Thursday, February 10th, 2005
Come dancing,
Just like the palais on a saturday.
And all her friends will come dancing
Where the big bands used to play
— Ray Davies, “Come Dancing”
I admit, I was kinda surprised when I saw on 20Hz that Blow-Up was ending with a grand to-do at the El Mocambo (upstairs and downstairs) on March 26 – it had always been one of those things I took for granted as a constant in the city, whether I cared or not. For non-locals, Blow Up was/is a local dance night that caters to the indie/Britpop/mod/soul crowd. While these sorts of themed nights are everywhere these days, Blow Up has been kicking around the longest. When I first moved downtown six years ago, it was one of a couple regular hangouts for my friends and I. Almost every Saturday night, like clockwork, we’d congregate there and dance, hang out, whatever, into the wee hours of the morning.
This isn’t to say that I actually enjoyed going. I didn’t hate it (for the first while), but at best it was something to do. I mean, I’m not a big dancer or drinker, I never picked up or got picked up there, it was quite literally just somewhere to go and meet up with my friends. And ogle girls, yes, but mostly just an excuse to get out of the house. I was actually quite relieved when we eventually stopped going… The crowds got younger and younger, I got older and older. The music got stale (Ooh, they’re playing the Strokes/Hives/White Stripes block! Again!) and my crowd of friends who usually went inevitably thinned out as real life took them far away (like the suburbs). I’ve been maybe a few times in the past couple years, but they mostly reinforce how little I missed going. More than anything, it’s become an object of scorn and ridicule. Mostly by me.
And yet, seeing that it’s all coming to an end, I am overcome by a wave of nostalgia – odd, since as I already said, I don’t have much to be nostalgic about. Maybe it’s the timing – I’m turning 30 and one of the places I spent a good chunk of my twenties is going away. It’s like the cosmos is telling me there’s no going back. Like many, I will probably end up going just to bid farewell… and the lineup of bands they’ve got on tap is pretty good as well (click on the graphic for details). It is nice that they’re holding it at the ElMo again, which was easily the best of its many different venues over the years. Betcha they play the Strokes, Hives and White Stripes back to back to back.
So while one Toronto institution is calling it a day, another is celebrating an anniversary. The Wavelength music series celebrates its fifth birthday this weekend and is celebrating with a full slate of shows happening all over town. Festivities start at Cinecycle tonight, continue tomorrow at Lee’s Palace, Saturday at the Music Gallery and the grand finale is in the usual WL slot of Sunday night at Sneaky Dee’s – check out the website for full lineups and times. Wavelength has been crucial in helping launch pretty much every indie band of any reknown to come out of TO in the past five years and is something this city can be immensely proud of. I must confess, however, that I rarely go. I just can’t get the energy to head out on Sunday nights, what can I say.
Local media props: Torontoist sat down with one of the founders of Wavelength, Mr Jonny Dovercourt, to talk about the little music night and ‘zine that could (though the February issue of the zine will be the last one and will henceforth only exist online). eye pays tribute and previews the weekend’s shows. NOW talks to Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, who is performing at the Saturday night show and releasing his first FF record Has A Good Home on Tuesday. The Toronto Star (bugmenot: wow@mail.com / sowhat) profiles The Creeping Nobodies, playing the Friday night show.
Nels Cline is coverboy for Guitar Player this month, wherein they talk to him about his solo work and future with Wilco.
eye introduces you to The Comas, playing a free show at Lee’s Palace next Wednesday.
There’s release dates for Ryan Adams’ other two releases this year. Jacksonville is out July 19 and 29 is out November 1. These will go along with the double-disc Cold Roses, scheduled to come out April 19.
A couple show announcements – The Soundtrack Of Our Lives are at the Guvernment March 26th, tickets $25.75, Josh Rouse is at Lee’s Palace April 5 with Amy Correia and Scout Niblett is opening for The Kills at the Horseshoe April 7, $12.50. Also, those excited about the prospects of seeing a reunited Wonder Stuff at the Horseshoe on April 9 should know that it’s not the complete original lineup, but instead frontman Miles Hunt with some hired players using the old moniker. The other Stuffies aren’t impressed and say so on the .com website. If you visit the .net website, everything is sunshine and lollipops. Finally, April 2’s Bloc Party show has been moved from Lee’s to the Opera House.
There was a starling lost in the hallway of my office building today. It seemed embaressed to ask for help, choosing to constantly fly into the windows instead. I know a cry for help when I see one, so I assisted it by first giving it directions into a cardboard box and then out the back door. Silly bird, I thought starlings were supposed to be smart?
np – Husker Du / New Day Rising
Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
Acthung Baby celebrates the release of Eisley’s Room Noises yesterday with a multimedia link extravaganza, Paul reviewed the record for 75 Or Less and The Houston Chronicle profiles the band.
