You can stream the whole thing by hitting the play button, but it works best as a download, so go ahead and click that link (or the image). By the way, the lovely image is of my dear late friend Brad Graham, whom I met at my very first SXSW in 2001. That’s him trying on a jacket at Austin secondhand shop Uncommon Objects that very year. The amused-looking Dinah Sanders is in the background. We lost Brad in January of 2010 but it just wouldn’t be SXSW without him.

Duration: 55:11
Download .m4a file (81.4 MB)

1. Lisztomania – Phoenix (2009, from the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix): How 2009, the hipsters are sneering. But who am I kidding, the hipsters don’t come here. Sure, I may be late to the party with French veterans Phoenix, but how much more I’m enjoying them after waiting out the hype. This whole album just feels like a refreshing breeze and a taste of summer. Sort of like Austin in March, non?
2. Pure – Lightning Seeds (1989, from the album Cloud Cuckoo Land): Believe it or not, I rediscovered this song in Carlos Assayas’ masterful 5.5 hour film Carlos (review). I really loved the way he used music, from the jagged postpunk of Wire and Another Sunny Day to the, well, pure pop of this song. “Just lying smiling in the dark” – ah yes, I remember.
3. The Last Time – Gnarls Barkley (2006, from the album St. Elsewhere): Here’s a great overlooked track sung by the great Cee-Lo Green from his collaboration with DJ Danger Mouse. I really like the combination of his silky voice and the jittery keyboard riff.
4. Pages – Starlight Mints (2003, from the album Built on Squares): I think Starlight Mints should be more well-known. They have a really unique sound and some lyrical tricks, like on this off-kilter love song.
5. I Want the World to Stop – Belle and Sebastian (2010, from the album Write About Love): From perhaps the finest pop songwriters of the past 15 years. I saw the band this year and was knocked out by their showmanship and musicianship, but most of all by the sheer number of incredible songs they’ve written. Plus, Stuart Murdoch is one of the coolest gents ever.
6. Love Without Lies – Comet Gain (2008, from the album Broken Record Prayers): I discovered this band literally the day before putting this compilation together. I was watching a UK indie film called 1234 (review) about, yes, being in an indie band, and found veterans Comet Gain, together since 1993, for the first time.
7. Whirring – The Joy Formidable (2010, from the EP A Balloon Called Moaning): Welsh three-piece fronted by a kick-ass blonde guitarist named Ritzi. What is not to love? Plus, they are playing SXSW, although I won’t be around for music this year. Make sure to catch them live.
8. Off Your Face – My Bloody Valentine (1989, from the EP Glider): Upside Down is a documentary about Creation Records that is playing SXSW this year. My Bloody Valentine are one of my favourite bands from that label and era. I used to think that Bilinda Butcher was singing “James” in this song, and since my crush on her remains undimmed for the past twenty plus years, I refuse to change my opinion.
9. Hummer – Foals (2008, from the album Antidotes): Late to the party with these guys, too, but really love the dancefloor-friendly precision of the guitars. I found out about them through my support on IndieGogo for Anyone Can Play Guitar, a documentary about bands from Oxford. Go and help Jon finish his film!
10. Royal Gregory – Holy Fuck (2007, from the album LP): I saw this Toronto band at SXSW in 2010 and loved their live knob-twiddling performance. Catch them live this year if you can.
11. Steady Shock – Girl Talk (2010, from the album All Day): I’m not a huge Girl Talk fan but some of the samples in this particular track were inspired. Not a day goes by recently when the line “all the girls standing in a line for the bathroom” doesn’t run through my head about a hundred times.
12. Zebra – Beach House (2010, from the album Teen Dream): Beach House really don’t sound like any other band I’ve ever heard and I’ve enjoyed listening to their moody music this year.
13. Down in the Park – Gary Numan and Tubeway Army (1979, from the album Replicas): When I was 14, I wore out the grooves on this record. This predates Blade Runner but shares the same vision of a grimy and slightly seedy future.
14. Dream Job – The Dears (2008, from the album Missiles): Montreal natives The Dears just released a new album that was critically savaged by hipster favourite Pitchfork. This is from their previous record, which wasn’t reviewed all that strongly either. It just goes to show you that some bands march to their own, er, drummer. I’m glad to say that The Dears’ music is the sort that grows on you, and I hope you’ll come to love this underappreciated band as much as I do. Also, I have a Dears story.

I have no way of determining how many people download the compilation this year, so if you’ve read this far, would you mind just dropping a comment to say Hi after clicking the download link? Of course, it would be great if you came back to tell me what you thought of the music, too.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2011: Compilation Champs

Here we are in a special place
what are you gonna do here?
now we stand in a special place
what will you do here?
What show of soul
are we gonna get from you?
It could be Deliverance
or History
under these skies so blue,
but if I know you, you’ll
bang the drum
like monkeys do.

Now we stand on a rocky shore
your father stood here before you.
I can see his ghost explore you.
I can feel the sea implore you
not to pass on by,
not to walk on by and not to try
- just to let it come
don’t bang the drum
just let it come
don’t bang the drum
do you know how to let it come now?
don’t bang the drum now
just let it come now
don’t bang the drum now
don’t bang the drum

— “Don’t Bang the Drum” by The Waterboys. Words and lyrics by Mike Scott and Karl Wallinger, 1985

from Consolation Champs

A Prayer for the G20 Summit

So, this year, behold the mighty .m4a compilation! It has album artwork and everything. All that’s missing are the liner notes, which I’m going to provide for you right here. You don’t need to be attending SXSW to download and enjoy this 10th annual SXSW edition of Compilation Champs. But if you are, make sure you say hello if you see me. In any case, please let me know what you think about the songs. I love putting this together each year and writing a little bit about music, which I don’t do often enough.

You can stream the whole thing by hitting the play button, but it works best as a download, so go ahead and click that link (or the image).

Duration: 48:00
Download .m4a file (67.8 MB)

1. Intro – The XX (2009, from the album XX): I named this my Album of the Year for 2009 and this song does indeed make for a perfect “intro” to the rest. The XX sound to me a bit like what would have happened if Young Marble Giants had listened to more James Brown growing up. Minimalistic dance music that’s both cool and hot at the same time.
2. Shadow – Delta 5 (c. 1979-1981, from the album Delta 5: Singles and Sessions 1979-1981): I only recently discovered the amazing Delta 5 after watching a documentary about the history of Rough Trade Records in the UK. This unique band had two bass players and were at the forefront of the feminist and anti-racist movements. Plus they’re from Leeds, home of one of my all-time favourite bands, The Wedding Present.
3. Blessed Brambles – Múm (2007, from the album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy): My fascination with Icelandic music continues, and with Múm’s in particular. There’s a mechanical sound to their music that reminds me of sewing machines: industrial and yet homey at the same time.
4. My Love Life – Morrissey (1991, from the EP Morrissey at KROQ): An old favourite from the tail end of my college days. A plaintive plea for sympathy, and who couldn’t use “a little something” for our love lives?
5. Overground – Siouxsie and the Banshees (1978, from the album The Scream): Stark and cool, this song is from the band’s very first record. Despite being criticized at the time for their lack of musicianship, I find the stripped down sound energizing and kind of epic, actually.
6. I’m Confused – Handsome Furs (2009, from the album Face Control): In a lucky accident, I stumbled into a show by this husband-and-wife duo at last year’s SXSW. I couldn’t believe how energetic they could be with just a guitar and a keyboard. It pleased me that they’re Canadian, from Montreal, but it’s strange that I haven’t really listened all that much to Dan Boeckner’s other band, Wolf Parade.
7. Time for Heroes – The Libertines (2002, from the album Up the Bracket): Another discovery from the Rough Trade Records documentary. I’d only ever heard of Pete Doherty as the drug-addled boyfriend of Kate Moss. His most recent band, Babyshambles, never crossed my radar at all, but listening to The Libertines makes his subsequent troubles all the more sad.
8. Hell Yeah (Pimp the System) – Dead Prez (2004, from the album RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta): Dead Prez impressed the hell out of me in the film Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and so I went looking for more from them. This song is powerful enough to both frighten me and make me see things from the other side. Muggings and fraud are survival tactics, but there’s also a thrill, that of “pimping the system” that tries to keep you down.
9. The Major Lift – Years (2009, from the album Years): Years is a side project from the impossibly-named Ohad Benchetrit, multi-instrumentalist for Do Make Say Think. It was the horn section in this particular song that grabbed me, especially the tuba, which is a bird seldom-heard in most of my music.
10. A Prophecy – Close Lobsters (1987, from the album Foxheads Stalk This Land): Scottish band Close Lobsters were part of the C-86 “movement” spawned by a compilation put out by the NME. Though they weren’t prolific, this entire album is a treasure chest of jangly goodness. I have no idea why the song speeds up at the end, but I sort of like that it does.
11. Footsteps – Bricolage (2009, from the album Bricolage): This Glasgow band seem to be mining the same territory as Postcard Records acts like Orange Juice and Josef K, which is just fine by me. If I had actually heard this album last year, it might have been my album of the year. Also, what is it about Scottish bands that compels them to make electric guitars sound like something else? First it was Big Country making guitars sound like bagpipes, and now on this song, Bricolage give the guitars a steel drum feeling. Or am I crazy?
12. Broken Rifle – Evening Hymns (2009, from the album Spirit Guides): Closer to home this time. Evening Hymns is essentially Jonas Bonetta, from tiny Orono, Ontario. Over the years I’ve introduced a few people to some great Canadian music, and I hope this year it might be this lovely song that reaches you.
13. Peach, Plum, Pear – Joanna Newsom (2004, from the album The Milk-Eyed Mender): I had heard OF Joanna Newsom for quite a while but had never heard her music until the closing credits of a short film called City Paradise, which featured “Peach, Plum, Pear.” It worked so well there that I’m stealing the idea here for my own “closing credits.”

I have no way of determining how many people download the compilation this year, so if you’ve read this far, would you mind just dropping a comment to say Hi after clicking the download link? Of course, it would be great if you came back to tell me what you thought of the music, too.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2010: Compilation Champs

My album of 2009

This was a tough year for me to compile a list. Although, as always, there was great music released this year, I found myself mostly buying older stuff. In fact, my discovery of the year was probably Delta 5, who made music from 1979-1981. That being said, I’ll rank every complete album and EP I bought this year (a few physically, most through eMusic. Entries marked with asterisks were downloaded either free or at a significant discount (ie. the Fanfarlo album was given away for $1)

1. The xx – xx
2. Handsome Furs – Face Control
3. múm – Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know
4. Years – Years
5. The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control
6. Fanfarlo – Reservoir*
7. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
8. Wilco – Wilco (the album)
9. Metric – Fantasies

Not ranked because I haven’t listened to them enough:

• Timber Timbre – Timber Timbre*
• Do Make Say Think – Other Truths
• The Joy Formidable – A Balloon Called Moaning*

I thought I’d rank EPs separately:

1. Ume – Sunshower
2. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names – #4

Here are some of the “pro’s” lists:

• Chromewaves’ Favourite Albums of 2009
• Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2009
• Pitchfork Top 100 Tracks of 2009
• Allmusic’s Favorite Albums of 2009
• Last.fm’s Albums of the Year

• My Best of 2008
• My Best of 2007

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

from Consolation Champs

Best Music of 2009

Based on the title, I’m going to interpret this to mean that these albums have had an influence on my overall musical education. These are the albums that I bought with my hard-earned allowance and wore out on the turntable, in the tape deck or in the CD player. I had to keep it pre-2000 just to keep the numbers down, and these are mostly off the top of my head, so I could very well be omitting something huge and obvious. It’s clear that I could easily make a list of 100, but the rules said 50. So here are 50 plus a few more…

I’ve linked to a few full-featured, ahem, biographical reviews in the Great Albums category. Ideally, I’ll write one of those for each album on this list, even if that seems daunting and scary. For you as well as me.

