A/VISION 3 Worst AND Best..

Now first of all, in this business partnership (Me and Duncan) I’m not the wire head.  Although I like house music, electronica and Cafe Del Mar style lounge, I have never been one for the more experimental sounds of the sub-genre world of  minimal noise, so take my review with the required grains of salt.

At first, I was confused and was wondering if the opening shows (WOMEN WITH KITCHENS & TRISTAN PERICH) were part of MUTEK’S sort of perma installations in @ the S.A.T?! Nothing to write home about here :/ (no offense to the artists) but this pretentious overly minimal hipster shizit is really not my thing and I honestly didn’t see too many happy faces (many stoned ones) in the crowds of those who truly appreciate this “genre”! I mayhave had had a more meaningful experience, hitting my iphone on the side of my head to traffic lights!

I’m no expert in what I think is called: Glitch, Noise or industrial sound collages, but I do know it was hard to tell the difference between those first 2 acts which is probably a sign that the productions were not very unique..  I have no idea what I was experiencing in terms of mediums but I can tell you how it felt! It felt like I was staring at a broken TV looping between it’s half channels and hearing a screwed up radio signal on a country road.  I would have had to be high out of my tree to enjoy this realistically and even then I may have had a more meaningful time hitting my iphone on the side of my head to the  traffic light tempo outside!

So that’s the bad part of my night. I don’t think my business partner who is VERY into electronic music was happy either.. judging from his immediate solution to go get a drink at the bar within seconds of the show! There, so now that I got that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff…  In this case, the hard work of enduring the opening acts came with a very fruitful reward called SCULPTURE

Since Amon Tobin was nothing new for me, I wanted to check out a show that was. SCULPTURE was all that MUTEK promises to be. Original, cutting edge, mind warping multi-media. The synchronization of visual medium to audio was nothing short of genius. The technique alone was this, best described below in this MUTEK showcase:

home-made zoetropic discs – slabs of vinyl illustrated with otherworldly patterns that they play at various speeds and film to create simultaneous cycles of analogue sound and looping, mind-melting imagery.

Every single audio piece was a match made in heaven for the multi-screen visual. The most enjoyable example of this, I felt, was when very basic star shapes were slowly appearing on the screens (The ones made with 1 solid line which have very wide points, typical of star tats) as soon as we started seeing these slowly spin into frame, a super pleasant and lullabye-esque chime was being mixed into very hard beats. Almost like Tinkerbelle meets drum & bass. Very cool. VERY. COOL.

What I really liked about this show, was that even though the music was by proper definition probably Experimental, there was method in this madness, some kind of journey in this chaos. If you missed this truly brilliant display of mesmerizing multimedia , I invite you to experience a small taste of it here:

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M for Montreal: Priestess
Priestess at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

Priestess at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

Montreal’s own Priestess might have been a confusing addition to the lineup for some of the audience at Saturday’s M for Montreal. Sandwiched between local indie rockers The Dears and boisterous showmen Misteur Valaire, Priestess repped the metal contingent, and though they sounded like nothing else on the menu, they kept the energy high and the volume higher. Certainly the heaviest set to hit an M for Montreal show since they and Voivod rocked M on the Quays in September.

Not to be confused with American drone-metal purveyors Baroness (or Dutch black metal nightmare Countess), Priestess has a weed-fueled sound that’s firmly rooted in Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Deep Purple and other bands your parents listened to in dank, wood-paneled basements long ago. But Priestess aren’t content to ape the past; they’re also aiming for the same metal crowd who groove on the prog-inspired brutality of latter-day greats like Mastodon and Opeth.

Lead throat Mikey Heppner is capable, but it’s the increasingly virtuoso playing that really sells Priestess. Their 2009 album ‘Prior to the Fire’ gave us the first hints of reaching in a prog-influenced direction, and their set at M for Montreal showboated this love for dazzling guitar solos and complex rock rhythms building into songs of cosmic proportions.

Did the crowd buy it? I know I did. If the impromptu mosh pit was any indication, bursting from the relatively sedate crowd like agents of a sleeper cell, then Priestess did their dark job and more. You could almost hear the snapping of synapses as indie-kids’ minds were blown.

