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Archive for the ‘Radio’ Category

David Bergen–“The Matter with Morris” (The Walrus, September 2010)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Books about writers, Canadian Content, David Bergen, Death, Depression, Marriage Trouble, Radio, Swans, The Walrus on October 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SWANS-“My Birth” (2010).

I was a mild fan of the Swans in college ( I loved Children of God) and then post-college, my friend Lar got me obsessed with finding their obscure releases (turns out I have a bunch of LPs that are “valuable.”  Who knew?)  Anyhow, after they broke up I lost touch with Michael Gira’s projects (although Lar got me a cool autograph when Gira last played Dublin).

But Swans are back as heard on NPR.  (NPR?  Yes, NPR).  They have a new album out, but I’ve only heard this track so far.

Swans are loud and abrasive.  Their early stuff is slow and ponderous, nearly glacial–some of the darkest music going that’s not speed metal.  But after a ten plus year hiatus, and all kinds of new musical advancements what will Swans sound like?

“My Birth” is still a bruising song.  It’s loud and heavy but still slow-paced (although much faster than their early stuff).  The drums and bass are loud.  Gira’s vocals are much faster than his almost comically slow deep voice, and now he’s sort of yelling from a distance.

The big difference is that the song sounds contemporary.  Even though it is very Swans-y, it sounds like it has tricks from the last decade (no, not autotune), just a solid juxtaposition of instruments and a very cool/creepy electronic sounding tinkling that runs through the background of the chorus (is it a chorus?).

It sounds more commercial than things they’ve done and yet in no way is it a commercial song.  It abuses the listener and we are thankful for it.  Welcome back, then.

[READ: September 26, 2010] “The Matter with Morris”

This was one of the longer pieces of fiction I’ve seen in The Walrus.  And it was very satisfying.

As the story begins, we learn that Morris is a columnist and that he writes a weekly piece which is taken primarily from his life.  His family hasn’t been all that pleased about what he writes, but he does his best at hiding the details.  (He initially used material from his wife’s analysis business, but he found raiding his own family life to be more satisfying).

And then his life encounters a real tragedy.  He can’t process the problem, and it shows up in his column.  Instead of being quaintly funny, it becomes existentially intense.  Instead of being in first person, it becomes second person (and makes the readers uncomfortable). (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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Wells Tower–“Meltdown” (Outside Magazine, April 2008)

Posted in Adventure, CBC Radio 3, Essays, Sloan, The Guthries, Travel, Wells Tower on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE GUTHRIES-“Coax Me” (2009).

I don’t know The Guthries, but I’m a huge Sloan fan.  This cover of “Coax Me” comes from a Sloan tribute album that I didn’t know existed called Take It In: A Tribute To Sloan. It turns out The Guthries released two albums in 1999/2000 and then broke up.  They reunited for this tribute.

It’s tough when a band that you’ve never heard of releases a cover of a song you particularly like.  Now, I love cover versions of songs, but I like a band to add something interesting to the cover.  I haven’t listened to any other Guthries songs, but this cover sounds enough like the original that I wouldn’t have really known it was a cover but for a few slight differences   Browsing through The Guthries CBC Radio 3 playlist, lets me know that they are a very country band.  It’s surprising how untwangy their cover is, then.  Even though I don’t like real country, I might have enjoyed the cover more if it had some more twang to it (just to make it interesting).

After listening to samples of other songs, I won’t bother with anything else by The Guthries.  The tribute album is made up of a bunch of up and coming bands so I don’t think I’ll bother with that one either.

[READ: June 25, 2010] “Meltdown”

Before I even begin this review, I have to say that Outdoor Magazine has one of the worst websites for reading articles.  Each “page” is a few inches long, which is fine. However, there is no “view all” page, so you can’t see the whole thing in one long swoop.  Okay that’s not the end of the world, but when you click their printer friendly version, not only does it not print the entire article, it prints the one page–the text is very small and the page includes all the other website ephemera with it.  Then when you click the next page, it opens up the previous main window, where you then have to reclick the Print icon to get it to print just that page.  If you return to the same print window that you already have open, even if it says it has moved to page three, you’re still printing page two. Dreadful!

Hot on the heels of “Own Goal” someone had recommended this Wells Tower piece as a better nonfiction essay.  And I have to agree.  I assume it is because the subject is a) personal to him and b) interesting to me. (more…)

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Wells Tower–“Own Goal” (Harper’s, June 2010)

Posted in CBC Radio 3, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Harper's, Soccer, The Warped 45's, Wells Tower on July 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE WARPED 45’s-“It Takes a Toll” (2010)

The Warped 45’s were being interviewed when I turned on CBC Radio 3.  I couldn’t tell much about them from the interview, so when the DJ played the song, I was somewhat surprised to hear the banjo and alt-country sound.  When coupled with the vocals, they bore an unmistakable resemblance to Cracker.

