“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you.”

- Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

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.

Simply alluring. The good people at La Blogotheque have been fortunate enough to hook up with Seattle based Fleet Foxes to give us an inside look at their refined lyrics and vocal harmonies. Filmed in Paris, the cinematography is quietly captivating. Via La Blogotheque:

“A friend’s friend let us into an abandoned wing of the Grand Palais. There were empty spaces, as if abandoned at short notice, unreasonably high ceilings. The perfect place for the Fleet Foxes.”

Enjoy.

More Take Away Shows here

We were not sent into this world to do anything in which we cannot put our hearts.

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.

I came across this video of Kid Cudi and it made me super happy. I wanted it to share it with everybody who relates to Cudi’s life perspective and feels his music. I was thinking the other day that I’m thankful that Kid Cudi got the opportunity to make Man on the Moon cause it’s become one of my favourite albums of all time. It seems the ideal in life is to close the gap between your reality and your dreams; don’t cut your time short to achieve that.

Here’s the three best Cudi songs I could find for life-contemplation:

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DOWNLOAD: Kid Cudi – 50 Ways To Make A Record

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DOWNLOAD: Kid Cudi – The Prayer

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DOWNLOAD: Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon (The Anthem)

Some inspiring words. Hopefully you cross paths with them on the right day.

Quote from EE Cummings. Stylized by Clarah Averbuck.

Most of you all know DJ AM passed away yesterday. It’s a sad event when anyone dies let alone a trailblazer for a particular scene. What I found most amazing about all this is how far the DJ as a figure in today’s society has come.

The general North American public really never cared about or heard of any DJs until DJ AM. Yeah, maybe it was because he dated Nicole Richie and then almost died in a plane crash with Travis Barker (another celebrity), but that’s sadly how our society works. What was important was he had skill to back up his fame. Whether you loved him or hated him as a DJ, you have to recognize how much he did to bring the DJ to the collective conscious of a people that still seemed skeptical of club music that actually makes you dance (was 1970s disco really THAT bad?).

The DJ is still a relatively new phenomenon to people but it seems that with the attention his passing in garnering, DJs may have become the new rockstar (what other type of person would inspire the Palms to black out letters to spell their name in tribute). It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Kurt Cobain’s suicide. We will have to wait and see if it becomes mythic lore like the aforementioned death but regardless a person very important to our scene and music in general has left us.

Diplo spoke about his passing on his labels blog today and I think it sums up everything nicely:

“im sure that AM had to go day in and day out and negotiate all the music we appreciate for mass consumption, he had good nights and just ok ones..
but he wasnt a radio DJ or a programmer or part of a label . he was a straight up Djs dj, he picked his tracks to play out and had THE STYLE that defines our whole generation like it or not …and even if you didnt like his style (which ranged form deep top 40 to deepest old school hip hop to deepest hipster indy rock.. he would come to your party and do what u do better than you (he did it to me coupla times) he would put tracks out there before they were acceptable and he was always adapting to whatever was goin on.. not because he had to… but because he loved music. ..he was definitely a peoples champ
and in a world that doesnt really seem to care about you – promotors, fareweather friends, rich assholes, alcholics, trendsters…. AM carved a whole pie out of it and built a giant empire that little of you even know about. He never ever ever didnt have time to talk to one of his dj homies, each and every one of the small wannabes like me still spoke to him still weekly. How many people do u know DJ wedding partys for billionaires, arenas for Jay z, and djs for roctakons shitty basment party in manhattan for free and then 20 k the next night.. each day he was still asking me for new music and tellin me how the wierdest of my tracks were starting to pick up momentum….. but.. i never knew how long it would last.
Djs have a ceiling, and Am lived on the roof. he sometimes would tell me a bit about his reservations in passing about his lifestyle and i feel like its a loveless place we all live in (DJs). but i dont think We will ever see another person built for it like AM.. he was THE Michael Jackson of this shit. so it really worries me a bit that hes gone , cause hes the only that i thought understood it all… he was a sweetheart and tried his damnest to be the best at it and still be the best at being himself”

Below is the latest song that he was part of. A hard dance remix he did along with another figurehead Steve Aoki. Don’t feel bad for dancing, he probably would have wanted everyone to.

