The Otherside

Hope everything went well at the Ohbijou show in New York City last night. Ohbijou's also playing a show in NYC tonight. I bring this up because it seems they aren't getting much love from New Yorkers, if the comment section over at Brooklyn Vegan is any indication. I must mention that the comments were made prior to Ohbijou's live NYC shows and based on cursory impressions of some YouTube video and photos that Brooklyn Vegan posted. Comments range from the "...asian Broken Social Scene...", "Wow! Another uber-quirky collective!! A new one every fucking day.", and "welcome to Brooklyn!, there are 56,435 bands/idiots just like you!". New Yorkers are a fickle bunch - way to be open-minded. Of course, we can retaliate and tell 'em all about they're shitty bands who come through Toronto, but then we're Canadian and of course we're polite about it(well, some times). Of course, we still like Ohbijou, and they'll be in Toronto for a show at Harbourfront on June 28.

Pitchfork.tv has a special live performance at Avatar Studios in New York City with The Last Shadow Puppets performing a stripped down version of the title track of their debut album "The Age Of The Understatement".

Tokyo Police Club took over MPR: The Current's studio for a live session. Black Kids recently did likewise. Black Kids are at the Phoenix with Cut Copy and Mobius Band tonight.

There's a few more additions to the Toronto Virgin Festival lineup - The Fratellis have been added to the Saturday September 6 lineup while Cadence Weapon and Ladyhawk will perform on Sunday September 7. [via Pollstar].

NME reports that Madonna will set out on a world tour (which she's dubbed "Sticky and Sweet") at the end of August and she'll stop in Toronto for a show at Air Canada Centre on October 18. She'll be in Montreal at Bell Centre on October 22.

Laetitia Sadler will be doing double duty when Stereolab and Monade hit the road together. Monade will open for Stereolab when the the pair drop in at the Phoenix for a show on October 8[via Pitchfork]. The new album "Chemical Chords" will be released August 18 worldwide and August 19 in the US.

Pitchfork reports on Coldplay's upcoming world tour which stops in at Air Canada Centre for two nights, October 29-30. Don't worry rest of Canada - you get a few dates too.

Yippee. Picked up my ticket today for My Bloody Valentine at Ricoh Coliseum on September 25. Floors. Mental note: bring earplugs.

Soon

If the blooming cherry blossom trees in High Park didn't get you in the mood to throw onto your iPod the "Lost In Translation" soundstrack and listen to My Bloody Valentine well then why not the real thing? The big news this week(via Pitchfork) is that My Bloody Valentine have confirmed more North American tour dates which include a Toronto date at Ricoh Coliseum on September 25. Tickets are $47.50, onsale this Friday at 12 pm at Ticketmaster.ca. Is Rotate This or Soundscapes getting a ticket allotment? I don't know. There's been some discussion about whether Ricoh Coliseum's too big of a venue for MBV. Granted I'm sure MBV have gained more and more fans over the years. It's quite possible that MBV won't sell out Ricoh but I'd rather that I have a realistic chance of snagging some tickets rather than the venue be a smaller one and risk not getting any tickets at all. MBV coming to Toronto - best concert news of the year so far. It makes the wait for Portishead(who should hopefully be touring North America next year) that much easier to bear.

Coming up next month with NXNE, there's already a partial list of confirmed bands including Young and Sexy(maybe I'll finally getting around to seeing them). I've been sampling some of the MySpace samples of the different bands and it seems like a stronger more interesting set of artists this year. It should be a good one. There's also a partial list of confirmed films for this year's film component to NXNE.

A few (relatively) recognizable names to look forward to at this year's NXNE are Toronto's The Diableros who'll be at the Silver Dollar on June 13 as part of the Magnificent Sevens showcase while Montreal's The Luyas will be at the same venue on June 14 as part of the Pop Montreal showcase.

I know Chromewaves already mentioned the following info earlier this week, but just another heads up that TV On The Radio hit the Kool Haus on July 2, and Calexico are at The Mod Club on July 6.

I might possibly expand on this further, but I just want to mention that the just released The Last Shadow Puppets disc "The Age Of The Understatement" notably featuring the string arrangements of Owen Pallett conducting the London Metropolitan Orchestra, is bloody fantastic.

Video: The Last Shadow Puppets - "Meeting Place" (live @ Avatar Studios in New York City on March 4, 2008)