Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Good News for People Who Love Good News
Rory Gilmore referencing Buffy -- my life is complete.
For the second year in a row, Watford are into the semis of the English League Cup! Helped by a brace from Icelandic international Heidar Helguson, they downed Portsmouth 3-0 at Vicarage Road, booking themselves a draw next round with either Manchester United, Arse(nal), Spurs, Liverpool, or Chelsea. Regardless if they win or not, it means a big cash windfall for the Hornets, which means they can pay down a little of their debt, or perhaps (re-)sign more players for next season. All in all, it was a great day for Watford football.
In other news, I've been listening to Kay Hanley's new EP, Babydoll. I like her maturing sound, with longer songs but same pop sensibility that flowed through her work with Letters to Cleo. That said, I would've probably loved it if it were 1997; her sound matured, as did my taste in music. But just listening to her voice brings me back to high school when her band ruled my CD player. God I loved them! Along with Nina Gordon (ex-Veruca Salt), two of the former lead singers of bands I adored in high school are now making middle-of-the-road pop-rock. I guess I'm growing old along with them.
NP: Maplewood Lane - Canadian Winter
posted by Hanson |
11:47 PM
Monday, November 29, 2004
Step By Step
Events that led to my purchasing a ticket for the Keane show going down next week:
1) Reminded by a number of people on Friday that Keane is playing the Commodore on Dec. 8th
2) Turned on the radio in my car after the Sondre Lerche show to have "Somewhere Only We Know" blast back at me amidst semi-static
3) Elevated that song from "like" to "like quite a bit" upon hearing it
4) Decided to check out Hopes And Fears just in case I like it, not wanting to miss their show if I did
5) Stole Downloaded the album along with a bunch of others on a really good night on Soulseek
6) Listened to it
7) Liked it quite a bit
8) Logged on to the Ticketbastard website
Hehe. Unlike countless other instances when I've gotten into bands right after they play Vancouver (e.g. Elliott, D-Plan, the Fiery Furnaces, the Decemberists, Snow Patrol, Ben Folds, etc.), I won't miss out this time!
NP: Controller.Controller - Sleep Over It
posted by Hanson |
10:17 PM
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Solo Sondre
Sondre Lerche was -- again -- in good form on Friday night. Playing most of his set solo, the Velvet Viking, as he was dubbed by members of the opening band, charmed the crowd with his banter in accented English and his brand of "adult contemporary pop-rock" (his words, not mine). His acappella singing, on the other hand, didn't work quite as well. His voice is a little too thin for singing without accompaniment, and going without instruments really exposed that. Also, the screaming girls quotient was significantly lower than I had expected, so much so that even under urging from the Norwegian hobbit himself, very few people sang along to the chick part of "Modern Nature." Disappointing. Still, the show was great overall. I still maintain that he and his material work better with him playing solo than with a full band, and Friday night did nothing to disprove my belief.
The opening band, the Golden Republic, hailed from K.C., Missouri (Pedro the Lion shout out!). At first, they sounded a bit too garage-y and generic, but I eventually warmed up to them. Their sound? Uh, keyboard-tinged, with nods to classic and garage rock, sorta like the Killers and Franz Ferdinand mixed in with a tiny bit of Jet, but with more falsetto harmonies. Throughout their set, I kept thinking about how the guitarist looked kind of like a chubbier cousin of Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, while the drummer and lead singer looked a bit like Ben Lee and Chris Martin, respectively. Hehe. That kept me entertained. And the music too, I suppose.
Speaking of being entertained, when Sondre first came out, this (person) behind me started snapping pictures. The funny thing was, s/he had a digital camera, and s/he had turned the camera's sound effects on, so it made this funny clicking/picture-taking sound every time she took a pic. Since Sondre was by himself, the room was pretty quiet, so I heard a whole bunch of weird sounds from coming behind me. And I couldn't stop snickering! When I realized that both Val and Brian noticed the sounds, it made my giggling even worse. Luckily, the camera person stopped not long after, which was good, since I probably would've lost it if s/he had continued.
After the show, I went to the merch table to see if I could snag a Sondre button to replace my stolen one. It turns out that he didn't have any. Bummer. It was there that I ran into a friend of a friend who I swear I've seen somewhere else (probably at a show). Apparently, she had picked me out from a description that my friend gave, which I found funny. It's comforting to know that I don't always blend in everywhere I go (e.g. like at school) :-)
NP: Keane - Snowed Under (ooh, I'll post more about this later)
posted by Hanson |
6:15 PM
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
A Passing Feeling
So I decided to take a pass on Pinback last night. I felt kind of tired when I got up, so I took the train to work, which meant no show. Ah well. When I got home, I started falling asleep while watching TV (this week's SNL, for you curious cats). Guess I made the right call then.