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DOWNLOAD: Autoerotique – Gladiator (Steve Aoki & Dj AM Remix)

** Maybe the first part of the lore… his last update on Twitter… “New york, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york aint always what it seems.” **

It’s been a pretty slow past few days in music. Nothing is really catching the my ear and if it is has, it’s been posted by the big blogs and re-posted a million times by 14 year-olds around the world. So instead of bringing you the new hotness I thought it might be fun to check what my post played song on iTunes was (does anyone else forget about this iTunes feature as much as I do?).

Much to my surprise, my most played song is a old demo version of “In Step” by electro-pop singer Frankmusik (still labeled wrong when bloggers couldn’t figure out if his name was two words or one). It’s a little weird to be surprised by your own most played song. It turns out your it may not be you’re favorite song (it’s not) or even by one of your favorite artists (sorry Frank). This isn’t to say I don’t like the song, I obviously do. It’s different than my favorite song, it’s the one I have deemed most appropriate for music listening the most times. Therefore, the song is a weird amalgamation of things that I enjoy without it being the best of any of them.

This particular song hits so many of the spots that are my personal preferences that I think I have unconsciously gone to it on a continuing basis. I like music that is upbeat and poppy (I listened to way too much Beach Boys as growing up), preferably of the electronic variety (when I started buying CDs, my earliest albums were Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, and Armand Van Helden), and it’s possible I prefer when music is sung by an androgynous Englishman (two words: David Bowie).

So while you’re listening to the song, check to see what your own most played song is and let us know. You might be surprised.

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DOWNLOAD: Frankmusik – In Step

BONUS: My most played song on my old computer was “Oh Mandy” by The Spinto Band. Another odd “Most Played Song” as I don’t even own a Spinto Band CD, but what can I say, the song is great.

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DOWNLOAD: The Spinto Band – Oh Mandy

I recently grabbed last months GQ to catch up on my reading after traveling for a couple months and I was stunned. In their little music section the faces of Tiga, Diplo & Switch, and MSTRKRFT stared back at me like lost boys in an unfamiliar world.

“Was I reading the right magazine? Is this really GQ?”, I thought to myself.

I was.

Some may understand my astonishment and some might not, but what is for sure is that after seeing the writing on the wall for years, electronic dance music has finally gone completely mainstream. Years ago we had a pure (not sure if that’s the right word) scene of people in it just for the music and over the course of my university career I was able to watch the transformation of people curling their nose up when hearing me play Justice at a club to watching those same people suddenly switch gears and take trains, plains, and automobiles to catch their concerts (and all way before Kanye first heard of Daft Punk from his touring DJ, a little guy named A-Trak… the former DMC DJ Champion and hip hop DJ who now plays and remixes electro acts such as Kavinsky, Sinden, and Digitalism).

Now we have stock electro style overrunning campuses all over North America (brightly colored American Apparel gear matched with skinny jeans), Pitbull stealing famous house beats, and Flor Rida releasing dance songs disguised as rap music. It’s all very confusing and disconcerting. With it’s rise to the collective consciousness of the masses it becomes inevitable that electronic music’s decline is eminent. Everyone knows once you’ve made it to the top the only way to go is down.

I see the music climate changing rapidly already but I remain optimistic. Although electro as we know it now is most likely on the decline, it will change (along with all of us) and come back as something wholly new with only nods to the past (as music is wont to do). Therefore, whatever your opinion on the state of music today is, be happy that artists that have been putting out amazing music for years are now getting the recognition they deserve.

Below are a few songs by people mentioned in this post that were here before Kanye put on his first pair of shutter glasses. So here is to you Major Lazer, Tiga, MSTRKRFT, and all the other groups that made electronic music what it is today. For better or worse, we will always remember the good times.

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DOWNLOAD: ZZT – Lower State Of Consciousness (Justice Remix)

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DOWNLOAD: A-Trak – Roder (Kavinsky vs MIA)

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DOWNLOAD: The Black Ghosts – Face (Switch Remix)

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DOWNLOAD: MSTRKRFT – Community Revolution In Progress (Original Mix)