IndieVan

34th Annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival review

John Tanner

Jul 18th, 2011

A cross section of this year's Vancouver Folk Music Festival hardly conveys the magic that took place on the 7+ stages last weekend. Five performances, however, can serve as a sample of the excellent music performed on Saturday July 16th, 2011.

Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three brought authentic country melodies from the South to the folk festival stage. Jaw-dropping blues harp solos and a washboard player with shakers and a bicycle horn attached brought jazz and gospel standards to life.

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Okkervil River's only Canadian show to be in Vancouver, this tour

John Tanner

Jun 11th, 2011

Okkervil River is stepping up their game.

Arcade Fire may have been the big name at the Grammy Awards this year, but for those who are looking for something a tad more edgy, Okkervil River amply satisfies the role.

Playing at 9:00pm, June 20th, 2011 at Vogue Theatre, Okkervil River is promoting their newest album, I Am Very Far.

The group is known for its moving live performances. They even released a free cover album, Golden Opportunities Mixtape featuring obscure but beautiful compositions.

Photo gallery: David Guetta, party of 6000

John Tanner

May 28th, 2011

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David Guetta rocked the house last long weekend Sunday. All photos by Dale Tidy.

David Guetta to hold 6000-person dance party in Vancouver

John Tanner

May 15th, 2011

Get Guetta'd at a huge dance party next long weekend Sunday.

It's the closest you'll get to Ibiza without jumping on a plane. World famous French house music DJ David Guetta is less than one week away from hosting the the largest indoor dance party B.C. has ever seen. More than 5000 tickets have already been sold for the Vancouver Convention Centre event, and there's only 1000 left. The convention centre was expanded in 2009; Olympics aside, they must have seen this show coming!

The date of the event, May 22nd, is a Sunday. But guess what? It's a long weekend. You can thank Queen Victoria for this holiday.

Blueprint Events is behind this record-breaking event in Vancouver. Blueprint Events promotional manager Matthew Owchar sees this show as the first step toward attracting more high profile concert events to the city.

Young pianist Tristan Teo strikes a chord with competition judges

John Tanner

Apr 17th, 2011

Thirteen-year-old Tristan Teo recently came back from California with two more competition wins added to his collection.

Winning awards seems to be a habit for the West Vancouver pianist. Maybe it's because he treats music as pure communication.

Tristan's daily regimen may differ from that of most of his peers: online schooling, piano lessons with the renowned pianist Sasha Starcevich and a demanding six hours of practice per day.

It's difficult for a teenager to keep up a schedule like this, but his dream is to become a professional performing artist.

GZA at Fortune Sound Club

John Tanner

Mar 6th, 2011

GZA, The Genius.

GZA, The Genius is spreading his skills across western Canada (Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton) prior to his tour of western Europe.

Appearing in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes alongside his cousin, RZA (aka Bobby Digital) and Bill Murray, The Genius has shown that he's a razor sharp actor as well as rapper.

Liquid Swords still remains musically relevant fifteen years after its release. Currently, GZA's most anticipated projects are Liquid Swords 2 and Wu-Tang Revealed, the working title for the official Wu-Tang documentary.

In 2008, GZA's Pro Tools proved that his lyrical mastery has not faded.

Cold War Kids playing at the Vogue Theatre

John Tanner

Feb 27th, 2011

Cold War Kids Mine is Yours promotional shot.

Cold War Kids are about to start the North American leg of their most recent tour, in support of their new LP Mine is Yours.

Maybe fans of the band formerly known as The White Stripes will need to get their rock 'n' roll fix when CWK land at the Vogue on March 5th 2011.

R. Murray Schafer part of Music on Main's spring season

John Tanner

Feb 21st, 2011

Add the compositions of R. Murray Schafer to Vancouver's March soundscape. Photo by Bob Lai Photography.

What better venue is there to welcome the music of legendary Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer to Vancouver, than Main Street's Heritage Hall? The building is beautiful, seating is distributed around 360 degrees of space and the acoustics are rich.

On Wednesday, March 16th, 2011, you can witness Music on Main's
One Night Stand: R. Murray Schafer. The composer, who will be in attendance, coined the term "soundscape" and established the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University in the early 1970s. A soundscape is to audible objects and acoustic properties what a landscape is to visible objects and geographical features.

The main attraction of the event is Schafer's world premiere of his new work for flute, viola and harp, co-commissioned by Music on Main.

Yo La Tengo: Spin the Wheel Tour coming to Rickshaw Theatre

John Tanner

Feb 13th, 2011

Yo La Tengo will spin the magic wheel of fate in Vancouver on February 19th, 2011.

Yo La Tengo's fame is strangely elusive. Despite the band's huge popularity with indie rock lovers across the United States and Canada, their radio-play might not extend past WFMU-FM 91.1/Jersey City.

Irregardless, the people who love them, love them. This is why it's worth bringing their current tour (which will be reaching Vancouver on February 19th) to full attention.

Their music is packed full of raw musicianship. Even their dead silence has a special sound to it. There is something pure and untainted about their music.

They were definitively indie long before the term started to be thrown around like a fetch stick.