First and foremost- there is now a vancouver_em group on yahoo. Please join to receive updates in your inbox! :)
If you are interested in playing a show here- check out geekmusic.
On to the upcoming shows... (whoa, there's lots!)
May 30- Caribou (fka Manitoba), Junior Boys, The Russian Futurists - Richard's on Richards. The last 2 times I've seen Dan Snaith et al it has been incredible, so there is no way I would miss this. Plus Junior Boys- I was sad because I had missed them opening for Mouse on Mars, now I am happy because I will get to see them. Russian Futurists has a cool name, that is all I know.
June 2- Boom Bip, The Fog- The Media Club. Saw Boom Bip open awhile back for Fourtet- thought he was WAY better. Dunno much of anything about The Fog.
June 3- Si-Cut.db, Tomas Jirku , Souns- The Jewel of India. SiCut.db visits from London with his bubby glitches, Tomas Jirku will get some toes tappin with his microhouse clicks, and Souns' sounds will soothe.
June 7- Out Hud- The Media Club. I don't really actually know their music, but I heard their last show was amazing, and I saw !!! last year and the show was so damn good- soI promised myself I would see Outhud next time they hit town.
June 8- Meat Beat Manifesto- Richard's on Richards. Last time Jack Dangers played here, it was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY good. So yeah, I think this will be.
June 25- Amon Tobin- The Commodore. Most likely a DJ set using Final Scratch, but he plays the dopest music, so it will be radtastic. Part of the Jazz Fest.
June 27- Bonobo, Diplo- The Commodore. Can't say I'm a famn of Bonobo, but it's pleasant. Diplo was amazing when he recently played with MIA, this set should be killer. Part of the Jazz Fest.
June 29- The Herbaliser- The Commodore. Giant band, usually lots of funny smoke in the air. Part of the Jazz Fest.
July 9- Let's Go Outside, Effacer, Souns- Blim. Ambient. Perfect for chilling out after a hot summer day.
Aug 13- Knifehandchop, Kid 606, Eats Tapes- The Brickyard. Uh oh. I sense a dance dance party. I am EXTREMELY stoked for this.
Sept 10- The Hacker - The Waldorf. Strange venue for the electro stylings of the Hacker, should be good, I expect to see lots of people from Main Street. ;)
this is another list of shows by a guy with good taste- some things he lists I don't and vice versa.
Weekends (and sometimes not) at BLIM- sometimes can get "interesting" but you can bet it won't be average. Check the site, mostly it's VERY good.
Tuesdays at the Lotus- Automatic- very good drum n' bass.
Wednesdays at the Lotus-Big Trouble- A very strange mix of music, but it's fun.
Every 2nd Thursday at Lick- Ouy KcuF- TECHNO. the real, good kind.
Every 1st and 3rd Friday at SoMA- Various electronic acts. It's very good, nice variation in the styles so you're never quite sure what it will be. And it's by donation, so that's good too.
Fridays at The Arch - Transmit. Thump Thump. Good old skool sounding techno.
Saturdays (1st and 3rd ones only) at the Upstage Lounge- Artificial Intelligence- wicked drum n bass, multiple turntables, nice view.
Sundays at the Purple Onion- thank god for the goths- there is some decent EDM & such sometimes...
The last Sunday of the month at the Lotus- Relick- RAGGA JUNGLE! This night is very, very, very fun. And it makes it very hard to go to work the next day. Ow.
Really, the clubs here pretty much suck (especially on the weekends) unless you like house.
an overview of all (at least somewhat mainstream) Vancouver has
to offer can be found at clubvibes.
Other more obscure resources are Vancouver
New Music, Oscillations and Hardmusic.
Also check out the vancouver_em and microvan groups on Yahoo.
