by Andrew Frisicano

As the sun hid its face behind the island's ring of trees, Pavement took to a Toronto stage for the first time in a decade.

The crowd was a little diminished at this point. Presumably, Toronto didn't want to miss out on the other aging rockers, Iggy and the Stooges, who were playing a free gig at Yonge-Dundas Square starting at 9 p.m.

But Pavement, equipped with a dedicated cult following, delivered to the fans. The fans including both Kevin Drew and Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell, who joined Pavement for Kennel District. Both were clearly ecstatic by the honour. The epitome of '90s indie rock, the California band blasted their feel-good lo-fi rock. It was all well-received nostalgia with hits like, Fight This Generation, Father to a Sister of Thought and Shady Lane. It was one of those down-memory-lane-we-go moments for sure. [Blog.to]

Pavement followed Broken Social Scene at Saturday's June 19th show on Toronto Island. The hometown BSS set was clearly a tough act to follow, but Pavement seemed up to the task, with opener "Cut Your Hair" setting the tone. The reunion tour is clearly not about coyness, and the set that followed was a satisfying string of hits that marked the band's first Canadian show in more than 10 years.
It goes without saying that people were excited, and the band seemed happy to oblige with 26 songs.

Bob Nastanovich hopped around and traded lyrics with Stephen Malkmus, who was personable if a little awkward (Malkmus called the show "relatively successful," which seemed like a weird thing to point out to a sold-out 10,000+ crowd who traveled to an island for the show).

The island itself was spacious with lots of leafy trees, and room to spread out while still being in earshot of the show. The six-foot stage meant you could see the band clearly even from the back of the crowd (though the location of the perpetual beer line was a bit too far off).

Pavement will be in NYC for five shows in September. More dates HERE. More pictures from the Toronto show, videos and the setlist, below...

Continue reading "Pavement @ the Toronto Island Festival - pics, video, setlist"

Band of Horses @ SXSW (more by Bryan Bruchman)

Band of Horses play this Sunday at Williamsburg Waterfront with Grizzly Bear and Karen Elson. That's sold out. On Saturday, Band of Horses are playing as part of Broken Social Scene's Toronto Island concert along with Pavement, Beach House, Timber Timbre and others. That show is now part of NXNE, and they'll be letting in 250 badgeholders from the fest. Tickets are still on sale.

And Friday (6/18), Band of Horses will be playing a free AOL-sponsored show at an as-of-now-secret location in Manhattan at 6:30pm (which means Band of Horses are playing NYC, then Toronto, then NYC again this weekend). The Manhattan location is expected to be revealed Thursday at noon. We'll of course post it as soon as it is. The band so far tweeted a map of midtown (which has Radio City in the center of it) so the show might be somewhere in that area or not (presumably not South Street Seaport). The tweeted pic is below.

The free show is following in the pattern of what AOL did at SXSW for their secret/surprise parking garage show with Broken Bells and a different band each day that March week.

Broken Social Scene's concert-scored film This Movie Is Broken, directed by Bruce McDonald and soundtracked with footage from BSS's Toronto Island show in 2009, is screening on Thursday (6/17) at 92YTribeca (it's a fictional story, part of which takes place at the show, with music and clips from the gig throughout). That screening is sold out, but "a limited number of tickets for sold out events may be available one hour before curtain." Broken Social Scene play NYC's Rumsey Playfield in September.

The trailer for that film, the above-mentioned BoH pic and some videos below...

Continue reading "Band of Horses playing free AOL show in NYC Friday, Toronto Island w/ BSS Saturday & the Waterfront Sunday"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Pavement - Gold Soundz (MP3)

Broken Social Scene @ Masonic Temple, Oct 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Broken Social Scene will be releasing their new, as-yet-untitled album on May 4th, 2010 on Arts & Crafts. Co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto, the new album is the follow up to their acclaimed self-titled record, released in 2005.

It's hard to believe that the last BBS record came out more than four years ago. The new album's release will be accompanied by a short set of tour dates in North America and Europe. One of those will be "An Evening With Broken Social Scene" at NYC's Webster Hall on May 7th. Tickets to that are on Arts & Crafts presale now. (as are tickets for their L.A. and San Francisco shows). NYC tickets go on general sale Saturday, 2/16 at noon.

Tickets for BSS's Toronto Centre Island (Olympic Island) show on June 19th are also on sale. Toronto Island Concert will be a full-day festival with Band of Horses and co-headlined by Pavement. More acts are TBA.

Pavement, whose reunion shows are slowly creeping up, recently released the tracklist of their best-of comp, Quarantine The Past: Greatest Hits 1989-1999, coming out March 9th on Matador. Tracklist, album art and updated tour dates are below. A remastered version of "Gold Soundz" from the comp is posted above.

All BSS tour dates, the credits for the new BSS record (which included Feist and Pavement's Spiral Stairs) and more info are below...

Continue reading "Broken Social Scene - new album! & tour dates, Webster Hall & Toronto Island w/ Pavement (who has a 'Best Of' coming)"