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By Jordan-na Belle-Isle - Canadian Invasion - 10/06/2005

Like, omigod! I got to see Jason Mraz headline at the Spectrum and it was, like, pretty okay. And I’m not into him because he’s hot or anything! It’s about the music, you know, totally about the music. But he is soooooo hot, omigod! And he wore a pink t-shirt (his new single is “Geek in the Pink” ;) ) and his trademark backward baseball hat, so cute!

So there were TONS of people, mostly girls who were like all skanked out for Jason. It was like being at a friggin’ Backstreet Boys concert, whatever. Omigod, these girls were like fifteen! No way would he want any of them. Geez. And they were all crazy, just going nuts over him, constantly taking pics with their digi cams and cells and screaming things like “Have my baby, Jason!” LOL! Like everytime someone screamed or clapped, it was only because he’d do something cute, like a little hip shake and grin. * swoon * But like no one seemed to care about the music.

The songs were okay. Mostly from his latest album, Mr. a-Z, like “Bella Luna,” “Wordplay,” and of course “Geek in the Pink.” And he just like had to play favourites from his first CD. Everyone went crazy when he did “ The Remedy (I Won’t Worry),” especially when he threw in a verse from Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” So wicked! We all sang along! My favourite part was during the encore when he sang “Plane” from Mr. a-Z. It was so cool because all the lights were off except for this one stained glass lamp. He like sat on this stool with his acoustic guitar and sang the song and it was soooooo intense. Except that he missed the high notes at the end of the song. Oops.

Oh yeah! And there was this awesome part when he brought his opening act, Raoul Midon, this blind guy who plays guitar and is just like wow! He reminds me of that Stevie Wonder dude my mom listens to. His set was pretty groovy; he’s great at guitar and does this cool thing when he uses his guitar both for melody and percussion. He also makes wicked trumpet sounds with his mouth. So Jason brought Raoul out for a duet and it was pretty neat. Jason was totally in his element, and for that one song, it was about the music, you know.

You know what totally sucks? Jason kinda knows the effect he has on us girls and sooooo plays up to that because it sells records! All these girls fall totally in love with him and want to buy like all his CDs and stuff! And he does all this on purpose to girls like me, girls who sigh and swoon at his charisma and that’s soooo wrong! Like this guy has musical chops! I have his Jason Mraz Live CD/DVD and it’s so different! You can so see his talent when he doesn’t have to be this cutesy idol guy. He’s great at guitar and has all these clever lyrics and is so quick and smooth with his delivery and omigod, he’s sooooo good at scatting. And like John Popper even plays with him! He’s like this totally famous blues guy, right? N-E-ways. You know what? It’s totally his record company’s fault!!! Elektra, right? It’s not Jason’s fault! He does what his evil record company tells him to do. Oh, Jason! If I owned Elektra, I’d totally give you time to develop as an artist and have you play in more intimate places, where you could totally grow and experiment with your music and not have to like prostitute your CD to teenaged girls.

[Jordan-na hosts Canadian Invasion (Fridays from 4-6pm) and no, she does not actually speak like that. Like, omigod, whatever! ]

By Alex Huynh - Losing My Edge - 10/10/2005

Given that Carl Newman, Neko Case and Dan Bejar all have successful main projects, the New Pornographers show at La Tulipe marked a rare opportunity to see this indie supergroup perform, even if all three have played in front of Montreal crowds during the past two years. Perhaps the timing is perfect, because at their inception, they sounded exactly like a supergroup: flashes of brilliance, distinctive personalities shining through the music and frankly, a bit chaotic. Now with their last record Twin Cinema, the New Pornographers have delivered the album of their career partly because they finally sound like a band.

They started off with the title track from Twin Cinema, and first impressions were that this was a tight band, capable of backing up their recorded output in a live setting -- yeah, great fuckin' observation, I know. It was during the song that followed it ("Use It") that it struck me how much of an anachronism the New Pornographers are. They seem to exist just outside the current pop context and they're not closely associated to any scene in particular (besides the Great Fuckin' Pop scene). The New Pornographers are enjoying a career that will take generations to fully appreciate. Already, they have under their belt two of the most perfect pop songs of this young century ("Letter From An Occupant", "The Laws Have Changed") and are coming off their most accomplished album. As they stomp through "Mass Romantic", the first Neko Case-led song of the set and the title track of their debut, the New Pornographers are clearly on top of their game. On "These Are The Fables", they manage to reach a higher level. In fact, this was the point where this evening turned magical. The audience was still under the spell of Neko belting out the lines "Lay down in glory, you're not alone" twice at the end of the song, when the opening notes of Twin Cinema's centerpiece "The Bleeding Heart Show" unveiled themselves. The excitement was palpable and everyone knew what was coming: the finest two-minutes-and-a-half you will hear this year. The last half of that song, with the hey la hey la and Neko's totally devastating delivery of "We have arrived/Too late to play/The bleeding heart show", was a true moment of heartbreaking joy.

