Paper Bag 7th Anniversary 7 Year Itch Album (Free Covers Album)

Paper Bag records is celebrating their 7th Anniversary with the release of the Seven Year Itch an album of 12 cover songs by Paper Bag artists that you can download for free. On the album are:

CFCF - How Bizarre (OMC cover)
Winter Gloves - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)
Woodhands - Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant cover)
Sally Shapiro - Dying in Africa (Nicolas Makelberge cover)
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Falling Out (Rikk Agnew cover)
Josh Reichmann - Daniel (Bat For Lashes cover)
Laura Barrett - Gamma Ray (Beck cover)
Rock Plaza Central - I Want You (Bob Dylan cover)
The Acorn - Strange Animal (Gowan cover)
Little Girls - Heinz (Artery cover)
Slim Twig - Behold A Lady (Outkast cover)
Under Byen - Du er min øjesten (Peter Malberg cover)

Download It Here

Winter Gloves: New Digital Release in Oct. - Tour with Thunderheist in Nov.

Montreal's Winter Gloves are following up their debut LP About A Girl with A Way to Celebrate a digital-only collection of remixes, live versions and experiments. The band is also hitting the road with Thunderheist for some dates in Western Canada and the Western US - check for dates below their new video for "Party People"



You can also grab a preview from their new digital release:Invisible (ease v Remix) MP3 from A Way To Celebrate:


Go see them with Thunderheist at
November 13 – Los Angeles, CA at The Echo w/ Thunderheist
November 14 - San Francisco, CA at 330 Ritch w/ Thunderheist
November 17 – Portland, OR at Rotture w/ Thunderheist
November 18 – Bellingham, WA at The Wild Buffalo w/ Thunderheist
November 19 – Seattle, WA at Chop Suey w/ Thunderheist
November 20 – Vancouver, BC at Biltmore w/ Thunderheist
November 21 – Victoria, BC at Sugar w/ Thunderheist
November 24- Edmonton, AB at The ARTery
November 25- Calgary, AB at Broken City
November 27- Winnipeg, MB at Lo Pub

New Video: Winter Gloves - Party People

Via Amanda Ash the new video for 'Party People' from Winter Gloves:

Osheaga Festival Preview

Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau is getting prepared for the musical invasion that will unfold this weekend during the 4th annual Osheaga Festival. Although many were disappointed about the Beastie Boys' cancellation due to MCA's health problems (get better soon!), there's a pile of Canadian talent well worth checking out.

Photo: Christian Couture

CARACOL, hailing from Montreal, Canada, presents her first solo release L'arbre aux parfums, a more mature, personal and introspective album. The album is built on raw emotion and is a unique blend of american folk, old jamaican rocksteady, with a singer-songwriter and a vintage 50's feel. Primarily written in french, but also including two english tracks, the lyrics explore the sometimes darker side of human emotions and relationships through anger, love, contempt, arrogance and the search for something more.

Saturday, August 1st on the Mountain Stage from 4 - 4:30pm




K'Naan is up next, supporting his new album Troubadour. On a summer-long tour with Jason Mraz, he's been described as having a sound that fuses Bob Marley, conscious American hip hop, and brilliant protest poetry. Widely celebrated around Canada, he's sure to deliver a stirring set.

Saturday, August 1st on the MEG Stage from 4:45 - 5:30pm



About the same time over on the Tree Stage is Gentleman Reg bringing the folky indie-pop. Likely playing many cuts from his new album, Jet Black, which was recently released on the Arts & Crafts label. They've had a busy summer with Winnipeg Folk Fest, a show at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and Hillside Festival in Guelph.




Same stage at 6pm is Flash Lightin', a super-rad rock trio from Toronto. They've been touring the past couple weeks across Canada opening for Eagles of Death Metal (who're also playing Saturday) and could be easily compared to them. I saw them at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto about a year ago, and they destroyed the place, sounding like a modern-day ZZ Top - monster riffs, bad-ass attitude and catchy hooks. With one EP, Destello, under their belts, they are preparing to release a full-length in the near future. Get ready for some southern-fried rock, nice and greasy to fill you up real good.

