Photo via
YouTubeOver the last couple years, some very cool stuff has been happening at the old Berkeley Church in Toronto, long converted from its original purpose as a house of worship to an event hall. My only experience was the totally insane show the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played there during the Film Festival last year and between being pummeled by the rest of the crowd and having Karen O scream in my face, I can confirm it’s a lovely room.
A room that, for the last few Springs, has also played host to the tapings of the Beautiful Noise television series. It’s a live performance show along the lines of Austin City Limits and has featured the likes of Feist, Voxtrot, Neko Case and Sloan, amongst many others… and if you’ve never seen or even heard of the show, it’s because it’s been broadcast exclusively on the RAVEHD high-def television network in the States (if you live in the States and subscribe to RAVEHD and have seen the show, disregard that last sentence).
That is, until recently. There were some open invites for studio audiences during the tapings of season two last Spring and this past Fall, SUN-TV began broadcasting the show locally on regular cable at 7PM on Saturdays – this I discovered whilst channel surfing one evening and just happened upon the Kathleen Edwards show.
That’s all well and good, you’re saying, but surely I’m not just going to sit here and play commercial for a television show, right? Right. Season three begins taping next week, and if you thought the lineups for past seasons were impressive, check this out.
March 31 – My Morning Jacket
April 1 – Jim White / Sarah Slean
April 2 – Kaki King / Jon Langford / Dr Dog
April 3 – The Constantines / Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
April 4 – The Black Angels / The Donnas
April 5 – Islands / Stars
April 6 – Thriving Ivory / People In Planes
April 7 – British Sea Power / Yo La Tengo
And to answer your first question, no, the artists are not playing any other shows while they’re in town for this. And to answer your second question, yes you can attend… but not easily. There’s not going to be a general public open invite this time but the producers have given me a number of guest list spots for each performance to give away to you, gentle reader, but I’ve been instructed to not make it easy. Hence the conditions of this contest, which some might call fiendishly clever in its intricacies. If said people had an incredibly low standard for fiendish cleverness.
It will work as follows: Leave me a comment below with your correct email in the “email” field – spam-proofed is fine – and list off, in order, the tapings you would like to attend. For each of the multiple-artists shows, you must answer the following: if this were an ultimate fighting-type celebrity grudge match rather than a concert taping, which of the performers that night would triumph and why. Be descriptive. If you want in for the My Morning Jacket taping (which I imagine many of you will), tell me what contemporary artist would be able to best the boys from Kentucky in a mixed martial arts competition. If you want to see People In Planes, well I don’t really know boo about them so just say so. Everyone deserves a bye.
I have two pairs of passes to give away for each show, so winners will be selected randomly from all qualifying entrants (the conditions above are for my and everyone else’s amusement) and each awarded their first available choice until all spots are spoken for. You can only win once. Does that make sense? Note that save for the MMJ taping, which has doors at 8:15PM and show at 9, all shows have doors at 6:30PM and the first performer at 7, second at 9 (or 7, 8 and 9 for the three-fer). So if you’re going to throw your hat in the ring, make sure you can get there – Queen E and Berkeley (Parliament) – on time. Lollygaggers will not be admitted. The contest will be open until 5PM on Thursday, March 27. UPDATE: Contest closed early. Will explain tomorrow. Winners being notified now.
Check out some footage from past seasons of Beautiful Noise at their YouTube channel.
MP3: Jim White – “Crash Into The Sun”
MP3: Kaki King – “Pull Me Out Alive”
MP3: Jon Langford (with the Waco Brothers) – “How Fast The Time”
MP3: Dr. Dog – “The Girl”
MP3: The Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “The Sons Of Cain”
MP3: The Black Angels – “Young Men Dead”
MP3: The Donnas – “Don’t Wait Up For Me”
MP3: People In Planes – “Pretty Buildings”
MP3: British Sea Power – “Waving Flags”
MP3: Yo La Tengo – “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind”
Pitchfork interviews Michael Stipe of R.E.M., NPR also has an interview and Spin offers an excerpt of their forthcoming cover story on the band. Accelerate arrives next Tuesday and they play the Molson Amphitheatre June 8. And you can stream the whole thing right now.
Stream: R.E.M. / Accelerate
Sample another track from DeVotchKa’s new one A Mad And Faithful Telling. The National Post has an interview with frontman Nick Urata.
MP3: DeVotchKa – “Transliterator”
Feist talks to ET Canada about her puppet-powered new video. And look for her to play Dolly to Bry Webb’s Kenny on a cover of “Islands In The Stream” coming out on a 7″ single April 1. More details at Chart.
Billy Bragg, via a New York Times op-ed, challenges social networks to start paying royalties to artists who stream their music on their sites. Commentary (and links to more commentary) on Bragg’s piece at Coolfer. Billy’s new one Mr Love & Justice is out April 8 and he plays Harbourfront Centre on June 17.
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}