November 30, 2012

Favourites: Husker Du's version of Love Is All Around

That's right. Hardcore legends Husker Du doing the theme from Mary Tyler Moore.


November 29, 2012

My Girl by Yukon Blonde

I threw up a couple of tracks by Yukon Blonde a while back. They've just released a video for the song "My Girl" from Tiger Talk. It's got fun sing along vocal bits!


The same song is featured in this video showing what it's like here in Canada called "Canada Shared by Canadians - Keep Exploring". Come visit!


You can check out all of Tiger Talk over at their web site.

November 28, 2012

Sometime by DIIV

According to the internet (and truly, when is it ever wrong?) DIIV are opening for Japandroids at their December 11 show at The Phoenix here in Toronto. I'm very happy to be attending that show. I think that both bands will shine on stage, with their different-but-equally-awesome guitar sounds swirling around my head at concert volume.

Here's the latest from DIIV's album Oshin. The song is "Sometime".

November 27, 2012

Another new Biffy Clyro track: Black Chandelier

I previously posted the video for "Stingin' Belle" from Biffy Clyro's forthcoming album Opposites, which is coming out January 28 in Europe and March 12 in North America. Why make us wait?!?

They've put out another track, which will be the first single. It's called "Black Chandelier".



November 26, 2012

Ash and Kestrels at Lee's Palace

After a 7 year absence, Ash returned to Toronto for an fantastic 20th anniversary show at Lee's Palace. They stormed through highlights from across their history - from their very first single "Jack Names the Planets" all the way to their recent song-a-fortnight project The A-Z Series, which has just been released on vinyl.

Tim Wheeler cranked the guitars with the awesome-sounding combination of Gibson guitars - Flying V and Les Paul - through his Mesa half-stack. Bassist Mark Hamilton filled the stage with rawk poses and drummer Rick McMurray kept it all tight.

It was a great show with plenty of enthusiasm from both the band and the crowd.
 I put up a ton of Ash tunes prior to the show, so I'll limit myself here.

"Arcadia"

"Jack Names the Planets"

"Burn Baby Burn"

"Joy Kicks Darkness"

"Binary"

"Kung Fu"

"Oh Yeah"

Check out their Best of album that was recently released if you're new to this great band.
Kestrels, from Halifax, opened the show. It looked like a dream come true for them since singer/guitarist Chad Peck told us he's a long-time Ash fanatic and Ash singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler even played on their album. Although the mix was not always in their favour, their Dinosaur Jr. / 90s influenced energy came across well.

Here's "The Past Rests" and "There All The Time Without You" from A Ghost History.


The photos in this post are original pics by me, not the usual professional pics stolen from some other web site. You can tell the difference original art makes. Meanwhile, Chromewaves has some great pics from the gig.

November 25, 2012

New video from Frightened Rabbit

Frightened Rabbit, who recently released the State Hospital EP, have a new album on the way. It's called Pedestrian Verse and it's out February 5.

Here's the video for "Dead Now". Cool tune.



November 24, 2012

Favourites: Judith by A Perfect Circle

Maynard James Keenan is a pretty cool dude. Especially for a guy called Maynard.

How many other cool Maynard's are there?

Do they sing for Tool? Do they have a band/performance art thing called Puscifer? Do they sing for A Perfect Circle?

Do they sing an unforgiving, god-taunting, powerhouse tune like "Judith"?

I think not.



On a related note, Puscifer is coming out with a new 8-song release on February 19 called - wait for it - Donkey Punch the Night. It features covers of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Accept's "Balls to the Wall". Can't wait to hear it.

November 23, 2012

New Eels

Eels have a new album coming out February 4 called Wonderful, Glorious. The first track they've given us to check out is "Peach Blossom". Check it out, along with Eels' big hit, "Novocaine for the Soul" from 1996's Beautiful Freak, below.




November 22, 2012

New Ladyhawk videos

The boys in Ladyhawk have been busy putting out videos. The new album No Can Do is out now.

"You Read My Mind"

"Sinking Ship"

November 21, 2012

Feist with Graveyard

The Polaris Prize winning Feist put out another video from Metals back at the beginning of November. The sparse, infra-red filtered video suits the song quite nicely.

November 20, 2012

New tracks from Haim

Back in the hot and heavy days of summer, I posted the track "Forever" by Haim. They've recently put out another single, the A side is the catchy and fun track "Don't Save Me" and the B side is the more intense "Send Me Down".

