Mumford & Sons - Dustbowl Dance

Mumford & Sons fucking rule. I certainly hope your neighbours like this song too! Their debut album, Sigh No More, was one of the biggest of all time (especially considering it came out in the 21st century, during the death of the CD). The album spawned several hit singles and there really isn't a bad track on it. Almost entirely acoustic, Mumford & Sons have forged a sound that is at once old-time folky yet ready for grand arena rock spectacle. The banjo has never sounded so thrilling! These guys are definitely on my must-see band list. I only hope that they don't fuck it up and play Rogers Arena when they come here (they definitely could if they wanted to). I'm hoping for something like Deer Lake Park but could also see them headlining Sasquatch which would be even better.

The song I have chosen to represent this excellent band and their debut album is "Dustbowl Dance". It is not necessarily my favourite and is quite unlike a lot of their banjo and acoustic driven tracks. This song is just pure fucking badass. Marcus Mumford pours his heart out into the singing, belting the dooming lyrics before the rest of the band joins him for the intense chorus. The band then thrashes away, raging against the corporate machine that has taken the farmer's land from his son. The son does not lie down in defeat and takes on the bank with violence (the final crazy instrumental) before pleading guilty in court at the end.

It is this furious anger towards the man (banks, the 1% etc.) that puts normal men and women in situations where they have nothing left to do but rage against the machine. Right now in the USA millions are being forced into this situation where they are being told to lay down yet they want to get up and fight. The key fucking tool in all of this is likely the next President of the United States, Mitt Romney. If Americans don't smarten up the next leader of the free world will be the same man who created its doom. 

Basically, with a lot of fancy financial mumbo-jumbo, Mitt Romney has spent his career working for a private equity firm, Bain Capital, and profitting off the destruction of failing companies. I still don't completely understand it (I barely passed finance lol) but from what I gather, through Bain, Romney would find a struggling company that needed financial help. He would then put down about $5 million of the company's money and add an additional $250 million dollars of borrowed money from big banks to refinance the company, and giving Bain the power to do what they want with its assets. He was able to do this by convincing top managers and executives that they'd get a fat bonus. So with the bosses happy, Bain would then turn to liquidating the assets which, at this point were just the employees and regular work force. These people were often fired and let go without pensions or benefits etc. At this point the taken over company is now bankrupt because of the lack of anything proper done by Bain (they usually have no clue how the industry they just purchased works) then Romney and his boys would cash out, often making $100's of millions of dollars, and leaving the company to pay back the banks the loan that Bain had taken. Sounds completely fucking ridiculous doesn't it??? Yet this is what he and numerous others at Bain and other similar Wall Street firms spent most of the last 30 years doing.

In doing so, manufacturing towns and jobs have disappeared and America is so completely fucked up financially right now. And this is who they want to run the country?!?!?!?

Romney has taken a shit load of money from struggling companies and the American people and then pays a minute amount back in taxes (13.9 percent to be exact, less than teachers, firefighters, cops, and nurses, actual important people) through some bogus loophole in tax laws. He doesn't see that he's done anything wrong because to him, exploiting the tax code is "entirely legal and fair". What a fucking joke! And the absolute worst and most sickening part of this is that NOBODY has called him out on this. He's fucking running for fucking President of the fucking United States!!! And he's got a GREAT chance of winning. 

"Romney is the frontman and apostle of an economic revolution, in which transactions are manufactured instead of products, wealth is generated without accompanying prosperity, and Cayman Islands partnerships are lovingly erected and nurtured while American communities fall apart" (Taibbi, Rolling Stone 1165).

WOW Americans, wake the fuck up and actually think about then people you vote for! It SHOULD NOT just be "Oh, well I'm a Republican, so I vote Republican" what the fuck is that shit!?!?! Have a brain and think for yourself you dumbass. Romney is working his ass off to protect the US elite, the several billionaires at the top who profit off the misery and destruction of normal Americans.

