I’ve been a terrible blogger as of late, having now just ended a two-week absence without giving my readers so much as a heads up.

I can blame it on my hectic day job, traveling, and all the distractions that come along with summer, but in the end I’ll just blame it on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.

I’ve been listening to the album non-stop for the past nine days (thanks to an early leak) and have been doing very little else.

And since today is the official street date of the album’s release, it’s only fitting I give you a taste of their performance at this weekend’s Osheaga Festival in Montreal.

Rather than spewing out some fanboy rave about how much I love this album, I’ll let Arcade Fire speak for itself as they play my favourite cut off the album, “We Used to Wait”.

Also, there are plenty more clips to come this week from Osheaga, including performances by Owen Pallett, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and yes, Pavement.

Last Thursday, July 8 the Flaming Lips performed alongside Spoon, Tokyo Police Club, and Fang Island at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre.

For those of you who have not been to a Lips show, I can only describe it as a whirlwind of Christmas meets Halloween, where whimsical bliss collides with the weird and wonderful.

Confetti. Giant balloons. Giant balloons filled with confetti. An army of dancing orange foot solidiers. Captain catfish and a caterpillar with butterfly wings. Wayne Coyne’s trademark bubble boy device. These are just a few of the things you can expect from one of their spectacles.

With Spoon, Tokyo Police Club, and Fang Island opening for The Lips, the night was a mini festival of sorts. But as soon as the giant naked lady projected on a 50 foot screen at the back of the stage gave birth to Wayne and the boys via a working vagina opening, the night felt like it had truly begun.

The Lips played highlights from their latest, Embryonic, as well as classic material from At War with the Mystics, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Soft Bulletin, and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.

Here they are playing everyone’s favourite indie-pop ballad, “Do You Realize?”

Over the past decade, The Rapture has led New York’s dance-punk scene with two critically-acclaimed full-length albums and a reputation for being one of most exciting live acts in indie rock today.

But after touring extensively in support for 2006’s Pieces of the People We Love, the band stayed relatively quiet and out of the pages of music zines and blogs.

Then in late 2008 the guys released a !k7 mix compilation entitled Tapes, which featured a collection of rare grooves and cult classics spanning the past three decades.

Ranging from hip hop (Dances with White Girls, Ghostface Killah), disco (Vaughan Mason & Crew, Don Armando), electronica/experimental (Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Syclops), and even folk (Richie Havens), the compilation was an eclectic lootbag of beats.

Fortunately, the guys began playing a few shows here and there earlier this year, including last month’s The Creators Project party hosted by VICE and Intel.

Their 40-minute set was all too brief, but they proved that they haven’t lost their touch by performing melt-your-face-off renditions of “Sister Savior”, “Get Myself Into It”, “Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh”, and the track that started it all, “House of Jealous Lovers”, which you can watch above.

Now the guys are back in the studio, recording their third album in Paris for a late 2010 release.

For all you readers in the GTA, you can catch The Rapture’s DJ set tonight (July 9) at The Great Hall, along with DJs Riveria, Lazy Ray & Gerrence, and Fathom.

Tickets will be available at the door for $20.

Apologies for the lack of posts, or should I say, the complete absence of posts in the past week. I’ve been in New York covering a bunch of events, including Band of Horses/Grizzly Bear/Karen Elson at Williamsburg Waterfront, Northside Festival, the final Voxtrot show ever, and Intel/VICE’s The Creator’s Project, where this photo was taken just yesterday. In an act of unnecessary secrecy, and more importantly, general laziness, I’ll explain what it is later. And no, it’s not Broadway’s debut of The Matrix: The Musical. Write-ups, photos and videos to come this week.

Apologies for the lack of posts, or should I say, the complete absence of posts in the past week.

I’ve been in New York covering a bunch of events, including Band of Horses/Grizzly Bear/Karen Elson at Williamsburg Waterfront, Northside Festival, the final Voxtrot show ever, and Intel/VICE’s The Creator’s Project, where this photo was taken just yesterday.

In an act of unnecessary secrecy, and more importantly, general laziness, I’ll explain what it is later. And no, it’s not Broadway’s debut of The Matrix: The Musical.


Write-ups, photos and videos to come this week.

For all our readers in Toronto, we just want to announced that our May edition of My Liner Note Presents…, a monthly music showcase at Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches (605 Bloor Street West), will be held next Friday, May 21 at 7 pm.

This month features indie/folk five-piece, Lowlands, who you can watch here doing a great cover of Caribou’s “Hello Hammerheads” at Cream Tangerine.

Hope to see you all there!

Charlotte Gainsbourg did a two-night stint at Montreal’s L’Olympia this past weekend, and seeing as how she skipped over Toronto on her first-ever tour, it seemed as good of a time as any to make the five-hour trip to Montreal.

My greatest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to get her vicious genital mutilation scene in Antichrist (and if you think this sounds awful, multiply it by a thousand and you’ll have some appreciation for how horrifying it really is when you’re seeing it on a 30 foot screen) out of my head the entire time she took the stage.

But as soon as Gainsbourg and her band — which is actually Beck’s band — launched into the hypnotic beat of “IRM”, I had forgotten all about the Lars Von Tiers’ nightmare.

Despite her lack of experience in performing in front of large audiences, the soft-spoken and graceful Gainsbourg had no problems keeping the packed room completely captivated.

Here she performs “In the End”, a tender ballad off the new album, which was also recently used in the French trailer for Where the Wild Things Are.

And despite not understanding a word of French, I’m still dying to see the French-dubbed version of the instant Spike Jonze classic because Charlotte voices the KW character.

My Liner Notes Launch

A big thank you to everyone who came out Thursday night to Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches for the launch of My Liner Notes. The night was packed with great music, scrumptious sandwiches, and of course, a rousing acoustic set from Vesper Hours (despite some initial technical difficulties). It also marked the first in a monthly residency we’ll be hosting at Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches which will feature new local bands/artists.

For those of you who missed it, you can view photos from the event on the My Liner Notes Facebook Group. Also, check out these two special covers that Vesper Hours performed during their set after the jump.

A big thanks to Chad from SBSS, Vesper Hours, and Tammy and Junichi at SQUAB for the awesome flyers.

Vesper covers Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” during the My Liner Notes launch at Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches.

Vesper Hours covers Radiohead’s “There There” during the My Liner Notes launch at Sky Blue Sky Sandwiches.