Turns out neither really broke The Land Of The Free, but that comment always stuck in my head as a broad generalisation.  Surely our good friends across the Atlantic couldn’t be so different, right? A few years later I endured an entire episode of Seinfeld on a friend’s recommendation, and realised that there must be something in the water.  I don’t care how many people watched it, it’s not funny.  See Two-and-half Men for further evidence as to why popular doesn’t mean good.

Back to irony – this one’s a corker.  Not only does Jason Derulo manage to rip off two different songs in the first thirty seconds of his own unique offering,  he also follows it up immediately with the lyric “check that out, what they playing – that’s my song, that’s my song”.

Except it isn’t.  It’s Day-O and Robyn S’s Show Me Love. And some auto-tune.

Nice try though.

This:

+

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]]> http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/apologies-from-a-nation-5-jason-derulo-us-of-a/feed/ 0 http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/everybody-can-experience-music-in-a-profound-way-we-just-have-to-make-different-tools-tod-machover-mit/ http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/everybody-can-experience-music-in-a-profound-way-we-just-have-to-make-different-tools-tod-machover-mit/#comments Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:53:10 +0000 Kev http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/?p=281 As someone with zero musical talent, I’d say the most fulfilling thing I’m involved in right now is a collaborative music-based project called Playground (more on that later). Being involved in a creative musical experience is a good thing for a lot of reasons, but not that accessible to most.

Adam recently sent me this TED talk, with the simple words “you have to watch”. It’s a tale of geekery, Guitar Hero, and a guy with cerebral palsy that creates and conducts his own musical scores. More than anything it’s a powerful demonstration of the use of music to bring people together to create.

It’s one of a handful that I’ve sat through for the full 20 mins without skipping – testament both to my impatience and the brilliance of Tod Machover and Dan Ellsey.

The same friend that took us down to see Datarock in Seattle gets around in Vancouver’s music scene.  She’s introduced us to a bunch of very different acts, and we’ve worked on many projects with her.  She’s currently running an event management company, is in two bands (one with a record deal, the other soon to be playing their first gig) helps manage a couple more, and also works on a top-secret project with us called Playground.  Long story short, she’s busy.

One of the bands she introduced us to was The Famous Players, a staple of the Vancouver party band scene.  We were shooting a group shot but capturing the members either on their own or in small groups.  Fortunatley whoever was on the camera spotted something just out of frame and pulled back a bit to crack this one off.  ’Nuff said.

It's not just monsters that lurk in the shadows.

I have a confession to make.  I have a friend. Possibly more than one. But one in particular who has a special talent. I’m going to call her the Oracle, and she wants to remain anonymous. Mainly because she doesn’t like being photographed.

She’s studying at UBC. I think its a course about soil, math, and feminism. Or something. Either way, it’s really fucking hard.

Come exam time, she locks herself in her room for 14 hours a day, and focusses all her mental strength on one thing.  Not studying.

There is one beautiful byproduct from this intense procrastination – she knows everything there is to know about the Internet.  She’s bored of a meme before you’ve even heard of it, knows the end result of every civil uprising before its started, and has seen every film that has ever been made or ever will be made.

She also knows all about new music, and can pick a winner like that dodgy guy at the race track who drugs the horses.  And she’s picked another one.  My confession?  Most of everything I’ve blogged about and come to love (The Morning Benders, Thom Yorke dancing, and Bangs) came from the Oracle.  But not the Stornaway cover of Ride on Time. NME gave me that gem.

Granted this guy has already had a mention or two on Pitchfork, so those of you that are still hip with the kidz might have heard of him.  Obviously I hadn’t.  The Oracle had him picked out a few months ago, and already he’s blowing up.

So here’s teenager Tyler the Creator, with one of his less offensive songs (that’s very relative by the way) and a video that looks a bit like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” if the entire crew had been honking on crack and watching snuff movies before writing, producing, and shooting it.

At some point soon there will be singing.

But not yet.

Cryptic.

Radiohead’s new album came out on Saturday. It’s awesome.

The first single, Lotus Flower, was realeased on the same day. Also awesome.

The video to Lotus Flower, featuring Thom throwing up some crazy shapes, get’s remixed by hundreds of people and posted to this Tumblr account. The most awesome thing ever.  Fact.

Download the new album here. It’s not free, but it’s only $9, which is basically free.

