This just in from the good folks at the Safe Amplification Site Society!

The Safe Amplification Site Society presents…
our very first annual general meeting!
Bands! Food! Friends! FREE!

Come find out what SASS has been up to in the last 14 months and what we are planning for the future.
…
A Musical Meeting, featuring:

Chris-a-riffic!
Collapsing Opposites!
Ok Vancouver Ok!
with
Chance and Alanna!
…
Saturday August 21
7:30 pm
Purple Thistle (Vernon and Parker)
ALL AGES!!!

Hey everybody! Just dropping in to tell you about an awesome benefit show going down on August 15th. The Pivot Legal Society is holding their annual Justice Rocks! event in Strathcona Park and we really think you should go! The fact that Corbin Murdoch and Maria in the Shower are playing guarantees that this show will be amazing, but add to that the fact the show is FREE and will feature a whole pile of bands, presentations, art exhibitions, vendors and food, how can you go wrong?

Well, as you may have noticed the site’s been a little slow in dragging itself out of a late-spring / early summer hibernation. Hey, what can I say? We missed you guys and it’s great to finally get back on the horse after being away for so long!

Luckily for us our good friend Adam from Needles//Pins came along at just the right time to help us out of our bleary-eyed stupor. So how did he do it? By graciously sending us a folder stuffed full of demos they’ve been working on and HOLY SWEET LORD are they good! Macey’s drumming on “Drop It” alone made me remember why I started this site in the first place. Hopefully they’ll get some of these little gems posted on their MySpace page very soon.

No one is really sure when the new material be released, but while we’re waiting, why not head on over to the Needles//Pins site where they’re still giving away their first full-length LP as a free download.

Well kids, my adventure in the three-month full-time brain smasher that is ELECTRICAL TRADE SCHOOL is coming to a close. That means I’ll have a lot more time to listen to new bands, go to shows, write reviews and conduct interviews! People, believe me when I tell you that good times are IMMINENT! Also, a great big thank you to everyone who’s been checking the site regularly despite my almost complete absence. You guys are the best!

Ian Explosivo

P.S. Look for an all-new interview with Jarrett Evan Samson of Geographing Records and Shipyards fame! Coming SOON!

P.P.S. Spoon River, you’re first on the dock as far as record reviews go. Get ready for SHAMELESS ADORATION.

Hey everybody, just a quick note to say that we’re not going to be posting very often for the next while. In order to get out of my crap-ass job I’ve decided to go back to school full-time. As a result, until I figure out exactly how much spare time I’m going to have, things are going to be a little slow around here. We’ll still try to do our Song of the Week updates on Sundays and we’ll still make plans to see as many shows as we can and review as many albums as we can, but the site goal of doing a post a day will have to be put aside for a bit.

Sorry!

Ian Explosivo

P.S. This might be a good time to re-mention that if anyone would like to contribute to the site, you can contact us at theauralkinetic@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

A couple of months ago I commissioned my good friend Jenn Dunne to create a piece of art for the site. She’s a visual artist based out of Calgary and I’ve been a fan of her work for as long as we’ve been friends. When I requested her to put something together I was originally thinking of a simple banner or small image. Long story short, today I got the above image in my e-mail box and it basically blew the top off my head! I can’t wait to have the finished product in my grubby little hands (kidding Jenn, I’ll wash my hands first) for a professional photo job and scan for the site. Hooray!

Oh! She’s on Facebook right now, so let’s do an ambush chat interview! Read the rest of this entry »

[start transmission] hi everybody [stop] chris-a-riffic / rose melberg show last night was awesome [stop] full report and crappy video to follow [stop] new posts resume tuesday [stop] your pal ian [end transmission]

Well, for those of you who just can’t get enough of this show, I thought I’d pop in and mention that we have a Twitter account that we update even more often than we update our Facebook page. It’s basically a bunch of semi-coherent ramblings and general sass, but feel free to follow us if you like!

Thanks!

Slam

…to say that we’re heading down to the Media Club tonight to check out the Misfits Party Part II. Featured bands are Modern Creatures, Nu Lines (Nu Sensae and B-Lines) and White Cuts (White Lung and Random Cuts). Oh, and Mish Way from White Lung is dropping a DJ set. Doors at 10pm because the Media Club has some other event beforehand.

Look for a brand new interview with our new pal Marissa Johnson from Weathered Pines tomorrow! (Spoiler: I get schooled in country music.)

In our never-ending quest to get paid while goofing around at work keep everyone in the loop, we’ve fired up our very own Facebook group. We update it even more frequently than we update the site because we don’t want you to think we’re grab-assing around when in fact we’re busy reading band news, sending out interviews, meeting folks, and listening to local recordings WHILE grab-assing around. Basically there are two points to this post.

1) You should become a fan of our group on Facebook, and
2) We think the term ‘grab-assing’ is hilarious.

Okay!

Ian Explosivo