Afternoon Headlines: Prince to play the MTS Centre; The Meaghan Smith Holiday Concert @ The WECC

>> Friday 28 October 2011



By the whiskers of Kurvi-Tasch! Prince is coming to Winnipeg. The larger-than-life rock legend is slated to bedazzle the MTS Centre on Thursday, December 8th. Tickets go on sale on November 4th with pricing TBA.

St. John's folk act The Once play the Folk Exchange on November 16th and 17th.

Alt-rockers Zerbin drop by the Ellice Theatre on November 2nd.

And finally, The Meaghan Smith holiday concert goes down at the WECC on December 4th.

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Contest: Enter to win two tickets to Ohbijou @ The WECC

>> Tuesday 25 October 2011

Photo by Reynard Li

Courtesy of the fab folks at the West End Cultural Centre, I've got a pair of tickets to giveaway for Ohbijou's show going down there on Saturday, November 12th.

If you're interested in checking out the indie-poppers (who deeply impressed me last week at Halifax Pop X; new material sounded great), fire me off an email (on the right hand side) by Monday, November 7th @ noon CST with the subject line "Ohbijou ticket giveaway" and your name in the email's body. Winning name will be drawn randomly sometime that afternoon and contacted shortly thereafter. As always, one entry per person please!

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Evening Headlines: Doug Paisley to open for Jim Cuddy; The Manitoba Folkways Record Launch




First up, The Jim Cuddy Band plays the Pantages Theatre on January 20th w/ rising singer-songwriter Doug Paisley (above) slated to open the show.

Find the Others at the Park Theatre on December 1st.

The Manitoba Folkways Collection Record Launch event takes place at the Lo Pub this Friday, October 28th. From the presser: "Artists Jen Delos Reyes and Kerri-Lynn Reeves drove across Manitoba in search of examples of contemporary vernacular music about the lives of Manitobans. Manitoba Folkways is an audio portrait of the province today." $10 gets you in the door and a copy of the album.

Torontonian garage-punk band Dirty Mags is at the Pyramid, supporting K-OS on December 3rd.

Carleton Stone and his pop-rock stylings open for Tom Wilson, November 9th at the WECC.

And finally, a last minute announcement: Lindsay, Ontario’s The DGB rock Ozzy’s tomorrow night.

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Iceland Airwaves 2011

>> Thursday 20 October 2011

So this seems fairly self-evident, well, at least in hindsight, but if you ever plan to attend the Iceland Airwaves festival, dress for the occasion. Bright a scarf, touque, mitts, a heavy fall coat (or maybe even a winter coat), and a hip flask filled with some gut-warming alcohol. 


Because Iceland is flipping cold in October. The sky spits incessantly and the north wind howls mightily, so when these two natural forces team up, it makes for a rather unpleasant battle with Moms Natures while waiting in the spectacularly long venue lineups. I mention these clothing tips only because, well, we didn’t follow these fairly obvious suggestions and chattered away some tooth enamel while praying to get inside. Then bought some ridiculously expensive winter clothing. 


Complaints about the weather aside (yes, I realize this is coming from a Winnipeger), this was a terrific and memorable festival. I saw many great bands/artists during my seven-day stay in the world’s northernmost capital and even took in my fair share of awe-inspiring tourist sites. And while walking around Reykjavik one afternoon, Bjork stepped out of a salon right in front of us before hightailing it down the street. She’s shorter than I thought, considering her commanding and frankly intimidating stage presence (more on this below).  Oh, and sadly, no Sigur Ros sightings, although I swore I caught a fleeting glimpse of Kjartan Sveinsson prior to Owen Pallett.


My festival favourites





Bjork @ Harpa (Silfurberg Room)


Bjork was a festival add-on, meaning tickets to her Biophilia show (and Sinead O’Connor's) were external to the $100 all-inclusive wrist-band. The chance to catch one of the world’s transcendent artists on home soil in a 700 person capacity venue was impossible to pass up, so we happily shelled out another $110 for these highly-sought-after tickets. And the Icelandic pixie did not disappoint. Adorned in an outrageously big orange wig, a shimmering black dress, and five-inch wedge heels, Ms. Gudmonsdottir performed the majority of her innovative new record Biophilia accompanied by a choir of fresh-faced and (mostly) blonde girls, a percussionist, and a keyboardist. Overtop the stage hovered an octagon of LCD tvs displaying all sorts of weird and wonderful visuals. Also employed was a scary, caged Tesla coil which spat rhythmic lightning bolts and, if my chemistry is correct, emitted the by-product stink of Ozone. Pictures were forbidden during the show, something security was uncompromising and aggressive about this, even threatening to eject us out for snapping photos *before* the show. In the end thought, this was easily one of my favourite concerts to date and Bjork proved why she is one of the world’s pre-eminent performers.  The encore ender "Declare Independence" almost brought the house down. 





Borko @ Reykjavik Art Museum

The friendly and chatty English guys we met in the lineup outside Reykjavik Art Museum vehemently assured me that Borko is “the best.” And while I don’t quite agree with the hyperbole, Borko's densely layered atmospheric-pop sound was idiosyncratic and fresh, with shades of Mogwai, but with much less build-up. 





