Toronto - When one thinks of a 2 member bands featuring a girl and a guy, only one band comes to mind ..The White Stripes (unless you love Matt & Kim). However, The Ting Tings want to change that perception. A two piece band from England, Jules De Martino and Katie White want you to revel in their cool, poppy summer tunes and show them some love. The album We Started Nothing came out May 19 and apparently, its #1 in the UK Charts.. why am I writing about them? Hmm they are playing the Mod Club June 16..maybe I should buy tickets, it might be a hot show…make me some money.. hmm.

Anyways, their album is pretty good, I mean, it doesn’t break any new ground, and pretty much follows pretty standard formula (driving beats, catchy chorus, female voice..sounds like a cool tune), but the Ting Tings do it well. According to Vik, these guys are in an Apple commercial too. Now that there is no more OC, I guess being featured on Apple is a great thing..ask Caesar. Actually, these guys sound a lot like the Chalets, now that I think about it. I’m such a namedropping bitch.

Whats with the band name though? The Ting Tings? Makes me think of some Chinese immigrant saying the Things Things or something. That is my visual image when I think of this band.

Here’s a song I enjoy. I have also accompanied this song with a visual, you tube video. I actually hate this video, I think they are trying too hard to look cool. The real cool people, don’t need to try.

 

 The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name: Play Now

Toronto - While it’s not really raining, the demise of my Pittsburgh Penguins have me in a rather depressed mood. So here are some tunes for those dark days of doom and gloom, when all else has seemed to fail. and Chris Osgood/Johan Franzen dives like a little girl, taking swimming lessons for the first time.

By the way, the Detroit Red Wings are staying at

Renaissance Hotel
107 6th Street
Pittsburgh, PA, 15222

Picture courtesy of The Pens Blog, pretty much the best hockey site.

Cat Power - Live in Bars
Suede - Where the Pigs Don’t Fly
Morcheeba - Way Beyond
Beck - Lost Cause
Starflyer59 - Fell in Love at 22
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr
Jenny Lewis - Rise Up With Fists
Pulp - Like A Friend
Spain - Nobody Has to Know
Joan as Police Woman - The Ride
The Smiths - I know Its Over
Black Box Recorder - Goodnight Kiss

http://panicmanual.muxtape.com/

Of course, this is all moot when the Penguins kick the Red Wings ass tonight at the Igloo.
GO PENS GO!

Vancouver, A warm spring night, not ideal conditions for Goth’s children to creep out of the shadows in order to attend the return of The Cure after a 10 year, 7 month delay. This was my first time seeing The Cure and not being an uber fan I had mixed feelings as to how it would be. Based what what I read and was told, The Cure performs epic set in excess of 3 hours with multiple encores, but people I know who have seem them live would always say the show was ‘Amazing’. I pressed on though, The Cure is just one of those bands I had to see, more so because they’ve been such a huge influence on many of my favorite bands.

We arrived at GM place early to pick up my tickets at the will call window. Staying true to my lazy nature, I waited until the last minute to pick up the tickets even though I purchased them 1 year ago. We decided to skip the opening band 65 days of static as they seem a bit too industrial for our taste. Arrived back at GM place at 8:30 only having to wait 10 minutes for the lads to make their appearance - quite surprising seeing as I’m usually terrible predicting the start times of bands. After a rousing reception from the crowd as if they were collectively thinking ‘Took you long enough!’ personifying it in the form of applause. They kicked of the set with a 5 song intro with - Falling Down, Fascination Street, The Walk, Love Song, and Sleep When I’m Dead. They sounded good, but personally I felt the show kicked off as soon we heard the haunting thump and twinkle of “Picture of You”. This made more than half the crowd to jump to their feet, couple that with swaying and clapping, it made the atmosphere absolutely eclectic. The set continued on with a mix of some new tracks and a few old. I didn’t recognize most of them (but you might, here’s the setlist). I was just enjoying the great atmosphere and it seemed like Smith and Co. were as well:

Simon Gallop on bass keeled over this guitar in the classic shoegaze pose (my cohort Ryan mentioned he looked exactly like the bass player in Guitar Hero). Porl Thomson on lead guitar was dressed up in what looked like a vinyl jumpsuit with glittery red platform boots. Jason Cooper was pounding perfect beats that many in the crowd were air drumming along to. Robert sounded fantastic, seemingly enjoying himself by hopping, shimmying and swaying around the entire stage.

The set hit it’s climax three quarters of the way through when Smith and crew pulled out - Friday I’m In Love, Inbetween Days, and Just Like Heaven with no breaks in between, needless to say we ate it up, licked our lips and rubbed our tummies. They capped off their first set at around 10:30 after playing at least 20 songs. Staying true to form they came back on stage after very little coaxing from the crowd. I unfortunately only stayed for the first encore which included - Love Cats, Let’s Go To Bed and Close To Me. After a little research I found out the last 2 encores included - Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing An Arab.

To sum the entire Cure experience, it only takes one word: ‘Amazing’.

5/5

Thanks John

Clip of ‘Pictures Of You” taken at the ACC in Toronto

Head on over to Wilcoworld and listen to three nights of Wilco performances in St. Louis (May 15, 16 and 17th). Makes for some good listening. (via Chromewaves)

Just Friends is a record label based out of Halifax. It was started up by two guys, Mat and Dave. These two guys also host a radio show/podcast called Lets Get Baked With Mat and Dave. The hour long show consists of Mat and Dave, in the kitchen, cooking up a meal with a different musical guest each week. As far as musical guests go, Mat and Dave have the Canadian scene covered. A quick glace at past shows includes Immaculate Machine, Jenn Grant, Jill Barber, Buck 65, and Ninja High School. Chances are if you are a Canadian band and have played a gig in Halifax, then you have been on Lets Get Baked.

As far as Just Friends artists go, I am going to so some pushing for Laura Peek And The Winning Hearts. Laura was in Toronto a couple of weeks ago for the Over The Top Festival. When I noticed that she was going to be in town, I rushed down to her show at the last minute to see what I could catch, and to also pick up a CD. When I got to the church, the girl working the door told me that I had missed her set and that she didn’t bring any CDs with her. I have since received Lauras’ latest release, From The Photographs (2007) compliments of Laura herself. It is fantastic.

What to write about Laura Peek? Ummm “…piano pop from a charming musical hostess…” is a good place to start. I would describe it as hotel lounge pop. Simple, catchy and memorable. Lots of piano and lots of Laura. On The Verdict, she throws in a hint of an electric guitar to give the song a little bit of edge. Stand Right There is a head bopper with a solid bass line.

If you want to hang out,
You can give me a shout
But its not a possibility

Yah, i’ve known girls like this before. She probably only dates musicians too. Her album art/press photos are fantastic too. If you have a look through her press photos on her site, you will see some pretty fantastic dresses, much like the ones in the Stand Right There video below. Sharp.

Quote from Laura: As far as band news goes, my old bass player relocated to Montreal so I have a new one: Mike O’Neill! This is super exciting for me because I love Mike and his music.

Also check Just Friends cast member, Brent Randall & His Pinecones. Have a look for his latest release We Were Strangers in Paddington Green out some time soon.