SARSfest is underway. The aerial shots of the crowd are just madness. I’m hearing rumours that members of U2 have been seen around town… This on top of the supposed ‘surprise’ appearances by Skank-tina Aguilera, Paul McCartney and Prince could make for an interesting show.

Instead of standing around an old air force base, I spent three hours plus this morning trying to get my computer online. Bell had been giving me DNS static off and on for the past 8 months or so, but today it got intolerable. I finally got around it by ditching their DNS servers and pointing my machine at another one entirely. That’ll learn em.

If you missed the sold-out-in-no-time-flat BRMC show at Lee’s last month, you may be happy to know that they are coming back September 25, bringing their unique brand of standing around to the Guvernment. Tickets already on sale.

np – Elvis Costello & The Imposters / Cruel Smile

Stopped by Paul’s Boutique in the Market on the way home tonight to take a look around and talk keyboards with the proprietor. I don’t really know shit about keyboards, but I was enamored with a small combo organ they had that had a functioning set of drawbars! I’d never seen drawbars on smaller organs, it was pretty cool and sounded great. Someday, I will be able to walk out of there with an organ. They’ve always got a good range of stuff for under $500.

I was pleased to find used copies of The Posies’ Frosting On The Beater and The Tyde’s Twice. More pop! More pop!

The Toronto Interpol show has been moved from the Phoenix to the Kool Haus. Unfortunate.

MTV has the video for the Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham track “Night Nurse” here. It’s pretty. I still have to get this album.

Neil Gaiman talks about filmmaking, Miracleman and 1602. Some sketches from 1602.

The big Rolling Stones SARS-fest goes tomorrow, guaranteeing nightmarish commuting for anyone up in the north end of the city. Hell, fans are already lining up to get in even though show doesn’t start for another 14 hours. That’s hardcore. I wonder how much of a ghost town downtown will be? Deserted enough for me to take a stroll down Yonge St, brick in hand, for a little selective looting, perhaps…

That’s a joke, by the way, for the benefit of any law enforcement types who might be passing through.

np – Pernice Brothers / Live in Toronto, July 22, 2003

YAAAAAAAY. Beulah and John Vanderslice come to Lee’s Palace October 21. Full tour dates on the Beulah website. Our eternal gratitude to Catbirdseat for the scoop. We’ll file this under “Most Anticipated Show Of The Autumn”.

Brutally underrated British rock act Six By Seven are releasing a new single. This is noteworthy not only because it’s proof the band hasn’t split, but also because it’ll contain twelve b-sides. TWELVE. I know the chart system is a little different over in the UK boys, but over here we call that AN ALBUM. Regardless, happy to have you back. Bochum / There’s A Ghost will be released on Fierce Panda on September 29 in the UK.

Um, okay. This is news. A brief pop-in to Mark Eitzel’s website to look for tour dates yields this off-the-cuff note: “CURRENTLY WORKING ON A NEW AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB RECORD IN SAN FRANCISCO – UNTIL THE 22ND OF AUGUST OR SO”.

New.

American.

Music.

Club.

?!?!?!?

What a day this is turning out to be. I’m gonna go see what other cool news I can dig up. I am on a roll.

np – Teenage Fanclub / Howdy!

Five Seventeen went on the CBC this afternoon to talk about the Licking The Beaters cookbook for which he did some artwork, and also to plug Lake Holiday and the upcoming Wavelength show. They played “Awake Too Long”, making this the second continent on which that track has received radio airplay (it was played on Australian campus radio a few months ago). World domination, one station at a time. Clear Channel will surely be all over it in no time at all.

Guitarist magazine talks to Teenage Fanclub on the occasion of the release of their compilation album, Four Thousand Seven Hundred And Sixty Six Seconds. Read it here. And speaking of Fannies, there are a bunch of rare and live mp3s available on their website.

And on the topic of guitar magazine interviews, Guitar Player sits down with Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan.

np – various artists / Beat The Retreat – Songs By Richard Thompson

RIP, Bob Hope. Your television specials were a staple of my childhood through the eighties. 100 years is a helluva run.

And all of a sudden, things have gotten really quiet. Look at my concert list over on the side – there’s two shows I’m going to in the next two months (one I’m still undecided on). TWO. I went to three in the past week! On the same note, there are no new album releases of interest to me until the 19th of August. Three weeks of no reason to pester the record store clerks. Weird. I suppose this will give me time to get my shit together for moving. I have the first week of September off, specifically for this reason. Yeah, that’s my vacation – instead of traipsing about New York City as I’d originally planned, I’ll be humping cheap kitchen supplies back from Honest Ed’s. I should really try to sell off some of my surplus guitar gear before I move, though. No sense in moving stuff that I don’t need anymore.

Surgery may help keep Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington from throwing up when he sings. That’s great news, now if there was only a treatment to keep those of us who accidentally listen to them from doing the same.

np – various artists / Return Of The Grievous Angel – A Tribute To Gram Parstons