This Thursday The Death Set will take over the Friendship Cove with the help of Violent Soho (AUS) and Omon Ra II (MTL). The event starts at 9:30 and tickets are available at Cheap Thrills, L’Oblique, Atom Heart, Phonopolis and online at bstb.

I will be in L.A. all week for the E3 show so I won’t be there, let us know how it was in the comments.

The Death Set – Cold Teeth

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The newest blues from the The Black Keys comes from the album Brothers which was released two days ago and is chalk full of the same good stuff. The first single Tighten Up is complemented by the a video directed by Chris Piliero featuring two kids fighting over a girl in a playground. Aside from Tighten Up, the track Never Gonna Give You Up stood out as a catchy soulful ballad with some amazing horn parts (trombone i think?). The band will be playing a smattering of shows in US & Canada as well as in Europe. They will be in Montreal for the Osheaga festival in August.

The Black Keys – Never Gonna Give You Up

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The Black Keys – Tighten Up

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Just a quick reminder that the Pop Winds will be playing tomorrow night at Casa Del Popolo, pay what you can. For more on the band and their latest album check out this post while you listen to two more songs from The Turquoise.

Pop Winds – Feel It

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Pop Winds – Owl Eyes

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Memory Tapes is the result of Jersey based Dayve Hawk recording the 2009 album Seek Magic in his apartment. There is isn’t a whole lot out there about Hawk save for a interview he did in french with Pinkushion. It would a appear from that conversation that we can expect more work coming from Memory Tapes in the future. Run Out and Swimming Field (pitchfork gave some love to this song on a top 100 list) were my favorites from the album.

via Audrey.

Memory Tapes – Run Out

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Memory Tapes – Swimming Field

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An alarming number of interesting Fleetwood Mac covers have accumulated in my inbox by all sorts of artists. These are just a few of my favorites including Vampire Weekend doing a bouncy cover of Everywhere and Cat Power with an acoustic cover of Dreams. Dreams was of course also covered by The Morning Benders in their cover album the bedroom covers. These accomplished covers all provide a fresh take on the 70s flavor Fleetwood established and is still representing to this day (for better or worse).

Vampire Weekend – Everywhere [Fleetwood Mac cover]

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The Morning Benders – Dreams [Fleetwood Mac cover]

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Cat Power – Dreams [Fleetwood Mac cover]

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Yesterday night Sala Rossa hosted Berkeley’s The Morning Benders, playing the Big Echo album in it’s entirety along with some old favorites (Damnit Anna). Their soulful sound translated perfectly into the live performance and they managed to make the space feel more intimate than it really is. Check out Promises from Big Echo below (the band promises they will be back in Montreal for the Osheaga festival) as well as pictures from the show.

The Morning Benders – Promises

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The Morning Benders Pictures (Sala Rossa, Montreal: April 15, 2010)

Brad Catleugh

Since I saw The Pop Winds play at the late Lab Synthese last September for the release of their EP Understory they have busy playing all over the city and refining their unique sound. The band’s sound is comprised of guitar, synthesizer, drum machine, guitar and Alto Saxophone. All 9 tracks from The Turquoise will be released on April 16 via Arbutus records. The album launch will be taking place sometime at the beginning of May along with another Arbutus band, The Silly Kissers. Songs like Drowning In the Dark (below) capture the accomplished and creative sound the band has grown into over the last year.

The band will be touring (tour dates below) around Ontario as and Quebec over the next few months including Kazoo!fest and Off Festival.

The Pop Winds – Drowning In The Dark

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Click for Pop Winds tour dates (more…)

Thanks to our friends at Blue Skies Turn Black, I was at the Washed Out & Small Black show last night at Il Motore. It was my first time at the venue and I was pleasantly surprised. The Silly Kissers opened up the show around 9:30 and although I had seen them before, last nights performance was particularly more polished than I remember. The drum and synths sounds were about as 80’s as a bunch of kids who were barely born in that decade could sound and there were a few interesting tempo changes in the music.

By the time the Brooklyn band Small Black began to play it seemed as though the show had sold out. I had heard a lot of skepticism about whether it was really worth paying to see a band like Washed Out live. The sole member of the project, Ernest Greene, began the set by playing four or five new songs (including some ‘freestyles’) which basically amounted to him triggering the right samples at the correct time and singing vocals into a mic with a ton of reverb. While I loved “Life of Leisure”, there was definitely something missing from the performance. Thankfully, Small Black took the stage halfway through to back up Ernest and play the rest of the songs from Life of Leisure and delivered exactly what I was hoping for. The energy was incredible and the live drums and bass added extra volume to the sound that you don’t hear (or need) on the album. Unless Greene is planning on perpetually bringing along Small Black with him wherever he goes, I think it might be wise to recruit himself some backing musicians, because the live show definitely benefited from it.

Click for more pictures of Washed Out & Small Black At Il Motore, Montreal: March 8, 2010 (more…)

It’s been two years since the last Stars album, In Our Bedroom After the War, was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize and the band has finally released a new single, complete with a tour in preparation for their upcoming album The Five Ghosts. The new album is set to be released on June 22 of this year on their very own label Soft Revolution (in Canada), a departure from their partnership with Arts and Crafts. Perhaps they took a a lesson from Metric who also self released their last album Fantasies (Metric Music International) and used Arts and Crafts for Mexico only. Anyways here is something old and something new, a track from In Our Bedroom After the War and a link to stream/download their new single Fixed.

Stars – Take Me To the Riot

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Click for Tour Dates (more…)

This Monday was Beach House night in the plateau for Montreal. The Baltimore “dream pop” band played their meandering anthems to a sold out crowd at Sala Rossa and tickets were being sold for as much as 50$ a pop on craigslist. I haven’t quite made up my mind about them yet; but I can’t resist telling people about the things they missed out on. And if you didn’t miss out on it, tell me about it. Speaking of sold out shows, The xx is playing this Saturday at Metropolis and it is also extremely sold out.

Beach House – Walk in the Park

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