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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Time Has Passed

It has been a month since the last proper AYF? blog entry. A lot has happened in that time.

Our Man Man show was very successful, filling The Silver Dollar with a happy, receptive audience. The Ghost Is Dancing were a great opener, and everything went smoothly. Thanks to all who came out, and a big thanks to the person who recorded a few tracks from Man Man's set and put it up on YouTube. Suckingalemon has some photos of the night.

YouTube: Man Man - Video 1 (Live at The Silver Dollar, Toronto)
YouTube: Man Man - Video 2 (Live at The Silver Dollar, Toronto)

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NO FORMAT and Lipp Service took advantage of our friend Juan MacLean's Harbourfront show in Toronto last Friday, and set him up with a DJ gig the day before. This time it was at The Beaver; a very small bar down on Queen Street West run by Will Munro. Huge thanks to Mikey and Jaime for playing music and helping make this a great night. We had about 150 people in a space designed for 60.

This was the first time Serato gave me problems during a set (partially the result of skipping needles and my own stupidity), but even with some technical difficulties, the dancing didn't stop.

I took off to Montreal with The Juan MacLean for their show at Club Soda last Saturday -- now it's Monday and I'm back in Toronto, still recovering.

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The Paper Cranes debut EP peaked in the top 10 on the Canadian college/indie charts. Their tour was a success, and we'd like to give thanks to everyone for your couches and support. We can now announce our UK 7" release coming up after this summer on Longest Mile Records. US distribution for the Veins EP is forthcoming, as is a full-length CD in 2007.

In the meantime, Vitaminsforyou finished off his remix of "Milk Run" today. The "Milk Run (And A Stick Of Butter Holiday Remix)" comes off like Black Dice meets balearic beat, and is one of my favorite tracks VFU has done.

The Paper Cranes - Milk Run (And A Stick Of Butter Holiday Remix)

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I've been sitting on a couple of bands for the last month. The first to get written up are The Boggs.

Fronted by Jason Friedman (who has flitted between Berlin and New York over the last few years), The Boggs' current incarnation features members from a few respected indie bands, amongst them Enon, and Love As Laughter.

Their sound veers from intense and percussive ("Forts") to dissonant and spastic ("Remember The Orphans"), all while retaining a desperate, tightly wound sense of purpose. This is some of the best new music out of New York.

The Boggs - Forts
The Boggs - Arm In Arm
The Boggs - Remember The Orphans

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Speaking of New York, I had a chance to see TV On The Radio at their free Prospect Park show in Brooklyn (with Voxtrot) a couple weeks ago. The guys have developed their live performance, and are obviously now used to a big stage and a big crowd. Great presence.

We hit Lansing-Drieden and Grizzly Bear at The Bowery after TVOTR; another good show. Funny how people are so split on L-D's secret image thing. I think it's funny. Are the vocals canned? Hard to say, but the mics were definitely live between songs.

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Thanks to everyone who asked when AYF? was coming back -- I told you we would. Maybe more than five of you even stuck around.

Lana is going to help out with some writing, as is Stuart (who is now a regular
Pitchfork contributor. Feel free to hate on him for his association. Just kidding. We like PFM and plan to attend their festival this month.)

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If you haven't yet heard the new Jarvis Cocker track, you really should. Accompanying the song here is Billy Childish/Thee Headcoats' vicious rant against the corporate music establishment (thanks to Gary for this one, and congratulations to his band who probably love the music media these days).

Jarvis Cocker - Cunts Are Still Running The World
Thee Headcoats - (We Hate The Fuckin') NME