I had never really taken to The Clash as a kid, so I didn’t know anything of them or Joe Strummer until 2003. I was studying music (I say studying…) back in Newfoundland and almost every night, for a long stretch, we would go to my friend’s place to play crib/guitar/chill and the music of choice always seemed to be Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. I became hooked on them very quickly and I was excited about this band that Joe Strummer was part of… this very multi-talented collection of people that made up The Mescaleros.

“Bhindi Baghee” (from Global A Go-Go) was the song that I really liked to hear in those crib sessions. It’s a conversational piece of music that starts off with Joe talking to a stranger along the high road. The stranger is looking for something to eat and wonders if they might have Mushy Peas around these parts. Joe says “Nah, but we do got…” and then he rapidly fires out a bunch of things superior to Mushy Peas. After Joe feels the stranger has adequate food recommendations, he turns the subject to music and mentions that he is in a band. The fella says “Oh yeah? Oh YEAH?? What’s your music like?” And Joe fires back in the same rapid progression as in the first spiel. “Minicab radio, music on the go.” Check out our Forum where this is “Song of the Day”.

Shortly after I had been listening to Global A-Go Go religiously, I found out that Joe Strummer had passed away the previous year. Even though I was new to the man and his music, I was very shocked, as was every fan when they heard the news. He had a lot left in him.

Recently, I watched the upcoming documentary about Strummer called “The Future Is Unwritten”. It is fucking great. Enough said. The first person to comment and tell me something they love about Joe Strummer will will get an invite to a site where they can download the documentary.

Now for the music. This is a benefit show that JS&TM did for the London Fire Brigade. This show is unique for 2 reasons: Mick Jones (of The Clash) joined Joe on stage for the first time since he was booted from The Clash in ‘83 and it was the last show Joe ever played in London… He was dead 5 weeks later.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - The Last Night London Burned

1. Shaktar Donetsk
2. Bhindi Bhagee
3. Rudie Can’t Fail
4. The Morning Sun (Tony Adams)
5. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
6. Mega Bottle Ride
7. Get Down Moses
8. Police & Thieves
9. Cool ‘n’ Out
10. Police On My Back
11. Johnny Appleseed
12. Coma Girl
13. I Fought The Law
14. Bankrobber*
15. White Riot*
16. London’s Burning*

* Mick Jones on guitar. You can see a video of “White Riot” here.

I was hoping to have the Ladyhawk/Attack In Black post ready today, however there were some complications involving long file uploads and Sunday napping that slowed down the process. Check back later this week for some notes, mp3s, and video from that show. I was actually disappointed with that evening as a whole, but if you want to read a more favorable review of the same show, different night just go here. For todays lazy Sunday post I’ve dug (yet again) into the archives and found some juicy footage of the Cold War Kids to share. This show took place April 2nd, 2007 and was my virgin mission into La Sala Rossa since my arrival to Montreal 5 months prior. The CWK performance consisted of an old piano, a bass player with a terrible hat, and an absolute perfect sound. The setlist was mostly songs from their ‘06 debut release Robbers And Cowards, however the crowd was also treated to outstanding cover of Tom Waits’ Dirt In The Ground as a prerequisite for Hospital Beds. After their set my girlfriend and I got to have a brief talk with Nathan Willett about touring with Elvis Perkins earlier that year. I bought Nathan a drink and got a hilarious photo which you can check out in the Photo Gallery.

Before I get to the goods, just a quick update on things. First, be sure to get tickets for the Elvis Perkins and Bon Iver show this Friday if you are in Montreal. Also, I picked up tickets for Hayden and Vampire Weekend, for more information about those shows check out Upcoming Shows or better yet check out the Forum.

Listen:

• We Used To Vacation
• Saint John
• Hang Me Up To Dry
• Dirt In The Ground / Hospital Beds

Video: Continue Reading »

The Drones have been in heavy rotation for me since the Band of Horses show 2 weeks ago. So I thought I should give a heads up to those with the same affliction, The Drones will be first band to appear in ATP Recordings limited fan influenced double 7″ series entitled Custom Made. If you want to get your hands on a free copy jump over Speed of Dark who are giving one copy away to a lucky reader! All you have to do is tell them your favorite Drones song. Here’s mine:

Sharkfin Blues

Some other good news from the Intertubes today is that The Mountain Goats will be releasing a new album called Heretic Pride, and will be available February 19th.

