We just finished designing this poster for the Olio Festival and Music Waste 2011 SXSW Showcase. As you can see,  we’ve remodeled some classic band t-shirts to represent the bands on the bill. My! Gay! Husband!, No Gold, Babe Rainbow, Bonjay, Basketball, Teen Daze and Poirier will all be in attendance. So if any of you guys out there are planning on hitting up SXSW, you should head down to Soho Lounge on the 19th and check this show out. It’s gonna be cray-z!

Outside Stage:
Oh Land
Hooray For Earth
High Highs
Brahms
Aislyn

Inside Stage:
Tennis
Kisses
Gobble Gobble
Guards
Delicate Steve
Secret Mountains

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March 17 | Highball | FREE

White Dress
Candi & The Strangers
Wallpaper
Bleubird
Astonautalis
Babe Rainbow

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March 16 | Lovejoy’s | Noon – 6 pm | FREE + FREE BEER

Carol, Bui
Tereu Tereu
Typefighter
Deleted Scenes
True Womanhood
The Caribbean
These United States

Tracklist:

1. Ricardo Tobar – Voy a Buscar

2. Babe Rainbow – Shaved

3. D’eon – qiyamah

4. Suuns – Pie IX

5. Holy Other – Yr Love

6. D/R/U/G/S – ring of truth (desfontane re-edit)

7. Lorn – what’s the use

8. Millionyoung – Mien

9. Gala Drop – Rauze

10. Brassica – New jam city

11. Luke Abbott – Sirens for the colour

12. Space Ghost – Organ (desfontane re-edit)

DOWNLOAD (right click save as or click down arrow on player above)

This is a countdown of the Best Music Videos of 2010. In reverse order from 30 down to 1.

Part 1 is from numbers 30 to 16. Tomorrow will be 15 to 1.

30. Angus and Julia Stone – Hold On

29. Toro Y Moi – Low Shoulder

28. Civil Civic – Run Overdrive

27. The Japanese Popstars feat John Spencer – Destroy

26. Maybeshewill – To The Skies From A Hillside

25. Clinic – I’m Aware

24. Black Mountain – Old Fangs

23. El Guincho – Bombay

22. Beautiful Swimmers – Big Coast

21. These New Puritans – Hologram

20. Small Black – Despicable Dogs

19. Born Ruffians – What To Say

18. The Weepies – Be My Honeypie

17. The Soft Moon – Circles

16. Babe Rainbow – Combed

Be sure to come back tomorrow night and check out the Top 15 countdown

S.I.T Wolf X

These are my most-played jams of 2010. I’ve zipped them up into a folder you can download here. Drop some cash on records/gigs if you feel it. Fine Mist’s “Stop or Start” outfoxed the zip, but you can check them out here.

A lot of my favourite tracks from this year have come via the medium of the remix; all too often the scourge of the musical earth, but every once in a while a piece of beauty existing as an entity entirely separate to that of the original.

I’ve included links to the originals (where possible) to show the work undertaken, and also to provide you with further avenues of listening should you take to these tracks as I have…

Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Memory Tapes Remix)

L.A. Afro-Hebrew-Poppers Fool’s Gold get the Memory Tapes treatment of their track Nadine, from last year’s glorious riot Surprise Hotel. The respect shown to the vocal melodies in this remix is particularly satisfying.

See the video for the original HERE

The Long Lost – Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Luckiest Charm)

The Long Lost – Woebegone (Flying Lotus’ Like Woe Remix)

Two Flying Lotus remixes of this track by The Long Lost. Luckiest Charm shows the producer’s more than competent laid back side, while the Like Woe version gets the full face-melt workout and appears on the compilation Ninja Tune XX, celebrating twenty years of the influential imprint.

Check out the Satie-referencing original HERE

Twin Shadow – Savannah Howl (Hard Mix Remix)

Mustachioed Dominican-born Brooklyn hipster Twin Shadow has just released his debut Forget  on 4AD. It sounds very little like this gorgeously affecting remix from South Carolina producer Hard Mix, a beautiful collision of the two’s styles, but both artists are still worth checking out individually.

