Artist Jimmy Chiale talks about his art and the artist collective and store called Proper Reserve…brought to you by your friends at The Electric Acoustic..enjoy!
Toronto Time Lapse King is Dead: Long Live the King
Not long ago T.E.A posted an utterly stunning time-lapse montage showcasing the beauty of Toronto from rarely viewed vantage points of our stunning city. The response was overwhelming. Videographer Ryan Edmond dramatically infused a poetic breath of life into the Big Smoke, employing a moving time-lapse technique, which simply hypnotized audiences in an unfathomable way.
Recently, Mr. Edmonds undisputed status as the Toronto time-lapse king has been threatened by a new contender; Mr. Tom Ryaboi. “With City Rising I wanted to bring others up to this perspective, and from here, show them the city as they have never seen it before.” Even the trademark SkyDome closing sequence in Mr. Edmonds short is portrayed in an entirely new majesty, which Tom captures in an outright theatrical style.
Nonetheless, both videos are utterly breathtaking. These two gentlemen showcase our city from what until now has never been witnessed by the masses. Art can take many shapes and forms and if its ultimate purpose is to make the viewer feel and perhaps think, both Tom and Ryan are true artists in every sense of the term.
Have a look for yourself. Both are beautiful in there own right and I have nothing but respect and love for both Tom and Ryan. Enjoy!
Concert Review: MuteMath at the Phoenix Concert Theater, September 25th, 2012
Concert Review: MuteMath at the Phoenix Concert Theater, September 25th, 2012
Before I begin, I have to admit a bias: 2011’s Odd Soul was one of my favourite albums of that year, and it’s been on my mp3 player since its October release. The perfect blend of funk, indie, psychedelic, and experimental sounds, it’s an alt-rock album that grabs you with immediately catchy tunes such as Blood Pressure and Allies, but doesn’t let go thanks to the addictive energy on tracks like One More and Walking Paranoia; a true “grower” of an album, and one of the main reasons I had to catch the band in their first Toronto appearance in over five years. Also, it helps that they’ve produced some really, really good videos.
If you don’t recognize this image, stop reading right now and get yourself to youtube.
Personal fandom aside, nothing could have prepared me for one of the most entertaining and theatrical sets I’ve ever seen. Steve Aoki-ish crowd surfing via air mattress; entering the venue by going through the crowd in a drum-led conga line; fucking confetti; this show had it all. But rather than gush and spend hours going through my thesaurus looking for synonyms for “awesome”, I took the liberty of filming their grand entrance and incredible finale:
Mid-set Paul Meany told us that at some of their stateside shows, Canadian fans had threatened bodily harm if they didn’t perform here soon. If it’s another 5 years before their next Canadian gig, you can bet that he can add me to that list.
-JC
Check This Shit Out : Jimmy Chiale From Paris To Toronto.
Welcome to the first installment of ‘Check This Shit Out’. Today we are featuring Parisian graffiti artist Jimmy Chiale doing his thing in time lapse.
I met Jimmy when we were both working on a Nike mobile marketing tour; he was painting and I was doing photography and videography. The tour featured some of the top graffiti artists in Toronto including Jimmy alongside the legendary Skam and many others. Jimmy blew the crowd away with his unique style that to me resembles a cathedral stain glass window fused with the grunge of street murals. But this is art, and obviously it looks like whatever the fuck it looks like to the beholder. Nonetheless this dude has talent.
There have been many humbling articles written about Jimmy and his art so I decided rather than using my broken prose to try and depict the man, I will allow the camera to do the talking.
Check back soon as we will have a fresh interview with Jimmy. Also you can check out his work on September 13 anytime after 7pm @ Rouge Gallery 732 Queen St. East. Toronto.
Concert Review: The Stone Temple Pilots and Crash Kings at Copps Coliseum
Concert Review: The Stone Temple Pilots and Crash Kings at Copps Coliseum
$21.50 can buy you a lot: A new haircut; 2 drinks at a bar; 1 drink if you’re foolish enough to go out on King West; whatever.
