As much as it pains me to admit it, sometimes my parents have good ideas. My mom calls me this evening and suggests that, instead of going out and buying a replacement bike, I just come home and get the bike I have at home and used all through university? I had not wanted to bring that one into the city because it’s old, banged up and I wanted to get something new and shiny. And we all know how that turned out. I had completely forgotten about this other bike, and while my knee jerk reaction was to dismiss her idea, sadly, it’s a good one. I don’t need to spend the money on a new old bike considering I’m moving in a few weeks and will have no shortage of medium-to-large ticket purchases to make, and I have the very definition of ‘beater’ in my basement. It’s still a servicable bike, I think. A Peugeot racing bike I got way back in high school, and which needs no small amount of work to get back into road shape, but that’ll still be cheaper than getting a new bike. So I guess I’ll head home on Friday and pick it up, drop it off at a shop to get fixed up and go with that for the rest of the Summer and Fall, anyway. Maybe in the Spring I’ll go for another bike, but not right now. Thanks, mom.

I happened to catch a Blue Rodeo special whilst channel surfing during dinner. It was the band, set up in a barn, running through their catalog with a handful of guest singers. Seeing Sarah Harmer singing “Five Days In May” was magnificent – I’d forgotten how much I loved this band when I was younger. I literally wore out my cassette of Diamond Mine in the summer of 93. Lost Together was the first cassette I saved up for and bought brand new. Their June 1993 show at the Oakville Waterfront Festival, which was really my first rock concert, was the night that my first band came together. An omen? Not really, we played like three shows and fell apart at the end of high school, but still. It was a damned rocking show.

I guess you could say that when most teens were pledging their Can-rock allegiance to the Hip, I went with Blue Rodeo. Like I said last week when I went on about Neil Young, Blue Rodeo was pretty formative for me, musically-speaking, as well. The country influence is pretty obvious, but they could also rock out pretty well when they wanted and above all, they wrote pop tunes. I tended toward the Greg Keelor end of things, given as he was to the more atonal and sonically adventurous songs, but never at the cost of the song (or almost never).

I don’t think it’s very hip to like Blue Rodeo these days, given that they’re pretty much a Canadian institution by now and are pretty ‘safe’, but they’re not without indie cachet. Keelor produced the last Sadies record, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett made appearances on Jim Cuddy’s solo record, current Rodeo pedal steel player Bob Egan was Wilco’s touring steel guitarist for the Being There tour, and ex-keyboardist Bob Wiseman now plays in The Hidden Cameras. Hell, there’s not much that separates them from any other alt.country act besides the fact that they’ve sold a lot of records. Fuck the hipsters, I love Blue Rodeo.

In fact, I’m thinking that their show next week with Kathleen Edwards and The Jayhawks is looking pretty good right now, providing I’m in town.

Stories like this make be thankful I wasn’t that serious about success.

Sadism, thy name is Teague.

Jetset has released a remix EP to accompany the Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips album, L’Avventura, released not so long ago. It’s called Sonic Souveniers and features a half-dozen remixes by ex-Spaceman 3, Sonic Boom (AKA Pete Kember).

Lost Highway will release a compilation of rarities, b-sides and unreleased material in September as Lost And Found – Vol 1. Featured artists include the Jayhawks, Ryan Adams and Kathleen Edwards, with highlights including Johnny Cash covering Jimmy Webb’s classic “Wichita Lineman”, a Whiskeytown outtake from the Pneumonia sessions and an unreleased Bright Eyes song, “Trees Get Wheeled Away”. Which is all well and good, but Bright Eyes aren’t ON Lost Highway. What’s that about? A second Lost And Found collection is due in 2004.

We’ve posted some mp3s from the Lake Holiday show at Wavelength last weekend. They don’t sound bad, if I do say so myself.

np – Guided By Voices / Isolation Drills

So to expound:

I had what I considered a very good lock – a Kryptonite U-lock that cost me about $55 not more than a month ago. I lock up on a very busy downtown street, in front of an architect’s office where the fellow’s desk is right up front in the plate glass window. I would have thought that these factors, combined with the fact that my bike really wasn’t very expensive and thus, not that appealing to thieves, would have kept me safe. Guess not.

