Posted in music, tagged Bad Suns, Vagrant Records on June 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »
So-Cal’s Bad Suns crushed it when they were in Victoria to support The 1975 and Sir Sly at Sugar Nightclub. The Vagrant Records band will put out their debut album Language & Perspective on June 24th. The band posted another listen off the record today. A song called “We Move Like The Ocean.”
The song doesn’t crack like that first single “Cardiac Arrest.” “We Move Like The Ocean” is a lighter (or iPhone light app) in the air slow jam with an REM-esque post-rock guitar jangle.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Sylvan Esso on May 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Today’s minor obsession comes courtesy of North Carolina duo Sylvan Esso. Sylvan Esso is Amelia Meath and Nicholas Sanborn.
I first hit play on the song “Coffee” because I liked the title. The track is completely enchanting. Driving around listening to Blog Radio on Sirius the other day and the cut popped up and I was back in love.
Touring with tUnE-yArDs right now…maybe we already missed the show? There doesn’t seem to be anything listed for the Pacific Northwest on their tour page.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, radio, tagged Band of Skulls on May 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Photo: Webmeister Bud
How good was Band of Skulls on Thursday, May 29th? The British blues rockers came, saw, and conquered a sold out Sugar Nightclub in Victoria.
The set came out swinging with Himilayan giants “Asleep at the Wheel” and the title cut from their third record. So many huge anthems and high energy sizzlers off the hop. The settled in about two-thirds of the way before ultimately climaxing with modern rock radio banger “Hoochie Coochie.”
They came back out with an encore of “Sweet Sour,” “Light of the Morning,” and “Death By Diamonds and Pearls.” Massive.
Before the show, Dylan Willows picked up the band in The Zone’s Summer Civic and had cameras rolling (video coming soon) for a casual Q &A before handing them off to me back at the radio factory. Band of Skulls performed a could songs live on the radio.
Please note the picture of Russell and I being best friends.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged The Coppertone on May 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Friend of the blog, Webmeister Bud sent over the new music from Ontario’s The Coppertone. Pretty darn solid. He was reading about the woman named Red on Alan Cross’ site and loved it. AC called her Canada’s female Jack White. But maybe Jack White is America’s Coppertone? Either way, I love her music. Here are a couple to check out.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Dan Auerbach, Lana Del Rey, STINT on May 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Lana Del Rey’s “West Coast” is finding a home on alternative radio with its dark and moody Dan Auerbachness.
LA producer STINT brightened up the song.
He talks about the song, “I really like it when you can completely flip the production of a track upside down, and still have it make sense with the lyrics. I thought Dan Auerbach did an amazing job on the original. It’s smokey, classy, and a bit dark… It’s like a fine scotch you sip real slow. But I tried to look at the song from a totally different angle, and when I stripped everything but the vocals away, I found a really innocent love song. Not like an overly romantic love song… more like that tingly feeling you get in your stomach when you’re walking home from an amazing first date. Or those brief moments every once in a while when you forget about any shitty stuff going on in your life and you just feel light. That’s what this remix sounds like to me.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in life or something like it, music, tagged Band of Skulls, Lana Del Rey, Power to Be, The Black Keys on May 27, 2014| 2 Comments »
Zach hugging me after we completed “The Wall” photo: E/A Photography – Victoria
Wrapped an amazing weekend in Victoria. Saturday was the Vikings exhibition at the Royal BC Museum, DeadBeetz Food truck (they’ll be Rock Festivals around Victoria, so hit it…wow) then I DJ’d a wedding. Sunday was the Power To Be: Power to Play Adventure Race.
Team Zone was there… Team #32…and we came in 32nd place. Neat. But we raised a bunch of money for the kids, and we had fun.
Back to the grind at the radio factory and it’s another busy one.
Band of Skulls will be in Victoria on Thursday for a sold out show at Sugar. It’s an early concert, doors at 7 PM.
I saw this great remix of BOS’s latest single “Hoochie Coochie” done by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
Look for that remix on the Hoochie Coochie ep on July 27th.
***
Looking forward to Disney’s Maleficent. According to Buzzfeed Angelina Jolie personally picked Lana Del Rey to cover “Once Upon a Dream.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Ben Howard, James Bay, Tove Lo on May 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
My friend Misty posted this story the other day about a guy sailing around on a 50-year-old wooden sailboat that he restored.
Check out Twenty-Eight Feet.
The short documentary features a song by Ben Howard called “Old Pine.”
“Hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags. I come to know that memories were the best things you ever had.”
Ben is in the studio working on new music, but it was nice to dive back into this older cut. great camping song.
As weather turns to summer on Vancouver Island, I think about camping, hiking and beach vacations and this song is the soundtrack.
***
Another British singer-songwriter fellow I came across today… James Bay. Don’t judge me, I clicked on his song today because his name is the same as a neighbourhood of Victoria. True story.
