Election day yesterday, and I’m gratified to see the right man (in my opinion) won. I love this city and have been increasingly frustrated over the past years watching an incompetent city hall continually squander Toronto’s potential with half-assed schemes and questionable ethics, to say the least. The new guy, David Miller, is someone I’m genuinely excited about – it’s not often that I feel like I’m voting FOR someone as opposed to voting against someone else. Congratulations, Mr. Miller. Here’s to the future.

The actual process of voting was kinda frustrating – for no reason other than there was a very pretty girl in line right in front of me, and for 20 minutes I couldn’t think of a goddamn thing to say. “So, who’re you voting for,” didn’t seem appropriate, and so… And if this story sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it is. Yeah, what we have here is a chronic inability to speak to women. All hail me. If you want to make me feel like more of a dork, feel free to post what you would have said in that situation.

Listened to Ryan Adams’ Gold again for the first time in a very long time. Time hasn’t changed my initial opinion – too long, too overproduced. And it’s a shame, cause there’s some good tunes on there. And then I listened to Whiskeytown’s debut Faithless Street… I hate to sound like one of those mooks who’s all, “man the early stuff was so much better”, but the artists don’t have to make it so damn easy. But I think Love Is Hell is good, and is hopefully a return to form and not an aberration.

Some additional tour news – opening for Adams will be The Stills who SOOO impressed me this Fall opening for Interpol (if you’re not catching the sarcasm, read this). Lame-o opener plus $25 ticket plus Wednesday night show in my least favorite venue equals me not going to go.

Belle & Sebastian fans are urged to pick up the latest issue of Magnet. There’s a very illuminating and forthright interview with the band about their early days, the ones that were, at the time, shrouded in secrecy. They talk about the chaos and politics that plagued the band for most of its existance. Of particular interest is some insight into the famously cancelled Toronto concert in Fall 1998 – the one that was supposed to be at the Opera House but was cancelled at the last minute with a hand-scrawled note taped to the front door of the venue due to ‘food poisoning’ or something. Turns out, that was a righteous bit of spin… And you get more dirt on Stuart and Isobel than you thought would ever be revealed. It’s amazing how little I knew about a band I’ve been following for over five years now.

While on the subject, Chart has a review of Saturday night’s show.

Another reason to get the new Magnet is this quote from a deliberately snarky review of the new Peaches by Andrew Earles:

“According to Peaches, I want to fuck her. According to Peaches, everyone wants to fuck her. If her image and lyrics are to be believed, fucking Peaches would be like throwing a hot dog down a hallway.”

Man, that’s good.

Record Store Review is a neat site that lets you rate and review your local independent music merchants. There’s quite a few for Toronto, though it appears some people out there don’t like Rotate This’ attitude. I’m aghast. Really, I am.

Ok, not really.

np – Spoon / Kill The Moonlight

It’s British cultural history day here at Chromewaves!

24 Hour Party People – the book – isn’t the source material for the Michael Winterbottom film, as I’d originally thought. It’s actually a novelization of the film. It’s the novelization of a pseudo-documentary of real events, written by the guy who was the main character of said film. Um, okay. Tony Wilson, the principal of Factory Records and legend in his own mind, wrote the book as a sort of companion piece to the film, I guess. As a piece of writing, it’s rather a mess. Here’s a guy writing about himself in the third person as he details events in the past, and then in the first person when he offers some commentary from the perspective of the present. Furthermore, it’s written the way he (presumably) speaks, a big mash-up of asides, anecdotes, and sounding too clever by half. But once you’ve grown accustomed to having Wilson as your guide, there are some insights to be gained.

Since it’s actually written by Wilson, and not being passed through a filmmaking crew, you can assume you’ve got a direct line into his grey matter, more or less. You get his thoughts and recollections on things that couldn’t be conveyed or properly expanded upon in the film – for example, how badly the suicide of Ian Curtis shook him, the depth of his admiration of mad producer Martin Hannett or the vision of house designer Peter Saville. Characters who got only a passing mention or brief appearance in the movie are fleshed out, their importance to the story articulated. It also gives him more room to make his case for the “Shaun Ryder as the next Yeats” theory, which I’m sorry, I still don’t buy. Prat? Yes. Genius? Not so much. I’m not saying to go out and buy the book, but if you like the film, it’s worth putting a hold on it at the library. Go on, I’m done with my copy.

Stayed up and watched Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy last night. I’m not entirely sure why I rented this – the reviews were good, though I’m hardly an afficianado of musical theatre nor was this anything like any of the other Mike Leigh films I’ve seen. That said, I still enjoyed it well enough – a very well executed historical drama/comedy about the making of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado. But in the future, I’m going to have to be careful to NOT start 2h 40m movies at 10:30 on Sunday nights…

It’s municipal election day here in Toronto. Everyone who lives in the 416, go out and vote. For Miller, preferably. But if you’re going to vote for Tory, don’t go to any particular trouble to make it to the polls… democracy is overrated anyway.

To everyone else, go out and do something productive today. Like have a bagel or something.

np – Whiskeytown / Faithless Street

For all the crowing I’ve done about scoring front-row centre tickets for last night’s Belle & Sebastian show at Massey Hall, it would have all been for naught if they put on anything less than a stellar show.

Whew. Dodged a bullet there.