And please not that I wrote this originally between midnight and 2:00am so my “notes” are a little slapdash. I reserve the right to add, delete, and edit at will

The Beatles – The Beatles (The White Album) (1968)

* Incredible in its range and showcasing the full range of the Beatles’ creative genius.

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (1969)

* The first album I ever bought, in 1975. I remember thinking the band was really good, but that the singer couldn’t sing.

David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

* The first concept album I knew, and the beginning of an amazing decade for Bowie.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

* THE soundtrack to my stoner years.

Alice Cooper – Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits (1974)

* What a run Alice Cooper had to have a greatest hits album out already in 1974. A really versatile and underrated songwriter.

Queen – A Night at the Opera (1975)

* “Bohemian Rhapsody” was huge, but my friends and I played this right through at most of our high school house parties.

Max Webster – High Class in Borrowed Shoes (1977)

* I loved the combination of “hoser rock” and art rock that Max Webster always embodied. Plus, they’re in drag on the cover!

Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks (1977)

* Much has been made about the “manufactured” nature of the Pistols, but for me, the songs were and still are very good. And no one had ever sneered the way Johnny Rotten did.

The Clash – The Clash (1977)

* I loved the fact that a punk band could have two different singers.

Ramones – Rocket to Russia (1977)

* Every song is a winner even as every song sounds like the same song.

Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express (1977)

* Perhaps no other album invokes a time and place so perfectly.

The Cars – The Cars (1978)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere. “Just What I Needed” – more memories of unrequited love. Not saying that memories of unrequited love were just what I needed.

Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)

* Angular and yet soulful. Arty and yet kind of primitive.

Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)

* Twitchy and danceable, if nerds danced.

The Clash – London Calling (1979)

* Amazed then and now at this band’s range.

The B-52s – The B-52s (1979)

* Loved loved loved this whole album, except “Rock Lobster,” strangely enough.

Gary Numan and Tubeway Army – Replicas (1979)

* Wore the grooves off this one, during my “I’m really a robot trapped in a gawky teenage body” phase. Lost interest when “Cars” came along and he seemed to forget about the guitar.

Gang of Four – Entertainment! (1979)

* Only fully discovered this album recently, but loved the way they took punk in a new direction.

Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (1979)

* Didn’t own this at the time, but I remember the songs and the attitude.

Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming (1979)

* Just like Dylan, I was going through a spiritual transformation around this time, and this remains a powerful document of that time in my life.

The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but this album’s finest tracks have been overshadowed by “I Don’t Like Mondays,” my least favourite track.

The Specials – The Specials (1980)

* Of all the ska revival bands, I found The Specials the most versatile and politically engaged.

Teenage Head – Frantic City (1980)

* These semi-local heroes seemed to embody working-class teenage rebellion for me and my friends. Sort of punkabilly.

The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1980)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but for my 15-year-old self, Chrissie Hynde was what sex looked and sounded like.

Magazine – The Correct Use of Soap (1980)

* I didn’t discover Magazine until maybe 20 years after this came out, but singer Howard Devoto (the original Buzzcocks frontman) and bassist Barry Adamson define postpunk for me. Cool and yet warm, with angular guitars underscored by funky basslines and overlaid with whipsmart lyrics.

Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (1982)

* “Someone Somewhere in Summertime” still brings back memories of unrequited love, though for whom I can’t remember(!).

U2 – War (1983)

* Spirituality engaged with the real world in the nuclear-frightened 80s. I was finishing high school.

The The – Soul Mining (1983)

* I’d never heard music like this before and still can’t classify it. Confessional and haunting lyrics, catchy tunes.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but to sum up: world weary and impossibly cool, I wanted to be Lloyd Cole

Billy Bragg – Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (1984)

* Picked out of a delete bin in the mid-80s, unbelievably. Soft-hearted socialism like Billy’s defined me as a young man, and likely still does.

REM – Reckoning (1984)

* Michael Stipe’s mumbled lyrics over Byrds-like jangly guitars was pretty revolutionary in the synth-drenched 80s. It felt authentic.

Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985)

* Spooky, smart and sexy.

The Waterboys – This Is The Sea (1985)

* I loved the Waterboys’ (and later World Party’s) “Big Music” which was bombastic and yet felt incredibly personal at the same time. I loved the oblique spirituality and the sense of the divine lurking just around the corner.

The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986)

* Not since Lennon and McCartney had there been such an amazing songwriting partnership as that between Stephen Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Morrissey’s ambiguous sexuality helped those of us who weren’t quite frat boys.

Violent Femmes – The Blind Leading the Naked (1986)

* Gordon Gano was another geek talisman, singing about Reagan and faith and not getting the girl.

The Wedding Present – George Best (1986)

* David Gedge’s strangled voice and the band’s unbelievably fizzy guitars made miserable relationships seem like fun.

Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking (1988)

* I first heard this very very loud at a party and it still speaks to that part of me that likes music very loud. Also has the best song ever about our capacity for evil (“Ted, Just Admit It…”)

Pixies – Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim (1988)

* Completely innovative song structures and tightly-controlled aggression helped me through a very tough year.

The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (1988)

* Mike Scott’s rediscovery of Irish traditional music was warm and open-hearted and got me through a very rough year.

Sugarcubes – Life’s Too Good (1988)

* My first exposure to Björk’s heavenly voice, and Einar Orn’s not so heavenly voice.

Pixies – Doolittle (1989)

* Just a towering album which seemed unlike anything before it. And like lots after it.

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

* Sonic ear massage. Sometimes painful and then forms into something incredibly beautiful. Kevin Shields is sculpting with sound.

Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend (1991)

* Matthew Sweet emerged almost fully formed with this amazing album of rock, power pop, and even country songs. An amazingly gifted songwriter.

Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted (1992)

* Pavement’s brand of slacker rock seemed slapdash and spontaneous, but they were really just trying to hide their smarts.

Rheostatics – Whale Music (1992)

* I’ve written about this one elsewhere, but a bit like Max Webster in the 1970s, the Rheos played a winning mix of hoser rock and art rock. Martin Tielli’s voice and guitar took this into sublime orchestral territory for much of its length.

Catherine Wheel – Ferment (1992)

* Catherine Wheel were like the slightly tougher rock cousins of the shoegaze scene.

PJ Harvey – Dry (1992)

* Polly Jean Harvey kicked ass and made you want her and fear her all at once. When she later started wearing dresses and stopped playing guitar, I was sorely disappointed.

Pulp – His ‘n Hers (1994)

* Cynical Jarvis Cocker sang with a world-weary nostalgia about the seamy side and had me singing along with catchy hooks.

Sloan – Twice Removed (1994)

* Perfect pop songs from Halifax.

Spoon – Telephono (1996)

* Pixies comparisons abounded but Britt Daniel’s Texas roots gave Spoon more soul than simple imitators.

Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)

* Radiohead began to take over the world with this ambitious and sprawling masterpiece.

Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)

* Filled with startling lyrical imagery, this album matched the words to jagged music that stopped and started and changed directions. Startlingly original and exciting.

Spoon – A Series of Sneaks (1998)

* Spoon showed real development on their second album, pushing into more angular and yet funky territory.

Built to Spill – Keep It Like A Secret (1999)

* Original and every track is a winner. Not an ounce of filler here.

I had to stop this before the year 2000 to keep it near to 50, but maybe I’ll do another version of my top albums from the past decade.

from Consolation Champs

50 Albums That Rocked My World

Thanks to Frank for alerting me to this. Holly Miranda is the gorgeous singer of the Jealous Girlfriends, a band he turned me onto last year and whom I had the distinct pleasure of seeing in Austin at last year’s South by Southwest. Frank reports that she’s working on a solo album and linked to this solo show she performed last spring. I think you’ll agree that not only is she nice to look at, but that she has a uniquely soulful voice.

By the way, FabChannel looks to be a great find too!

from Consolation Champs

Holly Miranda Live in Amsterdam

My album of 2008

Exactly one year ago, I posted my list of the best of 2007. Strange then that I woke up at 6:00am this morning thinking of putting together my 2008 list. I’m a subscriber to eMusic, so most of my music this year has come through downloads from this excellent service. As well, my experience attending some of the music portion of SXSW has helped me find new music this year. Looking over this list, some are quite recent listens, while others have become old favourites, so it’s a little hard to rank them precisely. That being said, here are my choices (idiosyncratic and personal, definitely) for the best music released in 2008:

1. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
2. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
3. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
4. Sigur Rós – Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
5. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
6. Deerhunter – Microcastles
7. Love is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night
8. Islands – Arm’s Way
9. The Jealous Girlfriends – The Jealous Girlfriends
10. Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini

Just outside the top ten (either due to quality or just not enough listens yet):

• Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
• The Dears – Missiles
• Portishead – Third
• The Vivian Girls – The Vivian Girls
• Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now, Youngster
• Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Here are some of the “pro’s” lists:

Chromewaves Best of 2008
Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2008
Last.fm’s Albums of the Year
Britt Daniel (Spoon) picks his best of 2008 on the Merge Records blog

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

from Consolation Champs

Best Music of 2008

You’d better believe that the Gitch Band will soon be included in the canon of “those who tried to rock”!!! But I’ll post the story here first. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to lift some of our music off that ancient cassette somehow.

(via Canuckflack)

from Consolation Champs

We Salute You

Simply listening to music doesn’t bring us face to face with the people who make it. Going to live shows is somewhat better, although it can often be hard to make a connection in a crowded sweaty club full of drunk people, or, in the case of a more successful band like Radiohead, in a huge stadium sitting quietly in an overpriced plastic seat.

Stripping the music down in some way, and allowing us to get closer, really helps to make the musicians human again, and the music feels much more immediate when it’s being played live in an intimate setting.

I noticed this trend taking hold recently when I began to download the wonderful HD video files from Soft City Lights, sometimes from bands I either didn’t know or previously didn’t like. The Black Cab Sessions is another favourite, with musicians performing live and acoustic in the back of a London taxicab.

