Things are slowly rumbling back to life. I’ve been working so things got real Monday morning at 4:30AM when my alarm went off… but in an amazing twist of fate my WHOLE family came to visit Victoria yesterday. I got to have Christmas again Monday afternoon and dinner at my brother CJ’s place.
All-in-all, things exceeded expectations on what I thought was going to be a more insular Christmas time.
Maybe I got a little spoiled.
Christmas Eve had the house FULL of family at Alyx’s place for a Christmas dinner with Coral’s family. Nana slept over and we were able to do Christmas morning bright and early with everyone then watched movies.
Monday after work… my family was here and Boxing Day had me and my Mom experimenting with deep-fried pickles. Considering we didn’t know what we were doing, we adapted quickly and did alright.
What a great Christmas…. New Years has me DJing (what else is new) but I might try snow shoeing on January 1st. I am pretty excited to sort that out. We’ll see how I feel.
OK… two more wall papers for two more computers that I had to customize today. Both with a wintery vibe as we get no snow in British Columbia for Christmas.
Neat. We got our own unique passwords on the computers at work (goooooooo 2011!) so that means I can personalize my desktop as its not as much of a shared work space as before.
My favourite spot to track a desktop image would be from National Geographic. I poked around for awhile and couldn’t quickly find a South Georgia Island, so I settled on a Kermode Bear for the office computer and Greenland for the Zone On Air computer.
Gotye is quickly becoming one of the biggest things on the radio in Western Canada right now.
The Melbourninian one has a bit of history. I got an email from my man Michael in Edmonton imploring me to check out the Supermayer Super Mess remix of an early 2008 single… “Hearts a Mess.”
Gotya – “Hearts a Mess (Supermayer Super Mess Remix)”
Oh this song sounds sensual. Locks into a nice groove that ever so delicately builds. I can already tell that this will be a big part of my lounge sets. Hearing this interesting remix got me wondering if there are any remixes of the hot jammer “Somebody That I Used to Know” on Soundcloud. Yup… a whole bunch. Here are a few faves from my audio adventures this evening.
If you have the song earwormed in your head like I do…then maybe these remixes will be useful to you. I know they’ll be pulling stud duty in my DJ sets for the next little while.
You ever get that feeling that you’re doing life wrong? I get that all the time.
I read this great article the other day about how Facebook is making us unhappy. Basically forcing us to confront jealousy everyday we log in and see our friends in awesome places, bragging about awesome jobs, awesome kids and awesome love lives.
You’d think we’d all be awesome being surrounded in awesome all day… but it just makes you hate the word awesome.
I need one of my totem songs right about now…
Tom Petty – “Climb That Hill”
My day is a whirlwind of activity from the moment I wake up… till I can get Maddy to settle into bed. Then its my time… but by the time I turn to look for Coral, she’s asleep. Then I’m by myself, which ain’t all bad… but not a lot happens at night unless i wanna drink. Which I do sometimes…. I often wonder what the point is? Like… what day am I working towards… and what’s scaring me is; there isn’t one. I’m just plugging holes to keep the whole thing from falling down. I want to be an adventurer. If you were to ask me, “what do you wanna be when you grow up?” I’d say explorer.
I watched a video the other month about the sport of indoor rock climbing. It looked pretty cool. Fun, athletic, adventurous… the kind of thing I want to do, but just can’t find the time, energy or budget.
BUT!
There is a gym right, like RIGHT by my place. And god bless ’em, they are open late (and reduced rate late at night). Kismet I tells ya.
Today I fought the urge to watch a movie and eat junk (FOUGHT! I wanted and still do want a slurpee so bad… WTF is that?)… I put my pants back on and drove to the gym and signed up for an introduction lesson. Wish me luck!
This close to Christmas… it just ain’t right to by yourself things. But come on, new Silversun Pickups single is just a $3 digital download. I’ve tipped more money for brutal service.
For Black Friday Record Store Day the Silversun Pickups packaged up a few b-sides from the Swoon sessions. These songs would become the “Seasick” 10 inch single. The songs became available on Tuesday as a digital download and I finally find myself with a few minutes to listen.
So lets hit play shall we.
“Seasick”
“Broken Bottles”
“Ribbons & Detours”
The lead and namesake single is a big meandering Silversun jam. “Seasick” might be on the a-side, but this song doesn’t scream radio single. It is pretty and melodic… but not propulsive. Maybe too cerebral for a modern rock radio station.
“Broken Bottles;” now here is a song that could work on the radio. A lot of energy. Fuzzy, twisted guitar. Gets punchy. I heard this song in the mix of Alt Nation on XM, sounded rad.
The final song is a slower paced cut. “Ribbons & Detours” sounds like Nikki Monninger singing. Once agin, this song returns to a more meditative state.
All sounds good to my ears and a great little $3 investment between records. SSPUs are in studio working on their third full length which is due in the Spring of 2012. Right now they’re calling the record ‘3.’ Easy peasy.
I had a chance to sit down and talk with former WHL Victoria CougarTom Martin. Tom is best remembered as “that guy that got traded for a used bus” in 1983. He ended up being drafted by the Winnipeg Jets and enjoying 7 seasons of professional hockey between the AHL and NHL. He played in NHL games for the Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers and briefly with the Minnesota North Stars.
The ghosts of bands past have to come together for a new project.
Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene is using the indefinite hiatus to team with a couple bros from The Stills… who sadly are also now defunct. Which is too bad because I have always enjoyed The Stills.
The band is called Eight and a Half and the record will come out in 2012 but for right now I have the single “Scissors” for you.
Checked out Melbournian indie star Gotye finally today. Wow. His song “Somebody I Used to Know” is a little quirky and insanely catchy. This song is DEMANDING my attention right now.
I remember a couple weeks back James Sutton over at the Peak in Vancouver posted the music video. He said something about it being the greatest song he heard that day… and the video has been viewed 20 million times! Isn’t that like the population of all Australia? Amazing.
I punched up the video and at the time I didn’t get it. I didn’t pay much attention and it sounded a lot like, just another indie rock jam. Cute, quality, but it didn’t emotional grab on yet yet.
Today, trolling my twitter and Brandy Taylor (by-the-by, I don’t think that’s her real last name) on Sonic in Edmonton was talking the song up. Saying the phone at the radio station explodes in joy every time she hits play. What’s interesting about that is it takes a special record to garner that kind of energy.
Now I had to check it out again. So I downloaded the song and read about the man.
It sounds like Gotye is a fairly popular indie rockstar in Australia. He has a number 1 record and shows up on the Triple J “best of” charts. I can respect that.
The song might be a little off putting the first time you hit play, but stay with it. Its a grower, not a shower.
“Somebody I Used to Know” is a crushing breakup song. Wally De Backer lays down the cold reality of a breakup so completely that even though I am married, I got sad thinking about break ups past!
He sings his sad sack tale of woe. He pleads, he is confused, he questions and he’s sad.
Then the second act has the female perspective detailing what a weirdo he was and that the break up is … for the best.
Whaaaaat tha fuck.
This song is so powerful that if you are currently going through a break up, I don’t think you should listen to it. Fer realz. Like Surgeon General Warning seriousness.
When you’re in a relationship… right in the meaty thick of it… it seems so important, but after it ends… its just a foot note in your long personal history. This song captures that story wholly and completely. Amazing.
Madelyn sings Jingle Bells on the radio. Download the MP3 >> Maddy Sings
The Morning After 
