Hot in the City vs Meat Street Beat (The Chemical Brothers)

You know, I've always had a thing for the Chemical Brothers. They reinvent their sound with every record and once every couple records, they make a song that speaks to me on a i-wish-i-wasn't-born-in-the-eighties-so-i-could-have-gone-to-the-real-parties-in-the-nineties kind of level. If you don't know what I mean, don't waste your time trying to figure it out, instead check out these two tracks on your own time: from Surrender "Out of Control" and from Push the Button "Believe."

The Chemical Bros have released a new album called Brotherhood this week and the current single is "Midnight Madness" - the video for it is So You Think You Can Dance meets Keebler Elf meets the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.



And get this: they have a Google Earth project on their http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/ website. Think Earthitarium.

Part of my duties here is entertainment blogger. In fact, I've managed to talk my way into the BestGayCities stronghold and will be blogging for a global gay audience semi-regularly about the gay scene in Vancouver. How's them adam's apples? Eh? Eh? More news on that soon, but in the meantime, check out http://www.gaycities.com/ if you're planning on traveling anytime soon.

Now, on to local entertainment news...

Remember that time in the distant past when you owned a car, before they became synonymous with terms like "imperialist" and "planet killer"? If you don't, those were the salad days. Back then, gasoline grew on trees and thongs were something you wore on your private parts, not on your feet.

Or as Vitamin V puts it:

SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2008

DOWNTOWN DRIVE-IN

Remember when "parking the car" was tantamount to romance?

These days it takes dinner and a good bottle of wine, but tonight the cinephile in us has reason to be easy—the rooftop of the EasyPark at 150 Water Street transforms from paved parkade to downtown drive-in.

For three consecutive Wednesday evenings this month, The Gastown Drive In pays homage to our fair city by featuring Canadian full-length and short films shot in Vancouver. Entitled "Vancouver Stars As Itself," the series kicks off tonight with the mockumentary Hard Core Logo. After the screenings, audiences are invited to meet filmmakers at local Gastown haunts The Lamplighter, The Irish Heather and Salt Tasting Room.

Car free? Don't fret. Pedestrians and cyclists are free to be easy too.

The Gastown Drive In runs September 3, 10 and 17, 2008. Gates at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m., admission is free, $6 to park. Reservations for cars are recommended and can be made here.

Listen, Vitamin V, don't tell me not to fret. I will fret when and where I choose to fret and you have no say in the matter. Your sultry charms and mysteries are dead to me. DEAD.

For the record, I believe the V in Vitamin V stands for Vacuous...though often while reading their updates, I wish it stood for Viagra. On a literal level, I object to the name altogether. Vancouver is not a vitamin. And vaginas aren't vitamins either...

...or are they?

"So, that's a jack fruit ghost, right?"

Sylvania, Transylvania, Transvestite, Hot Tranny Mess...I can see the brainstorming session behind this commercial. It's one part Thai folk story and one part shameless commercial cash-grab with some sexy sexploitation thrown in for good measure (take a gander at Tall Ghost, who is packing heat in that loincloth. Reeeeeeear! See you on the casting couch, gigantor...)

And because I can't resist the sweet siren call that is Juliette Lewis and the Licks, here's a MSTRKRFT remix for your weekly Meat Street Beat:

The Meat Street Beat

So maybe "somebody" switched my normal gum with Nircorette. And maybe while writing my next column I chewed six pieces in rapid succession and then had a aggresive "encounter" in the laundry room of my temporary building (see earlier blogs - relationship over, now single, couch surfing is sexy) which ended with me dumping a bucket of water over someone else's clothes. Yes. Petty and vindicative 2008 is back. And guess what else? This has been going on all week - that soreness at the back of my throat that I've jokingly been referring to as throat gonnorhea - oh no, it's just Nicorette. Good times.

Onwards and upwards. Or in other Olympic-inspired words: Stronger, Faster, Gayer!

Check out this live performace:



Good song. If you've heard it and are tired of it, try to listen to songs "Beautiful Dirty Rich" or "Boys Boys Boys."

Lady GaGa is coming to Metro Vancouver - she's playing the Mirage on Aug 19th. Tickets are cheap ($20). I know - I'm thinking: Surrey? WTF? But I kinda want to go anyway.

