Archive for January, 2010

Tom Verlaine

January 31st, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

This week’s artist of the week is one of rock’s most revered cult artists. He is also my favorite guitarist of all time. Period. This week’s artist of the week is…

TOM VERLAINE!!!

Most people know Verlaine as the leader of the band Television, who in 1977 released Marquee Moon, one of the greatest albums of all time. If you haven’t heard it, get on that immediately. I’ve never been a real guitar guy, even though I’ve been playing the instrument for nearly ten years. I don’t care how fast Eddie Van Halen can play, Stevie Ray Vaughn is a shlameil, Hendrix is ok, more often than not Eric Clapton is just alright (the exception being his work on Layla And Other Love Songs), Steve Vai is lame and Yngwie Malmsteen is just dumb, but Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s guitar playing on Marquee Moon blew my fucking mind. And they’ll blow yours. Hear it. Immediately.

It’s not the speed or technicality of their playing, it’s the inventiveness. It’s like they approach playing lead guitar in a way that’s not descended from blues or jazz or anything you might be familiar with, but outer space music or something. And apparently legendary Atlantic Records guy Ahmet Ertegun even said about the band, “that isn’t Earth music.” So yeah. Whatever it is though, it is fucking cool, and you can hear its influence when you listen to The Strokes, Razorlight and others.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYFn8NUicY4]

For most people that’s where the story ends, but even after Television’s so-so second album Adventure, Verlaine still went on to make a lot of great music. Dreamtime and Flashlight were two of the first vinyl records I ever bought. You can still find them easily for very cheap at used record stores and they’re both great albums with Verlaine’s signature playing, symbolist lyrics and great great songs like “The Scientist Writes A Letter” or “Without A Word”. Nearly all the other records he released range from good to excellent. The man just makes really great music, and even his last album, 2006′s Songs and Other Things shows he’s still got it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJAgd42HXKY]

And if, like me, all that still doesn’t satisfy the newfound craving you have to hear more of Verlaine’s work, check out Patti Smith’s song “Break It All Up” on Horses which he co-wrote and plays on, or his work with The Million Dollar Bashers on the I’m Not There soundtrack.

http://www.thewonder.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/tomverlainetelevision

Click here to buy Marquee Moon off Amazon.

Tags: television, tom verlaine

The “Are You A Hipster?” Quiz

January 29th, 2010 | Featured, Features | 1 Comment

If you read this blog, you know that I actually quite like hipsters. They like good music, they’re fun to look at, a lot of them are great artists, and they’re often cool people. But what constitutes a “hipster”? This seems to be a prevalent question in our culture as we try to determine who is and who isn’t a hipster. Here’s a little five-question quiz that will simplify it and help you at least determine if you yourself are a hipster.

1. Clothing

a) If you have never shopped at and do not own anything from American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, Value Village and various novelty and thrift stores, you’re probably not a hipster.

b) If you sometimes shop at or own some clothing from American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, Value Village and various novelty and thrift stores, you might be a hipster.

c) If everything you own is from American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, Value Village and various novelty and thrift stores, you’re probably a hipster.

d) If you work at American Apparel or Urban Outfitters, you are a certified hipster.

2. Music

a) If you walk into an independent record store and don’t know any of the bands whose records are on display, you’re probably not a hipster.

b) If you know some or most of the bands whose records are on display, you might be a hipster.

c) If you know and dislike all the bands whose records are on display, you’re probably a hipster.

d) If you walk into the store and the clerk hates you because you’re always asking for records by bands he’s never even heard of, you are a certified hipster.

3. School

a) If you are in school and taking something practical like engineering or sciences, you’re probably not a hipster.

b) If you are in school and taking something less practical like English or Philosophy, you might be a hipster.

c) If you are in school and taking something like The History Of Dada Art or German Expressionism In Pre-WWII Film, you’re probably a hipster.

d) If you live in the basement of your art school, you are a certified hipster.

4. Social Life

a) If your social life consists of clubs, sports nights and tanning salons, you are probably not a hipster.

b) If your social life consists of limited release movies, drinking at friends houses and going to concerts, you might be a hipster.

c) If your social life consists of getting crunk at house parties where everyone crowds around the avant garde neo-psych synth-pop band/artists playing in the basement, you’re probably a hipster.

d) If you’re crunk and in an avant garde neo-pysch synth-pop band playing in someone’s basement, you are a certified hipster.

