a long red veil over her face. Until the show, I didn’t realize that the deep, man-ish v ocals on the album were actually Karin, I always thought it was her brother (from the Knife).
The set that followed was probably the most intense (in a good way!) concert I have ever witnessed, dark, a bit chilling but overtly enjoyable. Karin stayed in “character” the entire set, did not speak or take part in any stage banter, which added to the performance. I guess you could say that it really wasn’t just a concert, but a performance art piece, every sense what stimulated, the music could be felt in your bones, the visuals (lazers, lighting, costumes) and I will always remember the dense smell of dry ice that was forever being pumped into the venue. Set list was as follows:
If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concerte Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty For Me
Dry and Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up
Here Before
Coconut
Their big single, When I Grow Up was the highlight of the set, it’s their most dance-friendly track and really set the mood and got the crowd going.
OMG Blog has some great pictures here (site NSFW).
Watch the video for If I Had A Heart below.
If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
We’ve all seen a million of these Beyonce Single Ladies fan videos, but this one takes the prize for most disturbing. Man babies kind of scare me.