November 19, 2012

Video for Stars' Backlines

Towards the end of October, Stars released a video for "Backlines" from their latest album The North. I'm seeing them when they come through Toronto with Metric November 24. I must admit that I'm kinda sad that I never saw Stars when they were playing much smaller venues.

November 18, 2012

Paul Banks, Letterman and no audience

On the night that Hurricane Sandy hit NYC, Letterman did his show without an audience. Paul Banks was the musical guest and did a bang-up job with "Young Again" from his latest, Banks. I posted the video last week.

November 17, 2012

Inhaler - new track from Foals

Here's a new song from Foals. It's called "Inhaler" and it's from their new album Holy Fire which is out February 11 - 12. The video's NSFW and the song's way heavier than anything I've heard from them before. Nice one!

November 16, 2012

New Nine Inch Nails in the works

Trent Reznor decided to stop touring Nine Inch Nails a few years back. He never said that Nine Inch Nails was no more and there would never be any new NIN music. Recently, Trent mentioned that there is new NIN music in the works. ""Yeah, there will be new music … Stay tuned." he said. He might even tour again.

What better excuse to put up a favourites post on the greatness of Nine Inch Nails.

Here are some favourites:

"Closer" will always bring back memories of Saturday nights at the Phoenix. Good times!


And I absolutely loved it when they played this remix.


NIN's cover of the Adam Ant track "Physical (You're So)" from Broken.


"Wish"



"Gave Up"


Speaking of covers, here's NIN doing Joy Division's "Dead Souls".


Here's a live version of "Hurt", originally on The Downward Spiral. Yup, that's the same song that Johnny Cash later covered.


For his more recent stuff, I really enjoyed "Only" from With Teeth.


And here's the all time classic "Head Like A Hole" from Pretty Hate Machine.


Of course, this just scratches the surface of an awesome artist. Looking forward to the new Nine Inch Nails music when it comes out.


November 15, 2012

New Everything Everything

I discovered Everything Everything when they were nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize. They've just released a new song called "Cough Cough" and it's accompanying video. Their new album Arc is due on the 14th of January.

"Cough Cough"


"Kemosabe"


November 14, 2012

Video for Breathing Underwater by Metric

Yesterday, Metric released a new video from Synthetica. It's for the song "Breathing Underwater".

On a whim, I decided to buy tickets for their November 24 show at the ACC with Stars. Looking forward to seeing Metric again and, believe it or not, seeing Stars for the first time.

The live footage in the new clip is definitely getting me hyped to see the show.

November 13, 2012

It's official: the video for The Joy Formidable's This Ladder Is Ours

The Joy Formidable are one of my favourite bands. I've written a bunch about them and I've seen them live once. They have a new album called Wolf's Law coming out January 21 (UK) and 22 (North America). They're on tour with The Gaslight Anthem and are coming through Toronto on November 25. I'll be there.

I posted the track "This Ladder Is Ours" a while ago. The band have now put out an official video. It's here. It rocks.


And the cool album art is by Toronto artist Martin Wittfooth.

November 12, 2012

INXS call it a day

Earlier today, I learned that INXS made a big announcement during their gig last night in Perth. That show was their last show.

They've put out some absolutely amazing music over the 35 years that they've been together. They have, of course, gone through rough times with the death of original singer Michael Hutchence in 1997. They carried on with a few different lead singers during the years since.

Here are a bunch of my favourite INXS songs. They'll always have a prominent place in my music library. Thanks for the tunes!

"The One Thing" and "Don't Change" from 1982's Shabooh Shoobah.



"What You Need" and "Listen Like Thieves" from the 1985 album Listen Like Thieves.



"Good Times" by INXS with Jimmy Barnes from The Lost Boys soundtrack.


"New Sensation", "Devil Inside", "Need You Tonight", "Kick" and "Tiny Daggers" from 1987's Kick.






I've liked a bunch of stuff they've released since Kick, but I'll leave it at that, with a nod to J.D. Fortune, just because he's a local boy. Here's "Pretty Vegas" from 2005's Switch.


November 11, 2012

Diamond Rings on Letterman

When I posted the video for the track "I'm Just Me" from Diamond Rings latest album Free Dimensional, I mentioned that he'd be on Letterman on October 26. And he was. Check out his performance below.


He's also released a video for the track "Runaway Love". Check it out.


And he met Bob Mould. Lucky man.


