Greetings and salutations!

Jason and I [Rene] (PONY TV) are curating 2 shows that open this week. Come and check them out! The videos are amazing, the photographs are delicious, and we've worked really hard to put them together.
We'll see you there!

Love,
Rene

PTV PRESENTS...
Gallerie Espace
4844 St. Laurent
February 28- March 13
Vernissage March 6, 7-11pm
(*PLUS* after-verni party at Boa Bar 5301 St. Laurent with the Shirtless DJ's and Prague City Love, video projections, and 'meet the artists' excitement)
http://artmatters.concordia.ca/show_07.html

PTV and Video Party Present... Old Gold
Storefront installation featuring video works by 12 different artists from Montreal, New York, Finland, Turkey, Serbia, UK and Mexico-
Old Gold Boutique
256 Mont Royal Est
http://artmatters.concordia.ca/event_10.html

PONY TV
http://www.ponytv.net
http://myspace.com/ponytv
pony.tv@gmail.com

Video Party
http://www.videoparty.info

The I Love Neon 8th anniversary.

I want to go but I'm not sure I've got the waking power. I saw them at Mutek last summer and danced my ass off, however, I do have to leave for Ottawa tomorrow morning at 10:30am for some Winterlude skating... At any rate, I just picked up my rental car, and I'm currently sitting at Laika trying to decide what to do. Nobody confirmed attendance so I'm pretty much free to do as I wish.

Here's the promo (the doors are open now, and the DJs come on at midnight):

Junction SM :: (Dandy Jack + Sonja Moonear, Perlon, Kalk Pets, Chili, Suisse) @ Diskfunction February 16th 2007.

Friday the 16th of February, Diskfunction presents in collaboration with MUTEK, the duo JUNCTION SM (Switzerland..Chile) at club L’Academy (4445 St.Laurent Boulevard).

It is a good idea to show up early, since the rich groovy rhythms of MightyKat will warm up the night from 10 PM, and Junction SM will perform beetween midnight and 2 AM (and maybe later if the vibe is good).

Junction SMis a live/dj duo in which Dandy Jack’s sophisticated rhythms & sounds combine with Sonja Moonear’s fine records selection. The JUNCTION SM performance is all about a perfect mixture of Dandy Jack’s live improvisation and Sonja Moonear’s dj work. Jack’s input is routed through 2 channels of Sonja’s mixer in order to let her control the whole given sound.

Depending on the evolution of the night, Dandy Jack can reload new sets while Sonja is taking over the dancefloor, or she might slow down her input to let Jack perform solo. The interaction between both of them and the public is the oxygen of their performance.

You will never recognize any pieces, nor have any repetition from a set to another. The frontier between live sets and records vanishes in the most subtle way, and the immediate effect is that the audience gets lost trying to determine who does what… Hence more fun for everybody!

Academy Dancehall
4445, St-Laurent

7$ from 22h to midnight, 12$ after
Drinks Specials 4 $ before midnight (Vodka, Rhum, Gin)

Dom&Phil

Crow Face, Thundra, the Hot Springs, and CPC Gangbangs played at the Sala last night and I'm glad that I didn't let my tired body home body keep me home -- cause it rocked!

The highlight of my evening was seeing my friend Lisa Gamble play with Thundra. They have a very cool and interesting sound that I would describe as being original in it's derivation. Their sound was quite variant, and at different points reminded me of many different things, but at one point they reminded me of The Fall -- and I love The Fall. I've written about the Hot Springs before, and I'm forever impressed with Giselle's voice. Crow Face were good in that they sounded like a lot of stuff that I used to love in the early 90s, but.... CPC Gangbangs... well a friend of mine really likes them; I only stuck around for 2 songs. I don't know... they seem to be the embodiment of all the things I don't like about MC5 (although I do like MC5); they represent that other side of punk... like the Misfits -- I really don't like the Misfits.

I wasn't there, in fact I only heard about it on CBC this morning (I'm just not in the know), but apparently the Arcade Fire played a secret show at the church on the corner of St. Viateur and St. Urbain on Sat. Word has it that word was spread by word of mouth as rumor. Word also has it that most of the songs they played were off their upcoming album. I still would have done the Piknic Electronique thing instead, but...

I posted a set of photos, and 2 videos, from Igloo Fest. I'm afraid that I have nothing from the first night because I forgot my camera.

It was cold... it was fun... Noze was great... and I danced my ass off. I loved Igloo Fest, there's something very novel about dancing outdoors in -14 degrees Celsius. The evening contained a pig man, half naked DJs, surprisingly good coffee, and fell complete with a little snowball fight. If you missed it... next year...