Even though the production on what I’ve heard of the record sounds a little Dawson’s Creek-ish at times (no, not even OC-ish), there’s still some real sharp songwriting and musical ideas in there – I can’t help but like it. Plus they’re still young (ridiculously so), so they’ll have the chance to refine their craft with time. Much potential here. I fully expect Reprise to give this the full-court promo press, so I figure I’ll be able to find a used copy within a week. It’s not that I don’t want to give these kids my money, but it’s become increasingly rare that I actually want anything that’s likely to turn up in the used CD stores, so when the occasion presents itself, I gotta take it.
I’ve did a review of the new Bettie Serveert record, Attagirl, for Torontoist yesterday. Reader’s Digest version? It’s okay, but not great. Private Suit was better and even the patchy Log 22 had higher high points. Still, looking forward to the show Thursday at the ‘Shoe with The Petit Project and Human Deluxe, neither of whom I know anything about.
So I saw Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of 2000-2004 and it didn’t click that this was a different list from Stylus’. But it is… except not really. Because I have the sort of mind that likes to quantify everything, I tallied it up and found that I own 30% of PF’s list and 38% of Stylus’. Ergo, Stylus has better taste than Pitchfork. QED.
Sunday Life talks to Belfast ex-pat Darren Bleckett about life as drummer for Ambulance LTD. From LHB.
Torr reports that the North American release for the new New Order album, Waiting For The Siren’s Call, has been pushed up a couple weeks to April 12.
Having wrapped up a triumphant American tour, The Arcade Fire are recuperating back home but are planning to play a Toronto show sometime in mid-to-late April. Anyone want to guess at a venue? I don’t expect I’d bother going if it’s anywhere larger than the Phoenix or Palais Royale (capacity 1000-1100). The Kool Haus can kiss my ass. Related – David Byrne blogs about joining the band onstage in New York last week. Via Stereogum.
80s UK post-punk survivors New Model Army return to North America for the first time in ages, playing the Horseshoe on March 13.
Thanks to Travis for pointing out this choice Super Bowl commercial. I don’t actually remember what they were selling, which kind of defeats the purpose, but I’m always in favour of monkeys.
The Batman Begins has been given an overhaul and now actually has content! I have new wallpaper.
The Washington Post reveals what you’d have to look forward to if you started working for CTU.
Happy Chinese New Year. Note to self – CALL HOME.
np – The Futureheads / The Futureheads
Tuesday, February 8th, 2005
Filter waxes nostalgic about the legacy of one of rock’s greatest cautionary tales, The Stone Roses (Link via ILB). It features a brief timeline and a couple of interviews with Ian Brown and Reni. I remember hanging out on Usenet around the year 2000 when some mook was trying to spread the rumour that it was divinely ordained that the Roses would reform to save the world in the new millennium or some such nonsense. Ah, Usenet. Those were the days.
Update: Thanks to Torr for pointing out that he’s got some early Roses demos available for download. Simpatico!
Meanwhile, some other Mancunians who probably would have been well-advised to take the “burn out fast” route, are coming to town. As promised, Oasis and Jet are at the Molson Amphitheatre on June 17 to shill their new album, out May 12 16, which will probably continue to disappoint anyone hoping for another “Morning Glory” but thrill those who thought “Little James” was a watershed moment in songwriting history.
And to make it a Manchester triple-header, Morrissey’s Live At Earl’s Court will be out March 22 in both CD and DVD formats. I wish I could find some Doves news to make it a quadruple-header spanning four eras of British music, but alas. I could go south to London to report that The Psychedelic Furs are doing two nights at Lee’s Palace on March 31 and April 1, but that’s just not the same.
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (I love writing that out) are in town to promote the love-it-or-hate-it Worlds Apart at the Opera House April 15.
Donewaiting has the cover artwork from the new Decemberists record, Picaresque. Look for it in stores March 22.
Static Multimedia conducts another “why you breaking up?” interview with Dean Wareham of Luna. I wonder if he’s started making up new reasons to keep himself entertained? “Sean keeps giving me wet willies in the tour bus and I’m sick of it”.
See You In The Pit is an mp3 blog dedicated to the performers at this year’s SxSW festival. Thanks to LHB for the link.
Canada’s music awards, the Junos, make the Grammies look like a bastion of artistic integrity. The very fact that there’s a “best international” category in the transparent, pathetic hopes that someone like Kid Rock will show up at the awards ceremony to accept the bauble marginalizes the worthy Canadian nominees. That is, of course, if you accept the notion that these music awards have any meaning whatsoever in the first place. I myself find them utterly ridiculous. Pop (All Love) takes a look at some of the highlights from this year’s nominees.
