Thursday, July 14th, 2005
So Pitchfork is first out of the gates with tour dates for current hipster darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah which include a September 18 date at the Horseshoe. Incidentally, that is the date I will be living it up in Tallinn, Estonia. I’m not so upset about missing the CYHSY show – what I’ve heard is alright but hasn’t really set my world ablaze – but I am mighty sore about missing out on their tourmates The National.
Since taking a flyer on their Alligator album in the used bins last week, I’ve been absolutely LOVING the album. I don’t know if I’m as frothing at the mouth as Stylus (more reviews at Metacritic), but I am wholly impressed. It’s moody, haunting and weary but pulls itself up of its barstool for episodes of anthemic glory at just the right moments. I am reminded of a gentler Afghan Whigs or an American Music Club reared in Gotham instead of Frisco, maybe even a little bit of Interpol if they were beatniks. Singer Matt Berninger possesses a baritone like a parallel dimension Leonard Cohen and a charming lyrical fixation with girls named Karen. Safe money puts Alligator on my year-end list. God, I hope they keep touring this record, I really want to see them.
You can stream Alligator here, courtesy of Beggars. Maybe it’s a grower – I was pretty much hooked after two listens.
That weekend I’ll also be missing the The Ear To The Ground festival, which takes over the Exhibition Place grounds September 16 through 18. They’re holding a launch party at the Gladstone next Tuesday night and will feature musical performances from Frontier Index and The Old Soul. A limited number of early bird passes for the festival will also go on sale ($40 for the whole weekend).
Show news – The New Pornographers show on October 9 really is at The Docks, tickets $22.50. Hear that? That’s the sound of that show being taken off my calendar. Regretfully, yes, but definitely so. Docks my ass. Trinity-St Paul’s turns into a full-on cabaret on October 1 when it hosts Antony & The Johnsons and CocoRosie, tickets $21.50. And finally, Ted Leo and his Pharmacists return for a show at the Mod Club on September 29, tickets $15. Ted is always a great show, I will be in attendance for certain. Oh, and Built To Spill are coming… to Rochester. Too bad that’s a Tuesday night otherwise a jaunt on the resurrected ferry might be in order. But no. No BTS for us.
The Toronto Star previews Sunday night’s Dinosaur Jr show at the Phoenix.
Speaking of which… here’s the Torontoist week in shows. Whee. Don’t forget the Torontoist party this Friday at the Embassy in Kensington. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend but many other lovely -Ist people will be there to entertain you with their witticisms. Because everyone knows bloggers are FAR more charming and clever in real life than online. Ahem. Yeah, that’s going to be a train wreck.
Brian K Vaughan is feeling the love. The newest trade paperback for Y – The Last Man came out yesterday. Some people are wetting themselves for the new Harry Potter on Saturday – this is what I’ve been waiting for for months. Sooo good, but even at eight collected issues, too short! Need more! Nurrr nurrr.
Check out this Globe & Mail article on music blogs for a couple of quotes from yours truly. This interview was conducted about a month ago and was considerably longer than what they’ve used in the piece. I’d like to say that they excised all the really good and clever stuff, but they didn’t. Pretty much everything I had to say was inconsequential – perfectly in character. Globe staffer Zoilus seems to find great amusement in the fact that if I happened to miss a day’s post, there would probably be good cause to send out police dogs in search of my corpse. I actually found that fact rather comforting when I was living alone, actually. It was like my own personal Lifecall service – “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up (to blog)!”
np – Crooked Fingers / Dignity And Shame
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005
This Village Voice article about the demise of BritPop ten years ago did two things for me: One, made me feel really old. Two, made me realize that while I’ve mentioned my falling out with BritPop before in passing, I’ve never really gotten into specifics. I guess now’s as good a time as any.
Using the timeline in the Wikipedia, it seems I actually missed out on practically the whole first half of the movement when things were actually fresh and exciting, instead only getting on board for the bloat and decline of it all. The first time I heard Oasis was in first year university and I recall being thoroughly underwhelmed and disappointed by “Supersonic”. Everything I’d heard about this Oasis band made me hope that they’d alter my reality… Not so much. I hated Blur, too, because the guy who lived next door to me in residence developed a real hard-on for “Girls & Boys” and insisted on playing it almost 24/7, really really loudly. The walls there were thick, but not thick enough to stop the sound of Damon pogoing like a jackass. But despite this distaste for the alpha and omega of the movement, I bought into it hook line and sinker anyway.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can admit that I probably wanted to buy into the culture of it all as as much as anything. For someone looking for some sort of musical identity to get through university with, it seemed a natural fit. It was a haven for someone of the skinny, geeky persuasion and anyway the girls were cute (emo hadn’t been invented yet – god, if I were five years younger… shudder). Toronto in particular was/is especially conducive as a city to Anglophilia – Britpop nights at dance clubs were and still are commonplace and if nothing else, they offered something to do on Thursday and Saturday nights. While I didn’t necessarily look the part (I had no interest in the fashion aspect of it and my hair wouldn’t do that mod cut thing anyway), I ate up everything from a musical perspective. Even if I didn’t particularly like it, I would probably buy it anyway, either to hopefully grow into it or at the very least, maintain appearances of being completely in the know.
