Riot Fest 2014 Day 1 Band 5: Manchester Orchestra

Manchester Orchestra was next up on the Rock stage. It was at this stage that us photographers got our first warning from security to watch for incoming crowd surfers. One guy who had come over the barrier was enthusiastic about getting back into the crowd and ran right into me. No worries. That's rock and roll.

The band is from Atlanta, Georgia and they have four full-length albums to draw from. Based on what I found on the web, they focused on their 2009 release and the new album, Cope. I enjoyed their set and their extremely thick and heavy sound. Great set!

"Pride" from 2009's Mean Everything To Nothing

"Shake It Out" from Mean Everything To Nothing

"I've Got Friends" from Mean Everything To Nothing

"Everything To Nothing" from Mean Everything To Nothing

"Cope" from their latest release Cope Live on Letterman

"Top Notch" from Cope

Royal Blood

So, Royal Blood. They've been getting tons of buzz. I wrote about them for the first time back in April.

Now they've been nominated for this year's Mercury Prize and they're playing Toronto's Lee's Palace on October 14.

If you haven't heard about them, they're a duo from Brighton and their eponymous début is out now.

Rock out to some of their amazingly tight riff heavy tunes and get out to a show:

"Out Of The Black"

"Little Monster"

"Come On Over"

"Figure It Out"

"Hole" live at Glastonbury 2014

Pic from Facebook.

Riot Fest 2014 Day 1 Band 4: The Beaches

The girls in The Beaches rock. I loved the fun energy they belted out and want to catch a full show as they rise in popularity. They played the Rebel stage on Day 1 of Riot Fest Toronto. The emerging artist stage is always the hardest to play because of the bigger acts performing on the three other stages, but you can find some awesome acts, like The Beaches, by taking some chances.

Their music is steeped in classic alternative and some punk with attitude to spare. The synth and guitar lines weave in and out until the powerful choruses hit. Great stuff.

Check out some of their tunes. Float in the energy, attitude and grimy guitars. Their latest EP Heights is out now.

"Little Pieces"

"Absolutely Nothing"

"Loner"

Stars and Hey Rosetta! announce tour dates; New Stars video released

Stars' new album No One Is Lost comes out October 14. I was going to save their new video for "From the Night" for my post including pictures from their performance at Riot Fest. However, that post is a ways off and they just announced tour dates with Hey Rosetta!, so I'm going with that.

Check out "From the Night", go see them on tour, and buy their album. They're cool.



Tour dates:

10/05 New York, NY - Modern Sky Festival
11/08 Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall ^
11/09 Boston, MA - Royale ^
11/12 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer ^
11/14 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre ^
11/15 Atlanta, GA - The Loft ^
11/16 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge ^
11/19 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^
11/21 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre ^
11/22 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre ^
11/23 Buffalo, NY - The Tralf (Music Hall) ^
02/03 Kingston, ON - Grand Theatre ^
02/05 Montreal, QC  - Metropolis ^
02/06 Quebec City, QC - Imperial ^
02/07 Ottawa, ON - National Arts Centre ^
02/08 Guelph, ON - Hillside Inside at RRC ^
02/11 London, ON - London Music Hall ^
02/12 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall ^
02/13 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall ^
02/21 Winnipeg, MB - Burton Cummings Theatre ^
02/23 Saskatoon, SK - O'Brians Event Centre ^
02/24 Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall ^
02/25 Edmonton, AB - The Winspear ^
02/27 Vancouver, BC - The Vogue Theatre ^
02/28 Vancouver, BC - The Vogue Theatre ^
03/03 Seattle, WA – Neptune
03/04 Portland, OR – Aladdin
03/05 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore
03/06 Los Angeles, CA – Fonda Theatre

^ with Hey Rosetta!

Tour dates from Exclaim.

Wish

I've had Wish on my list to write about for a while. I think I've even missed a couple of local shows in the meantime. Too bad, but I just can't make it out to every show, as much as I'd like to.

Wish are from Toronto and are a psych/shoegaze band. Kyle Connolly has been playing around in bands Beliefs, Breeze, and Milk Lines. I dig the swirling guitars and reverb-soaked vocals. They've released four versions of their video for "RetroGrade" and a paltry one version of the video for "Nothing To Say". You can check out the whole self-titled album below, too. It's out now on Hand Drawn Dracula.

Pic from Facebook.