The Best In Vancouver

We conducted a number of interviews with as many of the bands for this year's Best In Vancouver competition as we could get a hold of! Below are the show dates with which bands are playing that night. We have linked all the bands with interviews so you can click and see what they had to say!

October 2nd:
Redford Drive Best In Vancouver: Rexford Drive
Kownterpoint Best In Vancouver: Kownterpoint
Rocket To Venus
The Fall Of Day Best In Vancouver: The Fall Of Day

October 3rd:
Carousel Scene Best In Vancouver: Carousel Scene
Rune Best In Vancouver: Rune
Kazhmere
Ampletude

October 9th:
My Mother The Carjacker Best In Vancouver: My Mother The Carjacker
Octobers Best In Vancouver: Octobers
Whiplash Escalade Best In Vancouver: Whiplash Escalade
Kristina Lao Best In Vancouver: Kristina Lao

October 10th:
Kaslo Best In Vancouver: Kaslo
Travis James Best In Vancouver: Travis James Band
The Echos Best In Vancouver: The Echos
She Dreams In Colour Best In Vancouver: She Dreams In Colour

October 16th:
Modern Day Poets Best In Vancouver: Modern Day Poets
Michael Averill Best In Vancouver: Michael Averill
Flub The Duck

October 17th:
Chilled Clarity Best In Vancouver: Chilled Clarity
The Dramatic Finish Best In Vancouver: The Dramatic Finish
Downtown Riot
Caustic Sodapop

October 23rd:
Bone State Rebellion Best In Vancouver: Bone State Rebellion
Gabe & The Oh Yeah's Best In Vancouver: Gabe & The Oh Yeah's
Julien Amar Best In Vancouver: Julien Amar
On The Run

October 24th:
Nine O'Clock Gun Best In Vancouver: Nine O'Clock Gun
Mistral Storm
Switched To Black Best In Vancouver: Switch To Black
One Left Alive

Check out more about Studio Records click HERE.
To find out more about the competition go HERE.

Best In Vancouver: Carousel Scene

Rising from the ashes of Shadow, Carousel Scene spreads its music around and around! I had a great chat with Khalvin about the bands upcoming performance for the Best In Vancouver competition.

James: How did you find out about "Best In Vancouver"?
Carousel Scene: I found out about BIV through my best mates from Gigaheartz. The GHZ boys won the contest last year, so we're looking to do the same.

James: What sets you apart from other bands?
CS: We have a singer that is virtually unbeatable in a game of soccer and a drummer whose shirt is virtually nonexistent when playing. Additionally, we really like our semi-hollow guitars and Vox amps.

James: Do you have anything special for your show planned?
CS: We may or may not be debuting our new bass player that night, you'll have to come out and see for yourself! Originally, we wanted to do GWAR-inspired stage theatrics, but I don't think Kevin would approve of that.

James: What do you think about battle of the bands competitions and how they influence the scene?

CS: It definitely varies - I think most of the artists here generally share the same opinion. There are plenty of pay to play competitions that promise bands that there will be "important industry people" to showcase their talents to, when in reality, their focus is on making a quick buck through the artists' ticket sales and nothing pans out in the end.

With Rednyne and Live Agency, they have Best In Vancouver, where the bands actually meet with the judges even before the competition! These judges also happen to be important contributors to the local scene and the entire Canadian music scene as a whole. It is more focused on actually helping the local scene and developing the artists that go through the competition.

Check out more from Carousel Scene HERE.

Check out more about the Best In Vancouver competition HERE.

Best In Vancouver: Modern Day Poets

Modern Day Poets, fresh off their Music Video release, are setting their sights at Studio Records for the Best In Vancouver competition. We exchanged haikus with each other to find out their plan for their performance!

James: How did you find out about "Best In Vancouver"?
Modern Day Poets: We discovered “Best In Vancouver” through social media. We are #hashtag nuts!

James: What sets you apart from other bands?
MDP: We have a dynamic, high-energy sound that people dig. And we have a kick-ass front-woman that demands audience participation.

James: Do you have anything special for your show planned?
MDP: We have special guests! The Steadies! WOOOOHOO!!!

James: What do you think about battle of the bands competitions and how they influence the scene?

MDP: Battles are a great promotional tool and an opportunity to network in the scene. Bands get up in front of other bands, meet & greet, make friends... sometimes enemies... and hopefully get laid. Kidding!

Check out more from the Modern Day Poets HERE.
Check out more about the Best In Vancouver competition HERE.

Best In Vancouver: Nine O'Clock Gun

3 years after their formation, Nine O'Clock Gun are gunning for gold in the Best In Vancouver competition. Hammer Records had a chat with the band about their plan of attack!