Find Twin Shadow HERE, and Hard Mix HERE

Babe, Terror – Summertime Our League (Four Tet Rework)

This track made the Essentially Eclectic Recent Listening: November post a few weeks ago, so apologies for the repost. So in the interest of continuity, here’s what I said about it then: Brazilian artist Babe, Terror soundtracks the night to his native Sao Paulo using only layers of his own voice and plenty of effects. Here, that voice is given a body thanks to a Four Tet reworking of a recent track from the Havai EP. (Remix also on the EP)

Video for this remix HERE, original can be heard on Babe, Terror’s myspace HERE

YOU SAY PARTY – Dark Days (Babe Rainbow Remix)

We end with probably the most drastic reworking on this list. Vancouver new wave/punks YOU SAY PARTY’s Dark Days, an uptempo tangle of distorted guitars and pounding beats, is transformed into an ethereal mass of noise and reverb by fellow Vancouverite Babe Rainbow. Spooky…

Watch the video for the original HERE

Tracklist – 28:03 min.

The Knife – The Colouring of Pigeons (Outro)
Bauhaus – Bela Legosi’s Dead
Gucci Mane – Vampire
Spring Break – Stephenie Meyer’s 115th Dream
How To Dress Well – Date of Birth
Babe Rainbow – Shaved
Salem – Sick
Royal Trux – Rat Creeps
Stalker – Prelude
OOoOO – Burnout Eyes
Burial – Etched Headplate (w/ Suicide – Frankie Teardrop)

The hot-tub party at the Woodward’s building was going fine until fanshaw, Babe Rainbow, and Flash Palace decided that jamming on electric instruments would be a good idea.

Another Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver issue hit the streets today. As usual, my job is to wrangle three different bands for one photo – at a location one of the bands picks as a dream location for a party. Fanshaw’s Olivia Fetherstonhaugh said, “You know the “W”-shaped hot tub on the top of the Woodwards building…” Enough for me, that’s the one I went with. The other location for my other band shoot was District 319, a beautiful movie theatre/gallery at Main and Hastings. For the full scoop, check out the Straight online here and here.

Much to the chagrin of their fellow District 319 theatregoers Prairie Cat and Thee Manipulators, the guys in Man Your Horse can never watch Rent without playing along.

Warpaint – Elephants

Babe Rainbow – Screwby

The Icarus Line – Feed A Cat To Your Cobra

Felix Da Housecat – We All Wanna Be Prince

S.I.T Wolf x

Annnnnyway, we caught up with Kent to find out exactly what’s going on.

Where did you meet and why did you decide to start working together?
Alex Kurina and I met on the first day of art school in 2000. We worked on projects together, celebrated birthday parties, ate sandwiches, and to this day still collaborate on a majority of the work we both do. Douglas Haddow I only met in person after the video was done, and an hour after he woke up from a nap in a train station (truth). Both are heroes, and without them this film would have ended as some sort of failed ceramic tragedy.

The video makes excellent use of the statick-y, white noisey vibe of the Babe rainbow track – was that a jumping off point for you/ Did you have any other ideas how you would treat the track?
The jumping off point for this film was actually an idea for another film Douglas had planned, for a different Babe Rainbow single. I’m most likely not supposed to relay the story. Basically a man with a completely bandaged face, the product of an automobile accident, has his bandages removed slowly. Peppered throughout the film are flashbacks into his own mind, which is where Combed came along. This was intended at first, to be a two film story, to be aired together – Combed occupying the interior and the other occupying the exterior. When the other film didn’t/couldn’t be made, Combed naturally grew its own legs. The part of the track that manifests itself directly in the film, is the intense wavering sounds which translate into character movement from the screens. Also the intense percussive drops were very difficult to not cut everything to.

There were some other roads the concept could have gone down, here’s a link to one of the early writing documents (with the actual test link still active, same premise however set to scenes from Electroma..and a cat) – http://frenchorn.co.uk/YDA/BR_early_ramblings.pdf

Given the first person perspective of the video, to what extent is it based on personal experiences?
Literally speaking, not one bit. And if I’ve ever hallucinated this badly, it’s best those memories have since passed to the ether. Figuratively however most people are hopefully familiar with the claustrophobic mood. I write hopefully, as these exact scenarios aren’t too far off nor exaggerated; if you sub in print billboards for all of these screens, it suddenly becomes plausible. Also, as the screens are sampled from the past 20 years of advertisements; so is part of the direction. I won’t make a list, but most of the scenes allude directly to other music promos, and in this sense it’s also based on personal experience.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project?
The most challenging aspect was definitely the post production, which was conducted in three different cities, on two continents. Which works fantastically sometimes, but at others fails ungracefully.There’s a lot of merit to being in the same room as the person/people you’re working with. I’m convinced more and more that the internet(s) is one fancy, lovely, ornate, verbose, gorgeous broken telephone game. In this case it did work out, but needed gruesome planning.

