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Saturday, July 30, 2005
Sweet, Sweet Soul I've bought a lot of compilation/cover albums in my time, but none have excited me more than the upcoming Razor & Tie offering that covers, track-for-track, The Beatles' Rubber Soul. Why am I so excited? Check out the tracklisting, directly cut-and-pasted from Pitchfork:
01 Drive My Car - The Donnas
02 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - The Fiery Furnaces
03 You Won't See Me - Dar Williams
04 Nowhere Man - Low
05 Think for Yourself - Yonder Mountain String Band
06 The Word - Mindy Smith
07 Michelle - Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
08 What Goes On - Sufjan Stevens
09 Girl - Rhett Miller
10 I'm Looking Through You - Ted Leo
11 In My Life - Ben Lee
12 Wait - Ben Kweller
13 If I Needed Someone - Nellie McKay
14 Run for Your Life - Cowboy Junkies
Along with my indie faves like The Fiery Furnaces and Sufjan Stevens, it's also got my country/folkie/chick faves like Mindy Smith and Dar Williams (who is probably Razor & Tie's biggest name)! Throw acts that I enjoy like Ted Leo, two-thirds of the Bens (Lee and Kweller), Nellie McKay, Low, Rhett Miller, and The Donnas, and you have my favourite group of artists ever assembled for a tribute/compilation. This is going to be so sweet, especially my favourite brother-sister band covering my favourite Beatles song.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:17 AM
Friday, July 29, 2005
Cover Me Carlos sent me this blog post of a bunch of indie bands covering a bunch of Top 40 hits. I think I've heard about half of them in one form or another already, but I suspect this will give a good many of you a decent chuckle. My picks: Ben Gibbard's cover Avril and Cyndi Lauper covers, of course!
6th in poker tonight out of about 25. Oh, to be outdrawn again. At least this time, it was only once.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:49 AM
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
All Hail Her Former Veruca Salt frontwoman Nina Gordon is putting out her second solo CD, tentatively titled Bleeding Heart Graffiti, some time early next year. Put out by Warner, it will contain 16 songs. No word yet on whether "Straight Outta Compton" will make it on there. (Lets just slot that under "unlikely.")
Alaska will be opening up for the newly-reformed Dinosaur Jr. when they come to town. Tickets are super expensive, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the 2-for-1...
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
11:25 PM
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Karaoke Queen Tara Slone, as some of you may know, fronted Joydrop, a loudish, late-90s sounding Canadian rock band. They released a couple of decent albums and had some moderate success, but they haven't been heard from since 2001's Viberate. Well, Tara's back, sort of. I just watched her do a song on Rock Star: INXS, a reality show aiming to find a new lead singer for the titular band, a replacement for the late Michael Hutchence.
There are so many things wrong with the show itself that I won't go into, but what would possess a relatively-established musician like Tara to get on a show like this? It started with one of the Moffatts and Bobbi Smith doing Canadian Idol, but that's almost excusable because they're still pretty young. In their cases, the exposure alone would do wonders for their fledging solo careers. But for someone in her mid-30s to basically get on your knees and /beg/ to be the face of a has-been band? What if you win? You get to do karaoke for a living, singing old songs to old people. At least with Idol, you get to do your own music. Tara, you could do /much/ better.
NP: Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body
posted by Hanson |
10:56 PM
Sufjan the Sensation I should really start hating things. It gets tiring even to me when I gush over every show I go to. Oh, who am I kidding? Like Nada Surf says, "always love / hate will get you every time." And besides, Sufjan Stevens was spectacular last night.
So Priscilla and I got to the show just a few minutes after 8. She was in town for a week, perfect timing for seeing the best neo-folkies around today (sorry Devendra, Joanna, etc.). After a short stint in line, we were in, but to my surprise, Richard's was more full than usual; in fact, the front of the stage was already crowded with people -- mere minutes after doors! This is almost unheard of for a Vancouver show. I suppose when a hugely-buzzed act makes its Vancouver debut, things like this will happen. Perhaps he's got a huge Christian following?
