Well I Wonder ...

Back in the day....

2006-05-30T19:35:00.000-04:00

The day that U2's Zoopropa album came out is kind of a landmark for me. Not because it was such an amazing album - which even most fans agree it wasn't. Not because some amazing cultural or personal or even musical thing happened on that day - which it didn't as far as I can remember. The only reason I find that day as a landmark is because I taped a cassette that day - well two cassettes. These cassettes I taped off the radio and entitled them Zooropa - Interference. To me they serve as a roadsign of what the lush musical terrain was like back then and leave me shaking my head as to where the music industry stopped signing talented artists and began feeding us carbon copy heavy crap.

I woke up that morning and heard the radio announcers on the CFNY morning show (likely Humble and Fred) saying that the station would be playing one track from the new U2 album every hour that day. Being young and irresponsible I thought it would be cool to skip work and just tape stuff all day - not just the new U2 material but everything I liked in between too. I'm not sure all of the titles are right because it was a long time ago and I was just learning about a lot of these bands but here's most of the playlist that I taped that day:

Tape I

side A

Payolas - Eyes of A Stranger
U2 - Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
Waterboys - Return of Pan
the Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
Bare Naked Ladies - McDonalds Girl (extremely rare song not found on any album)
Sun 60 - Mary X-Mas
Morrissey - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
Peter Gabriel - Secret Life
Tears For Fears - Break It Down Again
Big Audio Dynamite II - the Globe
U2 - Zooropa

side B

Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
U2 - Baby Face
All Good Children - Ammunition
U2 - Dirty Day
the Cult - the Witch
National Velvet - 68 Hours
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Monitor
U2 feat. Johnny Cash - the Wanderer
Japan - Adolescent Sex
Bauhaus - Kick In The Eye
The Assembly - Never Never
The Motors - Airport

Tape II

Side A

Billy Bragg - Great Leap Forward
Adorable - Sunshine Smile (first time I'd ever heard them)
Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - Relax, You Will Think You Are A Chicken
U2 - Stay( Faraway So Close)
Slowdive - Allison (first time I'd heard them too)
New Order - Ruined in a Day
U2 - The First Time
Radiohead - You
Radiohead - Prove Yourself ( come to think of it - it's quite possible Radiohead's first album was released on this date as well cuz I'm pretty sure this was a mini sampler of the album)
Sunscream - Love U More
Bjork - Human Behavior
U2 - Some Days Are Better Than Others
the Wild Strawberries - The Way It Goes

side B

Gary Numan - Cars
Grapes of Wrath - What Was Going Thru My Head
the Waltons - Sunshine?
13 Engines - More
New Fast Automatic Daffodils - It's Not What You Know
U2 - Lemon
Rheostatics - Soul Glue
Cranberries - Dreams (I swear it's still the only Cranberries song worth listening to)
Alice In Chains - Cradlesnatch
and a bunch of really cool unknown shoegaze stuff tagged on the end

So what's the big deal? It was all on the radio on the same day.
I guarantee with the state that the radio and music industry has been in that you could never assemble so many good bands or tunes in one day on the radio. It would probably take at least a week of constant listening to amount to anything near that quality of tunes not to mention the diversity of styles. Even the whole retro and post punk sound that's out now doesn't provide the diversity of sound we once had. The musical terrain is loads better now than it was a few years back I'll give it that much but it will be a long while before it becomes as rich and vibrant as it was then....

Is She Weird?

2006-03-17T02:19:00.000-05:00

Hello hello,
just to let you know...
I'm still alive -
Still alive inside
but nothing is really clear...
is it ever?

Not trying to be clever its just the strange state I'm in
To find just the right words to say
Hello
To all of you after so long a leave of absence.

The world has spun a few times around,
And it's quite a bit colder,
I'm truly feeling older,
and like the songsmith from the Trashcan once said-
Not wise just worried...

Picking up pieces is hard to do
Whether its love, livelihood, or life in general
Here's to hoping the parts all fit -
And when it's over,
Making sense of it is easier
Than wondering where it all went wrong
And the shattered dreams of yesterday
Yeild to the challenges of today
and the triumphs of tomorrow...

Feck that's cheesy but I mean every word...

The High Dials win over Brantford

2005-10-02T22:25:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Our Time Is Coming Soon - The High Dials

On this Friday past, I had the privalege to go to The Ford Plant's presentation of the Stills with openers The High Dials. Seeing as I'm not totally familiar with where all the streets are in Brantford I finally found the place after about twenty minutes of aimless driving thinking the show would have already started. What is this Ford Plant you might ask? (www.thefordplant.ca) Well on the corner of King and Coulbourn is this former store front that now serves as a stage interestingly making the featured bands also viewable from the outside. The whole place is about as big as a fair sized livingroom making for one of the most intimate venues I've been to yet. With capacity set at or around one hundred bodies even the bands were astonished at its cozy confines.

The show got off to a late start seeing as the Dials were heading to Manchester to play in a music festival the next day and still hadn't made flight arrangements. After a few brief apologies they set to work and kicked off thier show with a couple of decent tunes from thier 60s inspired first album A New Devotion. Mind you, it was thier soaring vocal harmonies led by a haggled looking Trevor Anderson and lush guitarlines compliments of Robbie MacArthur that we're soon winning the crowd over once thier brilliant new material came out though.

War of The Wakening Phantoms is easily one of my favourite albums this year; musically rich and undeniably well written, it features a diverse range of influences - and live, it did not disappoint. As the night went on they got stronger and stronger - they knocked off excellent versions of The Holy Ground, and Sick of the Old Fire before wowing the crowd with an energetic rendition of Our Time Is Coming Soon - nailing the mesmerizing buildup and furious climax found on the album version. To top that off bassist Rishi Dhir relinquished his duties to MacArthur only to play the most inspired Sitar accompaniment I've ever seen; taking the crowd on a wild ride of a version of the instrumental Things Are Getting Better from thier first album, clocking in at almost ten minutes. With echoes of more hook filled bands bands such as the Stone Roses, Ride and the Boo Radleys not to mention the bits and pieces of the whole 60's generation found throughout thier set, the finale was definitely the funnest, and most groove laden piece played by either band, inciting the crowd into clapping, stomping and bobbing along throughout the whole thing.

The band seemingly satisfied with thier effort afterward signed cds and openly engaged in conversation with freshly minted fans. A reasonable ending to thier tour of Ontario before heading across the pond for ten days, and, upon thier return, recording the first video for the new album likely to be The Holy Ground. The possibility exists that they may return again later this year in another short tour upon the video's completion. It would be well worth it to see them again should this come to fruition. Untill then, here's to hoping that people everywhere get turned on to the Dials infectious sound of melody driven music.

Top 31 condensed version plus deleted scenes....

2005-10-02T21:00:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Memorize the City - The Organ

So.... I figured to make this a true fave list I would post it in simplified, unadulterated form and add just a few (hehe) of the honourable mentions at the end.

1. How Soon Is Now - The Smiths
2. Slide Away - The Verve
3. Over the Wall - Echo and the Bunnymen
4. Me and Guiliani Down By the Schoolyard - !!!
5. Svefn G Englar - Sigur Ros
6. Just Like Honey - the Jesus and Mary Chain
7. Best Man's Fall - the Trashcan Sinatras
8. Something I can Never Have - Nine Inch Nails
9. Second Skin - the Chameleons
10. A Day In The Life - The Beatles
11. Standing Here - The Stone Roses
12. Orpheus - David Sylvian
13. Little L - Jamiroquai
14. A Fast Driving Rave-Up With the Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes - The Dandy Warhols
15. Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
16. There She Goes - The La's
17. William It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths
18. Fragrant - Paul Oakley
19. The Promise - When In Rome
20. Pounding - The Doves
21. Higher than the Sun - Primal Scream
22. Toast - Streetband
23. Stop - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
24. Sunshine Smile - Adorable
25. Sensoria - Cabaret Voltaire
26. All My Friends Who Play Guitar - Starflyer 59
27. Teeth - The Prosaics
28. Walkman On - SSQ
29. Summer - Mogwai
30. Let It Flow - Spiritualized
31. A Forest / Forever (live) - The Cure

and the honourable mentions go to....

Joy Division - She's Lost Control, Hooverphonic - 2 Wickey, Slowdive - Alison or Blue Skied and Clear, Love and Rockets - Motorcycle and Yin Yang and the Flowerpot Man, Doves - There Goes the Fear, New Order - Vanishing Point, Paul Oakley - Be Lifted Up, Sianspheric - Nothing Stands, Depeche Mode - Clean or Halo, Dandy Warhols - Every Day Should Be a Holiday, Pulp - Pink Glove, Stone Roses - This Is The One, the Zombies - Time of the Season, Duran Duran - Freinds of Mine or Waiting for the Night Boat, Suede - To The Birds, Manic Street Preachers - La Tristesse Durera, Belle and Sebastien - Dirty Dream #2 and Seymour Stein, Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Girl From Ipanema, Orbital - Halcyon, KLF - What Time Is Love?, Killing Joke - Love Like Blood, Japan - Adolescent Sex and Quiet Life, the Timelords - Doctorin The Tardis, Interpol - Say Hello To The Angels and Not Even Jail, Magazine - The Light Pours Out Of Me, Gang Of 4 - To Hell With Poverty, Flesh For Lulu - I Go Crazy, Ride - Twisterella, Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning, Sonic Youth - Kool Thing and Superstar (breathtaking Carpenters Cover),The Clash - White Man In Hammersmith Palais, English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom, XTC - Makin Plans For Nigel, Psychadelic Furs - President Gas, and just about anything from the rest of the Smiths catalogue.

I know theres a lot, but any one of the honourables could have snuck in, and I really had to fight to get it down to 30....er 31. At any given time this will be different seeing as theres always some new band to discover, or an older one to recapture a warm place my heart. Perhaps I'll tell you about them along the way...

Keep yer Fingers Crossed

2005-09-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

listening to Inner Flight - Primal Scream

Okay this is the third time I'm writing some of these. The First time I lost everything I was checking the spelling on a name on Allmusic and came back and had lost everything. Last night the whole thing was done and I hit publish and it said error. I found out later that the system went down for maintainance during the very time I tried to publish it. So I'll try my best to make it as good as the last time...

21. Higher Than the Sun - Primal Scream A buddy of mine first mentioned thier name to me around 1990 in the hall at school. He had thier picture in his locker and I asked what they sounded like. He said he didn't know but they looked cool and liked the name. So with a name like Primal Scream I was thinking that they would dovetail nicely with all the neo-goth and 80's alternative that was frequentuing my stereo. To my utter disappointment, a while later I finally started hearing Movin' On Up on the radio, and sadly passed them off as a burnout wannabe band trying to rip off old 70's style Stones tunes - a fair assessment if you've ever heard the song. About a year later I heard Loaded on a Sire compilation cd and although it was more interesting, it still did little to capture my imagination. Well shortly after that I bought another Sire compilation called Just Say Anything and the more I played it the more this song stuck out, even up against good tunes by Ride and My Bloody Valentine. It demanded to be listened to and would not let up. It had this pulsating beat, and trippy electronics, and when the good part kicked in it was like an adrenalin rush hitting you.... or was that E kicking in, and the whole while there was this breathing sound every so often that seemed to pump new life into my body through my ears. It was with this song that I began to get what all the fuss was about Screamadelica. They were the perfect blend of everything. Taking blissed-out dance beats and just enough electronic sounds from the acid house and rave scenes, they fused it seamlessly with the ongoing renaissance of new guitar bands that were sweeping the UK. They took the best of what both had to offer as well as the tuneful psychedelia of legends from eras gone by and boldly invited everyone to Come Together in one praiseworthy package. This was right about the same time I was devouring bands like the Stone Roses and Charlatans and Blur en masse, and Higher Than the Sun pushed those boundaries even further - it marked the beginning of accepting electronic based music again.

22. Toast - Streetband One of the very first songs I fell in love with on the old CFNY was this happy little late 70s tune that kinda sounded like a blend of Enjoy Yerself by the Specials and Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll by Ian Drury and the Blockheads with a touch of Cool For Cats by Squeeze thrown in, except this one is all about Toast! .... just Toast! Although I never did manage to tape it off the radio back then I did nab it off a file sharing site a while back and I've been running out of bread ever since. The song features the band talking about all the different types of bread you can use to make toast and eventually they're actually making toast, and buttering it, and eating it, and theres this kettle whistle and... oh yeah, I like Toast! .... just Toast!

