Artist of the Week

The Artist of the Week for this week is Mates of State. They're a band I've been listening to for a few years but only recently got back into. I can sum them up like this: husband, wife, drums, keyboards, pop music. But trust me, it's so much better than that sounds.

There is an audio player on www.matesofstate.com which lets you listen to some new songs, as well as some older ones.

And of course there is the old standby, www.myspace.com/matesofstate

Artist of the Week

This weeks Artist is Lukas Rossi. If you've never heard of him, he was the winner of the Rockstar Supernova reality TV show - and if you can get past that, he's actually a very talented guy. I've always thought his look is a little contrived but he's got an unbelievable voice and he's a great songwriter.

If you've ever got a chance to see him live - you must do it. I had the opportunity to see him do an acoustic show at The Pump last night and it was pretty fantastic. He definitely has the biggest voice I've ever heard.

And let me tell you this - women apparently love this guy. They were falling all over themselves last night like he was a Backstreet Boy - only there was vast amounts of alcohol involved. It was quite the spectacle. There was so much estrogen in the room last night that I'm pretty sure I got pregnant... I wonder how Mrs. Sports As Life is going to feel about that.

Anyway, you can check out his music at:

www.lukasrossionline.com
or
www.myspace.com/lukasrossitv

His recorded music does not really do justice to what he can do live.

Artist of the Week

No Links this week... mostly because I don't have any. We do have an Artist of the Week though.

And that Artist is Rilo Kiley. Like The National last week, Rilo Kiley is pretty big certain circles but I don't think they're really "mainstream" yet. Although as I don't listen to the radio or watch the MTV, I could be wrong about them not being "mainstream".

They have a new album out called Under the Blacklight - which I think is pretty phenomenal. But I think I'm about the only one. On previous albums Rilo Kiley had been about acoustic/folk/rock and had stayed true to that formula. But on the new album there are some seriously new sounds for them - I'm talking about funk, disco and even some 80's Latin synth beats for good measure.

Rilo Kiley has always been about Jenny Lewis (you might know her voice from the Postal Service or her own solo album) and her ever so seductive and sultry voice. She doesn't disappoint.

This seems to have turned into an album review - so you can just check out their music for yourself: www.myspace.com/rilokiley

Artist of the Week

This week's Artist of the Week is The National. Now I'd never heard of them before about last Wednesday but I think they're actually pretty big news in certain circles. So if this doesn't qualify as a band you've never heard of I apologize. I actually heard a song of their's on NBC's Chuck and it was the only good thing I ever got out of that show.

The National is a monster combination of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, The Strokes and The Killers. You should definitely check them out.

Their official website is: http://www.americanmary.com/ There is a link to them performing on Letterman as well as a National Public Radio show.

You can also check out their Myspace site at: http://www.myspace.com/thenational

Artist of the Week

This week's Artist of the Week is Hayley Sales. If Jack Johnson and Sarah Harmer had a love-child together it would be Hayley Sales.

You can check her out at:

www.myspace.com/hsales

http://www.hayleysales.com/ (look for the media player link on the right side of the page and you can listen to 5 of her songs)

There is also a program on CMT called Making Waves that is currently featuring as well, so if you happen across that check it out.

Artist of the Week

I really haven't heard anybody new in a long - so I'm directly ripping off JK's Music, Movies and TV Blog and putting up Obadiah Parker as the Artist of the Week. Mainly just so I can post the clip of 'Hey Ya':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_o0Xi2kd0k

It's gotta be one of the catchiest songs I've heard in a long time.

Check out their Myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/obadiahparker

Artist of the Week

This week's Artist is Final Fantasy. I've mentioned him before in AOTW about the upcoming concerts in Regina, but never formally featured him here.

His actual name is Owen Pallet and he writes the strings for The Arcade Fire, which I think is how most people know him. But he is a phenomenally talented musician with his own body of work and he does some of the coolest covers around:

Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"

Bloc Party's "Modern Love"

Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go"

You can also check out his Myspace site at: www.myspace.com/owenpalletmusic

He's also in Regina on October 16th - so keep your eyes open for that one.

Artist of the Week

It's been a stagnant couple of weeks for music, I haven't really heard too many new people, never mind ones that I like. But don't worry, I've still got one or two up my sleeve.

