Just a quick one today. Lately my posts have dealt with music in culture or reviews or some such nonsense. There are a few reasons for this. Number one, I tend to get more random Google hits by talking about bands that people actually care about, which more often than not are not the bands that I play with. Number the second, I haven’t been playing that much lately. Critical Mass’ regular drummer is back from baby-hiatus, my audition with that other band still has to happen (got an email the other week assuring me that it will happen, perhaps not any time soon) and I haven’t had any calls from any of my other musical suitors.
This past Saturday, however, was officially one of the weirdest shows I ever played. The Runaway got asked to play a coffee house in Hamilton and asked me along, which I obliged. It was going to be a little more chill than usual so we put together more of a stripped down set: two songs with beats, one with guitar and one with djembe.
What made it bizarre was the other acts. I don’t know what the advisor’s concept of the evening would be, but here are the acts in the order I may or may not remember:
-- My friend Sara playing some folksy stuff, starting with a song about lemon meringue pie set to the tune of “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane”
-- A spoken word poet who did poems about, and backed by classical symphonies
-- A trio of Spanish youth singing songs in Spanish and “other historical Hispanic languages”
-- A stand up comedian who hated public transit
-- A woman singing songs in Serbian
-- A diminutive Asian tenor in a tuxedo singing opera in Italian
-- Another spoken word poet whose final piece centered on a pair of talking shoes that he owned
-- Us!
The show itself was decent. I absolutely maimed a few chords in one song, but got it back by the end.
OK, OK, enough of my meager musical existence. Something funny where I (something small) make fun of something in the music industry (something big) on Friday.
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Review: Christopher O'Riley's True Love Waits and Hold Me To This
I'm almost embarrassed to be writing this review. Nothing says trend follower more than loving gimmicky albums, and this is about as gimmicky as they come. 
O'Riley and Apocalyptica. So alike...yet so, so different.
That isn't to say that this is a catalogue of b-sides: even casual fans know "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Karma Police". And while it's true that some tracks work better than others, you never get the sense that O'Riley felt he should include something that people will know. His credibilty as an arragner and as a music appreciator grows track by track. He evokes all the fury, hopelessness and navel-gazing that Radiohead is famous for while ably absorbing each melody and harmony into the medium of classical piano. Personal favourites from this album include "Airbag" and "Exit Music (For A Film)".
Christopher O'Riley is a classical pianist who hass a deep appreciation of Radiohead. So much so that he, like Finnish all-cello Metallica cover band Apocalyptica, decided to merge his classical skills with his modern appreciation.
O'Riley and Apocalyptica. So alike...yet so, so different.
The first fruit of this genre-melding was 2003's True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead. On it, O'Riley picks a little bit from every album up until that point (excluding 2003's Hail To The Thief). What impressed me right off the bat was his song selection. It would have been easy to do Radiohead's greatest hits, but there are a few popular songs evident by their absence (the most obvious being Pablo Honey's "Creep"). O'Riley chose songs based on their evocative merit, including lesser-known tracks like "You", "I Can't", Black Star" and so on.
That isn't to say that this is a catalogue of b-sides: even casual fans know "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Karma Police". And while it's true that some tracks work better than others, you never get the sense that O'Riley felt he should include something that people will know. His credibilty as an arragner and as a music appreciator grows track by track. He evokes all the fury, hopelessness and navel-gazing that Radiohead is famous for while ably absorbing each melody and harmony into the medium of classical piano. Personal favourites from this album include "Airbag" and "Exit Music (For A Film)".O'Riley followed up in just under two years time with 2005's Hold Me To This: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead. The album focuses much more on Radiohead's modern era, taking nothing from Pablo Honey and only "(Nice Dream)" and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"from The Bends. It's evident that O'Riley has hit his stride by this point; he seems more willing to take chances with the material, adding in crescendos and decrescendos and even sprinkling in his own counter-melodies. 
Fortunately, any tendencies O'Riley has towards aggressive arrangement are tempered by a nigh-reverence for his source material, resulting in an almost perfect blend of styles. The only fly in the ointment is "2+2=5", specifically the bridge. A one-note dischordant bridge is fine in experimental rock, but on the piano it's going to sound like your finger slipped no matter how many times you do it on purpose. With that aside, however, everything else is gold. I especially love "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" and "The Tourist".
Fortunately, any tendencies O'Riley has towards aggressive arrangement are tempered by a nigh-reverence for his source material, resulting in an almost perfect blend of styles. The only fly in the ointment is "2+2=5", specifically the bridge. A one-note dischordant bridge is fine in experimental rock, but on the piano it's going to sound like your finger slipped no matter how many times you do it on purpose. With that aside, however, everything else is gold. I especially love "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" and "The Tourist". I don't think anyone can go wrong on these albums. It's great music for background at dinner parties, to study to, or to listen to intently. Fans of Radiohead are especially encouraged to pick this up, as it adds a whole new dimension to the songs while maintining their original flavour.
Here's a clip of Mr. O'Riley in action:
I should also mention that there is a jazz pianist named Brad Mehldau who does some Radiohead covers. Here's him doing the same song:
Mehldau also covers "Paranoid Android" and "Knives Out". His covers outside of Radiohead include Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", Oasis' "Wonderwall" and the Beatles' "Blackbird".
Peace!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Concert Stories: Five Iron Frenzy
OK, so I was driving home from basketball last night (we lost, 60-48) and 102.1 was broadcasting live from the Weezer/Angels and Airwaves/Tokyo Police Club show. The DJ was telling a story about this 19-year-old kid who had been buying beer for his underage buddies and was caught and removed by security. He was arguing all the way out and spied a couple of cops outside the venue who he started pleading his case to. He apparently got so hysterical that he started crying and wound up being led away in cuffs. Call me a jerk, but that story makes me laugh!
So I thought I would start telling some awesome concert stories that I witnessed or was part of.
Probably my favourite one is back on October 5, 2003. Five Iron Frenzy was on their “Winners Never Quit” farewell tour and the closest they were coming to Ontario was Grand Rapids, Michigan. I really don’t know why it took so long to decide we wanted to go, but on the morning of the show myself, my friend Justin (bass player from Token Glory), and Justin’s friend (whose name I can’t remember but will refer to hereafter as Bob) decided we wanted to go. Well, to be specific, Justin and I decided we wanted to go, and Justin told Bob about it and he invited himself, which annoyed me a lot. More on that later.
So we hopped in my Taurus and hit the road for Grand Rapids, which is 5 hours away (what are a Google Maps? I am a good for to be at distances). I was not super psyched about the long drive, because Bob was on my “Top Five People To Give The Broken Face To Should The Opportunity Arise” list at the time. I was less well-adjusted in 2003. I was also in man-love with FIF and decided that if a five hour ride with Bob was the necessary evil to get me to the show, then so be it.
As it turned out, Bob was possibly the most unnecessary evil of all time. He told us that he would take care of all the internet detectivery necessary to ensure a smooth ride to the show. Mostly, that meant getting directions. He jumped into the car with the directions in his hands and off we go. About two hours into the drive he tells us that he wasn’t able to find directions to the club (FAIL!) but he WAS able to get directions to the Town Centre, which was some sort of information kiosk in Grand Rapids that should surely have what we were looking for. Super.
So we get to the border and it is further determined that Bob has failed to bring anything resembling a passport or birth certificate along. After a search by customs it is agreed to let us through on his driver’s license. So we go the rest of the way and find our way into Grand Rapids about 45 minutes before showtime a-twitter with anticipation.
That is, until we discovered that Bob’s directions weren’t to the Town Centre: they were to the centre of the town (EPIC Fail!). Our journey ended abruptly in the parking lot of a random convenience store in an extremely Mexican part of town. Justin gassed the car up as I tried to explain to passerby in my meager Spanish what we were after; no dice. We eventually managed to get directions to the downtown, from which we hoped to navigate our way to the show.
After hitting up bar after bar and trying to find concert listings in the local indies, we were 15 minutes late for the show and still had no idea where to go. As we were driving past a Taco Bell I thought to myself “You know what? Punk rock kids go to Taco Bell” and pulled in.
The Bell was deserted except for the staff and a preppie woman and two men in their late twenties sitting in a corner booth. With nothing to lose, I approached the booth and asked if they had ever heard of Five Iron Frenzy (which had been getting anything from a “no” to a smirk in all previous attempts). Surprisingly, they said yes! I asked if they knew where they were playing, and they said yes! I asked for directions, and they didn’t know how to get there – but they took us to their office and let us in to scour the internets. Turns out they were at Taco Bell getting food for the one guy’s wife who had just had a baby. Meeting those guys was almost enough to make up for Bob’s trip on the monoFAIL. We started driving, and 20 minutes later we were in the parking lot of a huge church.
There we saw a trio of teenage girls who informed us that the show was sold out. Justin wanted to drive home, as he had had enough trouble for today. But I was all like “forget that noise” and we walked into the church where there was still a lineup of 30-40 ticketholders waiting to get in. I went to the front of the line and talked with the ladies working the ticket tables, one of whom went inside to talk to security after I explained that we drove five hours from Canada. We then walked up and down, flashing our passports (or licenses) for sympathy and asking for extra tickets. Amazingly, a youth pastor who had bought a group package had exactly three extra tickets with him that kids had bought but didn’t show up for…and he gave them to us. Another example of providence shining on us, despite Bob being the captain of the FAILboat.
