Vancouver, I recently visited Aberdeen Center - an Asian shopping mall in Richmond. My first time there I did enjoy the experience but the most pleasant surprise was a little shop called Beard Papa’s. The only thing they sell are cream puffs (heehee) filled with cream custard in flavors like strawberry, green tea and coffee. Unfortunately the only Canadian location is in Richmond but I do suggest you check it out if you’re in the Vancouver area…and like cream puffs (haha).

Although this Japanese fast food company has nothing to do with with our competition, I am running out of beard-isms and this is the best thing I could come up with. Here’s this weeks pics:

Week 1 - Smooth as a baby’s arse

Week 2 - Super Furry Manimals

Week 3 - Get down with the beardness

Week 4 - Beard Papa’s

Toronto - I nominate this Vampire Weekend song as “most likely to be in Wes Anderson* movie”. I don’t know why, it just seems fitting for it. Could be a song for one of those slow mo montages he usually has in the movie.

Who are Vampire Weekend you say? They are a New York band that has gotten massive blog hype (haha, how ironic) and are now riding the wave. According to a trusted source - the internet - they are influenced by African music and Western Classical music. I don’t really know either of those, so I couldn’t really say they were influenced by it, but I guess they are.

Their self titled album drops on Jan 29, from XL Recordings. They play the Horsehoe on Febuary 11th, which is a Monday. Normally, I’d be hesitant to go, since Mondays are usually reserved for 24, Heroes and Prison Break. Since the first two are on hiatus, and the third one sucks, I can honestly say that I will probably be there.

* Wes Anderson is the director of “Royal Tenenbaums” and “Rushmore”, two of my favorite all time movies.

 

 Vampire Weekend - M79 [4:16m]: Play Now

Toronto - Let’s face it. Winter sucks. It’s cold. It’s windy. It’s damp. and It’s cold. What normal person doesn’t think about a nice caribbean/mediterranean get away in the summer. To be on the beach, toes in the sand, sunshine on my face and a mojito within an arms reach. That’d be the life. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t rich enough to afford this lifestyle, so we all just hibernate and some people get depressed. According to a trusted source- the internet…2-4% of Canadians get affected by seasonal affective disorder. Anyways, what I am trying to say..in times of despair, theres nothing like a good dancy album to get you off your feet.

Enter Hot Chip. Surely you must have heard of them by now, they are the folks behind the ridiculously awesome track “Over and Over“, one of the top tracks of 2006. Well this band is back in 2008 with the album “Made in the Dark”. The album will be released February 2008. I was able to get a sneak preview of this album via a trusted source - the internet.. and let me say, this album is quite good.

If you haven’t heard any Hot Chip before, I guess it can be described as electronic pop. However, I guess some people some people think of electronic and think its just a bunch of beeps and boops and they’re all like ‘I didnt like Chris Sheppard’s pirate radio…so i don’t like electronic’. Really, the electro parts of a Hot Chip album isn’t really that overwhelming and to me, this is just dancey pop music. I think this third album sees the two vocalist of the band sing a lot more then they did in the other ones, which is not a bad thing. Hot Chip has a great ability to lay out melodies over a nice beat, and a lot of it does repeat itself thru out a song, but they tweak it every time so that the repeats of the chorus sound slightly different then the last. To put it into perspective, lets say Toronto Raptor Jamario Moon goes up for a windmill dunk with the first dunk..and you are like..oh wow. Then the second time he goes up, he goes for a windmill dunk, only he throws in a 180 along with it. It’s still a windmill dunk, but its slightly different and you are still like..oh wow. Same deal.

Tracks I really enjoyed so far off this album include Shake a Fist, Read for the Floor, Hold On and Wrestlers (just cos they name a bunch of wrestling references in the song). The entire album is good and its some nice upbeat stuff to get you thru the down days of January.

4/5

Hot Chip play the Phoenix, April 16. It’s like 20 bucks. It will sell out soon.

 

 Hot Chip - Ready For the Floor [3:53m]: Play Now

 

 Hot Chip - Ready For the Floor (Soulwax Remix) [8:13m]: Play Now

Toronto - Being a competitive person, I took a the test for the show test the nation, the link is at the bottom. I got 46/60, which is okay. Weakest areas? Politics ..and TECHNOBABBLE. wtf?

Click here to take the test

Toronto - I’m always proud when someone who has a first name that resembles mine does something good. In this case here, it is Rick Nash doing the dipsy doodle on two Phoenix Coyotes.

Funny, the Coyotes in the past 3 years have had two massive goals scored against them. The other one being the crazy ass Ovechkin goal from two years ago:

One of my favorite genre’s next to Twee. When I think about it, Indie Pop artists do borrow alot from Northern Soul with bands like Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura creating the same upbeat, floor stompers with sometimes (who am I kidding, pretty much all the time) sappy lyrics. For those of you may not know what Northern Soul is, get hip to the info you square - The term is attributed to some music journalist, who in 1970, coined the phrase to describe a specific type of soul music that was popular in the clubs of northern England during that period. Although some of the more popular groups at the time were The Supremes, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye, lesser known and often commerical flops in the USA such as Tami Lynn, The Fascinations and The Velvelettes became popular amongst the British Soul fraternity.

With the plethora of songs that were released during it’s heyday it’s hard to pick just 4 good tracks, but I’ll give it a shot:

 

 The Blossoms - That's When the Tears Start: Play Now

 

 The Detroit Executives - Cool Off: Play Now

 

 The Jewels - Opportunity: Play Now

 

 The T.S.U. Tornadoes - Getting The Corners: Play Now