Hey there!

I just wanted to let all of you Montrealers out there know that I have started a new website devoted to the Montreal music scene and everything that goes on here. I’m so excited about this so please stop by and browse around. Not only do we have a list of every show going on in Montreal but we have a blog and a section for show reviews which means lots of pictures and music! We also plan do to contests and ticket giveaways so that’s always fun too right?

Come On By!

I just stumbled upon this on the I-tunes store and thought the previews sounded pretty great so I bought it. It’s from 2006 and it’s basically a compilation abum of some pretty great bands (a lot of which I have never heard of) covering some famous Christmas songs and some originals too. I love Christmas (maybe even more than I love Halloween) and while we are still a good two months away I really just had to have this! I don’t know there’s just something about Christmas that makes me feel so happy and peaceful. Anyways, here’s the tracklist and some samples:

1. Duels – “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

2. Iain Archer – “Little Drummer Boy”

3. David Ford – “Have Yourself A Bitter Little Christmas”

4. The Late Greats – “Sleigh Ride”

5. Ingo Star Cruiser – “Just Like Christmas” (feat. Gaby Fröden)

6. Amusement Parks On Fire – “The Day It Snowed” (feat. Leila Moss)

7. Duke Special and David Ford – “Of Whoredom and Falconry”

8. Emmy The Great – “Christmas In Prison” (feat. Lightspeed Champion)

9. 747s – “Blue Christmas”

10. Amazing Pilots – “White Christmas”

11. Swimming – “In Dulci Jubilo”

12. The Joseph and Mary Chain – “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

13. Minuteman – “Last Christmas”

14. Envelopes – “Pink Christmas”

15. El Perro Del Mar – “Oh! What A Christmas”

16. Electric Soft Parade – “The Friday Before Christmas”

17. Matt Harding – “Purple Snowflakes”

18. Sketches For Albinos – “Let It Snow”

It’s been awhile since a did one of these and I was driving around listening to the new Flaming Lips album and thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to write a song of the week post. I’m still not sure as to whether I’m really in love with the new album (a few more listens should do it) but I can officially say that I am in love with this song. It’s called “I Can Be A Frog” and throughout the song lead singer Wayne Coyne sings lines like “I can be a bear” or “I can be a monkey” followed by a sound effect of a girl imitating the thing that Waye Coyne describes. Sounds kind of weird I Guess but I dunno…there’s a certain odd charm to this song. It’s even kind of spooky! Hope you like it…

The Flaming Lips – “I Can Be A Frog”

Hello pumpkin heads,

I have a new mixtape for you. Check it out here!

Tracklist:

1. Vampire Weekend – “Horchata”

2. Karen O & The Kids – “All Is Love”

3. Ssion – “Clown”

4. Muse – “Uprising”

5. The Subjects – “Winter Vacation”

6. Fool’s Gold – “Surprise Hotel”

7. Wax Tailor – “Say Yes”

8. Hey Ocean! – “A Song About California”

9. Meaghan Smith – “Heartbroken”

10. Wisdom Tooth – “Rodeo”

Hey there! here is my latest mixtape that I made for Baeble Music:

Click here to listen!

Tracklist:

1. Girls – “Lust For Life”

2. Sky Larkin – “Smarts”

3. Miss Li - “Bourgeois Shagri-La”

4. Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel – “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” (Vampire Weekend Cover)

5. Washed Out – “Get Up”

6. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Higher Than The Stars”

7. Le Loup – “Morning Song”

8. WHY? – “January Twenty Something”

9. Kings of Convenience – “24-25″

10. Telefon Tel Aviv – “The Birds”

And in case you missed it here’ the one from two weeks ago!

Click here to listen

Tracklist:

1. Little Boots – “Ghost”

2. Amy Milan – “Bruised Ghosts”

3. Sea Wolf – “Turn The Dirt Over”

4. Zero 7 – “Medicine Man”

5. Monsters of Folk – “Say Please”

6. Blitzen Trapper – “Going Down”

7. Ivy – “Corners of Your Mind”

8. jump Clubb – “A Frozen Hug”

9. Islands – “No You Don’t”

10. Rose Melberg - “Things That We Do”

It’s that time of year again folks. No i’m not talking about Christmas (although I kinda wish I was) but the annual Pop Montreal Festival that takes place all over this great city of mine. Just take a look at the list of names above. All i can think is that there is one notable emmission. Where is Sufjan? If he’s on that list I am blind. So anyways, I’m basically just trying to plan out which shows to see. It’s a little bit tough since they all play at the same time but here is my tentative schedule:

Wensday, September 30th:

The Phenomenal Handclap Band – 8:00 – Le National

Amy Millan – 10:00 – Ukrainian Federation

Elephant Stone – 11:00 – O Patro Vys

Matt & Kim – 12:00 – Club Lambi

Jay Reatard – 12:30 – La Sala Rossa (if I can make it)

