Tuesday, September 27th, 2005
It’s a Metric kinda day. Their new album Live It Out is in stores today and tomorrow night they play the first of two sold out shows in Toronto at the Phoenix. Cliptip has a link to the video for the first single, “Monster Hospital”, which you can also hear on their Myspace page along with another Live It Out track, “The Police And The Private”. They’re the only bits of the new album I’ve heard, but the production seems to be rawer than the synth-slick sound of Old World Underground – I approve.
Metric are also getting the full-court media press here in Toronto – both weeklies, NOW and eye, ran pieces on the band in this week’s issues and the dailies are getting into it as well – The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star and The Toronto Sun all have interviews. Only The National Post refuses to give Metric any love.
Somewhat surprisngly, not too many interesting shows were announced in my absence. I mean there’s been stuff, but nothing that I particularly want to see… here’s the rundown:
The Organ @ Revival, October 15 ($12)
Super Furry Animals, Caribou @ The Phoenix, November 2
Ben Lee @ The El Mocambo, November 6 ($13.50)
The Shout Out Louds, The Essex Green @ The Mod Club, November 7 ($13.50)
Kathleen Edwards, Joel Plaskett @ The Phoenix, November 10 ($18.50)
Belle Orchestre @ The Music Gallery, November 11 (two shows) ($12)
LCD Soundsystem, The Juan Maclean @ The Carlu, November 18
The Magic Numbers @ Lee’s Palace, December 1 ($13.50)
The Dandy Warhols @ The Opera House, December 3 ($25)
Also, the Jens Lekman/Nedelle show at the Music Gallery on November 5 appears to be back on? And some ticket prices announced – My Morning Jacket at the Guvernment on October 19 is $26.75, more than I expected, and Echo & The Bunnymen at the Carlu on November 23 is $27.50, less than I expected. Maybe I’ll flip the two shows…?
Paste talks to Sam Beam of Iron & Wine about In The Reins, his collaboration with Calexico. I’m still waiting on those November east coast tour dates…
Because everyone loves a list – CMJ tallies up their 25 most influential bands of the last 25 years, while Banana Nutrament is running an indie rock beauty pageant. I voted for Feist, but between you and me and the other 1500 people who visit daily, none of the contestants really does it for me…
Newsarama transcribes a round table interview with Neil Gaiman about Mirrormask, which opens in limited release on Friday.
Salon awards their annual “Buffy” award for most underappreciated television show to… Veronica Mars! Take a bow, Veronica.
Photos! I’ve got pics from the first half of my trip – through St Petersburg – up at Flickr. I have’t gone in and added tags yet because I not-so-intelligently tossed out all my tourist maps of the cities and thus can’t so easily refer back to where I’ve been. I know I can gather all that info up on the web, it’s just that much more trouble. But I’ll get to it. And I added one of those neat Flickr banner things, which I like but am not sure if that’s the best place for it. I may move it around.
np – Sigur Ros / Takk
Monday, September 26th, 2005
I’m going to try and get back into the swing of things by recapping some of the news that’s come about in the past couple weeks. Some will be old news, I’m sure, but what can you do.
Wilco will put out their double-live album Kicking Television – Live In Chicago on November 1 after all, though it’s just the aural document. No word on what happened to the DVD, whether it’s been scrapped or will be released on its own at a later date. As it is, an official live record featuring Nels Cline in the lineup will be nice, though considering that every Wilco show in the last few years has been recorded and made available online, it’s not THAT exciting an event. But still. New Wilco. Yay. See the full-size album art here and the tracklist here. Jeff Tweedy is doing a smallish solo acoustic tour in November around the midwest/east coast, but nothing north of the border.
Circle March 7, 2006 on your release calendar as that’s the day that Neko Case’s new studio album, her first since 2002’s Blacklisted, hits stores. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood features many of the same guest artists as that record, including Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb and The Sadies. New collaborators include The Band’s Garth Hudson and Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard. Prefix has the official press release.
Irish songstress Gemma Hayes has given her sophomore album a name – The Roads Don’t Love You – and a release date in the UK – October 31. Her first album, Night On My Side, came out in North America in a considerably different form than it did in Europe, with a significantly altered tracklist and running order. I wonder if we’ll get a domestic release of the second album and if so, whether it’ll get rejigged for the market.