Just over a year ago we headed down to Seattle with a good friend to shoot Datarock performing live at some venue we’ve long since forgotten the name of. The thing about shooting bands is that the images rarely find a home on our site.

We should probably change our site (it’s in the pipes) as it’s some of the most interesting work we do.

On that note, after the gig we headed to an underground karaoke bar at about 3am.  It was slim pickings – not many places you can sing, drink booze and get edible food are open at that time in the morning, and this place fulfilled two of those three requirements.  There was a menu, but “unidentifiable on a plate” didn’t look too appealing.

Either way, Freddy started wailing to Bowie, a mini-keg appeared from somewhere, and the rest is a distant blur.

]]> http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/b-roll-shot-of-the-day/feed/ 2 http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/a-night-to-remember-coming-soon-and-free-music/ http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/music/a-night-to-remember-coming-soon-and-free-music/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:30:55 +0000 Kev http://www.adamandkev.com/wordpress/?p=194

Joseph Blood, Bend Sinister

All images ©2010 Adam and Kev Photography. Unsurprisingly.

I always get just a little bit frustrated reading about another night to remember that has since past. With that in mind – here’s one that hasn’t happened yet.  In fact, I don’t even know the where or when.  But it’s coming. So mark in in your diary.  Somewhere.

The Peak Performace Project (free song download on the site) is one of the best things to happen to local music in Vancouver in a while. Sure, it doesn’t quite offset the conversion of every small-to-medium-size live music venue into a lounge bar (ok, there are still a few left), but it does offer local artists the chance of winning $105,000 to push up a step or two.

Granted it’s a grant (they can’t splurge it all on hookers and blow), and they’re made to work for the opportunity, but hey – it’s potentially a game-changer in the right hands.

Last year’s winners We Are The City were incredible, and my personal favourite Bend Sinister (free songs on their site) came in a bewildering third, and from what I hear this year’s contestants are also something worth shouting about. I say “I hear”, because I didn’t make it to a single one of the six nights where the top 20 bands played. Shame on me.

Either way, public voting is underway, and the final can’t be far off (Jan 22nd @ The Commodore last year). When the top 20 was announced back in the summer I had my money on Said The Whale, but have since heard convincing/near threatening arguments for Sweatshop Union’s Kyprios, former Mother Mother star Debra Jean, Vince Vaccaro, and the young talents of 41st and Home (so young their violinist couldn’t be part of the line-up for the contest). And then who would write off the likes of Adaline, Bodhi Jones, Aidan Knight and Kuba Ohms?

Expect an update when the date/location for the final (where the top three fight it out) is announced, and potentially a few ignored grumbles if it’s at the Commodore – especially from the smokers out there (no in-and-outs and no smoking area can make the tobacco dependent a little bit antsy, and to be fair doesn’t feel too rock and roll).

On Twitter? Follow @KK‘s list of Vancouver acts here: http://twitter.com/kk/vancouver-music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kue0psks5Vc

Back in the summer (it could have been earlier now I think about it) our good buddies at Mongoose, East Van’s very own prodigal sons of indie rock,  played at the Biltmore.  We had one of those ideas that seems great at the time -- to do a quick interview with them before the show.

We forgot two things :

1. An interviewer (their drummer, Marc the Temp, stepped up to the plate)

2. Backstage at the Biltmore is a tiny room next to a speaker stack, essentially making it the world’s loudest closet.

In spite of said problems, Marc the Temp put frontman RC through his paces, answering the unanswered, solving the unsolved, and giving us some insight into the oft-overlooked genre of Japanese rock.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTAG8H_R1Yc

One more to add to the pile from the sessions we did during the Olympics.  I know what you’re thinking, but trust me -- when you lose your videographer and your video editor you are literally up shit creek.  We found the paddle, but hands were messy’d in the process.

Thanks to:

Rich @ Young Executive Music Inc, for all things sound related, youngexecutivemusic.com.

Erin @ Filosophi Inc for bringing Kate into this, filosophi.com

Thanks to our friends at Blenz for letting us crash one of their locations again, blenz.com

Thanks to Adam for holding a 10lb make-shift steady cam that turns your arms to rubber, and everyone for their patience while I figured out editing 101.

And most of all, thanks to Kate for sharing the goods with the unsuspecting and small (but perfectly formed) late-night audience, http://katemorgan.ca/