fake broadcaster

episode deux of the podcast is now up at the new pollution dot net.

episode one will be up when they expand my server space, which should be later this week.

thanks to Ben for his engineering mad skillz!

new music, mostly canadian, muchly toronto, and dry cool wit.

ok I haven't been that witty on there yet.

just watch me.

upheaval

the news was broken to me late friday aft.-my job is going to be changing in a pretty big way, and from my perspective, very much for the better! though everything still has to be confirmed completely, things for me will be a lot more consolidated at some point in October with new room for me to do more of my own thing as well. rockin'

that change marks just yet another in this month which sees me relocating south-west at the end of the week, amongst other things...the path remains a winding one.



last night we checked out A History of Violence, which is spare, sparse and yet very dense thematically. the moments of extreme violence are sort of played for comedy, as they reference typical American action moves and movies. with a number of a-list faces on screen, you expect big american production values (cliches?), but they're not there, and that creates a sort of disconnect for the audience through the whole thing. it's hard how to take the occasionally wooden dialogue-surely it's not a slip-up-and where Cronenberg is going with things.

but that's the thing, even though it's probably his most 'accessible' film since The Fly way back, he's wrapped these big American stars in something that's a lot more layered than first meets the eye. (I think).

the score

it's been busy. a move is in the cards next week, the latest in 13 months, and I'm really looking forward to my new place and neighbourhood, which brings me closer to nature, work, and eventual student debt freedom!

props out to the brother who turns a whopping 33 today! shocking!

the thorough for the records has a review of Annie/Royksopp from earlier this week, and in my interests of laziness, I pretty much agree with everything said. although:

a) Heartbeat is especially weak live and confirms (contrary to Pitchfork) it's far from her greatest song
b) white dread dudes don't help the cool factor
c) there is some great production there, but a live bass would do wonders.

there was also way too much Rev being consumed by people at the show, so I left a little early. despite advances.

cheers

the ros.

wowzers.



yowza.



then the giant baby tried to eat us.



then we couldn't get enough. so they politely bowed and bowed, and also bowed.

counting pink polos

only one on the subway today, at least on my car.

and SO begins a very busy week. tonight it's the reportedley spectacular Sigur Ros at Massey Hall. they are one of the few 'big' bands that I've been pining to see for years and only now get the chance. expectations remain ultra-lofty.


Annie: the next M.I.A.?

tomorrow brings eye-cover-girl Annie opening up for Röyksopp at the Opera House. I would expect 80% of the audience to be there for her Canadian debut and not so much for the headliners. Let's hope she's not as awkwardly green live as hype-mate M.I.A.

done!

the new Final Fantasy clip, that is.

"Have you come here to play Jesus?"

"I did"

is a key revision that Bono has been using on One for some time now, and he used it again last night. By inserting I did in lieu of the original line "to the lepers in your head", Bono acknowledges his own Messiah-complex ego that everyone likes to pick at. After getting a glimpse of what he sees every night, you can sort of relate to why his ego has the 32nd largest GDP in the world, ahead of all of Norway and Portugal.

Getting access inside the ringed stage meant we were mere feet from the band when they came around the ramp-which they took advantage of often-and an otherwise perfect sightline of the mainstage, which was no more than 15-20 away from our perch. Amazing. Everyone stood for the whole night, all the way to the rafters. To have that screaming at you must be rather satisfying.

By this point, highlights for me include songs I've never seen before live, Miss Sarajevo in particular (an amazing story behind that song, which I should repeat one day here). Also enjoyable was getting to see up close just exactly how much Adam Clayton was having fun throughout the show. He was often glancing right into our scrum, and at the end gave one comely female fan a mystery gift (hotel room number?) on the way out.

James has some pics.

the code

pink = goodness.

yellow = blazing hottness.

Hagman

still there for us.

revolver

Consensus on the stank levels of Guy Ritchie's last project were very unanimous-Swept Away stanked hard, whereas his first two features seem to run along the love-it or hate-it line of things. As a pretty major fan of both Lock Stock and Snatch, I was hopeful that this would be a solid return to the over-styled gangster territory that made Guy Guy.

After a very loud entrance outside Roy Thomson thanks in part to the iconic wife on his arm (from 6 feet away, yes she is rather iconish I can attest), Guy tentatively introduced the movie and asked everyone to 'digest' it over time. And so digest I do, as this is frankly is toughest work yet, with nods to all sorts of surrealist styles and a new foray into psychological breakdown (cue jump cuts and distorted voiceovers...), and what you get is bloated, and rather messy.

