Toronto - Steve Francis decided to rejoin the Houston Rockets today. Mike James, Rafer Alston AND Steve Francis? The Rockets will set the record for most times a ball is dribbled in a game by the halftime of the first game. The only bright thing is that the Rockets now have a bench. I am assuming the starting lineup is: Francis, T-Mac, Battier, Scola and Yao. With guys like Head, James, Alston, Dikembe, Hayes and Wells coming off the bench. That is a pretty good team.

belle and sebastian. one of my favourite bands for the past few years. by making that statement one would think that i know and love each and every song this band, which is true for the most part. but when i look back at the plethroa of songs they have released since ‘dogs on wheels’ there every once in a while will come a track that i had always skipped over and finally make an effort to listen to that will knock my holey socks off. one thing you have to understand with me and my music, if it doesn’t catch my eardrums and set them thumping the way they like, my finger clicks the next track button faster than paris hilton is able to make an ass of herself. my most notable belle and sebastian hidden gems are as follows:

• Slow Graffiti - I first heard this swaying, dreamy track on ‘The Acid House” movie soundtrack.

• A Century of Elvis - A spoken word track off “Lazy Line Painter Jane” EP with an soothing jangly strum in the background. I’ve never been partial to tracks without singing, but theres just something about that Scottish accent…If you like this, you will also enjoy another Scottish ‘poetry with music’ group called Looper.

• Put The Book Back On The Shelf - This is my most recent discovery.

to be continued i’m sure….

Toronto - Hi….my name is Josh….I am Ricky’s older brother…..I am reporting from Iceland..This is the video of the week…which hopefully will become video of the day if management gets their act together. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can use my influential musical taste to kidnap the Panic Manual and give the people what they want. Check this one out:

Bat For Lashes drops a strong fourth single off her full length release Fur and Gold called Whats a Girl To Do on Echo Records. Great track…eerie video….great dark downtempo video that reminds me of Black Box Recorder.

Other singles released:
2006 The Wizard
2006 Trophy
2007 Prescilla

Vancouver, I’ve been living here for almost 1 year now, having moved from Toronto after living there for 7 years. Despite my love for all things TO I had made the move out west for personal reasons, and by personal reasons I mean getting laid. Looking back on my days in Toronto I’ve realized that I took many things for granted, like my ability to easily access the indie music scene, my inabilty to get laid and the awesome Mexican food (Dos Amigos I hardley knew ye)…but really for me, it’s about the music. I feel I’ve been here long enough to compare my thoughts on the TO’s music scene vs. Vancity’s.

1) Ticket prices, just to give you an idea here are some cost comparisons for upcoming shows in Vancouver vs. Toronto. This is probably the biggest reason why I don’t go to as many shows here:

Spoon
Vancouver (9/7): $25
Toronto (10/15): $21.50

Maximo Park
Vancouver (7/23): $21.75
Toronto (7/14): $15

St. Vincent
Vancouver (7/30): $12
Toronto (7/20): $10

2) Yes, there is music here but the majority are really obscure bands no one has ever heard of and the people here like to flaunt the fact that they have seen local band ‘Jimmy With Balloons in His Ears’ three times (no thats not an actual name of a band but a guarantee within a year it will be…except with a ‘The’ at the beginning). Toronto of course does have it’s fair share of local bands, but it also does a great job of promoting great bands from all over the world.

3) Indie music nites - Few and far between. I’ve juggled the thought of starting a nite myself but I have doubts that anyone would actually come. The most popular is ‘indie’ nite I could find is called ‘Radio 1′ that happens every thursday at the Cellar club on Granville. This is how they describe themselves:

“Vancouver’s only “live” British Rock. That’s right, “live!” The latest and greatest of Radiohead, The Beatles, Coldplay and so on. We’ve separated the buyers from the liars, the needy from the greedy and those whom have talent from those who don’t. The Cellar nightclub brings to you an absolutely rockin night full of Stella from the bottle and seductive school girls serving them too you. It’s the dogs bullocks, check ya!”

hahaha.

4) stillepost.ca - Just visit the Vancouver section and tell me if you are even remotely interested in posting anything here. I’ve tried starting general music discussions there but the threads usually die a horrible boring death. This probably explains why Brantford, Ontario has significantly more posts than us.

I think the reasons above are enough for people to detract people coming to Vancouver for indie music. I know some people reading think that I’m just a music snob…well yes I am to a certain extent. But I feel in order for Vancouver to lay claim to having Canada’ s second best music scene, they should make the effort, not me.