Tuesday, December 3rd, 2002
So I’ve been going on about Longwave for a while now. Well, having just gotten back from their Toronto debut show, I can tell you I’ll be going on about them for a good while longer. Putting on a moderately-hyped band from NYC at 9:45 of a free music night seems a little odd, but I’m not complaining one bit.
These guys are the real deal – lazy music critic comparisons… Interpol without the overtly affected British influences. Longwave are less tightly wound and anxious than their hometown compatriats, but are just as or maybe even more explosive. Great songs and sonics, these guys are going to be ones to watch. Recently signed to RCA, their major-label debut The Strangest Things is out in February. They’re currently touring behind the Day Sleeper EP, produced by uber-producer Dave Fridmann.
Though it was a brief set, maybe 40 minutes, I’d say they won over the smallish crowd who’d braved the bitter cold to be there. The response was enthusiastic and deservedly so – I wouldn’t have wanted to be the acts following these guys.
Their stuff seems impossible to find in this city – the fact that they brought no merch across the border means that I’ll be placing an order somewhere to get their first album Endsongs and the EP ASAP.
I took a handful of pics at the show, view here.
np – Spoon / Kill The Moonlight
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2002
I finished Iain Banks’ Dead Air this morning. This one ranks right up there with Complicity and The Crow Road as my favorite of his works, and is a very satisfying return to form after the lacklustre The Business.
Banks made his non-initial name with twisted and disturbing works of fiction like The Wasp Factory and Walking On Glass, but has recently concentrated on more conventional narratives with a focus on character development and plot – the result being less mind-bending but ultimately more satisfying novels.
The novel kicks off in the afternoon of September 11, 2001, London time. I initially had concerns that 9-11 would be a major theme of the book, a risky proposition not even a year later but thankfully it’s only used to establish the setting and some context. Using radio DJ and protagonist Ken Nott as a mouthpiece, Banks does manage to fit in a few political rants, but they’re all in character and well-delivered.
Instead of a political screed, Dead Air is basically the story of a man who falls in love with a gangster’s wife. There are a number of excellent subplots including the one mentioned in an earlier entry about a television interview with a white supremecist, but the main plot thread is a classic love triangle.
If you hadn’t guessed, I prefer the newer Banks material to the older. Sure, I liked the visceral response I got from the hospital scene or the kite incident in The Wasp Factory, but the more recent stuff is more mature and engaging. Banks is better at creating fully-fleshed out characters and no longer needs to rely on enigma and inscrutability to make his characters intriguing. By the same token, he’s learned a well-constructed and executed plot is more effective than counting on shock tactics to leave an impression on the reader.
Dead Air – good stuff. Next on my list is Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, which was recommended to me by Jeff way back in the summer. I’ve not tried to tackle a translated classic in a long time, maybe since Dante’s Inferno. I hope my gray matter is up to the task.
np – The House Of Love / Babe Rainbow
Monday, December 2nd, 2002
Just finished chapter 8 in Iain Banks’ Dead Air. In it the protagonist, lefty radio host Ken Nott is about to do a television programme in which he is to debate a white supremecist holocaust denier. I can’t give away any of what happens, but it is a brilliant bit of writing. This book is good. Still a bit to go before the book is done, but I am enjoying it immensely. Unless things take a severe downward turn, this one is coming highly recommended.
np – Heavenly / P.U.N.K. Girl
Monday, December 2nd, 2002
After an almost interminable 2 weeks off, had band practice tonight. Our first with new drummer Pheobe who took to our stuff pretty quickly. Mind you, this was the first time we’d played a lot of our stuff since September so there was a lot of relearning material to be done. I’m taking this opportunity to make up new parts for a lot of our stuff. Even though we’re only keeping some of the songs we had been doing, I need to keep them interesting to me. I’m feeling comfortable ad-libbing a lot of stuff now, as opposed to the more planned-out parts I was doing a lot of the time. Which can either go really well or end in horror. And no one wants horror. I’m most pleased with our overhauled “Keeping You Away From Me”, which while it got the best response, was getting old and predictable. It’s probably no longer going to be the 8-minute plus epic it was, it’s a lot tighter and cleaner now. Still Velvets-informed, but less White Light White Heat, more Loaded. I’m excited about playing again.
Less exicted about this weather. Even after 27 winters, I still hate it. And I need a new touque, mine is way too small. Feels like it’s crushing my head.
What was nice tonight was getting ALL the rehearsal space rent money in one night. Everyone’s finally getting used to the idea of paying me at the start of the month! My bling-roll is all fat and pimpin’ now, yo. Part of the rent is a used copy of the Pavement Slow Century DVD which I will be selling to Kyle at a ridiculously inflated price, not that he’ll have any idea…
I am having an orange & cream Jones Soda . Interesting. It’s exactly as advertised. Orange cream soda. Who’d have thunk it?
np – Bettie Serveert / Tom Boy EP
Monday, December 2nd, 2002
Well this is interesting.
Kids build anti-gravity machine.
The fact that it’s on Whitley ‘Communion’ Strieber’s website makes me skeptical, but it’s neat anyway.
np – The House Of Love / A Spy In The House Of Love
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