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Saturday, June 23, 2007
Under Disco Lights My near-total devotion to "chick music" during my formative years has been well document in this blog. Among the group of musicians I closely followed, few had gotten more attention from me than Emm Gryner.
My personal love affair with her music began when I saw a brief clip of her they ran on MuchMusic's The New Music. It featured a few seconds of the video of "Hello Aquarius" off her first LP, The Original Leap Leap. I believe it was around the time when her major label debut, Public, was coming out, so she was getting some national press exposure.
From the few seconds of the song I heard, I knew I had to hear more. I memorized the name. Emm Gryner. Emm Gryner. Emm. Gryner. I'm pretty sure I wrote it down too. And sure enough, I was able to find "Public" eventually when it was released, in the suburban chain store. Here's one for major label distribution, eh? Almost immediately, I dug the record to bits. "Wisdom Bus", "Phonecall 45", "89 Days Of Alcatraz", and a re-recorded version of the aforementioned "Hello Aquarius" were standouts. Well, actually, they were all standouts, which made none of them standout really. But because I dug them all so much. If I made silly Top N lists back then, "Public" could've very well ended up in the top spot (not that I bought many albums back then).
So when I heard that she was back in town on June 21st at the Railway Club, over 4 years since I saw her last, opening for Holly McNarland, I was uber excited. And this time, she was even headlining! Total sweetness.
The show opened auspiciously with an entertaining set by Winston. To sum him up in one line, I'd have to go with "tuneful Railway Club dude-with-guitar pop." I would've enjoyed his set even more had I not been holding back a couple of beers and a couple of cans of coke in my poor little bladder.
Yes folks, I just alluded to my peeing. Now which other blog would you see that in, huh? How 'bout, like, no other? Yeah. You know it. Jealous?
Um. Hmm. So. Music. Emm took to the stage around 10:45am. Unfortunately, she was suffering from a pretty bad case of delayed jet-lag (coming back from Ireland), which pretty much killed her voice. As she struggled through a set comprising mostly of material from her last couple of releases, the album of Irish covers Songs of Love and Death as well as last year's record of originals, The Summer of High Hopes, you can tell she was pushing herself to put on a show for us. She especially had trouble hitting the high-notes, most noticeably on "Northern Holiday", a track off 2003's excellent (and Juno-nominated) Asianblue. But a staple of Emm's live show, a bass-only version of "Disco Lights", was awesome as usual. (Though sadly, I can't say the same about her take on "Revolution" by that one Scouse band.)
Vocal struggles aside, it was really great to see her again. Although she wasn't in top form, she gets full marks for braving the stage despite knowing that her voice was running on empty. She even came back to do an encore after her short 50-minute set -- although she didn't do the singing. Saying that she had nothing left in her voice (which was obvious by the last song), she solicited an audience member to come and sing one of her songs. Bravely, this girl when up and did a respectable version of "Symphonic". A couple of us in the audience helped her a bit during some parts, but she was fine up there singing on her own, Emm backing her on piano. I told Stacey and Dan after the show that I could've probably done in 5 years ago too, when I knew her lyrics much better than I did now, but of course, that's so easy to say since I didn't have to actually do it.
But like I said, it was nice to see Emm again. And it's not just a nostalgia thing. I still genuinely like her music a heck of a lot, and I'd wish she'd come back more often. Next up, Tara MacLean. The last time I saw her play solo was well over 6 years ago, playing 5 songs at Rock for Choice. Now there's someone I'd like to see again.
NP: (Cute Band Alert podcast)
posted by Hanson |
1:43 AM
Monday, June 18, 2007
They Are the Pipettes 
I was telling my friends before the The Pipettes show that there wasn't a single touring band I'd rather see than them. And that's true. I have bands and artists that I like more, but I've seen the vast majority of them. And out of the ones I haven't seen, their show would probably be the most entertaining. (The fact that they are [among] the prettiest girls [I've] ever seen [in music] doesn't hurt either.) So I don't care if Maria Taylor were playing next door, or if Laura Cantrell were opening the Gwen/Akon/LadySov show that night (but wouldn't that be a sight), I'd still be lining up early at the Plaza to get a good spot to see Gwenno, RiotBecki, and Rosay (my favourite).
Opener and Pipettes/Cassette member Monster Bobby came on at the ungodly time of 7:15. I know it's an early show, but damn -- that's crazy early! As a result, he started playing his brand of jangly, Ben Lee-esque guitar-pop over canned beats when there was like 30 people in the room. He played a solid, entertaining set full of witty banter. Too bad there weren't more people there.
