Blue Cat Crap – Gary Taxali
As if there weren’t enough cats on the internet, now you can frame them on your walls too with Gary Taxali’s Blue Cat Crap. Comes with a free box of fries… and kitty litter. Ok, not really. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can skip over to my interview with the man from my Format Mag days where he dishes helpful advice on creating your own vinyl toy sculpture from start to finish.
Li’l Pooh
I got an email from this rapper named Li’l Pooh today, possibly one of the most awkwardly named guys in the rap game. The message he sent me only had a link to a cover he did of Trinidad James’s “All Gold Everything” but the video content was pretty dull, just a static shot of him posin’ all gangster like, so I did a Youtube search and found this instead. I don’t think it’s the same guy but I figured this was a bit more entertaining. I hope Lil Poo of Santa Fe is holdin tight in max min. pen. and gets off his 15-30 year burglary charges early for good behaviour. We’re waitin’ for ya li’l homie!
Dreamgirl Whatever – Debut show
Check out some footage from Dreamgirl Whatever’s debut show at El Rancho Relaxo in Toronto. This is one of a couple projects started by singer and composer Nicole Simone (aka Miss Late July) and Dusseldorf-based producer and remixer Nico Vetter, who’s just 22! The two got in touch through another band, Mystery Skulls, and have yet to meet (not even Skyped!), but that could change soon.
There’s an undeniable guilty ‘electro-pop’ pleasure quality to the tunes and while they’ve really just begun, there has been some interest from some high level people (Ellie Goulding’s management) according to rumours but it’s really too soon to say where the wind might take these day dream believers. Tuesday’s show featured Bart Bret Simpson on guitars.
Check out their full EP below, and make your way to the website for some tumblr-esque fun.
Afrojack: Bleep Right And Work With Michael Jackson And Chris Brown – Huffington Post
The Dutch producer mostly wants to make sure everyone he knows gets treated well.
“Take good care of the people around you, take care of the people around you, take care of your friends, and always take care of your principles,” Afrojack tells Huffington Post Music Canada. “That’s the most important thing, because if you don’t, you’re a dick!”
Raised in Spijkenisse, a suburb of Rotterdam in Holland, he’s been able to take the values he grew up with on the professional road.
“The most important thing is you’re doing what makes you happy and the next day you can look at yourself in the mirror and be proud of yourself and not think, ‘yeah, I fucked that guy over, I’m an asshole,'” says the man known on his passport as Nick van de Wall. “Because you will never be happy. You will never be happy if you fuck people over, because you will know that you made yourself by fucking people over.”
While good business ethic is refreshing and important in any industry, Afrojack’s musical integrity has come under fire, mostly through a radio ad spoof where cuts of his signature repetitive bleeps are played over and over, each as a separate song.
“That’s my thing,” he argues, taking the jab in full stride.
“Some people always wear red shoes, I always put a bleep in my songs,” says Afrojack, who covered former special friend Paris Hilton’s music with his bleeps. “But you can’t just make a song and bleep it the fuck out, you need a good buildup, and the bleep has to come from an unexpected corner.”
And hey, it’s true. A signature sound is what will get you recognized at the end of the day. And it’s not like he doesn’t semi-secretly work with megastars on the side. It’s perhaps a lesser known fact that he produced “Look At Me Now” for Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes, as well as “Pon De Floor” for Major Lazer. And his latest remix had him approached by the Michael Jackson Foundation to put his touch on “Bad.”
It was both a thrilling and chilling experience.
“I was thinking, ‘Are you sure you’re talking to the right guy?’ I’ve been making music professionally for the last five years and you want me to remix the biggest legend of pop music? Yeah. It was weird and scary, but you can’t say no. If Michael Jackson were still here and he asked you to moon walk, you have to say yes.”
Featured on SAM Artist MGMT
Shipwrck’d was featured last week on SAM Artist’s Management blog for my writeup on Dirty Radio! SAM also reps Canadian pop acts like Fake Shark Real Zombie, Mariana’s Trench, and… CARLY RAE JEPSEN! When I’m famous, I’ll call you … maybe.
