Author: James McNally

Great Albums: Rattlesnakes

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

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.

2007: The Year That Was

In the custom of the season, I wanted to take a look back before taking a look forward. 2007 was a year of many changes for me, and it’s probably a good idea to take stock at this time of year.

  • March: We lost Brooke’s dad to cancer, which has been tough on both of us. Jim had survived lots of things and it was sad to see him go at the relatively young age of 73. His booming Scottish brogue (both spoken and sung) is sorely missed. Although I lost my mum a full twenty years ago, the death of a parent at this stage of life always reminds us of our own aging and mortality.
  • March: For the first (and hopefully not last) time, I chaired a panel at South by Southwest. After six years of attending, I decided to contribute a little, suggesting and then moderating a panel called “Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality on the Web.” Although I’m not repeating in 2008, I hope to be able to do something like it again soon. It was immensely rewarding for me and I got to meet some of my online heroes for the first (and hopefully not last!) time.
  • March: I started a new weblog, gathering all my film reviewing into its own space. Efforts to make it a group blog have met with limited success, but I’m really enjoying all the new people I’ve met through Toronto Screen Shots.
  • August: We moved to a bigger apartment, on a higher floor. We have more room and a great view of Lake Ontario. Unfortunately, now that it’s winter, our 27th floor pad feels more like an eyrie, with the cold Metric winds howling all night long.
  • August: I changed jobs, from being the jack-of-all-trades web guy at a small but market-leading wine importing agency to being a web producer-writer at a huge “Big Four” accounting/professional services firm. The jury is still out on whether this is a good long-term fit for me, but I like having a bit more change in my pockets.
  • October: Celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and our tenth year as a couple. I hope we’re beginning to get the hang of this.
  • October-November: Brooke and I took our annual holiday, this time to Havana. It was perhaps the strangest holiday we’ve ever taken together and I’m still not sure I’m ready or able to write about it. From almost-missed flights to a broken camera to illness, it almost felt like we shouldn’t have gone. Now that we’re back, I almost can’t remember being there. Our pictures are terrible, but at least they’re evidence.
  • November: Celebrated the marriage of our friends Philip and Ian, finally tying the knot after fifteen years together. Congratulations, guys!

Plans for 2008, though subject to change and the will of the Universe, include:

  • January: Visiting New York City for the first time since I was a small boy. We’re planning to see the United Nations, the NYC Ballet, maybe some theatre, the Nintendo World store and some good food.
  • March: Attending my 8th South by Southwest, staying a few extra days (like last year) to enjoy more films and music.
  • September: Holidaying in Iceland and covering the Reykjavik International Film Festival.
  • Yearlong: connecting and reconnecting with new and old friends, being the best husband I can be, overcoming my shyness to love people more, rewiring my spiritual self to remove some scar tissue, continuing to figure out how to use more of myself at work.

Here’s to 2008, cyberfriends!

Best Music of 2007

I’m not a music blogger, but in the spirit of all the year-end lists that are popping up on proper music blogs, I thought I’d make my own. My criteria were simple. The disc had to come out sometime in 2007, and I had to actually care enough to buy it. I don’t buy that much music anymore, so my list of potential picks was mercifully small. Ranking was difficult, but I decided that if something was pleasantly surprising, it ranked higher than something that was just dependably good. So, here, without any real commentary, are my top 10 from 2007.

  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?

Who Wants To Go Camping This Summer?

I have got to spend a few days here, in lovely Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Who’s up for a JamesMcNallyFest?

I found this, by the way, through the very cool, though slightly creepy Spock.com, which had already built a profile page for me before I ever visited the site. I joked on Twitter that that’s probably exactly why it’s called Spock.com.