Track Listing

1. Sax Rohmer #1
2. San Bernardino
3. Heretic Pride
4. Autoclave
5. New Zion
6. So Desperate
7. In the Craters on the Moon
8. Lovecraft in Brooklyn
9. Tianchi Lake
10. How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
11. Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident
12. Sept 15 1983
13. Michael Myers Resplendent

Tour Dates

November 29 - New York, NY, Kimmel Student Center (NYU)
December 8 - Union Chapel, London
December 9 - Moho Live, ManchesterDecember 10 - Oran Mor, Glasgow

I hope you like some of the changes that are going around here at Trendwhore. The Photo Gallery isn’t very interesting yet, but I will have some additions up in the next few weeks. As for concerts, Victoria’s Ladyhawk and Montreal’s Attack In Black will be rocking La Sala Rossa, hopefully I’ll see you there. I hope some of you check out the forum, this will be a great resource to share great music, ideas, and dick jokes so dial it up!

Myself and Brock would like to thank you all for reading our blog as it continues to grow. As a thank you, and to stay current, we are trying to branch out a little. The beginning of this is the launch of the new Trendwhore.ca Forum! Please come chat with us about whatever you want. If you want us to seek out some recordings to post, do it! If you wanna share some pictures, etc & blah, blah.. Seriously folks, it’s ah… the… uhh… a-best…

In the not-so-distant future, we will be incorporating album reviews into our site with a new category as well as some delicious contests! Oh yes, we have many things cooking in our brains… That’s a lie. Brock has all these things in his brain and I’ll see them shortly before you do and it’ll just be a fookin’ blast.

Anyway, my brain is scrambled… Need sleep. Thanks again!

ETA: Forgot to mention our new Photo Gallery, and I have tweaked the Upcoming Shows page to link back to all past shows, for easy access. If anyone has any photos of past shows to submit, please do so and you will, of course, get full credit.

(…and 1000 points to anyone who got my Homestar Runner reference.)

For me, “Marquee Moon” by Television is one of those albums I’ve always heard raved about, but never got around to listening to. I finally forced it into my ears a couple weeks ago and the ears did not resist. It’s a great album from start to finish, so I see why it makes all those “best of..” lists. Throughout the album I heard traces of the Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown sound, which piqued my interest, but my ears really perked up when I was listening to “Elevation” and realized that Dan and Spencer may have borrowed from this song. The whole tune sounds like it could be a Wolf Parade song, but there is one part in particular that makes me think the boys are Verlaine fans. It’s from a new song, which is called “Crazy Horse” at the moment. (If you are new to the blog, and haven’t seen their live stuff yet, check the links below. Their new album is going to blow shit up!)

Anyway, have a listen for yourself.. the similar part is at 2:19 in “Crazy Horse” and at 0:50 in “Elevation”.

Television - Elevation

Wolf Parade - Crazy Horse (Thanks to Speed of Dark & Blogs Are For Dogs for the mp3!)

==============

I want to post some links to the new Wolf Parade stuff, because it’s just that good.

La Sala Rossa shows:

• Friday, August 24, 2007
• Saturday, August 25, 2007
• Sunday, August 26, 2007
• Weekend Recap w/ videos of Friday Night

3 new songs in very good quality, from Speed of Dark:

• Live @ The Glasshouse, 09.15.07

Full show from Rewritable Content:

• Live @ The El Rey, Los Angeles, CA 09.13.07

Wolfe Island set from Bootlog:

• Live @ Wolfe Island 08.11.07

Download Festival recording from Indie Selection For Your Erections: (<– Nice name!)

• Download Festival, Mansfield, MASS. 08.18.07

Of course, all of this is kinda redundant, if you are a member of the nonstuff forum. All of the live stuff from Wolf Parade and related bands is updated here.

==============

Last bit of news and it’s within the same circle. Handsome furs have announced a great little tour of Ontario just before Christmas:

DEC 17: Ottawa, ON @ Maverick’s
DEC 18: Kingston, ON @ Grad Club
DEC 19: Kingston, ON @ Grad Club
DEC 20: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
DEC 21: London, ON @ Call the Office (all ages show)
DEC 22: Guelph, ON @ Jimmy Jazz [Free Show - No Presale. First come first serve on night of show]

We will be covering the Ottawa show and maybe the Kingston shows as well. You can buy tickets here. Hope to see you there!

I was watching some spirit crushing TV over the weekend and caught the new Apple IPod Touch commercial. To be perfectly honest the commercial caught my ear because the song promoting this beautiful device was “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” by Cansei de Ser Sexy. Back in June a co-worker got me hooked on their self-titled debut record. At first I thought it was ok, but it grew on me like a fungus. It didn’t take long for the lyrics (that upon first listen seemed to be pure cheese) to get stuck in my head while walking to work or taking a shower! It was also by fluke that on the same month that I got exposed to the album, CSS played Le Tulipe here in Montreal. The show was a breathtaking orgy of pop culture references and sexual innuendo. The leading lady, Lovefoxxx, twists, dances, and exudes so much sexual energy that I’m reminded of Iggy Pop. There is no doubt that CSS is having a phenomenal year, first getting signed to Sub Pop Records and now having a song in an IPod commercial. Hopefully 2008 will be as prosperous for them, if not more. Before I get on with the sights and sounds of CSS live at Le Tulipe, I’d like to welcome back ryantheduke. We missed him very much and we all know my writing on this blog is like a bad wine at a great party. Here you go trendies, feast your eyes and ears on CSS.

