Sunday, January 2nd, 2005
Newsarama talks to Grant Morrison about his upcoming All-Star Superman with Frank Quitely, which will feature the big blue banana in stories outside the continuity of his regular title. The All-Star imprint is DC’s response to Marvel’s wildly successful “Ultimate” universe (which, in brief, was a ground-zero reboot of their classic characters, sans the decades of continuity baggage that hangs around the necks of the regular titles like so much albatrosses). Other titles in the line will include All-Star Batman & Robin by Jim Lee and a writer TBA (Frank Miller is probably too much to hope for) and there are rumours of Adam Hughes turning his pencils to All-Star Wonder Woman.
The Incredible Hulk makes some new year’s resolutions.
Some good mojo from Neil Gaiman for the coming year:
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t to forget make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
Dead Meadow are in town March 30 at a venue to be determined in support of their new album Feathers, out February 22 on Matador. Italy’s Jennifer Gentle support.
If I hadn’t declared a moratorium on 2004 year-in-reviews, I would direct you to Zoilus’ piece from this weekend’s Globe & Mail. But I did, so I won’t. Sorry Carl.
np – Pacific UV / Pacific UV
Saturday, January 1st, 2005
Happy New Year. You’ve just awoken to a world without Guided By Voices. Think about that for a moment. Then continue.
I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions since I never keep New Year’s resolutions, but since this has been on my mind a bit of late and it’s timely, I’ll call this one a New Year’s resolution. I hereby resolve, in 2005, to seek out and support more new and up-and-coming bands/artists, both local and non-local. You see, it seems that all my favourite bands are breaking up and/or dying (see lead item), and this is not a trend I find agreeable.
Okay, this is a gross overstatement, but there is a fundamental kernel of truth in there. I look at my shopping list, and sometimes there’s more archival releases and reissues than new records, or albums from artists who are, honestly speaking, past their best before date and I’m buying their stuff out of some sense of obligation or completist-itis. Sometimes it seems my concert calendar consists of more big-ticket reunion tours or bands I’ve already seen numerous times rather than something new. I don’t want to be that classic rock guy who thinks everything’s been crap since 1992 (though that was a watershed year for music… okay, stay on message here). I’ve seen that guy. His hygiene is bad. I don’t want to be that guy. Mind you, I don’t want to be a trend-chaser either, and look back at my CD collection in a year or two and see it filled with flash-in-the-pans and overhyped buzz bands with no substance.
So what does this mean, practically speaking? I don’t know, really. I guess it means paying attention to stuff I haven’t heard of, to move out of my comfort zone, so to speak. Taking the time to not only sample new stuff but give it a proper chance to worm its way into my consciousness. Not taking local acts for granted. Not be so damned cynical about trying new stuff sometimes. Ah, this probably all sounds really vague to you, but I know what it means. Will I be able to do it? We’ll see.
I also resolve to stop kicking cats. This one will be a little tougher.
Junkmedia interviews Win Butler of Arcade Fire. Geez, don’t you know that Arcade Fire is soooo 2004? Get with the program.
Ink 19 offers a cartoon farewell to Luna. It’s even better if you imagine it being read by Christopher Walken. “Schooch closer, children…”
The Beat has an extensive look at 2004 as it pertained to the comic book industry. A good read, and that’s it for the 2004 retrospectives, honest.
Yesterday afternoon, I watched the extended version of The Return Of The King , seeing as how I had four hours or so to kill. MAN that’s a long movie. Then in the evening, I went to a humdinger of a shin-dig at Casa Del T-Bone of 10:51AM fame. Oh yeah, that’s another of my New Year’s resolutions – to talk like a 70-year old man whenever possible. Ya damn whippersnappers.
So who came by today hoping to see my shiny new redesign? HAHAHAHAHAHA… oh that’s rich. Someday, my pets. Someday.
np – Spiritualized / The Complete Works Volume One
Friday, December 31st, 2004
Okay, just who is Bright Eyes’ PR guy? Cause he’s certainly earning his gruel this month. Conor Oberst’s watery eyes are inescapable on the newsstands now – check out cover stories in Harp, Filter, Under The Radar, Seventeen, Tiger Beat, Non-Threatening Boys… and now I’ve put him as the lead item in my final post of the year! Very crafty Mr PR Man, very crafty. You win this round, you magnificent bastard. Well, since ’05 is looking like it’s going to be the year of Bright Eyes, I may as well get on the bandwagon now.
