Monday, September 10th, 2007
What a beautiful day for a festival. All week, the forecast had warned of showers on Saturday but instead, the first day of V Fest was taking place under sunny blue skies and temperatures that were more Summer than Fall. Sure, the showers were now forecast for Sunday but first things first.
I made it to the Islands for 3PM and was pretty cooked from the sun by the time I made it to the main stage for k-os’ set. Others in attendance were baked, but that’s another topic. I’d been warned by those that had seen him before that k-os live that he could be an… unpredictable performer. But thankfully it was a happy k-os in attendance on this day, backed by a full band for a set more rock than rap and pretty impressive for someone who’d never listened to him before (that’d be me). The dude can sing.
Photos: k-os @ The Virgin Mobile Stage – September 8, 2007
Video: k-os – “Sunday Morning” (YouTube)
Video: k-os – “Born To Run” (YouTube)
MySpace: k-os
After Bjork, M.I.A. came up most frequently whenever I asked people who they were looking forward to seeing the most. I’d only heard Kala once or twice and while it wasn’t really my thing – no surprise there, really – I suspected that it, and more specifically Maya Arulpragasam, would put on an entertaining show. Her setup was as stripped down as you could get – her, a backup singer and a DJ – but that just gave M.I.A. more room to work as she danced from one end of the stage to the other, inciting the crowd to shake much ass, including hauling about 100 or so fans on stage to dance with her, and generally created a terrific party vibe. AOL Music Canada hung out with M.I.A. in Paris earlier this Summer.
Photos: M.I.A. @ The Virgin Mobile Stage – September 8, 2007
Video: M.I.A. – “Jimmy” (YouTube)
Video: M.I.A. – “Boyz” (YouTube)
MySpace: M.I.A.
Next came the most-discussed time slot of the past few weeks, simply because up until Friday afternoon, no one knew who would be playing. The cards finally came up with Montreal mixmaster Kid Koala, who gets kudos for gamely stepping into a bit of a difficult spot – and the audience (at least those who stuck around) get a thumbs up for warmly receiving him as well, despite the fact that he wasn’t Amy Winehouse or any other huge name. Unfortunately, the sunny afternoon also welcomed him a bit too warmly and he had to cut his set short on account of his records beginning to melt.
Video: Kid Koala – “Floor Kids” (YouTube)
MySpace: Kid Koala
I have to say, I find the appeal of the Arctic Monkeys inexplicable. Not in the sense that I deny that they have appeal – the sea of people stoked to see them play was evidence of that – but in that I can’t quantify what that appeal is. Their songs aren’t overtly hooky, Alex Turner is decent lyricist but not an especially remarkable vocalist and they generally sound to me like a college pub band raised on alternative rock radio amped up to stadium levels. But maybe what I wrote off as generic comes off to others as universal – I certainly wasn’t going to take it up with the tens of thousands packing the mainstage area going Monkey-nuts through their hour-long set. What was more interesting was the mass exodus of people as soon as they finished up – at first I thought that it was a huge dis to Interpol but as it turned out, it was just everyone really needing to go the the washroom.
Photos: The Arctic Monkeys @ The Virgin Mobile Stage – September 8, 2007
MP3: Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”
Video: Arctic Monkeys – “Brainstorm” (YouTube)
MySpace: Arctic Monkeys
The throngs did indeed return at dusk as Interpol took the stage, dressed exactly as they are in their promo photos. I last saw Interpol live in 2002 at a thoroughly lacklustre show at the Kool Haus that soured me on the band (their last couple albums not doing much to help, either) and I’ve had that bad taste in my mouth for half a decade. Surely long enough to give them a chance to make it up, no? It’s a common observation that most of Interpol’s stuff sounds the same but when you hear it live, the singularity of their sound is even more evident. One song blended almost seamlessly into the next and someone less familiar with their oeuvre could be forgiven for thinking they were playing just one song over and over again. But what they do, they do well and they were far more energetic and engaged than that last time (yes, a very relative statement). And the Turn On The Bright Lights material still sounded the best.
