Psychic Friends With You
FriendsWithYou announce come out to reveal that they are actually trance-channeling shamans on a mission to heal the world one sacred stone at a time. Whether they are jumping on the hippy gem stone shamanic necklace trend or if they are devoted lightworkers matters little at this point. This is just amazing. Om mani padme hum.
| The Psychic Stone is a new sculptural concept that directly involves the collector in the creation of each individual work, imbuing both spiritual healing and self-empowerment in the process. In this experiential work, Sam and Tury are shamans, asking collectors a series of questions to decode the true want and purpose of their individually crafted stones. No two pieces are alike, as each artistically divined item contains the individual collector’s unique self-reflection and wishes encapsulated within the stone’s sacred geometry. Each fine art object is created to help bring the collector everything he or she desires in life and to provide connectivity and protection. All stones comes with a custom magical ritual created by the artists, explaining how to use and care for the stone. |
Click below.
Maxim Reality of The Prodigy DJ Tour & Mix
The first time I saw Maxim Reality DJ was on New Years Eve 2007 in Taipei at an ice skating arena called The Egg. It was a little let down that it wasn’t The Prodigy but it was still an epic time, (and then there was the time when The Prodigy did roll through town and we managed to intercept some of of them after their show and took them to an after hours but thats a whoooole other story.) So he’s not rocking the golden cat eye lenses anymore, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not still bats-hit crazy and vomiting Yardie style points at every step.
The point of this post is that he’s just announced a US tour to promote an upcoming Prodigy album for 2014. You can check out his fresh Trap/Bass mix here featuring a stack of his own edits and vocals, as well as ‘Listen Up’ a track by Toronto locals, Thugli!
MAXIM OF THE PRODIGY ON TOUR:
ft. MC Cianna Blaze
Fri 10/25 San Francisco, CA @ 1015 Folsom
Sat 10/26 Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater (FreakNight)
Sun 10/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Lure
Tues 10/29 San Diego, CA @ Voyeur
Thurs 10/31 Austin, TX @ Republic Live
Fri 11/1 Edmonton, AB @ Venue to be announced on 9th October
Sat 11/2 Los Angeles, CA @ HARD Day of the Dead
Sun 11/3 New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Festival
Blundstones F/W 2013
Rugged Australia requires rugged boots. Blundstone boots. Formerly only available in neutral tones like their Classic Black, Steel Grey or Rustic Brown, the originally steel-toed crap kickers have expanded into the two-tone territory with line definition on the soles for some extra wardrobe customization. The new features are seen mostly on the Chisel Toe models but there are some new models in their regular boot style that will give you a bit of a moon boot feel if that’s your thing.
And then there’s new dressier new Brogue Lace-ups that I can’t stop wearing, although that will probably change once snow comes around. I wouldn’t want to ruin something so perfect. You can grab yours for $239 at their Toronto location at 791 Queen St. W. Warning: Like Sorel’s and other boots, if you happen to be shopping online, you’ll want to go down a size, or even a size and a half.
Filippa K F/W 2013
Scandinavia’s Filippa K may not be as well known in Canada, but back in the frozen norths of Europe, they even have their own vintage stores. Makes sense since they’ve been around for 20 years.
This F/W Men’s season introduces a black tux and keeps with the tradition of minimalist and monochrome slinky, loose items, like this fancy merino wool toque that even fits my head.
Poppin’ tags! At the installation launch event at Klaus by Nienkamper at 300 King St E.
The F/W Women’s campaign goes off in a completely different direction with lustrous stretchy gem coloured coloured stretchy bottoms, and texture embracing tops for their signature casual elegance.
Filippa K can be found in Toronto at Contraband and Corbo Studio on Cumberland St., in Yorkville, Gravity Pope , Robber, and Dutil Denim on QueenW., Passport at the Billy Bishop Airport, and The Bay at Yonge & Bloor.
The Music of GTA V available on iTunes
Sometimes you just wanna ride. Forget about chore-like missions, turn the radio on, and just cruise the sunny, slutty streets of Los Santos. This has always been a highlight of the GTA series and Rockstar is full aware. No stops have been pulled on this year’s ten channel radio soundtrack, or score, written in collaboration by masters like DJ Shadow, The Alchemist and 80s space-rockers Tangerine Dream. And then there’s the radio station entirely curated by Brainfeeder Record’s Flying Lotus with specially released gems from his own artists like Captain Murphy or classics from Aphex Twin.
