The Gig: The Bedroom Philosopher with The Boat People and Pinky Beecroft & The White Russians
Where: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
When: 4 September 2010
In One Word: Entertainment!

It’s not always that I arrive in time to catch the first of a three-band line-up, but when an evening’s opener features one of the key members of Aussie legends – fuck me, did I actually just say those two words? – Machine Gun Fellatio, I guess it’s worth the effort and, regrettably, expense…my customary disorganisation costing me a twenty buck cab ride.  Fortunately, Pinky Beecroft & The White Russians prove well worth it all.  I’d heard it opined, by the frontman himself among others, that his current outfit is a bit more “rock” than his old one…and sure enough, apart from the odd slightly “miserable” number, this band certainly kicks some formidable booty.  Not that I have a problem of any sort with miserabilism (viva la Morrissey!), and Pinky has always shown a great talent for holding one’s attention when it’s just him and a keyboard.  And while the less-familiar songs certainly strike a chord with yours truly – I too have a “thing” for Scarlet Johansson, in spite of my belief that she’s by and largely a talentless whore…whoops, did I say that out loud? – it’s the rather excellent renditions of “Pussy Town” and Mr. Beecroft’s all-time masterpiece, the gorgeously disfunctional “Unsent Letter”, that best appease we “old fans” in the audience; of which there’s a few, judging by the number of people singing along.  Fantastically entertaining from (unintentionally?) bumbling start to (yes, I do believe) abrupt finish, and let me just say, any man who feels the compulsion to bring hand sanitiser on-stage with him is definitely rock ‘n’ roll in my book.

The Boat People amp the “nerdy” quotient up suitably, though unfortunately, it’s not nearly so self-deprecating and endearing this time around.  Every bit as pretentious at their stupid name suggests, I have vague recollections of these guys from when I lived up in Brisbane, and understand now why I couldn’t quite remember what they even “sounded” like:  Kind of a poor man’s Bloc Party-meets-The Hives-meets any other hit “indie” band of recent years that you care to think of, with the additional “twist” of whiny Australian accents which bring nothing tantalising to this already well-worn table.  I mean, the music certainly ain’t half-bad at times, but the lyrics and vocals are kinda tiresome and the stage banter even more so, especially in the witty wake of Mr. Beecroft, a man who oozes awkward charisma no matter how LITTLE he tries.  Bad?  No.  Mediocre?  Yes, and fucking then some.  All quirky haircuts and “nerd-cool”, without the overwhelming talent to pull it off.  But then again, they are awful young, so who knows…uglier ducklings have certainly blossomed into quite beautiful swans.  Give ‘em time, maybe they’ll even grow a sense of humour.

Now I’ve spoken a tad about nerdiness and awkwardness and whatforth so far, so let me just say this:  The Bedroom Philosopher’s Justin Heazlewood must be swimming knee-deep in geek-girl pussy.  He does make some quip about having copped a solitary hand-job from some hippie chick in…somewhere or other, but I suspect he’s grossly understating the sordid reality of it all.  Let’s look at the facts:  He’s talented as buggery, both as a comedian and a musician…and perhaps more importantly, has a helluva “backing band” to, well, back him up.  The banter obviously rocks, and the inclusion of a sitar-player ALWAYS rocks…and heck, the fact that Mr. Heazlewood’s appearance and speech bear more than a passing resemblance to a good friend of mine doesn’t necessarily hurt to seal the deal of my being somewhat enamoured with him (in a non-gay, respect-for-another-man kinda way, of course).  His rapport with the audience is largely flawless – though some harsh words between himself and a very “blokey”-sounding heckler does have me fearing a little for his safety at one point! – but in a room full of fellow “geeks” he ultimately goes down a treat.  Brilliant stuff.

All up, a highly entertaining night out, it’s just a shame about them humourless motherfuckers in the middle pooping the party somewhat.

© Michael Bowser, Music Vice

The Gig: Ra Ra Riot secret show
Where: The Mod Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: 30 August 2010
In One Word: Intimate

This Monday, August 30th 2010, Syracuse band Ra Ra Riot were in Toronto to play a secret show at the Mod Club. No tickets were sold for the event, but access was given to press and industry, as well as fans who’d entered to win tickets on Facebook.

The show was held by record label Arts & Crafts, as kind of welcome to the label party and celebration of the the release of RRR’s second album The Orchard. The Orchard was released last Tuesday, August 24th on Barsuk records in the US, and on the Arts & Crafts label in Canada. The doors opened at 8:30, and the venue filled up quickly before the band took to the stage at 9 PM sharp.

The band played a short set (about 42 minutes), including a one song encore. It was my first time hearing the band, although our editor Brian got a chance to chat with the band this past August at the Oshega music festival in Montreal. I think something Brian said to me after the show best describes how I felt about this band- they’re growing on me.

The band’s music is mix of baroque pop and British shoegaze. They sound just like a university aged, upstate New York, co-ed version of The Smiths, with cello and violin. Their music is soft but poetic, melancholy but very pretty. Overall the effect is very rich, like biting into a piece of chocolate cake.

Ra Ra Riot is perfect for a night spent at home brooding. The Mod Club on College Street was maybe not the perfect venue for the show as the live music wanted me to listen more than it wanted me to party. (I would’ve liked to see the band play in a church, or maybe an open field at a music festival). RRR’s music does also have a synthesized, almost bouncy element to it- and I think one thing the band could’ve done to make that show a great show would’ve been kicking up the tempo a little bit.

© Natascha Malta, Music Vice

Pictures of Ra Ra Riot at The Mod Club:

Related internet links:
Ra Ra Riot
Brian Banks Photography

The Gig: The Maccabees and Holy Vessels
Where: Concorde 2, Brighton, United Kingdom
When: 26th August 2010
In One Word: Triumphant

As far as festival warm-up gigs go there have been some pretty big bands playing in small places lately, notably Kasabian for V Festival at Brixton Academy (which I was privileged enough to attend) and a recently reformed band called The Libertines playing the night before in London (which I wasn’t lucky enough to attend, grrr!), but tonight its the turn of the London via Brighton band The Maccabees who are playing at one of my favourite venues…the Concorde 2 in Brighton.

At 540 capacity its an intimate venue right by the sea that has played host to the legendary Foo Fighters, The White Stripes’ first ever UK show, Kaiser Chiefs and Jarvis Cocker’s first solo gig. It costs £3.50 for a decent pint of cider (and not those smaller glasses that venue staff pass off as ‘pints’ in London), there is a CCTV camera inside the main room that is pointed at the stage so when you’re at the bar you are technically still watching the band (or if you’re my Dad, my chaperone for this gig, you’re checking that I’m still in the photo pit – more on this later!) and its so loud that you can still hear the band if you go outside for some air. Whether you are going to a clubnight, seeing a tribute band or a gig live, the Concorde 2 is the place to be.

Local Brighton band Holy Vessels took to the stage and played a pleasing set in front of the audience. Similar to Mumford and Sons, the band have infectious country hooks and grooves that will have you humming their tunes for weeks on end.

The Maccabees kicked off their set with “William Powers” from their second album Wall of Arms. There is something about Orlando Weeks’ voice that I absolutely love, it is so heartfelt and passionate that words simply cannot describe it, but something that I can describe is the lighting situation. It was pitch black with either no front light or a red front light on the band’s faces which makes it incredibly difficult to take photos. So with all my settings on my camera to the highest they can go and I decide that the only route I can go down is to do something that is forbidden in the music photography world; that I’m going to use flash. I have to say I wasn’t told I could use flash but then we were told that the shoot would only last three songs (and its a good thing it didn’t) but the pit entrance was blocked by the audience so we ended up shooting the whole set – result!

The pace then picked up for “All In Your Rows” and “One Hand Holding” which sent one of the rubbish bins circulating around the audience which the security guards looked quite apprehensive about.

When I last saw the band at Brixton in February I can remember them being a lot more chatty with the audience than on this occasion but no-one really seemed to mind!  “First Love” is one of my favourite Maccabees songs along with “Precious Time” and “No Kind Words” which all receive rapturous sing-a-longs. The band then played “Child” and an as yet untitled song which sound fresh and exciting and bode well for the forthcoming release and which led into fan-favourite “X-Ray” and the incredible “Love You Better” to close what was a triumphant night for both the band and the fans.

