Boxing Day - Zunior.com 2 for 1 Albums

I'm not a big Boxing Day guy, but here's a great sale from the Zunior.com music store website:

Zunior.com Boxing Day Sale!
2-for-1 On Selected Albums
Hundreds of selected albums only $4.44

For the fifth year running, we are proud to present the Zunior Boxing Day Sale. Stop by on December 26 for a blowout 2-for-1 sale on selected albums from all of your favourite Zunior labels/artists. The sale just keeps getting bigger every year and we guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Load up that new MP3 player you got for Christmas at Zunior.com on December 26!

I've been enjoying using Zunior.com this year, where I tend to find many of my favourite Canadian bands and labels. It's well laid out, easy to use, and the downloads don't have any Digital Rights Management encoding you find on other sites that makes you feel like you don't own the music.

A number of my favourite albums from 2007 and 2008 are on sale including:

Ohbijou - Swift Feet for Troubling Times
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
Royal Wood - A Good Enough Day
Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky
Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara

I'm buying a few albums I've been meaning to pick up and have heard nothing but good things about:
Jenny Omnichord - Charlotte or Otis: Duets for Children, Their Parents and Other People Too
The High Dials - Moon Country
Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich
Justin Rutledge - Man Descending
The Bicycles - Oh No, It's Love

You can pay safely by credit card or Paypal, so swing by and check out the sale.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and all the best spirits of the season, whatever you celebrate. My gift to you is a little peace, love, and understanding. Pass it on.

We are Stars and so are you

The band Stars have this ability to reach beyond the limits of the stage and connect with the audience. It's almost tangible the way they seem like they're singing to each person in the room as an individual, as if to say "we know your joy, we know your sadness, we know the life that beats within you and yearns to burst from your chest". They connect with the collective emotional narrative within their audience and unite us.

One of the best bands going in Canada's indie music scene, Stars delivered a show that felt like a gift to their fans. I caught them last Thursday on the 1st of a 3 night stand. Toronto loves Stars, and Stars love us in return. It's a homecoming for this band, formed in Toronto. It seems like every time they're here they play multiple nights at mid-size venues. They could sell-out larger venues, but that would remove them farther from their audience. This is the 3rd time I've seen them this year, and Stars played their hearts out just like every other time.

Opener Gentleman Reg warmed up the crowd with his sweet soaring vocals and charming the audience with laments like "no one should be broke and alone during the holidays." Here he is covering Wicked Game, originally by Chris Isaak. Or at least, that's what I always thought until Reg informed us with tongue firmly planted in cheek that he wrote it for Chris, you know, to help him out. He may have sent an email or something. I saw Reg play this version in the Dakota Tavern days earlier, and it was just as sparse and haunting there as it was in that theater. It's like Chris Isaak by way of Massive Attack:

Stars took to the stage strewn with flowers, launching into the opening declaration The Night Starts Here, with Amy and Torq's vocals playing off each other perfectly, Chris Seligman on keyboards providing the twinkling pulse. As they tore into the rallying Take Me To The Riot Torq motioned for everyone in the seated theatre to come forward and get up close to the band.

That whole night, it seemed like every song they played was someone's favourite. My friend was dancing to Elevator Love Letter, the happiness so apparent as she sang along that the girl standing next to her asked her later "That song, the one you looked like you loved? Which album is that on?" (The answer is "Heart".) Every once in a while I'd look back into the audience watching the band, their faces captured in "beautifully frozen intensity", all of us connecting in shared experience of the love of the music.

For me it's two ends of the spectrum. I never get tired of the wild youthful abandon that comes with the anthemic guitar chords of Ageless Beauty, with Amy Millan's voice leading you through the ups and downs of the song.

And at the other end, there's the indomitable emotional resolve of Your Ex-Lover is Dead declaring softly "live through this, and you won't look back...", then the punch of last words picking up speed:

there's one thing i want to say, so i'll be brave
you were what i wanted
i gave what i gave
i'm not sorry i met you
i'm not sorry it's over
i'm not sorry there's nothing to say

...leading into the final refrain as you rise up, the music beating like your heart when you have to walk away and never look back.

Stars performing Your Ex-Lover is Dead at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto

At times, the bands gets caught up in the emotion of their songs. There was an intensity to the closing of Calendar Girl as Torquil Campbell poured everything into the ending refrain of "I'm alive!" shouting it over and over and over into the night, even after the music stopped, until Amy tapped him on the shoulder to snap him out of it so they could do the next number.