The show itself was amazing: we got to meet Dennis, the trombone player, and buy the limited edition of The End Is Near that was only available on that tour (it was later released with a live disc of the band’s final show as The End Is Here, but with slightly different packaging). The crowd was great, the sound was great, and bob slept the whole way home so I didn’t have to talk to him. Actually, Bob and Justin slept the whole way home, breaking one of the cardinal rules of concert-going: you never fall asleep on the way home unless the driver says it’s OK. Bob also never paid me for gas or the dinner I bought him and thus owes me $50. At prime plus 1 for 5 years, he owes me $73.47.
So I thought I would start telling some awesome concert stories that I witnessed or was part of.
Probably my favourite one is back on October 5, 2003. Five Iron Frenzy was on their “Winners Never Quit” farewell tour and the closest they were coming to Ontario was Grand Rapids, Michigan. I really don’t know why it took so long to decide we wanted to go, but on the morning of the show myself, my friend Justin (bass player from Token Glory), and Justin’s friend (whose name I can’t remember but will refer to hereafter as Bob) decided we wanted to go. Well, to be specific, Justin and I decided we wanted to go, and Justin told Bob about it and he invited himself, which annoyed me a lot. More on that later.
So we hopped in my Taurus and hit the road for Grand Rapids, which is 5 hours away (what are a Google Maps? I am a good for to be at distances). I was not super psyched about the long drive, because Bob was on my “Top Five People To Give The Broken Face To Should The Opportunity Arise” list at the time. I was less well-adjusted in 2003. I was also in man-love with FIF and decided that if a five hour ride with Bob was the necessary evil to get me to the show, then so be it.
As it turned out, Bob was possibly the most unnecessary evil of all time. He told us that he would take care of all the internet detectivery necessary to ensure a smooth ride to the show. Mostly, that meant getting directions. He jumped into the car with the directions in his hands and off we go. About two hours into the drive he tells us that he wasn’t able to find directions to the club (FAIL!) but he WAS able to get directions to the Town Centre, which was some sort of information kiosk in Grand Rapids that should surely have what we were looking for. Super.
So we get to the border and it is further determined that Bob has failed to bring anything resembling a passport or birth certificate along. After a search by customs it is agreed to let us through on his driver’s license. So we go the rest of the way and find our way into Grand Rapids about 45 minutes before showtime a-twitter with anticipation.
That is, until we discovered that Bob’s directions weren’t to the Town Centre: they were to the centre of the town (EPIC Fail!). Our journey ended abruptly in the parking lot of a random convenience store in an extremely Mexican part of town. Justin gassed the car up as I tried to explain to passerby in my meager Spanish what we were after; no dice. We eventually managed to get directions to the downtown, from which we hoped to navigate our way to the show.
After hitting up bar after bar and trying to find concert listings in the local indies, we were 15 minutes late for the show and still had no idea where to go. As we were driving past a Taco Bell I thought to myself “You know what? Punk rock kids go to Taco Bell” and pulled in.
The Bell was deserted except for the staff and a preppie woman and two men in their late twenties sitting in a corner booth. With nothing to lose, I approached the booth and asked if they had ever heard of Five Iron Frenzy (which had been getting anything from a “no” to a smirk in all previous attempts). Surprisingly, they said yes! I asked if they knew where they were playing, and they said yes! I asked for directions, and they didn’t know how to get there – but they took us to their office and let us in to scour the internets. Turns out they were at Taco Bell getting food for the one guy’s wife who had just had a baby. Meeting those guys was almost enough to make up for Bob’s trip on the monoFAIL. We started driving, and 20 minutes later we were in the parking lot of a huge church.
There we saw a trio of teenage girls who informed us that the show was sold out. Justin wanted to drive home, as he had had enough trouble for today. But I was all like “forget that noise” and we walked into the church where there was still a lineup of 30-40 ticketholders waiting to get in. I went to the front of the line and talked with the ladies working the ticket tables, one of whom went inside to talk to security after I explained that we drove five hours from Canada. We then walked up and down, flashing our passports (or licenses) for sympathy and asking for extra tickets. Amazingly, a youth pastor who had bought a group package had exactly three extra tickets with him that kids had bought but didn’t show up for…and he gave them to us. Another example of providence shining on us, despite Bob being the captain of the FAILboat.
The show itself was amazing: we got to meet Dennis, the trombone player, and buy the limited edition of The End Is Near that was only available on that tour (it was later released with a live disc of the band’s final show as The End Is Here, but with slightly different packaging). The crowd was great, the sound was great, and bob slept the whole way home so I didn’t have to talk to him. Actually, Bob and Justin slept the whole way home, breaking one of the cardinal rules of concert-going: you never fall asleep on the way home unless the driver says it’s OK. Bob also never paid me for gas or the dinner I bought him and thus owes me $50. At prime plus 1 for 5 years, he owes me $73.47.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Somebody misses me...
So I was hanging out last night, minding my bweeznass, when it was commented upon that I haven't updated this blog in a month. And I had actually been kind of OK with that. I felt like I had said a lot of stuff I wanted to on subjects of interest in the music industry, and musically nothing very exciting has been happening to me personally lately. Not a lot of shows, no recording, no jamming. Blame it on having a Clark Kent job, school, and not a lot of desire to search out bands to play with.
So maybe just some random musings on music and something more coherent later this week:
* Thank goodness chartattack has revamped their new-look site. I used to love CA because I could go and there were news pieces right in fornt of me, headline after headline. They changed about a month ago and it became really frustrating trying to sort through tiny, tiny thumbnails and story previews to find, you know, stories, so I gave up. Now they've tweaked again and you have only to click on "news" to get some headlines. They're still running pieces on Amy Winehouse, which devalues them a bit, but you can't have everything.
* The Police apparently cleared $115 million with their reunion tour this year, and that doesn't include what they're going to make from the associated CDs and photo books that are coming out. I can only hope the Token Glory reunion tour does the same bank if we ever get back together. I'm guessing not.
* Mitch Clem, my favourite web cartoonist/internet celebrity, has started a story arc about music piracy. Click here for the first installment. Currently there are three chapters available. Quality~!
Bye for now.
Monday, August 18, 2008
News and such
OK, missed Friday's post. You'd thinkin a week where Isaac Hayes died I could find something to post about, but not so much. So here's what's new with me.
So this past weekend Krista and I got to rokk out with Garner. TheG-men are a three piece, but were leading worship for a conference which necessitated a bigger band. So Krista sang, I percussed and Christy Bloemendal bass'd. We called ourselves the Adherents and we rocked. We did a session Friday night and two sessions on Saturday and Sunday. In between we went to Starbucks, ate thai, played Settlers of Catan, and made general merriment. The coolest part was seeing Garner do a show Satrsday night for the conference. You have to check these guys out -- they're great. I'll post some pics later if Krista sends them to me. :)
So this week I am:
1) Auditioning for a new band (Tuesday)
2) Rehearsing and playing a show with My 2 Sense (Thursday/Saturaday)
3) Leading worship with Jeremiah's Big Day Out (Sunday)
So yes, I'm insane. Will ty to remember to take pics and I hope you'll forgive me if i miss this Friday as well. :)
K
So this past weekend Krista and I got to rokk out with Garner. TheG-men are a three piece, but were leading worship for a conference which necessitated a bigger band. So Krista sang, I percussed and Christy Bloemendal bass'd. We called ourselves the Adherents and we rocked. We did a session Friday night and two sessions on Saturday and Sunday. In between we went to Starbucks, ate thai, played Settlers of Catan, and made general merriment. The coolest part was seeing Garner do a show Satrsday night for the conference. You have to check these guys out -- they're great. I'll post some pics later if Krista sends them to me. :)
So this week I am:
1) Auditioning for a new band (Tuesday)
2) Rehearsing and playing a show with My 2 Sense (Thursday/Saturaday)
3) Leading worship with Jeremiah's Big Day Out (Sunday)
So yes, I'm insane. Will ty to remember to take pics and I hope you'll forgive me if i miss this Friday as well. :)
K
Friday, August 1, 2008
Sales
So after having a pretty slow June (by choice) and a really slow July (not so much by choice) things are picking up again!
I mentioned all kinds of stuff in the last post. Stuff I’d like you to remember. Stuff like the August 14 show in Milton with the Runaway. Please remember that. I won't be doing the BCR album, by the way: practiced with the boys last night and it didn't feel super good for me. I'm not so good at the metal stuff. They were still interested, but they wanted to get in the studio ASAP and I don't have the time to rehearse twice weekly for a band I'm not technically joining in the first place. So an amicable parting of way ensued.
But yeah, I forgot to mention the funnest stuff! Mainly, that I’m getting the chance to rock out with Garner soon. Remember them? Remember when I said I’ve never wanted a band I wasn’t in to succeed so badly? Well, that’s a half truth, because for three awesome days I am IN like FLYNN with Garner. They’re playing a worship conference in Waterloo and their drummer can’t make the last day, so I’ll be filling in. For the rest of the weekend I’ll rocking the djembe and shakers and so on. I even bought a djembe stand for the occasion, but after our first practice last night I’m kind of annoyed with it and may take it back.
Having worked in the sales part of music for a while, it’s always weird going into a store and having people sell me stuff. Not for the reason you think, though. For some reason, and I wish I knew why, I have this urge to make sure that the person knows I used to be in sales. I used to think that it was so they didn’t try to snow me on stuff that I knew better about, but I think it’s an esteem thing. It’s important to me that the sales person re-welcome me to the (non-existent) Fraternity of Sales. “I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU, SHINING IN THE STORE!! WE ARE CONTEMPORARIES, YOU AND I!” Yep, Weird guy.
