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Archive for the ‘Canadian Content’ Category

Pascal Girard–Reunion (2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Drawn & Quarterly, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Helge Dascher, Kate Tempest, Pascal Girard, Reunion, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on August 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

reunionSOUNDTRACK: KATE TEMPEST-Tiny Desk Concert #456 (July 21, 2015).

kateKate Tempest is a British poet/rapper (and darling of NPR).  She raps with a really heavy South London accent and raps about the “everyday.”  But because she is a poet, her lyrics are really incisive.  And, when she sings, she throws in some really catchy choruses as well.  Her song “Lonely Daze” surprises when the big catchy chorus come in.

Although she doesn’t do that for this Tiny Desk.

Rather, she opens with an incredibly moving poem called “Ballad of a Hero.”  It is an anti-war poem that takes an amazingly personal look at soldiers and the sons of soldiers.  The NPR blurb says “Kate Tempest will connect you with your emotions and the cold, callous world around you. You may cry.”  When I first started listening to her Tiny Desk, I wasn’t really paying attention to the words of this poem, but by the end, I was totally hooked, and yes, I did cry.

The final lines:

I don’t support the war my son.
I don’t believe it’s right,
but I do support the soldiers
that go off to war to fight.

Troops just like your daddy, son;
soldiers through and through.
Who wear their uniform with pride
and do what they’re told to do

When you’re grown my sweet, my love
Please don’t go fighting wars.
But fight the men that start them
or fight a cause that’s yours.

It seems so full of honour, yes,
So valiant, so bold,
But the men that send the armies in.
Send them in for gold.

Or they send them in for oil,
And they tell us it’s for Britain
but the men come home like Daddy
and spend their days just drinking.

Despite the intensity of the poem (and her other lyrics), it’s fun to watch her rap because she always seems to be smiling.  And on the two songs she does “The Beigeness” and “Truth” she is so into it.  Her hand gestures and emphasis really complete the song.  And there’s also the matter of her accent–so noticeable and strangely musical.

I don’t know what the original music of these songs is like.  I gather from the official titles (“The Beigeness (KwAkE BASS remix)” and “The Truth (KwAkE BASS remix)”) that they must sound different on the record.  And KwAkE BASS plays around with her voice, adding echoes and interesting effects that add to the music).

I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard from Tempest, I’m just not entirely sure I would listen to a whole album of hers.

[READ: July 23, 2015] Reunion

When I saw this book by Girard in the library I immediately flashed back to reading his other book.   I recognized his style (the self-portrait of the main character Pascal made him look much older and more frumpy than he actually was.  But what I’d forgotten was just how much of a dick everyone in the book was.

And it’s even more so in the this book.

It’s clear that Girard has a style and that his humor comes from everyone in the book (including the protagonist) being jut awful.  Last time I wasn’t sure if it was just the way Helge Dascher translated the book (and again, it may be her since she does this one too) but I now think that Girard may just have a very poor opinion of people.

This book culminates in a ten-year reunion. And all of Pascal’s actions leads up to it. (more…)

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Jeff Lemire–Essex County (Collected) (2009)

Posted in Canadian Content, Graphic Novel, Hockey, Jeff Lemire, Sex, Songhoy Blues, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on August 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

essexSOUNDTRACK: SONGHOY BLUES-Tiny Desk Concert #455 (July 17, 2015).

songhoySonghoy Blues are from Mali.  They play an interesting style of rock/blues that follows rock conventions but subverts it as well.

“Sekou Oumarou” is a pretty straightforward bluesy number.  Until the vocals come in and you realize that they are not singing in English.  I think they are singing in French, but I’m not exactly sure.

It feels like the main instrument on “Al HassidiTerei” is the drums which, while keeping  pretty steady beat, don’t keep a simple 4/4.  This is not to say that the guitar and bass do nothing, because they play a cool riff and rhythm.  But they tend to keep the music pretty steady while the song plays on.  That is, except for the massively cool fuzzed out guitar solo at the end.

“Soubour” has a great classic rock style riff and when the guitarist stars going it sounds like it could be coming from the late 60s.  It’s a stellar track with a groovy psychedelic sound and wailing solo.

