Friday, October 10th, 2003
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s been a real dearth of interesting (to me) music news lately, which greatly affects the amount of topics I have to write about. All the new releases and concerts for ’03 have been announced and no one’s really talking about ’04 yet. So, where does that leave us? Say it with me… potpourri! Alright.
Tonight is the Joy Division/New Order tribute night at Sneaky Dee’s. I think we’re in good enough shape to not embaress ourselves or enrage the faithful, though I only worked out my parts this morning while riding my bike to work. It should be fun, Clay gets to do double duty playing drums with us and then bass with Mellonova later on in the evening. Toronto-ites are encouraged to come on out – doors at 9, show at 10, we’re on around 11, cover is $6.
Check it out – ninja teddy bears. It takes a dog’s age to load but worth the wait.
Emogame 2!!!
The Album Cover Challenge is like the rotating album cover images I had on older versions of Chromewaves. The artist and album info has been photoshopped out and it’s up to you to identify them. I scored 38 of 60. Link from Traveler’s Diagram.
I dropped my discman yesterday and it broke. Well, the player still works but the latch is busted. I’ve rectified it with some electrical tape… not elegant, but it works. Bah.
np – Velvet Crush / Teenage Symphonies To God
Thursday, October 9th, 2003
Some links of note from Largehearted Boy:
An expansive interview with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab. Speaking of which, I got Transatlanticism yesterday. Only given a couple non-critical listenings, no opinions worth noting yet.
Indie Rock Live is a site that offers free downloads of, uh, live indie rock. The current featured artist is My Morning Jacket.
I’m glad it’s almost the weekend and almost my week off. I’ve been feeling simultaneously tired and anxious lately, not sure what’s up. By anxious, I mean all jittery-like for no good reason. Maybe another vacation of going nowhere and doing nothing of importance will help.
np – Death Cab For Cutie / Transatlanticism
Wednesday, October 8th, 2003
Whilst picking up various accessories for my new DVD player last night, I found a slightly used, cheap copy of the first Preacher trade paperback. I enjoyed Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s run on Hellblazer and heard all the acclaim for Preacher over the years but never read a single page. And you know what? My loss. I’m only two issues in, but it is good. Very good. I’m so familiar with the writing and art styles that it’s like sitting down for coffee with an old friend you haven’t seen in years, and he’s got all sorts of new stories to tell. And Steve Dillon has really been working on his depictions of people getting the backs of their heads blown open. The shop had another three or four of the collections for cheap, I’ll have to head back and stock up.
The new DVD player is nice, too. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do in terms of tv stand/stereo stand/speaker stands… Ikea’s 2004 catalog sucks pretty hard, I have to say, but I honestly have no idea where else to look. How sad is that?
Norwegian pretty-boy crooner Sondre Lerche plays the El Mocambo November 17. Indie girls should start practicing swooning now.
Bradley’s Almanac has a pretty thorough list of on-line Flash games for your time wasting approval. Guaranteed to stifle productivity but make the day go by faster. A win-win situation! Unless someone catches you.
Governor Schwarzenegger. This isn’t even worth commenting on.
np – Built To Spill / Perfect From Now On
Tuesday, October 7th, 2003
Interesting bit of comic book apocrypha – when Warren Ellis was scribe on Hellblazer, he submitted a single-issue story for issue #141 about school shootings. The timing, however, was terrible. Coming in the wake of the Columbine shootings, DC decided that running a story about a trenchcoat-wearing anti-hero involved in shootings at a high school wouldn’t be prudent, and shelved the story. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, however, you can still read “Shoot” from the uninked storyboards as well as Warren Ellis’ comments on the episode.
Today is crazy new release day for me. I am going to try and reign in my urge to blow enormous wads of cash and only blow a moderate amount of cash. Definitely coming home with me – provided local stores have them in-stock today – are the new Death Cab album, Ted Leo EP, Shins EP (okay, not new this week but still), and probably one more item yet to be determined. Candidates include the new Belle & Sebastian, Portastatic’s 14-track Summer Was A Lark EP or the Ride BBC sessions disc. Decisions, decisions.
Orange Twin has Neutral Milk Hotel t-shirts! Hmmm.
Sloan closes off their Canadian tour for Action Pact with an (adopted) hometown show November 7 at the Kool Haus. That falls smack in the middle of Bloody Expensive Concert Season for me, so I will probably have to give it a pass and extend my live Sloan-less streak to a full decade.
Largehearted Boy has a live mp3 of DCFC’s Ben Gibbard doing a cover of Billy Bragg’s “St Swithin’s Day” available for download. Go get it.
Update: Well my decisions were made for me.
Me: “Do you have the new Death Cab?”
Soundscapes: “That was delayed at the warehouse, we’ll have it tomorrow morning”. Strike one.
Me: “Do you have the new Shins single?”
Soundscapes: “We just sold out.” Strike two.
Me: “Do you have the new Ted Leo EP?”
Soundscapes: “New Ted Leo?” Strike three.
They did have the new Portastatic and B&S, but after my crushing defeat I didn’t feel like settling. But Rotate This did have a copy of The Wrens’ highly-praised The Meadowlands, so I got that. Let’s call that the catcher dropping the ball on that third strike and my making it to first before he could recover. Anyway, I will console myself with a DVD player tonight and the new Death Cab tomorrow.
Update 2: Does anyone have a valid Insound coupon code for October?
np – Death Cab For Cutie / The Photo Album
Monday, October 6th, 2003
It seems pretty stupid to pick on a movie like The Rundown for its shortcomings in the department of sociological commentary, but while I enjoyed pretty much every other aspect of it, there was one key plot point during the climax that really rubbed me the wrong way. I won’t get into it in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet, but MacGyver would be hella disappointed. Actually, if anyone wants to read about it, click on the ‘Read More’ link down below. Or click here.
Anyway, besides this major issue (to me, anyway), The Rundown was a lot of fun – The Rock has got my vote for the new top action hero. He’s got charm, he’s got the moves and he can actually act – at least as well as he needs to. He’s a damn sight better than Schwarzenegger or Van Damme ever was, anyway. Christopher Walken, who is always a treat, was also in top (or over the top) form. Seann William Scott essentially gets to play Stiffler in the jungle – the writers didn’t really bother trying to give him any sort of distinctive character, and by film’s end, you’re still not sure if he was meant to be a selfish brat or a selfless philantropist. And you don’t much care, you just want to see him get his ass kicked again.
My other main viewing material this weekend offered no disappointment whatsoever – seasons one and two of The Family Guy. This stuff is gold. It’s kinda sucky to have to watch it on my computer through headphones, but I’ll be rectifying my no-DVD player-ness this week. Schweeeet.
np – The Replacements / Pleased To Meet Me
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