24: Man, a year and a half on the skids and Tony! Tone! Toni! goes all bad-ass. Dallying with trashy bartenders, watching soccer, tossing off the one-liners like they’re going out of style. I can’t decide what my favourite from last night was – “Don’t you think you’ve made me miss enough TV today, Jack?”, or “Actually, I’m currently unemployed”. Both golden. Jack got a nice one in with “She seems like a real sweet girl,” but the winner of this episode was undoubtedly Mr Soul Patch. I was glad to see Marianne get busted though I saw it coming since Aisha Tyler was still only a guest-star after this many episodes. Tick tick tick, Marianne. They totally telegraphed her setup of Sarah a mile off though. The only way they could have surprised anyone with that scene was if they spun the chair around and revealed Zombie Nina. I’m glad they didn’t drag that one out longer than one ep. As for the double-bust/double-assassination as the hour wrapped up… eh. Saw that coming too.
np – Bettie Serveert / Attagirl
Monday, February 7th, 2005
Dark Horizons reports that director Sam Raimi wants to go back to the well one more time for Evil Dead 4, once again starring the inimitable Bruce Campbell as Ash. They also get some information on the remake of the first Evil Dead movie which will not be made by Raimi, not star Campbell and not have a main character named Ash. Instead, it will tell the tale of a plucky young English boy in a depressed mining town who grows up to be a ballet dancer.
And speaking of going back to the well – perhaps once too often – American Dad? Meh. It’s strange world we live in where a cartoon about a CIA agent and his family, an East German skier whose brain has been transferred into a goldfish and an alien escapee from Area 51 can seem so formulaic. Maybe it’ll get better when the series starts proper on May 1, but I’m not holding my breath. Cause that’s a long way off and I need the oxygen.
The new Batman Begins commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl last night. And for more Super Bowl advertising without all the annoying program interruptions, go to iFilm.
Pitchfork is first out of the gates with info on The Mountain Goats’ new record, The Sunset Tree, out April 26.
Whatevs points us at this thread from The Velvet Rope which latches onto a single line from a Merge press release that seems to imply that there’s a Dinosaur Jr reunion is in the works. I take this with an enormous grain of salt. While a promo show or two to go along with the re-release of the first three Dinosaur Jr albums this Spring featuring both J Mascis and Lou Barlow wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility – they supposedly no longer hate each other – but I couldn’t imagine them working together again in any real capacity.
Acthung Baby has a nice live Rachael Yamagata mp3 in celebration of her recent appearance on The OC. Is she making meowing noises at the end of the song? Looking at that pic on his site, I can officially say that Mischa Barton creeps me the fuck out. And not just because she was the vomiting dead girl in The Sixth Sense, and I think that alone is plenty of reason to find someone creepy.
No time to go through that SxSW list yet. This week, I hope.
This past weekend has left me a wee bit discombobulated – besides going out Friday night, I went out to St Catherines on Saturday to celebrate by friend Chris’ 30th birthday. His is the first domino of birthdays that sees all my friends at my age stepping gingerly into their thirties. Ironically, we celebrated by carrying on pretty much as we did about a decade ago in undergrad. I’m talking drinking to excess and beyond, wandering about in the cold going to awful clubs, going home and deciding to watch Old School at three in the morning, sleeping on a horribly uncomfortable hardwood floor… Yes, I am far too old for this shit but it’s fun to forget that every once in a while. Oh, and on the drive home the next morning, the radio was carrying on with some awful retro “1994 weekend” theme which was basically the soundtrack of first-year university. Old old old.
np – Six By Seven / :04
Sunday, February 6th, 2005
Much has been made of Low’s bold new sound on their latest album, The Great Destroyer, their first for Subpop. Formerly the patron saints of all things slow and quiet, they’ve apparently decided to amp up and rock out, at least in a relative sense. I say “apparently” because I haven’t actually gotten the new record yet, I’m just going by the reviews and online scuttlebutt. As you could expect, the general opinion seems split – some find the new direction revitalizing, others have sworn the band off in disgust. Me, I expect to find myself in the former camp. The two sample tracks that Subpop has available online are pretty damn good songs.
MP3: Low – “California”
MP3: Low – “Monkey”
Their current tour doesn’t bring them to the 416, but I hope they’ll be promoting this one for a while and I’ll get to see them eventually. In the meantime, if I can’t see them, I can at least read about them! Yeah, I know. Lame. Anyway, The Washington Square News talks to the band about life on Subpop and the new record (via LHB) while Boston’s Weekly Dig also considers their new direction.
Ooh, cover artwork for the new Ivy record. In The Clear is out March 1.
JAM! seems to think that Oasis will be stopping by at the Molson Amphitheatre in mid-June.
Anyone dismayed to find that the Anti-Hit List was absent from this week’s issue of eye, repoint your bookmarks to The Toronto Star, the AHL’s new home. Yeah, you’ll need a login to read the thing – that’s why God created bugmenot.com. However, boo to The Star for not making the links in the copy live. Boo, I say.
Bought myself a 200GB hard drive yesterday. Holy hannah that’s a lot of storage.
Come dancing,
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