(Toronto) Two days, two videos that have blown my mind. I am still trying to get over the Brighton Port Authority video that Ricky posted a couple of days ago. The second video that has caught my attention comes via Cajun Dance Party. I first saw it over at Indie Kid vs. Dance Kid and I can’t stop watching it. I guess they had some heart shaped flare filter on their camera for this, their Colourful Life video. Watch out for the part where they go through the tunnel.

I did some research and found how you can do a similar effect using some construction papaer and a string of Christmas lights. Learn how to make your own heart shaped bokeh over at DIYphotography.

The short list for the Polaris Music Prize was announced a couple of weeks ago. The list is as follows.

Black Mountain - In the Future
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Caribou - Andorra
Holy Fuck - LP
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
Shad - The Old Prince
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour

Three things are wrong with this list; The Weakerthans, Stars and Two Hours Traffic. Everybody has their criticisms with the above list. When talking about inclusion/exclusion of a specific artist people seem to forget who and what this prize stands for.

POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE MISSION STATEMENT

The operation of a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.

Let me tell you, i’m not the worlds largest Holy Fuck fan. Do I think they should be on the short list, absolutely, because they fulfill what the Polaris Music Prize stands for. These albums are supposed to be judged solely on artistic merit.

» Read the rest of the entry..

 

 Sandro Perri - City of Museums: Play Now

Concert attended and reviewed by Panic Manual correspondent Karen Parker

(Toronto) I discovered Bon Ivers’ (Justin Vernon) album For Emma: Forever Ago after hearing one of his songs featured on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy……don’t’ judge me. I instantly loved the “sound of a man left alone with his guitar and his memories” (Pitchfork). And when I discovered that he had isolated himself in the woods for four months to write it….I lost my mind. It was like all my fantasies had been rolled into one big one and served in woolly touque. Thoughts of a beefy bearded man in a wool coat ala Gerard Butler, capably chopping wood and foraging for his food by day while nursing a broken heart and healing through the creation of haunting music in front of a roaring fire in the woods by night was almost too much to bear….almost.

At the show my friend Ashley was heard to say:

Mmmm I’ll be your skinny love…..I’ll lose like 25 lbs for you if you let me sit on your face.

He was supposed to go on at 10:15 and as everyone knows bands never go on at their scheduled time. It’s 10:30 and I’m racing from work thinking….I’m gonna make it with time to spare and sure enough…..he went on at 10:13!!!! C’mon Bon! Rock stars make you wait! By the time I got there, got past security and made it inside I had missed most of the show….including Skinny Love! Who plays their best song early in the set anyway? I caught two songs and then two in the encore.

What I did hear was fantastic. The place was packed and more humid than a Brazilian rain forest and speaking of brazilians, clearly I wasn’t the only woman there hoping to witness her fantasy on the stage. He could have done with a bigger venue but I think even he was overwhelmed and surprised by the turnout. And while attractive in his own way, sadly, up close, he doesn’t look like Gerard Butler in a plaid shirt…..but this.

I think I can see his balls.

(Pitchfork photo credit)

 

 Bon Iver - Skinny Love: Play Now

(Toronto) For a while now, the Oscar nominated short I Met The Walrus has been appearing on YouTube. It’s the animated audio recording of a 1969 interview done in Toronto by then teenager, Jerry Levitan, with John Lennon. This kid skips school, tracks down Lennon in his hotel and asks him for an interview. Lennon then invites him back later that day to do the interview. Jerry Levitan told the story on The Hour of how after his first initial meeting with Lennon, he had to go and buy or borrow some sort of recording device to actually do the interview. The animation is slick and the interview is honest. Have a watch and listen and then review for yourself.

If this version of the movie gets taken down, head over to YouTube and find another one.

(Toronto) When I go to a show and see four healthy guys, under 30 with normal hair and no beards take the stage, I get nervous. Call me old fashioned, but I want musicians to look like musicians. Hung-over, starving, smelly, emancipated, musicians with blood shot eyes. When Run With The Kittens took the stage at the Roundhouse, they looked like they just came from a spaghetti dinner at their parents place. Yes, a spaghetti dinner where their parents forced them to dress up like Gold Dust and groom each other.

From what I witnessed on Friday night, I would summarize Run With The Kittens as Los Straitjackets meets High School Musical, meets Wolf Parade meets Ice Capades. There is no doubt that they played hard and that they know how to rock out. After the Kittens rocked out for a while, they slowed it down, made funny faces at the camera men, then they yelled and rocked out some more.

I left the show feeling somewhat confused, kind of like the first time I saw Cirque Du Soleil. What did I just witness? I didn’t feel the urge to run to the back to buy one of their CD’s, but on the other hand, I now feel compelled to check out their weekly Tuesday night show at the Cameron House.

I’d see them again. I think?

?/5

(Toronto) This was a very sexy show by three very sexy Canadian musicians in a sexy venue. I love the Cameron House. Great little venu with good table service. In a town like Toronto where you constantly get shitty table service, you can spot good service a mile away. Just keep me drinking, is it really that hard?

First up were The Phonemes, or one, or sometimes two of them. Magali Meagher played a quiet set. A quiet sexy set that is. Her awkward, soft banter and stories about personal ailments totally got my sympathy vote. I was really anticipating hearing Easter Suit, which she didn’t play, and Pain Perdu, which she saved until the end of the show when all three artists took the stage to help perform each others songs. Head on over HERE and listen to Pain Perdu. It’s good.

I was pretty excited to catch Great Aunt Ida too. Sexy. Normally a larger outfit, Ida Nilsen showed up and played a plethora of depressing songs about love and loss. She looks nothing like your great aunt.

I have never made it out to an Immaculate Machine show, so when the opportunity to see one third of them play, I thought I should take it in. Brooke Gallupe played some new solo tunes and also threw in some Immaculate Machine tracks such as Nothing Ever Happens, Jarhand and C’mon Sea Legs. Brooks’ stripped down, intimate version of these songs surprised me with the amount of energy he threw into each track. Dressed in his best whites, his shaking and strumming definitely had some ‘umph’ behind it. Although I must admit, during Jarhand, I kept wanting to hear Kathryn Calder chime in. And yes, Brooke was also very sexy, thanks mostly to his moustache. It’s a good one. Maybe three weeks of growth? Keep the dream alive Brooke.

Here is an awesome Phonemes video: