Remix Song of the Day: The Rapture – How Deep Is Your Love (Buffetlibre remix)

Posted on by Ricky in Remixes, Song of the Day | Leave a comment

Frequent readers of this blog should know about our love affair with the DJ’s of Buffet Libre. The duo seem to do no wrong when it comes to selecting top notch tracks and making them better with a few tweaks here and there. “How Deep Is Your Love?” is the first track released off Brooklyn disco-funk-rock outfit The Rapture who are FINALLY back with a new album after a five year break. In The Grace Of Your Love is out September 6th and this remix takes the already good original track, adds a little more beat and a backing synth line and really drives home the disco house vibe of the track. It’s pretty amazing, download or stream it and you will be pleased.

Tour dates
8/20 – New York, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
9/22 – Boston, MA – Royale
9/23 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
9/24 – Baltimore, MD – Sonar
9/25 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
9/27 – Columbus, OH – TBD
9/28 – Chicago, IL – Metro
9/29 – Minneapolis, MN – The Varsity
10/1 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
10/3 – Scottsdale, AZ – Martini Ranch
10/4 – San Diego, CA – Belly Up
10/6 – Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box
10/7 – Pomona, CA – Glasshouse
10/8 – San Francisco, CA – The Sound Factory
10/10 – El Paso, TX – Club 101
10/11 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
10/12 – Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
10/13 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
10/17 – Miami, FL – Grand Central
10/18 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham Theatre
10/19 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
10/21 – Philadelphia, PA – Making Time @ Voyeur

Festival Review: Live at Squamish, August 20th and 21st, Squamish, BC

Posted on by sarahw in Concerts, Everything, Music, Reviews | Leave a comment

Live at Squamish

Oh British Columbia, the beautiful left coast of Canada.   Where the tiny town of Squamish lies quietly nestled in between Vancouver and Whistler.  Not seeing much action for most of the year, other than people checking out the mining museum and bathroom breaks on the way to Whistler.  That is until Virgin schedules a music festival there and thousands of hipsters descend upon the tiny town for 2 days of beautiful music and mayhem.  Thus Live at Squamish was born.

Quite frankly, I was more pumped about being in the mountains than about any of the bands playing.  However, a combination of Kokanee, Pulled Bison and nostalgia made it worth the trek.

Two headliners

Two bands I’d never seen

Two festival highlights

1. Weezer

For some reason I wasn’t that excited to see Weezer, so it was a nice surprise when they absolutely rocked live.  Talk about Nostalgia, Weezer was huge when I was in high school, which means that I knew just about every song.

You’ve got to hand it to Weezer’s ever-oddball front man, Rivers Cuomo for always being consistent – wearing his signature collared shirt with sweater on top.  He jumped around on stage with boundless energy singing classics like Buddy Holly, Island in the Sun, Say it Ain’t So, The Sweater Song, My Name is Jonas, We Are All on Drugs and many more.  Everyone knew the words.  Everyone sang.  It was amazing.

I’ve heard murmurs of  The Weezer Cruise, a music festival…ON A BOAT.  If you can, GO!  It’s bound to be awesome, with accompanying acts such as: Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis, Sebadoh, Wavves and a bunch more.  Sounds pretty epic.

2. Girl Talk

After seeing him at the festival, I still honestly don’t know what Girl Talk does at his live shows other than press play on his iTunes playlist and proceed to remove layers of clothing as the concert progresses.  However, since he’s the king of generation-Y-pleasing mash-ups, this was one amazing dance party that started with audience members dancing on the stage and ended with confetti cannons.

Other festival honourable mentions include Jon Butler Trio, Stars and the Emily Haines/James Shaw acoustic show.

As far as music festivals go, Canada doesn’t have many.  Squamish, however was well organized, beautiful and scored a decent bill of bands! See you next year!

