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2 Different Bands, 1 similar thread

Posted in music, tagged , on August 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »


Is rock & roll making a comeback in Modern Rock? I can feel it… or at least the artists trying to infuse a little grunge in their sound.  There is no denying that electronic dance music is hot… and indie rock has taken a turn toward the folk. Riff rock marches on and you could always hear that on the BIG RAWK radio stations…  But bubbling up around the edges is a great selection of aggressive and progressive rockers.  I’ll talk all day about Japandroids and Cloud Nothings if you let me, however today I bring you the tale of two different bands with a similar sound that may surprise you.

First up is the Bloc Party.  Their first record in 4 years… called… Four is out on August 21st.  We have already listened to the lead off single “Octopus.” Stellar cut… now I have a another called “Kettling.”  Very aggressive.  First listen, I thought the website I got the song from mislabeled it until I heard Kele sing.

Bloc Party – “Kettling”

An internationally “cool” band flirting with hard rock.  I don’t feel like they are alienating me, the long time Bloc Party fan… AND I think they are inviting a new listener in, someone who maybe rejects “indie” rock or new music.  I like it.

I want to compare this song with the new Three Days Grace.


Three Days Grace maybe isn’t as cool as Bloc Party. Pitchfork doesn’t reviews their records, they don’t get invited on Coachella Cruises and you don’t see any hipsters wearing their t-shirts at Lucky Bar.  They make radio rock music, and they do a good job at it.

Their forth record also comes out this October and it is called Transit of Venus.  First single is “Chalk Outline.”

Three Days Grace – “Chalk Outline”

I will say that when I heard this new Three Days Grace (which contains a lot of what 3DG has always done) and compare it to the new Bloc Party, there are many similarities.  Great energy, interesting textures.

How about it?  Aggressive Bloc Party?  New Three Days Grace?

Go with yourself.

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We Had Some Massive Nights

Posted in life or something like it, music, Wedding on August 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »


It was a weekend of ADVENTURE for me and Mads.  I had the opportunity to DJ a wedding for Vancouverites Robin and Jon at a beautiful lake called Upper Campbell Lake.  They got married at the stunning Strathcona Park Lodge… “off the grid” as the literature states.  No cell, limited internet, intermittent power. We battled the comforts of civilization to play in one of Vancouver Island’s most spectacular settings.  The dining room had a whale skeleton hanging on the wall to stare at (if you get tired of the pristine scenery).  You sit on wooden chairs in a room that reminds you of camp as a kid but with better art.  And the food is basic, and wholesome and healthy.  Then down to the lake for a float.  Amazing.  I need to go back for a proper holiday because the place is laced and criss-crossed in hiking trails, zip lines, mountaineering… then the boating, campfires, lake…



Meanwhile…my brother CJ, his lady Caitlin, my sister Andrea and their friend Anders took Maddy camping with my folks.  First at Englishmen River then to Rathtrevor… where I joined them.


The beach stretches forever and the water was warm. We played on the beach for a couple hours then hit Parksville.  Great vibe…like a surf/beach town for people that grew up directly knowing the Beach Boys.  Not their music, but actually lived in the 60s and KNEW them.  Now they are retired but still living the Surf City dream.


Hitting the highways of Vancouver Island demands a soundtrack… and the Purple Tour-van only lets me do FM radio and CDs.  The thing about CDs is that I’ve stopped buying them, so my collection of records that I LOVE kinda ends in the mid-ish 2000s (save for a small selection of bands that still send the odd CD to the radio station).  No problem.

The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Hot Wat Music – Caution
Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth
Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star 4 (part 1)
Blink 182 – Enema of the State
Tool – Aenema
Band of Horses – Everything All The Time

The Hold Steady record in particular I was feeling.  Sounded so good cranked in the lake country.  Many of the songs take me back to the first yet I met Coral and there is a special place in my heart for the whole record.  No bad songs… one I have for you today is this jam which I send out to all people enjoying summer hard on Vancouver Island, the best Island.

The Hold Steady – “Massive Nights”

Download MP3 >> theholdsteady_massivenights

Go with yourself.

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Check out my Ticket Frame

Posted in history 101, life or something like it, music, neat-O gang, tagged , , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 10 Comments »


I don’t have the statistics, but I’d reckon close to 93% of concert goers keeps some of their ticket stubs.  That is totally made up science…but it does seem that most people that care about music, collect something, anything, that has to do with the experience.

I have a drawer in a hall closet.  It used to be a drawer in my bedside table.  I started filling this drawer with nic-naks at a young age.  One of the things casually thrown in there was concert and sporting tickets.  Not all of them… but many of them.  I am glad I did that.

Over the years and moves… the drawer came and was added to.  When Coral and I moved in together, my childhood bedside table when the way of the majestic Dodo Bird for something more grownup.  The drawer lives, but now in a closet.  And still the concert tickets stubs drifted there.

The nature of my work means I’ve been to a lot of shows.  Many I did not get tickets stubs for.  Many concerts were club shows. No ticket stub.  Early in my life, my friend Chris’ Dad worked for the Pacific Coliseum and snuck us into Coliseum and Forum shows. No ticket stub.  But I did find many great stubs.  Like the above two.  my first and third “big kid” rocks shows ever.