It’s always great to see a metal act on the bill at a show like M for Montreal. It’s a genre often shafted by festivals, despite its pedigree in the province (in addition to Priestess and the aforementioned Voivod, this region also gave us Cryptopsy, Martyr and many more excellent acts). You don’t even have to be high to enjoy Priestess, although the smell of the smoke will dull the scent of the beer in your hair and the pain of your bloody nose. Raise the horns.

M for/pour Montreal: Misteur Valaire

M for/pour Montreal Highlights: Misteur Valaire

Misteur Valaire at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

Misteur Valaire at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

Montréal’s own Misteur Valaire played M for Montreal at the Saturday night event at Metropolis, and now let’s get one cliché out of the way: If you haven’t heard Mister Valaire live, then you haven’t heard them at all. As good as their albums are, successfully fusing electro-rock (reminiscent of Justice and Hot Chip) with hip-hop and jazz notes, no recording can prepare you for their live show with all of its brain-hammering bass and infectious youthful energy. This multi-instrumentalist, five-man group comes on identically costumed like something from “A Clockwork Orange”, and their approach is just as explosively theatrical as anything you’ll see in a movie.

Misteur Valaire aren’t out to convey a message. They’re all about fun, and everything they bring onstage, from projections of cheesy ’60s beach movies to mid-set costume changes to impromptu synchronized dance routines, is intended to keep the energy high. But it’s not all glitz — their antics support and enhance the music, which, to the band’s great credit, keeps both the body moving and the brain sparking. In contrast to the sampled iMac sterility that often hamstrings such dance-rock efforts, Misteur Valaire‘s tunes are alive — sonically layered and complex, bursting with live trumpet and saxophone and a wonderfully grimy bass guitar / keyboard combo. You can dance to this music, hell yes you can, but you can also listen to it.

Misteur Valaire‘s press credits an “academic jazz” background as the foundation for their music, and you can hear the organic flow of jazz, if not jazz instruments, in every song. Their infrequent hip-hop stylings (complete with perhaps-ironic costumes including sunglasses and sleazy Trilby hats) are an easy meld with the powerful percussion of their mostly midtempo melodies. Their bilingual lyrics are limited to the usual self-aggrandizing party themes, but what else would you expect from a band that’s redefining party music with every blast of bass?

M for/pour Montreal: Pascale Picard
Pascale Picard at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

Pascale Picard at M for Montreal, November 20, 2010

M for/pour Montreal: Pascale Picard

With a platinum-selling album and opening slots for Paul McCartney behind them, Québec City’s Pascale Picard Band is already a name brand to Canadian listeners. Both critics and audiences agree that Pascale and her sound both captivate the mainstream and transcend it.

Pascale Picard‘s smooth voice combines with catchy pop-folk hooks and lyrics focused upon frank dissections of life events and relationship drama. Undertones of blues and electronic and occasional explosions of rock help to fill out Picard’s sound, keeping the group from being easily pigeonholed despite their conventional pop structures. There’s just a lot of plain old good songwriting going on from the band, not to mention a hell of a lot of charisma from Pascale herself.

The title of Pascale’s 2007 album, “Me, Myself & Us”, conveys the introspective themes of her music. While at times still falling prey to the same kind of banal metaphor that drags down so much radio pop, Pascale manages to keep her lyrics personal, detailing specific instances from her life, or at least the life of the song’s persona. It’s occasionally awkward — as awkward as our own interior monologues — and that’s the whole appeal. A diversity of emotions and conflicts haunts every song, as layered and finely-shaded as the melodies behind them.

On album, Pascale occasionally lets rip with foul-mouthed invective that would impress Alanis Morrissette at her meanest, but onstage at M for Montreal last night, she and her band were all smiles and positive energy. Her brief stage banter pleased the Francophone audience while her lyrics, as on album, were in English. She and her band pulled off the performance without a hitch. Pascale’s voice sounded as rich and sweet as ever, though, at least to this listener’s ears, curiously more girlish and bubblegum than the mature alt-rocker voice she employs on album. The group brought energy and warmth to even the more sedate songs in their repertoire and, like so many acts at M for Montreal, left us howling for more after their short set was complete.
It’s been three years since “Me, Myself & Us” — we can only hope they’ve got another one on the way, and soon.

