One of Vancouver’s very own talented artists and a friend of Killahbeez, Jeff Hamada, was recently randomly selected by the peoples at Converse in contributing a design to the Converse (Product)Red campaign, the campaign is commissioning a 100 musicians, graphic and graffiti artists from all over the world to create their own piece. We here at Killahbeez have posted a few of the products in the past. 10% of the net wholesale price from the campaign will go towards the charity (Product)Red, which is a global charity that is aiding in the fight against HIV / AIDS in Africa. The design is a drawing of 100 hands, to represent the hands of the world reaching out to help Africa, and the hands of Africa reaching out for help.

For more on Jeff, check out his site Booooooom.com, which is also a side banner here. For his design stuff check out jeffhamada.com.

Images: www.jeffhamada.com

The day started off gloomy as a few of us were unsure if we wanted to hit the M83 show as it was the last day at the office for…ohhhh about 124 of us had our last day. But to be quite honest I’ve never seen a happier group of peeps leave a place before, myself included.

So with a day like that a few of us were in a chill mood, but I was convinced to check out M83. The first act, School of Seven Bells, came on the stage at roughly 9:30pm and WOW! The group, from Williamsburg Brooklyn (figures), came on and played a seriously solid set. I hadn’t heard of them before but I was definitely down with what I was hearing and the next day bought their record, Alpinisms. The band features twin sisters, Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and Benjamin Curtis formerly from Secret Machines. They very much had the crowd warmed up and going crazy. A solid act to look out for down the road most definitely.

After School of Seven Bells 5 – 6 song set, the stage crew came on quickly to re-configure the equipment and shortly after M83 came out to a host of screams and cheers. The group played songs off of the Saturdays=Youth album, but at one point a fan requested something older, to which Anthony Gonzalez replied with a “eeeeh, I don’t know about that one”. The crowd went crazy when “Kim & Jessie” came on and M83 could feel the love as they played with a warm smile on their faces. Actually they pretty much had this look on their face the whole night and the chemistry between Anthony and Morgan Kibby (from The Romanovs) was incredible. They had a certain connection and would send playful signals via quick glances.

Morgan Kibby’s voice is incredible I have to say. She had 90% of the guys swooning over her and I received a barrage of Blackberry messages from my friend Martinez, who was stuck in the back, to get as many pictures as I could of Morgan. Stunning and talented and held her own on stage with Anthony. One of the songs that would really capture me this evening was “Skin Of The Night”, the song is just so ominous with mad ‘80s flavor and Morgan’s voice just melts your face, pretty fuckin’ epic. When the fairly upbeat “Graveyard Girl” came the crowd immediately went into another dancing frenzy. Another song I quite enjoyed was “Up!” its definitely reminiscent of something quite familiar, but with an M83 twist all over it.

For the groups encore they played “Couleurs”, this track is so friggin’ next level. The layering on it alone is bananas, seriously! This was definitely a perfect way to end a night of solid performances from both School of Seven Bells and M83.

I want to thank Timbre Productions for allowing us to come in the house and take photos and write this review for you all. They put on a great production and bring in stellar acts. Check out their site www.timbreproductionsconcerts.com for upcoming shows in your city.

School of Seven Bells photos here
M83 photos here

DT
www.killahbeez.com

Here are the rest of the tour date stops.

Photo by David Thai

Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to catch Thunderheist at the Virgin Music Festival out in Toronto, except for one thing, I was busy reviewing and taking photos of another act, a small group by the name of MGMT. So suffice to say I was a bit bummed, but then was totally stoked again when I ran into Thunderheist in the backstage tent area, where the good peoples of Bacardi were serving us lots of free booze. I immediately jumped at the chance for an introduction. During this meeting of the minds, Isis performed a freestyle with my online magazine name, Killahbeez, that went on for a good minute at least and drawing a crowd. Then we were on stage dancing during MSTRKRFTs set. Definitely one of the dopest highlights of that weekend. So when I heard they were finally hitting the West Coast I was giddy like a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The evening started off with the ½ Alive DJ crew which consists of: Tyler Fedchuk, My! Gay! Husband! and Tony X. These guys held it down and warmed the crowd up nicely as everyone was shaking it to their sets. They dropped some old school and I mean like Planet Rock type old school, hip-hop, New Order, MGMT and Breakbot’s remix of Pnau to name a few tracks.