Oh, and I also found a bunch a stuff I want to buy. A derbouka, for one,. And we saw an ocean drum. It’s a drum usually around 16”-20” around and around 3 inches wide. It’s completely enclosed, with one end clear plastic and the other head fabric. There are a bunch of ball bearings inside. You hold the drum flat with the fabric side down and gently swoosh the bearings inside to create the sound of the ocean (much like a rain stick). Sweet. Absolutely useless, but sweet.
I’m writing this on Thursday and I have my first practice with BCR tonight, so we’ll see how that goes. Have a rocktastic weekend and we’ll talk soon!
I mentioned all kinds of stuff in the last post. Stuff I’d like you to remember. Stuff like the August 14 show in Milton with the Runaway. Please remember that. I won't be doing the BCR album, by the way: practiced with the boys last night and it didn't feel super good for me. I'm not so good at the metal stuff. They were still interested, but they wanted to get in the studio ASAP and I don't have the time to rehearse twice weekly for a band I'm not technically joining in the first place. So an amicable parting of way ensued.
But yeah, I forgot to mention the funnest stuff! Mainly, that I’m getting the chance to rock out with Garner soon. Remember them? Remember when I said I’ve never wanted a band I wasn’t in to succeed so badly? Well, that’s a half truth, because for three awesome days I am IN like FLYNN with Garner. They’re playing a worship conference in Waterloo and their drummer can’t make the last day, so I’ll be filling in. For the rest of the weekend I’ll rocking the djembe and shakers and so on. I even bought a djembe stand for the occasion, but after our first practice last night I’m kind of annoyed with it and may take it back.
Having worked in the sales part of music for a while, it’s always weird going into a store and having people sell me stuff. Not for the reason you think, though. For some reason, and I wish I knew why, I have this urge to make sure that the person knows I used to be in sales. I used to think that it was so they didn’t try to snow me on stuff that I knew better about, but I think it’s an esteem thing. It’s important to me that the sales person re-welcome me to the (non-existent) Fraternity of Sales. “I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU, SHINING IN THE STORE!! WE ARE CONTEMPORARIES, YOU AND I!” Yep, Weird guy.
Oh, and I also found a bunch a stuff I want to buy. A derbouka, for one,. And we saw an ocean drum. It’s a drum usually around 16”-20” around and around 3 inches wide. It’s completely enclosed, with one end clear plastic and the other head fabric. There are a bunch of ball bearings inside. You hold the drum flat with the fabric side down and gently swoosh the bearings inside to create the sound of the ocean (much like a rain stick). Sweet. Absolutely useless, but sweet.
I’m writing this on Thursday and I have my first practice with BCR tonight, so we’ll see how that goes. Have a rocktastic weekend and we’ll talk soon!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Back
“So what’s up with you? Three months and you’re already missing updates?”
Yep. Much like a squirrel saving nuts, I had saved up a bunch of random posts to get me through the droughts of nothing to write about/no time to write. But I ran out of nuts. And posts. And since I can’t buy posts at Zehrs, my readers (both of you) are the ones who must suffer. But not me. I bought more nuts.
ANYWAY!!! I am back, and I should hopefully have some good stuff to write about in the coming weeks.
For example, last Thursday the Runaway Jam played Maxwell’s Music House in Waterloo. Maxwell’s is a new venue owned and operated by Paul Maxwell, who you may remember as the keyboardist for the Tyler Schwende band. It’s a really cool concept and you should check it out.
ANYWAY, it was a great show. Titus was our first opener, followed by Relic, and then we hit the stage. It felt like we were a little under rehearsed: I finally got to spit my own lines in a verse and I messed them up, and there were a couple of other small not-necessarily-noticable-to-the-crowd-but-noticeable-to-us snags, but it went well.
We now have a big push towards August 14, which will be a huge show in Milton featuring ourselves and some very special guests (due to some necessary discretion we can’t say who will be there but trust me, you won’t want to miss this). It’s happening at 7 PM at 200 Main St. in Milton. You should come, and bring everyone you love.
I’ve also been in contact with a band called Black City Ruin and they’ve asked me to fill in for their recently departed drummer on their upcoming album. Sounds like fun, so I’m going to do it.
I also recently did my first photo shoot as a musician. My friend Blythe is a fantastic photographer and she was kind enough to do a shoot pro-bono for me (pro bono means “for the public good”, so maybe it’s not as appropriate as just saying “free” but I’d like to think pictures of me sitting on a train with a guitar case benefit the public). I’ll post some of them later and you can choose which ones you like.
I think that covers it for now. I still have a bunch of reviews I haven’t done yet and they’re getting so old as to be pointless, but what the hey. See you Friday.
Yep. Much like a squirrel saving nuts, I had saved up a bunch of random posts to get me through the droughts of nothing to write about/no time to write. But I ran out of nuts. And posts. And since I can’t buy posts at Zehrs, my readers (both of you) are the ones who must suffer. But not me. I bought more nuts.
ANYWAY!!! I am back, and I should hopefully have some good stuff to write about in the coming weeks.
For example, last Thursday the Runaway Jam played Maxwell’s Music House in Waterloo. Maxwell’s is a new venue owned and operated by Paul Maxwell, who you may remember as the keyboardist for the Tyler Schwende band. It’s a really cool concept and you should check it out.
ANYWAY, it was a great show. Titus was our first opener, followed by Relic, and then we hit the stage. It felt like we were a little under rehearsed: I finally got to spit my own lines in a verse and I messed them up, and there were a couple of other small not-necessarily-noticable-to-the-crowd-but-noticeable-to-us snags, but it went well.
We now have a big push towards August 14, which will be a huge show in Milton featuring ourselves and some very special guests (due to some necessary discretion we can’t say who will be there but trust me, you won’t want to miss this). It’s happening at 7 PM at 200 Main St. in Milton. You should come, and bring everyone you love.
I’ve also been in contact with a band called Black City Ruin and they’ve asked me to fill in for their recently departed drummer on their upcoming album. Sounds like fun, so I’m going to do it.
I also recently did my first photo shoot as a musician. My friend Blythe is a fantastic photographer and she was kind enough to do a shoot pro-bono for me (pro bono means “for the public good”, so maybe it’s not as appropriate as just saying “free” but I’d like to think pictures of me sitting on a train with a guitar case benefit the public). I’ll post some of them later and you can choose which ones you like.
I think that covers it for now. I still have a bunch of reviews I haven’t done yet and they’re getting so old as to be pointless, but what the hey. See you Friday.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Why I Love: Five Iron Frenzy
Welcome to another edition of Why I Love. Today we’re going back deep into the recesses of my musical mind and unearthing one of the first bands I was totally geeked on: Five Iron Frenzy .
I’m still kind of puzzled as to how I got into FIF in the first place. Here are the facts: When I was 18 I started going to Waterloo MB church. I was from a Catholic family and didn’t know much about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), but had gotten into a little bit thanks to some of the people I was hanging around. I remember early favourites being Audio Adrenaline and Johnny Q. Public (who, according to the best searches the Interweb can offer, disappeared sometime in 2000). Sometime during winter of 1998 I was in the Carpenter Shop (now the Gospel Lighthouse) in Waterloo and I saw this CD:
Before I knew it I walked out with the disc. I have no idea how I knew who they were, or what they sounded like, or why I thought I would like them: I just bought it and stuck it in my discman (ten years ago, gimme a break).
At the time I had just started listening to ska, so it was the right time for me to jump on board. FIF started as a “pure” ska band, all upstrokes and quickness and horns. But over the course of their career they branched away from ska, rooting themselves in rock sensibilities with an edge.
FIF is among the few bands to successfully swing between manic, silly humour and serious introspection and anger. They wrote an entire rock opera based around losing their pants (this is on the tail end of Quantity is Job #1 ) but also explored the nature of grace, personal failure before God, and more. Most importantly, they were attuned to many social issues, most notably native rights (“Banner Year” from Our Newest Album Ever is still one of my favourite songs).
Quantity is Job #1 was, is and continues to be my favourite FIF recording. I especially love “Dandelions”. It’s written around a metaphor that’s simple to the point of childishness: God sees us the way little kids see Dandelions. That is, He sees flowers where everyone else sees weeds.
I was lucky enough to see FIF twice, both times in Michigan. Their live shows were phenomenal, and their two live albums (Proof That The Youth Are Revolting and disc 2 of The End Is Here) are testament to that. Nobody could walk away from an FIF show in a funk – they were too much fun. It’s interesting to see how the Christian youth music scene is dominated mostly by screamo bands these days. There’s not the same sense of joy fused with reckless abandon there that there used to be, and I think FIF were one of (if not the last of) the generation of bands that embraced that side of culture.
FIF broke up in 2003, which still feels like it was yesterday for me.