Beach House @ Reykjavik Art Museum


Regular readers of this blog know I’m a big sucker for these Baltimore-based dream-poppers.  Following Icelandic pep-rally band Retro Stefson, Beach House’s evening-cauterizing set was conspicuously subdued, with around 20% of the crowd filtering out during their first few songs. No matter. Victoria and co. still put on a dreamy, dizzying show and quickly won over the still-very-packed crowd.






Mugison @ Harpa (Nordurljos Room)


I’ve always regretted not catching Mugison when he played Winnipeg a few years ago as part of Nuna, so I was very lucky to have another opportunity. His rock/jazz fusion and clear, distinguishable melodies had the Icelandic majority gleefully singing along to every word the entire time. The absolutely packed room motif continued.





Owen Pallett @ Indo

Again an absolutely packed place filled to capacity, so much that security were forbidden to let anyone else in unless others left. Stood in line for over a half-hour and was fortunate to be admitted about 10 minutes after he started. Fleshing out his violin-led sound with a three-piece band, Pallett completely bedazzled this hot, sweaty, and enthusiastic crowd.  



Olafur Arnalds @ Harpa (Nordurljos)

I apologize for the dark photo. For Arnalds’s intimate performance, the stage lights were dimmed rendering amateur photography difficult. Throughout his set, the room was deathly quiet with the only sound (other than the music) coming from the interminably clicking of professional cameras near the front. I’m actually surprised he never said anything - the shuttering was so conspicuous - but I suppose, like a true artist, Arnalds was completely absorbed in song. His mini symphonies were enchanting and inspiring making this, next to Bjork, my favourite 40 minutes or so of the entire festival. 


Veronica Falls @ Harpa (Nordurljos)

This plucky U.K. group trade in energetic, reverb-y indie-pop replete with dark, brooding lyrics and have the potential to make a viable career out of this aesthetic.

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Morning Headlines: Cannon Bros. CD release date; Sigur Ros's live concert film to screen at Park

>> Thursday 13 October 2011


Editor's note: I am currently in Reykjavik attending the Icelandic Airwaves festival, so updates may slow down for the next week or so. Will try my best to keep up. 

Resident indie-rockers Cannon Bros have scheduled their cd release date for their much buzzed about debut disc, Firecracker/Cloudglow. The big event is going down November 19th at the Lo Pub.

Find The Others is at the Park Theatre on December 1st.

Local act Salinas is at the Cavern with Mas Headspace on December 2nd.

Add Winnipeg singer-songwriter Jenny Berkel to the Mark Berube bill going down at the WECC on October 19th.

C.R. Avery is at the WECC on November 25th w/ Wil.

Mat The Alien and Samples team up for a show at the Garrick on Saturday, November 12th.

And finally, sorta exciting news: Winnipeg's own The Park Theatre was one of 100 venues/theatres/cinemas selected by Sigur Ros to screen their new concert film, Inni. It screens on November 7th and 8th. I'm still holding out for an actual Winnipeg concert date, and if I run into Jonsi & the guys this week (it could happen!) I'll mention it.

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Evening Headlines: Sheepdogs to play Garrick; Lou Canon @ ACU Hall

>> Wednesday 5 October 2011

Hot on the heels of their much ballyhooed Rolling Stone cover, Saskatoon indie exports The Sheepdogs have announced their first headlining show in Winnipeg: they'll be at the Garrick on December 14th.

Punk-pop band / former 11 questions participants The Falklands return to Peg City for a pair of dates: On October 19th, they'll be at the Death Trap w/ Previous Tenants and The Thrashers; and on November 3rd, they'll perform at Times Change(d) w/ Previous Tenants and Sub City.

Speaking of the Death Trap, Victoria singer-songwriter Northcote has a gig there on October 15th.

Lou Canon plays the ACU Hall (at the WECC) on October 18th w/ Tom Keenan and Heartbeat City. Tix are a scant fin at the door.

Finally, local folk/roots trio Sweet Alibi are releasing their self-titled debut record at the Park Theatre on November 20th.

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Photos: Imaginary Cities @ The Pyramid Cabaret

>> Monday 3 October 2011

Imaginary Cities
October 1, 2011
The Pyramid Cabaret
Winnipeg, MB

Click to embiggen




All photos by Sarah Gofflot

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Photos: The Soft Province, Malajube, Besnard Lakes @ The West End Cultural Centre

The Besnard Lakes w/ Malajube, The Soft Province
September 30, 2011
The West End Cultural Centre
Winnipeg, MB

Click to embiggen. 

The Soft Province



Malajube


The Besnard Lakes





All photos by Sarah Gofflot

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Photos: Arctic Monkeys @ The Burton Cummings Theatre

>> Sunday 2 October 2011

Arctic Monkeys
October 1, 2011
The Burton Cummings Theatre
Winnipeg, MB

Click to embiggen. 





All Photos by Daniel Camaclang

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