Photos: Interpol @ The Virgin Mobile Stage – September 8, 2007
Video: Interpol – “Mammoth” (YouTube)
Video: Interpol – “The Heinrich Maneuver” (YouTube)
MySpace: Interpol
Bjork. I think it’s fair to say that the presence of her name on the lineup was enough to dispel any resentment lingering from last year’s V Fest follies and get people excited about the event again. I’d never seen her live before but her last appearance on Olympic Island in 2003 is still spoken of reverentially, so a mind-blowing finale was almost guaranteed and sure enough, she didn’t disappoint. Backed by a keyboardist, DJ/programmer and a combination chorus/horn section, Bjork turned the festival stage into a wonderfully otherworldly playground of confetti and lasers that went from mystical to apocalyptic from song to song. And that’s the amazing thing about her music – it’s so mutable, sounding perfect whether executed orchestrally or electronically. All it really needs is her voice, her unbelievably strong and strange voice. Despite really wanting to catch the ferry back to the mainland before the throngs did the same, I couldn’t tear myself away and only got out of there after her main set was over and listened to the encore en route to the dock. Amazing. There’s a reason the woman is an adjective.
Photos: Bjork @ The Virgin Mobile Stage – September 8, 2007
Video: Bjork – “Earth Intruders” (YouTube)
Video: Bjork – “All Is Full Of Love” (YouTube)
Video: Bjork – “Hyper-Ballad” (YouTube)
MySpace: Bjork
JAM! sorta-liveblogged the first day of the festival and came back with a more complete review as well. The Globe & Mail enjoyed a couple perfomances but was nonplussed about the event as a whole. More (much more) tomorrow with coverage of day two – where I saw more than five bands – and a capper on the whole of V Fest 2007.
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
Well just wow.
It’s kind of ironic that I’d leave a concert/party sponsored by cosmetics and fragrances looking like I’d been through a hurricane and smelling like I’d been bathing in the sweat of a thousand sweaty people but so it was last night after seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs absolutely demolish the Berkeley Church. An rsvp-only sort of private but not really after party, presumably to coincide with the Toronto International Film Fest, the so-called Festival Ball was not what I expected. The interior of the converted church bore almost no advertising (save for a couple logos projected on the back wall) and there wasn’t any of the hard-sell marketing I’d have thought unavoidable. Instead, there was just a room of showgoers (and I didn’t spot a single celeb though I heard Jessica Alba was in the house) and a two hour plus wait for things to get underway. Happily, free drinks help the time go by.
The band finally took the stage around 11:20 and the place just went apeshit. Every celebrity in town for TIFF could have been in attendance and no one would have noticed – all eyes were on Karen O. Far and away the most insanely riveting and charismatic frontwoman I’ve ever seen, she was feral and ferocious, a dervish in spandex and tinsel, seemingly oblivious to the crowd and lost in the music one moment and then feeding off the audience’s love like her life depended on it the next. I’m sure their live show has been deconstructed by a million and one critics before, but I’m a relatively recent convert and this was my first time seeing them so allow me to gush. Being a “corporate” gig, I had expected in the back of my mind that they might phone it in a bit but no – everyone on the floor was a fan through and through (or would be by the end of the set) and the band seemed to thrive in the club-like atmosphere.
They tore through 14-song set that covered both albums and EPs and though I have no idea where they got the energy – I was completely spent from fighting to maintain front row position from all the moshers and crowd surfers – they still came out for a four-song encore that didn’t let the intensity up a bit. I left soaked to the bone with sweat, tears, spit, water, beer and gin and utterly exhausted and exhilarated, with a bag of cosmetics and a copy of Vice (the marketers were camped outside) and quite possibly utterly ruined for V Fest this weekend. I sorta kid – I’m still really looking forward to the next couple days – but that Yeah Yeah Yeahs show was simply not one could or should be followed.
Photos: Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ The Berkeley Church – September 7, 2007
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Bang”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps” (YouTube)
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Gold Lion” (YouTube)
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Cheated Hearts” (YouTube)
MySpace: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
And some last-minute V Fest dispatches – JAM! talks to Editors, who close the Future Shop stage tomorrow night. Spinner’s Interface features Voxtrot, appearing on same stage today, and Billboard reports that tonight’s headliner Bjork is hoping to release a live studio session album featuring her current band before the year’s end. The Montreal Gazette talks to Stars, who’re playing tomorrow and who are doing a free show at MTV.ca on Tuesday – ticket info here. And that mystery 5PM slot for today has been filled. Who had Kid Koala in the pool? No one? Yeah. React as you see fit.
