The venue filled quickly for an early concert – the doors opened at 5:30pm. The Alkaline Trio’s fans were not phased by the matinee status and showed up to the sold out show ready to go hard; 6 inch Mohawks, backwards white hats, tattoos and blazers converging in their Alkaline Trio fanship.

Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano traded vocals throughout the set as they ripped through tracks from their seven LPs. Skiba was an exceptional frontman in non-genre-subscribing attire. He came out with his tattoo sleeves contrasted by a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, cool kid glasses, and a poorboy hat. He shed his hat and glasses within the first two tracks as his inner rock-star seemed conflicted with his accessible looks. Older fans looking for Skiba’s signature shirt and tie live performance dress-code could find solace in his classic eyeliner.

The band played a great high energy set showing ample love to their older tracks as well as a few newer tracks from This Addiction. The crowd gave the band much love in different forms – mosh pits, index fingers in the air, and singalongs. The Trio reciprocated with sweat, wine consumption, banter and great renditions of This Addiction, Crawl, Sadie, Mr. Chainsaw and Radio.

Angels & Airwaves recently announced a forty day tour in promotion of their new album, LOVE. LOVE stays true to the classic AVA sound with content even more hopeful and epic than their previous releases. We’re big supporters of their vision and consistently positive message. Check out the album for download here. Hopefully it’ll keep you tied over until their outer space movie drops later this year. Here’s some insight from Tom on LOVE.

“We loved the idea of esoteric symbolism — geometric shapes hold an energy pattern. When a human looks at a shape, they instantly receive energy from their mind. So we reworked the geometric shape of the symbols in the word “love,” so when people see that word it instantly provides certain energy.”

Tour dates ahead.

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Check the links for full reviews.

Live Shows:

1. Seinfeld

From the moment he sprinted dramatically on stage one couldn’t help but smile. Hearing his voice live was surreal. Hours of sitting in front of your television watching Seinfeld suddenly came rushing through the forefront of your consciousness causing a single tear to descend. Once everybody got over the fact that he does exist in three dimensions, the laughter was continuous.

2. Weezer

Rivers went bonkers throughout the entire show. He’s departed from his usual overtly awkward stage moves to what seems to be a satire of today’s rock hero. His t-shirt was sans sleeves, oddly places tattoos blotched his gym-visited arms and every few songs he felt the need to grab a New Era Fifty-Nine Fifty fitted hat from a fan in the crowd to wear on his visibly balding crown.

3. Jay-Z

Hov elevated out from under the stage; blacked out Jordans, black pants, black T, black leather jacket, black sunglasses, two Jesus-pieces, and a Jason Halloween mask. He tossed off the mask to show a more confident face. Run This Town blasted around him. One couldn’t help but be enveloped by his expression. It read: “I am the best thing that I could have imagined being. I came up from cocaine-dealing in Brooklyn to selling out shows around the world. Thousands of people get together to see me recite my verses on stage. I am great.” It was convincing.

4. The Killers

Flowers is a beautiful man. He came out and one could not help but aspire to be more like him. You stand there in awe wishing your pants were as tight as his, wishing your outfit was as well chosen, wishing you could write lyrics so desperate, for this night you even wished you were a few inches shorter just to be more like Brandon.

5. Taking Back Sunday

Two songs in, Adam made dreams come true as he put his mic-stand aside and flew through a repertoire of microphone slinging tricks. He threw his mic up into the air only to catch it the moment it was time for him to deliver a verse. He swung his mic outwards and it coasted in circles, wrapping around his neck only to make its way to his mouth so he could drop the chorus. He threw his mic away and whipped it back in an instant; around his elbow, into his palm. Perfection.

Albums:

1. Kid Cudi – Man on The Moon (The End of Day)

Man On The Moon stands as one of the best albums of this year without a doubt. Cudi’s debut has made it on to all the biggest lists of the year including the Grammy Nominations List and rightfully so. The album is close to perfect. It stretches the confines of hip hop with new collaborations and direction, but without the loose sound of experimentation. The concept is great and followed through and there’s nothing better than sincere lyrics that gradually envelope you over months of listening.

2. David Ace Dean – Imaginary Girls

David Ace’s newest album, Imaginary Girls is a available as a book/CD combination. The book is handmade and available through Montreal-based WithWords Press. The limited production piece features lyrics and poetry from David Ace combined with illustrations from Stu Getz. Beyond that very cool concept, the album is phenomenal over time. Subtle production and accessible lyrics will leave you relaxed and contemplative of girls that never had the chance to get away.

