Pixies! Before I get into it, I should say that any sort of perceived grumpiness or wet blanket-ness probably has little to do with the show itself, and more with the pain in the butt-ness of getting up to Arrow Hall and back, logistically speaking. Without getting into detail, I’m down here, it’s up there, and there’s a whole lotta highway in between. I don’t drive much, so the adventure can cause a little anxiety. But whatever, that’s neither here nor there (well, I just said I’m here and it’s there, but whatever).

I made it to Arrow Hall along with Travis and Molly of the 10:51 AM empire just in time to catch the second half of The Datsuns’ set. I was not impressed. Or more like, they were alright at what they were doing, which is riffy/bluesy/garage-y/wah-saturated hair-whipping classic rock sorta stuff, but that’s not my bag. I thought them an odd choice to open for the Pixies, whose eclectic sort of college rock was an antidote for that sort of thing when they arrived on the scene 15 odd years ago. But they weren’t on long so that was fine.

And then the Pixies. They were TIGHT. Kicking things off on a slower note with “In Heaven” and the slow version of “Wave Of Mutilation”, they powered through an hour and fifteen minute set of hit after hit (hit being a very relative term, of course), almost without pause. I think they covered pretty much every song anyone would want to hear, barring the more left-field selections (and to be honest, I would have loved to hear Kim say, “There were rumours he was into field hockey players…”, but that probably wouldn’t have translated so well live). The performance was almost note-perfect (I caught one drum flub), which struck me as a little odd considering that the Pixies built their reputation on being more than a little loopy and “out there”. The efficiency and precision demonstrated by this reunited outfit was a far cry from the stories I’d heard about them from their first go-around, as capable of playing awful shows as great ones. Unfortunately, I thought that this intensity also took away from the feel of the show a little bit – the fun and humour inherent in their music felt stifled. And maybe it’s just a consequence of large venues, but I felt somewhat disconnected from the band and Frank Black Francis’ decision to power from one song into the next without even acknowleding the audience didn’t help. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t want him to do a “Hello, Toronto!” shout out, but I thought they came across as a band hard at work, the key word being “work”. Okay, at this point, before anyone starts lambasting me for this POV, I refer you back to my opening paragraph. Thanks.

They did seem to progressively loosen up as the show went on though, and seemed almost giddy during set closer “Gigantic”, with Frank speaking to the audience for the first time. Instead of leaving the stage before the encore, they engaged in some sort of horseplay (I couldn’t really tell what was going on from my vantage point) and then wrapped things up for good with “La La Love You” and “Vamos”, the latter of which featured an extended “let’s see what kind of noises we can make while abusing our guitar” solo. Very nice – some more of that sort of improvisation would have been welcome throughout the show. But what I was saying earlier about efficiency? They packed 29 songs into an hour and a half set – no mean feat. And thankfully, the sound was really good – again, in a big concrete hangar like Arrow Hall, that’s an impressive accomplishment.

I was curious as to what sort of crowd was going to show up for this show – would there be the late-era Gen X-ers who came of age with the Pixies in the late 80s/early 90s and were looking to indulge in some nostalgia? Or current day indie kids seeking to pay their respects to the giants who paved the way for all they hold musically dear? A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. Actually, I thought the latter camp far outnumbered the former, which surprised me a bit. Even though the Pixies were well before their time – hell, they were almost before my time and I wager I was older than a lot of attendees – they’ve obviously still managed to make a pretty strong connection with the next generation. Pretty damned impressive. I noticed on the way out that the t-shirts for sale were labelled “Pixies Sellout”, which I think is not giving them enough credit. Sure, their motivation for getting back together may have been financially motivated, but “Sellout” implies that they’ve compromised their art somehow or that they’re cheating the fans (hello Sex Pistols!), where nothing could be further from the truth. I can’t believe you’d find anyone out of the 9000 in attendance last night who left the wastelands of northern Mississauga feeling anything but completely satisfied.

