#lwki

Our girl Saidah Conrad’s new video for the disco-fun jam #fungirls was dropped by The Fader. 

Beauty video, favourite line “I had to translate for clarity”. Digging it, so glad she’s back and ready to attack! Get it girl. 

I wanna have fun with you soon!

Thanks to the SidePonyNation, now we know!

Plus this art adventure duo came out with a bright beautiful video that encapsulates 90′s fly girl fashion, and Oh my gawd that van doe. 

Check it out, and reblog if you’re going to vote!

#NEWVIDEO from our favourite duo.

Burning Man vs. No Man’s Land.

Everyone should experience Black Rock City. It’s the closest you can get to going to another planet, another world.

Not sure, if I’ll go every year, but I’ll definitely go again and have a completely different experience.

They say, “You don’t have the burn you want, you have the burn you need.”

My first burn was a learning experience. And here’s what I learned.  

1. How to Hug

Those in the default world just don’t know how to hug. You could have hugs at Burning Man last several minutes, and most of the shortest ones, no matter what, consisted of a full breath in and a full breath out. Take in that person. Why hug them if you’re not going to? 

*Fellow virgin Snazzy and I rolling in the dust on our way into the playa

2. Unconditional love

My friend Helius was practicing this fully at the burn. Loving no matter if the person you love returns the love, rejects you, hurts you or wants to be alone. Loving without sexualizing, without needing a return on your investment. Just loving…including self love…But that’s talked about more in the next one. 

3. There is no place for guilt, shame or envy 

My friend Helius had been before and was intending this experience to be spiritually fruitful. I joined him and the RV crew on some good for the soul activities like a tapping meditation workshop and a sunrise dance party.    

He really tried to embody the 10 Principles of Burning Man, one of which is immediacy. When we biked by the Metal Woman That Breaths and he suggested we take a nude photo in front of her, I knew I wanted to do it, but not necessarily right then and there…that’s where immediacy comes in, or as Nike says #Justdoit.

After we got our picture, close by were several women dancing nude with scarves on the playa. We were already naked, so we joined them.

Honestly, it was one of the best experiences I had. It was my first time taking my clothes off at the burn, and it was amazing not feeling like I was doing something wrong or shameful. I went back to my camp in nothing but a tutu (It was tutu Tuesday after all). In the default world if you stroll into a place with people you don’t really know that well topless, you may get looks or remarks behind your back. But not at Burning Man…it was a good feeling, especially for someone who wrestles with feelings of guilt and shame and caring what people think.

Self love is not judging yourself harshly through shame, guilt and envy. So I try to say bye bye to those three things.

 4. Act on urges

This goes along with the Principle of Immediacy, as well as with the Principle of Participate. How often do we want to say something to a friend or lover, but we censor ourselves or don’t speak out in public because we are afraid of what people will say or think of us?

The night of the temple burn I was watching the Temple of Promise go up in flames with several thousand of my closest friends. The Temple burn is different from the burning of the man because it’s a mostly silent solemn occasion as people are freed from whatever they were trying to cleanse themselves of at the Temple earlier in the week. Some people yelled out things like “I miss you (insert name of loved one here)”, but mostly it was silent. One gentleman close by yelled out “Enjoy your burn”, and I almost responded with “You too”, but I cut myself off, because I was nervous or didn’t want people to notice me. And then I felt badly, because no one responded to him, and it was dead silence and felt almost awkward, at least for me.

Several minutes passed, and I had an urge to say something still and I could feel it inside of me, so all of sudden I just yelled out to no one, to everyone, to myself “I LOVE YOU”.

What a relief! It felt so good to act on the pent up urge, and you know what? After that, others around me responded with more I love you’s or I love you too’s, all around it was like a chain reaction of love. It felt good.

5. You can manifest things in your life. 

This happened all the way along my Burning Man journey. Since 2013 I had said, “2015 is my year, that’s when I will go to Burning Man”. But it was mid August and I still didn’t have a ticket, but on August 15th, a ticket just came to me, after I had resigned myself to not going. Then things just seemed to fall into place. When I got to the Playa I was able to find everyone who I knew was there, we always seemed to just find each other.

My friend Helius told me a story of how he and GreyLove were exploring and were very hungry. They decided to climb some art, as you do at the burn, and not ten minutes later did someone come up behind them and say “Did somebody order a pizza here?” True story, the guy had a pizza, and just gave it to them. They didn’t order it, they manifested it.

On Wednesday evening, after a quadruple wedding, friends and I were chatting and they said how I should start officiating weddings, because:

I love love,

I love hosting,

and boy do I love weddings.

Literally within the hour, I had officiated my first Playa wedding at the Jerk Church complete with the first dance; beautiful acoustic sing along rendition of “Turn your lights down low” led by the bartender. One of the loveliest moments of the burn for me.

*The wedding was complete with band and art car party that took us to the grilled cheese and champagne reception. 

