February 8, 2008
Alexisonfire Know Their Action Films
Yes, it's kind of cool to hate on Alexisonfire once you've reached puberty. And no, Crisis, their last record, wasn't filled with delightfully twee indie pop, but pretty much every person who reviewed it dug it like whoa. And the fact remains that as played out as "screamo" gets, these guys have been doing it since long before downtuning and shouting put you on the fast track to rock 'n' roll success. They've bucked trends like awesome make-up and wickedly heavy breakdowns. They paid their dues in halls across this country about a blagillion times, and now they're effing huge. Good on 'em.
While the band technically hails from beautiful St. Catherines, they still make a habit of having an annual holiday show (or, in 2006's case, shows) in/around Toronto. This year's gig was snowed out, and while it was never technically cancelled, there were a few thousand unused tickets floating around. So, being the fine gentlemen that they are, a make-up show was booked at Toronto's Sound Academy, a venue that is way too far but actually sounds awesome. Before heading off to MTV or something to be famous, the band took some time to talk about action movies. Because action movies are awesome.
Video by Exclaim!TV/Sam Sutherland.
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All this seems to be is re-purposing from the Exclaim site, and maybe the fourth or fifth time that the writer, who is also an Exclaim editor, has taken content from his magazine and posted it here. It's not exclusive to Torontoist and seems to be produced without Torontoist, its content, or its readers in mind.
I understand Torontoist writers come from different fields (Green Party, Exclaim, etc) but I can't help but think this is a blatant case of promotion - both self and corporate.
Looking at the Exclaim site, there doesn't seem to be any cross-posting or cross-promotion. So I have to ask: Where's the value in these Exclaim posts?
Joshua: Hey! I can see where you're coming from. You will notice that, for one, no attempt has been made to hide the fact that these videos were produced by myself, the author of the post, for another party. That would be sneaky. Secondly, it's not as if every video made for Exclaim! has found its way to Torontoist. You can navigate over to the magazine's website to see that for yourself. And finally, this was discussed with the editors of Torontoist prior to posting; I knew I'd be making a few Toronto-related videos that I'd want to share, but didn't want to come across as "blatantly promoting" anything beyond good music and good times.
"Sound Academy" is just a reworked docks. count me out.