3. Weezer – Raditude

Raditude has taken some slack for being a gimmicky record after listening to Rivers’ thirst for Patron and a Lil Wayne guest spot.  This is false. It was apparent that Rivers isn’t trying to convince anybody he’s cool. Raditude is a compilation of great live tracks and a slight variation on the packaging that contains the Weezer message: We’re not really cool dudes; we’re just doing our thing.

Movies:

1. Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino’s newest movie is as masterpiece. Anti-Anti-Semitic violence never looked so good. The graphic movie stays true to Quintin with great talking heads scenes, great cinematography and action. That’s all that’s going to be said. Go see it.

2. (500) Days of Summer

This was a surprisingly good movie and should not be mistaken with a typical love story. Accessible characters, artistic shots and the best soundtrack of the year make this worth seeing for sure.

3. Precious

This movie is very powerful and absolutely devastating throughout. It’s put together very well combined with exceptional acting it’s a great film contemplating the power of human intentions – for better or worse.

My friend Topher Mileski is having an artist reception this Friday from 6-9PM at Café Zope in Tucson, and I will be there performing Handsome’s very own Outer Space Mix live.

You may remember Topher as a model for Handsome’s first lookbook, but you should know him as a legit artist and all around great guy.

If super awesome art and music isn’t enough to entice you, there will be wine and crêpes. Little known fact… artists gain more nutrients from wine and french pastries than normal people. It’s a fact.

If you missed the Outer Space Mix the first time around, you can download it below.

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DOWNLOAD: Handsome Clothing Co. Presents The Outer Space Mix

Tracklist for mix and more art from Mr. Mileski after the jump.

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Weezer holds it down as one of the best rock bands touring for the current generation. After seeing them a few times in the last few years, one can’t help but wonder if they rest. Assuming they don’t, fans are thankful. Weezer seems to be a live act that genuinely plays for their fans. Two hour sets, high energy, crowd participation and a set list that sounds like The Best Of inevitably leave the masses content.

Raditude has taken some slack for being a gimmicky record after listening to Rivers’ thirst for Patron and a Lil Wayne guest spot.  This is false. It was apparent that Rivers isn’t trying to convince anybody he’s cool. Raditude is a compilation of great live tracks and a slight variation on the packaging that contains the Weezer message: We’re not really cool dudes; we’re just doing our thing.

Rivers is a phenomenal front man, but a great part of Weezer’s strength is that all the members of the band are characters worth watching. They’ve all got their own entertaining mannerisms that come together to form an unintended super-group.

Rivers went bonkers throughout the entire show. He’s departed from his usual overtly awkward stage moves to what seems to be a satire of today’s rock hero. His t-shirt was sans sleeves, oddly places tattoos blotched his gym-visited arms and every few songs he felt the need to grab a New Era Fifty-Nine Fifty fitted hat from a fan in the crowd to wear on his visibly balding crown.

The show was phenomenal. Highlights included a fan coming up on stage to sing (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, an onstage trampoline, an MGMT/Lady Gaga mash-up-cover and oversize beach-balls and foam for the double encore. Just another exceptional evening with four super cool guys trying not to be cool.

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The Preamble:

After listening to Cudi’s mixtapes and his first album I was convinced he was possibly the best rapper of our generation. A new voice in hip hop that would break from the restricting conventions of the genre. Man On The Moon stands strong as the album of the year for me. I was seriously excited to see him live.

Pre-Cudi:

Canadian boys, Keys N Krates opened the show up. They were a pleasant surprise and managed to get the crowd enthused and on their side early on in their set. The three tore through a super fast paced set on keyboard, turntables and drums. The crowd went wild as they mixed in Hov’s Public Service Announcement, A Milli and some Fugees. I was glad to see some Canadian talent giving us one more reason to love Toronto.

After Key N Krates went off, the crowd started to get antsy as time passed with no sign of Cudi on the scene. After the hour mark, the once polite people started a unison boooooo. I made a bet as we waited that Cudi would apologize for keeping the fans waiting.