It’s tempting to want to like Songhoy Blues because of the politics and story behind the band (which is pretty intense), but they are so good that you don’t need to know anything about them to really get down to their great songs.

[READ: May 17, 2015] Essex County

I saw this book in the library.  I was intrigue by the hockey player on the cover (okay and that it was 500 pages).  When I saw that it was a 2011 selection in Canada Reads, I knew it had to be at least worth a look.

This graphic novel looks at several generations of people living in Essex County, Ontario, Canada.  It collects the three books Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories and The Country Nurse as well as some other odds and ends.

The introduction by Darwyn Cooke is really great for contextualizing this piece, although i wish he hadn’t spoiled the scene with the hockey players (so maybe for maximum impact, don’t read this before reading the book itself–actually, read the whole thing except that 8th paragraph). (more…)

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Jeff Lemire–Lost Dogs (2005) [reprint 2012]

Posted in Canadian Content, Death, Girlpool, Graphic Novel, Jeff Lemire, Steven Soderbergh, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on July 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

lostdogsSOUNDTRACK: GIRLPOOL-Tiny Desk Concert #454 (July 10, 2015).

girlpoolGirlpool is a duo consisting of Cleo Tucker (guitar) and Harmony Tividad (bass).  Both women sing and what’s interesting about their singing is that they don’t sing harmony–they sing in unison, which gives them an really interesting resonance.  And when they do hit the occasional harmony it sounds magical.

As for the guitar and bass, they are playing largely the same thing there as well–with occasional guitar soloing.

The band has a new album out.  It’s pretty short (10 songs in about 25 minutes), and it is as direct and unsettling as it is catchy.  The riffs are unexpected and the pair sound so honest and exposed.  It’s really quite something.  It has the air of a novelty (two people, no drums), but aside from a few lyrics that are thoughtful/funny, there’s no joking from these two.  You can see from this photo that Cleo is really into it.

They play three songs: “Before The World Was Big” (the title track of the new album) which has an unusually paced riff and Cleo & Harmony’s stark vocals.  The harmonies when they get to “One hundred, one million, billion, trillion times” is really great.  I also like how they start singing in a round to end the song.  “Ideal World” has an even simpler riff (with a very cool dissonant guitar notes every few lines) and some cool harmonies.  And Tucker’s wailing guitar solo at the end is pretty shocking.  “Cherry Picking” opens as a far slower song, but it picks up after the first verse and has one of the few times when Cleo and Harmony are playing different things on their instruments.  Their singing at the end is really intense.

I like their album a lot and this is a great Tiny Desk Concert.

[READ: May 18, 2015] Lost Dogs

I picked up Lemire’s Essex County at the library and while there I also saw Lost Dogs.  I didn’t know anything about Lemire, but Essex County looked really cool, so why not grab his other book while it’s there?

Well, this was Lemire’s first proper book. He started it while trying to finish the 24 hour challenge–a 24 page comic in 24 hours.  He failed the challenge but he loved what he was doing so much that he decided to finish up what he started and he made this first book.

I’m glad I read Essex County first because Lost Dogs is so rough, so sketchy, that I wouldn’t have realized how talented Lemire was from this book alone.  This book is definitely an “early days” kind of project–a way to see where he came from.  Not that the story isn’t good, but that it is very rough (intentionally so).  It also notes that in the reproduction the lettering was made to look nicer because no one wants to read sloppy lettering.

If nothing else, I will enjoy this quote from Timothy Callahan who says that Steven Soderbergh said “audiences will put up with poor picture quality as long as the sound is clear, but a crisp picture and problematic audio will turn off even the most eager viewers.”  Callahan adds “the same is true for comics, where slick lettering can help even the most chaotic sequence of images seem readable.”  So remember, make sure your letters are good! (more…)

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Faith Erin Hicks–The War at Ellsmere (2008)

Posted in Canadian Content, Cathedral, Celtic Frost, Corrosion of Conformity, Dave Grohl, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Faith Erin Hicks, Graphic Novel, Hope Larson, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Motorhead, Probot, Sepultura, Set at School, Short Books, Soundgarden, Supernatural, Tenacious D, Trouble, Venom, Voivod, YA Books on June 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

ellsmere SOUNDTRACK: PROBOT-Probot (2004).

probotAfter all of the Dave Grohl love I’ve been sending his way, Grohl went and fell off a stage and broke his leg.  But, he is so badass (and such a thoughtful musician), that he went to the hospital, got his leg fixed up and went back on stage to finish the set!  Holy cow.