The Radiohead album is the first time I’ve actually paid for music video online, but I suspect that it won’t be the last.

from Consolation Champs

The Future of Music (for Me)

I did know how, once. Just like every other kid, I signed up for the driver education classes at my high school and did perfectly well. Except for one thing. It was probably at my very last lesson when my driving instructor advised me not to book my test appointment until I practiced my parallel parking. A lot. At this point in the story, my memory gets a bit foggy (this is, after all, now more than 25 years ago). I did NOT practice my parallel parking. In fact, I got a bit annoyed with his advice. And when it came down to it, I guess I just didn’t care enough. All of my friends were getting licences, and some of them were even buying cars. I was happy, like Iggy, to be the Passenger. Until now.

It’s not that Klosterman has made me crave the experience of actually driving thousands of miles. The physical and mental effort of keeping the car safely between the lines and away from the cars in front and behind strikes me as exhausting. But there’s just something about the particular kind of solitude with musical accompaniment a “road trip” offers that a bus journey with an iPod just can’t match.

Even if I were to practice my parallel parking, after all this time, and successfully obtain my driving licence, I doubt very much whether I’d be able to take off on my own with a trunk full of music. I suspect that there would be some marital payback which would involve me doing every single bit of driving for the next ten years, and beyond. And as a much older new driver, I could never build up the self-confidence that would let me roll down the window and rest one arm on the doorframe. Instead of the freedom that I have in mind, more likely I’d be squinting at highway exit signs, nervously changing lanes and trying not to fall asleep behind the wheel.

If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get back to my vicarious road trip now. At least when I start to get sleepy, I can just put the book down and go to bed.

from Consolation Champs

Vicarious Road Trip

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

I’d met Goldie through my friend Colin around 1983, I think. With his thinning hair and permanent scowl, he looked like a perennially pissed off old man. We shared a love for punk, even though he was somehow affiliated with the strange evangelical subculture I’d recently become part of. I remember him bringing us Dead Boys records when Colin and I were in residence at Bible College. We’d play those and Colin’s Zapp funk records as loud as we could, enjoying the vicarious thrill of swearing and talking sexy. I remember Goldie and I commandeering the lounge television one night when Rock ‘n’ Roll High School was on. So we shared a taste in music and a slightly skeptical attitude toward the world around us.

Around 1984, our tastes were broadening. Goldie was the first one to tip me off to The Style Council, a new direction from The Jam‘s Paul Weller. So it was no surprise when he showed up one afternoon with a home-recorded tape that he wanted me to hear. Side A was Eden by Everything But The Girl, well before their dance music days. Though I enjoyed Tracey Thorn’s soulful vocals, I was much more interested in Side B, which Goldie hadn’t even mentioned.

Lloyd Cole’s anguished voice and whipsmart lyrics drew me in. Here was a guy who seemed impossibly sophisticated and world-weary at the same time. Every song was tinged with regret but filled with literary barbs and wry humour. One of my favourite lines is from Four Flights Up: “Must you tell me all your secrets when it’s hard enough to love you knowing nothing?” The songs had a sophistication that screamed Europe but the album title sounded American. And Lloyd seemed worldly enough to know New York, London and Paris equally well. This guy was flat out cool, like an upper class and definitely more hetero Morrissey.

In the same vicarious way that I listened to Zapp and the Dead Boys, I absorbed the heartbreak and romantic adventures of Lloyd Cole. I didn’t have anywhere near that sort of experience (and still don’t), but when on the final track Lloyd sang “Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?” I wanted to jump up and scream out “Yes!”

Track Listing

1. Perfect Skin
2. Speedboat
3. Rattlesnakes
4. Down on Mission Street
5. Forest Fire
6. Charlotte Street
7. 2cv
8. Four Flights Up
9. Patience
10. Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?

Lloyd Cole’s weblog
“Perfect Skin” video on YouTube
“Forest Fire” video on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: Rattlesnakes

1. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
2. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3. Okkervil River – The Stage Names
4. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
5. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – Music from the film “Once”
6. Apples In Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder
7. Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
8. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
9. St. Vincent – Marry Me
10. Interpol – Our Love to Admire

Outside the top ten:

• The New Pornographers – Challengers
• The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War
• Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block

Other great albums that I just haven’t got around to buying yet:

• The National – Boxer
• Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

from Consolation Champs

Best Music of 2007

I’ve been listening to Spoon’s new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga for the past few weeks, “unofficially.” Today in the mail I was delighted to receive my pre-order of the new CD from the nifty guys at Merge Records. Because I was among the first 200 geeks to order, I got a signed 7″ (you know, a 45rpm record!) with two non-album tracks. Problem is, I no longer have a turntable. I also have a rare 7″ of “Anticipation” that I can’t play, either, but who’s counting. Anyway, I want to beseech you to go out and buy this CD. It sort of crept up on me, but the Aha! moment came last weekend when I played it LOUD on the stereo in my bedroom and crawled back under the covers. At that moment, it was the perfect record for me. And I think it’s stronger than their last two albums, which makes it well-nigh perfect.

There are at least three perfect singles that should launch Spoon to superstardom (although I think I say that about every album they release, and it hasn’t happened yet.) Find and listen to “Don’t Make Me A Target,” “The Underdog,” and especially “Finer Feelings” and then buy this CD. Really.

And the boys are playing in Toronto on October 15th, after a gap of just about two years. You’ll want to be there, too. Here are some other shows.

from Consolation Champs

Ga Ga For Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been a witness last night to my beloved Rheostatics‘ last concert. After more than twenty years together, they’ve decided to call it quits as a band, although all of the members will continue to make music.

The event was held at the fittingly historic Massey Hall, a large and yet intimate space that has been the venue for some of my most memorable evenings of music. Last night was no different. Unfortunately, my favourite Rheo Martin Tielli had voice problems that prevented him from unleashing his trademark falsetto as well as some technical issues with his guitar, but it didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment. One of the band’s trademarks has been their shambolic and sometimes uneven live shows, and last night seemed to be a summary of their career. They played over three hours, and seemed reluctant to call it a night, coming back for a second encore where they sat huddled on the edge of the stage around Dave Bidini’s acoustic guitar and singing without mikes.

The set covered the range of their long career, but was understandably weighted toward their two greatest albums, Melville (1991) and Whale Music (1992). After hearing these songs for maybe the hundredth time (and maybe 20 times live), I’m still convinced that two finer albums have not emerged from this country.

Their music was impossible to categorize, with three and sometimes four songwriters in the band, but somehow these guys from Etobicoke, Ontario seemed to resonate with Canadians all across the country, especially in smaller places where “cooler” bands didn’t play live. The crowd at their shows always seemed incredibly diverse, with young and old fans side by side, and there was something incredibly sincere about them, whether they were performing stinging political songs, spacey art-rock, or irony-free covers of Canadian standards by Gordon Lightfoot or Stompin’ Tom Connors. No band that I’m aware of has had such an ambitious reach, from making a children’s record, scoring a film, and accepting a commission from the National Gallery of Canada to create a piece of music celebrating Canadian painters The Group of Seven. The Rheostatics did all of this and more, and despite a lack of commercial success, cultivated a small but devoted following right across the country.

I found myself choking up a few times during the show, especially between songs when, amid shouted song requests, people could be heard yelling “Thank you” and “We’re going to miss you.” I’ve never been part of anything like that before, and it made me feel happy, sad, and old all at the same time. I was at the show with my wife Brooke, and in the row in front of us were my friend Brent and his girlfriend Kim. Brent introduced me to the band way back in 1992 while we were sharing an apartment, and it’s sobering to think of how long we’ve been friends, and fans. But even though it was a bittersweet feeling, there was nowhere else on God’s green earth that I wanted to be last night.

• CBC has an interesting photo essay
• My friend John Martz has great photos from last night’s show as well as their farewell to the Horseshoe Tavern the previous night.
• Metric tonnes more photos here
• Rheostatics Live (live show audio and video)

from Consolation Champs

The Rheostatics’ Last Waltz

I didn’t attend a lot of panels, or take a lot of photos or notes, so I thought I’d just give you a list of highlights and lowlights:

Highlights

• My panel was great. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet some very sharp people who also happen to be warm and genuine about their faith. I’m really hopeful that I can be involved in something like it again next year.
• Sticking around a few days was a great idea. Although I didn’t buy a Music badge, there were heaps of free day shows. I got to see The Buzzocks(!), The Polyphonic Spree, Apples in Stereo, Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck and Okkervil River. There was even free food and beer.
• During one of the parties during Interactive, I was chatting with my friends Kevin and Baratunde when we were joined by a personable young guy talking about films. He introduced himself as Joe and said he was acting in a film that was at the Film festival. During our 40 minute conversation, it dawned on me that we were hanging out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of The Lookout. He turned out to be a great guy, smart and interesting but completely unpretentious.
• As a panelist, I got a complimentary Gold badge which allowed me to attend both Interactive and Film events. I took the opportunity to see a few films (Reign Over Me, Exiled, and Eagle Versus Shark) and this was a great break from the intensity of hanging around with smart geeks or rocking out at concerts.
• The panels and keynotes I did attend were almost all interesting and valuable.
• I focussed more on my writing about film and made a number of useful contacts. My decision to launch Toronto Screen Shots was based on attending a great panel called “Blogging About Film.”

Lowlights

• The weather in Austin this year was kind of crappy. It rained for several days, which made getting around fairly miserable.
• Hotels were expensive and filled up really early. Despite sharing with my friends Neil and Kevin, which involved spending five of my eight nights on either an air mattress or a rollaway bed, it still cost me more than US$1,000. I’m going to book my room by July or August next time.
• Almost everyone I know had some travel snafus on the way home. I wasn’t immune. I flew back Saturday from Austin to Detroit without incident, but my flight from Detroit to Toronto was cancelled for “unscheduled maintenance.” Despite the fact that it’s a one hour flight, there were no flights available until Monday or Tuesday, and the airline would only pay for one night’s accomodation. I banded together with a few other Torontonians and we took a taxi across the border to Windsor and jumped on the train. I got home about seven hours late, and it cost me more money, but there was no way I was staying two days in Detroit, especially at my own expense. Boo airlines!
• As always, the week went by far too quickly and I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with people. There were a few people whom I’d wanted to meet for the first time, and didn’t get the chance. Ah well, I’ll be back next year!

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2007 Wrapup

p.s. Pinball Arsonists is my wife’s smart-aleck name for the band. She’s funny.

from Consolation Champs

Pinball Arsonists Tickets Secured

Every year I’ve attended SXSW, I’ve put together a compilation CD to give away to people I know, and this year is no different. The playlist is finalized, the liner notes are almost complete, and I’ve started burning the discs, but I’d like to know how many to burn. I usually give away about 30 each year, but if you’re coming to Austin, and haven’t received one before, and would like one, please comment.

I won’t be leaking the playlist, but if you like Chinese reggae, Uruguayan punk, or Bollywood novelty songs, you should be happy with this year’s disc.

March 8, 2007: I’ve now posted the playlist for all those who are curious.

from Consolation Champs

Compilation Champs 2007

In a bizarre case of art imitating life imitating art, or something, there is now actually a BAND called Consolation Champ! I wonder if they left off the “s” since they couldn’t get this domain name? Most of you know that the name of this site was one of a number of hypothetical band names I tossed around for most of the 80s and 90s, and so I’m actually sort of proud that there is now a bunch of guys out there (in Minneapolis, actually) who are making music under the (slightly-different) name. Rock on, guys and good luck! Go and check out their CD.