Song of the Day: Rachel Yamagata – Even If I Don’t

Posted on by Ricky in Everything, Song of the Day | Leave a comment

American singer-songwriter Rachel Yamagata has lent her soulful smoky voice to artists such as Ray Lamontagne, Ryan Adams and Jason Mraz but on October 11th, she will be releasing her new album Chesapeake off her own label. It’s her first album in three years, something I can appreciate since I can’t stand it when a band releases an album every year. Where’s the quality control?

Anyways, “Even If I Don’t” is one of the tracks off that album and it features a soaring piano score that is anchored by Yamagata’s bluesy voice. It’s kinda like Regina Spektor meets Cat Power, to give a lazy “let’s take two other American female singer songwriters and merge them” kind of comparison. The track is good, check it out.

Here are some tour dates that conveniently ignores Toronto because you know, places like Ithaca and Spokane are concert hot spots.

OCTOBER
24th Portland, ME Port City Music Hall
25th Burlington, VT Higher Ground Lodge
27th Ithaca, NY Deliah’s
28th Northampton, MA Iron Horse
30th Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall
31st Philadelphia, PA World Café Live

NOVEMBER
1st Washington, DC Birchmere
2nd Baltimore, MD Sound Stage
4th Brooklyn, NY Knitting Factory
5th Pittsburgh, PA Club Café
7th Detroit, MI St Andrews Hall
8th Chicago, IL Logan Square
10th Milwaukee, WI Turner Ballroom
11th Minneapolis, MN Fine Line
12th Davenport, IA Redstone Room
14th Kansas City, KS Record Bar
16th Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
18th Salt Lake City, UT State Room
20th Spokane, WA A Club
21st Vancouver, BC Media Club
22nd Seattle, WA Crocodile
23rd Portland, OR Doug Fir
25th San Francisco, CA Slim’s
26th Santa Barbara, CA Soho Restaurant & Music Club
28th San Diego, CA Casbah
29th Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
30th Tuscon, AZ Crescent Ballroom

DECEMBER
2nd Austin, TX Parish
3rd Houston, TX Fitzgerald’s Upstairs
4th Dallas, TX The Loft
5th Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom – 2nd Stage
7th St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill
8th Nashville, TN 12th and Porter
9th Birmingham, AL Work Play
10th Atlanta, GA Vinyl
12th Knoxville, TN Relix Theatre
13th Charlotte, NC Visulite Theatre
15th Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
16th Charlottesville, VA The Southern
17th Louisville, KY Headliners
18th Columbus, OH The Basement
20th Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s
21st New York, NY City Winery
22nd New York, NY City Winery

Concert Review: Mike Evin, Language Arts, Aug 23, Bread & Circus

Posted on by Mark in Concerts | 5 Comments

Toronto – Earlier this week singer-songwriter Mike Evin played to a small but appreciative crowd at Kensington Market’s Bread & Circus. The Montreal-born and sometimes Toronto-based musician has just moved back to the big city. He brought an upbeat attitude to his set, playing songs from both the archives and his latest album “Do You Feel The World?”

Opening for Mike was Toronto-based Kristen Cudmore of Language Arts. Hailing from Nova Scotia, Kristen alternated between nylon-string & electric guitars, a synth, and a loop machine to weave her music. Listening to her play made me want to buy a loop machine. They look so fun. Easily the best part of the set was Kristen’s bubbly, adorable, nerdy, slightly vulnerable but super genuine personality. I can only imagine that a little maturity and experience will do wonders.

The transition from one singer-songwriter to the next was smooth. The set featured an eclectic mix of songs about hot secretaries, soapbox car racers, and of all things, the stage banter of the late-great trumpeter Percy Heath set as lyrics for Mike’s own song. The piano playing was tasteful. Mike threw himself into it with abandon. He was clearly having fun, and that fun was clearly infectious. As much as I love Bread & Circus as an intimate and friendly venue to see live music in the city, I do wish that it could draw a larger crowd so more people could enjoy what it has to offer.