Dan Bejar dropped in like the wacky neighbor in the American sitcom for two songs during the set ("Jackie, Dressed In Cobras", "Streets Of Fire") and once during each encore -- always with a drink and a frown. His presence, lacking and lethargic during his opening set as Destroyer, was nicely and strangely offset here by his chipper bandmates. Comparatively, Destroyer was rather boring despite bringing their A material (including the surprising set opener "No Cease Fires!"). After a string of heralded live shows with Frog Eyes as his backing band, this was a disappointment. His contribution, however, to "Streets Of Fire" and "Testament To Youth In Verse" during the final encore -- with great harmonizing on the no no no no no's -- made up for his Destroyer set. On the other hand, it was easy to overlook the mastermind behind this whole operation, Carl Newman. While unflashy, he does have a sort of weird shy charisma that complements well with the personalities of his fellow Pornographers. It seems like it's his earnestness that keeps the quirky Bejar or the magnetic Case from being bigger than the band. Instead, they were the ultimate pop machine.

The rest of the show just kept reinforcing the notion of them being underappreciated geniuses, from the aforementioned "The Laws Have Changed" to "Fake Headlines" to "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism" and "Sing Me Spanish Techno" closing the set. Song after song, they just kept reminding us how deceptively deep their catalogue is. Finally, they sent the crowd home with their first salvo back in 2000, the transcendental "Letter From An Occupant" (listen to it again). As most of the early 21st century bands will start putting out flimsier and flimsier releases in their three-album careers -- perhaps culmulating to a universal realization that the world does not need a third Interpol album or a Metric ripoff band -- we will be glad to have the New Pornographers' body of work to show our kids.

[Tune in to Losing My Edge Sundays 2pm-4pm and Tuesdays 8pm-10pm]

By Trevor Kiernander - Ones and Zeroes - 09/16/2005

Well I am here once again to report some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that due to technical difficulties and the metro schedule, I was unable to check out The Gossip at La Sala Rossa on September 22. The good news is that We Are Wolves rocked my kneecaps off and my fists into the air!

I’ll start off first by not really reviewing Sailboats Are White, because I don’t really feel I have the capacity to constructively review a screamo, screamcore, whatever this kind of music this is. Please don’t take that the wrong way either. I may be way off, and these guys don’t really fall under either of these genres, but I’m just being honest in that I have actually never heard a band like this play live. They were however interesting, nonetheless. Hailing from Hamilton, these kids definitely seemed to fit the rock band aesthetic. And maybe that was just it, I’m just an old goat and I don’t get ‘these kids’ these days. I then leaned over and asked my two young cross-armed cohorts if they got it, or if it was just me. They both just gave me that look like “you want me to eat that?” All things aside, I did enjoy my first venture into unintelligible music, and I thank Sailboats Are White for that. I would also recommend them to fans of this style of music, as they seem pretty fit to make the move forward.

Now on to the goods, by golly! It was my first time finally getting to see We Are Wolves since one of their first introductions at a Concordia Orientation gig in a wood frame shack three years ago. And my God! While my one hand was punching the roof, the other was punching my own face for not getting out to see these guys sooner! It seemed like a rough start as they were trying to switch gear during the sets of Sailboat, but when they plugged in, these local faves picked up a momentum that got the whole place rioting.

Making the hometown stop at Sala Rossa off of a pretty meaty tour schedule (if you haven’t seen these boys yet, make sure you do before tix for their shows hit $30+ at breakneck speed), it seemed like 90% of the place was there to see the Wolves. I say this, because on my way out at 12:20am to catch the last metro, there weren’t too many bodies left in the joint whereas five minutes prior, you couldn’t move. Tearing the roof off of Sala is an understatement. Barrelling into "Little Birds", "L.L. Romeo", and "La Nature" off of their Non-Stop Je Te Plie En Deux album, I knew I was going to get my ass kicked. By the time they were blasting out "T.R.O.U.B.L.E.", I was already making plans to get as many of my friends from back home (Ontario) to get to see them at Xpace in Toronto (I don’t know if they missed out on greatness yet or not…). Like Gary Numan getting beat down with a mallet, We Are Wolves give one intense post-punk, synth-laced performance not to be missed.

[Ones And Zeroes is in a roving timeslot BUT is finally back. Check the schedule for its timeslot this week.]

By Zombieboy - The Almighty Riff - 03/15/2005

Glenn Hughes has long held the nickname of the “voice of rock”, and for good reason. From Deep Purple to Black Sabbath, the man has worked with countless trailblazers in the genre and has helped forge the sound of hard rock for over 30 years. So when Hughes releases a new effort, the expectations are monumentally high, and with Soul Mover, he proves that he is more than up to the task. The strength of Soul Mover lies not only in Hughes’ soulful and always powerful vocals, but in the way he has seamlessly melded a vast array of styles and influences into a varied, fresh and immensely satisfying package. From the bongos on the groove-laden “She Moves Ghostly”, the Motown-meets-arena-rock anthem “Isolation”, and the incredibly funky vibes of “Dark Star” and “Orion”, nearly everything on this album hits the listener with truly unexpected musical treats and ideas that may not sound great on paper, but have nonetheless morphed into a truly refreshing slant on hard rock. That being said, there’s still enough straight-up heaviness to keep even the most sceptical rocker interested, as the title track, “High Road” and “Miss Little Insane” recall Hughes’ heavier moments in Deep Purple. Soul Mover does feel a few tracks too long, and some of the lead guitar work is a little forgettable but overall, adventurous hard rockers can’t go wrong with what has quickly become one of my favourite releases of the year.

[Tune in to The Almighty Riff Thursdays from 8:00pm to 10:00pm]