Concerts

Concert Review: Sylvan Esso, tUnE-yArDs, June 13, 9:30 Club

Posted on June 17, 2014 by halley in Concerts | Leave a comment

009

Sylvan Esso is the cure.

Though those words are tUnE-yArDs’, I can only agree as I listen to Sylvan Esso at the office Monday morning as a type of self-soothing mechanism to cope with the passing of the weekend. The electro-pop duo of Amelia Meath & Nick Sanborn are hypnotic, soothing, and sleek. The group delivers its highly synthesized sound in all its integrity live, though the performance is a bit understated – almost unassuming when compared to other, more ostentatious singer-and-producer-acts. Overall, I super enjoyed the opener, and it’s obvious tUnE-yArDs appreciates the two as an up and coming act worth investing in.

tUnE-yArDs, aka Merrill Garbus, for her part, is anything but understated. Even if you weren’t already aware of Garbus’ penchant for face paint, crazy costumes, and out-of-this-world hair styles, you may have gotten an inkling from the crowd anxiously anticipating her appearance at the 9:30 Club. Balloon hats were a must-have, face paint was abundant, and clown suits were common. While Garbus has recently taken some criticism for her experimentation in mainstream pop sound, I thought she (and her awesome back up dancers and band) pulled the effort off well. Her new songs are, admittedly, more repetitive and cohesive than some of the CRAZY sounds heard on her original album, but I would never label them as boring or generic. “Hey Life” on Nikki Nack really rocked my socks. Unlike Sylvan Esso, whose challenge, in my opinion, is matching their live renditions to their impeccably sleek recorded tracks, tUnE-yArDs presents the opposite scenario: her charisma and unforgettable persona often make her live renditions more enjoyable than recorded. But, again, relistening on Monday morning, I’m rocking just as hard to “Hey Life” on Spotify as I was at the 9:30 Club. Of course, at the end of the day, “Gangsta” is still my favorite track.

Overall, two great acts, off the beaten path, definitely worth a listen. And a look if they’re live in your town.

NXNE Q&A Preview: Fevers

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Ricky in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

fevers

As part of our NXNE coverage, we held a series of Q&A with some bands performing during the festival.

Fevers is a band from the faraway town of Ottawa. They play songs that can fit in any 80’s movie montage, which makes them cool in my books. They are playing these shows:
The Boat, Wednesday, June 18 @ 11 PM
Rivoli, Thursday, June 19 @ 8 PM

Since this is such a twitter world, can you describe your band in 140 characters or less?
Mike: If you found yourself in a dance-fight with one or even several zombies, FEVERS would absolutely be the most appropriate soundtrack.

Jim: I don’t think I’ll need 140 characters #justinbieber

Is this your first NXNE? If so, what are your expectations for it? If not, what did you learn from last time that’ll improve your experience this time?

Sarah: We participated in NXNE last year. It was really fun but our only regret is that we just stayed in Toronto for one night. This year, we’re looking forward to spending the whole weekend going to shows and meeting other musicians. It’s like a mini-vacation, but a busy one!

What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at NXNE?

Jim: As we’ll be at NXNE the whole week, I’m really hoping to check out a lot of bands, including some of our friends’ bands from Ottawa and Montreal. That, and Future Islands – I think that will be a great show.

Martin: Foxtrott, Future Island, old friends in Ghost Cousin, Mac DeMarco, Scattered Clouds, Foxtrott, The Barr Brothers

What do you think is your band’s greatest strengths? and also, what is your greatest weakness?

Colin: Greatest strength: diversity of the members. We have people with different nationalities, mother tongues, political stripes, musical influences, and a pretty health age gap too! This leads to a lot of different perspective around the table when we make decisions.

Greatest weakness: perhaps the same thing. We can take forever to make a decision. We sometimes wish we just had a band dictator to make it all easy for us.

What is the best merch your band has?

Sarah: I wish I could tell you we had FEVERS visor caps or something. Right now, we’re selling our album ‘No Room For Light’.

