Thanks to a generous soul at the Via Chicago message boards, I am now the proud owner of a DVD bootleg of Uncle Tupelo’s last-ever show on May 1, 1994 at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis. Though not professionally assembled, the guy who made it for me did a helluva nice job. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but the video footage is reasonable handycam quality and the audio is excellent – I think he spliced a soundboard audio recording overtop the video footage. There’s even bonus materials in the form of videos and whatnot. Very nice.

The timing of me getting this boot is good, as I mentioned yesterday, I just finished the Greg Kot Uncle Tupelo/Wilco biography and it’s interesting to watch the Jay/Jeff dynamic at the very end of their relationship – they create incredible music and yet they barely interact. Tweedy is rocking his heart out while Farrar looks like he’s just going through the motions, though you can’t criticize his performance and to be fair, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how he looks every single day regardless of what he’s doing. Either way, you see this and you realize that the end was inevitable. Well, I guess it worked out well for everyone in the long run. Oh, and nice hair, Jeff. I don’t understand why this show isn’t getting a proper release – surely whatever reasoning Columbia/Legacy used to justify a Toad The Wet Sprocket live album could apply to Uncle Tupelo as well? The labels work in mysterious way… There’s a pic of Jeff Tweedy’s setlist from the show here.

Cake are playing Massey Hall on October 19 to promote their latest record Pressure Chief, out October 5. Massey Hall? Seriously? Are Cake that big, even now? We’re a long long ways from “The Distance” or “I Shall Survive”. You’ll pardon my ignorance if they in fact have some massive underground following that justifies them playing 2500+ seat venues.

I’ve been asked on a few occasions lately what’s been going on with Lake Holiday, with many assuming that we’re “on hiatus” or some other euphemism for no longer being. Not so! We’re just incredibly lazy. Actually, it’s been a Summer of great flux, so I’ll quickly go over some random points: The record is done. Or more accurately, the recording is done. No more overdubs, do-overs, re-arrangements. Everything is currently in the process of being mixed and we’re hoping to have the mini-album (six or seven songs) completed by early Fall. While it’s good to have that recording out of the way, there’s a chance we could be going back into the studio sooner rather than later to try and record some stuff in a more live environment. There’s been some personnel changes as Five Seventeen has left the band to move out west – bass duties are now being handled by the very capable Mr Brendan Howlett. We’re currently getting back up to speed on the material and working out some new stuff in preparation of playing some shows to support the record. On the more pedantic side, I replaced the tubes in my amp last night and improved the sound immeasurably (Electro-Harmonix EL84s get the thumbs up from me!) and we’re still looking for another band to share our rehearsal space. If you know anyone whose looking for a practice space in downtown Toronto, have em drop me a line.

So there, you’re all caught up. And I’m late for a dentist appointment so that’s it for today.

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