To anyone in NYC this weekend, go check out my friend Dave’s band, Dark Little Rooms, playing at Pianos on Friday with Zetamale and Stellastarr. DLR (not David Lee Roth!) trade in cool, piano-led soul along the lines of Nick Cave or the Afghan Whigs. If the buzz is to be believed, Stellastarr is hotter than shit. The one song they have available on their website didn’t do much for me, but what do I know.

Thrown Askew has returned. Swing by and say hello to Kate.

I cannot get out of first gear this morning. Actually I can’t get out of park. Actually, the damn thing won’t turn over. Engine’s flooded. Great. I’m going back to sleep.

np – The Weakerthans / Left And Leaving

My lip is all swollen from taking an elbow in the mouth during hockey today. I also took a shot to the throat, but that’s okay.

Back from the dead – the More Like The Moon EP might have a second life. According to this article, the EP will be released on April 23 as a download from the Wilco website, providing you already own a copy of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, that date being the one-year anniversary of YHF‘s release. This is backed up by this page on the website, which looks like it’s just waiting to have the song titles made hot links to mp3s… This is good because it saves me the trouble of finding each of the songs on Kazaa.

I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow…

np – The Sadies / Stories Often Told

Lightning round summary of yesterday – beautiful day. Went to look at bikes. Found no bikes. Spilled root beer float in my lap. Disgusted with the Leafs. Had sushi for dinner. Went to an improv comedy tournament. Hilarity ensued. Picked up a couple of Portastatic albums.

Some Cinerama news. There’s a second John Peel Sessions disc coming out on April 28, but near as I can tell there’s only a UK release. Another Cinerama comp that is getting a North American release is Holiday, which collects all the Torino b-sides. Surfing their online store, it also appears that they released a Live In Los Angeles CD last year that I knew nothing about. Shame on me. I’m hearing that they will be touring North America in support of this release over the summer, opening for The New Pornographers, but their July 8 show at The Phoenix lists Vancouver-ites The Organ as support. I hope there is a Cinerama T.O. date in the offing, it would be nice to see The Gedge again.

Some other release dates… the Trembling Blue Stars b-sides and rarities compilation A Certain Evening Light is out on June 16. More deliciously twee songs of heartbreak from ex-Field Mice-er Bob Wratten.

The Luna sideproject from Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham has a release date of June 3. It’s called L’Avventura. A website will be up at www.deanandbritta.com, but not yet. So don’t go there. There’s nothing there. I will tell you when it’s okay to go. Trust me.

np – Portastatic / Slow Note From A Sinking Ship

I think there’s something to be said for “just-in-time-concert-attendance”. Idlewild was scheduled to go on at exactly midnight last night, and my interest in standing around the club waiting for any longer than necessary was pretty much zero. So – I leave here at 11:30, arrive at 11:50, take in the one-hour show, am back home by 1:30 and that includes a stopover at Burger King for some late-night crap food. So my feet don’t hurt from standing for hours, I don’t stink of smoke too badly and I still got to spend most of my night doing other useless stuff. This is a plan.

So how were Idlewild? Good to very good, moments of almost great. Make no mistake – these Scots rock hard. They’ve got the songs (I said it before and I’ll say it again – no one does anthemic rock like the Brits), charisma (There is no name more rock star than Roddy Woomble!) and the energy. From word go, it was great jump-up-and-down rock and roll, with the set split up pretty evenly between The Remote Part, 100 Broken Windows and Hope Is Important material. They even went back to their debut Captain for a number, if just to demonstrate how their songcraft has evolved since then.

Ironically, it was because of the relentless rocking out that I feel the need to deduct some points from the performance. I think a lot of Idlewild’s strength comes from the dynamic nature of the songs. There’s a lot of valuable complexity that just gets lost when you turn the rectifier stack up to 10 and go – I think that’s my main reservation about The Remote Part versus 100 Broken Windows. Remote Part is more in-your-face whereas Windows demonstratted some more restraint. Last night’s encore closer, “In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction”, pretty much drove this home. It should have been elegiac and lovely, but the delivery stripped it of it’s subtlety and it just fell flat.

At any rate, it was my first real “rock” show in a pig’s age and my ears are ringing suitably from the experience. I still maintain Idlewild are one of the best young bands from the UK right now will only get better. All the ingredients are there, they just need the proper balance.

Some pics from the show here. Scroll to the bottom. These shots were me trying out the ‘hold camera over the head and click randomly’ method of concert photography. While it’s good for clearing audience heads, it’s less precise for framing shots, focusing, making sure the band is doing something worth capturing (shots of singer talking to guitarist between songs are not terribly exciting). I will perfect it, though.

See a terrific 2003 riff on “All Your Base” here. Link from Val, who has redesigned nicely yet again.

It’s looking sunny and warm out today. I think I’m supposed to go over to Sudeep’s this afternoon to play Scrabble or something. I will be sure to post a move-by-move synopsis of that tournament of champions.

np – Luna / Penthouse

So the intent of going to see an accountant was to reduce the amount of tax owing, right? The best laid plans. I walked out of there this morning actually owing an extra $600. My accountant, Clive Barker (Bookeeper of Blood!) did his job just fine – tallied up all my business expenses and worked out the deductions properly. But he also noticed that I had neglected to work out how much I owed for CPP (Canada Pension Plan) contributions. Turns out it was a lot. I never did CPP before since it’s usually taken care of by the employer, but since I was technically self-employed most of last year, that made me the employer. I owed CPP to the tune of almost 10% of my gross income. Huzzah. I’m all for paying my fair share, but this still feels like they’re not only bending me over a barrel, but slapping me around and calling me “Shirley”. Oh well, it’s done now and that’s it for taxes for another year. But at least Clive didn’t charge me for the filing – he said he felt bad about me owing more when I left than when I went in. Nice guy. I’d recommend him to anyone in Toronto looking for an accountant.

I also went back to the old homestead this afternoon to visit the folks, try out their crazy new accupressure/heat massage bed. Interesting device. I suppose it was relaxing. I also retrieved about seven years worth of Hellblazer. My mom keeps asking me when I’m going to get rid of those longboxes of comics. Uh, soon mom. Really.

Idlewild tonight! Damn, I’m tired.

np – Steve Earle / Sidetracks