Omara "Bombino" Moctar is the best guitarist that you've never heard of. Born in a Tuareg encampment near the city of Agadez, Niger, Bombino has been singing, writing, and shredding about the many problems that plague his people and that area of the Sahara desert. This area of the world is consistently in turmoil from violent rebellions and, in 2007, the government decided that guitars played a symbolic role in these rebellions and banned them from the country. Later that year two of his band members were executed in front of him and Bombino was forced into exile in Burkina Faso. He has always believed that his guitar was not to be seen as a gun but as a hammer to build the homes of the Tuareg people. After the conflict had ended he was finally able to return to Agadez where he and his band performed a concert to celebrate and promote peace and harmony. Since then he has recorded two critically acclaimed albums and has been touring all over the world, performing at major European and American festivals and opening for acts such as Robert Plant & The Band of Joy, Amadou & Miriam, and Gogol Bordello.
"Amidinine" is the opening song from Bombino's sophomore album, Nomad. The track features blazing, bluesy guitar and lyrics sung in Tamashek, the language of the nomadic Tuareg people. Bombino often sings of the geopolitical concerns of the Tuareg people and, although you can't understand what he's saying, you can feel the struggles and pains of he and his people through his passionate, intense, and powerful singing. The entire album is brilliant and a must listen for anyone who loves great electric guitar and the blues. It is produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and his raw yet polished touch proves why he is one of the best producers in rock right now (check out his other recent album, Locked Down by Dr. John as to why).
Some thoughts...
- Looks like the Lower Mainland of BC is set to break a ridiculous, 127 year old record of having zero rain for the entire month of July. Fuck Yeah!
- Looks like A-Rod could be kicked out of Major League Baseball for using PEDs on more than one occasion and lying about it on more than one occasion. This will happen only if he agrees not to fight the suspensions they have prepared for him. He really must've cheated a lot to be the only guy the MLB wants to make an example out of...
- Recently finished watching the majority of Breaking Bad for a second time and I cannot fucking wait for the final 8 episodes to begin two Sundays from now (Aug 11). Get ready for some BB themed posts next week too.
- Squamish Festival officially begins one week tomorrow. We've got a solid crew of 9 heading up for 3 days of music and good times. Also get ready for some Squamish Fest themed posts.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
K-OS - Valhalla (feat. Sam Roberts & Kevin Drew)
This past weekend Holland Park in Surrey hosted its annual Fusion Festival. The free festival is a two day event that promotes diversity of race, culture, and ethnicity. The centre of the park consists of over 30 cultural pavilions from various nations such as Kenya, Bolivia, and Greece. Each pavilion has members from their country providing information, selling goods, and, most importantly, cooking fine cuisine. Then in the surrounding area there are 3 music stages, a cultural community stage, and a cooking stage. I went for a friend's birthday on the Saturday which was also the same day that musical acts Los Furios, The Zolas, Kyprios, and K-OS performed.
We arrived to hear the final few songs by Vancouver-based ska band Los Furios. They were very high energy and had a brilliant horn section. As it was my first time at this festival it was somewhat overwhelming when I began looking for food to eat. I made two rules for myself that were to only try food that is very foreign to me (ie. from Kenya and not Greece) and that I would try my darndest to eat from all 6 represented continents. After buying $20 worth of tickets I followed a festival vet into the throng of people enjoying the sun, music, and great eats. Stop one was at Kenya where I had a great samosa that rivaled even the best Indian ones I've had. Then I visited Russia for these delicious dumpling things called Babouschka or something. I then stumbled upon the Bolivia tent which, for some reason, was the only country that didn't have a giant sign in front of it. There I enjoyed an excellent pulled pork sandwich that had an amazing, spicy sauce and salsa on it and a mango flavoured lime fizzy drink. So far so good as I had eaten something from Africa, Europe, and South America. After meeting up with the rest of our crew we decided to head back to the main stage as The Zolas were set to come on.
The Zolas are a Vancouver indie-rock band that have been getting bigger and bigger with tons of shows all across the lower mainland. The band was loving the weather and good vibes of the festival as they tore through hits like "Knot In My Heart" and "You're Too Cool". Fusion Fest is a dry event so near the end of The Zolas' set we decided that birthday shots were in order and headed down the street to Central City Brewing Co.