What you won’t usually see on that list though are tickets to a great concert, but that’s exactly what was on offer this past Tuesday when the Stone Temple Pilots and the Crash Kings played at Copps Coliseum.
Opening the show somewhere between “good” and “meh”, the Crash Kings played a selection of songs from their eponymous debut album and their upcoming sophomore album. Too piano-heavy to be alt-rock but not catchy enough to be pop, the band exhibited more sonic ambiguity than 2009′s “Mountain Man” would suggest. In spite of this, lead singer Tony Beliveau’s raw talent kept things interesting. With great live vocals and some incredible dexterity (Beliveau plays three instruments onstage, including a modified clavinet equipped with a whammy-bar), the front man provided some much-needed “umph” to the trio’s performance.
Tony Beliveau of Crash Kings. Photo by forgettinganna.blogspot.com
A little over an hour later, the Stone Temple Pilots then took to the stage and quickly showed that after 26 years they still know how to deliver an amazing performance.
Performing nearly every popular single from their multi-decade career, STP covered most of their discography in a packed hour and a half set. “Plush”, “Interstate Love Song”, “Big Empty”; the band played each with an electricity that you wouldn’t expect from a group of 40-50 year old’s, but as Scott Weiland spun, swaggered, and crooned into his megaphone, it may as well have been 1994.
Grateful as ever for their fans, STP also played a two-song encore including a very special of version of “Dead and Bloated”:
At little over the cost of a deluxe car wash, this was definitely a show worth catching.
-JC
Take The Money And Run.
If Trainspotting taught me anything its that Toxoplasmosis comes from cats, Junk looks like a good time, and when you can, take the money and run…
This piece of 20th century art -heroin-noir also comes jam packed with arguably the best score of the decade, including Underworld’s “Born Slippy” (a de facto house music anthem I was first introduced to at a Hungarian forest rave [no joke]). This classic track was never released on any Underworld album, but somehow has been remixed time and time again, and you’ll likely hear it banging in a club this weekend. As a result of my nostalgia, today we salute remixed classics, starting with the aforementioned track.
Sick Boy is the blond dude at the bottom.
Way back in the 1990′s the great Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs claimed to have invented the remix, and ever since it has been appearing in music culture in multiple forms. From a recycled beat, bootleg, rework, mash up, etc., the remix is an unavoidable causal effect of the modern music age. (Ie, So long as humans like money, there will be those out there looking to make an easy buck from moving around a few notes on an existing song.) From where I’m sitting though, it looks like people love remixes, so is this a problem? Hell, Girl Talk has made a name for himself on the mash up alone, (not to mention a ton of dough).
”If we are all products of our environment than everything we create is just a response to outside stimuli, essentially a reaction to what we have sensed other people do before us, therefore does creativity even really exist as we know it?”
Do you like the remix, or do you feel music should be left as is? After all, according to Sick Boy’s “Unifying Theory of Life” (note: Sick Boy is the blond character in Trainspotting); “artists will ascend to their artistic zenith at which point they begin a steady creative decline”. He uses the example of Sean Connery reaching his acting pinnacle in James Bond, after which his work for the most part is ‘rubbish’… but I can think of a few more examples. Can you?
Nirvana, Janis, Jimmy; the list goes on.
Now, I’m not saying Sick Boy was right; artists like Kurt Cobain, Janis, and Jimmy had the luxury of dying young so that they couldn’t spoil their legacy. But year after year we see artists coming out with something great only to ‘sell out’ and do a track with Justin Timberlake right on time for the next Billboard Top 40 chart. They take the money and run. (Just like Ewan McGregor does at the end of Trainspotting.)So it is only logical that someone else take the creative reigns of these so called ‘sell outs’ and help their work reach immortality with a remix?
Suckling on the Star Spangled Tiit.
Are we any better if we support this remix culture? To begin with, many artists will tell you that they don’t ‘sell out’ so much as ‘buy in’; potato/potahto if you ask me. But let’s take it a step further; if we are all products of our environment than everything we create is just a response to outside stimuli and essentially a reaction to what we have sensed other people do before us… so does creativity even really exist? Isnt everything we create simply a remix of our experiences? Nativism vs. Empiricism; tabula rasa biatch!
