Wednesday, January 15th, 2003
The post office did not fail me after all. My Scud Mountain Boys disc showed up today – the postmark read Jan 9, so the guy selling it didn’t put it in the mail for more than two weeks after he got my payment. Grounds for minor grumpiness, I’d say, but I will be magnanimous and forgive him. It’s a lovely record – more Joe Pernice is always a good thing.
The 2003 NAMM Winter Session starts tomorrow. Which means I’ll be glued to Harmony Central’s show coverage all weekend, basking in the deluge of new and cool musical instrument product announcements. Never mind the fact that there’s nothing more exiciting than a new tuner and power supply on my music gear shopping list right now… there’s no reason I can’t at least lust for a fancy-ass $4000 semi-hollowbody guitar or the like. No reason at all.
NAMM is loads of fun – I got to go to Los Angeles for the 2000 show, helping man the booth of one of my old co-op employers. It’s a veritable orgy of gear. Guitars, amps, keyboards, drums, recording equipment… acres and acres of the stuff. I think I hurt my back trying to haul back all the free swag I picked up that weekend. That was actually the last time I was on a commercial flight, too. Three years. Sheesh.
Kevin has consented to go to see Sleater-Kinney with me next month. I would have gone alone, but it’ll be better with at least one person to go with. Still, I wish some more interesting shows would roll through town.
It’s cold out. Damn cold. I think I must be part small woodland mammal, because I have an overwhelming urge to just crawl into bed and hide for the next two months.
np – The Scud Mountain Boys / Massachusetts
Tuesday, January 14th, 2003
Finally got to sit down and watch Monsters, Inc. tonight. What a tremendously fun movie. I didn’t quite find it laugh-out-loud funny, but it did keep a smile on my face pretty much the whole time. Everyone else in the universe has already seen this, so I won’t spend any more time talking about it, except to say that the bonus materials on the DVD are worth the time it takes to sift through them all.
Got my copy of For Against’s Shelf Life in the mail today… I had bought this pretty much sound unheard based on the glowing recommendation Jack Rabid gave for their newest one, Coalesced, in the latest issue of The Big Takeover. And after a couple listens, I can’t say Lincoln, Nebraska’s only indie rock band has made much of an impression on me. It sounds a lot like Kitchens Of Distinction. Like A LOT. I like KOD alright, though they never grabbed me the way that some of their stylistic cousins like the Chameleons or House Of Love did. I will give Shelf Life some time to grow on me, concentrate more on the songs themselves, but I admit I was disappointed by the fact that this album didn’t take me anywhere new, sonically. I’ve heard this before. Considering how difficult it is to find their stuff locally, I’ve taken Coalesced off my “to get” list for now.
np – Wheat / Hope & Adams
Tuesday, January 14th, 2003
God I hate the Toronto Public Library’s website. Actually, as a rule I hate any site that makes extensive use of Java applets, but the TPL seems particuarly unstable. It crashes as many times as it works, seemingly right when I want to place a hold.
I was trying to find a copy of Things Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World, by Rene Girard. It’s a book about the origins of Christianity – I’ve come across some of his theories and such and am intrigued enough to want to learn more. Naturally, the library doesn’t have a copy. I’ll just have to put this one on my list of things to try and hunt down somewhere somehow. The library DID have a copy of Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta, but when I tried to place a hold, it crashed. Of course.
np – Longwave / Endsongs
Monday, January 13th, 2003
So first rehearsals with Clay the drummer went well, I think. He seemed to take to the material and is coming out again on Thursday. I wish we (as in Brad, Seventeen and myself) were playing a little better – but in our defense, it had been months and months since we played the material, excepting the one time Pheobe came and played with us. To be honest, we, or at least me, stank up the joint. I had forgotten most everything, and wasn’t even ad-libbing well. Usually I can fake it alright, but tonight? Phoooo. Let’s hope Thursday goes better… but I think Clay understood that we had a fair bit of cobweb to shake off.
I got my Vox distortion booster in the mail today. Only got to play with it a little before rehearsal, but it seems to fit in my rig very nicely. It starts where the Valve Tone leaves off, and goes from light crunchy gain to full-on distortion. Very nice indeed.
Borrowed the Monsters Inc DVD from Scott today, finally! Didn’t get a chance to watch it, but since I have to have it back to him by Friday, I’ll get to it probably tomorrow evening. I already went through some of the bonus material on the second disc… Good stuff.
Won a copy of the Yo La Tengo Little Honda EP off eBay. I’ve meant to pick it up for ages – a whole disc, albeit only 8 tracks long – of Yo La Tengo doing covers is too good to not have. And now I do have it. Or will, when the mailman brings it to me. Though he still has to bring me my Scud Mountain Boys disc, which I won in December…
After gently chastising Ricky from Wheat for not coming up to Toronto on their next tour, he’s agreed to make the tour-only EP available to those on the Wheat mailing list. See? Sometimes being whiny and petulant can pay off. I’m kidding, I wasn’t really whiny or petulant. Much.
np – Echo & The Bunnymen / Echo & The Bunnymen
Monday, January 13th, 2003
I cannot accept the fact that someone so utterly incompetent and incapable of articulating a coherent sentence is running the United States. I mean – the man has speechwriters, doesn’t he? Does he not only have to read what it says on the damned teleprompters? And yet. And yet and yet and yet. Go to The Complete Bushisms and weep for yourself.
And yet another tour bypasses Canada. Wheat are touring with Toad The Wet Sprocket to support their forthcoming Per Second Per Second Every Second, and are coming as close as Detroit. Dagnabbit.
Pete Townshend was arrested on child pornography charges today. I want very much to believe that there’s some way he can come out of this innocent, but I’m simply at a loss. So very disappointed.
np – Joe Pernice / Big Tobacco
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