I Break Horses

Wow, it's been a while. I've been busy, and I'm sure the three of you have been busy. After all, it's the summer. You're either working or lounging. In either case, you don't want to be sitting on the computer reading.

But enough with excuses. I've been lazy, and that's the real reason I haven't posted in months...and months. I'm going to give this another go, so bare with me.

I'll do concert reviews when I go, which isn't often. Mostly however, I'll just post cool videos I come across as I find them. I'll still write thoughts on music. The blog will now incorporate lots of smaller posts instead of the odd larger one.

So without further hesitation, I bring you: I Break Horses.

I Break Horses is a Swedish band made up of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck. They met on a forum for hypochondriacs and have been making music together ever since. Their debut album is due out this fall. If you like techno, pop, indie-ish sounding music, than give it a try.

Until then, listen to this song and interesting video that accompanies it:

I Break Horses - Hearts

Live and in living colour: DFA 1979

I've got work to do, but these are much more interesting. Death From Above 1979 returned this weekend after a five year hiatus to play Coachella. Here's some Little Girl/Blood On Our Hands for you guys.

The boys are back and as good as ever. Oh, the things I would do to see this band live.

Also, while i'm here, this is the Decemberists performance on Jimmy Kimmel last week. They played their newest single "This is why we Fight."

Enjoy.

Shad ain't bad

So last week I switched things up again. You’ve heard from my folk side, my acoustic side, and my Ska side. Now the three of you are going to get a little funky and talk about hip-hop.

I haven’t always been the biggest hip-hop fan. I’ll be the first admit it. When I was younger in my “these people are useless hacks” phase I wouldn’t even give a song with a hip-hop beat. Thankfully I’ve moved on from that phase and only think that way about pop music now. Phew!

Anyways, last Sunday night I had the pleasure of seeing Canadian hip-hop sensation and Juno winner Shad in concert. Opening acts Keys and Krates as well as local act Black Majic Movement both did a good job of setting the stage for the evening, but there’s no question it was the headliner that stole the show.

Not only did Shad play many of his popular hits, but his a cappella versions of songs mixed with his freestyle made the concert a truly unique experience. People were waving their hands, bopping their hands, and dancing to Shad’s unique and high energy beats.

If you’re familiar with Shad, you know that it isn’t his beats that bring in the fans. His lyrics are second to none in the hip-hop community as he easily executive intricate, poetic, and though provoking verses with ease.

If you’re even slightly a fan of hip-hop, get to your nearest Shad show immediately. Also, happy Record Store Day to all you collectors out there, lots of cool stuff came out yesterday.

Below are a few Shad videos. Enjoy:

Life of the Party

I’ve got a confession to make. I have a musical love which I’ve hidden from all of you…and by all of you I mean all three of you that read my blog.

I love ska music. I can’t explain it. The sound of the music is completely different from acoustic, folk, or indie, but I love it. Perhaps it’s the upbeat tempo or the feel good vibe it gives off, I’m not really sure.

As part of Juno Fest, I had the immense pleasure of seeing Canada’s most prominent ska band, The Planet Smashers, along with openers The Johnstones and Saint Alvia.

The three bands put on an entertaining show, all bringing a different but enjoyable sound to the stage.

Saint Alvia opened the night. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. As The Saint Alvia Cartel I had enjoyed their singles, but never divulged deeper. Don’t Wanna Wait Forever and Blonde Kryptonite were both on my playlist in the summer of ’08. Safe to say, the band had definitely stepped away from the feel good pop punk of their previous incarnate.

The band had a darker sound with heavy guitars and less melodic vocals, but they pulled it off nicely. If I have one gripe with the show, it’s that Saint Alvia really didn’t fit the feel of the night. Ska music is high tempo and upbeat, neither of which describe Saint Alvia.

The goofy, funny, and entertaining Johnstones were up next and got the crowd hyped. People were skanking, the dance not the life choice, to the beat of the music and the young crowd thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then came The Planet Smashers. The ska veterans produced a high energy, well paced show that the fans in attendance went nuts for. They played many fan favourites such as Life of the Party, Super Orgy Porno Party, and the one that sent the crowd into a frenzy, Surfin if Tofino.

If you like ska, or a good time, see The Planet Smashers at your earliest convenience. Below are two videos of the band. Enjoy

The Basia Experience

I’m back, finally. I know it’s been forever and all three of you have been distraught wondering about the status of my existence.

Last week I attended a concert in Guelph, Ont. that featured one of the most prominent folk artists not only in Ontario, but in Canada. Basia Bulat performed at the Dublin Street United Church for about 200 fans in what was an intimate but energetic show.

Waiting outside a church for a concert is an odd experience. I'm not a prominent church goer by any means, but seeing a bunch of "indie" kids co-mingling with people reaching retirement over a particular musician was kind of surreal.

Basia performed many crowd favourites off of her two albums, Heart of my Own and Oh, My Darling including my personal favourites Go On, Run, and If Only You. She also performed new songs, as well as a cover of an old Polish song during the encore.