Mike: I believe that we still have two or three XXL t-shirts left from our first run, so those are definitely collector’s items at this point. Stitch them all together for a custom FEVERS quilt!

What is your favourite restaurant in Ottawa?

Colin: Phuket Royal in my own hood of China Town.

Jim: Quinn’s. More of a bar, but they have great food too. It’s cosy, friendly, and they brew their own beer.

Martin: The Manx. Great food, great music, great people.

Mike: Hooch is a bourbon bar on Rideau St., they have some chicken & waffles that are completely bananas, but my heart will always belong to the Elgin Street Diner. That poutine…

Sarah: Ceylonta. It’s a Sri Lankan restaurant near Sommerset/Bank area. The food is amazing. My mouth is watering as I’m typing.

NXNE Q&A Preview: Ghost Town Jenny

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Ricky in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

ghosttownjenny

As part of our NXNE coverage, we held a series of Q&A with some bands performing during the festival.

Ghost Town Jenny are a pleasant sounding band from the Bay area, they play The Cameron House on Wednesday at Midnight.

Since this is such a twitter world, can you describe your band in 140 characters or less?
We love Interview Magazine’s description of our sound: “Sweet & Spooky”.

Is this your first NXNE? If so, what are your expectations for it? If not, what did you learn from last time that’ll improve your experience this time?
This is our first NXNE. We are expecting to have a lot of fun and sleep very little.

What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at NXNE?
We are definitely looking forward to seeing St. Vincent, Svavar Knútur, Tune Yards, Rhye, Future Islands, Spiritualized, Glasser… probably so many more bands
that I can’t think of at this moment. There are so many talented acts performing, it’s going to be hard to take it all in.

What do you think is your band’s greatest strengths? and also, what is your greatest weakness?
Strengths: (hopefully) our live show … weakness: our fondness for sweets

What is the best merch your band has?
Right now our merch is pretty boring… just EPs and T-shirts. We played with a band in Norway while we were on tour last year, and they had panties at their merch table with their band name printed right on the front. That really opened our eyes to how much we need to step up our merch game. We are still working on it.

Are you ever worried about the big one? you are from the bay area…
— mmm… not really. It’s something we rarely think about. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If it’s still standing, that is.

NXNE Q&A Preview: The Ugly Club

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Ricky in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

UglyClub

As part of our NXNE coverage, we held a series of Q&A with some bands performing during the festival.

The Ugly Club are from Brooklyn and play the Hideout on June 20th at 10pm.

So this probably has been asked a few times..what’s with the name?

The origin of the name isn’t interesting; a friend made it up and we stole it because it wasn’t being used. However, the name has been helpful because it either makes people compliment us and say we’re actually quite beautiful (obviously) or it strikes a curious chord in people and they need to find out what The Ugly Club is…a band, a label, a gang, etc.

Since this is such a twitter world, can you describe your band in 140 characters or less?

The most influential music since The Bodyguard soundtrack.

Is this your first NXNE? If so, what are your expectations for it? If not, what did you learn from last time that’ll improve your experience this time?

This is our second year at NXNE and this time I plan on catching more shows and enjoying the time off in Toronto instead of going to panels and boring stuff.

What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at NXNE?

St. Vincent of course, who we will miss because we play around the same time, Spoon, Snowmine who I think is a hugely underrated band from Brooklyn, and maybe a few others.

What do you think is your band’s greatest strengths? and also, what is your greatest weakness?

Our greatest strength is definitely a genuine friendship, because without that it’d be miserable…being in a band is hard. Also, everyone is in it for music, no bullshit. Our greatest weakness is the reality of working around day jobs, we’d be much stronger if we could cut those chains and just go all in.

What is the best merch your band has?

RE: Our icy blue 7″ single. Obviously just such a cool collectors item. Check it out: http://companyinkrecords.limitedrun.com/products/504607-the-ugly-club-loosen-up

The Ugly Club are from Brooklyn and play the Hideout on June 20th at 10pm.

« Previous   1 2 ... 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 ... 508 509   Next »