MP3

• Artbitch
• Lets Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
• Lindja [new song]

VIDEO

Artbitch

Lets Make Love And Listen To Death From Above

Lindja

Hey, you little trendites. Yeah, yeah, the ghost of me lingers. School is brutal this term and brock has thankfully picked up my slack and kept the site going. Many thanks to him.

Last month, in the midst of many smaller club shows, My girlfriend and I took a one day trip with some friends to Albany to catch the Elvis Costello/Bob Dylan show. Amos Lee actually opened the show, but after hearing him several times on a Dylan tour in ‘05, I knew to stay away for fear of falling asleep.

Let me start off by saying that Dylan was just shit that night. I have seen the old man over 20 times now, so I have grounds to say that. Of all those shows, he has only disappointed on a couple of nights, but they have all been recently. Back in ‘02, when my Dylan tour days started, he was on fire. Back then he really fed off his amazing band, which consisted of Larry Campbell, Charlie Sexton, Tony Garnier and George Receli. That was his best touring band since.. The Band! However, they parted ways very shortly after their peak when Charlie Sexton left at the end of ‘03. This move would change the sound of the band, but he was replaced by the innovative Freddy Koella, who added a lot himself. However, after Larry Campbell in ‘05 no one man could replace him, so Bob brought in three new members (including Don Herron of BR5-49). Somewhere in the middle of these changes, the band lost its spark. Right now, Bob and the boys get by mostly on autopilot, which is very sad. So, I vowed not to spend any more money on Bob for a while, especially shows across the border. Then I heard that Elvis Costello was playing a solo acoustic opening set. Well, that changed everything.

I saw Costello at the Calgary Folk Festival in ‘03. He was on tour with Steve Nieve (on piano), and aside from Steve, this was solo acoustic as well. It was a very good show with a lot of emphasis put on his current release, North. Despite him being slightly upstaged by bluegrass greats Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, the crowd gave him the respect he deserved. After that taste I needed more Elvis. Albany, here I come.

Elvis really soaked up the loving crowd that night, often coming out to the end of the stage with open arms and a massive grin. This show was to be my first attempt at recording using a minidisc recorder, but I plugged the microphone into the wrong port and got nothing (making The National show the night after my first recording). Though, I messed it up, my friend had my back and recorded it as well.

Here’s what he got with his lovely little Edirol R-09:

1. (The Angles Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
2. Blue Chair
3. Either Side of the Same Town
4. The River in Reverse
5. Oliver’s Army
6. Down Among the Wine and Spirits
7. Sulphur to Sugar Cane
8. Veronica
9. Radio Sweetheart
10. What So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?
11. The Scarlet Tide

If you want this show in FLAC format, you can download it here.

Watch 

I found these on YouTube.  Thanks to upst8!

(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes

Either Side of the Same Town

Down Among the Wine and Spirits

(Note: Be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery. If you have pictures of any of the shows we talk about, please send them in to us.)

I was a reading concert review of Band Of Horses at Lee’s Palace back in 2006. The review was not in their favor. The reviewer had two issues with the performance, the first being that there wasn’t enough “ferocity” displayed by BOH and that the opener wasn’t very inspiring. Before the show at Le Tulipe last week I looked up the word “ferocity” so I could see if I understand where the review was coming from. Ferocity is defined on dictionary.com as ‘a ferocious quality or state; savage fierceness’. I’m a fan of Band of Horses but that noun should be saved for bands in the same genre as Slayer. As for an inspiring opener, The Drones were that and so much more. Gareth Liddiard’s stage style similar to that of Dan Boeckner or Joe Strummer. However, the rest of The Drones lived up to their name, and could have used some on stage ferocity! I recommend The Drones, they are my new favorite Australian band (take that Men At Work), you can (should) buy their music here. Band Of Horses were welcomed on stage with a warm response. Ben Bridwell’s fall beard is exraordinary, much like the power of his voice. The on stage ferocity of the band might be at an all time low but the luring charm was drawing fans from back to the front of the venue. The setlist was the cream of Everything All The Time and their latest release Cease To Begin. They finished with a cover that I can’t name (however it sounds vaguely familiar). Check back later for the video, until then listen:

