Monthly Archives: June 2010

Hot Hot Heat get candid and explain what rock and roll is all about, and how it got effed up

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You may not know it yet, but Hot Hot Heat might just be the band that saves Canada’s rock scene. The group’s latest record, Future Breeds, hit shelves (physical and virtual) on June 8th, and proved that the darlings of rock have done it again. First appearing on British Columbia’s music scene in 1999, Hot Hot Heat may have gone through a lot of changes over the years, but one constant has always been their signature quirkiness, stellar musicianship and intoxicating sounds.

I had the chance to sit down with drummer Paul Hawley and bassist Luke Paquin at Toronto’s Red Bull Headquarters during the NXNE festival, as Hot Hot Heat prepped for an exclusive performance at the intimate, loft-style locale. What follows is not a typical Q&A interview, but rather an open conversation that allows one to gain a glimpse into what Hot Hot Heat is all about, and what the band members’ personalities are truly like.

Luke: Once you hit play [on your recorder], I’ll get serious so …

Paul: Well, if you hit play we’re going to hear some other interview you did.

Me: You’ll probably hear Alice Cooper then.

Luke: What, today? Where? Was it a phoner?

Me: Yeah, he apparently doesn’t like to do interviews in person.

Paul: Really? I don’t like to do them on the phone. I like to do them in person, but I’m also like, half his age.

Luke: Well, the thing about Alice Cooper is; he’s a pretty big deal. Continue reading →

CD Review: Jamie Lidell “Compass”

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From the funky IDM of his debut Muddlin Gear, to the throwback textures of 2008′s Jim, Jamie Lidell has been picking at his pocket for the past few years, but can’t quite inhabit it for one entire album’s worth of time. This jittery proclivity has not wavered on his fourth record, Compass.

However, when he sings, “Now I know the only compass that I need is the one that leads back to you” on the title track, one does wonder who he’s addressing as his latest effort’s ken of the fun and forlorn is colored with an element we’ve grown to dismiss from Lidell: candor. The opening two songs, ‘Completely Exposed’ and ‘Your Sweet Boom,’ exhibit his willingness to bare the person behind the persona, donning a sweeping groove and crunchy arrangements to adorn a torrid voice, which now sits closer to impassioned than imitative. Scrappy and sentimental, these are brilliant tunes. Continue reading →

CD Review: Ryan Powers Boyle- S/T

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Singer-songwriter Ryan Powers Boyle is celebrating the release of his new self-titled album on Far And Away Records. On the new release, you’ll find topics such as faith, love and observing the world around you. Some of the tracks on the album like “Yesterday,” “A Girl and A World” and “Far And Away” feature an alternative-rock feel, while songs like “It’s All Beautiful, It’s All So Strange” and “The Cell” have more of a folk-rock feel.

When it comes to writing lyrics to songs, most of the time it seems like the composer of those lyrics just throws words together to form sentences; the words don’t really have anything in common with each other except for the fact that they form a rhyme. Very rarely will you find a composer in today’s musical world who takes the time to create a story within the lyrics of a song. But with singer-songwriter Ryan Powers Boyle, his songs feel like poetry set to music; each song he writes seems to tell a tale. It is his poetry-to-music approach that has found its way onto his new self-titled release. Two examples of this are his songs “A Girl and A World” and “A Matter of Miles”.

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Ten Questions for Rainmaker Media Group

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With the music world changing, many bands and musicians are looking for different ways to get their music out to the music buying public. The most obvious approach is to send your music out to as many different music labels as possible and hope that one of those labels will pick up the music and distribute the music for everyone to find and follow. But when that doesn’t work, the next thing to do is to go a different route.

In the past, groups and individual musicians would take their music and create their own albums. With the album complete, their next move would have been to promote the album and get people to notice the release on their own. In today’s world, this is time consuming and it takes too much money.

In the long run, it really may not be worth the trouble to go the D.I.Y. route for the independent artist or band in today’s music world. The next route to take is to find a promoter or public relations (PR) firm that will do the work for you and get back to running your band or solo career. If you are interested in finding a PR firm, there are many to choose from.

One of the best PR firms out there right now is The Rainmaker Media Group. What follows is a series of ten questions asked to Rhonda Brilliant of The Rainmaker Media Group.

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Playboy’s Rock The Rabbit Is Taking The Show On The Road Via A Partnership With Ibiza Rocks

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Playboy’s legendary Rock the Rabbit program, which fuses music, fashion and design, is hopping across the pond this summer to partner with Ibiza Rocks for the ultimate Playboy experience. Playboy will help bring some great shows to the concert stage, including Soulwax on June 29. In addition, the partnership – Playboy Presents Ibiza Rocks the Rabbit – will include Playboy pop-up shops, beautiful Ibiza Rocks Girls dressed as the world-famous Playboy Bunnies, and even a Playboy fashion photo shoot, which will appear in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

“With an all-star concert lineup that includes LCD Soundsystem, Chase & Status, Dizzee Rascal and The Kooks, there’s no question that Ibiza Rocks is the place to be this summer,” said Lorna Donohoe, vice president, worldwide retail sales and marketing, licensing, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. “Playboy is thrilled to be part of the Ibiza Rocks experience. We look forward to bringing great concerts – including Soulwax on June 29 – as well as cool products and Playboy fun to Ibiza this summer!”

