Hey everybody! Just a quick drop-in to let you know that site updates will be a bit sporadic for a few more days (lame!) but Venus and I are eloping on the 29th (hooray!), so after that we’ll get back to rocking out for all our benefits.

xo,

The A-K

P.S. Leading up to the big day, we’ve been listening to the following albums: The Belle Game – Inventing Letters EP, Greenbelt Collective – Our Homes, Adrian Teacher and Apollo Ghosts – 25 Years of Tape and Hastings Sunrise respectively and, as always, our friends Kick Evrything‘s debut – This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased. Pretty good soundtrack you guys!

Hey everybody! Sean and Caitlin from Unreliable Narrator contacted us last night to let us know that the Safe Amplificiation Site Society has a couple of great shows coming up. Check it out!

First, Safe Amp presents Unreliable Narrator + PrOphecy Sun + Jeanette Stewart (from Saskatoon) at Cafe Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive) on Friday, November 20th ($5, all ages, 8pm).

Second, we’re throwing a fundraiser for Safe Amp on Friday, November 27th at The Woods (7 West 2nd) with Bad Fate + Flash Palace + Mt. Royal (Medicine Hat/Victoria) + Half Chinese + The Nihilist Party ($5 – $10 sliding scale, all ages, 7:30pm).

And last but not least, we’re hosting another Safe Amp fundraiser at Blim (197 E 17th) on December 12th with Fanshaw + The Lost Lovers Brigade + Sajia + Bleating Hearts + Friendship and the Fawn ($5 – $10 sliding scale, all ages, 7:30pm).

Just a quick note from yer pals at The Aural Kinetic:

The A-K

In a classic case of “Get Band Interviews Out in Reasonable Time”, site favourites No Horses have announced they will be riding into the sunset. They’ve left a parting gift on their MySpace site in the form of three new demo tracks Vanderhoof, Waiting for the Flood, and Don’t Lie to Me. The songs were posted today with the possibility of more to come (hope, hope!) Sad and shitty news, but we wish the best to all members in their future musical endeavours. Thanks for one hell of a great album guys!

Official press release:

Hey y’all,

It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce that No Horses has decided to call it a day…there is no easy way to do this but wanted to let you know that all of us are at peace with the decision and we are all still brothers and sisters, friends to the end. We decided to break up the band after much discussion and in the end this is about not continuing if we weren’t able to keep our promise to give it our all and rocking shows like we have in the past.

We are very happy that our last show ended up being the Thanksgiv’er Pig Roast – it was a wonderful night and thanks to all who attended and all of the bands who played! This was our 3rd Pig Roast and definitely the best one, we wanted to do something different to celebrate the great music scene in this city and I think we accomplished that.

We were able to release an album we are all very proud of, play some amazing shows with some fantastic bands and make a ton of friendships that will last forever. Our tour of the U.S. this summer was something none of us will every forget and we are so grateful that we had the opportunity!

To all of our friends, families, bands we played with, promoters, venues and the people that came out to our shows, we owe you a huge thank you – your support inspired us to keep working to get better and we couldn’t have done it without you! We hope you enjoyed watching us play as much as we enjoyed rocking out for you, and we will miss that!!!

Finally, please check out the 3 new tracks we have just posted on MySpace – Vanderhoof, Waiting For The Flood and Don’t Lie To Me. These are recent demos we recorded with the amazing Colin Stewart at the Hive and we hope you like ‘em. We may post some other songs in the future but for the time being enjoy some of the last music we made together as No Horses!

Sorry for rambling on but as mentioned, this ain’t easy! We will see you at shows and around town as I’m sure each of us will end up doing something musically in the future, whatever form that takes, but for now, its goodbye…No Horses R.I.P.

RNFNR,

Chopper
No Horses

Hey everybody! It’s the indie music news!

There’s an excellent show happening at the Biltmore on November 25th featuring The Hidden Cameras, Gentleman Reg, and Vancouver’s own Wintermitts. We’re still working on getting some interview questions over to those kids, but until then you should definitely check out their MySpace music and see the show!

Every time Weathered Pines post a couple of new tracks, we get more and more excited about their upcoming release on Dejlig Records. Check out the Dejlig site to hear Sad Song, What’s Really Mine and Don’t Be Late.

Our pals Kick Evrything hipped us to a show they’re playing on November 26th at Smiley’s Pubic House (911 W. Pender, near Burrard) If you’ve seen this band live, you already know why you should go. If not, check THIS out.

The triple-A gang (Adam, Andrea and Alex) from The Belle Game continue their residency in la belle province with a radio show that’s just recently been posted for everyone to hear. If you’d like to check it out, simply go here and scroll down to Monday at 3pm and click the little microphone. Nice!

Oh, and finally, if there aren’t as many updates over the next week-and-a-half, it’s because site writers Ian Explosivo and Venus Toshiba are getting married…TO EACH OTHER. Hooray! We’ll still try and post as much as we can though.

Would you like to see your event in The Aural Kinetic News? It’s easy! Just friend us up on MySpace and we’ll see your update in the news feed. OR if you really want to get our attention, you can do what a lot of other bands do and just contact us directly (see the bar on the far right for contact info). Thanks!

If light were to be liquefied then turned into sound, the results would be similar to the sound of The Belle Game’s debut EP Inventing Letters. Throughout the 5 songs my ears were treated to wave after wave of delicious ear coziness. Adam Nanji, Andrea Lo and Alex Andrew make up this trio of multi-talented musicians and each brings several instruments to the table. They are able to build many, many layers into their music without the muddling. All three members also sing and their shared vocal duties and harmonies are substantial while maintaining a light and tasty feel. Each member adds to support the overall sound and listeners should be quick to notice that there are no divas here.

