Free Olympic Concerts Now as Calendar Files

You may have already seen follow blogger Brenda's handy handouts for the free concerts during the 2010 Olympics in the greater Vancouver area, if you haven't you can find them on either Earbuds & Ticketstubs or NxEW, but for any of you that use iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar or any other calendar program I've cooked up some ics files that you should be able to import into any of those programs.

I've made them into separate calendars for almost each venue so you can easily pick and choose what you want.

Downtown Vancouver
Live City - Yaletown
Live City - Downtown
Robson Square GE Plaza
Ontario Pavilion
Free CBC Events

Granville Island
Atlantic Kitchen Backstage
Atlantic On Deck
Air Canada Stage
Performance Works
Club Adrenaline

Whistler
Whistler Live - Medals or Skiers Plaza
Whistler Live - Village Square

Surrey
Surrey Celebration Stage
Surrey House Stage

Richmond
Richmond O Zone

I'd like to note that I didn't separate out all the Canadian and non-Canadian acts but if it's free and music related it should be on there.

Let me know in the comments below if there's anything I've missed or if I happened to make a mistake.

Enjoy!
- AlexOfAnders

Library Voices - New Album Details & Tour Dates

Library Voices, an eight-piece pop collective from Regina, Saskatchewan released their EP, Hunting Ghosts (& Other Collected Shorts) on Young Soul Records in 2008. It landed them square in the crosshairs of SPIN’s music radar, who proclaimed Library Voices the “undiscovered band you NEED to hear now.” They have been featured in The New Yorker. They’ve received generous airplay on the CBC and BBC. They have won a CBC Radio 3 “Bucky” Award. They’ve been mugged twice and had their van robbed once.

Now Denim on Denim, the debut album from Library Voices will be released on April 13, 2010(Young Soul Records /EMI). Young Soul Records is the most recent label to join a decorated EMI Label Services roster alongside the likes of: Arts & Crafts, Hidden Pony, Secret City, Ultra Records, Century Media and Side One Dummy - all utilizing EMI Music Canada’s distribution and services reach.

Denim on Denim was (painstakingly) recorded in Regina in the back of a local dance studio. Staying true to their objective of documenting spacious and concise pop songs meant omitting dozens of ideas and tracks from the final mixes. Yet, the record is still teeming with instrumentation - guitars and keys, horns and synths, and (of course) the occasional feedback loop. Denim on Denim was produced by Library Voices and Orion Paradis and features guest appearances from co-prairie musicians and friends in Woodpigeon, Rah Rah, Sylvie, Northcote, as well as Andy Shauf. Right down to the die-cut album packaging - the exterior cut-away lightening bolt revealing the denim inner sleeve, demonstrates the attention to detail that extends to every corner of their work.

As with their previous EP, Denim On Denim is rich with cultural reference. Stan Getz and Fyodor Dostoevsky make cameos in songs about late night escapades. Similarly, Haruki Murakami, Charles Bukowski, Dennis Wilson, and Gram Parsons (among others) weave their way through tales of indulgence, promiscuity, modern living, and the forthcoming apocalypse. This is feel good music for an audience with a conscience (albeit likely, a guilty one). Lead single from Denim on Denim - Drinking Games is available at http://www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices

The bands unabashed celebration of the term 'pop music' has at times, been met by confusion, leading some to expect bubble gum or auto-tuned FM shine. Although apologetic for the misunderstanding the band stands behind the term. They could have called it, “Post-Twee-Power-Folk-Nu-Beach-LoFi-Modern-Indie”- but they didn't. It's pop. Just pop. You know, like The Stranger, The Zombies, and Videodrome.

Library Voices will be playing live in B.C. over the Olympics and will be on correspondent duty for Regina local Radio 1 reporting on the Olympic experience. Olympic performance dates for Library Voices are outlined below. Subsequent details on their upcoming library and national venue tours in support of Denim on Denim will be announced soon.

LIBRARY VOICES – FEBRUARY 2010 – LIVE DATES – 

Feb 20 - Vancouver, B.C. - Saskatchewan Olympic Pavilion - 9PM
Feb 21 - Vancouver, B.C. - Saskatchewan Olympic Pavilion - 9PM
Feb 22 - Vancouver, B.C. - Saskatchewan Olympic Pavilion - 9PM
Feb 23 - Vancouver, B.C. - BC Place - Medal Ceremony
Feb 23 - Vancouver, B.C. - Show - TBA
Feb 25 - Kelowna, B.C. - Habitat                                                                                                        
Feb 26 - Calgary, A.B. - Gateway (SAIT)
Feb 27 - Edmonton, A.B. - The Pawn Shop

http://www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices

User Friendly Olympic Concert Schedules

As a public service for all music lovers in Vancouver and curious Olympic visitors, I've created 8** (**as of February 1) simple print-outs of mostly free concerts in Metro Vancouver and Whistler. If you've even taken a brief glance at the host of websites featuring this information, you'll know that it was really decentralized. [belated note: and some websites are just awful.] This is a way for you to glance quickly at what's going on in a given day and make a choice about whom to see.