I know very well that Obama really hasn't done a great job (because of the power of the Tea Party and stupidity of the entire US Political system... but that's another rant for another time). But Holy Fuck is he ever a better option than Douche Romney! This election in November is coming fast and America needs to act with their brains and elect a guy who does not profit on the destruction of the global economy. As a Canadian I can do nothing about this yet it will certainly affect the next few decades here on planet earth.

Get informed and read this article now: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829 (don't worry, TMZ and the score in the game will be waiting for you...).

Wow this track is sick to write rants to!

Beastie Boys - Shadrach

A hip-hop classic by one of the greatest rap groups of all time. They're just 3 MCs and they're on the go. You can literally play this song almost anywhere at anytime and everyone will be groovin' and rockin' at the same time! I just love the singing at the beginning (kind of the chorus I guess) and the Boys just spit some insane rhymes. Chief among them: "If I had a penny for my thoughts I'd be a millionaire" and the ridiculous "Like Mario Andretti 'cuz he always drives the car well". Once again RIP MCA.

This week for Monday Night Football I went with some friends to the Rockford (Broadway and Burrard in Vancouver) bar and grill. It's a pretty new place and it's incredibly nice. Fuckin' fireplace and 3 TVs in the men's bathroom! Great food, $4 beers, raffle draws, hosted by a BC Lion, and a really cool DJ. We befriended the DJ and got into talking tons of sports but also lots of music. He loved the old school and had all the old videos. Beastie Boys obviously came up and he played us this video for Three MC's and One DJ:

This is such a raw, simple video. It fucking blew me away 'cuz I'd always known the song but had actually never seen the video. Too fucking good. Oh and my buddy walked away with the raffle prize Matt Ryan Atlanta Falcons jersey lol. Can't wait for next week when my Seahawks play and to get to talk to DJ Al again. I highly recommend this spot if you're looking for a spot to watch MNF in van.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Remember

Jimi Fucking Hendrix... died 42 years ago today. RIP to the greatest guitarist of all time.OK so everyone knows Jimi is the fucking shit and I really don't feel the need to explain much further why. I chose "Remember" because, well duh, remember that he died on this day 42 years ago etc. But more importantly because it is quite possibly the greatest guitar groove ever. Hendrix always had the flare and the insane solos but some of his best tracks didn't even have solos. Just the chug-along groove, great singing, and impeccably timing of his rhythm section, Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass. So brilliant.

I will now let two incredible live performances explain why Hendrix is the greatest guitarist ever. For starters it's the legendary Monterey performance where he lights his fucking guitar on fucking fire!

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Wild Thing (Live at the Monterey Pop Fextival 1967)

Next it's Hendrix at Woodstock. He played to a completely partied out crowd to close the legendary festival and put on one hell of a fucking show!

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Live at Woodstock 1969)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US9UqGrMNuo

The Sheepdogs - Alright OK

The Sheepdogs are the best Canadian rock band there is right now. The four burly and bearded Saskatooners rose to prominence through a Rolling Stone contest that was searching for the best unsigned band in America. They were part of a group of 32 bands fighting for a recording contract, a gig at Bonnaroo, and the coveted cover shoot for Rolling Stone Magazine. With each issue the bands were cut in half and The Sheepdogs just kept hanging in there. I was rooting for them the whole way (originally because they were the sole Canucks in the competition, but once I finally gave 'em a listen... holy shit! Blew my fuckin' mind!). Sure enough they made it to the final four and got to play a set at Bonnaroo. Then they're in the final two and next thing I know they've won the fucking competition! Just insane for these four good ol' Canadian boys playing good ol' Classic Rock. One small note that I have to make because it's somewhat important and also kinda funny: Garnier hair products was the key sponsor of this competition. The runner up was a solo chick with short, boring hair. The Sheepdogs all have long hair and facial hair. No idea if Garnier had a say in any of the voting but I sure know who they were pushing for... 