Anyway, Carlos, Val, and Brian had already staked their spots up front when I got there after my successful quest for a t-shirt at the merch table. I found a nice spot too, but I was soon surrounded by the horde of rabid Sufheads. It was pretty insane how quickly the room filled up, and by the time opener Liz Janes got on stage, the place was packed. Again, almost unheard of for a Vancouver show.
Conservatively dressed, Liz Janes came out brandishing a ukulele. In her jeans and purple sweater thingy, she was awfully cute in that very wholesome way, but you wouldn't exactly peg her as the opener for a hyper-buzzed indie act. Backed by most of Sufjan's band -- including the man himself behind the drum kit -- she played some intriguing, countried folk music, combining xylophones, banjos, guitars, drums, and the aforementioned ukulele. Her half-hour set convinced me to pick up her album, on which she signed "may god's blessings be on you and your family." Again, awesomely wholesome cuteness.
The wait between Liz's set and Sufjan's was pretty unbearable. No, this is not an expression of "oh-I-can't-fucking-wait!!!111one"; rather, venue was like an oven, heated by the scores of people packed in like sardines -- and the place wasn't even air conditioned! I think the oxygen level was getting low too, as I felt as though I was on the verge of collapsing from fatigue. There were brief flashbacks to last year's United State of Electronica/Death Cab set at Bumbershoot, the one in a big-ass stadium in which I was pinned against about 7 people, my feet not even touching the ground, the one that I had to leave over the top of the fence at the front of the stage, lucky to have escaped with only bruised ribs. Yeah, it wasn't pleasant. And it didn't help that I had to pee like a mo-fucker, only the fear of losing my place up front preventing me from my sweet relief.
But all that disappeared once the door to the dressing room opened. As it did, a bunch of peppy people dressed in purple and orange cheerleader outfits ran out, chanting some sort of cheer as they filled the stage. Sufjan, their ringleader, led the cheering, spelling out words with his arms as the pom poms danced. What a way to begin a show!
And what a show it was. With a couple of exceptions, the set was culled entirely from his new album, Illinois. Their rendition of "Casimir Pulaski Day" was breathtaking. The place was transfixed, listening intently, focused entirely on Sufjan as he strums/sings away. The place was so quiet, I swear you could hear a beer bottle open. Finally, a Vancouver crowd that's not preoccupied with chatting. Between songs, Sufjan led more cheering. There was one about Jacksonville, and they did one about Canada, listening all the provinces (though not the territories). Even though there were a few scattered mistakes throughout the show -- guitar drops, flubbed lyrics, etc. -- it was a great performance nevertheless. (Though it would've been nice to hear him sing "Stephen A. Douglas was a great debater / but Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator")
Other than "Casimir Pulaski Day", the highlight of the night for me was their reworked version of the American national anthem. Taking the lyrics as a base, he worked in anti-war sentiments, overlaying it with a hauntingly beautiful melody/instrumentation. I wish I had that on MP3. Simply awesome.
So yeah. Great show. What a way to break my streak of 4 show-less weeks! And speaking of shows, I got tickets to both Death Cab shows in October, as well as tickets for Nada Surf and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. What's more, Garbage will be playing the Van City on August 30th, and M.I.A. is back on November 20th -- albeit as the opener for the big Gwen Stefani show. Poo on that last one.
NP: The Most Serene Republic - (Oh) God
posted by Hanson |
12:10 AM
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Not Close Enough Apparently, Natalie Portman never gets nekkid in Closer -- despite the fact that she plays a stripper. That's like going to a Death Cab show and only being able to get a seat way far back in a big-ass stadium. Sucks.
I was up 70 bucks at the blackjack table last night, but I ended up being down 14 for the night. The lesson, kids? No lesson. That just sucks donkey balls.