The Drones

• I Don’t Ever Want To Change

Band Of Horses

1. Monsters
2. The First Song
3. Is There A Ghost
4. The Great Salt Lake
5. Island On The Coast
6. Weed Party
7. No Ones Gonna Love You
8. Marry Song
9. The General Specific thanks tracklistman
   
10. Wicked Gil
11. Ode To LRC
12. The Funeral
13. Part One
14. Our Swords (encore)
15. Cigarettes Wedding Bands
16. Wick Gil (alternative version)
17. Am I A Good Man (Them Two) thanks Brad
    

John Samson is one of Canada’s best songwriters. After leaving Propaghandi in 1997 to start a publishing company, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, John went on to form The Weakerthans. Their latest release, Reunion Tour, has been generating a lot of positive Internet buzz (My preorder is still in the mail *sigh*). What keeps me listening to The Weakerthans is Samson’s unusual song writing. It’s elegant, illustrative and uniquely Canadian. Their show last Friday at Le National was nothing less than exhilarating. The audience was captivated from start to finish and what a finish it was, they did three encores! For a mellower sounding band, their live performance mannerisms were pure cock-rock even though my meager video footage doesn’t do justice. The Replacements cover was a little unexpected but amazing. I managed to tape the entire show, the MP3’s are linked below.

Setlist:

1. Psalm For The Elks Lodge Last Call
2. Civil Twilight
3. Our Retired Explorer
4. Benediction
5. Reconstruction Site
6. Aside
7. Night Windows
8. Relative Surplus Value
9. Sun In An Empty Room
10. Left And Leaving
11. Tournament Of Hearts
12. The Reasons
13. Time’s Arrow
14. History To The Defeated
15. A Plea From A Cat Named Virtute
16. One Great City! (1st encore)
17. My Favorite Chords
18. Pamphleteer
19. Confessions Of A Futon-Revolutionist
20. Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure (2nd encore)
    
21. (Manifest)
22. Swingin’ Party (Replacements Cover)
23. Watermark
24. Everything Must Go! (3rd encore)

Most of the video footage I took was dark, but if you want to see the good stuff just…. Continue Reading »

I just picked up tickets for the Attack In Black and Ladyhawk show at Sala Rossa on November 22nd. This got me to thinking of the first time I saw Ladyhawk when they opened for Tapes ‘n Tapes at Le National back when the weather was warmer. Only 45 people got there early early enough to see their opening set. Their loss! They got such a great ‘garage band’ sound (similar to Dinosaur Jr.) which I can’t get enough of. Their debut record is solid, so do yourself a favor and pick up tickets to see them!

Back to the Tapes ‘n Tapes, some news spread regarding the new album that ryantheduke passed along from an email he got from their mailing list,

it’s been a while since we’ve had any news for you. but fear not, all is well with us. and now we have some glorious news to share….we’ve finished recording our next album! yep, you heard right. it’s in the can. it’s done. fin. we spent about 3 weeks out in upstate new york recording and mixing with dave fridmann. it was a lot of fun. we’re really excited about how it all turned out. we haven’t settled on a tracklist or album title yet, but that will all come in due time, and we’ll be sure to let you know.

now let’s talk about us playing a live rock ‘n roll show. let’s talk about it being a free rock ‘n roll show. let’s talk about us playing a set chalk full of new songs (and old songs). we’ll be doing just that on Nov. 30th @ the triple rock. we hope you can make it. it’s sure to be a grand ol time. we haven’t played a rock show in a while, so we’re super excited. check out the details below.

that’s all for now. as always, for all the latest in the world of tapes ‘n tapes, visit either our myspace (www.myspace.com/tapesntapes) or our website (www.tapesntapes.com).

cheers,
tapes ‘n tapes

show details:
november 30th
minneapolis @ the triple rock
w/mystery palace, these modern socks, go motion
9:30pm
21+
FREE

It’s great that we’ll be getting some new material from these guys. As for the show back in May, my main memory is that Tapes ‘n Tapes were loud as bombs! It was a mind (and ear) blowing experience, to say the least. The crowd was intense for this show and the band knew it. I’ve got some MP3s below that are worth a listen, as well as some footage after the jump. As for the last 3 tracks I couldn’t find the song titles anywhere. I’m positive one of them is a new song (100 points of props each to the guy or gal that names them).

HEAR

• Ladyhawk - My Old Jacket
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - 10 Gallon Ascots
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - Cowbell
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - Insistor
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - Just Drums
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - Illiad
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - Omaha
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - unknown track (1)
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - unknown track (2)
• Tapes ‘n Tapes - unknown track (3)

SEE but only if you….. Continue Reading »