This is amazing (and he must have incredible endorphins (or something else) to be able to do this (the video is long because it shows his re-arrival):

Grohl has always been very open about his love of heavy metal–and the liner notes here go into pretty good detail about he bands he grew up listening to.  He wanted to create a kind of tribute/dream lineup album of metal vocalists.  As far as I can tell he was sitting around and banging away riffs and every time he got one that he liked, he recorded it.  He eventually added bass and drums and made demo tapes out of them.  Then he contacted some of his favorite metal singers from when he was a kid and asked them to write lyrics and sing.

I assume that Grohl sent the demos that sounded most like the bands to the appropriate singer, because so many of them are spot on for the original bands.  The Venom song sounds completely like Venom (Cronos’ bass certainty helps) and it’s one of the best songs here.  I don’t know Sepultura that well, but the music fits perfectly with Cavalera’s style.  And this song is just fantastic.

The Lemmy song sounds unmistakably Motörhead, again possibly because Lemmy plays bass, but the riff is pure Motörhead.  It’s another great song and one that the Foo Fighters have played live.

The song with Mike Dean is very punk, very C.O.C.  It’s followed by another punk/metal song from D.R.I.  This song also matches perfectly with Brecht’s style of singing on the more metal side of D.R.I..

Lee Dorrian used to sing in a guttural cookie monster growl with Napalm Death, but in Cathedral, he turned to proper singing.  I don’t know Cathedral, but the main riff coupled with the twin guitar solo notes from Thayil make a great epic song, especially that mosh section in the middle (I didn’t think Cathedral did mosh but whatever), although at 6 minutes it does go on a bit.

I also don’t know Wino, so I don’t know if this is the kind of thing he sang on, although I do hear a bit of Saint Vitus vibe from it.  There’s a really long middle section which is interesting for the backwards guitar solo, and while it’s a little long, when it comes out of that, the heaviness is really great.

Tom Warrior is a fascinating guy with all kinds of tricks up his sleeve, so the weird industrial sound on top of the heavy bass is pretty interesting.  There’s no way Grohl could hope to emulate Voivod’s Piggy, so he doesn’t even try.  Rather than playing up to Voivod’s proggy style, he goes deeper to the heavier stuff.  And, perhaps it’s Snake’s voice, the bridge sounds very Voivod.  The chorus is more poppy than what Voivod might do, and yet it’s a great song.  Voivod’s Away also designed the album cover.

I loved Trouble when I was in high school, although I don’t really remember them that well now.  This songs sounds bit more classic rock than metal (and I recall Trouble being pretty heavy), and yet Wagner’s voice works very well with the style.  I just read that Trouble went through a more psychedelic period and the middle section ties in nicely with that, so maybe this is inspired by later period Trouble.

Grohl says he was excited to get King Diamond, and who wouldn’t be.  Kim Thayil is back to create a suitable Mercyful riff (although it could never live up to the classic Fate).  But the mid section’s doom riffs are right on.  The song showcases some of the King’s vocal acrobatics, although not quite as many as I could have used (there are some excellent high-pitched notes in there though).

There’s a bonus track at the end of the disc which features Jack Black doing a suitably funny but accurate metal tribute.

This is a really solid heavy record that lets some classic metal singers back on the scene.  There won’t be a second Probot record, but there may not need to be one anyhow.  I also like that he picked some slightly more obscure singers rather than the obvious Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson type of singers, even if they would have also been interesting).