The thing is, after a while I realized I wasn’t really enjoying it all that much. More and more of the acts the British press was trying to convince me would be the next saviours of music turned out to be, well, more than a little bit crap – you can only recycle the same influences so many times before it all gets excessively generic and creatively stagnant. Which isn’t so much a problem if you just want something that sounds like the last thing you liked, but if you wanted something more, it was sadly deficient. By this point, my CD collection was overflowing with the latest “next big things” as decreed by Select, NME, Q, etc – Shed Seven, Sleeper, Echobelly, Kenickie, Embrace, Ocean Colour Scene, The Bluetones… Not inherently bad, some of it quite passable, but not really stuff that stood up especially well outside the Britpop bubble. Instead of renewing my passion for the genre, it only reinforced how disillusioned I was with it all. Combine this epiphany with my discovery of far more interesting and adventurous music from what would soon be known as indie rock originating from this side of the Atlantic and you were looking at a complete sea change in my musical tastes. And it turns out those cute girls were only interested in tall skinny dudes with lame-o Anglo affectations. Bitter? Me? Nah.
Once again referring back to the Wikipedia timeline, by the time BritPop was officially declared dead, coincidentally the same year I graduated university, I was completely over it. Granted, it took a few years to clear out the corpses to the local used CD shops, but when I did, it actually felt good. I didn’t need to keep these reminders of my more musically gullible days around… I think there’s still probably a few stragglers that I’m hanging onto for whatever reason – Charlatans, I’m looking in your direction, but the culls are mostly complete. It took me a while but I was eventually cleansed.
These days, most of the stuff I listen to tends to be the forebears of the Britpop movement (The Chameleons, House Of Love, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc), those who never quite fit in (hello shoegazers) or the bands that were good enough to transcend the “scene” (Pulp, early Suede, Manic Street Preachers and I even got past my Blur aversion). I dont indulge in much nostalgia for the mid-90s. My college years aren’t necessarily ones I wish to relive – they weren’t especially traumatic or anything, just excruciatingly dull. Things are much more interesting now. Live in the past, die in the present, dontcha know.
Furthermore, I’ve only recently gotten over my intense suspicion and cynicism about anything the British press fetes. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. I’d like to think that I’m more resistant to the persuasive powers of hype and am able to make more judicious decisions on what is and isn’t good. Less gullible, older and wiser, etc. I am again starting to discover there are still good acts from across the pond with substance beyond all the hype and hyperbole that makes it so easy to dismiss them as more effective soap opera stars than musicians. I rather like that though there are more UK acts finding success in North America now than there have been in years, they’re doing it on their individual merits rather than riding the coattails of any media-constructed movement. But I still absolutely refuse to listen to a note of The Libertines or Babyshambles on principle alone. And you know what? Over all those years, I still never warmed to Oasis. What can I say.
I would, however, still love to have a Gibson ES-335. Someday, my pretty. Someday.
Just this for today. Back to regular scattershot posting tomorrow.
np – Okkervil River / Black Sheep Boy
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
Dinosaur Jr tells The Village Voice why they were so dysfunctional the first time around – “We were all socially retarded” (Via Brooklynvegan). And in the “ad nauseum” department, the band recounts over and over again how much they hated each other when they were younger but how much better it is now to The Tampa Tribune, The Washington Post, The Shepherd Express, Revolutions Live and Creative Loafing. EQ doesn’t care about the drama, just the recording secrets. Most links and photo via the Freakscene.net message boards.
The Dino Jr reunion tour hits Toronto this Sunday night. To my moderate surprise, even with it less than a week away, I’m still not feeling any sort of overwhelming desire to get a ticket and go. If someone wants to GIVE me one, that’s cool, but if not? I’ll find other ways to occupy my time. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m out of commission for most of this weekend anyway, so perhaps my indifference is for the best.
The Daily Bruin talks to Sufjan Stevens about his ambitious 50 states project.
Bradley’s Almanac has MP3s from Bettie Serveert’s recent Boston show available for download.
The Big Ticket relives Feist’s recent Minneapolis show complete with a video of her performance of “Inside & Out”.
New York’s Stellastarr* (yes, the asterix is necessary) are at the Horseshoe September 10. Good luck drawing the hipster crowd away from the Sufjan show that night.
Tuscon Weekly looks at the Neil Young influence in Kathleen Edwards’ work. Via Thrasher’s Blog.