For more information, check our www.clubvibes.com. Here's some promo from clubzone (where the tickets are $5 more):

LADY GAGA LIVE AT MIRAGE @ MIRAGE VANCOUVER BC

EVENT LADY GAGA LIVE AT MIRAGE TYPE Vancouver Special DRESS CODE Dress to Impress WHEN Monday, August 18, 2008 8:00 PM - 2:00 AM LOCATION Mirage Vancouver BC, 15330 102A Avenue, Vancouver BC MIN. AGE 19+ SHARE ON

BUY TICKETS Prices are per person unless otherwise noted. Prices subject to change.

General Admission

$25

BUY NOW

EVENT DETAILS

Monday, August 18th
Lady GaGa Live
ALL tickets purchased for august 20th will be honoured at the door on the 18th!!

Stefani Germanotta (born March, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady GaGa, is a singer-songwriter dance-pop, electronica musician signed to Interscope Records. On April 8, 2008, she released her first single "Just Dance".

As a child Lady GaGa attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart School. Having learned piano by ear at the age of 4, Lady GaGa went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by the age of 14. At the age of 17 she gained early admission to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where she studied music. By age twenty she began writing songs for Interscope Records artists, such as the Pussycat Dolls, also she recently declared that she wrote two songs for the upcoming Britney Spears album. She performed at the Miss Universe 2008 pageant in Vietnam, singing her debut single, "Just Dance". On July 31, 2008, she performed "Just Dance" live on the results show of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance

Vancouver Pride Gaydown: T-minus 5 (The Meat Street Beat Pt 2)

Word to the wise: check out Celebrities this week. The theme is Adam and Steve. That's all I have to say. A guy named Joel and a man named Jimmy have decked the halls and decked them well. My friend Amanda and I also might have played a small role decorating/decor. Get on the dancefloor, look up and think of us. Maybe you should make a visit tomorrow night. The Jarics will be in town. Enough said.

I'm saving my energy tonight. In the meantime, I've been this listening to this:



Jerk It by Thunderheist. Got a feeling you'll hear it out sometime soon.

Vancouver Pride Gaydown: T-minus 6/The Meat Street Beat

I've spent a lot of time over the past two weeks wondering what sort of new fashion mutations are going to make an appearance next weekend at the Parade. Gold lame hip waders? Homespun rainbow lioncloths? Your guess is as good as mine. I do, however, promise here and now to high five anyone wearing the following:

What exactly is this? Hanes for her or Hanes for him? A pair of boxers? Briefs? A brassiere? A tanktop? A T-shirt? A Boxtop? A T-Brief? A shirtief?

Whatever. Take photos this week people. You know where to send them: vancouvergayblog@gmail.com.

Here's a little love from Canada's own Tu. I love these girls and love this song. I've been waiting for a remix to hit the clubs, waiting, waiting. If you're game, make one and I'll post it on Right Up Your Alley and see if I can get you some exposure here in Vancouver. And hell, if I see anyone wearing a zebra print skirt-suit this week, their prize will be a guest spot here on RUAP. And if I see the Tu twins wearing matching yellow raincoat dresses, we will have to elope and make glorious gay pride test-tube babies that we can raise to be cruel pop starlets who will, in turn, rule the Canadian music scene for decades to come.

If you can't take it, skip the video to the one minute mark and watch from there. As my blog counterpart in Toronto puts it: Hotarious.



Never heard about Tu? Here's some background from their unofficial website:

Welcome to Unofficially Tú, a site dedicated to 80's Canadian pop vocalists Amanda & Cassandra Di Blassi.

Inspired by the cantonese word for art, twins Amanda and Casandra DiBlasi founded Tú in the mid 80's, after being discovered by producer and former Red Rider keyboard player Steve Sexton when they appeared as extras in a music video.

Regulars in the Toronto studio scene by age 15, the twins had graduated from the Royal Conservatory Of Music and had already appeared in numerous television commercials when they started writing and recording their self titled debut in 1986 with Platinum Blonde producer Bruce Barrow, to whom they were introduced by Steve Sexton.

Released in late 1987 with RCA/BMG Music Canada, the formerly titled "Siamese Kiss" album yielded two singles, the first single being top ten hit "Stay With Me", which peaked at the 8th position in November that year. A second single, "The Language Of Love" was released in the first months of the following year, resulting in additional sales of Tú and more tour dates through-out Canada.