Splashes from the Xmas Wave!

Hi guys,  this will be our last wave until the first week of January so merry Xmas and a Happy New year!

Generally Andre is the ultimate vid candy hunter and then we pick from the prey pile – but he is in Cali hopefully soaking up sun rays and hanging out in some real waves! So we did our best to pick your Xmas Edition.

Kef Muon – sound reactive installation – Santa how cool is this?!

Lady Gaga – Speechless Royal Variety Performance – pitch perfect.

Pointer Sisters famous Pinball song from Sesame Street –  NUF SAID

Jingle Bells Performed by U900, a Japanese Ukulele Duo :)

web truffles brought to you you by Fresher*
& BandMark :)

Splashes from the cool wave!

Well we’re back on another Friday File – with our best 3 vids of the week.  This week was an interesting one…  a lot of variety from our content surfing crew!  A very Twilight Zone week with content that will make you watch twice… We have here:  an odd appetizer of Chicken Busking,  A main course of cubic craziness! and a daring dessert of Massive attack vs the Devil in Miss Jones – yes the 70′s porn! Viewer discretion is advised ;)

Man in a Chicken suit plays “What is Love” on Pianica

 

 Box animation

 

Massive Attack Paradise Circus


web truffles brought to you you by Fresher*
& BandMark :)

MTL Friday File

BandMark friday Blog

I wont bore you with too much content today but I’ll give you the highlights for the week. This week we are going to M for Montreal to attend some really cool panels, we are seeing some awesome shows like DJ CHAMPION & THE G-STRINGS, FUCKED UP, ORANGE ORANGE and many more! We will also be producing a short video clip showcasing the best footage of the 4 day music festival and we will be asking many bands and fans what they think of Social media and Direct-To-Fan marketing and web solutions :)

Top 5 MTL Concerts (Staff Picks)

Nov 14- SKINNY PUPPY @ CLUB SODA
Nov 18-  YOAV @ CLUB SODA
Nov 20- TWO HOURS TRAFFIC @ THE STUDIO
Nov  21- ORANGE ORANGE @ CAFE CAMPUS
Nov 21- CHAMPION ET SES G-STRINGS @ METROPOLIS

MTL Events & Festivals

M for Montreal

CD Releases/Top Press picks

Midwinter Graces- by Tori Amos
Hello Hurricane- by Switchfoot
The Circle -by BON JOVI
Backtracks -by AC/DC
Live At Royal Albert Hall -by The Killers

Montreal EP staff pick
VESTIGE by FEMME (Click to buy)


Video Of The Week

ORANGE ORANGE LIVE SINGING “ET JE PLEURE”

At first, when I first saw them perform at the Excentris during the M for Montreal Media conference, I was like O.K they look sort of like candy ravers, they like the color orange and they sing through old school cord phones – silly or superb? Well after hearing the full song, I must say SUPERB. This duo produces some neat beat boxing, re-mixes and pretty cool Pop/Electro/Melodramatic tunes. We are hopefully going to get the chance to interview them at the M!


Contest & Giveaways

For those of you who didn’t get enough candy on HALLOWEEN, one of our sponsors: SKULLCANDY has some sweets for your head!  The BASS on these babies is enough to want to buy the plain black originals but they come in all sorts of neat fashion prints. The giveaway one is courtesy of our sponsor SKULLCANDY and it is in TOKIDOKI print! ALL you have to do to WIN this awesome DJ envy gift is follow these simple instructions:

1-  Make a comment to this blog post with why you need these headphones!
2- Email: lee@bandmark.com by Thursday Nov 19th by midnight with your contact info!

The Loot Bag of randomness!

I think this image is so wrongdeful I need not provide other links this week, just the one! ENJOY:

Hello Kitty & Rainbow brite’s very insane child? luvs u WALLMART!


Friday Loot Bag

It’s the week after Halloween and we have posted the top 3 videos we like the best!


How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

Scary faces with a twist!

You might wanna turn down your speakers unless you like death metal or whatever the f*ck this is!

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