Good Times

Good times. I’ve spent the last two nights seeing my favourite band in the world. I’m talking, of course, about Spoon. They opened for Guided By Voices on Wednesday night, and headlined their own show last night at the venerable Horseshoe Tavern here in Toronto. I was able to arrange an interview with chief utensil Britt Daniel last night and hope to have something put together soon to put up on the site. Jim Eno, drummer supreme, was kind enough to provide me with his setlists both nights and they’ll be finding their way onto the setlists page as soon as possible. Pardon my boundless enthusiasm, but if you’re still in the dark about this amazing band, you need to see the light. You can scoop up many free and legal MP3s here and here and here and here. Oh, and all you lucky people who own one of my Compilation Champs CDs, their new stuff is even better than what you’ve already heard.

Despite the unemployment, a nice couple of days. And both my Leafs and Raptors won last night, too!

Embarrassing Music

Ok, time for another Embarrassing Music Post™. I want to know what was on the turntable (or CD player for you young’uns) at your teenage house parties. Being an old man, my parties straddled the late 70’s/early 80’s divide, but most of my party friends were a little more backward looking than I was. While I was the punk/new wave guy, this is what I had to endure. No wonder I drank myself into a stupor:

  • Alice Cooper – Greatest Hits
  • Nazareth – Greatest Hits
  • Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
  • Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
  • Foreigner – Foreigner
  • Queen – News of the World

The best I could do was slip The Cars on now and then, after everyone had nodded off. How about you?

Stephen Malkmus

I have really been enjoying Steve Malkmus‘s new CD lately. It reminds me of all the reasons I wish I could play guitar. Worst of all, he’s playing SXSW, and I’m leaving Austin before the Music portion starts. Here are all the shows I wish I could see, but won’t:

  • Spoon
  • Stephen Malkmus
  • David Byrne
  • The Flashing Lights
  • Mike Peters (ex-Alarm)

In other news, Denise sent a fiery package of hot sauce, hot tamales, and chili, which has already started to melt the snow up here. Thank you Denise! Hopefully, I can bring a little bit of Canada with me next week…