Last Night's Gig: Attack in Black/Shotgun Jimmie

Since April 14, I've been interning at CBC Radio 3, here's a blog that I posted on cbcradio3.com. See it here in its original form.

Admittedly, I do not go to as many shows as I should lately. Until I came to Radio 3 to do my internship, the last gig I had been to was way the heck back in early November, when I saw John K. Samson do a solo set at the Pyramid Cabaret in Winnipeg. George Bush was still president back then, it was a scary world.

Luckily, I've broken that horrible months-long streak since landing in Vancouver. Because if I hadn't, I would have missed a fantastic show by Attack In Black and Shotgun Jimmie that took place last night at the Biltmore Cabaret.

I arrived fashionably late, and unfortunately missed the beginning of Shotgun Jimmie's set. But the last 2/3 of it that I saw sounded great. Jimmie has this great way of playing his guitar, or rather, playing an extension of himself. Every strum had a bluesy/Neil Young-ish aura to it and I found myself closing my eyes every once and awhile trying to let the notes soak in. Aside from the one dude slam dancing by himself (wtf?) it was a good first set to lead into the headliner.

Having not even heard of Attack In Black until last week, I wasn't sure what to expect from their live set. But the 100 or so fans who showed up knew what they wanted, and AIB delivered. Bassist Ian Kehoe kindly dedicated "Leaving Your Death in a Flower Bed" to Radio 3 before launching into the track. Again, I found myself trying to soak in all the music at once because it did sound that good. The only lower points to the set were an unfortunate bass tuning error (resulting in an entire track being played out of tune) and the decision by AIB not to play "Young Leaves", which many fans in the crowd very clearly wanted to hear.

But other than those small points (and "Slam Dancer" later snogging some chick at one of the tables...wtf?) it was a very energetic and enjoyable show to be at. Go see them when they some around, you won't be disappointed.

Fleet Foxes are Godly on SNL.

Your brain will explode when you watch these two performances by Fleet Foxes on SNL this past Saturday. Now if these guys would only come to Winnipeg...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bJC330fBPM&eurl=http://videogum.com/archives/sketch-comedy/snl-just-the-funny-parts-and-f_046491.html&feature=player_embedded

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3PvB06VUZ0&feature=related

Cheers.

Merriweather Post Pavilion: Album of the year already?!

Greetings fellow music fans. How were all of your holidays? Have you sufficiently made new year's resolutions and broken them all by now? That's what I thought.

But the subject of this post does not have anything to do with broken promises and bulging waistlines, the subject is the new Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion. Now 2009 has barely cleaned the placental goo off itself, but this album is already being pegged for album of the year.

It seems the blogosphere (which is actually in the shape of a cube) is ready to just hand AC the award, complete with flowers and teary eyed acceptance speech. But to me this just begs the question: WTFlip?

Have these people completely forgotten about other bands coming out with albums? Lily Allen? Bon Iver? The New Pornographers? Any of these artists on top the countless others releasing albums this year have the chance to take the top nod if they make their albums right. Even the Doctor himself is releasing an album, and who's to say that he doesn't drop some inexplicably hot, Fleet Foxes, beat-boxing-esque rhymes and blow us off our feet? So why is Merriweather Post Pavilion making blogs and music sites collectively and prematurely jizz their pants?

Granted, Animal Collective are good. They've earned the buzz and the hype. They've earned the hookers, booze and life-time supply of Sham Wows. But do they deserve this type of praise so early on in this year of music? The answer is no.

I just happen to have gotten my hot little hands on a vinyl version of this album (which has been released before it hits the shelves in electro magnetic disc form on January 20th) and listened to it a good 5 times as to provide an honest viewpoint. Is it good? Yes. Does it make you think that you took too much LSD when you look at the cover? Check it out for yourself. (it's freaky) Does it make your brain explode a little bit more every time you listen to it due to sheer awesomeness levels? No. The long and short of Merriweather Post Pavilion is that it's an ok album. It's competently made, sounds great, and they even try a few new things that make for cool, dynamic sounding tracks. But is it the best of the year? No, not at all.

