You can’t imagine the sigh of relief I breathed last night when the CBC declared the Liberals winning a minority government in this year’s Federal election. Although my local candidate lost, this is precisely the scenario I was hoping for, as the Liberals will have to work with the NDP to get anything done and the Conservative party will have to sit in opposition. It was just a couple weeks ago that Conservative leader Stephen Harper was floating the idea of a majority government for themselves, and had the polling numbers to back it up. The notion of a Conservative government was quite a scary one and I’m truly thankful for the future of our nation that it won’t come to pass, at least not this year. I guess folks actually thought about it in the voting booths and decided to not vote against their ideology just to send a message. So now we go from being on the cusp of electing one of the most socially regressive governments in recent history to potentially one of the most progressive – and just in time for Canada Day. Ain’t politics funny?

And yeah, kind of a drab photo to accompany today’s post, but it was either that or a pic of Paul Martin and no one needs to see that. Just cause I’m glad he won doesn’t mean I think he’s pretty.

Information Leafblower has a nice interview with Greg Zinman of current Chromewaves darlings Sea Ray. Choice quote on bloggers and how they’ve helped the Ray’s career: “Well, you guys are actually a lot like musicians — totally self-absorbed navel-gazers who eagerly devour their own press. Really, though, the bloggers have been very, very kind to us, and it seems to be helping so far.” Whoo!

Free Magnetic Fields track! Amazon will let you download their version of “If I Was A Rich Man” from the Fiddler On The Roof tribute album, free of charge – all you have to do is log in. That’s it.

Salon presents a history of Wilco in the context of a review of Learning How To Die. You need to watch a commercial to get a day pass but Salon is always worth it. From Largehearted Boy. And for the locals, I’m hearing very quiet rumblings about a Toronto date sooner rather than later. I will let you know more when I know more.

Alright – got my Lollapalooza ticket refund and I didn’t have to do anything, applied right back to my Visa card. Every penny. Ticketmaster actually does something right!

Professional contrarian Christopher Hitchens sets his sights on Fahrenheit 9/11. An interesting read. I’m beginning to think I don’t even want to see this film. I already know everything that it wants to say, and it’s just going to manipulate me into getting angry and I don’t need that. Okay, I probably will see it, but I’m certainly not in any rush. Link from Five Seventeen. On the same topic, Salon has both pro-F911 and anti-F911 pieces for your inspection.

np – Velvet Crush / Stereo Blues

15 people. Fifteen. One-five.

Subtract that from 4,000,000 or so people and that’s how many people in the city missed a great Toronto debut for Sea Ray show at the Rivoli last night. Granted, there were a few factors working against the band like zero promotion, a Sunday night, no local openers (or any opener), Pride festivities throughout the city and the fact that no one knew who the hell they were (despite my best efforts), but it was still a disappointing turnout. For a while, I was counting heads and just hoping they’d break double digits. Although I never drink at shows, I bought a beer because I felt bad for the bartender. The poor turnout didn’t elicit a poor show from the band, however – they still played all-out to impress everyone who did show. They played most of their terrific sophomore album Stars At Noon as well as a new song over the course of a too-short 40-minute set. Like the record, the show was lush, spacey and powerful throughout, we even got to see the very rare occurrance of the bassist breaking a string – the A-string no less. Thankfully the sound was quite good as the band’s complex instrumentation and arrangements could easily turn into mud if not handled properly. I had wanted to see how a professional touring band incorporated the cello into their live sound as we’ve had a hell of time coming up with a workable system – seems they came up with the same solution as us. Run it into a big honking bass amp and mic the thing.

I’m also glad the band brought out the full light show even for such a small crowd. By light show I don’t mean strobes and flash pots, but a projector hooked up to a laptop that created an otherworldly ambiance onstage. It was really quite impressive and not at all distracting. I can see why Jasper at jenyk.com calls Sea Ray one of his favourite bands to shoot – I just kept clicking away with my camera, letting the ever-changing lighting create new shots for me. I’m really happy with how rich and colourful my pictures turned out. If there was a positive side to the low attendance, it was that I had free run in front of the stage to get whatever shots I wanted. I talked to lead singer Jordan after the show and he promised not to hold the low attendance against our fair city, acknowleding that “no one’s ever heard of us”. So maybe the next time they come back we can shoot to double the attendance and go for a whopping thirty people.

