Beard About Town Exclusive!

Despite the rainy weather forecast the members of SSRIs convinced us to shoot outside. Not just outside mind you but deep in the woods. We scouted out an undisclosed location near Vancouver and started the laborious task of trekking in all the gear. Once the band and recording gear were set up the clouds parted and the forest got rocked. The performance was well worth a few mosquito bites and risk of soaking all our gear. Had too much fun with these guys. Thanks SSRIs. Note: my apologies to Georges Couling of Knuckleduster Music Inc. (not knockleduster, sorry bud).

There is another local band bursting onto the scene right now that I want to give some Big Ups to and that is Portage and Main. Portage and Main are long time friends John Sponarski and Harold Donnelly. Sponarski has said that they wanted their songs to fit "like his favourite pair of Levi's jeans" and let me tell you these are very cozy songs. I must confess, I have never tried on his jeans but... I was fortunate enough to catch up with Sponarski in a short online interview where I asked "How did two Vancouverites end up calling themselves Portage and Main?"

 He had this to say: "The name is basically.. We thought it was funny that us two city kids were writing a pretty country-ish record... So we wanted a name that juxtaposed something urban and rural.. In conversation we accidentally discover that we both have roots in portage la prairie manitoba.. As soon as we figured this out I was immediately reminded of when I was a kid and I was in Winnipeg for the first time walking around with my aunts and my nana and we came to the corner of portage and main. We stood there for a second and they told me the tale of portage and main and how it was thought to be the coldest street corner in Canada. I said we should name the band portage and main! we have portage (portage la prairie = rural) and main (a street you would find in any major urban area). So that was kinda that....

Ummm yeah I dunno what else you'd wanna say, the release is Friday march 18th at the anza with the sumner brothers...

Also we would totally love to do a tasty ears vid! I've been keeping up with what you guys are doing and it's great! 

Keep it locked here for more on the upcoming Tasty ears On Location with Portage and Main. In the meantime check out their website  here and have a listen to the track Rocky Mountain Wanderer in the player 

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Where to Beard About Town upcoming shows (check past blogs for more shows):

Smith Westerns Feb 16 at Biltmore
Godspeed You Black Emporer Feb 16 at Vogue
Wild Nothing Feb 28 at Biltmore
Born Ruffians March 12 at Rickshaw
Warpaint w/  PVT March 19 at Biltmore
Dodos March 31 at Rickshaw
Pixies performing Doolittle May 3 at The Orpheum

Tasty Ears Mixtape

The SSRIs
On Location with Tasty Ears
(Video coming soon)

If someone had asked me a week ago, "What are you up to for the next seven days?", I don't think I would have answered,   "Listening to a shit ton of new music, buying a bunch of concert tickets and having a silly time with the SSRIs on Sunday out in the woods, of course. But, that is what I did.

This last Sunday we connected with Vancouver punk rockers the SSRIs at an undisclosed location in the forest. We trucked in all the band gear and a generator plus recording gear and a camera, to shoot an upcoming episode of Tasty Ears On Location. Stayed tuned music fans! For more photos and a review of the shoot check Shaine Jones Photography .

Tuesday was like my birthday, with releases from Cold War Kids, Destroyer, Iron & Wine, and Cloud Nothings (please understand it was not my actual b-day). I'll start with a few words on the new Cloud Nothings album. A fun, fresh, pop-punk, full length debut from Cleveland's Dylan Baldi and co. Watch the video below. Spoiler Alert! Just when I thought it was just another "innocent teenagers,  through the lens of 8mm video cameras" it gets  fun.



Iron & Wine's new album "Kiss Each Other Clean" is another solid album from the indie veterans (gone major label). Sam Beam is back with the full band again this time only bigger. The first single Walking Far From Home is good example of what Iron & Wine do best.

Amazeballs new album from Destroyer titled Kaputt. Go buy it. This new album from Vancouver's own Dan Bejar is easily my favourite Destroyer so far. The style is, what I believe would have fallen into, Adult Contemporary in the late eighties/early nineties record shops (whatever those are). Lots of reverb and trumpets, what more do you want? Bejar is cool, I read somewhere that he recorded some of the vocals while lying on the couch. I know right? Give it a listen on today's mixtape.