Just shortly after 12:30, Isis made her way to the stage first and shortly after Grahm aka Grahmzilla joined her. Immediately the crowd was wildin’ pretty hard, those at the front, this includes yours truly, were getting squished against the stage. It was all worth it once the first track, “Bubblegum”, dropped. The energy that Isis had was pretty incredible and throughout the night she would maintain this frenetic pace. Showing some love to the crowd she at one point pulled a girl up on stage to dance with her, this said girl from the audience went buckwild and as she left the stage basically tripped over a chord and almost did a face plant onto the floor, luckily she was caught by a whole lot of people. Throughout the night both Grahm and Isis dove into the crowd to do a little surfing, very cool that they were keeping it mad real like that with the fans in the house.

Photo by David Thai

Also in the house for the night was director That Go and model Ana B, whom were both involved in the video / visual delight for the song “Jerk It”. During the song “Jerk It”, which was the last jam of the evening, Isis pulled Ana up on stage and the crowd went wild, then home girl basically threw Ana to the wolves for some crowd surfing, all of it was pretty hilarious to watch.

Thunderheist went on to perform jams that any fan would recognize, hitting “Horny”, “Little Booty Girl”, “Peer Pressure” and “Sueos Dulces”. At one point during the evening Grahm threw on MSTRKRFT’s song “Bounce” and asked if everyone recognized the voice. Of course! It was Isis. She went on to let everyone know that they had her do the track and never gave her any credit or form of payment, pretty wack considering both crews are from Toronto and that song blew up.

The performance was high energy and had yours truly and everyone else from the looks of it, sweating like a mofo. Grahm providing the ill beats while Isis slayed the mic all night long and provided some comedic relief, commenting on how unsexy she felt with the amount of sweat coming off of her and randomly making comments like “OBAMA BITCH!”. The show was great and the audience was dope as you could tell everyone was there to shake their asses to some good music, I would definitely have to recommend that all music heads experience a Thunderheist show as they bring the muthafuckin’ heat. How much heat you ask? I woke up with broken glass in my hair, bruised knee caps and sore calf muscles, wtf??? Much love to Tyler Fedchuk and the ½ Alive crew for hooking Killahbeez up with some tickets for a wicked show. Check out their website for upcoming shows and info: www.halfalive.ca. Stay tuned to the first quarter of the new year, as Thunderheist will have some goodies dropping.

If you like this review vote for me here.

For pictures of the event hit up my flickr page here.

One.

DT

Killahbeez Interview with Keys N Krates from Killahbeez.com on Vimeo.

On November 6th and 7th, Keys N Krates played to a packed house in Vancouver and then in Victoria. For those of you that have been reading the blog for a minute now, you know we’ve been talking about Keys N Krates quite a bit. For those that aren’t in the know, Keys N Krates are a live remix band, yeah thats right a LIVE REMIX BAND, live drums with Tune, live synths with Matisse and Jr. Flo on the turntables breaking down the samples. In the midst of their busy touring schedule we were able to catch up with one of the members, DJ Jr. Flo, for a quick one on one interview.

And yes that is a car alarm in the beginning, a testament to how dedicated I am to go to dodgy areas to get interviews for you all. Wellllll, technically this was across the street from my place, and the area isn’t that dodgy. But yeah sorry about the car alarm in the beginning.

For upcoming tour information hit up their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/keysnkrates

If you liked this interview please help me out and vote for me here: music.virgin.com

Special thanks to AJK and the video editor extrodinaire Gordon Wong.

On Friday, November 7th, Vancouverite Jeff Martin launched his latest retail store called Freshmans, which is conveniently located downtown Vancouver along Robson Street. Those in the city know that Jeff Martin also owns another local store called Dipt and has been up and running successfully since 2000.

