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Archive for the ‘Canadian Music’ Category

Tony Earley–”The Wide Sea” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, New Yorker, Rush, Short Story, South, Tony Earley on November 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“Caravan” (2010).

I was watching a great, lengthy interview with Rush on CNN.  At the end of the interview they mentioned that Rush had released two new songs (somewhat unheard of for the band to release a “single”).  I had some extra download cash from Amazon, and was even able to get the “booklet” yeeha.  The song is also available on YouTube, if you want to check it out.

When a song throws you a curve, it’s really only a curve the first time you listen to it.  And boy, “Caravan” has crazy curves in it.  In fact, musically, “Caravan” is easily my favorite Rush song in years.

It opens with some faint chords and sound effects and then kicks in with a loud riff, the likes of which Rush has specialized in lately–heavy, heavy, nasty guitars.  The bass is insane throughout with some breakneck stuff, and then at the 1:30 mark, the bass slides and the song drops out into a delicate, gorgeous guitar piece; it surprised the heck out of me.  It’s brief and effective and sets the stage for the next heavy riff.

The beautiful quiet bit returns and is then followed by another twist: a mildly funky bass solo (which hasn’t featured prominently on the last few albums) which leads into a really cool instrumental mid section, that’s almost like a self-contained song.  All of this leads to one of Alex’s insane solos.  It’s noisy and crazy and wonderful.

I’m very excited about this new album.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “The Wide Sea”

Tony Earley is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

After several funny, clever and witty stories this rather simple story came as a bit of a welcomed respite.

This is a very straightforward story about Jim and his Uncle Al. They live in Aliceville (which, I had to look up, is in Alabama).  Jim takes many trips with Uncle Al “to see a man about a dog.”

This particular trip is Uncle Al’s chance to buy Belgian horses (Uncle Al and Uncle Zeno currently use mules on their farm).  They travel to South Carolina (which, looking on the map is quite far–over 550 miles!). (more…)

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Brendan Connell–“The man who saw grey” (in Blind Swimmer: An Anthology of Eibonvale Press Writers) (2010)

Posted in Adbusters, Art, Artists, Brendan Connell, Canadian Music, Guided By Voices, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Rheostatics, Rush, Unlikable main character, Word usage, Yuck! on November 3, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARTIN TIELLI-“We didn’t even suspect that he was the poppy salesman.” (2001).

Martin Tielli’s first solo disc is a proper solo release: it’s almost all him on acoustic guitar and his gorgeous alto voice.  I hadn’t listened to this disc in a while and I was delighted by how much of the disc I knew so well.

Te opening track, “I’ll Never Tear Your Apart” is deceptively simple: harmonic’d guitars and his gentle voice.  There’s a great video to go with it here.  That is followed by the wonderful “My Sweet Relief” which sounds like a great Neil Young folk song: great verses an a strong chorus.  Lyrically, though, it is all Tielli.  “Double X” highlights Tielli’s beautiful acoustic guitar work (and his dark lyrics).  “Voices in the Wilderness” is another delicate song (which opens with a sound that reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song,” although in no way is the rest of the song like that. This song also (mis)quotes Rush very nicely: “‘If you choose not to be free you still have made a choice,’ said a high and squeaky voice.”

“Farmer in the City” is the only track that Tielli didn’t write.  It’s a nearly 8-minute song by Scott Walker.  I don’t know the original, but Tielli’s version is a bit too meandering to be really satisfying (although it fits in with the album style quite nicely).  It comes across as an atmospheric song more than a song proper.

It’s followed by the delightful “World in a Wall” which uses mice in the wall as a metaphor for a broken relationship (with wonderful detailed lines like: She’s like a mouse, I know she’s around It’s a gnawing sound. Leaves little brown poohs from a little pink bum.”

This is followed by the odd rocker “That’s How They Do It in Warsaw” (which features a woman speaking Polish–no idea what she’s saying).  It’s coupled with a slightly less rocky but still loud track “How Can You Sleep?” (which makes another fun musical allusion, this time about Guided by Voices).

“She Said ‘We’re On Our Way Down'” returns to the more ethereal sounding songs (although this has some great guitar tricks thrown in).  Like the bulk of the album, the song seems to eschew melody but then a gorgeous guitar or vocal line shines through and really sounds brilliant.  “From the Reel” is a beautiful, aching little ditty.  And the disc ends with the odd, seven minute “Wetbrain/Your War.”