I’m not a big fan of the alt-country genre.  I like some bands but overall it’s not my preference.  This song was absolutely representative of the genre (as far as I’m concerned).  It did pretty much exactly what I thought it would do.  And for all of  that, it was a good song.  I can’t imagine I’d ever listen to it again, however.

This song comes from the album 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan, which I mention because I like writing Saskatchewan.

[READ: June 22, 2010] “Own Goal”

The fine folks at the David Foster Wallace listserv were chatting about this piece.  I had started to read it (because I like Wells Tower’s fiction) but I gave up after a paragraph or two.  It just didn’t seem that interesting as a nonfiction story.

And yet, after the discussion, I decided to give it a try.  It is a fascinating story about the Homeless World Cup (in soccer).   The strange thing about the story is that all of the players are homeless and, by their own admissions, pretty much desperate characters. In other words there’s not really any likable characters in this piece.

Even the one guy who makes it to the finals in Melbourne Australia (!) is pretty much of a jerk.  (He, who has gotten kicked out of his house, has the temerity to dis Melbourne as “not being Sydney”). (more…)

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Miguel Syjuco–”Stet” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Funny (ha ha), Jill Sobule, Loudon Wainwright III, Miguel Syjuco, Newspapers, Rob Szabo, The Walrus on June 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ROB SZABO-“If I Could Do It All Again” (2003).

Rob Szabo is a singer-songwriter.  And this song is a pretty traditional singer-songwriter song.  It’s got some humor, it’s got some cliches.  In some ways he reminds me of Jill Sobule (lyrically, not vocally, obviously) or maybe Loudon Wainwright III.

Szabo has a number of albums out already.  I listened to a few others songs on his radio station and I enjoyed them.  He strikes me as the kind of musician that the more you listen, and the more carefully you listen, the more rewarding his music is.

I wasn’t all that impressed by “If I Could Do It All Again,” but the other tracks were certainly good.  And I could easily enjoy listening to his stuff when the mood was right.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Stet”

This was probably my favorite story of the bunch.  It’s funny, it’s dark and its very Canadian.  I suppose that if you want to write a “Canadian story” it’s easy to set it where he does (so you can mention a LOT of Canadiana) but this story works beyond the surface.

And the surface is that this story is set in a Canadian newspaper.  Mansour, Fabien and Matt are trying to meet a deadline.  They bemoan their late hours, their hard work, their horrible bosses and the inevitable decline of newspapers. (more…)

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Madeleine Thien–”Su Na, Bird” (The Walrus, July/Aug 2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, End of the World, Huron, Madeleine Thien, Nature, Neil Young, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus, Thin Lizzy on June 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HURON-“Corktown” (2010).

Huron‘s “Corktown” opens with a guitar riff that sounds like classic 70s rock (hello Thin Lizzy!).  But when the song kicks in for good, the verses are a light, jangly pop.  It makes for a really interesting mix of styles and it works really well.

Some of the other tracks include the screaming rock of “Big Dig” (which has chord progressions of Neil Young but sounds nothing like Neil Young).  It also features some wonderfully stupid fat bass sounds as the song nears its conclusion.  “Bloodfire” has another great guitar solo.  And the vocalist sounds an awful lot like one of the guys from Sloan (who knew Sloan could be so influential?)

Thanks CBC Radio 3 for introducing me to this great band.

[READ: June 15, 2010] “Sun Na, Bird”

This final piece is at the same time the bleakest and yet most hopeful story of the group.

It is the near future and in this suburban Canadian town, all the humans have fled, with no intention of returning (the TV is still on in the house where the story takes place). (more…)

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Stephen Marche–”A Few Acres of Snow” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Galaxie 500 (Canadian band), Short Story, Sloan, Stephen Marche, The Walrus on June 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: GALAXIE 500-“Big Bang” (2006).

When I saw this band come up on CBC Radio 3, I thought, I didn’t know that Galaxie 500 were Canadian.  Well, they’re not.  At least the early 90’s band Galaxie 500 aren’t.  But THIS Galaxie 500 are from Montreal.

Now, I understand that there are a lot of bands with the same name.  It’s prettyinevitable as there’s only so many permutations of common words.  But “Galaxie 500?”  How could they not know there was another band with that name, especially as seminal an act as Galaxie 500 was?  So, what is their name?  A tribute?  I just don’t get it.

