Toronto - Wow. What a show. It is once in a blue moon when a classic band that you really wanted to see strolls through town. I suspect I speak for the sold out crowd at the Phoenix Theatre when I say its been too long since the Manchester band James last played Toronto. In fact, I don’t even know when they last came to town. Now I list James among the bands that are on my must see list (along with Pulp, Suede, Blur, Manics…) so this review might be a bit bias because I have such a strong affinity for them. For a quick intro to the band, James is a Brit band that formed in 1981 (when I was 1). Since then, they have released 11 albums while never really attaining super stardom. Their music is mainly along the pop-rock variety, often with a nice buildup to a soaring, majestic sing-along chorus. You might know them for the American Pie theme song “Laid” or pub classic “Sit Down”. You might not. Das Not Matter.

So lets talk about the show. First of all, this might be the oldest audience I have ever been around. How old, you say? Well .. there was no security at the door. I just strolled in. No ID checks, no pat downs, just a friendly hello. WTF? Seriously, most times at the Phoenix, I get patted down so hard I feel like smoking a cigarette and feel guilty for not knowing the security persons name. This time, nothing. I would say the average age of this crowd was 35 - 40. Yup. We even joked that if James came on at 11, half the people would have to go home, because their babysitter probably was done for the night at that time. Seriously, it was a nice, kind crowd. No one fighting for space, nothing. Tickets outside were selling for 100$ a pop, so this was definitely a hot ticket.

Unkle Bob opened. Who? I don’t know. Whatever. At around 9:45 or so, James came out to a great ovation, Tim Booth still looks like a serial killer, but who cares. Tonight, he would kill us with his voice and his tunes. Starting off the night with an indian yell and “Born Of Frustration”, the concert officially took off. The crowd was crazy the entire night, definitely one of the most appreciative crowds I have seen. No arm folding and head nodding here. The band sounded tight. I didn’t even know there was seven of them. Either way, they were crisp and Tim Booth’s voice still sounds great. He dances like a mad man and has a lot more stage presence then I expected. This was clearly a band that knows it shit. After a few new tunes off Hey Ma, the band launched into “Fred Astaire”, the lone entry from the underrated Millionaires album. I don’t think they played anything from “Please to Meet You” though.

The rest of the night was just a buffet of James hits (mixed with new tunes). Songs played included “She’s A Star”, “Waltzing Along”, “Say Something” and “Destiny Calling”. Honestly, I lost track. There were so many. The end of the set went like this: James launches into Sometimes. The crowd sings along. The band stops playing music, the crowd keeps on singing along. Louder and louder. three or four minutes later - the opening riff for Laid plays and the crowd goes nuts. Two encores and a “Come Home” later, the crowd goes home happy. Even better, James tells everyone they will be back next year. Pancakes.

4.95/5 - incredible show, lots of energy, great musicianship, great songs, okay venue.

Set list courtesy of the boys at wearejames.com

Born of Frustration
Oh My Hear
Waterfall
Just Like Fred Astaire (with Michael Kulas)
Destiny Calling (with Michael Kulas)
Five-0 (with Michael Kulas)
Bubbles
I Wanna Go Home
Out To Get You
Upside
Hey Ma
Say Something
Ring the Bells
Sometimes
Laid
–
Don’t Wait That Long
She’s a Star
Come Home
–
Top Of The World

They didn’t play Tommorrow. My favorite tune, so I knock off 0.05.

 

 James - Destiny Calling: Play Now

Toronto - Blame the Avalanches. Blame Norman Cook. Blame The Go! Team. Blame whoever, but we have seen an onslaught of dj/songwriters in the past few years that suddenly decide that they need to release albums. Usually it is a light weight electro party affair that features obscure samples, retro synths and an addictive beat. Meet Sonny J. The Liverpool man has released an album that is the child of the Avalanches mating with Saturday morning cartoons. The album is called Disastro and it is off $tatside Records. I discovered this dude after catching the video off of Josh’s site - Indie Kid vs Dance Kid.

What can you say about Disastro? It sticks to a pretty successful formula and I have no doubt that one or more of these songs will be featured at a mobile/ipod commercial near you soon enough. With Disastro, it appears like Sonny J took from all the music genres, put it in his magic bullet, shook it up and poured it out. It is surprising that the result isn’t a mess. The album actually consists of a mish mash of quality tunes. “Handsfree” sounds like a seventies blaxploitation theme song, “Cabaret Short Circuit” melds a spanish tinged sound with a beat and lyrics from what could be a 60s telemundo show. Latest single “Can’t Stop Moving” is a Go! Team song (never a bad thing).

All in all, another solid entry into this party-sample happy-light weight pop genre.

3/5

 

 Sonny J - Handsfree (If you hold my hands): Play Now

Toronto - The French Kicks are a New York based indie melodramatic pop act. The bands they list their influences as Pixies, The Kinks, The Cure and Joy Division. The band came to the Horseshoe Tavern Wednesday night to promote their 4th album - Swimming. I didn’t really know too much about the band heading into the show. I like a couple of their tunes, including ‘Trial of the Century’, ‘One More Time’ and ‘Said So What’. That was enough for me to go, it was only 13 bucks too (two beers). I last saw the French Kicks in December 2004, when they, The Unicorns and Hot Hot Heat played to a sold out show at the Opera House. I distinctly remember singer Matthew Stinchcomb jumping on top of a bar and rocking out during the Hot Hot Heat set, then going on stage and diving into the crowd as well. That was a good show.