© Lauren Towner, Music Vice

Pictures of The Maccabees at Brighton Concorde 2:

Related internet links:
The Maccabees
Lauren Towner Photography

So who’s up next?  Oh fuck me, it’s Sex On Toast…

I’ve written about these guys before, so what more can I possibly say?  You like entertainment?  Well, you may well be in luck!  But what’s that…you don’t much care for Zappa/Patton/Zorn-esque perversions of the jazz and rock genres?  Well, my friend, you may well be shit outta luck.  Unless of course you like fairly faithful (if male-fronted) covers of Rihanna songs?  And snippets of George Michael songs chucked willy-nilly amongst all manner of other pop detritus?  Well, maybe you’ll enjoy this after all.  Sex On Toast quite genuinely fit the bill of “something for everyone” entertainment…seriously, if you don’t get at least one or two smiles out of their unashamedly smug antics, check yer pulse, ’cause you may already be among the living dead.  In this post-post(-post?)-modern age we unfortunately live in, this really is as good as it gets.  Good old-fashioned showmanship, motherfuckers…word.  If you live anywhere near Melbourne and have the chance to check ‘em out, do me a favour (and yourself, while you’re at it) and check ‘em out…and if you STILL don’t like ‘em, then I’ll personally kick you in the nuts, no extra charge.

© Michael Bowser, Music Vice

Pictures of Sex On Toast at The Empress Hotel:

Related internet links:
Sex On Toast interview
Sex On Toast Myspace

]]> http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/sex-on-toast-at-the-empress-hotel-melbourne-290810/feed 5 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/abandon-all-ships-at-the-opera-house-toronto-270810 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/abandon-all-ships-at-the-opera-house-toronto-270810#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:38:23 +0000 Natascha Malta http://www.musicvice.com/?p=4272
The Gig: Abandon All Ships
Where: The Opera House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: 25 August 2010
In One Word: Megawacko

Although the Opera House hasn’t really been my thing in years, there was definitely a time when a good weekend to me would’ve been moshing out in this palace of hardcore delights. Welcome to being a teenager again.

The line-up for the night features is some metal, some emo, and one genre that I’ve never heard of before- synthcore. Synthcore is the genre where screamo and synthesized music meet. The synth element can be techno, electro – or in the case of self-proclaimed “guidos” Abandon All Ships, gino beats.

The first set that we watch (although there were others before hand) is On Burning Shores - an act that tries to bridge the gap between metal and hardcore. Nevermind that they’re wearing shirts that ask Bukake? Or that they’re on stage spurring the crowd on with yells of “Let’s put someone in the hospital tonight!” when almost every hardcore act I’ve ever seen has asked people to mosh, but play nicely. On their MySpace they sound a bit generic but competent, but live they sound like a different band- lacking the tightness and virtuosity that makes listening to heavy music (at least for me) listenable.

Go Time are another act that are guilty of sounding quite better on their MySpace than they are in real life. Granted, their schtick of mixing a little bit of emo with a little bit of hip hop and the occasional screaming vocals could stand to produce an original sound if they hone it. But the band is going to need a hell of a lot more practice (and both of their vocalists, singing lessons) if they’re ever going to impress anyone, even as a fad band.

Finally the headlining act comes on, and the crowd is really pumped. They’re singing the hook to AAS’s “Maria” while they wait for the band to come on- and when they do the crowd (which at this point has swelled to fill the Opera House almost to capacity) lets out a collective roar. Let me spoil this now, the band does not disappoint.

Unlike the earlier acts this evening, Abandon All Ships can play their instruments. Like the 2 acts I saw earlier in the evening, this band mixes genres together that aren’t usually mixed- but they actually rock their sound (think Dance Mix 95 meets Fischer Spooner meets hardcore). They have stage presence, synchronized dancing, and even birthday cake because as it turns out, its lead singer Angelo’s birthday.

But every rose has its thorns, and I think the biggest and most obvious flaw is that AAS would be hard-pressed to appeal to many (any?) adults. Which brings me to flaw number 2 – fad. There’s some music you grow up with that sticks with you forever. Others fade away, and its hard to know what’s a fad and what’s not until some time has passed. The thing is, if an act wants to grow with their audience, they have to have some substance to them.

The suburban guido culture that this band promotes is about partying, and ultimately that’s pretty one dimensional. Just like the ginos, I think this too will fizzle out before being repackaged for another decade of teenagers with control over their parents’ credit cards.

Art music this is not. Still, this would get the crowd moving at any PCP (pop, chips, and pizza) party.

© Natascha Malta, Music Vice

Pictures of Abandon All Ships at The Opera House; credit and high-fives to Caroline Aksich for providing the wicked shots:

Related internet links:
Abandon All Ships

The Gig: Rockstar Uproar Festival
Where: Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: 25 August 2010
In One Word: Family

Forget The EX. If you were a parent wanting to plan a nice family evening out on a wet Wednesday night in Toronto, the real fun was happening on the other side of Lake Shore Boulevard, just south of the site of the Canadian National Exhibition. Who needs the same old lame merry-go-rounds, waltzers and big wheels? Rather than waste money on carnival games, overpriced cotton candy and getting fleeced by carnies who deny you your prize even when you clearly did hit the bullseye target multiple times, a near capacity crowd instead sought out their hump-day evening entertainment at Molson Amhitheatre, where some of the biggest bands in American metal turned up to put on a concert. Sure, over-priced refreshments could still be had – or at least until 10.30pm, when the beer vendors closed abruptly – but the entertainment factor was high, with Disturbed, A7X and co. putting on a high-octane show, with the music complimented by some rather elaborate stage set-ups and more pyrotechnics than you’d see on WWE.

Doors for Uproar were at 7pm, although I was already lucky enough to be backstage at the Amphitheatre at this time, having done an interview with the headliners Disturbed – look out for that soon. Walking around behind the scenes at Uproar had really got my pre-show buzz going, and I didn’t need to consume any of the festival sponsor’s energy drinks to get excited about the evening’s musical fare.

Halestorm opened the main stage. This four-piece hard rock group come from a small Pennsylvanian town called Red Lion, with the band’s name coming from the brother and sister duo Arejay and Elizabeth ‘Lzzy’ Hale who are the drummer and lead vocalist respectively. It’s Lzzy Hale who stole the audience’s attention by delivering a full throttle performance, with the loud pipes to go with all the wild rock star girl thing that she has going on stage.

I’m on the fence about this band. Halestorm did kick it with the proverbial, but right now the set list is just too middling to get excited about. Superstar rock goddess Brody Dalle or Joan Jett, Lzzy Hale is not. At least not yet, anyway. She may have the voice and looks, but as she howls the lyric “I’ve heard it all before” it really does smack of self-deprecating irony, because the bulk of Halestorm’s music barely registers at anything other than decent, and you’ve definitely heard it all before. This young band still gave a performance at Uproar which was one of the better ones – I found them more entertaining than Stone Sour, who came on after.

Hellyeah took me by surprise, creating a wicked little party over on the second stage. Their music is dumb, redneck metal but I think that’s what they’re aiming for, or that’s the end result anyway. The band’s name sums up their attitude to playing and making music ideally: it’s loud, fast and straight outta Texas. Led by an energetic Chad Gray (Mudvanyne) and the thundering drumming of Vinnie Paul (Pantera), Hellyeah played a loud and brisk set which was met by hearty applause, raised devil’s horns and plenty of “hell yeahs!” by the few hundred fans who made it over to the Jagermeister stage for their set. Gray caught air on several occasions during the set, as he jumped from the drum-kit and monitor platforms.

I spent the rest of my evening over at the mainstage where I watched the two headliners – unfortunately this meant I missed local boys Hail The Villain, who were actually the band I was most keen to see. It’s a shame they couldn’t have been squeezed onto the main stage for the Toronto leg of Uproar.

Avenged Sevenfold delivered a performance that really summed up the family vibe of the evening’s fare. With a set featuring material from the band’s latest record Nightmare, as well as choice tracks from the previous four albums, A7X entertained a crowd which had mostly turned out to see them. For all the fancy stage set-up, with the pyrotechnic flames and explosions, the most memorable moment by far came when the band spoke in memory of their late drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan: with a giant flag of The Rev unfurled across the entire back of the Molson stage, a sea of mobile phones and lighters were raised around Molson Amphitheatre for a moving tribute which led into “Welcome To The Family”.

Headliners Disturbed came on shortly after 11pm and went on to play just beyond the midnight curfew. The last time I saw Disturbed they played at Mayhem Festival in Toronto with Slipknot in a big wide open field which led to a sell-out crowd creating some of the hugest and most violent circle pits I’d ever seen. Given tonight’s venue, it wasn’t a surprise that tonight’s performance lacked the intensity of that previous outing, but Disturbed managed to continue the US metal love-in vibe that A7X had created. The moshing in the floor area was pretty light, but there was an eye-catching moment when a guy in a wheelchair was hoisted up in the air for a few minutes to do a bit of crowd surfing.

I watched the start of Disturbed set’s from the close proximity of behind the barrier in the photo-pit/security area, and it was clear to see the high level of interaction that the band have with their fans, which is something Dan Donegan and Mike Wrengen had spoken to me about a few hours earlier during our interview. Donegan in particular was always looking for faces in the crowd, and willing to pose for fans near the barrier who were taking pictures, while he would also find faces in the crowd and throw glances and devil’s horns at them. Frontman David Draiman was as active and engaging as ever, encouraing the crowd to participate and be a part of the show; highlights were the resounding cries of “FUCK!” during the chorus of “Stupify”, while Draiman and the video-screen backdrop showing ‘The Guy’ encouraged the standing crowd inside the amphitheatre to do the obligatory during “Ten Thousand Fists”.

