So it’s been just over a week since the Toronto Virgin Music Festival occurred and I’ve had a bit of time to digest the whole festival. Overall the I have to say the experience was pretty f**kin’ unbelievable, Virgin treated us folks in the media pretty great by giving us access to certain areas that the general public couldn’t enter. My favorite and where we spent the most time was the Bacardi B-Live Tent, as there was a special VIP / Media tent that served…well, what else, Bacardi drinks. I’m not sure I’ve had that many mojitos ever in a span of a weekend. Oh and I tried my first Maple mojito, quite sweet and interesting, not sure if I’d ever have another though.

Highlights:

• Sitting beside The Kooks for the longest time and not realizing and then Melissa stalking them for a picture.
• Meeting with Thunderheist and having Isis incorporate “Killahbeez” and such into her freestyle, which drew some attention.
• Dancing on stage with Thunderheist while MSTRKRFT was djing.
• Seeing Richard Branson backstage at the Bacardi B-Live Tent.
• Sitting across from Moby and not really realizing who he was until I actually looked, yeah that was embarrassing.
• Autographed CDs from MGMT, HELL YEAH!

And much more off course, but if I list anymore it could classify as bragging and that ain’t my steez.

So in case you’re wondering how I made my way there or why I was at the Toronto Virgin Music Festival, here’s the back-story. One day I was sitting around bored and came across a link where Virgin Music wanted writers to submit reviews that they’ve done in the past, so after some debate on which review I was going to send, I decided to submit my Stevie Wonder review that I wrote for Killahbeez. Then came the waiting game, but I hadn’t heard anything for months and to be quite honest totally slipped my mind and I forgot about it. A day after my birthday in the morning I get an email and phone call telling me I won this contest, I was still sleeping and thought I was a) dreaming or b) a friend was playing a joke on me, but then I remembered I never told anyone about entering this contest. After a few exchanges on email, I decided to take a chance on believing this was legit and dove head first in making arrangements.

The prize was 2 VIP / Media pass to the Toronto Virgin Music Festival and an opportunity to write on http://music.virgin.com, where after an allotted time fans/readers would vote for their favorite article / writers. This lucky winner would then win a Global VPass, where you would essentially travel from festival to festival. Currently that’s where I am in the process, writing on Virgin Music’s website and hoping to get enough votes, so hit up http://music.virgin.com/author/David%20Thai/ and vote for my articles if you feel that they’re worthy of your votes as that would be hella appreciated.

I definitely have to thank Virgin Music for selecting me as it’s definitely an honor.

To view all of our pictures from the V-Fest, check out our Killahbeez Flickr page.

MGMT is easily one of my favorite bands of 2007-08. This group was introduced to me by my mans AJK, who has been pushing a lot great stuff my way, so definitely gotta give him credit here for this one. And can’t forget my other buddy Ryan, ‘cus that fool is on his game. With that said, this was definitely the band that I wanted to check out the most of the whole line-up, and they did not disappoint. They killed it with their performance of “Pieces of What” and “4th Dimensional Transition.” As “4th Dimensional Transition” came to an end, they kept a chord playing straight into “Time to Pretend” and the crowd went nuts and was singing along with the tune. This song has such a great summer feel to it and I couldn’t help but reminisce about my summer during this song, all the great times I’ve had with friends and concerts that I was fortunate to attend. Great times!

They kept the vibes going by playing straight into “Electric Feel,” which is easily one of their more recognizable jams and going into “The Handshake.” At this point, the group took a short, like 1 minute, break, and the drummer and two extra guitarists left the stage. Ben Goldwasser then proceeded to play the instrumental for the song “Kids” through his synths. The sound was just booming through the speakers and I admit, I got chills hearing this shit. From there, both Andrew and Ben sat down on the stage and started performing the song for the crowd, and at one point, Andrew was on his knees singing to his guitar. That concluded the performance, and I have to say, I was pretty damn pleased with it. Their vocals on the album completely match the vocals on stage, which is usually rare, and they were able to keep a great vibe throughout.

See more pictures via our Flickr page, which can be found on the right hand side of the page.

Also if you like this review vote for me here on this page.

OK, so I have to admit that I’m not the biggest Oasis fan. And to be quite honest, I haven’t heard a full album of their stuff since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Yeah, that was in 1995 and I was 15. However, with that said, of all the acts that hit Virgin Music Festival in Toronto this year, they were one of the few acts to really impress the shit out of me.

The crowd went wild as the band hit the stage and there was some definite love, both ways from the band and for the band. They kicked of their set with the ever popular “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” with Liam showing his usual cocky bravado, while his brother, Noel, looked mad chilled off to Liam’s left playing the guitar. With the view I had from the media tent, I unfortunately couldn’t see the other members of the band, but nonetheless, it didn’t ruin the experience at all as these guys killed it. From there, they went into “Lyla,” off of Don’t Believe the Truth, which some have said is their best since Morning Glory. and continued into a new song of theirs called “The Shock of the Lightning,” which is off of the upcoming album Dig Out Your Soul. I definitely was feeling this track and the crowd was also responding quite well to it. After this, Liam took a quick break to banter back and forth with the crowd. I have to say, I’ve heard some negative things about these guys in the past in terms of performances and cockiness, but that was not evident on this night as there was love going back and forth. Liam was consistently conversing with the crowd and even handed his tambourine to a lucky concert goer at one point - pretty sick. They kept the vibe going with “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” “The Meaning of Soul,” “The Masterplan” beautifully sung by Noel, “Songbird,” “Slide Away,” and “What’s The Story Morning Glory.”

