At Filter Box Media we believe in thinking globally and acting locally. We lived out this credo in September by organizing and rocking out our very own Twestival Local Montreal. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, this Twitter gala was a Montreal-focused version of the Twestival Global event last February that raised $250,000 for Charity:Water (an initiative that sought to provide clean drinking water to developing countries). But thinking on a more local level led Twitter users to vote for Head & Hands, a Montreal-based charity that offers outreach to at-risk youth. And by the end of the night, we had raised $2,228 for them to invest in their barrier-free health and social services to youth ages 12-25.

During the course of the night, we ran a professional photo booth, sold Twitter-themed cupcakes, raffled off donated prizes, and ran a Beatles Rock Band set upstairs. But being a music marketing company, Filter Box Media wanted to see the event be more musically themed than Twestivals had been in the past. So, we invited some local artists to be guest DJs. Jason Bajada, Richmond Lam, TTC and MeilleurMusiqueduMonde.com (yes, that’s their name) were the ones who graciously lent their support to spin all night. And for all you Beatles Rock Band fans out there, we invited musicians Patrick Krief of Black Diamond Bay and Amanda Mabro to play with whoever else wanted to pretend to be the greatest band of all time.

The night was a blur of activity, an organizational feat far too big for just Filter Box Media to handle alone. That’s why we’d like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated volunteers. The night would not have been possible without you, and we’re very grateful for your energy and enthusiasm.

We’re equally grateful to our sponsors: Molson, Ice.com, Wildcard Clothing, College de Maisonneuve, Freshbooks, Indica Records, Greenland Productions, Pop Montreal, 33Mag, CJLO, Clever Cupcakes, Il Piatto Pieno, Terrafolia, Brazen Design, Furni, Bitchin’ Kitchen, Mitch Joel, PepperMaster, and Dallas Curow. The raffle would have been impossible without your generosity.

And let’s not forget our special guests. Many thanks to Valérie Roberts for MCing the night, to the guest DJs for supplying the music, and to the expert Beatles Rock Band performers for making the game that much more interesting.

Twestival Local Montreal garnished many press mentions across the web and also landed us our very first feature in our local newspaper, The Montreal Gazette.

Enjoy the photo slide show of the highlights of the night. For more photos check out the photo booth photos by Eva Blue and the event photos by Dallas Curow.

This past week we had the pleasure of attending a show at the Montreal Jazz Festival featuring our talented intern Elizabeth Skalak. We were blown away by her performance along with her high school jazz band Les Big Times and asked her to tell us about the biggest performance of her life. Read on to hear all about it.

Wednesday, July 8th 2009. Wow. There’s a day that I will remember forever. That day made me realize that my so-called “crazy dream” is what I was put on this earth for. It was truly, to this day (and probably for a very long time), the best experience of my life. What am I going on about? Performing live at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

In high school I was part of the jazz band where I played drums and sang. After a few years we became such a strong group that it got us to the Rio Tinto stage at the Jazz Festival, the BIG stage. We played a 13 song set, two of which I sang lead vocals. We played the classics from Duke Ellington, to Miles Davis, to Otis Redding. We’re three percussionists in the band so we took turns at the drum set. The first song I sang was The Nearness of You by Hoagy Carmichael. It was magical, it brought tears to some people’s eyes, I loved it! I also sang the last song on our set-list and let me say that we ended our set with a BANG! We played Aretha Franklin’s version of Respect. I had so much fun singing that song, even though I felt pressure to do it justice since it is, after all, an Aretha Franklin classic. I gave it my all and I think it was enough, more than anybody expected from me anyways. Everybody loved it, even Radio-Canada filmed us playing it!

That was without a doubt the best experience I ever had. The feeling I got was incomparable to anything I’ve felt before. It was a feeling so strong that the pre-show jitters I had were gone. Even after the show I felt a rush that was new to me. This whole experience just confirmed that I’m on the right path: I was born to perform. I had so much trouble writing this, because to explain what I’ve experienced on that day is pretty much impossible. Hope you got the gist of what I went through on that more than heart-stirring day.

What was one of the most memorable concerts you’ve attended?  Try to think about why you remember that concert.  Was the venue jam packed? Did the music touch you? Was the performance thoughtful and creative?

Sunday, I attended one of those concerts at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. It was a free event like no other at which Patrick Watson performed an outdoor show in front of an estimated 100,000 people.

