Felicia's fall concert series: More Canada!!

And so the concerts continue...I'm starting to run out of steam and money but it's totally worth it when I'm discovering new opening bands along the way. Last night was the Broken Social Scene show at the legendary First Ave in Minneapolis. Up and coming indie rock band Land of Talk from Montreal were the openers. This trio with front woman Elizabeth Powell delivers a grittier indie sound with an emphasis on guitars. I was impressed, although Elizabeth's gorgeous vocals were downplayed due to the loud guitars and drums. She mentioned that she was sick, so I'm not sure if that contributed to the quiet vocals or if that's just their main style. Check out this video for the song "Speak to Me Bones."

Broken Social Scene is known for their revolving door of artists coming and going. And they're usually going once they hit it big solo like Feist, Amy Milan of Stars and Emily Haines of Metric. The beginning of the live show was absolutely amazing, almost life changing I would say. It's hard not to feel something when you've got 20 musicians on stage pouring their souls out for the audience. Two drummers, four guitars/bass, trumpets, trombones and vocalists, all the senses were engaged.

Unfortunately the show didn't continue along that vein. The middle of the show lacked the emotion the first portion did. It was highly schizophrenic jumping between styles and I was finding myself wondering if I was at a Phish concert at times. Near the end of the set Brendan Canning said that instead of ending the show they were going to give us an "impromptu jam session." These three words combined are like death to me. I hate jam bands and everything about them. We left shortly after that hippie shit took place, but the beginning of the show totally made up for the purple haze I left in. I still believe BSS is one of the best eclectic bands out there right now, and if you don't mind a little jamming you should catch them on this tour.

"Fire Eye'd Boy" video

"Almost Crimes" video

"Hit the Wall" video

Felicia's fall concert series: Flash in the pan??

When I caught wind of MGMT's album Oracular Spectacular earlier this year, I couldn't get enough of it. I liked it so much that I held hands and skipped with it, it rested on the pillow beside me as I slept and I took it out to dinner. They were one of the bands at Lollapalooza this year that I couldn't bear to miss. But after the bad audio, the bad crowd and my hankering for getting lit I walked away from their Lolla performance with a bad taste in my mouth.

Fortunately they came to my city supporting Beck on his tour last night, and I went to get some form of redemption from Lolla. The only problem with that was I am not a fan of Beck. Mr. Scientology is OK, but I just never grew attached to him like I did with MGMT. I didn't even realize that there were actual Beck fans who creamed their panties for him. There are, and Beck kept me entertained through most of his set. As for MGMT, they just didn't perform the way I expected them to. It was as if I was listening to their CD, just really loudly. They never deviated from the recordings on the album, and their set never really took off. This may be because the band is still quite young, but it makes me wonder if they really have the stuff of longevity. Hopefully they can take a note from their elder Beck, and fine tune their live show. While we wait for them to get around to that, smoke a few blunts and check these trippy videos from MGMT out.

Electric Feel

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Time to Pretend

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"You bruised up both your knees while rifling through women's jeans"

I discovered Tilly and the Wall one fall night two years ago at Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, home of grime, great rock shows and tater tots. Tilly and the Wall uses a tap dancer in lieu of drums, and as a former dancer myself I have great respect for this. She taps the entire set without missing a beat and it’s an amazing thing to see. It also gives their music a special something that doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve ever heard.

The tapping isn’t just some gimmick though. Tilly and the Wall also have two bad ass female vocalists and catchy melodies. Bottoms of Barrels was their second album, and it’s an album I can listen to beginning to end over and over again. Bad Education, Sing Songs Along and The Freest Man are the standouts. The album is full of dance beats and lots of soul.

Tilly just came out with a new album, o. I’ve only heard the first single, Pot Kettle Black, and it has more of an edgy vibe to it. It actually reminded me of The Sounds, a really great Swedish band who you should also check out.

A funny thing happened that night at Triple Rock, and whenever I hear Tilly I’m reminded of it. As I was enjoying the tapping pleasures of Tilly and the Wall, I needed to take a piss and proceeded to the can. My friend came with and we hogged the handicapped stall since that’s what classy drunk ladies do. We were chatting about how impressed with the show we were and I dropped my drawers and went to sit on the porcelain throne. This is when I realized how in the moment I was because instead of sitting on the toilet like a normal person, I went all the way down and my bare ass slapped the dirty grimy floor of The Rock. We laughed and laughed and laughed and my vagina hasn’t been the same since.