Toronto - Lets face it... every indie boy out there loves Zooey Deschanel. I don't know if its the baby face, the eyes, the retro look or the fact that she looks stoned half the time she's on screen, but there's something undeniable about her appeal to indie kids. So when it was announced that she was going to collaborate with folk singer M. Ward (looking like a magician in the picture above) for an album, it was not a shocker that the band - She & Him became rather successful (as oppose to say..Scarlett Johansson/Pete Yorn one). [...]
In November we ran a series of comedy previews and reviews for the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival . Well, the festival was a hit and the winners were chosen. The best sketch troups at the 2009 festival were Haircut, Last Call Cleveland and Accidental Company , none of which were reviewed or previewed by us here at the Panic Manual. All three troups are back in Toronto this weekend for the fests Best Of The Fest Show at the Second City on Friday, March 5th at 10:30. I spoke to a [...]
Toronto - Can you believe the band Athlete now has 4 albums out? I can't. It just seemed like last week they gently slid into the scene with their laid back summery singles "You Got the Style" and "El Salvador". However, that was almost seven years ago. Where has time gone? Athlete's fourth album - Black Swan comes out in the US today (it has been out in the UK for awhile) and as with any band who has anything to release this year, they will be flooding SXSW with a bunch of shows. [...]
Let the wild rumpus begin! Panic Manual is celebrating the release of Where The Wild Things Are on DVD (available everywhere on March 2nd) by giving away an awesome prize pack. To enter simply send us an email with your name and email address and "ROOOAR!" as the subject and we will contact the winner directly*. The Prize pack includes: 1) a copy of the soundtrack on CD 2) a Carol Mask 3) a Paper Crown After you enter check out Spike [...]
Toronto - Well, now that the Olympics are over and so NBC is back in the fold. This week is also the return of mega villain Jay Leno to the late night fold, so it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Monday, March 1st No real notable music guests of note, unless you count Ludachris . Tuesday, March 2nd Once again, barren wastelands in terms of music guests. Ludachris is on Fallon. He must have a record out? [...]
Toronto - Remember that picture! What a moment. Pure elation. Sheer happiness. I, like many Canadians, lost my voice for a few minutes. Hockey's golden boy scoring a sudden death game winner in overtime in a gold medal game between two arch rivals. What an iconic moment. Canada couldn't be any higher, streets were shut down..people were rioting...car horns were going off. We had united as one. This was a day no one can ever forget....then came the closing ceremonies. Neil Young was an appropriate choice..to close the whole show, but he came on first. Bringing along his [...]
Toronto - "So this is an interesting evening ... I think, anyways." These were the words of Peasant, AKA Damien DeRose, as he began his set this evening, and truer words were never spoken. This was certainly an interesting evening, one full of a wide range of musicians and a lively crowd. Peasant started the night off early, playing a short but sweet unaccompanied set of acoustic guitar based songs which brought to mind performers such as Elliott Smith or Badly Drawn Boy. The crowd [...]
Rae Spoon, photo by JJ Levine My Rhubarb Saturday, by Ashley Botting The phallus-like unicorn horn emerging from the questionably-gendered woman on the cover of the brochure was enough to convince me that the Rhubarb Festival might be worth checking out. Last Saturday night, I attended "Week 2" shows at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in downtown Toronto. Each week features all new performances. All the Rhubarb shows are short. Like 30 minutes. So, the festival feels like a tapas of presentations. There are [...]
Toronto - With two Swedish bands playing, it was Nordic night at The Mod Club. In fact, taking into account the documentary on Norwegian black metal that I saw on Saturday, this was a whole Nordic themed weekend for me ... but I digress. I will add though that El Perro Del Mar and Taken By Trees seem much nicer than Count Grischnach and are highly unlikely to burn down any churches. When I arrived at the club, Taken By Trees were already more than halfway through their set, which was a bit disappointing [...]
Toronto - Here are this week's late night guests. Practically nothing of note due to Olympics Monday - Nothing of note, except Ricky Gervais is on the Daily Show, always awesome. Snowboarder Shaun White is on Letterman. Doesn't that guy seem high ALWAYS? How does he get so much higher in the air on the snowboard then anyone else? It reminds me of my super snowboarder character on SSX Tricky. I loved that game. RIP PS2. Tuesday - Absolutely nothing here. Wednesday - ditto. [...]