You'd think a band like Stars could take themselves too seriously with so many songs seeming to be born straight from their own hearts, but I point to this photo of Torq, Amy and Evan having a laugh:

The show ended with their heartfelt gratitude to us, as we walked into the chilled night, and it sounded like everyone was singing or humming their favourite Stars tune. Stars look to be heading back to the studio to follow-up on the critical success of their last full album In Our Bedrooms After The War, leaving us to go back to our albums and CDs, to listen to the songs we love, and to go out into the world feeling that much more alive.


Do yourself a favour and watch the band's video for Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, a favourite of mine that reminds me of the movie Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind.

A Broken Social Night at The Basement Revue, starring Kevin Drew as Jason Collett

What started out as an invite to check out Kevin Drew play at The Dakota Tavern turned into a remarkable night where I'm bumping elbows with some incredible musicians, drinking beer with Kevin's science teacher and parents, sharing the love of music with other fans, and generally carousing in a bar that took on the intimate feel of a kitchen party or a social. I suppose the band's called Broken Social Scene for a reason.

Jason Collett has been hosting his second annual The Basement Revue series on Tuesday nights in December at the Dakota Tavern, a gem of a downstairs bar tucked into the Dundas and Ossington neighborhood of Toronto. The shows feature Jason hosting and performing in the bar, with many friends and performers contributing. The only date he couldn't make was December 9^th, due to a previous engagement on the west coast. So for the night, hosting and performing would be Jason's bandmate in Broken Social Scene, Kevin Drew. I was given the heads-up to check out the show, as the plan sounded like it would be Kevin Drew playing with The Beauties, covering some Pavement tunes.

I made my way to the bar to take up a nice position to the left of the stage. As I sipped on my pint, I struck up a conversation with a woman who turned out to be Kevin Drew's science teacher from high school. She had come down with her co-worker to see her former student on her birthday. Her friend Lesley gave me some of the scoop on this remarkable woman, a teacher for 35 years and now the head of the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, a volunteer organization that monitors ecology and measures the impact of climate change on biodiversity. Check out the site and it's Measure Up program, which goes beyond tree planting as a “dig, plant, and walk away” activity. Retired from teaching and she's out there digging in the dirt planting trees. Brilliant.

"Kevin always was able to draw people to him, even back then."

- Alice Casselman, Kevin Drew's high school teacher.

You know how in high school, if you're luck enough, you get one of those teachers who connects with you, motivates you, has that knack for relating to students? You know, one of The Good Ones? I could immediately tell Alice was one of the good ones from the way Kevin lit up when he saw her there in the line-up. I could tell from the way she asked about what brought me to see the band tonight, and how she asked me if my love of music was something that was part of my work. She still is one of The Good Ones, because when I told her that my job didn't involve music, it left me pondering a bit afterwards.

As the bar filled up, I started recognizing a few faces in the crowd, as it seemed like there were as many musicians as fans in the Dakota that night. And I started to suspect that things would get interesting. I'm in a 200-capacity bar and I'm bumping into members of Stars, Metric, a few other musicians from the Arts and Crafts record label. Brendan Canning and Charlie Spearin and others from members Broken Social Scene were in the house. Shawn from The Beauties came by and tipped me that this would be a hell of a night. No doubt my friend. I didn't have my camera on me when I got the call about the show, so all I had was my cellphone camera to capture the night in all it's "you had to be there" glory. record label. Squeezing by to say hi to Kevin was K-OS and over there was Darcy Yates from Flash Lighting with his mighty rock and roll beard.

Kevin Drew took the stage, informed/warned us it would be a bit of a fast and loose night. First up was Kevin teamed up with a Derek Downham on drums, Charlie Spearin on guitar (I'm blanking on the second guitarist) and proceeded to pick a chord and jam for a bit - “This is a C jam”. When asked for an impromptu name for the band, the shout came back “The Jason Collett Band”. I think I would have gone with Alice's Birthday. Kevin played a couple bars of a Smashing Pumpkins, lamenting the fact that he used to love them and now Billy Corgan just harrasses the crowd at his shows, only playing the new material that's a shallow imitation of the band Kevin and many of us loved.

I was introduced to Kevin Drew's parents at one point, very friendly people. His dad said that at some point his name was changed to “Kevin Drew's Dad”. I didn't get the chance to ask anyone if the were looking forwards to seeing David Drew's Son play that night. I chatted with new friends about that first time we heard Broken Social Scene's 2002 album “You Forgot It In People”, one of those album you hear and nothing is quite the same after that.

