The Liz Phair in-store yesterday afternoon, a half-hour acoustic set with just her and her guitarist, was pretty good – or at least it sounded good. So large was the crowd that I couldn’t see a damn thing. Didn’t see one bit of her through the whole performance, though I did catch a glance of the top of her head when she got up to leave. I think. I spent the set listening to the music and reading the backs of Criterion Collection DVDs (making note to try and rent some Kurosawa films – they look interesting). Her voice was stronger than I expected and more on key than I expected, and she opened and closed with older (read: better) material. A promising portent for the full show later, hopefully.

Update: Chart was close enough to snap the photo I’ve posted, and have a couple comments of their own from the instore. Read em here and a review of the concert here.

To kill time before the show, saw The Secret Lives Of Dentists – a film I knew nothing about going in save that Denis Leary was in it. I had thought that it was a comedy, but despite some funny scenes, it’s really not. Campbell Scott and Hope Davis are married dentists with three young daughters, dealing with the ennui that sets in after ten years of marriage. Scott, who is looking a helluva lot like Kevin Kline, suspects Davis is having an affair and grapples with how to handle the situation while managing his family. Leary starts off as an acerbic patient and becomes voice to Scott’s inner turmoil – an imaginary Great Gazoo type of character. Naturally, he gets the best jokes and lines. Overall, it’s a small, very intimate and effective film with some terrific performances. A pleasant surprise.

Wheat are one of those little bands I’d adopted as my own back in the summer of 2000, after hearing some snippets on the CBC, of all places, and on the recommendation of my friend Dave. Before long, Hope And Adams was soundtracking my life. Since that time, they’ve been through label troubles and the new record, Per Second, Per Second, Per Second… Every Second has been a long, long time in coming – as I’ve documented over the last while. I’ve mostly come to terms with their trading in much of their hazy, dreamy mid-fi indie-pop sound for sharp, polished rock, and was curious to see how their live show had changed since their last jaunt to Toronto for NXNE in 2000. I thoroughly enjoyed their half-hour set, so happy was I to finally be able to see them again and get the new album that all reservations I had about their new sound and major label debut evaporated. Scott’s voice has gotten a lot stronger though his stage banter could still use some work. They crammed a lot of material into their half-hour set and seemed to be having a terrific time. Hopefully they won over some of the crowd. It was also fun to be able to buy the new CD from drummer Brendan Harney (since, contrary to what Scott said onstage, it has NOT been released in Canada, or at least not so that you could tell). Our converstaion – Me: “Hey Brendan, great show”. He: “Thanks – hey, did you just call me by my name?” Me: “Yeah, I came mostly to see you guys”. He: “Wow, thanks a lot”. (handshake) It’s the little things, y’know?

I’d never seen Liz live before (before this afternoon, anyway), and really didn’t know what to expect. The last reviews I’d read were circa Whip-Smart and the recurring theme was how her stage fright tended to torpedo her shows. Seems she’s over that now. I’ll sum up her show in easy-to-read point form for the attention deficit disordered among us.

The Good:

1) The setlist, mostly. There was healthy representation from the earlier albums, particularly Whitechocolatespaceegg and Exile In Guyville. I think she knew what most of the crowd was there to hear (though they did cheer loudly for “Why Can’t I”).

2) The energy. The crowd was stoked, Liz had a perma-grin on her face, good vibes all around.

The Bad:

1) The sound. Liz had elected to use one of those headset mics favored by Madonna, Garth Brooks and Britney, and it was not a good idea. Besides eliminating the ability to use the mic as an instrument (it’s hard to move around a mic when it’s fixed in front of your mouth), it rendered the vocals terribly shrill and strident. When Liz went for the high notes, it was time to cover your ears. Plus the bass was too loud and muddy. The mix never sounded natural.

2) The new material. Alongside the older stuff, it just seems toothless and bland. Maybe on its own it doesn’t seem so obvious, but side-by-side, it couldn’t hold a candle – musically or lyrically.

3) The guy standing behind me. For fuck’s sake, STOP SCREAMING. She’s not going to come into the crowd and screw you or anything. His voice hurt more than the PA.

The Weird:

1) The number of kids there. Like under 10 years old kids. I realize the tickets say ‘all ages’, but that’s not a request. It looked as though some fourth-grade teacher decided a Liz Phair concert would make a fine field trip for her pupils.

2) These same kids singing and dancing to tunes like “Flower”, “Rock Me” and “Supernova”, tunes with decidedly, er, mature themes and raunchy lyrics. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but that’s just not right.

3) The crowd in general. If Liz’s goal was to reach as broad an audience as possible, I’d say she was successful. There were the kids, the top 40 radio drones, the indie hipsters not too put off by the new record and, of course, the dirty old men. Who were out in force.

The short:

1) Liz’s skirt. Yow.

