End of July - "I'm Good, I'm Gone"

I'm summing up July with one music video because the East has made me lethargic and all I can think of is:

Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone


This song is a total "take that, work" song
And I love it

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley

After filling ourselves with burgers and fries, we headed over to Richards' on Richards where good ol' Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley were going to play. We were pretty anxious to see him and were disappointed to find out there was an opening band called...Dree? (I
dont even know...she muffled her name once and Conor Oberst yelled it about 6 times but all I could make out was Dree). Anyways, she wasn't that great. There was a little too much echoing and "ooo-ing". Also, some obnoxious lamewads unfortunately placed themselves behind us. It seemed like they thought they were at a hockey game instead of at a Conor Oberst concert. When Jenny told one of them to back off, he responded "you're at a rock n' roll concert. If you didn't want someone on you, you should be at the back" Wait a minute...I definitely wouldn't classify this as "rock n' roll". I would take that comment into consideration if we were at an actual "rock" concert but I think you may be lost budday. And I liked how Conor Oberst coincidentally played a slow song after the lamewad made that comment which pretty much shut him up.

Oberst and the Mystic Valley's first four to five songs were well-played and upbeat. "Lenders in the Temple" was acoustically played by only Oberst and the keyboardist which made it eerily wonderful and enjoyable. But after that, it seemed to go slowly downhill, then peaked again when he played the frantic song "I don't want to die (in a hospital)", and then went downhill again. The reason why it went slightly downhill was because Oberst seemed to be jacked up on something. He spat on the crowd and his band, which was questionable. He also messed up on the song "Milk Thistle" and didn't provide a sufficient recovery to this mess-up.

Overall, the concert was OK but I definitely wasn't sad when it ended. I did enjoy the first half of Oberst's set and "I don't want to die (in a hospital)" but the rest of it was mediocre and at one point, it looked like Oberst was going to throw up.

Let's tuck the concert away to the side for a moment and talk about his new album. It's a self-titled album which can be streamed off his official website.
This album is pretty good. The lyrics are creative and entertaining (I think the lyrics are a lot better than Bright Eyes lyrics; Bright Eyes is a little too emo for me, no offense to all you Bright Eyes fans).
My top three songs off this album are:

Lenders in the Temple
I don't want to die (in a hospital)
Milk Thistle

Enjoy

Metronomy

Metronomy (a.k.a. Joseph Mount) is an "electronic artist" from Devon, England. He seems to be accompanied by two other guys, Gabriel Stabbing and Oscar Cash, in videos and live shows. I had heard a couple of remixes that Metronomy had done that I really liked (like Goldfrapp and Midnight Juggernauts). So I decided to check out some of his original stuff and some of it's pretty abstract but that doesn't lessen the fact that it's all pretty AMAZING. Especially the song "Heartbreaker". While walking home from work (which is a 40 min walk), I listened to it on repeat and loved every second of it.

Metronomy - Heartbreaker
Metronomy - Trick or Treatz

Midnight Juggernauts - Into the Galaxy (Metronomy remix)

And the video for "You Could Easily Have Me" is pretty entertaining

Trentemøller and Laika

Anders Trentemøller is a DJ/artist from Copenhagen, Denmark.
After I listened to his entire first album, The Last Resort, all I could say was: YES. Like it says in his biography on his official website, his music from The Last Resort is like a soundtrack for a film; it's soft, innovative, and imaginative.
Further on in 2007 he released a compilation of his best hits called The Trentemøller Chronicles. This compilation was comprised by Anders himself and is also fairly entertaining to listen to.
Recently, he released a Live in Concert album and has started a fashion line with Rosa Deer and Sofie Nørregaard.

Trentemøller - Always Something Better
Röyksopp - What Else is There? (Trentemøller remix)

Now on to Laika...
For Trentemøller's song "Moan", they decided to make a sad but slightly silly video featuring Laika, the first mammal to orbit the Earth. If you want to learn more about Laika and her story, check out her Wikipedia page. Poor Laika...

Fireworks

They were exciting and entertaining but a late arrival resulted in watching them between people's heads and a Super Save fence.
The theme (or whatever you want to call it) was Godzilla and I'm not really sure if they did a good job emanating this theme; they were fireworks that were synchronized with intense music. Really, it's all up to your imagination.