I found a ticket stub for the day I found out Coral was pregnant.  Coral and I had only lived together for a couple months at our apartment on Yates.  That night I was to host a group of radio winners in the Zone’s suit at the arena for the Monster Truck Spectacular!

After work I took the Zone car home and asked Coral to meet me on Yates as we’d have to head direct to the arena.

When I pulled up to Yates she was standing on the corner crying. I asked her what’s up?  We have to go to Monster Trucks RIGHT NOW!  She said, “I’m pregnant.”

Whoa.

Well… get your shit together, we got monster trucks to do.  And we celebrated…at monster trucks.  And that ticket stub is a pretty important important relic in the story of Madelyn’s life.

Now, what to do with all these stubs?

Coral’s sister Alyx stuck a bunch to a cork board and made a collage…off to Michaels and $50 late, I had a sweet shadow box.

I dug through all my piles of ticket stubs.  Found a criminally small amount to frame and got all Pinterest.  Here is my finished project.  But I really could have made like 4 of them… so many GOOD stubs.  The best part of the project was going through all the memories.  It is a very personal project so however your frame turns out, it’ll be awesome and you’ll be happy with it.


I put a select few concert buttons there too…. a Rifflandia 3 wrist band… and because its a shadow box and there is a ledge, a Sasquatch 2009 schedule.  Neat.

I also saw at Michaels a concert T-shirt frame? O RLY?  hmmmm

Go with yourself.

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Listen to NEW @deadmau5

Posted in music, tagged , on August 7, 2012| 2 Comments »


As alternative music continues to slide to the margins…we get some Electronic Dance Music from Deadmau5 showing up on KROQ in LA, LIVE in San Fran and on the modern rockers in Alberta, Sonic and X.

I can already forecast a pushback when the Zone features this jam (and I don’t expect it right now to be an add, but you never know)…but the song is catchy and fun so if for anything, stream it here.  Deadmau5 featuring Mr. Gerrard Way of My Chemical Romance fame.

Deadmau5 feat. Gerrard Way – “Professional Griefers”

What do you think?  Too EDM for the Zone?  Maybe a direction you’re excited to go?

Go with yourself.

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Listen to NEW @TeamMumfordSons

Posted in music on August 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »


Whoa… back from holiday. And I do have a adventures to talk about…but first!  NEW Mumford and Sons.

New record is called Babel and it will be a massive, massive out on September 25th.  First single is “I Will Wait.”  First couple listens here at Zone HQ…if you like Mumford, you should easily be able to get behind this cut.  Here we go.

Mumford and Sons – “I Will Wait”

Go with yourself.

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The Cave Bros.

Posted in music, tagged on July 19, 2012| 7 Comments »


Hit the Cave Singers show last night.  I am so happy Michelle was on me to rally.

I want to start by saying…there were a lot of drunk girls there.  A lot.  Alyx, Michelle, Two and I all looked at each other and thought, this is abnormal. Now, if I were a younger, single, hipper, bro-man, this would have been prime hunting grounds.  But now I am a married Dad and its like, “really, bumping into me boobs first, again! ugh…put more clothes on, your Dad would be so upset dressed like that… oh I can’t stay mad at you hipster girl with an arm tattoo of feathers, I just can’t.”  One of them spilled beer on Two… so there’s that.

I went to the Melvins on Monday with Jason Lamb, considerably less women.  Maybe Jason’s wife?  Kim? Heather? and then 40 year old men in black (or my case, wearing running shoes).

The show was pretty good. I went with Alyx and we figured we have now seen Cave Singers 3 times!  The set had bon energy and drunk girls like to boogie. Lots of dancing and clapping. Festive.  I think the crowd was big by Cave Singer standards because they genuinely seemed excited on the energy.  That was nice.  The guitar guy sat on a stool for the whole show, maybe he was less amped on the crowd? But the lead singer was engaged.

The Cave Singers – “Swim Club”

Download MP3 >> Cave Singers – Swim Club

There was no merch station so I couldn’t buy a t-shirt.  Coral seems to think I already have one.  Oh man, my brain is slowing down quicker than I thought it would.

This is the only photographic evidence I was at the show.

Looks like a photoshop to me.

Go with yourself.

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Fuzzy wuzzy was a Alberta Cross, Baroness and JEFF the Brotherhood!

Posted in music, tagged , , on July 18, 2012| 1 Comment »


Almost an overload of new music today.  Listening to so much good stuff that sorting out and finding homes for it could be a challenge.

Today’s blog post has some guitar rock, some fuzz, some quality stuff.

First up… Alberta Cross.  I was convinced these bros were Canadian… ALBERTA! But the principle is a Swede living in Brooklyn.  of course.

Bossman Johnny sent me a link to the song “ATX.”

Alberta Cross – “ATX”

Download MP3 >> Alberta Cross – ATX

Catchy, guitar rocker.