The Heartache:

Kid Cudi came out onto the dark stage with some shredding intro guitar, 30 seconds later, the music cut out, take two. Shredding guitar transitioned to Already Home and Cudi spit his verse off The Blueprint 3. A couple of songs in, a few things became apparent and it was not a pleasant revelation.

Cudi, who did have spastic spurts of energy, didn’t care too much to be understood, feedback screeched over the speakers every time he went to either side of the stage and his banter in-between songs was short of inspirational. After his opening track, Cudi demanded liquor over the microphone. The laughter of the loyal fans dissipated as they waited for Cudi who “won’t do this show unless I’m drunk” waited for Plain Pat to mix him a Greygoose + Redbull for about five minutes. His arguably perfect tracks were cut up as he “yaaaa”ed over them and yelled “who got weed?!” over a few choruses. It seemed so indicative of the show’s vibe when Cudi turned his back on his fans to rap to a cameraman on stage. “We’re filming a documentary”. I felt personally offended.

Two times during the show, he stopped a track when his DJ and him weren’t quite in sync. Both times, he got the crowd to boo the DJ and then reconcile. It was short of professional.

I lost the bet. Cudi did not apologize for making the fans wait.

The Redeemer:

There were definitely high points in the set as well. Especially good tracks included Soundtrack 2 My Life, Man On the Moon, Pursuit of Happiness and an upcoming track which Cudi performed acapella.

Halfway through his set, the lights went out and Cudi said he had a friend he wanted to introduce the crowd to. Given the casual nature of the whole show, I thought of how disinteresting it would be to meet one of Cudi’s friends during a concert. The lights came on to reveal Toronto’s own Drake. Yay! I had flashback’s to his guest appearance at the Jay-Z concert in Toronto, as he bounced onto center stage. Drake repped Toronto hard, dominated his verse from Forever and hyped Cudi during Make Her Say. It seemed like a historic moment, or at least blog worthy.

Last night I was able to see the blogosphere’s biggest/brightest rising star, Neon Indian, in concert. I was impressed in a multitude of ways.

I like to think they are the originators of the newest scene/sound in music (the 70s-inspired-nostalgia-fueled-cassette tape-distortion-loving-dance-rock), and seeing them live proved that besides being the innovators of the sound, they also do it the best. All their songs took on a new life, filled with more energy and less distortion (but just as much delay).

Despite an all ages crowd that seemed uncomfortable with moving their limbs, I found it difficult not to dance/awkward white-man sway and bob while holding a drink. It is hard to pick a highlight of the set, but “Should Have Taken Acid With You” is always a great song to listen to and the intro of the lead singer asking the crowd who was on acid and having one woman who did not at all look like she had taken it raise her hand, seemed like an earnest attempt to show the band some appreciation for such a great show. The only complaint I could imagine would be the rather short set, but with only one CD released, it’s hard to expect anything more.
Once they finished, the band came off stage and mingled with the crowd, meeting with fans while we all waited for Neon Indian frontman Alan Palamo to get behind the turntables for a DJ set under his other moniker VEGA. I had a chance to meet the majority of them and they all were extremely nice and gracious which only added to my appreciation for them.

I’m pretty much a 70 year old man in a 24 year old’s body, so by the time he got on, I was dreaming of creamed corn and naps instead of cutting a rug. However, it was still an enjoyable set that was worth sticking around for (not a pointless afterthought like it is for most bands).

Overall, it was a perfect live show; confirming a rising stars worth while showing they could add a new dimension to their sound when seen live. For your listening pleasure we have a special selection of our favorite Neon Indian and VEGA songs.

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DOWNLOAD: Neon Indian – Should Have Taken Acid With You

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DOWNLOAD: Neon Indian – Terminally Chill

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DOWNLOAD: Neon Indian – Mind, Drips

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DOWNLOAD: VEGA – All Too Vivid

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DOWNLOAD: VEGA – No Reasons

BONUS: Alan Palamo also used to front a band called Ghosthustler that was pretty great. If you like the above you may be down for what’s below.

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DOWNLOAD: Ghosthustler – Parking Lot Nights

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DOWNLOAD: Futurecop! – Transformers (Ghosthustler Remix)

Blink-182 has completed their totally sweet and nostalgic reunion tour and word is that they’re going to record their new album in the new year after some downtime. In the meantime, the three boys have been keeping super busy with some pretty exceptional side projects.