So the show was decent, which was a relief. I had feared it would be the official “How A Major Label Fucked Up A Decent Indie Artist Tour 2003”, but it was alright. Wheat were great, Liz was sorta patchy but decent overall. I wish I brought my camera – as I found out when I got there, their only policy was no flashes, which would have been fine with me. I guess digital cameras are so commonplace now that they’d have to confiscate them from half the audience if they tried.

np – Wheat / Medeiros

As predicted, I was able to find a used copy of Ryan Adams’ love-it-or-hate-it Rock N Roll just a week after release. And you know what? I neither love it nor hate it. It’s a pastiche of rock styles from the late 70s through 80s and some homages work better than others. The T-Rex stomping riff-rockers don’t work so well – no fault of Adams’, really, but it’s tough for anyone not named Marc Bolan to make songs like that sound anything beyond ordinary. He’s more successful with his janglier-sounding numbers, in the vein of The Replacements or U2. Yeah, U2. Maybe a third of this album is what I’d call decent to good material, the rest is pretty disposable. I think Lost Highway screwed up by making this one the full-length and Love Is Hell the EPs, but since we’re getting the whole of Love Is Hell eventually, it doesn’t really matter.

Going to see Liz Phair’s instore at Sunrise Records this afternoon, and then her show with Wheat this evening. Do I go to praise her or bury her? I’m not sure yet. I do feel more ambivalence towards this show than anticipation. I will expand on this after the show. Don’t expect pictures, though – I don’t trust the cam to not get confiscated by The Guvernment’s goonie security chimps.

np – Ryan Adams / Rock N Roll

From Bradley’s Almanac – a complete live set from My Bloody Valentine. This show is from May 1989 at the Axis in Boston and the sound quality is pretty good considering it’s almost 15 years old. Click here.

The new Doves album, scheduled for a March 9 release, has been given a working title of Winning Days.

The Belle & Sebastian DVD Fans Only has been given a North American release date of January 20 from Matador Records. The same day, B&S-wannabes Camera Obscura’s sophomore record Underachievers Please Try Harder gets a release on these shores courtesy of Merge, who are releasing a DVD of their own that day – Superchunk’s Crowding Up Your Visual Field, pushed back from this Fall.

The Observer delves into the wisdom of Wayne Coyne.

Matthew Sweet fans should check out this repository of b-sides and unreleased material, all available for download.

Last two links from Largehearted Boy. In these slow news days, I don’t know what I’d do for content if not for LHB. All hail!

MP3.com is history. They’ve been bought by CNET and as of December 2, 2003, will no longer be available. While their usability has gone to shit as of late – having to fill out their subscription form EVERY time I visit and want to hear something is absurd – they did offer a pretty groundbreaking and valuable resource in their time. Alas.

np – Calexico / Feast Of Wire

The tail end of the little rain/windstorm last night knocked out the power in my apartment tonight, leaving things decidedly on the pitch side of black (for those just joining us, I live in a basement with a modest amount of natural light on the best of days). I’d anticipated this scenario and had dug out my bicycle headlights (no, I don’t own a flashlight) so I was still able to get see somewhat, get around my apartment and confirm that I had absolutely nothing to amuse me without any power. And I was hungry. I wanted popcorn. So, after sitting around for a little while hoping the power would come back on, I got my coat and umbrella and headed out into the night.

First thing I saw in the sky were the spotlights from the Paramount or the Air Canada Centre or wherever the hell it is downtown that has spotlights going every night. It seemed this blackout wasn’t very widespread. In fact, it didn’t even extend down my whole block let alone my street – just the stretch of houses around mine. Nice. So as I trudged toward the 7-11 a few blocks away (I was craving popcorn, remember), the street became more and more lit up – by the time I got to the store and its excessive fluoresence, I was feeling like a Morlock creeping out from the sewers to feed on the Eloi… or their popped corn, at least. I grabbed the foodstuffs I needed and lurched back into the darkness. “My preciousssss…”

Thankfully, the power came back on about 10 minutes after I got home and I didn’t go feral or anything.

Excellent Online has a feature they’re calling “PopKIDS”, which is basically 4th graders offering their unvarnished comments on random indie/alt songs. Initial targets are Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham and The Salteens, and The Lucksmiths and From Bubblegum To Sky.

Neil Halstead talks to Penny Black Music about Spoon And Rafter and also mentions the possibility of rereleasing a pile of Slowdive material in the near future. That would be nice for everyone who’s had to pay upwards of $50 on eBay for a copy of Pygmalion. And this is coming from someone who’s sold a few copies of Pygmalion on eBay for upwards of $50…

Just a quick note to Torontonians – Joel Plaskett is doing a free instore at Soundscapes on College St at noon next Saturday, November 22.

I just checked my Air Miles account. Over four years of collecting the things now and I’ve accumulated enough miles to almost get me to the airport.

np – The Wrens / The Meadowlands

24 commentary for this week – I actually didn’t have anything to say about this week’s episode, besides the usual (Kim needs to die, etc). I thought it was pretty solid. But those last few seconds… He shot him in the ear? Who shoots someone in the ear? I mean, really. He was probably aiming for the soul patch.

Vice has a typically snotty article about bands screwing indie labels, but the bit about Teenage Fanclub versus Matador Records is particularly interesting. The Fannies seem like such nice boys, the idea of Matador’s Gerard Cosloy hating them with a fire that rivals the very pits of hell is an odd one. Link from Ypersound.com.

More Matador-related horror stories here: a slew of bands are asked, “What was your worst memory of touring with Yo La Tengo?” Hilarious anecdotes ensue. From Largehearted Boy.

Congratulations to Doc Halladay on winning his first Cy Young award by a landslide. That’s four Cy Youngs for Blue Jays pitchers in eight years – pretty damned impressive, and also ironic. We somehow manage to have both the best pitching in the league and no pitching at all.

np – The Weakerthans / Reconstruction Site