2011-07-25

Concert review - The Weeknd

Damn, I wish I was there for this one...
A perfect Weeknd
"After months shrouded in secrecy, Abel Tesfaye, best known as The Weeknd, made his public debut Sunday night in his hometown of Toronto. It was the perfect live start to what will be a thriving career, if he keeps up like this. "

Blogto commenters prove once again that no one reads Blogto articles

Today's exhibit: Steely Dan shows how a rock band ages gracefully

I could spend all day picking apart the comments section of this article in particular, but it would make me unnecessarily angry, and hate all the people who live in my city.

So to be brief - it's obvious that the first and third commenters didn't read the article at all, since what they are saying makes no sense... the article says the exact opposite and is, in fact, agreeing with what they are saying. 

This is why I usually avoid reading comments on articles online, as it really pains me to be faced with the realization of something I already know - there are a lot of really stupid people out there walking around, driving cars, making food that I eat, etc, etc...

Copyright history of the birthday song

You Say It's Your Birthday

[via Daily Swarm]

2011-07-20

Horrible Bosses Trailer features obvious song choice

Really? Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Can't Stop"? Why Bother?
I thought about referring to this as a horrible song choice, but that's not really accurate. It would make a good tie in to the movie title, but that just doesn't make that much sense. The song choice really is more like obvious, and lazy, the more I think about it. Warner probably said - "here are a bunch of songs we own the rights to, pick one, and there's your trailer." Boom. Mystery solved.

Ghostfaced Pixels

Safety Words are a mashup duo, and that's about all I can find out about them right now, mostly due to the fact that they have an ungooglable name... anyway the album 'The Ghostfaced Pixels' is a bunch of Wu-Tang raps mashed with 8-bit NES music... it's pretty awesome, you should check it out:



"Hygiene Tips from the Planet Zebes" is hilarious, and it plays out exactly like it sounds.

Fist bump to Adam for the tunage.

Sesame Street-Beasties rap

Ahhhh these never get old!


Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.


[link]


2011-07-14

Today in awful

Can you fucking believe this shit?

Dance Party '93

Remember this one?  Robin S' "Show Me Love"... totally unrelated to Robyn's "Show Me Love"



Jason DeRulo (who always starts off his songs by singing his name), samples this one on his new song, as well as butchering Harry Belafonte's "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)"

2011-07-12

The Dark Knight Rises poster

The Teaser Poster for The Dark Knight Rises!

I'm pretty excited this movie, and especially another score from the genius Hans Zimmer.  Inception and The Dark Knight were amazing films with outstanding soundtracks.

2011-07-11

Friend linking

Check out my friend Tony's blog, and photos of his trip to Italy.  A must for both photography and cycling fans.

Soundgarden concert review - July 2, Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto

Here's a late concert review, I've been busy enjoying the summer and haven't had time to put all these thoughts swimming in my head about this concert down in words. 

I admit to being a bit skeptical at first.  How would the band's chops hold up?  Would the chemistry still be there?  Would they favour new material, or would it play like a greatest hits?  Will Chris Cornell nail those stunning vocal parts from Superunknown?

Let me put it mildly: there was no rust on this machine.  The band was as sharp as you'd expect from the first night of a major tour, and a comeback one at that.  I didn't bring earplugs, this being the lawns and all.  I was definitely not expecting the band to be that loud.  They were extremely heavy, loud, and energetic through the entire set.

The setlist did not disappoint.  They allayed my fears instantly, opening with the comeback single "Black Rain", which from the parking lot sounded like it could have been from Badmotorfinger.  Getting the new material out of the way, they played a punishing set that would satisfy the 'greatest-hitters' and the long time fans... check out the setlist, via setlist.fm:

Black Rain
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Gun
Rusty Cage
Blow Up the Outside World
Let Me Drown
Jesus Christ Pose
My Wave
The Day I Tried to Live
Outshined
Beyond the Wheel
Fell on Black Days
Ugly Truth
Burden in My Hand
Superunknown
Black Hole Sun
4th of July

Encore:

Face Pollution
Like Suicide
Slaves & Bulldozers

I have an idea for a post about how awesome setlist.fm is, which I will hopefully hammer out soon.

The biggest surprise of all was the vocal performance by Chris Cornell.  My friend Matt remarked during the show that it was one of the greatest vocal performances he had ever seen, and I tend to agree.  Not just jazz, classical, or rock, but vocal performances, period.  Absolutely breathtaking.  We couldn't believe our ears.

The combination of an amazing performance and a stunning lightning show made this a very memorable performance.  Massive rain kinda put a... damper on the exit, but what can we say?  Soundgarden is back.

2011-07-06

Polaris 2011 Long list announced

2011 Shortlist

Arcade Fire made the best album, but they've already taken home Grammy hardware this year.  My pick would be outstanding debut from The Weeknd.

I've only heard one other album, Austra's Feel It Break, and let me tell you, I am shocked to see it on the short list.  Long list for sure, but seriously?  I've given the album a couple listens and it feels like B+ Ladytron, and possibly the weakest sounding synth I've ever heard open an album.

So there it is, two months to bone up on the other albums.  The Toronto Public Library has 9 of the 10 albums, so go on, help yourself!  Edit: 8 of 10, but you can get The Weeknd for free on their website


Soundgarden Inadvertently Reunites At Area Cinnabon

Onion link here.

My review of last week's Soundgarden show is forthcoming, I swear!

2011-07-05

Great songs in the Zookeeper trailer can't convince me to part with my money

 This post was originally titled "Awful looking movie trailer features two awfully good songs", but in an effort to increase page views, I'm trying an experiment and changing the title.

Because Google loves when I do these types of posts, I'm going to subject you to a fairly weak analysis of the latest piece of shit movie trailer "starring" "funnyman" Kevin James, Zookeeper.  I suppose I should italicize the title there, but I don't want to encourage these people.

Yep, the trailer uses some remix of the Doobie Brothers "Listen to the Music", then backs it up with a predictable choice, the Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life", which itself is a weird and somewhat perverse jaunt through a visual medium.  Go on, watch it.  At least so you can see Jerry Harrison dress up as Prince... and, for some reason John Goodman shows up.  Think about this video when considering how great the Talking Heads were, and how it easy it can be for great bands to go into a creative tailspin. 

Anyway, what was the point of this post?  Right, seo bait.  Here ya go:



Zookeeper in theatres Friday!!!11zomg

McGrath speaks

Writer Denis McGrath returns to his blog, with comments about the government's recent slashing of Summerworks' budget.

Definitely worth a read.  It also makes me miss his blog.

2011-07-01

Canada Day Canadiana

Taking a look at my iTunes library, among the top played Canadian songs are these ones:





Obviously the play counts favour the amazingly good and the amazingly new, especially since I rebooted my library somewhat recently. 

There ya go, a nice juxtaposition of new and classic, rock and pop.

Happy Canada Day! :)