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Archive for the ‘Michael Winter’ Category

Michael Winter–“What He Saw” (The Walrus, June 2006)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Michael Winter, Sex, Short Story, Stars, The Walrus, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel on May 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STARS-Tiny Desk Concert #108 (February 3, 2011).

Stars are a wonderful Canadian band who play pop songs with a very dark undercurrent.  They’re the kind of band that’s so easy to sing along to until you realize just what you’re singing.

This is the shortest Tiny Desk show that I’ve heard so far–it’s barely ten minutes in total.  The performers are singers Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell with an acoustic guitar accompaniment.  And they sound wonderful.

They play two songs from their newest album The Five Ghosts (which I have only streamed online and have to admit I didn’t love as much as their earlier discs).  The songs sound wonderfully impassioned in this strip down format.  (Perhaps I didn’t give Ghosts a fair listen).  They also play one old, classic song, “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” which sounds great as well.

It’s a nice little dose of unplugged Stars.

[READ: March 17, 2011] “What He Saw”

This was a very short (less than three pages) story and the whole process seemed to be so effortless, that I wound up being disappointed by it.

It’s a very simple story of a couple on vacation.  They have a fight (again) and she storms off the beach into the water leaving Gus by himself with his sketches (he’s an artist).  She swims out as far as she can–to the rope that cordons off the yachts that are docked there.

When she reaches the rope, she sees a couple on a buoy by the boats.  She swims to the couple and starts chatting.  She learns a bit about them and then sees that not only is she topless (it is Europe after all), but that they are both bottomless as well.  She has clearly interrupted something, but they don’t seem to mind.  Indeed, the man seems to be encouraging her to come closer to them. (more…)

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Michael Winter–”Billy Bennett” (The Walrus, July /August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Demons, Drinking, Drugs, Michael Winter, Said the Whale, The Walrus on June 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SAID THE WHALE-“Gentleman” (2009).

This song starts out simply enough, a folky bouncey song.  It’s an almost harmless song, almost easily forgotten.  And yet there’s something about it that raises it above songs that typically sound like this.  Enough, that is to make me want to listen to it again.

When I investigated the Said the Whale page on CBC Radio 3, I learned that they’re from Vancouver.  But more importantly I learned that they have a number of songs with great titles.

Delightfully, “Wanting like Varuna” lives up to its title.  It’s evidently on their 2009 Christmas EP.  It’s a wild rollicking song with an awesomely catchy chorus, “everybody wants: they want, they want, they want, they waaant.”  And about half way through, the song switches directions completely: a new time signature, from a slow pop song to a wild syncopated jazzy motif.

That song appears to be an anomaly as the third song I chose was their most popular on the station: “This City’s a Mess.”  It starts again as a slow folky number.  But it gradually gets louder and more chaotic.  It’s very catchy, and also more interesting than “Gentleman.”

I’m not sure I’d set out to listen to them, but I enjoyed hearing the songs.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Billy Bennett”

These stories continue to get darker and darker.  What does this say about Canadian writers, or people’s opinions of their homeland?

Billy Bennett is a ne’er do well.  He has a criminal record, several smashed cars in his recent past and a drinking problem. (more…)

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Greg Hollingshead–“Whyte Avenue Blue,” David Bergen–“Just the Thing,” Charlotte Gill–“Terminal City,” Donna Morrissey–“Red Carpet Caper,” Michael Winter–“Beyond the Overpass,” Heather O’Neill–“The End of Pinky” (The Walrus, January/February 2008)

Posted in Canadian Content, Charlotte Gill, David Bergen, Donna Morrissey, Gangsters, Greg Hollingshead, Heather O'Neill, King's X, LGBTQ, Michael Winter, Noir, Sex, Short Story, The Walrus, Threats, Violence on October 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Ogre Tones (2005).

No one should be made to feel ALONE! And with that Kings X are back.  It’s the most aggressive scream I’ve heard from King’s X (and it comes from Ty, not Doug no less).

After what seemed like something of a hiatus with Black Like Sunday and Live All Over the Place, King’s X seem rejuvenated and excited to be rocking out.  Despite the hardcore opening scream of “Alone,” the song is their catchiest single yet.  Lyrically the song is about tolerance and compassion.  Its also pretty short (just under 3 minutes), as are the next 4 songs.  It’s as if they had these great ideas and just had to get them out.  “Stay”  returns to the style of old King’s X, with a minor change: it’s the vocal harmonies that are dissonant not the guitars.  “Hurricane” also tinkers with the formula where part of the chorus revels in their harmonies of old and the other part plays with a new aspect: gang vocals, bringing power rather than subtlety.  “Fly” is yet another great shoulda-been a single.  And “If”is yet another Stellar ballad, where Doug sings verses and harmonies bring in the chorus.

A controversial song (for fans anyway) is “Bebop.”  This is one of their experimental tracks, and it kind of hearkens back to some of the tracks off of Bulbous with very staccato guitars, unusual bass lines and the nonsense lyrics of “Bebop be alive ya’ll. Awhop boba lo bop a wop bam boom!.”  While it’s not their best work, it’s certainly catchy as anything, and I give them credit for throwing in some experimentation.  And frankly, it’s pretty fun if you loosen up a bit.

The next few tracks play with the basic formula of the album, until you get to “Sooner or Later” which, lets Ty noodle around on the guitar for 5 or 6 minutes, like an extended jam off of Faith Hope Love.  “Mudd” ends the album proper with a really touching, sweet song.  It could easily fit on Gretchen.

The last two songs I don’t really count.  “Goldilox (Reprise)” is, as you might guess a remake of “Goldilox.” I don’t know why they’d remake one of their most beloved songs.  Aside from the fact that they’ve been playing it since 1987, and the band has changed their style somewhat, they could show everyone what it would sound like if they made it now.  Otherwise, why bother.  It does sound good, mind you, but the original sounds better.  The last track, “Bam” is a historical recording of Thomas Edison’s phonograph.  It’s a weird way to end a record.  But nothing can take away from the fact that King’s X are back in form and they still sound great.

[READ: October 24, 2008] “Whyte Avenue Blue,” “Just the Thing,” “Terminal City,” “Red Carpet Caper,” “Beyond the Overpass,” “The End of Pinky”

I had put off reading these stories because I was in the middle of a couple of other things at the time.  When I finally got around to reading them (and they’re all very short…about a page or two each) I had forgotten that the “theme” behind the stories was noir.  When I started reading them, I kept thinking…none of these stories is even remotely believable.  It’s like the authors are trying really hard to craft stories that are transgressive, almost beyond belief in some way.  Well, when I re-read the sub-heading for the stories, I realized: “The Walrus asked Canadian novelists to sketch their cities as grittier, sexier, and darker than you might ever have imagined…”  So that explained it. (more…)

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