NP: Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
posted by Hanson |
2:23 PM
Friday, July 22, 2005
Double Dose of Death Cab After a night of Korean BBQ and karaoke, I really don't have time to say very much. I'll say this though: Death Cab is playing the Commodore on Oct. 3rd *and* 4th. Yes, I'm going to both shows, and yes, that means I'll be missing Franz Ferdinand. Again. Ah well. The Orpheum isn't that great of a venue for a rock show anyway, though I'd still go if the Arcade Fire were playing there.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
3:24 AM
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Luck of the Draw Three bad beats -- Aces over fours, Kings over a couple of low suited cards, and suited K-J over suited 5-6 -- meant that I finished 4th in poker tonight. Damn it. Had I not been outdrawn, I would've taken out the winner and the third place finisher, putting me in a damn good position. Ah well. That's poker.
The worst singer of the Canadian Idol Top 10 got kicked off tonight. Wow. Democracy actually worked! I'll probably post more on Idol tomorrow, if there's nothing more interesting to talk about.
Oh yeah. The Arcade Fire, Oct. 7th! Wahoo!
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:32 AM
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
A Melody Softly Soaring Through My Atmosphere I'm temporarily putting Death Cab for Cutie's new single, "Soul Meets Body," up for download. I doubt Atlantic would have a big problem with me distributing the single since they probably want the song to be heard by as many people as possible. That said, my site's limited bandwidth does put a cap on how many downloads I can allow. So if you want it, grab it quick, because once Google indexes this page, I'll probably get a whack of hits.
The verdict? When I first heard it, I thought it was just OK (for their standard), but it's really growing on me. If you like Death Cab's last two albums, you'll probably like it. It's a pretty safe song for their major label debut single -- nothing adventurous, but it has all the Death Cabian elements: bouncy melody, thoughtful/full-sentence lyrics, simple-but-tight-production, and Ben's oh-so-sincere singing. Fans will like it for being very Death Cab, and critics will hate it for being very Death Cab. Whatevs. Fuck Pitchfork.
I predict a Billboard Top 20 debut for Plans, and depending on how the single does on radio, it might even pull a I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and crack the Top 10.
NP: Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body
posted by Hanson |
10:44 PM
Soul Meets Body New Death Cab song! From Plans, it's called "Soul Meets Body." Listen here. Leak, album, leak!
Aimee Mann tickets for her Commodre show on August 5th are 2-for-1 tomorrow. I'm going to pick up a pair, so if anyone wants to go see her for cheap, let me know.
After watching for two years, I'm giving up on Big Brother. This lot looks even lamer than last year's bunch. I'm sure I can find better things to do with 3 hours of my week than watch these narcissistic dumb-asses scheme and backstab. Maybe I can finally make a dent on that to-read list.
I'll still watch Canadian Idol for the time being. That's just one hour -- not counting the results show, which I haven't been watching -- so it's not too bad. I still haven't found one to cheer for, and I doubt I will. Oh well. That just means I can miss an episode and not beat myself over it.
Other Van-City shows: Ellen Allien, Oct. 2nd, Richard's; Franz Ferdinand, Oct. 4th, Orpheum; Nada Surf, Oct. 18th, The Media Club.
NP: John Vanderslice - Sarah Shu
posted by Hanson |
12:15 AM
Monday, July 18, 2005
Not a Day for Rest Singing along loudly in a theatre to the Buffy musical was so much fun. The hour-long scrub session to clean up the vomit from the area around my desk /and/ being rear-ended by some big-ass SUV -- not so much. The highs and lows of a day rarely get so disparate. Another good thing: the CD booklet for Anniemal has pretty pictures :-)
Veronica Mars. I love you. Your first season ended so well.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:12 AM
Sunday, July 17, 2005
A Change Will Do Me Good Ugh. Whiles others learned about this stuff in high school and university, I was a late-comer to the party. If Friday night has taught me anything, it's to follow my own damn advise; I know what's good for me (and what's not), but I don't always listen to myself. That has /got/ to stop. No more of this bullshit. Ugh. Tequila. Ugh. Never again...
