Tuesday, December 2nd, 2003
A couple items of note in the year-end issue of Exclaim – An interview with Broken Social Scene about the year in Canadian music and a short piece on Young & Sexy just before their tour of Eastern Canada kicks off. There’s also their year-end lists in the new ish, but those don’t seem to be available online.
But a list that IS available online is this one – 25 albums that should never have been made. I am proud to say I own none of these. Hell, I think I’ve only heard two or three of them.
Anyone missing The Hidden Cameras’ show on Boxing Day as part of Vazaleen at Lee’s Palace may be interested to know that they’re taking part in a five-night stand in conjunction with the Toronto Dance Theatre called “The Skin and Leather Show”. It runs from January 21 to 25 at the Winchester St Theatre. I don’t know if these will be proper concerts or something else, if I find out I’ll report back.
Elvis Costello comes back to Toronto yet again, presumably still touring North, on February 28 of next year at Massey Hall.
Kate Askew has her year-end list up now as well. And Catchdubs. I am feeling the blogger peer pressure to get mine in order…
Taking the subway to rehearsal yesterday, there was a jumper at St Andrew station right when the train I was on was there. I don’t think it was in front my train – we had pulled in and let everyone off as usual, then sat at the platform for a few minutes before they cut the power to the tracks and herded everyone out. To the people complaining and asking, “what’s going on, why do we have to leave, how long do we have to wait?” – shut the fuck up, put two and two together and get out. I overheard one TTC employee saying that come December, the number of these incidents increases dramatically. Up on the surface, I saw five EMS vehicles pass by and pull up at the subway entrance. It was a long walk from University to Sherbourne, but I didn’t mind. I was happy to be walking away from there in good physical and mental health, and sad that someone else wasn’t.
np – The Decemberists / Castaways And Cutouts
Monday, December 1st, 2003
Billy Bragg, Jenny Toomey and Steve Earle conducted a press conference at the Atlanta stop of the Tell Us The Truth tour. Read some of the highlights here. Link from LHB.
Dave @ LHB is also first out of the gates with Top 11 of 2003 year-end list, complete with some sample MP3s. I’m still working on mine, expect something in a couple weeks. As a bonus, I think I will make a mix CD of tracks from all of my picks and offer that to anyone interested. Stay tuned.
Update: Ryan Catbirdseat has posted his Top 8 of 2003. What’s with the odd numbers, fellas?
Los Bros Kadane (aka The New Year) finished recording their second album (or fifth, if you accept that The New Year and Bedhead are the same band) in August and are looking at a Spring 2004 release date for the new record. Tour dates to follow. I think I will have to lobby someone in Toronto make sure they come up here.
Stereogum has new digs. Go and say hello. Wipe your feet.
You may notice up top I’ve got some CDs for sale. Just some housecleaning – I don’t know if any of it is of interest, but I’ll let the list sit for a few weeks before hauling it off to the second-hand shops. We’ll call it the final closing of my Britpop books.
np – The New Year / Newness Ends
Sunday, November 30th, 2003
I had been looking forward to seeing Intolerable Cruelty for a while, but I was still surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It is and isn’t a Coen Brothers film – Joel directed and Ethan produced, and both worked on the screenplay, but it was a script that had sat on a shelf for over seven years before being made, and wasn’t originally intended to be made by the Coens themselves. That said, it’s hardly a black mark on their resume. There’s fewer of their trademark quirks and ticks, and the direction itself is more conventional than you might normally find, but it’s still off-kilter enough to satisfy. George Clooney, who I like more and more every time I see one of his films (and I used to really dislike the guy), seems to take a real manic pleasure in portraying characters of the Coens’ creating. It’s a delight to watch him as Miles Massey, legendary divorce lawyer, lock horns with professional golddigger Catherine Zeta Jones, and Billy Bob Thornton gets to do his best Boomhauer impersonation in his limited role.
The Wavelength zine has hit the streets, and it’s good to have it back. The contents are still approximately the same as in the original incarnation, but the presentation is more professional and the cover is in colour. Points off, however, for the lousy new logo – I hope it’s not a permanent fixture. One feature of the new issue is a summer wrap-up – brief capsule reviews of all Wavelength going-ons during the zine’s hiatus. Of course, I headed straight for the August 3rd entry, to see what they had to say about our set:
“..Lake Holiday were good as well but I cannot comment on them as well as I might due to the overwhelming crowd and the anticipation for Les Mouches…”
That’s it. Not only did we not get to do a little interview for the zine as bands usually do, the only mention we DO get after the fact amounts to little more than a patronizing, “There, there, you’re all special”. Pfft.
Fox News conducts a “fair and balanced” interview with Steve Earle, speaking of whom – have they rescheduled his appearance on The O’Reilly Factor? Not that I get the channel, but I would so dearly love to see that. Or maybe I wouldn’t, on second thought. Bill O’Reilly makes me want to go Elvis on my television as is, him vs Steve might be too much for me to take.
Will, concerned about my dearth of things to write about, sent me this link to New Zealand Herald wherein they try to write a review for Return Of The King, mindful of the fact that they’re not actually allowed to do so yet. They sound impressed.
Today – cleaning, rearranging the furniture in my bedroom (a grand total of two pieces, sure, but it still required more consideration than you might think), groceries (I had no food. Nothing. At all.) and now some sitting around and reading time. My Sundays all seem awful similar, but you know what? I don’t mind. It’s relaxing.
np – Bright Eyes / Lifted… Or The Story Is In The Soil Keep Your Ear To The Ground
Saturday, November 29th, 2003
Watched Miller’s Crossing last night. Great flick. Prohibition-era. Irish gangsters. Italian gangsters. Jewish gangsters. Guys. Dolls. Molls. Double crosses. Triple crosses. Coen Brothers. Boo-ya.
Spent today running all over town doing this and that. Spent the first portion of the afternoon holed up in the rehearsal space cleaning and rebuilding my pedalboard – this time, it’s smaller. Well, not phyiscially smaller, but there’s less shit on there to be sure. I basically got tired of having all this stuff on there that I never used, so I went in and rebuilt my signal chain one box at a time, figuring out what sort of sounds I needed and what I could get out of what I had. It was interesting and pretty successful. And it was also fun to be able to crank the guitar as loud as I wanted and fuck around however I liked.
The rest of the afternoon was doing some shopping, getting some groceries, etc etc. Nothing exciting, but still exhausting. I think I am going to make this a Coen Brothers weekend – Intolerable Cruelty is playing at the Bloor.
But first I NEED some dinner. I am running on an English muffin, two scrambled eggs and a banana. An organic banana, sure, but it’s still just a banana.
np – Wilco / Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Demos
Friday, November 28th, 2003
McMaster student newspaper The Silhouette scored a nice little interview with Rachel Goswell of Mojave 3. She mentions that the tenative title of her solo album is Waves Are Universal and it should be available in March of next year.
Amy Millan of Stars and Broken Social Scene has been added to the bill for the Emm Gryner/Sarah Slean show at the Rivoli December 17th. She will be performing solo under the name of Lady Lustre.
Chart chats with Wheat about their ‘new sound’, how they got there and where they think it will take them.
Everyone is still on holidays, meaning I have no one to sponge links or news off of. Sigh.
np – Luna / Live
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