…it was more like a Cirque Du Soleil; a moment where unbridled creativity finds the perfect outlet for dissemination, completely changing the way we think about music and performance art.  - CHARTattack

Rather than reviewing the show, I propose this question to performing artists: what do you consider when preparing for a show? Do you think about artistic concepts such as stage presence, decor, visuals, lighting, and audience engagement? Patrick Watson clearly did. These facets of his concert were sensitive, thoughtful and made his show a success.

The music was only one of many important ingredients in the concert experience; when describing the show, many people referred more to the performative elements than they did the music. While the music is still crucially important in performance,  a combination of the two can surpass what music alone can do. In this respect, Patrick Watson’s show was golden.

If you missed the show you can watch it in its entirety here.

We love concerts here at Filter Box Media, so we organized an event on June 3rd and invited some of our favorite artists to play. Before the show, we and some of the artists were fortunate enough to be interviewed by Nonna Maria. Needless to say, it was hilarious.

Amazing photographer and friend Eva Blue was gracious enough to shoot some behind the scene photos of the interview. Thanks Eva! Also, a big thanks to everyone who came out, Nonna Maria, Code Pie, Fox Jaws, Nista and Leif Vollebekk - we had a great time!

After lots of last minute planning I finally made it to Toronto for the 2009 North by Northeast Music Festival. Here are a few of my highlights.

My weekend festivities began Friday night with the Nevado Records showcase at The Supermarket. This up-and-coming indie label put on a stellar show featuring Bahamas, Bass Lions, The Paint Movement, Fox Jaws and Parlovr. I’ve seen Bass Lions a few times and Fox Jaws played our show in Montreal on June 3rd, love both bands but I was especially excited to see Nevado’s other bands perform.

Three piece band Parlovr opened the show with a bang. Cute boys, catchy songs and entertaining stage presence. Check them out in Montreal when they play Osheaga on August 2. Must see!

Bahamas (Afie Jurvanen), best known as the guitarist of Feist (who was at the show) just completed his debut solo album Pink Strat set to release on July 21. Loved the track What’s Worse where he showed off his hip swaying moves and soft vocals. Watch out for this guy.

Jazzy rockers The Paint Movement had the best band-audience interaction of the night. The crowd loved these guys and so did I. There needs to be more saxophone in indie rock. Can’t wait till they come to Montreal.

Saturday night started with the always entertaining performance of Icelandic/Montreal band Nista. These guys put on a great show and they gave out candy and free surprises! What more can you ask for? If you’re looking for something different from the indie rock sound, check them out.

The rest of the night I headed in and out of half a dozen other shows. I caught a great performance by Ruby Coast and the beginning of Jason Collett’s set at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. Regretting not staying for all of Collett’s set but the venue was packed so tight I had to get some fresh air and missed the rest of the show.

I ended my last night in Toronto with my favorite metal heads Fattooth at The Hideout. Their high energy performance blew me and the crowd away! I’m still on a high from this performance. If you’re a metal fan check these guys out on their upcoming tour.

Biggest disappointment of the weekend: I didn’t get to taste Sneaky Dee’s famous King Crown nachos.

Biggest surprise of the weekend: Torontonians are nicer than I remembered. Except for the weird drunk girl at The Hideout who flashed me in the woman’s bathroom.

All in all, it was a great weekend, met some amazing people. See you next year NXNE.

Laura

Montreal is heating up! With a slew of upcoming music festivals on the way we’d like to kick off the summer music festivities with our very own show at Club Lambi on June 3.

The lineup:

Nista

Our favorite bunch of Icelandic-Montrealers will be headlining the event. Get a free download of Nista’s refreshing track Water. Their zany lyrics and fun stage presence will no doubt put you in a good mood. They’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Jason Bajada and are now recording new songs for their upcoming album.

Code Pie

One of Montreal’s favorite bands, it’s true, they were 3rd in the Mirror’s 2008 Best of Montreal following Arcade Fire & United Steel Workers of Montreal. Where have they been since then? After touring in support of their last album “The Most Trusted Name in Yous” they have recently gathered in studio again to record their upcoming album due out this year tentatively titled “Love Meets Rage”. They’ve played this year’s Canadian Music Week festival and Halifax Pop Explosion opening for Holy Fuck!.

Fox Jaws

Toronto natives come to town in support of their upcoming album due out in July. These indie rockers have shared the stage with the likes of Wintersleep, Tokyo Police Club, Fleet Foxes and then some.