  • “Centuries of Sin” (feat. Cronos of Venom)
  • “Red War” (feat. Max Cavalera of Sepultura)
  • “Shake Your Blood” (feat. Lemmy of Motörhead)
  • “Access Babylon” (feat. Mike Dean of Corrosion of Conformity)
  • “Silent Spring” (feat. Kurt Brecht of Dirty Rotten Imbeciles)
  • “Ice Cold Man” (feat. Lee Dorrian of Cathedral and Napalm Death, and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden)
  • “The Emerald Law” (feat. Wino)
  • “Big Sky” (feat. Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost)
  • “Dictatosaurus” (feat. Snake of Voivod)
  • “My Tortured Soul” (feat. Eric Wagner of Trouble)
  • “Sweet Dreams” (feat. King Diamond of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden)
  • “I Am the Warlock” (feat. Jack Black of Tenacious D)

[READ: February 13, 2015] The War at Ellsmere

I’ve enjoyed Hicks’ books in the past–both the ones she’s written and the one’s she’s simply illustrated.  In this book she does both which means you get big eyes and the dark hair.

As the book opens we meet Juniper, a girl who has just enrolled in Ellsmere Private School.   We meet the headmistress and learn the history of this beautiful school (established in 1810).  And then we find out that Juniper is there on a scholarship (merit based) and that Juniper is well aware that she will likely be there to “liven things up for the blue bloods.”

When Juniper meets her new roommate Cassie (who hears her talking to herself), Jun immediately goes on the defensive–until she sees that Cassie is actually quite a nice girl. (Nice, Jun, you just insulted Bambi).

But it’s during the orientation that we meet the real antagonist of the story–Emily, a pretty blonde girl who immediately insults Cassie and calls her “orphan.”  When Jun gets involved, it suggests that it will be an interesting year for all of them. (more…)

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Jill Sexsmith–“Airplanes Couldn’t Be Happier in Turbulence” (The Walrus, May 2015)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Horses, Humiliation, Jill Sexsmith, King Kong, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Rheostatics, Ron Sexsmith, Short Story, The Walrus, tagged on May 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

2015-05SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Ted’s Wrecking Yard Toronto, ON (May 30, 2001).

twyFor this final show with Don Kerr, the band played for what seems like ever.  Darrin says he edited out any quiet bits so the show could fit on two discs, which it does.  And even at that it’s still about 2 and a half hours long.

Only five songs are repeated from the previous night (and they are all from the new album, except “Stolen Car,” which Martin sings on this night) and “Take Me in Your Hand” which is pretty awesome.  There’s also no Kevin on this night, so the set is full of a few of the more rocking songs (as opposed to the Harmelodia stuff).

 After a rocking “Fat” they play two rarely played songs “Remain Calm” and “The Idiot.”  But the set list is just a perfect collection of the songs that I love most: “Aliens,” “King of the Past,” “Saskatchewan,” “California Dreamline,” “Fan Letter to Michael Jackson” and “Horses.”  Wow.

Some notes: “There’s an awkward introduction to “The Idiot” which they hadn’t played in a long time.  The “Aliens”/”King of the Past ” pair is great.  I also loved the way they run right into “Mumbletypeg” while Martin is still feed backing the previous song.  “Horses” has an angry chant from Dave (the “facts” chant) and you can really hear DB wailing on the acoustic guitar at the end of “Stolen Car.”

Don gives a nice thanks (he says he’s about to cry) and they open “Take Me in Your Hand” with a jaunty “Ob La Di” riff and lyrics about Don.

There’s a lot of banter, including an Ed the Sock joke (“Don Kerr fired by Ed the Sock.”)  It’s a wonderful ending to a wonderfully time with Don Kerr.  Incidentally, Ted’s closed in 2001 as well, and the band, who played many multinight sets there moved their Green Sprouts Week to The Horsehoe.

This is a great show, and the sound is outstanding.  And since Don is leaving to play with Ron Sexsmith, here’s a story by Jill Sexsmith (presumably unrelated).

[READ: April 25, 2015] “Airplanes Couldn’t Be Happier in Turbulence”

I enjoyed the way this story began with some very down to earth information and then ends in a preposterous and yet still strangely believable situation.  It’s about exasperation and the need to do something, anything, when everything feels out of control.

