“Its a cartoon band and the new song is epic. The opening riffs will get you so fired up.”
Dethklok – “I Ejaculate Fire”
Happy Friday friends… I’ll be at Veneto tonight laying down chillwave, indie rock and oldies. Sunday I’ll be rolling red hot when my friend Paul comes to town with Amy. LOOK OUT!
I had a very wonderful dream last night. Coral and I were in the desert for some reason… it had to do with work I guess. And it turned out to be my birthday… so Coral said, “well, we should drive to Las Vegas!”
We rolled into town and it was raining. We had enough money for a hotel room and $80 US cash. We went to that place on the strip that sells $1 Michalobes and $1 margaritas and bought $80 worth and then got really drunk and walked around in the rain.
Imagine Dragons put out a really solid EP. But the record leaves me feeling a little flat. Its basically the EP, so that is good… but the songs they added, do not improve the experience at all. One song… at first listen was very sappy. But it is also romantic and I thought it might make a good first dance song at a wedding if you wanted something a little different.
I bought a hat the other day. Actually I bought two. I went to the hat shop to get a vintage White Sox hat, but they didn’t have my size. So logically, it made sense to buy two different hats. The A’s as seen above and a Cardinals.
Ever since Moneyball, I’ve been jiving on the A’s. Also Coquitlam’s little league colours used to be A’s. Or it was back in the day when I was a little leaguer.
Cardinals is a hat I’ve had on my list for some time. Alyx got me a gift card at Christmas and I knew straight away I wanted a Cards hat. But they were always out so I settled on the Nationals. Sunday they had Cardinals hats in my size and a buy one, get one half price so i went… OK. Still need that White Sox cap, and an Orioles maybe.
Listen to me, jawing on about baseball hats. Hey, I just really like baseball hats. As a kid I always rocked a baseball hat. I wore them out! I remember having Expos, Cardinals, Dodgers… maybe a Mariners hat in the mix. Lately, they bring me joy. “Stuff’ is not a good way to bring joy, I know this, but these hats do for now.
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Divine Fits… new music from Spoon’s Britt Daniels with Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) and some other guy…Sam Brown! (New Bomb Turks).
Groovy stuff. Sounds like a weirdo Spoon record. And that is good to my ear.
And hey… they call this band “Canadian Content.” ORLY? The radio programmer in my just had a semi.
Divine Fits – “My Love Is Real”
I can really get into this. I love Spoon, Handsome Furs AND Wolf Parade. Dan Boeckner grew up in Lake Cowichan!
and yeah, Sam is from Ohio or something, good for him.
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Something kinda chillwave-ish… new Wild Nothings. Very pretty and easy listeningy. I’ll be adding this to the set list at Veneto. I do need to work on playing guitar. I’ve let that fall by the wayside. I am pretty sure if I ever make guitar music it will be fuzzy. But sometimes I listen to chillwave and think… awww, I like it so much I should try to learn to make that! Maaaaaannnn, I just got no skills at creating music, no matter how much I say I am going to try.
Coral follows the baby Followill Jared on twitter. Coral and her sister are fans of Kings of Leon (who am I kidding, I am too d’awwwww). Coral noticed that Jared was always getting up to hijinks with some dude in a band called MONA. They are friends. Neat. Fast forward to Thursday and Jon Williams is reading NME. Sees that Jared has created a solo project with…. the dude from MONA.
The song sounds good. but I never thought of the lyrics till I read that NME article. Now I am conflicted….the song has some tragic lyrics that give you the heebeejeebees coming from spoiled brat NYC rockstars. But I guess if you live in a world where women hand out BJs… and you subscribe to the mantra, write what you know… then I guess we got to forgive the guys.
Smoke and Jackal – “No Tell”
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I think if I learn how to use the maschine…my first cover song will be “No Tell.” But it will be really sad coming from me.
The march to Rifflandia V continues… September 13-16th, the city will be buzzing on rock, electronic, hip-hop… and all the spaces in between. Family of the Year will be on the Side-Stage on Saturday fairly early in the day. Make a point to hit it.
We’ve been jamming on their sound around thew radio station a bit. After the bands were announced, Bossman Johnny flew on the youtuber machine and found a few quality tracks. One of the songs from this Los Angeles band that we like at The Zone is called “Diversity.”
I love Imagine Dragons. Its not an everyone fave at the Zone brain trust, but the ep Continued Silence is pretty special to my ear.
The single “It’s Time” is a strong modern rocker. The first song on the ep gets a little dirtier and aggressive. Reminds me a little of Awolnation’s “Sail.” The Las Vegas band is popular with some of the servers at Veneto so I’ve been going to the record a lot for the last month or two.
This song gets drilled into my head all the time. For the past couple days I couldn’t place the melody I was singing in the shower then today! BOOM, “Radioactive!” What a relief when you get that earworm out of your brain..oh man, I hope it didn’t lay any eggs! Ear Worms can do that you know…
This morning, when I HAD to get this song out of my head I went on Youtube. In the comments it seemed like some band spammed it with a link to their video. I never click on those, but the band was called We Barbarians. I judge bands all the time based on superficial shit like band name and appearance. We Barbarians just sounded cool so I clicked.
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I ended up kinda like the song. Simple, clean sounding. Weirdly familiar… maybe Alt Nation plays We Barbarians? or someone on Facebook sent me a link in the past? I can’t remember.
The song isn’t new… last summer. And clearly did not capture the mainstream attention as well, they haven’t become stars yet, but the song is nice. Maybe it was overlooked, maybe they’ll keep working hard and it’ll happen for them.
Lots of new music to check out… might even have some thoughts on new Bloc Party later or tomorrow… we’ll see if I can pull myself away from Rome Total War for 5 seconds to write tonight.
Go with yourself.
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Well that was interesting. Testing out some new equipment last night… was thinking that while I work, I’d like to test it out with some Four Tet. The computer I was on had no Four Tet so off to the iTunes store to grab a song. While I was there I noticed that he released a brand new record that night! How serendipitous. Usually you read stories and reviews and tweets. I must have missed the articles, or be following the wrong folks, or I’m the only one that cares.
Four Tet has his own record label and his new record, Pink, collects a bunch of vinyl only releases from his label over the past year.
Four Tet – “128 Harps”
Really pleasant and easy sounds to listen to while working.
The group has an interesting story. The name is based on a a character from an old novel which I have never read. The principle members were in a band that seemed like that were reaching success. The group was called Iglu & Harley and in 2010 they had the chance to play Coachella. But something happened and the band dissolved. I believe they quote, “dissolved due to a creative clash.”
BUT, Simon Katz and singer Sam Martin stayed with it and formed a new band… and here we are.
I got a text from Simon at the Veneto today saying the self-titled EP is fantastic. The single we’re featuring on the Zone is called “We Come Running.”
I was walking around Edmonton’s Blackbyrd Record store on Whyte the week Purity Ring‘s record Shrines came out. The clerk was playing it and I liked hearing the album while shopping. I wanted to get the record then, but they hadn’t received stock. Back home in Victoria, I finally made it down to Ditch for my latest album.
Beautiful sounding and looking record. Its a blue-ish marble vinyl with songs that I think are basically about lead singer Megan James’ vagina? Sure.
Lots of good stuff available on the internet as a free download, if your record player is in the shop, download this jam, the latest single “Fineshrine.”
Frightened Rabbit continues to be one of my favourite bands. The Scottish emotive types have a new ep in September called State Hospital. 4 songs and a single called… “State Hospital.”
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?
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.
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
