Fantastic Playroom by New Young Pony Club is a dance party album. Nothing more. Seriously, there is nothing more to it. This album will indeed get people moving and the music itself is catchy and energetic, but there is no real depth to the songs and the lyrics go from borderline silly to downright laughable. There really isn't much more necessary to get an accurate overview other than that, to be honest - this record is a one trick pony. Catchy dance music, no depth, terrible lyrics. Full review, tourdates and MP3 samples after the jump.
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Fantastic Playground, New Young Pony Club, Tour Dates
Marcus and I went to the former the Gypsy Tea Room (now The Door) to see Maps & Atlases on Friday night, and it's apparent that the owners of the Door have done NOTHING to improve that venue; it's still the same terrible sounding, awful dump that it always was. At any rate, Maps & Atlases was very sharp and highly entertaining, and you can check out all of my photos from their show here. This was my first exposure to M&A, other than clips on YouTube, and these guys have an interesting, rather ecclectic/experimental sound, but it comes together in a nice ...
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Categories: Concerts, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, DFW, Gasoline Heart, Maps & Atlases, The Door, Tour Dates
Wolf Parade is just one of those bands that is just really fucking in the zone right now, with a superb album that is my favorite of '08 so far, building buzz around said album, and a big ole tour to go out and blow some minds, and they showed their prowess once again last night at the House of Blues in downtown Chicago. They are one of those bands that I would put in the indie 'elite' as far as bands that pretty much bring solid gold with everything they do, and that certainly includes their live show. ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Awesome, Chicago, House of Blues Chicago, Wolf Parade
The Helio Sequence is a band that has had several indy releases, and Keep Your Eyes Ahead, released by Sub Pop Records is a nice surprise when I threw it on the iTunes for the first time not too long ago. Overall, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is an enjoyable and even record, in that the high points aren't the most awesome, but the low points aren't the most terrible music I have heard this year, either. I think the album suffers a little from the fact that the lead vocals aren't exactly world-class, but they are passable. On the right ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, The Helio Sequence, Tour Dates
Headed up to the Beat Kitchen last night for some tunage from Welsh rockers People In Planes. You may remember when I saw these guys a few months ago in the weirdest concert venue ever, the Cubby Bear, but they managed to put on a good show despite the circumstances. I have always been a huge fan of their debut album "As Far As The Eye Can See", and now they are back in the US touring on their new record "Beyond the Horizon". Last night they put on another solid performance.
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Beat Kitchen, Chicago, People in Planes, Wales
Took my first trip to the Stan Mansion last night for some rock n roll, quite a strange place for a show, but not too shabby. It is basically a house a few blocks south of Logan Square, and is just in some ballroom in this giant house. It has the same "place where they hold prom" look to it that Logan Square Auditorium has, and I think they do hold gala events and stuff there. It was odd for sure, but kind of cool, you could walk around to the side of the band and see ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Chicago, Evangelicals, Frog Eyes, Shearwater, Stan Mansion
The Hideout has announced the initial lineup for their annual block party over on their website. I was at the block party last year to see.....bloc party oddly enough, and it was pretty solid, and it looks like they are bringing some incredibly solid acts to the party again this year, with New Pornographers, Neko Case and Black Mountain (awesome) already on the lineup. I have seen both New Pornographers and Black Mountain earlier this year and both are certainly worth checking out (Neko was injured and unable to play with the Pornos at the Riviera though). ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music
Tags: 2008, Black Mountain, Chicago, Hideout, Hideout Block Party, New Pornographers, Summer Festival
I have to admit that I am a Coldplay fan. I loved Parachutes, and with Rush of Blood to the Head, I really felt like the band put the extra emphasis/sound/depth on their already good songwriting that they needed in order to make Parachutes a more complete record. I think X&Y was a disappointment, and the most troubling to me was that the only song on that record which I could say was really good, Talk, was the only song on that record which wasn't wholly written by Chris Martin (I also love the video for Talk - Spaceships? Alien Robot?! Bad ass.) I ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Coldplay, Tour Dates, Viva La Vida
Well it has been a crazy morning of website errors and whatnot, but I am happy to say our happy little DBF group will be rolling to exactly the shows we wanted to go to, the Rogue Wave on Friday and the BSS on Saturday (with Yeasayer opening). It is a good thing that Sunday seems to be the slowest day of the festival for people I like since I will most likely be worn the fuck out after all of this madness. Should be good times though. Anyway, it seemed like the Schuba's shows sold out ...
