NXNE

NXNE Day 1: Foxtrott, Mexican Slang, Grand Splendid

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Ricky in Everything, North By Northeast | Leave a comment

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Alright, It’s NXNE time. First night of NXNE is always quiet and this was no exception. Let’s take a look at some acts that we saw.

Foxtrott (10 pm, Mod Club)

A solo project from Montreal, Foxtrott did not let the sparse crowd at the Mod Club affect her show. Accompanied by another female on the French Horns, the two played a prolific set that introduced the crowd to Foxtrott’s blend of nostalgic dark electronic arrangements that serve as a backdrop to Marie-Hélène L. Delorme’s powerful vocals. The addition of the French horn live added an extra hint of pizazz to the show. I’m a sucker for this type of music and Foxtrott was no exception.

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Mexican Slang (11 pm, Smiling Buddha)

Not sure why the Smiling Buddha is the home of so many shows this year, the sight lines in that place are horrible and I’m 6’1. The seeming destination for fans of the harder rock this year, I will admit I felt quite old walking into this place. Age issues aside, Toronto trio Mexican Slang played the exact type of rock that the tattooed youth of today have been concerning themselves with. Aggressive but catchy at the same time, Mexican Slang’s calling card in their psych-garage punk rock tunes is lead singer’s Annabelle Lee powerful voice. The set was over as quickly as it began, which left me wanting a bit more. I was only halfway through my beer. But I guess that’s how the old saying goes. This band has a song called Shit Destroyer. Need I say more?

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Grand Splendid (Midnight, Baltic Avenue)

My entire goals for NXNE is to start out far and gradually make my way home. Wednesday night was a success as my last stop was at the Laser palace aka Baltic Avenue to check out Montreal band Grand Splendid. Sounding a bit like Teenage Fanclub, the band displayed some smooth harmonies and hooks during their set, which had a heavy dose of poppy, happy guitar rock. The band started off the set playing to a pretty empty crowd but with each track, more and more people moved up front. Pretty good confirmation that Grand Splendid is off to a good festival start.

NXNE Q&A Preview: Tei-Shi

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Ricky in North By Northeast | Leave a comment

teishi

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

Tei-Shi is a Vancouver based R&B singer aiming to move your body when she plays the Wrongbar at 9 pm on Friday June 20th

Since this is such a twitter world, can you describe yourself in 140 characters or less?
The fairy from Zelda meets Pinky, from The Pinky and The Brain. Meets Daria.

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 indeed my first time at NXNE! I try to go into everything with little preconceived expectation, and I actually have no idea what NXNE will be like, but I’m definitely expecting to have a great time and be surrounded by some great music. If it’s anything like SXSW, it will be a little stressful and intense, but very fun and relaxed at the same time. This time I’ll only be playing two shows, versus six at SXSW, so I expect to maximize the fun and minimize the stress!

What other bands are you looking forward to seeing at NXNE?
I would love to see Tune-Yards, St. Vincent and Danny Brown.

What do you think is your greatest strengths? and also, what is your greatest weakness?
A big strength I would say, is that I have a very clear sense of self–I have a strong sense of who I am as a person. A big weakness would probably be that I can be pretty lazy when it comes to things I don’t want to do, so in those situations I tend to want things quickly without putting the time and thought into them. As a result I can be quite impulsive.

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.

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