I’ll admit that by the end of their run I was buying albums more out of completism than I was out of love for the band. There were a lot of tracks I liked on The End Is Near/The End is Here , but none that I abjectly loved. If you want to look up what I think reflects the best of FIF, here’s my top ten list:
1. Dandelions -- Quantity is Job #1
2. Handbook For The Sellout (live) -- The End Is Here (Disc 2)
3. World Without End -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
4. Every New Day -- Our Newest Album Ever
5. On Distant Shores -- The End Is Here (Disc 1)
6. Pre-Ex Girlfriend -- Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
7. Banner Year -- Our Newest Album Ever
8. All That Is Good -- Quantity is Job #1
9. Oh, Canada -- Our Newest Album Ever
10. Giants -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
I’m still kind of puzzled as to how I got into FIF in the first place. Here are the facts: When I was 18 I started going to Waterloo MB church. I was from a Catholic family and didn’t know much about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), but had gotten into a little bit thanks to some of the people I was hanging around. I remember early favourites being Audio Adrenaline and Johnny Q. Public (who, according to the best searches the Interweb can offer, disappeared sometime in 2000). Sometime during winter of 1998 I was in the Carpenter Shop (now the Gospel Lighthouse) in Waterloo and I saw this CD:
Before I knew it I walked out with the disc. I have no idea how I knew who they were, or what they sounded like, or why I thought I would like them: I just bought it and stuck it in my discman (ten years ago, gimme a break).
At the time I had just started listening to ska, so it was the right time for me to jump on board. FIF started as a “pure” ska band, all upstrokes and quickness and horns. But over the course of their career they branched away from ska, rooting themselves in rock sensibilities with an edge.
FIF is among the few bands to successfully swing between manic, silly humour and serious introspection and anger. They wrote an entire rock opera based around losing their pants (this is on the tail end of Quantity is Job #1 ) but also explored the nature of grace, personal failure before God, and more. Most importantly, they were attuned to many social issues, most notably native rights (“Banner Year” from Our Newest Album Ever is still one of my favourite songs).
Quantity is Job #1 was, is and continues to be my favourite FIF recording. I especially love “Dandelions”. It’s written around a metaphor that’s simple to the point of childishness: God sees us the way little kids see Dandelions. That is, He sees flowers where everyone else sees weeds.
I was lucky enough to see FIF twice, both times in Michigan. Their live shows were phenomenal, and their two live albums (Proof That The Youth Are Revolting and disc 2 of The End Is Here) are testament to that. Nobody could walk away from an FIF show in a funk – they were too much fun. It’s interesting to see how the Christian youth music scene is dominated mostly by screamo bands these days. There’s not the same sense of joy fused with reckless abandon there that there used to be, and I think FIF were one of (if not the last of) the generation of bands that embraced that side of culture.
FIF broke up in 2003, which still feels like it was yesterday for me.
I’ll admit that by the end of their run I was buying albums more out of completism than I was out of love for the band. There were a lot of tracks I liked on The End Is Near/The End is Here , but none that I abjectly loved. If you want to look up what I think reflects the best of FIF, here’s my top ten list:
1. Dandelions -- Quantity is Job #1
2. Handbook For The Sellout (live) -- The End Is Here (Disc 2)
3. World Without End -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
4. Every New Day -- Our Newest Album Ever
5. On Distant Shores -- The End Is Here (Disc 1)
6. Pre-Ex Girlfriend -- Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo
7. Banner Year -- Our Newest Album Ever
8. All That Is Good -- Quantity is Job #1
9. Oh, Canada -- Our Newest Album Ever
10. Giants -- All The Hype Money Can Buy
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bigger, yes. Better...?
I mentioned before that I had bought an 80GB iPod. This has allowed me a certain amount of freedom in uploading. With my 4GB Nano, I had to weed through albums, find my favourite four or five songs and upload those. That meant that I had to predict which 400 songs I wanted to listen to in any given day, which sounds easier than it was. Like two weeks ago, when I wanted to listen through Tokyo Police Club’s Elephant Shell but couldn’t because I had only picked my top five songs. Or those random times in July when I really want to listen to Christmas music, but can’t because it didn’t make sense to load Christmas songs on my iPod. The most irritating thing was having two or three album’s worth of material that I have to learn for a freelance gig taking up space from music that I actually want to listen to.
Now I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum, where my iPod is filled with songs I haven’t listened to in years (or in some cases, ever). For example, there’s an artist I met a few years ago who gave me his CD and asked me to send it to whoever I wanted in hopes that he could score some shows. I dutifully uploaded it onto my compy (and therefore my iTunes) and sent it around and haven’t listened to it since, because it’s not the best (I won’t give you the name because this person has since released an excellent album and is doing well in Toronto right now, so you don’t need to know that they sucked once upon a time. Also, I don’t want them to think that I thought that even though I did). This album is now on my iPod, even though 60% of the songs have a play listing of zero.
There’s also a bunch of songs I found on there from a years-old attempt to make a 90s mix for my friend Amanda (did I ever finish that, Manders?). I’ve got I Mother Earth, Glueleg, Sandbox, Tea Party ( Edges of Twilight and Transmission era, a-thank you very much), Smashing Pumpkins (no Zeitgeist) Moist, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and so forth. It's actually quite fun to listen to all of this stuff next to the new music I've been listening to and see how my tastes have progressed and how music itself has progressed, but I won't lie: it's kind of depressing that my iPod spans 20 years. Anyone's go longer?
So now I think I have to do a music-buying moratorium. If I have roughly 20 songs on my iPod that haven’t been heard in years, I should weed those out before I get onto anything new.
Now I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum, where my iPod is filled with songs I haven’t listened to in years (or in some cases, ever). For example, there’s an artist I met a few years ago who gave me his CD and asked me to send it to whoever I wanted in hopes that he could score some shows. I dutifully uploaded it onto my compy (and therefore my iTunes) and sent it around and haven’t listened to it since, because it’s not the best (I won’t give you the name because this person has since released an excellent album and is doing well in Toronto right now, so you don’t need to know that they sucked once upon a time. Also, I don’t want them to think that I thought that even though I did). This album is now on my iPod, even though 60% of the songs have a play listing of zero.
There’s also a bunch of songs I found on there from a years-old attempt to make a 90s mix for my friend Amanda (did I ever finish that, Manders?). I’ve got I Mother Earth, Glueleg, Sandbox, Tea Party ( Edges of Twilight and Transmission era, a-thank you very much), Smashing Pumpkins (no Zeitgeist) Moist, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, and so forth. It's actually quite fun to listen to all of this stuff next to the new music I've been listening to and see how my tastes have progressed and how music itself has progressed, but I won't lie: it's kind of depressing that my iPod spans 20 years. Anyone's go longer?
So now I think I have to do a music-buying moratorium. If I have roughly 20 songs on my iPod that haven’t been heard in years, I should weed those out before I get onto anything new.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A$hley MacI$$ac
Saw this article on chartattack and thought it was very interesting. Ashley MacIsaac posted an ebay auction for half of his own musical income over the rest of his life. The auction has since been removed due to an eBay terms of use violation, but I thought it was interesting to think about.
As I hope has been made clear throughout the course of this blog, most artists spend 50% of their professional time making music and the other 50% trying to figure out how to make money from doing it. Since most record deals screw the artist horrible in terms of CD sales (more on that in a later blog) merch is traditionally the way to do it. I’ve seen bands sell everything from the more traditional T-shirt and hoodie to bracelets, necklaces, shoelaces, shoes, and so on. I once even saw a band selling email addresses based on their domain name.
MacIsaac is definitely thinking outside the merch box, but it seems a little fishy to me. Either he’s in dire financial straits and he needs some cash fast or he just really wants others to share in his grand wealth.
My guess is the former.
Let’s not forget, this is the same Ashley MacIsaac that declared bankruptcy back in 2000, so you can be reasonably sure that he’s not super solvent to being with. And what does the fine print say on the eBay sale? Nothing is guaranteed. Not his $5,000-$15,000 per gig, not his royalties, not even the principle you put in. That is to say, whoever wins this bid wins the right to give Ashley MacIsaac their money and hope that they break even on the proposition. Doesn’t this sound like a record company’s job?
What Macisaac is really looking for here is someone to act as his record company without having a record company, which I can understand. It’s the lack of responsibility to the investor that turns me off. Record companies are set up as checks and balances, meaning that one artist can fail while another succeeds, so the company on a whole breaks even. Please don’t misconstrue that as saying record companies are fair or even helpful to the artists; that’s just how they are set up. MacIsaac wants some no-strings-attached cash that he doesn’t have to worry about paying back, and I think it’s ridiculous.
With MacIsaac’s history of “ironic statements” (accusing Asian women in his audience of spreading SARS, etc., etc.) there’s a chance that this is a goof and I’m playing into it. I’d say there’s a better chance of it NOT being a goof and MacIsaac labeling it as such when it fails, but that’s just my opinion (which is immunity from being told I’m wrong, or so Relient K says).
______________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Nope, nothing. My stupid palm pilot broke so now I have no idea when I’m playing shows in the next little while. I’ll let you know when I know.
As I hope has been made clear throughout the course of this blog, most artists spend 50% of their professional time making music and the other 50% trying to figure out how to make money from doing it. Since most record deals screw the artist horrible in terms of CD sales (more on that in a later blog) merch is traditionally the way to do it. I’ve seen bands sell everything from the more traditional T-shirt and hoodie to bracelets, necklaces, shoelaces, shoes, and so on. I once even saw a band selling email addresses based on their domain name.
MacIsaac is definitely thinking outside the merch box, but it seems a little fishy to me. Either he’s in dire financial straits and he needs some cash fast or he just really wants others to share in his grand wealth.
My guess is the former.
