Tagged: music

We don't aim to be music critics or experts at Still Life, but we know what we like to hear, we go to concerts of our friends and favourites and we buy the albums we know we need when they're released. With the help of the new and expanded Ditch Records & CDs location up on Fort Street we were able to add to our vinyl collection at the stores better than ever in 2011. Here is a recap of some of our favourite releases this year, albums you very likely heard playing on loop at the stores or stripped for parts, carefully crafted into seasonal playlists.

Despite expanding into two locations for the last half of 2011, plenty of albums found their way onto the iPods and record players at both Still Life For Him & For Her. It was easy to work through an entire day before realizing we'd been listening to albums like Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Destroyer - Kaputt and James Blake - James Blake on repeat for eight hours. Other albums including M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Youth Lagoon - The Year Of Hibernation, Washed Out - Within And Without and Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming may not have got to "full-day re-play" status, but made our stores feel like home as soon as the first note came through the speakers.

Albums For Him: The fun of having a menswear specific location to start the AW11 season with was not lost on our music choices. Albums like Dirty Beaches - Badlands, Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On, King Krule - The Noose Of Jah City and Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo got repeat listens within the walls at 551 Johnson Street while maybe not quite as many spins at Still Life For Her across the street. Turning up the volume on classic rock, soul and hip hop staples also helped make the Still Life For Him space feel a little more comfortable for our guys.

Albums For Her: A new store with a new feel meant new music to get our ladies comfortable in the newly opened Still Life For Her back in August. While there were plenty of crossover hits at both locations, albums like Adele - 21, Feist - Metals, Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes, tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l and even Beyonce - 4 had our some of our new staff at Still Life For Her setting the mood themselves in new location with their favourite albums.

After Hours Jams: One thing a passerby may notice about Still Life For Him & For Her if you happen to walk by at 9:30PM on a Thursday night is that the music coming from the store is generally decidedly different (and louder) than what you heard earlier in the afternoon at the store. If a crew of staff was at the shop receiving product or pricing goods this year you were fairly likely to hear something from Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne whereas depending on the specific combination of staff working late you'd be more likely to hear something from Lana Del Rey - Video Games EP, A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP or Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra blasting through the windows. Not albums we'd necessarily play throughout the day, but definitely a few tracks from these albums made their way onto our playlists.

Lastly, a huge shoutout to our friends & family that worked so tirelessly to put together another absolutely phenomenal event in Rifflandia IV this year! So many amazing shows, so many of our close friends, and such fantastic venues! We can't wait to be kitted up in our Tretorns and Native Boots again next September stomping around the Lounge at Royal Athletic Park!

Have a Safe and Happy New Year Victoria! Lots of love from the crew at Still Life For Him & For Her! See you in 2012!

Rifflandia No. 2 grew considerably with 2500 wristbands on the scene. Market Square was added as a large outdoor venue and the weather was glorious! Hey Rosetta!, Mother Mother, Tegan And Sara and Longwalkshortdock and many others came to play and graced the pages of the inaugural Rifflandia Magazine. Wristband Connect expanded to over 50 participating businesses and Phillips' Rifflandabrau... Oh Rifflandabrau... Was brewed and drank dry throughout the city.

Rifflandia No. 3 was the charm. Growing again the festival expanded to over 3500 wristbanded Rifflandians. Men Without Hats reunited after 20 years for an epic performance at the Metro Theatre. Aesop Rock, JFK, The Gaslamp Killer, Gord Downie and Melissa Auf Der Maur amongst many others (165 artists in total) performed on 11 festival stages. Another batch of Rifflandabrau and another festival magazine was absorbed by fans. Wristband wearers were able to enter to win amazing things like pizza parties and helicopter rides through Rifflandia's city wide treasure hunt called Win!Landia!

And so we arrive at Rifflandia No. 4. Royal Athletic Park has become home base of Rifflandia operations with the park set up with two stages, food and beverage tents, entertainment, costumes, and more music than Victoria knows what to do with. RifflandiaTV is up and running after a strong debut at Rifflandia No. 3 and the city once again opens its arms to bands like Broken Social Scene, City And Colour, Cold War Kids, De La Soul, Blackalicious, J Mascis and Ra Ra Riot.

Still Life For Him & For Her are once again proud supporters of Rifflandia - wristband wearers can get hooked up with a handsome 15% Wristband Connect discount all weekend long, and we're even hosting a special secret RifflandiaTV live performance in store on Sunday, September 25 at 12 noon (hint: the name of the performer(s) is in the above paragraph...). We hooked up with RifflandiaTV hosts Coral Osborne and Chris Vickers this week to get them outfitted in proper Rifflandia attire, watch below and have a fantastic Rifflandia weekend!

On Her: Thoroughcraft Black Leather Boots, La Fee Verte Leather/Stretch leggings (not Muttonhead as Jordan stated), La Fee Verte Galaxy Print Tank, Only Hearts Lace Bralette & Fred Perry Cashmere Blend Cardigan.