The Cold War Kids have long been a favourite of mine. There new album Mine Is Yours is what I was hoping their last album was going to be. And I liked the last album so... The song writing has matured nicely, Royal Blue (hear it on the mixtape) being a fine example. I don't care for the producers choice to "over produce" this album, like every song is coming over the airwaves of some Top 40 radio station. I can't wait to see these songs performed live. Go!

It was pointed out to me that I forgot to mention the upcoming release from Middle Brother. Made up of the lead singers from Deer Tick, Delta Spirit, and Dawes. Check out a track from there upcoming album on the mixtape.

Jack White's Third Man Records is about to release an album from Sweden's First Aid Kit. The B-side of the single is a cover of Buffy St. Marie's Universal Soldier. It rounds out this weeks mixtape.

Upcoming shows
Diamond Rings is coming back March 11 at The Biltmore
Sharon Van Etten March 29 at the Media Club
The Foals April 10 at the Commodore





Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Tasty Ears Win!

Yes, dear readers (all 5 of you) we were right. Stereogum (one of the blogs that gave Kanye West album of the year) has started a new column called Double Take where they re-review an album and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is up first. Here is the link to the story but I'll save you the trouble with a quick redux, as I don't want to give this album any more attention. Basically they decide that upon further consideration it wouldn't have made the top 50 and that maybe Kanye just has the biggest promotional budget etc.  If you remember 3 out of 3 readers agreed that it was not The Best album. Go team!

Moving on, 2011 is upon us and the new releases started this week with a great full length album from Tennis. I really enjoyed the EP they put out last year and although all the songs from the EP are also on the "new" album Cape Dory is still worth picking up. If you don't have time to do this sooner, I recommend buying it at their show Jan 31st at The Media Club.

Another early year release is Tapes n' Tapes' Outside. Not quite the impact of 2008's Walk It Off but I dig it.

One more album I should mention, this one doesn't officially drop till February but James Blake's self-titled album is hotly anticipated. So much so that it was leaked to the internet. Tinymixtapes is already suggesting a possible album of the year. It's a piano driven sort of Soul/R&B kind of thing. I'm sure you'll hear a lot of James Blake this year (for better or for worse, you have been warned). I don't see it making the top of my list but... check it out.




Here is a list of other albums I'm looking forward to.

The Decemberists - The King is Dead (out next week) The single is awesome
Ducktails: Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics (next week)
First Aid Kit "Universal Soldier" (next week)
Smith Westerns "Dye it Blonde" (also next week)

Cloud Nothings -self-titled (loving this band right now) (Jan 25)
Cold War Kids - Mine is Yours (Also playing Mar 5 at the Vogue, see you there. So good live).
Destroyer - Kaputt (local indie darling)
Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

February
Young Galaxy -Shapeshifting (not sure yet but good potential)
Bright Eyes - The People's Key
Dom - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods (re-released with a proper label, loved it the first time)
La Sera - self-titled (of Vivian Girls fame)
Beach Fossils - What Pleasure EP
The Cave Singers - No Witch (can't wait)

March
Devotchka -100 Lovers
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes (So curious, what's she going to do next)
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Boys and Diamonds
Dodo's - TBA
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
The Death Set - Michel Poiccard

April
Surfer Blood -I'm Not Ready EP

Unsure of when but...
Fleet Foxes
Okkervil River
Aphex Twin
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee (Keep 'er going Adam)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
Panda Bear (from Animal Collective)
Radiohead (finally)
Santigold
The Shins (yes, that's right there coming back)
Bibio
Mister Heavenly

Upcoming shows
Local artist Vince Vaccaro is at The Vogue on Jan 27
Local rocker's The Pack A.D. at The Biltmore Jan 28
Wavves/Best Coast/ No Joy at The Rickshaw Feb 17
Devotchka at The Commodore Mar. 4
Crystal Castles at the Commodore Mar 7
Born Ruffians at The Rickshaw Mar 12
Destroyer/ War on Drugs at The Commodore Mar 17
Bright Eyes at The Commodore Apr. 8 (tickets went on sale today)
The Cave Singers at The Biltmore Apr 21
Lykke Li at the Vogue May 27

Not exactly a show but...
Record Store Day Apr 16 (Many artist make exclusive releases for indie record stores available only for this one day. It's pretty epic so check it out.)

Next week no lists.

Go!



Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Top 20 Albums of 2010 (a Tasty Ears production)

I'm back to finish the list I started on the last edition of Beard About Town. The Tasty Ears Top 20 of 2010 is finally here. Go!