The key missing element (at least in this cut, which can't be the final) is the concise pacing that made his first two films so watchable. With them you knew all you were getting were testosterone-heavy caper flicks, but they had humour and endearing characters under a carefully tailored production. The film simply lingers way too long in several uncomfortable scenes, perhaps as a gesture to be more serious and gritty, but it just comes off as awkward. Statham is his usual bristly self, but the rest of the cast (including an ice cold Andre 3000) comes off as not-believable actors reciting prewrapped dry cool wit.

It will be interesting to see what happens between now and the release-I have faith a salvageable film is in there somewhere-but last night's tepid applause afterwards was not a good sign for a world premiere.

on sufjan

he IS, without a doubt, this year's darling, this year's Bright Eyes, a bundle of youth and talent and hope that he'll become something a lot more than say, Ryan Adams has yet to ever really amount to. his handle on composition is really impressive, and with his fit band they manage quite well live, that's for sure.

yet I kind of found myself practically dozing off throughout the show-and not just in Laura Veirs' lights-out session-I think, mostly due to the rather intense heat and still air up on the sidestage balcony where we were. perhaps that's a tax on our lazyness, but we also basically were only getting stage sound, and couldn't hear Sufjan's quiet banter at all, mic or not. that said, the sightlines were very good, and the intimate sit-down feel of the venue was far and above a wiser choice than say, the similar capacity'd mod club or something.

highlights included Chicago (of course) and the incredible vocal moment at the end of Casimir Pulaski Day, which was sort of surreal and almost difficult to believe that they were physically emitting it (to put it scientifically). the crowd was totally madly in love with him as well, but everyone immediately leaving after the encore negated what could havbe been a longer set to the 11 o'clock curfew-oh, toronto.

neither Ryan nor Conor managed to take over the world, and I sort of doubt Surjan will either, but in the meantime, you're getting some very fine music to deal with.

glam fest

SO the parking lot next door has been closed all week for tonight's Big Schmooze, or whatever the hell it's called, which can only signal an overwhelming onslaught of like events and extended press conferences on Rogers TV.

Arts & Crafts will no doubt have a few LA music supervisors in the house on tuesday night, as the talents of TMSR, Jason Collett, Apostle of Hustle, and The Stills will be playing the Drake. 10pm -4am $15 at the door.

Though I can't say I've always agreed with him, Zoilus announces his retirement from his weekend column Overtones, and I wish him well in his future writing escapades.

ear: not grounded?

so there's been some speculation that the upcoming Ear to the Ground festival was running into some issues of actually, uh, getting off the ground for the first time.

organizers have scuttled such negative talk, but a click on the above link will show that prices are being kept low at their very reasonable prices, perhaps in a gesture to push numbers higher-and I can attest personally that wristbands were moving at both Rotate This and Soundscapes yesterday. with other outdoor festivals like wakestock and ecko's hip hop show taking serious baths this summer, let's hope ETTG blows past this early shakiness and becomes a september institution!

west coast = hott.

from the last time I visited vancouver (around age 5 or so) I can distinctly remember 2 things, and not a lot more:

1) the blue and white stripes of Granville Island.
2) poking some kid in the eye with a stick on the beach.

that said, only one of these two events reoccurred this time out, but in lieu of any eye-poking, a great time was totally had on my part.

what made it so good was in part my hosts, who are a lot of fun and like to do a lot of the same stuff, like shop for chapstick. they live in amazing neighbourhoods with easy access to the best parts of their cities, so having a great time was rather a given.



I also met some cool folks I've known through work, and trucked home a sizeable box of cds as a result. they did a great job of filling me in on everything going music-wise in their city. the big scoop? mountain will replace wolf as the de rigeur band name word. a visit to UBC on thursday confirmed for me that random buses can get you just about anywhere, and it is a more than suitable campus for more studies down the line(?) we'll see.


guitar tornado

the EMP in Seattle is a very cool and informative experience, though I confirmed in visiting there that my drum fills need a lot more work. Seattle is amazingly like San Francisco in terms of hills and incredible beach views and boardwalks, and like SF, sans smog.


the EMP's ass.

sea-tle

dress code: jeans please

brunch: at salty's-salty is a bald eagle. very idyllic place. dollar pancakes and salmon to perfection.

experience music project: learn about hooks, hendrix.

the needle: looms a few blocks away.

car-centric? somewhat yes, but not bad for america.

all in all, quite wonderful.

vancouver I

SO though I do have my camera here, I have no easy way to upload my photos from this location-not that I've collected a lot so far, but there is one cute one of me and the legendary 'Gassy' Jack Deighton statue we've been talking about since Grade 10 Geography. It didn't quite live up to the 10 years of hype, I must confess...