Katuwapitiya

It definitely has been a while but for those of you still reading, I present to you the best find I’ve made in a while: The Joy Formidable. I saw their video for Cradle a few months ago and was instantly hooked:

Their sound is sort of like early Metric mixed with M83 and a bit of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Needless to say, it’s wicked indie with a cute female lead singer and they have all it takes to blow up huge very soon.

Ritzy of the Joy Formidable

I was able to catch them live while in England (at Borderline, a great venue in Soho) and I was blown away. Tracks like Cradle, Austere, While The Flies, and The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade were some of the best songs I’ve heard live in a long time.

The Joy Formidable at Borderline

Their energy and the stage presence of lead singer Ritzy was phenomenal. You can actually download their whole album for free from their myspace page: here. Trust me, you won’t regret it. Probably my favourite band right now, period.

Ritzy again

Ritzy and Matt

Updates will resume in June. Until then, enjoy this as much as I have.

I had an interesting conversation on MSN today and it revolved around whether a song can be deemed “one of the best songs ever”. I mean, music critics with their subjective opinions constantly deem songs worthy and unworthy but is there a possibility of everyone coming together and saying, yeah, this song, it’s one of the best songs ever written.

The Beatles come to mind. A friend once told me that scientists deemed A Day In The Life one of the most pleasing to the ear. Haha, pseudoscience? Or can it be possible to take an x amount of people, play them x amount of songs and for all of them to choose one? Would it still be a subjective feeling? 

People constantly rank songs in the “best songs of all time”, but are they idiots?

What would be my “best songs of all time”? I’d need to think about it more but I think that they have to be songs with universal appeal. Songs that I can play to a crowd in Indonesia and to a crowd in Nicaragua and still have positive feedback. They need to have lyrics that people can relate to. They need to have melodies that are catchy and easy to remember but also display technical skill.

I dunno, but inspired by Peter Gabriel’s cover of “Book of Love” that was played last night at the end of the Scrubs’ series finale, I started to think about the amazingness that is Solsbury Hill…

I have a lot on my plate, so the blog hasn’t seen many updates lately. For that, I apologize. Tonight, I had a night to unwind. For the past 3 months, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Yann Tiersen, the composer of my favourite movie soundtrack of all time, Amelie. La Valse D’Amelie and Comptine D’un Autre Ete are two of my favourite songs, period. 

Unfortunately, Yann decided to take it in a different direction. Instead of beautiful, soulful piano/accordian/violin, we got a bunch of loud unexpected “rock”. I’ve never been more disappointed during a concert. One song from the Amelie soundtrack during a 15 song set. What’s worse is that, being close to the stage, we were able to see the set list and saw that “Amelie” was written as a second encore.  What Yann didn’t realize (as he didn’t bother wth a second encore) is that it’s hard to get a crowd into a show/excited enough to cheer for a second encore when all you do is stretch out long guitar notes in the middle of wtf-inducing songs. I can’t be the only one who expected a laid-back parisian type of night. Instead, we got loud j-pop mixed with My Bloody Valentine in “Asobi Seksu” (who weren’t bad, but definitely didn’t fit in with the Yann Tiersen vibe we were expecting, also, annoying vocals) and Yann rocking out with a guitar, another guitar, and a violin. “Sur la fil” was the obvious highlight as it was the only song he played from the aforementioned soundtrack. 

I know that artists (re: Smashing Pumpkins) look back on their successful songs with disdain. They want people to hear their new shit, they’ve written new shit and the people should know about it. They don’t want to live in the past, they feel that they’re better than before. 

We don’t care. Play the shit we want, the shit we know and love. The shit we paid to hear/see.

For the record, here’s what would have gotten the crowd into it:

I’ve always been a big fan of The New Pornographers, but I’ve never really gotten into the solo projects of Neko Case, the heart of the band. Her stuff has always come across as too country and that’s usually a big turn-off (also what initially kept me away from Bright Eyes). It usually takes a song with some crossover into other genres to catch my attention and then I can slowly come to terms with the country stylings of other songs. In “People Got A Lotta Nerve”, Neko’s finally won me over with her cover of Nelly Furtado’s (or Hall & Oates?) “Maneater”. Well, it technically isn’t, but goddamn, why does every chorus that refers to an eater of men get stuck in my head? It’s an awesome track from someone who really should be just as famous as Feist, check it out! (Updates on the regular now a possibility!)

Wait, young grasshopper, as life sometimes gets in the way of updates.

Soon (maybe sometime next week?), there will be reason to rejoice.

Until then, check out my favourite Toronto rapper: TELEMITE!

Beautiful video. Beautiful song.

Literally the greatest presentation of the Oscars I have ever seen. Incredible. From Slumdog taking over, to the Japanese winners, Jackman doing an amazing job, all the way down to the President of the academy not making the typical boring speech. Loved it. What recession?

let 'em try to find the beauty in your face

There are times when I get jaded with a genre. Sometimes it happens to indie rock but more often it happens with hip hop. Hey, I can’t help it when all the artists that I love simultaneously decide to start releasing sub-par material (Re: the latest releases by Kanye West, Common, Little Brother, Talib Kweli, and sigh, even Mos Def). And yeah, the new Q-tip album is nice, but I keep waiting for Phife Dawg to pop up on the next verse and end up disappointed.

Once in a while, however, a song can remind you why you love a genre. And it doesn’t have to be a prototypical genre song either. Sometimes, it can be something so fresh and new that it redefines potential and shows you levels that can be reached.

I’ve largely ignored releases by P.O.S. for superficial reasons. His moniker is just too dangerously close to the name of P.O.D. and just like I’d avoid a band named Bevanescence, I’ve avoided checking out this Rhymesayers artist. However, I took a leap of faith based on a lot of recommendations, and stumbled upon the track “Purexed” off his new album Never Better.

Needless to say, this is one of those songs that can remind you of why you love hip hop. And it does it in a way that my indie rock readers might like too. Just incredible. His flow has the urgency of Sage Francis and the way it builds, especially in the chorus, it’s just surreal. Check it out below:

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I stumbled on a “new” song by The Prodigy by total fluke. When the hell did this happen? I wonder if there are other artists from my childhood that have suddenly started releasing new music under my radar. Darude? Sky? Our Lady Peace? Otara Millionaire’s Club?!

Check this video out for “Invaders Must Die” which is pretty badass: