Blog: From Blown Speakers

Beginning today at 6pm, CiTR hosts 24 Hours of Thunderbird Radio Hell . Starting in the mid-80s the weekly radio broadcast has brought in hundreds of local acts for some on-air live performance, and tonight they're filling 101.9's airspace for a full day. Tune in at 101.9FM or streaming live at CiTR.ca between 6pm tonight and 6pm tomorrow. You can check out a partial schedule on the Facebook event . And tomorrow, to celebrate a hard day's work on the radio, Twin Crystal , What's Wrong With Tohei? , and [...]

I was sick (on my day off, even) yesterday, so I kept the internerding to a minimum, but here's the weekly listings, in the nick of time. So, it's with some sadness that I compile the weekly listings today, as this week marks the end of one of the most important venues in the city, the Cobalt. The bar's welcomed the kind of music that's mostly un-welcomed by most other "legitimate" venues in town, so it's sort of fitting that Fake Jazz Wednesday plays it out tomorrow night. If you can't make it down for Boosh tonight or [...]

Just a quick heads up that the Final Fantasy show scheduled for tonight at St. Andrews-Wesley Church has been postponed due to illness. It will be rescheduled, but I don't have anymore details... just don't go showing up there tonight.

I've been out a lot in the last week, which means that while I have a lot that I could have blogged about, blogging has been low on the priority list. But here's a quick and dirty recap... I booked it, so I'm biased, but Techromancer kicked ass at Damaged Goods on Friday. Thanks to Calli and Andrew for playing. On Saturday, I caught one of my favourite bands, the Hold Steady , at the Vogue. It wasn't really the best venue for the band, but I guess it was the best suitable [...]

Regulars: September 21st-27th Monday Tuesday Boosh Tuesdays @ the Cobalt: Fine Mist , Tight Solid , and Wild Palmss Sailing @ the Astoria: no live act Wednesday Fake Jazz Wednesday @ the Cobalt: Deep/End, Fortress , Stamina Mantis , Nihilist Party , and Sick Buildings The Beehive @ Honey: back on September 30th Discorder Presents... [...]

From the comments on this article in the Straight about Hoko's shutting down on August 22nd: I was in Hoko's on Saturday, August 21st and the inspectors were in there giving him a hard time on that night too. They've clearly got an agenda to shut Hoko's down. On this night, there was maybe 10 college student's having some drinks and dinner. It was pretty quiet, no band. The place was kind of dead. Everyone had ordered food including myself. Hoko looked like he was going to have a meltdown. The inspectors were going through everyone's reciepts and [...]

This week at Damaged Goods, I have the distinct pleasure of helping welcome Victoria's Techromancer back to Vancouver. They were awesome at Music Waste, but went on at an all-too-un-rock'n'roll hour and suffered through some technical glitches at No More Strangers last month, so we're bringing them to town to show off their stuff at a more party friendly time with (cross your fingers) all the sound sorted out. "Spoiler Alert" is competing with Fine Mist's "Stop or Start" for dance jam of the Summer, so if for nothing else, show up to shake it to [...]

Regulars: September 7th-13th Monday Tuesday Boosh Tuesdays @ the Cobalt: Joel and the Last of the Neighbours , Plus Perfect , and Safety Show Sailing @ the Astoria: Student Teacher Wednesday Fake Jazz Wednesday @ the Cobalt: The Fake Jazz 3rd Anniversary Party : bring an instrument/amp and make some noise (see the link for more) The Beehive @ [...]

Brasstronaut is heading over to Iceland in October for the Iceland Airwaves Festival. They'll be blogging for ChalkedUp and Radio 3, but Edo promised me some pics as well. Accordion Fest returns for it's second year next weekend, running from September 10th-12th. Hit the website for the full schedule. Rose Melberg is celebrating the release of her latest, Homemade Ship at Little Mountain on September 18th. Angelo Spencer and Aunts & Uncles . I don't ever really review albums here, [...]

Last minute things that I missed: Os Mutantes has been moved from the Rio to the Commodore tonight. Fortress, Congress, and Gross Xmas are at Honey tonight. Amanda Blank plays Blastramp tonight. Petroleum By-Products play Far Away at the Media Club tomorrow. Haunted Beard, DNGROUS ADDRESS, and Artency are at Goonies tomorrow. Makeout Videotape, et al on Saturday has been, due to the Hoko's closure, been moved to Leeside. Bring a couple bucks to help pay for costs (ie. generators, etc). Sam Shalabi, Magneticring, Flat Grey, [...]