James: How did you find out about "Best In Vancouver"?
Nine O'Clock Gun: We found out through rednyne productions social media.

James: What sets you apart from other bands?
NOG: I'd imagine you might want to hear something cliche like "Our electrifying stage show!" Or "our lyrics are compiled excerpts from noam chompsky speeches converted into politically conscious poetry" but really,
We're just a bunch of good ol' hard working canadian kids who just love to write, play and perform rock and roll. Talk is cheap and we prefer to set ourselves apart by our actions instead of our words.

James: Do you have anything special for your show planned?
NOG: Do we?! We just added two amazing musicians to our lineup, Bassist Clark Buchanan (Mellowmanic, The Stone Pines) and lead guitarist William John (The Coalition)
Our band now has veteran musicians from four vancouver bands.

James: What do you think about battle of the bands competitions and how they influence the scene?

NOG: It occurs to us that battle of the band competitions can be a huge hand up for the bands involved. it's a great opportunity to discover and learn from other groups out there.
That being said, they can also be used as a money making gimic which can ruin it for the good guys who are trying to honestly do good things for the music scene. (Ie: its not very respectful to your supporters to try to bring out your full draw for a 15 min set. that just sours the expirence of these battles for everyone.)

Check out more from Nine O'Clock Gun HERE.

Check out more about the Best In Vancouver competition HERE.

Bridges To Royal - Walls

As soon as that guitar feedback hits your ear, you know your in for a rock and roll tune. Bridges To Royal's new track Walls is just perfect for those days you want to hype yourself up for a run up Grouse mountain, or driving with your windows down along the Sea-To-Sky Highway.

Big guitar riffs, thumping bass and trashy drums all blend together to create a bed for some awesome vocal hooks. A nice space filled verse allows great dynamics between the chorus and the rest of the song. The bridge sounds like something you would hear in a Velvet Revolver song or a Wolfmother song. Which leads into a beautiful guitar solo rounding off the entire song.

I wish the mixing engineer had brought out the bass a bit more, I find that the mix is just missing the thick bass. You can clearly hear the guitar track, but the bass is a bit thin to really add the full "crank your stereo to 11" sound. The vocals are nice sounding but I think a bit of overdrive would have added that gritty 90's sound that I think of when I hear this song.

The track is well written, well performed and I can't wait to hear it live! Be sure to check it out and support the band by grabbing yourself a copy of this track on iTunes HERE. Check out the band's Facebook page HERE.

Has Your Shoe Exploded Before?

The Vidos are an awesome bunch of dudes. Great performers, awesome song writers and just overall fantastic people! Their new single "ShoeBomb" just takes their music to a whole new level. Reminding me of Velvet Revolver with Scott's vocals on it. This song really proves the marketability this band can bring to the table.

Be to watch out for them and catch them playing live!
Check out their Facebook page HERE.

Best In Vancouver: Rexford Drive

From Chilliwack, Rexford Drive is bringing their Alt rock here to Vancouver. Their marketable sound has a great chance of exploding on the scene here in Vancouver. We had a conversation about their plans for this years Best In Vancouver competition.

James: How did you find out about "Best In Vancouver"?
Rexford Drive: We had a show with The Vidos in Studio Records, it being our first gig in this area, Kevin met up with us and told us we should sing up for Best in the Vancouver since we had a pretty good crowd. We signed up, and sure enough we are here ! Opening the whole thing up on Oct 2 !

James: What sets you apart from other bands?
Rexford Drive: That is really up to you to decide, to us it is what we play, and how we play it that separates us from others. As we don’t focus on a specific genre. We play our hearts out, and put in everything for the music to describe us the best it can, as it is the music that you get to know us through. We smash the hell out our instruments, so that you can feel same portion of adrenaline that we do. If you don’t try to act like someone else, and let your creativity go free-fall you will always be original and somehow different from others. Honesty is the key, and we have few of those.

James: Do you have anything special for your show planned?
Rexford Drive: If you feel that our music is somehow special to you which I hope since it is special to us, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this, then that is one. As for the other, we may have a drum solo thrown somewhere in there. So watch out !

James: What do you think about battle of the bands competitions and how they influence the scene?

Rexford Drive: I feel like any type of competition that gets bands a chance to play in front of people is a great opportunity. Thanks so many different bands playing, even if not winning, it is a great opportunity for people to discover new talents. For band mates to trade contacts, and book more shows. As music is not a competition. Music is and always was a way to get people together, and that’s what this event is to us.

Check out more from Rexford Drive HERE.
Check out more about the Best In Vancouver competition HERE.