PEREZZLE GETS CALLED OUT

Check the video. Perez is confronted at an Xbox 360 party by a member of the paparazzi that calls him out for "stealing" photos for his blog, Perez Hilton. It's pretty genius to see Perez all worked up. (link via Phern).

IF IT WORKS

Tokyo Police Club are going on one more North American tour before the end of 2006. The tour starts tomorrow in Brantford (October 27th) and ends December 2nd at The Horseshoe in Toronto. Check the dates below.

10/27/2006 Ford Plant Brantford, ON
10/28/2006 Main Street London, ON
11/2/2006 Studio B Brooklyn, NY
11/3/2006 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
11/4/2006 The Khyber Philadelphia, PA
11/4/2006 The Annex New York, NY
11/8/2006 Latimer Lounge Denver, CO.
11/11/2006 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium San Fransisco, CA
11/12/2006 The Echo Los Angeles, CA
11/14/2006 Holocene Portland, OR
11/15/2006 Chop Suey Seattle, WA
11/16/2006 Logan's Victoria, BC
11/17/2006 Gallery Lounge Vancouver, BC
11/18/2006 The Royal on Baker Nelson, BC
11/21/2006 The Canmore Hotel Canmore, AB
11/22/2006 Tongue 'n' Groove Lethbridge, AB
11/23/2006 Broken City Calgary, AB
11/24/2006 Power Plant Edmonton, AB
11/25/2006 Louis' Pub Saskatoon, SK
11/26/2006 The Collective Winnipeg, MB
11/29/2006 Schuba's Chicago, IL
11/30/2006 The Intersection Grand Rapids, MI
12/2/2006 Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, ON

TPC gets MORE blog love from NYC. Check Ultra's post about catching them live and dancing up a storm.

Frank at Chromewaves reviewed their appearance at Pop Montreal a couple weeks back. Read it here.

i(heart)music was at the same showcase during the festival and reviews it here.

I missed their last show at Sneaky Dee's, so I'm gonna hit this one. Oh and if anyone has a line of a TPC t-shirt, me wantie.

BEAR IN MIND, WE ALL FALL BEHIND, FROM TIME TO TIME

Download LCD Soundsystem's iTunes exclusive work-out mix 45.33 here.

Read Pitchfork's review here.

THE THERMALS - PILLAR OF SALT


Newish video from The Thermals. Cameo by Colin Meloy!

LADY SOVEREIGN - LOVE ME OR HATE ME

I"M A FUNKING LITTLE MONKEY
Yet another Lady Sovereign post. People must think I'm obsessed, but I'm not. Let it be said right here that Lady Sov.'s debut Public Warning, being released in North America by Universal on October 31, 2006 is the new hot shit. People have complained that much of the album has been available in the form of singles and eps, but many of the tracks have been re-recorded for her debut. There is a killer new version of "Gatheration", with a new slowed down beat, and wicked guitars. The beats are harder, the grime vocals are harsher and the tunes are more punk rock than anything else I've heard in the last year.

If Lily Allen is the new Streets, Sov. is the new M.I.A.. I really think Public Warning is going to break Sov. in North America, she has the talent, wit and skill to go big.

According to Pitchfork, she's already on her way. Yesterday on MTV TRL, her video for "Love Me Or Hate Me" was the #1 video requested for the day. Read about it here.

Watch the video for "Love Me Or Hate Me Here" here.
Watch an interview with Sov. here.
Watch the video for "9 to 5" here.
Check her myspace here.

Check her live on October 24, 2006 at the Opera House in Toronto. Tickets available here.

TV ON THE RADIO - WOLF LIKE ME
Live On Letterman (09/12/2006)




I was actually looking for their performance on MTV Canada's Live from this past week, but stumbled across this one which is freakin' incredible. I'm pretty pissed that I didn't go to their show last week at the Opera House, word around town is that it was really good. I'll defs be catching them the next time around.

HAND OVER THAT RABBIT FUR COAT
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
w/ Vietnam, Michael Runion
October 7, 2006
St. Paul's Trinity