Let’s not forget, this is the same Ashley MacIsaac that declared bankruptcy back in 2000, so you can be reasonably sure that he’s not super solvent to being with. And what does the fine print say on the eBay sale? Nothing is guaranteed. Not his $5,000-$15,000 per gig, not his royalties, not even the principle you put in. That is to say, whoever wins this bid wins the right to give Ashley MacIsaac their money and hope that they break even on the proposition. Doesn’t this sound like a record company’s job?
What Macisaac is really looking for here is someone to act as his record company without having a record company, which I can understand. It’s the lack of responsibility to the investor that turns me off. Record companies are set up as checks and balances, meaning that one artist can fail while another succeeds, so the company on a whole breaks even. Please don’t misconstrue that as saying record companies are fair or even helpful to the artists; that’s just how they are set up. MacIsaac wants some no-strings-attached cash that he doesn’t have to worry about paying back, and I think it’s ridiculous.
With MacIsaac’s history of “ironic statements” (accusing Asian women in his audience of spreading SARS, etc., etc.) there’s a chance that this is a goof and I’m playing into it. I’d say there’s a better chance of it NOT being a goof and MacIsaac labeling it as such when it fails, but that’s just my opinion (which is immunity from being told I’m wrong, or so Relient K says).
______________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Nope, nothing. My stupid palm pilot broke so now I have no idea when I’m playing shows in the next little while. I’ll let you know when I know.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Bytes, Blue Jays and Bios
Long weekends throw me off. Not to say that I don’t like being off work for an extra day, but my body is used to a five-day rhythm and will invariably wake me up early on the Friday or Monday that I’m off. Never mind having a day of work BEFORE the holiday. Friggin’ Canada Day. So blame Canada for me missing the post on Tuesday. I had this whole thing worked out where I was going to write about the different versions of O Canada we used to play in the hallways before school, but without the actual songs it would seem pretty lame. So if I ever find them I’ll write that blog. But just for my own edification, would people know what I meant if I wrote “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba DOO-DOO-DOO…DOO-DOO-DOO…ba-Ba-BAHHHHHH…O Canada”?
So random music stuff from this week!
* I bought an 80GB iPod Classic cause my tiny 4-gig Nano was getting pretty useless (unlike Relient K, who have told me through rousing song that they are a little more than useless). As it turns out, buying an 80GB after having a 4GB is like running out of room on a 100-CD rack and buying an ENTIRE OTHER HOUSE to store your CDs. I have 1200 songs and five videos on the thing and I’ve barely filled 20GB. I may have to start loading up some viruses or something just to justify it. The annoying thing is that if I want something with a more reasonable size I have to get a 32GB iTouch, which is twice as expensive as the 80GB iPod, which makes me pretty iPissed. The nice bit is the price tag, which was $272 after taxes. I’m told that the 30GB Classics were going for more than that two years ago. Considering this whole gas crisis thing is expected to drive up electronics prices by next summer I may have gotten a steal.
* I just finished listening to The Con by Tegan and Sara and will try to post a review next week. Suffice to say I really dig this album and am thankful to my friend Brielle for turning me on to it. Brille made me a “Sexy Dance Mix” with all these bands I really like, so you may see more of that soon.
* I went to see a Blue Jays game last week with Krista and thought it was cool that each batter gets his own theme music (one guy even used Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme, which would have been cool if he had a hit that night). It got me to thinking what my top 5 entrance themes would be if I were a baseball player (stick with me here, this is a flight of fantasy).
1. “Big Brat”, Phantom Planet (maybe it could be renamed Big BAT!!! HA…heh…um, right).
2. “It’s A Hit” We Are Scientists (so clever)
3. “So What’cha Want” Beastie Boys
4. “Time To Dance” Panic At The Disco (they dropped the “!”)
5. “Juicebox” The Strokes
* One of the best things about being in bands is writing your bio, at least for me. So I was tickled when I found my bio posted at Critical Mass’ website this week! Their main link is to the right, but click here for the bio section.
L8r sk8r b01z AND (at Steph's urging)GRRLZ
So random music stuff from this week!
* I bought an 80GB iPod Classic cause my tiny 4-gig Nano was getting pretty useless (unlike Relient K, who have told me through rousing song that they are a little more than useless). As it turns out, buying an 80GB after having a 4GB is like running out of room on a 100-CD rack and buying an ENTIRE OTHER HOUSE to store your CDs. I have 1200 songs and five videos on the thing and I’ve barely filled 20GB. I may have to start loading up some viruses or something just to justify it. The annoying thing is that if I want something with a more reasonable size I have to get a 32GB iTouch, which is twice as expensive as the 80GB iPod, which makes me pretty iPissed. The nice bit is the price tag, which was $272 after taxes. I’m told that the 30GB Classics were going for more than that two years ago. Considering this whole gas crisis thing is expected to drive up electronics prices by next summer I may have gotten a steal.
* I just finished listening to The Con by Tegan and Sara and will try to post a review next week. Suffice to say I really dig this album and am thankful to my friend Brielle for turning me on to it. Brille made me a “Sexy Dance Mix” with all these bands I really like, so you may see more of that soon.
* I went to see a Blue Jays game last week with Krista and thought it was cool that each batter gets his own theme music (one guy even used Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme, which would have been cool if he had a hit that night). It got me to thinking what my top 5 entrance themes would be if I were a baseball player (stick with me here, this is a flight of fantasy).
1. “Big Brat”, Phantom Planet (maybe it could be renamed Big BAT!!! HA…heh…um, right).
2. “It’s A Hit” We Are Scientists (so clever)
3. “So What’cha Want” Beastie Boys
4. “Time To Dance” Panic At The Disco (they dropped the “!”)
5. “Juicebox” The Strokes
* One of the best things about being in bands is writing your bio, at least for me. So I was tickled when I found my bio posted at Critical Mass’ website this week! Their main link is to the right, but click here for the bio section.
L8r sk8r b01z AND (at Steph's urging)GRRLZ
Friday, June 27, 2008
Why I Love: The Golden Dogs
So this will be another regular (read: space filling when I have no shows) feature on drummerthoughts called Why I Love. I tend to follow bands more than genres or record labels, so there are a core of six or seven bands that I am listening to incessantly at any given time (just ask Krista, she will confirm this). So in the hopes that I will be educating the masses I am going to tell you today Why I Love the Golden Dogs
When I was reviewing CDs for Echo I was given the Dogs’ Everything in Three Parts by my editor because I had professed a passing interest in ska. “They do a little bit of ska,” he said, and he was right: exactly one song (“Elevator Man”) on that album could be considered ska, and I would hesitate to place it in that genre at all. It seems that when white dudes play summery guitars with horns in the background it’s considered ska (unless you’re Sloan).
Anyway, I fell in love with the disc almost immediately. The I said in that review that the Dogs “convey that rare sense of having listened to a lot of bands but not wanting to be any one of them”, and I stand by that today. They dip their toes in so many genres that you honestly wonder where they find the time to listen to all that music. Everything in Three Parts runs the gamut from summery rock to waltz to alt-country to acoustic indie and seem utterly comfortable in each of those places. I was super excited for a follow up.
In summer of 2007 Big Eye little eye was released. I remember being so excited that I kidnapped my friend Meagan, who I was supposed to be driving home so show could study for an exam, and dragged her to Sunrise so I could pick it up sooner (don’t worry, Meagan got into med school. I’m not that bad a friend). I had already heard two tracks: a Paul McCartney cover called “1985” (not to be confused with the craptacular Bowling For Soup song) and the first single, “Never Meant Any Harm” .
Right off the top, I was disappointed. Very little caught my ear that first time through, which I’ve only just come to realize is pretty consistent for me when listening to sophomore releases. I didn’t listen through Big Eye little eye again until almost a month later and the disc started making sense to me. It’s a more focused effort: rather than wildly jumping genres, which was admittedly attractive, the Dogs had anchored themselves in fuzzy indie-pop and reached out in different directions from there. They have such an excellent sensibility for building songs and making everything (lyrics to melody to rhythm to structure) mean something.
The final piece was seeing them live. At present I have seen the Dogs three times: at the Starlight in Waterloo, at Call the Office in London and at the Student Life Center on University of Waterloo campus. I can tell you for sure that the Dogs are one of the best live shows I’ ever seen. If you don’t believe me…
So that is why I love the Golden Dogs.
When I was reviewing CDs for Echo I was given the Dogs’ Everything in Three Parts by my editor because I had professed a passing interest in ska. “They do a little bit of ska,” he said, and he was right: exactly one song (“Elevator Man”) on that album could be considered ska, and I would hesitate to place it in that genre at all. It seems that when white dudes play summery guitars with horns in the background it’s considered ska (unless you’re Sloan).
Anyway, I fell in love with the disc almost immediately. The I said in that review that the Dogs “convey that rare sense of having listened to a lot of bands but not wanting to be any one of them”, and I stand by that today. They dip their toes in so many genres that you honestly wonder where they find the time to listen to all that music. Everything in Three Parts runs the gamut from summery rock to waltz to alt-country to acoustic indie and seem utterly comfortable in each of those places. I was super excited for a follow up.
In summer of 2007 Big Eye little eye was released. I remember being so excited that I kidnapped my friend Meagan, who I was supposed to be driving home so show could study for an exam, and dragged her to Sunrise so I could pick it up sooner (don’t worry, Meagan got into med school. I’m not that bad a friend). I had already heard two tracks: a Paul McCartney cover called “1985” (not to be confused with the craptacular Bowling For Soup song) and the first single, “Never Meant Any Harm” .
