DJ Champion w/Madrid
Mod Club
11.27.09
Doors @7pm | $15
DJ Champion and his G-strings (guitar strings) from Montreal are making a triumphant return to the Mod Club on Friday. Their highly entertaining blend of electro-beats and guitars, all orchestrated by master DJ Maxine Morin. They hit the electronic dance scene when they released Chill ‘Em All in 2004, and a follow up remix in 2006.
So it’s really been 5 years since Morin has come up with a sophmore album – and you can definitely hear the evolution, most discernibly recruiting the talents of montreal raw-power singer Pilou Côté, in replace of the signature soulful female vocals Betty Bonifassi that electrified their live show. Let’s see how they do!
The Rural Alberta Advantage have exploded into the indie music scene after garnering some big thumbs up from CbcRadio 3, Exclaim! and X3 a few months ago. I was lucky to see them at the Hillside Festival on July, instantly recognizing the insane drumming styling of Paul Banwatt from Woodhands. They sing about (suprise) the life, love and laments of Alberta: summers in the Rockies, oil boom, mine workers to name a few, in an indie-rock style that isn’t anything near Nickelback.
They have a completely SOLD OUT show at Lee’s Palace on Friday Nov 20, but here’s your chance to see them. The band will be performing at Soundscapes (College and Manning) playing a FREE SHOW at 7pm tonight. Go early since the place is the size of your (Toronto) living room.
Voting for the short list for the 2009 Bucky Awards from CbcRadio3 is now open. Sure, some of the lists shed a bit MTV music awardsish (e.g. Sexist musician), but all in all the Canadian artists on deck are solid.
There are some emerging artists like Hey Rosetta! and Dan Mangan, plus some established acts including Metric and Joel Plaskett. It’s also a great way to check out some new artists who’ve made it on the list.
Check out J. Tillman (from the critically acclaimed Seattle band Fleet Foxes, self described as “Baroque harmonic pop jams”). He’s currently on tour promoting some of his solo folk work, performing at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern tomorrow.
I’ve yet to hear much of his work, but from what I’ve heard he has taken a very delicate, melodic and lyrical direction. Check out some of his work:
Since catching Woodhands at Hillside, I’ve been yearning to see them again. I was wondering how they would fare, opening for an 90s-inspired down-tempo synth pop duo. Although the Jr. Boys crowd weren’t actually prepared for their high octane brand of skat, intense beats and frequencies, they were going to get it full on.
I was in awe over drummer Paul Banwatt’s intense drumming style, relentlessly attacking the snare and cymbals with robotic precision. Rather than keeping up with the electro-funk beats and heavy bass drummed up by Dan Web (vocals/synths/key-tar), Banwatt drove the rhythm locomotive, thus showing that you DON’T need to replace the drummer with a cold beat box.
Dan Web was also fantastic in keeping the crowd pumped. His tourette skats fused with his key-tar were memorizing and showing the hesitant crowd that Vancouver nerds can rock. By the end of their set, when they performed ‘Dance” they just started to wake the crowd, leaving them wanting more. It was a perfect set up for the headliner. The duo are poised to release a new album in the new year, spending the winter to lock themselves up to finish it. It should be a killer album, based on the tracks they were testing in the crowd tonight.
Junior Boys returned to the stage from a long Euro-tour. “It’s been ages since we’ve been back home,” announced vocalist/keyboards/guitarist, Jeremy Greenspan. “It’s so nice to be back.” It was an eclectic crowd who had clearly been following the band for a number of years now – they seemed to know most of their music. The band quickly broke into their groove and tranced the crowd with their contagiously ambient electro-pop music.
It was a nice touch adding some visual interest through green lazers and an overzealous use of a smoke machine. They played a solid set of tunes stemming across many of their albums, including hits “In the Morning”, “Like a Child” and “So This is Goodbye”.
Many times through their set, it felt like the music simmered just before boiling point – it needed just one more ‘umph’ to push them over the proveribal stovetop. I take this as more akin to the late 80s/early 90s synth music they were pushing out, vs. their live performance… but compared to the explosive opening Woodhands set, the contrast was all the more poignant.