20. Wavves - King of the Beach
19. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
18. No Age - Everything In Between
17. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
16. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
15. How To Dress Well - Love Remains
14. Girls - Broken Dreams Club
13. Broken Bells - self-titled
12. Twin Shadow - Forget
11. Beach House - Teen Dream
10. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
09. The National - High Violet
08. The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
07. The Drums - self-titled
06. Vampire Weekend - Contra
05. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
04. Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing
03. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
02. The Black Keys - Brothers
01. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor



Disagree? Let me known where I went wrong and leave a comment below.

It goes without saying that not everyone can be in the Top 40 but there are a few bands that deserve a shout out none the less. A band I listened to a lot this year is Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, there self-titled album is very well conceived. In particularly the track called Home is a favourite. The album was actually released in 2009 so I did not consider it this year but it sure got a ton of play around here. They also put on one of the best shows I saw this year down at The Gorge. It was a beautiful day at the Sasquatch Festival mid-afternoon when they took the stage and stole the show. Hit play on the mixtape now!

Another band (or I guess more of an ensemble really) called Gayngs put together an amazing album titled Relayted. Featuring members of Solid Gold, Bon Iver, Megafaun, Rosebuds, Doomtree, and more Gayngs have the soft-rock genre dialed. They have a very groovy video for my favourite track The Gaudy Side of Town too so look for that. They did a small tour in the U.S. this year ending in Texas where there bus was unfortunately stolen. Kenny G stole the soprano sax from music, Gayngs is stealing it back.



Music Playlist at MixPod.com


Finally, a little what, what for the hip sounds of local band Watasun. Check out the video below for there song Let's Go Shopping. A cool video of them playing in downtown Vancouver where anything can happen (like bubble guy). Keep posted to them on Facebook for many more videos from them soon. Keep 'er goin' boys.





Don't forget to subscribe. See you next year. Go!

Blog of Lists

"T'was the morning after a long night and I was trying to think of something to write." A little shout out to the "Season". A time when we all look back and look ahead and speaking of "a head" (what? am I supposed to apologize for liking puns); I'm sure many of you have heard about the girl below. Her name is Ann Kirstin Kennis and she is most recently famous for donning the cover of Vampire Weekends Album Contra (she was a busy model in the 80's). She claims that she never gave permission for her photo to be used (despite her signature on the release form). She is now suing for $2 million. What I want to know is did she illegally download the album? I could go on about about artists rights and how musicians get a raw deal but... instead I'll just encourage you to tell me what YOU think in todays reader's poll.

Now for the lists

Top 3 Local Record Shops

3.Red Cat

2. Scratch

1. Zulu

Top 5 Local Venues for Live Music

5. The Media Club

4. Venue

3. The Rickshaw Theatre

2. The Commodore

1. The Biltmore

Top 10 Concerts of the Year

10. The Cave Singers

9. Matt & Kim

8. Broken Bells (The Morning Benders opened)

7. The Drums and Surfer Blood

6. The Tallest Man on Earth (S. Carey opened)

5. Bear in Heaven and Cymbals Eat Guitars (Freelance Whales opened)

4. The Black Keys

3. J Roddy Walston and the Business, Phosphorescent and Deer Tick

2. Free Energy and Titus Andronicus

1. Sasquatch (I know this is technically not a concert but a festival and it's not local but it's the best)

Top 40 Albums of the Year (40-21) (Stay tuned for the top 20 soon)

40. Woods - At Echo Lake

39. She & Him - Volume 2

38. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

37. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

36. Joanna Newsome - Have One On Me

35. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

34. Warpaint - the Fool

33. The Roots - How I Got Over

32. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms

31. Surfer Blood - Astrocoast

30. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

29. The Dead Weather - Sea of Cowards

28. Spoon - Transference

27. Yeasayer - Odd Blood

26. Best Coast - Crazy for You

25. J Roddy Walston and the Business - Self Titled

24. Diamond Rings - Special Affectations

23. Sleigh Bells - Treats

22. MGMT - Congratulations

21. Crystal Castles - Self Titled

Check out Joanna Newsome here and Tame Impala here

All other bands should be on the  Tasty Top 40 (40-21) playlist below

Check out the video from local band Zoomafloome. Go!

