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

What up peoples. As some of you readers may know, I also write for Virgin Music. Actually I was selected amongst a group of people to review and write about the Toronto Virgin Music Festival and represent the Vancouver music scene with my reviews and interviews. Well, I’ve made it past the first round and am now in the last leg of the competition and I need your votes. Winning this writing contest will mean that I will be able to travel the world going to every Virgin Music Festival, but what’s in it for you? Well, by voting you automatically are entered into a draw to win two free tickets to a Virgin Music Festival yourself, pretty sweet deal for taking literally 2 seconds to vote. Hit up http://music.virgin.com/vpass-voting/?voteuser=David%20Thai.

Thanks for the support y’alls. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to bring you some of the dope ass interviews and concert reviews and all the other content on this site to you every day. Pass this link on to all your friends as well.

It’s been five or so years since the band has been formed, with an array of singles, a huge following and two studio albums under their belt, today marks the release of the third album, Intimacy. With a busy touring schedule ahead of them, it was a great surprise and pleasure that we were able to hook up with Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong for an interview. What ensued is a hilarious Q & A between us.

Killahbeez: First off thanks guys for taking the time to answer a few questions for our readers / fans of yours.

KB: I took a look at your touring schedule and I have to say it’s insane! Pretty much from July of this year to April of next year and I was lucky enough to catch you guys at the Virgin Music Festival in Toronto. How has the tour been going? Any tales of madness from fans or from yourselves?

Matt Tong: Been fairly good so far. We were a bit worried it might be too much to turn the new songs into a crazy live show, but we seemed to have pulled it off.

Mad tales? Not really. We stole one of the festival buggies in Baltimore and spent an hour going round and round the horseracing track. I wanted to take one back to the hotel but was advised it might lead to my arrest.

KB: The new album, Intimacy, is coming out on October 28th, what can fans expect from this album? How is it different from the other projects?

MT: It’s a bit more stripped down than the last record. We’ve sort of learned what to leave out. I’m not entirely sure if I’m ready to explain to others what to expect because we didn’t really know what to expect when we started making the damn thing. I’m still not sure I’m meant to expect now. It’s good though. Go listen.

KB: Do you guys have a favorite track from the album?

MT: We don’t really sit around discussing our favourite album tracks. It’s not like I walk into the office one day Kele’s all like, Great fill on “Halo”.

Love your work Matt’, and I’m saying, “Those lyrics on “Ares”. Splendid. A ferosh call to arms.” Even though we obviously feel that. It doesn’t need to be said. Or does it? I just don’t know.

[Laughter]

KB: The first single and video, “Talons”, tell me the story / concept behind the video? It feels very manic and intense, a reflection of the lyrics.

MT: It is deeply manic. We went deep on the mania. We were just really into this idea of Kele running round with his top off. He¹s trying to break into bit parts in body moisturizer adverts.

[Laughter]

KB: This is your third studio album, how does the collaboration process work now with the group?  Do you all work together in the studio or is more each person recording in a studio and sending the layers and tracks to the other.

MT: Normally Kele is in the studio laying down ideas and things and then he literally mails us spools and spools of tape to listen to on our multi-track tape players at home. And then we record our comments on to the spare tracks of the tape and give them back to a courier to return to him.

KB: From start to ending, can you tell us what inspires the song writing and building process?

MT: Start: A homeless man sits by a deserted train station in Gloucester. He whimpers softly to no-one in particular.

Middle: Detective Broder of the Northern District receives a facsimile containing a photofit and detailing the crimes of the homeless man, which are known to no-one.

End: We write a song about it.

[Laughter]

KB: So whom is the band listening to nowadays? Any artists that wow you guys?

MT: We all listen a lot to the Stone Temple Pilots. Those elegant bachelors. Wow factor: Wet Paint.

KB: Are there any producers or artists out there that you guys would want to work with down the road for either albums or remixes or videos?

MT: Album: Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
Remix: Armand Van Helden
Video: Michael Winner

KB: The state of the music industry, how do you guys feel it has changed from when you first started? Or has it?

MT: It hasn’t changed. London’s industry is still full of twits called Danthanthiel mincing about in Diesel and idling tapping away on Blackberrys, throwing good money after bad.

[Laughter]

KB: Anything else you boys want to say to the fans of Bloc Party?

MT: We owe and continue to owe you so much. Thanks for sticking with us.

The third studio album, Intimacy, is available in stores and iTunes now. Visit Bloc Party’s website for more information: www.blocparty.com. Also hit up www.killahbeez.com for more interviews.

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.

Aight so some may have been wondering where the hell I’ve been with my posts and updates and may have possibly noticed a slow down in content. Well I’m back folks. So what took me away in the first place? Well, I had submitted a Stevie Wonder review that I wrote for Killahbeez, seen here, and submitted it to Virgin Mobile Music for shits and giggles. What ended up happening was that Virgin liked it, called up ya boy and told me what’s good. For those that just didn’t understand that (myself included), I apologize as I have barely had any sleep in the last little while. Basically Virgin told me I won their contest and wanted me to represent the festival out in Toronto and write about my experiences.

So after some debate, my ass jumped onto a plane and off I was to Toronto. What ensued from there was a whole lot of fun and some craziness, more then this once small town kid could ever imagine. So bear with me over the next few days as I am blogging for Virgin Music’s site as well. I’ll post all of my experiences here at Killahbeez for all of y’all to follow along, including some pretty sick pictures, including the one above of MSTRKRFT djing, and yes I was literally beside them, behind them, dancing around them and taking pictures. All of this for you, so stay tuned.