EAGLES OF DEATH METAL | NXNE

"Don't leave your girl round me."


Eagles of Death Metal are bananas.  Not only do they slay your favourite tracks, moving swiftly between them and crushing solos where need be, occasionally they open up songs for further inspection. Jesse Hughes and company know how to work a crowd.  Picture what would have happened if Pierre Trudeau learned to play the drums back in the 70's and ditched politics altogether. Running with this lie, maybe Truedeau learns how to play guitar later in life ...  grows a dirty-doggin-handle-bar stache and that's the kind of charisma you can count on from Hughes night in night out.  If you've heard one Eagles of Death Metal, you can attest that most of the tracks revolve around sex, broken relationships, and timeless rock and roll.   These guys don't take themselves too seriously.  If you care about your girlfriend DO NOT bring her to this show.  She will end up on stage, then back stage, and eventually out of your life. 

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL | NXNE from BDM on Vimeo.

- AJS | BDM

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL | NXNE

DE LA | NXNE

Few hip hop bands deserve the title 'Legends'

De la soul played a free show on the (closing night) of NXNE and they threw down.  From 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Is Dead, to The Grind Date, De La threw down the classics and brought the thunder with tracks like ROCK CO KANE FLOW.   I saw De La perform the same act to close out Pitchfork two years back and all three Plugs have not lost their touch.  Thanks so much to NXNE for the media hook up and to my boy Adrian (A-train) for sweet talk'in the media personal.  This is what happens when good luck be on your side homies.

DE LA SOUL | NXNE from BDM on Vimeo.

Oodles of O's,

-AJS | BDM

DE LA SOUL | NXNE

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | ISLAND SHOW

There’s happiness, there’s ecstasy and then there's the feeling you get when you go see Broken Social Scene in concert. For those of you who’ve caught these Indie- juggernauts from TO live, you know you’re always at a loss of words when describing what you’ve just taken in. As for those who haven’t seen them...well if you want to see an overwhelming orchestra of organic alt-rock, if you want to hear songs that will have you conflicting the conception of reality and what’s all around you, if you want hear the sound of a city, watch something like nothing else on earth, and reach a stage of noise-Nirvana, go see Broken Social Scene.

Back on June 19th, BSS returned to the Toronto Islands with a bunch of friends to give fans what they have long been waiting for. It’s been five years since the group released their self-titled hit, and they were more than excited to share their new release, Forgiveness Rock Record.

Following acts like Beach House and Band of Horses(who both performed incredibly entertaining sets but were simply blown away by the phenomenon that is BSS’ live show ) BSS were proud to share their new record with fans. Not shying away from the old hits; “7/4 Shoreline”, “Lover’s Spit”, “Stars and Sons”, “Cause=Time”, BSS offered almost a dozen songs off the 14-track new LP. This was an island you wouldn’t mind being stranded on.

As mentioned, since the boys and girls in Broken Social Scene were home they opened their little black books and called up everyone in it. Musicians from other Canadian bands like Metric, Death From Above 1979 and The Stills joined the crew, and even everyone’s favourite, Feist was even on stage a fair amount. In fact, at one point I counted 17 people on stage rocking out, singing, hugging and laughing! Trombones, Trumpets (plural, very plural!), Violins, basses, Guitars(sometimes four or five going!), drums and percussion, tambourines, bass, and even a French Horn.

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | TORONTO ISLAND TEASER from BDM on Vimeo.

It was a party! A party thrown by Broken Social Scene, who couldn’t have been better hosts to thousands of strangers. Strangers who didn’t hesitate to jump on a fairy and cross lake Ontario(and pay $10 for a Burger!). Strangers who didn’t feel like strangers. They felt like family. They felt like they were a part of something. Something uplifting and powerful. Something that cannot be described. So stop reading my ramble and go see them for yourself. There is no possible way you will be disappointed. There is no possible way you will be the same person afterward.

