Once again, The Great Escape moved London down to Brighton for three days of excess by the seaside. Having taken on board complaints about distances between venues from last year, more venues have been taken on, making it easier to get between shows and to dip in and out of performances. As ever there is a mixture of unknowns, hot tips and established names, all playing in a variety of places. This year even saw The King Blues playing in Brighton's sewers (insert your own joke here). A festival for punters and industry alike, this means a plethora [...]
The best kept secret of the Toronto indie scene just might be a mighty band called Zeus . Born out of the kindred musical spirits of Carlin Nicholson and Mike O'Brien, and elevated by the talents of fellow songwriter Neil Quin and drummer Rob Drake, Zeus have recently brought their pop and roll style to the States, both on their own and as the backing band for Toronto roots legend Jason Collett . We first met Zeus just before they kicked off a string of many South By Southwest shows back in [...]
Stage Fright There seems to be a fixation with the supernatural running through Canadian indie circles right now - or at least through their naming processes - if a few upcoming, high-profile releases are any indication. First off, you've got Ottawa's Acorn , whose long-awaited follow-up to 2007's Glory Hope Mountain will be out on June 1 and carry the title of No Ghost . Their interest in the spirit world isn't new, however, as their 2004 debut - albeit by a decidedly different [...]
Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News "I hope we don't offend anyone, but we're going to use four electric guitars," declared Bahamas singer Afie Jurvanen on Friday at Mercury Lounge. The songwriter shared a packed stage with Jason Collett and Zeus as part of their joint North American Bonfire Ball Revue tour . The triple bill drew out Canada's indie rock elite, including Feist , who watched as the musicians took turns playing each other's songs. Throughout the evening, [...]
Enjoy their superb performance of 'Marching Through Your Head' below. STREAM: Zeus - Marching Through Your Head
Mick Rock For those of us who've become accustomed to the all-encompassing scale, splendour and chaos of that grandaddy of all club-level music festivals - that's SxSW , in case you were wondering - It can be kind of fun to pick on the Toronto versions CMW/CMF and NXNE for, essentially, not being South-by. It's not a fair comparison by any means, but it's inevitable. We've had to check those darts and break out some laurels in recent years, however, as both fests have made significant improvements in terms of organization, [...]
Filed under: Video , Exclusive For Jason Collett 's latest video, 'Love Is a Dirty Word,' the Toronto singer-songwriter stages quite the bedroom scene. If it wasn't such a cheap and easy pun, we'd even go so far as to say -- rather accurately, mind you -- that the bedroom in this video is quite the broken social scene. Collett's band plugs away at the impossibly perfect pop tune while, outside in the hallway, there's a whole lot of something going on. Collette's latest solo disc, 'Rat a [...]
The Beatles influences were almost inescapable for Zeus when their debut EP dropped last Summer. Even though it was called Sounds Like Zeus , the frantic joy of just playing music, the eclectic approach to writing and producing classic pop songs was easily recognized from The White Album -era. It was a charming debut that served as a sampler for the debut full-length, Say Us . The EP's three best songs have been transferred to the album while nine new songs are added, to the enjoyment of those who instantly fell in love [...]
The recent launch of Dante's Inferno ( God Of War 2.5 in all but name) upped the ante somewhat in the historical action adventure genre, so GOW3 had to be good. Thankfully, it is. Kratos' next gen. debut (the recent re-release of the first two episodes on PS3 notwithstanding) looks and sounds amazing, thanks to stunning graphical flourishes and the most stirring of classical scores. The game takes up the Spartan's story right where we left him at the end of GOW2 , once we've got through the ridiculously long opening credits, [...]
Toronto - So I think in the future when I say that my routine of little sleep and a lot of coffee will help me make it through CMW and work, I will think twice about the validity of that statement. After a heavy schedule with CMW and work, followed by an even more insane week of work, I did not think I would survive until this weekend to write this. Now with kangaroos, koala bears, the full selection of Tim Tam flavours, and lovely beaches on the horizon, I've been thinking about what to pack in one suitcase, and [...]
So, we made it! Congratulations! Another five-day extravaganza of free beer, demo discs, flannel, wondering of who will play Perez's party, and sleepless nights has come and gone. The 2010 edition of South by Southwest has come to a conclusion. And while many of you may already be well into your detox mode, we still have a few lasting memories, namely in the form of photographic evidence. Our travels took us to a slew of different showcases and parties with lineups featuring heavy hitters, old favorites, up-and-comers, and relative unknowns. We traveled to Stubbs on Wednesday to watch [...]