Madison (it’s hard to believe that there are grown women with that name) has wanted to scale the Empire State Building ever since she watched King Kong as a kid.  Her husband, Frank, is a grounded individual, an actuary who is full of facts and statistics.  When she says she want to go there, he says “There’s a 0.28 percent chance of getting pistol whipped” in New York City.  He also quips, I suppose you want a  pony, too.  She jokes that she does, although she is afraid of horses–especially ponies, the “kneecap biting form of the horse” (I can attest to this, having been bitten on the kneecap by my neighbors supposedly nice pony).

Madison has never taken a vacation from her job.  She is anxious at the thought of empty days in front of her.  Her boss and coworkers keep trying to get her to go.  This year for her birthday she and Frank are going to New York City.  Her boss throws a going away party even though two of the four days are on the weekend. (more…)

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Alex Pugsley–“Changeling Girl” (The Walrus, April 2015)

Posted in Alex Pugsley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Drinking, Kevin Hearn, Ramones, Rheostatics, Short Story, The Walrus, tagged on May 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

walrusaprilSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Ted’s Wrecking Yard Toronto, ON (May 29 2001).

bye byeThey marked the final two nights that Don Kerr would play drums with the band (after six years) with two nights at Ted’s Wrecking Yard.  [Technically, they reveal at the end of the next show that there is a final show in a few days, but that somehow it doesn’t count].

The two shows together are a simply fantastic collection of Rheostatics music.  Don created the setlists for both shows.  The one downside on this recording is that one of the guitars was recorded very low (although Darrin, the site’s commander, has remixed the show so you can barely tell).  On the plus side, it means that you can hear Dave’s amazing rhythm guitars very well.  Another major plus is that Kevin Hearn plays on this night, and the set list reflects Kevin’s keyboards and songwriting contributions to the band.  This means a bunch of stuff from Harmelodia (including “Home Again” and “Monkeybird” and “The Harmelodian Anthem.”

Don is leaving to tour with Ron Sexmith.  In the middle of the set Don says that he is leaving because Ron has better coke (Kevin chimes in and asks if he needs a keyboard player).

The band is also in great spirits and, to send off Don in a great way, they are really at the to of their game–having fun yes, but committing a fantastic set to tape (these shows were originally going to be released on disc but fifteen years later, that seems unlikely).

The whole show is great.  But some observations: “Four Little Songs” is actually “Five Little Songs” tonight with Kevin getting a verse.  They also ask him about Lou Reed, and Kevin tells a story about meeting Lou for pizza.  And they joke about hot knives.  Kevin eventually did tour with Lou in 2009.

The setlist is a wonderful selection of old and rare songs.  I barely even recognized “The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos” and can’t imagine when they played it last.  They also play “The Reward” which is an underplayed gem–they even remark that they forgot how to play it.

There’s a funny bit where Kevin starts a new song called “guitar changes” while one of the guitarists is yes, changing guitars.  It’s great to have an improv artist like Hearn in your show.  For a real surprise (and for reasons unspoken), Dave sings “Stolen Car,” something I’ve never heard before.  Since Martin’s voice is unique, it’s a very different performance–more melodic with fewer high notes.

They end the set with “The Pooby Song,” a piece of nonsense which is introduced with a long discussion of “pooby” for Kevin’s benefit.

It’s an amazing show.  At some point Dave says they are going to play for a long time–and someone tells him it’s already 1 AM. Wow..

[READ: March 17, 2015] “Changeling Girl”

The girl in the title is not actually a person in the story (which I was rather was looking forward to).  Rather, she is the title of a song by the punk band that this story is about (they are called The Changelings).

The first person story recounts the rise of the band.  And the opening pages are full of the excitement that loving a kind of music and really embracing it can bring.  It is described as a kind of montage as kids play The Clash and kids try to out punk each other with clothes or hair or names like Beamish Mingo, Helen Hopday and even Gash Ragged.

The impressive thing–especially given that I assume the time frame is the early 80s–is that the band is multigendered.