She was as cute, witty, and intelligent during her banter as you would expect. Her genuine smile, as well as her joy to be in Guelph invigorated the crowd that was rather mute during the opening act.

For fans of acoustic performances, folk, “indie” (whatever that is), or country, Basia Bulat is likely right up your alley.

Her live vocals were nearly perfect and her backing band only added to the entertainment with their large smiles and professional musicianship. The show taking place in a dimly lit church only added to the feel. If you ever get a chance to attend a concert in a church, I strongly advise doing so.

Enough from me, here’s Basia. Here’s a live performance of Basia by herself for CBC Radio One. Below that is a performance for Q TV of Run.

Copyright? Downloading? Remixing? Oh my....

So, I started watching this extremely interesting documentary “rip! A Remix Manifesto” that deals with copyright laws over the last 10 years, and more specifically dealing with the remixing and mashing-up of music. I’m finding it quite compelling and think that most music fans (and really, who doesn’t like music) will find it interesting as well.

The documentary deals with who owns the copyrights to the remixed songs, and whether or not the original artists should be compensated.

To be more specific, the documentary focuses on remix guru and ultra-talented mash-up sensation Girl Talk. The film stated that at $2500 per infringement, with some of Girl Talk’s songs featuring up to 25 pieces of owned material, his last album would have cost in excess of $4 million just in copyright.

The film is both a parody and critique on the current copyright laws, and features many of the teenagers who have been charged with illegally downloading music.

It’s a fun documentary and anyone who is interested in the topic of copyright or illegal downloading should give it a watch.

With that being said, here is a few samples of Girl Talk’s work. You may notice a song or two….

Lelia Lelia Lelia

Today’s blog is reserved for the very interesting and complex Lelia Broussard. Her mystery doesn’t lie in the music, although she does put an intriguing twist on the formulaic female pop singer.

Broussard is a Lousiana native that is doing everything on her own. And by everything, I mean everything. She records albums, and tours the United States solely on the money she makes off of her albums and her website. No record labels, no tour sponsors, nothing.

I stumbled across her cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” on Exclaim.ca (have I plugged them enough yet?) and loved it so much I decided to divulge deeper into her collection, and safe to say, she’s awesome.

She is currently in the running to be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and, in my humble opinion, you should vote for her! http://www.rollingstone.com/choosethecover

Her album, Masquerade, is a really fun pop album, with just a hint of dangerous blues that sets a fun tone throughout.

Below is the music video for the album’s really lovable first single “Satellite.” At the bottom is an acoustic version of “Rosie” that I fell in love with as soon as I heard it.

Satellite

Rosey

Love Vigilantes

I know I’ve pushed The Decemberists album to the point you probably think I’m working for them. I’m not, I promise. This will be the last plug for the recent album for a while. I wrote a review of the album for www.Niagara musicscene.com and am going to post the link here, along with links to my other two CD reviews.

Armistice:

http://niagaramusicscene.com/view_articles.php?id=109

Northern Primitive

http://niagaramusicscene.com/view_articles.php?id=107

Decemberists

http://niagaramusicscene.com/view_articles.php?id=104

Not that I’m done cheap plugging my work, let’s get back to the music.

First, I should tell you about the wonderful site where I found this band. I was wasting time on www.Stumbleupon.com the other day (amazing site by the way. If you’re looking to waste an hour or two, Stumble is for you) and I came across the site www.8tracks.com .

The site is pretty simple: people put together playlists for every mood, weather pattern, emotion, etc. There are playlists for good moods, bad moods, happy days, sad days, breakups, reunions, etc. Essentially whatever you’re looking for, they have it.

So anyways, I was listening to an “indie” acoustic playlist and came across the artist Iron & Wine. I had heard of them before, but never really got into it. And then I heard Love Vigilantes. What a song! Some of you might just say it’s another acoustic ballad with a soft voice, but I’m a sucker for them so I loved it.

Try this on for size:

And the award goes to.....

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I posted here. A crazy week it’s been.

Anyways, onto the important topic at hand: The Grammy’s. The standouts for myself were the awesome performance of Mumford and Sons along with the Avett Brothers (Bob Dylan, you get an A for effort…) and the wonderful performances by everyone’s favourite Montreal indie-rockers Arcade Fire.

Not only did Arcade Fire perform two songs off their most recent release, The Suburbs, but they also won the highly prestigious album of the year award. I think lead singer Win Butler’s acceptance speech said it best: “We’re going to play another song for you guys because we like music.”

It was perfect. It wasn’t because they had to. It wasn’t because they were contractually obligated to. They just like music. It was a simple message with heart-warming undertones.

This isn’t to say the rest of the show wasn’t entertaining. Beiber’s dancing with Usher was entertaining and the rap skills of Will Smith’s son were impressive, but at the end of the day these are music awards.

With that being said, today’s post is dedicated to the Grammy winners. Below is the performance by Mumford and Sons, The Avett Brothers, and what’s left of Mr. Dylan, as well as the acceptance speech and second song by Arcade Fire.

Enjoy

- SS

By the nape of your neck

After spending an hour or so writing my own obituary (yes, you read that correctly), I think it’s time to have a little fun.