6. It’s ok to be alone, but sometimes it’s nicer to not be. 

I love being social and with people, but I’ve called myself a lone wolf in the past, mostly because I hate waiting for others. And at any sort of festival-like event in a group setting you will have to wait for others, so usually I prefer going on my own and then bumping into manifesting friends along the way.

At Burning Man I had made up my mind to catch one of Diplo’s four sets. He is my favourite DJ, even though in the burner world he’s a bit frowned upon (if you read the BRC newspaper you’ll know what I mean). Anyways I was a tad frustrated because I was waiting on others the night he was set to be at Opulent Temple, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the temple, and in the end friends and I parted ways and myself and friend Jesse started to head back to camp.

On the way back, I heard music that I really liked, and my friend Jesse and I followed our ears because I was certain the art car it was coming from had Diplo written all over it. We arrived at the art car, and there was a female djing, but to my delight Diplo was directly behind her, and he had just signaled to some homies the universal sign for “Let’s Bounce” (rotated index finger in the air). I went to the art car exit, and low and behold my favourite Dj was right beside me. Here’s what happened:

Me: Hey, Can I have a hug? (This is Burning Man, who can say no to a hug?)

Diplo: Ya Sure. Cool hat.

Me: You like it?

Diplo: Ya, you look like a Chinese Queen. (hug ends)

Me: Thanks, I’m from Toronto and I….uhhh (he was no longer paying any attention to me)

But that’s ok, you know why? Because my friend Jesse was there beside me and he witnessed the whole interaction. And if I was lone wolfing it, I wouldn’t have anyone to share that experience with. And I’m glad I do. 

7. Ask Deeper Questions

People are icebergs.

Eye contact, really listening, and digging deeper is what forms lasting bonds and memories.

This makes you vulnerable though. But Burning Man is a safe place to really be vulnerable.

8. You can do whatever you want

And you should. Who’s stopping you? At Burning Man there is no schedule, no bedtime, no obligation and no end to possibilities. 

9. The desert isn’t always hot

Sometimes it’s freezing cold.

Life lesson: there’s exceptions to everything.

Never say never. Forever is a long time. Things change, people change.

You just gotta roll with it I guess, and definitely get yourself a fleece lined hippie sweater like I did on Ashbury before heading into the burn. Literally saved my life.

10. Participate

Do, make, try all the things, feel, climb, swing, create, collaborate.

Build a roller rink, or skate park, talk to God, get taken away on a bumblebee art car. Get caught in a dust storm. Live, Laugh, Love right?

Burning Man is not a spectator sport.

Thanks for reading, it’s ok if you didn’t. I still love you, unconditionally. 

I can’t believe this song and video.

Brilliant video idea with teh crowd sourced screens. What fun it would have been to be part of!

NEXT TIME!

THIS JUST IN! #NEWMUSIC

The brand spanking new video for Toronto disco-diva RALPH’s single Trouble just dropped on Noisey and all we gotta say is Thelma & Louise eat your heart out. 

The video directed by Kit Knows features RALPH getting into TROUBLE with some certified BAB’s (Bad Ass Babes). With a cliffhanger ending to boot this on the run video channels a Crossroads type road trip with some Bonnie and Clydesque bad deeds. 

Basically, we are picking up what RALPH is putting down and stoked for her upcoming EP. Drop date TBA. 

Give her a gander and then let’s go on a road trip K?

Love Yall,

R.LUM.R is back with his second single and he has us feeling feels all over again. He’s nice like that. 

Boyfriend just wants to know how we feel tonight, and he only wants us to be honest. 

Well R.LUM.R if we have to be honest this new jam makes us want to run a nice hot bath, light some candles and just sink into that warm water with your voice enveloping us in your gentle love. We’ll probably also touch up on ourselves, cuz how could we not with a voice like this?

Check out the new single, and then do yourself a favour and listen to SHOW ME. 

Love yall,

From chancetherapper,

The first time I saw Shad live was at the Starlight in Waterloo when I was in University. I wore a neon t-shirt that said “Too legit to quit”, and Ashleigh Ball (lead singer of Hey Ocean!) said she liked my T. I was there for Hey Ocean! and Shad was just a pleasant surprise. We got down that night.

Fast forward a couple (ok more then a couple years) and I just got home from seeing Shad K the new host of CBC’s Q, live at Massey Hall. Shad killed it tonight, had erryone on their feet vibing the whole set and then gave us an encore, because we wanted more, of smooth, clean, freestyle, conscious flowetry that he is known for.

Here’s a taste of what Shad K do.

To my delight, I was again pleasantly surprised at a Shad show as the opener was #newtome artist Zaki Ibrahim. The beautiful soul seductress did it all, from singing angelically, to beatboxing, to drumming to rapping...she slayed. Am now streaming her entire album, which you should too...or check this out: 

Thank you Shad and Zaki for an amazing and memorable evening of music. 

What upcoming shows are you excited about?

Talk soon,

What a week that was in Austin. Full of brand new music that we just stumbled upon, we saw some longtime faves for the first time ever, made some new friends and ate wayyyyyy too much BBQ. Our 25 hour drive back to Toronto allowed us to digest what we saw at SXSW (even though we’re still having trouble digesting all that BBQ). 