Thursday, October 1st:

Habs vs. Leafs – 7:00 – Air Canada Center (In Toronto)

Friday, October 2nd:

Tune Yards – 7:00 – Musee D’art Contomporain (maybe)

Ghost Bees – 8:00 – Ukrainian Federation

Cryptacize  – 8:45 – Cabaret

Sufjan Stevens – 9:45 – Cabaret

Hexes & Ohs – 10:40 – Il Motore

The Do – 11:30 – Theatre Plaza

Shapes & Sizes – 12:00 – O Patro Vys (if I can make it)

Saturday, October 3rd:

Jarusalem In My Heart – 9:00 – Theatre Outremont

Les Momies De Palerme – 10:00 – Barfly

Forest City Lovers – 11:00 – Casa Del Popolo

Os Mutantes – 11:30 – Le National

Fresh and Only’s – 12:00 – La Sala Rossa

The Oh Sees – 1:00 – La Sala Rossa

or (they’re right across the street so it’ll be a game time decision)

The D’Urbervilles – 1:00 – Casa Del Popolo

Sunday, October 4th:

I’m not really sure what to see since I’m not really familiar with any of the bands playing on Sunday so if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to let me know. I was thinking about these two:

Nadia & The Tchotchkes – 9:00 – Green Room

Arianne Moffat – 10:00 – Ukrainian Federation

White Pine Waltz – 10:00 – Casa Del Popolo

For updates on what’s going on check my twitter page as I will most likely be posting stuff on there while I’m at the shows.

Hello!

Here is my latest mixtape that I made for Baeble Music. It’s a good one!

Tracklist:

1. Imogen Heap – “First Train Home”

2. Woods – “Rain On”

3. Ramona Falls – “Salt Sack”

4. Bridezilla – “Brown Paper Bag”

5. Coconut Records – “Microphone”

6. Foreign Born – “Early Warnings”

7. Tyondai Braxton – “Opening Bell”

8. Imaad Wasif – “Priestess”

9. HEALTH – “Die Slowly”

10. Wild Beasts – “Hooting & Howling

Woweeee! Listen.

Well it’s been quite a hectic week for me, but now that I finally have some time to sit down and relax I’d like to take this time to talk about what an amazing weekend I had last weekend. Yes, as depicted above it was the Montreal date of the Yellow Bird Project Indie Rock Coloring Book launch tour.

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, YBP joined forces with artist Andy J. Miller in creating the Indie Rock Coloring Book, in which each page is devoted to a different indie band or musician and you have to colour it in. Of course all the proceeds of the book sales go to all the charities that the bands support. But instead of telling you about it why not take a look at some samples.

Here is the page devoted to Devendra Banhart:

Here’s the page devoted to Andrew Bird:

You get the picture…

So the tour started in San Fransisco where the project’s two founders Matt and Casey set up shop at the Outside Lands Festival selling YBP T-shirts and coloring books.

Here’s a picture of YBP’s booth:

Afterward they had a party in San Fran where they drank like adults and coloured like children:

The next stop on the tour was in New York City where the YBP crew hosted a book launch party at Housing Works where they had Ra Ra Riot DJing and a solo performance by Elvis Perkins.

Here’s the guys from Ra Ra Riot Spinning tunes:

And here’s Elvis Perkins playing and donning a lovely YBP tee!

And finally, the gang came back to where it all started…Montreal. Fortunately I was able to attend this one and let me tell you it was amazing. As I was pulling up to the Drawn & Quarterly Book Store where the launch was taking place, Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak from the Dears crossed in front of my car. And they were walking with their adorable daughter Neptune, who is responsible for the design on their YBP tee.

There were books, juice, cookies and coloring at this kid-friendly event but the highlight was an amazing solo performance by Murray from the Dears.

Here’s Murray, Natalia and Neptune arriving at the book store (that’s me and White Blank Page standing at the door):

Here’s some of the kiddies colouring:

And here’s Murray doing what he does best:

Hey look who showed up for the festivities…Sam Roberts and his daughter!

Here’s Sam, his daughter, Matt and Casey from YBP and Murray and Natalia:

Afterward the guys asked me to put on the brand new shirt designed by Little Boots so that they could take some pictures for their site.

Here’s one of them (that’s me trying my best (and failing) to look like a model):

And then to cap it all off they had an after party where everyone could chat, drink and of course colour.

Fun:

So basically it was a really fun weekend! Oh and if you were interested in purchasing the latest Little Boots YBP tee you can find it here.

Well that’s all for now. Are you gearing up for fall and all the wonderful fall music? I am. Can’t wait. I already have made up my fall playlist on my ipod. It’s called “The Minor Fall” and on it you will find stuff from Band of Horses, Midlake, Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear, Sea Wolf, Nurses and of course Nick Drake. There’s probably more, but yeah…excited for fall.