Many local Canadian talents are highlighted, including Mother Mother, Elliott BROOD, Great Lake Swimmers, Arkells, Sam Roberts Band, Jill Barber, Matt Mays, Jenn Grant, Stars, .. and the list goes on and on and on.

If this is helpful to you at all, please forward them on with a link back to the blog. All of the information courtesy of their respective websites.

If you would like a Word document forwarded to you, please email me at brendahlee [at] gmail [dot] com.

Print out #1: Cultural Olympiad (Free AND paid concerts)
Print out #2: Surrey 2010 Celebration Stage (Free)
Print out #3: Whistler Live! (Free)
Print out #4: LiveCity Vancouver (Free)
Print out #5: Richmond O Zone (Free)

Print out #6: Free CBC Events
Print out #7: Atlantic Canada House (Free)
Print out #8: Robson Square GE Plaza (Free)
Print out #9: Ontario Pavilion (Free)

Compilation: Canadian Indie Highlights (a compilation list-- there are shows on here which are not on other schedules, including Alberta House and Saskatchewan Pavilion)

The Wooden Sky : Cross-Canada Tour Dates

The Wooden Sky is the sound of collective will; a group of individuals coming together to forge something bigger. With a new record and new friends to help them play it, the Wooden Sky are poised to push “folk rock” into something new, exciting, and earnest. And they're aiming to spread their 'don't call it alt-country' sounds across Canada by touring through central Canada on their way to performing at the Vancouver Olympics in February. And really, I dare to to listen to the immensely addictive and satisfying single "Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)" without humming the refrain for the remainder of the day.

After a VERY successful 2009 that included the release of the critically acclaimed If I Don't Come Home, You'll Know I'm Gone, a cross-Canada Bedrooms and Backstreets alternative spaces tour, a North American tour with Elliott Brood, and 'A Documentary in Pieces', a series of short films documenting their aforementioned B&B tour, the band has no intention of letting up in 2010. Their latest release topped numerous 'best of 2009' lists, which will hopefully keep them warm as the trek across the snowy terrain of the North. The tour starts January 22nd in Kingston at the Grad Club, heads out east, and then cuts all the way Nationwide and wraps up at the Olympic Village in Vancouver on February 25th.

Tour Dates:

Jan 22 - Kingston, ON @ The Grad Club
Jan 23 - Montreal, QC @ Il Motore
Jan 26 - Charlottetown, PEI @ Baba's Lounge
Jan 27 - Halifax, NS @ Company House (In The Dead Of Winter Festival)
Jan 28 - St. John, NB @ Blue Olive
Jan 29 - Fredericton, NB @ The Capital w/Sleepless Nights
Jan 30 - Sackville, NB @ George's Roadhouse w/Sleepless Nights
Feb 4 - London, ON @ Fanshawe (Matinee)
Feb 5 - London, ON @ Fanshawe (Evening)
Feb 9 - Winnipeg, MB @ WECC w/The RAA
Feb 10 - Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos w/The RAA
Feb 12 - Calgary, AB @ Broken City w/The RAA
Feb 13 - Edmonton, AB @ The Pawn Shop w/The RAA
Feb 14 - Edmonton, AB @ The Pawn Shop w/The RAA
Feb 17 - Fernie, BC @ The Grande Central
Feb 18 - Canmore, AB @ Communitea Café
Feb 20 - Rossland, BC @ Old Fire Hall
Feb 21 - Mission, BC @ S&P's
Feb 24 - Seattle, WA @ High Dive
Feb 25 - Vancouver, BC @ Olympic Village (Ontario Pavilion)

Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver - Stars, K'Naan, Veda Hille, and more

No matter what your opinion is regarding the Olympics itself, its effect on its host cities and the inhabitants, its tendency to plunge cities into decades-long debt, or its direct and indirect victims in terms of budget re-allocations... all those heated opinions aside, the Cultural Olympiad of 2010 is bringing some of the best acts in Canada into Vancouver and the international spotlight.

Below are a few of the many ticketed and non-ticketed (i.e. free) events going on in Vancouver and Whistler BC in January to March, 2010.

Stars with Hey Rosetta!
K'naan with Tinariwen
Feist (misspelled Fiest on the website. C'mon; really?)
City and Colour
Malajube
Chromeo w/ Team Canada DJs
Corb Lund
Joel Plaskett (w/ Steve Earle)
Blue Rodeo
Veda Hille Trio

For a full list of music and other artistic events, visit the Cultural Olympiad website here.