23. Stop - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Begins album #2 like a freight train grinding past the station under the momentum from album #1 and barely lets up till its done. Stop starts out with one of Rob Turner's signature bass rumblings and is soon met up by Pete Hayes' walls of fiery guitars coming crashing down around you like a tonne of sonic bricks, setting the tone for another adrenalized album by the three piece. These songs are even meatier live where Hayes is a master at getting the most noise possible out of his guitar loops. Sadly it must be said that they hold true to thier own song lyrics which state "We don't know when to stop" because they stopped way too soon with the buzzy guitars and ominous bass-lines after album #2 was done and mellowed out with accoustic guitars and harmonicas for album #3. Here's to hoping they start it back up again for the next album.

24. Sunshine Smile - Adorable For years after these guys broke up I would be talking bands with people outside of shows and Adorable came up probably more than any other. I first heard Adorable on the radio a few times when this (thier first single) got a little airplay. I remember thinking it was alright I spose, but there was so much new stuff coming out it kinda got lost in the shuffle for me. A year or two later I managed to tape it off the radio. It was the day that the new U2 album Zooropa was released - CFNY was playing one song from the album every hour so I skipped work and taped music all day. They played so much good stuff that day it ended up filling two cassettes; Siouxsie and the Banshees, Curve, Bjork, Dissarm by Smashing Pumpkins, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, the ever elusive McDonalds Girl by Bare Naked Ladies and of course the whole U2 album. Despite so much good music, after a few listens thru, Sunshine Smile was the one song that really surprised me. The more I listened to it the more I kept wanting to play it just for that one song over and over. With a slight Chameleons feel to it, they throw in memorable and delicate guitar lines and borrow the power and boldness of fellow shoegazers such as Catherine Wheel or early era Boo Radleys. The song just hums along with lovely guitarwork till it reaches a lull in which Piotre finally asks "How does it feel to feel" The music slowly builds faster after that rising to an angst-ridden climax and just fades out.

25. Sensoria - Cabaret Voltaire There was no radio show cooler back in the day than Chris Sheppard's Club 102 on Saturday nights. When I recorded that first cassette with the Smiths on it (remember back at #1) I realized later that this was the show that I had taped all that stuff off of. Well, for a brief period for about a year or so they managed to make it a televised simulcast, that was until they realized that Chris Sheppard was so far gone most nights that he was in no condition to be putting on television. At that time Chris was really into anything remotely industrial, so in addition to the usual alternative fare like the Cure and New Order he was playing a lot of Ministry and this kind of stuff. The first time I heard this song he played a double shot of Cabaret Voltaire and I loved all the samples and a very cool synthetic feel to it. It really pissed me off that they cancelled the simulcast...

26. All My Friends Who Play Guitar - Starflyer 59 Everything that I had hoped this album would sound like was not only verified but totally exceeded as soon as i heard it. Starflyer isn't the easiest band to find cd's for and the local Christian bookstore charges obscene prices for anything so I ended up borrowing a burned copy from Jezzy until I could find one at a more reasonable price. I had read that Jason Martin had deliberately sought out 60's style equipment for recording the album, including old style tape loop delays, as well as painstakingly recording and mixing the whole think in mono. The result was a fantastic blend of his usual neo-shoegaze sound with an authentic sounding 60's aesthetic to it. The whole album is a dreamy flowing soundscape from start to finish with echoes of Brian Wilson's Beach Boys masterpiece Pet Sounds scattered throughout it. And seeing as this is probably the best song of the bunch on this brilliant album it gets my vote as his best piece of work period.

27. Teeth - The Prosiacs Brash, intense and full of throbbing energy, New Yorks the Prosiacs represent the future of where my taste is headed. These bad boys don't even have a proper full length album yet, but are poised on the brink of something huge in my opinion. As one writer put it they answer the question of what it would sound like to have a band comprised of three Carlos D's. I've been excitedly awaiting a full album since spring and if it sounds anywhere near thier teaser Ep it will easily be the best album this year.

28. Walkman On - SSQ OK earlier in this list I mentioned that I listened to top 40 type music back before I started listening to 80s alternative; well let me clarify that, it was AM top 40. Sorry to dissapoint you all, beleive me I sense your horror and feel shame. But on with the story. I was on a long trip home about six months ago and was listening to the amazing Ongoing History Of New Music hosted by Alan Cross and he played this synthy retro sounding song on his show about how technology has changed. I totally loved it. I had never heard it before and figured it was just another rare new wave band with cutesy vocals in the vein of Viscious Pink and downloaded it the day after I got home. I grew up loving synth based artists like Howard Jones and Human League and Soft Cell on those AM stations, so this seemed like it was just another band i missed from back then. Well it turns out that SSQ was the anme of an earlier band for none other than Stacey Q - the same Stacy Q responsible for the AM dance-pop hit Two of Hearts (shhh don't tell anyone I secretly have always loved this song too) and made those cameo's on Facts Of Life. Sorry but I can't help liking what I like.

29. Summer - Mogwai For the last eight years or so, The Wedge on Much Music has played an important part in developing my my music tastes. One of my favourite episodes was when Sookyin Lee went to Scotland and hung out with Glasgow's post rock band Mogwai. They just hung around eating deep fried Mars bars and talking about loose bowels and intersplicing that with a great lineup of music videos ranging from classic bands like The Cocteau Twins and Jesus and Mary Chain to modern bands like Belle and Sebastien. Eventually they played Summer by Mogwai and it almost literally blew me away. Basically it just featured the band in a parking lot playing thier instruments, but the camaras were all shot as a reflection of them in this puddle. It was yer typical soft/loud/soft/loud/louder/louder/fade out type piece but done totally right. The cool thing about the video was that during the loud parts the puddle would go all blurry from the impact of the soundwaves creating ripples on the water. It was brilliant - basically they were saying - be warned! - we are very very loud. Any one who has seen them live can attest to this. When we finally saw them, we were at the very front of the legendary Horseshoe Tavern practically sitting on stage. On the final number the guitarist in front of us ran out of juice for one of his pedals so he went backstage to get another battery. Seeing as Mogwai tunes tend to drift for ages they were still going by the time he was ready to play but just as he was getting back into it the others were leaving stage. Well I guess he was a little pissed so he proceeded to turn up every knob on every amp, processor and pedal and created a massive wall of snarling volume and feedback. I turned around for a second and it was so loud that virtually everyone had thier hands over thier ears and a few people were even crouching. I guess we didn't notice just how loud it had gotten- we were wearing earplugs....

30. Let it Flow - Spiritualized To fully understand the Spiritualized experience you have to see them live. I inadvertantly bought tickets when it was originally announced that BRMC was going to be the opener but the latter had VISA issues and weren't allowed into Canada. We decided that we would check out the show anyways and the visual and instrumental assault was totally amazing; everything the fans said was true - you just can't explain it. I could never get into them before but after that I was a true beleiver in the Spiritualized experience. That being said this particular song is the exact opposite. To appreciate this you need a top quality stereo and a copy of Pure Phase and just jack it up. The rush you get in the middle of the song is like no other. It starts with the gentle whoah whoah whoah of female voices, drifts along and slowly fades out till theres just a single guitar buzzing on one note. It just hangs there for a few moments till it explodes with the richness of kettle drums and ecstatic vocals and that sweet whoah whoah whoah. Its the musical equivalent of spiking a vein. It has the buildup to the deed, the wait and then the rush filled with all its sonic bliss and elation. A lot less messy but just as addictive...

OK I'm going to have to do 31 seeing as some idiot put the Smiths in there twice.

31. A Forest w/ Forever - the Cure I wasn't goingto put them in at all, but then I remembered this gem and had to include it. One of the cassettes that sent me headlong into my Cure days haze was a rare cassette called Cocert and Curiosity. Now Curiosity was only on the cassette version and was a series of mostly rare live versions from the Seventeen Seconds and Faith albums. The very last song was so intriguing though because there was no studio version for it and it didn't show up in any of thier lyric collections. It started like a slow dirge and gradually built up to a frenzy of Roberts vocals and and effects laden guitars all held in check by Simons solid bass playing as it built faster and faster and faster until it trails off in a mysterious haze. The songs on the Curiosity side were billed as Anomolies and this was exactly that in every way. Upon listening to it hundreds of times I realized that it had to have followed a live performance of A Forest and when I finally got to seeing them in 93 I secretly hoped they would play it. They didn't, but hey did play the most amazing version of A Forest I have ever heard; lasting over 16 minutes and filled with all kinds of extra goodies. A similar version can be seen on the live video called simply called "Show" which was taped at the next stop on that tour in Detroit. I simply filed this treasured song away along with my cassette collection. As I replaced them with cd's it eventually lay dormant as a pleasant memory of my "Cure days". Last year we saw them at Curiosa. They played it. I didn't even realize it untill well after the show. I thought they were playing Three from thier second album. Even though I was there I feel like I missed it. But you can read about that in the blog I wrote about it last year....

So that's it. Thirty-one stories about thirty-one songs. Thanks to everyone who gave me encouragement whether it was on here or not I really appreciated it. I'll try to put out an unadulterated list without all my jibberish tomorrow. Now let's hope when I press that publish button.....

And on the fourth day ....

2005-09-30T06:28:00.000-04:00

I had this entire post done and I lost it. It is now almost 6 AM and I'm gonna lose it if I don't get some sleep. I'm a little pissed seeing as I already had to redo it once before when I was about halfway though. Sorry to dissappoint.

30 Tunes part 2...

2005-09-27T20:43:00.000-04:00

listening to Something's Burning - Stone Roses

So I gotta do this while it's fresh otherwise I'll never get to the next scheduled top 30 - Movies. But for now I'm still working on the songs. Seeing as Wire has gotten me on a Roses kick might as well start with them....

Again, in addition to yesterday's 10 and in no particular order....

11. Standing Here - The Stone Roses (produced by John Leckie) Sadly these guys were shite live when we saw them in 95, but they left a huge legacy both personally and in the music world 5 years earlier. They first helped create the whole Madchester scene in the late 80's which went on to inspire the baggy and Britpop scenes, and individually inspired bands such as Oasis and the Verve as well as newer outfits like Kasabian. In the early 90's I had had enuff of all the Cure and friends and really needed a break from all that; a fresh start to go with getting married and moving out and beginning a new life with new hopes for the future. The bands I enjoyed before wrote great tunes, they just weren't uplifting in that sort of way - the Cure, New Order, Bauhaus, Joy Division, DM and all that kind of stuff. Along came the Roses, and they made life feel good and positive, with freshness and hope, and I guess what they did to the music industry was the same as what they did to my head. They wrote lovely jangly guitar based tunes filled with sunshine and swagger - acid house beats, funky bass rythms and hushed vocals. This wasn't thier most popular tune but it is my personal fave. They somehow managed to fuse a bit of Jimi Hendrix guitars with happy 60's era pop and tacked on a delicate little Byrds-esque sounding bit at the tail-end of it.

12. Orpheus - David Sylvian This is a fabulous piece of music by an artist who deserves to be farmore recognized than just as the former frontman for the glam-punk turned artsy new-wave band Japan in the early 80's. His solo portfolio is astounding, collaborating with industry legends such as Robert Fripp (guitarist from King Crimson), Eno and Ingrid Chavez as well as Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Krautrock legend Holger Czukay from Can. I wasn't supposed to buy this album (Secrets of the Beehive) because I was really short on cash and Whirligirl (at that time my girlfriend) was getting angry because I was spending so much time and money at the cd store. (I guess some things never did change.) I told her I bought this album and she quickly changed her tune. One listen and I knew why; song after song was organic bliss; classical guitar, orchestra, grand piano, string ensembles, and odd rythm arrangements making it seem like it was more suitable for being played at a wholistic healing centre but with Sylvian's familiar rich melancholy vocals keeping it grounded in my rock realm. Orpheus is particularly beautiful the way the song just seems to trail off in a warm orchestral fade and return a moment later with a sweet lazy trumpet solo over top.

13. Little L - Jamiroquai Another recent fave. I started playing this a few weeks ago and can't stop playing anything Jamiroquai. I guess this provides a bit of a pick up since my life is a little low right now, but that's not quite what this Little "L" is all about. I downloaded the new album and it has some real sweetass tunes from the rippin' Kravitz inspired Feels Just Like It Should to the usual killer disco, acid jazz and funky bass standards found in abundance on thier previous albums. But this Little L tune got me hooked. I just checked my iTunes and its my most played tune since i started on this computer 2 1/2 months ago. I hum it everywhere. Dang!! Wish I could afford to see them live at the end of October.