It seems silly to expend much energy discussing a film as lightweight as Dodgeball, so I won’t. Sufficed to say that it’s stupid and it knows it, it’s funny, Ben Stiller is hilariously over-the-top, Christine Taylor is hot and Vince Vaughan is very poorly cast as a straight man who doesn’t look like he’s in on the joke. He sleepwalks through the whole thing and barely looks interested. Granted, that’s supposed to be part of his character, but still. He’s much better suited to be the loudmouth prick character than the nice-guy. And that’s all.

No Matter What You Heard wants to point out that BOTH halves of the entity formerly known as Uncle Tupelo put out new albums last week, and that Jay Farrar still deserves some attention as well.

Sonic Youth waste no time making up the dates for the Lollapalooza cancellations and will be at the Kool Haus August 5, the same day they were originally going to be at the Molson Amphitheatre.

Pitchfork has gotten a facelift – all the snarkiness, but easier to read!

American Analog Set has a few live recordings available for download on their website.

Was browsing my list of past concerts attended and I noticed that the last show I went to that wasn’t in Toronto – and I’m talking Toronto proper, the 416, was in 1998. Man I gotta get out more.

Today is Election Day in which we determine who will lead our country over the next four years (or four months, if it’s a fragile minority government with no support). I want to encourage everyone in Canada who is of age to go out and vote. Unless you’re going to vote Conservative in which case, STAY HOME. Kidding. But not.

np – The American Analog Set / Know By Heart

It was interesting being back in Waterloo yesterday and wandering around my old hometown and stomping grounds, feeling old and nostalgic. The university looked almost exactly as I remembered it, but with enough differences – mostly in the the form of new buildings – to remind me that this was not the same campus I spent five years slacking off on. At one point, I drove back to the first-year residence which still looked exactly the same as it did when I first arrived ten years ago, less two months. That’s a decade, folks. Misty-eyed reminiscences were interrupted when I spotted a groundhog wandering across the quad and I chased him around for a bit. Good times. Being back on campus on such a beautiful day did stir up some wistful longing for the simpler, younger days of collegiate life, but then I remembered how much it sucked to be poor all the time so that took care of that. I do miss the camaraderie, though. I got to catch up on that at the barbeque with my friends, though as expected it was heavily dominated by baby talk – that is, talk of their babies, not drooling babbling incoherence (Though the kids had that department covered pretty well). Cute kids. I have no idea how to deal with small children. Or larger children, for that matter. It was interesting seeing my friend Chris’ nice big house, all grown-up decorated and furnished. We were roommates for a few years in school, and he’s certainly come a long way. Me, I live in a basement.

The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner ruminates on what seems to have become the concensus reasoning as to Lollapalooza’s failure. – Old people don’t want to go to festivals.

Sea Ray tonight! The Rivoli! $8! Doors at 9! Opener to be announced! $10! No opener! Show at 10! Go go go go go! I promise this will be the last bit of lobbying I do for this show. Because, after all, it’s tonight, and urging people to attend after the fact is just silly.

I have a $5 movie pass that expires on the 30th. I think I will go see Dodgeball this afternoon.

Random fact for the day – Trying to assemble Ikea shelves without the instructions is harder than you’d think. It’s like trying to get into the minds of crazy Swedish engineers. And you will always have screws and bolts left over. Always.

np – Rachel Goswell / Waves Are Universal

I watched the much-acclaimed Brazillian film City Of God last night, and was mightily impressed. It’s the story of rival gangs in the slums of Rio De Janeiro in the 1970s and the divergent paths of two boys, one of whom grows up to be a drug lord and the other an aspiring photojournalist. It’s marvelously shot and has a real kinetic energy running throughout it while maintaining a very human dimension. The violence is plentiful and graphic, but never gratiutous or glorified – it’s portrayed very matter-of-factly as if to say, “this is the reality, nothing more or less”. Particularly effective was the closing scene, which was simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. It’s an intense film and worth seeing if you’re in the mood for such a thing.

Curious as to the universality of classic rock, The Guardian sent a 17-year old correspondant to a series of concerts by artists he’d never heard of – dudes like Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and The Who, among others. The results will shock and amaze you. Well, not really, but they’re interesting and well-written. From The GPC.

Califone got all their gear ripped off in San Francisco this week. If you’re in the Bay Area, keep an eye out for their stuff – Largehearted Boy has a complete list of the goods.