I've been dying to see Jenny Lewis tour behind Rabbit Fur Coat, because I'm smitten with the album, and have never seen Rilo Kiley but have always wanted to. I missed her first stop through at the Opera House and I'm kind of glad that I did, because last night's show at St. Paul's was one of the best I've seen all year. To begin, I must give props to Against the Grain and Craig Laskey for booking Lewis into the best venue in the city. The religious overtones on Rabbit Fur Coat fit perfectly with the venue.
Arrived early to get good seats, it was general admission. Sat in the 5th row, right off the aisle, perfect picture taking seats, except for the photo ban for the night. It didn't seem to stop people, so I snapped a couple quickly when I could. The rushing made them blurry, so I've posted only the ones that look decent. Michael Runion opened the show. He's Lewis' touring bassist, and performed a 25 minute set of acoustic songs reminiscent of Donovan, but less poppy. Nothing spectacular, but a good way to start the evening. Vietnam was up next and again, I wasn't overly sold by their performance. It's funny, when we first walked into the venue, I noticed this homeless guy sitting in the last pew on the main floor. He looked dirty and disheveled and kind of freaky in a Unibomber kind of way. Turns out he was the lead singer of Vietnam. The band all looked like this; they really took their name to heart and dressed the part of Vietnam vets. Musically, they sounded like southern 70s rock typical of the era. Vocals and lyrics very Dylan like, but musically louder. Didn't blow me away.
The house lights went down shortly after 9pm and Lewis, the Twins and their band popped up at the back of the venue and walked down the aisle singing an acapella version of "Run Devil Run". It was breathtaking and the perfect way to begin her set. Lewis is a natural front woman, she's one of those people that you can't keep your eyes off. Next up as "Big Guns", which showcased how strong her band is. The Watson Twins sounded fantastic too, their backing vocals compliments Jenny's voice very well. The rest of the set was derived mainly from the album, with a couple new tunes sprinkled in including "Jack Killed Mom" and "Fernando". The new material is just as strong as that found on Rabbit, it has a very similar feel, but the writing is more mature. For the encore, Lewis came out solo and formed "Rabbit Fur Coat", then brought out the band for two more songs including an all-star cover of the Traveling Wilburys "Handle with Care" in which Toronto-favourite Feist sang back up and played tambourine. An amazing conclusion to a great night.

Watch Michael Runion's video for "Drunk As I've Ever Been" here.

Check Vietnam's myspace.

Read Now Magazine's interview with Jenny Lewis here. (via For The Records)

Watch Jenny Lewis perform "Jack Killed Mom" here.

Watch Jenny Lewis perform "Fernando" here.

Watch Jenny Lewis perform "Rabbit Fur Coat" here.

Watch the Hee-Haw inspired video for "Rise Up With Fists" here.

THE DECEMBERISTS ON CONAN

Performing O Valencia from The Crane Wife (via Stereogum).

THE KILLERS EXPLAIN THEIR NAME

The Killers were on Kimmel last night and did a skit with him explaining how they got their name. Check it out, it's pretty funny!

BLESS THIS HOUSE AND ITS HEART SO SAVAGE
Joanna Newsom w Ohbijou
October 4, 2006
Mod Club Theatre

Joanna Newsom is one of those artists that polarize music listeners and critics alike. You either freakin' love her or hate her, there doesn't seem to be an in-between. The lovers of Ms. Newsom turned out last night for her sold-out debut Toronto performance at the Mod Club. Unusual choice for her, I think a venue such as The Music Gallery or St. Paul’s Trinity would have suited the show much better. Maybe they were too expensive or not available.

Brantford-raised, Toronto residents Ohbijou opened the show. Their take of twee, delicate pop music was a perfect compliment to Newsom. I can't imagine a better local opening band. The band played tunes from their just released debut, Swift Feet For Troubling Times that is reminiscent of Broadcast, minus the robotic coldness with a little of Ida's heart warmth and smiles mixed in. The strings and trumpet added excellent flare, and lead singer Casey Mecija's voice is much stronger than I thought. The girl can sing. And she's adorable. Needless to say, I think they totally won over the audience, except for the noisy bastards in the back.

Joanna hit the stage at 10:15pm to joyous applause. Immediately she launched into Bridges and Balloons from The Milk-Eyed Mender. During the song, it was evident that she wasn't miked correctly; her voice was carrying through the mikes set up to capture her harp. Her vocals sounded a bit distant and muddy. When she finished the song, a sound guy rushed on stage to correct the placement. She explained that since it was her first Toronto appearance, she decided to play a set of new and old material. Second song was the stunning opening of Ys, Emily. Ys is very slick sounding, almost overproduced. As mentioned in an earlier post, Van Dyke Parks arranged and recorded strings for the album. Live, the new material sounds raw and striped down, which is closer to how her older material sounds. She played a bunch of songs that I really wanted to hear live, Sadie, Peach, Plum, Pear etc. I found that the older material was somewhat rushed, she sped up the songs (Mark didn't like Sadie, said it was way to fast), which may be because she's bored of playing them live. Over at stillepost, it was mentioned that she dropped parts of songs while playing old tunes (I didn't notice). The new material was definitely the highlight of the night. Her set was just shy of an hour, which is understandable due to the fact that all she has to rely on his her hands and her voice. She mentioned that her hands were beginning to blister due to playing. It was surprising how fast her hands move across the harp and how intracite her music really is. An amazing show overall.