14. It's a Fast Driving Rave-Up With the Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes - The Dandy Warhols Speaking of bands I will be seeing soon... It was either this or Every Day Should Be a Holiday. I also saw them back when they had just put out this album (Dandy's Rule OK?). They opened for Pulp and I really liked it. It was totally different than the Brit-Pop stuff I was feeding on at the time. I couldn't really appreciate them as much as I should have though due to the fact that we brought my sister and her friend along. This friend kept complaining and wanting to go home (over an hour away) seeing as she told her parents she wouldn't be longer than 11 o'clock. Yeah... Right... I'm gonna leave a show in Toronto because some kid who obviously hadn't been to a show before had to get home for bed when I had clearly explained the details beforehand. Sorry, you made the mistake, you deal with it. I went to Station to Station the next day and tried to get the cd. I still remember how he said the name when i asked for it. "Oh, the 'Dandy' Warhols, right.... clever little name. It just came out. I definitely noticed it but I didn't order it because I hadn't heard anyone ask for it yet." So I guess I was the first person in St.Catharines... Anyways this song is a blissed-out jam that matches its title in length and worth every mesmerizing moment. They even set an alarm clock at the end so they know when to stop. Like the song title implies, it is very good for driving to and even raving to I suppose, although I have no experience with the latter. Would be trippy though...

15. Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald Speaking of raves... ok I'll stop doing that. Back in the late 80's of course being obsessed with mostly gothy guitar bands, I went through a period where I scorned almost everything electronic. Even though initially bands like Depeche Mode and New Order were huge influences on me, I left them behind for awhile especially during the House and Techno era of CFNY where every other song was Technotronic and Soul2Soul. Any band remotely electronic based seemed to be copying the trends. I tried hating New Order's Technique and the Mode's Violater which were highly influenced by that scene but now, ironically, those are my favourite albums by both. But that whole time I secretly loved this song. I don't know why but just the way they twisted those nobs at just the right times hooked me. There's not much to the tune really - simple but catchy, fun to dance to, and when I heard it as the tune they had on for the menu of the 24 Hour Party People movie, I hadn't heard it in ages and it totally brought me back to secretly taping it off the radio between the Sugarcubes and Janes Addiction. All those bands like the Orb and Saint Etienne and Beats International and KLF, I really hated back then, and now ....

16. There She Goes - The La's (rumoured to be originally produced by John Leckie) The far superior original version of this song written and sung by Lee Mavers, not the mediocre version done by Sixpence None the Richer and sung by Leigh Nash. Lee Mavers was probably the best pure 60s pop song writer of any generation including the 60s themselves. OK you can make an arguement for Dylan, but quite frankly Mavers sounds much nicer in the delivery. His song writing was remarkably simple and sounded simply remarkable. Clever little sun-soaked tunes carved out on a six string, and accompanied by tambourine and a sincere heart. It's a shame he had a run in so deep with the industry that he swore he would never release another song for any record company ever again. And to my knowledge still hasn't.

17. William It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths OK, OK, OK, I know I said I would try to not repeat any bands, but its the Smiths. C'mon! I really don't think you can appreciate the musical genius of Smiths tunes until you actually try to play one. Most just leave you shaking yer head in amazement. I don't think anyone can play this particular tune anywhere close to how Marr plays it. I put on the song for my guitar teacher, who could reasonably rip off just about any other band I would place before him, and he just shook his head and said those are some messed up chord changes. He poked around with the chords a bit and didn't even attempt to try the finger picking technique. I really don't think its possible. It was sad when I saw Johnny with his new band and that style he was known for was totally absent from his new songs. It was as if he was trying to out-Oasis Oasis, and although Oasis has written some decent tunes over the years they simply pale in comparison to the complexity of a Jonny Marr classic. Johnny just make up with Morrissey and then hell can freeze over and we can all be happy paying thousands for scalped Smiths reunion tickets.

18. Fragrant - Paul Oakley Most of the worship music I've ever heard all sounds the same. You could probably get almost anyone to play almost any modern worship tune by almost any of the multitudes of writers out there and you would barely be able to tell who wrote what. The scene has basically become one large well meaning throng of worship writers weilding a relatively homogenized batch of nice sounding songs. I am not knocking thier desire to serve God by writing for the masses (hehe sorry); it would just be nice to add a little creative twist now and then. Enter Paul Oakley who personally told me he was inspired by none other than the Stereophonics and Verve among other more creative secular influences for some of his cds. This song comes off his amazing Unafraid album for which he peeled back the layers of production and let the songs fight for themselves and find new breath with just accoustic guitars, a piano and a cello in a live setting. Lovely lush instrumentation with his rich vocals and you can totally hear that he is genuinely pouring his soul out before God - nothing for show. This song is not only beautiful - it's beautiful for all the right reasons and may just be my favourite song of all time.

19. The Promise - When In Rome There were a lot of one hit wonder bands in the alternative scene back in the 80's. I guess there were a lot in the 80's in general... Each had that "je ne sais quoi" for a song or two but could never manage to find the magic again to write another gem. But those gems were so good. Bands like Flesh For Lulu, Real Life, B-Movie, Endgames, Fiction Factory, Voice of America..... the list goes on. A lot of them I taped off the radio, loved the song, but didn't find out for years later who they were. And since they had so few hits, thier music was almost impossible to find later in music stores once i did find out. Most of them I did manage to track down on 80's rarities compilations over the years. This one I had to wait until the wonders of file sharing became available. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear it as the closing song on Napoleon Dynamite when they're playing tetherball, which coincidentally will likely be in my list of top 30 movies of all time.... if I ever get to it.

20. Pounding - Doves I was driving some friends home, one late summer night about 3 years ago and they were all asleep and I had this amazing almost surreal experience. I had finally succumbed to Jez's pressure, and had just bought The Last Broadcast album a few days earlier. It quickly replaced BRMC as a permanent fixture in my car cd player. That night, the clouds were all silvery as the moon was exceptionally bright, and the whole way there the sky was being lit up even more by one of those late summer heat electrical storms with really cool fork lighning and the whole bit. The sky that night mixed with the album so perfectly I will never forget it. The whole album is a collection of individual aural masterpieces that form one stellar soundscape from one end to the other using a range of musical styles, all flowing perfectly into one another and totally enhanced by some of the best production I have ever heard this side of Nine Inch Nails. Words can't describe how good this album is. It's totally uplifting and refreshing to listen to. On this track, borrowing the synth line from Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart and the drum beat from The Stone Roses' I Am The Resurrection proves to be an amazing combination when added to that stellar production and crisp guitarwork. It truly is pounding and exhilerating along with the rest of the album.

Stay tuned for part 3....

Do You Remember Me?

2005-09-26T14:00:00.000-04:00

Listening to How Soon Is Now - The Smiths, Slide Away - the Verve ....

Well I wonder why it took so long, but for some strange reason (he he) I've finally been inspired to do my top 30 songs of all time and to figure out how to get back to blogland. I initially wrote out a 'short' list consisting of exactly twice the amount of songs so this may end up a top 50 if I have trouble getting rid of some. I'll try to keep it one entry per band only, not to mention I will be listening to each band as I comment about them. So in no particular order...

Let's Go!

1. How Soon Is Now -The Smiths Has to start here because for me it did start here. I remember sitting in my room in around 1987 taping songs off this new radio station I had found that played stuff that was totally different from the top 40 pop that I was accustomed to. The music totally intrigued me and connected with me on a level I could understand both musically and lyrically. That night was the first time I had ever heard this song as I taped it along with Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again, The Cure's Let's Go To Bed, New Order - Blue Monday, Love and Rockets - Ball of Confusion, Renegade Soundwave, INXS, Midnight Oil, Ministry, the Clash... the list goes on and on. That night set the stage for the rest of my life, musically speaking. At that time I found the vocals strange and hard to get used to, but the music was so fresh and really really cool. Over the years I have probably played this song more than any other. Between Johnny Marr's guitar wizardry and Morrissey's gift to put the anguish of adolescence into words, almost every Smiths song could end up in this list, and this one is the perfect representative of thier work.

2. Slide Away - The Verve (produced by John Leckie) Station to Station in St. Catharines to this day, is my favourite music store cuz they were the ones to have all the rare singles and bootlegs that no-one else could find; very helpful to a Cure completist as I was when I started going there. The lady in there was in her 60's at the time and knew more about music than anyone else I knew. She loved David Bowie and the Chameleons and Peter Murphy and David Sylvian and introduced me to so many cool bands at that time. It was the early 90's and i remember just starting to slowly get out of my "Cure and Cure only" phase and discovering fresh new bands like The Stone Roses, Blur, Suede and Slowdive. That day I picked up a Stone Roses single (I Want To Be Adored) and a used copy of Just For a Day by Slowdive. She looked at what I had and said I might also want to get the used copy of the Verve's Storm In Heaven that she had just put out minutes earlier. I hadn't heard of them yet and didn't have time to sample it, so I just left it there. Oops. A few days later I heard them on CFNY and from the first few bars of Slide Away I was hooked to its swelling mass of spacious sound. I went back a few days later but of course it was gone and never showed up used again.

3. Over The Wall - Echo and the Bunnymen It was 1997 and I couldn't beleive that I was going to see one of my favourite bands from high school that had been broken up for ten years. They sounded so good playing all the old stuff from Songs to Learn and Sing and thier self-titled album (which were the only two cassettes I had of thiers) along with thier passable new material. The show was totally thrilling; Ian had such a cool stage presence, the tunes were perfect and full of energy and I knew every one - that is 'till the very last song. I had never heard it before and my jaw literally dropped it was so fecking amazing. Powerful, haunting and hypnotic, Over The Wall singlehandedly solidified thier place as my favourite band of the 80's not named the Smiths.

4. Me And Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard - !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) This would be a recent favourite. Totally funky and sporting the coolest transitions and sweeping guitarlines, this 10 minute long masterpiece is by far one of the coolest things I've ever heard. I've been listening to it like every day for the last few months and still sounds sweet.Yes they do use more profanity than I like, but the music is undeniably tight and the basswork is stellar. Besides nothing is 'funner' than cruising around with the windows open and everyone singing along to the doo doo doo doot doot doo part.

5. Svefn G Englar - Sigur Ros Anyone who's seen the video for this lovely song has witnessed a visually stunning and gripping masterpiece. This haunting, lush and beautiful piece of sonic art is brilliantly complemented by an Icelandic drama troup made up entirely of people with downs syndrome. Dressed as angels, thier natural aura of innocence and the fact that it is all shot in slow motion make it the perfect complement to the music. Also I might add that they are the only band that I've seen live that have actually brought tears to my eyes due to how powerfully beautiful the music was. I wasn't bawling, it was just so emotionally powerful that tears started falling down my face during Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa.

6. Just Like Honey - Jesus and Mary Chain When I heard the first few bars start playing at the end of Lost In Translation just as Bill Murray's character Bob Harris starts looking for Charlotte (played by the lovely Scarlet Johansson) on the busy Tokyo streets, it was so amazing I almost cried. I thought to myself, it's as if all along the song was written specifically for the movie, but they wouldn't have known till over 15 years later. Psychocandy is still my favourite album of thiers to this day.

7. Best Man's Fall - The Trashcan Sinatras (produced by John Leckie) Until I dicovered thier clever and whitty lyrics (as well as a greater appreciation for the rich sounds of a 12 string Rickenbacker) I just passed them off as a bland Scottish outfit that sounded like they wanted do be another cheap Smiths knock off. I found this tune on an HMV comp and slowly fell in love with the lyrics. Bought the album a few years later and fell in love with it and it's one of my absolute faves now. This particular tune features gem lines such as "she came into my life like a brick thru a window and I cracked a smile", "penny up but if you have no money your attention will do, and if you don't give a damn your welcome to keep it" and "scars of the night before have turned into scabs and still I'm seeing double and , I'm looking twice my age, its getting to the stage where, I'm old not wise just worried." Every song is laced with clever lines such as these. Just heard another line I love in the song that comes after it (Circling the Circumference) "that's my story and I'm stuck with it..."

8. Something I Can Never Have - Nine Inch Nails There was this show on CFNY every week called Friday Night High where they would go into schools and set up a dance. However, the kids were able to have an active part in choosing some of the songs - like a top ten list or something like that so you would end up hearing stuff they normally wouldn't play. Well I remember one night they were palying some awesome stuff and they played Violent Femmes - Kiss Off and The Smiths - Please, Please, Please... and then they played this song which I had never heard before and it totally grabbed me. I was already a bit of a fan of NIN before but didn't have the cassette yet. That week I went out and bought Pretty Hate Machine and played it endlessly for months. That song still remains eerily true for my life even now as much or moreso than it did then...