-Josh "The Intern" Hoffman, BDM

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE | JOSH HOFFMAN

SLEIGH BELLS DELIVERS!

"got my 'a' mchns on the tbl, got my 'b' mchns in the drwr" 

I first discovered Sleigh Bells (duo Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss) back in December09 and at this time all they had were 4-5 singles that all sounded like live-to-tape recordings from local sets. Though, a little underproduced and over-distorted A/B Machines instantly got me scrounging random blog entries on Hypem to track down as many recordings from this band as possible. Without a produced full length album, and hailing from Brooklyn, NY they officially became my MOST ANTICIPATED album/live-set for 2010.

When Pitchfork Fest turned away from us on media accreditation (until the last minute), I pretty much gave up on my mission to see Sleigh Bells live; but of course, upon the release of their album they embarked on a North American Tour which brought them to me last night in Toronto. 
As much as  I would love to see their small-venue, floor-level-set in Brooklyn, there's no way I would be able to 'tough'-out such an event, and so I settled for the 'bat cave club' atmosphere of the Phoenix in TO. Despite the fact that we stood in one spot waiting 2 hours for the band to come on stage, they really made me forget the less-than courteous people around me and remember why I bought the ticket in the first place.

Their set was packed full off non-stop energy. I'm pretty sure they played every track on the album, plus one I've never heard before. Alexis Krauss lives and breathes every single beat on that stage, without missing a key. They might have a 'drum machine' taking care of those hard beats, and back vocals but those screams you hear on the tracks are NOT samples, they are hers and they are live.
It's duo's like this that leave me wondering where all of that performance art even sprouts from, are they freaks of nature? Nah they're just from Brooklyn and know how to party hardy.

SLEIGH BELLS | A/B MACHINES from BDM on Vimeo.

[So, the iphone is clearly not made for bassy live-tunes. Maybe Apple should look into this. This was the best clip I had that didn't drop out audio completely.]

After listening to the LQ singles for 5 months, their full length was a real 'treat'. When I first listened to it, all tuned up, cleaner, louder and way less distorted, it felt like I was plugging my headphone jack into a light board. (This may or may not be a result of PC'ing for the majority of my teens and watching all my music on Windows Media Player). As I'm not the best at explaining the way music sounds, but what I saw was explosive saturated rainbow patterns encoded with the hard beats and pull backs that make you want to do nothing but rock out.

Favourite part: In the reproduction of A/B Machines, which is still purposefully distorted,  they've created a blend of noise that makes the guitar sound as though it's being sucked from your ears rather than blasting them to 'deaf'. This contrast just makes you want it harder for longer. 

Beforehand the only way I could pinpoint what their music made me see were keywords like "bullies, hard, playground music." Like the stuff your high-school bully kicked your best friend's ass to, after school by the hopscotch on the elementary grounds.
 
Now that I'm familiar with their album art work, their sound has taken on a much bigger, tougher, team/teen-spirit feel, like the stuff cheerleading acrobats choreograph their sets to.  ------>>>>>>


Either way, Sleigh Bells does not sound like Christmas, so pick it up, party hard this summer, and learn how to fight before it's back to school!

-Brittknee Withikaye, Editor | BDM

SLEIGH BELLS | HYPEM | PITCHFORK | PHOENIX

THE MORNING BENDERS | PITCHFORK TV

"we are so smooth now"

If you haven't already picked up the latest from the Morning Benders you are sadly missing out on some of the BEST mood music of the summer.

I've been listening to BIG ECHO off and on since March, so at this point it's going to clearly define a good chunk of my existence in 2010; we'll call it a "nostalgic investment".
Lately, with the intensity of the summer weighing in, (air conditioner-less) it seems that this album becomes more of a fresh breeze, and a splash of cold water, just like the cover art.


Anyways...

Pitckfork.tv brings you a beautifully pieced live-to-tape set for the first track of Big Echo, "Excuses"

-Brittknee Withikaye, Editor

THE MORNING BENDERS | PITCHFORK