Music Y'all Should Hear - Florence and the Machine

After receiving critical acclaim in the UK for her album 'Lungs' Florence Welch is well into her first tour of the US and Canada. Monday night she plays a Sold Out show at the Mod Club in Toronto.

Florence and the Machine is simply Florence Welch and a collaboration of studio and touring musicians. The name Florence and the Machine began as a private joke between Florence and a musician friend, nicknamed Isabella Machine. The story goes that on her way to her first gig she still did not have a stage name. She decided to call herself 'Florence Robot is a Machine' and started to attract notice at performances around London.

Florence and the Machine were showcased on the BBC shows BBC Introducing. Her performances at Glastonbury and T in the Park helped to further raise her profile. In 2008, the debut album Lungs was released under the name 'Florence and the Machine'. The album reached #2 in the UK charts and sold over 100,000 copies. Her debut single Kiss With a Fist was followed by Dog Days Are Over, Rabbit Heart and then Drumming Song.

The album Lungs is a solid effort which gets frequent plays on my iPod, besides the singles listed above favorite of mine are Girl With One Eye and My Boy Builds Coffins. Looking forward to reviews of her show on Monday night, and jealous of those keeners who didn't procrastinate buying a ticket like I did :(



Videos
Kiss With a Fist
Drumming Song
Dog Days Are Over

MySpace page
Band Website

Music Y'all Should Hear - Portugal, The Man

Sorry that I missed Portugal, The Man in Toronto last week at The Horseshoe Tavern. BlogTO posted a nice review here. No, they're not from Portugal - the group came together in Wasilla, Alaska as a side-project of vocalist-guitarist John Gourley and bassist Zach Carothers, then members of Anatomy of a Ghost. They added Wesley Hubbard, Nick Klein on guitar and Harvey Tumbelson and formed a full-time band. They left Alaska and re-located to Portland, OR in 2004.

Klein and Tumbelson both left the band in spring 2005 and drummer Jason Sechrist joined . They recorded demos in 2004 before releasing their debut album Waiter: "You Vultures!" on Fearless Records on January of 2006.

In June, 2007 Portugal, The Man released Church Mouth, their second full-length album and toured North America and Europe. Following the tours, their touring keyboardist Ryan Neighbors was invited to join the band full time. In 2009, they released The Satanic Satanist, as well as The Majestic Majesty, a digital-only acoustic version of The Satanic Satanist.

I hope to catch them on their next go around through Canada.



MySpace page
Home site
On Twitter

Murder by Death - Songs about Drinking and the Apocalypse

Went out to the Kool Haus Tuesday night to see the Gaslight Anthem - 3 other bands were on the bill: Broadway Calls, Jesse Malin and most interestingly 'Murder by Death'.
I had not heard of this Bloomington, Indiana 4-piece band before. A quick listen to a few of the tracks on their MySpace page and I was hooked - and instead of arriving 'in-time' for the headliners we decided to make sure we caught this band.
The most accurate description of the band's sound and subject matter came from guitarist/vocalist Adam Turla - "Our songs are about drinking and the apocalypse". First formed in 2000, as the Little Joe Gould, the band took the name Murder by Death from the 1976 Robert Towne-directed movie of the same name starring Peter Sellers and David Niven.
The present make-up of the band includes founding members Matt Armstrong on bass, Sarah Balliet on cello and keyboards and newest member (Since 2007) Dagan Thogerson on drums.
Songs that stuck with me were Brother (see below) and Comin' Home - which was featured in the trailer for Inglorious Basterds.

MySpace Page
Website

More stories at Gaslight Anthem at the Kool Haus

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