Monday, September 12th, 2005
Sunday, September 11, 11:30 PM EDT, ??? Local time
I’m just over halfway through my flight to London Heathrow, which should put me in the North Atlantic, probably somewhere around Iceland? They said that daylight would come very quickly upon us as we headed east, but it’s still pitch black outside. Among other firsts, this is my first red-eye flight so as I write this, the cabin is mostly dark and the passengers mostly asleep, save for the smallish number of people choosing to watch Moulin Rouge rather than catch some shut-eye. I’ve never seen the film but I don’t have a great angle on the screen and figure I’d rather see it in more comfortable environs. It’s the second film of the flight, the first was Monster In-Law. You’re damn right I slept through that.
I’ve had Billy Bragg stuck in my head for most of the first part of the flight, and naturally I didn’t bring any of his music along though I did think of it before I left. “Here Comes Richard” was replaced in my mental soundtrack by Jim James yelping “Off the record! Off the record!” and while I actually did bring my copy of Z along with me, I really don’t feel like installing the copy protection software that would allow me to play it on the laptop so I’m currently enjoying the dulcet yet sardonic croonings of Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman. Seems appropriate.
If I had any sense, I’d be asleep too. For whatever reason, I’ve been nigh-narcoleptic all day, barely staying awake long enough to check in, board and eat… But I just caught a few hours of shut-eye and honestly, I found the image of being gently illuminated by my laptop screen at 39,000 feet near the top of the world while everyone else around me slumbers too romantic to resist. Yes, I find that romantic. I’m weird. Having Ewen McGregor and Nicole Kidman singing silently to one another out of the corner of my eye is just gravy.
They’ve just promised us turbulence. I am going to stow my carry-on baggage in anticipation. And maybe get some more sleep.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
If America wants to improve US-Canada relations with the next generation of Canadians, they would do well to make Sufjan Stevens their new ambassador to the North. Judging from the rapturous response from the crowd at Trinty-St Paul’s last night to his Illinois travelogue, he’s the one man who could make a country of cynical twentysomething lefties love the red, white and blue the way he does.
Laura Veirs opened things up with a set that drew heavily on her excellent new Year Of Meteors, and definitely benefitted from the wonderful church acoustics. Reports that her four-piece band were now rockers were somewhat exaggerated, but the sound of the keyboards and taut, sinewy electric guitar work in the arched hall really added some atmosphere to the songs. At the core of it all, though, were Veirs’ meditative songs and reserved, confident voice. Something about the live setting gave the material slightly more edge or tension than the recorded versions, but it all sounded excellent either way. It’s a shame that more people hadn’t shown up early to catch her set – the floor was pretty full but the balconies were pretty sparse.
After being summoned out enthusiastic if somewhat impatient audience (are you allowed to stomp in church?) Sufjan Stevens started the show off with a gorgeous, solo acoustic performance of Seven Swans’ “To Be Alone With You” which sent the crowd into a frenzy, but that was nothing compared the the excitement when Stevens’ band bounded down through the aisles in their cheerleader/pep squad uniforms. The next hour was solid Illinois love, with songs from the album interspersed with brief history lessons about the place in question and accompanying coreographerd cheers. To the more jaded, it might have seemed overly precious or chintzy (I know because that’s the response I’ve seen on some message boards), but to the converted – and there was a church full of them here – it was sheer unbridled joy. Despite his almost paralyzingly shy boy demeanor, Stevens seemed to be loving every minute of the show and commented more than a few times about how nice it was to be performing in such a (presumably) different venue than normal. And the full grand piano at the side of stage was nice, too. You don’t see that too often. After the too-short main set, the band returned, sans costumes, for a couple more numbers including a beautiful closer in “All Of The Trees Of The Field Will Clap Their Hands”. Having two Seven Swans numbers to bookend the show was a nice touch.
If I was disappointed in any sense, it was from reading the reviews of Stevens’ recent five-night stand in New York where he trotted out all sorts of different costumes and tricks to keep things interesting. I guess we just got the standard tour version. And an hour twenty just didn’t seem long enough. Ah well. Photos turned out pretty well despite the forest of mic stands all over the stage. Bright costumes help, too! But truly a beauteous night of music. If I could only go to one show over two months (and I can), I’m glad it was this one.
Camera Obscura doth have a new website and a blog. No real news otherwise, but work continues on a new album. Via For The Records.
Old 97s release their double-live album Alive And Wired on September 20 and Stereogum has a track to preview.
Rolling Stone shoots the shit with Death Cab For Cutie. Via LHB.
Pop (All Love) has rounded up a bunch of Feist links for your reading pleasure.