9. Second Skin - The Chameleons A very underrated 80's band that very few people knew of until bands like Interpol and more recently the Departure and Editors started ripping off thier signature pulsating guitar riffs. I first heard the song Swamp Thing on a Hardest Hits compilation and totally loved it and started buying anything I could find of thiers which proved quite a task. For ages all I could find was a few Radio sessions and a compilation album. Eventually I found a copy of Script of the Bridge at the old Sam the Record Man in Toronto and was instantly thrilled upon listening to it. Certain songs kept growing on me such as Paper Tigers and Don't Fall but Second Skin has grown to be my absolute favourite Chameleons tune. There's a really cool transition in the middle where the rest of the music fades out and while it keeps the same beat it slowly comes back in but changes over the melody to something quite different. It's like getting two really sweet tunes in one clean package.

10. A Day In The Life - The Beatles As a kid I never really got along with my dad so not liking the Beatles was just a part of not liking him. We were just different people and I liked 80's pop and eventually 80's alternative which bears little resemblance to the Fab 4. He passed away 15 years ago and over those years I really learned to appreciate a lot of the things I didn't like about him. I love the 60's pop he used to like now: The Beatles, The Zombies, Buddy Holly, Donovan, Dylan some Guess Who and on and on.... There are many times when I wish I could invite him over and sit down and listen to my Beatles records with him and ask him about all those bands that I missed out on. As far as this track goes I think its the best they ever did; features both John and Paul at thier creative best, the transitional orchestra swells are fantastic and I think this song more than any other they created really introduced the masses to a new era of musical experimentation.

ok this will be the last one till later cuz I've got stuff to do....

Untitled

2005-03-24T19:41:00.000-05:00

Listening to - A Northern Chorus

Most of what has been actually happening to my life has been adequately summed up in Whirligirls blog - a few visits with A & J, the temporary dispersal of children and a fabulous Sianspheric/A Northern Chorus concert, to these you can add waiting for what seemed like forever to get the last bits of jam from band mates and the job search hitting panic levels.

In my head it's a different scene altogether. I'm very depressed. I've basically drifted from crisis to crisis and have let life dictate its own way over me for far too long. After 10 years of good employment I have very little to show for it. Finances are just one side of the coin but I've earned nearly half a million dollars in that time and am swimming in the deep end on the negative side of broke. Things have to change soon, otherwise I fear I'm gonna lose it. My mind. Literally.

I'm sorry I'm very sour on life again but please no"everything is peachy and you don't even know it" - head buried in the sand comments please - they'll only add to my frustration...

Even Better Than The Best Of...

2005-03-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

Listening to: U2 - the afore mentioned mix

Earlier I re-commented on an older Oddballpastor post about U2's tune Until The End Of the World and the spiritual relevance it has with its obvious references to Judas' betrayal of Christ. That kind of spiritual stuff is meshed all throughout thier lyrics of course...

I also mentioned that I had just completed a mix of U2 songs called Even Better Than The Best Of. I know it's lost a lot of steam and the original stick-it-to-em/I can do better attitude has waned a bit, but I have had the idea for this cd for like 3 years now ever since thier second Best Of came out in 2002. I was so appalled by the selections on it when I finally saw the track list I figured I really could do a lot better myself. Of course I bought the limited edition with the bonus disc of mostly remixes, but that didn't help. I was so looking forward to it because the first Best Of focusing on the earlier 80's era was just about perfectly done - a disc of early radio-friendly faves and an amazing cd of great b-sides which has become one of my absolute favourite cds of any they have released. But the new one was brutal. Far too many tunes from that horrid All That You Can't Leave Behind album and far too many bland "new" remixes taking up space where better b-sides belonged. The Fly - thier first big hit in the 90's era of the new revamped meatier sounding U2 wasn't even represented and neither was the Cole Porter cover of Night and Day which preceded the release of Achtung Baby by about a year giving everyone a slight peek into the direction they were going for the future.

Anyways this is my "slightly" revised compilation of thier best of the 90's. And in no particular order....

1. Night And Day
2. The Fly
3. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
4. Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
5. Miami
6. Alex Descends Into Hell For a Bottle Of Milk
7. Discotheque
8. Lemon
9. Even Better Than The Real Thing
10. Mysterious Ways
11. Until The End Of The World
12. Babyface
13. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
14. Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad
15. Slow Dancing (Bono only vocal as opposed to the Willie Nelson version)
16. Acrobat
17. Love Is Blindness

Of course I never said it had to be all hits so that's why it has my own favourite tracks from this era regardless of where they came from. A few singles, a few B-sides, and a few album cuts but no mixes. Not that any weren't worthy - just they are usually longer and eat up a lot of space. A couple mixes that were actually considered were the Jeep Mix of Lemon, Salome Zooromancer mix and Lady With the Spinning Head Extended Dance mix. My favourites that did make the cd are Ultraviolet, Velvet Dress, Discotheque and The Fly. If you wonder why a certain song isn't on... well if its newer I probably hated it and if its older I just ran out of room. I had also wanted to put on Stay, Dirty Day, Zooropa, and Who's Gonna Ride which interestingly I didn't really like at all originally but has grown on me a bunch over the past few years. Stay tuned for a revamped earlier Best Of tentatively titled Stories For Boys....

I'm working on a Cure mix as well at the moment. It's proving exceedingly tough seeing as they have about 20 studio albums and countless rare goodies. I think I have over 40 cds of thiers icluding boots, singles and live albums.

Anyways...
Im getting bored of this post.

With Craig as my witness, I did have another good-sized post just about done the other day. It was all about our amazing jam session on the weekend, but the computer froze up and lost it on me. We recorded about 8 really good jams. Come to think of it we would have recorded more jams at other sessions just Jezzy kept forgetting to hit record all the time. Hehe...

The Next Big Spin...

2005-02-24T00:58:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Extremely rare Slowdive stuff

So I took my test and next week I get to find out what direction my life should take theoretically speaking. I've read a few of the personality profile books that supposedly break down into what my specific personality type is, but never with any direction as to what career I may be suited for because of it. I remain interested but of little hope for the present. The questions were actually difficult to decide. (People who really know me wouldn't find that hard to believe - I have been called the wolds most wishy-washy person before). Typical questions involved a choice between structured and spontaneous behaviors. I am generally the type of person who likes to have a very simple vague idea of what kind of plans there are for the day but if they don't get accomplished it's no biggie. Sometimes My plans are more exact and elaborate if things have to get done. I find it equally exhilorating to get a lot of stuff done that I had planned to do in a day as I do when some really nifty unplanned stuff just happens upon me on a day with very few plans. Sometimes I just like to see what happens and take it as it comes. But I'm not comfortable to totally drift without a clue either because then too much life slips by if that's all I do. I like a bit of both - a general idea with the door open for more if it arises. In other words a sort of planned spotinaeity. These questions asked for one or the other. At times I felt like Donnie Darko and was ready to physically insert the whole thing into someone's anus.... No one in particular though....

So I've been really impressed with the latest issue of Spin magazine. Its the next big thing issue and its chock full of bands that are actually good and not the usual "this is the crap that the record companies are telling you to like" shite. Of the 62 bands that they herald as next big things there were more than enough to make a cd of stuff that I actually really look forward to listening to, let alone excited enough to post about. There were excellent segments on eletronica and the burgeoning Montreal scene as well as a great selection of the brightest and best from across the pond. But really, each of the songs on this cd are amazing and most of the albums they come from are equally as strong with a few exceptions. My last post mentioned the brilliance of the Prosaics, I Am Kloot, M83 and the Bravery. And my current faves Autolux are outstanding, thick, Sonic Youth inspired buzz rock. Well anyways....

Here's the tracklist!

1. The Killers - Midnight Show (SBN Live Session)
2. Autolux - Angry Candy
3. LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
4. M83 - Teen Angst
5. Junior Boys - Under The Sun
6. The Bravery - Honest Mistake
7. The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
8. The Stills - Still In Love Song
9. The Unicorns - Inoculate the Inocuous
10. Stars - The Face
11. The Dears - Postcard From Purgatory
12. Prosaics - Teeth
13. Bloc Party - Banquet
14. Kasabian - Club Foot
15. The Departure - Crashing the Same Scene
16. The Futureheads - He Knows
17. I Am Kloot - Life In A Day
18. The Organ - There Is Nothing I Can Do

The only band not featured in Spin was the last one, and they probably should have been. The Organ is a Canadian band that sound like an updated version of the Smiths' self-titled first album except with a female singer. Each one of these bands is well worth a listen whatever way you can get yer ears to them. If you really want a copy let me know....

Me, me, me, me...

2005-02-19T13:02:00.000-05:00

Listening to : The Prosaics - Teeth (From their one and only Aghast Agape EP - This shit is freakin' good!)

Well.... seems I've picked up a few people pining for postings from me. Life has been mostly a bad mix of the mundane and insane. As my life passes by in a frigid haze I've been slowly looking for a new career, trying desperately to set up new jam sessions, and fitting in the necessary sleep/work/caregiving to the daughter in between downloads. Some stellar stuff has hit my ears lately though. The above being one. They only have one EP but what an ep it is. If yer a fan of Interpol and other post-punk/post-goth types a la Joy Division then yer a fan upon first hear. Also been devouring new stuff by the Doves, Beck, Prodigy, Chem Bros., I Am Kloot, M83, and if you like the Killers then there's the Bravery - a sonically enhanced version if you ask me.

I hate to dump on here cuz I feel like no-one wants to liten to me grovel any more, but I feel old and sorta lost as to where to go in life... I despise the factory life and yet i feel its the only fast cash option. So.... I go to the career counsellor so take some sort of personality indicator test on Wednesday. I wonder if it will really give me any real direction for what to do now or just tell me I'm best wired for a career that requires another few years of university before having to scratch out some sort of meagre existance and go broke and bankrupt and get divorced while I wait until i can get a position that I'm really suited for.... ah Feck! I feel a country song coming on....

The Message...

2005-01-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

Listening to : St. Germain -Sure Thing

Yes. I'm still alive. Well? Well I dunno... Alive is good enough i suppose. People keep telling me I have plenty to be thankful for so I'm going on their word for now.

As for music... despite the fact that I'm currently listening to some fabulous modern techno-jazz fusion vibes at the moment I've been wasting inordinate amounts of free time digging out cheesy 80s retro-dance, breakdance, and old school club hits. It was all brought on by listening to a few strong retro sounding tracks from the stellar new Prodigy album and a couple of other synth drenched tunes by Robots in Disguise (thanks Ry - I'm addicted now!!!). Classics by Afrika Bambaata and the Soul Sonic Force and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Hashim, The Freaks Come Out At Night by Whodini, File 13, Look Out Weekend by Debbie Deb, Tour De France by Kraftwerk, and my current fave for some reason - the lush synthpop sounds of Walkman On by SSQ (who eventually became known as Stacey Q) - this is a taste of what has been gracing my soundsystems lately. Sorry to disappoint but we all get in these moods... Well I do anyways...

On a different note... Another amazing album I've been checking out lately is Cooper Temple Clause - Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose. I mentioned about being a bit intrigued by a bunch of bearded weirdos playing some quite likeable stuff at Curiosa on the second stage in the summer. There was so much to absorb from that concert that i never got around to digging some of their stuff out till recently. Well wow!!! I managed to get a copy of this cd and it is stellar. Wish I checked it out sooner. A load of indie style guitars and writing, a touch of synthpop and a splash of heavy rythms thrown in here and there making for a spacious collage of sonic art. Intriguing and very special. I'm Hooked.

Been Locked Up

2004-12-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Vonal Declosion by Stereolab

So my friend D. will probably kill me if I don't post about this soon. D. is the director ofthe local youth center in our town.

The other night we were both feeling like crap about our bleak futures when we decided to go to Brantford for some Dominoes cheesy bread. Along the way we stopped by Godfathers in Waterford which is the town directly between ours and Brantford to say hi and ask Juner if she wanted an order of cheesy bread to feed her own addiction to Dominoes. Of course she did! I know, I know, sounds strange delivering Dominoes to a worker at a Godfathers pizza joint but hey, absolutely nothing beats Dominoes cheesy bread.

So anyways we made it there. I used my usual alias Psychocandy. The whole fun bit. We got back to Godfathers and presented June with her cheesy bread. Juner was in quite grumpy mood mainly due to the fact that some "cock-knockers" (as she called them) had ordered 8 pizzas about 20 minutes before closing. She was not amused. They never showed till five minutes after closing. They were kinda loud and obnoxious pretty boy types trying to impress thier pretty girlfriends. Not only that but they had no clue what chipotle sauce was let alone how to say it properly. Anyways...

The kids left and she began closing the place while we figured we'd hang around to keep her company for a few minutes. We swept up a bit for her, shook out a few rugs and then noticed a bunch of police cruisers pulling into the strip mall lot. D. walked out to find out what was going on and they told him to go back into the outlet and not to leave.

