My last entry of September 2008

September is over? Already?

September seems to have been an unbelievably busy month for everyone. But I'm pretty sure every September of every year is like this. It's just one of those lovable characteristics September seems to attain.

Songs that kept me going this month:

The Knife - Heartbeats
Dandy Warhols - Sleep (me and my bed's theme song)
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space
Klaxons - As Above, So Below (Justice remix)
The Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss a Beat (Cut Copy remix)

So about "Heartbeats"...
I used to not really like this song but when I was writing a boring research paper, I had an irresistible urge to listen to it. It helped me get through the dreadful paper. And now, I love it.

So I've decided; out of all the music I've discovered and re-discovered this month, I'm going to say that The Knife's "Heartbeats" is my September 2008 song because it got me through my first research paper of the semester.

The Knife - Heartbeats

Winner of the Polaris Music Prize - Caribou

The winner of the Polaris Music Prize was chosen and announced yesterday. After months of narrowing the nominees and the journalists down, they finally came to the conclusion that Ontario's Caribou is the worthiest of them all.

I wrote about the short list nominees back in July and I really thought Plants and Animals would take the prize. I'm not disappointed or angry that Caribou won. They deserve it or should I say, he deserves it. Caribou is essentially Daniel Snaith who used to perform under the name Manitoba but was forced to change his name because of Handsome Dick Manitoba from the band, The Dictators. Complicated story but in the end, Manitoba turned into Caribou.

So what did Caribou win? He won the title, Polaris Music Prize Winner, and $20,000 that he may save for space travel in the future.

The album that won him the prize was Andorra; an album full of psychedelic instrumental euphony and soft vocals. Overall, it's a fairly unique and creative album.

Check out as much as you can below.

Caribou - Melody Day

Caribou - She's the One


Caribou's Official website
Caribou's Myspace

Mother Mother

Band of the dayI couldn't stop listening to this B.C. band today. Even when I thought I should listen to something else, I would put something else on for two songs and then switch back to Mother Mother's new album, O My Heart. The beats and vocals in this album are so addicting. I just wanted them to pound my eardrums forever. And you should want them to pound your eardrums forever as well.
I definitely recommend this band to anyone who is looking for a better, modernized version of the B-52s.

Mother Mother - O My Heart


Check out their myspace!
Mother Mother Myspace

Never miss a beat

As I was mindlessly researching for a mandatory course, I was listening to Cut Copy's remix of The Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss a Beat. After about four minutes into the song, I had an unavoidable urge to start dancing in my computer chair. I thought, "that was pretty sweet" then continued on with my research. The playlist was on repeat so when it came to that song a second time, I found myself unintentionally dancing in my chair again. That's when I knew; I must write about this remix.

This remix starts off pretty good but it doesn't get amazing until it hits around four minutes. As you can see from my previous statements, that's when the real dancing gets started. It's almost like:

You're sitting in a chair at a dance party. You don't know anyone at this party and you're shy. You're just there because you are (no questions). You're grooving to the song wishing you had someone to dance with just because you wanna dance! Then all of a sudden, this excited, animated person grabs you out of your chair and starts dancing with you. You guys have this unprepared, synchronized dance routine that surprisingly works perfectly. And the rest of the night goes down in dance history.

That is, this song in a nutshell.

Paris is burning

So here are two different songs with the SAME title that are made by two different artists! Shizzle my nizzle.

St. Vincent
A lady who I saw perform with Arcade Fire in 2007 (right before her album Marry Me was released). She comes from Brooklyn, New York with melodic "indie" music. So nice.St. Vincent - Paris is burning
Ladyhawke (not to be confused with the Vancouver rock band, Ladyhawk)
Apparently the alter ego of Two Lane Blacktop's Pip Brown and coming from New Zealand, she describes herself on myspace as a lady who likes to play and sing, "'nuff said". As Ladyhawke, she creates music that can be categorized as electro-pop. So let's dance!
Ladyhawke - Paris is burning

Life 2: The Unhappy Ending

STARS
I forgot how amazing this band was at telling stories. I was listening to "One more night" and enjoying the story between two lovers and their last night of lust. Then I remembered "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" which is a story about two past lovers meeting again. When I thought I had listened to all my favourite story-telling Stars songs, I remembered (I think I would say this is my favourite Stars song) "Life 2: The Unhappy Ending". I want to post the lyrics to all three of these songs but I think that would be a little too much. So here is my favourite Stars song, lyrics included.

Stars - Life 2: The Unhappy Ending

Scene one: Late at night interior, we find ourselves inside the car
Our hero has just gone too far, his lover bleeding in the back
He removes the Lucky from the pack, he knows now that he can't turn back

Cut to: the cherry lights in the rearview
He realizes that he's through
Whispers, "Darling, let's have fun"
Hits the exit doing 91, drives until he's in the woods
If he loses them he's gone for good

Life was supposed to be a film, was supposed to be a thriller, was supposed to end in tears
But life, could be nothing but a joke, could be nothing but a con
Where's my unhappy ending gone? Where's my unhappy ending?

Her: Here is the part where you save me, here is the scene where you save the day
Why can't the ending be happy?
Why must it always resolve this way?

Fade in: A cabin in the woods somewhere,
Our hero strokes his lover's hair
Says, "Don't worry love we're almost done"
Says, "I could have really been someone"
Outside, they surround the house with pistols drawn,
It's a waiting game until the dawn
Sergeant says, "He can't go on, we know now that he can't go on..."

Life was supposed to be a film, was supposed to be a thriller, was supposed to end in fire
But life, turns out it's nothing but a dream,
and that I'll miss it when it's gone,
I want the story to go on and on and on
(But it can't go on...)