I came out of the office yesterday, walked to where my bike was locked up, and thought, “this is not my bike”. And it wasn’t. It was someone else’s beater bike, leaning against the post, unlocked. (sidenote: that was yesterday at 5pm. IT’S STILL THERE THIS MORNING, UNLOCKED. Talk about a slap in the face). Confused, dismayed, I wandered up and down the block for a few minutes trying to make sense of what had happened. My bike, and all trace of it, was gone. No pieces of the lock, it was like it never was. I had to ask myself for a minute, “did I even ride today?”, but the fact that I was carrying my bike helmet said, “yes, you did”. That was the longest walk to the subway I’d ever taken. Walking is so slow. It’s like I’ve had my wings clipped or something. Blargh.

I am cheesed about my bike being gone barely three months after I got it, and the $400 I had put into it also being gone, with nothing to show for it except my helmet and the headlight and tailight, which I can’t even mount anywhere because the brackets ARE ON MY OLD BIKE (but I can get new mounts, I checked). I’m mostly upset that the new lock which had given me a better sense of security proved so utterly ineffectual. What’s the point? But it’s not like I had grown up with this bike, or I spent the evening weeping over old snapshots of me and the bike in simpler, happier times. I didn’t, really.

So today I will go through the motions, call the local bike stores and tell them to keep an eye open for my bike on the remote chance that some chump tries to sell it. But mostly, go buy another bike. Nothing nice this time. Something used, ugly and functional. I hope that I don’t have to trade off too much comfort and quality for a sense of security, but if that’s what has to happen, that’s what’ll happen. I use it for transportation and as long as it does the job, then it’ll do. Pffft.

Postscript to the guy who stole my bike – I hope the chain breaks and gets your pants all greasy. Fucknut.

np – Fountains Of Wayne / Fountains Of Wayne

Fuck you.

Sincerely,

Frank

I feel some shame for not having seen That Thing You Do! before now. Naturally, I’m predisposed to enjoy a simple tale of a small-town pop band hitting the big time in the mid-60s, but I think it would be a solid if lightweight film, even without my bias. Tom Everett Scott is a dead ringer for a young Tom Hanks, it’s almost scary, and it says something that even after 1:45, I didn’t get tired of hearing the Adam Schlesinger-penned title song. The nameless bass player (officially dubbed “T.B. Player”) was a nice touch.

The Shortlist Of Music has released it’s list of nominees for 2003. With 86 nominees in the ‘long list’, it’s hardly an exclusive list – the 10 finalists will be named first week of September. My personal top 10 from that list would be Interpol, Kathleen Edwards, The Postal Service, Steve Earle, Spoon, Sigur Ros, Rilo Kiley and Radiohead. However, I am not a judge so no one cares what I think.

Speaking of Radiohead, my seats for the show on Saturday are 100 level, 3rd row. In other words, BETTER THAN YOURS. Ha. That was petty, I know.

The Rub is dead. Long live God’s Audio/Visual Aid. Welcome back, Paul.

William Shatner has a blog. Yippee-kai-yay. Link from Geekent.

Some more Ryan Adams info? The new album, RocknRoll Reverse is out Nov 4th, two Love is Hell EPs out in November and December at a list price of $5 a piece, and the box set of 3 records out next year. There will be a free EP with the purchase of the new album, limited to 20,000 copies. Tours of the US and Europe from October through December.

Support for Interpol’s Toronto show – and probably other dates on the tour – will be Montrealers-via-NY The Stills and locals Broke Revue.

The Dubya action figure. God, where does one begin with this? Now with swivel-arm economy-destroying grip? Push a button on his back and hear him utter one of twelve crimes against the English language? Special getaway car for dodging service in the National Guard sold separately? From Largehearted Boy.

np – Teenage Fanclub / Thirteen