I have simply been too busy this week for words. Work is like a madhouse. Thank god I have band rehearsals to let me kick out the jams and blow off a little steam. Speaking of which, apparently a math-rock band has moved in next door on Thursday nights. They’re loud. All we hear through the walls is, “DUNH DUNH DUNH … … dah dah DANH … DANH … … … … DUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUN … dah DANH!!!!” and so forth. Crazy weird start-stop riffy things. They’re very tight. I’m just not sure if they’re playing any songs.

We still need to find another band to share the rehearsal space with after the Biters vacate. I don’t want to put up an ad and introduce the possibility of letting strangers into our little play pen (with all our toys), but we may not have a choice.

Steve Earle is coming to town May 16 at the Kool Haus. That’d be a good show, though the price ($36 before SC) and venue (big crappy concrete box) are a little off-putting. That’s on my ‘maybe’ list.

It’s come to my attention that my editing the comments link down below to read ‘No smart-alecky comments’ may be misinterpreted – it means that currently, no one has left any smart-alecky remarks. Not that they’re not welcome. In fact, they’re greatly welcome. The smarter or more alecky, the better.

This track on the Postal Service is so damn good, it oughta be illegal. Does anyone know anything about Jen Wood? Is her own stuff worth hunting down? I love her vocals on this track.

Lawdy lawdy, what a day. Something about having to drive up to Mississauga first thing in the morning for a half-day meeting just throws the rest of my day off. I just want to sleep. But instead, I am going out for beers with Vic. He wants to celebrate some functioning piece of C code, I want to… well, I dunno. Have a beer, I guess.

Val has brought to my attention a pretty cool show that’s to be part of the Toronto Indiepop Fest in early May. May 2 sees The Reputation at The Rivoli with +/-, for their third show in Toronto in like seven months. You’d think they lived here or something. Also on the bill are The Meligrove Band and The Bicycles. A good bill, I wonder what else is going to be taking place that weekend as part of this same Fest.

np – The Postal Service / Give Up

I got a shiny new fifty-cent coin in my change today. I haven’t had one of these in years. At first, I thought it was a toonie since it’s almost exactly the same size. And then I realized that the person who gave me the change, I’m not sure where I got it, may have thought the same thing and screwed me out of $1.50. I’d be more upset, but it’s so shiny… so very shiny…

I got my Idlewild and Mark Gardener tickets today. My Idlewild is ticket #1! Yes, I am so dorky that that makes me happy.

So the Leafs picked up Doug Gilmour and Phil Housley at the trade deadline. We are now so old, so very old. I’ll be able to hear the creaking of their joints all the way up Bay St.

Some random links for your entertainment and edification. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

np – Calla / Televise

Today’s routine:

1) Go to TSN’s NHL trade deadline page.

2) Click refresh.

3) Go to 2)

There’s nothing I like more than getting to the subway station and seeing a queue coming from the platform, up the stairs and into the station, especially coupled with a stream of people coming up from the platform lasting at least a few minutes. Know what folks? If they’re emptying the subway car, it’s probably NOT to let us on.

The Uncle Tupelo reissues are out today, and from the online shops, they appear to be pretty expensive (except Anodyne). The only thing better than being compelled to buy CDs I already have is being hosed in the process.

np – The Soft Boys / Underwater Moonlight

Haven’t made a post all day. Been busy busy busy with work, and rehearsal, and being really tired all the while. And anyway, there’s not much to say.

Here’s a pic of my new guitar, the modifications of which have been such a fixation for me the last while. Isn’t it pretty? Never mind the fingerprints all over it. It’s a Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster, though with all the changes I’ve made to it, I’d prefer to call it my Memphis Telecaster. It’s fat like Elvis.

I had feared that I lost my engineering decoder ring last week during rehearsal, perhaps in a particularly enthusiastic bout of rocking out. It would have been fittingly symbolic for the last vestige of my past engineering life to become a casualty of rock and roll. But it turns out it just fell out of my shirt pocket and was caught underneath a keyboard. I have it back now.

np – Emmylou Harris / Wrecking Ball