For the first couple years of Nickelback's godforsaken existence, I had a hard time remembering that Chad Kroeger WAS NOT Nicolas Cage's character in Con Air. Also, rearrange the letter in "Nicolas Cage" and you get "Nicel Ogaac". "OGAAC!" of course, also happens to be what people shriek whenever they hear a Nickelback song come on the radio. Coincidence? I think not...
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Seriously...
New Charlotte Gainsbourg/Beck Video Features Album Cover Homages
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So, while watching the new Charlotte Gainsbourg/Beck video for "Heaven Can Wait", one of the video's many ridiculous images caught my eye.Charlotte Gainsbourg "Heaven Can Wait" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.At about 1:40 in the clip, we see Beck at a bar, dressed in a white suit which has been digitally manipulated to contrast with his surroundings, fiddling with a little umbrella in his drink. His...
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INTENSIVE GROOVE! TONIGHT AT RANCHO RELAXO!
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Artist:Intensive Groove
Hey everybody, awesome show going down tonight at Rancho Relaxo. Here's the deets...Groovetastic Entertertainment Presents...INTENSIVE GROOVE!If you thought the Groove was intense before...think again...9:30 - BROKEN TELEPHONEBreanna returns to Rancho's stage to again serenade us with her old-school feminine folk.RIYL: Devendra Banhart, Karen Daltonhttp://www.myspace.com/abrokentelephone10:15 -...
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Shout Out: Intensive Care
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Album:Fairytales From The Island
Just wanted to give a shout out to a sick band from Montreal called Intensive Care. These guys play a kind of indie-pop-prog rock that wouldn't be unfair to call the kind of missing link between Malajube and Plants And Animals, featuring the bright eyed wonder of the later, with the multicoloured palate of the former. They recently released an album called Fairytales From The Island, filled wit...
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Bear In Heaven
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Album:Best Rest Forth Mouth
This week's band of the week is another Brooklyn export. They've got the word "bear" in their name, but they didn't release an album called Veckatimest this year. They've got a number of the 2009 touchstones in their sound: strange, coagulating guitars; weird synths; strange, ambient production; soaring, atmospheric vocals and all wrapped around sharp indie-pop hooks. Who could it be? This week...
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What Happened To Weezer?
Sometimes I wonder why people revere Weezer's first two records as much as they do. Really, The Blue Album is fairly conventional, I mean, sure, it's got some great songs, but the production is kind of typical post-grunge loud-quiet-loud and it's subject matter, though approached cleverly, is pretty adolescent. But then there's Pinkerton. The Blue Album is a great album, but Pinkerton is the es...
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Umphrey's McGee at Oprah House, November 12th
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I'm really not that into jam bands. When I was at Camp Solelim, there was so much Phish cocksucking that I just got sick of it and went head first into indie rock. Moe, Umphrey's, never cared about them.So why was I at the Umphrey's McGee show last night? Well, I was on the guestlist so I figured why not? Who knows, maybe I'll get with some crazy hippie chick, otherwise I'll just get some readi...
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I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell Movie Review and thoughts on Tucker Max
So, I'm a big fan of Tucker Max. I love his stories, I think he's awesome, and I'm seriously jealous of him. The man's got balls. Big ones. I hear he knows how to use them. Today, speaking to students and such in the Innis Town Hall here at UofT, he told the crowd he couldn't say how many girls he had slept with, but could maybe guess around what hundred he was at. I want that! Fuck, how!? Well...
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Spoon
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This week's band of the week is one of those bands that had to hang around for awhile and keep pumping out kick-ass albums until people finally figured out that they were making some kick-ass music. However, this probably worked out for the better, as the band just kept getting better and better, chasing that dream, and now they're just like freakin' amazing and people just couldn't ignore them...
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Brent Randall/Mark Bragg at Rancho Relaxo, Nov. 3rd
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Thanks to Dan Wolovic for letting me in on a press pass last night, it was a pretty solid show.For those who don't know Brent Randall, you should get to know him...intimately. But I kid, I kid...I interviewed Brent Randall in Halifax last year for the release of his album We Were Strangers In Paddington Green, and I was already familiar with his ornate, baroque 60s-esque pop. Last night he play...
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Jonathan Richman
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This week's artist of the week has been consistently making fun, charming, sentimental albums for over thirty years, often recorded with just acoustic guitar and a percussionist using only a bass drum and snare. Though most believe his first album was his finest, the ones that ensued saw him becoming more idiosyncratic, original and endearing, and resulted in some fans forgetting him, while oth...
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Sweet Fan Video For "Famous Last Words"
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I found this on Pitchfork and I'm giving it ups as well. This must have taken a while to make. FAMOUS LAST WORDS - DEERHUNTER from Cove Entertainment on Vimeo.
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Wilderness Of Manitoba - Hymns Of Love And Spirits
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Artist:Wilderness Of Manitoba
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Album:Hymns Of Love And Spirits
Wilderness Of Manitoba Hymns Of Love And Spirits (Indie.; 2009) 7.7/10.0 Thom Yorke may have said, “ambition makes you look pretty ugly,” but he never said it would stop you from sounding really, really pretty. Wilderness of Manitoba’s music is an obvious product of precise and meticulous care, determination and drive. Any time a band is determined to have the sound of bir
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Daniel Johnston
The artist of the week this week is a legendary artist with a bit of a tragic story. Like many great artists, his mental illness has plagued his life and caused him and those around him a great deal of suffering, but at the same time, may be part of the source of his musical genius. To some he may seem amateurish and weird, while to others his intimacy and strange, expressive honesty strikes a ...
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TIGER BAR GROOVE w/ Saskatoon Guitar Destroyer/Triceratops/Datura/Playground Hookers/Bravestation at Tiger Bar, Oct. 22nd
So, last night did not begin quite the way most shows do. The business of concert promotion is not one immune to Murphy's Law: whatever can go wrong, will. When our amazing soundguy Cam got to the venue, somewhere between 8:30-9:00 (which was when he was supposed to), he couldn't find a mixer. All they had a the Tiger Bar was a DJ mixer, with one mic input. I'd been to rock shows at Tiger Bar b...
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Grubtunes: The Novel
So, I've started writing Grubtunes: The Novel. Basically, it's an autobiographical account of my life for something like the last three years with the focus on my thoughts on music, sex, and Toronto's music scene. There will be some stuff in it about bands I hang out with like Still Life Still, Spiral Beach, etc. so if you want to know a bit more about what those guys are like, it'll be in ther...
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TIGER BAR GROOVE TONIGHT!
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Artist:Playground Hookers
Groovetastic Entertainment has an awesome show going down tonight at the Tiger Bar (414 College, near Bathurst, basement of The Crown and Tiger) with some kick ass bands. Check out it, yo.9:30 - Saskatoon Guitar DestroyerJo Landau plays idiosyncratic but deceptively sophisticated indie-pop in this rare acoustic showcase.http://www.myspace.com/saskatoonguitardestroyer10:10 - TriceratopsThis prom...
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Awesome Album Covers!
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"Would it kill you to do some push-ups or something once in a while?"
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The Crayon Fields
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Artist:The Crayon Fields
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Album:All the Pleasures of the World
This week's band of the week is a four piece from Australia with a childish, twee-like charm but that records sophisticated pop not unlike The Go-Betweens if they had a modern Phil Spector producing them. The band of the week is...THE CRAYON FIELDS!!!This Melbourne band sounds like a lot of other bands, but luckily they're a lot of really kick-ass bands. Imagine the ornate beauty of The Zombies...
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