I’m constantly on the search for new music. In a world of top 40 ‘hits’ it isn’t as simple as turning on the average radio station and hoping to discover a great new sound. College radio and CBC are great but you must be tuned in at the right time to hear something new.
I usually start my hunt at the website of a favourite band. If they have links to other bands it is a great spring board into new musical waters.
One of the amazing things about the musical community in any city is their collaborative efforts. In any given town there are a number of bands. If you start taking a close look at the members of each band you may find some overlap.
If you’ve been paying any attention to my blog over the past year you’ll notice that I’m a big fan of the Ottawa band The Acorn. Through their MySpace page this summer I discovered another local gem The Soft Disaster. Jeff DeButte is a member of both bands. Jeff has also played occasionally with a band called Snailhouse. The Soft Disaster are definitely not a solo project; Tim Brownlee, Bryce Colenbrander, and Nicolas Paradis complete the group. Their album Outposts was released in August this year and celebrated by a release party at Zaphod Beeblebrox. With beautiful melodies and subtle harmonies that give the music great depth The Soft Disaster have quickly become a favourite for me. Hopefully they’ll play a few shows in the near future!
Headed up by Mike Feuerstack and based in Montreal, Snailhouse have been joined on stage by many other musicians including members of The Acorn, Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre. They are on tour right now supporting their 2008 release Lies on the Prize and I’m looking forward to checking out the show on January 16th at the Blacksheep Inn.
To complete the trifecta we have another Ottawa band called The Soirée. Bryce Colenbranden from The Soft Disaster is joined here by Matthew Arnold, Mike Armstrong, and Eric Roberts. This September they released Minor Details. I’ve been away the last couple of times they have played since then. Hopefully I won’t miss out next time!
You should check out the websites for each of these bands! Support the indie music scene; purchase their albums and check out their live shows!
The EP titled Sad Robots can be found at SadRobots.ca. You can purchase the tracks individually or you can purchase the entire EP. It’s only $4 CDN for the download or $8 for the physical CD.
Sad Robots (limited edition) track listing:
1. Maintenance Hall, 4am
2. A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife
3. Undertow
4. Going, Going, Gone (live version)
5. 14 Forever
6. Sad Robot
I’m enjoying this beautiful new music right now so I’m going, going, gone…
Radiohead were in Montreal last night for part of their In Rainbows tour. I was pretty far back but managed to catch this priceless moment… during Faust Arp Thom was distracted by the fireworks which you can hear popping in the background…. “duplicate and fireworks”.
It had been raining all day but we came prepared in our rubber boots and rain ponchos! Just before the show a rainbow appeared in the sky and the rain slowed to a light drizzle. Radiohead played a fantastic set including classics like Fake Plastic Trees and more recent favourites The Gloaming and Videotape.
To add an extra cherry to our already perfect day I got to stand near Win Butler of the Arcade Fire for most of the show. I’m not sure how many of the band were there but I can confirm that he, Will Butler, and Richard Perry were in attendance! Hard to blend into the crowd when Win and red-headed Richard are about 6 inches taller than everyone else.
Finally, some photos of the show… if you’d like some more photos of Radiohead in general check out this Flickr group. Click on the photos for higher resolution images:
All videos and photos are under a creative commons license… attribution, no derivitives, noncommercial. Thanks!
I think a few of my braincells just spontaneously combusted. Colin Greenwood shares this little tidbit with the Montreal Gazette about Radiohead’s last trip to Montreal (2006):
“Arcade Fire came to see us,” he said. “It was really fun. They took us up to their part of town (Mile End), where they live. We had bagels and coffee on the church steps. It was really cool. We went to some bar – this European community centre – and watched football during the World Cup.
“They came and saw both shows. They took me, Ed and Phil to see some gaming/Dungeons and Dragons thing in the park (that would be the weekly, theatrically recreated battle scenes that take place during the summer, just up from the tam-tams on Mount Royal), then we walked to the top of the hill and looked down across Montreal with them.
“We talked to Régine and Win about life and touring. It was really cool. It relates to what I said earlier, about how it’s important to be in one place and space. It would be mad, otherwise – if you didn’t connect to the places where you were touring.”
I don’t know about you but I would have loved to hang out with this little group!
Coldplay has officially announced the dates for their 2008 tour. The new album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends will hit stores in North America on June 17th.
The tour dates in Canada are as follows:
07-27 Pemberton, British Columbia – Pemberton Festival
07-29 Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
07-30 Calgary, Alberta – Pengrowth Saddledome
08-01 Winnipeg, Manitoba – MTS Centre
10-20 Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
10-21 Ottawa, Ontario – Scotiabank Place
10-29 Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre
10-30 Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre
Tickets go on sale on June 14th!
For other tour dates check out Pitchfork. Thank you Pitchfork for keeping us all informed!
You can listen to the new album’s first single Violet Hill while you dream of the upcoming concert season.
The size of the venue allowed me to sleep in and get my tickets at a reasonable hour. Of course W.A.S.T.E. has finally sold out of all of their presale tickets. The rest of the tickets should be on sale to the general public on April 12th
Not sure how they ended up going to Montreal and Toronto more than a week apart. Must be the scheduling limitations of the venues. Too bad the Montreal show is on a Wednesday night. Makes it more difficult for those of us coming from outside of Montreal. Fingers crossed I can get a ticket!
I’m so excited! According to Colin Greenwood Radiohead will be releasing more details about the second half of their tour in North America this coming Monday! <insert happy dance here!>
This is just one more reason for me to believe that Radiohead will be at a venue in Montreal on August 16th after the confirmed show in Toronto on the 15th.
I am hoping for another outdoor show at Ile St. Hélène. What a great place to see a concert on a hot summer day!
Hopefully they will give us a confirmed date and venue soon!
The show should be announced officially tomorrow but word from AtEase indicates that Radiohead will be playing in Toronto on Friday, August 15th at the Molson Amphitheater.
Hopefully they will be hitting Montreal the Saturday night! Fingers crossed!!
Ranting and Raving 