Right off the top, I was disappointed. Very little caught my ear that first time through, which I’ve only just come to realize is pretty consistent for me when listening to sophomore releases. I didn’t listen through Big Eye little eye again until almost a month later and the disc started making sense to me. It’s a more focused effort: rather than wildly jumping genres, which was admittedly attractive, the Dogs had anchored themselves in fuzzy indie-pop and reached out in different directions from there. They have such an excellent sensibility for building songs and making everything (lyrics to melody to rhythm to structure) mean something.
The final piece was seeing them live. At present I have seen the Dogs three times: at the Starlight in Waterloo, at Call the Office in London and at the Student Life Center on University of Waterloo campus. I can tell you for sure that the Dogs are one of the best live shows I’ ever seen. If you don’t believe me…
So that is why I love the Golden Dogs.
_______________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Musicwise, nothing much happening, at least from a performance perspective. I've been working on some stuff for a fun Runaway show we have coming up in July. I'm writing some hip-hop rhymes for the first time and it's awesome. The process, I mean; I hesitate to say the rhymes themselves are awesome. Although I'm the first MC I know of to do a verse about a car with teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles references. That's right.
I'm also starting to brainstorm about this year's Indie/Acoustic Christmas show. Assuming it happens, I have some big ideas. BIG, says I.
This is all.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Hommephobia
Some random stuff happening in music. For example, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age was caught on tape calling a show-throwing concert attendee the f-word (the homophobic f-word) and of course later had to post a statement about how he's not homophobic (whilst making sure everyone knows that he didn't say anything wrong, everyone else interpreted him wrong). You can read about it here.
I'm consistently shocked when I hear about this kind of stuff because I always expect artists to be more progressive in their thinking. If Homme had come out and said he made a mistake that would be one thing, but check out part of his response: "see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do!"
I'd like to know what Homme intended the f-word to mean there. Because what it seemed like he intended to do is infer that since this person was cowardly assaulting him, that person must therefore be a homosexual. I'm sure in Homme's mind his use of the f-word is different than a gay-hater's use, but is that really helping the cause? No, it's reinforcing stereotypes and creating excuses for using words that reinforce them.
What also surprised me was that no one seemed too upset by Homme's use of the p-word as an insult as well.
OK, honestly, I don't think Homme had thought through his comments that much before he made them. He'd just taken a shoe to the face (which sucks) and was understandably more than a little pissed off about it it. But what he did do was resort to childish name calling and reveal what is ultimately a grade school mentality.
So that really wasn't music related. I'll also add that I'm currently at a bit of a crossroads. I've been pursuing music for around 10 years right now and it's gotten to the point of either needing to poop or get off the pot, so to speak. I'm on the verge of doing something I think could be great, but I'm not sure I can do it with my current schedule. So I'm thinking and planning and planning and thinking and wondering if I can be happy being a full time something else and doing music as a permanent side thing, or if I need to go into this full blast so that I'll never wonder what might have been.
Stay classy!
I'm consistently shocked when I hear about this kind of stuff because I always expect artists to be more progressive in their thinking. If Homme had come out and said he made a mistake that would be one thing, but check out part of his response: "see, it's not the words, it's their intent. I never said, nor suggested, that being gay is wrong, but apparently, based on your outrage to my flu-infused rant, you do!"
I'd like to know what Homme intended the f-word to mean there. Because what it seemed like he intended to do is infer that since this person was cowardly assaulting him, that person must therefore be a homosexual. I'm sure in Homme's mind his use of the f-word is different than a gay-hater's use, but is that really helping the cause? No, it's reinforcing stereotypes and creating excuses for using words that reinforce them.
What also surprised me was that no one seemed too upset by Homme's use of the p-word as an insult as well.
OK, honestly, I don't think Homme had thought through his comments that much before he made them. He'd just taken a shoe to the face (which sucks) and was understandably more than a little pissed off about it it. But what he did do was resort to childish name calling and reveal what is ultimately a grade school mentality.
IN OTHER NEWS!
_________________
So that really wasn't music related. I'll also add that I'm currently at a bit of a crossroads. I've been pursuing music for around 10 years right now and it's gotten to the point of either needing to poop or get off the pot, so to speak. I'm on the verge of doing something I think could be great, but I'm not sure I can do it with my current schedule. So I'm thinking and planning and planning and thinking and wondering if I can be happy being a full time something else and doing music as a permanent side thing, or if I need to go into this full blast so that I'll never wonder what might have been.
Stay classy!
Friday, June 20, 2008
I'm Like Yoda In Tight Pants
The musician part of me had a really fun week last week; specifically, he (it? How do I refer to the musician part of me?) had a fun three days.
I was invited to Bluevale Collegiate Institute to be interviewed by a student I know there for his music class. I was not the first choice: I received the invite after randomly running into this student a week before the class. Also, when I mentioned this to my worship team, they simultaneously said “oh, so YOU’RE the one he got to do it,” since they all apparently had stuff to do. It’s a sad life, being the last option.
ANYWAY, I got interviewed about being a musician and how I got started and all that for about 12 students and it was fun. I got to go off about downloading, tell stories about poorly attended shows and well-attended shows, and so on. I felt like I spent too much time stressing how un-fun the life of a musician can be. I was trying to make sure they knew that even if you “make it” (i.e. tour, release CDs, etc) the odds of you effectively supporting yourself through music are very slim. Unfortunately, I think I might have come off as a little bitter and unsuccessful, which I surely am, but I try and save that part of myself for my friends and family. You have no right to my bitterness, children.
They also asked for my best advice, which I gave by quoting Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor: “If it’s good, it’s fun, if it’s bad, it’s funny” which isn’t really advice per se but it kind of sums up the only healthy way to view indie band life. At one point I mentioned the hip-hop, to which some girl said “yeah, but do you do REAL hip-hop or ‘I’m gonna get some’ hip hop?” which struck me as pretty savvy for a 17 year old. So I rapped a little for the children from the Runaway disc and that was my time with them. I am now a sage to the next generation of rock stars.
Saturday was worship practice, Settlers and Prince Caspian. Head over to the hlog in the next couple of days, I’ll probably review the movie there.
Sunday I played worship in the morning and then drove feverishly to Burlington to make the Sound of Music festival. I was playing with My 2 Sense, who I’d only had one rehearsal with previously. There’s nothing like playing a festival (in a major city, sorry Madoc) to make you feel like a rock star: dudes opening doors for me, dudes, getting me water, dudes carrying my gear, Mike “Pinball” Clemons speaking before we went on. It was a decent set, too. M2S is comprised mainly of Russ Denison, who used to lead worship at WMB; Duane Boles, who currently leads worship at WMB, and a guy I always love playing with, Kevin Ramessar. Besides being the most talented guy I know (seriously, no hyperbole) he’s also a lot of fun and is really easy to vibe off of during shows. I’ve been lucky to play with him twice in the last couple of months (this show and a conference) and would love to keep doing it.
_______________________________________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Uh…so, what up? Nothing really new to report. I deliberately backed off of more shows in June so I probably won’t have anything to report until July. So more reviews, yes? And perhaps musings about the awful music industry? Toomy lee and Pam Anderson are apparently living together again – maybe I could write something on that? TOPICAL!
See you Tuesday.
I was invited to Bluevale Collegiate Institute to be interviewed by a student I know there for his music class. I was not the first choice: I received the invite after randomly running into this student a week before the class. Also, when I mentioned this to my worship team, they simultaneously said “oh, so YOU’RE the one he got to do it,” since they all apparently had stuff to do. It’s a sad life, being the last option.
ANYWAY, I got interviewed about being a musician and how I got started and all that for about 12 students and it was fun. I got to go off about downloading, tell stories about poorly attended shows and well-attended shows, and so on. I felt like I spent too much time stressing how un-fun the life of a musician can be. I was trying to make sure they knew that even if you “make it” (i.e. tour, release CDs, etc) the odds of you effectively supporting yourself through music are very slim. Unfortunately, I think I might have come off as a little bitter and unsuccessful, which I surely am, but I try and save that part of myself for my friends and family. You have no right to my bitterness, children.
They also asked for my best advice, which I gave by quoting Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor: “If it’s good, it’s fun, if it’s bad, it’s funny” which isn’t really advice per se but it kind of sums up the only healthy way to view indie band life. At one point I mentioned the hip-hop, to which some girl said “yeah, but do you do REAL hip-hop or ‘I’m gonna get some’ hip hop?” which struck me as pretty savvy for a 17 year old. So I rapped a little for the children from the Runaway disc and that was my time with them. I am now a sage to the next generation of rock stars.
Saturday was worship practice, Settlers and Prince Caspian. Head over to the hlog in the next couple of days, I’ll probably review the movie there.
Sunday I played worship in the morning and then drove feverishly to Burlington to make the Sound of Music festival. I was playing with My 2 Sense, who I’d only had one rehearsal with previously. There’s nothing like playing a festival (in a major city, sorry Madoc) to make you feel like a rock star: dudes opening doors for me, dudes, getting me water, dudes carrying my gear, Mike “Pinball” Clemons speaking before we went on. It was a decent set, too. M2S is comprised mainly of Russ Denison, who used to lead worship at WMB; Duane Boles, who currently leads worship at WMB, and a guy I always love playing with, Kevin Ramessar. Besides being the most talented guy I know (seriously, no hyperbole) he’s also a lot of fun and is really easy to vibe off of during shows. I’ve been lucky to play with him twice in the last couple of months (this show and a conference) and would love to keep doing it.