So to sum up – fantastic performance by the band, (very) mild grumpiness from me about stuff that no one has any real control over, no photos (was not going to try and sneak a camera in or fight to get close enough to get any sort of shots). And Frank Black appears to play the same acoustic guitar I have (Takamine N-10), except mine doesn’t have a big Willie Nelson-esque hole worn through the top. Nice. Setlist was as follows:

1. In Heaven (vocals by Kim)

2. Wave of Mutilation (slow version)

3. Where Is My Mind

4. Blown Away

5. Nimrod’s Son

6. Here Comes Your Man

7. Ed Is Dead

8. Planet Of Sound

9. Bone Machine

10. I Bleed

11. Crackity Jones

12. Monkey Gone To Heaven

13. Broken Face

14. Isla de Encanta

15. Caribou

16. Velouria

17. Cactus

18. No. 13 Baby

19. Mr. Grieves

20. U-Mass

21. Gouge Away

22. Dead

23. Debaser

24. Wave Of Mutilation

25. Tame

26. Hey

27. Gigantic

ENCORE

28. La La Love You

29. Vamos

Note – the photo above is NOT from last ngiht – it’s from Frankblack.net and was taken at the Pixies’ April 24 show in Vancouver. I will replace it with a Toronto pic if and when I find one. And if anyone finds a bit torrent of this show, lemme know s’il vous plait? Merci.

Rolling Stone has some details on the Warner-era REM reissues coming out January 25. In what may become a more common trend, the second disc will actually be a DVD and feature the album remixed in 5.1 surround as well as contain a host of video/documentary footage and commentary. I’m horribly lazy when it comes to watching bonus DVDs, so while it sounds good in theory, I’m not overly excited about it. I much prefer media that I can slap in my discman when walking around, listen to at work… Committing the time to sit on my ass in front of the TV is too much work. From Coolfer.

The cancelled Razorlight show from last month (or was it this month?) has been rescheduled for January 12 at Lee’s Palace, tickets $12.50.

Ireland’s Frames are in town March 4. Did you know they’re fronted by the guitarist from The Commitments? I didn’t, even when I saw them open for Calexico last year.

Thanks to everyone who voted me as one of the best local blogs in this year’s eye Best of Toronto poll (along with Accordian Guy, Betterlivingcentre.ca and Navigate The Streets – though I confess I don’t really understand what I’m looking at with Navigate the Streets…). That’s just neat. Do I get one of those ‘Best Of’ laminate placard things to put in my washroom?

Happy Turkey Day to our American cousins.

np – The Wedding Present / Singles 1995-1997

Billboard is reporting that Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis will be releasing a solo album next Summer on Team Love, the farm team imprint for Rilo Kiley’s former label Saddle Creek. Described as “a kind of soul record”, it was recorded in six days with longtime producer Mike Mogus after the end of the last tour. So despite leaving Saddle Creek for the big leagues this year, Rilo still remain very much a part of the Omaha community, appearing on both new Bright Eyes records and touring with the Conor & Co overseas in the new year.

And speaking of Bright Eyes Inc, which despite my best efforts I’ve been doing a fair bit of lately, the opener for their Winter tour will be Neva Dinova, with whom they released the One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels collaborative EP earlier this year. The tour comes to the Phoenix in Toronto January 21st and tickets go on sale today, $22.50

Also on the topic of opening acts, the Ted Leo show at the Mod Club December 5 is turning into a mini-festival. In addition to local openers The Junction and The Meligrove Band, Matt Pond PA, who had been opening for Ted on other dates on this tour, has been added to the bill. That’s four bands, folks. Things get started at 8pm sharp, don’t be late.

Well, tonight is the longest, if not most highly anticipated, show of the year – the Pixies at Arrow Hall in Mississauga. I laugh to see all the tickets up for sale on Craigslist from people who I assume just couldn’t clear off their calendars seven months in advance and now can’t make it for whatever reason. I’m not so amused, however, when I think about how much trouble I went through to get mine back in April and now they’re selling them off for less than I paid.

Bradley’s Almanac has started a campaign I can get behind 100% – elected long-time Blue Jays radio commentator Tom Cheek into the Baseball Hall of Fame. As Brad points out, the numbers are amazing – 28 years of calling the Jays on radio, 4306 games straight, and he’s a helluva nice guy. You can vote once a day online – it’s the right thing to do and the easy way to do it.

