After a rest-free Friday night camping in Volly Village I was looking for someone to "Wake up my body, Wake up my head." Who better than Guelph's-own, Green Go? With a time slot as the sun hit it's highest point (who am I kidding, there was hardly any sun all weekend) the early-risers hit the Lake Stage Saturday for some synthy excitement. As I entered, the five-piece was blasting though Ghosts of the Future and carried on with You Know You Want It, featuring some blistering instrumental work and a cattle-sized dose of cowbell. The double drums complemented the bass lines and got the enthusiastic crowd boppin'. Next up was the catchy-as-the-common-cold Brains for Breakfast and it slayed! Put On Your Specs, Boy also featured the double drum and further proved that this percussion onslaught is when they hit their stride. In their closing number, opened by Jess' singing, they worked up to a let-loose dance number that took cues from SO4 with the bass line you never want to end, and the teasing near-finish, only to bring the beat back for one more round. When the music did eventually culminate for good it was met with a rousing hometown ovation. Go Guelph, Go Green Go!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Go Green Go! (Hillside '09)
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Holy F! Where'd they go!?
Probably reading too much into the Hillside Performer list right now but...
Holy F*ck have been removed from the list which could break a lot of hearts if they're no longer playing.
Another removal: Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate) is gone from the list.
However to at least partially make up for those, Canadian R&B singer Divine Brown is now added.
Also local Guelphites and remixers-extraordinaire Green Go are on it now too.
--Update-- Silver Starling (formerly Mothers Fathers) from Montreal, with ties to Stars, Arcade Fire and others, have also been added to the list.
Amber McLean who is playing Manhattan's soon is set to play Hillside - I'm assuming she's jazzy.
Of course the performer list comes with the caveat that it is the *performers confirmed to date* and it is naturally *subject to change* and all that. I'm praying that when correcting "Holy Rosary" to "Red Rosary" they accidentally deleted "Holy F*ck" which was directly below it.
Library Voices who state they are playing the fest have never been on the performer list. Also early leak, Kae Sun, hasn't seen the official list yet either. So there's definitely room for change.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Gravity Go Green!
If I were to tweet about the Gravity Wave show last Thursday at the ebar it would go something like "Rubber boots and heavy beats; scratching and lyrics to make you scratch your head." Since I have the luxury of more than 140 characters I will treat you to a slight elaboration. This three-piece turned the volume up on their laptops and then holler-rapped overtop whilst scratching some vinyl in the background. Sampling from rather varied genres the beats they composed were out of the ordinary and sometimes too complex or odd to really find a rhythm to dance to. Lyrically they were much the same as the beats - sometimes silly, bordering on nonsensical. The DJ with the record player did have some classic bursts of phrases ie: when introduced as DJ Romantic Thief he boomed through the mic "I steal kisses!". More impressive than the frontman's garb (rubber boots, navy jacket and a shirt reading "Rad is for radical") was the extended whistling solo DJ Thief busted out that stretched well beyond any whistle solo I've ever seen (albeit they are limited). In the end Gravity Wave did manage to get a handful of people from "Guelphadelphia" (their term, not mine) on the dance floor (perhaps it was for the "Free Shit, Free Sh!T" which they kept hollering and tossing about).
Guelph buzz band, Green Go who's night it was (Borders CD release) took the stage shortly before midnight. Opening with Ghosts of the Future I was very impressed to hear them replicate the electronic-sounding song without the use of computers or samples. However it is a rare case that you want a band to sound exactly the same live as on record. So the very next song proved that this would not be the case, as they rocked out a completely revamped version of You Know You Want It, complete with interlude and ad-libs. Considering a portion of their buzz has been generated based on their remixing capabilities (of such acts as the D'urbs, Gentleman Reg) it was not surprising to hear this change-up. After this point the show seemed to take a bit of a nose-dive, which may be attributed to abandoning the second drum kit for a guitar, or could be due to my lack of familiarity with most of the tunes from the rest of the set. It wasn't bad by any means, but the synths/keys, bass, guitar could really have used the double drums for that extra oomph. In fact, nearing the end of the set someone jumped back on them for an instrumental that really got things going again, and remaining on percussion for the finale and they managed to close out strong.