5. Response To Being Called A Hipster

a) If you’ve never been called a hipster, you’re probably not a hipster.

b) If when called a hipster you just said something like, “I’m not, but whatever,” you might be a hipster.

c) If when called a hipster you said something like, “Hey man, don’t put a label on me, I’m not a hipster,” you’re probably a hipster.

d) If when called a hipster you said something like, “Dude! I am not a fucking hipster! Just because I wear women’s jeans, low cut T-shirts, have a scruffy beard, ridiculous mustache, an extensive rare vinyl collection and play in an avant garde neo-psych synth-pop band does NOT mean I’m a hipster. Don’t even get me started on how much I fucking hate hipsters,” you are a certified hipster.

Tags: hipsters, The \"Are You A Hipster?\" Quiz

Awesome Album Covers!

January 28th, 2010 | Awesome Album Covers | 0 Comments

“Do you want your shrunken head to end up on the end of someone’s finger? No? Then don’t do drugs, kids…”

Tags: awesome album covers, rainbow bridge

I Told You I Was Groovy Tonight At Tiger Bar

January 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Groovetastic Presents…

Tiger Bar Groove: I Told You I Was Groovy!

w/

9:30 – SHEPHERD: Lead guitarist/singer Paul Shepherd from The Tight Ship returns to Tiger Bar groove to dazzle us with synths and pedals.

http://www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomshepherd

10:00 – Saskatoon Guitar Destroyer: Jo Landau – brother of Ben Landau from Burn Planetarium – plays idiosyncratic pop with subtle technical intrigue backed up by his band of non-biological brothers.

http://www.myspace.com/saskatoonguitardestroyer

10:40 – Easyboy (Eric Farber of Truman Peyote): Very experiment, very awesome, Eric Farber of Truman Peyote uses a variety of cool toys to make cool music. It looks like he’ll actually be opening for Real Estate and Woods in March…nice…

http://www.myspace.com/easyboymusic

11:10 – The Screamagers: I’ve always loved B movie horrors. Zombies, vampires, lots of blood and gore, grindhouse. The Screamagers take that and put it into music in the form of surf punk. I don’t see how this band could be anything less than really, really fun to see. If you like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, this is probably for you. So, everybody cool basically…

http://www.myspace.com/screamagers

As with all Tiger Bar Groove shows, we’ve got the 1+$1 deal.

$10 for 1 person.
$11 for 2 people.

OR! JOIN THE GROOVETASTIC ENTERTAINMENT FACEBOOK GROUP AND PAY ONLY $8 FOR ONE PERSON, $9 FOR TWO!

Tags: easyboy, groovetastic entertainment, saskatoon guitar destroyer, shepherd, the screamagers

Better Know An Artist: EASYBOY

January 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

This week’s entry in our infinite part series, Better Know An Artist, is…

EASYBOY!!!

The solo project of Eric Farber, also a member of twice-Forklisted band Truman Peyote. Though originally from Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, Farber is currently living in Toronto, attending UofT.

With EASYBOY, Farber continues to experiment with the samplegaze sound of Truman Peyote but relies more upon guitars and synths, thus resulting in relatively more traditionally arranged songs than can be found in his other work. However, interpret “traditionally” as being used very, very loosely.

The easiest comparison is early Animal Collective, but mainly only in their use of atmosphere on recordings. Live EASYBOY is a lot more ‘trashy’. The sound is abrasive, exciting and with moments of genuine beauty of amidst distorted guitar and old-school drum machines.

You can download EASYBOY’s awesome Friends EP released on Spooky Town Artifacts for free by clicking here.

EASYBOY will be playing Thursday, the 28th at this week’s Tiger Bar Groove. He’ll also be opening for Woods and Real Estate at The Horseshoe in March.

http://www.myspace.com/easyboymusic

Tags: easyboy

The Dictators

January 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

This week’s band of the week is one of my favorite all-time punk bands. They’re weird, goofy, classic and totally kick-ass. This week’s band of the week is…

THE DICTATORS!!!