Beulah fans will have to content themselves with the A Good Band Is Easy To Kill DVD as there will be no Miles Krukowsky solo album in 2005 after all. In a website update, guitarist Bill Swan reports that Miles had serious surgery on his arm recently and will only be going into the studio in January after he’s (hopefully) sufficiently recovered.
We also shouldn’t expect anything new from Tanya Donelly anytime soon – she’s pregnant with her second child. Congratulations are in order, as well as thanks that she had the foresight to record a live album of new material last year which will hopefully see release sometime soon.
The Guardian salutes Bob Dylan. Part one of No Direction Home airs on PBS tonight – I think I will just seek out the DVD.
Bob Mould chats with The AV Club (have they dropped the “Onion” brand completely?) before setting out on his North American tour in support of Body Of Song (now underway), which includes a show this Sunday at the Mod Club in Toronto.
Chart talks to Rob Dickinson about flying solo with Fresh Wine For The Horses. I got my copy on Friday and already I find weird discoloured scuff marks on the playing surface. What the fuck? I’ve spun this thing, like, four times. Rob and I will have words about the manufacturer’s quality control when he plays the Horseshoe October 7, believe you me.
Something I totally forgot while I was away was that the new television season was getting started. Not much network TV on the Baltic Sea, y’know. So when I got back I had to download myself the first two episodes of the new season of Justice League Unlimited and the Arrested Development season premiere. I was able to catch last night’s new West Wing in real time but will have to rely on bit torrent for the season premiere of Veronica Mars on Wednesday – I don’t think I get UPN here. So those are the returning shows on my viewing schedule (24 doesn’t return till January). Anything new worth my attention? I’ll need something to while away the hours while I munch on bonbons and wait for my EI cheque to arrive.
np – Rob Dickinson / Fresh Wine For The Horses
Sunday, September 25th, 2005
A couple movies this weeks – flicks I saw on the ship. Coincidentally, both London-set, period pieces about the theatre. I haven’t had any time to get to the Guilt Pile of CDs lately, and it’s just gotten bigger in my absence.
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Being Julia
I remember Being Julia screening at the TIFF last year to considerable buzz, almost exclusively thanks to Annete Bening’s performance as Julia Lambert, an aging, mercurial 1930s stage actress going through a bit of a midlife crisis, taking a younger lover and fending off an ambitious ingenue rival. As it turns out the praise was well-deserved, as Bening dives right into the role, combining just the right balance of over-the-topness and vulnerability, by turns full-on diva and neurotically insecure. It all fits perfectly with her character, though, and never crosses the line into scenery-chewing. The supporting cast is also quite good, managing to hold their own even when Beining is “on”. I particularly liked seeing Jeremy Irons in a non-creepy role as Lambert’s cluelessly cuckolded husband.
It’s a light, breezy period film that doesn’t overstay its welcome and has an excellent final act that really allows Bening to shine. It even took my mind off of being seasick at the time, no mean feat. |
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Finding Neverland
Okay, at the risk of sounding like a total grump, I don’t understand the rapturous praise surrounding this film. It’s not BAD, but is so treacley and sentimental that it was a little embaressing to watch. It’s the I’ve-no-idea-how-accurate story of J.M. Barrie’s creation of the Peter Pan (a story for which I also have no great affection – just indifference), and the single mother whose brood who inspired him to write it. Johnny Depp is the playwright and Kate Winslett as the doomed-from-the-beginning matriarch. While I applaud his Scottish accent, I thought Depp was kind of vacant and came off as kind of overly naive, even for a daydreamer playwright, while the trio of moppets who play Winslett’s clan are almost unbearably precious. That actually goes for the whole film – too bloody precious. I liked Dustin Hoffman though.
I don’t really like using that as a basis for criticism – it makes me feel like I’m saying there should have been car chases or ninjas or something to make it worthwhile. Not at all – I think I just dislike anything that makes such a blatant and clumsy grab for the heartstrings, because if it fails (as Finding Neverland did in my case), it’s just awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved. Now when I left the theatre, I saw people in the audience crying, but keep in mind that these were all senior citizens. Old people cry at everything. |
np – American Music Club / A Toast To You
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Someone asked what I had been listening to whilst on vacation – okay, I’ll bite. I only loaded up one CD wallet with 24 discs (trips are the only thing that make me wish for an iPod. Trips and moving houses). I’ve brought more on trips before but never ended up getting through a fraction of them so I kept it a little more economical this time. As it ended up, I went through most of them as reading and listening to music on the deck is how I spent most of our time at sea. No real surprises in the rotation – American Music Club, The Concretes, Crooked Fingers, Jens Lekman, My Morning Jacket, The National, The Radio Dept, Sigur Ros, Wilco, amongst others. Yeah, I actually just went through my CD wallet alphabetically.