You know, when I look at the sort of dreck that Rolling Stone has been covering all year, and then look at their writers’ year-end lists, I almost feel sorry for them. I don’t doubt that these guys have good to great musical taste, but are stuck reporting on Lindsay Lohan’s nip slips and Paris Hilton’s abortion of a singing career (take THAT Google spiders!).
Metacritic presents their top-scoring albums of 2004 along with a bit of a site facelift.
So another year has come and gone… I shrugged off doing any sort of wrap-up last year, but am feeling in the mood this time around – you know, like those form letters you get from relatives around the holidays talking about how little Bobby had his first tooth, Amanda got the lead in the school play and Uncle Leroy might make bail this time? Let’s do it categorically, shall we?
Musically (and that’s relative to me, musically, not music in general), it was a bit of a disappointment. My band kind of staggered from the start of the year and finally crashed and burned in October. Okay, that’s a bit melodramatic, but it was still sad to see it all end after almost three years. It’s not quite over yet, as the album we recorded is still due out next year sometime, but for me it’s a final document. Ironically, being band-less has been the most creatively liberating thing to happen to me in a long time – it’s now just a matter of finding a proper outlet. Finding a new band has been a mildly frustrating experience but things are looking up for 2005. More on that as it develops. And music in general? In numbers – 167 CDs purchased this year, 52 concerts attended. Madness.
Personally – a bit of an up and down year. I had a wonderful flood in January, turning my apartment into a serene reflecting pool. Amazingly, there was no permenant damage to anything – just an unbelievably stressful day. That whole mortality thing also smacked me right in the face when barely a week after that, one of my close friends from home was in an auto accident and left in a coma for almost two months. He’s doing really well now – just went out with him on Wednesday – but it was touch and go for a while and truly one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through. After years of being teased for never leaving the downtown Toronto core let alone the 416, I finally got some travelling done venturing to Las Vegas, Vancouver/Victoria/Seattle and Chicago in three separate trips. Hardly world travel, but still quite an achievement for me. What else… not too much. Work is good. My brother got engaged. I grow weary of basement life but will be addressing that in the Spring one way or another. I’m turning 30 next year and planning a good old fashioned freak-out of biblical proportions. It’ll be grand.
Oh, and I got my wisdom teeth out. Ouchie.
And the blog. Up until about mid-January, I just plugged along, doing my thing, when all of a sudden my traffic spiked on January 19 when I was nominated for two Bloggie awards. As I said at the time, that was the first time it really dawned on me that people actually read this thing and while I won’t necessarily changed the way I went about this thing, I will admit that I appreciated the attention and began taking it that much more seriously. Since then, my average traffic has more than tripled, the amount of time I spend on this blasted thing has also gone up not insignificantly, and it’s really now a second full-time job. But you know what? I don’t mind one bit – this thing has introduced me to all sorts of great music and people and the days that it seems more like work than fun are few and far between. I think I missed posting all of two days this year, which really speaks more to my obsessive-compulsive disorder rather than any sense of dedication. Regardless, I trundle on and fully expect to do so through 2005 unless I, like, get a life or a girlfriend or a puppy or something. But until that day, my pathos is your gain! Dig in!
But seriously, I love you guys. Thanks for making this fun and worthwhile and I’ll see you in 2005. Cheers.
np – Spiritualized / The Complete Works Volume Two
Thursday, December 30th, 2004
Detroit pop-meister Brendan Benson’s new one, The Alternative To Love, is out March 22. Everyone seems to be more focused on the fact that Jack White produced it than the merit of the artist himself. Brendan Benson is the new Loretta Lynn. I saw BB play a couple years ago and think I enjoyed it alright – honestly, I probably dozed off a couple times, not so much because he was boring but because I had biked something like 65 km that morning and had grossly overestimated the amount of energy I had. I do remember him being an ungodly skinny man, though. I mean, God, look at those cheekbones? The boy is GAUNT. No small bit of irony in naming his band The Well-Fed Boys, I guess.