Several shots/beers/etc later I was back at the fest for round two of my world food tour. I began at the Afghanistan tent where I had a tortilla thing folded in half with potatoes, onions, and other spices inside it. On its own this meal was meh but when dipped in the provided green hot sauce and sour cream it was delicious. At this point Kyprios had taken the stage and after a couple of his own songs he began playing killer covers of classic rap songs from Dr. Dre to Jay-Z. Kyprios was very high energy and the saxophone player in his band just crushed it on a few tracks. It was great music to groove along to while enjoying dinner. I then hit up Fiji to try some spicy peanuts and peas which were great but mostly made me want another beer. My final stop of the night was at the Australian Pavilion where I had to try the Kangaroo sliders. The meat is quite tough but very tasty, especially when dipped in the fresh blueberry sauce. So I was able to cover Asia and Oceania but never made it to North America (not too bad though as this is the least foreign food to me). At this point it was time to head back to our spot at the main stage for the headliner K-OS.
K-OS is a rapper born in Trinidad and raised in Toronto who has been a solid fixture in the Canadian Hip-Hop scene for the past decade. I've always liked his music but had never seen him live so this festival was the perfect time. He started out great, performing lesser known songs as well as new material. Then things really got going when he played the hit "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman", a song based off of the piano beat to the theme song "California" for the TV show The O.C. K-OS is a great rapper but he is also quite a good singer and rocker. He displayed this by pulling out a guitar for the next few songs and at one point exclaimed "Let's see your favourite rapper do that!" A few songs later K-OS reached his performing peak with a sick version of "Valhalla", today's song. The track has a killer guitar riff, provided on the album version by Kevin Drew of the Canadian indie-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene and a catchy, epic chorus sung by Sam Roberts, another great Canadian rock star. K-OS's touring guitarist nailed the riff and the entire band joined K-OS to sing the chorus, along with the crowd. K-OS seemed to be really digging this song as his rapping was spot on and the crowd was really into it.
Unfortunately a couple songs later he said "I'm looking at the setlist and these ones on here I know I gotta do but I don't want to". He was referring to his three hits "Sunday Morning", "Man I Used To Be", and "Crabbuckit" and was basically telling the crowd that he was mad that he had to play these great songs that people love. He even cut Sunday Morning short initially before going back and playing the whole thing. Personally I think that this is super fucking lame. Like, poor you, you've recorded some amazing songs that people love and have to perform them a lot. Wah-fucking-wah! I understand that an artist can get tired of doing the same song over and over again but why not just change it up by making a slowed down reggae version or something? He gave a very half-assed performance for these final three and just seemed eager to get off the stage. The only highlight was this little kid in the crowd right next to me. A guy with a video camera was filming him while another dude held up a light and the kid did some crazy breakdancing. At this point most of the crowd had turned their attention to him and were loving it. After he shyed away an even younger kid, a baby, began doing his own version of break dancing which was adorable and awesome.
Overall I really enjoyed the Fusion Festival and will be sure to try to go every year from here on out. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves food, music and good times.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
50 Cent - We Up (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Trip Part 3: Singapore. After a great few nights in Taipei it was time to start venturing south and into the area that we had been planning on going to all along: South East Asia. Singapore was a city that we had briefly discussed going to but never made concrete plans for. But after learning that it was a major hub for getting cheap flights to other countries we figured it was worth checking out for a few nights.
Singapore is truly a one-of-a-kind city. Most people (myself included at the time) do not know very much about the city other than the oft ridiculed law that forbids one from spitting in public. This law certainly is ridiculous but damn it sure is enforced well and, because of that, the city is very clean; spotless in fact. I noticed this right away, in the sparkly airport bathroom that even allowed you to rate its cleanliness out of 5 progressively happier looking faces on a touch screen on the way out (I gave it the super huge smile). As we passed dozens of custodians on the way to the Metro the cleanliness remained. I also immediately noticed three distinct cultural groups: Indians, Chinese, and South East Asians (likely mostly Malaysian). There were no true Singaporeans; just a hodgepodge of these Asian cultures all (somewhat) struggling to communicate in the only official language, English. I thought this would be great for experiencing the different cultures and cuisines.
Since we knew Singapore was going to be expensive and we were still in the infancy of the trip we found a cheap ass place to stay outside of town. We also planned to spend the next few days without alcohol as A) it is ridiculously pricey, worse than Canada! and B) we figured a good detox couldn't hurt the imminent debauchery that would take place over the next four months. After finally arriving at our destination we discovered that not ALL of Singapore is spotless; check out Hello WOW Hostel for proof. The good thing about it was that the A/C worked and we were right next to a Metro station. The bad thing was that we were also in the middle of nowhere. So at nearly 11pm the first meal in Singapore was the only place that was open nearby, McDonald's. Fail.