Once the story settles down into their first gig, though, it seems to lose some steam. After the initial rush wears off, we have to slow down–that middle slow section, right? (more…)

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Miriam Toews–All My Puny Sorrows (2014)

Posted in Canadian Content, Depression, Funny (ha ha), Hospitals, Matthew Zapruder, McSweeney's, Mennonites, Miriam Toews, Missy Mazzoli, Music, Parenting, Roomful of Teeth, Sex, Suicide, Victoire, Wilco on April 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

ampsSOUNDTRACK: MISSY MAZZOLI-Vespers For A New Dark Age (2015).

missymazzoli_sq-80d1109aad30ab9a4bfe1a45d5c82d99354bc079-s400-c85Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for a New Dark Age, is a 30-minute suite for singers, chamber ensemble and electronics. The piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the 2014 Ecstatic Music Festival.

It’s a fascinating mix of traditional and contemporary instruments.  And there’s a surprise musician as well: Martha Cluver and Virginia Warnken Kelsey from Roomful of Teeth, provide operatic soprano voices.  Mazzoli’s own ensemble Victoire, provides the music while Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche adds percussion and thunderous pounding.

As the suite opens, electronic chimes sound before the beautifully soaring voices come in (I don’t know who is who).  The instrumentation is complex and the vocals are often in English (but operatic and not always obvious to hear). There’s some great rising and falling notes from various instruments.

The first piece is called “Wayward Free Radical Dreams” and I like the surprise of the simple English phrase “Come on, come on come on” A bell ringing is the segue into part 2, “Hello Lord.”  Over a lonely flute and some synths, the vocalist sings a poem by Matthew Zapruder for lines like: “hello lord / sorry I woke you / because my plans / are important to me / and I need things / no one can buy / and don’t even know / what they are / I know I belong / in this new dark age.”

I love the rising and falling notes of “Interlude 1″ over the fast violin moments.  “Come On All You” opens with some ticking hi-hats and squeaky violins.  There’s a lot of drums in this song—some punctuate the melody until the soprano voice takes over and then around 4 minutes into the section, the drums burst to life.  “New Dark Age” has some moody synths under the soaring voices and “Interlude 2” opens with the sound of big deep bells.

“Machine” has a mechanical staccato feel in both strings and voices.  When it returns to “Come on Come on” refrain (this time with two voices), it’s very cool.  The “Postlude” ends the piece with moody strings and distorted mechanical sounds that overwhelm the voices at times.   The piece ends on an up note but not in an overwhelmingly happy feeling.

The final piece on the disc is not part of the suite, although it fits in sonically.  It is called “A Thousand Tongues (Lorna Dune Remix)” and it has echoing pianos and overlapping synths.  While this piece is pretty it is probably the least interesting of the disc.  Perhaps because there are fewer voices and more synth melodies.  Perhaps because it is a remix.  The song feels fine, but not as compelling as the suite.

I was happy to discover his disc, which really explores different classical motifs.

[READ: March 15, 2015] All My Puny Sorrows

As with many books, but especially those published by McSweeney’s, which I always read, I didn’t really know what this was about.  I can pretty much guarantee it would not have been high on my list had anyone told me it was about dealing with a suicidal sibling.

But what’s great about the McSweeney’s imprint is that they gather such a wide variety of books and most of them are of such good quality that I know I won’t be disappointed.  And this book not only didn’t disappoint, I found it really fantastic.

The story is fairly simple, although from my perspective it was also fairly exotic.  The main action of the book takes place in present day Winnipeg.  But there are flashbacks to the main characters’ childhood in 1979.  And the way it opens–with the family watching as the house that their father built is put on the back of a truck and driven away is one of the more memorable opening passages of a book that I’ve read.

