Up and Coming Bay Area Pop Comes To The Rose City
On Sunday, January 30, Bay Area newcomers Wallpaper, K Flay, and The Dance Party will perform at the Roseland Theater’s down stairs venue, Peter’s Room. If you are looking for a good cheap show to go and see, at ten dollars a ticket this one is definitely right up your alley. Both Wallpaper and K Flay have been recording for a while now and are great performers.
Wallpaper, performing at Peter's Room 1/30
Wallpaper is an energetic party duo from Oakland that is just starting to make it big. They just played Treasure Island Festival in SF last year. Seeing them open for Dan Deacon in October of 2009 was quite an experience. They came out and gave a great 30-40 minute set that got the crowd dancing and on its feet. The band consists of Ricky on vocals and a protege who makes some seriously sick beats. Their music is all about getting smashed and having the best time that you possibly can. They have a lot of videos that you can see on their myspace (I put one of the more creative ones below for the song “T Rex”).
K. Flay, performing with Wallpaper at Peter's Room 1/30
Supporting Wallpaper at this show will Oakland’s K. Flay who is currently just starting her solo career. Some of you may know her from her appearance on the Zion I hit single “Coastin” a couple years ago. Since then she made a free mix tape that you can download called “Mashed Potatoes” and now has an EP up on Itunes as well. I saw her appear with Zion I at Outside Lands 2009 to perform “Coastin” which was a highlight for me. One thing that fans would not expect is that she is a Stanford alumni with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. She grew up in Chicago listening to her dad’s classic rock and dancing to the music of Parliament and Funkadelic. On stage she is a one woman whirlwind performer; she makes her own beats, plays guitar, and sings/raps. Her charming stage presence has led to her performing with Snoop Dogg, 3 Oh 3, and Passion Pit.
The show is at Roseland’s Peter’s Room, this Sunday January 30 at 8 PM.
Tickets are 10 dollars and can be bought here.
Review of Easy Star All Stars “Dubber Side of The Moon”
Easy Star All Stars are showing the influence that their Pink Floyd tribute album “Dub Side of The Moon” has on the music world by releasing an album of remixes called “Dubber Side of The Moon”. All of the songs from Dub Side have been revisited by DJ’s from all over the world, some of the songs even done multiple times. Artists featured on this new compilation include: 10 ft Ganja Plant, The Dubphonics, Groove Corporation, Alchemist, Mad Professor, Dreadzone, and Michael G of Easy Star.
The result is a new set of bass heavy interpretations that make for an even more spacey experience than the original album. I actually like this CD more because it is geared more towards my love for electronic music. Alchemist does an insane dubstep mix of “Money” that brings new meaning to the song and is really relevant to the greedy culture that we live in today. Dreadzone also does a great drum and bass remix of the song “Us and Them” which was one of my favorites from the original Pink Floyd album.
I would recommend this album to fans of Easy Star’s other releases, because even though it is an album of remixes the feel of the original “Dub Side of The Moon” is still there. This album is also a must for fans of the new dubstep genre of electronic music, because all of the songs are very bass heavy and edgy.
A December To Remember
Portland’s 94/7 FM gave audiences a December To Remember last week, holding five concerts at the Crystal Ballroom. I was lucky to make it to see two of the shows, The Black Keys and Broken Bells. Both shows were sold out and I had to find my tickets through Craigslist, and was lucky to find them at a decent price.
The Black Keys was the first of the two, it took place on Tuesday December 7th, and that definitely got the week started right. They are currently on tour supporting their new album “Brothers”, which recently got named as the #2 on Rolling Stone’s best albums of 2010 list. Opening for the Keys were The Morning Teleportation and M.I.A’s NEET recording artists Sleigh Bells. I had never heard of Morning Teleportation but I definitely liked what they performed, it was a nice funky upbeat indie rock sound, I recommend checking them out in the future if you get the chance. Sleigh Bells were the next band to perform and being a fan of their debut album “Treats” I was excited to see them live. The guitarist Derek was awesome and I absolutely loved how they played some Slayer as their intro music. Vocals needed some work though I could barely hear Alexis, it also was probably because her voice is strained from the songs requiring a lot of screaming and yelling. Finally it was time for The Black Keys and they didn’t disappoint at all, starting out the performance with “Everlasting Light”. The duo then launched into some older songs before playing through most of “Brothers” and hits from the album “Attack and Release”.
I had a day in between to rest and then on Thursday it was time for Danger Mouse and James Mercer’s new band, Broken Bells. This performances was a gem to see at the Crystal Ballroom, they played through their whole album and had a great band supporting them on stage. Mercer provided great live vocals and commented a couple of times during the show how much fun he was having on stage. It was also cool how they extended the visualizer that you get with Itunes LP to be the backdrop for the live performance. Broken Bells released a self titled album earlier this year and I haven’t heard any news of a second one in the works. Danger Mouse has done a lot of one time projects, but this one just seems way too good for there to just be one CD.
Squid from 94/7 took photos each night, check them out here
I also put a couple videos from the Broken Bells show on my Youtube Favorites
Until next time have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.
Die Antwoord and M.I.A Tear Up Portland
Wow just saw two great concerts in a span of four days in Portland, it was so amazing and will be a weekend that I will remember forever. Thursday night South African party animals Die Antwoord put on a show that will surely be remembered at the Crystal Ballroom. Monday night M.I.A and Rye Rye treated a sold out crowd at the Roseland Theater to a banging concert.