Running late this morning. Long story, not very interesting.

np – Bob Dylan / Desire

I got my copy of The Wilco Book yesterday, and it’s quite an interesting read. A collection of essays, photographs and a sort of guided tour around the world of Wilco, it seems overly arty and pretentious at first glance, but when you sit down and start reading it, you realize that’s just the presentation and the content is actually quite illuminating. You get a moderately in-depth look at the Wilco loft and their equipment, a behind-the-scenes account of life on tour from the band and their techs and a peak at their in-studio creative process. I’m not quite finished yet, but as a fan I’m finding it fascinating. As far as getting into the heads of the band and what makes them tick, it’s more revealing than I Am Trying To Break Your Heart was as it skips over the business and politics and gets right to the art.

I admit that I originally wanted the package more for the 40-minute CD of demos and unreleased tracks that accompanies the book, but that was overestimating the value of the music and grossly underestimating the printed piece. The CD is quite effective as a soundtrack for the book – yes, I made sure to read the latter while listening to the former – but standalone it’s only mildly interesting in an academic sense. Primarily instrumental and with only some of those tracks really qualifying as “songs”. The demos of Ghost tracks “Pure Bug Beauty” and “Hummingbird” are quite nice, but pieces like the closing “Hamami” are little more than sonic experiments. Still, track-by-track liner notes in the appendices go a long way to explaining what the artistic intent was behind each song and give them a certain value, if not listenability. Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised – I half-expected this to be a bit of a rip-off, but it’s really not. Order it from Amazon.ca for a reasonable $25 CDN.

And as a tangentially-related side note, I was listening to the recording of Wilco’s show in Toronto this past October and was tickled to notice that in “Handshake Drugs”, Nels Cline quotes few bars of Tom Verlaine’s “Marquee Moon” solo in one of his guitar breaks. I only really noticed because I was trying to learn the same solo this past weekend. Nels does it better.

It’s the album that just won’t die. A third single from The Postal Service’s Give Up will be released on February 8, more than two years after the album was released. Is that a record of some kind? We Will Become Silhouettes will be b-sided by one new song and two remixes. Billboard has complete details. I’m really amazed at how The Postal Service has trundled along, becoming SubPop’s second-best selling album of all time (behind Nirvana’a Bleach). I guess the USPS motto holds true for the band as well – “Neither snow, nor rain, nor blackest night, no evil will escape their sight–” No wait, that’s the Green Lantern Corps. I always mix them up.

Mogwai have a live mp3 of “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” performed at this year’s ATP Festival available for download. My favourite Mogwai song ever. Sometimes I just put it on, turn it up and close my eyes.

New Order have confirmed their still-untitled next album will be out in February. I have the date of February 22 jotted down though I’m not sure exactly where that came from.

A look at 4AD’s tenative release schedule for 2005 confirms new albums next year from The Mountain Goats, Tanya Donelly and Mojave 3, as well as some special 25th anniversary releases.

Does anyone remember the Billy & The Boingers: Bootleg Bloom County compendium from 1987? If so, you may recall that the book came with a flexidisc single (that’s for record players, kids – turntables) featuring two songs from the Bill The Cat-led band… Well having never owned the book, I never got a chance to hear the tunes. But now, seventeen years later and thanks to the magic of the internets, I can finally rectify that… And you know what? They’re really not very good. Not that I’m surprised. Listen for yourself. I guess I shouldn’t have been expecting Pet Sounds or something… Get it? Pet Sounds? Bill the Cat? Ha!

np – Stars / Set Yourself On Fire

The Nothing I Know brings glad tidings from the long-lost world of Catherine Wheel. After nary a peep being heard since they went on hiatus following the release of 2000’s Wishville, it appears that CW frontman Rob Dickinson has been up to something productive over the past half-decade besides regretting his Ferment liner notes haircut. TNIK, who also has an Adam & Eve-era b-side online for your enjoyment, reports that Dickinson will complete mixing on his debut solo album this week with an eye to a release sometime in 2005. It will be accompanied by some touring, though on which continents, who knows – it’s too early to speculate without even a label in the picture (though apparently Sancutary is in the mix in some capacity). While they never really broke through in North America (see “Waydown”, filed under One-Hit Wonders), the Wheel had/have an inexplicably fanatical following in Toronto. Anyway, apparently the solo material is similar in feel to Catherine Wheel’s 1997 masterpiece Adam & Eve. Good news, indeed.