Why don't we start with bad news... because that doesn't happen enough in Vancouver. From Jarrett from Shipyards/Geographing/Phantom Islands: I spoke yesterday on the phone with Jian from Hoko's. She informed me that earlier this week they received another visit from city inspectors. It seems that, much like the last time, the inspectors arrived looking to find faults and kept trying different avenues until they could finally pin something on Hoko's, leaving them with nothing to do but wait for a hefty fine in the mail. It has come to the point where Hoko's feels singled out and in light [...]

There's no Victory Square Block Party this year. And while I'd consider my favourite one-day event of the year irreplacable, Andy Dixon (Secret Mommy/Winning/a million other awesome things) and Mike Lapointe have gone ahead and organized a different amazing, local, live music event for your Labour Day long weekend. They've also conveniently set it for Sunday, which means I won't come into work the day after Labour Day for once. Times, locations, and bands are on the flier above. See you there. Plus Perfect and Hard Feelings are at the Astoria on September [...]

Why don't we start this catch up post with pics (and a video that I didn't take) from the Clips last show at Olio a few weeks back. Hopefully, you made it out to bid adieu to one of Vancouver's finest (though, if you didn't, they'll be back with new songs, and a slightly new line up). And now a fast forward recap of other notable stuff: - I caught Walter TV, Makeout Videotape, and Recreation last Thursday. I'd seen Make out Videotape before, but the sound was sort of abysmal at the show I caught. [...]

Regulars: August 24th-31st Monday Tuesday Boosh Tuesdays @ the Cobalt: Teenage Cool Kids , Fergus & Geronimo , Dead Ghosts , Timecopz Sailing @ the Astoria: unknown Wednesday Fake Jazz Wednesday @ the Cobalt: Holzkopf , NR, Alf, Addust Tolly & Scant Intone The Beehive @ Honey: back on September 30th Gypsy Fade Wednesday @ the Media Club: [...]

First things first, this week From Blown Speakers (hey, that's me) and Damaged Goods present two bands that I've never heard live before at the Astoria: Manta Raygun and Cat Attack . The easiest thing to do when two bands have recorded music that piques your interest is to book them to play... and I'm pretty lazy. Seriously though, their studio (or more likely, makeshift studio) stuff sounds great, and Cat Attack features one half of MT-40 (who know how to bring it live), so come down for good times (as per usual) at Damaged Goods. [...]

Memewar are looking to establish a new gallery/art/performance space in the DTES and are looking for people to help book and run shows and other events there. If you're interested in helping out or if you're a band (that's not too loud--it's near residential space), you can email them at info [at] memewaronline.com. And, of course, I'll post full details on the space and upcoming shows there once they're finalized. Barn Owl play Little Mountain on Saturday with Solars and Thee Holee See (Josh Rose & Kellarissa). The same night, [...]

A couple of years ago, a guy named Andrew emailed me to invite me down to the Chapel to check out his band, the Clips . Luckily, I got off of my lazy ass and actually made it to the show, because they impressed me enough to check them out again... and again.. and at some point they became one of my favourite local acts. I was looking back at old blog posts and realized how many of the funnest nights I can remember involved going to see a Clips show at some point in [...]

Considering it gets going on Thursday, I probably should have mentioned the Olio Festival earlier, but better late than never. The fest runs Thursday-Sunday and features some of Vancouver's finest talent (plus a few touring acts) and takes over one neighbourhood a night on Thursday, Friday, Saturday (Gastown, Main St., Downtown, respectively). Passes are $25 at Zulu, Scratch, Red Cat, and Beat Street or online . And here's the rest of the weekly listings: Regulars: August 10th-16th Monday [...]

White Lung is in need of a new guitarist. They've got studio time booked and are writing a new album (which shot to the top of my anticipated albums list as soon as Mish mentioned it) and they're set to head out with Nu Sensae for a winter tour. If you think you've go the chops, email the band at whitelungwhitelung [at] gmail.com. This Sunday, the No More Strangers guys present Mexican Drug Patrol , Witch Water , and Makeout Videotape as part of the weekly "Summer Spaces" shutdown [...]

I got some really shitty news from Jesse from Twin Crystals . Their practice space was robbed earlier this week and they lost the following gear: - a white Fender jazz bass with no knobs and some blood stained on it that belonged to Ahna - (2) Gibson SGs - a Fender Strat - (2) Technics turntables - a Boss BR1180 hard disc recorder - a Boss BR1600 hard disc recorder - a Boss Superfeedbacker & Distortion pedal The recorders contained some master recordings by White Lung, [...]