From there, things started to pick up steam as an indie rock variety revue developed. Gentleman Reg took the stage and played a lingering cover of Wicked Games by Chris Isaak. Jimmy Shaw from Metric got on the stand-up piano tucked into the side of the stage and played Nobody Home from Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Musicians would be called to the stage, only for Kevin to discover they'd snuck out to The Communist Daughter, another well-loved little bar just across the street. It happened so often, I pronounced the Commie as the unofficial Green Room for the night.

Kevin Drew and Amy Millan

Amy Millan from Stars was found and did a few numbers, and oh Lord what a voice. Derek Downham kept getting called back to the stage to drum with one musician or another he used to play with. Poet Mark Goldstein of Bookthug publishers read a poem or two. Jimmy Shaw teamed up with Torq Campbell from Stars for a number. Here before us were musicians playing for the love of music, no albums being pushed, no merchandise table in sight.

A Broken Social Scene erupts

Inevitably, it was time for a game of “how many indie musicians can you fit on a stage” as Broken Social Scene formed on stage for a few songs with Torq on trumpet, Justin Peroff on drums, Lisa Lobsinger singing. The beauty of a collective like Broken Social Scene is it can form with whomever is at hand. The crowd, mesmerized by the intimacy of the first half of the night, were dancing and singing along as Broken Social Scene played Shoreline and Love is New.

The Beauties

Things got euphoric, things got hazy at that point. I remember Kevin teamed up with The Beauties for a cover of Pavement's Gold Soundz that had me grinning and whooping. The Beauties proceeded to knock out the crowd with a few songs of their own like Die Die Die before killing with a version of the Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting For The Man that drove the energy in the bar up until you thought it would explode.

As the night wound down, I remember Bill Priddle jamming with Kevin. I remember Bill from Treble Charger (he wrote Red among other songs and left in 2003), Broken Social Scene and now in The Bill Priddle Concern. The night closed out with Kevin noodling on drums, and then he came by, shaking hands and, thanking us for sticking around for the whole show. I thanked him, because I can't conceive how you could duplicate that sort of night.

Torq Campbell and Jimmy Shaw

I left that bar after last call, walked into the night thinking about what I learned that night and thinking about some potential that's waiting for me. Like I said earlier, nothing was really the same after I heard Broken Social Scene's album "You Forgot It In People" back in 2002. I dug out my worn and loved CD today and noticed the album was dedicated "for our friends, families and loves." That Tuesday night at The Dakota Tavern, I got to see exactly where that dedication came from, whether it was meeting teachers and parents that influenced these musicians, seeing old bandmates get together again, or hearing these performers cover songs that they love enough to honor in tribute. Know what you love, remember where you came from, and acknowledge the people you draw strength from. All that and some good music will get you through the night.

Jason Collett returns to host The Basement Revue this Tuesday. The shows are sold out but if you can wrangle a ticket, I strongly encourage you to go: you never know who's going to drop in. Stars have just finished a 3 night stand in Toronto and are looking to go back to the studio. Kevin Drew and the rest of Broken Social Scene is making the trip to New York City to play The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night (reminding me of seeing them on Conan O'Brien a few years back, where Conan came on stage after to cry out “I think we need more guitars!”). Gentleman Reg just put out a single for the first time on vinyl, and look for his new album in the new year, along with Metric's next disc. The Beauties play Sunday nights at The Dakota Tavern and have a 4-track EP “Die Die Die” out now.

All pictures copyright the2scoops - Flickr here

My city, she sings and surprises - Kevin Drew at The Dakota Tavern

As some of you may have heard, I had myself an interesting night when I was invited to The Dakota Tavern in Toronto to check out the the Basement Revue. It's the second annual installment of shows every Tuesday in the month of December with musician Jason Collett hosting and performing. The only Tuesday Jason couldn't make it was the December 9th show, which was hosted by Jason's bandmate in Broken Social Scene, Kevin Drew.

What started out as "come by and check out Kevin play Pavement cover-tunes with The Beauties" turned into one incredible night of performers. Among the people I met that night was a writer from the National Post, and our conversation, fuelled by beer and a love of Canadian indie music, turned into his review on the National Post website yesterday. I only had my cellphone camera with me (I am never leaving home without a proper camera again. Ever.) but some of the shots are on the Post's site, and the camera-phone pictures sort of work with a "you had to be there" feel of the night.

