Search Results - "The Long Blo"
Friday, June 27th, 2003
Some good stuff in the new issue of Exclaim!. The cover story belongs to lovely T.O. ex-pats Metric, whose debut album Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? won’t be out till July 22, which explains why I’ve had a helluva time finding it (it is available online from one source, but I’ll wait till it’s out proper-like) though I will probably just pick up a copy when they tour through Toronto at the end of July. They play Guelph’s Hillside Festival on the weekend of the 26th, and I expect the Toronto date to come shortly after.
They (Exclaim, pardon the digression) also have an article on weblogs and their effect on journalism and criticism and a brief history of Metallica that could have been subtitled, “A Roadmap To Suck”.
Now you can get your very own “I Survived Toronto” t-shirt. I think it’s a little premature – after all, it’s only the end of June. There’s plenty more plagues that can strike Hogtown before Labour Day.
Rainer Maria play the Horseshoe July 24. I am NOT missing them this time. I know I said that the last two times they came through town, and I did, but this time I mean it!
Went to see A Mighty Wind tonight. Fine, fine comedy. A loverly time was had by all.
np – Sigur Ros / Ágætis Byrjun
Friday, June 27th, 2003
This is long, but worth reading.
FRANK PIERSON’S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS TO THE 2003 USC FILM SCHOOL GRADUATES
Frank Pierson is a writer/director. He is presently president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and formerly the president of the Writers Guild of America, West. He has directed a Star is Born, Citizen Cohn, Conspiracy, and most recently the critically acclaimed Soldier’s Girl which is playing on Showtime. His writing credits include Cat Ballou, Cool Hand Luke and the Oscar winning Dog Day Afternoon.
_________________________________________________
I’ve been around a long time. As I look out at all of you graduating today, I think back to my graduations. All the kids in my graduating class from elementary school are dead.
All the people in my junior high school graduation are dead.
All the people in my high school graduation are dead.
The people I graduated from college with are all mostly dead.
Are you all feeling okay?
You will soon be the Hollywood of tomorrow, and I’m here to give you a little taste of the past. And my sense of the future you face.
Hollywood was once a small company town, where everybody knew everybody, and if you dropped your pants at a party or punched a reporter or danced with a prostitute in the parking lot, it wasn’t on Entertainment Tonight-tonight. It was even hard to get arrested. Every studio had a publicity department which paid the Los Angeles cops to stay away from show business people. The police didn’t arrest movie people. They drove them home.
We all went down to the film factories every day-at Warner Brothers even actors, directors and writers punched a time clock until the mid forties. We ate in the studio commissary, where the writers’ table was preferred seating because the jokes were better there. If the New York writers were in town, slumming, sneering at the movies and cashing big fat paychecks you found yourself sitting next to Dorothy Parker or F. Scott Fitzgerald. You could wander off to a sound stage and watch John Huston or Willy Wyler shooting a scene with Bogart or Hepburn or Peck. No security. We all knew each other.
It was up close, and personal.
(more…)
Thursday, June 26th, 2003
It’s not too forward to declare tonight’s American Analog Set show the biggest surprise of the year. I’d always considered myself no more than a casual fan – I had a couple albums and played them when the mood struck, but I had missed them live a couple times already and wasn’t terribly upset about it. Well we can ratchet up the fan-boy quotient a few more notches. AmAnSet live lay down some unbelievably tight and catchy grooves – even the indie kid will dance. Their hour-long set was so well-received by the crowd that the stunned band had no choice but to come back for a one-song encore, apparently not something they ever do.
Further proof that Toronto loves the AmAnSet was found in the feeding frenzy that ensued when the band brought their merchandise out for sale – like locusts, we bought out all of their t-shirts and copies of the new album, Promise Of Love, in no time flat (yours truly getting the second last copy, Miss Askew getting the last. Hordes more fans not as quick on the draw had to settle for copies of their older albums, and I don’t doubt that most of those would have been gone before all was said and done. To say that they were utterly stunned by the enthusiasm of the crowd would be a grand understatement. I think it’s safe to say that AmAnSet will be coming back to Toronto sooner rather than later, and they’ll be bringing much more swag. I will post pictures from the show soon.
UPDATE: Photos are now up – see them here.
Marty Crandall of The Shins is a lucky man. His girlfriend Elyse is a finalist on UPN’s America’s Next Top Model show.
