Toronto - The Fratellis are a Scottish indie punk band featuring three guys named Mince Fratelli, Jon Fratelli and Barry Fratelli. Despite the same last name, they do not share the same mother. So they are more ‘black’ brothers then blood brothers. Regardless of this, they skyrocketed to semi stardom a few years ago, with their album Costello Music, which featured a nice blend of that indie punk brit rock that is oh so hot these days. It also helped that they were featured on an Apple Advert, i think.

They are back in 2008 with the album ‘Here We Stand’, and while they do wear their influences on their sleeves (beatles, clash, libertines, arctic monkeys?), I have to say, this album was enjoyable upon the first listen. Granted, there is nothing on this album that is groundbreaking or makes you think for more then a few seconds, but good indie punk brit rock IS good indie punk brit rock, and that’s something I like. Theres no rocker on this album like ‘Chelsea Dagger‘ and its definitely a little more on the mellow side then the previous one, maybe they want to follow in the step of the Kooks and gain themselves some VH1 Love. I don’t know. Anyways, I think this album is decent listen if you have something else to do and want to listen to something nice, poppy yet rocky in the background.

3/5

 

 The Fratellis - Lupe Brown: Play Now

Vancouver, A warm spring night, not ideal conditions for Goth’s children to creep out of the shadows in order to attend the return of The Cure after a 10 year, 7 month delay. This was my first time seeing The Cure and not being an uber fan I had mixed feelings as to how it would be. Based what what I read and was told, The Cure performs epic set in excess of 3 hours with multiple encores, but people I know who have seem them live would always say the show was ‘Amazing’. I pressed on though, The Cure is just one of those bands I had to see, more so because they’ve been such a huge influence on many of my favorite bands.

We arrived at GM place early to pick up my tickets at the will call window. Staying true to my lazy nature, I waited until the last minute to pick up the tickets even though I purchased them 1 year ago. We decided to skip the opening band 65 days of static as they seem a bit too industrial for our taste. Arrived back at GM place at 8:30 only having to wait 10 minutes for the lads to make their appearance - quite surprising seeing as I’m usually terrible predicting the start times of bands. After a rousing reception from the crowd as if they were collectively thinking ‘Took you long enough!’ personifying it in the form of applause. They kicked of the set with a 5 song intro with - Falling Down, Fascination Street, The Walk, Love Song, and Sleep When I’m Dead. They sounded good, but personally I felt the show kicked off as soon we heard the haunting thump and twinkle of “Picture of You”. This made more than half the crowd to jump to their feet, couple that with swaying and clapping, it made the atmosphere absolutely eclectic. The set continued on with a mix of some new tracks and a few old. I didn’t recognize most of them (but you might, here’s the setlist). I was just enjoying the great atmosphere and it seemed like Smith and Co. were as well:

Simon Gallop on bass keeled over this guitar in the classic shoegaze pose (my cohort Ryan mentioned he looked exactly like the bass player in Guitar Hero). Porl Thomson on lead guitar was dressed up in what looked like a vinyl jumpsuit with glittery red platform boots. Jason Cooper was pounding perfect beats that many in the crowd were air drumming along to. Robert sounded fantastic, seemingly enjoying himself by hopping, shimmying and swaying around the entire stage.

The set hit it’s climax three quarters of the way through when Smith and crew pulled out - Friday I’m In Love, Inbetween Days, and Just Like Heaven with no breaks in between, needless to say we ate it up, licked our lips and rubbed our tummies. They capped off their first set at around 10:30 after playing at least 20 songs. Staying true to form they came back on stage after very little coaxing from the crowd. I unfortunately only stayed for the first encore which included - Love Cats, Let’s Go To Bed and Close To Me. After a little research I found out the last 2 encores included - Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing An Arab.

To sum the entire Cure experience, it only takes one word: ‘Amazing’.

5/5

Thanks John

Clip of ‘Pictures Of You” taken at the ACC in Toronto

Toronto - Immaculate Machine. I always confuse this band with another band called the Secret Machines. It also reminds me of the Immaculate Reception by Pittsburgh Steeler (holla!) Franco Harris back in the seventies. And Micro Machines, which I only had a few of growing up in the dark and barren ghettos of Edmonton. You must be asking yourself now - what? well, lemme tell you what.

The Immaculate Machine are band from Victoria, British Columbia. They are on the Vancouver label Mint Records, also responsible for the New Pornographers and Young and Sexy. You might recognize one of the members, Kathryn Calder, who is also a member of the New Pornographers, and is the niece of A.C. Newman. Nepotism at its best. No, seriously, the Immaculate Machine excel in that type of music you expect from the BC community. You know the type - soaring chorus, guitars, collaborations, a general ‘we live in an area that doesn’t have snow year round’ vibe to it. They released an album called Fable sometime last year, and it is a pretty good album. The video game, I enjoyed too. But that is entirely unrelated, besides the namesake. I really have to become less literal with my posts.

The Immaculate Machine are playing Thursday 8:30 at the Horseshoe as part of the CHART Annual showcase at CMW. Other notable acts on this bill include Katie Stelmanis and Plants and Animals, two acts that Wade has already written about on this blog. You should go check it out.

Note: Immaculate Machine has an in-store session at Soundscapes (where else..really) at 5 pm on Thursday. So do that, go to Duffs or Utopia after then, I dunno, check out other shows on Thursday.

Here is a tune off their 2007 album.

 

 Immaculate Machine - Dear Confessor: Play Now