Osheaga 2007 : Revisited

One of my first posts was about the upcoming edition of the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival on September 8th and 9th 2007 at Parc Jean-Drapeau...and how I was less than impressed with their expensive ticket prices and their "copy/paste" lineup which includes most of the same acts as the V Festival in Toronto (Smashing Pumpkins, Paolo Nutini, Amy Winehouse) plus a few local bands (Stars, Sam Roberts Band, Xavier Caféine).

So needless to say, as of right now, Osheaga 2007 is just not doing it for me.

But I still have hope.

According to the Osheaga Festival's main website, there are going to be some BIG developments on the way this week!

I'll keep you guys posted!

Here's some songs from 2 of the confirmed acts so far:

Peter, Bjorn & John - Let's Call It Off [mp3]
Paolo Nutini - Rewind [mp3]

There's Always Room For More Arcade Fire!

Kinda went into a post hibernation period there for a bit (this surgery rotation of mine is really doing a number on my sleep cycle...it should be a crime to only sleep 4 1/2 hours a night, I can at least confort myself in the fact that it will be over in 3 weeks!), but I'm back now bringing you the news!

According to www.arcadefire.net, due to an increase in the approved capacity of the Maurice Richard Arena, there will be an additional number of tickets available for our hometown critic darlings' May 12th and 13th shows, which will go on sale on May 7th (i.e Tomorrow!) at 10 AM EDT through admission.com

To all the chronic procrastinators like me who missed out on Arcade Fire tickets the first time...THIS IS YOUR LUCKY DAY! So tonight, do a couple of index finger stretching exercises (also known as finger yoga. I wish I were kidding. I sincerely do.) to get that double click down to mere nanoseconds, get yourself a good night of sleep, wake up at 6 AM sharp, eat a bowl of All Bran (everybody needs fiber!) listen to both Arcade Fire CDs while doing jumping jacks and/or squats just to get the blood flowing, come back here at exactly 10:00 AM EDT and click here...oh and I almost forgot the most important thing you can do to get yourself some Arcade Fire Tickets is :

Don't tell ANYBODY about this.

Be selfish, it's OK. Your friends will understand.

Probably.

Here's two of my favorite songs of the new album to tide you over until tomorrow! :

Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running [mp3]
Arcade Fire - My Body Is A Cage [mp3]

Arcade Fire's official site
Arcade Fire @ MySpace

Final Fantasy Knows It : Spam Makes The World Go 'Round

Good Hodgkins reports that violinist extraordinaire/first ever Polaris Prize winner for "He Poos Clouds", Owen Pallett AKA Final Fantasy, released a new song named "Flare Gun" for the twice-yearly art magazine Esopus' 8th compilation, which is entirely dedicated to Spam.

Not not the mystery meat. Spam Emails. OK so that doesn't make it any better.

"Flare Gun" has me seriously pondering if it's possible for a song to be stressful. Because I'm pretty sure my heart rate shot up at least 10 beats per minute while listening to it. With the constant barrages of staccato violin/piano contrasting with Pallett's whisper-like vocals, I closed my eyes and I almost had the feeling that I was right in the middle of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

I know. It's a strange feeling.

While we're heaping praise onto Final Fantasy for some awesome work, here's another Good Hodgkins link to a collaboration between Final Fantasy and ex-Pitchfork writer/MC Cadence Weapon which was recorded during a CBC 2 radio session.

Words cannot explain how good these songs are. (actually they could but I'm too lazy to do so, I've gotta get some sleep eventually!)....so let's just say that it would take me a very long time, therefore many cups of coffee, to explain how good a collaboration this is.

Here's the new song, straight out of the oven!

Final Fantasy - Flare Gun [mp3]

Final Fantasy @ Myspace