So why another store under a different name? Well, quite simply put, Freshmans is for the grown gentleman. Carrying brands such as Bruxe, Canada Goose, Crooks & Castles, Hot Air, Levi’s, PRPS, Reigning Champ, Staple, Stussy Deluxe, Converse, Gourmet and Clae to name just a few. The lines that are carried will be more simple with a back to basics approach while helping you look fly and not like a kid will all over prints.

Check out the beautiful photos of this store, as it definitely has that gentleman’s polo club type feel. For more info check out http://freshmans.ca/.

Photos by Claudio Bianchi.

Yelle, merely hearing the name makes me conjure up images of Julie Budet aka Yelle gyrating her hips in those lovely red shorts in the video “Je Veux Te Voir”, moisturizing up her legs in “A Cause des Garcons” and not to be forgotten the brief boobie flash in the video “Ce Jeu”. Honestly, I’m not a pervert. I just have a massive crush on her, someone I like to call “wifey” she just don’t know it yet. So when a few of us Killahbeez heads were invited on Tuesday by Sealed With A Kiss to check her out I was definitely stoked at the opportunity.

Arriving at 10:30ish, we were right on schedule and quickly grabbed a few shots, before seeing the lights being dimmed and the fans quickly rushing towards the stage. The lights came on and there in front of me was “wifey”…errr I mean Yelle with Grandmarnier and Tepr. The synths kick in, followed by drums, the instrumental had people going nuts and everyone that didn’t already make their way to the dance floor did so at this point. A few moments later Yelle starts singing the lyrics to “Tristesse / Joie”, there’s one part of the song around the 3:50 mark where the beat goes down and builds back up, seeing that live was crazy as the build-up came and hit it’s peak everybody wilded out. As the song ended, she thanked Vancouver for having her and in her adorable French accent asked the crowd “Are you ready to DANCE!” a resounding hell yeah was shouted back.

The up tempo song “Mal Poli” would be the next song we were treated to. Watching her dancing across the stage back and forth was quite a site. She was ass shaking and getting the crowd to do the same, it was infectious and there was no possible way that you could not dance. Yelle kept the pace by going straight into “85A” before going into “Dans Ta Vraie Vie”, which has a very Missy Elliot-esque feel to it. Continue Reading

Vancouver, Commodore Ballroom, Thursday, October 9th, presented by Sealed with a Kiss. The final leg of the Cut Copy & The Presets North American tour officially dubbed “Modular presents Cut Copy & The Presets”.  The tour kicked off on September 13th and embarked on a 20-date tour across the US and Canada, before both label mates, Cut Copy and The Presets, go their separate ways overseas. This wasn’t the first time either groups have stopped in Vancouver as The Presets have made their way here several times and this was Cut Copy’s second stop in Vancouver in the same year.

Kicking and Screaming

So right off the bat I have to say I missed a few songs from The Presets, not due to tardiness or troubles at the gate, but that’s neither here nor there. When I finally did get in it was a party atmosphere as I could feel the dance floor from underneath me moving as if it were a small wave. When I made my way up to front I could see drummer Kim Moyes standing in front of his drums and riling up the crowd and getting as much energy as he could, while Julian was doing his thing on the keyboard.

They performed an array of songs as they went through “This Boy’s in Love” and “Kicking and Screaming”, this particular song had the crowd going wild and literally kicking and screaming as Kim left his drums for the song to switch up instruments and as my friend AJK said “freaked it on what looked to be the analog synth staple, the Korg MS-20”. Kim would do this throughout the night, abandoning the drums for the Korg MS-20.

Other recognizable jams that they performed were mostly off of the Apocalypso album such as “Talk Like That”, “Together” and “My People” which again had the crowd singing along and wilding out hard. A mistake on my part, I was wearing a flannel shirt as it was damn cold outside, but I neglected to check this piece of blanket wrapped around me and damn near drowned in my own sweat from all the dancing with various peoples in attendance. The vibe was mad cool and chill, total party peoples in the house. As The Presets set drew to an end, drummer Kim threw out his drumsticks for a few lucky fans and Julian thanked the crowd for their energy and supporting the music.