So, what’s great about The Dictators? Well, they write great song: fast, loud, chunky, sometimes with a bit of an ironic 50′s nod like in “Cars And Girls” off their first album,1975′s The Dictators Go Girl Crazy. That song’s actually a pretty good case study for why The Dictators kick-ass: “There’s nothing else in this crazy world except for cars and g-g-g-gerrrrllllzzzzz!” Punk rock hedonism, the brains been ousted by balls. They taken (everything out of) control. “G-g-g-goodbye!”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5rqaEzYcY]

The words aren’t sung so much as spit or slobbered like a true punk. If it’s an act, I buy that they’re having tons of fun playing their roles. But these guys probably got into some good fights. You can hear the raging testosterone in every beat. “Faster And Louder” = why not write a song about how you’d like music to sound? Everything goes. Fuck yeah!

“Weekend” is a catchy bit of bubblegum pop though, which was always just two steps to the left of punk. It’s about how awesome the weekend is. They want to go “Back To Africa” to bone some chick. I like hippie Johnny, but I’m straight and I want to take his place. Er, his girl, the shmuck.

http://www.thedictators.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thedictatorsfuckinrock

Click here to buy The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! from Amazon.com.

Tags: the dictators

Grubtunes 10 Sexiest Ladies Of Indie Rock

January 23rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Every dude into indie-rock knows what I’m talking about: there are some seriously sexy women making music. Me and a buddy of mine were talking the other day about ways to pass the time in Sonic Boom while waiting for Dinosaur Jr. to show up and one involved album covers with sexy indie-chicks…connect the dots…anyway, that inspired me to come up with my list of the ten sexiest ladies of indie rock based on talent, beauty and flat out sexiness. Here they are…

10. Scarlett Johansson

Obviously outrageously gorgeous and a phenomenal actress but not the most critically acclaimed indie songstress. However, simply based on her choice of collaborators (Pete Yorn, Dave Sitek, David Bowie and material (Tom Waits, Chris Bell) she’s earned her spot on the list. Not a bad singer either.

9. Cassie Ramone (Vivian Girls)

No diss to the other Vivian Girls but Cassie is ‘the cute one’ (I think the red head’s ‘the bad boy’).

8. Emily Haines

I’ll admit Metric’s singles are starting to grow on me now that I’m hearing them on endless loop at work, but I’ve been a huge fan of her solo work and her work with BSS forever. And she’s got a great sultry voice regardless of what she does. Pretty damn sexy girl, too.

7. Charlotte Gainsbourg

As Serge Gainsbourg’s daughter, Charlotte has sexiness encoded in her DNA. But it’s a demure sexiness, a kind of untouchable, almost holy sexiness which made her perfect as a kind of Sara Dylan character in I’m Not There. She made her first album with her father when she was 15, though I haven’t heard it. I wasn’t crazy about her second album, 2006′s 5:55 (despite an incredible cast of collaborators that included Jarvis Cocker, Air, Neil Hannon and Nigel Godrich (!)) but her latest, the Beck-written and produced IRM is legit.

6. Karen O

Very talented, very sexy, though I know not everyone’s going to agree with me on that last one. But seriously, Karen O’s got that incredible sensitivity and vulnerability, but she’s also tough, aggressive and a little bit freaky. I don’t know about you, but I’d say any girl with credentials like that is fine by me.

5. Neko Case

At 39, Case is the oldest woman on the list but as far as I can tell, she’s still pretty damn sexy. And what a talent! If only for her work with the New Pornographers she’d be famous, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised to find out later that she has an incredibly solo career as well.

4. Alexie Perry (Handsome Furs)

Alexie Perry got on this list sheerly because of the promotional photos she did with hubbie/bandmate Dan Boekner for Face Control like the one here. ‘Nuff said. But the band’s music is good too.

3. Zooey Deschanel

This one needs no explanation. Incredibly actress, singer, songwriter and cute as fuck. You’re a lucky man, Ben Gibbard.

2. Cat Power

Gorgeous, talented and very sexy. If you’d never seen a picture of her in your life, that voice would be enough to make you fall head over heels for this smoky chanteuse.