At the end of the day our personalities are nothing more than a remix of the total sum of the experiences that we have as human beings. Thus the modern day musical remix can be seen as a microcosm of the human race itself (if you want to get philosophical about it… which clearly I do). But in a world where we can literally clone ourselves in a laboratory, despite my ramblings I say there is nothing wrong with putting a fresh spin on an old track, and on that note, here are a few more remixed tracks to enjoy on a Monday. Enjoy kids, and remember; CHOOSE LIFE.
Osheaga 2012 Review
Preface by Mikey B. We sent Chief Concert Review Correspondent Jorellano (JC) to Montreal’s legendary Osheaga and it looks like he had a legendary time. Check this dope review he wrote up:
——————————————–
Okay, let’s face it; compared to the States, as Canadians we have a lot to be jealous of when it comes to music festivals, and with good reason: Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza… any one of these is enough to cause some serious envy.
Sometimes however, the festival gods shine a light on our frozen, poutine-covered tundra, and barring a few minor missteps, Osheaga 2012 was definitely one of those times.
With a line up that looked like it was ripped directly from my dreams, this year’s event covered everything from serious hip hop (ASAP Rocky), to hipster darlings (Of Monsters and Men), to stadium fillers (The Black Keys), and even some obscurities from around the globe (Tame Impala). Here’s the full line up, minus a few late additions like FUN., SBTRKT, and others:
If some of those names look familiar, it’s probably because many of them also performed at this year’s Coachella, and as someone who was lucky enough to go to both, I can attest to their equal awesomeness.
So, how did everything go down?
Well…
The first great thing about Osheaga actually came a few weeks before the event when I downloaded the official Osheaga app. Besides having some fun, albeit dinky features, (like the photo-frame), the app also allowed for custom schedule creation, festival news, scheduling updates, AND a map of the venue.
This might not sound like a big deal, but as someone who likes going to festivals well prepared, it really added to my experience, even if my girlfriend thought I was being a schedule Nazi… which I probably was :S
…But at least that stance shows off my bi’s…
Anyways, one of the first notifications sent to the app said that Friday and Sunday tickets had both been sold out, and although this meant that we left with extra time on both ends of the fest, nothing could have prepared us for what awaited in the subway.
Hint: those cops aren’t there because of how super-fun it was.
Besides the 35 bajillion people trying to buy tickets and the complete lack of staff (“Marie” was the only ticket booth operator at Place-des-Arts station, and conveniently, the automated ticket machine broke down too 
), I swear to you, the devil was in the Metro that weekend, and he had the heat cranked.
Damn that sexy bastard.
Surviving the death-train however, lead to easily one of the best festival grounds I’ve ever been to, and with plenty of space and a mix of terrain, each stage brought a bit of a different feel to the venue, from the dusty gravel pits of the Scene de la Montagne and Scene de la Riviere:
To the green and grassy fields of the Scene Verte:
As a partially forested park, the walk between stages also afforded some really nice views and shade, and thanks to some cool art installations, in general, the whole place was really picturesque. Here’re a few shots (that don’t really do that previous sentence much justice):
My only complaint about the layout (and really, my only complaint about the whole weekend), were some of the choke points. Hooollly faack, did these things suck. Want to cross the 20-foot bridge to the South? 15 minutes. Or the equally short bridge to the North? Another 15 minutes. How about the central passage south of the Electronik stage? 20 minutes.
