Alexisonfire Is Done For, I Am Bummed

Alexisonfire has been one of my favorite bands for the past 10 years. Today they announced that they will be breaking up. Dallas Green and City & Colour has exploded and he simply can't manage Alexis and C&C. He is choosing City & Colour over Alexis, which is understandable. Dallas is quite possibly the hardest person to replace in the entire genre, let's call it "post-hardcore". His voice is simply stunning and without him Alexis just isn't Alexis. They might do one last run of shows in Canada as a farewell and I might be visiting Canada soon.

The band gets lumped in with screamo and pop-punk bands but I've always considered them a genre within themselves. They have a passion that is rare and an enthusiasm that is even rarer. The last album was a bit of a let down and I think that had a lot to do with Dallas being spread too thin. To be honest this was inevitable. Any fan of Alexis knew that Dallas was a talent that couldn't be contained. He obviously would go on to bigger and better things at some point, which is apparently now.

I will miss this band very, very much. THE ONLY BAND EVER!

City & Colour Release New Track, "Fragile Bird"

Alexisonfire (I'm wearing an AOF shirt right now, creepy) frontman, Dallas Green, has a new tune out. There is way more going on here than your typical C&C track. I'm not completely against the new sound but what is going on with the vocals? Dallas has the best voice in the game and your covering it with effects, fuck that shit Alex Newport. Get your head out of your ass, dude. Again, good song but I hate the production and especially when it comes to the vocals. The new album comes out on June 7th, it's called Little Hell.

Link:

City & Colour on Spinner

City & Colour w/ Gordon Downie @ The Juno Awards (Video)

I'm on my monthly Alexisonfire / City & Colour kick and I started digging around on YouTube for live C&C video. I came across this gem from the 2009 Juno Awards. This is an absolutely brilliant version of one of my favorite C&C songs. Watch this and then try to tel me Dallas Green isn't one of the best musicians, and especially vocalists, around right now.

Tonight: City And Colour @ Bowery Ballroom

The lead singer (Dallas Green) of my favorite band (Alexisonfire) is in town with his solo project, City & Colour. At this point you've probably heard C&C, since it's been blowing up like crazy over the past 2 years or so. Every time Dallas comes through town he sells out a much larger venue then the last time he was in town. This time it's TWO sold out nights at Bowery Ballroom - impressive!

If you're a fan of AOF then I have no idea if you'll dig City & Colour. It sounds nothing like Alexis but there is, of course, the perfect voice of Dallas leading the way. Otherwise it's mostly acoustic and mellow, two words never used to describe AOF. That said I've seen C&C live and Dallas is fucking amazing to witness. I'll be there tonight truly enjoying myself, which doesn't happen at shows too much these days.

Here's some video from the last time I saw Dallas:

MP3:
Coming Home - City & Colour

More Songs (Apparently the indie bloggers have finally caught on):
C&C On Elbo.ws

City And Colour Exclusive MySpace Performance & Interview

Alexisonfire front man Dallas Green recently recorded an exclusive performance for MySpace. As expected it’s all acoustic and it’s all awesome! Man, this guy has one hell of a voice and he’s pretty handy with geetar too. Anyway, if you read BSC you know I really dig both of Dallas Green’s projects, Alexisonfire and City & Colour, but I think C&C really appeals to broader crowd then Alexis ever will. Hopefully the success of the solo stuff doesn’t put the band on hold for too long.

Link: City And Colour Videos

City and Colour - "As Much As I Ever Could"

City and Colour - "Body in a Box" Transmissions vol. 4

City & Colour @ Knitting Factory 3/19

On Wednesday I was at work planning on an exciting night at home watching a movie. Then I stumbled upon a listing for the Knitting Factory - City & Colour was playing a sold out show! Which is kinda crazy because I had no idea that C&C had a big enough following in NYC to sell out KF. Of course being that it was sold out and I just heard about it I was kinda screwed but I managed to get on a guest list last minute and scrapped my plans in front of the tube.

If you're not familiar with City & Colour it's basically the singer (Dallas) from Alexisonfire. He's been writing and recording solo shit for years and has a crazy following in Canada. But he hasn't really done shit in the states. In fact he said the KF show was his first in the US - which isn't true because he played SXSW but I think he meant the first show of a headlining US tour.

If you're a fan of AOF then you might not dig C&C - it's super mellow and folksy, not heavy at all...ever. Then again if your favorite part of AOF music is the pitch perfect voice of Dallas then this is your shit because it's all him.

I just recently got into C&C so I'm not super familiar with the songs so I can't tell what the set list was... not that I ever do anyway. But I'll tell you a bit about the show. When Dallas first came on stage he was joined by some of the dudes from the opening band. They did some "plugged in" songs together, which was odd because Dallas is usually doing the singer/songwriter bandless thing. The songs sounded pretty good beefed up a bit but everyone was waiting for him to put down the electric and pick up the acoustic. One quick note, he said that he never practices with those guys and that they were just winging it, which is impressive.

Anyway, they did about 3-4 songs and then got off stage. From that point on it was all Dallas (except for the last measure of the last song). Like I said I don't know all of the names of the songs but I recognized a bunch and was singing along to most. Dallas is a fucking fantastic musician in every way. Of all the dudes in all the bands in the screamo/emo/metalcore/whatever world that I could see blowing up it's Dallas. He's just that much better then everyone else and he has perhaps the best voice in music right now... yeah I said it, the voice of an angel even.

Towards the end of the set he said that if you knew who he was you might recognize the next song. At this point he went into an acoustic version of "Boiled Frogs" by Alexisonfire, which was super awesome. However there are a shit load of AOF songs I would have preferred but whatever, it was really good. After that it was over, except for the mandatory encore.

The show was amazing, his voice was perfect, his potential is unlimited. I really was impressed and you absolutely must see him live if you get the chance.

More Photos:
BSC Flickr