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
1:00 AM
Friday, July 15, 2005
My Top 20, Maybe As promised, here's the My Top 20 Songs compilation I made for work, in mix CD tracklisting order. I'm not supposed to reveal this until tomorrow, but what the hell. It's not like anybody from work (who don't already know) reads this. As for the list itself, no big shockers. I think I'll use some of my bandwidth and make this available for download soon:
01. Pretty Girls Make Graves - This Is Our Emergency
02. Weeping Tile - Cold Snap
03. Sufjan Stevens - The Transfiguration
04. Annie - Heartbeat
05. The Decemberists - The Legionnaire's Lament
06. Death Cab for Cutie - Photobooth
07. Frente - Bizarre Love Triangle
08. Catatonia - Bleed
09. Elliott Smith - Say Yes
10. Liz Phair - Fuck And Run
11. Sarah McLachlan - Fear
12. Mary Lou Lord - His Indie World
13. The Postal Service - Nothing Better
14. Patty Griffin - Making Pies
15. Rilo Kiley - Glendora
16. Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
17. Metric - Dead Disco
18. Iron & Wine - Jezebel
19. Tilly and The Wall - Fell Down The Stairs
20. Bright Eyes - Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and To Be Loved)
Take this with a grain of salt. There are probably 40 other songs I could swap in easily. If I do this again a year from now, I bet it'll look quite different.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
1:05 AM
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
They're Popular Here's "Do It Again", a song from the Nada Surf's new record, The Weight Is a Gift, due out on Barsuk Sept. 13th. Looking forward to it!
NP: Nada Surf - Do It Again
posted by Hanson |
12:52 AM
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Salivating at the Sound of the Bell Fourteen episodes in, I'm declaring Veronica Mars the TV-equivalent of a porterhouse. No, I'm not saying she's a piece of meat though I wouldn't mind.... Rather, you get generous helpings of Buffy-esque wit /and/ intelligent case-solving mystery. Throw in a nice, juicy season-long arc, and you've got yourself a delicious meal-of-a-show. I wants me seconds!
Here's my review of Laura Cantrell's Humming By the Flowered Vine. I hope to get another one in for next week, but that'll all depend on how much of my paper I get done tomorrow.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:55 AM
Monday, July 11, 2005
"See, You Don't Need a Big Dick After All!" That's what Kevin Smith would like God to say to him when he enters the pearly gates (or something like that).
Wow. The Q&A on Saturday night kicked some serious ass. Kevin started at about 7:15 and talked until 1:00am with only one Alanis-break in the middle. (He left Mewes on stage with a mic for about 15 minutes while he went down the street to check out Alanis' show at the Orpheum.) He didn't talk much about the upcoming Degrassi feature he's directing or the Mallrats 10th anniversary DVD, but he talk about almost everything else. Highlights:
- That time he got so high, he was on the can for 2.5 hours, taking what he thought was "the longest shit ever," when it turns out he only dropped a tiny turd.
- J-Lo crying in his bathroom and the possibility of her wiping her (famous) ass with his bathroom's hand towel
- Dick-stain
- When he farted into the mic -- twice
- The heartfelt story about Mewes' many times in rehab
- His brief falling-out with Affleck last month
- When he got this dude to call his girlfriend and ask her if they'd have sex in front of him, his wife, and his friends
- Mewes "getting some" on the plane to Vancouver
- His trip(s) to the "colonic spa"
- The many Ed Burns burns
- His ghetto talking
- The story about Walt Flanagan's Dog
- How he got into Degrassi
- The many, many self-deprecating fat/small-dick/can't-get-laid/Mallrats/Jersey Girl/my-films-look-like-shit jokes
- A dude throwing his underwear on stage from the balcony. Actually, the thing hit /me/ and I "relayed" it on to the stage.
Oh, I must be forgetting tonnes of good stuff. I should've taken notes! Too bad Carlos is in San Diego or else he could've supplemented my list... Anyway, he was hilarious. Quite simply, it was the best time I've ever had at the Vogue. We snagged front row seats for getting there so early (4pm for a 7pm show), so there were no assholes blocking our view. The only blemish: I pussied out of asking him a question. I know I know, you don't have to say it....
