Vancouver Music Review

Rec Centre is the project of Alex Hudson, music journalist extraordinaire and talented songwriter. With summer just days away,Times a Billion a great sunny, care-free album that you can download for pay-what-you-want OR order a cassette tape for $5. Hudson resisted the guitar singer/songwriter route for a more produced, electronic, and dreamy pop sound. I’ll definitely be blasting this one while hanging out on my stoop as sunny days go by, and you should too!

If I could be anywhere on Saturday night (besides work, where I’ll actually be) it would have to be Skylantern Studios for Square Sun‘s EP Release Party.

Square Sun is the reincarnation of former project Gunshot Wounds, still headed up by the creative music master Charley Wu. It’s hard to nail down exactly what genre of music this is, but if you like bands anywhere from beachy Bahamas to experimental pop, you might find yourself surprised by the gentle retro-rock feel of Square Sun. The music reminds me a lot of M*A*S*H for some reason, as if the show might need a modern theme song and “Glory” would fit perfectly.

Check out the video for “Glory” below, it’s basically a photographer’s dream to have the lighting and projector effects captured in this cereal-box-colourful music vid. If you like the effects, be sure not to miss the party, as I hear from a birdie that the audience will have the chance to re-live this Hawaiian shirt experience of kaleidoscopic colour.

Poor Planning EP comes out June 22nd, 2013. Listen to the single Canyon on Bandcamp.
Square Sun with guests Phantom Head Trip, Half Chinese & Dream Baby. 5$. Fundraiser.  Two Stages.
4359 Main St., Vancouver.

Alex is leaving us! (but not forever)

Today is a unique Song of the Day; today is the beginning of a hiatus for me here at the Vancouver Music Review! I will be disappearing from the site until September as I pursue some summer work on an island outside of Vancouver. As much as I love music and Vancouver, it’s been over 2 years since I joined on and it’s time to step aside and take a breather! As one of my favourite artists once said “It’s important to reclaim the humanity in our lives every now and then, or the things we love will start to become the things we blame.”. Charlotte and Jess will be returning from Coast 2 Coast this week (if you haven’t read about that yet, be sure to jump on over to the site by clicking here) and they will resume coverage of everything musically related to Vancouver. I’ll leave you with what is currently one of my favourite songs; “Run Run Run” by Dragonette.

See you all in a couple months!
Much love,
Alex xo

Critically acclaimed Portland/Auckland hybrid band Unknown Mortal Orchestra is coming to Vancouver! The 3 piece psychedelic rock band is taking the stage at The Biltmore Cabaret TONIGHT in support of their February release II. The band has been well received from major critics like Pitchfork Media, NME, and The Observer. They played Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and have been touring across Europe and North America. The show isn’t sold out yet so hopefully there are still some tickets at the door!

This year’s going to be good! We can feel it! The Peak Performance Project kicked off it’s 5th year (yes, it’s hard to believe that this is already the 5th set of amazing bands!) with a concert and party at Fortune Sound Club on Tuesday night. The announcement of the bands was broadcast live on 102.7 The Peak, and in case you missed it here is this year’s fantastic group of bands and where they are from. Some of these bands have been featured on our site before and some of them are totally new to us!

Amble Greene – Ocean Park
BESTiE – Vancouver
Coldwater Road – Vancouver
Greg Dummond – Port Moody
Melissa Endean – Vancouver
Hannah Epperson – Vancouver
Fallbrigade – Victoria
Luca Fogale – Burnaby
Good For Grapes – Surrey
Lydia Hol – Vancouver
Bodhi Jones – Vancouver
Lions in the Street – Vancouver
Dougal Bain McLean – Victoria
Oh No! Yoko – Abbotsford
Rolla Olak – Vancouver
Rykka – Surrey
The Lion The Bear The Fox – Ladysmith/Vancouver
Towers and Trees – Victoria
Van Damsel – Kamloops
Willhorse – Golden

After the bands were announced, we got to see some past alumni show off their talent.

