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Telus Music Festival

More bands that will play for free
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Thursday April 21

 

Black Mountain: The Vancouver psychedelic outfit will melt your face as fast as your scalp will melt the snow landing upon your head. Seriously. If the glorious space-out "Wucan" doesn't deliquesce the skin, then the razor blade riffage of "Let Spirits Ride" will slice it up real good. But it's a pleasant experience all together. Seriously.

Tokyo Police Club : "Indie rock" is as amorphous a term as "alternative" was before morphing into indie. But Tokyo Police Club has arguably encapsulated the "indie" sound better than anyone - peppy vocals, jaunty riffage, a taste of progressive rock while staying true to the pop sensibilities modern music has been founded on. They're a band for an era and that's a noble cause indeed.

Also playing a free show at Moe Joe's as part of the Kokanee Freeride Club Series

 

Darker the Sky: So, before we get all peppy with TPC and then all heady with the Black Mountain Army, let's take a peak at our emotional centres folks, because while TWSSF is one big party, there's always time for a little introspection. These North Shore mood-makers won't pander to the cheery among us, but they'll strike on something more honest and heartfelt than what this weekend is typically known for.

Friday, April 22

Broken Social Scene: The seminal Canadian indie collective has had a year of non-stop touring since their last album, Forgiveness Rock Record , was released last May and now they're exhausted. They have a few festivals to play, including this one Friday.

"We're definitely slowing down. We have a chance to sort of get away from each other and come up with new ideas and refresh ourselves. That will be nice," says BSS co-founder Charles Spearin.

Internal strife! Rock and roll wrestling! Shall we expect a Forgiveness Rock Record Part Deux in a couple of years?

Well no. These indie musicians we're talking about, not Oasis. They get along like a big ol' family and you'll see it when they play. Check it out.

Dinosaur Bones: The youth are just so restless A settled disposition isn't exactly normal for a young man in his mid-20s, never mind a group of them, and Toronto's Dinosaur Bones are unable, or unwilling, to sit still. Their refined song craft and experimentation within the confines of pop music have generated significant buzz in their home city in just three years of existence. Watch them this week and keep an ear out for them - big things might happen.

Saturday, April 23

Marianas Trench (4 p.m.): Expect an influx of teenagers on Saturday. Vancouver's Marianas Trench are in town and they're ruthlessly popular with the teenage set. There's no rhyme or reason for it, other than their smiley take on adolescent angst, but they have one of the most dedicated fan bases around.

"I don't know if fans get more hard core than that," says bassist Mike Ayley "Maybe Dave Matthews Band, or Rush. It's a different age group but they are very good to us."

Take notes, adults: be good to the Trench and maybe they'll put on a good show. Or maybe the will anyway. In any case, the teens will certainly enjoy it.

Ghetto Funk Canada Showcase - featuring Stickybuds, JPod, The Funk Hunters, Bryx, Wood & MC Think Tank: These are a collective of Canadian producers playing electro music dubbed "ghetto funk" for a U.K. label called Ghetto Funk. These guys are one big Ghetto Funk family and they will ghetto funkify your life for about an hour in the Village. So...what is ghetto funk, then?

"That's the big question," says Nick "The Outlier" Middleton, one half of the Funk Hunters "It's mid-tempo funk music but heavily influenced by big bass lines."

Well that's that. Thanks for the heads up.

Also playing the Whistler Conference Centre as part of the End.

April 24

Ozomatli - There's little doubt that they'll be a crowd-pleaser, Ozomatli blends Latin, hip-hop funk and rock music into a hodgepodge sound that could only have been cultivated in Los Angeles. It's party music that even the more conservative among us would have trouble keeping the neck from bobbing along too.

Also playing a free show at Buffalo Bill's as part of the Kokanee Freeride Club Series.

KO - Pronounced koh , the name has absolutely nothing to do with being knocked out, although plenty of people who have gone through what he went through as a kid would have been knocked right out long ago.

A drug addict since his early teens, KO Kapches was sent to drug rehab in the U.S. from his hometown Toronto, eventually fleeing and ending up a homeless youth on the streets. It was here that he started writing his own songs and laid the foundation for what KO calls "urban-folk" - a mix of folk, hip-hop, reggae and rock.