I was in Vortex yesterday picking up a CD for my brother and as the clerk was ringing up the purchase, I was just scanning the back shelf.

Me: “Oh. Man.”

Clerk: “The Stax box set?”

Me: “Yeah. Gimme.”

I’ve never seen the Complete Stax-Volt Singles box set used, though I’ve been looking for sometime now. Seeing as how I’d just done my taxes the night before and am in line for a decent return (or an audit, I don’t really know what I’m doing), I was able to justify dropping the C-note on the 9-disc collection. That’s right, NINE. DISCS. That’s a lot of music – I’ve never needed to double-bag a music purchase before. According to AMG, it’s over 640 minutes (10 hours!) of music. I’m never going to be able to get through all of that, but it’ll be fun to try.

Information Leafblower has a rumour on the lineup for Lollapalooza 2004. It’s reported that it’ll be a 2-day event with day one reserved for the indie/alt scene and day two for unwashed dirty hippies, lineup so far as follows:

Day 1

Morrissey (headlining)

Sonic Youth

The Flaming Lips

Black Rebel Motorcyle Club

Day 2

The String Cheese Incident (headlining)

Gomez

The Polyphonic Spree

For the sake of rumour mongering, let’s assume there’s truth here. I’m still puzzled – firstly, as devoted as Moz’s fans are, I can’t believe there’d be enough of them to warrant putting him in the headlining slot for a touring festival, at least not one that’s doing the venues that Lollapalooza has done in the past. Maybe we’re talking about a much scaled down amphitheatre tour this year? But then if that’s the case, why two days? They must have a slew more bands they’re hoping to add to justify the logistics of such a thing. Curious. This may merit some watching.

Some more news on the Galaxie 500 double-DVD being released by Plexifilm. Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (1987-1991) has gotten a June 29 release date and will feature “all their music videos, their only TV appearance, and an archive of over 40 songs performed live from seven concerts, including two unreleased songs. The deluxe booklet contains exclusive photos and a new interview with members Dean Wareham, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, conducted by Yo La Tengo’s James McNew”. Woo-hoo. Full tracklisting at Pitchfork.

Orange Twin has the video for “Never Believe”, the new single from Elf Power, on their website. Walking With The Beggar Boys is out April 6. Link from Largehearted Boy.

Also from LHB – a massive repository of TV show theme songs. Man, I never realized just how white the guy singing the theme from Diff’rent Strokes sounded. And am I the only one who now hears a very sexual undertone to the Charles In Charge song? That girl wants “Charles in charge of our days AND our nights”. I bet – that Scott Baio is tough to resist.

np – Stars / Heart

This is turning out to be quite the weekend for freebies for me. Have you seen the trailer for the Dawn Of The Dead remake? The very end of it where the film starts melting and then you see zombies trying to claw through the screen? Well that happened to me yesterday. The film melting, not the zombies. The print of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind I was watching was awful crappy for being only a day old – not only was the sound all fucked up in spots (though I thought it was a deliberate effect in the film), but the film actually disintegrated halfway through. How on earth does that happen? Either way, it was only out of commission for about five minutes and I got a voucher for a free film at the end of it all. Cool beans.

Oh yeah – the movie? Fantastic. The mind of Charlie Kaufman must be a wonderous place, because not only does he consistently come up with the most original and creative premises, he manages to deliver them in a way that’s still totally comprehensible though heavy on the quirk. Take Eternal Sunshine – after learning his girlfriend has had her memories of him erased after an argument, a man decides to undergo the same procedure but changes his mind halfway through. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are both terrific as the couple, with Carrey delivering his most low-key and convincingly human role yet – he’s really very good, and this is coming from someone who would never claim to be a fan. Also excellent is director Michel Gondry, best known for his amazing music videos for Bjork and The White Stripes. He keeps the film’s visuals off-kilter enough to convey the experience of having one’s memories selectively wiped, but doesn’t go over the top and artistic indulgence stays very firmly on the back burner behind telling the story. Bravo. I really enjoyed this movie and want to see it again – ideally without the soundtrack fucking up or the film immolating.

And the fictional memory-wipe company has a website – Lacuna Inc. Check it out.

J Mascis finally has his own official website.

The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner reports on the Canadian invasion of SXSW.

np – Tift Merritt / Bramble Rose

I cashed in one of my frequent buyer cards at a local used CD shop on the Nellie McKay album Get Away From Me, mostly sound unheard, based on the press/hype around her. After all – what’s a free bonus CD for if not taking a chance? Well it was a good decision on my part – this is remarkable record. Okay, maybe it’s not the album that’s quite as remarkable as the artist. It’s already been said to death, but is worth repeating – it’s amazing this girl is only 19 years old. Only the liberal amount of pop culture references gives tell to where she’s coming from, generationally-speaking – otherwise her showtune-y jazz/pop tunes sound timeless and the songcraft – both performace and lyrics – is really remarkable. Let me be clear – I’m not offering praise in a patronizing, “wow this is good… FOR A KID” sort of way. I’m saying “Wow this is good… FOR ANYONE”. That she’s still a teenager just adds to the mind-bogglingliness of it all.

