EPIC CONCOCTION

ROYAL CANOE - FACEBOOK - TWITTER

A few months ago I was mining for gold on one of my go-to music discover tools This Is My Jam (Exfm, I feel like I must mention both because of my undying love for the staff at each!) and I came across these “musical mad scientists” called Royal Canoe from Winnapeg. It was a track off their first EP Extended Play called Hold On To The Metal that initially won me over. Then I saw this video of Nightcrawlin’ posted above and it reminded me so much of Yeasayer that I knew these guys would be my next obsession.

On August 1st, I got to meet Matt Schellenberg (keyboard, vocals) thanks to Caitlin White aka Bleecker Street Beat texting me about meeting this super nice dude at the Cold Specks show at Glasslands. He told me about their next EP Purple & Gold and how the music was taking a bit of a hip hop direction. This worried me but on Sept. 11 all my worries were squashed when the EP showed up on their Bandcamp. The first track Show Me Your Eyes has all the elements of their first EP that I loved so much and then they hit you with the Summersweat beat that makes you want to slow things down on the dance floor.

Keep an eye out for these guys at CMJ! I honestly don’t know what to expect out of their live show and I like that very much. Somebody please go see them open up for Fierce Creatures in Fresno, CA Sept 21 and take a video for me!

&amp;amp;lt;a href=“http://royalcanoe.bandcamp.com/album/purple-and-gold” data-mce-href=“http://royalcanoe.bandcamp.com/album/purple-and-gold”&amp;amp;gt;Purple and Gold by Royal Canoe&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves

Two months ago this Brooklyn band played a show with Snowden at Glasslands. I was so excited about the night, not because I had a clue who We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves were, but because I have been a huge fan of Snowden since 2007 and highly anticipated the release of a new album. This show was promoted as an album release show on the poster so I went prepared to buy some vinyl. Showed up late. Missed the opener, We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves, but still had time to meet my band crush Sarah Barthel (Phantogram) and told her I loved her just before Snowden took the stage, both of these things were enough to make my night pretty awesome. After the show I went up to the merch booth to find out that it was not the Snowden record release show but WCEO’s record release show. A couple of minutes speaking with the lead singer, Giovanni Saldarriaga, about their debut record plus a few beers led me to blindly buy their 12 inch “Make A Mess Of Sacred Ground.”

I experienced no buyers remorse but quickly became pretty upset that I missed their set. Luckily I was able to catch their next show at The Knitting Factory a couple of weeks ago. Perfect timing too because Exfm had recently asked me to help out finding an opener for their showcase, which happens to be tonight! I asked if they wanted to play. They said yes. And that is how it came to be that I love WCEO and you can too, just show up at Pianos tomorrow night around 8pm. If you enjoy The Smiths or The Mystery Jets or just having a good time dancing then you should totally come hang out. The Cold Fronts, Thieving Irons and my dear friends il Abanico will be playing as well. Join the Facebook event.

Scroll down or click the little deal in the bottom left corner to stream the song they closed their Knitting Factory set with, “Devil in The Old Folks Home”, where they croon like birds with their heads cut off. Giovanni’s words. Not mine. They got jokes on stage so come prepared to laugh and dance or just head nod and do the ole knee spasm move.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=“http://wecantenjoyourselves.bandcamp.com/track/devil-in-the-old-folks-home” data-mce-href=“http://wecantenjoyourselves.bandcamp.com/track/devil-in-the-old-folks-home”&amp;amp;amp;gt;Devil In The Old Folks Home by WE CAN’T ENJOY OURSELVES&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Today the fine folks at ex.fm released an iPhone app! It’s pretty amazing that they were just founded in March of 2010 and already have nearly 50,000 users. This past March they sponsored #MEGABLAAG at SXSW and I was lucky enough to meet @majman @dankantor @jpage. Not only do they know what they are doing but they are super nice. Kind enough to make me a Tastemaker. So follow me at ex.fm/EpicConcoction because I’m about to be laid up on the beach all weekend noting songs and sharing them on the twitters and Facebook. Most of the songs will probably be from Givers, Pepper Rabbit or 1,2,3 because they are playing in Little Rock on Tuesday, #StickyzJune28 and I couldn’t possibly be more excited!

Rose Mary Stretch by Pepper Rabbit