So how was this show? It was alright. The French Kicks really do wear their Cure influences well. The dreamy pop sound, the little keyboard bits and the vocals all have that 80s type of pop rock sound to them. The only problem I found was this - while they have some good tunes, the French Kicks never really have the songs to kick a show into that extra gear. The crowd is energetic, and there were definitely some big French Kick fans their, but I found that the songs just seemed to reach a certain energy level - enough to keep your head nodding, but not enough to get you going crazy. I guess that’s their music type, but you can see the half full crowd was primed for some lapses of insanity. Older tunes like the aforementioned ‘Trial of the Century’ got a greater response then their new stuff (which dominated the set), but a friend of mine was disappointed with the fact that they didn’t play ‘1985′.

Overall, it was a decent show for Wednesday night.

2.5/5

 

 French Kicks - The Trial of The Century: Play Now

Toronto - Metronomy is an electro dude from Brighton, England. He has been remixing a lot of stuff in recent years (including Kate Nash’s Foundation song) and recently released his second album off the Because Music Label called “Nights Out”. It is essentially an electro/funk party album and features a some songs that are destined for car commercials featuring cool 20 somethings having a good time while driving to a night club.

I have decided on a creative take on reviewing this album, which is basically my conversation on googletalk with Vik while listening to it.

1:13 pm me: hat metronomy single is good
1:14 pm Vik: i not listen. but shall
1:26 pm me: ok,im about to listen to the album
1:27 pm Vik: wots da name of da singleu were talkin bout?
1:30 pm me: 01 A Thing For Me (Breakbot’s B-LIVE Miami Mix)
1:44 pm me: this metronmy album is okay, nothing special, typical dancy shit
1:45 pm Vik: i can’t beleive i’m wasting precious company bandwidth download that album off itunes
1:49 pm me: haha, heartbreaker is a good tune though
1:50 pm me: yea good tuen
2:06 pm me: this metronomy album is aite
2:07 pm Vik: hahaha, you talked about this band link 10 times since this morning
2:08 pm me: im using this convo as the review for the album
2:22 pm Vik: yeah not feeling it, too many bleeps and bloops

3.5/5 (first listen)

 

 Metronomy - A Thing For Me (Breakbots_B_LIVE_Miami_Mix).mp3: Play Now

Toronto - People on the internet have really short attention span. You could be the greatest thing since sliced bread one day, then the next day, you don’t even exist. This applies to the whole internet music-blogging community as well. One day, you are the most hyped band on the web, everyone will proclaim you are the second coming of Joy Division - and then the next day, you are the Kaiser Chiefs. So I guess it comes to no surprise that Los Campesinos! is releasing their second album in a year, in their mind, they gotta get the money while they can. That cash be going to someone else soon enough. They say it’s not a cash grab, whatever, people gotta eat.

For those not in the know, Los Campesinos! is 7 Piece Welsh band on the Canadian label Arts & Crafts. Yup. Seven. They excel in making a lot of poppy noise, with gang lyrics and a cheery disposition. For more details on what their sound is, read Wade’s song-by-song analysis of their first album - Hold On Now, Youngster. Normally, I think Wade would probably write another song-by-song analysis of this second album, but by the time he finishes that, I think Los Campesinos would probably have released a third album, and that’s just not fair. So here is my uber short review on it.

So how is this second album? It’s pretty good. It doesn’t really stray much in sound from the first album (shocker) but I would dare say this album sounds a bit tighter and the songwriting has improved. It’s less raw, and the hooks are better constructed. I think the song “You’ll Need Those Fingers For Crossing” might be the best Los Campesinos song so far. It’s not as cheery as the other ones (say..you me, dancing), but it’s got a great hook in it.

So in conclusion, after three listens of the album, I can say - if you like the first album, you will definitely like this one. If you did not like the first album, you probably won’t like this one either. If you have never listened to the first album - then give it a shot if you like poppy music explosions that’ll put you in a decent mood.

 

 Los Campesinos! - You'll Need These Fingers For Crossing: Play Now

Toronto - Everything is Borrowed is the fourth album from Mike Skinner aka The Streets. If you are unfamiliar with them, The Streets are a rap unit out of Birmingham, England. Their lyric contents have far more range then the usual “lets party/dance/fuck/look how rich we are” topics that the American Hip Hop scene is plagued with. A Streets song is something unto itself - Skinners lyrics and delivery are completely unique and there is never mistaking a Streets song from something else (maybe its the English accent). The slow driven ballady-rap songs have depth to them that few rappers can achieve. They are one of my favorite hip hop outfits.

Whereas the third Streets album - Hardest Way to Make an Easy living focuses on the up and downs of Mike Skinners celebrity, this album sees the rapper coming to terms with celebrity, life and who he is in general (”I came to this world with nothing, and I leave with nothing but love”). This is a man who has definitely matured and the music represents this. What the album lacks in frenetic energy (like say, Original Pirate Material), it makes up for with a tighter, more concise backing music. This album definitely sounds more focused. Theres a bit of everything in this album - guitars, horns, drums, backing choirs..I am sure I’ll pick up more sounds as I listen to this more.

Basically, this album is very good upon the initial listen.

Vik’s quick-take:

The Streets music used to make me smirk and nod my head feverishly. Now it makes me want to pour out some liquor. Everything is Borrowed is a great album but I long for tracks like ‘The Irony Of It All’ and ‘Fit But You Know It’. Skinners quirky take on society as opposed to his personal issues made for far more interesting listening.

4/5

 

 The Streets - The Escapist: Play Now