How about all bloggers and music sites out there do us all a favor and make a resolution to hold off judgments until December 2009, and maybe give some other artists a chance to blow our heads off with greatness.

y2k9.

I was pleasantly surprised dumbstruck to find out that in this crazy jumble of pornography and occasionally amusing LOLcat, someone has been reading this blog and for the first time, I realized I had some sort of audience. So I pledge to you, the dozen or so readers out there, that I will attempt to make this blog more readable and foremost, update it more often.

To those of you who have been reading, thank you, and please continue to do so.

As some of you may know, this Friday's show is going to be a year end round up where I'll be playing from the best this last year has had to offer us. Recently the founder of The International Mixtape Project, Ryan "Mixtape" asked all members to send in their top ten albums and singles from this past year and being the loyal citixen of the music community, immediately obliged. If a Seth Cohen still existed, this next batch of albums would be included in his next "Seth Cohen Starter Pack." Any and all of these albums should be immediately purchased. Without further ado, here is my top ten for 2008:

1. Fleet Foxes-Fleet Foxes
2. Vampire Weekend-Vampire Weekend
3. Tokyo Police Club-Elephant Shell
4. Born Ruffians-Red, Yellow and Blue
5. Coldplay-Viva La Vida
6. Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid
7. MGMT-Oracular Spectacular
8. Flight of the Conchords-Flight of the Conchords
9. Ra Ra Riot-The Rhumb Line
10. Tegan & Sara-The Con

Tune in this Friday to hear my top ten singles of the year as well.

Peace out.

your new marching orders.

South-Londoners Exlovers are set to release an album early on next year, but they've decided to tease us bit with a single they are releasing next week. The single will include two songs on it including "Just a Silhouette." Your new orders indie fans, are to infiltrate thier myspace site, listen to their music, and possibly support this emerging band by purchasing their single. It makes a great Christmas present to you!

Cheers, and as always, listen to the Ministry of Indie every Friday from 12-3pm to get the latest in independent rock from here and around the world!

http://www.myspace.com/weareexlovers

The music industry takes a hit.

I recently read a post at Law of the Game, a blog that deals with legal issues surrounding video games, regarding a new act called the PRO-IP act recently put forth in the United States. Some of the things the act does is give the government more powers to go after average-joe downloaders, and also introduces stiffer penalties for pirating works by giving individual songs the label of indivudual works, for example. This means someone caught downloading an album could be fined for each track in an album they have downloaded.

The article goes on to explain the reason that this legislation hurts the music industry, here's a small preview:

"Ultimately, the way this hurts the music industry isn't in practical enforcement. They backed this bill because it helps their enforcement. It's an issue of image, and as the bad publicity keeps falling on the RIAA, more and more consumers are taking their entertainment dollars elsewhere. It's insulting to the consumer that the RIAA would even suggest that ripping a CD you purchased so you can put it on your iPod is illegal, even though they haven't tried to enforce that idea at this time."

Read the whole article at Law of the Game.

New Music!

As you may have seen on the Kick FM website, we just got a whack of new tunage on the playlist. This means tomorrow at 2pm I'm going to feature a good chunk of those artists during my last hour. It's gonna rock, you know it will, so if you're planning to tune in for only one hour, choose this one, you'll enjoy it, I promise.

Oh and just FYI, the songs indicated in bold have been provided and/or recommended by yours truly. I've got your musical education in mind everybody.

Keep on listening! You guys ROCK!

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
Nicole Byblow - Only Love Can Break Your Heart (ManCon) [Neil Young cover]
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
Mates of State - The Re-Arranger
Record of the Week Club - Walkman (ManCon)
The Zutons - What's Your Problem
Black Kids - Look at Me (When I Dance Wichoo)
Born Ruffians - Kurt Vonnegut
Conor Oberst - Souled Out !!!
Mystery Jets - Half in Love With Elizabeth
Lily Allen - Naive [The Kooks cover]
John Blackwood and the Housewives - Michael Faraday (ManCon)