November 10, 2012

Lyrical snippet of the moment: Bowie's Ghost by Exit International

"La la la la la la la la la la"

"Bowie's ghost came from the future to tell us it's aaaaaa..."

Exit International "Bowie's Ghost"

November 9, 2012

Bob Mould covers Cheap Trick

Here's a video of Bob Mould covering Cheap Trick in Chicago. The video features Bob and the band doing "Downed" followed by the Husker Du classic "Celebrated Summer". When I caught Mark Kozelek a while back, he performed his cover of "Celebrated Summer". Ever so slightly different from Bob's/Husker's version.





And I just saw this great video of Bob and the band rockin' out on "The Descent".

November 8, 2012

The 1975

Here's a band that I just discovered last week, and from the first 20 seconds of the song "Sex" they had me hooked. It's just a great tune, and they have such a great sound. They're The 1975. Check out some tunes below.

Here's the title track from the Sex EP which is out November 19 or 20 depending on which side of the pond you reside.

"Sex"

Here are all the tracks on their Facedown EP.

"Facedown"

"The City"

"Antichrist"

"Woman"

November 7, 2012

And Bam! it's IAMDYNAMITE

Sometimes a new song (or a few) just smacks you upside the head and pokes you in the eyes. I just heard these great songs by IAMDYNAMITE and that's what happened to me. This duo bring great straight-ahead indie rock with unbridled energy and enthusiasm. The songs can be downloaded from the Soundclouds below and they're appearing at the Phoenix Concert Theatre here in T.O. on November 8th opening for Sum 41 (who are rumoured to be doing a set of Nickleback and Avril Lavigne covers).

"Stereo"

"Where Will We Go"

"Ms. Jones"


"Hey Girl"

"Carolina"






November 6, 2012

Future of the Left win Welsh Music Prize 2012

Future of the Left recently won the Welsh Music Prize for 2012. It's a prize based on artistic merit rather than on top sales or popularity. Congrats!

Here's "Sheena is a T-Shirt Salesman" from the winning album, The Plot Against Common Sense.

November 5, 2012

Bob Mould rocks Conan


Bob Mould has recently made me very sad and very happy. He recently announced that he's done with his gigs featuring a front-to-back run through of the Sugar classic Copper Blue. This makes me sad because he never came through Toronto to blow our minds with the live rendition of one of the best albums ever. However, I must say I'm happy that Bob seems to be doing so well with his most recent release, The Silver Age. He's been doing the talk show circuit and seems to be getting more and more props for his ongoing contributions to music over the past 30+ years.

Regarding the Copper Blue shows, Mould states, "And now it’s time to say farewell to Copper Blue. I'm not retiring the songs — many of them will be in my live sets forever — but I am putting the 'start to finish' reading of Copper Blue to rest... It was wonderful to pay tribute to Copper Blue by opening the 2012 shows with a start to finish reading of the album. By the end of the North American tour it felt a bit predictable. The longtime followers know my restlessness all too well, so my need to shake things up should be no surprise. The response to the Silver Age songs, both on record and on stage, has been quite positive. I want to move forward in 2013 with promoting Silver Age — and you’ll still hear plenty of favorites from my songbook. See you next year!"

Here he is ripping up the tune "Keep Believing" on Conan. At the end (on TV at least) Conan gets to strap on Bob's legendary strat.


I can't seem to get the video to work on my computer, so if it's not working above try this link or this link. It's worth watching!

November 4, 2012

Bloc Party have some grrrr

Here's the latest tune from Bloc Party's Four. The song's called "Kettling" and that opening guitar part is definitely raunchy. In the best way possible.

Torontonians will remember the practice of kettling from police actions during the 2010 G20 Summit.

November 3, 2012

Fan video for Steve McQueen by M83

M83 ran a competition for the video for "Steve McQueen" and last week they released the video. Check it out.

November 2, 2012

Information Retrieved from Pinback

Pinkback's new album is called Information Retrieved. It's out now and here's the first video for the track "Sherman".

The video looks like it was filmed during production of Star Trek.

November 1, 2012

New Hilotrons - Runaway Heart

Hilotrons put out Bella Simone in 2006 and Happymatic in 2008. They specialize in a cool, likeable brand of indie-pop.

They've got a new album called At Least There's Commotion coming out on February 5. The taster song is called "Runaway Heart" and they don't seem to want me to embed it here, so you'll have to follow this link if you want to hear it.

You can check out more of their stuff over at CBC Music. I'd recommend starting with the ska-tinged "Dominika" from Happymatic.