AWmusic

This past Wednesday I walked over to the Phoenix for the first time to see Say Anything preform. It was an all ages show and when I arrived one of the opening acts Moneen was just going onstage. Moneen was a band I remember hearing about in Middle School but never fell in love with. Moneen had tons of energy and put on a great performance considering I was unfamiliar with all of their songs. The craziest part of their show was when lead singer, Kenny Bridges jumped into the audience and continued to sing as he crowd surfed.

After Moneen’s set Say Anything came onstage with each one of its six members wearing identical white short-sleeved collared shirts, buttoned up too the top with grey dress pants. The stage was decorated like their upcoming album art, with an abstract city scape and a navy blue back drop with painted clouds and a moon.

Say Anything opened with two of their most popular songs, the first being “Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” and then “Alive With the Glory of Love”. Both songs got the crowd dancing, Ive never seen so much movement and moshing at a Toronto show before. In between songs the lead singer Max Bemis expressed his love for Toronto saying that this was the only city in the world that their band has ever done 3 encores. As the show progressed Say Anything’s conservative look started to become disheveled as members unbuttoned their shirts and Max Bemis even took his off. Other songs Say Anything played that night were “The Futile”, “Admit It” and their new song “Hate Everyone” off their upcoming self titled album “Say Anything” due out in stores November 3rd.

Say Anything set lasted an hour and a half! and when it came to encores they only did two. During the first encore Max Bemis came out alone too play a song. The crowd kept on trying to persuade him to play “Walk Through Hell” and with some more coercion Max said he would under the condition that we all better sing along because he hadn’t played that song in a year. All together it was an amazing rock show and definitely made me like Say Anything even more.

While I did take some photos during the concert, they make the band look more like blurs than actually people. Besides you should probably be dancing at a show instead of concentrating on staying incredibly still to get a decent picture. Currently Say Anything’s whole new album is now available to listen too on their myspace page.

Say Anything – The Futile
Say Anything – Alive With The Glory Of Love

Fresh mash-ups have been appearing all over the internet from a duo named The White Panda. Mashing music from their homes in Los Angeles and Chicago, Procrast and DJ Griffi goal is to produce “party music for the masses.”

The White Panda concentrates mostly on mixing two-three songs together, making the songs considerably less overwhelming than mash-ups from Girl Talk or Super Mash Bros. The first song of theirs that caught my attention was one blending Passion Pit with current inmate T.I. The song seems to give equal play to both songs and is a refreshing spin on the two tracks.

Not without its hits and misses, The White Panda does have some great party tracks. New songs are constantly dropped and are all available for download of of their website.

Identical Twin Sisters Tegan and Sara just released their new single “Hell” off their upcoming new album “Sainthood”. On their website Tegan explains the meaning behind the song’s lyrics saying “I wrote the single, Hell, about my neighborhood in Vancouver.” Also adding that “The song was also a clever metaphor for my unrequited feelings, for a girl, not drugs.”

The song opens with an instrumental intro and brings in Tegan and Sara’s heart broken lyrics. In typical Tegan and Sara fashion the song is fast paced and relatively short being 3:19 in length. The vocals on the song are nice, and harmonized showing a new direction for the twins, much different then we have seen on the tracks from their previous album “The Con.”

I am curious to see what the whole album will have to offer when “Sainthood” arrives in stores later this month.

Boys Noize hype has grown drastically after his previous album “Oi Oi Oi” was released in 2007. Since that acclaimed release, Boys Noize has been working on a new album called “Power”. Hitting stores last week the 12 track album brings the long awaited electronic beats of Alexander Ridha to the masses.

The Album opens with the track “Gax”. This song is fantasy driven and filled with consistent repeating sounds. The absence of erratic beats gives the song a clean sound and the faint echoing voices heard in the middle reminds me of something you would hear during a spacey ride.

Blogged about and already remixed before “Power’s” official release, “Jeffer” has remained a favorite song of mine since I first heard it. Its squeaky sounds harmonized with electronic beats makes this track Saturday night approved.

Boys Noize’s ability to drive people to the dance floor is unmistakable. With Songs like “Jeffer” and “Starter” its hard not to move when you hear “Power”. All together “Power” is a great continuation of Boys Noize’s music and has a balance between his old buzzy, distorted sounds sound and a new harmonized beats.

PM Cool (Pow Shadowz) and Mr. Keyz (Bradley Keys) are names behind the California obsessed hip-hop band Cool Catz from Los Angeles. The duo has been making music since they met in 2008. They recently put out their first 6 song EP called Catnip.

Catnip opens with its most energetic song, Nitro. The track begins with a slow classical entry and then slides into a full fledged party song. Nitro has a great variation of fast rhymes mixed with slower bass driven lines.

Take it (feat. Ty Taylor) is one of the slower tracks on the entire EP. Ty Taylors soulful line “you have to take it if your gonna make it” between the serious believe in yourself rhymes of PM Cool and Mr. Keyz makes this song sound urban and unlike all the others.

The dynamics between these west coast rappers on the entire EP leaves you with a classic hip-hop feel. Cool Catz focus on flowing lyrics and lack of overproduction makes this EP a great throwback to previous hip-hop styles.