Either way, The Sheepdogs absolutely deserved to win and if you've had the chance to see them live you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. These guys slogged it out for almost a decade, taking ridiculous gigs like a 14 hour drive through an Ontario snowstorm to play a Sushi shop. But it all seemed worth it as they honed their chops and created incredible chemistry that is obvious in their live performances.

I first saw The Sheepdogs as an opening act for Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver. They absofuckinglutely crushed it. They played for a little over an hour and had the entire crowd bumping. It was such a great set that the entire theatre was buzzing for an hour after the show. It took Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (a great live act themselves) almost half of their set to recover from what The Sheepdogs had done. Just insane, something that I have never seen. The next time I saw them was the early set, 12pm, at Sasquatch Festival on the main stage. They once again crushed it and the small crowd that they had started with swelled to massive by the end of their set.

After winning the contest and re-releasing their 2008 album along with a new EP I thought The Sheepdogs would be done for a while. A band that has been slogging it for so long to come out with such a great album I felt that they'd been tapped and that'd be fine cuz they still rock. But when they released their new album last week it blows my mind how good it is! They came back and recorded a sick sick sick follow up that rivals their earlier stuff. The self-titled album was produced by The Black Keys, probably the only other rock band on planet erf right now that is even in their league (Keys are actually slightly better still). The Sheepdogs have been heavily influenced by the Keys' sound and that's a great thing indeed.

The two songs I've chosen form the new album are "Alright OK" and "Feeling Good". The first has really cool, trippy electric guitar layered with acoustic guitar and great vocal harmonies. The latter has fuzzed out guitar and a catchy good times chorus. The opening really reminds me of the 70's one hit wonder "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum. Here it is:

Both songs are great but not even the main highlights. The whole fucking album is! Go listen to it now!

Lissie - In Sleep

It's women who rock week and today it's the beautiful shredder Lissie on her guitaringly (that's right I just made up a word) awesome track "In Sleep". Elisabeth Maurus, aka Lissie, is an American folk/alt. country artist. Oddly enough (well not really as Europeans always seem to be ahead of the game when it comes to music. Case and point EDM, something that has been huge over there for years but only recently caught on in North America.) Lissie is very popular outside of the US, especially in Europe. She is very good friends with and has toured with brit pop superstar Ellie Goulding. But for me the best part about Lissie has got to be her guitar playing. A lot of her songs have great guitar solos and chords. Check out "Little Lovin'" for a really cool guitar ending.

"In Sleep" is my favourite Lissie tune for, as mentioned above, the killer guitar solo. She just crushes it for the last section of the song; a great pump up track! Also the lyrics about only being able to be with the person you love in your dreams are pretty cool as well. I also love her voice, very smooth and melodic but also great for the up beat yells/shouts that close out the song. Definitely a great up-and-comer who is one more big hit away from really making it big. I've also read that she is awesome live; always a bonus and pretty much a necessity imo.

Some thoughts...

- Got Paul McCartney tix today! I am beyond stoked!

- Just need to get Springsteen tix and I'll be seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Paul McCartney, and The Boss in the month of November. EpiclyUnreal indeed!

- The new Sheepdogs album is fucking sick. Listen Now! I'm really happy about that because I was somewhat worried they had put everyhting they had into their last album and touring and wouldn't have anything left in the tank. Cue the dudes from The Black Keys to produce it and Boom a great album.

- Dear hockey Gods, please let the NHL begin in October.

Brandi Carlile - Raise Hell (Live)

It's women who rock week and up next is the first true rocker, Brandi Carlile, with her foot-stomper "Raise Hell". The talented and beautiful Carlile is an American (Washington State) alternative country musician. I don't honestly know much about her other than she rocks hard and was recently engaged... to a chick... damn! (still awesome though).