Ellipsis-fetishist Kevin Drew will bring his Spirit If… orchestra to Lee’s Palace on September 27. Tickets are $25 and on sale now. Spirit If… is out September 18. There’s a video.
Video: Kevin Drew – “Backed Out On The… (YouTube)
For Southern Ontario/western New York fans of The National, take note that they’ve added a show in Buffalo at the Traf on October 9, the day after their show at the Phoenix in Toronto. The News-Observer talks to bassist Aaron Dessner and The Tallahassee Democrat interviews singer Matt Berninger.
Doug Martsch tells AZ Central that there’s much more building and spilling left in the tank.
Friday, September 7th, 2007
The 5:00 slot at V Fest tomorrow remains vacant and now curiosity is superseding whatever mild anxiety I was feeling on behalf of the organizers. What are they going to do? Maybe Richard Branson will come out and tell some jokes, though I’ve seen nothing to indicate that he’ll even be around like he was last year. Under other circumstances I’d say that Bloc Party – kicking off their North American tour tonight in Chicago with an off day tomorrow before hitting Montreal on Sunday would be a perfect fit.
Yeah, they have their own show at the Ricoh at the end of the month (the 28th) but no one’s going to not go to that and come to this instead – however, the flip side is that probably no one’s going to buy a ticket at the 11th hour if they were added and so the cost of paying the band would basically be recouped via good PR (or the lack of negative PR of having no one play that slot). And anyway, I’m sure that it’d probably be a logistical nightmare to squeeze an extra show at this point, or so I’m assuming – I’ve no idea how that stuff works and I’m just thinking out loud. Most likely M.I.A. will get moved back into that slot and a smaller local band will be added earlier in the day. And many people will complain but life will go on. And yeah, V Fest lineup spotting has become something of a hobby/obsession of mine in the past couple weeks. I’ll be sad when it’s all over.
But with their return to our shores, Bloc Party are making the interview rounds. Chicago Metromix get Kele Okereke to describe his booty as “ample” while Hour.ca talks to him about A Weekend In The City and Matt Tong compliments Paste on America’s generosity when it comes to morphine dosages, and Music Rooms reports that in addition to touring, the band has been hard at work on album number three and will be releasing a stop-gap single in the interim.
And speaking of singles, they recently released a video for Weekend single number three.
Video: Bloc Party – “Hunting For Witches” (YouTube)
The Toronto Star has a full-bore festival preview with guides and interviews with artists playing this weekend, big and small.
Razorlight, who dropped out of last year’s V Fest as well as cancelling their last Toronto show at the last minute will be back to disappoint with a show scheduled at the Phoenix on November 11. Anyone want to lay odds that it’ll actually happen? Maybe they can get Babyshambles to open.
And now we turn our attention from the UK to Texas. Harp profiles Eisley, the family that plays together. Their new one Combinations is pleasantly loud and rocky in all the places that Room Noises wasn’t, but without giving up the sweetness that makes them so endearing. FilterTV has a video interview with the band and you can see the vid for the first single from the new record below.
Video: Eisley – “Invasion” (YouTube)
Okkervil River’s Fall tour has them on the west coast and The Georgia Straight talks to Will Sheff about their degree of fame and The Portland Mercury predicts even more for them. Fame, that is. And The Denver Post has an interview. Okkervil are at Lee’s Palace on September 21, a show that’s damn close to sold out if it isn’t already.
And also out west right now are Spoon – Canada.com talked to drummer Jim Eno in advance of their show in Victoria while The Westender chats with Britt Daniel.
I Heart Music has posted the CBC Radio 3-recorded audio of one of Great Lake Swimmers’ Church Of The Redeemer shows back in April. It’s not the full show and I can’t tell if it’s the early or late show and the audio is recorded a little too hot – the CBCR3 audio is somewhat cleaner (though not downloadable). Great Lake Swimmers play the Phoenix on September 29 and Stereo Subversion has an interview with Tony Dekker.
And a router update for those interested… the Apple Store replaced my unit in under 3 minutes yesterday which was very nice of them, and I got the new one hooked up and running and all seemed well. Then this morning… no router. Thankfully an unplug/replug was enough to get it discoverable again, which is more than its predecessor could say but obviously still troubling. Now the odds of me having two bum units from two different stores are pretty slim, so I’m thinking there’s a problem on my end after all. Only common denominator? My USB drive, which is FAT32 partitioned into two drives and according to the tech specs, the Extreme can only support a single-partition FAT32 drive, never mind the fact that it was able to mount both partitions no problem last night. It must have changed its mind overnight and died? I don’t know. But for now, since I don’t have time to call up Apple support again, I’m going to run the router without the USB drive and see if I ever get more than a few hours of life out of it. If it remains stable, I’ll blame the drive and get a new one, format it in Apple’s file format and transfer all my crap over. If not… well fuck.
