Chiddy Bang - The Hoxton, Toronto - April 25th

When I found out that Chiddy Bang was taking a break from touring the UK for one Wednesday night show downtown Toronto, I immediately signed myself up. This post-college rap duo is a far cry from their beginnings at Drexel University, with Xaphoon and Chiddy having proved themselves over and over as artists that are going to stick. They've shared tracks with the likes of Big Sean, Q Tip, Black Thought, Mac Miller and can now truly cruise after releasing their latest album, Breakfast. Chiddy Bang has been grinding hard to expand the bracket that is "indie hip hop" since the beginning - and since they came on my radar in '09 they've kept me stoked.

Do yourself a favor and buy a ticket to this show before it's sold out.

Show: Chiddy Bang with Special Guests
Venue: The Hoxton - Bathurst & King St. Toronto
Date: April 25th, 9PM
Price: $25


See ya there.

Alex Clare - Too Close (Internet Explorer 9 Ad)

 
You never know where or when a good song will catch your attention. This one reached my ears through a commercial for the new Internet Explorer 9. With the power of today's technology, I rewound live tv a few times until I was able to get the name and artist (Iphone's Shazam app helped). The song really makes the commercial, and fuck, it even makes IE look impressive... but I'll stick to Chrome.

Emily Haines - Metric - Black Sheep

When talking about female musicians that make me swoon, it should be obvious that I really am cheating myself if I'm looking further than the Canadian lead singer of the indie rock group Metric - Emily Haines. This girl takes her style, (and power correspondingly), past any other female that's graced the scene in a long time. With her putting strong material and emotion through Metric for over 10 years, Emily still manages to maintain a level of independence that would be far washed away from any other artist with that notoriety.

Feel Emily's emotions through her re-recorded track, Black Sheep, which was recently featured on the film, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, shot in Toronto's own infamous concert venue, Lee's Palace. If you haven't had the experience of attending this venue, (or the even better experience of the Dance Cave, which lives upstairs), do so immediately. That grit that Emily brings definitely still resides there.

Metric - Black Sheep

The Ting Tings - Sounds from Nowheresville

I recently got the unfortunate news that my dream girl, Ellie Goulding, has fallen pray to Skrillex's suave personality and haircut. Although this means she may be forever ruined, it's going to do me no good lingering and I've found myself a new lady to chase. Katie White runs the main vocals in the duo The Ting Tings, who are a prominent English indie pop act working under Columbia Records UK. Katie caught my ear again lately, after her and Jules De Martino released their second studio album, Sounds from Nowheresville, in February this year. They were originally supposed to drop this album back in 2010 to follow their debut, We Started Nothing, but decided that it sounded too much like everything else on the radio and scrapped half the songs. Katie stated "We were in Berlin where there is a great electro scene, and so we made songs like that, but quickly realized that everything on the radio was Euro-pop shite. We didn't want our record to be tarnished with that brush". I like that attitude.

The Ting Tings - One By One

The Ting Tings - Soul Killing

Cole World No Blanket

It's pretty much official that J.Cole is done his "blowing up" phase of his career, having released his first album to a very receptive audience and now announcing his sophomore EP to drop in July this year. Cole also put a couple tracks out recently to signify his change in this rap game - with Grew Up Fast being released when he hit 2M twitter followers and Visionz of Home setting the stage for his tour returning to his hometown - two major highlights in his growing momentum. Cole has been keeping consistent with the highlights even outside of the music scene lately, throwing down his legitimacy in the NBA celebrity game with the play of the night. Peep it if you haven't, the Roc Nation kid just can't go wrong these days.

J.Cole - Visionz of Home


J.Cole - Grew Up Fast

Logic - The Spotlight

  With Mac Miller going all main stream on us I've found myself a replacement. Logic has impeccable taste in the samples he chooses and his flow is absolute butter. The kid brings us his new track "The Spotlight" where he absolutely destroys Justices classic jam D.A.N.C.E. Based on the video it seems like Logic is livin' the dream and clearly knows how to party. Sidenote: the girl with the lolly pop at the beginning is my future wife... keep your eyes to yourself.

Logic - The Spotlight