At quiz bowl tonight, we finished off some of the questions we didn't get to in a tournament we had a couple weeks ago. There was a bonus about Elliott Smith, and the lead-in said that how unlike Tupac, he'll probably not release any more albums. Hmmm. I don't know about that. He's got tonnes of stuff recorded. Hell, a lot of that has been leaked on the internet already (include the Jackpot sessions featuring him covering "Revolution" by the Beatles). I'm sure there are truck loads more where that came from, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Nirvana-esque box set.
I knew it was coming, but it doesn't make this any less weird.
NP: Annie - Chewing Gum (Mylo remix)
posted by Hanson |
12:20 AM
Monday, November 22, 2004
Goodness Everywhere
Tiny Fey's impression of Maureen Dowd was one of the hottest things I've seen on TV in a while. I don't now if that says something about me or about her...
Anyway, I actually got my essay done early yesterday -- so early, I even had time to go curling! And we snuck into the playoffs too! Hehe, not too shabby at all.
As I was working hard in front of the computer, I did some shopping too. Bought: a new Kay Hanley EP as well as some of her live solo discs; the latest Brenda Weiler record that I've been meaning to get for over a year; and a big order from Barusk including couple of old Vanderslice record, the "new" Aveo, the Nada Surf record before Let Go, and the first Long Winters record. Sweet. More new music soon!
Off to work I go!
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
7:37 AM
Thursday, November 18, 2004
No Fun
No poker on Friday night. No curling on Saturday. And maybe no curling on Sunday either. Fack. I thought I wouldn't have to spend entire weekends working on papers anymore. And I thought I wouldn't have to whine about *papers* anymore either. *sigh* At least I still have Annie and the Dresden Dolls.
NP: (Daily Show)
posted by Hanson |
11:17 PM
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Annie Wants You To Be Happy
I really hate to do this. I really do. But fuck it -- once again, I agree with Pitchfork.
It's funny how one can have such a love-hate relationship with a website (I know I've talked about this before, but bear me with here -- imma setting up). While I read it every morning for my daily dose of music news, its reviewers often piss me off with their elitist and asinine musings. But once in a while, I'd be nodding my head and be all like: "Yeah, they got one right finally." This time, it's bubblegum lap-popper Annie's debut record, Anniemal.
You'll find Annie somewhere between IDM and Kylie-esque dance pop. Her Röyksopp-enhanced beats and electro touches are nice, but it's her commitment to the Art of Pop that won me over. Song after song, she throws down unabashedly catchy melodies, complete with that cutesy girly singing that I seem to dig so much. Her lyrics are none too impressive, but forgive her -- she's Swedish (or Norwegian... maybe Finnish). That doesn't matter though, as her beats, melodies, and vocals more than make up for it, melding together to form a nice little package.
Shit, half of this record would work brilliantly on commercial pop stations (and the other half works well everywhere else). Songs like "Chewing Gum," "Always Too Late," "Me Plus One," the title track, and the universally lauded "(My) Heartbeat" (one Pitchfork reviewer called it "the best song this year, and probably next year") make Max Martin look like a brooding experimental math rocker. If a major picks her up, I'm sure she'll be fantastically successful. Couple her tunes with her undeniably MTV-ready looks (think hot Swedish blonde), she'd be a commercial knockout. But until such a time when I can see her videos on TV, I'll just be happy bopping along to her record.
So hot. Her record, I mean.
Addendum: She's Norwegian, or so says the internet.
NP: Annie - Always Too Late
posted by Hanson |
11:06 PM
Monday, November 15, 2004
They Look Like Giants
By now, I'm sure you've all heard about Death Cab being signed to Atlantic. You might wonder why I haven't written about this, seeing that I seem to talk about them non-stop? Well, up until a couple week ago when Nick semi-confirmed it in an interview, it was nothing more than a rumour. As it turns out, the "rumour" was indeed true, which is why I'm addressing it now.
So how do I feel about my favourite entity in music today leaving one of my favourite labels to sign with a major? Surprisingly good. As much love as I have for indie labels (and Barusk especially), Ben, Walla, Nick, and Jason have outgrown their cozy Seattle home. Transatlanticism sold over 200,000 copies, probably twice of Barsuk's other 2003 releases combined. At the very least, they ought to look at some sort of split distribution deal with a major for their next album. But in an era when Modest Mouse can play Saturday Night Live, there's no better time for a talent indie act to break out of that niche by jumping to a major label.
With the leverage they have (I'm sure the boys aren't desperate to get on a major), Death Cab's deal with Atlantic ought to be pretty good. I mean, if they can sell 200k albums on an indie that will give them damn good royalty rates, why would they jump ship if they weren't offered an even sweeter deal (at least in aggregate terms)? One might suppose they were after a larger audience, but I'd hardly think they'd take a pay cut *and* loose a good chunk of indie cred just so kids in the midwest can buy their albums at malls. No, this must work out for them brilliantly.
Walla also said that as part of the deal, they've been given creative control over the marketing of the band. Whether or not this is completely accurate remains to be seen (control is so hard to define), but at least on the surface, the band itself (e.g. music, image, etc.) isn't going to change a whole lot despite them being on the same label as Fat Joe. Hopefully, this will reassure the skeptics and naysayers. I mean, bling on Ben just isn't becoming.
So, here's my prediction: Death Cab's next full length studio album will be ace, selling close to a million copies and spawning 2 top 20 singles. It will be recorded on analog equipment at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone studio, once again with Walla turning the knobs. There'll be guest appearances, most notably from Colin Meloy of the Decemberists and Travis Morrison. The album will continue where Transatlanticism left off, with a clean and expansive sound that some will dismiss as overproduction. Some critics will call Ben's lyrics overly sentimental, perhaps quaint (but that's just because they were terribly disappointed by the Gang of Four reunion record), when in fact the lyrics were the same as they've always been. Combine that with the catchy melodies that have become a Gibbardian staple, wankers will say that Death Cab were deliberately trying to court a mainstream audience. Of course, these people will completely ignored the fact that Death Cab have been writing songs like these for years (“Photobooth” would've torn up the charts if it had independent prompters working it) and slam them just the same. They'll drop the 'S' bomb once the video hits TRL just because they're fucking indie elitists. And Pitchfork will give the album a 3.4 without a decent justification as to why.
So that's what I have to say about that. Best of luck to them and I hope they get fucking loaded off of their incredible music. I just wish they'd still play the Commodore when they come to Vancouver next time :-)
NP: (Daily Show)
posted by Hanson |
11:15 PM
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Off the Teat
While geeks everywhere are creaming their jeans over the 1.0-ing of Firefox, I'm (more discretely) celebrating the release of Thunderbird 0.9. This latest milestone build comes with a new feature that migrates profiles from Mozilla 1.x and Netscape 7.x to Thunderbird, which has allowed me to port all of my mail/preferences/filters/etc. from my old email client. This means that I'm on Firefox/Thunderbird full time now, completing my decoupling from the Netscape brand, a relationship that started way back when I first got on the internet. Finally. No more bloated monolithic browser/mail/news/etc. suites hogging up memory and processor time when all I want is to check my damn email. Perhaps I can suck more life out of this 4-year old machine than I thought.
NP: Ben Gibbard - Brand New Colony (live, acoustic)
posted by Hanson |
2:55 PM
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Set Myself on Fire
Despite not having had the greatest week, Death Cab and Stars has once again brought me into the bosom of musical ecstasy. It was just one of those shows, you know? From the first chord to the last note, everything was just on; nothing that was merely good -- everything was mind-numbingly awesome.
First there was Stars, whose latest record, Set Yourself on Fire, will most likely land in my year's top 10. Torq and Amy took turns taking lead vocal duties, sometimes dueting. With guitars, bass, drums, and keyboard going at top speed, they blasted out sweet melodies and catchy hooks, all wrapped around the unique vocal styling of the T and A. You can always depend on Torq to put on an energetic performance, but this time, Amy was totally working it too, forgoing the stoner demeanor she has adopted in the past. Looking more and more like a younger, hotter Stockard Channing with her new haircut, Amy's sweet singing dribbled out from behind her mop, a beguiling voice that make hopeless fanboys like me weak at the knees. Torq, facial contortions and all, sung with authority, demanding every member of the audience to pay attention. With excellent songs and stage presence to boot, who can resist?
While Stars performed beyond their norm standards, Death Cab one-upped them and took it up to another level. In the half dozen times I've seen this, this was probably their best set overall. The sound was excellent, the crowd was into it without being assholely, and I was right in front of Ben, about a foot to the right of the mic. The song selection was nice, albeit a bit predictable; no covers, but they did do "This Temporary Life," their contribution to the Future Sounds of America compilation. They played most of Transatlanticism -- all of it except for "Passenger Seat" and "Death of an Interior Decorator." In addition, they pulled out some of my faves, including "For What Reason," "Photobooth," "405," "Company Calls," and "We Laugh Indoors." I was crazy-dancing so hard during the latter, I probably forced Janis to take a step back so as to not get pounded by an errand elbow. Hehe. My bad! Death Cab makes me to crazy things!
Oh. And before the show, I was telling Nicole and Janis that some asshole was going to yell out something about Ben's cyst, just to show he's in the know and stuff. Lo and behold, some dick /did/ yell that out, asking Ben to "show us your cyst." I so fucking called it.
So yeah, overall, it was a very good night. I got a couple more buttons and stickers, as well as setlists for both bands. This show could very well be the Show of the Year for me; consider it shortlisted :-)
NP: (ears ringing)
posted by Hanson |
1:55 AM
Friday, November 12, 2004
Random Shit
Death Cab and Stars are tomorrow night! How excited am I? I'm nearly crapping my pants!
Bright Eyes' two new singles are numbers 1 and 2 on the Billboard singles sales chart for last week. That shit crazy!
Let me go on the record by saying I prefer big toilets to small ones. That extra seating space really helps things go, uh, smoother.
The one day break in the middle of this week felt good. As much as I like working where I work, I was glad I didn't have to go today.
NP: The Arcade Fire - I'm Sleeping in a Submarine
posted by Hanson |
12:06 AM
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
No Dolls For Me
I left work a little early today to pick up tickets at Scratch. For $31, I guaranteed spots in the crowd for the Arcade Fire and Sondre Lerche. I almost bought a ticket for the Dresden Dolls too, but I asked the girl working there when the show was, and she said 7pm. Yeah. So much for that since that's when the Stars show will start. Hopefully, it'll be doors at 7 and show at 8, which will leave me with an outside shot to catch them after seeing Stars. The Ditty Bops, though, I most likely won't be able to catch. *sigh*
In other news, no work tomorrow! Yay! Sleeping in rules the school.
NP: The Dresden Dolls - Coin Operated Boy
posted by Hanson |
11:37 PM
Monday, November 08, 2004
Tightness
It is on nights like this upcoming Saturday when I wish I could split myself in three. Five days from now, Stars and P:ano will be playing Richard's, Blonde Redhead and the Helio Sequence will be playing the Commodore, while the Dresden Dolls and the Ditty Bops will be playing the Drink. Why are they doing this to me?! Chances are that I'll catch the Stars show and then head over to the Drink to catch the Dresden Dolls (but missing the cool-ass Ditty Bops). That is unless another band is opening for Blonde Redhead, in which case I could catch both them and the Helio Sequence. But then if the show at the Drink doesn't start until 9, I may be able to see the Ditty Bops too because Count Zero will be up first. I guess everything hinges on the start times of both shows, as well as the end time of the Stars show. Decisions, decisions.
In other news, I heard "Take It Easy," the more up-tempo of the two new Bright Eyes singles, on the radio last night. Yup. Radio. As in the one that comes in fuzzy in my car. Seattle's 107.7 -- a commercial station -- is *playing* Bright Eyes!! If only (non-college) Vancouver stations will follow suit...
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
9:37 PM
Friday, November 05, 2004
This Place is Not a Prison
We had a Vancouver-wide meeting today at one of the big fancy hotels downtown. Our company's CEO was there, giving us a low down on last quarter's performance. One of our execs is retiring, so there was a pretty cool tribute thing too. Afterwards, it was appies and an open bar. And it wasn't just the R&D people either; plenty of eye candy from marketing, sales, HR, etc. dotted the big hall, providing very good scenery not normally found at work. But even with all those good things, my favourite part of the meeting had to be when they played Give Up before the meeting began. The whole CD. Most of the way through. Hehe. I'm such a big Gibbard geek, I even mouthed the words to "Clarke Gable" ;-)
NP: Joseph Arthur - You've Been Loved
posted by Hanson |
11:56 PM
Thursday, November 04, 2004
California, Here You Come
Tonight was the season opener of the second best FOX show that premiered last year, the O.C. It had its moments ("I don't cry over bitches" being one of them), but overall, it was kind of weak, not unlike the end of last season. Man, I hope it turns around soon. With the West Wing sucking more than it has ever sucked, I need something to pick up the slack. Go Seth! Go Summer! Work your magicks!
So apparently, I won't see going to Tony Bourdain's book signing tomorrow. Why? Tickets are $80 bucks. Yeah. Right.
Oh, and today, I heard the most dreadful, insipid cover of the Cure's "Love Song" on the radio. A little googling revealed that 311 was the culprit. Man that sucked. To completely suck the urgency and life out of a song as good as that -- it takes skillz.
NP: (Daily Show)
posted by Hanson |
11:02 PM
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
From Sarah, to Sarah, to Sadness
Last night, I skipped out on Ron Sexmith after Sarah Slean's magnificent set so that I can get to Sarah's place to watch the horror unfold. Ugh. But what can you really say this time? His win is more or less legitimate, and he even won a majority of the popular vote. Feh. I've been talking about this way too much over the last few days, I really shouldn't blog about it too. Lets just hope he'll do what he said he'll do last time around but didn't -- bipartisan co-operation on "passionate conservative." Oh, and lets also hope big anvils fall on the heads of Uncle Dick, Rummy, and Ass-croft. That'd be nice.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
11:43 PM
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