Toronto - During the Olympics, its always a good time to see fellow countrymen bond and unite for a greater cause. This is the case with Sweden's El Perro Del Mar , who teamed up with fellow Swede Lykke Li for the song Change of Heart off her 2009 album Love is Not Pop . This song was remixed by another Swede - Robyn and is a nice uptempo (but not that uptempo) version of the original. Check it out. El Perro Del Mar plays with another Swede band - Taken By [...]
(Toronto) This was the third of four Wednesday night performances by Gentleman Reg at the Drake in February. Opening up the night was Dance Yourself To Death . My theory about the word 'dance' is that if you use it as a song title or in your bands name, then your music needs to make me want to dance. The same theory applies to the words 'clap', 'shake', and 'party' as in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, The Cajun Dance Party, Harlem Shakes and You Say Party! We Say Die! All of these bands [...]
Toronto - For a long period of time, I lived within a walking distance of the Bloor and Bathurst area home of many popular establishments such as Sonic Boom, the Bloor Cinema, Honest Ed's and of course, Lees Palace. Being an avid concert goer, I always found that my pre concert drinking spot would almost be at this local semi-sport/semi-dive bar known as the Tap. It was a very low key bar with a couple crappy tvs mounted and a table hockey game in the back. The bartenders were friendly and they had some wicked wings. Every night there was [...]
Toronto - As you might have known from my previous post, I was at the Antlers/Editors show on Tuesday. This post is about the main event of the night, England's The Editors , who are in town to promote their latest and drastically different sounding third album - In This Light and on This Evening . It appears some of the older fans of the more guitar driven music are having an allergic reaction to the newer more synthy sounds of the third album, despite it's equally bleak outlook on everything. So it was definitely an interesting mix [...]
Toronto - I have a bad habit of skipping opening bands. I just absolutely hate waiting in between sets. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Mainly, when a band I really like play as the openers. Tuesday night was just a night, when Brooklyn's The Antlers opened up for The Editors . This was what I believe The Antler's third time in Toronto in the past year, having opened up for Frightened Rabbit last July and having their own show in September. As you can see, Panic Manual was [...]
Toronto - The nominees for the "Indies" (Annual Independent Music Awards) were announced today. The winners will be named at the awards ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York during Canadian Music Week . The winners of these awards are determined by a combination of fan and industry voting. Whats the combination? who knows! Here are some nominees, click here for the full list CHARTATTACK.COM FAVOURITE ALBUM Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals (Dine Alone) Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels (Nettwerk) Japandroids – Post-Nothing [...]
I recently came across a small label based out of Montreal and I really liked what I heard. Right now a lot of bands are really taking off down in the states that fall into the 'experimental pop' category. Specifically, bands that I would put into this genre are Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Lotus Plaza and Deerhunter, among others. Who do we have here in Canada to compete with these types of bands? Enter Fixture Records. Based out of Montreal and founded in 2007 by Tessa and [...]
![Concert Review: Kids on TV, Thomas, Owen Pallett, Hidden Cameras [Wavelength 500, Garrison, Feb 15]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2338142_lg.jpg)
Toronto - As anyone who lives in Toronto knows, Wavelength is celebrated its 500th and last shows (of the current format) this week. Sunday night was the last night of the five night series and as anyone would have guessed, it ended off with a bang. On the card last night was a lot of bands, but the ones I actually saw (having arrived close to 1am) are Kids on TV , Thomas, not-really-a-surprise-guest Owen Pallett and actually-a-surprise guest The Hidden Cameras . The latter not having played a live show in quite a while. [...]
Ricky and I were really excited to see Polaris Prize winners, Holy Fuck, who were headlining the Thursday night Wavelength 500 show at the Steam Whistle Brewery . On the way to the show, we both concluded that we were going to be disappointed since a quick search revealed that Fucked Up won the Polaris Prize last year, not Holy Fuck. Two bands with Fuck in their names? What the fuck? I am familiar with both bands, but still get them mixed up. We proceeded to the brewery regardless since the probability of drinking beer [...]
Toronto - Here is another weeks worth of late night music guests. NBC has taken a break (as everyone knows) this week and next week due to Olympics, then the titanic known as the Tonight show comes back on. Monday, February 15th Fanfarlo visits Letterman. They also announced they'll be in Toronto for a concert in early April. Score! Tuesday, February 16th Mary J Blige, fresh off her appearance on Haiti 25, goes to Letterman. Sade will bring her music to Kimmel. [...]
The Panic Manual
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Diplo & Usher “Climax”
Diplo x Usher: ‘Climax’
MIXTAPE: 10ILLE – CANDY JAMS