The next day we ventured into town to do some good ol' sightseeing. We wandered everywhere through the financial district, University district, Chinatown, Little India and even all the way to the Malaysian border. Holy fuck it was fucking hot as fuck! Let the sweating begin. Thankfully the amazing architecture kept my mind off it as I was dazzled by block after block of awesome buildings such as futuristic skyscrapers, Indian temples, and Chinese markets. Also a massive yet brief downpour kept me cool and was the first taste of the crazy thunderstorms of Southeast Asia. We ended the night in Little India by eating at a jungle-themed Indian restaurant that had delicious food.
For our last day we decided to go to the world famous Singapore Zoo. It rained during our entire bus ride there but cleared up right as we walked through the gate. Now I have been to the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park which are widely reviewed as the best zoos in the world, along with Berlin. But Singapore was right up there and was simply magnificent. Due to the slightly cool and overcast weather the animals were wide awake and very active. You know how you can be at a cage, peer in, see nothing and just go meh and move on to the next one? Well this never happened here. Not only was every animal awake and active but they were in plain sight, often very close to the visitors. We also arrived right around lunch time and, by sheer luck, got to be firsthand witnesses for feeding sessions for the likes of White Bengal tigers, jaguars, lions, and monkeys. The brother and sister White Bengal tigers were the two most gorgeous animals I have ever seen in person. They are 2 of only 5 left in the world and were a brilliant sight to watch as they swam, played, and ate their meal. We even walked by the orangutans just in time to see them being fed outside of their habitats. They wandered out onto a log and just chilled and ate while people got to sit under them for pics. Of course we somehow ended up right near the front of the line and got some great pics. Besides these marvelous mammals the zoo also featured komodo dragons, snakes, monkeys, these hideous warthog/pig things and giraffes. I would strongly recommend that you go to the zoo if ever in Singapore as it was an absolute highlight.
Later that day we decided to check out the harbour. And, damn, another magnificent sight that we had no idea even existed. The harbour, known as Marina Bay, offers spectacular views of the incredible skyline and the world famous Marina Bay hotel, which is 3 massive buildings connected by a giant boat-shaped structure at the top. After two many pictures from down below we decided to bite the bullet and shill out the $20 to venture to the observation deck at the top of the hotel. We made it up just as the sun was setting and got some incredible photos of the skyline and harbour in the light and dark. To top the day off we made it back down just in time for a super cool fountain and light show. I'm having trouble doing this justice with my words so be sure to check out some pics below. As for Singapore, it was definitely a cool city although it is definitely only worth visiting for 2-3 days. Just make sure you see the zoo and Marina Bay.
"We Up" by 50 Cent and featuring Kendrick Lamar perfectly describes the feeling of being on top of the luxurious Marina Bay Hotel. The song brags about riches and we certainly got to experience a lot of that in the wealthy city. The song rides a slick beat punctuated by sultry keyboards as Fiddy raps about his riches and provides the catchy chorus. But the track really gets going when K Dot enters for a blazing, scene-stealing verse. I'm definitely looking forward to more new music from 50 Cent, someone who I have always liked but never truly dug into until now.
Click the link below for a cool video I shot of the White Bengal tigers:
Happy belated Canada Day everyone! I hope you had a blast celebrating this great Nation's Birthday. I, for one, enjoyed plenty of Canadian beer, rocked out to some great Canadian tunes and even waded through a river of glorious, fresh, cold Canadian water. I just fucking love Canada! "I am from _____ (other than Canada)" said no Canadian, ever. As Canucks, we live in a country that is blessed with breathtaking natural beauty that can be found from coast to coast, in every nook and cranny. We can be proud to live in a strong, democratic society that looks out for one another while, at the same time, looking out for the rights of the individual. If you are not Canadian and are reading this then I implore you to come check it out for yourself; you will not be disappointed.
Matt Mays & El Torpedo embody the genuine Canadian spirit. These four dudes from Nova Scotia have been rocking hard for the better part of a decade. I can't exactly explain it but when you listen to them you instantly know that they're from the Great White North. It must be their simplistic approach to the music, and the lyrics, which evoke the natural greatness of this land. Their self-titled debut is a perfect soundtrack for any and every Canadian who has ever stayed out all night under the stars in the company of friends and family, a blazing fire, and some cold ones. "Stand Down At Sundown" is the finest example of this; I dare you to play it during a sunset on your next camping trip and not feel ridiculously patriotic and proud.