Apparently there had been a robbery at the doughnut shop on the corner and no one in the entire strip mall was allowed to leave untill they got everyone's personal info and brought out a K9 unit. So needless to say we were there for a couple of hours just hangin with Juner. I don't think we left until almost 1am. Closing was at like 11pm.

D. has been mockingly traumatized by the whole ordeal ever since going by the MSN name "Emotionally Traumatized - Police Confinement" for the last few days. It was pretty strange though. And being locked in with Juner is always fun - even if she is a bit ticked off.

the Gift

2004-12-25T09:38:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Blur (self-titled) faintly from upstairs

So Katya has been up for a couple of hours, peeling paper off boxes and unloading her stocking. Eating lollipops and chocolate stuff. We've had a lovely "Merry Christmas" from dear friends J&A and the kids shouting over the phone. And soon we shall head off to my gram's to eat and eat and celebrate the day.

The day has come. This is the day to celebrate the Gift through the giving of gifts. To admire and celebrate a legendary figure dressed in red velvet and shouting ho-ho-ho because of his love for children and because he gave gifts unconditionally to each and all, having understood the depth of that Gift. May we all be thankful for that Gift as well as the gifts given to mark His birthday. Thankful for the coming of Immanuel who now offers each of us another free gift if we want it. I believe this is the true Gift of Christmas.

Hope everyone has a holly jolly Christmas Day!
May it be Joyful and Triumphant!

Wandering On...

2004-12-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Listening to: Something I Can't Have - Jesus and Mary Chain

It's dark inside,
The sky can't make up its mind,
A dance draped in white,
Or to drop like tears,
My fears blanketed in the memories of last night
And buried beneath an icy crust.
Each footstep cracks open a new wound on the glimmering terrain,
Eventually becoming a temporary landmark of past wanderings.
I long to shovel them all away,
To clean the slate so to speak,
But as I do,
Beneath the surface
There remains the compacted imprint of those same steps
Like whispy white ghost prints.
Together with the slush and mud
Bogging down the bottoms of my boots,
They serve as cold, haunting reminders of where I've been...

Crap, I really don't know where I'm going with this. Sorry. Next time I'll try to find a direction to point my wanderings toward.

Yawn....

2004-12-21T20:43:00.000-05:00

I know most of you have given up on ever hearing from me again but surprise! - it appears I'm still alive somewhere. I've been hibernating a lot recently. Sleeping. Not wanting to do much. I know I should be out there cramming resume's into the hands of every manager I can find but I can't seem to get past that nice warm cocooned feeling a duvet seems to give. Perhaps it's sympathy sleepiness for Cath or something - I dunno... But I managed to wake up enough to do this. I also managed to wake up enough for those furious fits of eating at a couple of family dinners on the weekend too. Other than that there's not a whole lot to report. My life is becoming quite bland in retrospect. Not to mention the whole succumbing to the fear of the future. Perhaps all this sleeping is some sort of coping measure brought on by depression or something. Fearfully bland - that's me!!

So... Happy Christmas everyone if i don't wake up enough to tell you then!

Killing Time...

2004-12-04T15:36:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Starflyer 59 - Fell in Love at 22 ep

So Wednesday, thanks to Juner, we all (Cath, June and I) hopped in the van and took off to TO to see the Killers. It was a very fun filled evening after a very not fun day.

I got home from work and June called wanted me to drop off Austin at school cuz he was getting into her nailpolish and stuff. She figured if he was being that disruptive already that maybe he wasn't that sick after all and should probably go to school. So I went...

She came over for a bit after. A very short bit due to the fact that everyone one was touchy and short tempered and my daughter was being shouty and lippy and well... it ended up in a big ball of confusion to the point that June was about to walk back home and I wouldn't hear of it. So I drove her back.

I hung out there for about an hour or so and we kinda settled down and agreed we should still try to get to the show despite the fact that at any given point during that day there was probably at least one of us who didn't feel like it. Seeing as it was supposed to be a Christmas surprise from June to me (and Cath),I assured her that I really did want to go and that I wanted her to go too and Cath if she felt up to it...

We all had a nap.

We left at about 5:30. Traffic was fine. I was fully expecting another auto accident due to the way things had been going that day plus the fact that I realized that my auto insurance hadn't been paid and it was a due few days earlier. Anyways driving was no problem at all...

The show was really fun. In fact, we had a better time than any show we'd been to in quite a while. We were right at the very front again. The people we were standing around with were really great. A bunch of kids in thier early 20's and late teens were right in front with us. Then there was this really really cute girl just behind me who was constantly leaning against me, smiling at me and offering me Jolly Ranchers. She was probably no more than 18 even though she had a bar bracelet on. She was really nice.

No one knew who the opening band was until they came on. They were called the Outfit and when they came on, mentioned that they didn't even know they were playing that night until 1pm that day!! You could tell they were excited. |They seemed to be a newer band but still sounded great. Oozing with fresh confidence, they reminded me of The La's or early Stone Roses. Very stripped down and happy sounding jangly guitar pop sound as opposed to a lot of the more thickly layered indie rock sounds we're used to seeing, or the synth drenched 80's retro glam stuff like the headliners. They were quite refreshing actually and all the girlies seemed to love the singer.

Then they brought out some guy playing folk/country type stuff by himself who they introduced under the name Micheal Valentine(who is mentioned on one of the Killers b-sides in the song appropriately titled 'The Ballad of Micheal Valentine' oddly enough...).No one knows if it was actually him... He played the first tune with a little ukelele and then graduated to an accoustic to play his short insult fueling set. The crowd had little patience for him. He was actually pretty good - very tounge and cheek and played the straight man role quite well. I thought it was all pretty funny.

When the Killers finally did come on, Cath and June each grabbed the railing and hung on. The people behind me were a swirling mass of bodies tossing and swaying. Oh, and did I mention crowd surfing as if it were 92 all over again. It was the most vibrant crowd I'd seen there in ages - probably since Blur in the mid 90's. I ended up locking on to the railing with one arm and holding them back as much as possible so that all the kids (and Cath) in our little group could enjoy the show without fear of being crushed or stepped on. Despite fighting off the crush it was a really fun show. June on the other hand ended up outside of the peaceful bubble of protection I had created and was a little farther over toward the center of stage. Besides being crushed up front she had other "issues" with the people behind her. But she can share that with you in her own Blog if she wants...heehee.

The band was great. True showmen. They had style and energy and played remarkably well. I really like it when the band isn't so technically perfect that you might as well be listening to the cd again. It's what makes live shows like this into intimate encounters. I like hearing the bass strings getting a bit of fret buzz or seeing the guitarist grin cuz he missed one note somewhere. It only adds to the show. Like I said they played great, they just had a really good live feel about them. They loved playing and it showed. Not to mention they have some really fun tunes to play which only worked to thier benefit.

Overall it was a blast. We had a tonne-'o-funne. And I got my overpriced vendor's sausage after (so good!!)And it sure beat just about anything else we could have done that day. June claims that life is all downhill from here. Well that remains to be seen. But regardless if it is or not it was sure a good Christmas present. Thanks Juner. Happy Christmas to you too!

All Things Must Pass...

2004-11-27T17:17:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Hooverphonic - Stereophonic Sound Spectacular

Three days or so ago I wrote an amazing post about what had been happening in my life and about the weekend just as I promised I would. It got lost in the big Blog-hole. I was a little angry. I know you're all waiting so I guess I'll try again.

Back track.

Monday (the 14th) a meeting notice went up on the bulletin board at work. Wednesday morning, management announced that they were closing the smaller headrest plant across the road from us, and eventually 140 jobs would be lost between Christmas and April 1st. Including mine. It hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. I couldn't eat. I started getting panic attacks. I went into hibernation mode to try to avoid dealing with it and slept for 16 hrs straight. That coupled with not eating, threw my body way out of sorts and I was becoming a nervous wreck fast. I lost almost 10 pounds in just a couple of days. I haven't been less than 170 pounds since high school but there I was weighing 168 when I finally checked.

Cath was starting to get tired of me moping about the house voicing my insecurities. Not only that but Katya, most likely sensing the tension, was really grinding on Cath the last few days. So the decision was made that I would take Katya up to A&J's place for the weekend for their sons birthday party on Saturday and to try to break me out of my funk. It worked to say the least.

Andrew was very supportive and understanding. In the nearly 10 years or so they've been married he's been through countless jobs in all kinds of tough circumstances. For someone like him, my situation is familiar territory. For me the unwanted sense of cloudiness and uneasiness about my family's future was disturbing as I've never really been jobless. It was good to hear how he got through it all, to where he has a job in his selected field now, and with a reasonable sense of security after so many dead ends. He gave me a bunch of suggestions, but mostly it was just the bold confidence he had for the future that helped.

And then there's Jodi. She's such a good friend. She has a way of brightening the corners of any dark room with her infectious personality. The perfect pick-me-up. We hung out quite a bit watching movies (Pool Hall Junkies rocks!), eating Fun Dip and playing Pac Man. We talked. We prayed. I feel much better.

Needless to say Katya had a tonne-o-funne. (We measure fun in metric around here!) Cath got some much needed rest both days. I didn't get as much sleep as I should have but got the encouragement that I needed. It was a good weekend for all involved.

So one last story like I promised. At one point Andrew was heading out for something. He began to put on the jacket resting on the back of the chair in the dining room. He put it down a moment later when he realized it was Jodi's and went over to the closet to get his own. He pulled open the sliding door began to reach for his coat. He immediately stopped and looked down with a puzzled look on his face. There in the closet stood their daughter Moira smiling away. She promptly stepped out of the closet, wandered by everyone in the dining room and walked down the hall to her bedroom to go play as if this were nothing out of the ordinary. Andrew and I just looked at eachother blankly for a moment and then burst out laughing. Did that rally just happen? How long had she been standing there smiling away in the closet? And what does go through the mind of a three year old girl anyways???

Good Junk

2004-11-08T09:16:00.000-05:00

Listening to : Good Junk mix

I made this mix on the fly and burned it just before we went to jam on Saturday. I haven't been able to stop listening to it in the car since. Sorry I don't have all the exact song titles - some of it is downloaded.

1. Ladytron - Discotrax
2. Manic Street Preachers - Miss Europa Disco Dancer
3. Soviet - Circuit Love
4. Pony Express - (track #3 from thier newest release)
5. The Jesus and Mary Chain - She
6. (unknown throbbing trance tune originally mislabelled as Interpol) - Metropolis
7. Death Cab For Cutie - All Is Full Of Love (awesome Bjork cover)
8. Garbage - Cherry Lips
9. Codex - (track#5 - have to ask Jeremy - he plays bass on it!!)
10. Broken Social Scene - Stars And Sons
11. The Jesus and Mary Chain w/ Mazzy Star - ?
12. The Killers - Mr. Brightside
13. Interpol - Not Even Jail
14. The Sneaker Pimps - Loretta Young Silks
15. Ambulance Ltd. - Swim
16. Goldfrapp - Strict Machine
17. Lali Puna - Call 1-800-FEAR

I know, I know, I know, what the heck is a Garbage track doing in there? It just fit with the mood. The flow on it is great even though I didn't even pay attention to the arrangement. Somehow I don't think it would matter what order they were in as it sounds equally great on shuffle.

Heaven Up Here

2004-11-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

Listening to: What Difference Does It Make? - I really shouldn't have to tell you....

Craig, Gin and Jess are here as well as my sweet little daughter who turned 4 today. We're all just chilling, listening to the Smiths first album on vinyl and the newer Bunnymen remasters reissue cds today. Very enjoyable.

We spent last evening in Vineland jamming with Satic Dad. Hee hee! Sorry, bad inside joke... The jam session was stellar or at least close to it. There's some really good chemistry between us. Its very exciting. There's so much potential for good writing there. Ry and I want to start formulating some actual songs soon and put out an EP or two. The running joke last night was to have a band that only put out EP's a la Mellowdrone (at least thus far).

About that inside joke... A few years back Jer and I had this band and we were going to be playing with another local band called Static Dad. So Jer makes up a wack of posters to put up around the area. He comes up all proud and stuff and says, "I made a bunch of posters." I took one look at the poster and said, "That's pretty good Jer but, um, who's Satic Dad?" He looked down at the huge stack of useless posters and groaned.

So anyways, this is how it was supposed to go down. I was gonna tell Ry that Jer never likes my band names and that he would have to suggest one for me as his own. Now Ry has no knowledge of our previous band experiences. I was going to tell him to ask Jer about the name Satic Dad. And when he suggested it, Jer would die laughing cuz he would know right off it wasn't his idea, and Ry wouldn't have a clue why he was laughing so hard. Oh man, I really wish it went off as planned but some one mentioned it before I could set up Ry. Oh well, would have been sweet.