Yeah. So the six hour show was well worth the 50 bucks. Hell, I'd pay more! (*cue the fan-boy chants*) You'd be surprised how entertaining one guy could be just standing up there and talking -- well, if you're into dick-n'-fart jokes, that is. Damn it. Now I want to do it again!
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:43 AM
Friday, July 08, 2005
More of the Same So I got home today to find that my shipment from Amazon was here. Opening up the package, I saw Finding Serenity, a collection of essays written about Joss Whedon's Firefly -- not one copy though, but *4*. For some reason, they shipped me a bundle of it instead of just one book. So now, I've got 3 extra copies. If you're into Firefly, let me know and I'll hook you up with a copy.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
7:28 PM
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Super Sufjan I got it! I got two, in fact.
So I went back to Scratch today and asked if they were selling Illinois again. I even printed out the article on Pitchfork that said that they were allowed to, highlighting the relevant section. The Scratch/Riff Randells girl told me that yeah, they were in fact selling it again, and asked if how many copies I wanted. Instinctively, I said two. Why? Beats the hell out of me. It just made sense then. My after-the-fact justification was this: I'll open one to check out the linear notes and listen to it in its full quality glory. The other one, I'll keep it sealed as a collector's item. Who knows. Maybe it'll pay for my kids' college tuition one day, when Sufjan becomes the King of Folk-Pop.
And for the record, the album rules so completely. Shamelessly ambitious, he has raised the bar even higher in every aspect of making music, surpassing even his previous (excellent) releases. Hell, how many albums can lay claim to being "well researched?" Lyrically, it's his strongest effort to date. "Casimir Pulaski Day" is an absolute stunner. Banjo represent! "John Wayne Gacy, Jr" hauntingly depicts the life and "work" of the notorious clown. It sure is, um, a killer. "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!" -- yes, that's the name of the song -- just gets me smiling, as does, well, basically the entire album. "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" and "Chicago" are anthemic and sing-a-long-able as hell. Fuck. I'll just stop here before I list every damn song. So yeah. It's good. Go get it -- from a store or otherwise.
NP: Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone with You
posted by Hanson |
11:50 PM
What a Catch Really, is it that much of a surprise anymore that I'm loving another pop band of cute chicks? I first saw The Catch in 2003 opening for Death Cab and Nada Surf in Seattle. I remember I liked them OK -- nice to look at, but musically, they didn't really stand out. (On a bill with Death Cab and Nada Surf, it's understandable). Fast forward to Bumbershoot 2004 when I saw them again. This time, they impressed me a lot more -- their songs were, um, catchier, their playing tighter. After their show, I was looking forward to picking up their then-forthcoming debut LP. However, I kind of lost track of them in the deluge of new music last fall. That was until a few months back, when they played a couple of songs live on a Seattle radio station. I learnt during the broadcast that their debut album, Get Cool, had just been released. After a few failed attempts to find it here, I forgot about them. Again.
Fast forward to a week and a half ago: I was at the Virgin Megastore before the Ditty Bops show looking for the Catlow record. When I got to the "Ca" section, there it was. Catlow. Kiss the World. And right beside it, I see Get Cool by The Catch. Sweet! All the goodness that was them came pouring back, and I immediately grabbed it. Well, physically, anyway, as I didn't get the CD then and there because it was 22 bucks. I thought I could get it cheaper somewhere else, but after scouring downtown to find that was not the case, I bought the album this Tuesday back at Virgin. Since then, it's been on constant rotation in my CD player, both at work and at home.
At a couple ticks over the half hour mark, Get Cool is a synthy power-pop gem. Think the Donnas or the Weekend with less faux-punk leanings, a heavier That Dog with more synth, like chick-bubblegum-twee that wants to party like it's 1985. In other words, infectious power-pop that's right up my alley. Frontwoman Carly Nicklaus -- who's also in the excellent United State of Electronica -- throws in a side of attitude in her singing. Flirty and forthright, she gives off a vibe of authenticity that, well, you just can't fake. Though not the most impressive of singers, her unpolished delivery is perfect for this type of music. Highlights of the album for me include the party-at-night anthem "Afterparty," the USE-esque "True Romance," and "Hofmeister," with its insanely catchy chorus.