Smoosh was up next, around 8:00 I think. Again, crazy early, and again, they deserved a bigger crowd. This was at least the fourth time I've seen them, and they've gotten better each time. (I guess you can grow a lot when transitioning from pre-teen to teen.) Like their other shows of this tour, they treated us with a Smoosh-ed up version of "This Modern Love" by the Bloc Party. Like Smoosh as a band, this wasn't just a novelty act -- it was actually a really good take on the song, comparable to that of ex-tourmate Final Fantasy's.
And then there were these three British lasses in polka dot dresses. Gwenno, the smoking blonde. RiotBecki, the sexy librarian with legs that can get away with murder. And Rosay, a dead-ringer for Rory Gilmore. (Now you know why she's my favourite!) The three of them up there was a sight to see -- there's something for every straight guy and lesbian.
And oh boy were they awesome. Hotness: check. Cuteness: check. Dance moves: check. Great catchy pop songs: double check. I can't say I danced more than I did at CSS (the crowd there was much more dance-friendly), but I certainly had just as much fun. Their set contained a goodly portion of b-sides, only a few of them I knew before hand ("Really That Bad", "Guess Who Ran Off With the Milkman?", and "The Burning Ambition Of Early Diuretics"), and of course, they played all their hits too. The finger-wagging "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" was especially a highlight for me, as they got the audience to stick a finger up to wag along.
For the encore, they did "ABC", as well as a truncated version of "We Are The Pipettes" featuring Smoosh. During the song, members of Smoosh (including their duo's younger sister), jumped around on stage with the energy of, um, teenagers. They also modified the chorus of the song by appending "AND SMOOSH" to the titular line. While it could've been lame had it been done by other people, the way Smoosh did it was totally cute.
So looking back, yeah, I still stand by the statement of there not being any other band I'd rather seen -- with the exception of a re-animated Elliott Smith. But then that could get really awkward. I mean, what are you supposed to do when a zombie version of one of your favourite artists tries to eat your brains? I'd rather not think about that.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
1:09 AM
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Singing to Ben Last Friday, one of my ridiculous dreams came true -- at a karaoke place, I selected from their book and did a song that was written by Ben Gibbard. That's right folks: Death Cab karaoke. You haven't heard "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" until you've heard the Ho do it.
Needless to say, I was pretty surprised when I got there and was told by my friends that they had a Death Cab song. I just told them to put it on and I'll do it. I didn't even want to know what it was before it came up, and when the guitar intro came on, I just about peed my pants. Initially, I thought it was going to be "Soul Meets Body", perhaps "Crooked Teeth," but when it became apparent that I was going to be singing (probably) my favourite song of 2005, I knew it was something I had to blog about.
The next time, I want me some Elliott Smith.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:48 AM
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Bell Tolls No More Veronica Mars is officially dead. Great. So much for my donation to the "Send Mars Bars to CW" campaign. I sure hope Kristen Bell gets on another TV show, as her movie choices thus far have been less than inspiring.
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
12:43 AM
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Patty Griffin is the Hot Hot Sex Patty MUTHAFRACKKING Griffin is playing the Stanley on Thursday, July 19th! Vancouver-debut! Presale's tomorrow (Thursday, June 7th) at 10am. The password: GRIFFIN. I'm so excited, I'm on the verge of peeing myself. I drove to Seattle by myself a few years ago just to see her. This is so bloody awesome, I can't even think straight.
Coming home to this news after a day which already included an amazing show by CSS and Buffy Season 8 issue 4 -- that's pretty sweet. Now I've got to shower because of all the hot hot sex at the show. Seriously. I've probably got over a dozen people's sweat on me right now. But it was worth it. All the dancing before and during their set, that was much fun (especially all the dances we made up on the spot, probably looking uber silly). This will likely go down as being one of the funnest shows of the year for me (yeah, I just said funnest).
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
1:03 AM
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Sasquatch: A Recap Fun isn't always easy. Sure, I get immense enjoyment from sitting at home with a good book or a stack of DVDs, but sometimes, you've got to give'r to get'r. I view Sasquatch 2007 in that light, a weekend of equal parts awesome and awful.
First, lets start with the bad. As alluded to in my previous post, douchebags roamed the Sasquatch camp site -- a lot more than last year, as I recall (loud Oilers fans only count as obnoxious in my books). Loud music throughout the night, douchearific bantering amongst themselves, and a surprising dearth of musical taste (and I'm defining this as liberally as possible) made them turrrrible neighbourinos. Bad bass-y dance music at 5:00am? You've got to be shitting me, dudebros.