“Songwriting is difficult. There’s this little critic in my head, and all he ever says is “no, no, no, no, no.” Sometimes, (if I’m lucky) he says “maybe”, and once in a long while, he’ll say “yeah, alright.” That gets really frustrating, really fast.”
***
Finally… we travel to Sweden and the alt-pop of Tove Lo.
Ebba Nilsson performs her style of music under the banner Tove Lo. Her record Truth Serum came out in march and the song “Habit” is rising. A full length album will come later this year from island Records.
Talking to Billboard Tove Lo says of her breakup anthem, “At first I didn’t want to write something bad. But, when it was all over, being in that state of mind … I need to use that when I write. I can’t not.”
Elle explores the success of her song about heart-ache and discovers she was a grunge kid growing up. Hey Lo, me too!
“Lo cites Nirvana and Courtney Love’s Hole as early inspirations. As a teen she was immersed in grunge culture, her hair dyed black. She has a tattoo of a cartoon-like girl harnessed to the back of a bumble bee inked along her left upper arm and says she only owns two pairs of shoes: Dockers sneakers and Candies.”
Elle describes the style of songwriter and her contemporaries, Robyn, Icona Pop, Mo, Lykki Li, as “Swedish femme pop.”
The music video is pretty choice.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Brody Dalle, JPNSGRLS, Manchester Orchestra, White Lung on May 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Here are a few new songs showing up this week on The Zone for you to put an ear out for.
Ms. Brody Dalle has a new record out now called Diploid Love. She’ll be in Vancouver for a show on Friday, May 23rd at Venue. My homeboy Jon Williams will have an interview so maybe there will be some audio for you next week.
Brody Dalle talks to the Toronto Star about caravanning a tour with husband, Queens of the Stone Age principle, Josh Homme, their kids, and their bands!
“ We get a bus and we’re the family bus. We’re the Hommes. It’s exhausting, but it’s awesome. I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s no time off. Get up at 6 a.m., do the family thing until sound check, play a show, go out afterward, get up at 6 a.m. It’s the best thing ever. It’s everything.”
Fun song, good energy, love the message!
***
Manchester Orchestra put out a big, meat-and-potatoes rock record called Cope. Chris Freeman talking to the Dallas Observer talks about the bands evolving hard rock sound.
“It is a completely different band now than when we first started. We changed members and we just started getting heavier and heavier. We grew as songwriters and musicians. We just sort of began to hone our craft very well. The sound evolves on each album.”
***
A couple Vancouver rock and rollers for you to end the post. Vancouver’s White Lung. Hard working punk rock. We’ve had the chance to see them in Victoria a few times. The most recent time that I can remember was when they opened for Fucked Up as part of Rifflandia.
So.Much.Hype….looking forward to their album Deep Fantasy.
New song is called “Face Down.”
***
JPNGRLS are another Vancouver rock band. Kind of a bratty style the reminds me of Hollerado or PUP. Had the chance to meet them when they came to Victoria in March to open for Mounties at Sugar Nightclub.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Bend Sinister on May 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
I opened Boitano’s mail today which I know is a federal offence…but I was hoping it was the new Current Swell vinyl. It was not, but I’m not even mad because it was the tUnE-yArDs record.
I received an email today from the folks repping Vancouver’s Bend Sinister to have a listen to their album Animals. The first cut off the record is the epic anthem “Best of You.”
Huge song.
The single is a track called “You Remind Me.”
The song is a bit of slow build for me, but by the end I was hooked.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, tagged Ed Sheeran, John Legend, Lee Brice on May 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The first dance is an important part of almost all weddings. Here are three new songs that I’ve come across that might fit perfectly for your wedding.
John Legend – “All of Me”
“All of Me” is a single from John Legend’s forth record, Love in the Future. The song was written as a dedication to John’s wife. A beautiful ballad that was released to radio last year, but burned low and slow until finally reaching number one in May. Knocking off another exceptionally popular wedding song, Pharrell’s “Happy.” (Pharrell’s “Happy” is one of the more popular Grand Entrance songs of the season)
The music video is pretty sexy too.
Ed Sheeran – “One”
The British wonder had the number one song on iTunes the other day. His album X (pronounced multiply) comes out on June 23rd. “One” is the first cut off the record and the first song Ed wrote for the album. The song was written about his now ex-girlfriend Alice. I’d presume during happier times.
OK, we’ll have to suspend the bad mojo to make this song fit as a first dance cut.
Lee Brice – “I Don’t Dance”
Lee Brice straight up wrote a first dance song. But then country artists tend to say what they mean and mean what they say. His record label tagged the song #wedding and #firstdance on soundcloud. The music video is basically a wedding infomercial.
The song is the title track to his upcoming record.
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 