Of the new material, my pick of the set was “Another Way To Die”: A song which perhaps makes Disturbed’s most obvious social commentary to date, even if it is a bit self-contradictory to be singing a song about mass consumption and global warming at a music festival…where you are surrounded by advertising and merchandising, and very much encouraged to spend and indulge. Let’s just hope the message got across enough so that fans leaving Molson Amphitheatre with a complimentary can of Rockstar were mindful to deposit their empty in a recycling bin.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Uproar pictures including Disturbed, A7X and Hellyeah – I had a lot of fun shooting this one, hope you enjoy the pics! – Brian.

The calm before the Halestorm

Hellyeah

A7X

Disturbed

Related internet links:
Halestorm
Hellyeah
Avenged Sevenfold
Disturbed
Brian Banks Photography

The Gig: Root! with The Rhetorics and The Loop
Where: Yah Yah’s, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
When: 20 August 2010
In One Word: Terrific

So here we are in the packed and already sweltering Yah Yah’s with The Loop opening up the final proceedings with a garage tinged set of stuff much like Question Mark, early Rolling Stones and a hint of The Troggs with a fantastic organ in the background.

 The quality of the musicianship is apparent and you can tell the boys are in their element warming up the already decent-sized crowd. “Republican Man” is the stand out track of their set but maybe borrowing too much from The Guess Who.

After a much needed feed and some fresh air (albeit smoke tainted) I sauntered back in to hear The Rhetorics whose set of angular-pop-hardcore was confrontational, ugly and melodic at the same time. I got a Buzzcocks meets Dischord feel from it and their vocalist Thomas Whiteside resembled Morrisey (if he sang in PIL, that is).

And here we are, the room fills up and the incessant bleating of people behind me nearly drives me mad until an intro tape of their best intro tapes begins, including the brilliant Celine Dion hit “I will Always Love Root!”.

 Root take to the stage and proceed with an incredible set that easily puts most of Melbourne to shame; It’s incredibly witty, as you’d expect from the former TISM front-man and the musicianship is just terrific.

I am somewhat of a country snob and have a great hatred towards neo-country mainly for my opinion that it’s a load of bollocks and will never match up to the greats but Root’s brand of this style (no matter how loose it became in the end) is just excellent. Anyone who can rap over relatively straight country (“I still call Australia Ho!”) is a legend in my eyes.

The set goes on with “Shazza and Michelle”, “Orange People” and “Famous for Being Famous” and towards the end there’s an angry look on DC’s face asking why people would pay to see their band if they were just going to talk at the back; I’m with ya there.

The rest of the set is taken by with flying stage costumes; I’m face-attacked by a pair of pyjamas and the band are noticeably pleased with their good aim, while DC Root’s constant movement around the venue ending up on tables, the bar and a strangely positioned indoor window in the middle of the venue.

The show ends with a “Christopher Cross” cover with Henri Lee Root on vocals and DC on bongos as they audition him for Root 2.0; what? It’s extremely unclear what’s exactly happening with the band and notably DC; I have a strong feeling they won’t be away for long.

© Danny Crombie, Music Vice

Title: Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Artist: Dan Mangan
Label: Arts & Crafts/ABC/FUM
Released: 11 August 2009
In one word: Congenial

The Fifty-third Calypso [ 2 ]

Oh, a sleeping drunkard
Up in Central Park,
And a lion-hunter
In the jungle dark,
And a Chinese dentist,
And a British queen–
All fit together
In the same machine.
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice–
So many different people
In the same device.
-  Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

If you were to go onto the website for Canadian music label Arts & Crafts, you would see that the top 2 albums by sales right now are Forgiveness Rock Record, and the Forced to Love/ All to All single. Third in popularity, after the latest LP and EP from Broken Social Scene, is Dan Mangan with his first recording on this label.

Nice, Nice, Very Nice was first released onto the File Under Music label (FUM) August 11, 2009. 364 days and some critical acclaim later, it was rereleased by the Toronto label Arts & Crafts for distribution in the states.

A few days ago on August 20th, Dan Mangan marked his album’s stateside release with a tour that’ll take him through the States, The UK, and finally Canada before wrapping up in early December. Mangan is no stranger touring though. His first LP Postcards and Daydreaming was released independently in 2005 (later on FUM/ABC-Universal), and he hasn’t stopped touring since.

The first song on the album “Road Regrets” is about that, being on the road more than being home. It’s one of the louder songs on the album, and it’s a bittersweet one which sets the tone of the album. It’s the first single off of the LP (since the 2,3, and 4 songs appear as singles on a teaser EP) and it’s a good one for bringing the attention of the listener to one of Dan’s stronger sides, his songwriting. “It’s all business in the left hand lane. Drive there and then drive back again. Escape can’t be the only way, to escape. So I’ve gotten used to coffee sweats. Still getting used to road regrets. I took you up on all your threats, to leave.”

The next 3 songs are “Robots”, “The Indie Queens are Waiting”, and “Sold”.  Six months before the release of the LP, these songs were released as tracks 1,2, and 3 on an EP called Roboteering- as well as 2 others which are not included on Nice, Nice, Very Nice. “Robots” is catchy song with a silly music video where Mangan is captain of the yellow gang, who faces the captain of purple gang in a robot battle. It has nothing to do with the song, which seems to be about trying to not waste your emotions, but losing them as a result. And its not a cool enough video to make up for the fact that it doesn’t make sense. “The Indie Queens Are Waiting” takes us downtempo for a really clever tune that pokes fun of the indie kids, sitting around, waiting, and asking themselves “are we cool now?” It was the song that initially won me over to the album the first time I played it through. But it’s the fourth song on the album, “Sold”, that still gets me that 13th, 14th, 15th listen through. It’s quick, uptempo folk song that features handclapping while cheery singing about selling out for the so-called “good life”.

These three songs, as well as the opening track form the strongest part of the album. They’re earnest, but still hopeful, and they pack the most energy and feature some of the best songwriting on the album.

Up next are “Fair Verona” and “You Silly Git”. “Fair Verona” is a conundrum. On one hand, the lyrics are the kind of beautiful that the cliche would be tempted to put the word “hauntingly” in front of. On the other hand, it’s reminiscent of Broken Social Scene, and this makes me uneasy.

I love Broken Social Scene, they’re one of my all-time favourite Canadian bands,  so how is it possibly be bad that Mangan sounds a bit like them?

If Nice, Nice, Very Nice only sounded like Broken Social Scene, maybe I wouldn’t have such a problem with it. But as much as I enjoy the songwriting on Nice, Nice, Very Nice – and it sure is clever – this album just sounds like so many other albums and artists I’ve heard before. “Road Regrets” reminds me of Joel Plaskett’s album Three, one artist who surprisingly lost out on the XM Radio Verge Music award to Mangan earlier this year. It’s not just my ears though. On Nice, Nice, Very Nice, Mangan admits to influences of Chad VanGaaleen, Bon Iver, and Radiohead. As a fellow admirer of all three bands, it was easy to hear the musical influences- and I think the originality of this album suffers for it.

Yes, there are a few more strong songs on the album before it concludes. I took the time to rate “Tina’s Glorious Comeback”, “Some People”, and “Basket” on my itunes so I’m not going to act like I wasn’t interested in them. I think Mangan’s songwriting shows promise and I’d be interested to see how it develops.

But although there might be some that are ready to say that Mangan is a new Joel Plaskett, or Broken Social Scene, or Chad VanGaaleen, or Bon Iver- I say, hold your horses. Those releases last year by Joel Plaskett, Chad VanGaaleen, and Bon Iver were pretty original releases- and a year later, they have proved their place in my record collection. I’m still waiting for Mangan to come good on the investment.

I don’t know if he’ll make the cut though, because this album’s biggest crime is that it sounds generic. I worry that it’s genericness is part of what makes it so easy to listen to that first time through, and that it would make it so appealing to people who might be listening to indie for the first time. I think that’s a valid concern, it’s 11 years after Broken Social Scene formed, and it seems like indie rock and pop is garnering more and more attention all the time. I know it’s only a matter of time before any underground genre becomes mainstream and gets marketed to teenyboppers before becoming as dead as grunge- and when I hear this recording I wonder if it’s already starting? Has the downfall of indie started while I wasn’t paying attention?

As I question Mangan’s merits on this album, its garnering a lot of attention to be a favourite to win this prize. As for me, I’m three albums into this race for the Polaris Prize- still searching for a favourite.

© Natascha Malta, Music Vice

A short while back I reviewed the recent William Control album, and concluded that while it showed some definite promise, it ultimately failed to live up to the sheer loftiness of many of its influences:  Namely older-school “goth”, and the “darker” side of the original post-punk era.  Anyone who knows these genres as well as my misery-happy self knows darn well that it’s the British, not the Americans, who excel at this style of music…so perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s the debut album of an English band named O. Children (after a Nick Cave song, ‘natch) that actually succeeds in fulfilling such promise.