Other than Combed, what pieces of work are you most proud of?
Aside from some advertising spots which should remain unmentioned, I’m generally happy with most things I’ve made and can’t really say which I’m most proud of. I operate on the mantra that projects I work on should instil a sense of pride and happiness in me. It sounds incredibly naive, cliché, and usually serves as a tool to deflect interview questions.

Having a root around on your website I see you’ve also done quite a lot of work in illustration and art installations – what do you enjoy about working across so many different media?
I really enjoy the variety it affords my professional ADD. I’ve never set out with the aim of working in a particular medium, I sort of traipse and fall into things dependent on concepts. This usually ends in a tangible product when it’s technically feasible. So for example, in say film, illustration and installation, these fall on a skill set I’m familiar with. Once in a while it ends in miserable failure however, when I try my hand in plastic melting, visual programming, or peruvian pottery making.

When you’re working on a new project, what helps you get the ideas flowing?
Like with #5, I meander around in my mind until something strikes me. A song, a building, an ugly face a baby is making at me; something will click in my brain and I’ll furiously scribble it down. I’m left with these lists upon lists, of which to sample from on a new project. This doesn’t mean I’ll apply the ugly baby face literally to a new album artwork (although I should), but rather taking small bits from here and there, providing they fit. The worst thing for me is to force something from nothing, to stare at an empty page, or worse a computer, and scream on the inside “think! damn you, think!”. I’d rather start with fragments/experiences from my own life and work from there.

For more info check out the &a&k&d website http://www.typethewordand.com
Plus you can check out the guys’ individual sites too:
Kent Hugo frenchorn.co.uk
Alex Kurina okak.ca
Douglas Haddow pblks.com

In recognition (honor?) of Lindsay Lohan’s recent incarceration, Tri Angle has assembled Let Me Shine For You, six reworkings of Lohan’s regrettable dance pop “hits.” The mix includes tracks by oOoOO, Babe Rainbow, and Stalker and offers a very meta look at the downward spiral of Lohan’s life and career.

Tri Angle also compiled a mix for the French magazine Wow. In similar fashion to Let Me Shine For You, the mix abuses and mangles songs by Justin Bieber, Alicia Keys and Ciara, including a dark gabber edit of “Empire State of Mind.”

Salazar is the Vancouver-based film collective who over the last 12 months have produced stunning visuals for the likes of Lifetime Collective and the Wizard Smoke creative reel, and music videos for the likes of Babe Rainbow and Basstronaut. Salazar first caught my attention with the Lifetime promo vid, for it’s stunning usage of BC’s natural terrain… same goes for the Babe Rainbow video, which captured yet another element of our province’s incredible landscape. Perhaps the best part of the collective is their ethos: ‘we created Salazar with the basic belief that a group is stronger than an individual.’ Vancouver peoples doing big things, enjoy this montage of their last year’s work.

84/

I like everything I’ve heard from House of Love, but in particular I would recommend getting hold of Babe Rainbow, Spy in the House of Love  and their self-titled album without the butterfly on it (featuring “Christine”). The Butterfly one is good too, just not as good.

Here are a couple of my favorites. I really love their sound. They remind me a bit of the Stone Roses and the Charlatans. This kind of music is right in my sweet spot, the stuff I always come back to and never get tired of.

Just sit back and enjoy this gem.

Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (Babe Rainbow Dark & Dubby Remix)

Midnight Juggernauts | Babe Rainbow

It’s been a while since Midnight Juggernauts released ‘This New Technology’ and we’re glad to say the band are preparing to return with a brand new single, titled ‘Vital Signs’, on their own label, Siberia Records, in April.

So, to keep you going until then we’ve got a couple of recent reMixes of ‘This New Technology’ for you. First up is, no stranger to electronic rumors, Ccenturiess and the sweet rolling bassline of their Disco Funk mix. In quite stark contrast is the B-side to the limited edition ‘This New Technology’ 7” on Acephale, a dungeon & bass (heh!) remix by Babe Rainbow that fills your speakers with haunting sounds and a bowel loosening bassline!

♫ Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (Ccenturiess reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)

♫ Midnight Juggernauts – This New Technology (Babe Rainbow Dark & Dubby reMix) (zShare) (MediaFire)

Midnight Juggernauts’ new single, ‘Vital Signs’, is released digitally on 9th April.

Midnight Juggernauts @ Beatport

Midnight Juggernauts @ 7Digital

Midnight Juggernauts @ Amazon

SALAZAR]]>