With 40,000 people in attendance, these types of wait times and congestion have to be expected, but a few of the design choices just didn’t make sense. Of note, getting to and from the Scene Verte was a veritable hell thanks to this staircase built to keep people from crossing a road:
Now, it makes sense that the organizers wouldn’t want patrons just chicken-running it across the street, but, (and I say this without an Engineering degree), does it really make sense to build a tiny set of stairs for 40,000 people instead of just closing the goddamn road?? I mean, for Christ-sakes, just look at this shit:
“If one more person stops to turn around and take a picture of us, I’m going to kill something”- Everyone in the line
That crazy shit aside, as with the train ride to the fest itself, each commute from stage to stage was well worth it, and pretty much every show I caught was stellar. And as much as I’d like to gush over them with paragraph after paragraph of hyperbole, I’ll just post a couple vids and hope they kind of get things across:
Now, obviously it wasn’t all good, and there were definitely some crappy times (I’m looking at you Snoop Lion set that started 40 minutes late, and maybe a little at you somewhat sub par Black Keys performance) but with so many high points (like Dallas Green’s always perfect voice, an incredible Justice set, not to mention some of the food trucks I didn’t even get to write about [side note: I'm pretty sure pizza cones are what baby Jesus has for breakfast]), it’d be foolish to focus on anything negative.
Many thanks Montreal- I had an absolute blast.
-JC
Boogie Inc. 7 Year Anniversary: Martinez Brothers Recap…
Hi Kids. I know, I know its been a while but were back fuckers! Summer break is almost over and I for one am going to be sick. Anyway TEA has lots of great content comin at ya. In the meantime we made this little diddly for Mr. Boogie and his crew. It’s a recap video of the epic Boogie inc. 7 year anniversary. Nitin and the Martinez Brothers headlined an all-star nite at the Sunnyside Pavillion and our cameras caught all the action. Check out the video and stay tuned as in the next few days we have some big interviews, videos and other great content. Thanks for all your continuing support and god speed!
Be sure to check out Boogie Inc.’s page to stay in the know about all the insane upcoming jams. So far all the ones I have attended have had the perfect balance of great music, dranks, and fine honey’s…
http://www.facebook.com/groups/4384496716/
Be cool, stay in school,
-Mikey b
I Can See The Future….And It is Always Party Time with JELO…Check it Out!!!
Mite I say good afternoon to all y’all pimps and players out there. …In recent years we have seen leaps in technology in terms of the digitalization of, well, everything. One area specifically is in film-making. With the advent of the DSLR Camera, amateurs and pros alike are now able to make high quality films at a relatively low budget. The equipment we take for granted these days, and I am talking about cameras as simple as the Canon T3i, 60D, 7D all the way up to the 5D MK III and other brands equivalents, have the ability to produce images that only a few years ago were reserved for those production companies with extremely deep pockets.
Moreover, progess in computing power combined with newer user friendly editing software is allowing the facilitation of films to be ever more widespread as a creative medium. It is my belief the day is not far off where teachers will send children home with cameras to make a creative film as supposed to going home and doing some creative writing; the camera will be as accessible as pen and paper. In the words of a great film-maker “It is not the type, of camera but who wields it.”
I digress pimps and hoes….Today I have a special JELO video put together by one of my good friends Mario and his crew. Here is a textbook example of what can be done when you have some skill behind the lens and a little editing magic.
It is called Party Time. And for those who have been with The Electric Acoustic since the beginning you may remember the epic interview we did with JELO…it’ll be reposted below…Enjoy!
The Wizard Known As JELO
Albus Dumbledore, Gandolf, mutherfuckin’ Merlin…..these dudes aint’ got shit on the one and only Wizard known as JELO.
Beginning like any other dusty November nite, in the back corridor party zone known as Footwork, our camera guy began filming..the opener killin’ it but nothing out of the ordinary to report…then… ‘BAM’ a poof of smoke and rite there in the booth, behind the shiny glare of the CDJ 2G’s (which he does not use in his current load out), laptop, ipad, and Chaosilator orbiting around the man as if controlled by ‘The Force’ …he emerged.
The master of mayhem had appeared, and what ensued was one of the nuttiest, wildest, most lively sets that Footwork has witnessed in since its inception. Till the wee hours in the morning the madness continued, unadulterated… actually it was probably very adulterated, regardless it was dance-floor destruction at its pinnacle…and what you are about to witness occurred little more than 24 hours later…enter DJ JELO,
Support your local DJ..buy on Beatport or itunes!
What time is it?
Gremlins in a blender!
What you would listen to rolling thru the badlands in Mad Max.
Techlectro……Yes, I coined a new genre.
Facebook
Twitter
Follow Us!