local natives

Concert Review: Local Natives, October 19, Mod Club

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – My month of SXSW revisits (Temper Trap, The Drums..) continued Tuesday night as LA five piece band Local Natives took the sold out stage at the Mod Club. The anticpation was high, as this was the first time the band has visited Toronto since their debut album – Gorilla Manor was released. There was actually some doubts as to whether or not the band could make it as it was reported via the twitter that their bus had broken down earlier that day. Luckily for the crowd, they found a way.

I think I should give the concert four stars just based on lead singer Taylor Rice’s mustache alone. I don’t think it was as fully realized when i had seen them in march but now it appears to be in full bloom and in all it’s bushy quality, totally would make him a good candidate to play some sort of dastardly villain in some sort of western. As the sometimes focus point of the band, he put on a good show, rocking out on the guitar when need be and making a half hearted attempt to interact with the crowd. It was a late show, so I think most people didn’t mind that the band just sprinted through their hour long set.

As expected the band played most of the tunes off their debut album, wooing the crowd with an excellent blend of vocal harmonies (hello Fleet Foxes!) and dual tribal drumming. A Spinal Tap moment occured when multi instrumentalist Kelcey Ayer said “Hello Vancouver!” I wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not but the fact that he curled up on the Mod Club stage immediately afterwards seemed to indicate it was an honest mistake.

I was impressed with how much punch the band packed considering their album is a rather laid back affair. The use of double percussions added an extra ounce of intensity and combined with gang vocals, the band definitely made the songs of Gorilla Manor much more lively. Songs like Camera Talk and Shapeshifter surely benefited from the extra oomph and became soaring crowd pleaser’s as a result.

Taking a cue from “setlists for dummies” book that should be given to every band, the band ended their set with am explosive version of the song Sun Hands, arguably their most popular song. The song whipped the crowd into a frenzy and left them wanting more. One kind of wonders whether the song should have been used earlier in the set to get the crowd amped up, but you can’t deny the lasting appeal of exiting with your most popular song.

Camera Talk by Local Natives

SXSW Final Recap

Posted on by Ricky in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

The Temper Trap

Austin – It’s been a week since we’ve all returned from our journey to Austin. With some time to reflect, here are our final thoughts.

Best Show

Gary – Fanfarlo at Galaxy Room, March 18; crowd response AND the general way it was carried were both an experience.

Derek – The Temper Trap

Allison – We Were Promised Jetpacks; basically the entire Showcasing Scotland show on Wednesday

Ricky – Marina and the Diamonds..great energy and good crowd response.

Best Show from a band you have never heard before:

Gary – Local Natives and Temper Trap; Temper Trap destroyed their filler expectation, and I’m an ignorant dumbass so I’ve never heard Local Native before this trip.

Derek – That would be most of the shows I saw. The Temper Trap, Local Natives and The Boxer Rebellion definitely stood out.

Allison – Unicorn Kid

Ricky – Definitely the Temper Trap. I guess they were popular already, the dude can sing.

Worse Show

Gary – Galaxy Room backyard, March 17 – the stage management was horrible – bands were playing 3-4 songs a piece and things were constantly delayed because their sound guy would go missing mid-play.

Derek – Steel Train, that and every metal band that was playing whenever I walked by the stage at 8th and Red River

Allison – Whoever that awful industrial band at the Hype Machine party was on Saturday. mosh pit? come on.

Ricky – Street Sweeper Social Club. Bringing back hard rock + rap combo is not a good idea.

Best SXSW Moment

Gary – When we weaseled our way into the Filter party at cedar street courtyard, skipping a 100 ppl line directly to the front of the house… power of the RICKY on full display.

Derek – Filter Party VIP lounge. Temper Trap blew me away and 8 Jack and cokes later I was good to go.

Allison – Seeing Boxer Rebellion despite being sick, or anytime I got free drinks without waiting in a line

Ricky – Climbing over the fence at the French Legation center to see the XX, and then finding out the place where I climbed over was right behind the main stage, allowing me to scoot myself nicely to the side of the stage.

Worse SXSW Moment

Gary – When Stubb’s AND Mohawk both ran out of wristband admission on the same night after 3 hrs of combined waiting and I walked around with a stranger to unheard-of bands but discovered only teensy pop… designs of the RICKY hidden from us.

Derek – Waiting in line in cold for stupid Perez Hilton party

Allison – The ridiculous cold Saturday

Ricky -Stupid lineup at Perez Hilton Party.

There you have it. SXSW, we love ya and we’ll see you next year!

SXSW Review: Local Natives, March 19, Cedar Courtyard

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts, South By Southwest | 1 Comment

Local Natives, Filter Party, March 19, Cedar street courtyard, SXSW 2010

Austin – Filter puts on awesome showcases every year at SXSW (witness last year’s Late of the Pier party) and this year was no exception. The lineup was around the block on Friday for their showcase which involves bands like The Temper Trap, Local Natives, BRMC and Dr. Dog. We were there for all of them, Gary will be reviewing Dr. Dog and the Temper Trap (who ruled).

The Local Natives have been featured on our blog a few times before and so as you would figure, I was rather excited to see the show. For those who NEED to know, they are a LA based band that relies on harmonizing vocals blended with a California laid back rocker sound. It’s good.

I had high expectations for this show and much to my delight, Local Natives killed it. 3 part harmonizing vocals, two guitars, one synthy guy, one bassist and a kickass drummer. Nice setup. These guys have mastered quiet…quiet…EXPLODE technique. Perfect example would be the live rendition of the song Sun Hands, Taylor Rice slowly lulls you to a nice calm state with his subdued singing then BAM, all four of them scream out “AND WHEN I CAN’T FEEL WITH MY SUN HANDS” and whoosh, awesomeness. Speaking of Taylor Rice, he has a pretty nice voice and hits the notes despite the show being like, the band’s 5th show in 3 days. Kelcey Ayer’s multi-instrumental skills was impressive as well. The sometimes duo drummer setup the band employs adds a lot more ooompf to the live show then the album, which is great. I’m a fan of two drummers in a band. Don’t ask me why.

The 40ish minute set consisted songs from the debut album – Gorilla Manson, something you should look into. Good showing, will definitely see them if they tour Toronto.

Speaking of Filter, they want you to win a record player and a bunch of vinyl, as long as you are American. One lucky winner will receive a Crosley Archive Portable USB Turntable and the following must-have titles for any record collection, hand-picked by FILTER’s editors. Animal Collective, Tribe Called Quest, Beach House, etc. You can enter here

SXSW Primers – Bands A to Z

Posted on 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 Contempor̢nea De Olinda РBrazillian 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)