Wednesday, March 19th, 2003
I beefed up on the Can-con in my music collection tonight – got the hotly-tipped (and deservedly so) Broken Social Scene record, Kathleen Edwards’ Failer (on the glowing reviews from many sources, Kyle’s personal thumb’s up and the fact that it was only $7.50) and the new Sadies album, Stories Often Told. I haven’t had time to listen to them all yet, so impressions will be forthcoming over the next few days.
Caught Catch Me If You Can at the Bloor tonight. Spielberg should stick to making light, breezy movies like this one. It was a lot of fun, well-executed and an all-around good time. The only way he could have screwed it up the way he did Minority Report or A.I. would have been to finish it off with a pitched gun battle between Hanks and DiCaprio. Which, now that I think of it, wouldn’t have been too bad either.
The first disc of an Uncle Tupelo live show from October 15, 1993 in Chicago is up for download here. Sound quality is pretty damn good. The second disc will be up next week. They don’t have the tracklist info yet, so if you decide to save it for archival purposes – and why wouldn’t you? – I’ve dug it up myself.
Uncle Tupelo – October 15, 1993; The Vic, Chicago, IL
Fifteen Keys/ Grindstone/ Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down/ True to Life/ Chickamauga/ Watch Me Fall/ Anodyne/ Long Cut/ Slate/ Atomic Power/ New Madrid/ Sandusky/ Acuff-Rose/ Steal the Crumbs/ We’ve Been Had/ Give Back the Key to My Heart/ Looking for a Way Out/ Life Worth Livin’/ Nothing/ Truck Drivin’ Man/ Willin’/ Sin City/ Suzie Q
Tuesday, March 18th, 2003
I have changed my blog links in the sidebar to a Blogrolling model. It’s neat, and easy to add to. Anything that lets me be a little lazier is always a good thing.
Mogwai’s new record will be titled, Happy Songs For Happy People and is modestly described by Mogwai mouthpiece Stuart Brathwaite as, “Forty one minutes fifty seconds of total unadulterated brilliance”. Out sometime this summer, probably July-ish.
The new Grandaddy album Sumday will not be a double as previously reported, but just a single disc. Release date in early June. Full details and tracklisting here.
np – Big Star / Third / Sister Lovers
Monday, March 17th, 2003
So it’s just a matter of time now, I guess. I’m pleased that Canada has elected to sit this one out without a UN sanciton. Ian has some good links posted over on his site. All I can hope now is that it’s quick, relatively bloodless and long-term reprecussions are minimal. Of course, after Dubya was appointed president of the United States, I hoped that he wouldn’t actually be half as stupid as he seemed to be. Wish in one hand, shit in the other. See which fills up first.
Band practice tonight was both productive and not. Productive because we very quickly worked out some basic arrangements for a new song, which implies to me that we’re figuring out how to play with one another just by listening. There’s work to be done yet, but it was promising. Not productive because Laura did not show up and no one was feeling very ‘in the zone’ to begin with. But definitely in the positive column were the new Christmas lights adding much-needed ambience to the room. The talking Death Star and Borg cube ship Christmas ornaments are just gravy.
I’ve started reading Thomas Wharton’s Salamander, which as far as I can tell so far is a period piece. I really have no idea what it’s about – I got it free when I was working at NOW a few years ago and have only gotten around to reading it now.
My thumb hurts. Slamming a digit in a door is the gift that keeps on giving.
np – Yo La Tengo / Little Honda
Monday, March 17th, 2003
I had a nice, relaxing weekend and now, just one day back in, things are going buck-nutty again. I need a vacation.
About half of the material on the Flaming Lips’ super-rare Yoshimi Wins! EP will be released in North American on April 22 as part of the seven-track Fight Test EP. The songs everyone wants, namely their Kylie Minogue and Radiohead covers, WILL be on the new release. Full details here.
np – Luna / Close Cover Before Striking
Sunday, March 16th, 2003
Willard. To sum up – shy, dysfunctional man befriends an army of rats who do his bidding. Man-rodent power struggles ensue. A time-old tale, really. While not an overt horror movie in the modern sense of the genre, there were some geniunely creepy and suspenseful moments. Crispin Glover, who could give Gary Oldman a few lessons on being twitchy, wears his first lead role like a second skin. Rookie director Glen Morgan infuses the whole film with a peculiar Victorian-esque feel despite it being set in the modern day – I likened it to a particularly sinister Roald Dahl story, Mark more accurately described it as an Edward Gorey cartoon come to life. I used to have a Gashleycrumb Tinies poster… W is for Willard, devoured by rats. It was an entertaining, unnerving and more than anything ODD movie. Anyone with a rat phobia is advised to stay far far away. I like rodents, and I was getting creeped out by the sheer volume of rats on screen – screw Star Wars, these rats were some of the most impressive and lifelike CGI I’ve ever seen. Particularly Big Ben – man, that thing was the size of a Buick.
I don’t think I want to get another hamster anymore.
The title of this entry came from the closing credits – some dude actually had this as his job title. The man has my envy for the rest of time – I can only dream of the day when I can put something that cool on my resume.
Non-rodent bits from the weekend. Went out for drinks with Andrea and Bryan Saturday – they were in town attending to wedding business. I hadn’t seen or even talked the them in almost three months, so that was nice. Did my taxes, and I have got to seek out an accountant – at present, I owe the government well over $3000. While that’s in line with what I should have paid if I had had taxes deducted from my total income last year, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. Hopefully someone with a clue in these matters can save me some money. I got my DVD-ROM installed and working in my new computer, and wiped and reinstalled everything on the old machine which is now on its way home for my dad to use. Found an old guitar tab book of Motown classics used, which is cool just for finding new chord voicings.
np – Neil Halstead / Sleeping On Roads
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