Dirty Radio @ Supermarket
I was introduced to Vancouver’s Dirty Radio last night thanks to the good people at DMD/Strongsongs. They’re on an Ontario tour with Dragonette right now but they did this one off gig since there was time in between shows.
The video above, “Found You” was directed and produced by Michael Columbu, of The Weeknd’s “The Knowing” video, fame. Apparently he was supposed to meet the Dirty Radio guys but was held up at the BC/Washington border since customs suspected his biz might not just be pleasure related after skimming through his laptop, so they rushed to meet him for 3 hours while Columbu snapped some green screen shots to use for the vid.
I see a lot of potential going for them with high calibre music video support, incredibly tight musicianship and a solid blend of pop and future r&b stylings. They’ve recently released an actual mixe cassette (released on iTunes & an actual hard copy tape) with support from Sherry St. Germain, Ryan Dahle (Limblifter, The Age of Electric), and Marlow Holder (Kinnie Star) which I can’t wait to hear to satisfy my 90s Edgefest loving inner child. The “Cinema” cover came outta nowhere, so I couldn’t resist taking a vid. I’ve had a guilty pleasure/soft spot for the song thanks to prepping for my Benny Benassi interview last October (on Spinner), and the remixes featured on the Forza: Horizon soundtrack.
Lee’s Palace and Horseshoe say g’bye to Ticketmaster – BlogTO
With Collective Concerts inking a deal with Ticketfly the newly arrived American online ticketing giant, two key Toronto venues, Lee’s Palace and The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, both run by Collective Concerts, will be saying g’bye to the dated Ticketmaster sales system.
What’s Ticketfly you might ask? Well, it’s basically an online ticket sales platform that empowers event promoters with social media services, sales outlets, analytics, microsites and a bunch of other handy features.
Apparently Jeff Cohen of Collective Concerts has been eager to move since he met the Ticketfly crew at SXSW almost two years ago.
“Jeff learned that a bunch of his contemporaries in the US were using the platform,” CEO Andrew Dreskin told me from their annual FlyCon in San Francisco “and it was seen as the most progressive and forward thinking one. He fell in love with the technology and said to us, ‘You know what? You’re not in Canada yet, but I don’t care, I like you. We’re going to make a deal.’ And that’s literally how it went down.”
Since the boom in EDM (yes, I hate the term as much as the rest of you, so don’t get me started) festivals, Ticketfly has seen some very interesting stats in neon-slathered show goers. Apparently they tyically buy single tickets, rather than in pairs, and they are three times more likely to buy via Facebook mobile than other genres. No surprise there as fits perfectly with the “digital” nature of the beats. With all the social media bells and whistles in Ticketfly, Facebook will let you know what shows all the “cool kids” in your friends list are going to.
Also on board are Inertia Entertainment, Ontario’s largest heavy metal promoters and Union Events, (who in recent years have acquired Toronto’s REMG) and rank #48 worldwide as event promoters according to Pollstar.
Dreskin is no stranger to the live concert experiences. Along with creating Ticketweb, one of the very first online ticket sales services back in 1995, he’s also responsible for bringing VirginFest to North America which is still going strong, unlike the dearly departed Toronto edition.
Along with a high level of social media and digital integration, Ticketfly claims to have lower service charge fees, making enjoying shows easier on our wallets too. But listen up, Ticketfly is expanding, so if you’re a show promoter or booker, you might want to take a click and see what all the buzz is about.
For more on Ticketfly’s arrival in Canada, check out this video.
SPEAK Easy & Dana Coppafeel – One Of These Kids
The only things that I know about Milwaukee are what Alice Cooper and Wayne Campbell taught me in Wayne’s World and that my writer friend Kelli Korducki is apparently from there. This one’s for you, Kel! Congrats on your Canajianship ;)
“Milwaukee emcees SPEAK Easy and Dana Coopafeel drop the video for the single “One of These Kids”, featuring Prophetic of UMG and produced by Da Ricanstrukta –off the 2013 EP “Uni.Fi Records Presents…Dana Coppafeel and SPEAK Easy.” SPEAK Easy, known for his soulful, conscious lyrics and Dana Coppafeel, a wise cracking emcee, are an unlikely pair, but that’s what make the project so compelling.