And furthermore, this girl is smart – from the wit that’s apparent in her lyrics, you get the feeling she’s like that scary-brilliant girl in high school who seemed to be operating at a level so far removed than everyone else that it was impossible to even talk to so you didn’t even bother. While musically this record occupies a space quite separate from what I usually listen to, I can see myself really getting into this. There’s an energy, verve and sass here that’s really rare. As I said before, it’s a good thing that I’m missing her Toronto debut at the El Mocambo next Thursday for a sure thing (Ted Leo), because I get the feeling that her live shows are a riotous good time. In addition to the official site linked above, there’s a fan site here that has a number of live and demo mp3s available for your listening pleasure.

Hmm, I seem to have had a real red-heavy photo thing going on the last few days.

Sarah Harmer’s new single “Almost” is doing better at American MOR radio stations than in Canada. It’s probably a sure sign of aging that I’ve been spending so much time championing the new queen of adult contemporary radio formats.

And speaking of feeling old… another of my university friends had his first child this past week. Congratulations to Jeff and Kim on the birth of Marly Catharina Ellen. What a great name.

np – Songs: Ohia / The Magnolia Electric Co.

Leaky McLeakerson, AKA Said The Gramophone, has his second big-time scoop in a week. This time, he has a track from the new Magnetic Fields album up on his site for download. That’s a weird phrase, isn’t it? “Up for download”? Grab “I Don’t Really Love You Anymore” here. Classic Magnetic Fields. i is in stores May 4 and on Soulseek, uh, now. Leaked Wilco and Magnetic Fields in 72 hours – Nonesuch must love this guy.

The full listings for the CBC Radio 3’s “Connect The Dots” tour this May are out. There’s two dates at the Drake Hotel – May 7 will feature Young and Sexy, The Russian Futurists, P:ano and Ninja Highschool, and May 8 showcases The Unicorns, controller.controller, Lederhosen Lucil and I Am Robot and Proud. In addition to the music, there will be a photography exhibition on the tour featuring some of Canada’s best photographers. Don’t forget that this week’s issue has a feature on Sarah Harmer including six live radio session tracks.

This is interesting. The Rub recounts how Mission Of Burma, instigated by a savage Pitchfork review, have blocked the release of Accomplished, a ‘best of’ assembled by Rykodisc and was scheduled to be released this past Tuesday. The band will be assembling their own compilation and be putting out in the Fall. I’m a little sad that the Catalog Sampler I own, which was identical to the aborted Accomplished, is so reviled by the band. I rather like having most of the tracks from the Signals, Calls and Marches EP along with a few of the Horrible Truth live tracks…

A smattering of news from the Rilo Kiley camp. The new album is schedule for a July release on Saddle Creek and will feature mostly Jenny Lewis material – Blake Sennett contributes only one song. Some of the songs on the album will be “Absence of God”, “Love and War” and “Baby I’m Bad News”.

Citizen Erased has a live Ride show from 1992 in Brixton available for download. Go to the ‘Listen’ section of their website. Link from Largehearted Boy.

Free Comic Book Day 2004 has been scheduled for July 3, 2004, in order to coincide with the release of Spider-Man 2. The concept is simple – you go to comic book stores, they give you free comics. Everybody wins.

np – Wilco / The Complete Singles

The Neko Case shows in April just keep growing in scope. Not only will fellow Corn Sister Carolyn Mark now be joining Neko and The Sadies onstage at Lee’s Palace April 3 and 4, they’ll also all be playing The Matador in T.O. on the 19th and 20th 9th and 10th of April to gather more material for the forthcoming live album. No, I didn’t know where The Matador was either, though it sounds like shit-kicking good time. Tip from Tiny Mix Tapes.

Some more excellent songwriting talent will be passing through Lee’s Palace in the next little while. Lloyd Cole is there April 28 (tickets $17.50) and Evan Dando follows on May 3 (tickets $18.50).

So the complete leaked album of Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born has officially begun circulating online, almost three months before its formal release date. While the one sample I’ve had is truly tantilizing, I am going to resist seeking out the rest of the record. I am one of those weirdos who likes to go out the day of release and buy the album, then listen to it on my stereo in a proper listening environment. I know more than half the songs from their live versions anyway, so the record is already fairly familiar to me. It’ll be tough to resist, believe me, but self-denial builds character or some nonsense like that, right? And just as I called Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as my top album of 2002 back in the Fall of 2001, I am calling A Ghost Is Born as the record to beat for my top album of 2004. To the surprise of absolutely no one, I’m sure.

Largehearted Boy got a shout-out from The Anti-Hit List for providing the link to this week’s #5 entry – Jim James, Conor Orbest and M Ward doing a live version of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s “Girl Of The North Country”. John Sakomoto calls LHB “utterly essential”. That’s gotta make a fella feel good.

Flagpole contemplates the career of the Olivia Tremor Control. Fom the utterly essential Largehearted Boy.

np – Portastatic / Autumn Was A Lark