There is a really wonderful review of post-Rheostatics work here at The Ohs.  He’s pretty harsh on the Bidiniband (although I haven’t heard the disc proper, just the live concerts that toured it, so I can’t say for sure) but his assessment of Tim Vesely is spot on (I love the idea of a Canadian Wilburys) as is his review of this disc.  I particularly like the Mary Margaret O’Hara comparison: Achingly beautiful but in need of an editor from time to time.

[READ: November 1, 2010] “The man who saw grey”

One thing I have really come to appreciate about Connell’s stories over the years is that he is not afraid to deal with dark aspects of humanity that many people would rather not think about.

The thing that surprised me about this story is that, in the past, Connell has used very specific language, one might even say two-dollar words (some of which I had to look up), to convey his ideas.  But in this story, he largely refrains from such language, keeping the language down to earth and familiar, much like his protagonists.

So this is a fairly simple story: a man hits his head and can thereafter only see in shades of grey.  What makes the story much more interesting than that simple plot is that the protagonist is a painter (well, his hobby is painting, in reality he is an administrator at the DMV). (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–”Anti Climax” (New Yorker, April 21, 1997)

Posted in Airlines, Books about writers, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Jane Siberry, Jonathan Franzen, Masturbation, New Yorker, Nick Hornby, Rheostatics, Sex, The Violet Archers on October 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE VIOLET ARCHERS-Sunshine at Night (2008).

This is the second Violet Archers CD.  It’s a fantastic collection of mellow songs.   “You and I” is a delightful acoustic guitar and vocals song (and Vesely’s voice sounds great: soft and delicate without being whiny).  “Insecure” features the vocals of Ida Nilsen (a great voice which works wonderfully with Vesely’s songs).  It also has a wonderful trumpet solo (!) (which consists of only a few notes repeated but which is totally great).  It sounds a bit too similar to Siberry’s “The Speckless Sky” but it wins out with its own identity by the end.

“Transporter” is an electric track (still mellow though).  Vesely’s delivery is great on this, with unexpected delays making it just off the beat.  Although “Tired” (we can tell by the titles that Vesely is not a “Party On” kind of guy) rocks much harder than you’d expect for the title, it’s still nothing like a hard rock song.  “Sunshine at Night” continues in this louder vein, but again, Vesely’s voice is soft, so even a louder song doesn’t rock hard.  This has some great harmony vocals.

“Suffocates” returns to the upbeat acoustic style while “Truth” is its cool minor chord downbeat companion.  “Themesong” is a cute, more upbeat track that finally mentions a violet archer.  “Don’t Talk” is the only song that builds from a standstill (as opposed to just starting) and the drums and power chords make it feel like it’s a bid for commercial viability.  And the disc ends with “Listening,” a quiet lullaby of a song that showcases’s Vesely’s falsetto.

The Violet Archers still tour and there are some downloadable shows available on the Rheostatics live website.  And, of course, Tim was super nice, so let’s hope for a left field smash hit on their next disc.

[READ: September 29, 2010] “Anti-Climax”

This piece is from The Critic at Large section of the New Yorker and it seems to be a kind of Books redux section.

I enjoyed this piece more than I had a right to enjoy a thirteen year old article about sex books.  Strangely enough it begins with a comment about televisions in airports (which I agree with JF that they are the devil and are unavoidable and make it really hard to read).  And I cannot even imagine that 89% of air travelers believe that the TVs make “time spent in an airport more worthwhile” (although you know that is one of the more nebulous survey questions)

But this topic segues into the matter at hand: sex books.  He notes how he is also at odds with the norm when Men’s Health says that lingerie is the US male’s favorite erotic aid.  And I can’t believe how in tune I am with JF Franzen’s comment:

What I feel when I hear that the mainstream actually buys this stuff is the same garden-variety alienation I feel on learning that Hootie & the Blowfish sold 13 million copies of their first record, or that the American male’s dream date is Cindy Crawford. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”Love in the Ruins” (Outside, March 2007)

Posted in Alexisonfire, Biking, Canadian Music, City and Colour, Corporate skewering, Death, Natural Disasters, Nazis, Outside, Wells Tower on September 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR-Live @ The Orange Lounge EP (2010).

City and Colour is Dallas Green from Alexisonfire (he’s the one with the good singing voice as opposed to the screamy guy).

This EP contains 6 songs, 4 from his last album Bring me Your Love and the 2 hits from his first album Sometimes.

As with his previous live release [Live CD/DVD], he sings these songs solo.  Each song is done on acoustic guitar.  But unlike that Live album, this disc does not appear to have been recorded in front of an audience.  There is no cheering, no banter, just him and his guitar.