Kanye West Hates Tasty Ears

Hot 100 tracks (updated daily)    
 Check the Tasty Ears Channel on YouTube (or click the pictures at the top of the page).

Now I am aware that my musical tastes don't tend towards top 40, or even "pop" music (whatever that means) but recently I feel a bit like I passed into some "Bizarro World" (more Seinfeld than DC Comics). The Grammy Awards announced their nominees (which is generally a list of all the albums I would never listen to) but this year Arcade Fire's The Suburbs is up for Album of the Year (personally I wouldn't say album of the year but top 10 sure) and Florence and the Machine are up for Best New Artist (a year too late but non the less an excellent choice). Ray Lamontagne is up for Song of the Year with Beg, Steal or Borrow (not all that surprising due to his more adult contemporary vibe lately) but best of all is The Black Keys up for Best Rock Performance. The Black Keys=amazeballs live, so tight. The Grammy's actually choosing a few deserving artists is just the beginning of Bizarro world though, enter Pitchfork, generally a site I strongly agree with. They call 'em like they see (hear) 'em and aren't afraid of calling a turd a turd. As taste makers Pitchfork is often ahead of their time (I'm sure they would agree that Florence and the Machine should have been nominated a year ago) and perhaps it is me who is behind but.... Pitchfork just gave Kanye West's new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a perfect 10. That's the only album this year that Pitchfork gave this distinction to. WT f@$k? I've tried to get my head around how this could be but I can't. I've listened to the album several times but.... I don't get it. Someone please explain this to me. The best moments of the album aren't his music or his "rapping" (he samples Black Sabbath, Smokey Robinson, Aphex Twin, etc. and borrows Justin Vernon's (among others) voice on several tracks). Kanye takes Bon Iver's beautiful Woods (how Autotune should be used) and immediately ruins it with a beat that probably came with his 808. Everywhere I turn somebody else (Tiny Mixtapes I'm pointing at you) is stoked on this album. Why are all of these reviewers so quick to s@$k Kanye's d@$k? -end rant

Upcoming local highlights:

Tonight at The Media Club is Miami Device
                  Blim has Synthcake
Sunday night at The Vogue is Books w/ Black Heart Procession (should be epic)
Dec. 8 at The Biltmore is Tame Impala (I wish I wasn't out of town)
Dec. 9 at The Railway Club is Aunts and Uncles
Dec. 10 The Media Club has Bloody Wilma (rockers from Vic)
and The Biltmore has Bison
Dec. 16 is local band Topless Gay Love Tekno Party at The Biltmore
Dec. 18 Local's Mariana's Trench is at The Orpheum
Dec. 20-21 at The Biltmore is Kid Koala

Go!

Today's mix tape is actually just one new song by local's Mimi, Me called Reckless. Check it.
Go!



Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Drugs and Diamond Rings

Free Energy's Scott and Paul (left to right)

First up a new Tasty Ears video of the hot new band Miami Device playing their song Drugs.



Miami Device plays tonight at The Forum. Go! Check them out. And don't forget to check out all the Tasty Ears videos on the Tasty Ears YouTube channel or in the pop-out player at the top of the screen. Check back for upcoming videos with bands the SSRIs, Pineapple, Synthcake, Sunny Pompeii, and more. Like...

Also tonight are Shimmering Stars at The Cobalt. These guys are awesome and just got back from recording some new material. This could easily be one of those I saw them before they were big shows. I hope to make a little video wth them in the next three weeks.

Tomorrow night I highly recommend checking out Diamond Rings at The Biltmore Cabaret. Love the new album from the front man for Ontario band D'Ubervilles. I'm off to Montreal tomorrow so I can't check it out so someone please tell me all about it. Check out the new single on the mixtape down the bottom. Added bonus of this show is that not only are tickets only $13 at Scratch, Red Cat and my favourite record store Zulu but one of the opening bands Teen Daze is getting a lot of hype right now.

Last Friday I had the honour of interviewing Free Energy members Paul Sprangers (lead singer) and Scott Wells (lead guitar) before their rock your sox show at The Media Club. Listen to the interview on the mixtape at the bottom as well as a track from their Tasty Ears top 5 albums of the year Stuck On Nothing. I saw them last time they were in town opening for Titus Andronicus and they were great. Hear what they have to say about that tour in the interview. At The Media Club last Friday they had even more energy as Scott jumped up on the monitors during many dazzling guitar solos. Headliners Hollerado joined them on stage in a frenzy for my favourite song Bang Pop. Yes!