If you’ve ever wanted to cruise YOUR streets like you’re in the game, jump in the NOT stolen ride, fire this baby up, and let ‘er rippp!!! Available on iTunes for $9.99 each or as a full compilation for $24.99.
See below for some excellent content and the full track listings from the three albums available for you to purchase. Hopefully the full radio station listings will surface in an all-inclusive compilation as well… Or you can just tune into Youtube and listen to the stations here…. hah!
Volume 1: Original Music
The first volume of this compilation is a collection of brand new music from a wide array of artists including Wavves, Twin Shadow and Tyler, The Creator – along with The Chain Gang of 1974’s “Sleepwalking”, which was featured in the game’s Official Trailer.
Volume 2: The Score
GTAV is the first entry in the series to feature a dynamic original score composed and engineered to be completely responsive to the player’s actions within both missions and open world gameplay. The score was composed in a one-time collaboration between a team of legendary producers and composers including vanguard German electronic band Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson (Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire) and renowned hip-hop producers The Alchemist and Oh No. For The Music of Grand Theft Auto V: Volume 2, the stems of the game’s interactive score are layered, mixed and arranged into an album of songs by acclaimed producer and DJ, DJ Shadow.
Volume 3: The Soundtrack
The collection of music in GTAV is the biggest and most ambitious in the history of the series. Volume 3 features select songs from across the game’s unique in-game radio stations. Snippets from all 17 in-game radio stations are also now available for your listening pleasure on the Music page on the GTAV official site. Featuring tracks by Bootsy Collins, Flying Lotus, Bob Seger, Jai Paul, Toro y Moi, Waylon Jennings and more.
The Music of Grand Theft Auto V – Volume 1: Original Music
1. Oh No – Welcome To Los Santos
2. BJ The Chicago Kid – Smokin’ and Ridin’ (feat. Freddie Gibbs & Problem)
3. Twin Shadow – Old Love / New Love
4. Neon Indian – Change Of Coast
5. Wavves – Nine Is God
6. Gangrene – Bassheads
7. Flying Lotus – Stonecutters
8. HEALTH – High Pressure Dave
9. OFF! – What’s Next?
10. Tyler, The Creator – Garbage
11. Nite Jewel – Nowhere To Go
12. A$AP Rocky – r – Cali
13. Age Of Consent – Colours
14. Marion Band$ – Hold Up (feat. Nipsey Hustle)
15. 100s – Life Of A Mack
16. Favored Nations – The Set Up
17. Yeasayer – Don’t Come Close
18. The Chain Gang Of 1974 – Sleepwalking
The Music of Grand Theft Auto V – Volume 2: The Score
Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson, The Alchemist & Oh No, DJ Shadow
1. We Were Set Up
2. A Legitimate Business Man
3. A Haze Of Patriotic Fervor
4. Los Santos At Night
5. North Yankton Memories
6. The Grip
7. Mr. Trevor Philips
8. A Bit Of An Awkward Situation
9. No Happy Endings
10. His Mentor
11. (Sounds Kind Of) Fruity
12. Minor Turbulence
13. Chop The Dog
14. A Lonely Man
15. You Forget A Thousand Things
16. Impotent Rage/Am I Being Clear Now?
17. Fresh Meat
18. Therapy And Other Hobbies
19. Rich Man’s Plaything
20. The Agency Heist
21. Hillbilly Crank Dealers’ Blues
22. Welcome To Los Santos (Outro)
The Music of Grand Theft Auto V – Volume 3: The Soundtrack
1. Flying Lotus – The Kill (feat. Niki Randa)
2. Lee “Scratch” Perry – I Am a Madman
3. Jai Paul – Jasmine (Demo)
4. George McCrae – I Get Lifted
5. Kausion – What You Wanna Do
6. Charlie Feathers – Can’t Hardly Stand It
7. Weirdos – Life of Crime
8. Mexican Institute of Sound – Es Toy
9. Joe Goddard – Gabriel (Soulwax Mix) [feat.Valentina]
10. Bootsy Collins – I’d Rather Be With You
11. Bob Seger – Hollywood Nights
12. Dan Croll – From Nowhere (Baardsen Remix)
13. Problem – Say That Then (feat. Glasses Malone)
14. Waylon Jennings – I Ain’t Living Long Like This
15. Yellowman – Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
16. Simple Minds – All the Things She Said
17. Toro y Moi – Harm in Charge
18. Hot Snakes – This Mystic Decade
19. Cashmere Cat – Mirror Mau
Palladium x Richard Chai and BBC
I wasnt crazy about last years Billionaire Boys Club and Sk8Thing’s collaboration with Palladium. I felt it did an alright job of highligthing the two brands but I didnt feel like it really brought anything very new or special to the table, but that’s not stopping them from renewing the series.
