Sunday, November 2nd, 2003
Yesterday was the fifth annual Subway Pub Crawl, my fourth and probably my last. In a nutshell – a posse starts at Spadina Station and takes the Yonge-University subway line all the way around the loop to Bloor station, getting off at each stop, finding the closest bar and having a drink. Sound stupid? Yeah, it pretty much is, but usually pretty fun too.
This year’s edition was considerably smaller than the last few since it was decided to keep certain elements from past years who cause excessive problems out of the mix. A nice idea, but not terribly effective – even without the kiddies, we still managed to not only get tossed out of a bar, but the seediest, most ghetto bar on the schedule. Now that takes some doing. I’d like to point out that I had nothing to do with the turfing, but that’s not really important.
I didn’t have all that much to drink this time around, I started off pretty strong but just lost interest for lack of a better explanation. But on the plus side, I didn’t spend as much money as I’d expected. As I said, I think I’m done with these hijinks – I’ll find some other excuse to catch up with friends I don’t see as often as I like. Like, “hey, I don’t see you guys as often as I like, let’s do something”. That’s just crazy enough to work. I started off taking photos but again, lost interest about halfway in since people drinking beer isn’t a terribly compelling subject matter. So no photos, sorry.
Biking to work season is over for me – I’ve bought my transit pass for November which allows me a greater pointless roaming radius. I gave Vortex at Yonge and Eglinton a visit this afternoon in the rain, and was rewarded with used copies of the new Belle & Sebastian (one listen in and I like it – some of it is very different but some of it is hardly a huge departure from the last few albums), a Billy Bragg official bootleg from the Mermaid Avenue tour and the second Flying Burrito Brothers record, Burrito Deluxe. Good stuff.
All you Bright Eyes fans out there, feast on this archive of mp3s, link from LHB. I don’t know if these are rarities, album tracks, whatever, but if you’re interested, go to it. You may note there’s a track from Melon Galia, whom we did a show with this summer – a couple members of BE played on their album, hence the inclusion here.
Exclaim talks to James Mercer about the Shins’s Chutes Too Narrow and writing jingles for The Gap.
np – Billy Bragg & The Blokes / Mermaid Avenue Tour
Saturday, November 1st, 2003
I am trying to make an omelete. I’ve never made an omelete before.
And you know what? It’s true – you can’t make an omelete without breaking a few eggs. Who knew.
Post-mortem: Doesn’t look so good but tastes alright. I’ll take it.
Not going to be around today, so I figured I get my daily innane post out of the way early. Happy November to all.
np – Beulah / Yoko
Friday, October 31st, 2003
All The Real Girls is aptly titled, because if there’s one thing this film feels, it’s real. In brief – Noel returns home to her small North Carolina town after boarding school and falls into a relationship with Paul, her older brother’s best friend who has a rather unflattering reputation around town with the ladies. Their story is subtle, funny, heartwarming and heartbreaking, and above all, honest. Leads Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel are amazing in their roles. Highly recommended.
Oh yeah, you might note in the credits Matt Chapman is credited as “Strong Bad”. Los Bros Chapman of Homestar Runner fame actually did work on the movie – Mike did graphic design for props and Matt had a tiny non-speaking role. They also did the film website. Also, check out the deleted scenes on the DVD – mostly improvised, they’re hilarious.
Sadly, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if this is how the world ended. Not with a bang, nor a whimper, but a dumb-fuck ass monkey with one access code too many.
Why hello there Alien Vs Predator movie trailer, how are you today? Brief but tantalizing? Good to hear. Y’all take care now – I’ll see you next summer…
Another Elliott Smith memorial, this one from Magnet.
Arab Strap make up for their SARS-cancelled show of this past Summer by playing Lee’s Palace on December 9. No word from their crybaby tourmates Bright Eyes about rescheduling THEIR show.
Good news for all the self-declared music pirates waging war on the RIAA – RIAA Radar is a site that lets you know which albums were released by labels that are part of the RIAA and which ones weren’t! So you can educate yourself and focus your downloading efforts on those labels that are part of the evil cabal that seeks to burn your villages, besmirch your womens honour and insult your pets, while rewarding those labels that stand alone to bring you quality music by deserving artists. What’s that? Making a principled stand against the music industry hegemon isn’t so much a pillar of your manifesto as getting as much shit for free as possible? I’m shocked. Really. I need to go sit down for a minute. Link from Information Leafblower.
Oh yeah, happy Hallowe’en, all you godless pagan heathens.
np – Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham / L’Avventura
Thursday, October 30th, 2003
Ask me who my favorite live band is, and nine times out of ten, I will say “Mojave 3“. The tenth time, I will say “Stryper“, but if Neil and Rachel could be persuaded to dress up in black and yellow jumpsuits and throw Bibles at the audience, it could be a clean sweep for them. I’m just saying. The band was kicking off their North American tour in Toronto last night, always a wise move for a British band, because goodness knows we adore anyone with an accent over here.