Yes, we have amazing sushi. My favourite place is Kitto on Granville, but pretty much all of them are good. If you have the cash- Tojo's on Broadway is absolutely amazing. Beyond description. And VERY expensive. If you want strange sushi concoctions (as well as traditional) then try The Clubhouse (on W. 2nd) or The Octopus's Garden (on Cornwall)
| Downtown: | ||||
| DV8 | Hands down my favourite for food, atmosphere & music. (Downtown) | |||
| The Sugar Refinery | RIP. :( | |||
| Subeez | Usually good music- they "Zubefy" their food sometimes but not quite giving you exactly what was on the menu, but it's still good and the service is friendly. (Downtown) | |||
| Cafe S'il Vous Plait | The music is whatever is on the radio- but the food is awesome!!! I've being going here on and off for 10 years and althought the prices have gone up a bit, the portions and service and quality have remained super-dooper. (Downtown) | |||
| SoMA | Great coffee shop, rad magazines, lots of nerds on laptops. | |||
| Alibi Room | Really good fancy food, sometimes ok music, sometimes not- on weekends it can get very filmy & pretentious. (Gastown) | |||
| Jupiter | Nice atmosphere and decent food, but usually not so good music (West End) | |||
| Yaletown Brewery | Super bad music- but cheap freshly brewed beer & half price pizza on Sundays! (Yaletown) | |||
| Zin | Uber-stylish hotel lounge. Good expensive food. (Downtown) | |||
| Commercial Drive: | ||||
| Yogi | Non-traditional vegetarian Indian food. Usually cool music (a la Talvin Singh). Try the Sassy Lhassi. | |||
| Waazubee | Pretty much the same as Subeez but nicer people and more laid-back. | |||
| Clove | I've only been there once but it was really cool. I want to go again. | |||
| Main & Cambie Streets: | ||||
| The Foundation | Excellent, excellent food- excellent atmosphere...this place is one of my favourites. | |||
| The Whip | Really good food & pretty good music. Sometimes they have a philosopher's cafe which you may or may not want to avoid. Near Video-In which is usually a good place for innovative music/video performances. | |||
| The Public | Sometimes it's open, sometimes it's not. When it is- they have great food and a nice vibe, and often the music is VERY good. | |||
| The Reef | Yummmmmmmmm. Caribbean style food. Good mojitos. Nice patio. Sweet. |
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| Locus | Good food & nice folks, I actually don't even know if they play music.... | |||
| Tomato | Yummy eats & decent music (usually) | |||
| Monsoon | Stylish & fantastic. I don't remember the music. Can get a bit trendoid but that's Vancouver. | |||
| Bo-Kon | Traditional Buddhist food (all vegetarian) | |||
| Mongolie Grill | You pick the ingredients & make it as spicy as you want, they grill it for you. Bad music. | |||
| Elsewhere: | ||||
| Annapurna | Traditional vegetarian Indian food. Mmmmmm...... (West 4th) | |||
| Ouisi | Cajun with a west coast twist. Damn good but can get pricey. No music. (South Granville) |
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| The Banana Leaf | Malaysian food. Very good. What got me one time though was when they played Ulrich Schnauss...... | |||
Scratch
Records- An excellent collection of all types of music.... great for online
shopping too (Downtown)
Otis Music- Nice people
with lots of cool vinyl and CD's (Downtown/ West End)
Boomtown- owned by the same people as Otis, I don't go there too much but I
know they have good stuff (and clothes too) (Downtown)
Zulu Records- good
selection but some attitude
Active
Pass- decent selection, nice staff.
Highlife- more
folky but they throw in the odd surprise (Commercial Drive)
On deck- Club fare, but a good selecrtion of drum
n bass (Downtown)
I've become an online shopper for music the last few months- the best 2 in this
country are scratchrecords.com and HMV.com. If they don't have what you want
there's always warprecords.com, roughtrade.com, smallfish.co.uk, bentcrayon.com
and forcedexposure.cm
Clothes/
other things:
Obstruction- cool space raver clothes and nice people (Downtown/ West End)
Global Atomic Design-
fantastic clothes but not cheap (Yaletown)
Dream- same as above (girls only) (Downtown/ Gastown)
Motherland-
nifty locally designed stuff and not too bad on prices considering that it's
not mass-produced... (Main Street)
Pleasant Girl- Motherland's
all girl branch. Nice stuff, cool jewelry too.(Main
Street)
Smoking Lily- gorgeous silkscreened stuff. Locally made. (Main Street)
Twigg & Hottie- Trendy
locally made stuff. (girls only). (Main
Street)
Modrobes- sweet fleece & such (Downtown)
Mod to Modern- cool clothes & super 60's/70's furniture (Main Street)
Intra-Venus- the best
shoes in town & some sweet clothes (Yaletown)
Artificial-
They started with towels but now they have lots of toys and some comfy clothes
(Main Street)
Dadabase- sweet clothes,
excellent art gallery. (Main Street)
Magpie Books
& Magazines- I think they have almost everything (Commercial Drive)
Downtown- (the main part that nobody has named otherwise..yet)- This is pretty much the area around the Vancouver Art Gallery- Granville and Robson Streets are the two main ones. There is a lot to buy (and that's about all there is to do unless you're hungry too)- Pacific Centre Mall is here as well as many of the bigger shops. If you walk in any direction but east you will hit the water eventually.