Photo: Liam Maloney

You'll have to get over to the MEG Stage by 6:15pm to catch the start of The Stills set. Another Arts & Crafts band, these guys have exploded over the past couple of years. At the Juno's earlier this year, The Stills were awarded Best New Group of The Year (despite having already released 3 records), and Best Alternative Album of the Year for their 2008 album Oceans Will Rise. They're opening for Metric on tour this October, including two shows at historic Massey Hall in Toronto.

Photo: Joe Fuda

Head back to the Tree Stage at 7pm to check out The Rural Alberta Advantage. This Toronto-based band plays indie-rock songs about hometowns and heartbreak, born out of images from growing up in Central and Northern Alberta. They sing about summers in the Rockies and winters on the farm, ice breakups in the spring time and the oil boom’s charm, the mine workers on compressed, the equally depressed, the city’s slow growth and the country’s wild rose, but mostly the songs just try to embrace the advantage of growing up in Alberta.



You can chill for a bit before the 8pm set on the Tree Stage of Montreal Franco-Rock group Chinatown. I can't say I know much about them except that their frontman, Felix Dyotte, wrote The Stills song "Retour A Vega". Looks like it's definitely worth checking out, as there aren't a ton of French artists at Osheaga. Most will be playing downtown at the Franco Folies de Montreal Festival.



Feel free to skip Coldplay's set, which will certainly be plagued by screaming pre-teens, in order to catch a couple of Canuck bands to close out the night.

First is Winter Gloves at 9pm, followed by Woodhands at 10:15, both on the Tree Stage. I caught Woodhands' set in the rain at Ottawa Bluesfest a couple weeks ago, and it was a damn sweaty dance party. I can't imagine it will be much different this time.



Go home, get some sleep, get ready for Sunday.



Start the day off right with Le Volume Etait Au Maximum, self-described as "Canada's finest french anarcho-vegan-punk-art-pop." I can agree with that. Very hip, very creative artistically, and catchier than a plague. Like some sort of bastard child of The Ramones and Andy Warhol, with a good dose of The Cars. 2pm at the Tree Stage.

Photo: Marianne Larochelle

The first time I heard about Montreal electro-funkers Beast was from Mother Mother drummer Ali Siadat. Gladly taking his advice to check them out, the first track I heard was "Mr. Hurricane", which I'm pretty sure samples a cut from ANTIBALAS, so I immediately loved it. That same track was picked up by iTunes as a free download, so more or less blew up all over the world. Good dancin' music. 3:15pm on the River Stage.



From Hamilton, ON come The Arkells at 5pm on the Tree Stage. Happy rock n' roll with a liberal dose of piano, which isn't found nearly often enough in great rock bands these days.




Rufus Wainright will be playing a solo set on the Mountain Stage at 5:45pm, which is sure to be a gem. Elton John calls him "the greatest songwriter on the planet". His dad is Loudon Wainright III, and his sister is Martha Wainright, so you can be sure that talent runs in their family. He's won a bunch of Juno's and been nominated for a Grammy, in addition to touring and recording with massive performers. You should probably go check him out, even if you're a jaded punk rocker. He's good.



Back on the Tree Stage at 7pm are The Ladies of the Canyon. Four Montreal friends who love The Band and The Eagles. Ladies of the Canyon take you from candy sweet folk pop one minute, to heart wrenching country the next. Expect hauntingly beautiful harmonies, devilish beats and ivories, and a cold set of steel strings to strangle your misfortunes with.



Mega-star DJ/producer Tiga comes next at 7:45 on the MEG Stage. He's remixed a shit-pile of people and put out some great stuff of his own, including the Juno winning 2006 release Sexor. A sexy dance party for sure, but I'll probably be checking out the end of The Decemberists set.

Photo: Jule Malet-Veale

No more Can-Con until Hey Rosetta! start up at 9pm on the Tree Stage. Their new album, Into Your Lungs, has been selected for the Polaris Prize shortlist for this year for good reason - it's awesome. Having Hawksley Workman produce it probably didn't hurt too much. They're from the Maritimes, one of the only non Toronto/Montreal Canadian acts at Osheaga. You gotta love a rock band with strings (cello and violin). Since I've seen Yeah Yeah Yeahs already twice this year, I'll be staying until the bitter end of Hey Rosetta!'s set for sure and I think you should too.