I realize that some of you poor typists might have already found this out, actually.

UPDATE: I just checked their MySpace page and it appears that they might be playing SXSW this year. WEIRD! If they are, I think I might just NEED to see them. So strange.

from Consolation Champs

Consolation Champ!

1. This year, for the first time ever, I’m speaking on a panel. Not seeing anything on the schedule about the subject, I proposed a panel on faith, and it was accepted. It’s entitled Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online and it’s scheduled for Saturday March 10 from 5:00-6:00. I’ve assembled a panel of rock stars who will say most of the intelligent things, but I’m still nervous and excited.
2. As a panelist, I received a free Gold pass this year, which means for the first time I can attend both Interactive and Film events. I’m still unclear how ticketing to film screenings works, but I’m hoping to actually see a few films this time. A few of the scheduled films recently screened at Sundance, so it might be a good chance to see some stuff that won’t make it to Toronto until at least the fall, if at all.
3. The Interactive section of the conference ends on Tuesday, but I’m not leaving Austin until Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to catch a few bands during the Music portion, and just generally hang out in one of my favourite American cities with some of my favourite Americans.

If you’re going to be there, make sure you say hello! And it’s also acceptable to buy me a Shiner. After all, I’m a crusty conference veteran now!

P.S. Make sure to check out SXSWBaby for the latest news and updates.

from Consolation Champs

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

• Son of Rambow
• For the Bible Tells Me So
• Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
• King of California
• Snow Angels

The film summaries are from the much more attractive and usefully-designed Unofficially Sundance site.

from Consolation Champs

Watching Sundance from Afar

I picked up the set of Christmas EPs by Sufjan Stevens tonight and so far it’s awesome. Most of this guy’s music sounds like Christmas to me anyway, but this is the perfect way to make this jaded old soul think about the stuff buried under all the tinsel and shopping.

These EPs were previously unreleased, but a few songs appeared on some file sharing networks. Basically, every year since 2001 (except 2004), SS has recorded a mix of traditional carols and original Christmas songs (with great titles like “Get Behind Me, Santa!” and “Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!”) and sent it out to friends. Now we’re all his friends. For only $20!

Seriously, this is good!

from Consolation Champs

Sufjan = Christmas!

It’s so strange to be an acquaintance to fame. Many years ago, in the early 90s, I frequented a BBS (that’s “bulletin board system” for you young folk) for “writers” (because clearly at that time I considered myself a “writer”) called The Powder Keg. Through that experience, I met a very interesting young woman named Natalia who was just bursting with energy and talent. We met only once in person, at a reading somewhere, but over the years, she sent me zines she was working on and tapes of her singing and playing guitar.

Flash forward to 2004. I’m browsing in Soundscapes and came across the latest record from The Dears, a band I’d heard of but never heard. Flipping through the liner notes, I see a familiar name. Natalia Yanchak is the keyboardist and backing vocalist for the band. She’s also the wife of singer Murray Lightburn and now the mother of their child, Neptune.

The Montreal-based band played a three-night stand recently here in Toronto at Lee’s Palace. And regretfully, I couldn’t make it to any of their shows. But I’m incredibly proud of Natalia. And though it’s doubtful, I hope that just a teeny-weeny bit of her success is due to the encouragement of a kindly older gentleman who toils away here with neither fame nor fortune to ease his encroaching irrelevance.

I think I’ll dig out my old cassette tapes tonight and listen to Natalia singing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into her tape recorder.

Here’s a recent interview with Natalia with the British music mag Taxi.

from Consolation Champs

Dear Natalia

How could I NOT click on the ad for LDSAudio: “Download thousands of LDS songs by your favorite artists”

I had no idea there even was such a thing as Mormon music. My favourite? It has to be LDS Super Hits of the 80s. Hands down.

from Consolation Champs

Those Crazy Google Ads

As part of a regular series, the school hosted a question and answer session with the band before the show, which you can listen to as an MP3 file. This unique approach allowed not only the audience to get to know the band, but the band to understand a little bit about the people for whom they were performing. What a great idea.

Also, it’s nice to see that I’m not the only person who raves about the feelings of transcendence that the band’s live performances inspire.

P.S. More love for Calvin: the Director of Student Activities, Kate Bowman Johnson, keeps a wonderully-titled blog called Evangelical Expatriate. And former student Ben Reed blogs thoughtfully and often hilariously about the evangelical subculture over at Christian Retail.

from Consolation Champs

Calvin College Hosts Sigur Rós

The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

There was once a time when “Sir” Bob Geldof was known for something other than organizing huge benefit concerts to feed the hungry. In fact, there was once a time when he was the hungry one. Hungry to find meaning in the world, and to find his place in it. In 1979, Geldof and his band The Boomtown Rats released one of my favourite albums, but the fact that it contained what amounted to a novelty hit (“I Don’t Like Mondays”) consigned The Boomtown Rats to “one-hit wonder” status and left the rest of this masterpiece of angry pop criminally undiscovered. In fact, the album was extremely difficult to find on CD in North America until a 2005 release that added some bonus tracks.

We might as well deal with “I Don’t Like Mondays” right away. Geldof was a former journalist, and you could see why he’d take inspiration from a newspaper account of a 13-year-old California teenager who shot 11 people with no remorse. When asked why she’d done it, she replied nonchalantly, “I don’t like Mondays.” Geldof’s outrage is somewhat obscured by his clever lyrics and sneering vocals, but it’s there. On “Diamond Smiles” he tells the sad story of a rich socialite who hangs herself at a grand party. “When the Night Comes” is about how the office drones try to escape their soulless jobs by fumbling for connection. Whether it’s the emptiness of riches, the incomprehensibility of random violence, or the alienation of our modern world, Geldof was a brilliant storyteller. Almost every song has a character at its centre, someone who is acting out their part in this confusing place. On “Someone’s Looking at You,” Geldof even eerily predicts our surveillance-mad post-9/11 culture of suspicion. This is a brilliant collection of pop songs with lyrics that are actually worth listening to.

Some people were surprised when the sneering Geldof became the ambassador for charity in the mid-80s, but not me. You can’t be born in Ireland and raised in a flawed but still vital Catholicism without emerging as an idealist. A frustrated and angry idealist, usually, but credit to Bob for not just giving up on this messy old world. When I first discovered this album, probably sometime in the 80s, I saw Bob as a great example of someone whose brain hadn’t completely crushed their soul. Even without the knighthood, I’d call him sir.

Track Listing

1. Someone’s Looking at You
2. Diamond Smiles
3. Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)
4. Having My Picture Taken
5. Sleep (Fingers’ Lullaby)
6. I Don’t Like Mondays
7. Nothing Happened Today
8. Keep It Up
9. Nice ‘n’ Neat
10. When The Night Comes

“Someone’s Looking at You” performance on Australian TV on YouTube
“I Don’t Like Mondays” video on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Fine Art of Surfacing

Ooh, such a clever title! Thanks to Neil and indirectly to Frank, I got to see The National tonight for free. I’d only heard two songs before tonight, but am firmly in the fan camp now. If you get a chance to see them, you really ought to go, before singer Matt Berninger does permanent damage to his voice. Openers The Cloud Room were a pleasant surprise as well.

P.S. The TTC has gone haywire. From the beautiful young female streetcar driver I met at 12:30 this morning to the crazy subway drivers calling out the names of the stations, things were weird today. On my morning commute, the stations were being called out by a drunken halfwit, and on my way home from the concert tonight, by a chirpy and possibly medicated matron.

BONUS: Video of Gang of Four performing a surprise show at SXSW on a parking garage rooftop. Yet another amazing show I missed by coming home after Interactive.

from Consolation Champs

“The National” Post

I’m back from Texas and dog tired. I’ll post a wrapup of SXSW in a few days after I’ve caught up with my life, but I just wanted to direct anybody upon whom I foisted a “Compilation Champs” CD to the liner notes. Post your comments here if you can.

from Consolation Champs

Compilation Champs 2006

from Consolation Champs

Cassette Tape Gallery

I’m very excited about the release of Simon Reynolds’ book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984. This is exactly the period I’ve considered writing about before, though only about the local Toronto scene. This was not only an incredibly fertile period for music in general, but it corresponded with the exact years I was most receptive to it (13-19). There’s a good review in the NYT today (free registration required). Check it out. And if you’re coming to SXSW, make sure you get one of my annual Compilation Champs CDs. I guarantee several tracks of postpunk goodness!

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me where the title of the book comes from.

UPDATE: I just found Simon Reynolds’ blog! Via the excellent Silence Is A Rhythm Too, which has been featuring MP3 downloads of various postpunk classics. Reynolds also has an author site with more info on the book, and recently hosted a panel discussion which included Steven Daly of Orange Juice and No Wave pioneer James Chance (of James Chance and the Contortions). It’s a big download but looks to be worthwhile.

from Consolation Champs

Rip It Up and Start Again

• Stars – Set Yourself On Fire
• Spoon – Gimme Fiction
• Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
• The Futureheads – The Futureheads
• Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
• Gorillaz – Demon Days
• Gang of Four – Return The Gift
• The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
• Sigur Rós – Takk…
• The Decemberists – Picaresque

And here’s another list, of new bands that look interesting to me. I haven’t heard enough of their music to put their albums into the first list:

• Okkervil River
• The National
• Wolf Parade
• M. Ward
• Devin Davis

from Consolation Champs

Bandwagon

Rheostatics – Whale Music (1992)

Last night, my best friend Brent and I revisited a pillar of our more than 15 year-long friendship. Let me begin at the beginning. I met Brent in 1989. At the time, I was a suave and sophisticated 24-year old who’d travelled in Europe and was beginning my second degree. Brent was a gawky and sometimes abrasive 19-year old know-it-all. Of course, we hit it off right away. When one of my roommates moved out, Brent decided to move in, and for the next three years, we struggled to make ends meet on our student loans and part-time jobs. Sometime in 1992, we caved in to the inevitable and both of us made the humiliating decision to move back in with our parents for a while. Luckily, by 1994 we were back on our feet financially, and we found another place closer to downtown. I moved out gradually as Brooke and I got more serious, but we still live only about fifteen minutes walk from each other.

I tease Brent about not being a “music person” but I am forever grateful to him for introducing me to my favourite Canadian band, the Rheostatics. I don’t even know how he’d heard of them, but one day he brought home a luridly-illustrated cassette called “Whale Music” sometime before we gave up our apartment, and we must have worn it out. Shortly after that, we began going to see the Rheos in concert, and last night marked probably the 15th time we’ve seen them, although I’ve long ago stopped counting. Each year, the band plays a series of shows at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern, and last night was “Whale Music Night”. They played the entire album in sequence, and with a generous encore, the show stretched to almost two and a half hours, but I was never less than transfixed by this transcendent music. As an added bonus, author Paul Quarrington was invited onstage at the beginning of the show to read from his hilarious and sad novel Whale Music which was the inspiration for the title of this record. (In a strange twist, the Rheostatics were invited to provide the score for a film made of the book, so there are actually two albums of theirs with the title “Whale Music”.)