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
I was a bit astonished on Tuesday night to realize that it had been almost six months since I last saw Land Of Talk live – their Hot Freaks performance during SxSW way back in March. Considering that was the fourth time in five months (including a Liz Powell solo show), the half year in between seemed like an eternity and in the interim, the band had gone through some changes – mainly the departure of drummer Bucky Wheaton back in May and the addition of Eric Thibodeau in his place. And any time you change 1/3 of a band’s lineup, the band is going to be different.
Also different on this night was Powell’s hair – it was cropped really short and when combined with the red bandana around her head and the sleeveless shirt, she looked more than a bit like Loverboy’s Mike Reno and I mean that with all possible affection. But superficialities aside, Land Of Talk definitely sounded different with Thibodeau behind the kit – the material from Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss was a bit slower and heavier, Thibodeau playing with more power but less nimbleness than his predecessor. The set also seemed to be half comprised of new material which seemed less immediate and visceral than the Applause songs but fit nicely alongside those songs, collectively demonstrating the depth and breadth of the band’s songwriting chops. Some of the songs will appear on the European release of Applause, its mini-album-ness being padded to proper full-length status. The rest will presumably show up on their next record, due out sometime in 2008.
Also surprising was that this was technically the first show I’d seen where Land Of Talk was headlining – it was good to see them graduate from perpetual opener status, though it seemed like the audience was denser for the premiere Canadian premiere of Minnesota’s Cloud Cult. Another band I’d seen at SxSW but hadn’t been especially blown away by, they nonetheless seemed to have a sizable Toronto fanbase that was thrilled to see them visit. I appreciated them more this time around – perhaps not seeing them sandwiched amongst 50 other bands helped my focus. Blending electronic and orchestral instrumentation into songs that approach the anthemic but deliberately hold back, perhaps reluctant to take things over the top.
That said, lead Cloud Cultist Craig Minowa doesn’t necessarily specialize in understatement or lack of sonic ambition – he’s not afraid to push his voice to emotive cracking and lyrics like “I’m moving to Canada”, which he said he wrote while watching the 2000 US election returns, aren’t really shrouded in metaphor or subtlety. I enjoyed their set well enough and having two band members as painters working canvases through their set certainly lends a unique visual aspect to their show (I think the finished pieces sold for a decent price afterwards) but I didn’t get in line to pick up a copy of their record The Meaning Of 8 after the show.
The Montreal Mirror put local heroes Land Of Talk on their last week’s cover with the accompanying article covering topics like the new album’s moving target of a release date, landing a tour with The Decemberists and the band’s perceived personnel revolving door.
Photos: Land Of Talk, Cloud Cult @ The El Mocambo – September 4, 2007
MP3: Land Of Talk – “Speak To Me Bones”
Video: Land Of Talk – “Speak To Me Bones” (YouTube)
Video: Cloud Cult – “Chemicals Collide” (YouTube)
MySpace: Land Of Talk
MySpace: Cloud Cult
Land Of Talk are back at the El Mocambo on October 29 with Film School, though who’s headlining that one is unclear. Their new one Hideout is out next Tuesday and Spin, who’ve got a short feature on the band, are also offering an exclusive track from the album to download:
MP3: Film School – “Two Kinds”
So yeah, this weekend is going to be all about V Fest and the local weeklies are doing their bit to cover it. NOW makes some suggestions about who to see – both obvious and not so obvious – while eye talks to Jacob Smid of Emerge, the festival organizers, about what went wrong last year and what they hope will go right this year. Good news about the additional foot bridge for getting around the islands, bad news that despite trying, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are NOT taking that “TBA” slot on Saturday. And while both NOW have interviews with Saturday headliner Bjork, only NOW talks to Interpol.
And if you’re not V-Festing this weekend, maybe stop by The Drake on Sunday night to see The Diableros, set to release their new record Aren’t Ready For The Country October 16, as they play a show with Kill The Lights, Five Blank Pages, The Cansecos and Grassy Knoll & The Magic Bullit. The Diableros also have a CD release show at the Horseshoe on October 26.