Zone writer Caleb turned me on to this Southern sludge metal band Baroness.  A band of grown-ups, with kids and life and responsibilities now living in Philadelphia. Their new double album Yellow and Green was just Best New Music’d by Pitchfork and the songs I’ve heard are mighty.

Baroness – “Take My Bones Away”

Download MP3 >> Baroness – Take My Bones Away

I don’t listen to a ton of metal these days… but when I listen to hard rock I prefer the super fuzz.  And some boogie.  And a band that borrows a name from a GI Joe smoke show.

Everything I’ve heard from Baroness so far is quality.  This might have to be a record I invest in.

The record review talks about wanting to listen to the double record in its entirety… and though it may be hard to get Coral onside during our family road trip, I imagine there will be a time, late, when Coral will go to sleep and I’ll be cruising over the Rockies or across the Plains and I’ll get to hit play on this album.


Oh.Ma.Gawd…. another post about fuzz rock band.  I know.  But I can’t get enough of this shit right now.  And produced by The Black Key’s Dan Auerbach… how could I not hit play on Nashville’s JEFF The Brotherhood.

Two interesting things happened to me today that made this record pop out to me in the sea of internet nonsense…

01) During our music meeting today at The Zone I said, “rock and roll should be made by ugly people.”  And JEFF the Brotherhood are beautifully ugly. I see the pictures and graphics of this band and think, I like these guys.

02) I called Coral the sweetest Peach today.  Who says that?  People sick in the brain, that’s who…  then I hit go! on the song “Leave Me Out” from their album Hypnotic Nights… first line… “Pretty as peach…”

whoa.

JEFF the Brotherhood – “Leave Me Out”

Download MP3 >> Jeff the Brotherhood – Leave Me Out

Now I’ll always think of Coral when I hear this song which will quickly make it a favourite.  I’ll slot this album into my playlist with Cloud Nothings, Japandroids and classic Dinosaur Jr… Fuzzy, poppy… Pitchfork compared them a bit to Weezer.  Yeah, maybe.  Its got the hooks and simple sing-song rhymes.

That’s that.

Go with yourself.

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New @MotherMother single is sick shit!

Posted in music, tagged on July 17, 2012| 2 Comments »


I know what you’re thinking… how can “sick shit” ever be good?  I don’t know either.  It actually sounds rather horrible.

BUT the new Mother Mother single is pretty magical.  Its getting ridiculous how every single Mother Mother song is so bloody catchy.  One listen of the song “Let’s Fall In Love” and you’ll be singing along.  Jenkies!

Mother Mother – “Let’s Fall In Love”

New Mother Mother record will be called The Sticks, its due in the fall. MM plays Rifflandia in September and yeah, Mother Mother is pretty much great.

The end.

Go with yourself.

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No wish, no prize

Posted in music, Wedding on July 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »


On Saturday I DJ’d a wedding in Victoria at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.  Ryan and Emily are a couple from Vancouver that made the voyage to our Island village to celebrate.  Ryan happens to be a composer and so during the reception he had a couple performers jam out a song he made for his new bride.  Have a listen…

An Ode to Emily: Frustrated Landscapes

by Ryan Trew
Flute: Crystal Yang
Piano: Matty Poon

Part 1 (with jibber jabber at the start)

Download MP3 >> Ode To Emily Part 1

Part 2

Download MP3>> Ode To Emily Part 2

Part 3

Download MP3 >> Ode To Emily Part 3

The song and little concert was such a fun and unique moment in the wedding.  I asked Emily if I could share it on my blog and I am happy she said yes.  Some classical music MP3s on the old MAS Blog.  Good times.

Here is a picture of Madelyn helping me.  On Saturday, I hooked the bike trailer up to the bike and took Maddy along as I ran errands for the wedding DJing.  We stopped by a venue to scope out how to set up for a future wedding and had to rent lights.  She was a great assistant loading the lights into the back of the bike trailer.

Good times… Go with yourself.

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Listen to new @BlocParty and @TheKillers

Posted in music, tagged , on July 11, 2012| 1 Comment »


Summer is raging in Victoria.  Busy as ever with work… and Coral and I are planning on taking Mads on a road trip to Alberta.  Good thing there is an oil tanker FULL of new music.

New Bloc Party rolled off the assembly line yesterday.  The song is called “Octopus” and you’ll find it on their August 21st release, Four.  When I got home last night, I downloaded the song and it immediately got me jazzed on their 2005 record Silent Alarm…which to this day is still an amazing record. I like Bloc Party.

Bloc Party – “Octopus”

***


The problem with too much good new music (I know… #HipsterProblems too much good new music?) is that it is hard to focus on any one song or record in the way you might have in the olden days.  Its like weekly, or even daily, I get a few new songs across the desk or computer.  Diving in and really enjoying music can be hard.  I am looking forward to some playlists and long drives to soak it in.

The Killers are back with an album on September 18th… also their forth, called Battle Born.  The first single is called “Runaways” and the style is taking you back to Sam’s Town-esque Killers.  What did Pretty Much Amazing say….

“If you ever liked The Killers’ unabashed brand of escapism, “Runaways” won’t disappoint.”

The Killers – “Runaways”
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That’s it for now friends.

Go with yourself.

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