To be sure, there’s some more contemporary influences noticeable in the band’s sound – “Smile” and “Radio Waves”, for instance, sounding a tad Interpol in parts, and the unlisted bonus track definitely evoking the also-great (and also English) Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster – but on the whole the tracks on this album, and their frankly sublime arrangements, could easily have been written back in the late 70s/early-to-mid 80s (the inarguable Golden Era of music, fuck you all).  As well as the abovementioned Mr Cave, O. Children instantly, and effortlessly, brings to mind such classic gloom-pop acts as Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode, Fields Of The Nephilim, Joy Division and Siouxsie and – more to the point – her Banshees.  Perhaps my biggest surprise herein was the revelation that the lead singer, and main songwriter, is a black gentleman named Tobi O’Kandi…this not exactly being a genre of music renowned for such frontmen!  While The Horrors’ Faris Badwan fits neatly into the stereotype of the tall, lanky, paler-than-pale goth singer of old – not through any fault of his own, of course! – it’s great to hear such a tremendously deep and resonant voice coming from a fellow you couldn’t easily mistaken for an anemic albino.

And there ain’t nothin’ wrong with O’Kandi’s backing band either, even if they do look more “the part” – albeit in a slightly more modern, Horrors-y kinda way – as the arrangements and performances on this album really are just FUCKING PERFECT.  I shit you not:  The “sound” on this album is as good as any record ever released, period.  Astonishing production, powerhouse beats and drum sound, doom-drenched guitars and keys, and the kinda bass sound that would make Kim Deal (of Pixies fame) proud.  Oh, and the album artwork just happens to be f-ing marvelous also.

If I have but one criticism it’s that some of the lyrics are a tad on the “ordinary” side, but having said that, it has its definite moments (love the anti-sentimental sentiment of “official” closer “Don’t Dig”) and contains one of my hands-down favourite lyrical/vocal combos of recent years:  Imagine the words “Now dry your eyes / Make a smile and go outside / When there’s nothing else to do / Find the fun inside of you” sung in a register which evokes Peter Steele of Type O Negative far more than it does, say, The Spice Girls (whom I love, incidentally, but I’ll save such girly gushing for a more appropriate forum)!  This may not sound like everyone’s idea of Musical Heaven, but it’s certainly mine, and puts this album right alongside The Horrors’ “Primary Colours” in the “best mopey British album of the last decade” stakes; and believe me, there are a good deal of people out there for whom these are very high stakes indeed.  Fucking majestic.

© Michael Bowser, Music Vice

Related links:
O. Children Myspace

Title: Belmundo Regal
Artist: Radio Radio
Label: Bonsound Records
Released: 4 March 2010
In one word: Disposable

My french is not very good, is the first conclusion I come to while listening through Belmundo Regal by Radio Radio.

Radio Radio is the stage name for the hiphop threesome Alexandre Arthur Bilodeau, Gabriel Louis Bernard Malenfant, and Jacques Alphonse Doucet from the french maritimes. They rap with a Chiac accent that’s part Acadian French, and luckily for us anglophones who struggle with French, part English. It’s an accent, my friend who is Torontonian by way of Montreal tells me, that even she has a hard time understanding. English phrases jump out of the rhymes to impress their randomness on you; “almond joy”, “curly fry”, “manpurse”, “transamerica”, “intellectual bitch rap 101″.

As a group they’re as much jokers and satirists as they are MCs. Their latest and Polaris Prize shortlist album Belmundo Regal was released on March 4th 2010, at a sold-out Just For Laughs show. The album is named after a stranger they met on a trip to Nova Scotia near Oak Island. The band spent the day talking with the stranger, who introduced himself as Belmundo, about the legend of a treasure that was buried there- and although their paths never crossed again, the band was so inspired by the stranger that they named their album after him. I wonder to myself if this is a joke or not, a theme that will haunt me the length of the album.

Since their last album the sound of the band has moved closer to electro pop. Their last album Cliche Hot (2008) relied on just voice and synthesized backbeats, and this new album sees the addition brass, guitar, and the fuller sound of higher production. But the step towards electro pop has also taken the band a step away from hiphop.

There’s an undeniable catchiness to Belmundo Regal, and it gets off to a smooth start in track one “Cargue dans ma chaise”. Unfortunately, the chorus delivery is annoying , and I can’t seem to understand where the female chorus singers fit into the picture. I don’t have much love for “Ej savais pas mieux” either, with its chorus of “hop, skip and a jump and a bump”. I can’t tippy-toe around it, that just sounds stupid in an anglophone’s ears. But at the end of track 2, there’s a minute long intro to the third song, “9 piece luggage set”, that had me laughing out loud as each of the 9 pieces of the luggage set were outlined to me: “garment bag, suitcase, briefcase, duffle bag, a hat case, toiletry kit, laptop bag, manpurse, wardrobe trunk”. This song is about jetset lifestyle and having a lovely nine piece luggage set. Everything the band does is coloured with a sense of humour- and nothing is sacred. The band satirizes yuppies and jetsetters on the same album as hippies, and even, in one of my favourite songs on the album, liking Kenny G’s music.

Many of the tracks on this albums seem to be throwaways to me- more novelty than replay value. Most of that middle chunk on the album (“Dekshoo”, “Guess what?”, “Enfant Special”, and “Tomtom”) become annoying for the same reasons they were amusing the first few plays through. I do like the beats on “Sur la galavande”, and the chorus of “say that disco gypsy jazz,”- and I find this half of the album more listenable than the second half. Of course, the real jewel on this album is “Kenn G Non-Stop”, which unexpectedly combines sexy, dirty backbeats, Snoop Dogg rhyming, and back-up female vocals that would be cheesy if this wasn’t partly a humour outfit.

It’s a shame in a way that the music is so disposable. Cliche Hot had both the humour and the hiphop to win me over to the band. They were kind of like a promising Acadian Chromeo. There’s no new “Jacuzzi” on this album, and the rhymes sometimes just lack cred. I wanted to like this album, the idea of Acadian humour hiphop is original enough to deserve a listen, but this time  around they lack the cool they need to pull it off.

© Natascha Malta, Music Vice

The Gig: Forest City Lovers w/ Gentleman Reg
Where: Great Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: 12 August 2010
In One Word: Disappointing

n.b. The following review has received a fair amount of blowback (via email, comments and even Twitter) in the past 24 hours from people who perceived my review to be “angry”, or on simpler terms, just thought I was being an ass. Had I actually intended to slam the band then I wouldn’t have cared less about these comments, but in this instance that was far from being the case. Any criticism was supposed to be as constructive as I could make it, and at the very least objective. True, I didn’t think it was a great gig (it wasn’t bad either, but an average one – and I’ve seen FCL play better), but I also mentioned that the majority of the crowd did enjoy the show. And the frustration I’m talking about in this review is because I do rate FCL but while their recent album is good, I personally don’t consider it to be great. Plenty of other people rate Carriage much higher, including at least a couple of Music Vice writers, but we all have our own opinions, expectations and perceptions. I only mentioned the ‘bad day’ aspect in the introduction as a continuation of a ‘comfort in sound’ style theme from my previous gig review and my own week in general: I just found it interesting to be immersed at one concert and then withdrawn at the next, but every gig is different and that is half the fun of this vice. All the best to the band, and thanks for reading. – Brian, Editor, Tuesday 17 Aug. 12.40am

More often than not, music can provide a musical band-aid to help appease the ails that life can serve you up, but on this occasion the gig did not provide a big enough bandage to cover the metaphorical scraped-knee inflicted by a real bad day. Thursday 12 August 2010 was a real stinker, hopefully I’ll have no worse all year, and while I attended this concert in the best frame of mind I could muster, I soon found myself withdrawn and frustrated by what was a lackustre show.

I found nothing tangible or interesting about the set of main support act Gentleman Reg, though the rest of the small crowd of 90 or so people inside the Great Hall seemed to find his performance and music agreeable enough. By the end of his set, Reg Vermue and his band had enthused some of the girls in the crowd to shake their thang on the dance floor, with the indie rock thing vibe going sort-of disco for a moment – always a danger when there’s a keyboard on stage. While the lads shuffled and the lasses jived, I retreated upstairs to the isolated refuge of the seated upper tier of the Great Hall where I would remain for rest of the night.

Forest City Lovers have been one of a few locals Toronto bands who I’ve short-listed and kept tabs on with the approbation of them having great potential. (Heck, I even once ventured to Oshawa to see them.) I scarcely use the word ‘potential’ when talking about music, because really it can come across as patronising as hell, especially when a band are already a bit more than just decent. But I did have a lot of hope for this band, but the blunt truth is that I found their recently released second album Carriage to be a let down. Carriage is not a bad album, it’s just didn’t meet my own hopes and expectations, and that’s the crux as a music fan – sometimes the band don’t make the music that you want to hear. Carriage offers a motley of sounds and ideas, but with a lack of direction; too many wrong turns or cul-de-sacs. Unfortunately, my recent disappointment with Forest City Lovers remained after seeing them live tonight.