Die Antwoord @ Crystal Ballroom
The first show that I attended this weekend was Die Antwoord at the Crystal Ballroom on Thursday. I was so afraid of missing the beginning of the show because I arrived in town late and didn’t hear of any opening act. Luckily Ninja and Yolandi didn’t actually hit the stage until 10 PM and they had some awesome DJ (never found out his name) playing before them.
By the time Die Antwoord started their set the crowd was amped and ready. Ninja and Yolandi Visser opened with “Enter The Ninja”, which ended up being the first time I’ve ever seen a mosh break out at a hip hop show. The duo went through most of the songs from their new album $O$ which was released last week. I was really impressed with how there seemed to be no cultural barrier at all. During the show they were teaching the crowd what words like ‘Wat Pomp” meant and had everyone singing the chorus to “Fishpaste”. The amount of energy and confidence that was brought to the stage was also impressive. They were able to put on a headline performance after just releasing their first album, no wonder Rolling Stone magazine named them best breakthrough artist.
M.I.A and Rye Rye @ The Roseland Theater
On Monday I got to see M.I.A and Rye Rye played a sold out show at the Roseland Theater. I got to the show right at the end if Rye Rye’s set, she announced that she would play one more song just as I was walking in. From the crowd reaction it sounded like she put on a pretty good show. She definitely put a lot of energy into her final song, she had some great dancers with her on stage.
M.I.A’s DJ provided some bumping music for the crowd while we waited in anticipation for Maya to start her set. This part of the show I kind of thought was a little tedious, it looked like everything was ready for her to start but the DJ played for another 5 or 10 minutes. M.I.A started off her show with a high energy new song “Illygurl” and was definitely fired up from the start . After starting with a new song she transitioned to older songs like “World Town”, “Bucky Don Gun”, and “Bamboo Banga”. She was all over the stage, dancing on top of the speakers, hanging out with the crowd in the balcony area, and she brought tons of fans on stage to dance with her. I was amazed at the amount of songs that she played, every album was represented. I would have liked to have heard “Sunshowers” but other than that it was great set list.
I have videos from both shows in my favorites on youtube
M.I.A Photos provided by Arian Stevens
Die Antwoord @ Crystal Ballroom 10/14 9PM
New hip hop breakthrough artists Die Antwoord
Tomorrow night at the Crystal Ballroom Ninja and Yolandi Visser, better known as Die Antwoord, will make their first Oregon concert appearance. This high energy South African hip hop duo burst on to the music scene earlier this year with two very successful youtube videos (“Zef Side” and “Enter The Ninja”) which gained millions of views. Coachella 2010 added Die Antwoord to its lineup late, and the duo ended up being one of the most talked about performances after the festival was over. Interscope signed them to its label and the duo opened for M.I.A at her shows this summer.
The music is a high energy party raps in a style that they call “Zef”, which Ninja classified in Rolling Stone as not caring about what other people think and being in the zone. The duo have been working together for years, the original band idea coming after they threw an insane rave birthday party for Yolandi. Die Antwoord released their first CD “$O$” this Tuesday and were named as the Hot Breakthrough Artist in Rolling Stone’s new issue.
M.I.A At The Roseland Theater 10/18
Just announced, M.I.A will be performing at the Roseland Theater in Portland Oregon on Monday October 18. M.I.A is currently touring in support of her third LP “Maya” which was released in July 2010. This will be her first time performing at the Roseland since May of 2008, so show her some love for returning to Portland. Opening for her will be Rye Rye, who is part of Maya’s N.E.E.T Records and a frequent protege on stage with her.
M.I.A (Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) was born in Britain to parents of Tamil Sri Lankan decent. At six months old she moved with her parents back to Sri Lanka, where her father adopted the name Arular and became a political activist for Tamil independence. She moved around a lot at a young age, because her father was trying to keep himself from getting arrested. Eventually she ended up back in London with her mom and siblings in 1986.
Maya broke onto the music scene in 2004 with her songs “Sunshowers” and “Galang” which she recorded at home on a drum machine. Those two songs led to the recording of her debut album “Arular”, released in 2005, which was well received by critics and fans. M.I.A followed up with a monster sophomore effort “Kala” in 2007, proving that there was no sophomore slump in her career. The song “Paper Planes” from that album became a worldwide smash hit earning her a Grammy nomination in 2009. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her work on the song “O…Saya” from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. TIME Magazine also included M.I.A on their 2009 list of “Most Influential People”.
Her musical future after “Kala” was up in the air, which is very much her style always making plans on short notice, after saying at her Bonnaroo 2008 show that it would be her last performance. She had planned to shoot a documentary film and quit music. But sure enough in early 2010 she released a new song “Space” via Twitter confirming to fans that her third album was on its way.
I got a chance to see M.I.A perform at Outside Lands 2009 and she was amazing to see live. It was a late afternoon outdoor show, so I feel like I didn’t get to see the full extent of her lighting and visual capabilities, but she still got the crowd amped up and dancing for an hour. I am definitely excited to see her headlining a show and can’t wait until the 18th.
Tickets went on sale today at 10 AM at all Ticketswest locations and online for 25.oo
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Consequence of Sound is a New York- and Chicago-based, worldly influenced music blog that seeks to cover the music world as it has never has been covered before. Features news, reviews, mp3, and festival outlook