In 1988, the twins left RCA/BMG Music Canada and embarked on their second album, with a new label - CBS Records. Also produced by Bruce Barrow, "Secrets In The Dark" was released the following year with two moderately successful singles ; "I Used To Cry" and "Stop Breaking My Heart". This was unfortunately their last album.

The Meat Street Beat - Je Veux Te Voir

Truth be told, like many other Canadians living on the West Coast, I don't speak a lick of French. When I was presented with a myriad of linguistic choices in highschool, before making a decision, my mind naturally latched on to the following pop culture icons:



Thanks to the dimpled-miracle that is Mario Lopez, I decided to study Spanish. And my love of all things latino has continued on, long and strong, to this very day.

There are times, however, that I wish I had learned the other official language of our country. Last week, while I was writing a couple of fashion articles for Xtra! West, a friend suggested I check out Yelle's "Je Veux Te Voir" and I haven't been the same since. The first 40 seconds of the video is like a Walmart commercial on crack.

I have it on good authority that the song title translates to "I want to see you" in English. To my endless sorrow, I do not understand anything else, though still find myself loving Yelle and her synth-heavy know-how. Her short shorts are short, her hair is bobbed and her beats make me feel like I just rolled out of bed in the middle of a sexy Parisian discotheque. Je l'aime...tres fort!

The Meat Street Beat

Here's some new music to kick off your week. 2008 has been heralded as the year of "come backs" - Grace Jones has been busy cooking up some love that's set to drop later this summer and (apparently) so has Cher.

I like Cyndi's new song and hope to hear it out in the bars. In spirit of the True Colours tour that came through Vancouver (and broke a few hearts), take some time to take a listen to Into the Nightlife:



And if you want to see the label version, click here. YouTube has a feature that disables me from posting direct links to certain music videos some times. Apparently YouTube is not the cheap whore I've always thought it to be.

It's worth your time to watch the label version...Cyndi is HOT. Though maybe that's because she's standing in front of a gigantic hypnotic swirl, which is compelling weak-willed men like myself to listen/watch/buy her music again and again and again and again...

The Meat Street Beat

Oh it's hot...The Faya Combo Sessions have changed my summer. Courtesy of the marvelous Amanda G, who introduced DJ Gregory to yours truly just a few short weeks ago, I offer you a sample of some of the best house I've heard in...oh...let's say the past five years. These groundbreaking house tracks are the stereo-ready addition to any party you plan to throw over the next few months.



This is what his MySpace page has to say:

Defected Presents Faya Combo Sessions Mixed by DJ Gregory

‘Faya Combo’ translates to English as ‘Oh It’s Hot!’ – and if you’ve ever heard any of Gregory’s tracks you’ll know this is accurate! Elle, Attend 1, Tropical Soundclash – if you know anything about house music you’ll know that these are just some of the landmark House tracks brought to you by one of France’s finest house producers . This album showcases all of his classics alongside remixes from today’s heavyweight producers and new exclusive Gregory cuts across 3 Cds.

DJ Gregory is one super-cool player, highly intelligent, passionate about music and more than a little bit crazy, this producer holds great respect from all heavy hitters in the dance music community. His DJ sets are unmissable and he has an army of fans that follow him wherever he performs. Never selling out and always wary of commercial crossovers this is a

person who has absorbed all the various cultures around him and reproduced them in his highly individual House sound. From Paris, to New York, London and Tokyo, he travelled the globe to hone his production and DJ techniques and absorbed everything that House had to offer. He has been regarded as the king of the afro beat scene with his highly percussive traces that feature many African, West Indian and Caribbean flavours. His biggest production, "Elle" has touched every house DJ that has heard it and became an instant classic. It is a permanent fixture in most of their record boxes. Gregory was one of the first pioneering house producers that was invited by Bob Sinclair to become part of the legendary Africanism project; a project that embraced the percussive riffs and flavour of Africa and translated them into energetic house tracks. However the success he enjoyed here made him realise he could do bigger things with his own label. "After Africanism, I wanted to do exactly my own shit, I wanted to release my stuff, I wanted to be on my own also not to be under someone else's record company."

My favourite track is "Sookoos" - take the time to check it out.