As for Gentleman Reg’s set, the crowd seemed to find Forest City Lovers agreeable but the applause and encouragement largely seemed to be polite and token. As I stood watching down from the shadows of the balcony, I found the music lacking any real bite. My interest peaked for a few moments nearer the end of the set, with some songs which seemed a bit more strident thanks to some nice work by the violinists, who do add an extra bit some heaviness to the music, but later I felt the same element was a guilty party when the penultimate song of their set ended in a loud and cacophonous noise.

Forest City Lovers music can be warm and twee, even if in a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing kind of way, but sometimes it’s just all too pleasant into the bargain. For me, the one big highlight of the aforementioned Carriage is the track “Tell Me, Cancer”, which contains the inspired lyric; “Go tell your mother that you passed the test, befriended the good ones and fucked all the rest”, but when this song was played Kat Burns appeared to make the lyrics more family-friendly by replacing the swear word with ‘EFF’. My conclusion on Forest City Lovers is that I feel the band are playing it too safe.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

It’s uncommon these days that I attend a concert as media without a camera strung around my neck, but tonight at the Kool Haus I was happy to watch the show with just a beer in my hand and a notepad in my back pocket. Having been playing in an amateur league football match just before this gig, I figured I’d done enough shooting for one evening, having scored a hat-trick in our 6-0 win – huzzah! A bit of an odd one though to be turning up at a concert already drenched in sweat – thankfully the temperature inside the Kool Haus wasn’t too bad.

Interpol are not the most photogenic of bands in any case. Their stage presence is fairly anonymous – the band are there, you can see them and throw a wave to them, but that’s about it. The members of Interpol do very little in terms of movement on stage and they always seem distant. Sure, they stand silhouetted and try to look moody and cool, but The Big Pink or B.R.M.C. they are not – they just don’t have an impacting stage presence. Things were a little different when Interpol had their original line-up: Carlos D. on bass did have presence, looking affected and fucked-up in a way that provided a complimentary visual to go along with Interpol’s music.  Carlos D. was the archetype of the moody bassist. His replacement David Pajo had none of that presence tonight at the Kool Haus, and together with Brandon Curtis, was just there to make up the numbers.

Interpol’s original line-up was where it was at: or I should say, the line-up responsible for their 2002 debut album Turn on the Bright Lights. That album was one of the best of the last decade, and tonight at the Kool Haus three-quarters of the 2002-era Interpol played through a set laced with songs taken from their classic debut. From the second song onwards, “Say Hello To The Angels”, it was always their oldest material that stood-out. The rises and falls in the music, punctuated by those pensive guitar hooks delivered by Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler sounded as haunting and striking as ever. And Paul Banks has that rather dreary, distinct vocal style to match. With a stand-in bass player and keyboardist completing the line-up, this gig became one where I stood reminiscing about memories associated with songs from Interpol’s debut record.

“Turn on the Bright Lights is a deceptively deep record, and to fully appreciate it you first need to find yourself in a dark place.”

Turn on the Bright Lights was a record that quite literally had me floored. Of all the sharply dressed New York bands that invaded the consciousnesses of British music fans in the early 2000’s, Interpol offered up something a bit different. They enjoyed the same kind of front-page hype on the NME that the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeah’s enjoyed, but Interpol’s music was harder for me to grasp – it was more challenging, and deeper. I was dismissive of Interpol at first, finding Turn on the Bright Lights to be too dark and depressing to enjoy, which is quite a statement to make for me considering I grew up in one of the most dour and isolated parts of Grey Britain. Interpol have dark undertones that we British usually clamour for – that’s why Joy Division, the Fall, the Smiths and or any post-punk band worth it’s salt became so loved. But to me Interpol were an acquired taste, and it took a [then] heart-wrenching break-up from my first proper girlfriend to lead me to switch Is This It from my stereo to replace it with Turn on the Bright Lights. As I wallowed in pity on the floor of my dank bedsit room in a rundown town in north England (a place I’d moved to for university), suddenly the music of Interpol began to make sense. Interpol’s music gave me a soundtrack to the emotions I was feeling, and no other new music at that time could reach me in the same way. Turn on the Bright Lights is a deceptively deep record, and to fully appreciate it you first need to find yourself in a dark place.

At the Kool Haus I was sure certain that I was not the only one who was having a rather self-immersed concert experience. For about every second song, Interpol played a song from that inspired first album, and these were always the songs that got the big reactions. I tuned out to the rest, with new songs like “Barricade” doing nothing for me. But for the old songs it was a real pleasure to find myself reminiscing about all the memories I associate with each of the songs from Bright Lights.

“Obstacle 1” was a big song, for sure, and one of the closest to the heart of any Interpol fan, while elsewhere “Hands Away” and “Stella” were other picks, while “Evil” from their second album Antics was the only non Bright Lights song that I found any interest in.

For me though, as I stood in my self-immersed and reminiscent concert trance, the moment of the evening came with “NYC” during Interpol’s three song encore. The lyrics of: “I’m sick of spending these lonely nights, Training myself not to care… I know you’ve supported me for a long time, Somehow I’m not impressed”, are so cavernously affecting. They are the kind of lyrical gush that hopeless romantics like myself might send on a card to Post-Secret – or use as sensitive a Tweet, at least. And despite all the sadness of that song, the backing chorus of “(Got to be some more change in my life)” can be used as a motivator – I found myself going into a big Interpol relapse last year, but even us sensitive Interpol-liking types can dust ourselves off after getting knocked down and rise up again. Music can inspire, help us understand or at the very least help take the edge off of life’s knocks – and for that reason, it is to bands like Interpol that we can say with great sincerity: Thank you for the music.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Having been a long-time fan of the British post-punk movement, I bought a DVD documentary some years back entitled “Made in Sheffield”…and while my main interest lay in bands I have known and loved for eons such as The Human League, ABC and Pulp, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the existence of some other acts of the era which didn’t quite “make it” on such a global scale.  Perhaps the one that stood out most was some band called Artery, and lo and behold, who might be playing locally during my recent two-and-a-bit week visit to England?  Having stupidly missed classic PIL bassist Jah Wobble’s current “dub” outfit the weekend before, I figured I had no excuse not to attend at least one gig whilst abroad, so here we are.

Things start off less than encouragingly with a crowd not much bigger than the five-piece band themselves, but fortunately by the time the band hit the stage – a good forty-five minutes or so after the listed time, bless ‘em (hate them early starts!) – a good few more punters have arrived, and the show can begin.  It’s a largely “old”-ish crowd this evening, which is to be reasonably expected for a “cult” band that initially broke up back in 1985, but it’s always a source of consolation to yours truly when he’s one of the youngest people in the room (yeah, I’m old, just not “that” old)!  And at the risk of sounding redundant, ’cause I’ve done this whole spiel before, it’s also heart-warming whenever I see a live band who ain’t exactly Straight Outta High School putting on a show with more stage presence than most of the fifty-seven “young” bands that formed just down your street last week.  Granted, most of this on-stage intensity comes from vocalist Mark Gouldthorpe – the rest of the band more statue-esque, but still giving themselves a decent cardio work-out for all that – but in this day and age even one band member with notable stage presence is something of a God-send, and the other four members – including a keyboardist (always a good thing in my book) – sound so fucking good that any complaints seem a tad unfair.

The music of Artery, simply put, has the kind of nervous urgency and unsettled moodiness that few bands to be recently labelled “post-punk” can genuinely lay claim to.  Sure, there’s a few tracks in there that you could kick up your heels to, but the so-called “dance-punk” of the modern age this sure as shit ain’t!  Just in case you’re under twenty-five and wonder why the post-punk genre/era is often associated with words like “dark” and “bleak” – words one would hardly associate with Franz Ferdinand, for instance – perhaps you should check out the likes of Artery.  They sure don’t make ‘em like this any more, and the mould for mad-bastard frontmen like Mr Gouldthorpe was broken LONG ago.  The documentary I mentioned makes late 70s/early 80s Sheffield out to be a pretty grim, over-industrialised place, so perhaps it’s no surprise that it spawned such a menacingly mopy band as this one, as surely as the same era of Manchester gave us Joy Division and The Smiths.  A group birthed from such surroundings these days would probably have little more to complain about than a bad network connection on “Left 4 Dead 2″, the spoiled little bleeders.  Cleaner air and some semblance of hope for the future does not a great band usually make.  Thank God bands like Artery are still alive and kickin’, in this post-emo world of faux-sulkiness and tattooed teardrops.  It’s enough to make me proud to ‘ave been born British, even if I don’t live in the miserable bugger of a place any more.