Free Energy joined by Hollerado

Last Saturday night at the Rickshaw Theatre was Seattle The Cave Singers performing their latest album Welcome Joy. Easing into their set the crowd was pumped and the band was having fun. Finally at about the midway point they broke out the best song off their first album Seeds of Night and just kept it going from their doing awesome versions of Beach House, Leap, Summer Light, At The Cut and a few song encore. The band really seemed to enjoy this night as much as the fans.

                                                           The Cave Singers

Local artist Zoe Pawlak will be showing during this years East Sise Culture Crawl and has a rock and roll time lapse video of her creating one of the pieces. Watch the vid and check out the Crawl.

Zoe Pawlak creating a Stampede from Zoe Pawlak on Vimeo.

I get back from Montreal just in time to catch the Freelance Whales at The Biltmore on Wednesday. Check out one of their songs in todays mixtape down the bottom of the page. These guys just did a Daytrotter session and are "so hot right now" see for yourself. Go!

This Saturday for one day only Sasquatch Festival 10 year anniversary presale tickets go up for grabs. This is the best festival going and this year should be its best year ever. Just go. Quit you day job.

Download a free copy of Girl Talk's new album All Day from the label here. More goodness from the number one mash up DJ in the world.

Finally, don't forget to check out my Hot 100 over at Hype Machine. I update it daily for new tracks for you to check out. Last but not least don't forget to subscribe to the blog for Tasty updates.

The last track on todays mixtape is Jenny O. from LA. Hit it!



Music Playlist at MixPod.com

It's All Happening

Weekend

Leading up to last weekend was a Thursday night show at the wonderfully intimate Media Club featuring headliners The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. And speaking of the weekend it was the band Weekend who opened for them. Weekend has a new album out now called Sports that just received a glowing review today on Pitchfork Weekend review, they also have a very cool new video which you can check out further down the page. One of my favourite bands of last year The Pains of Being Pure at Heart played an epic show at The Biltmore last year and certainly did not disappoint last week either. Check out there amazeballs new song further down the page as well. Check out some photos (provided by a fellow Beard About Town on assignment subbing in for yours truly) here.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

In local news the Shimmering Stars are currently recording new material in the Okanagan to return for a show at the Cobalt Friday Nov. 19 that is surely not to be missed. I will be there dudes I don't leave for Montreal till the next day (in the meantime check them out on todays mix tape). The SSRIs have hit the road to tour western Canada for the next little while and I look forward to getting some time with them on their return. Afro-beat orchestra  Miami Device have an upcoming show at The Media Club Dec. 4 and I'm hoping to get a little time with them next week at their rehearsal space. Another local band Pineapple was just up for  a Bucky award for Best New Band Name but are better known for some very catchy tunes check em out next month at The Rickshaw on the 10th. I was fortunate enough to be a part of local (via Ontario) band Watasun 's new video campaign yesterday. Watch for that starting January. Also in local news Dan Mangan returns home for a couple of shows at The Vogue theatre tonight and again on Saturday. Check out one of my favourite songs from him on today's mix tape.

Speaking of upcoming shows we are lucky enough to have Free Energy back in town tomorrow night at The Media Club (go! Media Club) with Foxy Shazam and Hollerado. Free Energy absolutely rocked The Biltmore Cabaret a few months ago with my favourite band of 2010 Titus Andronicus. I have kept in touch with Free Energy ever since that show and hope to get a few words with them tomorrow. I'm equally stoked for The Cave Singers on Saturday night at The Rickshaw on Saturday (see you there). Check out a track from each of these bands on todays mix tape.

In Tasty Ears news I've started my own Hot 100 over on Hype Machine. To check out my 100 favourite songs of right now click here I keep updating daily so check back often. Also, I'm waiting to here back from the ever gracious Biltmore about perhaps getting a little footage of The Freelance Whales November 24th. They were great last time they came around as an opening act and have been attracting a lot of hype ever since. Check back Monday for a video we did with a local painter and another Tasty Ears Session. Check here or  here for these upcoming highlights.

In the meantime here is the video from Weekend that I promised as well as the song from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and todays mix tape. Finally watch for new artist Jenny O from LA whose release is coming out early next month. I just got a prerelease copy that I promise to post next time. Go!

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak by morrisday



Music Playlist at MixPod.com