And so I was prepared to hate this band on principle. But then I heard the song.  It’s noisy, crazy, brash and ballsy.  It’s not exactly punk, it’s sort of a garage band with sound effects (in many places it sounds like the more raucous Sloan songs).

They also sing in French (which means they have more right to the spelling of Galaxie than the previous incarnation of the band).  Even though “Big Bang” comes from the top album Le Temps au Point Mort, I really enjoy this lower album cover more (and the songs from it (which you can hear on the band’s website) are also great.  As is the video (available there, too).

[READ: June 15, 2010] “A Few Acres of Snow”

This story starts out in reality and slowly shifts into a  more fanciful realm.  As it opens, a man arrives at a cabin. His intention is to write a book called One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Paintings To See Before You Die (I love the conceit of this, a sort of lazy man’s guide to touring the world).

He is isolated (which is what he wants), with no phone or contact with the outside word (or his family).  And then it starts snowing.  It snows harder and harder and plies up to his windows.  And then it goes higher still. (more…)

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Heather O Neill–“Riff-Raff” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Heather O'Neill, James Brown, Kid Koala, The Slew, The Walrus, Travel, Violence on June 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SLEW “100%” (2009).

The Slew is the latest band created by DJ Kid Koala. Koala is a fantastic turntablist, and this group uses his scratching and sampling to excellent effect.  The lineup includes drums, bass, keyboards and six turntables!

It’s an insane hodge-podge of music.  And it’s very fun.  I’ve no idea how many samples are in here (James Brown seems to be all over the song) or even if any of the “riffs” in the song are original or from other records, but I enjoyed this very much.

I’ve enjoyed just about everything Kid Koala has done, and this is no exception.  I’m glad to see he’s still being so creative.

There are three five tracks available on CBC Radio 3.  And they’re all fun.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Riff-Raff”

The protagonist of this story is a nineteen year old girl from Montreal.  She is in a horrible relationship with a boy named Leroy.  But near the end of her first year at McGill, she meets an American boy.  They hang out pretty steadily for a few weeks and, when school ends, he invites her to visit him in New Mexico.

There’s so many places this story could have gone.  I guessed a number of them, but I never would have guessed the direction it went. (more…)

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Zsuzsi Gartner–”Say the Names (after Al Purdy)” (The Walrus July/August 2010)

Posted in Books about music, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Funny (strange), Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Young Rival, Zsuzsi Gartner on June 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YOUNG RIVAL-“Got What You Need” (2009).

I was only able to hear this song once.  It’s surprisingly on available on the Young Rival playlist on CBC Radio 3).  Young Rival play a kind of fast, noisy punk and yet the melodies underneath the noise are very poppy.

I also played the track “Authentic” which is similar in style.  I found both songs very catchy, but have to admit that even a few minutes later I couldn’t recall them at all.  I’d say it’s perfect  for radio airplay.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Say the Names”

This, indeed, is the quintessential Canadian story.  Every line in the piece is taken from a Canadian song, book or movie.  (I only learned that from the introduction to all of the stories. There’s nothing in the story to reveal that.  Although given its fractured nature and the very obviousness of some of the titles, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out.]

It’s kind of fun to play “spot the lyrics” or what have you.  I knew some, but far fewer than I would have guessed.

As for the story itself, well, it’s a little disjointed. (more…)

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Rawi Hage–“Waiting for God” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Huh?, Olympics, Ramones, Rawi Hage, Religion, Teenage Head, The Walrus on June 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TEENAGE HEAD-“Picture My Face” (1979).

Teenage Head is a punk band in the vein of The Ramones.  If I were younger I probably would have enjoyed this song more.  Not because it’s a punk song (and I’m old) but because it’s so derivative of just about every Ramones-inspired punk song I can think of.

There’s nothing wrong with being derivative per se.  Some of the best bands started out as derivative of something else.  And, frankly when you’re playing three chord punk it’s hard to reinvent the wheel.  But I think these kinds of bands are more for people who don’t have a history of music that is just like this, only better.

Heh, I just looked up this band and found out that this song is from 1979.  Whoops.  So it doesn’t have 30 years of punk holding it up, it still has a whole bunch of Ramones tracks to compare it to.  And, I stand by the suggestion that it’s fun punk, just not terribly original (although perhaps in 1979 it was more original).

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Waiting for God”

This story is set (sort of) at the Vancouver Olympics.  The narrator overhears two men speaking.  One of them is described as “Man in rags” the other is “Man with turnip.”  I understood that much.

I assume this is an homage to Waiting for Godot, an absurd story if ever there was.  And so, this story is also absurd.  Man in rags is discoursing with Man with turnip, but Man with turnip seems to be discoursing with someone else entirely. (more…)

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