© Michael Bowser, Music Vice

One sincerely hopes that the title of this album wasn’t meant to be some statement of the band’s musical philosophy, ’cause while I kinda enjoyed the CD for what it’s worth – good, dumb fun; spirited, but hardly profound – it does ultimately sound like just about every other “hardcore” band out there right now, even if it does what it does rather well.  The music and vocals are suitably “angry” – Lord, are them vocals angry! – and the performances are as tight and assured as one could ask from a band of any genre.  The lyrics, which of course can only be understood with the aid of the inlay booklet helpfully supplied, are the stock-standard adolescent drivel about trying to find one’s place in the world, challenging traditional religious belief, questioning the meaning of existence etc etc…but who really cares what the hell the dude’s croaking on about when the only emotion his voice is seemingly capable of conveying is sheer, unadulterated RAGE?

I’ll (somewhat guiltily) confess, though, to generally preferring this kinda vocal style to the ones who have all of two voices:  Y’know, the shouty/growly one as well as the whiny, emo-esque, “I’m-so-sincere-I-could-shit-my-own-tears” singing one.  The last guy to pull that off without making my skin crawl was probably Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell, and even he seems to have lost this knack in recent years (see City Of Fire)!  So yeah, gimme a whole album of the “angry” vocals any day, at least they blend in well enough with the frantic rhythms and “brutal” guitars that I can simply ignore ‘em after a while.  There’s even a moment of suspense at the beginning of track #5, “Existence” (yawn), where one almost wonders if the album is about to break its hitherto relentless pace and deliver a “metal ballad” – please God, no! – but such fears are soon abated by those familiar roaring guitars and vocals.  Phew!  The album does pull its one hat-trick of sorts with the track “The Divide”, a surprisingly good and, dare I say, melodic instrumental.  Best track on the record for my buck.  But the rest ain’t half-bad either (long as you ignore them idiotic lyrics).  Its heart is certainly in the right place:  Energetic, inoffensive stuff for those times in life when you just wanna chuck on some angry shit and take your frustrations out on, I dunno, your mum’s couch or somethin’.

© Michael Bowser, Music Vice

East London’s Victoria Park is usually a calm and tranquil place, but not today as 10,000 14-18 year olds descended on the park for a day of the hottest new bands to some of the industries most established acts.

The first band of the day were Manchester four piece Egyptian Hip Hop who played a half hour set in the Topman tent. After a year and a half of shooting gigs and festivals I have been accustomed to the usual rules of ‘three songs, no flash’, but after the bands third song security didn’t seem bothered by my presence in the pit and didn’t usher me out, this happened for the rest of the day, fantastic!

The next band on my agenda were Northern Irish band General Fiasco who put on an extremely energetic performance which was on par with shooting Dananananaykroyd and the Youth Music tent that they were playing in seemed to suit their sound perfectly. Songs from their debut album Buildings were greatly received.

Stornoway played to a packed out Topman tent. Oozing with charm and exuberance, the band played songs from their debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill which was well received by the audience. Later in the set, singer Brian Briggs had a joke about several ASBO’s that had been handed out to people, but in particular someone who played Dolly Parton loudly every day from dawn ‘til dusk and a man from Northampton who is banned from wearing a skirt.

After settling down in the hospitality area and being £6 lighter after buying the driest piece of chicken on the driest piece of bread, I noticed a drone in the background and I thought it could only be Hadouken!; a band who I have intensely disliked since the release of their first album 3 years ago and three years on I still can’t understand why this band are still around. The audience seemed to like them though, as cheers aroused when they finished each song, but its not for me I’m afraid.

Everything Everything have had quite a lot of hype surrounding them lately – and I have to say that they live up to it! Their synth-pop was greatly received during their half hour set  in the Youth Music tent and I can’t wait to hear more from this band.

I had been looking forward to seeing The Courteeners all day (yay!) and made a special point to see them. Frontman Liam Fray looked increasingly frustrated with the sound from the start of the bands set but I have to say that the sound at Vicky park has never been great, but that didn’t stop the band putting on a fantastic performance that included “Not Nineteen Forever” and “You Overdid It Doll”.

After their set I rushed off (and had a quick memory card change) to see Ellie Goulding who I have to say has an astounding voice and despite being 20 minutes late on stage she certainly made up for it as the Topman tent was once again packed to the rafters for the Hereford songstress who played a blinding set including “Starry Eyed”, “The Writer”, “Guns and Horses” and “Lights”.

M.I.A ended the day with a massive headline performance, but she was drowned out by her bass sound system and even her calls the audience to ‘make some noiiise!’ were drowned out. Everyone that was watching still had their hands in the air and seemed to enjoy her performance.

When school is back and their teachers are asking them what they got up to this summer, I’m sure many of the crowd at Underage will be enthusiastic to recount their festival experiences of seeing MIA and co. An enjoyable day was had by all and it will be interesting to see what next years Underage Festival will bring.

© Lauren Towner, Music Vice

Pictures from Underage Festival 2010

Related internet links:
M.I.A.
Ellie Goulding
The Courteeners
Egyptian Hip Hop
Stornoway
Everything Everything
Lauren Towner photography
Underage

]]> http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/underage-festival-2010-review-and-pictures-070810/feed 0 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/airbourne-phoenix-concert-theatre-toronto-060810 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/airbourne-phoenix-concert-theatre-toronto-060810#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:40:55 +0000 Brian Banks http://www.musicvice.com/?p=3955

The Gig: Airbourne
Where: The Phoenix, Toronto, ON, Canada
When: Wednesday 4 August 2010
In One Word: Explosive

STATUS REPORT………. This is Lieutenant-General Brian A. Banks reporting from the rock ‘n’ roll frontline for Music Vice in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Reports of an Australian group invading Canada can now be confirmed. The four-piece invasion outfit, code-named ‘Airbourne’, sighted at 22.42 hours on Wednesday 4 August 2010, where they dropped in at Phoenix Concert Theatre.

OVERVIEW………. Airbourne delivered an explosive performance. Armed with Gibson guitars, Marshall stacks, alcohol and adequate clothing for three-quarters of the group, the onslaught led by Airbourne left a crowd of non-hostile locals in various states of shock, bewilderment and inebriation.

Airbourne infiltrated the locals, winning hearts and minds, with Group Captain Joel O’Keeffe rallying support from the locals by delivering the message of rock ‘n’ roll from on top of the speaker stack beside the soundboard and also from the top of the bar. The vast majority of the crowd were observed participating in clear support of Airbourne’s antics and can be considered as being their allies.

CASUALTIES………. Zero dead and no physical injuries witnessed. Potential bruised egos to any members of groups who consider themselves to play the same brand of hard rock. Also, some attractive blonde female members of the audience may need to consider a morning-after pill if they were not adequately protected.

THREAT RATING………. Not for the faint of heart or limp of wrist. Anybody in the crowd who are members of an emo or new wave group may need to seek shock therapy after exposure to genuine, no-bullshit, no-drama, full-on sweaty hard rock with songs about getting made and getting laid.

RECOMMENDED RESPONSE………. Retaliation is not an option. Canadian groups can learn a thing or two from Airbourne. The lesson being, rock music doesn’t always have to be artful, complicated deep or clever to be good – sometimes it’s OK to just crank the volume & distortion and rock out like a bad one.

NOTED MOVEMENTS………. Airbourne have been spotted on radar heading North-West, with their next target being Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday 7 August 2010. Anybody in the vicinity who owns any Anvil, AC/DC or Priest records is recommended to attend. Oh yeah – lock up yer daughters!

END OF TRANSMISSION, OVER AND OUT.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Pictures of Airbourne at Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

Related links:
Airbourne
Brian Banks rock photog

]]> http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/airbourne-phoenix-concert-theatre-toronto-060810/feed 1 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/osheaga-2010-sunday-review-and-photos-050810 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/osheaga-2010-sunday-review-and-photos-050810#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:15:50 +0000 Brian Banks http://www.musicvice.com/?p=3910 The Gig: Osheaga music festival
Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
When: Sunday 1 August 2010
In One Word: Special

Saturday at Osheaga was incredible but Sunday was a lot more of the same – and then some! Sure, Arcade Fire’s performance was not  bettered, but the atmosphere and fun times  had been kicked up a further notch. The turn-out for Sunday was even greater, with thousands upon thousands of sun-kissed faces smiling from ear to ear as they devoured the music feast being served up. The only clear space that could be seen around the festival site was the sun exposed quasi-desert area [looky] which lay between the crowds gathered at the two main stages and the hundreds of people huddled together on the hill, while drinking beer and consuming copious amounts of free chips (crisps to my fellow Brits) and humus.

The Black Keys were the first highlights of the day, as the Ohio blues-rock threw down the gauntlet with a solid, but not show-stopping, performance. Their latest album, Brothers, is one of the records of the year and it was great to hear all those soul and true-blues vibes laid down to a doting crowd in Montreal.

