Search Results - "The Long Blo"
Monday, April 28th, 2003
This is fucked up. This studio doo-dad is designed to help singers stay on pitch by – wait for it – administering electrical shocks whenever they stray. Man, crank up the voltage a little on one of these and bring it into the recording sessions for any of those Top 40 ‘pop’ acts, and you’d be able to smell the charred flesh from blocks away.
There’s an interview with Bob Pollard over at Stuff Magazine. I dunno, thinking about Bob Pollard getting groupie action just isn’t a pleasant image. First the Playboy beauty pageant, now this. It’s official – cheesecake magazines love the indie rock.
517 sent a few of our songs to Mark Robinson of Unrest and Teenbeat Records for his critical appraisal. Verdict? He liked “Awake Too Long” and “Beautiful Again”. Heady praise. Now we just need them to bankroll an excessive double-concept album and world tour.
np – …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead / Source Tags And Codes
Saturday, April 26th, 2003
To everyone out there who thinks that Toronto has become a ghost town because we’re all scared of SARS – this pic was taken this afternoon on Queen West. Wall to wall people out and about, not a facemask in sight.
In anticipation of the June 10 release of Welcome Interstate Managers, there’s a new official Fountains Of Wayne bio from their publicity company here (the title of this post is the name of a former incarnation of the band). Expect tour dates in July.
Seeing as how today was so nice, staying in was not an option. I headed out on a walkabout with Kyle and Andrew, whom I hadn’t seen in probably almost four years. He wears socks now. That took some time to wrap my head around. But it was good to just get out and enjoy the sun, people-watch, soak up the SARS. Walked a whole lot – from my place down to King, across to Bathurst, up to Bloor and back again through the University. My feet hurt. Looked at some bikes, picked up the new Cardigans album, earning me some ribbing from Andrew. Hey, I like The Cardigans. No apologies.
My brother ordered a bunch of the new Miyazaki DVDs. We’ve got Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle In The Sky here, now. It’s going to be all anime all the time for the next while.
I picked up a pair of floor wedge monitors for the rehearsal space this morning. Got a good price on them, and these will let us use the nicer Yorkville PA head we’be been using to keep the kick drum from moving instead of the lousy Realistic mixer we had been using. There will have to be a great shifting of gear over the next few days as we figure out where to put them and the new guys move their stuff in.
np – The Cardigans / Long Gone Before Daylight
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2003
I will say this for the Leafs… Actually, I will say nothing about the Leafs. I’m not surprised one whit. Been through this too many times before. Whatever. Anyway, now I can pull for other teams that have a better chance of winning and not get too emotionally invested if they fail.
I am also not at Longwave tonight, free show though it may be. It’s not nice out, I’m tired and I’ve seen them twice since December already. I did pick up The Strangest Things for real cheap though, so I’m supporting them that way. I also grabbed The Lips’ Fight Test EP. More Yoshimi goodness. The CD has the video for “Fight Test” and a trailer for Christmas On Mars.
Today is Brad’s birthday. As a gift, I was going to try to get the Lake Holiday blog working. Try. Oh well, he’ll have another birthday next year anyway.
np – The Flaming Lips / Fight Test
Saturday, April 19th, 2003
I think there’s something to be said for “just-in-time-concert-attendance”. Idlewild was scheduled to go on at exactly midnight last night, and my interest in standing around the club waiting for any longer than necessary was pretty much zero. So – I leave here at 11:30, arrive at 11:50, take in the one-hour show, am back home by 1:30 and that includes a stopover at Burger King for some late-night crap food. So my feet don’t hurt from standing for hours, I don’t stink of smoke too badly and I still got to spend most of my night doing other useless stuff. This is a plan.
So how were Idlewild? Good to very good, moments of almost great. Make no mistake – these Scots rock hard. They’ve got the songs (I said it before and I’ll say it again – no one does anthemic rock like the Brits), charisma (There is no name more rock star than Roddy Woomble!) and the energy. From word go, it was great jump-up-and-down rock and roll, with the set split up pretty evenly between The Remote Part, 100 Broken Windows and Hope Is Important material. They even went back to their debut Captain for a number, if just to demonstrate how their songcraft has evolved since then.
Ironically, it was because of the relentless rocking out that I feel the need to deduct some points from the performance. I think a lot of Idlewild’s strength comes from the dynamic nature of the songs. There’s a lot of valuable complexity that just gets lost when you turn the rectifier stack up to 10 and go – I think that’s my main reservation about The Remote Part versus 100 Broken Windows. Remote Part is more in-your-face whereas Windows demonstratted some more restraint. Last night’s encore closer, “In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction”, pretty much drove this home. It should have been elegiac and lovely, but the delivery stripped it of it’s subtlety and it just fell flat.
At any rate, it was my first real “rock” show in a pig’s age and my ears are ringing suitably from the experience. I still maintain Idlewild are one of the best young bands from the UK right now will only get better. All the ingredients are there, they just need the proper balance.
Some pics from the show here. Scroll to the bottom. These shots were me trying out the ‘hold camera over the head and click randomly’ method of concert photography. While it’s good for clearing audience heads, it’s less precise for framing shots, focusing, making sure the band is doing something worth capturing (shots of singer talking to guitarist between songs are not terribly exciting). I will perfect it, though.
See a terrific 2003 riff on “All Your Base” here. Link from Val, who has redesigned nicely yet again.
It’s looking sunny and warm out today. I think I’m supposed to go over to Sudeep’s this afternoon to play Scrabble or something. I will be sure to post a move-by-move synopsis of that tournament of champions.
np – Luna / Penthouse
Friday, April 18th, 2003
So the intent of going to see an accountant was to reduce the amount of tax owing, right? The best laid plans. I walked out of there this morning actually owing an extra $600. My accountant, Clive Barker (Bookeeper of Blood!) did his job just fine – tallied up all my business expenses and worked out the deductions properly. But he also noticed that I had neglected to work out how much I owed for CPP (Canada Pension Plan) contributions. Turns out it was a lot. I never did CPP before since it’s usually taken care of by the employer, but since I was technically self-employed most of last year, that made me the employer. I owed CPP to the tune of almost 10% of my gross income. Huzzah. I’m all for paying my fair share, but this still feels like they’re not only bending me over a barrel, but slapping me around and calling me “Shirley”. Oh well, it’s done now and that’s it for taxes for another year. But at least Clive didn’t charge me for the filing – he said he felt bad about me owing more when I left than when I went in. Nice guy. I’d recommend him to anyone in Toronto looking for an accountant.
I also went back to the old homestead this afternoon to visit the folks, try out their crazy new accupressure/heat massage bed. Interesting device. I suppose it was relaxing. I also retrieved about seven years worth of Hellblazer. My mom keeps asking me when I’m going to get rid of those longboxes of comics. Uh, soon mom. Really.
Idlewild tonight! Damn, I’m tired.
np – Steve Earle / Sidetracks
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