The Belle Game’s opening track Shoulders and Turns, gradually builds from modest, peaceful morsels into full, lilting melodies that crowds will always sway and sing along to. I would love for The Belle Game, in their performances to divide their audience in half, assign parts and direct a sing-a-long to end the night. Cocaine Starry Eyes, Inventing Letters (The Suitcase Song) and Tiny Fires are all lovely slices and their last, self titled track is an ethereal Who-ville-esque lullaby that shimmers and fades to leave the listener with warm echoes with the end of the EP.

Inventing Letters is a hot cup of tea, twinkle lights (see their album cover art), a bear hug, fresh baked bread and snow falling when the sun is out. Listen to it and thank The Belle Game for it.

You can download the Inventing Letters EP at The Belle Game’s official website. Click here to get it!

Did you ever think, when you were two young girls, playing with your Barbies…

Long live The Pack!

Our last review was a little rough huh? Admittedly, I had my Mr. Crabby-Pants t-shirt on which isn’t to say that I wrote anything untrue or unfair but ANYWAY, rest-assured that this review will be find me back to my old form. Why? Because it’s about Kick Evrything and I friggin’ adore them and their debut LP This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased.

The album starts off with a slow-burning, soulful yearning, lo-fi, blues muted-strummer that really sets the tone of the whole project. I don’t mean to give the impression that all nine songs sound anything like ‘Dusty’ though, as that couldn’t be farther from the case. Quite the contrary, each song on the album is wonderfully crafted to sound much different from one another while maintaining a central cohesion that’s really quite a pleasant surprise. It shouldn’t work, but it really, really does.

So how are the songs different? Well to point out a few truly stand-out tracks: ‘Tail End’ completely captures the spirit of mid-1990′s Justine Frischmann / Elastica / Brit-Pop. “Why complain to me?” asks lead singer Casey Wei in a bored but at the same time ultra cool voice, “I’ve got dead eyes and they know that you know it’s over.”

‘We Need the Money’ is one of my personal favourites for the fact that it could just as easily been included on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album. It’s dark, throaty, acoustic guitar grunge and the real treat here is that Paul Kajander steps up to the mic with a raspy-voiced accompaniment that rolls perfectly with Casey’s lead vocals. I’d definitely like to hear even more of Paul’s voice on the next set of recordings. And is that a clinking bottle on percussion?

The real highlight of the album though, is the six minute, seventeen second supernova that is ‘Clamour, Clamour, Clamour’. I’ll put it right on the table and say that I generally grow tired any song that rolls much over four minutes. I get bored if there isn’t something interesting going on and by the four minute mark, I tend to lose patience altogether. This track, however, is a marvel of phenominal songwriting combined with an extraordinary vocal performance, all topped off with clever and exciting instrumentation. I’m constantly astounded at what innovative and talented musicians can do in their living-rooms with a bare bones setup and this song is a classic example of what’s possible. If you’re not immediately hauled in by the carnival-esque organ that runs the length of the track, you may not have a pulse either (not good). Casey’s vocal inflections alone in the lines “Your feet get lost they don’t wanna be found, stuck inside the city square, good luck in the city my dear.” are as exciting and unexpected as the music that accompanies. I don’t know if this is the best song I’ve heard all year, but it might well be.

I could go on and on about how great this album is (the vocal sweetness of ‘Start Now’, the electro-trash danceparty ‘In Between’, the alternative-weirdness of ‘Cake Won’t Work’…) but I’ll leave it to our readers to find a copy for themselves at Zulu, Red Cat Records, or good ol’ iTunes. This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased is an absolute success of an artistic endeavour and hopefully we’ll hear a lot more from this band in the very near future.

Hey everybody! We’re always checking out what’s going on with the local bands and since it’s fun to relay the info to our readers, we figured that we’d make it a regular feature on the site. So without further ado, here’s some of the business that’s been going on over the last couple of days!

First off, our kids at The Belle Game have completed their very first EP, so look for that in stores soon! Oh, and look for a review on this site even sooner, as the band have agreed to hook us up a little early. Yes!

Nikki Never and Jeremiah Haywood (from Defektors) aka Terror Bird have a couple of new tracks posted. Check out Lament (a Twin Crystals cover) and Forget About Me. Great songs, both! And while we’re on the subject of Terror Bird, they’ve actually got a whole lot going on. Check out this blog to read all about it!

Vancouver Killing Spree will be having a release party for their EP (the one we reviewed last month) at The Bourbon on November 20th. Message the band for advance tickets – they’re ten bucks.

And finally, Moonshiner has tipped us off to a fun-sounding magazine launch / show at the Media Club this Saturday, November 14th. Not too sure if she’ll be playing, but The Blue Violets will, and they’re amazing.

That’s it for now!

[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]

I forgot to mention! Yesterday after work I met up with Casey Wei from indie electronic dance folk rawkers Kick Evrything. She was nice enough to walk over (in the rain) for a chat and brought me a copy of their debut full-length recording This I is Demented and Possibly Deceased. Since I uploaded the album into my mp3 player I’ve basically been living and breathing Kick Evrything for the past two days, and there’s no sign of that letting up anytime soon. Look for a full album review once I calm my shit down to the point where I can write something more coherent than “I love, love, love, love, love, love this album. The end.”

The end.