Over on the third stage, local indie-electro rock trio We Are Wolves put on a performance that was memorable for two reasons. Firstly, the band appeared on stage dressed in a get-up which would have been better suited to a band called We Are Peacocks, given that each band member had a giant flagpole strapped to their backs to flare out some artwork. If that silver and black plumage was not successful in getting the band attention, then the mating call screamed out with the organ-pounding ferocity of their bass beats surely did – I watched half of the band’s set from a metre distance of said main bass amp, with the sound-waves giving my middle a better work-out than any abdominal belt ever could.

Snoop Dog had the Osheaga crowd eating out of his hand. The atmosphere for Snoop was just amazing, though I heard most of his set from a distance as I was in the backstage area interviewing a really pleasant band called Ra Ra Riot.

Along with Pavement, Sonic Youth were the main draw for me at Osheaga. As mentioned in my Saturday round-up, I’d been very disappointed to arrive at the festival site to be told that I wasn’t actually going to be getting any photo-pit access.  However, by 7pm on Sunday, after rallying support from label contacts and some more helpful media people on site, the situation had been resolved and I had been granted full photo-pit access in time to photograph Sonic Youth and the rest of the Sunday headliners.  I wasn’t just excited, I was bouncing.

Seeing Sonic Youth in concert at Osheaga was a moment to be cherished. The band are iconic and their music is close to my heart, though they’ve always been an ambiguous one for me. Sonic Youth’s music takes you in many directions, but always with a gentle nudge, hand-in-hand – you don’t question it, you just enjoy it and let yourself be immersed. Sonic Youth at Osheaga was every bit as absorbing as listening to them at home in your bedroom but with the difference being that Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore & co. were all up their on stage to send a clear signal to your brain that, “YES, you are watching Sonic Youth live!”.

Sonic Youth were a real treat, but sadly more in terms of the “I was there” factor. Sure, they gave it “100%”, and for those of us like myself who were seeing them for the first time, we can count ourselves truly lucky, as chances are that we may never get a chance to see them in concert again. But, the set-list contained way too much of their latest record, 2009′s Eternal – even the most die-hard SY fan would have preferred a more of a “greatest hits”, career-spanning set-list. But alas, they picked it up towards the end at least with more of the golden oldies. Oh, and as an added bonus, did anybody else notice Mick Jagger’s lips making a guest appearance? Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like they have taken up home on Thurston’s face – I’d never spotted the resemblance before… judge for yourself with the pictures below.

Metric always deliver a solid performance, and as one of the flag-bearers for Canadian music in recent years, they did not disappoint an ecstatic Montreal crowd. It was pretty much the same thing I’ve seen from Metric at festivals before, but this time with the added bonus of material from their latest record, 2009′s Fantasies, which does improve the quality of their set-list.

US new wave demigods Devo pulled in a huge crowd over at the third stage.  They were a heck of a lot of fun. Their set included 1980′s originals, including smash-hit “Whip It”, but the most impacting thing to me about their performance was hearing some of their 2010 return Something For Everybody (Warner). Devo’s latest album is new wave done right: bonkers fun, and indeed, something for everyone. Playing a combination of their old and new tunes, Devo delivered a performance that was a schooling to the sludge of mediocre snore-bore new wave bands that we’ve had to endure in the past few years. It’s seems like the new wave fad of recent years is happily dying off, but for those of you who hanker for the new wave thang then go get your robot on to Devo.

I stuck around at Devo for as long as I could before legging it over to Weezer who were the festival closers. My only previous experience of Weezer was some five years ago, when I’d made a 14 hour trip from north Scotland to London, England to see the band play at Brixton Academy. That London gig was alright, but it was part of Weezer’s tour for their 2005 record Make Believe, which wasn’t that good, so the set-list suffered. Bar the odd song here and there, the Weezer we all love is the Weezer from their debut record up to until the green album, and thankfully Weezer played all their good stuff at Osheaga: “Hash Pipe”, “My Name is Jonas”, “Buddy Holly” – you name it, Weezer played it.

Weezer gave Osheaga the perfect send-off. Their brand of rock music is fun by its very nature, but I was surprised by just how fun the band were live – their whole performance was like a sugar-rush of college rock. Energetic and then some! Frontman Rivers Cuomo was really up for this one: By the third song of their set he had ran down to the edge of the barrier to sing into the faces of a pumped-up crowd. Later on during the set, Rivers’ had ran over to the vacated second main stage to sing while the rest of the band kept playing. Two giant beach balls were also introduced, which Rivers’ enjoyed playing around with, using his guitar as a bat to hit the balls back into the crowd. So much fun, and the ideal ending after such all the fanstatic and diverse musical fare that had been served up over the weekend.

Canada needed a proper major outdoor festival this year: Osheaga delivered it. Let’s hope that the other big provinces like Ontario and BC can come up with a festival to rival Osheaga because the Great White North really deserves ,(and has the market for), more festivals of this calibre. Au revoir Montréal.

Photos from Sunday at Osheaga, 1 August 2010

We Are Wolves

Sonic Youth

Metric

Devo

Weezer

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Related links:
We Are Wolves
Sonic Youth
Metric
Devo
Weezer
Brian Banks (any bands out there looking for a photog? give me a buzz)

]]> http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/osheaga-2010-sunday-review-and-photos-050810/feed 2 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/osheaga-2010-saturday-review-and-photos-040810 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/live/osheaga-2010-saturday-review-and-photos-040810#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:55:42 +0000 Brian Banks http://www.musicvice.com/?p=3868 The Gig: Osheaga music festival
Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
When: Saturday 31 July 2010
In One Word: Incredible

My pilgrimage to Osheaga began at precisely one minute past midnight on Saturday morning, as I took an eight hour Greyhound ride from Toronto to Montreal via Ottawa. Coaches and couch surfing – you can’t get much more DIY than that! Music Vice magazine: keeping it real since 2002, yo! Numb ass cheeks and stiff legs were a small price to pay for what was an amazing weekend, with a line-up that was easily the biggest and best of any music festival in Canada this year.

My experience at Osheaga 2010 kicked off with Rich Aucoin, a man seemingly born to entertain the young and the carefree at music festivals. Together with his backing band, Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Mr Aucoin delivered a package of fun stuff to the Montreal crowd on early Saturday afternoon. While romping through a set of electro pop, Aucoin unveiled a giant multicoloured parachute. Said parachute was the same type that I had once been invited to frolic under at Cub Scouts – I joined Scouts to make fires and build shit, not dance around under rainbow-coloured parachutes, so suffice to say that my career as a Scout was very short lived – but with Rich Aucoin as your Scout Leader, jumping around under a parachute is actually fun, and also a situation that is a whole lot less likely to result in your parents going to the cops.

Sarah Harmer’s set got a warm response overall, though I personally wasn’t into it that much… her music’s just not my bag. You can’t like everything.

K’naan is in the news right now as he is “being urged to turn down the politics” in his music. He might also be advised to turn down the volume: His set commenced with a deafening wall of noise, and while he completely obliterated Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”, I retreated up the grassy hill at Parc Jean-Drapeau to watch at a safe distance.  After ten minutes I decided that I wasn’t a safe enough distance away after all,  so I made my way over to the third stage to catch the latter half of an excellent set from the ever-reliable Japandroids. I then returned to the two main stages, where K’naan wrapped up his set with the song that made him famous – “Wavin’ Flag” was a predictably nice moment of crowd unity, with everyone obliging with the hand waving for K’naan’s footy anthem.

As afternoon turned to evening, there was a definite lull in atmosphere but everything picked up when Pavement took to the stage. “It’s 1996, and we are Pavement”, were the opening words of frontman Stephen Malkmus as Pavement opened with “Gold Soundz” and then ran through over an hour of their nineties indie rock classics. I’ve been on a big Pavement kick this year, ever since I got a copy of their fantastic best-of album Quarantine The Past, and seeing them live was an amazing experience. Pavement gave a great, good-humoured performance, and when some dickhead decided to lob a cup of Budweiser straight at Malkmus during the second song (see the picture below – yes, I got the shot), Pavement quite literally took it on the chin and stepped it up to deliver what was a memorable performance. Pavement would have been the highlight of Saturday, were it not for a band called Arcade Fire…

Arcade Fire were just on another level. Their headlining performance at Osheaga on Saturday was easily one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had. The sound was fantastic, and the energy and interplay from the band was simply mesmerizing – Arcade Fire have a genuine ‘family’ feel to them as a group. Husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne alternated as the leading lights of Arcade Fire, as the Montreal band put on a classic performance to an ecstatic crowd in their hometown. Truly incredible.

Photos from Osheaga – Saturday, 31 July 2010

Unfortunately, from my point of view as a photographer, I was more than just a little bit pissed off to arrive at the festival site and be told that I wouldn’t be getting my promised photographer’s badge (for photo pit access) but that I could still take some photos from anywhere else. “Anywhere else” meaning from the crowd – effectively meaning that I had the same access to the bands as the rest of the crowd. Boohoo, right? I engaged my inner raw power and got on with the show… here are the pictures that I took from Saturday at Osheaga.