So no Sunday Cleaning for the next couple weeks, nor will there be the usual reportage of music, movies or whatnot. The cruise ship I’ll be on is wifi-ed throughout and I’ll have my laptop with me, so I exepct to be blogging my trip. Daily? I dunno – the time zones are gonna mess with my head, but when I can. And I’ll even try to get pictures up as we go. And sorry if the Sufjan review reads a little rushed, ’cause it is. I have a plane to catch.
And we’re off.
Saturday, September 10th, 2005
There’s precious little information available for my one and only Film Fest screening this year, a film called Neverwas by first-time director Joshua Michael Stern. It hardly rates as a “small” picture though, with a very solid cast including Aaron Eckhart, Sir Ian McKellen, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. I guess it’s just so far off from a proper theatrical release – this was the world premiere – that they haven’t gotten any sort of PR machine working yet. I wasn’t able to find any information on the film besides what TIFF had on their own site. No idea if this is a greatly anticipated film by anyone or if it’s completely flying under the radar, and that sort of mystery is part of the fun of the Film Festival.
It’s about a psychiatrist (Eckhart) whose father (Nolte) was the author of a much-beloved childrens book, Neverwas. Though he’s spent most of his life trying to escape his father’s legacy and shadow, he chooses to take a job at a mental institution where his father spent his last days. There, he meets a patient (McKellan) with some mysterious ties to his father and his work… and hilarity ensues. No, not really. It’s a very earnest, open-hearted film and that leaves it open to some somewhat cliched moments. It’s also not helped by the direction, which is rather obvious and lacking in subtlety and nuance, and some underdeveloped or cookie-cutter characters. Jessica Lange in particular is wasted and Nick Nolte is convincing as a mental patient (shock!) but not as much as a man who could write a children’s book. And as always, Brittany Murphy is just annoying.
But these shortcomings – which I’m willing to forgive for a rookie directorial effort – are outweighed by a simply amazing performance by Sir Ian McKellan. The main story of Eckhart’s psychiatrist (who I swear was separated at birth from Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause) trying to unravel his own personal history with McKellan’s mental patient is nothing short of riveting. In the hands of a lesser actor, McKellan’s role could have been a nightmare of overacting and scenery-chewing, but he instead makes his character fascinating and inscrutable, slowly revealing himself as he connects with Eckhart. Whenever he’s on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him. The final scene in particular is marvelous, as he utterly transforms himself with no more than a slouch. Never Was is worth seeing for his performance, if nothing else.
Celeb sightings – the director was in attendance, obviously, as were Nolte, Eckhart and Cumming. A shame McKellan wasn’t there because he should have – and would have – gotten a 20-minute standing ovation. And try as I did, I could not come up with an interesting title for this post. Alas.
Exciting news – the tracks from Galaxie 500’s two John Peel Sessions in 1989 and 19909 will finally be getting a proper release courtesy of Damon & Naomi’s own 20-20-20 label. You can pre-order it now $10.98 plus shipping – it’s out November 14. Meanwhile, in Luna-land, Rhino will be assembling a compilation for the departed outfit, but it won’t be one of their excellent rarities-and-hits combos, just the best-of. Look for that sometime around March, and the farewell tour documentary (currently working titled Tell Me Do You Miss Me) could be out around the same time.
Losing Today has an interview with Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom (Pete Kember to his mom).
Sadly, it seems that rumours of Ear To the Ground’s troubles are true, though their full extent remain to be seen. What is known is that the festival has been reduced in scope (with dance and theatre components apparent casualties) and the festival no longer being held at Exhibition Place. How organizers will manage to shoehorn in all or even some of the acts into other venues in such short notice remains to be seen (though they’re trying), though that might be less difficult than weathering the PR nightmare that is sure to follow. It’s a real shame that things have had to shake out this way – even if they salvage the musical performances, it’ll be a far cry from the giant one-stop multi-disciplinary arts festival it was initially hoping to be.
Comic Book Resources talks to Justice League Unlimited writer Dwayne McDuffie about what is, for my money, the best animated comic book adaptation ever. Of all time. The good news is that the new season starts up later this month (September 17 to be exact), the bad news is that STILL no one is saying those magic words, “complete season DVD set”. I’m sorry, those measly 3-episode discs don’t cut it. I want em ALL. With commentary from Batman.
np – Crooked Fingers / Red Devil Dawn
Friday, September 9th, 2005
Starting today, MySpace is streaming the entirety of Sigur Ros’ new album Takk, four days before its official release on Tuesday. I will confess to downloading and burning a copy of the record this week – it seems like the perfect soundtrack to a trip to Scandanavia, and I doubt I’d be able to pick up a copy abroad (at least not at anything resembling a reasonable price). I don’t have the greatest confidence that it’s an accurate tracklist, though – some of the song titles are different and it doesn’t flow especially well, so it’s likely it’s more of an attempt to cobble the album together rather than a proper album rip, but it’ll do. And before you jump all over me for hipocrisy, know that I’ve already pre-ordered it ($12.98 CDN/$10.98 USD at MyMusic.ca!) and it should be in my mailbox at home by this time next week. So there.
