
Whew. Never thought I was going to get my next installment out. These are my ten favourite live shows, gigs, concerts, whatever you want to call them. I haven't included festival performances, and only listed the support bands where they added to the evening. Honourable mentions to Calexico, Get Well Soon and Ladytron - all wicked but just outside the top 10. Enjoy. Photo credits where due - otherwise the pics are mine! 10. Radiohead - Victoria Park 25 / 06 / 08 [...]

the music tapes - music tapes for clouds and tornadoes (merge) the first time i ever heard a singing saw was in mercury rev's deserter's songs , in the album's third song "endlessly" where its gentle caresses at the start transform into a swollen and almost manic disruption to the song's deceivingly peaceful "silent night" chorus. in the music tapes ' anticipated album released almost a decade in the making, the singing saw becomes the centerpiece, around which other instruments of varying curiosity levels revolve (it's also the instrument of choice in the eerie [...]

David Magnusson It seems rather fitting that the first post of this new year should be devoted to an artist who seems to have great difficulty in choosing a favourite year, musically speaking, so he's opted to go with them all. Montt Mardié is the stage name of David Olof Peter Pagmar, a Swedish pop savant whose two albums - the 2005 debut Drama and the 2007 double-set Pretender/Clocks - were cherry-picked last year for the UK release Introducing... The Best Of [...]

INIWATA Awards - Mes 10 meilleurs concerts en 2008 Chaque concert classé est accompagné d'un lien vers la " review " du concert. Avec pratiquement 6 mois de l'année consacrés à continuer à parcourir le monde , ma présence aux concerts, forcément, a été assez réduite en 2008. Même si j'ai pu quelque peu me rattraper sur la deuxième moitié de l'année à Barcelone, cela n'a tout de même rien à voir avec une année à Londres où l'on peut se gaver comme dans aucune autre ville au monde aujourd'hui. Le seul avantage que j'arrive [...]
This week's set included: Senses On Fire Snowflake In A Hot World People Are So Unpredictable Enjoy the full playback here. Visit Mercury Rev at the band's official site. MP3: Mercury Rev - Senses On Fire (Fujiya & Miyagi Mix)

Blur So it seems the holidays are officially upon us. I know this because I skipped out of work early yesterday, and the streetcar was packed with people doing exactly the same thing. And as things everywhere wind down, so too will things around here. I'll still post as long as there's stuff to post about, but I intend to utilize the downtime to catch up on some reading, movie watching, shopping... real world stuff. But I'll wind out the week with this really interesting piece from The Guardian [...]

Did you know people were toqueing at your show? Matt Hainsby, bass: Are we a chillout band? Really? There is a certain sort of precision that stands front and center at a Fujiya & Miyagi show. The loops, the guitar sweeps, the immaculate percussion - all movements seem to be calculated but somehow maintain an air of being on-the-fly. On a chilly fall night, the Brighton bundle hustled into the Independent in San Francisco to play selections off the newly released Lightbulbs , but the band was no stranger [...]

DOWNLOAD: Mercury Rev - Senses On Fire (Fujiya and Miyagi Remix) (MP3) Fujiya and Miyagi @ Webster Hall ( more by Chona Kasinger ) Continue reading "Fujiya & Miyagi - 2009 Tour Dates (le poisson rouge)" at BrooklynVegan.com

In case you find yourself needing to escape your holiday shopping and commitments, may we kindly suggest a trip to the world of the lush, psychedelic pop of Mercury Rev ? The band will be at The Independent tonight and tomorrow, in support of their latest record Snowflake Midnight (and, presumably, its online companion Strange Attractor ). If you dig on reverbed vocals, solid songwriting, and wave after wave of killer synths, well - it doesn't get much better than this. Not to mention, it's the tail end of their national [...]

Mercury Rev Plays El Rey on Tuesday All in all, given the proximity to the holidays, it's a really good week for shows. I've been scattered and busy, and haven't seen many shows. But I did see Oasis in Las Vegas on December 6th. I've never considered myself a huge fan, but they sounded great. The Pearl Theater at the Palms is a great place to see a show. With a capacity of about 2,800, there's not a bad seat in the house. Great sightlines and sound. I only saw enough of [...]

H ere 's some more space rock for you. Not sure if too many people know about these but their latest LP "The Evening Descends" is definitely among the noteworthy of 2008. Very creative, risky, trippy production (especially with the vocals). If you like The Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev you'll like these guys. Puts you in that zone . Here's my favorite track "Skeleton Man," something to appreciate. Evangelicals - [...]

Here's a look at some of the big things to come to town this week: Duran Duran, Dec. 9th, Air Canada Centre One of the biggest bands of the 80's can still entertain the masses. It should be a hits laden show. Duran Duran's website Mercury Rev w. Dean and Britta, Dec. 12th, Opera House Two dream pop bands hook [...]

Frank Yang It seems like holding holiday-themed live throw-downs with fun names is all the rage these days, and this upcoming edition hosted by The D'Urbervilles is no exception. They're closing out a year in which they released their excellent debut full-length We Are The Hunters by holding a two-night soiree they've dubbed "Rock'Em Sock'Em" at the Tiger Bar this coming weekend, Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13. And because it's not a party without having friends along, they've invited along Katie Stelmanis and [...]
Well ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again; time to unveil my top albums!. This was a fantastic year for music, hence my expanding this list from 20 to 25. Even with that expansion, there were still some very fine albums that did not make the cut. Such honorable mentions as Headlights [...]

J'aimerais écrire plus de chroniques sur les albums que j'écoute mais force est de constater que cela prend beaucoup de temps. A l'image d'autres blogueurs sur la blogosphère musicale, j'ai choisi de le faire d'une manière plus brève même si je continuerai de temps en temps à faire de "vraies chroniques". Le principe de cette nouvelle rubrique est le suivant : à chaque fin de mois, je listerai les principaux albums que j'ai écouté au cours dudit mois écoulé, chacun d'eux étant accompagné d'une chronique express (qu'on appellera aussi miCroCronique , le nom choisi par le département [...]

>> Mercury Rev @ Espacio Movistar, Barcelone, 27/11/2008 >> Première partie : The Uglysuit J'avais acheté le ticket pour ce concert il y a au moins un mois mais après avoir écouté leur dernier album décevant ( Snowflake Midnight , leur septième album tout de même), j'étais un peu sceptique et pas franchement enthousiasmé d'aller voir Mercury Rev . J'avais cependant bien aimé l'album d'avant ( The Secret Migration ) et j'avais aussi l'espoir d'entendre des chansons du désormais mythique [...]