I thought I was getting there late, but opener Justin Rutledge was still onstage. I should say, Justin and his entourage – by far the largest lineup I’d ever seen for any opening act, let alone a local one. He was up there with an eight piece band of almost all hired guns – you could tell from the music charts most had in front of them and the fact that they were all watching him for the changes. Musically, they were very solid – for what they were probably getting paid, I would hope so – but after the initial positive impressions of his widescreen folk-country repetoire, the gliding started coming off the lily. The thing about having a band of all jobbers is that they don’t really have anything invested in the music, and it showed. Everything was played very nicely and professionally, but without a whole lot of spark or soul and there were more than a few cheeseball G.E. Smith-esque guitar faces from the players as well. Tuning into the rather banal lyrics didn’t help much either. The boy’s got some promise but should work on the substance a little more before investing in the veneer.
Mojave 3 ambled onstage at 11:15 to the delight of the mostly full house. Opening with “Starlite #1” from Spoon And Rafter, they played an hour and a half of material drawn from the last three albums. It’s hard to describe exactly why Mojave 3 live are so amazing live – you couldn’t tell from the records, really, which are gentle and beautiful but maybe not what you’d expect to amaze onstage, nor does the band jump around and whip their hair around. It’s the sound – it’s simply massive. They’re not loud, but the combination of all the instruments in the mix – guitar, keys, steel and of course Neil and Rachel’s voices – just build this incredible wall of music. You have to experience it, really.
And speaking of the mix, whoever does live sound for the band should be involved in making the records, if for no other reason than they’re not afraid to turn Rachel’s vocals UP. The most common complaint about the records is that her backing vocals are mixed so low as to almost not even be there. Live, her voice adds so much – her singing “Lay your love on me” over the coda of “Sarah”, which led off the encore, gave me goosebumps. Hopefully her solo record due out next February will satisfy.
It was a bit of a surprise to see local pedal steel-er Bob Egan filling in for Raymond Richards, though he’s becoming so ubiquitous at shows in Toronto that I should be more surprised if he doesn’t get onstage with every band that plays here. As always, he did a fine job filling in, sounding like he’d been playing with them for a lifetime.
I’m quite happy with how the photos turned out. I was afraid before the show that they’d be playing in dim lighting and I’d either end up with unusable photos or be reviled as that mook up front with the flash going off all the time. Thankfully, the stage lights were actually brigher and less red than usual, and I didn’t have to use the flash. Much.
My only gripe was the dearth of merchandise available. I was all ready to drop however much a t-shirt would cost, but all they had was CDs. Hey – I’ve already got them all! I am hoping that they’ll have some more swag when they return for a full tour next winter.
np – Mojave 3 / Spoon And Rafter
Wednesday, October 29th, 2003
Got The Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow. I already love this album. Bonus – the nice poster and button I got with purchase. The good people at SubPop are doing a good job of making up for delaying the release of this record a week. Get the band to tour up here and all will be forgiven. Worth noting – the die-cut fold-over artwork for the CD is so much fun. Well, not fun like a big bucket of Lego, but still. Fun.
Stopped by the library to pick up the copy of 24 Hour Party People I had on hold. Suddenly my backlog of things to read is getting out of hand. I may need to take some time off work to get it cleared up… Kidding…
The last Uncle Tupelo reissue I didn’t have was sitting in my mailbox when I got home. No, it wasn’t put there by some altruistic stranger, I bought it off eBay. Nice bonus was that it was still wrapped in plastic – I thought I bought a used copy. Finally I get to hear their version of The Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You”. Now the question is what to do with my set of original Rockville/Sire UT albums? They must go to a worthy cause.
Also in my mailbox – my Belle & Sebastian tickets. Front row centre, in case anyone missed my gloating earlier. Though I don’t see how you possible could have, it was pretty excessive. Incidentally, the band has totally redone their website. The new one is nice – go have a poke.
24 – Good start to the season. I’m aware that there may be readers from the UK and other strange and foreign lands who won’t get to see season three for a while yet. To them, I apologize, but there’ll be spoilers a-plenty here, week after week. Some random thoughts – Kim might have a fancy suit and talk in big words, but she’s still dumb and her haircut’s crummy. Chase is a dumb name. I think Chloe is a spy. A spy for an alien invasion force bent on conquoring Los Angeles. Not the world, just LA. I’m sure that Palmer’s scar is where they implanted the cybernetic robo-arm and death ray. Jack should know better than to try and administer his flu shot himself. That’s a job for a certified doctor – maybe he can borrow Palmer’s, the President seems to think highly of her.
Is it time to talk 2004 releases already? New one from Doves on March 9.
Spike Jonze will be directing a live-action film of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are.
There will be a memorial to Elliott Smith in Toronto this Saturday. Specifics:
Dear everyone,
The Elliott Smith memorial service in Toronto will take place on Saturday, November 1, 2003 at 5:00 PM at the gates of the Trinity-Bellwoods Park (located at Queen/Strachan-Trinity). Joel has supplied a map and directions (above) to help you arrive. As at the NYC memorial, you are welcome to arrive at any time; earlier or later, to stay for a while or to simply drop by and leave pictures, letters, candles, thoughts and any other fond farewells. Binging a guitar would be lovely. I hope to see you there. Take care and dress warmly, it’s getting cooler these days.
Normally I’d be curious to attend, though it has the potential to be overly maudlin, but I’ll be engaged in my own particular tribute to Elliott that day – a pub crawl. “Between The Bars”, so to speak.
Update: And finally… It’s a Homestar Hallowe’en! Gold. Pure gold.
np – The Shins / Chutes Too Narrow
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