It’s difficult to describe the music of the Rheostatics. For this album, there were four different songwriters, and four vocalists, but more than any other of their records, it feels like one piece. I’m a huge fan of guitarist Martin Tielli, and his compositions feel the most orchestral and moody to me, and I think that’s what ties the whole thing together. All the band members are insanely gifted musicians, but in addition, Tielli is a talented painter who’s created all the band’s album covers, and singer/guitarist Dave Bidini is a well-known writer who’s written books about hockey, baseball and rock music. I’ve had the privilege to meet the painfully-shy bassist/singer Tim Vesely on a few occasions, and I’ve always been impressed by the fact that no one in this band shows even a shred of rock-star ego.

Whale Music begins with a song called “Self Serve Gas Station” and it sounds vaguely like a country song. I’m surprised that I stuck with it, since my problem with most Canadian music (especially bands like The Tragically Hip) is that I think they sound too “twangy”. But I was immediately drawn in by the strange lyrics (“He wanted to bust the glass because I wouldn’t give him gas, I said ‘You shouldn’t even be driving’”). My favourite tracks are the ones by Martin Tielli, and “California Dreamline” might be my favourite song ever (“questionable things like dolphins helping people to swim”) and reinforces my feeling that Martin’s songs are always somehow related to water.

I could keep going but I think the best thing would be for you to let this album wash over you personally. There’s a line in the stunning end-of-album closer “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” that references Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”, another seminal album for druggy kids of my generation. This album is sort of like that. Listen to it in a darkened room from start to finish and tell me that you don’t agree that this is the Greatest Canadian Rock Album Ever.

One of the great things about living in the 21st-century is that it’s now possible for more people to hear this wonderful music. You can download the whole beautiful thing for $8.88 right here. Run, people!

Track Listing

1. Self Serve Gas Station/
2. California Dreamline
3. Rain, Rain, Rain
4. Queer
5. King of the Past
6. RDA (Rock Death America)
7. The Headless One
8. Legal Age Life at Variety Store
9. What’s Going on Around Here?
10. Shaved Head
11. Palomar
12. Guns
13. Sickening Song
14. Soul Glue
15. Beerbash
16. Who?
17. Dope Fiends and Boozehounds

“King of the Past” video on YouTube
“Shaved Head” video from YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: Whale Music

Just got home from seeing my favourite band. It was a bit surreal tonight because earlier, I’d emailed Britt Daniel (singer/guitarist) to ask if, as usual, he’d save me a setlist and also requested a song. In the middle of the show, they played it, and Britt said, “This one’s for James McNally, who’s come to every one of our Toronto shows, even back when we were playing with Jimmy’s Chicken Shack.” (That was in 1998, by the way). So I felt like a groupie. Afterward, there was a large group of people waiting to talk to Britt, and he actually had to ask if I was there. After I meekly raised my hand and got the setlist, a couple of drunken new fans wanted to shake my hand. I hung around a bit longer until Britt wasn’t so mobbed, and actually got to talk to him for a few minutes.

It’s so weird to think that the first time Spoon played in Toronto, it was for about a dozen people, and I hung around afterward to sort of console the band. I remember speaking to all of them individually, just begging them not to give up on Toronto, or on the band. It seems like a long time ago, which it was, but it feels good to say that the band are more popular each time they come. Makes me feel older and odder, though.

They played a very good set tonight, Britt seemed relaxed and he commented that he thought the crowd were really great. The song they played for me was 30 Gallon Tank, from their 1998 album A Series of Sneaks, and they hardly play anything from that era anymore. Britt said he had to talk Jim (drummer Jim Eno) into it, because it’s a very challenging song for a drummer, and he was tired. But I think it’s good for all their new fans to hear some of the older stuff, too.

Anyway, a good time. And one of the rare occasions when I get to be a fanboy, er, fanman. Check out the playlist, linked at the bottom of my 2001 interview with Britt.

UPDATE: For a photo, and another take on the show, read Frank Yang’s always-excellent Chromewaves. I thought I spotted him there last night.

from Consolation Champs

Spoon 2005, Part 2

The Cars – The Cars (1978)

Another great album from my misspent youth. I hope you’ll forgive my detours into autobiography, but most music that resonates with us also connects with what was going on in our lives at the time. This album will forever be associated with a period in my life when I was first discovering beer and girls. Though it came out in the spring of 1978, my memories are probably from the year after that. This was definitely an album that we were playing a year later. It had classic written all over it, even then.

Every weekend of my 14th year, I was at a house party. Usually hosted by my buddy Ken, they were low-key affairs, mostly involving sitting around listening to music, drinking beer, and if some girls showed up, flirting and hopefully, making out. I’m sure this pattern has been the same for decades, if not centuries, and we were happy not to disturb the universe. For me, the song “Just What I Needed” will always be associated with two girls: one I couldn’t have, and one I didn’t want.

Caroline lived in the same apartment building as me, and like me, her parents were Irish. Hers were from Cork, mine from Dublin, though they weren’t really friends. She was pretty, taller than me, and smarter and more sophisticated than any of the other girls I knew. She was also going out with my friend Bill, who was tall, good-looking and athletic. This caused me immense pain, and on at least one occasion, after a few jars, I was found passed out in a darkened bedroom moaning Caroline’s name over and over. Sigh.

Strangely enough, I reconnected with Caroline a few years ago. In high school, we lost touch as I dropped the partying and she seemed to sink deeper into it. Happily, she emerged and has become a sought-after fashion photographer who works in both Toronto and London. She recently had a little boy. I’m not sure if she reads my blog, but if so, hello! (You did know about my crush, didn’t you?)

Beth was a kind girl, but plain and bespectacled when I met her. One night, as I sprawled semi-blotto on the couch at Ken’s place, she sat down next to me and within minutes we were locked in passionate embrace. An hour or so later, I remember walking her down to the lobby where her dad was picking her up, and I sobered up rapid to realize that she now thought we were in a “relationship.” The next weekend, she was due to arrive at the party and I was terrified. Panicking, I locked myself in the bathroom and wrote her a “Dear Beth” letter on the roll of toilet paper. Tearing off the sheets, I left them on the countertop and emerged to face her. “Uh, there’s something for you in the bathroom,” I mumbled. If I broke her heart, at least she could wipe her tears with the evidence.

Justice was swift for my stupidity. Beth got contacts and a new hairstyle within a year or so, and became a model and actress. Later, she went on to have a proper relationship with a bona-fide Canadian rock star (Mark Holmes from Platinum Blonde). I can’t recall her ever speaking to me again.

What about The Cars, you’re now asking? Well, this was simply a great album. “Just What I Needed” still sounds fresh today, but there were no skippable tracks on this record. “My Best Friend’s Girl” was another jab when Caroline and Bill were around, but a good song nonetheless. “Moving In Stereo” was used in a great scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And “Let The Good Times Roll” always felt like a great kickoff to our festivities.

The Cars were certainly more commercial than bands like The Ramones and Talking Heads, which is probably why I knew about them in 1979. I didn’t discover the more “authentic” bands until later. But The Cars were certainly influenced by the same stuff and they had a vaguely European flavour to my young ears. They definitely were indulging in more expensive and exotic drugs than we were (they even name-drop “psilocybin”) and their sense of style promised better hair for everyone in the 1980s. Pity that didn’t work out, though.

Track Listing

1. Let The Good Times Roll
2. My Best Friend’s Girl
3. Just What I Needed
4. I’m In Touch with Your World
5. Don’t Cha Stop
6. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
7. Bye Bye Love
8. Moving In Stereo
9. All Mixed Up

“Just What I Needed” live on the Midnight Special in 1978 at YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Cars

The Pretenders – The Pretenders (1980)

I’m beginning a new and hopefully recurring feature on Consolation Champs. It’s called Great Albums. Does anyone remember what an album was? Do they still call a music “release” an album anymore? Well, back in 1980, when a band released an album, you bought an album, a piece of vinyl inside a paper sleeve slipped into a cardboard sleeve. I think I might have paid about $8 for this record when it came out in 1980. I was 15 years old. A bit of background may be in order.

My family came to Canada from Ireland when I was two. I grew up in a series of apartments even though my dad held a white-collar job. Part of the reason for that was that my mum didn’t work. She had dropped out of school when she was 13 to go to work to support her grandmother, and when she got married, she figured she didn’t want to work anymore. So, our one-income family lived among a lot of two-income blue-collar families. It gave me a unique perspective on things sometimes. Some of my friends didn’t finish high school. Most didn’t go beyond it.

Growing up in the 70s in that environment almost guaranteed that I’d be a rocker. In Canada, we’d say I was a bit of a hoser. From 1975 until about 1979, I wore my jeans tucked into unlaced construction boots and a jean jacket and carried my stuff to school in an Adidas gym bag. Hoser couture at the time. So my first musical forays were into stuff like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and Rush. But I was a bit different, too. Among my hoser friends, I was the first (and maybe only) one to get into punk and then new wave. I didn’t want to grow my hair long and wear a lumber jacket. By 1980, I’d gotten into the Sex Pistols and the Clash, Gary Numan and Devo. And then The Pretenders came along. Or more immediately, Chrissie Hynde came along.

Like most 15 year-old boys, I was an awkward and volatile blend of hormones and energy, and Chrissie Hynde grabbed my attention right away. Just look at her on the album cover photo. A red leather jacket! She appealed to my rocker roots. And she sang like both a tough chick and a vulnerable older woman. Plus, the band rocked, but in a very English new-wavey way. Picking this up was a no-brainer, even if I wasn’t that keen on the radio’s choice of a single, the almost unintelligible “Brass In Pocket”.

The truth is, this is a great album from start to finish. Since it was their debut, it contained all the pent-up energy of a band waiting to explode, and almost every song sounded fresh. In my now 40 year-old opinion, they still do. Chrissie’s voice grabs your attention right away in “Precious”; it was the first time (alas, but not the last) I’d hear a woman say “Fuck off” (and “shitting bricks”!). This woman was tough! On “Up The Neck,” she just oozes sex, and she coyly plays with the lyrics, drawing out such double entendres as “the veins bulged on his…brow”. She continues to talk dirty on “Tattooed Love Boys” and her heavy breathing on “The Wait” still gives me chills.

But it wasn’t just Chrissie Hynde that made this album so great for me. Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott was an innovator and his guitar work has remained very influential over the years. I love the way the end of “Space Invader” runs into the galloping opening of “The Wait”. I love that they actually have a song called “Space Invader” (the console game was HUGE around this time). The Ray Davies’ cover “Stop Your Sobbing” may have been influential in Hynde’s later romance with Ray himself. They even had a child together. And “Mystery Achievement” may be the best last track on any album. Truth be told, “Brass in Pocket” may be one of the weaker tracks on the album. But it’s the poppiest and least threatening, so you still hear it on the radio now and then.

