Sunday, December 5th, 2004

I Am Trying To Break Your (Music With) Heart

The new Big Takeover is out, and it’s like a Christmas present just for me. Besides the Wilco cover story, there’s interviews with American Music Club and Sloan (amongst many many others). While it’s only semi-annual, The Big Takeover is one of my favourite magazines. Spider-whomping thick (this issue is 302 pages long), they cover a hugely eclectic range of artists, the only criteria for which is that they create “music with heart”, as per the magazine’s slogan. Interviews are often huge in length and contain almost the entire transcript of the conversation verbatim – they read more like conversations between friends than interviews between publication and artist. The passion and love that editor Jack Rabid and his crew have for the music they cover is evident in every word – they’re never sycophantic, no matter how legendary their subject, but always respectful and honest and the artists usually respond in kind resulting in more insightful interviews than you might get in other publications. And if you’re into reviews, there’s scads – 125 pages this time around. I think they review pretty much everything and anything submitted… it can be a tough slog, but I’ve found some great stuff buried in there. It’s not a cheap mag ($10 in Toronto), but it’ll keep you busy for a long time.

I’m going through one of those periods where every CD I own seems to be scratched. How this can be, I do not know. Can anyone comment on the effectiveness of any of these remedies?

Traveler’s Diagram has his year-end list up. There’s some pretty heavy Canadian content on there, but justifiably so. In all objectivity, Canadians kicked some musical ass this year.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists tonight! They’ve even corrected the misspelling of “pharmacists” on their website. Bravo, Ted.

np – Interpol / Antics

By : Frank Yang at 10:09 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 12/5/04 11:47 am

     mike says:

    hey, maybe I’ll bump into you at tonight’s Ted Leo show. A friend of mine is going with me, but I’m not sure how early we might show up….I saw Travelers Diagram’s yearend list yesterday…which reminded me of a few CD’s(like The Hidden Cameras’ ‘Mississauga Goddam’) that I need to consider(or reconsider) for my year end list…

  2. 12/5/04 1:05 pm

     Rachel says:

    I know the skip doctor and buying a new cd both work. I’ve never tried the other stuff. Isn’t it weird how cds get scratched to hell for no discernible reason? Gremlins, damn them!

  3. 12/5/04 2:11 pm

     Frank says:

    hey mike

    I’ll be there for 7:30 and be right up front (As always). I’ll keep an eye out for ya.

  4. 12/5/04 2:50 pm

     sam says:

    seems we, canadians, have been kicking some serious musical ass for the past two years.

  5. 12/5/04 6:14 pm

     Frank in Atlanta says:

    Frank – Before you try anything radical with the scratched CDs, just wash them gently at the sink, with warm water and a small amount of dish soap (washing up liquid, as they call it in the UK), rubbing the soap in lightly with your fingertips, in a circular motion, rinsing VERY thoroughly, and then drying with a lint free cloth of some kind. Many skips are caused my nothing more than surface dirt and oils from your fingers, rather than actual scratches on the CD, and this can work wonders. Works great on DVDs as well.

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