What didn’t help was their choice of a ballad to close their set, slowing it down to a close flatline. “So we’re gonna leave you with a slow one.. we’ll just wimper away.” Wimper? Not exactly the best way to leave the crowd, and some decided to call it a night though the song – But most of the crowd didn’t look like they seemed to mind. It still begs the question, why leave the crowd on such a downer?
Their one-song encore, however, did pick up the pace and resulted in a few people crowd even crowd surfing, making the song more upbeat than it honestly suggested. It was clear they were ready to finish off in a party, regardless of what the Boys put out (many walked straight upstairs to the Dance Cave to let out the rest of their pent up energy after the show). All in all it was still good show, playing in one of the best concert venues in the city.
Steeltown’s own electro-pop band Junior Boys are returning to Lee’s Palace tonight, supported by the high octane electronica dance duo Woodhands. Given the wide variance of sound between the bands, it’ll be interesting to see how the crowd will respond. Nonetheless, both bands are amazing – I was able to catch the mental set Woodhands put on at Hillside 2009 (see the clip below). Let’s hope they can rise up the crowd like they did in July.
Junior Boys w/Woodhands
Friday Nov 6
Lee’s Palace
Tickets $20 adv. (tm-Rt-Ss), $25 at door
Set times: JUNIOR BOYS @ 11:45p, WOODHANDS @ 10:30p
Ever since coming across Reid Jamieson about 5 years ago, floored from his acoustic EP “Noise in my Chest,” I’ve been meaning to see him live. Ever since he moved to Vancouver, it has been tougher and tougher to catch him. I was lucky enough to hear about his return to Toronto last Wednesday.
Walking into the Rivoli, I was taken aback by the revamp of it’s typically drab (yet intimate) backspace. The space was transformed into a classic 1940s-inspired jazz bar, complete with tables w/white table cloths and candle lights. Not bad for a quick turnaround; enough so you didn’t care much about the plastic patio chairs and sticky floors from the previous weekend’s shenanigans.
Guelph folk darling Jessie Bell Smith kicked off the night with a solo set of gutteral roosty songs about old age homes, dead mice and drunken jagermeister. Bell has a commanding raspy twang with the potential of great dames Etta James, Janis and Emma Lou Harris,powerful enough to fill the room without a mic. I wished she opened our eyes more as she was belted out those raw alto notes to strengthen her already powerful connection to the audience during her set. She has a ton of potential – look out for her as she grows and returns backed by full band.
Coming straight off the heels of a successful tour with CBC’s Vinyl Cafewith Stewart McLean, Reid Jamieson came onto the stage to a warm and comforting crowd of close friends and family, including a few folks the Skydiggers. His elation and emotion came through very strongly, as if he was putting on a special show in his own living room. Jamieson was very professional and polite in his demenour, playing songs from his albums The Unavoidable Truth, The Presley Sessions, and his new EP, Courting Juniper, coming out this month.
Jessie Bell Smith came onstage to sing Paperback Fantasy, one the highlights of the night. Unfortunately he did not play any of his evocative and intimately private songs from his Noise in My Chest release, but it had been over 5 years since its release.
Although he started polite and professional off the gates, Jamieson loosened up to become his alter-elvis ego for his set of Elvis songs, and closing with a fun cover of Natural Woman. Looking forward to hearing his next album of (presumably) knee-shaking heartbreak tunes and sweet love songs – something for which I can never seem to get enough.
GoodLife Fitness is celebrating it’s 30th Anniversary by rewarding its members though their “GoodLife 30Rocks” event.
It’s a private party at the Air Canada Centre this Thursday, Nov 5. The Tragically Hip will be headlining the event, and it looks like winners who’ve won tickets at the GoodLife fitness outlets are selling them on Craigslist. So if you’re a GoodLife Fitness member, try and snag a seat to see the Hip one more time before the year closes!
Note: We’ve also heard that Nickelback may be headlining or supporting the Hip, but let’s hope that’s just a nasty rumour to discourage tickets from being sold!