Tragically, within three years, both Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon were dead of drug overdoses, and although Hynde soldiered on, the punch and guts of the band had gone. But twenty-five years on, this is still a thrilling listen. Go on, geezers, dig it out of your crates of vinyl. And you kids, track it down on your favourite file-sharing service. You’ll feel 15 again. Or just 15, I guess.

Track Listing

1. Precious
2. The Phone Call
3. Up the Neck
4. Tattooed Love Boys
5. Space Invader
6. The Wait
7. Stop Your Sobbing
8. Kid
9. Private Life
10. Brass In Pocket
11. Lovers of Today
12. Mystery Achievement

“Stop Your Sobbing” on Top of the Pops on YouTube
“Tattooed Love Boys” live from 1981 on YouTube

Great Albums is an occasional feature on Consolation Champs where I relate some personal stories about life-changing music in lieu of any proper music criticism. You’ll probably learn more about me than about music, so consider that fair warning. For more, click the Great Albums category tag.

from Consolation Champs

Great Albums: The Pretenders

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Sigur Rós

Total volume of music files on my computer: 22.82 GB (5,419 songs) on my work computer, where I listen to the most music. (For the sake of completeness, 26.11 GB on my home system, which is 6,289 songs)

The last CD I bought was: Ooh, it’s been a while, but I think it might be Thank You Good Night Sold Out, by The Dears.

Song playing right now: I Smell Winter — The Housemartins.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

• Rapture — Pedro the Lion
• I Got A Right — Iggy & the Stooges
• Bury Me With It — Modest Mouse
• Aliens (Christmas 1988) — Rheostatics
• Man-Size — PJ Harvey

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

• Josh Benton
• John Martz
• Frank Yang
• Matt Midboe
• Dan Budiac

For the statistically-obsessed, my Audioscrobbler page.

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Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

As the concert began, I let the music wash over me and I welled up a few times. South Africa has a long-established place in my heart. Back in the 1980s, when Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned, ANC head Oliver Tambo visited Toronto and I went to see him. He wasn’t a young man and I was impressed with his unflagging passion for his country. In fact, I was, and continue to be, deeply impressed with all black South Africans. Their pride in their country and their seemingly endless optimism are infectious, and that’s why I was enjoying the music (and dancing) so much. I was particularly looking forward to the end of the program, when they were going to sing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the South African national anthem. It’s a song that has made me cry ever since I first heard it in A World Apart, the little-seen film about the life of South African activist Ruth First. But something began to go horribly wrong about ten minutes into the show.

Miss ZZ began to sing. Any song where she knew even a snippet of the tune was fair game for her clumsy humming. If she didn’t know the song, she chatted loudly with her husband. Of course, by the time we got to Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, she was in full voice. It was as if she thought we were at a sporting event. Needless to say, the moment was spoiled for me, and probably for a few of my neighbours.

I chose to look at the whole farce as an object lesson. Here’s a white South African, trying desperately to hang on to and participate in a culture that isn’t fully hers, even from the back row, with a lousy voice and in a way that’s entirely obnoxious. Kind of sad and funny at the same time. But also very very annoying. The fact that her one off-key Boer voice was very nearly drowning out more than twenty beautiful voices singing in Zulu, Xhosa, Sotha, Swahili and English was a chilling reminder of the situation from which South Africa is trying so hard to escape. It’s incredible that South Africa recently celebrated ten years of democracy. I find it almost inconceivable that instead of revenge and bloodbaths, the government set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and that the country is trying so hard to forge its many cultures, even the often-brutal colonial ones, into a new South Africa.

Another interesting thing about tonight was that, so soon after my “milestone” 40th birthday, it brought a few different parts of my life together. In addition to South African independence being a particularly close cause to me, there was something else. Two of the major sponsors of the event were Tyndale College (formerly Ontario Bible College) and Wines of South Africa. I graduated from Ontario Bible College in the late 1980s, and in my current job, our company represents three South African wineries in the province of Ontario. I even ran into one of my old professors from OBC, the Zulu-speaking Dr. Ebenezer Sikikane, whom I haven’t seen in almost twenty years.

So in spite of all of that, or perhaps because of it, the concert was glorious. The choir are in the midst of their first-ever North American tour. If you get the chance to see them, take it!

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South African Object Lesson?

Here’s a great introduction to one of my favourite kinds of music, including MP3s. I got into the second-wave (ie. British) of ska music around 1980, listening to bands like The Specials, The (English) Beat, The Selecter and Madness. I generally despise the third-wave (ie. Orange County) ska bands like No Doubt and Reel Big Fish, but here’s a chance to check out the origin of the music as well as its evolution. When I describe it to people, I say it’s like reggae you can dance to.

(via boingboing)

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Ska for the Skeptical

Which caused me to want to write about something that happens to me sometimes. Not very often, but often enough to keep me on the “glass half-full” team. More than many things, this is why I am a Christian. Well, it’s why I’m a theist. The Christian stuff comes from somewhere else, possibly. What am I talking about?

Well, it happened most recently last weekend. I’d spend Friday night “holiday” partying with the GTABloggers, talking and laughing and drinking into the wee hours with a group of people I’ve grown to love. But it didn’t happen there.

On Saturday morning, I reluctantly woke about five hours after I’d crashed into bed, to accompany Brooke downtown. She was running in the Santa Shuffle, a 5K race to support the Salvation Army. I was being a good husband, showing my support for my closest friend and life partner. But it didn’t happen there, either.

It happened after she’d raced away from the starting line. I had about half an hour to wait for her to finish, and I went back inside, into the warmth of a nearly empty food court, where I sat with my coffee and listened to my iPod.

Sometimes I think music is like prayer. It’s a language to express things that can’t possibly be expressed any other way. Words and music blend together to speak about something much much bigger than any of our individual lives. I’ve noticed a certain earnestness and emotional vulnerability coming back into the kinds of music I listen to lately. Irony and cynicism are being stripped away and it’s now ok to be hopeful again. I call this the music of crazy optimism. It’s one of humanity’s most enduring traits. Hope. Longing. And it always speaks to me. Basic truths I try not to forget: life is so so good. And we’re all connected somehow.

I was listening to Modest Mouse‘s Good News for People Who Love Bad News (actually, the title has a sort of double meaning, I guess) and something about these lyrics from “Float On” just made me a bit weepy.

I backed my car into a cop car the other day
well he just drove off, sometimes life’s ok
I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what did I say?
well you just laughed it off, it was all ok
and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on ok, and we’ll all float on anyway.

I’m not really expressing it well, am I? Well, that’s why we have music, I guess. Go and listen to some that you love.

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Write About It!

This 13-minute clip (Windows Media Player required) from 1996 of the Rheostatics discussing their “Music Inspired by the Group of Seven”, which was commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada.

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Rheostatics and the Group of Seven

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World On Fire Video

• Sufjan Stevens
• Pedro the Lion
• Half-Handed Cloud
• Danielson Famile/Brother Danielson
• Over the Rhine

(via crabwalk)

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Christian Indie Breakout!

Dream Collaboration: Thanks to MP3 mashups, this one is becoming irrelevant.

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Music Survey

Digging around, I found a track listing of the tape I made for him. It amazes me that every single band is from the UK or Ireland. I think I’m much less of an Anglophile these days. I also included some great dialogue bits from the animated series “The Tick” and the Coen brothers’ film “Raising Arizona.”

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The Power of the Mixtape

But I’ve been thinking of another sort of list. Not-Quite-Actual Songs That Should Have Been on the Soundtracks of Actual Films. This actually happened, when Albert Brooks convinced Simon and Garfunkel to change the lyrics to “Mrs. Robinson” for inclusion in his film, Mother (1996). Here’s a start:

• Eye of the Liger, by Survivor (Napoleon Dynamite (2004))
• okay, this is much harder than I thought…wanna help out?

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Songs, Those Crazy Songs

“You were too busy steering the conversation toward the Lord,
to hear the voice of the Spirit saying shut the fuck up.”

I’ve spent the last few weeks/months/years trying to listen instead of speak about these things. It’s very hard not to become completely discouraged. Silly but telling example: Last night, I watched the first episode of the new series of reality show The Amazing Race. One couple, noted by their onscreen graphic as “Models/Dating”, also made a big deal of declaring they were “committed Christians” and the guy is making an ass of himself already, talking about “trusting the Lord” with their decisions. Buddy, you’re on a GAME SHOW! His whole attitude reminds me of a quote that’s on my “Faith” page:

“I’ve often wondered if being a Christian was something we could, or should, claim for ourselves; that if being a Christian meant incarnating the love of Christ in my own life, then maybe it would be best to let others tell me how well, or how badly, I’m doing”

—Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk

I’m almost afraid to watch the rest of the series…

And, oh yeah, this, too.

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I [heart] Pedro

So here are a bunch of shows that I want to go to this year. Note that I have no idea when (or even if) any of these bands are coming to Toronto. If you know something, enlighten me. Just for kicks, I’m also going to suggest a song from each band, so that if you haven’t heard of them, you might, ah, be able to, uh, find someone who owns a legal copy of the song, and, er, you know, ask them to let you hear it.

• Spoon — The Minor Tough, from A Series of Sneaks (1998) — My favourite band, these SOBs haven’t played my town since September 2002.
• The Apples In Stereo — Baroque, from Velocity of Sound (2002) — I’ve never seen these guys live, and since I’ve been listening to them a lot lately, I would like to. Spoon once opened for them, or maybe it was the other way around. That would be a great double bill! UPDATE: Coming May 3 to the Horseshoe! Who’s coming with me?
• Pedro The Lion — Rapture, from Control (2002) — I’ve been getting into Pedro in a big way lately. So soulful at times but edgy, too. Great spiritual music, and very cathartic for me. UPDATE: Coming June 24 to the Horseshoe! Who’s in?
• The Shins — Caring is Creepy, from Oh, Inverted World (2001) — I actually saw The Shins a few years ago opening for Modest Mouse. I was so dumb I thought they were called The Chins. Now I would pay money to see them again.
• The Postal Service — The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, from Give Up (2003) — This is a side project for Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello, so it’s unclear whether they’ll tour. They apparently did tour just after Give Up came out but it’s unlikely that they’ll get up here without a new record to promote.
• The Oranges Band — OK Apartment, from All Around (2003) — I’ve known this band since their singer Roman was filling in on bass for Spoon. They opened for Spoon on some US gigs but for some reason, the entire band ended up selling Spoon merchandise here in Toronto and not playing. They are an awesome band and really nice guys and you need to discover them right away.

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Concerts I Want To Attend In The Short-Term

A few excerpts from the decision: “No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings. They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via a P2P service.”

“The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed by a P2P service does not amount to distribution. Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying. No such evidence was presented by the plaintiffs in this case. They merely presented evidence that the alleged infringers made copies available on their shared drives.”

