(Toronto) Really, this show was a maybe for me, but when Rickys’ friend had an extra ticket, it became a must see.

We got there in time to hear the opener, The Mobius Band. I felt bad when they took the stage and started playing because they essentially played in the dark. The low mood that was used to illuminate the slew of instruments on stage as people entered the Phoenix, also served as performance lights for the Mobius Band. Needless to say, seeing them live didn’t want me open up iTunes to listen to them again. Bring on the Black Kids.

Since they formed in Jacksonville, Florida two years ago, Black Kids have:

-Got press in NME after performing at the Athens Popfest
-Released an EP for free download
-Got a ‘Best New Music commendation and an 8.4 from Pitchfork
-Signed with Quest Management (who manages Bjork and Arcade Fire)
-Named one of the best new bands of 2008 from Rolling Stone
-Recorded their first full length, Partie Traumatic with Bernard Butler form Suede
-I’m Not Golla Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You debuted at #11 in the UK.

So yah, they are riding some momentum into this year for sure. I guess the most obvious thing that I was interested in seeing was if they were actually Black or not. Upon them taking the stage I found out that the Black Kids are two-fifths black. The five-member ensemble took the stage in the usual American Apparel hoodies and T’s and reminded me, visually at least, of The Go Team! As for their sound, they have some catchy, dance tunes that I am sure will be re-mixed and released in the coming months.

Their stand out single “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” was the highlight of the show for sure. If you are a band and you are selling a t-shirt with the title of one of your songs on it, it had better be a good tune. Songs that I hadn’t heard, such as I Wanna Be Your Limousine and Look At Me When I Rock Wichoo (it is really spelled that way too) were pleasant surprises that were not included on there downloadable EP earlier this year.

Apparently at their live show, their front man, Reggie Youngblood, starts every song with “Hey Toronto…” I’m not too sure how they are going to feel about this in Boston on May 12th. Maybe he thought we in attendance couldn’t remember where we were? I hate that shout out shit that bands do.

Ricky made a good comparison on the way home that they seem to be on the same track as Vampire Weekend. The lead singer has a unique sound, they are fun, and they are getting lots of press. They’ll be back in the coming months for a headlining show, guarantee.

Overall, a good show. When they come back, I want them to be louder with more energy.

After Black Kids, Cold Cut went on. If you saw them and want to leave a note about their contribution to the evening, please do.

 

 Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You: Play Now

Toronto - If you have followed this blog, you will know that I have been following this Hadouken! band for awhile now. I first discovered them sometime ago while hitting up their singles ‘Liquid Lives’ and ‘Tuning In’/ Well, after the inevitable one year delay between discovery and actual cd coming into production, the Leeds band finally puts out their debut LP - Music For An Accelerated Culture. It came out Tuesday.

One thing is for certain, the title is definitely appropriate for album. From the opening beat of ‘Get Smashed Gate Crash’ to the closing sounds of ‘Wait For You’, this is one album that does not take its foot off the gas pedal. Incorporating dance beats over some electro bleeps with James Smith spitting semi-rap semi singing vocals, Hadouken! takes what works off their singles and layers them over the entire album. Unfortunately, as we all have discovered in the past few years - a few good singles does not really translate into a good album and I think this is the case.

I found that a lot of the songs sound pretty much the same, and a whole 11 song onslaught of nu-ravey music is too much for my taking. There are some good tracks (’Declaration of War’ is awesome), but I didn’t really find enough variation between the tracks to keep me interested for the entire album which only clocks in at 36 minutes. I guess in the end it just sounded like noise to me. However, if you are a 19 year old neon wearing hipster from the burbs or enrolled in new media arts college, this might be perfect for you.

2/5

Anyways, here is a single of theres that was on Kitsune compilation

 

 Hadouken! - Tuning In (H! Re-Rub remix): Play Now

Toronto - So yeah, we did another podcast. Sorry for the crappy quality with the skype call to Vik, I will try to perfect it next time. Here are the songs featured on the podcast. We only had one mic this time too.

1. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules Theme
2. Ladytron - I’m Not Scared
3. She and Him - This is Not a Test
4. Two Hours Traffic - Jezebel

Enjoy.