Lights and Music

After a brief 10 – 15 min intermission the stage lights went down and through the darkness you could see Mitchell, Tim and Dan walk out on the stage and assume their instruments as the noise level in the venue cranked up to a 50 on a scale of 1 to 10. In the middle of the cheers the group quickly went into “Nobody Lost, Nobody Found”. The energy was definitely incredible as the crowd was fist pumping and dancing along. As the song ended they went straight into “Far Away”, which is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, although I can honestly say I love most of the tracks off of In Ghost Colours evenly.

From there they flipped the script and took everyone on a journey back to their first LP, Bright Like Neon Love, and performed “Time Stands Still”. The set would continue with “So Haunted” and “Strangers in the Wind”, which would lead to the group taking a short break as Dan thanked everyone for supporting the group and showing them all this love, as well as mentioning that this was the final North American stop. At which point he said something that made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself, he yelled out “DISCO TIME!” and then Cut Copy went into “Saturday” from Bright Like Neon Love.

Continuing to jam through their songs including “Lights and Music” and “Future”, which quite a few people noticed was a punchier and more upbeat version then the original, this ended their set, but the crowd cheered louder and louder. The boys from Australia didn’t disappoint as they came back out and performed “Hearts on Fire” for their encore. The show was great, the stage setup, wonderful, a complete “Lights and Music” show.

After the show it’s the…

The official after party held at Republic was also being promoted by Sealed with a Kiss. The after party also featured a DJ set from Kim of The Presets as well as Tim and Dan from Cut Copy. But here’s where our story dies, as management from DHM told us that we were good to get in and indeed we were on the list. The problem really lied with their overzealous bouncer that decided not to let us in, even after knowing that we had promised DHM that we would review the after party. When we eventually did get in, 25 mins later, we had basically missed the DJ set from Kim. Nonetheless everyone was still buzzing from the concert and that’s all that really mattered.

The Presets played a great set and were entertaining throughout the night. This was also the case with Cut Copy as they really utilized the crowds energy by putting their all into the set. Although I will have to say that I would have loved to have heard more older tracks specifically “1981″ and “Rendezvous”, but I can’t complain the performance was, for a lack of a better word, awesome. A big thanks goes out to Malcolm at Sealed with a Kiss, check out their website for a list of upcoming shows, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com.

If you like the review please vote for me here.

Peace.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

P.S.: Pictures are here on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/killahbeez

P.S.S.: As usual I try and get the playlist for all you folks out there to re-live the experience or for those that didn’t make it to have an idea of how the set broke down. Since I missed out on a portion of The Presets set, I will only be able to provide Cut Copys list.

• Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
• Far Away
• Time Stands Still
• So Haunted
• Unforgettable Season
• Strangers in the Wind
• That Was Just A Dream
• Saturdays
• Feel The Love
• Out There On The Ice
• Lights and Music
• Future
• Hearts on Fire - Encore

MSTRKRFT (read as “Master-Kraft”) is an electronic group out of Toronto. Actually this year at the Toronto Virgin Music Fest they replaced SebastiAn, when he missed his flight and they didn’t disappoint. The group came together in 2005 and consists of JFK (Jesse F. Keeler) and Al-P (Alex Puodziukas). The group has remixed over 30 songs of various genres including the latest remix of John Legend’s song “Green Light”.

On Friday I attended Fist Of God, which is the official name for the MSTRKRFT tour as well as their upcoming album, which is expected to drop in January of 2009. The stop I was at had Felix Cartal opening up, but there will be various openers throughout the tour such as DJ A-Trak, DJ Aoki, LA Riots, Congorock, DJ Assault and the aforementioned Felix Cartal. Blueprint Events, which is known as one of Vancouver’s best electronic promoters for a minute now, was hosting the event as well as the after party.

The event took place at Celebrities Night club and was fully packed, in fact this show could have easily taken place at Commodore Ballroom to accommodate more folks, but nonetheless the vibes were good as people were ready to dance their fuckin’ asses off. The duo came on at around 1am and they immediately had the crowd going crazy, as their sound is fairly distinct with that 4/4 beat and heavy heavy synths.

Continue Reading