Yaletown- Southeast of central downtown.. It used to be a pretty industrial neighbourhood until recently- now it has lots of expensive trendy shops and expensive trendy lofts in the refurbished warehouses. It's not too bad, but don't even bother if you son't have a bit' o cash.
The West End- West of central downtown. The home to English Bay and Stanley Park. A really nice area- if you're homophobic though don't go, it's also the gay neigborhood.
Gastown- North east of central downtown. The most touristy area in Downtown, it is also the oldest (just over a big 100 years- everything burned down in 1886). It is worth a look, some of the buildings are really nice. Also home to most of the good clubs. Be careful though, it's really close to the Downtown Eastside- not a good place to be. Avoid the Main & Hastings area pretty much all the time (especially at night- you'll know pretty fast if you've strayed)
Chinatown- East of central downtown. Apparently the 2nd biggest one in North America (1st is San Francisco). Lots of cool stuff. This is also really close to the bad parts, so be aware (esp. at night once again). Mmmmm.... egg tarts with nutmeg. There is one store with cool big robots in the back. Dr. Sun-Yat Sen garden is pretty.
Main & Cambie Streets- Main is not very good if you're still in the downtown area (except in Chinatown), but once you head south (away from the water) and start hitting the numbered blocks things will change. The street goes a long, long way and evolves a few times- from restaurants to cool shops and antique stores to residential houses and at one point it becomes the middle of the Punjabi Market (at about 49th)- awesome for fabric and food. Cambie Street has some wicked restaurmnts but it's mostly residential so I lump it in with Main a lot (they are about 5 blocks from each other and run parallel). Very, trendy- think neon earrings and hipster beards and you're dead on. It can get annoying, so consider yourself warned. Stiil, one of the best 'hoods.
Commercial Drive- Sort of the hippie & student 'hood, but it's also got it's fair share of yuppies and old-school Italians. There is a large South American contingent too. This is the place for the best coffee. Another one of the best 'hoods.
South Granville- The further South you go the richer it gets (to a point at least). Between Broadway and 20th is where most of the stuff is. It's not cheap though (Martha Stewart would be at home here).
Kitsilano- This used to be the hippie & student hood until it got taken over by the yuppies. It is an amusing place, lots of very appearance-conscious folks. Not too poor either. However, along 4th there are some great places to buy snowboards (by Burrard), music and other things. 5th Ave Cinemas is THE place for non-mainstream movies (unless you want really obscure and then I'd go to the Pacific Cinemateque). The planetarium is in Kits as well as the buff people beaches (it gets mellower the more west you go towards UBC). Broadway has nice places too.
Commercial Drive (between 3rd and Venables with the occasional
exception)- make sure you buy some coffee (and NOT from Starbucks)
Main Street- (7th right up to 27th)- lotsa little places hidden between the
antique stores
Downtown:-
Robson is good for watching hipper-than-everyone people stroll/ cruise
The seawall- very crowded in the summer, but pretty all the time- it goes around
Stanley Park but you can also follow it to Science World & along the other
side of False Creek
Granville Island- open air market with artsian studios and stuff. It's usually
busy but is a nice walk. Plus it's close to West 4th which is snowboard shop
heaven.
Parks &such
Stanley Park- lots of trails in the park - great paths surrunding by amazing
trees and the squirrels are ridiculously tame. You will come across the occasional
(human) resident of the park, but they are nice (at least all the ones I've
seen)
The UBC endowment lands- Kind of similiar the Stanley park- lots of trails-
only one body been found there that I know of :P
Golden Ears Park- you have to drive past Maple Ridge (about 1.5 hours) but it
is fookin' amazing.
The Chief - this requires a drive to Squamish (almost) but if you can hike to
the top (or climb if you're so inclined) the views are supercool. Shannon Falls
(in the same area) is nice too. And if you want to go farther, Whistler is only
another 1.5 hours...
Cypress Mountain-
Not only the best local snowboard/ski mountain, but it also has an amazing viewpoint
that looks onto the whole city.