Sites like DownhillBattle are imploring Canadians to start file-sharing like mad (“If you live in Canada, you now have a moral obligation to share major label music 24/7″). As CC readers must know by now, I’ve always been willing to share my musical taste and if you’ve met me, chances are you have probably received a number of mixed tapes or CDs over the years. File-sharing is just an extension of that sort of generosity. The fact that it’s happening on such a huge scale is threatening the old order; namely, the major record labels are teetering on the edge of irrelevance. Good riddance, I say. There are many better models for making sure that musicians are compensated fairly, and the internet can make this happen.

If you love music, support the musicians you love. This is relatively easy for us indie-rock types. Independent labels are usually fairer to their bands to begin with, but just to make sure, go and see the band live when they come to your town, and if possible, buy your CDs at the show. I guess I’m lucky in that I live in a large city and most bands eventually get up here (though I haven’t seen my boys Spoon in far too long!). If you’re not as lucky as I am, then the internet is here to help. I recommend checking out the following sites who are trying to overhaul the music “business” to make it fairer to the people who create the music:

• DownhillBattle
• RIAA Watch
• Electronic Frontier Foundation – if you check out the home page today (April 1) you’ll see some great news!
• Stop RIAA Lawsuits Coalition

from Consolation Champs

Canada: File-Sharing Paradise?

The quality of some of the art is pretty crappy, but this has some potential. Hey, by the way does anyone know where iTunes actually stores the album art you import?

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iPod Quilts: Compilation Champs SXSW 2004

Great show, but they didn’t play my favourite song. Whaddya want for 7 bucks, eh?

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Decemberists

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Hey Ya Charlie Brown Video

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A Spoonful

I remember getting really into punk and new wave, and when I began a sort of record-collecting club in the late 70s, I called it Punkrok. I made up membership cards and assigned levels of coolness based on how many records you owned. Already I owned more than any of my friends. I also tried to put together a sort of rock opera, using current songs. Blondie’s “Call Me” was in there, that’s the only one I can remember.

My friend Ken’s sister was a few years older, and she introduced us to Bowie. She had clippings of him all over her room, and I remember reading the word bisexual in one of them and wondering what that really meant. She was also our best connection for booze and drugs, incidentally (or not so incidentally).

My own life as a rock star was pretty short and uneventful. In the late 70s, I tried to gather my friends into a band. We didn’t have any instruments really. I mean, my friend Chris had an electric guitar, but he didn’t know how to play, and I had taken some drumsticks from an acquaintance who was drumming in a real band. We ended up lipsyncing to the Styx song “Babe,” which was, I assure you, not my idea at all. I came up with the name The Negatives, and envisioned a black and white look. I painted one drumstick black and one white, and worked on ideas for how we would dress. I even wrote a song, but without real instruments it was hard to play.

The next band I was in was more fun. We called ourselves The Gitch Band, and we were an evangelical Christian garage band. I was able to borrow a drum kit, and with a pair of y-fronts taped to the bass drum, we were unstoppable. Our forte was satirizing our subculture, and we did almost all original songs. Our best was “Baptist Girls,” in which we were able to rhyme “demonic” with “platonic.” Enough said. We even played a few times live, and I still have a cruddy cassette with some of our music on it. I’m quite proud of this stuff, still.

Growing up in Toronto in the 1970s was pretty exciting. We had a couple of radio stations that were pretty hip. Q107 was the more hard rock station, and I remember joining their “Rock Patrol” club and wearing my yellow and black badge on my jean jacket. I signed up at a booth outside Zounds!, which was a great record store that actually wasn’t downtown. Rather, it was way out in Scarberia. Eventually, it got bought out by A&A’s, a chain, and when they folded, it disappeared. Zounds! was where I bought The Knack’s single of “My Sharona.” It featured a picture on the cover of a girl wearing a white tank top with her nipples clearly visible. I was with my mom and remember being slightly embarrassed. I’m sure she thought I’d never heard the song before.

I got into punk much more than my friends. After buying the Sex Pistols album, I cut up the souvenir programs I’d bought in England for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and put safety pins through the Queen’s portraits before hanging them in my bedroom.

I was too young to go to a lot of shows, but I remember the names of the happening places. Larry’s Hideaway, The El Mocambo, The Edge. I remember listening to CFNY around 1980 and hearing a lot of the ads for shows. CFNY was the more edgy station, and introduced me to a lot of the new wave bands like The B-52s and later, The Smiths. I heard an ad for a U2 show in 1980 and for an REM show only a couple of years later.

My first actual rock concert was in 1978. My friend Ken and I got tickets to see Queen. I’ll always remember Freddy Mercury prancing around in a leotard. Their album Jazz had just come out and I remember hanging the included poster in my room. It featured dozens of naked women on bicycles. My mother was an incredibly patient and tolerant woman.

The next big show I went to was The Kinks, in 1980. Tom Cochrane and Red Rider opened for them, and we had seats in the 6th row. I can’t remember if we were offered pot, but we smelled it. I think someone shared a wineskin with us.

I didn’t really start going to club shows until about 1985. Once, my friends and I were down on Queen Street, and I wanted to go to a show at The Rivoli, since I’d heard so much about it. We saw that the band that night was “The Palace at 4AM” and we were very confused. My friends were convinced that the band was called “The Palace” and that they weren’t playing until 4:00 in the morning. Despite my protests, we went home.

The first club show I can actually remember was a band called “A Neon Rome.” My friend Tony came with me and when the singer sang “Did Jesus do heroin, or did heroin do Jesus?” we got up and left.

I tended to go to a lot of club shows by myself during the 80s, and I really enjoyed seeing an incredibly manic bunch of guys called The Dundrells. They eventually morphed into Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet after dropping their singer. I wish I knew more of the story. The singer was the best part.

I saw a lot of bands when they came to my school. In Grade 9 or 10, a local band called Zon came to our school. I wish I knew what happened to them. Goddo was a big hit. And Platinum Blonde. But when Teenage Head came to my school, I made a special point of getting very very drunk. I got so drunk that I got separated from my friends, peed my pants, and ran home, missing most of the show.

I should insert my Platinum Blonde story here. Once, at a party, I ended up drunkenly making out with a sweet but plain girl named Beth. By the next morning, I’d sobered up and had to face her. I wrote her a “Dear Beth” letter on a roll of toilet paper and referred her to the john when she arrived. I was a jerk. Within a year or two, she’d replaced her glasses with contacts and become a model. It was soon after that she started dating Mark Holmes, Platinum Blonde’s singer. I wasn’t just a jerk. I was an idiot.

Teenage Head were a favourite of my friends and I. We were there at Ontario Place when thousands of fans were turned away and rioted. Inside, during an encore, fans rushed the stage and the band had to retreat. It was wild.

Other Ontario Place Forum shows that we enjoyed: Men Without Hats, Prism (during which I almost got busted by a lady cop for smoking dope), Jane Siberry, The Spoons.

Hanging around Queen Street West in the 80s was fun. We’d haunt all the used clothing stores, like Strange (By The Grange), Style Zone and Courage My Love. They always played great music, and I still remember one of the stores playing a Vital Sines cassette. I wish I knew what happened to that band. At $4 a record, Driftwood Music and Vortex introduced me to a lot of new music.

The local (and not so local) music that permeated those years: Martha and the Muffins, Blue Peter, B.B. Gabor, The Diodes, The Parachute Club, The Spoons, The Demics, Rational Youth, Chalk Circle, The Box, Men Without Hats, Jane Siberry, Pukka Orchestra.

from Consolation Champs

My Musical Journey (a work in progress)

And let me tell you, after being mildly worried that my hometown heroes had somehow lost the magic, my faith has been fully restored. The Rheostatics kicked all kinds of ass tonight. During their 140-minute show, they played some old favourites, some rarely-heard album tracks, and even a few choice covers: XTC’s “The Mayor of Simpleton,” Guided By Voices’ “Teenage FBI,” (since they’re in town playing tonight) and even Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York.” And did I mention they did this last night too? And are doing it tomorrow? And the next day? And the next? And so on?

I’m hoping to catch them again next Thursday night (Night 11 of 13) when they’ll be playing an all-covers set.

As an added bonus, before the show Brent and I met up for a drink with fellow Rheophile Robot Johnny and his friend Stacey, though they couldn’t stay for the show proper.

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Rheos Fall Nationals 2003: Night 5 of 13

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So Long, Sad Elliott

Lame. Microsoft is lecturing music fans about choice? When their crappy Windows Media Player won’t even let people rip MP3s? When their software is so full of DRM nonsense that has more to do with keeping lawyers happy than consumers? When the “other services” referred to have been pitiful failures so far even with the huge market open to them? Puh-lease.

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Lame

It’s not too often you get to experience a shot of joy. And that’s quite hard to describe in words, actually. The concert was great. A highlight was the cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years” and the harp lullaby at the end of the show. Another cover I fully expect to hear next time is “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by the 5th Dimension. I’m actually surprised I haven’t heard more comparisons between the two bands. And since I’m mentioning a song from Hair, how about a Broadway revival starring the Spree?

Openers The Starlight Mints were also very good, though we arrived halfway through their set.

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A Dose Of Joy

The Polyphonic Spree are a “band” of more than 25 singers and musicians, all dressed in gospel choir robes, and singing the most joyous music I’ve heard in a long time. They have a gospel-hippie vibe that’s infectious and I have to admit that their music almost makes my heart burst every time I hear it. It’s so full of joy that I want to cry. Wacky, eh?

Check out some live performance video here (crappy RealPlayer software required). Lots more video available at the band’s site, too.

Gah! I just checked their site and they’re playing in Toronto on September 29th and 30th. Anyone wanna come hear some great music and watch me crying?

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The Polyphonic Spree

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Billy Bragg on CBC Radio 3

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Lists of Bests

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2002) is an entirely different sort of film. Director Sam Jones follows the band Wilco as they record their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Along the way, original member Jay Bennett is fired, and the band are dropped by Reprise Records. With their completed album in hand, they are forced to shop it around to other labels for almost another year. This is a close-up view of a group of highly talented and creative people in the crucible, being ground down by the business side of the music industry, even as they are making the most ambitious music of their lives.

Both films feature lots of performances. In the Funk Brothers film, the band play old Motown classics, backing present-day vocalists, with mixed results. Ben Harper, for instance, doesn’t quite fit the Marvin Gaye mold. The Wilco film more seamlessly blends the performances into the flow of the film. Jones also filmed entirely in black and white, and though a first-time director, he’s an award-winning photographer and his sense of composition is flawless. Like Wilco’s music, the film is polished and beautiful.

Both films are worth your time, though, and if you are able to see them on DVD, both include lots of outtakes and extra music.

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Two Music Documentaries

If I recall correctly, it was only a cable broadcast, so I might have had 20 listeners on a good night, but I taped my shows for posterity anyway. Listening to my inane banter now is downright embarrassing, but I am still proud of the music I played. I hope I might have succeeded in raising the bar musically for at least a few of the mostly-conservative students. I’m sure that my show was the only place you could have heard Sloan in Western Michigan at that time. And though I didn’t particularly like them, the Goo Goo Dolls were strictly a regional act at that time, and I played one of their songs to promote an upcoming show. I also mixed in things like poetry readings (Dylan Thomas, Rainer Maria Rilke) and even a “Backwards Masking Satanic Message of the Week” contest!