The family consists of the narrator  Yolandi, her older sister Elfrieda and their parents.  And, perhaps most exotic to me they are Mennonites.  Their family is not entirely pious in the tradition in their town–they are seen as somewhat less than observant.  Things were made even worse by the deliberately provocative nature of Elf.  She was creative, she loved to read and she had a real sense of outrage.  The church pastor once accused her of “luxuriating in the afflictions of he own wanton emotions.”  She embraced poetry, particularly the line “all my puny sorrows” and decided it would be her slogan.  So she began spray paining AMPS all over the town. (more…)

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Cory Doctorow–Information Doesn’t Want to be Free: Laws for the Internet Age (2014)

Posted in Amanda Palmer, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Cory Doctorow, Crash Test Dummies, Law, Luke Doucet, McSweeney's, Neil Gaiman, Rheostatics, Short Books, Stompin' Tom Connors, Technology, Threats, Veal, Whitehorse, Wil Wheaton, tagged on March 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

information_cover_FINAL_webSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Vertigo, Victoria British Columbia, (January 21, 2000).

21Jan2000I recently learned that the Rheostatics Live website has added dozens of new (old) shows.  It has been almost exactly a year since I last did a tour of some of these live shows, so it was time to move into 2000 (with one new show added since I last looked).

As of 2000, the band is still touring the Harmelodia album, and the set has a lot of songs from that album.  I recently relistened to the album (something I don’t listen to all that much).  I was surprised to hear how many songs had narration–which pretty much precludes them from playing them live.  So that explains why they focus on just a few songs live.

Lucky’s notes for this show state: The Rheos were on a short west-coast swing and they played in Whistler the night before this show. In fact, the inspiration for ‘Satan Is The Whistler’ (from their following album) came from this trip, as Martin remarked something along the lines of ‘They are a bunch of Fascists in Whistler!’.

This is a really good set.  The sound quality is excellent and the band is in very good form.  There’s some great harmonies on “Loving Arms” and Martin really rocks the guitar on “I Fab Thee.”  “Junction Foil Ball” sounds awesome here–a good breakdown in the middle.  And it’s a rare sighting of “Oneilly’s Strange Dream” and a replay of “Good Canadian.”

It’s always fun when the band is feeling chatty.  In this show they joke about the Crash Test Dummies and even sing, “Superman never made any money saving the world from Crash Test Dummies.”  They also have fun with “My First Rock Show” with talk of blood on the seats.

The band has some technical failures, and they play a Stompin’ Tom song (“Bud the Spud”) while they get fixed.  But it doesn’t mess them up as they play a killer version of “Stolen Car” with a great solo.

Luke Doucet (now of Whitehorse, then of opening act Veal) plays during “Legal Age Life” and the band jokes about the Vealostatics.

The whole show ran for nearly two hours.  It’s a great set and the first of two nights at Vertigo.

[READ: February 10, 2015] Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free

This short book is Doctorow’s plea for Copyright common sense, Net Neutrality and internet freedoms (among other things).  Of course Net Neutrality just passed–hurrah!– which makes this book less urgent but no less spot on and worth remembering while going forward.

Doctorow starts each section by stating his three laws:

  • “Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, they’re not doing it for your benefit.”
  • “Fame Won’t Make You Rich, But Yo Can’t Get Paid Without It”  (or as Tim O’Reilly said “The problem for most artists isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.”)
  • “Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, People Do.”

(more…)

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Mona Awad–“Beyond the Shore” (The Walrus, January/February 2015)

Posted in Bjork, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Exercise, Mike Patton, Mona Awad, Sex, Short Story, Tanya Tagaq, The Walrus on February 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

janfebSOUNDTRACK: TANYA TAGAQ-“Uja” and “Umingmak” live at the Polaris Music Prize (2014).

tanyaTanya Tagaq won the Canadian Polaris Prize this year.  Tagaq is a Canadian (Inuk) throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktuutiak), Nunavut, Canada who at age 15, went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to attend high school where she first began to practice throat singing.  Mostly I included that so I could have the word Ikaluktuutiak in a post.  She is the first native Canadian to win the prize.

Tagaq sings in a gutteral throat singing style combined with some more traditional high-pitched notes.  She has worked with Mike Patton and extensively with Björk.  Most of her songs don’t have lyrics per se, and the album that won the prize is called Animism.

This is a live broadcast of her set which has been describes as truly mesmerizing in person.  It is certainly mesmerizing in video–marveling that the woman can sound so possessed  and yet so clearly in control.