If you’re a fan of Green (and you really like his voice) this is a great release.  There are several spots where he sings in if not acapella, then with very quiet musical accompaniment so his voice is pretty naked.  This is a limited edition EP (apparently) but it’s a really good introduction to the man and his music.

I must say though that I never noticed just how obsessed with death he is!  This recording style really highlights all the times he says death or dead.  Huh.

[READ: September 12, 2010] “Love in the Ruins”

This was the darkest of all of Wells Tower’s Outside magazine pieces.  And although it has some humor, for the most part it was a sad lost-love letter to a city that he once knew.

One year after Hurricane Katrina, Tower went back to New Orlenas to ride his bike.  He had lived in New Orleans for a short time before Katrina hit and he used to ride his bike for long stretches across the Mississippi River levee.  He decided to revisit it to see what it was like after the disaster. (more…)

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Wells Tower–”My Kushy New Job” (GQ, August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Music, Corner Gas, Craig Northey, Drugs, Essays, Fears, GQ, Odds, The Kids in the Hall, Travel, Wells Tower on September 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Odds-nest (1996).

My friend Amber from Vancouver copied this disc onto cassette for me sometime around when it came out.   I had heard “Heterosexual Man” when it was a minor novelty hit in the early 90s, but Amber wanted me to hear more from this Vancouver band.

Since the Odds dissolved, Craig Northey has become a proficient soundtrack man (Corner Gas, Kids in the Hall, and much more). But back in the 90s, Northey was simply put, a great pop songwriter (his bandmate Steven Drake was no slouch either).

“Someone Who’s Cool” is a fantastic song that should have been huge: powerful pop with a hint of 90’s rock added to keep it from being treacly.  And, of course, Northey’s voice is great.  There’s nothing particularly notable about it: it’s not whiny or deep or twangy or anything, it’s just a good singing voice (which is kind of unusual these days).

“Make You Mad” and “Hurt Me” have really catchy opening guitar riffs (and are a bit heavier than “Cool,” and yet they feature choruses that are full of harmonies and sing alongs.

“Tears & Laughter” has a jagged, wild guitar sound that, while not overtly heavy or anything, really rocks on this disc. “Nothing Beautiful” should have been a huge indie rock hit, but maybe it was too polished for indie cred.  It’s a great minor key song with, yes, a very catchy chorus.

This was the final Odds record.  It’s a solid collection of songs.  Of course, the band has recently sort of reunited as the New Odds, so we’ve not heard the last from them.

[READ: September 11, 2010] “My Kushy New Job”

This article sees Wells Tower heading off to Amsterdam for a crash course in learning to sell drugs.  He is assigned a two-week job as a dealer in a Dutch coffeeshop.

I’ve been to Amsterdam and I checked out a coffeeshop while I was there, but this article provides more information than I ever knew about them (and suggests that they are trying to spruce up their image since then). It seems that the selling of pot in Amsterdam is still a nebulous area, legally.

Shops can only have a certain amount of supply on hand (which means that most stores have offsite premises where they keep their extra stash; they house more than the legal amount and are therefore illegal.  And, technically, the people who transport the stash from offsite to onsite can be arrested up until the moment they enter the shop.  Customers can only by a small amount at time and, strangely enough, coffeshops cannot advertise (more on this later).

Tower finds the whole experience to be far less “woah, cool man” than everyone who hears about the job thinks it will be.  First, he finds that the buyers are really intense (and don’t appreciate how long it takes him to measure a gram of hash).  But by the end, he finds most of them to be simply rude and a little dead inside. (more…)

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Shane Jones–Light Boxes (2009)

Posted in Books about music, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino, J.K. Rowling, Odds, Richard Brautigan, Short Books, Supernatural, The Kids in the Hall on September 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ODDS-Bedbugs (1993).

This CD features the minor “novelty” hit “Heterosexual Man” (the video featured some of the Kids in the Hall in it).

This disc feels like a big step forward from their first disc.  It isn’t radically different, but it feels more accomplished and maybe more confident.

The bluesy tracks feel bluesier (“Car Crash Love”), the rocking tracks feel more rocking (“The Little Death”) and the acoustic songs feels more substantial (“What I Don’t Want”/”Fingertips”) with really nice harmonies.

And of course, there’s “Heterosexual Man” a great, funny rocker with a fantastic sing-along chorus.  Odds are still doing poppy, slightly alternative rock, but they’ve simply gotten better at it.

[READ: September 13 2010] Light Boxes

I received this book from the Penguin Mini at BEA.  It’s been sitting on my shelf tempting me since then and I decided that I would give it a read (even though I am anxious to start the two books that are next on my list).  Well, it was certainly a good book to read first as it is even shorter (and faster) than its tiny size suggests (it’s 150 pages).