File photo.

Last year’s 3rd place winner Dominique Fricot delivered a strong set as usual that contained his hits “Burn and Start Over”, and “Haunted By Love”. He showed his strong vocals during “Black Cinnamon”, and the heat in the room was felt on stage with Dom clearly breaking a sweat. He played it off with some humour; “It’s like we’re having our own wet T-shirt contest up here. I’m winning!”. It was a treat to have Alex Badger a.k.a. Badgerchild join him onstage halfway through to sing back-ups on a couple songs with her beautiful voice.

The winners of last year’s Peak Performance Project Dear Rouge took the stage next and packed their set list full of their new tunes. They’ve been hard at work since winning last November and the fruits of their labour are sounding excellent. Of course, new music isn’t without hiccups and unfortunately lead singer Danielle’s new vocal effects pedal malfunctioned near the beginning of their set and it had to be unplugged to save all of our ears from feedback. Dear Rouge didn’t let it get them down though and carried on delivering new songs that were crackling with energy like “Black Gold” and “Best Look Lately”. They were highlighted by plenty of dancing from both the crowd and the band. They’re new album is sure to spawn hits bigger than their already successful “Thinking About You”.

Finally, to close out, 2nd place winners from 2011 The Boom Booms, brought down the mood with their reggae fueled music. Opening up their set was a completely fresh take on Rihanna’s “Stay”, followed by their hit “Lonely, Lonely, Lonely”. The night was getting late and just as people started to move towards the doors, The Boom Booms got everyone jumping with their classic “to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right, to the back… (and so on)” instructions. It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve seen these guys and they’re still sounding just as good as they did back when they won second place. We got to hear a couple new tunes and hopefully their album is out soon.

 You can see all of the Top 20 bands perform at this year’s Khatsalano Music + Art Festival!

Our indie-rock hometown heroes Mother Mother will be back in town this weekend! The guys and girls will be playing in Stanley Park on Saturday night at the famous Malkin Bowl. The band has been riding a wave of success with their most recent album The Sticks, especially with their hits “Let’s Fall In Love” and “Bit by Bit” being played all over alternative radio. Dustin Bentall & The Smokes are opening, and the show is sold out!

It’s the day music lovers in B.C. having been waiting for since last November; this year’s Peak Performance Project Top 20 will be announced tonight! And in true Peak Performance fashion, they’re kicking it all off with a concert. Alumni Dominique Fricot, Dear Rouge, and The Boom Booms will play the Fortune Sound Club, where the line-up will be announced. The event is almost sold-out, but there may be a few tickets still at the door! (But don’t take our word for it; these things tend to be packed!).

I don’t know about you, but I am really enjoying this summer weather! And I know Said the Whale are as well; they purposefully chose the 3 most upbeat songs for their summer EP I Love You from a group of 17 new tracks they’ve recorded for an upcoming 2013 release. You’ve probably heard the EP’s title track “I Love You”, as it’s the band’s most successful single to date and is seeing airplay on radio stations beyond Vancouver. The band is currently on tour in the States but will be returning to their native B.C. in August to play the Squamish Valley Music Festival.

When she’s not busy playing bass and keyboards (whilst being totally badass) for Gold & Youth, Louise Burns can be found working on her solo material. Her 2011 debut album Mellow Drama garnered her a nomination for the Polaris Music Prize. On July 9th she’ll release her new album The Midnight Mass and it will be produced by Colin Stewart (Dan Mangan, the New Pornographers, Black Mountain) and the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner. Burns said “I went back to the music I first fell in love with. Which was the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, all of my favourite influences.”. Check out the first single, “Emeralds Shatter”, below.

Friday night was a big one for Vancouver. As I packed up to leave town for a month the next morning at 5am, and the city was in Mumford & Sons fever, something special happened at the Media Club. Victoria’s The Archers kicked off their tour with a full house, dance party, and entire community of supporters and fans.

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