Soulsavers - The Light That the Dead See Album Review

Soulsavers, the always wonderful British electronica duo, released their fourth album, “The Light That the Dead See” on May 22^nd, via V2 Records. The album is a dark romance of earthy guitars, ambient sounds and the beautiful voice of Dave Gahan from long time collaborating band, Depeche Mode. Gahan’s sweet melodies persist throughout the entire album as a guest vocalist.

Soulsavers has been around since 2000, but really exploded into the mainstream scene in 2007, with their song “Revival” being featured on “Grey’s Anatomy.” However, just recently the group has decided to move their sound away from something initially electronically heavy, to a more organic, string and percussion approach. This new direction is helped greatly with David Gahan’s accompaniment.  Gahan’s is a voice that goes between smooth and harsh as easily as water to ice and it fits perfectly in the album’s lush, atmospheric production by switching up the overall mood of each song.

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Del Bel @ Théâtre St Catherine

     Taking on Montreal twice in a matter of three days, Del Bel played at the humble Théâtre St Catherine on their East Coast Canada tour. The band followed up troupes of comedians on the second night of the seventh annual Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival. I’ll start by saying they played a few nights prior at Divan Orange, another Montreal music venue, it’s a small intimate space and it’s great for bands in this vein. While I missed that show, I was excited to check them out at Théâtre St Catherine because it’s a place I’ve never been and new venues are always fun. With a quick Google mapping and a windy walk through riot police and rowdy protesters to get there due to the recent law passed in Quebec, I made it! I was surprised to see one of the smallest venues I’ve ever been to. To give you an idea, it was set up and sized no bigger than a high school classroom. The crowd for the comedy show was already a small number, which dwindled down even more so as the band set up afterwards. It was only me and a few other people, some who seem to be good friends with the band or comedians staying for the show. This was the most intimate concert experience I’ve ever had and it in no way stopped new band Del Bel from putting on an amazing, enthusiastic performance.

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Liars Announce Tour Dates and New Album Information

Liars’ upcoming release, WIXIW will be available on June 5th, 2012 and the band will be touring this summer. Tickets went on sale May 11th.

“No. 1 Against The Rush”is available on 12” and digital download on May 29th preceding the 11-track album, WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”), out June 5th, 2012. The single will feature remixes of the title track from Vince Clarke and Matmos plus an exclusive b-side, “We’ll Never Learn." This exclusive remix is by People Get Ready, and will unavailable elsewhere.

WIXIW is Liars’ sixth studio album and the follow up to 2010’s critically lauded Sisterworld. The album will be available on CD, deluxe vinyl (with CD) and limited edition vinyl with silk-screened embossed covers hand dipped in black wax by the band. Pre-order is available here where you can see images of the limited edition run being produced.

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Jon and Roy - "Let It Go" Album Review

Victoria's folk-rock band Jon and Roy are releasing their 4th full length album Let It Go on June 12.  Their newest album features 10 original tracks including their first single "Vibrant Scene".  Jon and Roy have released four other albums to date and have played gigs with bands such as Mother Mother and Hannah Georgas.  Jon and Roy have played the folk festival circuit here in Canada and have toured across the UK and Canada. 

Let it Go is described as the perfect summer playlist, and lives up to this description.  The songs were inspired from a sense of freedom, breaking constraints and expectations.  The outcome is a laidback album with catchy rhythms and smooth vocals that still remains unique and diverse.  It creates the perfect vibe for relaxing on your porch during a beautiful summer's night. 

The album begins with a welcoming, country sound in "Mountain Town".  This song perfectly eases you into the album with its smooth rhythm and toe-tapping beat.  "Vibrant Scene", the first single, is considerably more upbeat with repetitive lyrics begging you to sing along.  "Let It Go", the title track, starts with a heavy kick of percussion but is not overcrowded with instruments.

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Sigur Rós - Valtari Review

    Icelandic musicians Sigur Rós released their first album fifteen -- yes, fifteen --  years ago, and they’ve been making music steadily ever since. Their next full length, Valtari, will be released on Monday.

     Sigur Rós, when I first started actively seeking out music, was instantly on high rotation. In my younger years, their singing in “Hopelandish,” a made-up language (or no language at all, depending upon how you look at it), was compelling in itself. Although it is often the case that, when listening to non-classical music, a song’s lyrics have the greatest impact on me, Sigur Rós’ music subverts that linguistic prejudice of mine and allows me to appreciate pure sound. Without words, I think, music is more open to interpretation. And, I propose, such ambiguity is a richness. Sigur Rós creates a mood, not a singular meaning: their music is all the more universal, and perhaps affectively powerful, because of it. Although one might argue that listening to music in any foreign language has the same effect, I would have to disagree; Sigur Rós makes a conscious, artistic choice, and this lends a dimension to the work that it would not otherwise have.

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New Videos This Week: Liars, Meredith Shaw, Phedre and more...

Happy weekend everyone!

We've got an awesome list of new videos for you to check out this week. Which ones will be your new summer jams? Let us know in the comments.

Alright, enough shameless baiting. Let's get to it..

Cold Specks - Blank Maps

This video has been out for a while, but Cold Specks' new album, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, just came out on Tuesday. I haven't heard anything else yet, but if the record is as beautiful as "Blank Maps", it could be my new rainy afternoon playlist. New Adele, anyone?

Young Liars - Colours

We previewed Young Liars' new single, "Colours", on here a little while ago and they just released the new video. Directed by Amazing Factory Productions, the same group that did We Are The City's album-length music video last year, it's a nice little indie-pop-rock video, complete with said 'colours' ink-blot style.

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Walk Off the Earth Cover "Polly", Continue Youtube Domination

    Burlington, ON’s Walk Off the Earth are now the official title holders of Youtube’s most popular cover song ever posted to the site. Aided in no small part by a hugely viewed performance of the song on the Ellen Degeneres Show earlier this year, the Gotye cover featuring all five WOTE band members on one guitar has now passed the 100 million view mark. So, basically, if you haven’t already checked out the viral sensation that is WOTE’s cover of Gotye’s (ft. Kimbra) hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”, you’re pretty much in the minority.

    Building on their viral success, the band has released a new cover song (in addition to the dozens of others you can find online featuring their signature clever arrangements), this time paying tribute to Nirvana’s “Polly”. Available for purchase on iTunes now (their “Somebody That I Used to Know” cover single
is already certified platinum in Canada and has sold over 165,000 copies in the US), their "Polly" video has already reached over 1 million views on Youtube.

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