good ol' soundscapes

this has to be one of my favourite "best of 2007" reviews:

DEERHOOF - Friend Opportunity
If a whole rack of Japanese candy formed a band that was fronted by a koi fish and a lucky dragon it still wouldn't be one-tenth as bizarre, fun, trippy, or cool as this album.

radiohead tv

for those who haven't heard, radiohead have been randomly streaming live webcasts on their new site www.radiohead.tv. last night's program included live performances of the songs off the new album, some covers (below), and some spot-on deejaying by mr. york himself

how it is with James and me

[me to james]: so let me summarize. my nothing is your three .. my three is your four .. and my four and five are 'codes' which combine to form your five ....
[thinks] ... [laughs]: yes

concerts i'm attending ... [updated]

ROCK PLAZA CENTRAL w/Jetplanes of Abraham @ Sneaky Dee's. Oct 6
and the award for best new (to Trevor) Canadian band goes to .... Jetplanes of Abraham! switching vocalists (and instruments) for almost every song, the Ottawa-based indie collective kept us on our toes with their catchy and complex tunes. next came headliners Rock Plaza Central, who recreated their brilliant album Are We Not Horses? (a concept album about mechanical horses who think they are real) with style and presence. but sersly, i'm getting tired of writing reviews like this .....
i really enjoyed the show. check out the bands. fin. ;)

THE NATIONAL @ Phoenix. Oct 8
SHOUT OUT OUT OUT OUT @ Lee's Palace. Oct 27
BATTLES @ Lee's Palace. Nov 10


past shows:

THE VEILS @ El Mocambo. Sept 5
well this is a story: Brett and i knew we would have to leave the show at 10:45 in order to make the guestlist of a festival party ... so of course the Veils went on at 10:40! the one song we heard ("Nux Vomica", the title track off their latest album) was phenomenal! then we hoped in a cab and left :(

YEAH YEAH YEAHs @ Berkeley Church. Sept 7
okay, this concert season it's going as smoothly as i expected ... Vee and i are not attending this invite-only, catered event (at a church) because one of us has had a hair disaster! i won't say which one of us, but i can say that the situation is worse than it sounds in that her dad's wedding is tomorrow ......... oh well. in lieu of this, we are going to see a documentary together at the film festival on sunday ... and we got to perform evil thought experiments on paris hilton on wednesday night! muhaha

RILO KILEY @ Phoenix. Sept 18
i prefer Rilo Kiley's older albums to the new one, so i was expecting at least momentary 'stage apathy' during this show. i couldn't be more wrong. Jenny Lewis is one of the most engaging performers i've ever seen: sexy, sweet, playful ... you couldn't take your eyes off of her. and what an amazing voice, captured perfectly on the Phoenix's great sound system. even their renditions of the new songs worked, providing context and emotion not adequately captured on the album (imho.) it was a great night, made all the better by the fact that it was my birthday, i was with some of my best friends, and the band sang happy birthday! ... to their keyboardist. ;)

OKKERVIL RIVER @ Lee's Palace. Sept 21
there is no denying that this was a great show .. inasmuchas the band performed very well and have such incredible songs. it's the second time i've seen them at Lee's and, incredibly, one of my biggest issues with the last show was repeated during this one: a handful of idiots in the crowd thought it 'cool' to shout out completely inane things during any and all quiet moments ... including the emotional meanderings of my favourite song! (another distraction was the butch dykes going at it directly in front of me for seemingly the entire show (and it would have been so un-pc to complain, right?!)) the band focused on their more up-beat material and, perhaps as a result, didn't play my favourite song ("Savannah Smiles") from the new album :(
but really, i'm being picky here: i certainly got my $14 worth! :)

MINUS THE BEAR @ The Opera House. Oct 1
meh.

FUJIYA & MIYAGI @ Lee's Palace. Oct 3
great show! the venue was (embarrassingly) half empty, but this only served to give each of us the space we needed to shake our butts to the band's incredibly catchy songs, all of which were presented flawlessly by lead man David Best. i'm often surprised when i see the makeup of a band i know little about and what instruments they use to recreate their sound (e.g. i flipped when i realized that Tortoise has two, and sometimes three, xylophonists!) while i knew that F & M were not Japanese (they apparently took their name at random from The Karate Kid and a brand of stereo equipment) i had no idea that they were a three-piece, or that only one of them uses a keyboard, the others sticking almost exclusively to their guitar and bass.

les concerts a emporter ...

website La Blogothèque posts some amazing (and very original) live performances from artists the likes of final fantasy, arcade fire, and the national

... and the menomena clip is ssoo cute!

:. hereis goodby

01. ticket to immortality; the dears
02. love machine; arctic monkeys
03. reject the frequency; of montreal
04. vacation; republic of safety
05. meek warrior; akron/family
06. this harness can't ride anything; chin up chin up
07. wasted state of mind; ... and you will know us by the trail of dead
08. one night on earth; the veils
09. the room got heavy; yo la tengo
10. untitled; neutral milk hotel
11. kick, push; lupe fiasco
12. georgia...bush; lil' wayne
13. suddenly everything has changed; the flaming lips
14. the orchids; califone
15. i see you; rubicks
16. all fires; swan lake
17. he poos clouds; final fantasy
18. crowd surf off a cliff; emily haines
19. my wandering days are over; belle & sebastian

if you play my iPod on shuffle ...

... you have a 3.3% chance of hearing Billy Corgan

(i have 8175 songs, at present)

i'm going to miss it, but you shouldn't ...

SUNSET RUBDOWN w/ Xiu Xiu
Lee's Palace, Toronto
Thursday April 12
$13 at RT, SS, TM

my favourite albums of 2006

georgia ... bush

what a great 'lil hip-hop track
you can download it from pitchfork here

(our) geography ;. a mixtape

01. amsterdam;. peter bjorn and john
02. walk in the park;. oh no! oh my!
03. treehouse;. i'm from barcelona
04. please visit your national parks;. oxford collapse
05. collarbone;. fujiya & miyagi
06. in the morning;. junior boys
07. buzz saw;. xiu xiu
08. she spider;. mew
09. shut up i am dreaming of places where lovers have wings;. sunset rubdown
10. emily;. joanna newsom
11. the warming sun;. grandaddy
12. blue would still be blue;. guillemots
13. i'm not okay (i promise);. my chemical romance

trust me (again or for the first time)

a great song, by a wonderful Canadian band

click and download ... trust me

an album to have a bath to ...

HERE is no why, a mixtape

here today; the beach boys
here, there and everywhere; the beatles
get me away from here, i'm dying; belle & sebastian
so here we are; bloc party
round here; counting crows
sittin' here; dizzee rascal
we're here; guillemots
here and there; homunculus
we're no here; mogwai
here; pavement
here comes the flood; peter gabriel
here comes your man; pixies
here and there; sandbox
you were here; sarah harmer
don't come down here; serena-maneesh
here is no why; smashing pumpkins
tomorrow is already here; stereolab
there's no home for you here; the white stripes

random rules ...

this is a neat concept: The Onion's A.V. Club asks artists and celebrities to "set their MP3 players to shuffle and comment on the first few tracks that come up—no cheating or skipping embarrassing tracks allowed."

a great band, a cool site

(click)

today's word-of-the-day is ...

wonderfulsad

:. mixtape mon trial (june)

seven years in tibet; david bowie
undo; björk
cautioners; jimmy eat world
medication #3; gris gris
maps; yeah yeah yeahs
chocolate; snow patrol
life is a pigsty; morrissey

like a monkey with a miniature symbol ...

thanks to jenna for introducing me to Hot Chip!