For now, we bring you our South BY Top 6. 

Tove Styrke 

We have such a wet on for Swedish female electro pop musicians and Tove Styrke is just another to add to the long list including Robyn, Lykke Li, Elliphant, Tove Lo and Seinabo Sey... I don’t know what’s in the water, but Sweden just keeps pumpin out these women that we can’t get enough of.

Ball Park

SXSW is full of serendipitous moments, and seeing Australian act Ball Park, was one of those random occurrences that happened by just being in the right place at the right time. They are an indie/rock pop band from Brisbane easy listening but with darker more real lyrics and fantastic musicians all of them. 

Charlotte OC

We had gone to the Mad Decent x Fools Gold Super Party to check out Bosco, but we’re not really feeling the sound or vibe of the room (too loud, we’re old) so decided to leave the venue. On our way out through the back stage we were stopped in our tracks as this beautiful female vocalist was almost convulsing on stage with feeling as she sang. We got a very Florence and the Machine vibe from Charlotte OC and we know you’ll dig. 

LOLAWOLF

There was a lot of buzz around LOLAWOLF, I mean we follow @zoeisabellakravitz on Instagram after all, and with a dad like Lenny of course people want to see what his offspring can do. She didn’t disappoint, she’s got a real bad ass bitch vibe going, and the live show was very rock and roll with her drumming and getting down for the audience. Definitely a band that will blow in the next year. She was hanging out with Miley Cyrus, and A-TRAK even came to the show, so she’s clearly on her way. 

Courtney Barnett

We we’re in Aww when we saw Courtney Barnett at Stubb’s BBQ on Wednesday night before the Stromae show. At first listen we got a Cheryl Crow vibe from this Australian rocker. With further listening we are convinced Courtney Barnett is the second coming of Kurt Cobain. Insanely good lyricist and rocker...but with a definite sense of humour, which is probably something Kurt Cobain was lacking.

Christine and The Queens

The Neon Gold Showcase on our last night of SXSW was a truly magical end to the week. We saw Seinabo Sey, MS MR, Marina and the Diamonds, and this gem of a performer. Hailing from France, Héloïse Letissier, reinvented herself as Christine when she was inspired and transformed by her meeting with three drag queens at New York’s Madame Jojo’s. The music is catchy, she sings in both English and French and her dance moves synchronized with her two background dancers were everything. And she truly won us over with her onstage banter, so funny and cute and we are obsessed!!!

Miscellaneous SXSW highlights

Sneaking into the Run the Jewels show through the exit just after Killer Mike was attacked

Overhearing a new friend talk about #newartist R.LUM.R and realizing we had been hanging out with him all week and now have him on speed dial. 

Watching the entire LOLAWOLF show beside ATRAK and fan-girling out the entire time. Yes we took a sneaky photo, yes we are not proud of it.

Stromae live. What an insanely talented man! Click for full stream.

Canada House- So nice having a piece of home down in Austin. Said what up to John Tory, saw Saukrates, Grand Analog and Tasha the Amazon live, and chatted with Lowell. 

All in all great week of music. 

Thanks for reading, we’re gonna go eat some Kale.

Talk soon,

T

Single from the forthcoming Over EP.Co-produced with @ethnikids.if you dig it, <3 it/tweet it at on @hypem at http://awe.sm/cLXpG 

R.LUM.R or as we like to say it.... “Ar Lum Ar”...already turned us on, and we’re not even sure if that’s how we pronounce his name.

Hold on we’ll do some research...

Still unsure...

Maybe these guys know: http://www.earbuddy.net/57780/r-lum-r-show-me.html/listen/experimental

SO good..

So in case you didn’t know our absolute favourite show is Broad City, because basically because Abbi and Ilana are pretty much us, but they yes and wayyyyyyy harder. 

In the above scene they get their “kind exchange” on to the sounds of Toronto based rapper @tashatheamazon, who we’ve posted a bout a bunch...but unfortunately has yet to be a featured #lwki artist....Sigh, One Day.

Anyways, catch the clip, and if you want the song then go here...Girlfriend is just giving it away! 

Talk soon,

Today marks the release of Plummet the new EP by #lwki faves Ain't No Love. Along with the album this trifecta of talent featuring #lwki artist Saidah Conrad released a new "dark side of fame" short film.

According to the group, "to introduce the world to the music of Plummet, the band recruited award-winning director and photographer Indrani Pal-Chadhuri to produce a phantasmagorical 10 minute film that features all of the record’s six tracks."

Now we don't know what phantasmagorical means, but the film is definitely beautifully shot, and is set in a pretty schnazzy apartment. Drugs, sex, rock and flow all come together to make a very nice tease to what you will hear on "Plummet". 

Check out the vid above, and go to Ain'tNoLove.com to buy, stream or get the EP. 

Oh and be sure to check the #lwki interview we did with front woman Saidah Conrad a few months back. >>> http://lookwhoskillinit.tumblr.com/post/90667393564

Talk soon,