We’ll be more organized next time.

 

 Panic Manual Podcast: Play Now

makes u wanna play ball

Toronto - Lunchtime conversations are always a great source for blog related crap, so since the topic de jour this week was Iron Man, we came up with a bunch of video games that would make good video games - Splinter Cell, Castlevania, Metroid ..Mario Kart (my suggestion). But that stuff is boring. However, not many songs are made to movies so without hesitation here is the first one - obviously, one of my favorite songs of all time.

Common People
This 1995 hit by Pulp can practically write itself (look at the lyrics). However, lets hollywoodize it.

Plot: A coming of age rom-com/police drama. Veronica (Blake Lively) is a posh party girl living on her daddy’s (Robert De Niro) allowance. She drives some expensive car, eats expensive food and treats non wealthy people with disdain. This all changes. After another embarrassing incident involving cocaine, strippers (who get naked) and a unicorn at some prestigious social gathering, her parents decide to cut off her bank account and force her to graduate college in order to regain her bank funds.

Off to St. Martins college Veronica goes, to grab a degree in something easy - Arts. Readjusting to common people life is tough, but she is aided by her quirky minority friend, who is always helpful and comes from some poor family (fat chick from ugly betty). She finds that she likes some quiet art student named Sven (Topher Grace) who has immense artsy talent. Despite all her best flirtatious efforts, she is unable to get his attention. He confesses they can never be together because she is rich and can never relate to the common people. However, Unbeknown to Veronica, Sven in actuality is an undercover cop assigned to Veronica in order to reach her father, who is a crime overlord in charge of smuggling Eastern European strippers illegally into the country.

A determined Veronica goes thru a montage where she somehow goes thru some major character development, probably to some Pulp song - maybe “Something Changed”. I am unsure. Meanwhile Sven is conflicted by his increasing feelings for Veronica and his loyalty to his job, as he is being pressured by the Chief (Samuel L Jackson) to get the arrest. Anyways, fast forward to the graduation ball or some sort of dance, and Sven finally confesses his love for Veronica while dancing to the song “Common People” and all things are happy.

Then they leave the party and Veronica gets mistakenly shot down by Veronica’s dad’s henchmen - who were really after Sven. An angered Sven methodically (and with a lot of weapons), mows down all the gangsters (chow yun fat style) while making it to Veronica’s dads house. When he finally disposes of all the henchman, he encounters a saddened father, ready to die after realizing he just accidentally killed only daughter. Seeing that the damage has been done and understanding that both have lost someone important to them, Sven and Veronica’s father make peace and Sven is offered the job of being the #2 guy in the mafia which he happily takes since he’s probably going to get fired as a cop for killing 25 gangsters anyway.

The movie ends with Sven calling Samuel L Jackson on the phone and saying the exact same thing that Keanu Reeves said to the Matrix at the end of the first movie. Then he drives away in a black lamborghini to the same song that Keanu Reeves flew away to.

Boom. 100 million dollars right there.

Got something similar? leave a comment.

 

 Pulp - Common People: Play Now

Toronto - May. Its a special time of month. For university students, its the first month of vacation and crappy summer job. Its also the start of cottage season and for Australians, its the start of Winter or something. However, one thing trumps all. The beginning of May is also the beginning of blockbuster season, and all the big budget movies come out. The blockbuster season officially started with the Jon Favreau helmed Iron Man (or as chem nerds like to call him - Fe Male .. haha lame.).

This movie is awesome. After the massive disappointments of last year - X Men 3 and Spiderman 3, super hero movies get back on track with this film. It has everything you want in a blockbuster movie, action, one liners, more action, explosions, explosions. The difference between Iron Man and the failures of last year is that this film was well paced and actually developed the characters before unleashing the shizzle onscreen.

The acting is great, Robert Downey Jr is awesome as Tony Starks and Gwyneth Paltrow (welcome back), T-How and Jeff Bridges provide solid support. Gwyneth Paltrow was particularly good as the long suffering Pepper Potts. I think Batman and Ironman proves that if you have quality actors in an action movie, it works quite well (lookin at you George Lucas).

4.5/5

 

 The Cardigans - Iron Man: Play Now

props to Mark for knowing about this tune.