All x-chromosone (except the drummer) neo-goth cello squad Rasputina have scored the opening slot on the upcoming Belle & Sebastian North American tour. The same tour for which I just got four front row centre tickets for the Massey Hall show. Who wants to be my friend?

Lisa Oliver of Stylus Magazine offers up a list of her Top-10 Musical Turn-Offs. Link from LHB.

San Diego Zoo Panda-cam! Now featuring all-new panda cub! Awwwwwwww.

Okay, the image is so large that it’s fucking with my layout, so I will have to pad this entry with some further nonsense. What to do, what to do. Hmm…

Let’s see what the lead story in the Toronto Star is today? The provincial election is on Thursday, it must be something topical.

Tories put public at risk, nurses say

Sep. 29, 2003. 11:06 AM

The Ontario government failed to live up to its moral and legal obligations of protecting both health-care workers and the public during the SARS crisis, the head of the Ontario Nurses Association told public hearings today. ‘Their job – to conduct random, thorough inspections of health-care facilities – simply was not done,’ Barb Wahl testified.

Well that’s not good at all. Click here if you want to read the whole story.

Did that do the trick? Seems so. Cool.

np – The Costello Show / King Of America

Guided By Voices tour Earthquake Glue through the Opera House on November 14, 2003. You won’t be able to get quite as close up to craggy Bob’s face as you could during their two-night stand at the Horseshoe for UTAC, but maybe that’s a good thing.

UK buzz band Britsh Sea Power play the Horseshoe November 3rd. Apparently they sound like Joy Division? I predict full-on hipster saturation at this show.

Also at the Horseshoe November 25 is a tribute night to Big Star. We are not playing, sadly, but it’s free so if there’s a decent lineup participating, it should be worth attending.

Ironically-named Vancouver twee-poppers Young & Sexy’s sophomore album Life Through One Speaker will be released on October 7th. They had been scheduled to play the Horseshoe on October 23rd, but that has been postponed until December. Which suits me fine, because I am going to too many shows in October and not enough in December.

Exclaim! talks to both Sofia Coppola and Kevin Shields about Lost In Translation.

np – The New Pornographers / Mass Romantic

Rolling Stone is currently running a tribute issue for Johnny Cash, which is of course a perfect follow-up to their softcore Brit Brit cover.

And speaking of heavily Photoshopped images, there’s a cool site with PS tutorials and tips at Luminous Landscape. Check it out.

And speaking of things to light up landscapes, Backyardartillery.com offers the most compelling argument yet for owning property. Elastic band machine guns aren’t permitted on most condo balconies.

And speaking of building weapons of mass annoyance out of household goods, I was surprised to find that Cathy Rogers, formerly of Heavenly and Marine Research, is also creator and co-host of TLC’s Junkyard Wars. Who knew? That’s an impressive resume of cool.

And speaking of indie pop bands, photos from last night’s Lake Holiday show at the Silver Dollar are up here.

np – Bedhead / Transaction De Novo

I will be the first to admit, not our finest show last night. Feel free to choose from any of the following excuses: stressed out and distracted by this show (and dealing with certain individuals related to said show), by work, by transportational logistics (read: hauling gear), by the fact that we were listed in all ads and posters as “Lakeside Soul”… Fuck it, I was just off my game and it showed. I thought our performances on the new material ranged from acceptable to shaky… we probably just weren’t in the proper headspace to put on a really good show. Apologies to those in attendance.

Thankfully, however, it was made up for by Melon Galia. When we heard them soundchecking, we figured they were going to be something special and they really were. This Belgian 4-piece, performing all in French, put on an amazing set of Stereolab meets Belle & Sebastian meets Heavenly orchestral, loungy indie pop (the bassist’s spot-on Amelia Fletcher haircut certainly helped with this comparison). The arrangements were wonderfully clever and helped out by the unconventional (for an indie rock show, anyways) instrumentation – trumpets, clarinet, wood blocks, shakers… all played with great aplomb. The boy-girl vocals and harmonies were great, and benefitted from generous doses of ‘ba-ba-ba’s and ‘la-la-la’s. I think it was safe to say they made a lot of fans last night. Now en route to the Montreal Pop Festival, I hope that when they come back to Toronto they get the proper promotional push they deserve. I know there’s a lot of people in this town who would really dig them, if they only knew. A big Chromewaves thumbs up to the kids in Melon Galia.

And today I am exhausted – I didn’t get to bed till 2:30AM, and while five hours of sleep is enough for me to get by on reasonably bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, not after a long long day and night. I am glad the show is over and done with, it’s a pretty big load off.

np – Beulah / Yoko

You know what would be fun? Getting onto MTV’s Becoming and doing a shot-by-shot remake of The Replacements’ “Bastards Of Young”. Or maybe that should just be ‘shot remake’, since there’s only one in the whole vid. A classic. And then, while they’re shooting the final video, I could get all loaded and trash the set in classic ‘Mats fasion.

Apparently Dean Wareham had a brief guest spot on tonight’s Law & Order. I feel shame not because this Luna-freak missed it, but because I watched pretty much the whole episode but didn’t notice.

There was a bit of a shakeup in Lake Holiday-land this week as Clay dropped the bombshell on us that he was bilingual. You play alongside a guy for so many months, you think you know him… then this. I think we’ve managed to compose ourselves in time for tonight’s show, though. In fact, it could come in handy as Melon Galia perform in French. 517 found a sample mp3 and it’s really quite nice. Definitely a Belle & Sebastian-esque chamber pop thing happening, I look forward to seeing them play tonight.

np – Guided By Voices / Earthquake Glue