When you think of Canadians and pride there is one combination of this that defines all Canadians and only Canadians: Hockey. Our Game is played through blood and sweat, skill and toughness. No trophy in any sport is more difficult to attain than the 16 wins that it takes to capture The Stanley Cup in the NHL Playoffs. This fact is known painfully well by my hometown team, The Vancouver Canucks. We've twice come within 1 victory of drinking from Lord Stanley's Mug (1994 & 2011) and have been in good contention for the past several years. However after two consecutive first round playoff exits in a row, with only a single win to show for it, the Canucks are in the midst of a rebuild that reached an early climax this past weekend during the NHL draft.
On Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to last season's team MVP, goaltender Cory Schneider, via a trade with the New Jersey Devils for the 9th overall pick at the draft, in which we selected centre Bo Horvat. (I will now give an important history to provide some sense of the situation. If you are already well informed I would recommend skipping down 3 paragraphs to the debate). This has left us with our ex-Captain, ex-face-of-the-franchise, goaltender Roberto Luongo. This guy brought us within 1 win of the Stanley Cup 3 seasons ago, captured Olympic Gold in front of his home crowd, set several franchise records (wins and shutouts in a season; consecutive shutouts) and finally gave the team a netminder that could be relied upon. During all of this he was awarded a MASSIVE contract, 12 years and $64 million for an annual cap hit of $5.33 million. The majority of the fan base was ecstatic as we had locked up the best goalie on the planet for the rest of his playing career. The team was well built and primed for some deep playoff runs.
Enter: Cory Schneider. After some major struggles in Chicago (back-to-back second round exits in 6 games) by both the team and (especially?) Luongo this young kid we'd been grooming was given more and more chances. And he stepped up, winning big games and providing the players on the ice and the fans with some new found confidence. Two seasons ago the two goalies played in a virtually equal number of games as the team rode the hot hand to a second consecutive President's trophy (best record in the league). Luongo was given the game 1 nod but after 2 losses at home it was quickly given back to Schneider. He lost the first game but won the next, only to lose the 5th and the defending Western Conference champions were bounced in the first round.
During the offseason it became apparent that something had to give. Schneider had grown to become the preferred option of the fans and management backed that up, giving him a 3 year, $12 million contract. It appeared to be only a matter of time until Luongo would be traded, all he had to do was waive his no-trade clause and he could go to any number of teams in desperate need of a number one goalie. The Toronto Maple Leafs expressed great interest and put an offer on the table, only to be rejected by Luongo as he was holding out for the Florida Panthers, his ex-team and where he still lives in the offseason, to make an offer. This never happened and suddenly the league was in a 4 month lockout as the players and owners squabbled over money. Finally, in mid-January the season began and sure enough the Canucks had 2 starting goalies, worth just under a combined $10 million, on opening day. Cory got the initial start and played well. When Luongo got his chances, he played well. The two men and the team claimed there was no drama or controversy but the media was having none of it. This was a terrible burden hanging over the team the entire season. Then trade deadline came and went and both men were still on the same team. The playoffs came around and, sure enough, Cory Schneider was injured for the first couple games. Luongo came in and the team lost four straight (Cory played in the final game but it hardly mattered by that point) for a second straight first round exit. The team continued to try to move Lou and he clearly wanted out, putting his Vancouver condo up for sale and sending some sarcastic and self-deprecating tweets.
In the end his contract simply proved impossible to deal. With the new collective bargaining agreement the Canucks had their backs up against the wall when it came to the salary cap and had basically zero room to work with and sign a good, current player. A contract buyout of Luongo was an option, but at close to $30 milion it was not something ownership would deal with. This left GM Mike Gillis with no choice but to trade away the more manageable contract in Schneider for as good of a player as he could get AND afford.
So this begs the question: Who is to blame for the trade that sent a franchise goaltender to New Jersey for just a top 10 (barely) draft pick??? I have 3 culprits, each who played significant roles and would all have loved the help of Captain Hindsight. They are:
1.) GM Mike Gillis, the man who created Lou's intial contract and then ultimately could not get rid of it
2.) Owner Francesco Aquilini, the man who would not buyout the huge contract, a very tough pill to swallow but was what many analysts considered to be the best move for the organization
3.) Roberto Luongo himself, the man who turned down an early chance to escape the city well before all of this drama ensued and who played well below his potential to lose the starting job and adoration of the fans
I'd love to hear your feedback. Feel free to leave opinions in the comment section below or, better yet, on Facebook or Twitter. I'll join in with my own opinion as well.