I'm seeing Stars tonight, so I'll post my own version of events tomorrow afternoon.

A beautifully Broken Modest Social Metric Mouse Scene show

It seemed like Rita's Broken Social Birthday Party as Broken Social Scene took over the Sound Academy for the second of a two-night hometown stint on Friday November 28. Broken Social Scene came on to play for about 3 hours, with Scene-sters Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric making a welcome return. A jaw-dropping surprise came as Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse took the lead for a few tunes with BSS. The celebratory feeling in the air coincided with my friend's birthday that night, making us feel like it was just one big indie-rock birthday party for Ms. Rita, with a balloon drop at the show, drinks at The Dakota and a stop in Chinatown for food at 4am.

The Beauties opened the night with the crowds pouring in, wailing away on tunes like "Wastin' Time" and feel good rockers like "Die Die Die" and "Baby Outta Jail. They looked to be having a blast, celebrating the release of their 4-track EP, playing that wild bar-frenzy of bluegrass/rock/rockabilly/punk. A brilliant cover of the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for The Man" led to a closing jam with guests Serena Ryder and Lisa Lobsinger joining trumpet player Michael Louis Johnson for "Do What You Do". For more of The Beauties, be sure to drop in at The Dakota Tavern for their weekly Sunday night barn burner.

As the opening bars of the Top Gun theme played (yes really), Broken Social Scene took to the stage, and didn't stop for about 3 hours. Broken Social Scene is a beautiful, shambling beast with upwards of 20 musicians, each with their own bands and solo albums, coming together to make something wonderful. Members of Metric, Stars, Do Make Think Say, as well as artists like Apostle of Hustle, Feist, Kevin Drew, Jason Collett, and Brendan Canning are all part of the group, and the live shows are always a treat as whomever isn't in the studio or touring themselves tends to show up. One of my favourite "everything is different once I've heard it" albums is Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot it In People"(2002), like nothing I'd heard of at the time. Seeing them play those songs live just gets me every time.

The set roamed through K/C Accidental and Fire Eye'd Boy, then we started detouring as different members of BSS took turns playing one of their songs. I love that each artist has their own sound, but manage to come together in Broken Social Scene to make something completely different. The air was charged with the sense that it was a special night, with balloons suspended from the ceiling. We were lead in cathartic screams to release all that we held inside, Kevin Drew was funny as he picked on the chatterboxes in the crowd and the VIP deck. And it was a celebration that night, as the band was playing without necessarily plugging any one current project or album. Everyone was just having a good time.

At times upwards of 20 musicians were on stage, with 5 guitars and full brass blazing away in frenetic anthemic rock. And then Kevin introduces a guest. It's Issac freaking Brock from Modest Mouse. He comes on and they all play "The Good Times Are Killing Me", which makes a pretty good theme to the night.

A few songs later and the next surprise as Emily Haines of Metric appeared! She's been part of BSS for years, but has been on the road and in the studio with her own band Metric. Her vocals paired with Julie Penners violin made "Anthem for a Seventeen-Year Old Girl" a highlight of the night.

A quick costume change, and then Brendan Canning came back out bedazzling in gold sequin gym shorts for a grooving disco-rific "Love is New".

We were encourage to scream - take everything that holds you back, holds you down, makes you anything less than you, and scream that shit out.

The night culminated in a balloon drop during "Ibi Dreams of Pavement". I've seen Broken Social Scene play a number of times, and this was one of their best nights.

An appreciative band wrapped up the night, followed by Brendan Canning and a few others came out after most of the crowd cleared out to thank those of us who stuck around. Rita told him "It's my birthday" to which he answered with a kiss of the hand. Class act that guy.

We left the club elated, alive, and ready for whatever happens next.

My photo sets:
The Beauties at Sound Academy

Broken Social Scene at Sound Academy

Setlist: Broken Social Scene Setlist Sound Academy, Toronto, Canada 2008 setlist.fm

And a good video collage of the show:

The Sound of Canada with The Acorn, The RAA and Ohbijou

There are times you should be proud of Canada and the music we're putting out into the world. A couple of weeks ago, I got to see a solid sold-out triple-bill of some of the rising stars of the indie-music scene as The Acorn, Ohbijou, and The Rural Alberta Advantage rolled into Lee's Palace and put on a solid show from start to finish. Best $10 ticket I ever bought, and it will seem like a bargain when these bands all start to headline their own seperate gigs.