At 1:38 when the backing vocalists (who were shrouded in darkness sing out, it’s quite startling.  I don’t know when the first song ends and the second begins, but at 3:48. when the drums start a regular beat, you can hear a sense of commercial rock amidst the avant garde music.   Around 5 minutes the music drops away and when Tagaq sings briefly in her non-throat voice she sounds almost childish. But when the throaty growls returns, it’s a bit scary, frankly.

Tagaq has talked about bringing the sensuality of throat singing out into the public and by 7 minutes, the sensuality is right there on the stage.  By the end, when she is screaming her lungs out, it has to have been really intense in the theater.  And her wold howl at the end is uncanny.

Clearly not to everyone’s taste, but probably not lie anything else you’ll hear all day.  And unlike anything you’d hear at the Grammy’s.

[READ: January 2, 2015] “Beyond the Shore”

This is  brief story about competitiveness at the gym.  It’s the kind of story that is probably acted out in gyms across the country and one which shouldn’t have been all that interesting, but Awad chose an interesting setting and characters to flesh this out.

I also enjoyed that the title has nothing to do with the action of the story.  Rather, it refers to the place where they live: “Beyond the Shore, a gated-living community that has nothing to do with California (we are nowhere near California), the apartment building which overlooks the Malibu Club Spa and Fitness Centre.”  Each morning when the narrator wakes up, she can see from her bedroom window that Char, an extremely depressingly fit woman, is already working out ion the gym. And most of the time she is working out on Lifecycle One, the very machine that the narrator has signed up for in fifteen minutes.

This wouldn’t be a problem except that in fifteen minutes, the narrator, who is not in peak physical shape will get to the gym and Char will still be in mid-routine with no intention of stopping.  When the narrator approaches Char, Char says she’s almost done (even though she ‘s already over by five minutes) and then mutters a nasty name about the narrator under her breath.  Often by the time Char gets off, the narrator has but 24 minutes in her time slot before the cardio group comes in next. (more…)

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Dave Bidini–For Those About to Write: How I Learned to Love Books and Why I Had to Write Them (2007)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini, Keith Maillard, Nelly Furtado, Paul Quarrington, Peter Golenblock, Rheostatics, Rush, Score: A Hockey Musical, Shades, Short Books, Sunshine News, YA Books on November 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

writeSOUNDTRACK: NELLY FURTADO-“Time Stand Still” (2010).

scoreI stumbled upon this cover of a Rush song when I learned about Score: A Hockey Musical (which I stumbled on when looking for information about Dave Bidini).  I hadn’t heard of the movie, but i was sure intrigued by it (the parts I’ve seen have terrible songs but since it’s all jokey, it’s okay).

This cover song is presumably an end credits song.

I don’t really have an opinion of Nelly Furtado, but, man, I really don’t like this cover.  I’m of course delighted that she covered Rush at all (and it makes sense in a Canadian hockey movie to have a Rush song) but she basically strips away all of the music and adds a very simple synth riff and drums.  It’s painful for a Rush fan to hear all the music taken away from this song.

Furtado’s voice actually works pretty well (especially since Aimee Mann does the backing vocals on the original) and she sings it quite nicely.  I think I might like it if I didn’t know it was a Rush song, originally (the music is good, eh?).  It just hurts my sense of righteousness to hear this weird lite version of Rush.

[READ: February 24, 2014] For Those About to Write

After reading Pseudonymous Bosch’s writing guide for young people, I figured I’d compare it to Dave Bidini’s writing guide for young people.

It’s interesting to see how two writers can try to accomplish the same thing in such vastly different ways.  Bidini doesn’t really write fiction (he has written some, but not much), so unlike Bosch, he doesn’t try to get the young writer involved with a made up story.  Rather, he presents his own life as an example of one way to become a writer.

Bidini talks about how he loved books as a kid–stapling together stories, or loving the feel of cardboard binding books together (he fondly remember his first writing project for school and how it all felt so official).  He was also fortunate to have parents who could appreciate his artistic needs–so if he needed to write or to play music, they were supportive. (more…)

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