Proclaim Your Joy

Mark Eitzel is one of my favorite songwriters of the last ten years, so I wasn’t going to let an opportunity to finally see him live slip by. An opening slot for Low was certainly better than nothing, though time-wise, that’s almost how it seemed. Scheduled for a 7:45 PM start time, Eitzel took the stage at around 10 minutes to, accompanied only by a percussionist. From note one, it was blissful. His world-weary baritone was in perfect form on both material from his solo career and the handful of American Music Club nuggets he trotted out. The only complaint was the brevity of the set – 35 minutes was not nearly enough and an encore wasn’t forthcoming despite the pleas of the audience. This is a man who needs to come back to town on a headlining bill, or failing that we need to go to him.

Disappointing as it was when Eitzel left the stage, Low offered up a worthy consolation prize. Taking slow and minimalist to a new extreme, Low played a hypnotizing and more than a little narcolepsy-inducing hour-fifteen set. The band shared a single set list. Percussion consisted of exactly one ride, one snare and one floor tom. Occasionally Mimi Parker would work a tambourine or handclaps into things. Less really is more with Low – despite the spareness of the sound, it always sounded full, there was never a sense of something missing. Everything – drums, guitar lines, bass, vocal harmonies – was in its right place. A very pleasant (and non-tinnitus-inducing!) different sort of show.

Guitars – Alan Sparhawk played Gretsch double-cutaway semi-hollow with Bigsby, 12-string acoustic and double-bound sunburst Fat Telecaster with rosewood neck, all into a blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb. Sounded like there was a Line6 delay modeler in the mix as well

np – Olivia Tremor Control / Presents : Singles And Beyond

Yerself Is Steam

Link to a cool download made available by Mercury Rev – a font based on Jonathan Donahue’s handwriting. Very cool and spidery-looking, it’s one of my favorite fonts. Used up above on the ‘Universal Truths And Cycles’ header. Download here.

Been working on a mock-up of the Lake Holiday website. Based on Five Seventeen’s ideas, but I wanted to build up the architecture while waiting for him to do images. I’m pretty pleased with it, actually. Will link it up when more of it is done.

np – Big Star / #1 Record – Radio City

Screaming Lead Balloons

My business cards have finally proven useful. I’ve won an ‘East Coast Kitchen Party’ from the Duke Of Argyle – apparently this consists of a wide variety of appetizers for a bunch of people. Sounds good to me, I am not one to turn down a cocktail weiner – or cocktail cod, as the case may be. Today I am a winner!

Sloooooow day at work. Everyone else chugs away finishing up the BASF DVD presentation, I sit and read my ASP book for lack of anything else to do. But I do get to listen to music so that’s okay.

We have our CIBC Run For The Cure t-shirts now. Larger than expected, I hope the dryer can work its mysterious shrinking mojo on it before Sunday.

np – Yo La Tengo / Ride The Tiger

Dinosaur Act

The above title comes from a peculiar bit of synchronicity. Whilst in Second Spin this afternoon, I found a copy of Low’s ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’, which I’ve been looking for for a while and which has a track called ‘Dinosaur Act’. At the time, I was listening to Matthew Sweet, who also has a track called ‘Dinosaur Act’. Coincidence? I think not. Mind you, I wasn’t listening to Altered Beast, the Matthew Sweet album with that song on it, but that’s not the point. Something is up. The Illuminati are behind it all, I’m sure.

I am downloading zips of the Dismemberment Plan remix mp3s (follow the link at the top of this page). They’re providing instrumental and vocal tracks for fans to download and remix as they see fit. Pretty cool. If I manage to get anything sounding decent, I will post them here for my loyal fans to inspect.

I intended to go see ‘Minority Report’ this afternoon. It was a Happy Hour matinee at the Bloor, and those start at 4:30. No problem. Hung out in Sonic Boom for about half an hour and then headed next door… On the sign : “Minority Report – 4:00 – NOTE EARLY START TIME”. Sonofabitch. It was simply not meant to be. Maybe I’ll try again tonight.

np – Low / Things We Lost In The Fire

Flay Me Like A Bad Pony

Robokopf