I first saw her on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (it was an awesome episode with Denis Leary btw) and she absolutely crushed it on this track. It was so good that my Dad and I who were watching instantly rewound it and watched it again. I then watched it for a third time later that day. I love everything about this performance; from the band (matching twin brother guitarists on either side and dope drummer) to Brandi's voice and emotions to the awesome and fun guitar breakdown. I know that Craig's small studio audience loved this as they went wild for her after the performance. I have watched a lot of Craig Ferguson over the years and, although he doesn't get many music acts, this was by far the best (performances by The Avett Brothers and Yonder Mountain String Band were also incredible).

If you at all enjoy watching exceptionally good live performances then be sure to take 5 minutes out of your day, full screen that shit, and crank the volume. I personally guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Some thoughts...
- NHL please happen! It's fucking simple, playing is better for everyone, don't be morons!
- Fuck I'm listening to "Raise Hell" again right now... just too good
- The new Matthew Perry sitcom, Go On, is actually quite funny. Basically he's a sports talk radio guy who's wife recently died. He can't fully go back to work until completing a therapy course with a bunch of other people trying to cope with various other losses. Hilarity ensues. I think it's on NBC.

Cold Specks - Winter Solstice

It's women who rock week and up second is another up-and-coming Canadian talent, Al Spx, aka Cold Specks. I recently discovered her after watching the Polaris Music Prize episode of The Wedge. She has an absolutely stunning voice, rooted in deep south soul and gospel. Also a great songwriter and piano player. I strongly recommend you check out her debut album, I Predict A Graceful Explosion.

The song "Winter Solstice" was the video I saw on The Wedge. It's one of those slow builders that starts with just her gorgeous voice and pretty piano chords but then explodes with horns and excellent production as though she's leading a gospel soul march somewhere down the Mississippi. I can't wait to hear more from this young talent.

Grimes - Vanessa

It's women who rock week where I'll be featuring 5 up-and-comers who all have varying sounds, looks, voices, and styles yet share the uncanny ability to craft beautiful and rocking music.

Up first is Vancouver's own Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, a talented and beautiful musician and singer who has an incredibly unique, almost indescribable sound. She draws on numerous influences such as electronic, pop, hip-hop, and industrial and has combined it all to create what she calls "ADD music" where frequent and dramatic shifts occur within the song. Above the music is Grimes' high-pitched voice that sounds both youthful and childlike as well as dark and haunting at the same time. It is her incredible voice, layered with lush beats and swirls that makes Grimes so brilliant and a legitimate artist to watch right now (she made Rolling Stone's top 5 breaking artists this year).

"Vanessa" is my favourite by Grimes. From the gorgeous singing early on to the catchy chorus and sullen, time-breaking piano "Vanessa" is 5-minutes of musical genius. The awesome video, directed by Grimes herself, features creepy yet sexy dancing and some very hipster/cool/random/weird styles and looks. A perfect fit for the song. I first saw the video on The Wedge (Canadian alt./indie music video show) and have been basically listening to it non-stop since.

Some thoughts...

- Just got a new bed today (my first in 12 years!) and I cannot wait to test it out.

- The NFL season is officially underway, meaning a loss of all Sundays and Monday nights 'til early February.

- Fantasy football is also underway and the KEE to winning is officially 1-0! Boo-yah!

- Both indoor and outdoor start this weekend as well. Outdoor team lost two buzz Friday night. A controversial call against what should've been the game-tying goal was fucking crabshit but we had a fun time anyways! Indoor starts tonight and the New Hotspurs are out to avenge an overtime defeat in the semi-finals last season (the team we lost to went on to crush in the finals).