I’d never heard of Shane Jones before (he’s a poet and this is his first novel), but the premise sounded so intriguing: a small town is experiencing perpetual February (going on some 900 days now).  It is cold and dark and depressing and for many, sunlight is but a distant memory.

And plotwise, the story is interesting: a spirit/god/being (let’s call him February) is playing tricks on the townsfolk to keep them in this state of February.  He convinces them that someone in town (let’s call him February) is causing the perpetual cold.  He also seems to be inspiring the town’s children to go missing.  And all of this is a punishment for men’s attempts at flight: kites, balloons, even birds are now verboten (and the priests enforce the rule). (more…)

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Lincoln Park–Handle Time (2008)

Posted in Canadian Music, Corporate skewering, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Lincoln Park, Luther Wright & The Wrongs, Office Space, Short Books, Steve Martin, Work on September 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LUTHER WRIGHT AND THE WRONGS-instrumentality (2006).

I loved Luther’s Rebuild the Wall, and I kind of thought of him as country, but not really country.  A sort of punky country (his song “Broken Fucking Heart” lead me in that direction, too).

But this album is all instrumentals (hence the title) and it’s very traditional bluegrass/banjo-fueled tracks.   Eleven tracks in all (totaling about 22 minutes).  There’s even a cover of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”  Listening to this I realized that I like banjo music (not as my favorite type mind you, but certainly more than a little).  Steve Martin (an excellent banjoist himself) once said:

“You just can’t sing a depressing song when you’re playing the banjo. You can’t go– [grins, plays and sings] “Oh, murder and death and grief and sorrow!”

And there’s something to be said for that.  With this fun collection of mostly 2 minutes songs, you’ll smile for twenty minutes or so.  (And the playing is top notch, too).

[READ: September 11, 2010] Handle Time

When I wrote about One Night @ the Call Center, several readers said I must read Handle Time, that it was the consummate Call Center novel and that it was much better than One Night.  So I tried to find it.  No libraries in New Jersey carried it.  And although I could get it at Amazon, there was precious little other information about it.  Well, I finally decided to add it to our library collection (so I didn’t have to pay for it) and to read it for myself.

My first surprise came when the first line of the text has the word embarrassed written in a super large font.  The font is so large in fact that it put a pretty sizable space between the lines of text (that’s called leading).  My second surprise came when I saw that littered throughout the text were a whole bunch of large words and crazy fonts and a bunch of clip art pictures that showed what was happening.  (I was especially surprised when one of them turned out to be Mr Burns from The Simpsons!).

So it turns out that there are different fonts throughout the book, some of them large and crazy, others fancy and scripty.  But the long and short of it is that this book is really only about 50 pages long (I mean I read the entire 188 pages in about 2 hours).

Okay, but what about the content.  Well the plot itself is fairly brief.  Chase gets a job at a call center.  She sits through orientation, begins working, gets demoralized and has a panic attack about her job.  That’s pretty much it.  But really what you read the book for is for the side bits, the comments, the snark, the sympathizing with call center workers.

Except that I’ve never worked in a call center and yet I have experienced many of the things in the novel.  So, this book, much loved by call center workers, could be about pretty much any shit job (except for the part about keeping your numbers up (and the part about not actually helping people because it skews your average handle time)).  But bad cafeterias, microwaves, bizarre HR nonsense, stupid powerpoints, they’re part of any corporate job.  And she does a good job in skewering them, they’re just not specific to call centers.   (more…)

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Dave Bidini–On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock (1998)

Posted in Books about music, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Goddo, Guess Who, Neurotics, Radio, Rheostatics, Sex, The Tragically Hip, Travel, Triumph, Van Halen, Wikipedia, Zon, tagged on September 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DAVE BIDINI-The Upstairs, Sydney Nova Scotia July 26 2007 (2007).

Dave Bidini recorded three shows in 2007 in eastern Canada which are all available on the Rheostatics Live website.  They were acoustic shows and featured a reading from his then new book called Around the World in 57½ Gigs.

On this particular venue, he gives two readings (and the readings are very good.  His writing has grown even more engaging since this first book).

The songs he plays are a couple from the Rheostatics: “My First Rock Show” which sounds good in this format.  “Me and Stupid” which is almost made for this format and “Horses.”  Now “Horses” is a wild and raucous song, typically full of Martin Tielli’s amazing guitar pyrotechnics.  The acoustic version is much more mellow, but no less affecting.

