Toronto - Very late on this one, but better late then ever. I have listened to The Whip’s X Marks Destination album quite a bit this week and I am proud to hereby announce that it’s pretty decent album. I had previously songs of this Manchester band on compilations such as Kitsune Maison and remixes of their songs such as the Crystal Castle’s remix of the single Divebomb. Both were pleasant. As you might have assumed by now, they are an electro/dance kind of act similar in styles to that of LCD Soundsystem, The Infadels and Simian Mobile Disco.

All in all those are good comparisions, but what does that exactly mean? I don’t know. There’s base, theres beats, it doesn’t overwhelm you, there is a guy singing and I guess it’s a bit like 80s New Order, but not as good. If I were to provide visual imagery for this album, I visualize driving on a road in the middle of the night and watching the painted stripes fly by. However, that is the imagery I get for most electro songs. What am I saying? I don’t know. The songs you want to listen to on this album are “Trash”, “Save My Soul”, “Divebomb” and “Sister Siam”.

3/5

 

 The Whip - Save My Soul: Play Now

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Toronto - If you can decipher the puzzle above, you will be lucky to know that this Ontario band will be playing at Yonge/Dundas for free on at 18:00 September 11 aka Patriot Day.

Good luck!

Here is a mystery free EP from this mystery band, live from the Church of the Redeemer.

The answer is after the cut.
» Read the rest of the entry..

 

 Mystery Band - Mystery Song: Play Now

(Toronto) I’d heard of this Woodpigeon band for the past few months but didn’t pay much attention to them because I kept getting them confused with another *xylem rich band, Woodhands. Now that I know the difference, these two totally different bands will never to be confused again.

Woodhands = electric, keytar duo from Toronto
Woodpigeon = wood, wires and whisky orchestra from Calgary

Yep, if you are a fan of Iron and Wine or that Sufjun guy, you will definitely be into Woodpigeon. Although I haven’t even laid eyes on a cottage this summer, this is the CD I would put on Sunday morning as I sipped my coffee on the dock and dagnled my feet in the cold water. The entire CD actually remindes me a lot of the Reindeer Section. Listed as a friend on the Woodpiegeon website is Sandro Perri. Yep, the Panic Manual loves Sandro Perri. I asked Woodpigeon front man, Mark Hamilton, about his connection with Sandro.

Sandro Perri’s one of the main reasons I’m a musical performer. The first ever Woodpigeon show came about when I helped Sandro put on a solo show in Calgary. I’d seen Sandro do the singing / strumming thing he’s so amazing at in Europe, while I was living in the UK, and asked if he’d do it here too during his day off on tour. He agreed, but said the only way he’d sing solo was if I did too.

The night of the show I was so nervous I could barely function. It was in a tiny theatre in the basement of a church called Birds & Stone. When it was time for me to get up there, I had Sandro empty out the theatre, close the door, turn off the lights, and close his eyes while I tried to sing a song. Sandro never treated this like an inane request, but rather something that I needed to build up the courage to actually go through with it. Since then, we’ve shared the stage once more in Calgary, and I’m forever hoping to share more stages with Sandro around the world.

A stand out track on Treasury Library Canada is Now You Like Me How? Although this is probably the least Reindeer Section sounding song, it is the one I remember most. Wait for the 1:11 mark when the drums kick in.

Upcoming Canadian dates:
October 8th, MACEWAN BALLROOM w/ Iron & Wine - Calgary
October 9th, 2MEYER HOROWITZ THEATRE w/ Iron & Wine - Edmonton

* xylem - In vascular plants, xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue, phloem being the other. The word “xylem” is derived from classical Greek (xylon), wood, and indeed the best known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout the plant. Its basic function is to transport water (Wikipedia)

 

 Woodpigeon - Now You Like Me How? (2008): Play Now

Toronto - This is a bit too silly not to share. Go to the site, too. For some reason my html is always filtered so I cant embed… that or I’m just dense.

Just some fun stuff for today

Click here to find out what furniture you are

Random notes:

- IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder’s name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home county (Agunnaryd, in Småland, South Sweden).

- The chain has 278 stores in 36 countries

- IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was, as a teen, directly involved in the pro-Nazi New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) until at least 1945, causing tensions when IKEA began opening stores in Israel.

- People in Canada became upset with IKEA when a TV station discovered that IKEA charged as much as twice the price in their Canadian stores for the same items sold in their American stores, this despite the Canadian dollar reaching parity with the U.S. dollar.

Here is a song entirely in Swedish, for your swedish pleasure. Here is an article on the band, Kent. They actually have a few English albums out, but that post is for another day.

 

 Kent - Dom Andra: Play Now

Haha