Crystal Castles begin their 9:45pm set right when Hey Rosetta! are finished. You already know all about them, so I won't even bother.





Ditch their set early so you can mosey on over to the Tree Stage again by 10:15pm to get up front and dirty with Hollerado. I love this band. Saw them at Ottawa Bluesfest in the afternoon and they kicked so much ass, I downloaded their "Album in a Bag" for free from their website, which I suggest you do as well. Then you can support them in concert and buy some swag when you realize they're your new favorite band! End your weekend of debauchery and destruction by rocking out to great tunes like "Juliette" and "Fake Drugs". Maybe they'll even thrown in a cover of the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" to cap off the festival.

Hillside's Party Band (USS vs Woodhands)

There were a few bands vying for this year's title of "Hillside Party Band." Trying to attain the title held by such greats as Thunderheist, Shout Out Out Out Out and Holy Fuck is a lofty goal and I considered Winter Gloves, USS and Woodhands to all be contenders. As already documented, Winter Gloves successfully got the tent jumping, but hampered by their mid-afternoon time slot I wouldn't consider them to be the party of the festival. Given the first kick at the can were USS with the closing slot on the Island Stage Friday night.

USS
Arriving at the tent I was shocked to find a line-up just to enter the area - this was a never-before seen phenomenon at Hillside and frankly was something I never wanted to see. I was disappointed when I heard the band start up while still on the outside trying to catch a glimpse through a break in the tent wall. More disappointed were the obvious Hillside first-timers who cut in line in front of us and then continued to complain that they'd spent $50 for the night's tickets just to see USS. Slowly people filtered out, likely those that were unaware that the show was going to be a slightly obnoxious display of dj-beats, yelling and shenanigans. Finally I made my way inside to find exactly what I expected; people stood atop picnic tables and everyone was already jumping.

[Pictured: Ashley Boo-Schultz, the Human Kebab's impression of a Human Mic-stand, Bob Marley, Albert Einstein]

USS are basically a two-man team of hijinx - a DJ and MC/guitarist who start parties wherever they go (I refuse to use their stage names since at least one of them is supremely silly). During Cloudboy the frontman went for a crowd surf to start the crowd interaction and then gave us something familiar with a bumpin version of Outkast's Hey Ya. The DJ's showmanship included scratching with his nose, head, elbow (with chin-in-hand) and even standing on the turntable to scratch with his feet. Later he lay on his back with his feet in the air clamping the mic between them to act as a human mic-stand for the MC. Speaking of MC, already on-stage upon my arrival was a full-sized Einstein cut-out that accompanied their statement that "E=MC everything"! The self-proclaimed "moronocy" continued as the singer clamoured onto the DJ's shoulders to sing (as well as continue to make a milkshake - don't ask). In between high-kicks, jumps and cartwheels they brought out another cardboard cut-out - this time of Obama - who made the ill-advised attempt to crowd surf and was immediately ripped to pieces (literally). Bob Marley didn't have the same fate since he remained on-stage through Hollowpoint (with the 'I's the B'y' chorus dedicated to the Newfs!) as well as the eventual encore.

USS did their best, including all the stage antics they could muster, and did manage to get a party going. In my opinion the whole thing was just a little forced, on the crowd's end anyway, as people didn't let quite as loose as Hillsiders are known to. Nonetheless, like the milkshake that the boys made and consumed onstage during their set, the tent did end up frothing by the end.

