broken bells

Concert Review: Broken Bells, Morning Benders, June 2, Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Posted on June 4, 2010 by sarahw in Concerts | 3 Comments

Toronto – I am a sucker for a good falsetto voice. Luckily, last night the Queen Elizabeth Theatre had two bands with falsetto front men cued up!

The Morning Benders, hailing from Berkeley California opened up for Broken Bells. To me they are a combination of The Dodos, The Beatles and The Shins – they have that breezy California sound, with some classic melodies while having their own distinctive indie-pop sound.

Morning Benders just released their freshman album, Big Echo.  Seeing as they are touring with Broken Bells now and immediately after they begin a tour with Black Keys, they have been very well-received. Their performance was great, a very enthusiastic youthful band that is clearly still on that break-out star high. Some highlights were their tunes Cold War and Promises, they closed with their dreamy-sunny day-in-California hit single Excuses. Their set took my mind of the torrential downpours in Toronto and had me on a beach in California for an hour.

You can grab a free non LP song from the Morning Benders called Cold War (Wallpaper. Remix) here

Broken Bells are the super group legends are made of, a combination of James Mercer of Shins fame and Danger Mouse, 50% of Gnarls Barkley, who has collaborated with the who’s who in the music industry (Gorillaz and Beck to name a couple). With such a strong falsetto and production genius, fans had high hopes for this collaboration. I really liked their debut self-titled album (though very Shins-esque) so I was pretty excited to see this live show as I have never seen the Shins live!

Their live performance, was, well a little on the boring side. James Mercer’s voice was beautiful as ever and Danger Mouse exhibited talent moving between drums, keyboard and guitar but the 7-piece band lacked energy and excitement. There wasn’t much audience interaction which was fine but they seemed to race through the set, playing the entire album plus two covers in about an hour. The highlight for me was their cover of Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells, they really nailed this 60’s hit.

I wouldn’t say this show was a let-down because Broken Bells were good, but only about as good as listening to their album. I came for Broken Bells but I must say I left loving the Morning Benders, they will be back in August opening for Black Keys and I already have tickets!

Check out the new music video for Broken Bells, called The Ghost Inside, starring Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks here

Broken bells – The Ghost Inside by akitrash

SXSW Primers – Bands A to Z

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Ricky in Everything, South By Southwest | 1 Comment

panic manual awkward handshake

Toronto – Here is an A to Z list of bands playing at SXSW. I’ve even been kind enough to link each band to their respective myspace/website so you can check them out*. Apologies if I missed any letters, English isn’t my first language.

Antlers – I might see these guys again, although it’d be weird to see their depressing music in the clear afternoon light

Broken Bells – Danger Mouse + The guy from the Shins? Yes please. Will this album only kind of change Natalie Portman’s life?

Chew Lips – English dance-pop act has Josh blowing his load with each single they release. Might check them out.

Dr. Dog – Lo-fi folk band keeps on churning out consistently good albums. New album Shame drops sometime in April

Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! – I had no idea Eddie Argos (of Art Brut) had a new band. It has to be great. In Argos I trust.

Fanfarlo -They cancelled their show in Toronto in December. I now get to see this London band at a warmer venue. Awesome. Luna is an amazing track.

Gay Witch Abortion – I have never heard of this band, but look at that band name.

Holy Fuck – This time, when I see them, I won’t confuse this Toronto electronic act with Polaris winning Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up

Imaad Wasif – 24 Terrorist character or Canadian born Indian singer songwriter? Check out his show and decide.

Jj – Where did these Swedes come from? From Africa to Malaga was such a good chill tune, but their new album sounds more or less the same.

Kyle Lee – Is this a Chinese Texan hip hop artist? I don’t know, but he has an Asian last name so here’s hoping.

Local Natives – They impressed many people last year, a breakout album later, these guys are ready to rule Earth.

Marina and the Diamonds – I wrote about them already, but she’ll be very good live.

Neon Indian – Hipster ratio will be off the charts for this HRO fan favorite.

Orquestra Contemporânea De Olinda – Brazillian worldly music. Gotta check out some worldly stuff for Mark

Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Shoegazey throwback band played about a billion shows last year, I didn’t catch them then. I won’t make the same mistake again. Maybe.

Quest for Fire – No idea who they are but they are the first band with the letter Q in it I see. Clever marketing yo.

Russian Futurists – Had a blast seeing them at Wavelengths despite short set. Should have equal blast at SXSW despite short set.

Spoon – Austin’s favourite band open SXSW at Stubbs with what undoubtedly will be a great performance.

Toro Y Moi – One of the first big discoveries of 2010, this dude will bring some chilled tunes to Austin.

Ume – Frank from Chromewaves really enjoys this bands live set. Who am I to argue.

VV Brown – Wonderfully talented retro pop sounding VV Brown will bring what is surely a great set to SXSW.

Walkmen – 7 or 8 years later, I still love the song The Rat

Xx – They continually seem to have bad luck, hope these guys make it to SXSW

You Say Party! We Say Die! – BC band looks to build on the success of XXXX here in Austin. Laura Palmer’s Prom..what a song

Zeus – Arts and Craft band is about to hit the stratusphere with their debut (?) album.

*(it’s also really good for search engines)