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music
Tags: 2008, Broken Social Scene, Chicago, Dr. Dog, Lollapalooza, Rogue Wave, Summer Festival, Yeasayer
The Raveonettes are yet another band in the long line of bands this year of which I a) know nothing about, and b) who released an album this year. At any rate, the Raveonettes have a decent back catalog (of which I am not familiar), and they are a two-piece band set up with one guy, one girl. Lust Lust Lust is an album with lots of....stuff. There are several solid tracks, and it's a record which starts strong but really wanes in the second half, and there are lots of tracks. There is a lot of stuff going on in these songs. ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Lust Lust Lust, The Raveonettes
Posted June 17th, 2008 by BVaz · 1 Comment
Not too long after the schedule was announced for Lollapalooza, now news comes down about the Lollapalooza aftershows, and the news is pretty damn good. The list is altogether incredible, and I wish this was more spaced out, since you have so many incredible acts playing in the city on Saturday night. I would absolutely kill to see Okkervil in a venue like Schuba's, but with Bloc Party and BSS also playing that night, it means I probably won't see it. Check out the full list here.
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music
Tags: 2008, Aftershows, Chicago, Lollapalooza, Summer Festival
Well guys, the 2008 Lollapalooza schedule has been released, and find it here. BVaz and myself will be out there in the heat or snow (does it snow in Chicago in August? I seem to imagine that it does), catching a variety of pure awesomeness. If you haven't gotten a ticket, pick one up! Then pray Broken Social Scene members don't murder each other and that the band actually stays together until their set. After that, they can go back to their feud. Or something!
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Categories: Concerts, Music
Tags: 2008, ACL '08 is for Suckers, Grant Park, Lollapalooza
As he has never had a show in Dallas, my ony exposure to Lightspeed Champion prior to picking up this album was our own DBF'com's prodigious level of love aimed at Dev and Company. I had sampled a couple of the MP3s from this blog and watched his SXSW acoustic performance, all of which I loved as well. If you can call DBF's coverage of Lightspeed Champion hype, LC is likely the most hyped artist on this blog. At any rate, these accolades are deserved - certainly as far as Falling off the Lavender Bridge is concerned, ...
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Categories: Albums, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Album Review, Falling off the Lavendar Bridge, Lightspeed Champion
Dev Hynes and his Lightspeed Champion returned to our fair city of Chicago again last night at the Empty Bottle with a full band in tow and put on a pretty damn solid show last night. If you remember when I saw him come to Chicago back in March, he didn't have the full band and played a stripped down acoustic guitar/violin set. He certainly did a very good job with that show (his first in the US), I was certainly looking forward to seeing him with the full band and he didn't disappoint.
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music, Reviews
Tags: 2008, Chicago, Empty Bottle, Lightspeed Champion
Bonnaroo streaming starts tomorrow, and while the schedule for tomorrow and Saturday on the webcast doesn't really get me that excited, just take a peak at the Sunday night webcast schedule and it is solid fucking gold.
05:15 PM Rogue Wave
06:00 PM Broken Social Scene
07:30 PM Sigur Ros
09:00 PM Death Cab For Cutie
Umm, yes. That will do nicely.
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Categories: Concerts, Main, Music
Tags: 2008, Bonnaroo, Sigur Ros, Streaming, Summer Festival
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