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Archive for the ‘Craig Northey’ Category

The Kids in the Hall: Death Come to Town (2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Craig Northey, Death, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Oddities, Odds, Prison, The Kids in the Hall, The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Beloved Canadians The Kids in the Hall who were hilarious for five years on their skit show (and who ended their reign while still being very funny) have returned to TV after a sixteen year hiatus (not including their underrated movie Brain Candy and their awesome live tours, naturally).

I was beside myself with excitement when I found out about this show (and I’m rather vexed that I didn’t hear about it until it showed up on IFC recently.  Although I suppose if I had known about it sooner, there’s no way I could have watched it anyhow).   I was also kind of surprised at how little I knew about the show before it started.  How many episodes were there for instance?

So, the details (now that the show has finished its run on IFC, with repeats to come, no doubt): It is an 8 episode mini-series.  All of the Kids are in the show, and they each play multiple roles (although the opening credits and promo stuff suggest that they each play one character).  They play:

Bruce:  Mayor Bowman, “Big City” Lawyer (one of my favorites on the show), and Ricky (an obese man).
Dave: Mrs Bowman, Levon Blanchard (news producer), Dr Porterhouse (The town abortionist), and a wonderfully ambiguously accented, where-the-hell-is-she-from? nurse (my favorite minor character by far).
Kevin: Marnie (a forgetful, middle aged woman), Shaye (the news teams’ sound guy and hipster) and Sam Murray (depressed cat loving DA).
Scott: Crim Hollingsworth (1/16th Native and a great performance by Scott), Heather Weather (the TV weather woman), and Dusty Diamond (town coroner).
Mark: Corrinda Gablechuck (anchorwoman), The Judge, and the titular Death.
Bruce & Mark also play cops, like in the old series.

There are also other actors in the series, and (according to post show interviews) a lot of the locals from Shuckton, Ontario (which is really North Bay) were used as extras.

I admit that I was a little disappointed in the first episode. After the non-stop hilarity of the skit show, this one took some time to get going.  Exposition is a bitch.  But there’s enough humor (the opening with Bruce’s CGI bid for the 2028 Olympics, Death’s arrival on a kids’ bicycle (with a motor), and Dave as the drunken mayor’s wife) to keep the show interesting.

Once the exposition is out of the way though, the story is just fantastic and very funny. (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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Will Ferguson–Why I Hate Canadians (1997)

Posted in 19th Century, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corner Gas, Corporate skewering, Craig Northey, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), History, Memoirs, Mike Bullard, Northey Valenzuela, Odds, Political Humor, The New Odds, War, Wikipedia, Will Ferguson on September 24, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THE NEW ODDS-Cheerleader (2008).

Craig Northey, singer of the Odds has written some great songs by himself and with a slew of other projects.  But most notably, he did the theme songs (opening and closing) for Corner Gas.  At last, “My Happy Place” the Closing Credits song has now been released on this disc by The New Odds.  (The Opening Credits song “Not a Lot Goin On” is available on the disc that Northey made with Jesse Valenzuela, cleverly titled Northey Valenzuela.  I mention Corner Gas aside from the fact that it’s a great show, because I mention it in the book write up below as well.  But back to the Odds.

The Odds had a minor hit in 1993 with “Heterosexual Man” (which we all thought was hilarious).  I didn’t really think much about them until my friend Amber from Vancouver sent me a tape of Bedbugs.  I was surprised how much I liked it and how, although the band was funny, they weren’t a novelty act at all.

I’ve enjoyed the Odds very much since then, they’ve appeared on a number of soundtracks, and released four solid albums, especially 1996’s Nest.

The New Odds are, as you might guess, the Odds, only new.  3 of the 4 original members are back, and aside from updating their sound to the twenty-first century, the band isn’t radically different. They play what used to be called college music, but which really is more or less alternative or even just rock music.

As with previous Northey output, the lyrics are witty and clever, with some wordplay in evidence.  There’s a pretty diverse collection of sounds on the record, yet they all stay within the range of alternative guitar pop.  One or two songs rock harder than the others, “Leaders of the Undersea World” sounds like a dose of heavy metal in comparison to the rest of the record.  “Write it in Lightning” is also a pretty good song, and “I Can’t Get You Off” has a wonderfully catchy hook to it.