_______________________________________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Uh…so, what up? Nothing really new to report. I deliberately backed off of more shows in June so I probably won’t have anything to report until July. So more reviews, yes? And perhaps musings about the awful music industry? Toomy lee and Pam Anderson are apparently living together again – maybe I could write something on that? TOPICAL!
See you Tuesday.
Friday, June 13, 2008
On the road again
So I feel like I was somewhat deceptive in my last post. I said I had played a bunch of shows, but in reality I only played 2 last week: Wednesday in Hamilton with The Runaway and Saturday in Maple with Critical Mass. Sorry; when you work full time, take courses and have a girlfriend, 2 shows seems like a billion.
Wednesday was straight up awesome. I always love playing shows with the Runaway, and even more so with the Runaway Jam, which is the full band consisting of myself on drums and backup vox, Josh McFadyen on bass, Andrew Karram on keys, my awesome girlfriend Krista on vocals, and of course the Runaway himself on rhymes.
We were playing something called The Artist’s Roundtable at the Freeway Café in Hamilton. The idea is that 5 bands each do a 15-20 minute set. At the end of the night all the bands sit down onstage in front of the crowd and break down each others’ sets, mention what they liked or thought needed improvement. Then there’s a Q and A period with the crowd.
I hope this doesn’t come off as arrogant, but it’s been a long long time since I played a show where I wasn’t in at least the second best band there (In my opinion). This is mostly a result of playing a lot of Christian shows, where bands tend to be a lot younger and therefore not as good. But my goodness, every single band was amazing. The first act was 2x The Mono, which is an experimental indie project consisting of one guy named Randell Neudorf working guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and percussion. He uses a Jam-Man like repeater to build sequences on each instrument until a song is there. He only had time to do two songs, but they were both really great and interesting. Not something you hear every day.
The second act was my favourite: Brielle Goheen. Brielle is a singer-songwriter on piano who is training in classical violin out at Trinity Western. She has this incredible dynamic range and her songs are very intricate and counter-intuitive, but never sacrifice melody for the sake of “newness”. You can hear a melding of pop, classical and theatre influences in her style. Alas, she has nothing recorded and is only in the province until the end of the summer, so I may have to run a show (and therefore lose money) to hear her again. She did say she’d be open to coming to Waterloo, so keep your eyes peeled.
Third up was Garner! I don’t know what I can say about Garner that hasn’t already been said: they write great pop songs, they have an amazing songwriting range, they’re super fun to watch, and they are all really amazingly nice guys. I’ve never wanted a band that I wasn’t in to succeed so much. They’ll be heading out on tour starting June 20, and the lovely Krista will be doing some backups for them at that show. More to come on that.
We went on fourth, so I’ll skip to fifth: McKenna. This is a brother duo who look very out of place with each other: their guitarist is kind of clean cut, not jocky but very much a “dude” you could have a beer with. I mistook their singer for a homeless man when I met him (to be fair, the Freeway is a downtown mission that always brings in member of the homeless community, but still). Like so many family duos they have rice, tight harmonies which are accented by some furious guitaring and an incredible knack for storytelling.
Wow, that was quite a preamble. Anyway, our set went really well, considering the five of us hadn’t been in a room together since we opened for Shad in October (seriously, we did this show without a practice). Because of the set length we only got to do five songs, but they all went well. I got an impromptu drum solo in the middle of “Soul Raise” that I felt like I flubbed, but people responded positively after which means it either a) went way better than I thought or b) went way worse than I thought, to the point that people needed to console me.
Saturday I drove solo to the thriving metropolis of Maple, ON. The day started off poorly: I had to be in Maple for 8 AM for soundcheck, so I hit the road around 7. The 401 was closed off in Milton, meaning all the traffic first backed up huge and then had to find alternate routes. I took the milk run to end all milk runs and wound up arriving around 9:30.
One thing I hate about Christian shows (especially those with lots of bands) is they usually tell you not to bring your own kit because they have one and want to keep changeover time down. Then they saddle you with a terrible kit. This one was a mirrored (!) Pearl Export kit from roughly 2000 with some of the worst hardware ever. I of course brought my own cymbals, kick and snare, but I couldn’t even unclip the hi-hat they had on because the clip was stripped. The hi-hat was awful, too, like two garbage can lids.
Enough whining. We were acting as the “senior band” at this contest for 14 other bands who were hoping to win. We did a short set off the top at 10:45, and then had to wait until 4:30 for our second set. The bands were all young and some were just starting to get a feel of what they like to do and what they’re capable of, so I won’t go into detail here as I think they’re all very much a work in progress. I thought he eventual winners were called the Mac Band, but I could be wrong, as I tried to find them on Google and the only Mac Band I found were R&B darlings from Flint, Michigan.
Our second set went well, too, although after a day of music no one really seemed in the mood to see us. We’re performing a mix of old stuff and stuff that’s coming up on the new Critical Mass album, some of which I recorded. It sounds like it’ll be an interesting disc – I’ll keep you posted.
IN OTHER NEWS!
Not much to report. I’m backing off of taking more shows in June, just because I’ve been really busy and am starting to wig out over my lost sleep. I’m gigging at the Burlington Music Festival next Sunday with My 2 Sense, so come check that out if you’re in the area.
Wednesday was straight up awesome. I always love playing shows with the Runaway, and even more so with the Runaway Jam, which is the full band consisting of myself on drums and backup vox, Josh McFadyen on bass, Andrew Karram on keys, my awesome girlfriend Krista on vocals, and of course the Runaway himself on rhymes.
We were playing something called The Artist’s Roundtable at the Freeway Café in Hamilton. The idea is that 5 bands each do a 15-20 minute set. At the end of the night all the bands sit down onstage in front of the crowd and break down each others’ sets, mention what they liked or thought needed improvement. Then there’s a Q and A period with the crowd.
I hope this doesn’t come off as arrogant, but it’s been a long long time since I played a show where I wasn’t in at least the second best band there (In my opinion). This is mostly a result of playing a lot of Christian shows, where bands tend to be a lot younger and therefore not as good. But my goodness, every single band was amazing. The first act was 2x The Mono, which is an experimental indie project consisting of one guy named Randell Neudorf working guitar, harmonica, keyboards, and percussion. He uses a Jam-Man like repeater to build sequences on each instrument until a song is there. He only had time to do two songs, but they were both really great and interesting. Not something you hear every day.
The second act was my favourite: Brielle Goheen. Brielle is a singer-songwriter on piano who is training in classical violin out at Trinity Western. She has this incredible dynamic range and her songs are very intricate and counter-intuitive, but never sacrifice melody for the sake of “newness”. You can hear a melding of pop, classical and theatre influences in her style. Alas, she has nothing recorded and is only in the province until the end of the summer, so I may have to run a show (and therefore lose money) to hear her again. She did say she’d be open to coming to Waterloo, so keep your eyes peeled.
Third up was Garner! I don’t know what I can say about Garner that hasn’t already been said: they write great pop songs, they have an amazing songwriting range, they’re super fun to watch, and they are all really amazingly nice guys. I’ve never wanted a band that I wasn’t in to succeed so much. They’ll be heading out on tour starting June 20, and the lovely Krista will be doing some backups for them at that show. More to come on that.
We went on fourth, so I’ll skip to fifth: McKenna. This is a brother duo who look very out of place with each other: their guitarist is kind of clean cut, not jocky but very much a “dude” you could have a beer with. I mistook their singer for a homeless man when I met him (to be fair, the Freeway is a downtown mission that always brings in member of the homeless community, but still). Like so many family duos they have rice, tight harmonies which are accented by some furious guitaring and an incredible knack for storytelling.
Wow, that was quite a preamble. Anyway, our set went really well, considering the five of us hadn’t been in a room together since we opened for Shad in October (seriously, we did this show without a practice). Because of the set length we only got to do five songs, but they all went well. I got an impromptu drum solo in the middle of “Soul Raise” that I felt like I flubbed, but people responded positively after which means it either a) went way better than I thought or b) went way worse than I thought, to the point that people needed to console me.
Saturday I drove solo to the thriving metropolis of Maple, ON. The day started off poorly: I had to be in Maple for 8 AM for soundcheck, so I hit the road around 7. The 401 was closed off in Milton, meaning all the traffic first backed up huge and then had to find alternate routes. I took the milk run to end all milk runs and wound up arriving around 9:30.
One thing I hate about Christian shows (especially those with lots of bands) is they usually tell you not to bring your own kit because they have one and want to keep changeover time down. Then they saddle you with a terrible kit. This one was a mirrored (!) Pearl Export kit from roughly 2000 with some of the worst hardware ever. I of course brought my own cymbals, kick and snare, but I couldn’t even unclip the hi-hat they had on because the clip was stripped. The hi-hat was awful, too, like two garbage can lids.
Enough whining. We were acting as the “senior band” at this contest for 14 other bands who were hoping to win. We did a short set off the top at 10:45, and then had to wait until 4:30 for our second set. The bands were all young and some were just starting to get a feel of what they like to do and what they’re capable of, so I won’t go into detail here as I think they’re all very much a work in progress. I thought he eventual winners were called the Mac Band, but I could be wrong, as I tried to find them on Google and the only Mac Band I found were R&B darlings from Flint, Michigan.
Our second set went well, too, although after a day of music no one really seemed in the mood to see us. We’re performing a mix of old stuff and stuff that’s coming up on the new Critical Mass album, some of which I recorded. It sounds like it’ll be an interesting disc – I’ll keep you posted.