Sunday, June 15th, 2003
As my apartment hunt continues, I’m realizing I’m probably overly-restriced by issues of location. Today I went to see a place right by the Christie Pits (which was *okay*, but not quite enough to get me to pull the trigger), which previously was simply too far to consider but now that I think about it, it’s perfectly close to everything – even moreso than where I am now – but with one exception. The rehearsal space is way out on the east end of town, and every subway stop further west just seems more and more light years away. But there might be a solution to that, but not a quick one. The Rehearsal Factory also runs a space down at Bloor and Richmond, which would be a helluva lot closer to everyone involved. It’s also the most popular and toughest to get a space in, though. When we initially started looking for a space last year, the management company said that spaces rarely opened up there, but that current Rehearsal Factory tenants got first dibs. In fact, that was the original game plan, to get into the Front-Sherbourne space and move to the other space at first opportunity. It’s a little selfish that I didn’t bother inquiring about switching spaces for the past year since it was convenient for me (less so for the others), but now that I am planning to move west, it makes sense to try and take the space with me. I have no idea how long it’ll take to get a new space, if at all, but I believe I will get that particular ball in motion tomorrow. After clearing it with the others, of course. If I take this attitude, then the western limit of my house search can stretch out a few more crucial blocks. I think this is a plan.
I really liked the Christie Pits area, though. I think living very near a great big park (the Pits or Trinity Bellwoods, for example) would suit me just fine.
The Decemberists are a five-piece hailing from Portland who channel the spirit of the Neutral Milk Hotel into some wonderfully creaky and fantastical songs. Their debut album from last year, Castaways and Cutouts, was re-released on Kill Rock Stars last month and their sophomore record Her Majesty The Decemberists is out on September 9th with a tour to follow in October. These guys are great, check em out.
Ang Lee talks about making Hulk.
This is cool for guitar geeks – a pretty exhaustive archive of Husker Du guitar tabs. If you don’t have a small shrine erected to Bob Mould in the corner of your room… well why the hell not?
np – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists / The Tyranny Of Distance
Saturday, June 14th, 2003
It’s a rare band that can open for itself not once, but four times in the course of a night. Punters showing up late to last night’s sold-out Broken Social Scene / Stars show and passing over the openers missed, essentially, Stars and Broken Social Scene.
Amy Millan from Stars kicked things off with a short countrified set, backed by members of BSS. This was followed by a impressive set by BSS-er Jason Collett, again backed by no less than seven members of BSS and Stars. This was followed up by BSS guitarist Andrew Whiteman’s Apostle Of Hustle project, which looked an awful lot like Jason Collett’s band. As did Feist’s. Did I just see four 15-minute openers or one hour-long set? Don’t know, don’t care, it was all great.
I had seen Stars way back in the summer of 2000, and must admit I wasn’t terribly impressed with their brand of electro-twee pop backed up by canned recordings. After their set last night, I will happily retract that opinion. The addition of a ridiculously strong drummer has done wonders for their sound, as did the addition of a couple of BSS’ guitarists (they had plenty to spare). The result was a surprisingly muscular and energetic show – it seems that Torquil Campbell has learned that Morrisey’s feyness only really worked when backed up by a badass band. Now if he could only learn to be a little less annoying with his stage banter… Regardless, a minor flaw at most.
Lee’s Palace was absolutely packed to the gills by the time Broken Social Scene took the stage as Broken Social Scene. This being their last hometown show before heading out to tour the US, the room was positively crackling with excitement and anticipation, and for the next hour and a half, they proved why they deserve every kudo and accolade that’s been thrown at them since You Forgot It In People‘s release last October. With an on-stage lineup that ranged between seven and ten people at any given time (and at least three guitars at all times!), BSS unloaded massive-sounding versions of most of People, along with some new material and an unexpected cover of Sloan’s “The Other Man”. By the time they closed off the encore with a triumphant version of “Lover’s Spit”, the band was feeding off the energy of the audience and vice-versa in a way that is far too rare. At the risk of sounding horribly cliche, there was love in the air and it was magic.
A particular perk of the show for me, anyway, was being able to connect names and faces with the band. The ever-rotating cast of players makes it difficult to know who on the record plays or sings what, and that’s compounded by the fact that there’s so damn many of them, but it’s still nice to be able to make a visual connection between the band and the record (like “hey – I buy my CDs at Soundscapes from the fourth guitarist!”).
It’s a pretty damn exciting time to be in Toronto, musically speaking. Not only is there a whole crop of excellent bands all around town, but they’re actually getting well-deserved recogintion from the rest of the world. It’s been a long time since there’s been this sort of buzz in the Big Smoke. It’s cool.
There are a whole whack of pictures from the show in my newly-reprogrammed concert photos section.
np – Broken Social Scene / You Forgot It In People
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}