Woodhands

The next attempt came from Woodhands - another two-piece - this time with a drummer, Paul Banwatt, and a keytarist (among other things), Dan Werb. In fact, considering there were just the two of them the stage set-up seemed as intense as it was for the Library Voices who had preceded them with a whopping 9 members! Once the drums, keyboards, synths, effect pedals, keytar, vocoder mic and everything else were set the crowd in the Island tent was bursting at capacity and ready to get the party started. Everyone was so gung ho to go that Dan just grabbed the mic and started the show without allowing the lady on her way to do the introduction to make it. From the first kicks to the drum the audience was into it, as was geek-extraordinaire Mr. Werb who was all over the stage, and sometimes in the crowd, screaming into the mic. Whether or not the crowd knew the songs ahead of time didn't matter as the beat was easy to find and the dancing was wild. I Wasn't Made For Fighting was a fave of mine, but songs were interchangeable since people were loving everything coming their way. Even the cover of Electric Avenue and a few lines of "you say I'm just a friend" were met with a raucous response. With balloons and surfing sweaty bodies floating over our heads during set closer Dancer there was no way we were ready to end this party just yet. Again the lady attempted to address the crowd after Dan and Paul had disappeared backstage but she was entirely drowned out by the won't-take-no-for-an-answer cheers for another song. We got our wish and the two gods-for-a-night returned to rock us for another ten minutes. The show was uninhibited dance-your-ass-off party-time fun for all. Congratulations Woodhands - you take the Hillside 2009 party crown!

For more Hillside Festival reviews check out Vernacular (sandrush.blogspot.com)

Toronto: Holy Fuck, Broken Social Scene Play Free All Ages Shows at Harbourfront Centre Next Weekend

I know that many of you are headed to Windsor this Saturday for the Radio 3 Phog Phest but for those of you staying in Toronto, Harbourfront totally has your back.

On Friday Night the show starts at 8:00 PM with Montreal's Winter Gloves, followed by Phog Phest headliners, "the Larry Bird's moustache of indie rock" Holy Fuck at 9:30. If you decide to linger after that you'll see DD/MM/YYYY at 11 and Styrofoam Ones to close out the night.

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen



Then on Saturday at 8 PM (from what I can tell with no opening act and no one to follow) - Toronto mega-collective Broken Social Scene are on.

All of this is all ages and free:

Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline

Winter Gloves in Session

From the folks at CBC Radio 3 this week's Sessions Podcast brings us

"Montreal's Winter Gloves let loose in session at Radio3, the quartet have come a long way from using a single microphone to using a wurlitzer, synths, a glockenspiel and many more dynamic sounds."

Download the MP3 Here

Go here for a full list of the Sessions podcasts to date.

Victoria Shows for the Weekend of April 25-26 (and beyond)

I already did one post about April shows in Victoria, but I've found a few new ones since then and this weekend is particularly full of quality performances. So just to be brief:

Saturday:

If you won tickets, 1/2 of Metric is putting on an acoustic afternoon show at the Zone/Victoria Dance Connection radio station, just like the one in Vancouver yesterday that fellow NxEW blogger B. Lee wrote about


Metric - Help, I'm Alive (acoustic)



And at 9:30 Logan's is hosting a CD release show for alt-country groups the Gruff and the Deep Dark Woods.

The Deep Dark Woods - All the Money I Had Is Gone



Sunday:

The buzz-worthy, Perez Hilton wooing Montreal/Toronto electropophip-hop duo Thunderheist play Lucky Bar. The Nirvana-loving (seriously, check out their myspace) electro-pop group Winter Gloves open.

Winter Gloves - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)



Monday:

In promotion of his new release that has, in the words of fellow NxEWer Tagish156 "A veritable who's who of Canadian hip-hop... and Joel Plaskett," Nova Scotian rapper Classified is playing two shows at Element, an all-ages in the afternoon and another that night.

Classified f. Joel Plaskett - One Track Mind



And of course, Thursday sees the Rolling Tundra Revue with the Weakerthans and the Constantines roll into town at Element.

I'll be at at least one of these, and probably more, if that's any incentive. Not that you should need any.

R3 @ SXSW

Personally I can't get excited about SXSW. I know that it's important for musicians. Finding an audience in the large and lucrative US market can mean the ability to quit their day jobs. Still it is very far away from me and I can't imagine myself willingly going to Texas unless I was being paid to go.

That said, they're still our bands and we still love them. Radio 3 has been all over SXSW; blogging, Tweeting and recording. Over on the Radio 3 blog there are recordings of live performances by Winter Gloves, Ohbijou, Woodhands, and Thunderheist and Boats, the Details, Bedouin Soundclash and Immaculate Machine.

They also have some video going on on their YouTube Channel from Arkells, the Wet Secrets, More or Les, Elliott Brood and Jenn Grant w/ Buck 65.