Wilco didn’t waste any time filling in some of the holes on their tour calendar left by Lollapalooza. August 6, the day they were supposed to be kicking out the jams in Toronto, they will instead be in… Maine. MAINE. Sigh. There’s always the Fall, I suppose, though the word is they’re planning on playing larger venues on that tour than they ever have before. Last year they played the Kool Haus, which is 2000 people, so the next logical step would be someplace like Massey Hall, which has a capacity of about 2700 and would sound great. The next illogical step would be someplace awful like the Hershey Centre or Arrow Hall in Mississauga which hold 6000-9000 people, and I don’t think they’re nearly that big – or at least I hope they’re not.

Initial impressions of A Ghost Is Born – while I like to love pretty much all the songs on the record, I’m not sure that it’s come together as an album for me yet. Maybe it’s because I’d heard the material as individual live tracks for so long that I can’t yet consider them in the context of an album, or maybe there’s something about the pacing or the sequencing is still keeping it from fully revealing itself to me, but I’m sure it will eventually. And aren’t records that require some effort the ones that we end up loving the most in the long run?

So I’m spending most of today not only outside of the 416, but the 905 as well – that’s right, I’m going to be out in the wilds of the 519! If I don’t post by noon tomorrow, send out a search party. While our five-year university reunion earlier this month held no appeal for myself or my collegiate friends, we did decide to get together for a barbeque back in Waterloo to quietly mark the occasion. Five years out of school. Egads – people have started and completed entire undergraduate degrees in the time I’ve been out of school, how scary is that? Not as scary as the fact that every one of the attendees to today’s get-together will be doing so as part of a married couple, and all but one are bringing their children. These were my classmates and in several instances, my housemates for Pete’s sake. I can’t believe I’m going to be feeling at least a little self-conscious about showing up single and childless. They’re bringing their babies and I’m bringing a two-litre bottle of Coke.

np – Emmylou Harris / Stumble Into Grace

Merge has announced details on the new American Music Club album, their first in over a decade. Montovani’s Breath will be out October 12 and you can see the tracklist is as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen (view a live Quicktime video here)

Another Morning (download the mp3 here)

Patriot’s Heart

Love Is

Job To Do

Only Love Can Set You Free

Mantovani The Mind Reader

Home

Bookstore

Minstrel Show

Your Horseshoe Wreath Will Bloom

Song Of The Rat Leaving The Sinking Ship

The Devil Needs You

Okay, that line break is kinda funky but what can you do. There will be touring to support – September in Europe and October in the US and by US I hope they mean US and Canada.

A disc of demos and unreleased material from the album sessions recently found by Mick Jones as well as a 45-minute documentary DVD will be the bonuses accompanying The Clash’s London Calling: The 25th Anniversary Edition, out September 21 as part of Epic’s Legacy series. This is in addition to the typical remaster job, expansive liner notes, fancy packaging and hefty price tag.

Another classic (though more recent) album getting the deluxe makeover is Pavement’s Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, which will be coming out as a double-disc set on October 26, just like the Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe set a couple years ago. No specifics from Matador as of yet, but a release date is a good start.

One of the consequences of Lollapalooza going tits up is that a whole lotta bands have to find new Summer plans. Billboard checks in on some of the bands who had been slated to be part of the festival and what their contingency plans are.

The Onion AV Club interviews Nellie McKay. From Zoilus. Zoilus’ Carl Wilson also wrote this critical piece about her in yesterday’s Globe & Mail, recommending you go see Nina Hagen at Lee’s tonight in lieu of Nellie next Wednesday to satisfy your cabaret diva fix. He relents somewhat on his position on his own website, acknowledging her potential when she gets out of her teens. The National Post’s Aaron Wherry offers colour commentary from his own corner of the Blogosphere. Someone get The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner to weigh in. It’ll be like a Toronto music critic pow-wow.

A couple of interviews with Stephin Merritt – one straight and one snarky.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian bids a fond farewell to Beulah and worries about the inevitable graying of the indie rock nation. From The GPC.

I somehow missed this interview in The Toronto Star yesterday with Iron & Wine. Not that it’s any more out of date 24 hours later.

What do you get when you cross the old Spider-Man newspaper strip with Photoshop? Hilarity, that’s what. Keep hitting refresh, a new strip will load.

For your gawking pleasure – The Onion’s pocket guide to celebrity blogs. From Poptart.

My site is being pokey today. Please bear with me.

np – Velvet Crush / In The Presence Of Greatness