Tourtiere

2004-11-03T18:40:00.000-05:00

Listening to: Haunted by Love and Rockets

Well I suppose if I can rave about other peoples pies I might as well boast about Cath's killer tourtiere tonight. She made a meat pie to die for tonight. In fact, I would say it was the best that I can remember having.

Cath has been so amazing lately. Through all the crap that has been happening she has been so good. There were many times this year, even recently, that I wondered if we were going to last. It's not supposed to be that way when its your tenth anniversary, but life tends to happen whether you like it or not. Most of this year has definitely been "not" but lately things have been getting better. I know a couple of weeks of improved communication and effort plus a good freakin tourtiere isn't the stuff marital bliss is made of but its taken me from near hopeless to hopeful. I smile more. She's being real cute too...

Desparate Times

2004-10-30T23:02:00.000-04:00

Trouble - Coldplay

Just saying hello to you all...I had a huge journal entry done up. I had to delete it. It was so bleak you would all have been reaching for the noose upon reading. I've been so miserable lately. To make matters worse, I just finished watching Desparate Housewives. It put an exclamation point on one waste of a weekend. Just a bunch of flowery debauchery with a mildly amusing plotline. My wife is nodding in agreement. We don't know why they call them housewives, I think only one is currently married - and she's shagging the lawn boy when the husband is at work. Yes, there is the half decent former professional turned mom character, who brings a bit of substance to the thing, but not enough to salvage it from being a trashy evening soap... Sorry fans, but I call it like I see it.

Just Grin and Bear It...

2004-10-25T13:40:00.000-04:00

Listening to : Smile Like You Mean It - The Killers

My head is a mess. This applies in many ways, but... Friday evening, while we were delivering Dominoes to friends some three and a half hours away, the little cold I've been fighting off for about five weeks took a turn for the worse. What seemed like it might have been getting better at the beginning of the week decided to take up new residence tucked nicely behind my right eardrum. A few minutes after having gone down the mountain on the 403 in Burlington, it caved under the pressure change. These kind of ear infections were commonplace for me in my childhood. I am fully familiar with the pressure buildup and the sickening sound as it slowly drains through the drum wall once it succumbs to the pressure. I won't say much more it's kinda gross. I spent a lovely week end with friends genuinely having fun, but never letting on what I was experiencing inside my head.

We had a swell time though. Chillin out mostly to a couple of music mixes I had made for them. I helped Jodi make a pie. She makes a real yummy pie. She kept getting frustrated and making fun of me for trying to peel the apples too perfect. At one point I went back to the living room. She was taunting me and Andrew her husband told me she was asking for it so I'd better do something about it. I slowly walked back to the kitchen. She kept a suspicious eye on me the whole time. Before she knew what had happened she was on my shoulders and back in the living room spinning round and round. I dropped her on the couch. She felt really sick and I felt really bad. I didn't know she had such a weak stomach.... 'Nuff said.

Whirlwinds of Change

2004-10-17T13:26:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Interpol - Not Even Jail

Yesterday was a buzz. Whirlwind. The decided name of project X. Cath wondered aloud whether it was because it is going to be a virtual 'whirlwind' trying to get to band practices over an hour away fitting them in after her work and before mine. Packing vehicles with tailgates that won't work, keeping up on supplies like strings and sticks and picks, making sure the child is looked after, food....mmmmm foood!

That was yesterday in a nutshell. Cath got off work at 4:15. We scarfed down a couple of sausages from some fundraiser. Craig was with us - we had gone to pick up sticks not even ten minutes earlier. Apparently the tweed case for my new electric was in too, so I checked in but it was an accoustic case. Mine's an electric. I told them I'll get back to them about it. Not only that but they had a guitar there I was drooling over almost instantly. It was a used red Gibson hollowbody in great shape for only $1300. Basically its the same type of guitar that I just bought only it's the real thing for about $2200 less than it would cost new. I wish I had more time to look at it - not to mention the funds to just walk up to the counter and buy it. You don't came across a find like that very often so you gotta jump when you get the chance. Cath's Rickenbacker was bought under similar circumstances...

The first jam session went amazingly well. It was exactly that - a series of about five or six 20 to 30 minute space jams. About two hours of stuff. Jez just sent me one session recording over 45 minutes long. I think it has a couple of jams in it though. Surprisingly good. Sounds swell - the name is fitting. We all seem to complement each other well. It actually had really good flow to it. We started out with a Verve cover of Beautiful Mind which sounded almost as good or better than the original at times. It's too bad Jez forgot to press play on the recorder for that one... After a few glasses of wine and few hours of playing my head was spinning quite nicely. I downed a couple of Tylenol, with a little more wine of course, and decided it was time to call it quits and go for some of Caths famous nachos - besides Katya needed some attention too.

The nacho's are amazing! Every time! When Jez was younger he used to get ahold of Cath's date planner and schedule in nacho days for himself. Basically what happens is this. Someone comes for nacho day for the first time thinking "nachos are nachos - how good could they be really".

Cath goes to work employing a few of us to help prepare stuff like fresh peppers and cheese and stuff. A bag of Tostito's mini rounds are baked in the oven for about ten minutes to help them get crispy. She swirls up some hamburg with taco seasoning mixed in and whips up a package of the nacho cheese dip. The seasoned hamburg is placed over the nacho's as is freshly grated cheese, Pace salsa, chopped tomatoes and green peppers and the cheese sauce is spread over it. The tray is placed back in the oven for about ten more minutes or until the cheese is good and melted. Finally, when it's taken out of the oven again, the whole thing is blanketed lightly in sour cream. Now its ready to serve. After a few bites the nacho virgins nod and agree that they are the best nacho's they have ever had. By the end, they are just raving about them quite stunned and amazed. From that day forth, any time nacho's are mentioned again they just start drooling remembering said 'Cath's nachos' experience. Not only that but at some point you realize you can never order nachos at a restaurant again because they really suck now in comparison. Yesterday we welcomed Ry, his wife and Craig into Cath's nacho world.

I'm Still Alive

2004-10-16T09:08:00.000-04:00

Listening to: My daughter humming while eating her corn pops

My life is a whirlwind. I don't have anything specific I want to say - just feel the need to start slipping back into the fake Blogger world again.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a new post-concert mix for the Interpol show we went to on Wednesday night. Usually I put them together to listen to on the way to the show adn make extra copies for everyone along too but life wouldn't allow. A sonic collage of influences such as The Chameleons and Joy Division; other early eighties avant garde bands like Bauhaus, the Bunnymen and P.I.L.; contemporaries like the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and The Killers; a track from a demo of one of the opening bands (Hail Social)and oh yeah... mid 90's band Adorable - I really love them; all interspliced with healthy doses of Interpol's rhyming guitar layerings, pulsating rythms and of course the Ian Curtis'ish vocals.

The show itself was excellent. Good quality sound, decent lights, technically sound, they played very, very well and we got to hear most of thier best stuff. The typical laid back Toronto crowd was, well... typical and therefore there was no second encore which probably would have yeilded Stella and The New - otherwise it was all there. At various stages of the evening I felt so many different emotions - elation, frustration, joy, fear, sadness, irritation.... and so it goes. I bought both Interpol albums on vinyl for twenty bucks a piece - quite reasonable in my books seeing as I payed forty for my tour copy of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's last album at thier show. My copy of Turn On The Bright Lights also happened to be the very last one, it being the one stuck to the table. They sound superb but I think I need a new needle. I don't think it's ever been replaced.

Oh well, my post is totally about music - again. Surprise, surprise!! Hope I'm not gettiong too predicatable...

I'll try to keep you posted regularly again.

AAAAARGH!!!!! And Chinese Bombs

2004-10-06T10:32:00.000-04:00

Listening to: shuffle consisting of Interpol - Antics, Brian Wilson presents Smile, Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister, Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (single) and The Flaming Lips -Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

If I sound a little disturbed right now it's because this post was nearly done and the new kitten walked on the keyboard and deleted it. Not to mention all the fresh snags in my jeans from the thing constantly launching itself high enough to latch onto the side of my lap and pull himself up while I'm sitting here. I don't know how I ended up being dragged into this....

On a differenet note...

Well I fed the addiction. Bought cds. I just can't help myself when I go into a good cd store. I went in to buy ONE Interpol cd for consumption before next Wednesdays concert. I bought both of thier cds cuz they were both finally affordable enough; as in not nearly $30 each like any other time I've checked. Well, three more albums, five singles, two Ltd Edition best of's, and a birthday gift later...

Ok a funny thing happened at the local county fair yesterday. It was what they simply call "fair day" in these parts where every kid from every school gets a day off to hang out in one giant swirling mass with every kid from every other school. Its quite a spectacle. Thousands of kids dressed relatively all the same - each one claiming that they're expressing thier own individuality.... Anyways, that's not the funny thing.... I finally showed up just after lunch. The wife, the Chinese border student, the daughter, and her friend from JK had already been there a few hours taking in the odd ride and consuming absurd amounts of overpriced but oh so tasty fair food.(There really is no food like fair food is there?Mmmmm.... sticky fudge!) Naturally, I asked them how it had been going and then specifically asked Winney (the student) what she thought of it all. She said she enjoyed it but there were too many people. I smirked. I couldn't help myself. I quickly shot back "Too many people??? but you're from China..."

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

2004-10-01T18:33:00.000-04:00

Listeing to : Love Burns by BRMC (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)

Dog tired but I don't care. Spent the mornin talking on the phone, hanging with Juner shopping, and practicing guitar. Since then I've been on this thing in various capacities chatting and checkin stuff out.

The last two hours I spent conversing back and forth with Jez and Ry bout the new project, trying to sort out a few details. Directions. Influences. Drummer options. No concrete plans though. Interesting though, at one point I asked Ry if he liked the Sundays just out of curiosity. He laughed and told me he was currently listening to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - thier first album from like 1990. Great album if you like Smiths style guitar playing by the way. Also a very weird coincidence. Here's a band that has sort of disappeared over the years; I rarely meet anyone who has even heard of the band before I mention them, and here's this guy that I barely know playing what I would consider a more obscure record these days, right when I ask him about them. He also would have been in about grade seven when it came out. Jeesh, I was still into Howard Jones and Tears For Fears back when I was in grade seven. Just found the whole thing strange that's all.

At one point Ry asked me if music seems as real or impactful as it once did in my life. Here was my collective answer...

The only kind of music that I think is truly real is worship. That will truly last. That is the only kind of music that I find, almost always satisfies. (OK the good stuff like Paul Oakley) For most other music it can still be powerfully impactful ; especially on the right stereo , and even better if its on vinyl on the right stereo. I still find bands like the Verve, Spiritualized, and Slowdive breathtakingly gorgeous almost every time I hear them. And although it still sounds amazing you have to learn to accept that its different than that sense of wonder you had the first time. That's the drug-like part of it. Finding the next high. Chasing the musical dragon so to speak. In that way, people like us are junkies. You eventually have to realize that chasing that high won't ever satisfy very long, and that you have to learn to appreciate the music you've discovered already. Learn to listen to it and enjoy it for what it is every time you hear it. Then it begins to satisfy again. Although it can never truly satisfy, I still think we're here to experience and enjoy all this life has to offer. Part of that is musical exploration. It's such a vast beautiful realm, its almost infinite in that way. I beleive that's part of its appeal as well, since theoretically God is infinite, and whether people want to admit it or not, almost everyone in one way or another gravitates toward the infinite.

Fresh Wind...?

2004-09-29T18:08:00.000-04:00

Listening to: The Verve - Urban Hymns

Sorry that last one was laced with impending gloom. On another front I may have found another creative outlet.

A few years ago we created this band called Nebula Seven. It was designed as a totally free flowing, mellow, spacey, and spontanious, worship band. Totally dripping in layers of guitars and swirling effects and a feel the flow type of groove to it. Our idea was "Sing to the Lord a new song..." and we did. Every time. We played a couple of shows before we dissipated into other projects and parenthood. I found out later that there were quite a few kids who saw those shows that were blown away by them. They had never heard or seen anything like it before, and never have again sadly.

Recently I got to chatting with an acquaintance from St.Catharines about an upcoming show and he said that Jez - my former bassist and good buddy who now lives there, was really wanting to get something like that together again in the near future. He wanted Cath to play bass and me to play guitar and sing while he and Ry filled out the rest with whatever drummer we could dig up. I'm excited about the prospect of it - it's been ages since I played anything relatively relevant. Even just thinking about it breathes a little life back into me. For some reason I want to call the project Abacus...we'll see. Seldom do these things ever come to fruition anyways. I'll have to keep you posted.