Oh, and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Brian Futter = Ugliest man in rock. Ever.

Some late links on the topic… I Can’t Believe It’s Not Futter. And Rob Dickinson has a Livejournal impersonator? Who would want to pretend to be Rob? And yet there seems to be legit news. Weird.

Austin City Limits interviewed Wilco at the end of September, presumably when they were taping their episode of the show, set to air January 8. Bright Eyes will also be featured on the show that day.

Lawrence.com plays Q&A with Jay Farrar.

The Black Table has some fun tearing apart musician classified ads on New York’s Craigslist. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that it’s not hard to do so – finding bizarre, hilarious or just plain frightening musician classified ads is like shooting dead fish in a barrel. Mind you, I’ve had some good success with finding like-minded people to play with through sites like Torontomusician (our own Craigslist has almost no traffic), but believe me – the batting average is not good. Now if they wanted to have some real fun, they’d post a fake ad of their own and post some of the responses they got back. It’s like a sociology masters thesis waiting to happen.

Congratulations to the Toronto Argonauts on winning the Grey Cup. I’m not a football fan, but I did watch a little bit of the third quarter and my goodness, Toronto was shredding BC’s defence. I didn’t see one incomplete pass. Impressive stuff, and it’s always nice when the home team wins a championship.

I saw a guy in the subway today pushing a shopping cart full of puppies. Swear to God, he had at least a half dozen of them in there. It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

My headphones just broke. That sucks enormously. I have to order a new pair, like, now.

np – Catherine Wheel / Like Cats And Dogs

I walked out of The Incredibles last night with the same warm feeling of geek validation that I usually only have from seeing an excellent adaptation of classic material, even though it’s technically an original story. An obvious riff on the Fantastic Four super-hero family dynamic, The Incrdibles pulls off the rare feat of being simultaneously classic and modern.

With the bright, colourful costumes, simple powers and killer robots. there’s a real Golden Age-esque that never gets ironic or campy. The humour is typically Pixar, often understated and subtle (though there are a number of laugh-out-loud sequences), it keeps a grin on the audience’s face through the sheer sense of fun on the screen rather than in-your-face jokes. It also remains enthralling for its entire almost-two hour running time, which is epic-length for an animated feature.

While much of the praise as always goes to Pixar’s animation house, the real strengths of the film (as with all their features thus far) are in the writing and voice acting. I maintain that if The Incredibles‘ had been done in traditional cell animation, it’d still be an exceptional piece of film (though it’d probably still be in production for the next ten years). Craig T Nelson and Holly Hunter are both marvelous as the parents of the titular super-powered brood. Nelson in particular perfectly captures the square-jawed hero sound, kinda like Patrick Warburton without being quite so over the top.

And to get back to the animation for a moment, it’s as exceptional as always. To my memory, this is Pixar’s first film that doesn’t feature anthropomorphisized inanimate objects (read: the first one featuring real people), even if they are exagerratedly comic book-y. The end product looks like superb claymation, so convincing is the three-dimensionality and texturing of the Incredibles’ world. And they had the best CGI hair since Final Fantasy. It’s mind boggling that with each new film, Pixar consistently betters their past work, and not by just a little. Of course, having seen the lacklustre trailer for Cars before the film, I’m banking on that trend to end next November.

So yes, great movie. And it nteresting that they used the name ‘Elasti-Girl’ despite it being a character in DC’s Doom Patrol. I dunno, elastic-powered superheroes have always creeped me out. Mr Fantastic, Elongated Man, Plastic Man… that’s just gross.

And as a perfect comic book-movie chaser, there’s three new episodes of Justice League Unlimited available on bit torrent that haven’t even aired on television yet. Wonder Twins? Ach! The Warren Ellis-scripted episode in particular, “Dark Heart”, has some great dialogue.

And back to the Fantastic Four tangent for a moment, here’s a pic of Julian McMahon in costume as Dr. Doom.

np – Liz Phair / Exile In Guyville