Northey’s voice is easily described as inoffensive, and the music is catchy but not stick-in-your-head catchy.  It’s not a ringing endorsement, but it’s also not a put-down.  Like meat and potatoes, it’s a good staple to any alternative fans’ collection.

[READ: August 28, 2008] Why I Hate Canadians

I bought this book several years ago, probably in 2000, when I was visiting Montreal.  I remember being very excited to visit Chapters and to see what kind of books they had that weren’t available down south.  I was especially interested in the humor section as I had just started watching Mike Bullard, and I knew he wasn’t available in the States.  I found Bullard’s book as well as two books about Canada by the Fergusons. Why it took me 8 years to read them, I don’t know.

This book is listed as a humour book; the copyright page has it listed as 1. Canada-Humor 2. Canadian wit and humor (English).  But the thing is that the book isn’t very funny.   Even with an outrageous title like that, it’s not very funny.  It is however, a fantastic introduction to the history of Canada written in a style that is (yes) funnier than your average textbook.

DIGRESSION: I will state that I realize that Will Ferguson has a perspective, and quite often he’s very vocal about his perspective.  Most good history is written with an acknowledged bias–trying to hide your bias makes for dull (or hypocritical) history.  So, Ferguson’s history of Canada may not be Accurate, (especially if you are a Quebecois) and of course, I’d be interested to hear from those who disagree with him; however, to an American who is not well versed in the history of Canada, it was pretty enlightening. (more…)

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Joe R. Lansdale–“Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68” (1992)

Posted in Bubba Ho-Tep, Canadian Music, Craig Northey, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joe R. Lansdale, Sex, Short Story, Stripper's Union, The Kids in the Hall, Violence, Yuck! on September 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STRIPPER’S UNION-Local 518 (2005).

This is a collaboration between Craig Northey from The Odds, and Rob Baker from The Tragically Hip.  Really, it comes across as a showcase for Craig Northey because, and I mean no disrespect, I’m not sure that Rob Baker has a very distinctive guitar style.  Or, put it this way, I couldn’t pick Baker’s guitar our of an audio line up.  And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.  I think it really highlights his wide range of skills.  This is evidenced also by how different The Hip sounds on different albums.  Their last 3 are vastly different.

And so, this collection allows Baker to showcase his varying styles, and probably some things he doesn’t do in the hip, and it allows Northey to sing in some styles that he doesn’t always use.  Basically, it’s a good chance for both guys to stretch out.

My first thought when listening was that the album was just a collection of good rock songs.  But as I’ve listened more, I find quite a lot of fun and interesting things going on.  The two opening tracks are pretty rocking, with “Full Flow Angry Boy” being a good shout-along.  The album changes as it moves along: “Bullet Proof White Limo” is a smooth, almost creepy song.   “Give up and Go Away,” co-written by Kid in the Hall, Dave Foley, has some great shouted “Hey’s” which always make a song fun to sing along with. “The Radio (foggy hill)” is one of those songs that seems simple and is easy to ignore, but once it gets inside of you it sticks (Imagine a droning singalong of “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na goes the radio”).

In general, Northey is a witty lyricist, and this album is no exception. The lyrics aren’t always easy to hear, but some of my favorites include:

Gang vocal with the fist up, into German porn; Peter Band caught fire, warming up for Korn.

We did 22 bucks a head; That’s better than the Grateful Dead; They picked our stock of swag so clean; As they raged against the old machine.

When I was born your time was through, now it’s my generation too; I care so I rehearse, cause everybody knows the words.

You don’t get a sense for the catchy melodies with these snippets but you do get a sense for the tone and themes.  There’s a lot of songs about being in a band, but they aren’t really navel gazing.  I mean, I’ve never been in a band, but I enjoyed the lyrics.

Any fan of The Odds or The Hip should track this down, but really, anyone looking for a diverse collection of well-crafted songs should really give this one a try. You can check out the disc from Maplemusic. There’s even a band website (which hasn’t been updated in over two years!)

[READ: August 19, 2008] “Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68”

My coworker recommended this story to me, as one of the only stories that ever made him laugh out loud (he claims he has no sense of humor). (more…)

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