For anyone whose musical memory stretches back that far, whatever happened to bands like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Daisy Chainsaw, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, The Darling Buds, and Chapterhouse?

By the way, my show was called “Where the Wild Things Are” (after the classic Maurice Sendak children’s book), and I began each week by playing a record of someone reading the story. The lead-in to my first track was always when the guy read: “And now, cried Max, Let the wild rumpus start…”

Obviously, I’d love to do this all again…

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I Am A DJ

Hmmm. I think somebody from The Dismemberment Plan must have been to one of these shows…

And a tasty Minutemen anecdote:

Yet more Butthole Surfers fun:

Best. Band. Name. Ever.

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Nuggets

Incidentally, did you know that the criminally overlooked Mission of Burma have been playing together again since last year? There’s even a documentary being made about the reunion shows. Moby played guitar with them when they played in New York, too. Neat.

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Our Band Could Be Your Life

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Toronto In Song

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Spoon In The Internet Live Music Archive

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Compilation Champs SxSW 2003

• Punk77: Punk Rock in the UK 1976-1979
• A Chronological History of English Glam Rock

As well, I’ve been using Sam Ley‘s excellent iScrobbler plugin for iTunes for a while now. Unfortunately, the Audioscrobbler site itself has been down for several days with more database woes, I assume. When it comes back up, check out iScrobbler!

As the result of a sales contest at work, I won an iPod a while back. On Friday, I finally received it, and have been deliriously happy ever since. I have almost 2500 songs packed onto the little thing, and am doubly happy I received it in time for my annual trek to SxSW. Speaking of which, if you are going, and have any last minute requests for Canadian candy or maple syrup or Rheostatics or Sloan CDs or mukluks or what-have-you, now is the time to let me know…

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More Moozeek

The reason I’m linking it is that, in compiling my annual Compilation Champs CD for South by Southwest, it came to my attention that a whopping 40% of the music on it was made in the 1970s. I suppose that’s because the 1970s were when I was discovering music in the first place. The first LP I ever purchased was Led Zeppelin’s first album, from Halliday’s TV shop at the Parkway Plaza. My ten-year old impression was that the band could play, but man that singer had a crappy voice. But most of the music that means the most to me was released between 1976 and 1981. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those years correspond to the years between 11 and 16 for me. Does this hold true for the rest of you as well?

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Mod Pop Punk

1. Playground Love – Air
2. Hateful – The Clash
3. You Gotta Walk (And Don’t Look Back) – Peter Tosh (with Mick Jagger)
4. Thank You Boys – Jane’s Addiction
5. Celebrity – Luxuria
6. Rocketman – William Shatner
7. Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey
8. Wig In A Box – Hedwig and the Angry Inch
9. This Is Not A Photograph – Mission of Burma
10. Arc Arsenal – At The Drive-In

Why don’t you join in the meme? Make a post to your blog, then let me know in the comments below.

And yes, I’m aware that you can already see what the last 10, in fact the last 50, songs I’ve played just by clicking here. Don’t rain on my parade.

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Last 10 MP3s: The Mini-Meme

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Audioscrobbler

• Blinded By The Light – Bruce Springsteen (covered by: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band)
• Video Killed The Radio Star – Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club (covered by: The Buggles)

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Under the Covers

1. Children of the Revolution – Violent Femmes (original: T.Rex)
2. Satisfaction – Devo (original: The Rolling Stones)
3. Higher Ground – Red Hot Chili Peppers (original: Stevie Wonder)
4. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Rheostatics (original: Gordon Lightfoot)
5. Ride Into The Sun – Luna (original: Velvet Underground)
6. Friday On My Mind – David Bowie (original: The Easybeats)
7. White Lines – Duran Duran (original: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five)
8. Has He Got A Friend For Me? – Maria McKee (original: Richard and Linda Thompson)
9. Sweet Thing – The Waterboys (original: Van Morrison)
10. Ziggy Stardust – Bauhaus (original: David Bowie)
11. I Dream Of Wires – Robert Palmer (original: Gary Numan)
12. A New England – Kirsty MacColl (original: Billy Bragg)
13. Surfin’ Bird – The Ramones (original: The Trashmen)

Can you find the bad one? Now, let’s hear some of yours…

And though I’ve mentioned it before, check out The Covers Project, a collaborative database of cover versions.

Oh, and watch this space. I may try experimenting with posting MP3s of cover and original for each song, if there’s interest. Let me know…

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Cover Me

The first time I walked out of a theatre and almost immediately into a music store to buy a soundtrack CD was in 1997. I’d just seen Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes in the film adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel, Oscar and Lucinda. The film was enjoyable but flawed, but I thought the soundtrack was fantastic. Since that time, I’ve enjoyed Thomas Newman’s soundtrack for Erin Brockovich as well as the theme he wrote for the HBO series Six Feet Under.

What’s amazing about film score composers is that by necessity they have to be prolific. For instance, in the same year he wrote the Oscar and Lucinda score, Newman wrote scores for two other films, and in 2000, when he wrote music for Erin Brockovich, he also scored two other films and wrote a theme for a television series. The Internet Movie Database lists more than 60 credits over the past 25 years.

To be able to make art out of an inherently commercial medium is a rare gift. So I just want to record here, for the benefit of those that don’t know already, that Thomas Newman Rocks!

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Thomas Newman Rocks!

Well, I know him…

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Nobody Knows?

The Clash were probably my favourite punk band and my appreciation for them has only grown over the years. This is also sad news because Joe was still making music, having scored several films as well as recording with his band The Mescaleros. Another one of punk’s pioneers is gone. Godspeed, Joe…

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So Long Joe

All I want to be able to do is to put a list of the 5 most recently-played tracks in the sidebar with a link to the last 50 played tracks on another page. The common denominator on all the sites on which it seems to work is that they’re authored in PHP, a markup language I promised myself I’d learn, oh, about two years ago. Any instructions I’ve found have lots of mentions of <iframe>s and includes, two things I’ve learned nothing about.

Can anyone explain this to a numbskull like me?

UPDATE: Well, somehow I’ve got the currently-playing track working, and I think that’s enough for tonight. Part of the problem was that the whole thing doesn’t seem to work too well in Chimera, which is too bad since I was hoping not to have to use IE as much. Let me know what you’re seeing in your own browser/platform.

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Kung-Tunes

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Spoon on Conan Tonight!

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Kill The Moonlight

1. The City – Dismemberment Plan
2. Memories Can’t Wait – Talking Heads
3. Flashlight – Parliament
4. It Says Here – Billy Bragg
5. Fast Money Blessing – King Cobb Steelie
6. Kamikaze – PJ Harvey
7. Diamonds – Larry Norman
8. Jealousy – Spoon
9. Biff Bang Pow – The Creation
10. Jersey Shore – The Promise Ring
11. The Perfect Girl – The Cure
12. Outsmarted – The Hives

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For No Reason At All…

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So Long, Dee Dee…

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Listen Up

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The Covers Project

• Daniel Amos are still making music today. Not the name of a person, but a group, DA were one of the most influential bands from this period. Able to span genres effortlessly (they began as a country band and became celebrated as an alternative band!), they produced three albums (The “Alarma” Chronicles) that still hold up today. Satirizing everything, these songs still move me because they are honest, humble, and always looking for truth, which makes a pretty good creed to live by. Good songs: Faces to the Window, Through the Speakers.
• Larry Norman was one of the original “Jesus freaks” from the 60s, although he made most of his music in the 70s. Hippy music like his was still alive in the church in the 80s, along with other discredited 70s pastimes like roller-skating, but I always liked the combination of apocalypse and hope in his songs. Good songs: Six-Sixty-Six (covered recently by Frank Black), I Love You.
• Andrae Crouch is a man who combined traditional Gospel music with funk and R&B and made it appeal to both white and black listeners. If it weren’t for Andrae, I might not be listening to Prince and Stevie Wonder today. Good songs: All the Way, Finally.

The whole “Contemporary Christian Music” thing is a bit silly to me, but despite that, these musicians were trying to do much more than just entertain Christians. Their music helps me remember who I was, who I am, and who I want to become.

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Jesus Music

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George Shearing Quintet

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Death and Dismemberment

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Celebrity Sighting #2

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COVER SONGS WE’D LIKE TO SEE

• Buzzcocks – Breakdown
• Magazine – A Song from Under the Floor Boards
• Howard Devoto – Rainy Season
• Luxuria – Redneck

Let me know if you’re having trouble finding any of these…

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Howard Devoto, Musical Genius

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Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits

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Stuart Adamson R.I.P.

When I was younger, I played in a couple of bands. We were completely non-serious and even non-talented, and I ended up playing the drums almost by default, but even now, I find myself picking out the drum parts in music. A good drummer can turn an ordinary song into something great. And drummers can also get in the way, too. For instance, although Ringo is often derided as the least talented Beatle, he never got in the way of the music. By contrast, I’ve always found Police drummer Stewart Copeland to be far too showy. On a lot of their music, he over-drums outrageously. Especially in three-piece bands, the drummer is vital, but he should never draw too much attention to himself.

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Branford Marsalis Quartet

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Spoon Rarities Discs

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Rheostatics Again!

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Kravitz Kravitz Kravitz

• Finally got a cable modem at home! Setup was silky smooth. Expect more blogging!
• Concert on Friday night was great. Cake were very tight, and though I really only enjoy them in small doses, they put on a great show. It was a bit surreal, however, to find myself in the middle of a singalong of the song “Satan Is My Motor.” Satan is most assuredly not my motor. More like an occasional backseat driver.
• Spoon were amazing, and Britt gave me his setlist again. I have the entire Toronto Spoon setlist collection, for what it’s worth. Look for an addition to the setlists page soon, once I dig my scanner out of storage.
• The GTABlogger meet was swell, too. My friend Brent and I showed up after the concert and not a single person had bailed yet. Of course, within minutes of our arrival, the exodus began. Actually, we all hung out until after 1, and I met some very cool folks. Rannie has pictures.
• Brent and I are going to see the Rheostatics this afternoon at the Horseshoe Tavern. They are on show 4 of 11, and we might try to catch show 9 as well.
• At some point today or tomorrow, I’m trying to get together with Heather, who is in town for a few days. Man, being two busy people kind of makes getting together for coffee difficult. Delicate negotiations are ongoing.

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Satan’s Not My Motor

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Rheostatics

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Shane McGowan

• Robot Pope (eerily close to Robot Wisdom)
• Black Jello
• The Part-Time Jobs (pronounced like the biblical character Job. You can see why this one wasn’t as funny in print as it was out loud)
• Assface (still one of the funniest putdowns I know)
• Fish Pants

Let’s hear some of yours…

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Consolation Champs? Huh?

• RockCritics
• Glenn McDonald’s “The War Against Silence” (hat tip: joe clark)
• George Starostin’s Classic Rock and Pop Album Reviews

Do you know any more? Hit “Comments”…

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Rock Criticism