You can watch the first video from Takk for “glósóli” (so much for NME‘s purported exclusive premiere…), as well as read band interviews with Sirkus, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Oh how I envy those of you seeing them on this North American tour… and if you don’t have tickets, there’s contests to win some here and here.
There’s a flurry of Son Volt pieces circulating as the tour hits the west coast – check out interviews and articles from Offbeat, The Straight, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, NCTimes, San Diego CityBeat and MetroActive. And then there’s Pitchfork reporting that a new interview with Farrar in Relix magazine offers up some tabloid-worthy dirt on the breakup of Uncle Tupelo – it’s not online, but one of the good folks at Via Chicago has transcribed it to keep the curious from having to suffer the embaressment of buying a magazine with Carlos Santana on the cover.
Chicago Innerview has a mostly superfluous interview with Jeff Tweedy, but he does allow a little more info about the forthcoming live DVD/CD and reveals a new Loose Fur album is about 75% done and should be out early next year.
Arcade Fire confirms the rumours that have been swirling for some time when they tell NME that they are, indeed, recording a second album.
The BBC is having a big Bob Dylan lovefest – check out their Bob-o-rama minisite, inspired by the No Direction Home biopic.
Chart. Sufjan.
Veronica Mars season two previews!!! Thanks to Soaring With Eagles for the link. Ms Mars, aka Kristen Bell, will also be performing the theme from Fame on this year’s Emmy awards. She’s gonna live forever, she’s gonna be a star. The new season starts September 28.
np – The New Pornographers / Twin Cinema
Thursday, September 8th, 2005
Mark Kozelek continues to surprise and confound. Billboard reports that the next Sun Kil Moon record will be all covers. That in and of itself is no surprise, Kozelek has long been known for being a proponent of covers as the Red House Painters discography will attest. This time, however, he’s recorded an album of songs all by one artist – Modest Mouse. Tiny Cities, out November 1, will feature eleven Isaac Brock compositions though no doubt completely deconstructed and redone in Kozelek’s own style. Kozelek is currently on tour with Low’s Alan Sparhawk (apparently feeling much better since his mental difficulties earlier this Summer) as the Retribution Gospel Choir. Pitchfork also has a news item with pretty much the same information.
NOW, eye and JAM! all talk to Laura Veirs about wanting to rock out on Year Of Meteors. Veirs will amp it up Saturday night at Trinity-St Paul’s opening for Sufjan Stevens.
Stevens is also getting some press (shock!) with a feature story in eye and an interview in Cleveland Scene (Via Largehearted Boy).
Check of the video for The New Pornographers’ “Use It” – Neko doesn’t appear but David Cross does. Twin Cinema (which has its own cute IMDB-style website here) debuted on Billboard’s Top 200 chart at #44 (PDF). I don’t follow charts, but checking out the mainstream artists that fill out the rest of the chart, I have to think that’s a pretty damned impressive showing. Bravo. The band will be on Conan O’Brien on September 16 and play The Phoenix in Toronto on October 9.
Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley tell MTV about their respective side projects due out in January of next year – Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat and Sennett’s second album with The Elected. They’re also sure to say only nice things about current tourmates and meal tickets Coldplay. The St Petersberg Times also has an interview with the pair. Stereogum has a live mp3 of the title track of Jenny’s album. Links via LHB.
I had no idea Depeche Mode was an Air Canada Centre-scale band, but there they are, December 1. Go Figure.
This is my last Torontoist week in shows for a couple weeks. Just doesn’t seem right to try and document what’s coming up at the Horseshoe from Helsinki.
EOnline has more stunt-casting news from the set of Arrested Development – with Henry Winkler/Barry Zuckerkorn leaving the show, he will be replaced by his cousin – Chachi. Yes, in an obvious attempt to get the entire Happy Days cast on the show, Scott Baio will be the new Bluth family attorney. Hopefully, however, they won’t tempt fate and will resist the temptation to bring Ted “Kiss Of Death” McGinley onboard.
np – Low / The Great Destroyer
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