Yeasayer - Henrietta

So New York was fucking amazing! I had an absolute blast there and would go back in an instant! We crushed it there: walked everywhere, took the subway a few times, hopped on and off the double decker tour buses and even took a crazy cab ride. I devoured some incredible food (Don Antonios pizza, Da Gennaro Italian restaurant in Little Italy, and Chipotle's Mexican food were my favourite 3), saw 2 unbelievable Broadway shows (War Horse, brilliant stage, sound, acting and absolutely unforgettable puppetry, and Peter and the Star Catcher, fucking hilarious and so well acted), went to an extremely entertaining baseball game at Yankee stadium (there were 7 home runs, an insane 9th inning, and a Blue Jays victory in the 11th. My brothers and I were also spotted on TV by some friends!), got a lot of great shopping done (Macy's: 14 floors and an entire city block, HBO Store, NHL Store, and countless others), did a tour of NBC Studios (saw Fallon's set and SNL set!) and went to the top of the rock, visited the Museum of Natural History, and just enjoyed the Hell out of wandering around all the various districts and seeing tons of epic shit (Times Square, Greenwich Village, Staten Island, the UN, SoHo, NoHo, Wall Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Central Park, Strawberry Fields, Electric Lady Studios etc.).

I would strongly recommend New York to anyone who can handle large crowds (and by large crowds I mean constantly crowded streets 24/7 around all of Manhattan; you literally will never find a quiet street with less than 10 people on it), being constantly hassled ("Bike Tour", "Bus Tour", "Spare some change", "Buy my Rap CD, here I'll even autograph it" etc.), and price gouging in certain situations (booze in any stadiums/theatres, prices of everything in Times Square, etc.). Just an absolute great time had by all and I now have a tie atop my favourite American cities, with San Diego where I went last year.

Yeasayer are an awesome indie band from New York. I fell in love with them the moment I first heard "Sunrise" off of their debut album, All Hour Cymbals. That track, combined with "Wait For The Summer" and "2080" are possibly the greatest first 3 songs off a band's first album in music history! Their follow up album, Odd Blood, is great as well, with hints of more electronics and danceable tunes. And finally their newly released 3rd album is very electronic and danceable but still fucking great. I have seen them twice, both at Sasquatch, with the first one being a very short early afternoon set on the main stage. Because of this they took forever to set up but once they got going they were absolutely insane, so simple and raw. The next time they headlined the second main stage and killed it as well, this time with a much deeper set and better stage setup. 

"Henrietta" is the first single off their newest album, Fragrant World. It is very electronic with a sick, trippy beat for the first half before fading into the buildup chorus being repeated over a shimmering backdrop. Just a great track grows on you more and more with each listen. I also felt the need to include another great track off this album, the hyper-catchy "Reagan's Skeleton". Here it is:

Our Lady Peace - In Repair

2 weeks ago I saw Our Lady Peace at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition, basically the big summer fair in Vancouver) right before leaving for NYC. Like Linkin Park, Our Lady Peace is one of those bands that I loved growing up and have somewhat gotten out of them but still really like them. I'd probably never pay (much) to go and see them so being free at the PNE was perfect. Just a great Canadian rock band that has a shitload of hits and is still going strong today. 

The show was actually really good. It started out a little rocky with some new tracks that  not many in the crowd knew but soon enough they got into huge hits like "Innocent" and "Superman's Dead" that really got both the crowd and the band into it. Lead singer Raine Maida actually has a great voice (the only prior live things I had seen by them was a performance at Live Earth which was not very good...but live earth in general was a pile of dog shit so...) and is quite charismatic, telling several stories and even climbing up the side of the stage to sing one song (pictured above). The rest of the band was really tight and rocked hard.

"In Repair" is my favourite OLP song. It was also my highlight of the concert as they played an awesome version of it after Raine dedicated it to a close friend of his in the hospital. The futuristic sound mixed with the acoustic guitar makes this song an absolute beauty. Also the video is fucking awesome, featuring really cool (and trippy!) animation. It is one that I vividly remember watching lots back when Much Music still played music videos in 2000. Holy fuck, 2000! I was in like grade 5! Sooo stoked that I still like and got to see this band!

