They do the craziest things in the land of the rising sun.

There are not the words to describe the ordeals of the man named Nasubi.

Why can’t North American politicians be this much fun?

In memory of Oolong, the head performance rabbit.

And there’s more where this comes from.

np – Doug Martsch / Now You Know

Another lovely sunny day, another day of wandering around the city. Today, I met up with Sudeep, Kevin, Vic and Liz for no real reason except to get out and get some air. We ended up at Cafe Dimplimatico in Little Italy, and got what might have been the worst service ever. I’m sorry, but it does not take an hour to make a calzone. It just doesn’t. Chumps. Thanks to them, I was a little late to the Portastatic instore at Soundscapes, but not too much. Still caught most of Mac’s set, which was alright. I’ll be interested to hear him with a full band before deciding if I need Portastatic stuff to supplement my Superchunk collection.

I am apparently signed up to participate in the Becel Ride For Heart in June. For which I will need a bike. I’ve meant to get a bike for a while. I should get on that.

I’m probably last one on the boat for these, but Animatrix cartoons here. Cool stuff. New movie will be butt-kicking for goodness.

I hope it’s not a sign of old age that I’m attending shows by artists who are touring to support a best-of compilation. Case in point – Ride. It’s been seven years since they released a note of new music (last year’s one-off 30-minute reunion jam notwithstanding) and since then they’ve been the subjects of a box set and magazine covers as the early 90s shoegaze scene undergoes a critical reapprisal 10 years after the fact. Mark, who has been pretty much off the scene for the last few years, undertook this solo acoustic tour to promote the North American release of OX4 – The Best Of Ride and to road-test some of the material from his new solo album, out late this year or early next. Toronto has always been kind to bands with British passports, and a crowd of a few hundred punters showed up to cheer him on and relive their halcyon days from a decade ago. The man himself is pretty much unrecgnizable from his last appearance in the Big Smoke – gone is the long shaggy hair in favor of a close cropped do, and most were uncertain it was him who walked out onstage until he said hello.

The voice, however, is the same. Strong and soft, faintly lisping and note-on. Obviously the best response came for the classic material like “Vapour Trail” and “Twisterella”, and while the audience listened politely to his new material (pleasant but unremarkable), they were there to hear the hits (relatively speaking). Drawing mainly from the Smile EPs, Nowhere and Going Blank Again, Carnival Of Light got only a single sample and Tarantula was, thankfully, completely ignored. Not surprising since it was mostly Andy Bell’s album, but also because it was utter shit.

All in all, the next best thing to seeing Ride live, something I never got to do. And while it may have just been a single man up there with a 12-string acoustic, in my head I heard the walls of guitars and it was glorious. A few pics here.

Afterwards, I met up with Kate and went to the Honeybunch show at Jonny Dovercourt’s living room. Honeybunch is the current project of Jeffery Underhill, who played guitar on the first few Velvet Crush records, as well as sang on the first 6ths record and played guitar on the last Pernice Brothers album. In this instance, they were a VERY quiet duo, classical guitar and keyboards, nothing miced. They played some very pretty pop tunes, but I was pretty beat by that point and it damn near put me to sleep.

They had switched slots with Brad and Clay (it’s a little weird for me to refer to Lake Holiday in the third person!) so it was up to the boyz to wake me up, and they did rock the house in a very quiet/loud kinda way. You can only generate so much volume using a cardboard guitar case for a kick drum, but it was alright. They ran through a half-dozen of our songs, and I have to say, I was impressed how good they sounded. I guess in rehearsals I’m concentrating too much on what I’m playing to really listen, but being in the audience on this instance was pretty eye-opening. The enthusiastic response from everyone else, and I’ll assume it was sincere since we didn’t know everyone there, was heartening. No question, we have to line up some gigs. The fact that the performance was in the living room of the guy who runs Wavelength won’t hurt.

Another beautiful day out today. Going to go to the Portastatic instore at Soundscapes at 5. Maybe I should sit down and do some practicing… I’m feeling sort of inspired, for some reason.

np – Spoon / Kill The Moonlight

A week ago today, the city was damn near encased in ice. Today, it’s warm and sunny. I managed to drag my ass outdoors this afternoon to get some sun, and it was terrific. Walking through the crowds in Kensington, Steve Earle on the headphones, talking about old 60s organs at Paul’s Boutique (They had one of these Ace Tone Top 1s for just $400! If I’d only won the $30,000,000 last night, that organ would have been mine!), watching the people walking dogs and pretty girls (sometimes one and the same) on Queen West. Hell, even the distinctive scents of Chinatown couldn’t bother me. All good, and just the thing to put a stupid grin on one’s face. And I bought a new spring coat, ostensibly my reason for going outside. I had hoped to find something used at the vintage shops in Kensington or Queen, but all they had was leather and denim, and I didn’t want either. I ended up getting it in the Eaton Centre. Not very hip, I know, but what can you do.

Tonight is Mark Gardener at Lee’s, followed up Honeybunch doing a living room show a few blocks away. Brad and Clay are dong a little acoustic set of Lake Holiday stuff beforehand, but I don’t think I’ll be there in time to catch them.

Find some nice soundboard recordings of a Rilo Kiley show in Austin from February here and here. They’re uploading the show one song at a time. The current song is at the latter link, the earlier songs at the former.

My semi-regular war rant. Well, not a rant, really. I’m just sad about this. Very very sad.

np – Belly / The Best Of Belly

Worth mentioning – Portastatic is doing an in-store at Soundscapes on Sunday. Portastatic is Mac from Superchunk’s other band. I’m not sure of the time, probably around 2PM but call the store to find out for sure. This is in advance of their show opening for Yo La Tengo Monday night.

Went out for a beer with the folks from work today after closing time. I stink of smoke. And my MSN Messenger won’t work. Blah.

np – Steve Earle / Sidetracks