Mark:

One of the things Mark has been up to (besides Twittering to 1.4 million followers) is his new weekly column for Spin.com, Hopp on Pop. Every week Mark chooses a band that he thinks is rad and showcases them to the world. He’s two weeks into it and has taught us about Japandroids and “fun.“. Here’s a track from “fun.” his latest up and comers.

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DOWNLOAD: fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be)

Tom:

I must admit that I’m most excited for Tom’s use of time. During the years of Blink’s indefinite hiatus, we grew and consequently we grew to love Angels & Airwaves. Since the bands conception, there were promises of a feature film to accompany their visionary music. The time has come and Love, the film made by Angels & Airwaves is coming out. The AVAesque film, directed by William Eubank, tells the story of an astronaut lost in space after losing contact with Earth.

Travis:

Our favourite drummer in the world is working on a solo album. The album is going to feature several collaborations including a specially made Blink-182 track and some work with A-track. In an interview with MTV, Travis said, “There’s some stuff on my record that’s not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records. Everything’s going be real different. It’s going to be really well-rounded.” Besides that, Travis has been working on his remixes. Check out his latest one for Drake’s Forever featuring Kanye, Eminem and Lil’ Wayne.

Hov elevated out from under the stage; blacked out Jordans, black pants, black T, black leather jacket, black sunglasses, two Jesus-pieces, and a Jason Halloween mask. He tossed off the mask to show a more confident face. Run This Town blasted around him. One couldn’t help but be enveloped by his expression. It read: “I am the best thing that I could have imagined being. I came up from cocaine-dealing in Brooklyn to selling out shows around the world. Thousands of people get together to see me recite my verses on stage. I am great.” It was convincing.

I couldn’t help but ponder Kanye’s skewed reality on life after getting a glimpse of Jay-Z. They really are the greats of their time. The proof: Blueprint 3 just became Jay’s 11th number one album. He just exceeded Elvis’ record for number one albums. History has been made and Hov is well aware of this.

He commanded the stage extremely well. One man holding it down for thousands. The only pauses during the show came when Hov felt the crowd wasn’t doing justice to a certain track. “Stop the track! How you gonna do that to Big Pimpin? Big Pimpin is a cultural phenomenon!”

Jay is an entertainer without the circus apparatus in his show. He did have a few exceptional guests on the line up. J Cole opened the show, followed by an energy infused Wale and then a hard set from N.E.R.D. Pharrell seemed to run a more punk than hip-hop set ripping through tracks while hopping and jump kicking. He let girls come up on stage and danced with each of them while spitting verses to Everyone Nose, Beautiful, Drop it Like It’s Hot and Soldier. It was to the chagrin of an overweight girl when her chance to dance was in sync with Pharrell reciting, “It’s clear as black and white, like a fat panda…”

During Jay’s set he had a few guest appearances. Memphis Bleek came out as Hov’s hype man for most of the show. Pharrell came out to do up So Ambitious with speeches about not being held down by haters and living dreams. The best guest appearance of the show was Toronto’s own, Drake (video posted below). He came out and instead of hyping Hov, he was given the stage and did up Successful. He did this while repping a (Canadian) Wings + Horns varsity jacket and held it down for the city. It was special.

Overall, an exceptional show. A few characters on stage worth emulating and a few reminders to live the dream. In the end, everybody has the potential to be on stage, whatever your stage might be.

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DOWNLOAD: Drake – Successful (feat. Trey Songz & Lil’ Wayne)

Kings of Leon played a show in Hamilton as their tour for Only By The Night is getting close to wrapping up and they begin recording a new album. They played a pretty solid show reminiscent of music documentaries from ’70s rock bands. They seemed so typically rock and roll. Matthew on lead guitar lit a new cigarette every second song, which spent half of songs in his mouth and half on the head of his guitar (Van Halen styles) while he played solos. Lead singer Caleb had roadies bring him a shot and chaser between songs, which left his eyes pretty hazy by the encore.

Nevertheless they played a decent set with an extended encore. The family band has got an exceptional fan base, which Caleb thanked in typical frontman fashion. “This has been the best city on the tour! I’m going to tell our manager if Hamilton isn’t on the list next time we come through Canada, I’m not coming!” Not a fan of of the rehearsed banter, but when KOL played a track hard they did it while abusing substances; only making it harder.

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Download: Kings of Leon – I Want You

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Download: Kings of Leon – Notion