Void of every fad and gimmick, Fox Jaws are real people; they live, die, breathe and create just like you and I. But what they create is on the verge of brilliance, what they live are lives worth documentation, when they die it sounds amazing, when they breathe it brings the audience to life. - Exclaim

Leif Vollebekk

His soulful-folk sound can be heard on his debut album “Inland” which was recorded at Breakglass Studios (Wolf Parade, Patrick Watson, Stars). Vollebekk’s been playing many shows in and around Montreal including Pop Montreal shows and opening slots for Basia Balut. With influences such as Jeff Buckley, Gershwin, Miles Davis, Robert Johnson, Thom Yorke and Sigur Rós, you will surely find a place in your musical heart for Leif Vollebekk.

Nonna Maria

She is an old Italian puppet woman living with her grandson Dave in Montreal and has recently found fame on the wonderful world of YouTube. Nonna Maria is the brainchild of local artist Anthony Imperioli. You may have seen his widely popular Pasquale Parmigianno animations, which have had millions of plays all over the world. Nonna Maria will be at the Tweet-up meeting her fans, interviewing the bands to create her next video.

Pre-show Tweet-Up

Before the show begins there will be a Tweet-Up for all Montreal Twitter users to meet up with the bands and their Twitter friends. At this time there will be a special appearance by Anthony Imperioli’s Nonna Maria.

More event details and ticket purchase here

Hope to see you there.

Website upgrade aside, we’ve also upgraded our team. We are happy to introduce to you the newest addition to the Filter Box Media Team, Zeeta Maharaj. Zeeta will act as our new Communications Director - read up and learn more about Zeeta and don’t hesitate to get in touch with her - she is seriously one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in your whole life.

We also wanted to take this time thank everyone who has given Filter Box Media so much support over the past year. To our family, friends and clients - thank you !

Stay tuned for more updates and feel free to follow us on Twitter.

It’s almost September and “summer’s almost gone” - thank you Jim Morrison for consistently coming to mind when August comes around. July flew by as usual - busy and productive with many new opportunities for Filter Box Media. Laura and I have had the opportunity to attend some really great concerts and meet some really great people. Here’s a recap of some of the highlights:

Paul McCartney in Quebec City

On the weekend of July 19-20th, myself (Massimo) and a few close friends made the trek up to Quebec City from Montreal to celebrate Quebec’s 400th birthday and witness a performance by legend Paul McCartney. The whole experience felt more like a pilgrimage than anything else. Needless to say I am a fan of Paul McCartney and of The Beatles - the first album I can remember playing on my turntable back in the early 80’s was an extremely used Sgt. Pepper album. The entire weekend was an amazing experience and truly something I will remember forever, the wait in line, the heat, the friends, the music and the audience - all 250,000 of them! Here are some videos that will sum up what the experience felt like.

Radiohead - Parc Jean Drapeau

Music trendsetters Radiohead returned to Montreal to play in front of a packed Parc Jean Drapeau. 35,000 absolutely soaked fans enjoyed what was can be called my favorite Radiohead concert thus far. I’ve seen them 4 times already and every time I’m always impressed with the way they have grown and evolved as a band. They are a prime example of how being creative and trying new things in the music industry is a must nowadays. It poured intensely shortly before Radiohead took the stage but that made it all the more appropriate with a rainbow forming over Parc Jean Drapeau - a suitable touch for their In Rainbows focused set list.

Osheaga

Year three for Osheaga proved to be another great year! I (Laura) was able to attend last year’s festival and was blown away by the amazing line-up including memorable performances from Damien Rice, M.I.A, Interpol, Paolo Nutini, Bloc Party, Feist, Stars, and so many more. This year had less acts but nonetheless many memorable experiences. Here are my personal highlights of this year’s festival of the acts I was able to see.

Day 1

Sleepercar: A last minute addition to the line-up due to Eddy Grant’s cancellation. These guys opened for City & Colour this past June in Montreal and put on a great performance. Their Osheaga performance was very good but not as memorable as their Theatre St. Denis performance due mainly to the lack of sound quality that comes from outdoor concerts. This alternative-country band is lead by Jim Ward who is also the singer of Sparta and ex-guitarist of At the Drive In. Check out the song Wednesday Night.

