Hot off their appearance at the Wayhome Festival, Brave Shores played the Ontario Celebration Zone at Harbourfront Centre for a free show as part of Panamania, opening for The Beaches.
The crowd was pretty sedate, content to sit on the AstroTurf while soaking up the summery melodies and the cool breeze off the lake. Their sound can be described as a combination of chill vibes and higher energy from their upbeat new tunes. Of course the highlight was their big ear candy single "Never Come Down". Great tune!
Check out some of Brave Shores' sunshiny tunes:
The big tune everyone waited to hear, "Never Come Down"
Do you know that it was 10 years ago that Ok Go's Oh No came out and around a year later their "Here It Goes Again" video started its quick ascent to over 50 million YouTube views? Well, it's true. Check out my favourite tunes from this solid power pop release.
Div. dive. drive. diiv. or whatever else you want to call them. or wherever they come from, they were a breath of indie rock on Time Festival's bill other than Mac DeMarco. I first caught them with Japandriods a couple of years back, and I like their début album Oshin a lot, so they were on my list of must-see bands at Time and they were the first band I photographed.
Their set was varied, hitting up their biggest hit so far "How Long Have You Known" as their second song, playing a bunch of new songs and album tracks, and closing with their other hit "Doused". Great set!
Since Diiv played in the full heat of the afternoon, I thought I'd throw in a couple of suggestions for next year's Time Festival. More water bottle filling stations are definitely required. There were only two spigots for the whole crowd, leading to some very long line-ups in the hot sun to get some water. Not to mention that the fill station was well-hidden and not everyone knew it was there. The city has a large cart that they can bring to these events. Also, maybe I just missed it, but there wasn't any bike parking. I usually like to cycle to Fort York festivals to avoid having to take transit to this part of town. I didn't see any bike parking like they arrange at TURF, much less a bike valet, at Time Festival. Hope that next year's festival is awesome and that these aspects can be improved upon.
Diiv are back in Toronto on October 11 for a show at The Danforth Music Hall with No Joy and Sunflower Bean. There's also some information floating around the webs that Dirty Ghosts are on this bill, but that's mentioned as being at The Hoxton. No matter what, that sounds like an excellent show that I'd love to attend.
Badbadnotgood is the most unique band on the line-up whenever I've seen them perform. They're essentially a jazz trio. They do covers of current tunes, they bring a horn section on stage to join them, and they have a crowd-surfing lion mascot. I've seen them at Field Trip 2014, at Panamania (pictures of that show are still coming up) and at this year's Time Festival.
The thing that blows me away about this band even more than their remarkable musicianship, is the reaction they get. On the surface, this is not a "cool" band that would have a wide appeal. However, they get amazing crowd reactions and they seem to be higher up the bill each time I see them. Good for them!
I've been digging Cheatahs first album and I featured them on the site last year. They've got a new album called Mythologies coming out October 30. Check out "Seven Sisters". It's shoegaze-y goodness.
Oakland's The Atom Age have a classic garage rock sound with enough unique attitude and some varied instrumentation to catch your ear. Their album Hot Shame comes out August 28. You can grab their EP at their Bandcamp.
Ariel Pink frightened me. I've seen a lot of bands over the years, and in so doing, I've seen a lot of musicians who were a little bit scary. But there was something about the way Ariel Pink paced the stage before their set that made me think that this was a man who could become unhinged at any moment.
Ariel Pink performed at this year's edition of Time Festival at Fort York in Toronto on August 15. This was my first time seeing the band and from what I've heard talking to people at the show, reading comments on-line since the show, and from experiencing the show myself, including the on-stage behaviour of Mr. Pink and the piercing feedback that punctuated the show, I guess it wasn't his best performance.
The Dead Weather, a supergroup of sorts fronted by Alison Mosshart and Jack White, have a new album on the way. It's going to be called Dodge and Burn and it comes out on September 25. Check out the hard rocking tune "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)". It sounds awesome!
Twin Cinema is The New Pornographer's third album and it was the first one I heard from the band. I'd say it changed my life, but that's probably extreme. I was blown away by the exquisite power pop that came blaring out of my (blown) speakers when I heard this uber-solid album. This album was one of the greats of 2005 that rekindled the spark of love of new music for me. It made me reach back in the band's catalogue and has made me look forward to each release since.
I've been able to appreciate this band live on two occasions, first at The Bandshell at the Canadian National Exhibition and second at Riot Fest 2014. They are fantastic live, so my recommendation is to see them if you have the chance. Twin Cinema celebrates its tenth birthday today and I'm taking the opportunity to say thanks to The New Pornographers for sharing such beautiful songcraft and musicianship with the world.
I love every last note on this album but I've chosen these as my favourite, favourite tunes from this album:
On Thursday, I saw that this video was out and I thought, "I have to post this tonight. I won't write it down or save it or anything. I love Wolf Alice and I'll remember this."
Of course, I got home and sat at the computer and couldn't for the life of me remember what I wanted to post. Thanks a lot to my own arrogance and overestimation of the power of my feeble memory.
So here's Wolf Alice in a horror movie groundhog day; the new video for the cool rockin' tune "You're A Germ" from their recent masterpiece My Love Is Cool. This clip must have been a ton of fun to make.
I caught Palehoundopening for Speedy Ortiz at The Horseshoe and I was suitably impressed. Their album Dry Food just came out and they've released this video for "Healthier Folk". Give the tune a listen.
Mac DeMarco has built a huge following on his easy-going, summery indie pop tunes. He brought his band and and their songbook along to the eclectic line-up at this year's Time Festival on August 15. Mac and co. are celebrating the release of his new album Another One. They were first band on as the sun went down and were the second last act to play. The very enthusiastic crowd loved every minute of it.
I think I'm getting Mac's appeal. It's the way his easy-going, affable personality and his open likeability come across in perfect complement to his sunshiny tunes. Speaking of tunes, the band treated us to music from his new album as well as the well-loved Salad Days. They even threw in a cover of "Blackbird" and jammed out on Steely Dan's "Reelin' In The Years".