Turns out that Noze are consummate showmen: they got into the antics, and had some crazy vocals. I fully intend to run out and buy something by them ASAP. Everyone probably thought they were freezing when they stripped part naked, but apparently there were huge heaters underneath the tables on the stage. LUV said it was super hot and and almost blindingly bright.

Mini playing on the 2'nd night of Igloo Fest. This was the closing act.

This is Noze performing on the second night of Igloo Fest (Piknic Electronik winterized). They put on great live performance... FYI: it was -14C out.

It's like this but with igloos, fires, liquor filled coffee, and a little less exposed flesh. 5pm to 11pm tonight! $5! Jacques Cartier Pier!

"KICKED ASS" is the most apt description of last night's scene at Igloo Fest. Even with the night's Hip Hop bent, even though I have a mild (maybe strong) dislike of much Hip Hop, and even though I missed my friend LUV's set, it kicked ass. So if you were waffling about stopping by, or even if you chose against it, SMARTEN UP and get your ass down there to have it kicked.

It's outside, but don't panic you'll be fine, if your dress warmly: there is an indoor area, they have big wood burning stoves for a toasty campfire feel, and I think the Igloos have heaters in them. Plus there's a good crowd, and dancing shall keep you warm.

Igloo Fest, the winter version of Piknic Electronik, is happening from 5pm to 11pm Fri and Sat Night. Tickets are only $5, and it's being held at the Jacques-Cartier Quay in the old port. You can also find info on the Piknic Electronik MySpace Page.

My friend Lewis (LUV) is playing Fri, and I'll be going both days, so if anyone wants to join in the fun...

I'm starting to feel guilty for never going to see Lubo or Katie play. I mean they're both pretty popular so they don't necessarily need my support, but it's pretty bad when you never go see you friends play. What's worse is that they play regularly and the music is great... Lubo plays a Balkan gypsy funk jazz thing, and Katie plays some sweet alt country...

I was going to go see Katie play tonight, but I'm sick and I have to shake this cold before I face the 10 hour drive to Moncton.

'fraid it won't be me, but it would be fun...

My friend Katie Moore is playing a Christmas Sweater show at the Divan Orange this Thursday (Dec 21). Guiltily, I've know her for several years now, and I've never gone to see her play. The word on the street is that her voice is incredible.

I'm not going to miss her show this time.

The Save Frosty the Snowman show was really good. It wasn't what I expected it to be, but it turned out to be exactly what I was in the mood for. It was pretty much acoustic sets performed by individuals not bands, very mellow, and nowhere near as busy as I thought. However, I almost missed Jorane; she was on when I arrived.

Frosty is sold out at Cheap Thrills. Guess I'll have to take my chances at the door.

SAVE FROSTY THE SNOWMAN (Sat 16 at the Ukrainian Federation): Jorane (I love Jorane), Stars (great album), Sam Roberts (I really like one song), Murray Lightburn from the Dears (the Dears are good), Yonder Hill, Dishwasher, Miracle Fortress, Adam Brown, Socalled, Giselle Webber (Giselle Numba 1), Subtitle and Secret Choi.

It's a big show to benefit the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition . Don't know if there will be tickets left, but I'm going to find out at lunch.

Sunset Rubdown put on a great show, almost as good as Holy Fuck. Spencer Krug, the singer has an incredible voice, but then again he sounds pretty damn good in Wolf Parade as well. This is one sound that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. The lamps setup on stage were also a nice touch. Check out some of their music at myspace.

Unfortunately something I ate didn't agree with my system (already fucked up from running on 4 hours sleep) and I had to take off before the show ended (thankfully the venue was just down the street from my apartment).

The Christa Min, well they were tight, but I really don't like the type of music they play (too melodramatic and Doorsish). However, I did find one of the guitar players very amusing to watch.

Wow, Holy Fuck were impressive, definitely my pick out of what I've seen at the Pop Montreal festival. Their analogue take on electronic music is incredible, catchy, danceable, and they manage to carry it off in a simple but good stage show. I knew I'd like them the second I saw the number of cables involved in their stage setup, that many patch cords implies that something interesting will happen. Check out their stuff on myspace.

The other bands were pretty mediocre:

Femme Generation were doing something I would like, but they didn't carry it off well enough for me to care too much about them.

Kill the Lights were pretty tight but too busy, overcooked, and largely boring.

The headliners The Besnard Lakes were very tight, and while I would probably enjoy listening to them at home, I found their show a little on the boring side. In fact I left before they even finished playing. But they do have that space rock thing that I kind of like going for them.