N.E.R.D: The crowd was pretty annoyed with the 20 minute delay, but when Pharrell, Shay and Chad came out on stage beaming with energy, they got the party started for the first time on Day 1. Soon after they began performing they grabbed twins Seena and Joshua up on stage from the crowd. They happened to be in the front of the crowd surrounded by boring people so their enthusiasm for N.E.R.D was quickly noticed by Pharrell and he told them to join him on stage. Being in the crowd myself I was thrilled for the two boys who were not shy at all, jumping all over the stage and singing every word right in Pharrell’s face as if they were part of the band. It was amazing, and even more amazing was when they started calling up girls on stage. I was one of the lucky ones to get up there and I now know why musicians become musicians. The energy up on that stage in front of thousands of people is intense. Overall N.E.R.D’s performance was killer; everyone was talking about it for the rest of the day.

Iggy & The Stooges: This guy is crazy! I saw and heard this performance from a distance due to the huge crowd but that man cannot be 61! Insane! Bravo to him and the band for still kicking ass and getting the crowd going.

The Killers: The lyrics “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” was sung repeatedly by thousands of people in the crowd from the song “All these things that I’ve done”. That song was probably stuck in everyone’s head all weekend. Great performance.

Day 2

Jamie Lidell:

I was blown away! Everyone go listen to this guy right now and catch a live performance whenever you can. (I just found out he’s coming to Montreal on October 10^th at Le National) What an amazing way to start Day 2. I want to send a big thank you to T’Cha Dunlevy of the Montreal Gazette for warning everyone in advance to not sleep in and check him out. Lidell and his band’s wacky stage presence and bizarre attire were the perfect combination for their funky sound. Loved it!

The Kills : Another amazing performance. I’ve only heard a few of their songs previously but they definitely got me hooked now. Watching The Kills perform was like being transported back to a time when Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix would have headlined the festival. There was this creepy intensity between duo Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince that drew me in to their world. Mosshart’s deep stare was almost hypnotizing as she glared to her partner and the crowd.

MGMT:

I love these guys half of the time. I absolutely love half of their album Oracular Spectacular, the other half is ok. That’s how I felt about their performance at Osheaga. They started off really tame and boring as the duo was accompanied by their touring band members on stage but halfway during the set, most of the band left the stage to leave the official members Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden to do what they do best. The performance finally came alive as the duo danced around while the crowd went nuts.

CSS : These Brazilians know how to stand out. Lead singer Lovefoxxx came out looking like a Fruit of the Loom grape and then stripped down into a colorful leotard jumpsuit. The performance was fun and the young crowd was loving it.

Stay tuned for a busy month ahead, more news coming soon - stay updated by subscribing to our blog.

Since our last blog post a lot has happened - so much so that we haven’t had a chance to write about it! Safe to say, June has been a very good month for us. Many new and exciting opportunities and experiences have come our way and we would like to share them with you.

Musique Plus

With the airing of October Sky’s music video on June 6th on Musique Plus we witnessed an overwhelming response from fans and listeners and shortly thereafter we launched the October Sky Fan Space, a place for fans and friends to interact with the band. We recently went along with October Sky to a live interview they had at Musique Plus and had a great experience there.

Audio

June also marked an expansion of services for Filter Box Media. Through a partnership with Montreal musician and producer Jeremy Proville of acclaimed indie band Heroes & Villains, we now offer audio pre and post production to our list of services. We are really excited about this partnership and are looking forward to a great working relationship with Jeremy. Check out Jeremy’s profile on myspace to learn more about him and his work, past and present.

Oh Canada

Yesterday marked Canada’s 141st birthday and Filter Box Media celebrated with Canada at the Montreal Jazz Festival. At the middle of the St. Urbain and St. Catherine intersection, over one block away from the stage and in the middle of over 100,000 people we had the chance to take part in what was dubbed as the return of Bran Van 3000. In the company of close friends and countless Montrealers we enjoyed the show and wrapped up Canada Day in style. If you missed the show you can watch the whole concert here.

The Future

What does it hold for Filter Box Media? With another addition to our team on the horizon and a whole bunch of new and exciting projects in the works - the future looks sweet! We’ll keep you posted and invite you to stay connected with us by subscribing to our blog.

On tonight’s episode of ‘Plus sur Commande’ on Musique Plus, October Sky’s music video ‘Hit the Ground’ reached the #4 spot of the show’s top 5 most requested videos.

This milestone for this Montreal band could not have been any sweeter, having topped Madonna and Justin Timberlake’s video for their song ‘4 Minutes’.

‘Hit the Ground‘ is the first single and music video off October Sky’s full-length album ‘Hell Isn’t My Home’, scheduled for release in stores this September.

The band recently posted two new live videos of their recent packed show at the Dell’Arte in Montreal.

You can continue to request October Sky on Musique Plus here.