And then there's the weather. Most of the weekend was nice, and while it got a bit chilly on Saturday night, it was manageable (and frankly expected). However, Sunday was a different story. Last year's hailstorm might be a bit more dramatic, but the gusty winds this year held its own too. The hella-bad blowing caused the lights and TV screens dangling from the main stage to swing wildly -- so much so that they had to postponed the Polyphonic Spree's set to midnight. Not only that, the delay also caused Spoon and Interpol to shorten their sets.
That said, the one good thing that came of it was that Spearhead was pushed off the main stage and onto one of the smaller stages, during when the Beastie Boys were scheduled to play. That was good for Spearhead fans since they got to see their heroes play an even longer set than the Beasties; that was good for me since I had zero interest in seeing them. See, win-win's do happen. Occasionally.
The wind had another effect on the day -- it made the shits bitterly cold. Even when the sun was shining down, we didn't really feel its warm. And the wind was so strong and persistent, my Carlos-loaned hat kept flying everywhere -- not cool when I'm trying to chill on the grass (haha) and dig into the fourth Dark Tower book. When the sun went down, that's when the wind really came out to play. The hill was freezing, and we had to go down near the stage just to keep warm, leveraging the body heat of our fellow Sasquatch goers. By the time the Beasties started, the hill was half-deserted, probably because of the code. (In fact, only 3 amongst our group of 7 actually stayed for their set, the rest of us headed back to the camp either during or before Beastie Boys started playing.)
So, that was the bad. The good? How about the fucking Arcade Fire! I saw them two days before at Deer Lake Park, but that fact didn't stop them from completely blowing my mind. Again. While it wasn't as good as their show at the Commodore at couple years ago, I definitely enjoyed the Sasquatch set more than the Deer Lake Park set.
It was also the first time I got to see two of my favourites, Mirah and the Blow. Neither disappointed, especially Khaela Maricich (i.e. the Blow), who blew the non-existent roof off the Yeti stage, rocking the mic solo over recorded music and without her partner in crime, Jona Bechtolt, backing her up. (This was in contrast with Jona's solo performance as YACHT, which was nowhere near as engaging.) Her dancing and between-song banter were up to par with the idiosyncratic, forlorn, poorly aimed "love" songs that comprise her repertoire. While she didn't do "The Sky Opened Wide Like the Tide" or "Fists Up", she did play enough of her hits to keep me cheering almost after every song.
Mirah, meanwhile, was every bit as adorable as I imagined her. Despite some technical glitches (hello, feedback!), she and her band played hit after hit (mixed in with some new material off her upcoming record). She did most of my favourite songs, including "Jerusalem," "Don't Die On Me," and "Cold Cold Water," which was more than what I had expected. And her voice. Mmmm. It was the absolute shit.
My biggest surprise of the fest was just how good Tokyo Police Club were. I had half-expected to see a pretty green live band, meaning well but not exactly able to execute what we hear on the record. After their set, I'm happy to report that my fears were unfounded. They were good -- far better than they had a right to be given how new they are. I compare their performance to that of Be Your Own Pet (who opened for the Arctic Monkeys a few weeks ago), and the difference is night and day. TPC were mature and generally into playing the gig -- BYOP, not so much. I suppose one reason might be that no one told Dave Monks to suck his dick.
Other sets I really enjoyed on the weekend: Spoon, Interpol, Neko Case, and the Long Winters. (I saw a bunch of others that were merely so-so or down-right bad, Bjork being in the former group.) And unfortunately, I was not able to see the universally-praised Patrick Wolf set, as I was guarding our blankets on the hill from dirty encroachers. Given all the things I've heard about it, I really hope his threat of not playing gigs anymore was but a cruel joke.
While the festival itself was loads of fun, the roadtrip to and from the Gorge was hella good too. Ad-hoc iPod DJ sets using Carlos' iPod, playing awesome stuff like NKOTB, Vanilla Ice, and other chart-toppers of days past, there was a goodly amount of car-dancing going on. On the way up, we even stopped at a casino, Carlos and I both winning some money (him especially). We also made the obligatory Krispy Kreme run, as well as a top at the Burlington Target where I FINALLY picked up a copy of classic Risk.
Oh! And we ran into none other than Britt Daniel (of Spoon) when we stopped for breakfast/lunch at Ellensburg! We were at a gas-station getting gas, and suddenly, I noticed this tall dude walking towards our car. I literally yelped and punched Stacey in the arm, saying "oh my god! It's Britt Daniel!" I didn't even realize I had punched her until she told me. And I'm pretty sure he heard us, as he gave us an awkward wave as he passed us by. Man, I'm such a fanboy.
ANYWAYS, it was fun. The whole weekend, everything. I've got a pretty groovy farmer's tan as a result, which will soon fade. The memories of that weekend, hopefully, won't. (Aw.....)
NP: (nothing)
posted by Hanson |
11:56 PM
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