However, I think that this 2013 season’s revision of the Richard Chai Pampa Tactical and Pampa Hi are pushing innovation and design to another level not seen in Palladium before. Check out the spacey Air Yeezy-esque space boots below.
GTA V – Swagggin
Got a call from Purolater yesterday. So did my neighbour across the hall. Turns out we both got awesome packages. His was a new iMac. Mine was a review copy of GTA V from Rockstar North. We had a quick moment debating who’s package was cooler, and it’s possible that he won, but I know that the Purolator guy was on my side. He seemed to be just as psyched as we were for our deliveries.
I know it seems weird to write a post just on the swag that comes with GTA V, but Rockstar have consistently delivered exceptional and out-of-the-box promotional merch with their review copies. Red Dead Redemption came with Western style black tar soap a deck of game-themed cards and dice wrapped in a leather case for chrissake. With a $300 million plus budget on GTA V, my standards were high, and those mad scotsmen did not disappoint.
Follow below what’s in the box, featuring what I can only imagine are tokens and trinkets that refer to items in the game that I haven’t encountered yet.
High quality stickers from all your favourite in game brands!
And stickers of your favourite characters… of course!
I have yet to reach a point in the game where this comes up, but you never know when you’ll need a GTA V branded cobalt magnet.
BugStars fumigator truck, with light up LED GTA V logo/flashlight
Requisite gamer tee – San Andreas Federal Reserve. Nice teal colour.
“Look alive Simpson! I’m not paying you to gold brick!” 2 Gb gold bar usb stick.
Haven’t figured out yet if this is a bullet-shaped rape whistle or dog whistle. I’m going to go with dog whistle…..
Soapy smelly Benjamin car dangler. Fine print reads “Purveyors of bullshit since 1776”
Oh yeah, and there’s a game in there too!
Heineken #Draughted: Perfect Pour Event
What makes a Heineken pint a Heineken? Is it its crisp flavour, golden colour, or something absolutely different? If you guessed other, then you’re right. Heineken likes to tout their foamy 3 cm high dome lid is the key distinguishing feature that separates its self from all other brews.
Thanks to Heineken Global Ambassador, Franck, I learned the finer points and merits of keeping your ‘head’ on when it comes to drinking beer. You see, the real reason for keeping a head, or foam, on the pint is to keep your drink cold. CO2 is formed through an endothermic reaction, causing a massive cold snap in the environment, dropping it to -35 C. While a lot of that is released into the environment, it’s a good start at cooling your bevvy.
Foam dome meet Franck’s shiny dome. Coincidence? Helps to get the job if you look like your product!
A good layer of head is also going to protect your beer from oxidizing and thus, going flat. While head should only last 10-15 minutes, Franck demonstrated some no-nos for restoring it like adding salt, clinking the top of the pint glass heavily with another pint to shake it up (never seen that one), or decanting the beer from one glass to another (seems a bit silly, definitely never ever seen this done .) While learning about the finer points of foam was enlightening, I think the most important thing that I learned was after the talk chatting with Franck about the finer points of the standard smallish 330 Ml pint glasses (pintjes) they serve in Holland, Belgium and other parts of Europe. The reason for smaller glasses is to preserve the quality of the head, and so that you’re done your beer before it goes stale. Of course! European efficiency all the way!