I've always had a thing for Canadians, and last night's Arts & Crafts show at The Parish did absolutely nothing to dissuade me from my crush. The super sweet and talented indie-rockers Zeus took the stage around 10:00, winning the crowd's hearts and ears from the get-go. Their sound is classic yet entirely unique, and their energy is through the roof. It was hard to keep up as the boys rotated instruments, jumping from guitar to Rhodes to bass with equal amounts of ease and excitement. You can tell Zeus are team players, too - whoever's [...]
Bow Your Head in Shame, I Drive Opel Download Friday Mixtape 058 as one track (MP3 249MB 320kbps) Track List: The Green Room | The Tins Tron Legacy (Daft Punk Remix) | Daft Punk Nightcall (MMMatthias Remix) | Kavinsky (featuring Lovefoxxx) We Could Forever | Bonobo In Heat (Javelin Remix) | Health Call 911 (Fred Falke Remix) | Florrie [...]
Zeus Zeus is Mike O'Brien, Carlin Nicholson, Rob Drake and Neil Quin. A Canadian band formed in 2009. They released their debut EP "Sounds like Zeus" in June 2009 and the debut album "Say Us" in February 2009. Both through Arts & Crafts records. "Say Us" contains everything from 60's inspired classic rock from the likes of The [...]
At yesterday's IODA/LimeWire Store Opening Day Bash , we met up with Canadian alt-country rockers Zeus before they delivered an awesome set featuring tracks from their brand-new album, Say Us . The foursome, who also do double duty with ex-Broken Social Scene-ster Jason Collett , are no strangers to SXSW. LWMB's Maddy Wyatt got the skinny directly from the band about their numerous Austin shows and future recording plans.
IODA/LimeWire Store's Opening Day Bash held at Emo's Annex kicked off promptly at noon with a tender, heartfelt set from Les Shelleys , a wonderful duo consisting of Los Angeles-based singer/songwriters Tom Brosseau and Angela Correa. Philadelphia's A Sunny Day In Glasgow were up next and tore through a shimmering set of glistening indie-pop. If this were 1985, this band would be signed to 4AD and touring with Lush or Cocteau Twins. Featuring members of ex-Broken Social Scene-ster Jason Collett's backing band, Canada's Zeus strutted their stuff, playing Americana-drenched songs from their terrific Say [...]
IODA/LimeWire Store's Opening Day Bash held at Emo's Annex kicked off promptly at noon with a tender, heartfelt set from Les Shelleys , a wonderful duo consisting of Los Angeles-based singer/songwriters Tom Brosseau and Angela Correa. Philadelphia's A Sunny Day In Glasgow were up next and tore through a shimmering set of glistening indie-pop. If this were 1985, this band would be signed to 4AD and touring with Lush or Cocteau Twins. Featuring members of ex-Broken Social Scene-ster Jason Collett's backing band, Canada's Zeus strutted their stuff, playing Americana-drenched songs from their terrific Say [...]
There was an interesting array of passengers on the 32-minute flight last night from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Austin. Two rows in front of me was a band of long-hairded dudes who all looked like Frank Zappa. To my left was a girl who spoke with a thick Cockney accent ("Hold your fookin' tounge!" she told her friend as she edited a track on her pink laptop) who was probably a DJ. Behind me, an older, professor-looking Texan struck up a conversation with a middle-aged recording studio owner from Oxford, England who was heading to South by Southwest to "get back [...]
With so many high-profile albums out this week (and this month for that matter), it once again makes for an increasingly difficult task of figuring out what to spend your hard-earned cash on. First off is Broken Bells , the highly anticipated collaboration between James Mercer, lead singer and guitarist of The Shins, and Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton. I've yet to hear this one myself, but there's more than enough reason to give this one a shot just solely on the talent involved alone. There are also some new albums from the likes of The Knife [...]
Toronto - So for the longest time I wasn't even sure I was getting into this show. For whatever reason, the wait to get into Lee's Palace was ridiculously long and slow. The good thing about this was meeting new people and bonding over the general craziness of it all while wondering whether we should cut out and try to get into the Vivian Girls or Fucked Up shows that were alos happening tonight. But I stuck it out and finally made it to the front of the line. The wait made the show itself all that much sweeter. [...]
The Line Of Best Fit
The Lime Wire Blog
Chromewaves
Spinner.com
the music slut
Consequence Of Sound
State Magazine
The Panic Manual
Friday Mixtape
acuvi.org
The Yellow Stereo
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
[Listen] The Vaccines - "No Hope"
Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace plays first gig as woman, band titles new album
Donald Glover TANKS at Sasquatch.
Must-Watch: Amazing live-dub marriage proposal!