Playboy is bringing the Bunny to Ibiza this summer with two onsite pop-up shops that will be fashioned to look like a musician’s flight case; the shops will offer exclusive co-branded t-shirts and Playboy product, including trendy apparel, accessories, fragrances, home goods and gifts.

Launched in 2007, Playboy’s Rock the Rabbit program invites high-profile musicians and bands to appear in an annual fashion pictorial in the magazine, and design t-shirts which incorporate their interpretation of the Playboy Rabbit Head. Notable Rock the Rabbit musicians include Soulwax and The Kooks, both of whom are performing at Ibiza Rocks this summer, as well as Duran Duran, MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Mötley Crüe, Lil’ Jon and Snoop Dogg.

For more information on Playboy Presents Ibiza Rocks please visit www.ibizarocks.com, and for more information on Playboy-licensed products please visit www.playboyenterprises.com, www.playboystore.com, and www.shopthebunny.com.

Tickets to the Ibiza Rocks concerts are available at www.ibizarocks.com, priced £22.50 plus booking fee.

Rock and Roll Report TV’s Leah Cevoli Needs Your Help!

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Leah Cevoli

Rock and Roll Report TV’s Leah Cevoli is in the running to host Revolver Magazine’s Mayhem festival. She is taking part in a special online contest and she is currently in second place trailing by about 600 votes. I know you agree with me in saying that Leah is the perfect host for this gig so show her some love by voting for her now!

All you have to do is go to http://gotvnetworks.com/revolvertv/ and vote now!

Thanks!

Mark

CD Review: Kopek “White Collar Lies”

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Listening to the upcoming CD “White Collar Lies” by the Irish trio Kopek, I was amazed at how great they sounded for a ‘new’ band. But turns out they are not such a ‘new’ band – they’ve been honing their craft since 2002, relentlessly touring and writing. As a result, their long-awaited debut album, “White Collar Lies”, promises to be a breakout record for this outstanding hard rock outfit. And it is not just me who thinks so – the boys in Topek (Daniel Jordan (vocals, guitar), Brad Kinsella (bass), and Shane Cooney (drums)) have managed to attract some serious talent to help usher in this new voice in rock and roll: Multi-Grammy Award winning Tom Lord Alge did the mixing and multi-Grammy Award winning Ted Jensen (Sterling Sound) mastered “White Collar Lies”. They have played all over the world to stadium crowds and won Global Battle of the Bands. With a show that would blow steel off an armored tank, Kopek will be one of the must see bands in 2010.

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Dublin’s Kopek get honest about the dying industry, working with Grammy winners in studio, and “White Collar Lies”

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Kopek – a rock trio from Dublin, Ireland – sounds like the future of modern rock.  They’ve been working hard at polishing their craft since they formed in 2002, and have finally released a powerful debut called, “White Collar Lies.”  Daniel Jordan (vox/guitar) was gracious enough to entertain some of our questions …

Q: Let’s start with the explanation of your band’s name – Kopek. Where did it come from, and what does it mean?

A: We were looking for a name that could describe our sound; it had to be something that related to the band and the music alone. Shane suggested the name Kopek and it has stuck ever since. There are various meanings and spellings in other languages, but for us it’s simply the name of our band.

Q: The title track of your record, “White Collar Lies”, is a piercing indictment of corporate greed. Was there any event in particular that inspired you to write a song about this topic?

A: The list of events are really endless that inspired this song. Where do you start? Obviously, there were the various wars and corporate disasters that we all have to end up paying for. It was the stuff going on here in Ireland, in our own Government. All the greed and corruption that had taken place here, and globally. The fucking lies that we are told, and the cover-ups are just endless. Everyone can relate to it. Amazingly, the song was written a couple of years back, when things were not as bad as they are now, but “White Collar Lies” has never been more relevant to what’s going on in the world today. Spooky!

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CD Review: Hoodoo Gurus “Purity of Essence”

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I’ve been a big fan of Australia’s Hoodoo Gurus ever since they released “Stoneage Romeos” in 1984. While the Gurus were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 2007, they never got the recognition they deserved in the US. Throughout the 80s, they’ve released some phenomenal records, “Blow Your Cool” being my favorite. They stayed strong in the 90s, especially with “Crank”. “Mach Schau” was a treat for fans in 2004, but we’ve been waiting 6 long years for the ninth record, “Purity of Essence”.

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I Loves My Country…..

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Blue Roder - Things We Left Behind

I have decided to gather together some of the best country and roots rock releases received over the past few weeks and tell you all about them in the hopes you’ll want to check them out. Remember, good rootsy rock and hardcore country is hard to find these days so if you’ve got a hankerin’ for this kind of stuff, well, here it is:

Blue Rodeo – The Things We Left Behind
Warner Bros

I would be remiss if I didn’t offer an apology to Blue Rodeo and to their label for not getting to this review of the new two-CD set by Canada’s greatest band (next to Sloan, anyways) a lot sooner. Truth is, I took it out to my car a few months ago as I wanted listening material for an upcoming road trip and just got so used to having it close at hand during long drives (and short ones too) I totally forgot I needed to review it and let you, faithful readers, know about the album I have been listening to almost non-stop since I received it. I guess I also owe you an apology as well because if you didn’t know about this album, you’ve been missing out on one of the most impressive albums this year and one that (at this point anyway) is definitely going to be on my top ten for the year.

Yeah, I said it. It’s that good. But it’s no surprise really, as this band’s been putting out great albums for about thirty years now.

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