Some interesting facts about Franck. He claims to have served at the bar where the 90s hit ‘meme’ song, “Who The Fuck Is Alice” was born and claimes he was partially responsible for writing it. Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual wiki stub below. While he’s not gallivanting around the world teaching bartenders and wannabes like myself how to pour the perfect shiny Star pint , he also teaches tennis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gompie
The song “Living Next Door to Alice” was listened to on a regular basis in café Gompie in Nijmegen. When the name “Alice” had passed, it was common for the disk jockey Onno Pelser to turn the volume down and the entire café would scream “Alice, who the fuck is Alice?”. Rob Peters, director of a record company, happened to visit café Gompie one evening and witnessed this show. He approached his friend, the singer Peter Koelewijn, and one day later the song was recorded. Gompie was chosen for the artist name.
The single became a hit in the Benelux and 80 other countries. In the United Kingdom and the United States, a censored version was released with the name “Alice, who the bleep is Alice?”. This charted in Britain (though was less popular than Smokie’s own re-recording of the track with Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown) but made no impact in the US.
You can guess what we went home with…..
Laser engraving was available to personalize your Heineken pintjes!
Heisenberg LIVES!
Rural Quebec music festival FME is one of Canada’s best – AUX.TV
Photo by Nick Kozak
September 10, 2013 Jesse Ship
It’s 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning at a dive bar in northern Quebec, and an aging husband and wife local cover band are belting out frenchified versions of pop and disco songs to a crowd of a hundred raging Quebecois indie rock fans. Someone starts crowd surfing, later on, a conga line forms. Around the indie rock kids, men in their 70s pour quilles, (narrow-necked 710 ml bottles) of forgotten O’Keefe beer into tiny glasses while others play video lottery or darts. While not officially licensed or part of the festival, Le Bar Des Chums and the Duo Express are the heart and soul of the Festival De Musique Émergeante (FME).
Welcome to the sleepy copper mining town of Rouyn-Noranda, home to the late-summer festival FME, now in it’s 11th year, presented proudly by pink poodles howling at the moon. The town was founded in the 1920s thanks to the discovery of the massive metal deposits. In the ‘50s, the city’s musical traction reached its peak, becoming a popular destination for bands on the Rockabilly circuit, attracting even more attention than Montreal. But, as it does, the mining boom went bust, and now music lovers are lucky to get a handful of metal bands to play their stages, overlooked by the Horne smelter, a relic of the past, but still the largest processor of copper and electronic scrap metal in the world. Enter the minds behind the FME.
Founded by a group of 20-something musically deprived friends, Sandy Boutin, Jenny Thibault, Claude Fortin, and Matthieu Arcand weren’t satisfied with the almost exclusively abrasive rock bands that came into town, and were frustrated with driving seven hours to Montreal to see bands that actually mattered to them.
“The first year was very small, we had only 22 bands in five venues, but our direction was good so we were able to repeat it and add a few more shows for the next year,” Boutin says.
“Our reasons for creating the festival were very selfish,” say Fortin, another of the co-founders. “We just wanted to bring bands to Rouyn-Noranda and have a great party. Each time, we had to choose based on whether we had the money to do it well, even when it came to making posters. If it wasn’t possible, we’d drop the idea.”
Over the 10 years, the festival has become a platform for industry showcases for up-and-coming bands to release new material and to test out audiences of fans and French label reps both Canadian and European. The hospitable organizers keep their VIPs busy with corn shucking harvest parties (just another excuse to drink the sponsored Boreal beer) along with numerous cinq a septs—yes, more drinking. You arrive ready to adjust your eardrums to a throaty Quebecois jouale—I found myself slightly disappointed with the easily understood accent of the region, mild like the soft poutine curds of poutinerie/diner Chez Morasse, a local institution.
Thanks to the FME, Rouyn-Noranda has become a cultural hot spot in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region. Limited passes for the festival are sold at $125 a pop and this year sold out in six minutes. You won’t see Jay-Z or The White Stripes but if you’re clued into the Quebecois music scene, electro-funk jam bands like Montreal’s Misteur Valaire, instrumental post-rock band Pawa Up First, or the radio-friendly pop artist Alex Nevsky may suffice. Feist even played a free open-air concert last year for their 10th anniversary, as did Patrick Watson.