Aversion and Largehearted Boy offer some suggestions for albums released in the first half of 2005 that are worth your attention.
Writer Dwayne McDuffie tells Toonzone what viewers can expect from the season finale of Justice League Unlimited and some teases about what’s coming next season. Since YTV was weeks ahead of the Cartoon Network in showing new episodes of JLU, the season has been over for a few weeks now here in Canada. But for those south of the border who don’t do the bit torrent thing, I won’t spoil it for you…
…Everyone dies! Hahahaha. No, not really.
np – The Replacements / Let It Be
Monday, July 11th, 2005
Howl’s Moving Castle is Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film and the first to be released since the (relative) crossover success of Spirited Away. While it’s still unmistakably Miyazaki, it breaks away from his template of the plucky young heroine by instead going with the plucky elderly heroine.
The main character, Sophie, is an 18-year old girl who has the misfortune of being transformed via magical curse (of course) into the body of a wizened old lady for her association, however brief, with a young magician named Howl. Fleeing her home in search of a cure, she ends up housekeeper in Howl’s magical castle, a fantastical contraption which resembles Baba Yaga’s hut as imagined by Terry Gilliam. From that point on, honestly, I’m not 100% sure of where the plot went so I can’t really recap it. I’m not too proud to admit that I’ve always had a bit of a problem following Miyazaki’s higher-concept films – I thoroughly enjoy them but I don’t necessarily get them. Maybe something gets lost in the translation, maybe it’s not there in the first place, maybe I’m just not that smart, but everything that follows from that point was moderately confusing. There are several powerful yet inexplicable curses on major characters, a war of some description that stays way in the background for most of the film before suddenly leaping to the fore, what may or may not be love triangles… I’m really not sure.
It was, however, beautifully rendered – no less than one would expect from the master of Japanese animation. Besides the castle itself, there is no shortage of marvelous and whimsical characters and settings to enthrall, even if the viewer has difficult keeping up with the story (ie – me). The helpful scarecrow, Mr Turniphead, and Suliman’s dog were particularly endearing. On the voice acting end, it was interesting and a little odd to hear Christian Bale providing the voice of Howl – he’s Batman, you know? It’s weird to hear Batman bemoaning the loss of his good looks or the change of his hair colour. Suck it up, Bats.
It could well be that with a little background research from Nausicaa.net, repeat viewings could be far more rewarding as far as the story goes. And I can think of worse things than to watch Miyazaki films over and over again.
Finally – Sigur Ros’ new album is entitled Takk, the Icelandic word for “thanks”, and will be out September 12 in Europe, presumably on the 13th in North America. Full tracklisting here. Also on the release calendar – Catherine Wheel’s Rob Dickinson’s first solo album Fresh Wine For The Horses is in stores September 13 and Nellie McKay’s still-untitled follow-up to Get Away From Me is out September 27.
Broadcast will be touring in support of their new album, Tender Buttons, which is out September 20. Said tour includes a stop at Lee’s Palace on November 6.
Mogwai’s Barry Burns rages to Transform Online about the vacuity of current, fashion-obsessed bands and proposes a napalm-powered solution. And you thought Stuart Brathwaite was the only grumpy one.
The Vice Guide to Toronto. Oh God.
np – Innaway / Innaway
Sunday, July 10th, 2005
Gapers Block talks to Sufjan Stevens about the making of Illinois. Nothing about his Superman complex, though. Via Largehearted Boy.
Billboard has the offical straight goods on that episode, though, including the fact that DC never actually issued a cease-and-desist – Asthmatic Kitty issued the recall themselves when they realized that they in fact did not own the rights to Superman and that there could potentially be an issue.
You may also note that Illinois is rocking the Metacritic scores. And if you missed it, though everyone everywhere has already blogged it, here’s a new song Sufjan performed on NPR last week:
MP3: Sufjan Stevens – “The Great God-Bird”
Two Sufjan posts in less than a week? Yeah, it’ll happen sometimes. MP3 of the week, too!
The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee apparently takes a plus Chewbacca with her on every tour. Okay, then.
Arcade Fire side-project The Bell Orchestre will be at the El Mocambo on August 5 with The Wooden Stars. Admission $8 at the door.
Bookslut gives indie comic publisher Oni Press some love. I’ve only read a couple titles from Oni – Scott Lee O’Malley’s romance-action-comedy Scott Pilgrim and Greg Rucka’s espionage thriller Queen & Country, but have been assured as to the general excellence of everything that they put out.
Frank Miller – the man who pretty much defined the grim and gritty Batman – tells Newsarama how excited he is to be writing a 12-year old Dick Grayson in All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, which comes out next week.
Short post today, but yesterday’s was long so that balances out.
np – The Band / Music From Big Pink
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