IN OTHER NEWS!
Not much to report. I’m backing off of taking more shows in June, just because I’ve been really busy and am starting to wig out over my lost sleep. I’m gigging at the Burlington Music Festival next Sunday with My 2 Sense, so come check that out if you’re in the area.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Rehashing
"I used to be with "it", but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't "it", and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me. And it'll happen to you."
-Grampa Simpson
Lately, I haven't been buying all that much in the way of new music. I'm sure there are more than a few reasons for this. One big one is that I am slowly moving away from prime marketing age (generally 18-35, but for music usually 14-21) and therefore no one in the industry cares what I think (as opposed to the internets), so no one is trying to promote music that they think I would listen to. People were trying to market to me in the 90's, and it worked; between 1994-2001 I could listen to the radio or watch MuchMusic and be almost guaranteed to hear or see something I would like.
Now, having been stamped as a non-consumer by the powers that be, it's up to me to do the research to find bands that I like. Lately, I can't be bothered. In the last six months I've discovered two bands that I really like (not counting artists that I met at my own shows): The Do (check out "Stay Just A Little More") and The Bird and the Bee, and both of those have come from other people (Krista and Mandie, respectively).
So what, you may ask, am I spending my music money on?
Something I always said I wouldn't.
Compilations.
In the last couple of months I've bought both the Beastie Boys and Matt Good anthologies and they're in my car's player pretty much 24-7 (ask Krista, she knows). I also own the Barenaked Ladies' anthology and would shell out for best-of's by Green Day, Radiohead, and almost any other "classic" band of the 90's (except the Tragically Hip). I'm actually ashamed of being this guy. I remember working at Sunrise Records and judging the people who came in to buy all the 80's compilations, or who could sing every Prince lyric but had no idea who Bradley Nowell was and why it was such a big deal that he was dead (at the time, it was because Sublime could have done so much more: Now it's because the Long Beach Dub All-Stars probably would never have come to pass). A real music fan, I thought, would remain "in the loop" and would appreciate something that was current.
I have definitely become the person on the other side of the counter. To paraphrase Homer Simpson in "Homerpalooza" (the same episode that spawned the quote above), rock attained perfection in 1994. It's a scientific fact: Green Day's Dookie, Nirvana's Unplugged, Moist's Silver, Our Lady Peace's Naveed (the only less-than-craptacular album they have ever done), and so on.
I like (but am saddened by the fact) that I get the same rush listening to "Everything is Automatic" driving to work in my Focus as I did busing to school with my Discman. I can't remember what I read in almost any of my classes, but I totally remember the lyrics to "Sure Shot". Am I totally analogous to the dude who would come into the store and tell me about how Metallica or Slayer hadn't released anything good since the eighties (he was right about Metallica, at least)? No, I am not! The 80s had SO MUCH to be ashamed of: Flock of Seagulls (and the resulting haircuts), Soft Cell, Newcleus, Hall and Oates, Tiffany, glam rock in general, etcetera. The 90's were cool (as long as you discount Lou Bega, the Macarena, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Butt Trumpet, and everything that came out of Seattle except Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden). To this day we look cool, with our flannel shirts, Doc Martens and carving "Kurt" into our arms in 1994. We started emo, and our dudes didn't need to dress like girls to make it happen (although our girls did kind of dress like dudes).
So to conclude, I'm cool with being pegged as a 90's guy 'cause the 90's were awesome. All the kids will think I'm cool because of it. For serious.
I wonder if being OK with this now will make it OK for me to give up on new music altogether later. My dad was totally like that. He knows every song written in the 50s and 60s. There are forty or so songs he likes from the seventies. The eighties were unkind to him. He liked some stuff, but not The Smiths or the Cure or anything like that: he more went for "We Built This City" by Jefferson Starship and "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart. By the nineties he couldn't be bothered to listen to anything except "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba and anything that would appear on a "Jock Jams" compilation. Is this the natural and inevitable progression of my musical interest? I don't think so. What's the double-naught version of Chumbawumba? I don't think it's the White Rabbits.
Eventually, I'm sure it will come to pass that my brain will be too full of music and I will wave the white flag. It happens to everyone, and quite frankly it seems like it happens to most people before the age of 28. So please think kindly of me if in ten years you catch me in my basement hunched over a discman in my flannel instead of listening to the computer chip in my brain (yeah, YOU think it won't happen). I wasn't always that way, you know.
In honour of today's topic, here are the 5 best bands you don't remember from the 90's (no particular order):
1. Rusty
2. Glueleg
3. Econoline Crush
4. The Killjoys
5. Royal Crown Revue (remember the swing revival?)
________________________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Played a bunch of shows last week and will probably post about them on Friday. Also, I was in Toronto last Thursday and picked up not only aman purse MESSENGER BAG, but also broke down and picked up the Will Currie album when I found it in Sunrise. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to think yet and I'm kind of not digging it. I have to sort out if I don't like it because I don't like it OR if it's because I already have most of the songs OR if it's because the old songs were remastered and I don't like that, and so on. I'll let you know when I've figured it out.
-Grampa Simpson
Lately, I haven't been buying all that much in the way of new music. I'm sure there are more than a few reasons for this. One big one is that I am slowly moving away from prime marketing age (generally 18-35, but for music usually 14-21) and therefore no one in the industry cares what I think (as opposed to the internets), so no one is trying to promote music that they think I would listen to. People were trying to market to me in the 90's, and it worked; between 1994-2001 I could listen to the radio or watch MuchMusic and be almost guaranteed to hear or see something I would like.
Now, having been stamped as a non-consumer by the powers that be, it's up to me to do the research to find bands that I like. Lately, I can't be bothered. In the last six months I've discovered two bands that I really like (not counting artists that I met at my own shows): The Do (check out "Stay Just A Little More") and The Bird and the Bee, and both of those have come from other people (Krista and Mandie, respectively).
So what, you may ask, am I spending my music money on?
Something I always said I wouldn't.
Compilations.
In the last couple of months I've bought both the Beastie Boys and Matt Good anthologies and they're in my car's player pretty much 24-7 (ask Krista, she knows). I also own the Barenaked Ladies' anthology and would shell out for best-of's by Green Day, Radiohead, and almost any other "classic" band of the 90's (except the Tragically Hip). I'm actually ashamed of being this guy. I remember working at Sunrise Records and judging the people who came in to buy all the 80's compilations, or who could sing every Prince lyric but had no idea who Bradley Nowell was and why it was such a big deal that he was dead (at the time, it was because Sublime could have done so much more: Now it's because the Long Beach Dub All-Stars probably would never have come to pass). A real music fan, I thought, would remain "in the loop" and would appreciate something that was current.
I have definitely become the person on the other side of the counter. To paraphrase Homer Simpson in "Homerpalooza" (the same episode that spawned the quote above), rock attained perfection in 1994. It's a scientific fact: Green Day's Dookie, Nirvana's Unplugged, Moist's Silver, Our Lady Peace's Naveed (the only less-than-craptacular album they have ever done), and so on.
I like (but am saddened by the fact) that I get the same rush listening to "Everything is Automatic" driving to work in my Focus as I did busing to school with my Discman. I can't remember what I read in almost any of my classes, but I totally remember the lyrics to "Sure Shot". Am I totally analogous to the dude who would come into the store and tell me about how Metallica or Slayer hadn't released anything good since the eighties (he was right about Metallica, at least)? No, I am not! The 80s had SO MUCH to be ashamed of: Flock of Seagulls (and the resulting haircuts), Soft Cell, Newcleus, Hall and Oates, Tiffany, glam rock in general, etcetera. The 90's were cool (as long as you discount Lou Bega, the Macarena, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Butt Trumpet, and everything that came out of Seattle except Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden). To this day we look cool, with our flannel shirts, Doc Martens and carving "Kurt" into our arms in 1994. We started emo, and our dudes didn't need to dress like girls to make it happen (although our girls did kind of dress like dudes).
So to conclude, I'm cool with being pegged as a 90's guy 'cause the 90's were awesome. All the kids will think I'm cool because of it. For serious.
I wonder if being OK with this now will make it OK for me to give up on new music altogether later. My dad was totally like that. He knows every song written in the 50s and 60s. There are forty or so songs he likes from the seventies. The eighties were unkind to him. He liked some stuff, but not The Smiths or the Cure or anything like that: he more went for "We Built This City" by Jefferson Starship and "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart. By the nineties he couldn't be bothered to listen to anything except "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba and anything that would appear on a "Jock Jams" compilation. Is this the natural and inevitable progression of my musical interest? I don't think so. What's the double-naught version of Chumbawumba? I don't think it's the White Rabbits.
Eventually, I'm sure it will come to pass that my brain will be too full of music and I will wave the white flag. It happens to everyone, and quite frankly it seems like it happens to most people before the age of 28. So please think kindly of me if in ten years you catch me in my basement hunched over a discman in my flannel instead of listening to the computer chip in my brain (yeah, YOU think it won't happen). I wasn't always that way, you know.
In honour of today's topic, here are the 5 best bands you don't remember from the 90's (no particular order):
1. Rusty
2. Glueleg
3. Econoline Crush
4. The Killjoys
5. Royal Crown Revue (remember the swing revival?)
________________________
IN OTHER NEWS!
Played a bunch of shows last week and will probably post about them on Friday. Also, I was in Toronto last Thursday and picked up not only a
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