The opening set from Edmonton's The Rural Alberta Advantage had just started up when we got into Lee's Palace, and the Edmonton-based trio's indie folk-rock got the night of to a strong start with their upbeat energetic percussion and narratives that took me back to the long drives across the prairies of my youth. My interest in them came about from picking up their well-reviewed debut album Hometowns (2008) as part of my eMusic subscription, and that live show got the crowd happy and moving right from the start.

The RAA Don't Haunt this place (mp3)
The RAA Frank, AB (mp3)

Next up was the hometown lovefest for Toronto's Ohbijou, who've been touring with The Acorn in support of a collaborative 12" EP, with The Acorn covering 2 Ohbijou tracks and vice-versa (the entire album can be heard streaming on the Kelp Records site). I'd heard good things about Ohbijou following both a strong debut album Swift Feet for Troubled Times (2006) and a performance I missed at Harbourfront. I had no idea what I was in as guitars, cello, violin, drums and keyboards took the stage. From the first rapturous notes sung by guitarist/composer/singer Casey Mecija, I was hooked on this band, probably for life. Their songs were full of urgent strings and soaring harmonies that bring to mind walking through Toronto's downtown neighbourhoods during that first snowfall of the year. Casey looked pleased to see the crowd, calling out to her and her sister/violinist Jenny's parents out in the crowd. They played a song or two that Casey said would be on their new album, due in the spring. No idea which label is distributing, but they should jump at the chance to release such a band that's bound for glory.

By the time Ottawa's The Acorn hit the stage, I was thinking the night couldn't get any better. The Acorn's critically acclaimed Hope Glory Mountain was a highlight of my listening year. The album is named after it's subject, Gloria Esperanza Montoya, mother of lead singer Rolf Klausener, and it lovingly, beautifully, tells her life story from Honduras to Canada. The songs run over rivers and mountains with layered percussion rhythms and passionate vocals that give a global taste to the music. The live show was passionate and charming, culminating with an encore that saw Ohbijou and The Acorn collaborate on some of the songs from their EP. The look of joy on their faces let you know these musicians love the music, and love doing it together.

Video for one of my favourite songs, The Acorn's "Crooked Legs" (h/t to Stereogum)

I think about some shows I've been to before, those ones that you keep telling people "I was there before they really got big". This show will be one of those stories as each one of these bands made a lifetime fan out of me and many people in that crowd.

the2scoops gets shaken and stirred

Got invited to a marketing event/tasting for Ketel One Vodka, so J and K headed down to Czehoski on Queen. My only real experience with vodka has been casual, mixed in cocktails or drinks with the syllables "-tini" in it, so I was looking forwards to expanding my appreciation a fair bit.

Once we settled in to Czehoski, we had an informative little session with our Ketel One educator Beth-Anne: half-Irish, half-Maritimer, in her own words, marketing alcohol is a dream job. She covered the history of the brand, the process involved, and led us into the tasting.

Our vodka tasting contenders: Ketel One, Grey Goose, Absolut. That's two premium brands, one bar-rail brand.

A little whiff, a little taste, and damned if my first impression didn't stick. Grey Goose and Absolut met my previous expectations - tastes like booze and I need to mix it with something. The Ketel One was smooth enough to enjoy straight up. No word of a lie, I was sold on first sip. All that talk of filtering and distilling paid off.

After the tasting, we were treated to a cocktail. I swear, that was the best and smoothest martini I've had. The Ultimate Martini, just Ketel One vodka and two olive. That's it, simply delicious.

It's pretty smart to market a premium vodka like Ketel One (couple bucks more than Absolut, but cheaper than high end) at a time when the economy is nose-diving like it is and belts are tightening. You're going to see entertaining at home is a cheaper option that going out for drinks and dinner, and springing for a bottle of premium, like Ketel One, may soften the sense that you're "cheaping out" by staying in with a bottle of No Frills Vodka. If I'm entertaining at home, mixing up a few cocktails and tunes is my preferred way to go.

I've actually taken to ordering martinis since the event, and call it the "Don Draper/Mad Men" effect if you will, but it certainly makes an impression.

Kudos to Matchstick Promotions and Diageo for hosting a great event: food from Czehoski's was delicious, a couple of martini's, a gift bag, and a taxi slip to get home. That's a smart little promotion. Thanks to Beth-Anne for the hosting as well.

Damn those were good martinis.