Go check out some of their stuff here. If you dig poppy chick bands as much as I do, I promise you won't be disappointed.
NP: The Catch - Afterparty
posted by Hanson |
12:16 AM
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Feeling the Illi-noise Damn. I failed in my attempt to pick up the new Sufjan Stevens record at Scratch today. I knew that DC Comics was suing his label for the cover art that featured Superman, so all record stores were told to send all their copies of the album back. However, I was hoping Scratch would sell me a copy that "fell off the truck," but no dice. Being the good corporate citizens that they are, I failed in my bid to obtain a copy illegally. Boo.
And I so wish I had written and submitted my review of it a couple weeks ago. Now that everyone and their dogs have thrown heaps of praise on it, I'll just seem like a total copycat by lauding the shit out of it. Ah well. I shouldn't let that get in my way.
NP: The Catch - Hofmeister (oh, I'm /so/ writing about them tomorrow)
posted by Hanson |
12:36 AM
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Mars Attacks! I've given in: I'm starting to download Veronica Mars now. The original plan was to watch the story unfold over the summer, but no longer can I wait for my weekly fix of Kristen Bell the show. The more I sees, the more I likes, and thanks to the power of BT, I can OD on her its yumminess, multiple-episodes-at-once style. Let the over-indulgence begin!
NP: John Vanderslice - Trance Manual
posted by Hanson |
12:58 AM
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Inside Out To no one's surprise, Tim Minear's dark, FBI Barbie cop show, The Inside, is on the brink of cancellation. Catch it while you can, folks. It's no Wonderfalls, but it is was a good show. Too bad.
The Arcade Fire's video for "Rebellion (Lies)" is #5 on Muchmusic's weekly countdown, one step below The Backstreet Boys. Wow.
Death Cab's Atlantic-debut, Plans, drops August 30th. If anyone gets a hold of it before that, you best hooks me up :-)
NP: John Vanderslice - crc7123, Affectionately
posted by Hanson |
11:33 PM
My Roots Are Showing My Saturday, post-movie dropping-of-cash took a different turn this week. Normally, after watching a piece of turd like War of the Worlds, I would go and pick up a few CDs at A&B Sound just to rid my palette of that turdy aftertaste. Today, though, I swung by Chapters and got me some books. Including the supplemental purchase at Amazon.ca of things that I couldn't find at Chapters, I picked up 8 titles, 7 of which are connected to the works of Joss Whedon's: Seven Seasons of Buffy, Five Seasons of Angel, Finding Serenity, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, Fray: Future Slayer, Tales of the Slayers, and Tales of the Vampires. The first three are essay collections from established authors about Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, respectively. The next four are graphic novels, all written by Joss (save for Tales of the Vampires, which was penned by Buffyverse vet Ben Edlund). Suffice it to say, I've fallen off the deep end of my fandom -- again.
The only non-Joss book that I picked up was Silent Bob Speaks, a collection of Kevin Smith's writing for various magazines and websites. (Yes, I /am/ that predictable). When I cracked opened the book tonight, I was only going to go a few chapters in. That said, I ended up devouring 200-odd pages in only a couple of hours. His writing style is so readable, his stories so interesting (to a fanboy), the pages just turned themselves (the big font and generous spacing didn't slow the pace either). Now I'm even more excited about seeing him do his Q&A thang at the Vogue on July 9th! I wonder, should I ask him about his greasy shit or the size of Affleck's penis? I'm sure both could elicit funny stories.
NP: John Vanderslice - Dear Sarah Shu
posted by Hanson |
1:22 AM
Friday, July 01, 2005
Morning Glory Happy Canada Day! My working 13.5 hours yesterday ensured that I could have one too. Time to get your celebratin' on!
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
10:34 AM
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