1. Feist

Feist’s charm knows no bounds. She could charm a dead person back to life. Seriously. Add to that that voice which – as Colbert so hilariously realized – is truly angelic and the fact that she’s a damn cute girl and you’ve got the sexiest lady in indie rock. Kevin Drew’s “TBTF” could only be about her. She really is.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ9WiuJPnNA]

Tags: Alexie Perry, Cassie Ramone, Cat Power, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Emily Haines, feist, Handsome Furs, Karen O, neko case, scarlett Johansson, vivian girls, zooey deschanel

Awesome Album Covers!

January 20th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Between this and the cover of Embryonic, I think people should keep their babies away from Wayne Coyne…

Tags: awesome album covers, the flaming lips

Hot Chip

January 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

This week’s band of the week makes kind-of-goofy, kind-of-romantic, kind-of-nerdy dance-rock. Alongside LCD Soundsystem, this group is probably one of the top personality-driven dance-rock bands out there today. The band of the week is…

HOT CHIP!!!

The key to Hot Chip has always been Alexis Taylor’s semi-nerdy schoolboy charm and the group’s penchant to write subtly goofy songs and to take them very seriously. It’s a formula that works extremely well because Hot Chip’s goofiness is always restrained though still present in the lyrics as well as the vibrant, colorful production of the music.

2006′s The Warning album put the band on the map with great tracks like “Boys From School” and “Over and Over”. 2008′s Made In The Dark was even better and more consistent with classics like “Ready For The Floor” and “One Pure Thought” that truly defined the group’s style and attitude even more so than their previous – and still great – work.

Their latest album, One Life Stand, continues Hot Chip’s tradition of making decent albums with a couple incredible singles. Despite being their shortest album yet at 10 tracks, One Life Stand is one of their most inconsistent. It’s still ultimately pretty good though. The title track works off a straightforward 1-2-1-2 bass-snare beat, but that simple foundation seems only to add gravitas to the smooth, almost eery layers of vocals during the song’s phenomenal chorus. Closer “Take It In” is another highlight with it’s minor-key ostinato during the verse giving way to an uplifting piano-led, harmony-heavy chorus.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-A-I-T2NU]

On the flipside, “I Feel Better” sounds like – and pretty much is – Hot Chip’s parody of auto-tune dominated club music complete with synthestra instrumentation. And I know “Brothers” probably isn’t supposed to be about homosexual incest, but for some reason I’m finding it hard to really take a line like “it’s a wild love I have for my brothers” seriously as anything else.

For fans of the band, One Life Stand is no let down, though I definitely wouldn’t qualify it as an improvement on Made In The Dark. Maybe they shouldn’t have left the lights on while recording.

http://www.myspace.com/hotchip

Tags: hot chip

TBG: Folk Yeah! Show Write-Up

January 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Once again those of us involved in putting the show together and playing it worked our touchuses off and once again it seems to have paid off. Great turnout for a great show.

Mark R opened the show under his Thin Hotel pseudonym. By the time he began playing, the place was pretty busy. His intimate folk songs worked really well in the small, dark space. I was actually more impressed than the last time I’d seen him.

First Rate People – who are originally from Owen Sound, not Oshawa – played an expectedly great set to a full house.

These guys are on the up and just been featured on the Pitchfork forkcast. Even though when I booked them I heard that they’d never played Toronto or didn’t like playing Toronto or something like that, now all kinds of Toronto promoters are trying to grab a piece of ‘em. Check out their myspace and you’ll see they’ve got a bunch of shows coming up soon for here, in case you missed them last night.

I’ll admit something got a little funky here. Broken Telephone (aka Breanna) usually plays solo or with one other person but last night she was supposed to play with a full band. Unfortunately, somebody got sick or had migraine or showed up late…There were some “technical difficulties” of sort. Her performance was solid as usual but perhaps not as great as it should have been due to those unforeseen circumstances.

Carmen Elle closed the show with a lovely little set. Even though I was busy handling some organizational duties while she was playing, I was listening and just thinking, “sooooo great”. Her new songs were awesome and at one point she did a beautiful cover of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac which, I will tell you first hand, is not an easy song to sing well. Even at this point in the night, 12:30 or so, there was still a healthy-sized audience in there.

So yeah, another great Tiger Bar Groove. Next one is January 28th w/ Saskatoon Guitar Destroyer, The Screamagers and Easyboy (Eric Farber of Truman Peyote).

Tags: broken telephone, carmen elle, first rate people, groovetastic entertainment, thin hotel