The two artists are both on Uni.Fi Records, a Milwaukee label that was founded in 2004. Next year, the two will release head-nodding seven-track ride that is as much about musicality and instrumentation as it is about lyricism and style.
The unusual partnership has been a boundary-pusher for both rappers; and the especially-collaborative process, that engaged national and local artists, musicians and producers, has added a new dimension to their sound as well.”
Underworld – Rez (Bassnectar Remix)
Lorin Bassnectar’s become a phenomenon in the North American dubstep scene but with mass appeal comes some degree of placating the masses and uninitiated with generic sounds. I’m glad he’s come to this Rez remix though. It’s a return to his sounds that first captivated me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the tune’s made it into some of his earlier sets under the radar, so I’m glad he’s come to some kind of agreement with the EDM underworld, ha ha ha……
Chris Harper’s PHARMACY – BlogTO
Owner and sole staff member, Chris Harper, is a bit of a legend in Toronto’s west-end bar scene, having worked the taps for over a decade starting as the Communist Daughter’s very first hire, to general manager at Sweaty Betty’s, Red Light and plenty others. And oh yeah, he also co-owned and even named a little place you might have heard of called Wrongbar. After a few years wandering in the metaphoric wilderness, Chris is back — taken in by the unlikely neighborhood’s charms.
“I went for a walk one day down Cowan, saw this vacant pharmacy store front for rent, and thought it was cool,” he tells me. After sitting on it for six months he figured, “Oh fuck it, I’ll just do it. There was a mad scramble to secure the spot and the Ukrainian landlord thinks I’m crazy but he still likes me.”
Approaching the bar, my taste buds leapt as I saw the new Mill St. Vanilla Porter ($6) on tap, which I’d been told tastes like Toblerone chocolate, but sadly, they had just ran out, so I settled on a mellow and hoppy Junction Conductor’s Ale ($7). Pharmacy aims to bring a cornucopia of craft beers (ranging $6-$13) with bottles of Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, seasonal Beau’s like their Vassar Heirloom Ale, and another Jamaican favourite, Dragon Stout. Wine drinkers can also cheers as one of Harper’s pet peeves is the lousy house wine selection at bars of Pharmacy’s ilk. Instead, he’s keeping well informed on LCBO trends and will not settle for anything less than above average. Currently on shelves, I spied a bottle of Bodegas Castaño.
Along with a well stocked spirits, bourbon and scotch list list, Harper hopes to bring in a home made vodka from Prince Edward County (real hooch?) and a menu of rustic bar foods. If you’ve got a hankering for pickled beets, herring, apples, cabbage, or celery, there’s a good chance he’ll have it. He’s also had some mini pies and tourtieres from his friends at Woodlot.
But at the end of the day, it’s really just a bar. “I don’t have any DJs, TVs or video games. You can come and sit down; it’s not too loud. I love this neighborhood and the people coming in. People are more appreciative than I expected. I was worried about Nicky’s Pizza Bar next door, which serves a purpose [as an actual dive bar] but it’s working out OK.” He’s even managed to make peace with local street dealers.
For the time being, it’s a neighborhood spot for catching up with friends surrounded by funky furniture. And with a maximum occupancy of 30, it will be hard to be anything more than that (though a patio might eventually be possible). While Dundas and Ossington’s Communist Daughter was once considered the world’s end, Pharmacy could soon take its place, as the student has now surpassed the master!
Additional Details
- BEERS ON TAP:
- Mill St. Cobblestone Stout, Mill St. Stock Ale, Mill St. Vanilla Porter, Beaus Lugtread, Junction Craft Brewery Conductor’s Ale
- SIGNATURE DRINK:
- none yet
- BAR SNACKS:
- pickled veggies, tourtieres from Woodlot
- PATIO:
- No
- MUSIC/GENRE:
- Indie music from someone’s iPod
- LIVE MUSIC:
- No
- WHO GOES THERE:
- Locals looking for something more than a dive, creative industry folk
- HOURS:
- 8pm – close, seven days a week
