Splendid had a final interview with the now-defunct Beulah on the eve of their farewell tour and finds Miles Kurosky exhausted and sounding more than a little grumpy at answering the same break-up questions for the umpteenth time. It’s funny how they make a comparison with Guided By Voices, as I think this interview was done before GBV announced their farewell. While GBV’s importance in the grand cosmos of things is undoubtedly greater than Beulah’s, I think I’ll miss Beulah more. There is something to be said for consistency – for being able to pull any one of their four albums off the shelf and have it be solid start to finish… okay, make that three. Handsome Western States has it’s charm, but it was a quantum leap between it and When Your Heartstrings Break. But yeah – consistency. It’s an underrated trait. At least the sting of their passing is eased somewhat by Miles’ forthcoming solo record, which will essentially be the fifth Beulah record, and the A Good Band Is Easy To Kill DVD out this Fall which was filmed during their final tour. The title of the DVD is sadly accurate – you just have to wear them down long enough. Splendid has a long history with Beulah – check out their past interviews here and here.

Some more whoop-de-doo from the offices of The Wilco Book – some Quicktime clips that are tangentially related to the book. The one I found interesting was the interview with producer and studio owner Walter Sear (Wilco did some recording for Ghost at Sear Sound). I just finished reading an interview with him in TapeOp and the man has some VERY strong opinions about digital technology, recording and music in general, but he seems like a fascinating character. I particularly liked his championing of the key change, ’cause it’s true.

Stomp And Stammer reports that a biography on Belle & Sebastian will be coming out next Summer at around the same time as their next album. More than just a hack job cobbled together from old interviews and press clippings (mostly because there ARE no old interviews and press clippings – they barely ever talked to the press before Dear Catastrophe Waitress), the book by Andrew Whitelaw was produced with the full cooperation of the band, who provided extensive interviews and photos, and to top it off the cover art will be done by Stuart Murdoch.

The official schedule for the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival is out, and I have less than 48 hours to make my selections. At first I thought that I was going to have too many tickets, but now I’m almost feeling like I don’t have enough. There’s a lot of interesting-sounding stuff to see. I had thought I’d get pairs of tickets for five films, but now I’m thinking I might just get four and hit the two others solo. I mean, am I really going to find anyone else who would actually want to see a documentary on Townes Van Zandt? No one I know, anyway. I have a question for any TIFF veterans reading this – what’s your strategy to selecting second choices? Would you select one film as a second choice for one night, but put it as a first choice another night? Or would you have two wholly discrete lists of films, one for first choice and another for second choice that you really don’t care about one way or the other? And how do you choose a backup for, say, a Midnight Madness film if there’s nothing else playing at the same time? This is a lot of pressure.

Holy shinola, how did it become September already? My street is overrun with moving trucks as the U of T kids come back to roost… and wassail and carouse. I don’t mind the wassailing – Lord knows I like a good wassail once in a while, but the carousing really gets to me. You damn kids. Get off my lawn. Still, I should go easy on them – I remember Frosh Week. After all, mine was only… a decade ago. Okay, I’m going to go crawl under a rock now. And speaking of anniversaries – guess what tomorrow is?

np – Beulah / Yoko

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