The other day I promised a post about the folk-rock group The Decemberists, so here it is.

I got into this band later than most. It was after the much acclaimed Picaresque and more during The Crane Wife era. I really fell in love with that album during university and listened to it on repeat, much to the dismay of the surrounding residents.

My love for the band was reignited after hearing their most recent effort, The King is Dead. The album is an absolute must own if you are into that indie folk-rock style music. It’s full of catchy hooks while remaining true to their folk roots. It is a much heavier album than their last two, but the lyrics remain true to their style with Colin Meloy’s always inspiring intellect and diction shining bright.

It also doesn’t hurt that the band recruited folk living legend Gillian Welch to sing backup vocals throughout the album. Some might see it as a weak attempt to keep their folk fan base, but I thought it was a nice touch.

Without further adieu, here are a few of my favourites off the new album. I also included a live performance of one of my favourite Gillian Welch tunes.

Enjoy

- SS

Black and yellow, black and yellow

Unless you live under a rock, you know that today is Super Bowl Sunday. For football fans, it’s the biggest day of the year.

Usually I wouldn’t be excited. I’m not a particularly big football fan, but I do love the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the teams competing for the prestigious Lombardi Trophy.

So with that in mind, let’s give a listen to Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa’s Black and Yellow featuring T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, and Juicy J.

I suppose for fairness sake I should post Lil Wayne’s Green and Yellow, but that’s not happening.

Yesterday I posted an ode to the White Stripes after the announcement that they had officially broken up. Today w

ill be an ode of a different sort. Last week it was announced that Canadian rock group Death From Above 1979 were re-forming for Coachella, and possibly more. Exclaim has a great little piece up on return of DFA 1979.

Here are my two favourite songs by the Toronto rockers. You might want to turn the speakers down because these boys bring the energy.

Speaking of Exclaim, I encourage everyone to check out this month’s cover story on folk-rockers The Decemberists. It's a fantastic article that is quite insightful. Their new album The King is Dead is fantastic and I thoroughly encourage all of you to go give it a listen, by whatever means necessary. More on them tomorrow.

Until then, keep on rocking in the free world.

-SS

A seven nation army couldn't hold me back

Just so we’re clear, this isn’t going to be a news site. There are plenty of them out there that do a far better job than I ever could in covering the latest happenings in the music world. However; there is a recent story that shook the music world that should be discussed.

The White Stripes have officially broken up.

photo courtesy of last.fm

In hindsight, I suppose this should not come as a surprise or even be that upsetting. They haven’t released anything since 2007’s Icky Thump and have rarely played shows since the release of the album. The reason I think we’re all upset over this is due to the fact that it was never official, so we were all grasping to the hope that they would continue making music.

In the early 2000’s, the White Stripes were one of the predominant “garage rock” (again, I hate genres) bands, along with The Vines, The Hives, and The Strokes. As a youngster, they were one of the bands we turned to as the “saviours of rock and roll.” Although the band adapted many styles into the music on later releases, they stayed true to their roots and continued to make blues-influenced, guitar-driven rock.

As an ode to another band of my youth gone, today’s posts will be dedicated to the one and only White Stripes.

No conversation would be complete without bringing up Seven Nation Army. One of my pet peeves about the music business is that it is often one of the worst songs off of an album that becomes the most popular. I can’t really place blame on anyone in particular. It’s not that this song isn’t good, just that there are better songs on the album:

Like this one which also had a better video. I dare you to try and not tap your toe or bob your head to this song:

Fell in Love with a Girl is probably the first White Stripes song I heard. The pure energy heard throughout the song is enough to make anyone lose their mind:

We’ll finish off with a song of a different tune. Much softer, but still beautiful:

True Colors Shining

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the sc

ene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.
- Ray Charles

It can’t be explained; the impact a single song can have on a human being. The way hearing that

There are few things in life can affect the psyche of someone the way a simple three minute musical performance can.

It doesn’t work for everyone. For some, music is the sound played between the news updates on your local radio. For others, it is the background noise that keeps them from going insane while sitting at a desk.

And then there is that other group. You know who I’m talking about. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re one of us. These are the people who obsess over it. It’s not a hobby or a pastime, or something to listen to in the car or at the gym.

No my friends, it’s a pas

sion. Something you wake up to in the morning, go to sleep to at night, and think about continually in the time between the two.

That’s why I’ve decided to start this blog. It’s going to be a place for me to praise the music I love, scorn the music I hate, and rant about everything in between. The songs you will see posted on here don’t fit into a single music genre. Describing a song in one word is much like describing a person in one word: impossible. I hate musical genres, but that’s another rant for another time.

For now, let’s listen to some tunes and have a good weekend.

-SS

First up on the bill is Beatrice Martin, better known by her stage name Coeur de Pirate. If that name sounds familiar, it’s likely because of her recent work with Ontario Reggae rockers Bedouin Soundclash. Their song Brutal Hearts was a standout on the band’s most recent album Light the Horizon.

Most of her work is done in French, but from time to time she will grace us with an English tune. Here is her cover of True Colors: