Bad Mooney On The Rise

Step aside Strokes. Take a hike Hives. The Mooney Suzuki is back in town!

October 15 @ Lee's Palace. Mark it on your calendars Toronto people. And for the rest of you, if they're coming to your neck of the woods, The Mooney Suzuki are not to be missed (Look! Here's their tour schedule!)

I've ranted about them here before. I believe I used the phrase "100% sweet manic rock & roll energy." They are a staggeringly amazing rock 'n' roll band. Must be experienced to be believed. Beyond hyperbole. Prepare to be devastated.

They will conquer you like the Viking Kitties of old!!

Viking Kitties

The further adventures of Erik The Frisky and Leif The Fluffy, raping, pillaging and plundering...balls of yarn.
(courtesy of circadian-shift)

Nelly who?

Kinnie Starr rocked Lee's Palace last night with her smart and soulful hip-hoppy ways. Warm, funky, poetic, bisexual, trilingualóyes, she is the AntiFurtado.

Than-a's

Came across this one the other day: Noisier than two skeletons making love on a tin roof!

One of my favourites is: Busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kickin' contest!

And then there's the perennial, dumber than a bag o' hammers.

Got any "than-a's" you wish to share?

Word

Looking forward to my first Word On The Street on Sunday.

"Join us for the 13th edition of Canada's largest one-day celebration of the printed word, street-festival style! Watch as trendy Queen Street West is transformed overnight into a seven-block literary theme park between University and Spadina Avenues. Don't miss all the author readings, book signings, children's activities, and musical performances ó PLUS thousands of books and magazines for sale!"

I love it that there's a section called... Writer's Block!

A Case Of Woo!

It's official. I am in love with Neko Case.

But then I always did have a thing for redheads.

Neko was simply brilliant Thursday night at The Phoenix. Took the stage with just two of her "boyfriends"; an upright bass player, who may have been Tom V. Ray, who played on the album, and a pedal steel, banjo, guitar and hot-rodded dulcimer player, who may have been Jon Rauhouse. Neko played only tenor guitars (4-string-ed things)óan acoustic and two electrics.

But man, did her singing ever bowl me over, and pretty much everybody else there. I think the only other times I had seen her were once at the Horseshoe as half of The Corn Sisters with Carolyn Mark. That was a NxNE set, and at the time I just wan't up for that much corn and twang, so I ran off to see some rock bands. The other time was at a NxNE songwriters' session (same year?), held at the crack of noon when Neko apparently had been up very late the previous night. She wasn't in the best form, and I think she was also just then learning the guitar, so she was a bit uncertain. Her voice was impressive in its impact, but her singing wasn't as powerful as it could have been. She also had the misfortune of being on the panel next to Sarah Harmer, who was so riveting, especially when she sang "Oleander". I think it was my first encounter with Ms. Harmer's talent. Oh my. What a sweet voice, and what great songs. What an unusually beautiful woman. Neko who?

Anyway, Thursday night was all Neko, and she was fantastic. I don't know if it was the natural acoustics of the big room at The Phoenix, or the soundman's expertise, but there was just the right amount of reverb on her voice. And when a voice as strong as hers hits a powerful note and then drops away, and you hear that reverb... oooh, chills! With the minimal (and brilliant) accompaniment, her voice had lots of room. But it wasn't just the strength of her voice; not mere power that held us in sway. She sang with vigor, with emotion, with personality. I couldn't help but bring to mind the spectres of great singers like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. Well-deserved comparisons. No stretch.

She did a lot of the songs off her great new CD, Blacklisted, plus a couple from Furnace Room Lullaby and one or two from her debut The Virgian (hear clips here).

Throughout the evening, Neko was such a wonderful combination of sweetness and sexiness and charm and goofiness and fun. "Thank you all so much for coming here", she must have repeated at least four times. She said she had never played a room that big before, except when she was opening for someone else. What she meant was, she had never filled a room that large before on her own. People didn't even seem to mind when she took a rather prolonged time to retune her guitar before the encores.

And speaking of the encores, 100 bonus points for almost completely trashing the "oh let's wait 5 minutes before we come out for the encores" crap. After the last song of the main set, she and her guys exited through a door at the back of the stage, and then she immediately spun on her heel and came right back out again for the encores. They didn't even close the door. It was like there was a clause that says you have to have both feet off the stage proper before the encores can begin, and she honoured the clause, but no more than that. Kudos Neko! (hmmm, that last phrase is an odd one, in'it? Repeat that twelve times fast and it starts to sound like the name of some small island nation off the coast of Africa.)

As for covers, she performed an absolutely charming version of Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain", and ended the evening gracefully and romantically with her grandmother's favourite song, the Patsy Cline/Jim Reeves chestnut "You Belong To Me".

And we did.

(s)Hark!

It's a music fan feeding frenzy as an unusually balmy September gradually chills into October's murky red.

(Hey, it was Shark Week on The Discovery Channel, okay?)

Tomorrow night, Sept 26, Neko Case @ The Phoenix. (I have my ticket.)

Saturday, the 28th, is a possible double-shot: Gomez @ The Phoenix (early show); Kinnie Starr @ Lee's Palace. (see my Showcase entry for Kinnie from Spring 2001, scroll to bottom of page.)

Wed., Oct. 2 - Ron Sexsmith @ The Phoenix (Got my ticket).

Oct. 3-5 - Danny Michel does a 3-night stand @ The Rivoli.

Oct. 10 - Sarah Slean w/ Nathan Wiley @ The Phoenix.

Oct. 12 - Tift Merritt @ The Horseshoe

Oct. 19 - Emm Gryner w/ Andy Stochansky @ The Palais Royale.

Oct. 20 - Beck &/with The Flaming Lips @ Massey Hall.

I was looking at the availability of tix for The Strokes w/Sloan at the ACC "Theatre Mode" Oct 9, but there's not much left. Lousy seats.

Page boy

The latest installment of my Showcase page is up on the web, this one featuring Joe Fournier, Hopeful Monster and The Heelwalkers (whose bio is one of the funniest I've come across)ópurely by coincidence, all three are from Nova Scotia.

Hopeful Monster is playing this Tuesday night at the Horseshoe, along with The Hylozoists, which apparently is comprised of the same band members, just a different guy in charge. I guess that's one way to keep the touring overhead low! As usual for the 'Shoe's new music Tuesdays, there is no cover.

Word

More Word of the Day wonderfulness. Of course we all know this word, but I'd never seen its etymology before. Interesting.

Word of the Day for Saturday September 21, 2002

hobnob \HAHB-nahb\, intransitive verb:
To associate familiarly.

Hobnob comes from an eariler phrase, to hob or nob, meaning
"to drink together, taking turns toasting one another,"
probably from Middle English habbe "to have" and nabbe, a
contraction of ne + habbe, "to have not," hence, "to have and
have not, to give and take."

Do you know shit?

The trueóand falseóetymology of shit.

Boss-ted

Okay, enough lies! No more lies from you Mr. Springsteen!

Ever since Bruce's latest CD, "The Rising", came out, the following statement has been repeated in almost every article about him: "Springsteen's first album of new songs recorded with the E Street Band since 1984..." That would be since the "Born In The USA" album. This information is WRONG WRONG WRONG!! Springsteen recorded "Tunnel Of Love" in 1987. With the E Street Band! (btw, "Tunnel Of Love" is a very underrated album, containing some of Bruce's most personal writing, foreshadowing the disintegration of his first marriage. Makes for a fine breakup album, a purpose it dutifully served for me back in the day.)

Anyway, the thing is, this info is originating from his own record label, Sony/Columbia, and from his very own web page! I got so frustrated with this, today I happened to be on the Sony Music web page at work, and I decided to send them an email message, bringing this misinformation to their attention. This is the initial response I got:

From: SonyMusicCanada@sonymusic.com
Date: Mon Sep 16, 2002 04:32:27 PM America/Montreal
To: jim_kelly@sympatico.ca
Subject: Thanks for your question.

Thank you for your letter and interest in Sony Music Canada
and our artists. We are following up on your question and
will e-mail you with a personal response shortly.

But there's more than just my rock-nerd cred at stake here. Sony is running a contest to win Springsteen tickets, and guess what the trivia question is?

What is the name of the last album released by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band?
A) Born To Run
B) Born In The U.S.A.
C) The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Now that's even further screwed up because officially there are only 2 albums "released by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band", i.e., credited to him and the band, and those are the two live albums, the "1975-1985" boxed set, and the "Live In New York" CD from a couple years ago (last year?). Check the spines of all his CDs if you don't believe me. Other than the live albums, they're all credited to "Bruce Springsteen" alone. It's something to do with the fact that when John Hammond Sr. signed Bruce to Columbia back in '72 or whenever, he signed him as a solo artist. Then Bruce went into the studio and brought all his E Street buddies with him. So even without the "Tunnel Of Love" oversight, their trivia question is already flawed, since none of the albums listed were "released by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band".

I'll be interested to see how they respond, and then maybe I'll spring that info on them. Maybe they'll give me free tickets to shut me up?!

What is the deal with those tickets anyway? There are supposed to be 2 price levels for the show here in Toronto on Dec. 5 ñ $69.50 and $115. The House Of Blues web site says that, but when I log onto Ticketmaster.ca, they only have the $115 tickets for sale. And then it says something about a random draw on the day of the show, but there's no further info explaining what that entails. I tried calling Ticketbastard tonight, but I was put on hold for about 10 minutes, so I hung up.

As Vincent Vega says, "to be continued..."

Moon-ifest Destiny

CBC News: Company gains U.S. approval to open moon business

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - A private company has been given the green light by the U.S. government to explore the moon. Clients will be allowed to send a time capsule of messages and photos to the lunar surface, use hi-tech interactive equipment and view the equipment left behind from U.S. Apollo and Russian landings.

So how does this work? Does the United States Of America actually have a claim on the moon? Does it own the moon? Is it still the case that if you land somewhere and stick a flag in the soil, a la Chris Columbus, you get to keep it? The whole of the moon? (heh.) Is this supported by international law? And if so, does international law on Earth only apply to our satellites, or does it extend to other planets as well? And how does that work?

And while I'm at it...
Why is the sky blue?
Which way does the wind blow?
Who did let the dogs out?

... and that reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx

Sir-ly Keef

"I doubt they thought of offering me one," the 58-year-old [Richards] was quoted as saying. "Because they know what I would've said.... They knew I'd tell them where they could put it."

Right on, Keith! Nice to see there are still some of the old guard keeping the flame of rock 'n' roll alive. Not just the music, but the spirit.

Seems they're giving knighthoods out in Cracker Jacks boxes these days. I certainly value the contributions of the arts, and I admire the contributions of Paul McCartney, Elton John and Mick Jagger... but do they really deserve to be knighted? I would think there are many other people doing wonderful, selfless work for charity, toiling in the trenches, bringing food to the homeless, helping AIDs patients in their final days, etc. But I guess that's probably business as usual with the English class system.

When did celebrity become equated with accomplishment?

We pass out these honours so indiscriminately these days, it dilutes the significance of the honour. if half of Hollywood has a star on the Walk Of Fame, it ain't so much of an honour anymore. Oooh look, my star's next to Tim Allen's.

I'm waiting for them to bend the citizenship rules and offer Michael Jackson a knighthood. Was it Nero or Caligula who made his horse a Roman senator?
[by the way, did you see Michael accept what he thought was his "Artist Of The Millennium" award at the MTV Video awards? Mike, we're only 2 years into this millennium, or did you think it was for the previous millennium? He probably did. Here's a guy so divorced from reality he thinks shin guards are a fashion item.]

Man, did I wake up in a bad mood today or something?

Went to see the Flashing Lights last night at Lee's Palace, and they rocked!

Carry that weight

CBC News: Children suffer back pain because of computers

Okay, so this researcher in England studied the way kids use computer workstations, and he concludes that because workstations are designed for adults, this is causing back pain in kids:

"Buckle says his study of 2,000 youngsters found that 36 per cent of 11 to 14-year-olds suffer serious, ongoing back pain. He says the physical effects don't go away.

"The workforce of tomorrow is already damaged before starting the rigours of an adult working life."

Buckle's remarks are supported by a recent study by Cornell University in New York. The research examined children between the ages of eight to 11-and-a-half years old as they used computer workstations at school. Researchers discovered:

* students used monitors and keyboards that were too high
* many did not have hand or palm rests
* children sat either too far forward or too far back
* many lacked back support on their seats and others left their feet dangling

Buckle called for more user-friendly equipment for children. He'd also like to see ergonmic principles in place at schools."

Okay, I'm sure there are ergonomic issues there, but hel-lo! Spurious conclusion warning! Before the media splashed this study all over the newswires, did anyone think to ask Mr. Buckle, "uh, could back pain in kids possibly be caused by any other factors in their lifestyle? Like maybe that 100-lb back pack slung carelessly over their shoulders day-in, day-out for years?" Maybe things are different in England, but 'round here, some of these back packs are as big as the kids that are carrying them! And what do they put in there? Soldiers in full combat gear carry less shit than that!

I tell ya, if you're thinking of going into medical school, go into chiropractics. It's the growth industry of the future.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting example of both "researcher tunnel vision" and media thought-paralysis.

Remembering/Connecting

Like everybody else, I've been thinking a lot about the 9/11 anniversary, and all that happened one year ago, and in the months since. I've already posted a satirical piece about the media coverage from The Onion. Today on Blogdex I came across this piece from Salon, Forbidden Thoughts About 9/11, which presents a different point of view. Some of these comments are truly abominable, but it's interesting to see them aired and considered.

But what really brings the tragedy of that day into perspective, is this page (thanks Mike W), which lists all the victims from the WTC towers, the Pentagon and Flight 93. It's a long list. Each name is a link ... in the HTML sense, and in the human sense ... and clicking on it gives you a picture of that person, a brief summary of who they were, and an area where people may leave messages, exchange information, thoughts and memories. Some of the messages are incredibly moving.

The list includes these 25 Canadians. And, of course, to that long, long list should be added the names of innocent Afghanis who have been needlessly killed in the past year. They are victims of this as much as anyone in NYC, Washington or Pennsylvania.

And then there's this gentleman: James Kelly, 39. Same name; virtually the same age.

Rest in peace, Jim.

P2P

If you've gone sour on Limewire, you might want to check out Acquisition, which is also a gnutella-based file-sharing app (if I understand these things correctly), but it seems to work a little better. I've been using it for a couple of days, and it seems okay. Sometimes I've had to give the search function a bit of a kick-start to get more results, but other than that it seems fine.

They also offer an Internet radio recorder called Radiofree, but I can't open the file once I've downloaded it. :-(

[Addendum: I should add that these apps are for Mac, and I believe for OS X only]

I never meta-blog I didn't like

I can't recall whether I ever mentioned my friend Katherine's piece on blogging that she did for CBC radio's Definitely Not The Opera. Now, thanks to Josh at crabwalk.com (who makes an appearance near the end of the piece), you can download the audio file. (It's a 11.5MB file, just so you're forewarned.)

Well, they are white

The White Stripes as you've never seen them.

(courtesy of my friend Mike at Randomness Personified)

Fryday

I was considering going to see Fred Eaglesmith tonight at the Horseshoe, but after I got home, I laid down for a nap, and when I woke up and started thinking about having to eat and shower, etc., etc., I just decided to stay in. And blog away the night!

It's just as well, 'cos I'll be having a busy Saturday, what with resuming the Search For Specs. Last weekend I tried a pair of frames at Rapp that were pretty cool. I'd like to hit a couple of more stores, and then make a decision and have it done with.

Besides, apart from apparently being alright for fighting, Saturday night's always a better night for going out. Much better rested.

So I'm gonna take some time tonight and just chill and relax. Gonna do something I almost never do anymoreósit back and listen to cool music under the headphones! I spent half my teenage existence in that state. Had an old swivel, high-backed padded chair in the rec room in the basement, which I could turn to the corner and escape into my own world with The Beatles, The Stones, Neil Young, Dylan, The Police, Bruce Cockburn, The Who, etc.

[ Isn't it great when the very thing that your parents said you were wasting your time with, turns out to be the way you ultimately make your living? :-j ]

Though tonight it may well be Wilco or Neko Case or The Flaming Lips or Beck or Nathan Wiley, whose CD "Bottom Dollar" I just picked up yesterday. I first heard of him when he beat out my friend Colleen Power for the East Coast version of CBC's Big Break contest. But I won't hold that against him, because his CD is pretty good. Check out the samples section on his website. The song Comeback is exquisitely heartbreaking. Plus, he's from my hometown in P.E.I.!

While you're at it, you can also listen to Colleen's songs streamed from her website too. Not just 30-second clips either, the whole damn song! Just click on the shingles. Yes by. You may have seen Colleen perform on the CBC broadcast of the most recent East Coast Music Awards, where she wore a very classy evening gown, or on Speaker's Corner, where she modeled her self-made duct tape dress.

Speaking of the Stones, the remastered reissues of their ABKCO catalogue (all their pre-"Sticky Fingers" albums up until "Let It Bleed" in 1969) are apparently in stores now, and I've heard they sound great.

But enough typy typy from meóI'm headin' under the phones!

Hinterland Who's Hooey

Though it is not widely known, at one time moose roamed the streets of Toronto. Most of these gentle giants are now gone, but another local species which was thought to be extinct, the rare albino squirrel of Parkdale, has recenty reappeared, and can be observedóif you're luckyófrolicking in its natural west-end habitat. For more information on moose and squiddel, contact Canadian Wildlife Federation. Ask for Boris or Natasia.

Tape up your ribs for this one

Found on the GTA Bloggers site, thanks to James and Neilóthis baffling and high-effin-larious item on Amazon.com. Be sure to read the reviews.

As James said "Is this a joke, or has Mattel committed the worst marketing mistake of this decade?"

Nekolepsi

Here's what Didi scooped at the Neko Case garage sale:

"At the sale I got a travel guide to Elvis Presley sites across the usa (but she gave this free), another book (but what was it?), a microwave cart, and a framed autographed promo item of Richard Buckner. Deanna Varagonna beat me to the Barbie liquor cabinet, probably just as well."

I always suspected Barbie was a boozer.

It has layers, like a ... uh, something layery

Irony may or may not be dead after 9/11, but irreverent satire is still alive and well and living in The Onion.

BoomDoggle

Some new drawings over at explodingdog.com, including this one. Hmmmm, looks like Sam's cat may be exerting some pressure behind the scenes. Expect future drawings with titles such as "The Day They Discovered Cats Really Do Run Things".

Ooooh, this one is amazing.

A Case Of Neko

I picked up Neko Case's latest CD, Blacklisted over the weekend, and so far it sounds pretty damn good. This time around Neko's taken on the bulk of the songwriting and plays several instruments, including guitar and drums. I think she learned to play the guitar in the last several years so she could write songs with it, and if that's the case, the proof is in the puddin'.

She's always had a great voice, but this set of songs makes me wish that she'd begun writing songs long before this. I'll qualify that by saying that I've only listened to it a few times, but I get the feeling I'm a-gonna just keep on liking it more and more. There's a great song called "Deep Red Bells", which has a Johnny-Cash-meets-David-Lynch thing goin' on, and another called "I Wish I Was The Moon", which is a wonderful expression of loneliness. So many great songs are built around the clear expression of one concept/idea/thought/feeling. Imagine, being so lonely that you would rather be the moon (surely the Maytag repairman of cellestial orbs). There's also a very nice cover of "Running Out Of Fools".

When I got home, I received an email from my friend Didi in Chicago (Neko's home base these days). I get a kick out of Didi. She tosses off the following as a casual aside in her email: "Oh yeah, Neko Case had a garage sale last week. She had some wacky stuff but I only ended up getting a few things. Beer was served, so its hard to imagine much profit!"

I have yet to receive a response to my reply, which went something like this: "What did you get?! What wacky stuff?! Tell me tell me tell me!" Stay tuned.

Didi is the centre of all musical coincidences (Chicago Chapter, est. 1997). One of the first CD reviews I ever wrote for Chart was for Liz Phair's Whitechocolatespaceegg, in which I utilized a confectionery analogy, something like "hard and crunchy outside, sweet and soft inside. Mmmmm." Turns out that Didi's family doctor is Liz's father. Doc Phair, Didi calls him. So D gives a copy of my review to the good Phair doctor, and he apparently said he'd pass it on to Liz. Only thing is, I learned afterwards that the title of the CD came to Liz when she first saw her son's head just after his birth. And here I am comparing her infant son's head to a yummy chocolate! Yeah, can't wait to run into her. "So you're the guy who wants to eat my son's head!" Bang!

Also, after I had turned Didi into a Rheostatics fan, she happened to end up in the same elevator as the band when they were in Chicago a few years ago. She apparently cornered Tim Vesley in the elevator and railed on for a while about how "Claire" is the greatest song ever written, etc. Poor Tim. I imagine those guys assumed they had a cloak of obscurity with them in Chicago, and all of a sudden they're trapped in an elevator with a crazy red-head ranting about "Claire".

There's some way to wrap this all up with something about "Life isn't Phair..." or "Claire de la lune" or something, and maybe if I worked on it for an hour, something would come to me, but I gotta go to bed, so I'll leave you to you own devices.

This is a nice blog... to poop on!

If you caught the MTV Video Awards the other night, then you probably saw the "brouhaha" when Triumph The Insult Comic Dog found himself and his gravity-stricken cigar in the middle of the tiff between Moby and Eminem (those poop-disturbers!) The subsequent message on TTICD's web page is pretty funny.

TRIUMPH'S MESSAGE TO HIS FANS
"I would like all of you to know that I am fine, that the scuffle at the MTV awards involving Eminem, Moby and Eminem's trusty friend who threw my pooping paper in the air did not result in permanent injury. As soon as Christina Aguilera came out, I licked myself as a test and my pink thing was perfectly functional. You will be glad to know that Moby also licked himself and all systems were go."
[ read more...]

People I met at a barbecue over the weekend were telling me how badly Guns N' Roses sucked on the awards show. They were the big surprise closing act, but it was just Axl Rose and a bunch of other facelessóliterallyóguys. I caught the rerun Sunday night, and my god, in the name of all that is good and holy... did he ever suck! He was horrible! That must have been the worst ever performance on an awards show. I never liked his screeching to begin with (he should have been banned from music for butchering Knockin' On Heaven's Door), but his completely off-key screeching was enough to try anyone's "patience". That is, when he wasn't sucking wind, trying to catch his breath. Mick Jagger is, what, 30 years older, but he would have made Axl look like a flat tire. Now that's embarassing.

I swear, I could literally hear the nails going into the coffin of Axl's career.

And before I go, let me just find one more excuse to use italics. Thank you.

Babylonandon Sistah

Got a nice shout out from Corina over at this Glenn Tilbrook fan site, regarding my blog entry about Glenn's wacky and fantastic Toronto show at the Horseshoe back in May. Hopefully that may spur some of the photographers from that night to send in their pics. I would love to have a visual momento from that gig.