He’s got a number of what I assume are new songs (I haven’t heard any BidiniBand songs yet, so I don’t know from whence they come).  “Song Ain’t Good” is a kind of jokey song about how the song itself isn’t any good.  Lyrically, the song grows on you as it progresses.   “The List” is indeed a list of people and things that are killing us now: Tim Hortons, Chad Kroeger, Stephen Harper etc.  It’s a protest song and is kind of catchy.

“The Land is Wild” is a more interesting song, musically.  Lyrically it’s about Bryan Fogarty, a dead hockey player.  And the final track is “The Ballad of Zeke Roberts” the story of a Liberian singer.

The other shows feature essentially the same songs (one of them includes “Fat” instead of “Horses”).

The difference with these new songs as opposed to the Rheos songs is that these are more pointedly about something.  They are quite message driven.  And one needs to care about the message I suppose.  Bidini does not have a great voice. Or, more to the point, he has a limited voice that works great for certain things, but it’s not always at its strongest in this acoustic setting.  Nevertheless, he has great rapport with the audience, and is a very charming performer.

I’m rather interested in hearing what the BidiniBand have to offer.  There’s an interesting interview with the Bidini here.

[READ: September 1, 2010] On a Cold Road

So Dave Bidini was in the Rheostatics.  This book is a chronicle of their tour as the opening act for The Tragically Hip on their tour across Canada.

The book offers lots of insights into the ins and outs of touring–the frustration, the loneliness, the elation, the confusion, the shattering disappointments, everything.  As a fan of the Rheos and the Hip, I found this to be a really interesting chronicle of a cross-country tour.

And what I found interesting about the book itself is that the main guys aren’t a small band struggling, nor are they a headlining megaband.  They’re a reasonably small band but they are successful, and are certainly well looked after on this  tour.  So it gives the feeling of being the underdog without actually working too much about pathos.

The Rheos are simultaneously jealous of the Hip, but also very grateful to them.   It makes for an interesting read. (more…)

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Eveything’s Gone Green (2006) [movie written by Douglas Coupland]

Posted in Black Mountain, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Douglas Coupland, Drugs, FemBots, Jason Collett, JPod, Sloan on August 29, 2010| 2 Comments »

[WATCHED: August 26, 2010] Everything’s Gone Green

I’m including this film because it was written by Douglas Coupland (and he’s one of those writers that I read a lot).

Everything’s Gone Green is a story of suburban life in Vancouver.  As the film opens the main character gets dumped by his girlfriend and loses his job.  And he hasn’t won the lottery (this sequence with his family is hilarious).  However, calling the BC Win line (is this what you do when you win the lottery?) gets him a job at the BC lottery.  [This entire job and company absolutely fascinated me.  It was an excellent location for a film].

From there the movie settled into Douglas Coupland territory: scenes from Vancouver, working in a cubicle, scenes from Vancouver, unattainable love, scenes from Vancouver, the Asian community of BC, and more scenes from Vancouver.

We had recently watched the TV series of JPod (based on his book).  Steph Song from JPod is in this film (and it’s nice to see her with a different type of character).  But what’s surprising (or maybe it’s not?) is how much of this film he recycled into JPod (or actually, they seem to be written concurrently, so I’m not sure which came first). (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–“A New Examiner” (Harper’s, September, 2010)

Posted in Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Harper's, The Believer, The Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree, Work on August 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE-The Beginning Stages of… (2001).

The Polyphonic Spree caused a lot of stir when they released this album.  There were like twenty of them, they all wore robes, and they sang choral chamber pop that was incredibly infectious.  Some people hated them outright.  And yet at least one of their songs was deemed worthy of being in a commercial (maybe that’s why people hated them).

It’s been almost ten years since the record came out and I have to say it still holds up really well.  In fact, given the trend of music over the decade, it almost seems like a precursor to bands like The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene (the swelling orchestral bits, that is) and there’s the inevitable comparisons with The Flaming Lips.  Even Nick Hornby got into the act, naming one of his collections of essays for The Believer, The Polysyllabic Spree.

Unlike a lot of music that I’ve been enjoying lately, this album doesn’t have a lot of diversity within it.  That’s not to say that it’s bad, because what it does it does very well.  Symphonic pop.  Euphoric, majestic, swelling happiness.

You have to be very cynical not to be moved by some of these songs.  (Or really into death metal, anyway).

Of course, nobody needs the 36 minutes of synthesized swirls that constitute the last “song.”

[READ: August 12, 2010] “A New Examiner”

For those following the releases of excerpts from The Pale King, this is apparently the same fiction that was published in Issue #6 of The Lifted Brow (which I haven’t seen, so I don’t know if this is the same excerpt in toto). (more…)

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