Rifflandia Recap in Pictures : Saturday Night

CHAR2D2

Jon & Roy

Jets Overhead

Hey Rosetta!

Pink Mountaintops

For the complete set of photos, click here. Also photos from Thursday and Friday nights on my Flickr.

Rifflandia adds wristband connect to sweeten the pot

You may already be aware, but coming up in less than a month is Rifflandia in Victoria, BC. I thought this would be a good time to remind people to get things setup to attend what is looking to be one amazing festival. The full line-up is here and it’s looking intense from great local bands like Hank & Lily, the Raccoons and the Pack AD to bigger Canadian acts such as Holy Fuck, Pink Mountaintops and Tegan & Sara, Brendan Canning will even be doing a DJ set. With a line-up like this wristbands are a bargain at $62.50 but not only do these wristbands get you great music, they’ll grab you a bunch of savings all over Victoria with the Wristband Connect deals Rifflandia has set up. This is especially sweet for those of you living in Victoria as the deals are good till the end of September, sounds like you can take advantage of them the minute you get your wristband. To me, this is an awesome bonus as food, drink & accommodation bills can really stack up at a festival so any relief to the wallet is welcome.

Anyways, get your wristbands (seriously, click here and get them now) and I hope we see you there!

Rifflandia Music Fest Earlybird Wristbands and Lineup Announced!

So last year Victoria got a new music festival, it went by the name of Rifflandia and it rocked. I unfortunately did not get to go as I decided to enjoy the Yukon for a few extra days before it was back to school. This year however I fully intend on enjoying what will no doubt be a stellar festival full of fantastic talent. The festival will run September 24 - 27th and will feature the mad skillz of Tegan & Sara, Holy Fuck, Buck 65, Mother Mother, Champion, Final Fantasy, Beach House, Shad, Pink Mountaintops, and Mt. Saint Helens Vietnam Band(I hope all those links work, they took way too long to do) with more names to be announced on July 15th. Right now a limited quantity of earlybird wristbands have been released and will be available till July 14th. Wristbands will run you about 50 bucks including fees and are totally worth it. They'll get you into every venue as well as some bonus perks. Also Rifflandabrau will be brewed once again for your enjoyment and some special "twists" like the Rifflandia Drama Club and as well as an official festival magazine/guide book to be released in mid August.

And that's not all, Rifflandia is being held as a sister event to Transmission, an international music conference for all the movers and shakers of the industry. It looks to be pretty interesting and hopefully I'll be able to grab an invite for that so I can let you know what its all about.

All in all it looks like a pretty darn exciting weekend in Victoria. For more info you can check out the Rifflandia site here and the Transmission site here.

Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops

Without belabouring the point (I belabour the point here), basically, I'm not really a fan of Stephen McBean, Black Mountain, or people from the West Coast (kidding! about the last part at least), but Outside Love by the Pink Mountaintops is quite good. In a nutshell, the album eschews the messier, grungier, side of Black Mountain and replaces it with a more accessible, free love, sort of boy-girl vocals. They haven't turned into the New Pornographers or something, but they have softened things up enough to win me over...

See last week's pick of the week: Howie Beck

Upcoming Shows

Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum CD Release Show with Nich Worby and Hamilton Trading Company at the Music Gallery (197 John Street) Toronto on June 6.

The Most Serene Republic at the Casbah in Hamilton, June 14

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS w/ Great Aunt Ida & Megan Hamilton Toronto, June 14 at the Horseshoe

D'urbervilles, Shotgun Jimmie, Knock Knock Ginger, Evening Hymns, the Great Orbax Canary Island Finaly, Gordon Best Theatre in Peterborough June 6

The Last show in the Tranzac Residency series w/Megan Hamilton and special guest Matthew de Zoete on Wednesday, June 10 at 7:30pm

POP AT NXNE II (Everything All The Time, Final Flash, Young Galaxy & +) at the Drake, 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 20

Pink Mountaintops * Quest For Fire

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS with QUEST FOR FIRE and KELLY JEAN CALDWELL

TUESDAY JUNE 9
THE PIKE ROOM

doors at 8 PM
tickets: $10 (buy tickets)

'Outside Love' is the third album by PINK MOUNTAINTOPS, AKA Stephen McBean, who has slowly emerged as a distinctive voice and a very special contributor to the North American songbook. A veteran of the Vancouver/Victoria punk rock scene, McBean is best known for his contributions to acclaimed rock band Black Mountain, as principal songwriter, guitarist and co-vocalist. The ten songs on 'Outside Love' are about or influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, Christmas albums, that one Exile song and that one Echo and the Bunnymen song, the Bermuda Triangle, being depressed in the sunshine, people who haven't made out yet but will in the future, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live. 'Outside Love' is ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel but that would probably make for bad television.

Tuesday June 9 8PM

Pike Room @ Crofoot

1 S. Saginaw

Pontiac, MI

Stephen McBean on Pitchfork

5-10-15-20: Stephen McBean via Pitchfork

Stephen McBean, of the Black Mountaintops With a Bomb is over on Pitchfork talking about which records he loved at five-year intervals in his life. He starts out with the Bay City Rollers, which is proof that even at five he was already way cooler than me, since I was probably into the Duck Tales theme song at that age.

PS. Did anyone know that he was going on forty?