My own Celebration of Light playlist:

The Whitest Boy Alive - Fireworks
Animal Collective - Fireworks
Infadels - Godzilla
Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla
The Vines - Outtathaway! <-- Because getting out of English Bay was a challenge

THIS PICTURE IS EPIC

Late of the Pier

Late of the Pier; they're pretty awesome. They sound kind of like a concoction of DFA 1979, an electro-fied modern version of Sweet and a dance-ified version of the Foals (I love made-up words). They come from the mighty land of England and seem to enjoy being shirtless.
Check 'em out!

Late of the Pier - The Bears are Coming
Late of the Pier - Bathroom Gurgle

An awesome remix:
The Bears are Coming (HAUNTS Remix)

And a video:
Late of the Pier - Heartbeat
"A heartbeat, a flicker, a line
It's just a line"


yesyesyesyeysyesyeysyye...ugh I'm so excited I can't even spell "yes" anymore

Knights of Cydonia

Finally, a worthy remix of this EPIC song.
Download this shizz

Muse - Knights of Cydonia (Ocelot Remix)

Ocelot's MySpace

And then the video...

Summer lovin' happened too fast

Muse vs. Klaxons - Supermassive Rainbow
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
MGMT - Electric Feel (James Rutledge Remix - couldn't find original)
Mercury Rev - Goddess on a Highway
Lykke Li - Little Bit
Röyksopp - Only This Moment
Miss Li - Songs we used to sing
The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

Sad it's over but happy it happened

Polaris Music Prize Finalists

The Polaris Music Prize is a $20,000 reward to the best Canadian album of the year (disregarding record sales). The jury consists of 178 people who are either journalists, broadcasters, programmers or bloggers (how I wish I was on that jury). They started with a long list of 40 artists and have narrowed it down to 10 finalists. The finalists seem to mainly come from the East but there is one band from Vancouver (Black Mountain) and one from Winnipeg (The Weakerthans). I have comprised an ordered list of who I think is the worthiest.

1. Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue (Montréal, QC)
2. Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling (London, ON)
3. Stars - In Our Bedroom after the War (Montréal, QC)
4. Caribou - Andorra (Dundas, ON)
5. Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers (Ottawa, ON)
6. Black Mountain - In the Future (Vancouver, BC)
7. Shad - The Old Prince (London, ON) <-- This is hip-hop (omg)
8. Holy Fuck - LP (Toronto, ON)
9. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour (Winnipeg, MB)
10. Two Hours of Traffic - Little Jabs (Charlottetown, PEI)

Ok, so Plants and Animals win it in my books.

But you should check out these artists. I've posted a song from each of the top five albums I've chosen

Plants and Animals - Bye Bye Bye
Basia Bulat - Snakes and Ladders
Stars - Take me to the riot
Caribou - Melody Day
Kathleen Edwards - Buffalo

houseRAVE

So some guys I know decided to throw a house rave. Why? Because our generation was too young to attend/comprehend raves when they were popular. I think this was a great idea and it was a soberly amazing event (the soberly part does not refer to all). Unfortunately, it was on residence at SFU and was practically "crashed" at 1am. But despite this, it still was a great dancing event with great music, bright lights, smoke, and Barbarella.

Chemical Brothers feat. the Klaxons - All Rights Reversed
MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Polygon Palace Remix)
Wolfmother - Woman (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Daft Punk - Technologic (Rogerseventytwo Remix)
Muse vs. The Klaxons - Supermassive Rainbow
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat (video)


Bar-ba-rell-a

Independence Day

David Bowie - I'm afraid of Americans (video)

America, where would pop culture be without you?

Estelle vs. The Tings Tings - Shut up, American boy

O, Canada

Attention: this post should meet all the current Canadian Content requirements.

Dear Canada,

I love you and I think you may love me too. I love your diversity and multiculturalism. I love your provinces and territories. I love how you pretty much paid me to go to Quebec to learn French. And most of all, I love the music that is produced within you (well most of it). Therefore, I dedicate this post to you and your greatness.

Great Canadian music:

MSTRKRFT - Easy Love
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork
Metric - Poster of a Girl
Islands - Creeper
The Dears - 22: The Death of All Romance
Stars - Your Ex-lover is dead (Final Fantasy Remix)
Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise
Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
Feist - Sealion (Chromeo Remix)
Wintersleep - Archaeologists

And just for fun...
Alanis Morissette - Hand in my pocket


Yea babay yea