This week's Artist is The Cliks. And if you like androgynous Canadian garage rock, this is the band for you. Actually, that makes it sound pretty bad - which its not. So check it out:

www.myspace.com/thecliks

Artist of the Week

There is no specific artist this week. Instead I want to bring up an occurrence that is so baffling I'm not sure what to do about it. The situation is this - over the next 3-4 months there are a staggering number of great concerts coming to Regina. It's like the perfect storm of concert tours, all converging at once on Regina. We may never see anything like this again. Here's the list:

September 26th - Chris Cornell
October 1st - Tegan and Sara
October 16th - Final Fantasy
October 21st - Sum 41/Finger 11 (for those that yearn for the good old days of 2001)
October 21st - The Sadies (for those that want to hear 135 songs in 75 minutes)
November 23rd - Stars

Now I realize that's only 6 shows but for a concert scene that has been pretty barren lately, that's a pretty good couple of months.

We should also see a Weakerthans show in November or December. The wildly underrated Buck 65 has a new album coming out and should be through in the fall. And there are also rumours of a Matthew Good show at the University in November, although nothing has been announced yet.

So enjoy the next couple of months - these shows might have to tide you over for awhile.

Artist of the Week

This week's Artist is a repeat, sort of... I know put up one of his clips in the Links previously. However, this week he's making the jump to the big show.

His name is Cas Haley, a reggae/roots musician from Texas who also happens to currently be on America's Got Talent. To combat the problem of having to watch him on reality TV, I've got an excellent system worked out. My Significant Other watches the show and then lets me know when he's on so that I can see him and only him. Good deal.

This is a clip of him doing Walking on the Moon by the Police. I know I've put this one up before but it's so good it deserves another look.

And this is him doing Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson. Brings back fond memories of Ghostbusters 2 - as the song was the best part of that movie.

Here is the Myspace page for his actual band called Woodbelly.

If there was ever a person that would make me call in and vote on a reality program, he would be that person.

Artist of the Week

A day early I know but I'll be off tomorrow and it always seems I have more time to post at work than at home - funny that. So Artist of the Week and The Links should be up today.

So this week's Artist is Band of Horses. You can find their Myspace site here.

I like them because I have no idea how to describe them. All too often we talk about bands in terms of something else - as in, "You'll like them, they sound like _______." But as I'm sitting here trying to describe them to you, I find that I can't in terms of other bands, which is probably why I really like them - because of their original sound.

They're another one of those bands that I came across by accident. I was standing in HMV one day and they came on the stereo. Just one of those things.

Enjoy!

Artist of the Week

It appears as though Artist of the Week has made a permanent move to Friday's. It seems to fit better with what we do on Friday. So be sure to mark your calendars.

This weeks artist is Flight of the Conchords. They are described on their website as "New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk paradists." They also have a new show on HBO called, not surprisingly, Flight of the Conchords. The official site for the HBO show can be found here. You can also watch clips of them on Myspace here and here.

If you currently subscribe to Movie Central, or may sometime in the not too distant future, you can watch new episodes of their show on Sundays. You can also watch old episodes on demand from Movie Central. I must warn you that the show is very, very dry. So if you're a big fan of According to Jim this might not be the show for you.

Artist of the Week

Hey - it got to the end of week and I realized there was no Artist of the Week. So here we go, this week's artist is Brandi Carlile. Those who run in Grey's Anatomy circles will be familiar with her work, even if you don't know her name.

She starts comes off as very quiet and unassuming - and then she kicks you in the chest. Check out this video and you'll see what I mean - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJa-KazVMYU

Artist of the Week

This weeks artist is Ryan Star. Admittedly I don't know much about him, his CD was passed my way. He seems to be an indie guy from New York - but seems to have a pretty big following in certain circles. I would liken him to what the love-child of Neil Diamond and Axl Rose would sound like, if he played power piano ballads. Check him out at: www.myspace.com/rstar

Whether you agree with the Neil Diamond comparison (or the Axl one) or not is irrelevant. I mostly put that in there just so I had an excuse to link this -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2C9oMmwl80

"No I will leave you in!"

Artist of the Week

I've got a bit of a departure for you this week - just in case anyone felt that Artist of the Week was starting to fall into a rut. This week's feature is DL Incognito, a hip-hop artist out of Toronto. I'm putting him in here because he's got a song called Fight This in which he samples and puts a beat over Day Old Hate by City and Colour. It's quite phenomenal actually. Check him out at www.myspace.com/dlincognito - you can actually download Fight This from his myspace site, a nice touch as well.

Artist of the Week

What started as a blurb on Monday Headlines is now it's own weekly feature (and now called Artist of the Week), due mostly to the fact that I did in Monday Headlines Phil Leotardo-style.

So this week's artist is Wayne Petti. You can check him out at www.myspace.com/waynepetti. He's the lead singer of Cuff the Duke, as well as the keyboard player for Hylozoists. In one of those serendipitous moments that only music can provide, I happened to hear him randomly on the in-flight music station on an Air Canada flight from Regina to Toronto. And he'll be in the Queen City this summer at the Regina Folk Fest.

Enjoy!