When the Sun Hits...

2004-09-29T17:55:00.000-04:00

Listening to : "When the Sun Hits" by Slowdive

I realized I haven't said anything here in a while.
Feeling quite mellow right now.
Tired. Of everything.
Monotony.
Resurgingly dull days.
Eating. Sleeping - barely.
My daughter is lovely.
Music is lovely - but bittersweet.
Not much else...
That can be said anyways.
Sorry.
I'll smile when the sun hits again.

...And Into Lee's Palace

2004-09-25T20:53:00.000-04:00

Listening to : Weeping Willow by the Verve

So I know you're all dying to find out how the Trashcan's concert went. And if you're not, well too bad...

First, thanks to those who expressed concern about the mention of my little traffic accident last week. It was only one of those "granny on scooter pulls out in front of car ahead of you and you have no time to react and hit aforementioned car ahead of you leaving us drivers to deal with police while granny putts along obliviously on her merry way " type of accidents. No injuries to my knowledge but its always nice to know you all care...

So back to the Trash...

To say the whole night went perfect would sound like too much of a cliche but to say anything else would be inaccurate.

We got there early. I know some of you will be astounded to hear that, but we aren't late for everything. We walked right up to the doors - they were unlocked, unguarded and the sound coming out was unmistakeable. We walked right in and stood at the back of Lee's listening to them play thier soundcheck. We were both smiling. No one kicked us out - no one else was even there. The band even stopped and asked if we were the opener. I just kept grinning and said "I wish". They proceded to play "Funny" like it was a special treat for just us. I say that because it wasn't part of the set later on - we were the only ones to hear it that night. It was instrumental and I was so awestruck my tongue got twisted and bent and I couldn't remember the words. After a couple of newer songs, the opener finally arrived, they cleared off, and we exited excited with one of the promo posters from the wall and even more anticipation for the show.

They finally came on again shortly after eleven. We had already bought some shwag and had wandered just feet from the stage, camped out in front of the lead guitarist and the bassist with no one in between us and the stage. To my surprise none of them played a Rickenbacker. Even more surprising was that the lead guitarist was playing a Tokai which is what I play currently. But really, it's never all that important what you play - it's what it sounds like that matters. What was to follow simply amazed. Sweetness. Blissed out. Aural pleasure. Swirly. Jangly. Stellar. There are so many words to describe the sound they bring. Each song seemed to be a sun-soaked masterpiece. At one point toward the end of "January's Little Joke" I almost started to cry at the gorgeous sound swells; I literally had tears in my eyes -I've never done that at a concert before. The harmonies by the drummer and rhythm guitarist were so lush as well. They wowed the crowd for nearly two whole hours.

The place was a little more than half-full but it was one of the loudest most appreciative crowds I've ever heard. Crowds in Toronto tend to have an "I've seen everything so you better be extra good" type attitude with regards to cheering for encores. Like they're too cool to clap otherwise. But this crowd wouldn't give up even when it became evident that they had no intention of playing a second encore. We were loud, we were persistant and, well... we still really wanted to hear "Obscurity Knocks". They re-emerged noticably tired and touched. They did not disappoint. We got the song we wanted and an extra tune to boot and everyone trickled out elated and abuzz.

We snuck around behind the club shortly afterward. The car park was back there but so was the back door so we hung around looking over the set list we had pulled off the stage for a few minutes, waiting to see whether anyone showed . The guitarist came out after a few minutes much to the dismay of his pissy American manager. Really nice fellow - the guitarist, not the manager. He remembered us from the soundcheck and was more than happy to get our copy of the new album signed for us. He came back out and handed the cd back all covered in fresh ink. He stayed a bit and chatted with us about Tokai's, overreacting managers and whether we could notice how wrecked he was on stage. We had. But it never showed up in his guitar work so we told him we forgave him.

We slowly walked back to the car park, treasures in hand and just enjoying what had unfolded that night. We were about to leave when we realized we were hungry and wanted some food. We took off again in search of sausage vendors and ended up finding a little Greek shop that served gourmet pizza, Pepsi and baklava - at 1:AM in the morning no less!! We should have got way more baklava - it was soooo good. Little layers of fine pastry dripping with honey and walnuts. Yumm.

Perfect ending. Perfect concert. Perfect time to go to bed....

Out of the Trashcan...

2004-09-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

Listening to: The Trash Can Sinatras - To Sir With Love

Tonight we go see The Trash Can Sinatras. Never thought it would happen. Goes along with a bunch of other "never-thought-it-would-happen" shows like The Bunnymen, Bauhaus, and Primal Scream; the list goes on... Of course these boys from Scotland aren't on the same scale popularity-wise but that doesn't make them any less meaningful to a junkie like me. Thier debut album "Cake" is truly a forgotton sonic gem. With sweet Rickenbacker laced melodies galore; text laden with Scot wit and charm; and helped along by the genius and lush production of John Leckie (who also produced the Stone Roses first album) they began to cause a stir. However, these guys were starting to get popular just before the big grunge explosion. Most of the sweeter sounding bands that were beginning to blossom at that time were being swallowed up and spit out and virtually ignored in the wake of the mammoth waves Nirvana had helped create; namely a thirst for anything thick, rough and angsty.
At the time I was still finishing up my "I don't listen to anything but the Cure or bands that sound like the Cure" phase, but I always remembered them. I didn't even buy the album 'till a few years later (I think during my "Wow how could I have missed out on a band as good as the StoneRoses" phase). My wife had a couple of tracks on a sampler and loved them and begged me for ages to get the cd. I finally broke down at Christmas one year and bought it for her. It grew on me. It grew some more. It eventually became one of my desert island disks along with the Smiths, Verve, Roses....

I am currently making a mix featuring most of these bands, to listen to on the trek to Toronto. There's not a lot of variety of sound here, but that's not the point either. This mix tries to capture a "Trash Can"ish feel throughout.

1. The Trash Can Sinatras - Obscurity Knocks
2. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
3. The Boo Radley's - Barney (and Me)
4. The Trash Can Sinatras - Thrupenny Tears
5. Coldplay - Sparks
6.The Trash Can Sinatras - Best Mans Fall
7.Echo and the Bunnymen - What Are You Gonna Do With Your Life?
8.The Blue Aeroplanes - World View Blue
9.The Trash Can Sinatras - Funny
10.Travis - Driftwood
11.The Trash Can Sinatras - Bloodrush
12.The La's - Timeless Melody
13.The Sundays - My Finest Hour
14.The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing
15.The Trash Can Sinatras - Snow
16.The Ocean Blue - I've Sung One Too Many Songs For A Crowd That Did Not Want To Hear
17.The Smiths - The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
18.The Stone Roses - Where Angels Play
19.The Sundays - Goodbye
20.The Trash Can Sinatras - To Sir With Love

Larger than LIFE

2004-09-20T09:32:00.000-04:00

Listening to: High Speed by Coldplay

It's been four days since I've seen a computer screen. Sorry, you've all seemed to have slipped off my radar. The usual excuses though; work, friends, band practises, too many movies to watch, car accident, golf tournament (I got closest to the pin), and the standard not enough sleep. I just finished eating a bowl of cereal that I poured for myself 3 days ago. However due to the fact that we had been too busy to get any groceries in a while, I couldn't pour the milk 'till just now. I'm impressed - Cinnamon Life cereal doesn't lose its crunchiness even after being left out on the counter for a couple of days.

This short bit is about one of the kids in my foursome.

Nathan stood at the final tee off. He'd had a really poor game so far up to his own standards but was still on top and had managed to pile up a few bragging rights along the way. He was able to barely squeak the ball past the previous leader for the Clunker award (swinging the opposite way with only one hand ) on the last hole, but decided to bow out since he had already won the longest drive on hole four. If he did well on this final hole he would be able to claim the lowest score as well. He needed a par to tie and a birdie to win the tournament. The previous team had just finished playing out and were watching from the edge of the grass on the cart path.

The sign read 170 yards, no problem for a good eight iron. He lined himself up, took a mighty swing and shook his head in disgust. He saw the ball jump off his club and knew it was heading long and to the right. With his head down he grimmaced and envisioned throwing the faulty club down the hill from the terrace but simply took a swat at the royal blue tee blocks and walked toward his chuckling caddie. As he looked up he heard wild shouting and whistling coming from the distant four-man gallery. They were waving and pointing franticly at the green. The ball had smacked the big old pine to the far right of the hole, took a wicked bounce and landed 15 feet from the pin on the green. He grinned all the way over to finish off with par and his share in the win.

Hockey Night In Canada

2004-09-15T09:26:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Every day Should Be A Holiday - The Dandy Warhols

Wow!!
Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep!
Been a long time, Been a long time, Been a....
Been a few weeks since anyways.
I woke up groaning and was about roll over and sleep some more when I realized that I was just in time to see the final two periods of Canadian national hockey team knocking off the Finnish. Probably the last bit of hockey we'll see in a long time.

While at work last night, there was a girl wearing a Canadian hockey team logo shirt.
Well this girl was known to be a bit clueless and so I began to wonder whether she was actually wearing the shirt in celebration of our victorious global hockey dominance or whether it was just one big coincidence.
Now I would say that a good portion of the workers in just about every Canadian factory would know that Canada was at least involved in the World Cup tourney and many would also probably know that tonight they were in the final - especially ones actually wearing a Team Canada shirt.
I asked her if she had watched the game...
She replied, "Who was playing".

From Just the Other Side of the Middle of Nowhere

2004-09-13T10:15:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Playgirl by Ladytron

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've had about 8 hrs sleep since Thursday afternoon to go along with a very busy, busy weekend.

Friday night:

Had 1 hr of sleep.
Dropped off C.E. at work.
Bought new Killers album. Killer album.
Took daughter to Wendy's
See June's Blog.
Had to go to work till 3 due to strange, yet annoying scheduling conflict.
2hrs of sleep.

Saturday:
Drove to Burnt River with the family and honorary family member for the day - Ginny, to see recently moved friends and thier family. Strangely enough, I had never been in thier house while they lived here just blocks away, but now that they've moved 3 and a half hours away thought I would give it a try...
They describe finding this place as being "just the other side of the middle of nowhere".
When we finally get off the main roads closer to thier area, which they call Canada's version of redneck country, there is a makeshift roadsign made up of a broken off piece of plywood and the words "SLOW DOWN - TONY" painted haphazardly on it.
The trees were growing wild on both sides of the roads in thier "neighborhood", forming a canopy over most of them. It was quite lovely.
Got there. Ate food. Hung out on back deck.
I was sitting on this newer rather comfy lawnchair which they informed me was adjustable. For a few seconds I jokingly moved it to the most upright position and then gently lifted the arms to lean back. POP! Thwack! My upper body went missing as I had popped the arms out of the slot and went all the way down to the ground. I was still so tired, not to mentioned shocked, I just sat/lay there for a while just stunned and unable to move. Glad I'm a little more flexible these days. I slowly pulled myself up from my hyperextended position. Everyone was laughing at me - very hard. Jodi snorted quite loudly a few times after not breathing for like a minute in the build-up.
We went in shortly after. It was quite hot out surprisingly.
Went out for french fries and ice cream.
Played rousing game of Scrabble. The wives were a team - and somehow managed to giggle thier way into using every triple word score that came available. I think they cheated somehow but then again C.E. does have an English degree. In my defence I did manage to use my "Z" on a triple letter score while making the rather lacklustre but still efficient word "zoo".
Ate. Watched hockey and read GQ.
Got home at 3 AM.
Had to get up for 8:00 band practice. 4hrs sleep.

Sunday:
Had six croissants with jam for breakfast. Yummm....
Explained to kids the facts about pulling bread apart being much tastier, as well as aestheticly pleasing, over just plain biting into a croissant.
Typical lazy Sunday schedule sans-Wendy's.
Played worship.
It rocked.
I love my new guitar...

Sorry if this post sucked - I'm so freakin tired. I hope you can still love me in the morning/evening.

Bye.

A Slice of Life

2004-09-10T13:55:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Toast - Streetband

Well I suppose since I added a few people to the links I should probably adda few words to the plodding literary world of, well... me.

Last night my friend John called. I knew something was up. He sounded a little quiet but just as happy as always to talk to me. He's a teacher. I believe he's a very good teacher - you can just tell he has the gift for communicating with kids. He's also just gone through a heavy dose of chemo treatments within the last year. With the new school year under way, he's really tired and needs his rest and called to let me know our meetings would have to be postponed for a little while. Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed, but I understand totally and wish him peace.