(And as it happens, karma would be on my side for Sunday as I would end up getting the best access possible to the headliners – look out for those pictures in the Sunday round-up.)

Rich Aucoin

Japandroids

Pavement

Arcade Fire

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Related links:
Rich Aucoin
Arcade Fire
Pavement
Japandroids
Brian Banks
Osheaga

I took my time with this one. After receiving a copy of Lawson Graham back in the middle of June, I found myself listening to it on pretty heavy rotation. It was love at first play. I knew I liked the album a lot but I found myself wanting to check my enthusiasm until I was sure of just how much I liked it. (It’s a mile away from the last Factor record I heard a few months earlier, that being his collaboration with Ron Countour, Saffron, which didn’t do anything for me.) Over a month later and my enthusiasm for Lawson Graham has not dipped in the slightest, and instead this album has proved to be a grower – and when an album makes a great initial impression and then becomes an even stronger favourite over time, well that’s when you know you have something special. Lawson Graham is an album of genuine rare quality – it is exceptionally good.

Lawson Graham was the grandfather of Canadian hip hop producer Factor, with the album paying tribute to him both in it’s title and with his photograph on the cover art. The nostalgic and affecting choice of title and artwork are complimentary to the album’s overall theme, it’s a fine dedication, with this record achieving the imitable feat of embodying life and soul in it’s music.

There is a diverse range of styles, tempos and beats through-out the record, with Factor collaborating with a diverse range of artists for 13 of the album’s 18 tracks. The production is deft, top-notch, with Factor using a subtle array of effects, loops and clips while holding everything together with aplomb. Pit Lawson Graham up against B.o.B’s major-label heavyweight The Adventures of Bobby Ray for a lesson on how to make a hip hop album with multi-collaborations – Lawson Graham gives Bobby Ray a schooling! This is an audio adventure that takes you in so many places throughout its duration, and the bonds that hold it together are seamless.

Lawson Graham is a hip hop album for 2010.  Commentary is made about consumer-driven 21st century life, and while the message is sometimes covert, Lawson Graham revels in the hypocrisy of life being both easier and tougher than ever: At one moment Barfly & Heresy Mae tell us that “Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Change”, with the line “The more things change, the more they stay the same”, but later a defiant Kirby Dominant steps up to the mic to tell us to nut up or shut up with the message, “The moral to the fable, is, you need to bring something to the table”.

This is a brilliant, brilliant record. (And no, there ain’t no echo in this room.) The lyrics and production are excellent, and there is such depth and diversity that you will likely return to it time and time again. A really enjoyable album, and another fine example of a Canadian hip hop artist doing something fresh and new. This is my favourite Canadian record of the year – and I decline to append that sentence a cautionary ‘so far’, because, well, it’s that good!

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Extra, extra

In the aftermath of the G20 summit in Toronto in late June, I found myself instinctively seeking out music from my collection to listen to while I tried to make sense of the sights and sounds that I had witnessed on these streets. Ever reliables like the The Clash, Fugazi and even Muse, did something, but this album and particularly the track “Every Morning (ft. Cars & Trains)” provided a fitting soundtrack while musing the events of that weekend.

The following video features music  track #4 of Lawson Graham, “Every Morning (ft. Cars & Trucks)”, with pictures and audio I captured during the G20 in Toronto:

Related links:
Factor – Myspace
Fake Four Inc. Records

]]> http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/albums/factor-lawson-graham-300710/feed 2 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/albums/the-sadies-darker-circles-300710 http://www.musicvice.com/reviews/albums/the-sadies-darker-circles-300710#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:25:18 +0000 Natascha Malta http://www.musicvice.com/?p=3831 In this first installation of reviews of the shortlisted 2010 Polaris Prize albums, I’m going to be looking at Darker Circles by The Sadies. The Polaris Prize is a Canadian music prize picked on a basis of artistic merit alone, and not commercial success. As a result, the long list tends to turn out some of the best music you may have never heard of before. But this year the  short list, as well as shining a little spotlight on some promising newcomers, reflects the work of a few veterans.

Title: Darker Circles
Artist: The Sadies
Label: Yep Roc Records
Released: 27 April 2010
In one word: Elusive

The Sadies are Mike Belitsky, Sean Dean, and brothers Dallas and Travis Good. The history of The Sadies reads like the stuff of a country music legend. The brothers Good were named after Dallas Frazier and Merle Travis and born to Good Brothers’ Bruce Good. They grew up with instruments all around them, and Travis would spend his first 2 years out of highschool playing with his father and uncles. Meanwhile, across the country in Halifax, a 16 year old Mike “the Snake” Belitsky had bought his first drum kit (a 1964 Ludwig Ringo Starr kit) and had taken to sleeping with his head in it. Later, when he moved to Toronto, he would learn under Blue Rodeo drummer Glenn Milchem, a band that The Sadies would later work with.

Blue Rodeo is just one of the big names that has been associated with The Sadies. The band would go on to collaborate with Neko Case, Andre Williams, John Langford, and John Doe- producing albums with each. Right from the very beginning the group received accolades from Gordon Lightfoot, who they would go on to cover as part of indie supergroup The Unintended (a name which comes from Lightfoot’s “Go-Go Around”).

Their last solo work New Seasons was longlisted for the Polaris Prize in 2008. This was their first nomination after having released 6 solo albums (as well as 3 collaborations with other artists, and 1 concert album) prior. Now, 12 years after their first release, they’ve finally made it into the shortlist with their latest recording Darker Circes.

The are 2 questions that we need to answer when we look at an album. The first one is what does the album sound like?

The lyrical content, an important part of what an album sounds like, is right in front of you on this one and well captured in the album name Darker Circles. The lyrics tell stories about growing older, losing sensation to feeling, giving up, “turning to oblivion night after night”, and “postcards that nobody reads”. “Idle Tomorrows” talks about wasting time paining over what could’ve been, and “Choosing To Fly” tells a story about a man and a woman who split, and then kill themselves. The story of “Violet and Jeffrey Lee” is one last tragic tale before an instrumental reprise of each of the 10 songs earlier, signalling the end of the album’s slow descent into a spaghetti western scored hell.

The band’s sound of country western, psychedelia, danger, and loneliness might be missing the great drama of a spaghetti western theme, but that said- The Sadies embody the outlaw side of country more, and the Billy Ray Cyrus side less.

The second question we have to ask ourselves when listening to an album is a harder one. Is this album good? And in this case, when we’re looking at the best album released in Canada for the whole year, is this album great?

The album is good, a statement that I finally feel comfortable making after listening to Darker Circles 40 odd times- absorbing the album while I rode the subway, spent time alone in my apartment, slept, and even once during a heated make out session (a strange choice I will admit). This is the longest listening time I’ve ever given one album while reviewing it, and somehow I still feel like I’m missing something – like there are secrets still waiting to ooze out of it, because the first 20 or so odd listens I can tell that I like the album, but don’t really know why.

The first and most obvious reason why this album is good is that it does capture well the feeling of seeing the band live, which having had the pleasure of seeing The Sadies play live on Canada’s Day, I feel is one of the band’s stronger attributes. The second reason I can see without digging too hard is that I just dig the sound. I really like this new new country music that this country is breeding, which isn’t fashionable or popular in the MidWestern US demographic, but it’s dirty, and it’s raw, and it’s still unpopular even though its has nothing in common with Shania Twain except the genre. Is this latest work by The Sadies going to convert people to the genre that have no interest in country music? Well, this album is less twangy than the last and the surfy grooves might bring in some classic rock fans- but the Daft Punk of country they’re not.

That brings us to the second stumbling block, which is that this album isn’t really that much better than New Seasons which was released 2 years ago, and only long-listed for the prize. Both the previously nominated album, and the currently nominated one were produced by Jayhawk’s Gary Louris and they sound similar, and even compliment each other. True to its name, this album is darker and less folky than the last- although the lyrics in New Seasons aren’t exactly cheery. Whether you like this album or the last more is almost arbitrary though, because it’s mostly rooted in small changes in musical taste than in large changes- this one is a bit more streamlined than the last and a bit last twangy. But where there have been improvements is in the storytelling and the lyrics on the new album. It’s the same heartache, but I find myself listening and relating to the lyrics more on Darker Circles than on the album that came before where I find myself listening to the sound.

I think that if The Sadies came out with another album that had a darker sound, but still maintained much of that folky psychedelic twanginess, it would be a great album. Darker Circles is good, especially if you compare it to what some of their contemporaries are doing, but this band needs to do something epic. Maybe a concept album using their particular brand of musical expression to put into song a zeitgeist that we haven’t yet acknowledged, but we’ll see as part of ourselves once they sing it. That would make for a great album.

© Natascha Malta, Music Vice