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Canadian pop music pioneers the Spoons have just joined Twitter, you can follow them here. They are also releasing a very limited edition 2 track cd in July with the new songs 'Imperfekt' and 'Breaking In'. The full-length album is expected to be released by the end of the summer. You can watch them performing 'Imperfekt' for the second time in concert at my recent posting on their gig at Dundas Square in Toronto.

According to a recent Tweet from Howard Jones it sounds like Duncan Sheik will be opening for Howard on his upcoming U.K. Acoustic tour in September.
















Irish band Two Door Cinema Club met Prince Charles at the Glastonbury Festival today. They return to Toronto for a concert at The Phoenix Concert Theatre on October 25th, 2010.

I'm really enjoying the following songs these days:

James Yuill - First In Line
The Delays - Unsung
HURTS - Unspoken (Fred Falke reMix)
Villa Nah - Ways To Be
Francis & The Lights - For Days
Kamp! - Distance Of The Modern Hearts
MadFox - No Surrender
:Kinema: - Recreation
The Chap - We Work In Bars
BAKER - Echo
Scissor Sisters - Fire With Fire
Kingz with Jonatha Brooke - Here We Go
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TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - WRONG BAR, TORONTO CONCERT REVIEW:
















Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club ended their North American tour with a gig at The Wrong Bar in Toronto on Monday May 17th. I was lucky enough to get on the guest list to this sold-out show and arrived at the venue before the line up had begun. I noticed the band's bassist Kevin outside the venue so I approached him and chatted and got my copy of "Tourist History" signed by him. I was disappointed to find out that MillionYoung whom I had been looking forward to seeing had all their equipment stolen in Montreal the night before so they weren't performing, just Bad Viens as openers. I went and grabbed some supper and walked back to the venue as the line up of fans had just started. I looked back and saw Kevin and guitarist Sam leaving the venue to grab some food so I went back and got Sam's signature on my cd. Then lead singer Alex joined them on the sidewalk and I got his signature also.

I wasn't overly impressed with Bad Viens from Cincinati and patiently waited for TDCC. When the band came on stage (with the addition of a drummer) they played a tight set with all the songs from their debut album plus a few extra tracks. Highlights for me were "Do You Want It All", "Something Good Can Work", and "Come Back Home" (see full set list below). The band sounded great, my only complaint would be that the lead vocals seemed to get drowned out a bit, maybe it was due to where I was standing that was fairly close to the stage. The guys seemed genuinely happy about the sold out crowd and the amazing response they got, and said they would be back again soon. I could see them playing somewhere like The MOD Club or The Phoenix Club on their return.



Two Door Cinema Club Wrong Bar Toronto May 17th, 2010
with MillionYoung (cancelled) - Bad Viens opened

10:22 pm
1. Cigarettes In The Theatre
2. Undercover Martyn
3. Hands Off My Cash
4. Do You Want It All?
5. Something Good Can Work (got on video)
6. This Is The Life
7. Kids
8. Costume Party
9. You're Not Stubborn
10. What You Know
11. Eat That Up It's Good For You

11:00 pm
Encores:
12. Come Back Home
13. I Can Talk

BACK FROM HOLIDAY IN TORONTO:

















Well sorry for the lack of posts, I was in Toronto for two weeks and didn't feel like posting while I was visiting with family and friends. Had a great time, also managed to see a-ha, Two Door Cinema Club and The Spoons in concert which was fun (may post concert reviews soon). Also enjoyed going to some of my favourite restaurants and cd stores. A lot of the used cd stores have disappeared, and the majors are basically down to HMV and Sunrise Records.

New cds bought: Keane - Night Train, Tracey Thorn - Love And It's Opposite, Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History and The Spoons - Talkback (first time issued on cd).

Used cds bought: Colin Munroe - Don't Think Less Of Me, Starsailor - On The Outside, Semi Precious Weapons - We Love You, Yes - 90125, Passengers - Wicked Man's Rest, The Creeps - Blue Tomato and many more (great when you find a sale bin $1 each or 7 for $5 at a place like Neurotica).

Restaurants recommended: Green Mango (730 Yonge Street) - amazing pad thai and curried vegetables, Ghazale's (504 Bloor Street West) - still the best falafal in the city, Eastern Twist (505 St. Clair Ave. West) - still love their curry potatoe paratha wrap, and Ali's Roti (1446 Queen Street West) still making great doubles.
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Interior of Massey Hall







I am off to Toronto soon to visit with family and friends as well as see a-ha live in concert for the first time at the great Massey Hall venue. Also hoping to see Two Door Cinema Club at Wrong Bar if I can get a ticket. I recently discovered MillionYoung who is opening for them so it should be a great concert.

Really love the new demo from MadFox called "No Surrender", definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Howard Jones is touring in North America in October with dates in Florida, New York, Salt Lake City and Toronto (some dates still need to be confirmed). No word on whether it will be the Human's Lib/Dream Into Action albums in the entirety concert or not

Check out Addicted To Vinyl's post on Will Owsley who died recently (he played guitar for the likes of Amy Grant & Shania Twain as well as releasing two albums of his own). They have a great live recording of Will covering the Steely Dan song "My Old School" that is definitely worth getting.

Not sure if I liked the new series "Happy Town" Wednesday night's on ABC but plan to watch it and see how it moves along.
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a-ha have announced only three concert dates (Update: extra gigs in L.A. and New York have been added, up to five now) for North America in May as part of their 'Ending On A High Note' tour, and they are in New York and Los Angeles. To say this is a big disappointment is a major understatement, still hoping they manage to add some Canadian gigs to the list. I bought a ticket to one of the New York shows and will plan a road trip to see them if that is the only option.

Speaking of a-ha, band member Magne Furuholmen has teamed up to form a group called Apparatjik with Coldplay's bassist Guy Berryman and singer/guitarist Jonas Bjerre from the band Mew. They have just released their debut cd called "We Are Here", I look forward to hearing what it is like.

Lo-Fi-Fnk have leaked a song of their forthcoming album, the song is called "Marchin' In" and it is available to download from their blog. The song is good, a bit mellow, but it is great knowing that we are getting closer to the album finally being released, 4 years after the amazing 'Boylife' cd.

Nik Kershaw just released a cool solo acoustic album called "No Frills" on Monday. You can order it here from his new nicely redesigned website (and they accept PayPal which is great).

Loving the new Two Door Cinema Club album 'Tourist History'. Favourite tracks are the previously leaked demo track "Something Good Can Work', 'Come Back Home', 'Do You Want It All' and 'This Is The Life'. Check them out if you are a fan of a band like 'Upper Room'.

U.K. band Captain are on a bit of a hiatus (after their second album 'Distraction' ended up not getting officially released by EMI) but a couple of months ago started a new mailing list (sign up here) to try and gauge fan support. When you sign up you also get a free download of an unreleased Captain song called "Back In The Knife Drawer". This track was part of sessions they did in Oxford prior to the recording of 'Distraction'.

Teitur has finished writing his next album and plans to record it in March, hopefully it will get released over the summer.

The Human League have signed with Wall Of Sound Records, hopefully their new cd will be out this year.

I just found the Facebook page of Viv who ran the Thompson Twins Fan Club 'Teefax' back in the day, may try and get in touch to see what she has been up to, hope she is doing well.
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