by New Music Michael on May 18 2012
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Calgary for my day job, but back in front of the home computer now, and can’t stop listening to this track from Toronto’s Bravestation. Kind of a fun little name too, though reminds me perhaps a bit too much of Superstation TBS, where the Atlanta Braves used to play until they split it into TBS and Peachtree, which is a complete waste of a channel in my opinion.
Back in the music world, though, Bravestation weaves ambient, new wave, and indie pop sounds on a giant loom of music. Their debut full-length “Giants & Dreamers” is to be released on July 10, with a release party at The Drake in Toronto on July 7.
A video for another track – “Signs Of the Civilized” – will also be available soon; you can stream that track by checking out their bandcamp site.
Tracklist
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Tides of the Summit
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Western Thrills
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Fluorescent Scenes
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Signs of the Civilized
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Amaranthine
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Lines in the Sand
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Marble Sky
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Kaleidoscope
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Future Love
by New Music Michael on May 16 2012
Phil Elverum was in town on Tuesday night. Performing solo at the Wunderbar under his stage name Mount Eerie. For those of you that weren’t there, I’m so very sorry (more so if you were stuck at Rexall).
You see, Phil is a musician’s musician. I know that because I met The Joe beforehand, and Elverum is one of his favorites (if not very favorite). It’s so impressive to hear another musician rave about another, how they were so dramatically influenced by the artist, how even they, an accomplished musician in their own right, went completely ‘fanboy’ the first time they met him. And then to see him live for myself, just Phil and his guitar (and various loops and feedbacks of course), it was truly a monumental experience. It’s like the roof parted and a beam of light just shot straight down into the venue, encompassing Phil and the crowd in a perfect halo of sound, and time stood still for the far too short time we had together. And the crowd, who was completely rapt, unwavering in their attention, who weren’t speaking even during breaks between songs, all eyes glued on him. Hell, a few people were probably welling up, though I didn’t look hard enough I can say that with 100% confidence, my own eyes too fixed on Elverum.
I probably should’ve picked up an album – apparently he has a new one dropping next Tuesday – though maybe it’s one of those events that was so transcendental that trying to relive it via recorded media would just be a hopeless cause.
by New Music Michael on May 16 2012
When last we left our good friends Said the Whale they were in the midst of releasing videos (the last one we featured was “We Are 1980” in February). Since then …
Their video “Loveless” is in a competition over on the MTV website; the winning video gets added to rotation. I’m not a big fan of the music video channels anymore (hell, they don’t even show videos that often anymore last I checked), but that would still be pretty awesome. Click here to help ‘em out.
They were robbed while in Manchester (yep, second time in not too long). I heard they recovered some of their stuff, but still, kinda sucks. Our best to them.
Also, yesterday was the band’s FIFTH BIRTHDAY. Five years ago, they played a release show for “Taking Abalonia” at the Media Club in Vancouver. Congrats, guys.
( you know what’s weird, as often as we’ve talked about them, we’ve never shot one of their shows; we’ll have to rectify that next time they’re through )
North America Festival Dates
May 26 – George WA at Sasquatch Music Festival
Jun 06 – Victoria BC at Alix Goolden Hall
Jun 24 – St. Catharines ON at S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival
Jul 08 – Kelowna BC at Keloha Festival
Jul 14 – Toronto ON at Edgefest 2012
Jul 20-22 – Yellowknife NWT at Folk On the Rocks
by New Music Michael on May 16 2012
My favorite festival of the year – SLED ISLAND in Calgary – is inching up on us closer and closer. I already have a hotel booked, and just sent in my vacation request today, so barring unforeseen circumstances I’m all set (I’m continuing on from Calgary to hook up with one of my favorite music bloggers – Ethan from 83Music – in Boise to see Wilco on the Tuesday night).
The festival announced some killer new bands to the lineup today, including The Dudes, Japanese noise artist Boris (been wanting to see them for a while now), Shabazz Palaces (who I’ve also heard incredible things about, though you may be surprised by that I’d be interested in them), and Daedalus.
They also announced a new addition to the schedule, the East Village Block Party on Thursday night, which will include performances from Flosstradamus, HUMANS, and Max Ulis, in addition to DJ’s and other intriguing ideas (a skateboard competition – we’ll see how that goes).
Finally, they’ve announced the schedule for Olympic Plaza.
FRIDAY
7:00 Wake Owl
8:15 Timber Timbre
9:30 Feist
SATURDAY
3:00 Parlovr
4:00 Bonjay
5:15 Shabazz Palaces
6:30 The Dudes
8:00 Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
9:45 The Hold Steady
The festival runs June 20 – 23; hope to see everyone there. You can get your passes through the Sled Island website – click here.
We’re going to start featuring one Sled Island band per week here on NMM as a special feature; watch for that next week.