On a different note, I'm going to start another sideBlog called "Confessions of a Music Junkie" . Naturally it brings to light how I ended up with such an obsurdly huge music collection as well as the dark and the dorky highlights of my listening habits. ( I know I mentioned some of this as a response to Varinbird's suggestion but this is for those who didn't read the comments that far back.)Oh yeah,in case you're itching to know, girl, its a Pet Shop Boys 12" single - West End Girls. You'll have to wait for the post to hear the rest of the story.

My wife just handed me eggs ... eggs and cheese resembling some sort of omelette. No 'toast' though. Oh well....Gotta go.

Food for Thought

2004-09-07T19:47:00.000-04:00

The car was hot. It was getting late. Cath wasn't there yet.

I was kinda hungry so I checked out the fish place acrosss the road from the parking lot. She said they closed at ten but that I could use the phone to call for a pizza.

- Sure what's the number?

She winked and told me the number and I punched them in.

- Can I help you?

- Yeah, um... I want some pizza...

- Pick-up or delivery?

- Hee hee, delivery.... to the parking lot in front of Battersea Fish House.... the one by the river. What place is this anyway?

- Chicago Pizza .... What would you like on it?

- Oh yeah, um.... well pepperoni and ....hmmm .... what kind of mushrooms do you have?

- I'm sorry??

- Like do they come out of a can or do you buy them from the fresh food section at the supermarket every day....

- Oh, no, I guess they're fresh sir...

- Good, those too and ... mmmmm..... that'll be good.

- That'll be 17 something..... ( I don't remember the rest)

I asked the waitress if I could use the facilities. She smiled sweetly and nodded. She turned out the lights as we left the kitchen.

For some reason it took forever in the men's room. I knew by the time I got out that Cath would be there looking annoyed and wondering where I'd taken off to again. Sure enough, she was standing there by the car in her pretty blue sundress, locked out, looking annoyed and wondering where I'd taken off to .... again.

- I ordered pizza?

-ok

As I was about to cross the road, this stocky young bald guy with large gold earrings in both ears and a white apron that had Chicago pizza written across the front, pushes a shopping cart up to me and asked if I ordered pizza. He looked more like a bouncer than a delivery kid.

- How'd you get here so fast?

- Subway ....

He was walking backward as he spoke and then turned around almost jogging as if he had to get back to do his next shopping cart/subway delivery. He just left the shopping cart there with these two huge armslength wedges of pizza in it and I was thinking like man I just paid 17 bucks for two big slices of pizza. I wonder how big the freakin pan was....

I'm Back ... Sort Of ...

2004-09-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Suede - The Asphalt World

It's still gnawing at me to no end that I'm finding it difficult to fill in the blanks here. The story is getting a bit repetitive isn't it. I promise it won't be forever. I'll find my groove baby - Yeah!!

I suppose this is kinda similar to the whole "purple monkeys" scenario where someone tells you not to think of purple monkeys eating socks while swinging from the chandelier for the next ten minutes and all you can think about for most of the next ten minutes is purple monkeys... you know. Except this is kinda like in reverse. I say to myself I'm gonna write a Blog post for the next ten minutes and for the next however long nothing shows up of any interest. I try to remember stuff that happened during the day that was in any way interesting. Nothing I would want to read about. I even try to remember that thing I was supposed to remember because it would be a good thing to write about in my Blog. Gone... Maybe I just have to start keeping a notepad on me always to remind myself to remember things. I'm sure interesting things happen around me all the time. Maybe I'm just too self absorbed to notice. Hmmmm....

How about you all just asking me a question or something in my comments as a means to generating some sort of starting point. Means to a beginning. Sounds like the opposite of some old Joy Division song...

Easy Rider

2004-09-04T18:32:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Motorcycle - Love and Rockets

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I don't think I'll put many of these test results on my Blog but I kinda liked this one. Of course I had to tailor make my immediate listening habits to coincide with such a cool flick for Blogger purposes but hey, it's just my way of maintaining a calm, cool environment.

Speaking of calm, cool and in this case clean environments; thanks to Juner our basement is somewhat liveable now. After hours of moving boxes around, sorting toys and puzzle pieces, sifting through videos and vinyl and moving yet more boxes around,I might be able to work out again. I had to dismantle the Soloflex since our new student arrived. She is currently occupying the bedroom where it once resided. Now that I've set it up in the middle of our cold, hard basement floor, starting Monday I may be able to pump rubber again.

2004-09-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Spiritualized - Things'll Never Be The Same

Can't sleep again. Can't say why.
I mean, I know why, just can't say. Too many eyes.

Had stuff to tell you all yesterday but time wouldn't allow. It's sort of dated now. The moment's gone.

Tonight I meet with John. We try to meet every week on Thursday. Sometimes on Wednesday. He's over 50 and bald and listens to Rancid and Thievery Corperation. We really relate well to eachother. We just talk about whatever most of the time - cars, tunes, you know, the usual stuff that "whatever" implies for guys but I know if I really need to "talk" he's there. I've never really had someone like him to just hang out and talk with like that 'till we started a few months ago.
I was never really close to my dad growing up - he was quite different than me in my eyes back then and, to be truthful, I didn't really like him. He died when I was 17 and I really didn't know how to feel. I really miss him now though. I think I would like him. He liked the Beatles and the Doors and the Zombies and Bob Dylan. I love them all now but to a kid growing up on Depeche Mode and the Cure, I wasn't interested. Sometimes I wish I could just sit down with him chat about "whatever".
Obviously, John can never be my dad but I love him like one and really appreciate where he fits in my life.
I'm sure I'll talk more about him later.

Where Is My Mind?

2004-08-30T19:56:00.000-04:00

Listening to: Sigur Ros - Untitled Track #7

Seems now that I've started this Blog thing I can't find anything to say to fill it up. All the thoughts, all the interesting ideas, clever commentary on life's little quirks, basically every reason I had for embarking on this literary venture has seemed to disappear from my head. Can someone please let me know if they see a little mess of brain remnants resembling something relevant (there's that word again) that I might have wanted to say?

Curious About Curiosa?

2004-08-27T13:16:00.000-04:00

This was supposed to have been a Blog about two weeks ago - it ended up an M.I.A. e-mail that Juner never received. Still thought it was worthy enough to warrent a retro-active posting as well as being a suitable diversion tactic until something of relevance strikes me. (Still waiting - sorry Erin!!)

So it went something like this...

August 9th.
2 hrs of sleep.
Dropped off our nearly, nausiatingly sweet daughter at our
best-friend-in-the-whole-wide world's house to play with her two energetic kids for the night.
Picked up 3 of our other older adopted kids anticipating a great show.
Still no catalogues at Ikea.
Went on a very long on-ramp for QEW, with a gas station and a car
dealership among other things.
Parked.
Peed.
Stood in line admiring the rag tag collection of beautiful people
amongst the strange and the wacko.
There were more aviator style sunglasses there than at your average
police convention.
There were no thin mustaches.

Sidenote - There were much more good looking guys than women for some
strange reason. I loved the hipster hair that many of the guys
had. I really wish my hair was straighter sometimes so i could pull
off some of those looks. I'm no gay guy, but some of these guys were
really good looking - at times I found myself watching them more than the
girls. With girls it was the fragrance. Man there were a lot of really
hot smelling women there. There were a few times when I was walking to
get somewhere and I would catch a yummy stream of air just as I was
passing by some girl. I just wanted to stop, turn around, and follow
them around for a while. It was like catching a waft of Cath when
she's wearing her patchouli stuff as she was on this particular day, except there were
hundred's of them - all smelling fine with so many different arousing
fragrances.

Pointed out several "original" Cure fans with greying hair and
deteriorating complexions.
Bought overpriced shwag.
Bought overpriced sausage.
Threw out a third of disappointing overpriced sausage.

The first Band - Head Automatica - 2nd stage.

Pushed way to very front.

The lead singer looked like a Portuguese version of a flamin' James Brown on crack.
High energy. Velour shirt. Dark pretty boy spikee in the front hair.
Sang with a limp wrist.

Guiarist nearest me - flying vee - 'nuff said.

Guitarist furthest away - very tall with hair longer than mine but
straight. Skinny as a rail with an open shirt and white skin tight
jeans (eww). His legs were as thin as saplings. Yet still appeared to be there more for his appearance than any playing ability he displayed.

Drummer - very drummerlike.

Music - not worth my while. Tried but didn't enjoy it.
High on energy but low on substance.

Back to the main stage for Mogwai.

The band needs no high energy schtick to make them seem good.
Although the music was too quiet and the dynamics involved don't translate as
well for such a large venue, they were still breathtakingly
beautiful. I really, really love the way they create. They drift for a while
on the same sweet melody and then always seem to take my breath away
with some swelling transition and yet it sounds like - yeah, those
notes were always meant to be played together that way and they just
invented the coolest way to do it. It's hard for me to explain if you
didn't understand all that.

Insert sausage story here.

Decided to skip Cooper Temple Clause at stage #2 upon hearing thier
opener (which sounded too much like the first side band) while in
sausage line.
Decided to go see rest of Cooper Temple Clause after hearing second
song which seemed to have a lot more intriguing qualities to it.
They all had beards and British accents.
A really cool mix of synth and layered guitars with some pretty laid back vocals.
A little mellow - a little funky.
A little better than expected.
A lot impressed.
Will dig out a cd if cheap enough or at least download a few.
Thought about growing yet another beard...

Back to main stage for The Rapture.
You've seen them - they're fun.
They were good again.
House of the Jealous Lovers still kicks funky butt...
Set was definitely not long enough.

Took a break during Auf Der Maur.
Chilled a bit and scoured the remnants of individuals who didn't trek
over to see re-invented Hole bassist.
Offered one guy obscene amount of cash for the Slowdive shirt whe was wearing.

Interpol - main stage.

Only mainstage act I hadn't seen before and therefore highly anticipated.

Very, very good.
Very clean set.
Best sound quality mix of the night - clarity speaking.
Was very impressed and long to see them in a more intimate setting.
Came as advertised - Joy Division meets the Chameleons and tight as a... well lets just say really tight set.
The bassist had a real Gary Numan circa 1981 look about him. Black suit pants, dark red shirt and black suspenders and an ultra black 80's retro haircut. Nasty.

Caught a good chunk of the Muse show.
Three piece from the UK.
Heavy rock meets Radiohead; some of the stuff was almost like it was borrowed from classical music, translated into classic rock and then melded with Thom Yorke's vocals.
The singer had a huge ego though.
As if he was trying to show up the main stage acts...
Very cocky.
Somewhat annoying.
Very good.
Will download.

The Cure

See Cath's Blog.
I don't think they know how to put on a poor show and this was no exception.

I'll mention my hilights:

Plainsong was second out of the box, totally unexpected and greatly
appreciated by all. Musical grandeur.

One Hundred Years kicks ass - no other way to put it.

The Promise - although it was the final song on the latest album (as
well as the first set) and therefore not quite a favourite yet cuz
I've only heard it like twice, it really blew me away. Mesmerizing.

All 3 songs they did for the encore were from thier 2nd album - 17 Seconds - less familiar to the crowd but hey - it's the Cure - every album they released in the 80's was amazing.
A real treat for a real fan.
Also, after another monumental performance of thier signature live gem
A Forest, they unleashed what I originally thought to be an improvised version
of Three with spontaneous lyrics and more meaty music to it.
It dawned on me a few days later that it was actually the coolest thing ever that could have been played at a Cure showand I didn't even realize it at the time. It was the long lost live track Forever - only ever heard on early bootlegs or else the ever rare Curiosity - which was solely available as the second side of the cassette version of thier 1984 live album simply called "concert". This was my favourite song as a mopey quasi-goth teen-aged Cure-head. I knew every song on every album back then and I had forgotton it after years of Brit-pop, indie and electronica not to mention I had totally abandonned them for a long, long while after they penned the unforgivable Wild Mood Swings album. It was still totally amazing and breathtaking to watch - but to recognize it while it was being played would have made it that much cooler.
Thanks again Robert for another great concert memory.

The only problem with the show was Ontario Place's 11 o'clock 'cure'few
which saw them stop about an hour short of the 3 hour marathons they
usually put on.
They did squeek on an extra 15 minutes though.
So many favourites - so little time.

So that was it.
Great show.
Ginny and Craig's first taste of real live music.
A swell evening for all.

A Blog

2004-08-23T13:39:00.000-04:00

Well here it is. I've finally Blogged. I hope yer all real happy now!

This is all I can write right now cuz Juner's gotta do hers now. Here I go - I'm gonna hit "Publish Post" now.

See you all later when I actually have something relevant to say.