Update: Torr correctly points out that Alernative To Love is NOT the album that Jack White produced. He even has a link to a track from the new album. My excuse for the inaccurate information is, uh, I’m drunk.
NOW rounds up some anticipated releases from local artists in 2005, including controller.controller’s first full-length (March) and a new The Fembots record (April). Myself, I’m looking forward to the new Broken Social Scene record, natch, (April), and the Amy Millan solo record Honey From The Tombs which has been delayed almost a full year now. It’s supposedly coming out in the Spring, but will more realistically have to wait until they’re done supporting Set Yourself On Fire.
Oh, and of interest probably to only me, that damn Lake Holiday record should be out sometime in 2005 on Bi-Fi. Maybe. Hopefully. I haven’t heard any of it since I finished tracking my parts back in, uh, March? June? August? I have no idea.
eye waits until pretty much the last minute to roll out their year-end lists. Check out their best (and worst) albums and singles, and the best of John Sakamoto’s always worthy anti-hit list.
Toronto Star music critics Ben Rayner and Vit Wagner compile their respective looks back at 2004 (bugmenot: danshack49@yahoo.ca/123456). No unanimous choice as last year when they both hailed 2003 as the year of Metric, but instead a couple of refreshingly disparate lists. Boo to concensus!
The Fourth Rail submits their picks for best comic book covers of 2004.
So my SXSW is booked. I’ve chosen a slightly further but still SXSW-approved hotel – the La Quinta – Oltorff. No, it’s not right on the strip but 2.5 miles ain’t bad and I got a pretty damn good deal through Expedia.ca. March 17 to 20, I be kicking back Austin-style. Yee-haw.
Alas, Jerry Orbach. You may be gone but Lenny Briscoe lives on in a million syndicated episodes a day. Rest in peace.
Because of a veritable deluge of comment spam in the past day, I’ve had to go into my source code and hack it to block the specific spammers who’ve been bugging me. It shouldn’t stop anyone else, unless your name is “mortgage”, but if you do have a problem please let me know. Thanks.
np – Bob Dylan / Love And Theft
Wednesday, December 29th, 2004
There will be no Slint reunion dates in Toronto. David Pajo hates us, or more accurately, hates our border security. In a comment on this message board, he says:
“There are no canadian dates because of uptight border officials. I swore off going to canada until they lighten up (I’ve been all over the world and never been denied access to a country before – and yet, last year Papa M was turned away because our drummer had a DUI on his record… we had to cancel dates in montreal, vancouver, toronto, etc. this is just one of many stories I’ve experienced or fellow musicians have experienced). it’s a pity that border abuse should affect the Slint schedule. but bands who are legitimately wanted by the canadian people shouldn’t have to be treated like criminals. I think it’s a real problem and something should be done about it. until then, canadians will have to make that long scary journey into the land of barbarians if they want to see Slint.”
Now I get as annoyed by hassles at the border as the next guy, but I can’t help but bristle a little when people from other countries presume to tell us who we should and should not let into the country. I don’t think it should necessarily be an inflexible policy, but you know what? If the dude has a criminal record, I think I want the border security to take a cloesr look at him. Call me crazy.
Presumably our border guards will have no problem with Japan’s Guitar Wolf, however – they’re scheduled to be at Lee’s Palace on March 3. Hide the children.
Wilco has their November 15 show at the Fillmore in San Francisco streaming on their website now. Hit the roadcase to listen.
..And yesterday I did essentially nothing. It’s true that lethargy begats lethargy – I barely left the house yesterday, and yet I was utterly pooped by 11. Sad sad sad. However, it wasn’t completely wasted – I did get a number of things on my ‘to-do’ list done. Namely, cleaned the bathroom and replaced the electronics on my guitars (which involved huffing solder for a couple hours. Whoo!). I also went out for dinner for Five Seventeen’s birthday, as he’s back in town for the holidays. But besides that… total write-off. Today looks more promising – I have no more food, so if I don’t go out for groceries, I die. Simple.
np – Matt Pond PA / Emblems
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