On Him: Thoroughcraft Navy Leather Moc Boots, Nudie Thin Finn Jeans, Brixton Prine Tee, Ben Sherman Tonal Plaid Shirt, Ben Sherman Knit Zip Sweater.

now that two-thousand ten has come and gone all of us at still life would like thanks everyone who made this year so enjoyable and wish you all a safe & happy new year! we had a lot of fun in the store with everyone, and always enjoyed popping out to shows around town and running into all our still life friends & extended family. we saw some incredible acts at rifflandia 3 (dear ariel pink, are you o.k.?) and both the national and the arcade fire shows in vancouver were amazzzing. though we didn't catch the alexisonfire show, miriam made fast friends with dallas green here at the store (helping him into a pair of nudie tube kellys) and enjoyed a variety of post-show drinks over at smiths pub. and we can't forget the simply spectacular local boy aaron bergunder and his dreamboat cd release party at sugar last month for his new album buddies (available at ditch records).

speaking of our dear friends at ditch records - we'll be sad to lose them as a johnson street neighbour, but thrilled to help them ring in the new year with a relocation to a beautiful new (bigger) space on fort street. read the blurb in the times colonist here if you're still somehow unaware of their new space. now while we couldn't possibly keep up with the year in music the way the guys & girls at ditch can, we've compiled a quick list of some of our favorite records of 2010 that you probably heard playing at still life throughout the year:

kanye west - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, dreamboat - buddies, beach house - teen dream, vampire weekend - contra, ariel pink's haunted graffiti - before today, arcade fire - the suburbs, m.i.a. - maya, hot chip - one life stand, four tet - there is love in you, ray lamontagne & the pariah dogs - god willin' and the creek don't rise, the national - high violet, the tallest man on earth - the wild hunt, best coast - crazy for you, belle & sebastian - write about love

again, thank you so much to all of our close friends & still life family. you're all fantastic, made 2010 incredible, and we'll see you soon in 2011!

hot on the heels of the ultra-successful inaugural johnson street festival comes another reason to love the end of summer: RIFFLANDIA 3!!!

the best $65 you can spend in september (back to school textbooks puhleeease) will get you an all access wristband to the 157 artists performing at the third annual rifflandia festival in victoria. still life boutique is proud to once again sponsor one of the only victoria music festivals with any staying power, and this year looks to be the best yet. the rifflandia crew covers all their bases by offering a stunning rifflandia festival guide (available for free at still life!), a once-a-year rifflandabrau from phillips brewery, their wristband connect program (that gets you killer discounts at all participating stores, including still life!) and most of all, the music!

we're happy to help make this event happen for the third year in a row, we can already feel the excitement building as artists start to pop into victoria to check out their venues and plan their concert circuit. last year we had hot hot heat, jets overhead, k-os, tegan & sara and heaps of other local musicians stop through the shop to say hi, so don't be a stranger come the third week of september when downtown transforms itself into rifflandia, bc.

this weekend is the us memorial day long weekend which means... sasquatch music festival 2010!

none of the still life staff will be able to make it to the gorge this year to ensure all our friends & family are outfitted appropriately for the unruly sasquatch weather. they're expecting some muggy rainy days which means dirty, messy, grubby music fans going bananas for lcd soundsystem, pavement, patrick watson, the national, vampire weekend, the xx, camera obscura, dr dog, band of horses and the insane amount of other incredible acts.

in honour of the return of the sasquatch music festival, still life will be offering 15% off all regular priced items and 25% off all mens & womens outerwear with your sasquatch ticket from now until 8pm friday night!

we're thinking sasquatch essentials include: fjallraven kanken bags, tretorn skerry boots, native shoes, ray-ban sunglasses, dunderdon hoodies & spiewak coats. we're excited to kit you all out in style for the festival, so come down and let us know who you're excited to see and grab some new pieces.

just two blocks up johnson street from still life lives ditch records & cds. everyone at victoria's favorite independent new & used record store is fantastic, and our friend kellen took kimmy for a tour yesterday and she came back with an armful of vinyl for the store. over the years our record player/vinyl collection at still life has managed to garner almost as much attention as the clothes, and for us there's no better way to listen to our favorite albums at work than on vinyl.

thanks to ditch's huge selection and kellen's uncanny ability to fulfill the modern audiophile's needs, kimmy ended up with a great selection of new albums for still life:

• vampire weekend contra
• midlake the courage of others
• big star #1 record
• hot chip one life stand
• beach house teen dream
• yeah yeah yeah's it's blitz
• lcd soundsystem sounds of silver
• four tet there is love in you
• rem murmur
• julian casablancas phrazes for the young
• camera obscura let's get out of this country

we have a healthy record collection here at still life, and we love when our favorite musicians come by victoria. this year we were lucky enough to catch shows by the friendly and talented cass mccombs and band of horses at the royal theatre (then at smiths & at ferris'!), flying lotus workshopped and lit up element and we kicked off rifflandia 2009 at the alix goolden hall at the hauntingly beautiful timber timbre show and were blown away by the always terrific beach house. and great shows from great acts in our fine city usually result in vinyl record purchases up the road at ditch records.

earlier this month our friends at ditch compiled their annual year end list with a number of our personal favorites finishing with top spots. as the year wraps up we invite everyone to come by the store and let us know what we slept on this year so we can be sure to listen to it hard during the long winter months ahead. bring in some vinyl for us to testdrive or hook your fully loaded ipod up to a pair of wesc headphones and help us discover some new music for the new decade.

some of our most played albums at still life in 2009: edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros, phoenix wolfgang amadeus phoenix, neon indian psychic chasms, dirty projectors bitte orca, camera obscura my maudlin career, julian casablacas phrazes for the young, pink mountaintops outside love, the xx xx, karen o & the kids - where the wild things are, jay z the blueprint 3, patrick watson wooden arms, timber timbre timber timbre, monsters of folk monsters of folk, iron & wine around the well, jj n° 2.

thanks to everyone for an amazing 2009, have a safe and happy new year and we'll see you in 2010!