And lots of Bob Dylan. In addition to the No Direction Home soundtrack, I picked up the September issue of Uncut in Helsinki which came with Highway 61 Revisited Revisited, a compilation disc with different artists covering te whole of Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. The MP3 of the Drive-By Truckers doing “Like A Rolling Stone” has been kicking around but I was most keen on getting AMC’s “Queen Jane Approximately”. That track is actually a bit of a disappointment but on the whole the disc is enjoyable. Certainly makes me want to listen to the original, though.
The European media is in a bit of a Dylan tizzy themselves, what with the simultaneous release of the No Direction Home soundtrack and film, the softcover release of Chronicles, Volume 1 and The Bob Dylan Scrapbook. It was sheer luck that on the day I passed through Heathrow, The Independent ran a special Dylan section that compiled a number of excellent articles. I picked up a discarded copy in the departure lounge. For those of you not so fortunate as to be able to pick up other peoples’ refuse, they’ve got all the articles online:
The cross-generational appeal of Dylan
The stories behind the songs
His top 20 albums
The story of the man who yelled, “Judas!”
A critical analysis of the man behind the myth
Recollections from Donovan and journalist David Hepworth
All good stuff and it got me through the wait in the lounge and almost until we lifted off from Heathrow. What with the documentary having been released on DVD last week and airing on television this coming Monday and Tuesday, the interweb is awash with more reviews and Dylan pieces – finding and linking them all would be an exercise in futility. There’s lots.
So I’m back home and am trying to figure out how to fit back into my life. I have many things to do, many things to take care of, but am not entirely sure where to begin. Doing laundry was definitely a good start. Looking for work will also begin in earnest. I have emails to reply to and will try to get to those soon. Ish. Same for review items. Also, I am seeking new webhosting – moving my site to Hostony has been an unmitigated disaster. I don’t know if it’s been evident from the user end, but from my end it’s been shit. I am seeking new digs and if anyone has any suggestions for reliable, affordable hosting that can handle 50-100 GB of traffic a month, let me know. And support staff that can speak English is also a plus.
Oh yeah, has anyone been noticing pop-up ads or such on this site lately? I haven’t done anything but it’s been mentioned that stuff I certainly don’t want has been showing up intermittently. Please advise.
np – Mark Eitzel / Demos Before Love Songs
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2:50 AM EDT, 8:50 AM local time
As I’ve always suspected, the so-called “continental breakfast” that North American hotesl are so generous with doesn’t actually exist on the continent. Our hotel in Copenhagen had a full and proper spread of eggs, bacon, bread, meats, cheeses, potatos… none of it was really very good mind you, but it’s certainly better than the danish, coffee and day-old USA Today that you get at your local Best Western. They had danishes, too, though I’m not sure if they’re still called danishes or not.
Trying to score free wifi in Copenhagen airport has proven futile. There are several networks around, but they’re either secure, expensive or otherwise inaccessible. Damn wireless teases. So I am sitting and waiting. We leave for London, Heathrow in about an hour and then it’s back across the Atlantic. Having Kroners to blow, I bought a copy of The Tears’ Here Come The Tears from the airport store. Not cheap, but about on par with what I’d have paid on import back home.
Friday, September 23, 6:39 AM EDT, 11:39 AM local time
Unlike last time, where we flew into London from the northwest in early morning, today we arrived from the east in midday on a clear, sunny day. This meant that I was able to get a good look at all of London in its glory as we flew almost parallel to the Thames. I’m pretty sure I saw London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, that gigantic ferris wheel thing (what’s the deal with that?). I know London is huge, but until you see it it’s hard to comprehend just HOW big it is. It doesn’t seem to end. Very cool.
And now it’s more waiting around in Heathrow’s departure lounge. I have to admit it’s nice to be back somewhere that I actually speak the language. Folks in Scandanavia were pretty good with the English, but the time in St Petersburg that I was trying to negotiate admission to a washroom with this little old Russian lady was an experience unto itself. She kept talking to me in Russian, I kept talking to her in English as though somehow either of us would suddenly and magically understand the other. Not going to happen. Eventually I just handed her a few US dollars and hoped I got fair change back in Rubles. Probably not, but at least I got to use the foulest port-a-let in western Russia.
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