Tv on the Radio

The new TV on the Radio album, Dear Science, is set to release on the 23rd of this month. Like Return to Cookie Mountain, Dear Science is full of great lyrics and beats. But I would say that they've developed an improved beat to some of their songs on Dear Science.
"Love Dog" and "Red Dress" are probably two of my favourite songs off this album. "Love Dog" is a soft song with sentimental lyrics I really enjoy. While "Red Dress" is a song that has an exotic dance feel to it. I don't really know if it's the trumpets, the recurring beat, or the extended vocals but this song makes me want to dance around and go a little crazy.

I also tend to really enjoy TV on the Radio's videos. Here is the video for their first single from this album. It kind of reminds me of the Play Station 2 video game, Spyro the Dragon.

TV on the Radio - The Golden Age

TV on the Radio's official website

Spyro...wut?

Do you really want to...

Metronomy did it again; another sweet remix.

Franz Ferdinand - Do you want to (Metronomy remix)

Planisphere

Caution: what you are about to download is extremely intense and may make you want to dance around like a creepy creature of the night.

Justice - Planisphere (Part 1)
Justice - Planisphere (Part 2)
Justice - Planisphere (Part 3)
Justice - Planisphere (Final)

Justice Myspace

The Clips

It's quite unfortunate that the two venues I've seen this band perform at were places dedicated to drunkenness. The first time I saw this band, it was at the late Chair Factory (may it rest in shitty peace). Sorry if I offended anyone with that comment but this venue was pretty bad. Ok, maybe it was alright for the occasional dance party for 100-200 people. But for a "concert" with more than 300 people it was pretty stupid. This venue only had two unisex bathroom stalls and there were no in-and-out privileges. So when I saw them perform at the Chair Factory, I was enjoying the music but I really wasn't into the skeezy environment so I left early to go somewhere where more than two bathroom stalls existed.
The second time I saw them was at good ol' Pub 340, another wonderful place full of cheap booze. This time was a lot better than the time at the Chair Factory, probably because there were less people and the sound was A LOT better. Though, I didn't get to watch the whole performance due to circumstances that don't need to be mentioned.

The Clips are a band from Vancouver that I think your ears need and want to hear. I have to admit that I really enjoy their music live. I would like to see them again in a better venue. One of the band member's, Edo Van Breeman (vocals and keyboards), is doing a solo act at Richard's on Richards on Sept 25 but after that, it looks like the band is heading to the east for the Pop Montreal Festival (which I really wish I could go to). But I'm sure they will be back soon.

This is one of my favourite songs. Check it.
The Clips - Wire
If you want to check out more of their stuff, there is a link to their myspace below.
The Clips Myspace

Last nite

This blog entry is dedicated to one of my dear friends who is also a new roommate.

Last night, we threw a housewarming party. Before the party started, we decided to get some energy drinks. We originally wanted to listen to ABBA in the car but I couldn't find the CD so my friend/roommate suggested The Strokes (her first favourite band ever). We skipped through the CD to track 7 aka Last Nite (one of the Strokes biggest hits) and rocked out in the car.
Later on in the night, I decided to put this song on for all of the leftover party animals in the house. Most of them loved it and wanted to listen to the rest of the album, Is this it, so we did. This resulted in fun dancing, sweet air guitar solos and friendly hugs.
I also really enjoyed this same friend/roommate telling all of our other friends (myself included) how much she loved us. Even though these comments may have been catalyzed by alcohol, they were still meaningful and genuine.


I ruv my molly

L'amour et la violence

Cette chanson est belle.

Sébastien Tellier - L'amour et la violence (Boys Noize Remix)

Original

Does it offend you, yeah?

Ok, so I didn't really like this band at first; mainly because they did a horrible remix of Muse's "Map of Problematique" (it's so bad I'm not even going to post it). But I've put that remix behind me and I think Does it Offend You, Yeah? is growing on me. I am a little late getting into this band, considering their album You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into was released in March. But that Muse remix seriously turned me off of them.
I do love their name though. Do they offend you, yeah? Aw yea.
I don't know if the title of their sixth song offends me or not: "Attack of the 60 ft lesbian octopus". Maybe it just confuses me. But it's probably the least enjoyable song off the album. Besides that song, most of their other songs are pretty sweet electro-rock dance songs.

So here is my late blog tribute to Does it Offend You, Yeah?

Let's Make Out

pterodactyls are not dinosaurs

Pterosaurs (Wikipedia link)
Random but this needs to be sorted out.

Not a great DJ

I remember reading a blog a couple of months ago about the Tings Tings remix Calvin Harris did (I couldn't remember the name of the blog nor could find it) but it proposed this question: "So...is Calvin Harris a great DJ?"
Um...I don't really think so.
I saw Calvin Harris spin at Celebrities last night and to be honest, I liked Paul Devro's DJ set more than Calvin Harris'. Harris kept busting out songs full of hardcore repetition and I know dance music is full of repetition, but these songs would repeat that one moment in a song that should only happen once. You know which moment I'm talking about, that moment where there's no beat and it sounds like you're underwater; that shouldn't happen five times in one song. He also played a lot of songs that played a high pitch noise that just got higher and higher and higher until I thought my brain would explode. Once again, I don't mind this once in a song but if it's more than that, the sober brain doesn't like it too much.
On the other hand, Paul Devro's DJ set was pretty good. He played Cut Copy, Lykke Li (which was a huge surprise), Feist (Boys Noize remix), and other good shizz.
We did leave early so maybe Harris started playing better stuff after we left. But while I was there, I wasn't really into it.

The Black Ghosts - Repetition Kills You