This is where the story takes a step in a different direction. As some of you may have heard, Noel was attacked on stage. It was during the song “Morning Glory” that this atrocious act took place. From what I could see, some guy ran from the side of the stage, violently pushed Noel into the speakers and proceeded to move towards Liam, before he was jumped by security. As security jumped him, I could see Liam throwing a punch at the assailant as he was dragged backstage. The whole band left the stage, clearly for security reasons. As one of my friends who I told jokingly asked me “Was it Memphis Bleek?” to which I replied “Not unless he donned a full body Caucasian suit”. Five minutes later, the group was back out on stage doing their thing, but it wasn’t the same anymore. Assumingly shaken, they weren’t bantering with the crowd anymore. Instead, they just performed out the rest of their set.

The band came back and resumed with “The Importance of Being Idle,” “Wonderwall,” “Supersonic,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and ended the night with “I Am The Walrus,” but like I said, it was not the same as before the attack. Don’t get me wrong, they still killed these tracks, but you could tell that they were still shaken by what had happened. I had hoped that they would perform “Champagne Supernova,” which is still one of my songs.But at last it was not meant to be.

There you have it folks. Once a fan has now been converted back into a fan because of this great performance on their part. If you liked this review and want to read more, be sure to vote for me at this site. Special shout out to Melissa for helping me with the song titles, while I took pictures.

See the rest of the pictures on our Flickr page, which can be accessed via the box on the right hand side of the page.

Stay tuned for more reviews on the Toronto V-fest. And I’m out.

Yet another banger from my peoples Keys N Krates. This time around its Mos Def’s classic “Miss Fat Booty”.

The clip is a really short one shot by a seemingly drunk fan at their big return home to a sold out crowd @ Toronto’s Wrongbar.

Enjoy - as I’m sure you will.

*Sidenote - Keys N Krates are currently working tour dates down the US west coast and in the NY/Philly/DC area for the coming months. And their first Mixtape is in the works as well. Stay Posted!

One of Canada’s greatest new exports, Keys N Krates will be blessing their hometown of Toronto this Saturday June 21st at Wrongbar (1279 Queen St W. Doors @ 10pm, $10 cover). This is the first time they’ve been back home for a minute and considering what’s stirring at the moment, it could also be the last time they are back for some time. With a bunch of dope new material in addition to the joints that have already got them buzzing in the Americas, you definitely don’t wanna miss this show if you’re in the GTA. (Big ups to my man Brock on the dope flyer).

If you’re not up on em yet peep their Youtube vids, Myspace and Blog.

I was initially introduced to Surface to Air via a friend in Montreal that brought me down to Reborn some time ago. Since then I’ve made a point to stop at Odin when I make it out to NYC, IE here in Vancouver and Nomad in Toronto to get my fix in terms of gear. (Note: you can now also find it in select Barney’s stores if boutique-type stores are not carrying it in your neck of the woods).

Many of you may already be very familiar with Surface to Air’s garments and accessories - which in my personal opinion, rival and perhaps even blatantly surpass the large majority of more recognized designers in originality and execution. However, their creativity spans far beyond fashion and reaches into several other aspects of design including but not exclusive to: graphic design, art direction, video direction, interior design - and the list keeps going.

Working with everyone from Coca-Cola to Chromeo, I thought it might be a good idea to throw up this video that Adidas put together when Surface to Air designed a high top sneaker during the Adicolor campaign back in 2006. The video is well directed and gives you glimpse into a few of the creative minds behind brand.

I highly recommend spending a few minutes exploring the Surface to Air NYC website for a few more surprise collaborations you may not have known about. As well, hitting the Paris website is worth it just to see photos of the Paris store…amazing - Links Below

Surface to Air NYC

Surface to Air Paris

Sitting in my hotel room re-hydrating with Gatorade from the previous night’s over-consumption of alcohol (Sorry, no Vitamin Water CUURTIS, as much as I prefer it, your music stinks and you’re already rich off that). Looking out at the faux ocean view (Lake Ontario) from the 25th floor hotel room bumpin Ralph Tresvant’s R&B gem, “Sensitivity” - this song never gets old to me. I guess its kind of transparent that the next song on my playlist is BBD’s “Do Me”. It’ll work one day ladies..one day.

As much as I bump this stuff on a relatively regular basis, its not usually early morning steez to be honest. However, today is a special case. In about 5 hours, I’ll be witness to New Edition back on stage (sans crooked-jaw Bobby..still tragic to me) at the Ice Cream Summer Fest outdoor concert in Toronto. Thats right, NEW EDITION, which also effectively means Johhny, Ralph, and BBD. Maybe I’m old and overly nostalgic, but I can’t wait to hear these boys rip out all the classics. The lineup also includes SWV. I still bump the “Right Here” - Human Nature Remix and “Anything” remix with Wu-Tang on the regular. For real, whoever put this show together deserves a pat on the back and a can of Crystal Pepsi.

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