Furthermore – Chad Van Gaalen will be at the Drake on September 29, Stars and Miracle Fortress play the Phoenix on November 27 and Elvis Perkins stops in at the Horseshoe the following night, November 28.
Also, the RSVP process for The Hot Freaks Part Deux in Austin next weekend is now open. Go here to go through the motions.
Okay, techie types, riddle me this. Got an Apple Airport Extreme base station yesterday, partly cause my old router was dying a slow death, partly because I wanted to take advantage of the theoretical benefits of having wireless N on my machine and largely because I wanted to be able to access my external hard drive upon which resides my music collection – from wherever in the apartment. So I got online painlessly and got the drive working after much more hassle. Apple doesn’t tell you that it doesn’t work with Fat32-partitioned drives so I had to (somehow, not sure how I did it) create a new folder in the file system it does use, which thankfully didn’t seem to require reformatting the drive, and moved my music directory into that one. I had to completely re-index my iTunes library but by late last night, everything seemed to be working.
And then this morning I get up and discover that my base station has disappeared from my Airport Utility and cannot be discovered. The router has a happy green light and tells me nothing. I unplug, plug back in, nothing. I reboot my laptop and it won’t restart, I just get a grey screen after the Apple gong sounds. And again. Then I unhook my USB hub (which had my iPod and keyboard/mouse dongle) and remove the power and reboot, THEN it starts up. Whatever. Still no router detected. So I hard reset the router – losing all my settings – and then my machine finds it again and I have to reconfigure the whole thing. So I’m back online and my disk is detected again and it’s working again, but now I’m afraid that when I get home from work this afternoon my router will again have disappeared and I’ll have to go through this whole rigamarole again.
So to all the Apple techie people out there, and I know you’re legion, I ask. What up the fuck?
Update: …and not five minutes after I make the post, the base station disappears again. Right in the middle of me doing whatever. I’m back on my D-Link now. W. T. F.
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
So what’ve we got today? This and that. Nothing major.
First, the schedule for V Fest is finally up and that “TBA” on Saturday at 4:55PM sure is a chin-scratcher. Nice to know something’s still in the works. Or else that’s going to be one hour of really awkward silence. Conflicts appear to be kept to a minimum as well, with only Blonde Redhead versus Stars being the only one I’m unsure about, and the safe bet there will go BR’s way if for no other reason than I’ve yet to see them play a full, proper set. I’m also sort of pleased that there’s no one I really want to see before around 3PM either day – no disrespect intended to those who drew an earlier timeslot, but sleep is going to be a precious commodity this weekend.
The Los Angeles Times and OC Weekly talked to Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino.
Spinner’s Interface has a session with Editors, who will be closing out the second stage on day two. Express and Clik Music also have interviews.
Losing Today interviews Feist.
NPR discusses The Stage Names with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. Okkervil are at Lee’s Palace on September 21.
New videos from SubPop – The Shins’ next one from Wincing The Night Away and The Brunettes with a marionette-powered one from Structure & Cosmetics.
Video: The Shins – “Sleeping Lessons” (YouTube)
Video: The Brunettes – “Her Hairagami Set” (YouTube)
MuchMusic is streaming the whole of The Go! Team’s new album Proof Of Youth, in stores next Tuesday. They play the Opera House on October 31. Drowned In Sound talks to Go! Team captain Ian Parton about how the new album is like the old album and how he’s fine with that.
Stream: The Go! Team / Proof Of Youth
Manic Street Preacher James Dean Bradfield talks to Harp about getting back to basics on their new album Send Away The Tigers.
Klaxons have won this year’s Mercury Music Prize. Their October 12 show at the Opera House was already a hot ticket – guess it’s even moreso now.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco tries to debunk his control-freakiness to The Denver Post.
The AV Club and Express converse with Midlake frontman Tim Smith.
Dallas Good of The Sadies talks to Chart about recording New Seasons, out September 18, in Spain.
Billboard reports that Neil Young’s forthcoming sequel to an album that was never released, Chrome Dreams 2, will come bundled with a bonus disc of material slated to appear in the Archives box sets, the first of which is supposed to be out February 18 of next year. Chrome Dreams 2 is out October 16.
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