I took my camera, but didn't get close enough to get decent pics. I did take video of her performance of The Book Of Right-On, which I will post shortly. For really great pictures, check Frank's site. He must have been right up against the stage to get such amazing pictures.

Sucking A Lemon was also there and super close to the stage. Check her blog post here.

Read the Globe and Mail's article on Ms. Newsom here.

Pitchfork has...ummm...had an article about her performance yesterday at Pop Montreal, but it's gone. Will repost it when I find it again.

YouTube video of Joanna performing "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" at the Mod Club.
YouTube video of Joanna performing "The Book Of Right-On" at the Mod Club.
YouTube video of Joanna performing "The Sprout and the Bean" on Jimmy Kimmel

BEN GIBBARD ON LENO

Here is the video of Ben performing "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" on The Tonight Show this week. Ben needs a haircut!

UP ALL NIGHT
Nuit Blanche
September 30, 2006
Part 1.0
Note: Click on links to see the pictures I took over the course of the evening. Blogger is being a bitch and won't upload them.

Last night a bunch of us got together for a night of contemporary art in the city. Mark and I met up with Ang, Melis, Melis and Raj at Yonge St. and Avenue Rd. at 8:30pm, right on Melis B's schedule. She spent the afternoon drawing up an itinerary for the night, which was great cause no one else seemed to what to take the event by the reins and map out our route. Started in Zone A at 8:30pm. Started at Church of the Redeemer for Kelly Mark's neon installation Hold That Thought. A large neon sign hung on the front of the church (see below). I liked that she chose the front of a church for the installation, it gives the installation another layer of meaning, bringing in the idea of the loss of religion in the modern world.

Walked north into Yorkville Village, stopped first at I Am Curious by Annette Mangaard and Ihor Holubizky. This was a DVD projection with live video camera feed interspersed of the crowd checking out the projection. The projection centered around hippie culture. Walked further down Yorkville Ave. to General Idea's installation titled Pharmacopia, three huge inflatable vinyl blimps in the form of perscription pills. The installation was first created in Barcelona commenting directly on the AIDS pandemic. The choice of venue for this installation is actually quite interesting. In the write up in the guidebook on the piece, they explain that the installation was set up in close proximity to the original site of Mount Sinai Hospital. Hit the slowest Starbucks known to man next for some fuel, then down to the Royal Ontario Museum for Carlo Garaicoa's exhibit. On the way we walked past the planetarium to check out Michael Snow's Counting Sheep, a DVD projection onto the Planetarium's roof. The video was of sheep's grazing in a field. Garaicoa's exhibit is one not to be missed, I believe it's running until December and if you can check it out. It was uber-busy in the gallery, so I didn't get a chance to spend as much time as I wish I could have, but what I did see I really enjoyed. His photos with thread and pins over top are brilliant. Headed out to Philosopher's Walk to see Fujiko Nakaya's Fog in Toronto #71624. This was the one thing I really wanted to see, and the one that ended up being my favourite. Artificially created water fog coated the entire area, fog lights were set up to cast interesting shadows and glares, and the trees created amazing sculptures. Incredible. Walked south through U of T's campus to Hart House to see Dark Hart, two multi-media environment showcases by two different Toronto-based collectives. First up was Instant Coffee's environment on the main floor that featured tons of artificial X-Mas trees, lawn chairs and televisions positioned like campfires and an igloo-structure with a floor that light up like a disco floor and a sauna furnace. It was retarded packed in the room so we didn't stay long. We eventually found the second environment, downstairs (underground) in the pool area. FASTWURMS transformed the area into a movie theatre with trays of candles lining the sides of the pool. Clips from A Clockwork Orange were spliced with other video. We jaunted farther south making our way to Zone B. Stopped on the steps of some random building on Queen's Park for snacks (oh, there were plenty), and shots of that tasty Greek booze that tastes like black licorice. Raj brought a large bag of 70% cocoa Lindt chocolates which Mark was grateful for, and Melis B. had a bunch of dried fruit. Hit House Lights at the Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building designed by Norman Foster. There are two suspended "teaching pods' that look as if their floating in the atrium of the building. Theatrical lights light up the pods. Very cool, made me think that if Apple product designers designed a building, it would look like this.

Part 2.0 to come tomorrow.