Rasputina started things off with their unique blend of classical goth-punk. I really don’t know what you’d call it. Two girls in medieval garb absolutely rocking out on cellos with a drummer backing them up. Cellos can sound an awful lot like distorted electric guitars, and can get damned heavy. Along with their original material, they closed with covers of Heart’s “Barracuda” and CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising”, which sounded particularly sinister. Different and impressive.

I find it near impossible to reconcile the notoriously reclusive and mysterious band that produced Tigermilk and If You’re Feelin Sinister with the finely-honed pop orchestra that performed last night. Charming and engaging, frontman Stuart Murdoch was bouncing all around the stage throughout the whole show, dancing and shimmying like a dervish. To all the fans who’ve sworn off the band for their new ‘upbeat’ sound, sorry but I don’t this band is capable of doing many mopey bedsit anthems anymore… they’re just too happy and having too much fun. Example – an audience member calls out for the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” and Bob Kildea starts goofing on the bassline, Stevie Jackson on the guitar riff and Murdoch sings a quick lyric. The audience roars, the band sort of shrugs (figuratively speaking) and off they go. Massey Hall security be damned, there was no way the crowd wasn’t getting up and dancing for this one. Now maybe the audience member was in the know and the band had already had this one rehearsed from other shows, but from my vantage point it was totally off-the-cuff. Definitely A Moment (note capitalization there).

That sort of interaction was a prime example of the whole night – the band having a great time onstage, feeding off the sheer adoration of the crowd. It didn’t hurt, of course, that it was maybe the best sound I’ve ever heard at a concert, and I had a totally unobstructed view of the stage. Handy for getting photos, as well. All these shots were taken flash-less. I love it when bands have great light shows, the colours are so pretty… I seem to get developing a steadier hand on the camera, though maybe that was just a perk of sitting. And while I hate to be the guy who walks out of a show going, “But they didn’t play this, or that, or that”, they didn’t play “I’m A Cuckoo”. Some mild disappointment there. Oh well, I’ll get over it. The just-under two hours of great music compensated somewhat.

But of course, there has to be one moment of non-love noted, for me at least. ‹non-love› To the girl who got invited onstage to sing a tune and insisted on doing one of her own songs – I’m sure that was a real thrill for you, but in the future, please jerk off on your own time. I didn’t pay $60 to attend a coffee house open mic night, thanks. ‹/non-love›

Postscript – Chart talks to Chris Geddes about the new B&S record.

Non-B&S related – Ryan Adams is touring Rock N Roll and Love Is Hell next month. Chances that he’ll have Elton John in tow again this time? Pretty slim – unlike Ryan himself. Hey DRA – better lay off those wagon wheels! Torontonians get their chance to call Ryan a fatty and request “Summer Of 69” at risk of being beaten to death December 10 at the Opera House.

Liz Phair is doing an acoustic in-store at the Sunrise at Yonge and Dundas next Saturday at 1pm, in advance of the show that evening at the Guvernment.

np – The Sleepy Jackson / Lovers

I managed to get up this morning without a hint of ill effect from the half-pitcher of Keiths I finished off last night. Not a huge amount, but more than I usually take on a half-full stomach. Puttered around a bit, paid some bills, went clothes shopping. The excitement never stops around here, I tell you.

I finally got into the couple movies I rented earlier this week but hadn’t had a chance to watch. The City Of Lost Children is a wonderfully dark fairy tale from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, best known for making Amelie. It’s the story of a carnival strong man who teams up with an orphaned girl to rescue his adopted little brother from the clutches of a mad scientist who kidnaps children to steal their dreams. On the way, they encounter all sorts of weird and wonderful characters including evil co-joined twins who run a gang of thieving street urchins, a half-dozen narcoleptic clones and a talking brain in a fish tank. Visually, it owes a lot to Terry Gilliam’s work, but was still plenty creative, fresh and equal parts funny and creepy. I enjoyed it quite a bit and am going to have to get a copy of Alien Resurrection, which was also helmed by Jeunet.

You may notice I’ve taken to adding links in the sidebar to the Allmusic.com entry for the albums I’ve recently bought, where applicable. In case you were wondering about them. I’m also going back and adding the links to the rest of my collection, in the music section.

Belle & Sebastian tonight – but first, I needs to rustle me up some dinner…

np – The Wedding Present / Watusi

Conan O’Brien is in disccusions to bring Late Night to Toronto for a week next February. That would kick some serious ass, hopefully I wouldn’t have to kill too many people to get tickets.

Suede have split. While Coming Up had its moments, I’d say they should have given up after Bernard left the band. Ah well, we’ll always have “Animal Nitrate”.

I seem to be all about the EPs lately. My last four pick-ups have all been short-players.

• Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead
  
  (Mostly solo Ted on electric guitar – sounds like old-school Billy Bragg. That’s a good thing.)
  

• Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell Pt. 1
  
  (Haven’t heard Rock N Roll yet, but this is a lot less glossy than Gold. Sounds good, pretty dark.)
  

• Spoon – The Way We Get By
  
  (Short! Haven’t watched the videos yet.)
  

• Yo La Tengo – Today Is The Day!
  
  (Nice to see Ira didn’t throw out all his distortion pedals after all.)
  

Accidentally hit ‘off’ on my alarm this morning instead of ‘snooze’. Whoops. But that’s okay, I don’t usually accomplish anything in the mornings anyway…

np – Yo La Tengo / Today Is The Day!