Linkin Park - The Catalyst

So last night I got to see one of my favourite bands that I had growing up. Linkin Park were THE SHIT in the early 2000s, after the release of their mega-hit, Hybrid Theory. And it is truly mega as it just recently hit 10 million in album sales, something that probably no rock record will ever be able to do again (the CD is dead, yo). They followed that up with Meteora, another huge hit, that launched them into the stratosphere of modern rock as they became the defining group of the rap/metal era.  And over the next half decade the band continued to put out solid albums and catchy, riff-driven radio singles.

The rap/metal music style/genre is definitely not something I'd say I'm into (Limp Bizkit fucking blows lol) but for some reason (and this is likely true for many) Linkin Park always bridged the gap, making catchy, hook and riff-driven, great rock songs, accessible to a wide audience. I remember watching the video for their hit (the first one that really broke them imo) "In The End" with my whole family and we all loved it. There are very few bands that can bridge generation and gender gaps that also contain a rapper like Linkin Park do.

"The Catalyst" is my favourite song that Linkin Park have put out since their first 2 albums. It was also the song that started an incredible run of songs and kicked the concert into another gear last night. They had been playing nothing but hits and were slaying all of them but when they cracked out "The Catalyst" shit got real. The song is a chug-along, build-up march to war. Lead singer Chester Bennington screamed his way through the opening verses and hit an even higher level on the choruses and closing "God bless us everyone's". I have never in my life seen a better rock vocalist when it comes to really howling and screaming. He literally gave 110% on every single note of every song for over 2 hours. Either the dude has Superman's vocal cords or will be using a Frampton talk box by the time he's 50!

The rest of the band was in excellent form as well. MC Mike Shinoda was magic behind the mic, DJ Hahn was a fucking wizard zoned into his tools, giving the band that extra zest, and the lead guitarist and rhythm section were tight as fuck, proving that these guys truly are a great live rock band. I actually now like them even more after seeing them live, something I truly did not anticipate happening.

We missed the first opening band, MuteMath. I quite like one of their songs, "Typical", but not enough to miss out on the pre-gaming lol. Then we got to see about 2/3's of Incubus' set. I was disappointed when I found out that I'd missed my fave by them, "Megalomaniac", but an insane version of their classic, "Drive" and some awesome extended instrumentals made them a solid and worthy opener. But opener is truly all they were as they did not have much of the crowd's attention. 

Now for the rant, I mean venue, Rogers Arena: it sucks. For starters it is just too big for a band like Linkin Park. Our tickets were immediately upgraded when we got there and only the lower bowl ended up filling up. A large part of this I blame on the ticket price, $90 for the cheapest tix!?!?!? Incubus suffered greatly from this, playing to an empty cavern. But for Linkin Park it absolutely did not matter as they got the crowd going immediately and made us forget about the vacant upper deck (kind of like going to a Vancouver Whitecaps game). The next shitty thing was the fact that you could only buy ONE beer at a time! Fuck that shit! (I don't feel the need to explain any further why that is brutal). They wouldn't even give me my water bottle lol and had to pour it into a cup. Finally, and by far the worst thing about the venue, was its zero-tolerance for pot. We were debating sparking up when these two dorks sat in behind us and convinced my buddy that now was the perfect time (during Incubus). Within 30 seconds, security was coming in from both sides, yelling and running at them. They were in there faster than a fat kid at the Old Country Kitchen Buffet, goin HAAAMMMMM on their asses. All 3 of them got kicked out, along with (most) of the pot... what a bummer. 

Rogers Arena just doesn't get it... it's a concert for Fuck sakes! BUT there was some sort of riot or something a couple years ago with ties to the building and organization... So I guess it's all those assholes in Vancouver's fault ie. All of us. I have a saying that there's always an asshole and that this asshole often ruins it for everyone. Unfortunately in Vancouver there are always 10 assholes. And it HAS been ruined for the rest of us.

Overall I had a great night watching one of my favourite bands that I have always loved and now have an even greater appreciation for them due to their EpiclyUnreal live performance.