Marmalade Fires

Maybe it's the near-absolute zero weather outside or perhaps it's just that I haven't been out of town for awhile, but I have this irrepressible urge to travel and catch a show. This, of course, typically means a road trip to Minneapolis to see a celebrated artist who, for some reason, never graces our humble city with their presence (high entertainment taxes is the rumour). Anyways, I also felt like making a list today, so this effectively met my today's list quota.

Top 5 bands I'd skip school and work and birthdays and anniversaries and funerals (ok, maybe not funerals. Although...) to go see in Minny:

1. Iron and Wine
2. Sigur Ros*
3. Kings of Convenience
4. Mum
5. Peter Bjorn and John

*They are the only entry from this illustrious list that I've already seen. I loved their show so much, I'll gladly travel to Minny and see it again.

You Say Party! We Say Die! hit the Albert on December 13th with The Gorgon. Tix $12 @ Into The Music, Music Trader, and Ticket Workshop.

Tele play the Park Theatre on December 14th. Tix $10 @ Park Theatre.

Sonata Arctica are at the West End on February 8th with Visions of Atlantis. Tix $25 @ Ticket Workshop.

Current rotation: The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters / Radiohead - In Rainbows

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Minor Update

Folk artist James Keelaghan and Latin guitarist Oscar Lopez stop by Pantages Playhouse on February 8th. Presale password is Compadres.

Current rotation: Sigur Ros - Hvarf/Heim

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Raise Your Hands As High As You Can...And The Whole Universe Will Glow

Is anyone else as excited as me that legendary shoegazers My Bloody Valentine are releasing a new record next year? When this was first announced on PF, I did an Irish jig in front of my computer (my neighbours below probably thought WTF?) then played Loveless over and over on my stereo until my speakers blew from the excessive fuzz. AND MBV are doing a tour...c'mon Minneapolis date. It's gonna be a sweet new year.

Collective Soul are at the Burt on February 9th. Tickets go on sale this Friday, unless you have the presale password (psst. It's GUITAR).

Oysterband are at the WECC on April 15th.

Current rotation: M83 - Don't Save Us From The Flames / My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

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Where Are Your Friends Tonight?

I apologize for my hasty, relatively short post about Stars' Saturday evening show. I spent most of yesterday franticly and painstakingly working on a paper that was already past due, and decided, for once, to prioritize. The paper trumped everything, including innocuous blog posts.

Anyways...more thoughts on the show.

Profound realization #1: There were approximately 80x more people at Stars' show Saturday night than there were the first time I saw them at The Pyramid many moons ago(this is assuming Sat's show was sold out - it seemed near capacity at least). While Stars are certainly a band who deserves their success and I'm glad to see their fan base rapidly expanding (they're spreading the love after all), for the record, seeing them on that memorable night four years ago with about 20 others kicked ass. I still have the poster from that show in my hallway.

Profound realization #2: For probably the first time ever, I was above the median age of fellow concert attendees. 25 isn't that old, is it? When I mentioned this to a slightly older audiophile yesterday, he simply replied, "Get used to it". I will! I plan on rockin' until I'm in my mid 50s...at least.

Profound realization #3: I enjoy opening act Miracle Fortress a lot better at home, blasting through my speakers. Their live show just didn't cut it for me.

No show news lately...strange.

Current rotation: LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

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Twinkling Stars

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Canada's most romantic pop band Stars at the Burt.

While the band played a healthy mix of songs from Heart, Set Yourself on Fire, and recent release In Our Bedroom After The War, they completely ignored all tracks from their debut Nightsongs. But that's a minor complaint. Overall, the set was pretty solid and featured most of their best work: the funky, get-off-your-butt-and-dance-to 'The Ghost of Genova Heights' as well as two tracks in which Torq and Amy's charming boy/girl vocal exchanges work perfectly: 'Elevator Love Letter' and 'Your Ex-Lover is Dead''.

Current rotation: The Grey Cup.

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How Many Air Miles Do You Need To Get To The Moon?

Ok, so admittedly I've been a bit obsessed with youtube lately. It's such a deep well of video awesomeness (that's the best I can come up with right now. I'm, well, tipsy).

I've caught so many of my favourite bands performing many of my favourite songs live on this fruitful site. Recently, I've been watching, over and over, a video from 2003 of Icelandic band Mum performing 'We Have a Map of the Piano', a track I didn't really think was a standout from their absolutely gorgeous 2002 release Finally We Are No One. For those unfamiliar with Mum's musical style, it touches on the alien atmospherics of Sigur Ros, but cranks the melody up to 11. Anyways, the track in question performed live is incredible. When the lead singer assuredly approaches the mike and takes over, I can't help but be impressed with her and the band's confidence in their live show. They must know it just doesn't, and never will, translate properly to a record.

From now on, when I revisit this song on the album, I hear something completely different. This is what I love about live performances - hearing a song then listening to the recording again and reliving that emotional connection you had while watching the band perform it.

I can only imagine what I’d feel if I had been there in person.

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Sigur Ros...Acoustic?

Earlier today I picked up Sigur Ros's double cd Hvarf/Heim and am currently enjoying my initial listen. Essentially a collection of rarities, the first disc Hvarf contains previously unreleased studio songs while disc two, Heim, is composed entirely of acoustic versions of select songs(including one of my favs vaka off the () album).

Now I don't really like to mention this on here, since, for the most part it's shameless ego-boosting; however, this time I figure it's relevant. For those who don't know, I write a monthly column "Sounding Icelandic" for a local Icelandic newspaper called The Logberg that covers anything falling within the vast range of "Icelandic" and "Music". This means I discuss /review /interview /briefly mention any artists from Iceland as well as any musicians with Icelandic backgrounds (The Weakerthans, for example). Anyways, I must confess I am less than impressed with Sigur Ros's North American record label xl recordings, since we (the editor and I) tried repeatedly to get an advance copy of this album so I could include it in my column. Now I'm not against buying it, I just wanted the freakin' thing early in order to include it in my latest column (it's monthly, after all and must be submitted early). But all attempts to contact them were miserable failures - emails bounced back, phone calls went nowhere. Oh well. It'll have to wait until THE JANUARY issue. This record will be old then!

A tad frustrated.

Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans are at The Burt on March 2nd. Special guest is Hayes Carll. It's country, but good.

Silverstein plays The Garrick on February 4th w/ guests Protest The Hero, Ill Scarlett, and The Devil Wears Prada (isn't that a movie?). Tickets go on sale this Friday.

Current rotation: Sigur Ros - Hvarf/Heim

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