Headliners this year included 90s alt-shoegazer band Blonde Redhead, and similarly tuned Suuns, but bringing in big name artists isn’t really the point. FME’s focus, and the cultural funding that keeps the fest going, is restricted to the ‘emerging’ aspect—keeping the tone limited and intimate. (Or as intimate as you can get with 23,000 guests and a dozen-odd small-scale venues like the Agora Des Arts, a converted church-turned-steam bath on summer nights, and homey pubs like the Cabaret du Dernier Chance and Le Diable Rond.)
But there’s also the counterpoint that the Quebec government has a vested interest in nurturing its talent but keeping it put. It is indeed rare for French-speaking bands to leave the fray of La Belle Province.
“I would say that that has something to do with the micro-culture that exists in Quebec,” says Max Henry, bassist and keyboardist of Montreal post-rock band Suuns, “and the grant system. There’s a financial incentive for local bands to play small towns. For us [as an Anglo band on a US label] it’s really helpful to play these kinds of gigs and go places we would normally never go to, but I think for some, it’s become a crutch. Some bands get stuck in Quebec or get really, really popular in Quebec but nowhere else.”
As a newcomer to the Quebecois music scene, what I witnessed didn’t reflect any agenda; instead I saw an immense amount of talent and passion emerging from the French-speaking region, and an equal amount of love and adoration from attendees. It’s a shame that the bands showcase at FME largely aren’t taking the initiative to make trips to nearby cities like Toronto, or even the U.S. The language of music is a universal one that all should take advantage of.
Zedd Talks Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP, Skrillex And How All EDM ‘Sounds The Same’
HuffPost Canada Music | By Jesse ShipPosted: 09/12/2013 11:31 am EDT | Updated: 09/12/2013 6:13 pm EDT
“99.9 per cent of the EDM scene sucks” was breakthrough DJ/producer Zedd’s opening line in his first message to Skrillex, via Myspace in 2011. And he agrees, it still does.
“It all sounds the same, it’s just switched a little bit. If you look at the Beatport Top 100 Electro-House tracks, 60 will all have the exact same snare sample on the four, and the same synths playing triplets over distorted kicks, because people that make that kind of music aren’t musicians, they’re people who bought a laptop and read on the Internet how to make sounds come out of your speakers.”
Strong words from what some consider still an upstart, although this young’un, former drummer of German metal band Dioramic, has been commissioned by Lady Gaga to produce a number of songs on her new album “ARTPOP,” has sold beats to Justin Bieber (“Beauty and a Beat”) and performed remixes for The Black Eyed Peas (“Dirty Bit”).
“Everything sounded the same and immature. It was all about sounds, not about music and emotion. When I heard Skrillex, I thought he was the opposite. He used the tools that electronic music artists use but he’s so much smarter than them because he was making actual music.”
The two had a lot to connect on, especially since Skrillex was also in a metal band himself. “I could tell that there was some thought in the song, he wasn’t just experimenting with sounds.”
But while Skrillex has had his fair share of remixes and opportunities it seems like the student may have surpassed the mentor with his chance to take a stab at a number of tracks on the Lady Gaga album.
“I’m honoured to work with her. I mentioned that to the label a year or so ago that it would be a dream of mine to one day produce a song for her [rather than just a remix], and they told me it was going to happen but I thought it might just be the kind of thing a label would say to an up-and-coming producer to motivate them.”
Zedd remained tight-lipped when asked to comment on any of the songs but he can confirm that “she’s a true artist that believes in her music, not something that a label created to sell. It’s more appealing to work with someone who wants to do something new rather than make a hit, but you can do both.”
Zedd’s “Clarity” album receives the Deluxe Edition facelift September 24, with a new song “Stay The Night” from Paramore’s Hayley Williams. In a time when most artists will release an EP with a few tunes and a couple remixes, Zedd claims he doesn’t like them.
“I never considered an EP, but I did consider writing a full-length album, but it would have taken another year. I didn’t want to let my fans wait that long, so Interscope and myself thought this was the smartest move. We feel a lot of songs on the album deserve more attention.”
Maybe it’s his traditional rock music roots that deny the quick fix of an EP release, but whether it’s extra attention or extra dollars, you’d be hard pressed to find any fans that tell you that it “sucks.”
Zedd’s tour kicks off in Toronto on Sept 12 and continues through to December. For full tour dates click here.
